When I woke up, I was now alone in bed. On the bedside table was an enormous bouquet of red roses, my phone and wallet, and a note saying, " Little gig, baby. Gotta go interrogate the terrorists. I'll probably be back in a week or two. Don't run away."
Adam had mentioned that Damon was actually a freelance interrogator, and now that I think about it, he was fucking great at extracting information out of me, so I'm not surprised. Besides, he didn't hesitate to hurt, and I guess once the terrorist suspect gets the vampire asking questions, then Damon doesn't have to do anything else than flash his teeth for the terrorist to crack, and once he telepaths, he'll find the truth. Well, I am a leader of the resistance, so we make a very good pair.
Fine. I went to shower and eat. I checked out a little flea business, and there was a gig being planned for Alabama. Well, I'd have time. I messaged Adam, and he said he couldn't make it because of a werewolf crisis. He put up a very descriptive barrage of swear words and phrases to describe Bran and his idiotism, but he was as stuck as could be. Let it go. I don't mind.
I started planning my part. It was a medical facility about twelve stories high; there were test subjects, but this was not Sark's facility. It doesn't really matter.
I would lead the rescue team, so my job was to find the victims, extricate them, administer first aid, i.e., blood, and help the victims to the transporters. So, the transporters would then get the victims out of the facility quickly and efficiently. The exception to the normal, or the original plan, was that Adam added a team for these jobs. These were the collectors, so they collected all the drugs, samples, and data. And the destroyers, well, they were the group that then took the facility apart.
Adam and apparently Magnum had made pretty clear rules and protocols for these missions but there was always an element of surprise in every mission, no matter how carefully you planned it there were always unknown factors, factors that you weren't necessarily aware of or the enemy would react in some unexpected way.
For example, there might be camera surveillance, and then somewhere nearby, there would be a base full of soldiers or guards, and when the cameras would spot us, these guards would come in. And often, their purpose was to capture, not to kill. That was the problem, that nobody was caught, because now, in the next few years, more and more often, the victims were people.
When you looked at the list of missing persons we had received from the government or the authorities, I couldn't help but wonder how many of these had been victimized by the medical establishment and burned and disposed of. No one would ever know unless we could find the records of the victims who had already died on some computer and get some answers.
We, therefore, had contact with the authorities, the very people who investigated the missing. Whenever our hacker team found evidence or identified the victim, dead and burned, we passed the information on. There was nothing else we could do.
It was really frustrating at times, and knowing that the relatives of these people would get some kind of closure felt so fucking empty. Every name we had to give was sometimes a slap in the face for me, the knowledge that I just couldn't save everyone.
The fact was, I never would. It just didn't help, and acceptance was the most fucked up part of it, but unless I wanted to break my will to fight, I just had to move on and try to save as many as I could.
I got out of my thoughts when Penn called and started asking me about the new guns Adam had talked about. Fine, I had read Adam's memo on the subject, and I knew it was my responsibility to provide these new weapons.
Penn, Ruby, and Sapphire would be part of my team, and I hadn't looked at who else was on it yet. Penn was the destroyer, and Ruby and Sapphire were the collectors. But Penn informed me he would then be with backup for me as well.
Adam, Jake, and Magnum had made the protocol such that once we got inside, the destroyers were the backup for the rescuers. Their job inside was to give us a safe working environment.
I replied to Penn that I would check the weapons when I got to the base and make my decision then. He was smart enough not to push the issue like Harrison, for example, would have.
This was such a multi-group collaboration gig, and therefore, it would be good to plan it right. All the participants were such that they could basically do the other part, i.e., they all knew how to blow up or destroy. Unfortunately, no one had the blood I had, except maybe Damon might have had, but he never actually took part in any of the rescue gigs. In fact, he expressed no interest or was free when I was on the gig. Mainly because when I did the gigs while I was on my own.
I had 24 hours to plan, and I announced my plan. Or mainly the equipment I would use and where I would go first to look for the victims. Everybody had their own habits and their own equipment, and generally, the team leader decided, for example, the explosives that we would use. Now, my plan was announced. Good, that was taken care of.
I went to change my clothes, and I took a heavy briefcase from one cupboard. It was full of weapons, equipment from Magnum, and other things I needed, so I collected the equipment I took with me, put it in my backpack, and the guns in the holsters as I rigged my thigh holster. I went for a drive. I had nothing to do here yet, as Damon was on his own gig, and I was on mine.
The gig would be at night. I arrived at the base and went over the plan with the whole crew. In these gigs, no two gigs are the same because of the victims. You never know what condition the victims were in, what experiments or torture had been done, how many were alive, and how many were dead.
If we could, we transported the bodies to our morgue, and then the relatives could pick them up, but that was very rare. First, the bodies were often cremated or disposed of, and then maybe we just couldn't transport the bodies. Living before the dead was our motto.
We tried to take pictures and samples and find the identity of as many victims as we could. Then, the knowledge that the people were buried under the remains of the building. Well, I didn't know if it helped anyone.
Still, I knew a few places now and then when they started going through the rubble and the dead were found there; it was never investigated as such. No one knew that there were dead people there, and I don't know how the authorities had made this happen. There was never any doubt who these people had killed; there were never any suspicions. It was clear that they had been dead when the building had collapsed.
We also had to work out who or what species were the victims. Whether it was humans, werewolves, vampires, or shapeshifters. You had to be prepared for everything.
That's why I, like all the rescue team members, had tranquilizers with me in case someone needed to be tranquilized for safe relocation, as injections and also a pistol. Because sometimes there was someone in a room somewhere not tied up and completely distressed. Then the pistol was in place.
All the other groups were much clearer. They knew roughly what to expect. Their tasks were much clearer when they just had to collect or keep safe, transport, but we had to get these movable ones in order, in order that it would be easier for the others.
For example, the movers would set up a kind of pipe from a predetermined location and this pipe would get the victims out of the building, there would be people there to receive them and cars would always be close by, well as close as possible.
I liked to be in the chaos that was the rescue; it was to react quickly to assess the condition of the victim in a couple of minutes, which meant that before the gig, I had to donate blood. Then, my blood was packed into 5 ml syringes, which was enough to heal a person, and these syringes were then distributed to the rescuers.
I tried to donate blood whenever I remembered and could; I had plenty of blood to give, but not nearly all the gigs had my blood. There might have been vampire blood, which worked almost as well, but I needed at least 25 ml then.
But this actually made the gig and the planning of it fun. There were so many things to consider. My group and I went through the equipment; I had brought a new toy that I hadn't tested yet. Adam had gotten me a brand new drone, and I got it out of my backpack, and we tested it extensively before the gig.
One thing, and it was fucking important, was just that all the equipment was tested, and everyone knew how to use everything perfectly; I tried to eliminate the possibility of a technical glitch ruining the gig. I couldn't be selfish and keep all the toys just for myself, not when they required attention and training and everyone had to know how to use them.
These drones we might get more of and I couldn't be the only one who knew how to use them or could use them. We were operating the drones to start with and to get some idea of the guards' movements and if they had thermal cameras or other aids; you had to know how to use them and use them really well.
I had now donated blood as my group was learning to use the drone, and our medical people were packing syringes full of my blood into special belts that would then be given to us rescuers. Those belts were magic.
We had quite a damn lot of powerful witches, Dresden and Constantine, too, and those belts could hold hundreds of syringes while the magic did its work. Keeping the belts light. But they always had a couple of syringes ready, and the magic would just put the next loaded syringe in place.
I looked at the clock, and it was almost time to put on the gear and get moving.
Now, we had protocols put on the equipment, and usually, you'd dress in pairs, so one wouldn't let the other guy be lazy and would watch to make sure the right equipment was put on.
It depended on what role you were in and what equipment you put on. We all had enough gear that we couldn't be stopped by even a pretty big bullet, and the destroyers had even more protection on their person.
The Magnum made a jumpsuit, which was partly technology, magic, or skill. It protects the wearer from a pretty big blast. It absorbed and dispersed the maximum force of the blast, protected the body from shrapnel, and gave you a chance to survive, but it wasn't a guaranteed thing.
That's why we used a drone with radar that could detect mines, so we knew how to navigate. We had tried to find every single problem and solution by talking things over, making scenarios, and trying to come up with a better way to protect everyone.
Well, I was the boss, so I rarely had anybody to make sure I got all the gear in place unless Jake or Adam happened to be there. But I was surprised when I started getting dressed. Penn came over to watch, gazed at me, and listed all the gear I had to put on. He had a bit of an attitude like Jake, and apparently, this had taught the others flea-handling skills.
I was a good girl and wore every piece of protection I required. From the start, the safety collar protected my neck as if there were 'hungry' vampires to rescue at the gig, and sometimes they just wouldn't control themselves.
I hadn't always worn it because my blood was so strong it would knock a normal vampire unconscious. So now, if anyone sank their teeth into my neck, then first, I had over 50 liters of blood, then second, the vampire just drugged himself unconscious, and third, I healed ridiculously fast.
Once I got the gear in place, well, I watched as Penn did the same thing; backup was a charm. When everyone was ready, we set off in four big trucks; two big transport trucks and extra trucks were ready. They would drive behind us and then come and pick up the victims if they were needed.
The gig got underway, and I felt the tension building even though I was in complete control. I was the leader, the example, and I wasn't allowed to slip up at all.