Chapter 97

The transport vehicle fell silent. Jo tried to go over all of the possibilities that could happen if they launched an attack on the exterior of the building while they were trying to sneak in, and she just didn’t think that it would work. Too many people running too many places, heavy fire, the potential of their own forces getting hit…. No, she really did think that she was right. But if she was wrong, and they were unable to get the prisoners out, Jo would carry the guilt around with her for the rest of her life, which would probably be pretty short since her recklessness tended to go up exponentially when she made a mistake.
The road beneath them seemed to smooth out. Jo wished that she could see out the window, but there weren’t any, and out the back flap, all she could see was the road they’d just covered.
“We’ll be arriving at what used to be the Mall in about ten minutes,” Margie said.
“How do you know that?” Jo asked, wondering if she had some sort of way to communicate with the people in her team that she was unaware of.
“My watch,” Margie replied. “Where am I taking you guys?”
“We’re splitting into two teams. Half of us will go in the old House office building, the other half through the Senate office buildings.” Elliott was quick to answer her question, probably because it had been his plan to begin with.
“And have you split up your teams yet?” Margie asked.
“Not completely,” Jo said. “We didn’t know if you had any forces you wanted to send with us.”
Margie nodded. “I want to go in myself, but I can’t if I'm going to be negotiating with Crimson Crotch. So Grant will go. I’ll also send Paul, your cousin.” She was looking at Cassidy then. Cass nodded in recognition. Jo didn’t know who that was. “I have four others I think you should take.”
“All right,” Jo said. She went back over some of the team building they’d done on the plane. “I’ll lead one group, Elliott will lead the other. I’m taking Scott, so Elliott you’re taking Cale.”
Jo’s eyes went to the two Hybrids. She knew what Heather had said earlier about not wanting to go with Elliott because of his accent, but she needed Cass with her. “I’m sorry, Heather, but I’m going to need Cassidy with me.”
Heather’s eyes narrowed, but she didn’t say anything.
“I know you guys have basically the same skill set, but I’m used to working with her, and I know what she can do.”
“Fine,” the cowgirl said.
Jo was glad that went as easily as it had. “So, I’ll take Cass, and you take Heather.” Elliott didn’t argue either. “Brandon, I assume you’re still going to insist on going with Cass?”
“Damn straight,” Brandon replied.
Jo nodded. “So that means you’ve got Zane, too, Elliott.” She didn’t like that. He’d always been there whenever she needed him, and now he was going to be on the other side of a very large building filled with lots of deadly Vampires. “I think the rest of you should stay in reserve with Margie in case we need back up.”
“Definitely Mandy should do that,” Elliott said.
His daughter, who had been unusually quiet, said, “After crashing in an airplane, I guess I’ve had enough adventures for one day.”
Dax and the others agreed as well. That left it up to Margie to determine who else was going with Jo, but she was confident she had two good teams that were small and would work well together.
Margie delegated her people as well. She was sending Grant with Jo and Paul with Elliott. The other two people that would be going with Jo’s team were already in position on the Mall. Their names were Daniel and Pamela, and that’s all Jo knew about them, other than the fact that one was a Guardian, and the other was a Hunter. Elliott would have a couple of other people from Margie as well.
The vehicle pulled to a stop a lot more quickly than Jo was prepared for. She braced herself against the wall of the transport to keep from flying against Margie or Grant and almost hit her head on the back wall.
The Mall was a huge space now that most of the memorials and historical markers had been removed. The only one that remained used to be the Jefferson Memorial, but the former president’s head had been taken off and replaced with Crimson Crotch’s head a few years ago. It looked ridiculous, but the Vampires came to visit it like it was Mecca.
They filed out of the vehicle, and Jo had a look around. In the distance, she saw the mammoth new capitol building and could hardly believe it was real. It looked like a huge block of concrete, like a mountain had sprung up out of the earth in the form of a colossal rectangle.
“Where are these office buildings?” Jo asked as she took in their location in relation to the capitol itself. She was surprised to see so many Australian war vehicles parked outside of the American capitol. In contrast, there were no visible American war vehicles to be had.
“Have they done nothing to push you back?” Jo asked Margie.
She shook her head. “Not here. When we first landed in Florida, they made a show of trying to run us off, but they didn’t get very far. They’re no match for us.”
“How is that?” Jo had always assumed that the US military was just as strong as it had always been.
“Lots of misappropriated funds,” Margie explained. “The defense funds have been filtered into the police, launching raids, and getting rid of anyone who is accused of fighting the Vampires.”
Jo knew the police force had grown exponentially recently, but she didn’t realize it was at the cost of the military.
“We are certain they have quite a few soldiers inside of the building, and there are definitely armored vehicles in there as well,” Grant told Jo as they walked away from the transport vehicle.
There were a few tents set up on the far side of the Mall, behind all of the military vehicles. Margie was headed over there. Jo and the others followed. She was ready to just get on with it, but it seemed that Margie was going to expect them to all look at the map again and talk about the plan.
Jo was done talking. She was ready to attack.
There was a large map spread out on a table, pinned down, and Margie walked right over to it, which was exactly what Jo was afraid of. “Here’s the capitol building,” she said. “And here’s where we think the prisoners are being held.” She pointed to a place on the top floor near the center of the building.
“Why do you think that’s where they are?” Jo asked, looking at the map. She hadn’t seen this particular blueprint before.
“Because the gallows are on the roof,” Margie said.
“Gallows? But won’t they do this by firing squad?” Elliott asked for all of them.
“Yes, but they are making a big production out of the executions, so they’ve set up this grotesque scene on the roof,” Margie said. “I’ll show you.”
She picked up a tablet off of the table and pressed a few buttons until they saw surveillance footage of the area on top of the roof that she’d just described.
“What’s stopping us from just flying a helicopter in and picking them up from the roof?” Brandon said, his hands on his hips, his voice indicating his frustration.
“Well, I suppose they just assumed they could shoot them before we could get to them, I guess,” Margie said. “I didn’t say they were intelligent. It doesn’t matter anyway. If you can get here before they take them out onto the roof, then problem solved.”
“Is there some sort of a barrier around the roof that we can’t see?” Cassidy asked. “Some form of a force field?”
“I guess there could be,” Margie said. That clearly hadn’t been an idea that had occurred to her before. “But how would we know that?”
“We wouldn’t unless I can bounce something off of it, and I wouldn’t be able to do that unless I was up there. If I levitate high enough, I can test it out.”
“No,” Brandon said, shaking his head. “That's not necessary, Cass. We won’t need to be up there. We’re going to get to them before we have to worry about it.”
Cassidy took a deep breath and blew it out slowly, but it was pretty obvious she didn’t like that answer. She wanted to go have a look.
Jo didn’t think it was necessary either. She was ready to go. Now. “We need weapons,” Jo said. “Did we get those off of the plane?” She should’ve asked that before they left the airport, but she hadn’t been thinking clearly.
“Yeah, I had my people pull them off. They’re here.” Margie gestured at one of the other vehicles that had come with them from Meadows Airport.
“And where’s Ryker?” Jo asked.
“He’s over there, too, I assume,” Margie replied. “I was going to have him checked out. You aren’t planning on taking him in there, are you?”
“No,” Jo assured her. “I’m not, but that doesn’t mean he’ll be happy about sitting it out.”
“Well, I’ll have him strapped down to a gurney if we need to,” Margie replied.
“Where are we headed?” Jo asked Elliott.
“You see that building right over there?” Elliott pointed off into the distance at one of the only buildings remaining near the giant concrete capitol. “That’s the Senate building. That’s where you’re going. And we’ll go over to the House building on the other side.”
“All right,” Jo said. They headed over to grab their weapons, but Margie had some other supplies for them, too, which included some of those grenades she’d been talking about. Jo wasn’t sure what to do with the wrist bands, so she left those. She did take a few extra pairs of handcuffs, though.
“When do you want me to throw the shield to see if we can block their signal against our IACs?” Cassidy asked.
“As soon as you’re ready,” Jo replied, checking to make sure her weapons were loaded. “Do you have any more titanium bullets, Margie?” Jo asked. She was running low on those herself.
“I do.” Margie signaled for one of her subordinates to go over to one of the supply vehicles. He rushed back with a crate marked, ‘Tit Bull” which made Elliott giggle. He set it down and popped the top.
Jo had never seen so many titanium bullets in her life. “Where did you get all of this?”
“Just a perk of living in a country where you can kill Vampires,” Margie replied. “Take as many as you want.” She gestured at the crate.
Jo didn’t have to be told twice. She loaded up every available place she had to carry ammo with cartridges for both of her guns. “Do you happen to know if they have any of their Guardian killing bullets?” Jo made a face. She could’ve done without the mines in Russia and their new deadly weapons.
“Not that I’ve seen,” Margie said. “And we’ve had plenty of interactions with them since we landed.”
“Good.” Jo really hoped she was right. She didn’t want to find out the hard way, though. If these bastards had scandium like the ones in Russia, they may as well turn back now.