Chapter 93

For the rest of the flight, Jo studied the blueprints and maps of the area, both recent ones acquired by Margie’s team and old ones that told her what the capital city had looked like before the Vampires had taken over. There had been a lot of changes in recent years, most of them in the name of security. The Vampires loved to tell everyone that they were endangered, that there was a group of people out there who wanted to attack and kill all of them. It was one of the ways they’d managed to get LIGHTS banned and make it illegal to destroy a Vampire, even if one was trying to turn or kill you. It was absurd; an idea that inclusionists took way too far. While Jo wholeheartedly agreed that humans should accept one another for their differences, she drew the line at accepting a species that was created for the sole purpose of destroying humanity.
People just never learned.
After about six hours of studying the maps, her brother came sauntering back to the hull where they were all sitting, an annoyed expression on his face. Jo looked up at Cadon expectantly as he came to a stop a few steps from her. “Ryker wants you back up there,” he said, rolling his eyes.
“Me?” Jo questioned, wondering why in the world he would want the copilot he literally fell asleep on the job back in the cockpit.
“Yeah. He said we’re getting ready to land, and he wants the bosslady up there in case we have any trouble.” Cadon’s expression made it clear that he thought Ryker was being stupid, but he hadn’t argued with the human, at least not strongly enough to win.
Jo wasn’t particularly happy about this either. The last thing she wanted to do was have any sort of responsibility when it came to landing this plane. No matter how many times she reminded herself the only person on board who would die if they crashed was the pilot, it still didn't sit well with her to think about the rest of them being cut up into nicely minced pieces that would somehow have to reassemble themselves.
As if reading her mind, Elliott said, “Be careful, Lil Jo. I don’t wanna end up like Cut-Up Carl.”
“Who the hell is Cut-Up Carl?” Jo asked as she pulled herself to her feet, being careful not to fall over from the swaying of the plane. The moment the question had left her lips, she regretted having asked it.
“He’s a Guardian who found himself in a particularly bad situation once,” Elliott said, the look on his face telling Jo and everyone else he was making this up as he went along. “Poor bastard got himself caught in the blades of one of them industrial sized fans they use in factories.” Elliott shook his head, a solemn expression taking over. “He was chopped into pieces so small, the cubed ham plant wouldn’t have even taken him.”
Jo rolled her eyes. “And did Cut-Up Carl recover from this tragic event?”
“Of course he did,” Elliott said as Jo made her way to the cockpit, pausing next to the bathroom to hear the rest of his story. “But he hasn’t been the same since. Some of his pieces didn’t quite get joined back together smoothly. When the wind blows too hard, he whistles, and if he drinks a lot of water, it just runs right out of him, getting his clothes all wet and makin’ it look like he pissed his pants.”
“You are in serious need of a psychiatrist, Dad,” Brandon said, shaking his head.
“It’s true!” Elliott insisted. “Ask Cale! You were the one who helped put him back together, weren’t you Doc Ryan?”
Cale had been so quiet the entire time, Jo had forgotten he was even there. He was sitting on the other side of Zane, too, so she couldn’t even see him from where she’d been leaning against the interior wall of the plane.
The doctor raised an eyebrow and said, “Oh, yeah. Sure. I remember the guy. But that was a long time ago. I’m sure he’s over his ailments by now.”
“All I’m sayin’ is, I don’t want to go through the damn propeller or get splattered on the ground like a giant pile of bird shit.” Elliott looked Jo right in the eye as he spoke for emphasis.
“I will keep that in mind… Uncle Elliott.” Jo was tired of his stories and was pretty sure Ryker was wondering where the hell she was, so she left him to tell the others another ridiculous story without her presence and entered the cockpit, careful not to touch anything.
Ryker looked like hell. He was clearly exhausted but also hyped up on coffee--or something. His eyes were bloodshot, his hair was sticking up like he’d run his hand through it a hundred times, and his clothes were all wrinkled as if he’d tried to sleep in his seat for an hour or two. She sat down in the copilot seat, hoping this was all a formality. She wasn’t going to be able to help get this bird on the ground.
“We should be approaching the east coast of the United States in an hour or so,” Ryker explained, looking over a few of the gauges on the giant dashboard. “You do realize I’m not going to be able to land this fucker in DC, right?”
Jo hadn’t really thought about that. She’d assumed they would land as close to the location where Jamie and the others were being held as possible since the time they had was so limited, but now that he mentioned it, all of the airports in the capital were closely guarded by Crimson’s men. There was no way they could just waltz in there without being captured--or shot down.
“Where do you propose we land?” Jo asked.
“I have no fucking idea,” Ryker replied. “I was hoping you could tell me.”
“Shit.” Jo swore under her breath, at a loss for words. “Let me see if Cassidy can contact Margie to get a location for us.”
“All right,” Ryker said, looking annoyed that she hadn’t thought of this already.
Using the IAC in the plane wasn’t that hard. They hadn’t reached the airspace yet where the signals would be scrambled. But Margie was beyond the limitations, so Cassidy would have to use her telepathy. “Can you find out where Margie recommends we land?” she asked her aunt, using the IAC.
“We don’t know where we’re landing?” Cassidy asked.
“I’d appreciate it if you’d keep that information to yourself,” Jo replied.
A few seconds later, she heard Elliott shout, “What do you mean we don’t know where we’re going?”
Jo groaned. “Cassidy!”
“Well good grief, Jo! You should’ve worked that out before we left the ground.”
“There was no time!” she argued. “Just contact Margie and let me know where Ryker needs to take us.”
It took a few minutes for Cassidy to get back to her, but it seemed like an eternity. Jo sat with her hands in her lap, looking out at the blue water beneath them. It seemed to go on forever. But out there on the other side was her home country, a place that didn’t want her anymore, didn’t want any of them anymore. They were fighting to take it back, but they couldn’t even find an entry point.
“She says there’s a little airport in Richmond, Virginia that they have control over. It’s called Meadow Airfield. It’s a small piece of shit airfield, and that’s why the US government isn’t paying any attention to it. Tell Ryker the runway’s only 3000 feet, but it’s not in the greatest shape. Margie said they’ve landed a couple of smaller airplanes there, but nothing this big.”
“Fabulous,” Jo replied, trying not to look too discouraged because Ryker was watching her. “Good news!” she said, plastering a cheerful smile to her face.
“Why do you look like the Cheshire cat threw up on you?” Ryker asked.
“I guess it’s because I’m so happy to tell you the good news,” Jo said with a shrug. “We found an airport. Yay!”
Raising an eyebrow, Ryker said, “What airport are we talking about?”
“It’s a secret airport in Richmond, Virginia. It’s called Meadows Airport, and hardly anyone knows it exists.”
“If no one knows it exists, I probably don’t have coordinates for it, now do I? And how am I supposed to get there without the damn radar picking me up?”
“Uh… can’t you fly low enough so that radar can’t detect you?” Jo asked, thinking that she’d once read that that was a thing.
“Only if you wanna crash into a tall building--or a steep hill.”
“All right, all right,” Jo said, trying to stay calm. It was just one more problem to solve. “Cassidy,” she said over the IAC, “can you get the coordinates for the airport from Margie, please?”
Her aunt grumbled, but a few moments later she had the requested information. Jo gave the information to Ryker, glad it seemed to mean something to him.
“One more thing. What are the chances you can throw a shield that keeps this plane from being spotted by radar?” Jo asked her aunt.
“Are you shitting me?” Cassidy replied. “I’ve never tried to block radar before.”
“You’ve blocked all other sorts of things, though. Why not radar?”
Cassidy swore again and grunted a moment before she said, “I’ll try. When do I need to throw the shield?”
Turning to Ryker, she asked, “When does she need to throw the shield?”
“What?” he asked, confusion written all over his face.
Jo realized then that she hadn’t told him her idea for having Cassidy shield them from the radar. “The radar. When do we need to worry about that?”
“Uh… now,” Ryker said. “Their radar might’ve already picked us up. For all I know, Crimson Crotch has sent strikers out to bring us down.”
“Wonderful,” Jo replied, the smile slipping from her face despite her attempts to keep it in place. “Now would be good,” she told Cassidy.
“The next time you need me to save our asses, could you please give me a few hours’ worth of warning? This is harder than I make it look, you know?”
“I know,” Jo replied. “We are forever in your debt.”
“What the hell ever,” Cassidy said. “I’m throwing the shield. If you need anything else, you’ll have to ask Heather. This is going to take all I got left.”
“Thank you,” Jo replied, hoping they didn’t need anything else, but something told her their biggest problems were still in front of them.