Chapter 14

Jo listened to the plan, but her mind kept wandering. Any time someone asked her dad a question, she tuned out, trusting if it was important, he’d let her know later. Basically, a little over half of the people present would be going to Moscow to track down Holland while the others would be undergoing another mission, to find some chick that used to be on the team, someone her Aunt Cassidy had ties to. The old timers wanted to see if this woman could come help with the other mission. She figured her dad knew what he was doing, even if it made more sense to Jo to just send all of these people in to get Holland and not worry about this Heather person, but she wasn’t going to tell the man how to do his job.
After about twenty minutes of Aaron giving them all of the information they would need to hook up with the right people in Moscow and hopefully jump on Holland’s tail, Cassidy interrupted. “I’m sorry. Tell me again why I can’t go find Heather? If I found her first, then I could go help in Moscow. Why am I going on the Holland mission?”
She sounded pissed, which wasn’t anything new as far as Jo could remember, and when her dad answered he seemed slightly exasperated, which was unusual. “Cassidy, we need your powers to track Holland down as quickly as possible. I know how important Heather is to you, but I do think Elliott’s team will be successful in locating her. She’s not purposely avoiding us, like Holland is, she’s just MIA.”
Cassidy didn’t seem to accept that answer, but she closed her mouth, at least for the moment, and Aaron continued. Jo caught Zane’s eyes for a moment and noted he was concentrating on the details her dad was giving them, which was a good thing, since Jo wasn’t. All she needed was the gist of the situation. They were going to a cold place to find a coldhearted bitch and bring her back alive for some stupid reason. What else?
“Our resources in Moscow are not as plentiful as they were before the raids began, but you will have access to weapons, and they do have some titanium bullets, which should be helpful. Just so everyone is clear, this place makes the western half of the US look like it’s civilized. The government took a stand against Vampires, like the Canadians did, but the whole place went to hell pretty quickly. It’s like the Old West, in an inhospitable climate, where recent unrest has left a lot of structural damage, and no one trusts anyone.”
“So you’re sayin’ this is gonna be a piece of cake?” Elliott asked, getting a chuckle out of almost everyone, and a small smile out of Aaron.
“I’m saying… be careful. As for those of you headed to Rwanda to track down Heather, know that you’re basically walking into a war zone. Be prepared to shoot first and ask questions later. It’s one of the most hostile environments in the world for any sort of outsider.”
“That why I’m leadin’ this pack? Because I blend in so well?” Elliott was full of jokes today, and while Jo knew it was his way of trying to lighten the mood, and her dad was used to it after all of the years, she sort of wished he’d just knock it off. She was ready to get on with it.
“You’re leading, Elliott, because you’re the only one here who can’t die.” Aaron smiled, like he was teasing, but Jo figured that was probably true. Since Elliott was one of two living people who had come back through the Blue Moon Portal, after having been shot in the head and killed before Jo was born, he allegedly couldn’t die. She was pretty sure that had been tested over the years, especially since the Revelation. The other person was Christian Henry, and since he couldn’t be coaxed out of the portals to come and help, someone else had to be leading the Moscow expedition. If her dad had announced who that would be, she hadn’t heard, but she guessed Cassidy.
“Any other questions?” Aaron asked, looking around.
“You know I won’t be there,” Ashley said, her voice breaking slightly. “Margie has asked me to come to Australia to help in the negotiations.”
Jo was definitely listening now. Her forehead furrowed as she tried to fill in the missing information from Ashley’s comments.
“Yes, I know. Thanks for letting Scott come with us,” Aaron said with a solemn look on his face. “We need as many Healers as we can get, and since most of them have been forced into government service, like Jamie, we can use him.”
“Margie and the Australian president are working very closely together now,” Ashley continued, talking about her sister-in-law who may as well have been the queen of that continent from what Jo understood. “She mentioned the possibility of war if the US government fails to comply.”
Murmurs filled the dining room as everyone contemplated what that would mean. Jo noted her dad didn’t look surprised. “I hope it doesn’t come to that, but Margie is determined to force the US to release the prisoners, including those they’ve forced into service.”
The idea that Australia might attack the US seemed so unbelievable to Jo. The two nations had been strong allies before the mayhem had erupted. Now, Margie had convinced the Australian leaders to potentially attack the US to free her brother and the other LIGHTS team members? Not that Jo wouldn’t applaud if they did it, but if it happened, it would be further proof that the world had truly gone to shit.
“I’ll hand out your travel information individually when we’re done here. We can’t risk flying in the same plane. You’ll have the lat/long of the rendezvous point in your designated countries. What else?”
Scott raised a finger, and Jo fought comparing him to some nerdy student in science class as her dad acknowledged he had a question. “Elliott’s leading the African extraction. But… did you say who is leading the Moscow team?”
“I did not,” Aaron admitted. “I haven’t decided yet.”
“Oh,” Scott said with a nod.
Aaron ran a hand through his hair and sighed. “It’s not as simple as you might think. It’s not a question of seniority or who has the strongest superpowers. It’s more a question of who can get the job done, no matter what obstacles stand in the way.”
“So you have people in mind?” Cadon asked. Jo’s eyes went to him and she noted the hopeful expression in his face. If their dad made him the team leader, she’d stage a hostile takeover. Not that she wanted to lead. Hell, no, that was the last thing she’d ever want. Managing the task of being in charge of anything that important was not a skill she had inherited from either one of her parents, and now was not the time to prove her inadequacies.
“I have it narrowed down to a couple of people,” Aaron said with a nod. “I can’t put a Healer in charge because I want them concentrating on safety concerns, and like I said, seniority really has nothing to do with it.”
Cadon nodded, and Jo prayed he’d just let it go. Their dad clearly didn’t want to say more until he’d made up his mind.
It wasn’t him who asked the question, though. It was Mandy, Brandon’s little sister. “Who have you got it narrowed down to?” Why she even asked, Jo didn’t know. It sure as hell wasn’t going to be her ass.
“Well, Cassidy is an obvious choice,” he said, clearly thinking aloud. “But I’ve already talked to her about a few reasons why I may not go that way.” He caught eyes with his sister-in-law, and Jo saw that Cassidy nodded slightly, like she understood but didn’t agree. “I haven’t spoken to the other person that I’m considering, so I’d rather not say.”
For a brief instance, her father’s piercing blue eyes flickered in her direction, but then he was looking at Mandy again, and Jo felt her stomach tangle into a knot. He didn’t actually think she was capable of pulling this off, did he? Maybe he meant to look at Brandon. Or Zane. Or the picture of an old man praying behind her head--even that guy would make a better leader than her.
But she’d felt the shift in his emotions when he looked her way, and Jo knew he’d pull her aside as soon as he got a chance and try to convince her that she could do this, that she could go get Holland and bring her back alive. Even as he finished up the meeting, Jo was formulating a response, all the reasons why she didn’t want to be in charge. She didn’t have enough experience. She didn’t have his leadership skills--his patience under duress. Perhaps most of all, she didn’t think she could lead the mission to bring in Holland because if Jo got anywhere near that sorry ass bitch, she intended to kill her.