Chapter 167
The next face to come into view was a man who appeared to be in his thirties with short, dark hair. He looked utterly exhausted, and when everyone began to say hello, I found out this was Andrew, the Philly Area Leader.
A woman joined us via the screen shortly thereafter, and I learned that her name was Morgan. She had long, brown wavy hair and was cute but feisty looking. Her area was in Montana.
“Oh, my gosh!” Morgan gushed, leaning closer to the screen. “You look so much like your dad!”
I turned to see Brandon fumbling for words and scooted my leg over so that my knee bumped his leg, trying to offer support. “That’s what I hear,” he managed, with a smile.
“I mean, seriously, just like him!” Apparently, Morgan didn’t take hints very well, so Aaron cut in and started the meeting, for which I was sure Brandon was thankful.
“As you know, we have a very serious situation on our hands in Philadelphia, and I have asked all of you to join us because I know that you all have something that you can contribute to our efforts in defeating Giovani.” A quick glance around the room showed lots of nods of agreement. “Why don’t we start off with a quick recap of everything that happened last night, Andrew?”
Something told me the last thing Andrew wanted to do was recount the events of the night before, but I was happy to hear what had happened. So far, all I’d gathered was that some ex-military Vampires had busted into the hospital where Gibbon was being kept and broke him out. I also knew Giovani was somehow involved. I was eager to hear more.
Andrew cleared his throat and looked down, not quite at anyone. “Well, we received the information from Aaron yesterday evening around ten o’clock our time that there was a possibility that Giovani was in the area, and there was a chance he was going to attempt to turn Gibbon. We didn’t really know what to expect—would he turn him in the hospital or take him? We have never really handled anything like that before. So, I pulled my top team members together, about fifteen of them, and we began to come up with a game plan. We had to figure out what weapons we had available, get the layout of the hospital, etc. By the time we got everything together and were able to proceed to the hospital, it was about one in the morning.”
“Wow, that took a really long time.” Morgan must not have gotten the “no talking during the meeting” memo.
Andrew’s eyes flickered on the screen, and I assumed he was looking at her for a moment before he said, “We wanted to be cautious. We weren’t sure what we would be facing, and we had no idea that Giovani was actually planning on moving on the hospital that night.”
“Can you tell us what you found when you got there?” If Aaron was upset at Morgan’s question, his tone didn’t show it. I assumed he was just trying to keep the story moving along.
A pained expression overtook Andrew’s face. “When we arrived, Giovani was already in the process of extracting Gibbon. A helicopter was taking off overhead when we pulled into the parking lot. With Aaron’s help, I deployed my team to cover the exits, and I led a team of three into the hospital to attempt to stop the perpetrators as they were fleeing the building. But we weren’t successful.”
“I’m confused.” I turned my head to see that it was Hannah speaking. Her voice was calm, as it always seemed to be, and not at all accusatory as Morgan’s had been. “Were they fleeing in a helicopter or on foot?”
“Both,” Andrew clarified, “though we didn’t know for sure at the time. I thought it was unusual that a helicopter would be taking off during an emergency situation like that, one where the police were on their way. So, I assumed Giovani had something to do with that. And Aaron told us there were four men trying to make an exit down the back stairwell.”
“So, Giovani has a helicopter?” The sound of Cale’s British accent was like butter, and I didn’t linger on his face for fear I’d begin to turn the same color my sister was.
“Yes,” Andrew nodded, “I believe so.”
“He does,” Aaron confirmed, and I recalled we were talking about a helicopter.
“Brilliant,” Cale mumbled. “I guess we may need my birds as well then?” A handsome foreigner with helicopters. More than one. I wanted to know what was wrong with my sister, but then I glanced back at Aaron and remembered he was also very easy on the eyes and in charge of this whole mess.
The conversation continued. Everyone else was talking about helicopters. I pulled my mind back to the conversation. “I think that would be a wonderful idea,” Aaron was saying to Cale. I secretly wondered if it wasn’t for those helicopters if Cale would be part of this conversation, and I remembered they were supposed to be deployed earlier at Sierraville and the fact that they weren’t was part of the problem with that hunt.
“Was Giovani in the helicopter?” Shane was taking notes. He was the only one with pen and paper, and I couldn’t help but think that was weird. There was a computer in his eye, for crying out loud. He kept clicking his pen. I caught my sister’s eyes and thought it must be irritating her as much as it was starting to bother me.
“I’m not sure,” Andrew admitted.
“He had to have been,” Cadence said. “We know he was in the hospital because we saw him on the footage entering and exiting Gibbon’s room, but he wasn’t with the four that escaped out the back.” My sister is often smarter than I give her credit for. That made sense. So Giovani was in the helicopter.
