Chapter 236
We arrived at the hotel around noon. I’d be sharing a room with my sister, which I wasn’t exactly thrilled about. She still hadn’t apologized for not taking me seriously the day before when I’d contacted her to let her know what I’d heard about the Klondike, and something told me she’d already decided she didn’t need to say she was sorry. I disagreed. I dropped my stuff on my bed and wandered back into the living space.
The Guardians didn’t sleep much, and neither did some of the Hunters, but we still had quite a few rooms in the hotel. So I was a little surprised to see so many people had deposited their bags in their room and then chose to congregate in our living quarters. There was just a couch, a couple of chairs, and a television. No kitchenette or anything like that, though I thought one of the cabinets under the TV was probably a refrigerator. Still, by the time I walked out, Brandon, Elliott, and Aaron were already there, and a few minutes later, Jamie, Christian, and Ashley showed up.
The discussion was mostly about ordinary things, and I thought it was strange to hear them talk about non-Vampire topics. Christian was giving us a rundown of the history of Philadelphia which caused the topic of the penitentiary itself to come up, and I was impressed with how much he knew about the building.
“Christian will be going over most of this in our meeting, which we need to head to in a few minutes,” Aaron said, glancing at his watch. I always found it odd when people who have a clock embedded in their eye used the timepiece on their arm, but then, he’d probably been doing that for a hundred years.
Cadence walked out of the bedroom, looking slightly disheveled, like she’d fallen asleep, smiled at all of us, and then her eyes landed on Ashley. I immediately noticed tension in my sister’s face, though she said nothing and tried to hide it. I filed it away under “interesting” as Cadence took a seat on the armrest near Aaron, and the conversation switched to football.
It wasn’t long before we headed to the Philadelphia headquarters building. I was immediately intimidated the moment I walked in to the gymnasium where the meeting was to be held. The sheer numbers precluded any sort of conference room from being utilized. I saw a few faces I recognized from my first trip to Philly, though some I’d only seen in the meeting before. Cale was there, with Morgan, and I recognized Andrew, the Philadelphia Area Leader. He looked flabbergasted and lost, which seemed about right. There was no sense in anyone trying to introduce me to all of these people, although many of them rushed over to say something to Elliott as Brandon and I found seats and tried to be inconspicuous. I didn’t know if he’d be comfortable holding my hand in front of all of these people, so I didn’t push it but felt comforted when he reached over and enveloped mine with his.
A few minutes later, Aaron got everyone’s attention. “I want to thank everyone for meeting with us this afternoon.” A wave of hushes rippled through the rows of people. “We know that capturing and destroying Steven Gibbon is just as important to every one of you as it is to Cadence and me, and we are hopeful that tonight will be the night we can do just that.
“We have information from what we believe to be a reliable source that Gibbon may be hiding at Eastern State Penitentiary,” he continued. I wondered if he was talking about Watson or me. Maybe both. I was just fine with him not mentioning me by name at this point but didn’t mind being known as a “reliable source” if that’s what he truly thought of my abilities. He continued. “Specifically, we think he could be in the solitary confinement cell in the depths of the prison. While it would be nice to think we could simply show up there this evening, raid The Hole, and then come back with a pile of ashes, we are fairly certain it will not be that simple. So we feel it is necessary for everyone to have a pretty clear understanding of the entire layout of the prison in case we end up chasing Gibbon around. Also, those of you who will be asked to maintain the perimeter will have a very important job. If Gibbon is allowed to escape the confines of Eastern State, we will essentially be starting from scratch.”
Aaron surveyed the crowd, and I looked around as well. Most of the heads were bobbing up and down in understanding. A few people, like Meagan, who was holding Shane’s hand fairly tightly, looked more than a little nervous. Once he seemed to be sure everyone was with him, Aaron said, “Now, I’m going to let Christian go over the layout, so please make sure you are paying careful attention to the maps he has provide to you as he’s discussing the various obstacles we may encounter this evening. Christian?”
“Thank you,” Christian said as he slowly stood and walked to the front where Aaron had been standing. There was no projector in here, and I imagined the one he wore on his wrist probably wouldn’t be large enough for all of us to see the projections, so we had to rely on his IAC visuals to know what he was talking about. The thought of being inside Christian’s head was slightly unsettling to me. We’d made a bit of progress recently, but I still thought he was borderline creepy.
“Eastern State Penitentiary is a menacing building. Originally, the main building that housed the prisoners the majority of the time consisted of seven spokes, but two more were added later, as was a second story on some of them.” The map depicted what he was saying, and while the building did look massive, the layout wasn’t too confusing. “There’s a large observation room right in the middle, where all of the spokes come together, which originally allowed the guards to be able to keep an eye on all of the prisoners, though once the extra spokes and floors were added, this became less manageable.”
Christian added some more information about the main building before switching to the other buildings on the expansive property, which he said included a greenhouse, an incredibly tall watchtower, and many other smaller structures, each in a different state of disrepair. Gibbon could potentially hide in any of these places. He also pointed out that the entire property was surrounded by a very tall stone wall, which, hopefully, would keep the monster from escaping.
The detailed presentation seemed to go on for quite some time, and it was obvious to me that Christian wasn’t used to speaking in front of people as he did little to try to hold our attention. Still, he seemed to be the best person for this job, which didn’t do much to clear Andrew’s reputation for being incompetent. He should know more than this guy who hadn’t lived in Philly for over a hundred years, shouldn’t he?
When Christian was finally finished, Aaron stood and thanked him, and we all clapped, likely because we were all happy the presentation was over. “Let’s go over assignments,” Aaron said, and I was glad to hear someone talk who sounded both confident and interesting. “Andrew, your team will set up on the perimeter, just inside of the wall, along with Morgan and Cale’s auxiliary team members.” My eyes flickered to the Philly Leader and saw his eyes wide, a look of disappointment taking over his expression as Aaron seemed not to notice and continued. I assumed that anything Andrew had to say along the lines of arguing that his team should be better utilized on their home turf could be countered with a simple, “Why haven’t you found Gibbon in the last four months?” which Aaron was too polite to say.
“The only Philly member who will be on the interior is Scarlet.” He looked at the young woman sitting next to Andrew. “You’ll set up here, in the center observation tower with Cale and Jamie.” I didn’t know Scarlet well, but I remembered that she was a Healer. It made sense to place them in the center, where they’d be closest to everyone who might encounter Gibbon. If the recollections of the monster I’d heard were accurate, their services would be needed.
Aaron placed Elliott in the same location, and he looked at me. I knew I’d be with him. It’d already been decided that I was to stay with the Guardian no matter what. Brandon was assigned to one of the spokes with Aurora. I was secretly glad it was her and not Ashley, not that I didn’t trust Brandon or thought Ashley was interested in him at all, but it was one less thing to let my mind wander to while we were fighting this monster.
Cadence and Aaron would be the ones to go down into The Hole to look for Gibbon. That made sense, and I didn’t envy either of them that job, but something told me he wouldn’t be there waiting for us, no matter how quiet we were.
My sister stood up to give a few more notes before Aaron finally asked, “Does anyone have any questions?”
Ashley raised her hand, and Aaron nodded at her. I watched my sister’s eyes twitch and then narrow slightly. The blonde’s voice filled the gym. “In this type of a situation, would you expect a Hunter or Guardian to engage Gibbon, or would it be better just to take the shot?”
I thought that was such an odd question and wondered what in the world she was talking about. I looked at Brandon, and he seemed to know something I didn’t. I’d ask him later. I listened to Aaron’s answer. “It’s always better to take the shot if you can.” He looked a little put off by the question as well.
“Oh, okay. I just wasn’t sure, since on one of our training missions, things sort of didn’t go quite the way we’d talked about.” Ashley gave a little giggle, and I didn’t know if it was nerves—or something else.
“That was a training mission,” Aaron reminded her, “and even then, Cadence had a clear shot and took it, which is always the safest thing to do.” Once again, my eyes flickered at Brandon, and he squeezed my hand, an indication he’d tell me later.
“Right,” Ashley nodded. “I just wasn’t sure. Since it’ll be dark in there, and there’s a possibility of crossfire.”
“We definitely need to be careful,” Cadence spoke up, her eyes still narrowed, “but I think Gibbon will probably be a very difficult mark to catch. So if someone has a clean shot, take it. Otherwise, there’s a good possibility that several of us will be engaged at some point or another.”
“He’s extremely strong,” Christian chimed in. I remembered that he was one of only two team members who’d had direct contact with Gibbon, the other being my sister. “Unbelievably strong. I seriously thought he was going to rip my arms off during the last encounter I had with him. So be careful.”
“And that’s why we’re positioning Cale, Jamie, and Scarlet in the center of the main building, so if there’s any problems, they can get wherever they need to as quickly as possible,” Aaron reminded us. “Now, if there are no more questions, I suggest everyone go carefully check your equipment, go over the maps, talk to the team members you’ll be stationed next to, and we’ll meet in the parking lot at 1:00 AM.”
I couldn’t imagine leaving to go anywhere at that time of the morning since my curfew was never later than 11:00, but I realized I’d need to get used to this type of life if this is what I saw myself doing for the foreseeable future.
A lot of people broke into groups and headed for the door while a handful of people headed our direction, and I realized they were walking toward Elliott, not me and Brandon. They all had smiles on their faces, and after a few greetings, Elliott broke into a story about a similar hunt. I looked at my sister and Aaron who were standing in nearly the same positions they’d been in before, looking at Elliott and talking quietly, and wondered if they were both glad he was here or if there were still regrets about bringing him back. While I’d initially been concerned about Aaron’s warning, nothing seemed to have changed since the portal opened, and I was beginning to think Aaron had been worried over nothing.
“You wanna listen to this story or go?” Brandon asked, leaning closer to my ear.
I hadn’t been paying attention to whatever Elliott was talking about anyway, so I said, “We can go.” Brandon gave me a half-smile to let me know he agreed, and we headed toward the door.
