“Spencer has to be even more careful than I do. He’s right in the thick of things running between Garrick and Belinda.”
“You’ve mentioned Garrick before but who’s Belinda?” Hunter sat up, resting his arm on a raised knee. “Just how many others are involved?”
“More than I know of. You’re right about them having an army. It’s been going on for years, if not decades.”
“Do you have numbers, figures, names of people who are involved?”
“Some of those systems have multiple triggers embedded in the code. It’s not a simple case of me going in and accessing the information. I never designed them, someone else did. Spencer is the man with this information. He’s the one who would be able to gather more details than I can. I’d have to have a reason to access that data and I don’t. I was brought in just to maintain the systems they’d already established.”
Hunter dropped his head. “Shit,” he muttered. Lifting his head back up, he stared into Carter’s eyes. “We could do with accurate figures here. We strongly suspected they had an army, as ridiculous as that sounds, but we just don’t know numbers involved. We don’t know if the whole council is compromised or a certain section. We don’t know which families are involved and which aren’t.” Hunter shook his head. “We only have these ideas, with some information to back them up, but overall, we’re wandering around in the dark.”
“Okay. That ludicrous idea you have is correct. The vampires have an army. The information I have been able to gather, and from what I’ve overheard, we’re talking around half a million. You know they’ve bought into several solar farms, you know they have access to food and water, and that they are going to be able to generate their own energy. The only thing I don’t know is how they plan to flip the switch and when.”
Hunter furrowed his brow and shook his head again. “None of the information I’ve been able to access has the details we need.”
“Me either. The man who might know is Spencer.”
“You think he’ll give you the information?”
Carter shrugged. “I don’t know. If we could engineer a meeting between him and Romeo, the rest of us might be able to brainstorm this and figure out what’s going on. Under the present circumstances I can’t see that happening. We need to be realistic. Spencer’s first thought will be to protect his mate and keep him safe and Romeo won’t do anything to endanger Spencer.”
“No, totally understand that. I don’t like the idea of you being in there, so I imagine Romeo feels the same way. Arrange a meeting with us and I’ll make sure Romeo is there. He might know something that we don’t.” Hunter sighed deeply, running his hand through his hair. “I feel out of my depth here. I’m used to having all the information I need, being able to plan for every eventuality. There is just so much I don’t know.”
“Look, I only have a few minutes before I have to go. When I get back, I’ll speak to Spencer and see what information I can pass on to you.”
“See what you can get hold of and then send me the image.”
“How?”
Hunter grinned. “Use the connection we have.” He tapped his head. “Some of the mated couples have been practicing and you can send images to each other.”
Carter’s eyes widened, and Hunter chuckled. “Wow, I never knew that. They kept that a secret, didn’t they?”
“It makes me wonder how much we don’t know.”
“And how much they don’t want us to know. Look how quickly we forgot about mates? Only those who needed to know, do, and the rest of us are left to believe it’s a story to tell the kids at bedtime.”
Cater glanced at this watch and sighed. “I don’t want to leave you.”
“Me either, but we have a few more minutes left.”
Carter smiled, and Hunter grinned. “What should we do?”
“I’m sure we’ll think of something.”
Chapter Nine
Hunter stood, staring at a scene of utter devastation. Even though the earthquake had been relatively small, none of the buildings had been earthquake resistant and so the majority of them had suffered some form of damage or collapsed completely.
The roads were either buckled, broken, or had somehow slid to one side. Instead of being straight, the roads had a zigzag pattern to them and were difficult, if not impossible, to use.
Smoke and dust and debris littered the ground, and Hunter walked through, treading carefully. To the left were the mountains where landslides had occurred, taking out a few of the access roads and almost cutting the small village off.
The population of the village was around two thousand people, and the majority had been accounted for, but from the figures Hunter had received, almost three to four hundred were still missing. It was a lot of people to be found.
Nothing appeared to have been untouched by the ferocity of the earthquake, no building left unmarked, no road unscathed.
The whole of Rescue Inc was here along with various other organizations, and he knew Ale would be in command, organizing the search with the help of others to utilize their skills to the best advantage.
With their strength, most of the vampires were used to help shore up buildings, so other team members could access and search for survivors trapped beneath the rubble. It was heavy work, but so very necessary to save lives.
Hunter walked up to the building he was assigned to, Donnie and Chester with him. When they reached it, all three of them stood still, heads tilted towards the building and using their enhanced senses to see if they could hear anything from inside. The other rescue personnel stood quietly, waiting for the three vampires to speak. They glanced at each other and Chester’s expression turned grim.
“There’s a distinct odor...” He never finished the sentence, merely shook his head.
“Maybe there’s more than one inside,” Donnie muttered.
“Well, we won’t find out standing out here, will we?” Hunter shook his bag off and dropped it to the ground.
Walking close to the building, stepping carefully through the rubble and smashed glass, he squatted and stared through what was once the front door but was now only around a foot high. He tilted his head again, closing his eyes, and listened. Sometimes when it was quiet, really quiet, he could pick up the sound of heartbeats or breathing if it was loud enough. He stayed there for a good minute, using his senses as best he could, and slowly turned his head back towards Donnie and Chester and shook it.
“I’m not picking up anything.”
“Like I said, there could be someone in there still alive. Let’s get this entrance stabilized and I’ll go in. I’m the smallest out of the three of us, so it makes sense to me to crawl through.” Donnie dropped his bag and walked over to the entrance.
They worked together, along with the rest of the team, adding extra beams and supporting the entrance Donnie would use. All around them they could hear the activity of other people doing the same thing and just as Donnie was about to crawl through, a cheer went up and they all turned towards the sound. They grinned at each other, knowing someone had been pulled out alive. It gave them the extra push they needed, and Donnie crawled through the gap, pretty much lying flat to get through.
They saw him pause then heard a muttered, ‘shit’, then Donnie wriggled further in.
“Update,” Chester demanded after a couple of minutes.
“It actually opens out a bit in here so I’m going to crawl through and see what I can find. Definitely someone dead in here, unfortunately, but I’m going to move further in and see if I can pick something up.”
Hunter held on to the end of the rope, feeding it through to Donnie as he moved further within the collapsed structure. It was a tense few minutes as he waited, and eventually Donnie spoke.
“Okay, update. Adults, male and female, both deceased. Right, I’m going to use the LD because right now I’m not picking up anything at all. The information said there was a child, right?”
“Yeah, two years old, a male named Jef
f.”
They sat waiting in silence as Donnie used the life detector to detect any sounds his enhanced hearing wasn’t. The time seemed to pass slowly, each second felt like an hour, until eventually Donnie spoke.
“It’s faint, but there is something here. I’m going to try and move towards the sound and see if this device picks up anything more.”
“Is the location secure?” Chester asked.
“As secure as it’s going to be. As long as we don’t get any more after-shocks, I’m good to go.”
They stood in tense silence, waiting for Donnie to give them an indication of whether he’d found the boy or not. Suddenly, they heard a shout and Donnie came back over the radio. “I’ve got him! He’s alive but injured.”
“Right, I’ll get the team in now.”
Hunter stayed by the side of the building as Chester moved away and waved over the support team. Just as the medics approached, Hunter heard sounds of Donnie moving closer to the former doorway and he squatted, ready.
“He’s here,” he shouted over to the medics.
As soon as Donnie appeared, there was a flurry of activity. Donnie wasn’t even out of the collapsed building when the medics descended and pulled the child from his arms. They moved away with him and Hunter glanced over, seeing them immediately begin to work on the young child. He turned back and helped Donnie the rest of the way out and passed him a bottle of water. Donnie drank, his eyes on the child. When he finally finished, he muttered, “He’s in bad shape.”
Hunter nodded, having seen the child when he’d helped pull him free. “We’ve done all we can. He’s in their hands now. The two adults are dead, aren’t they?”
Donnie nodded. “Yeah. We’ll leave them for the other recovery team and move onto the next building.”
They continued to work long into the night, saving some but sadly, as always in the case of earthquakes, finding more dead. When they finally called it quits and headed back to the main command center, all three were weary, covered in dirt and dust. It felt like the dirt had managed to get into every single crevice and Hunter couldn’t wait to get clean. Given the local amenities had taken a savage hit, the best he could do was to get some water and try to clean his face. His dirty clothes would have to keep for another day as they traveled lightly, but right now some food, a bed and few hours of sleep was all he needed.
Tomorrow was another day, and another chance to save lives.
Chapter Ten
The door banged open behind Carter and he jerked, spinning his chair around to see who was coming in. Garrick stormed into the room, his face a mask of fury, his eyes red, and waving papers in his hand.
“What do you call this?” he demanded as he stalked over.
“I don’t know what you’ve got,” Carter replied.
Garrick threw the papers at him, and pointing at them, shouted, “These are the lists of our weapons? Are you kidding me? The numbers are wrong. Where did you get this information from? I know for a fact we have more weapons than stated on that list because I brought some in myself. Why is this list out of date? You of all people should know how important accurate information is. I could make you suffer with this.”
The papers had fallen on the floor, and Carter quickly picked them up, scanning the data on them. Frowning, he glanced back up at Garrick, then stared back down at the information and slowly shook his head. “This information is incorrect. I know because I input the new information yesterday and you should have received a new copy of it this morning. I don’t know where you have got this from, but certainly not the information in our system.”
Garrick growled, his eyes flashing an intense red, and Carter swallowed hard. Garrick could do some serious damage to him if he was to lose his temper. Needing to pacify him, Carter said, “If you wait a few seconds, I’ll print off an up-to-date list for you and you can have that.”
“Do it. Now.”
Carter swiveled back to his computer and with a few clicks of a button, printed out a new, up-to-date list for Garrick. He stood and walked over to the printer, picking up the sheets of paper, and passed them over to Garrick, who snatched them from his hand and glanced at them, rifling through the papers, his eyes flowing over the numbers. Slowly, he nodded and stared intently at Carter.
“Can you tell me why the information I had was inaccurate?”
Carter shrugged. “I have no idea. As I just told you, I inputted the new data yesterday, so the information should be up-to-date. I don’t know why the information you have incorrect.”
“Spencer,” Garrick growled. “I bet this has to do with him. The vampire is a mess. It’s about time he was dealt with.”
Carter’s lips parted. He couldn’t let anything happen to Spencer. “I’m sure it was just an oversight on his part. You know he’s very busy at the moment making sure everything is set up and ready to go.”
“Maybe,” Garrick grudgingly muttered.
“Is there anything else you need from me? I can print off some more information or email it over to you.”
“No, I’ll get Spencer to give me any information I need.” Garrick turned and left the IT room, slamming the door shut behind him, and Carter sighed in relief.
Slumping back in his chair, he closed his eyes and breathed deeply for a few seconds and then reached out to Hunter.
Something’s going on here, and I don’t know what is.
Does it affect you?
No, not that I can tell. Garrick was after updated information on the number of weapons they have. He was furious that the data was out of date. I printed off the up-to-date information, and he left with that, but I’m worried. He’s never usually like this and they have been asking for more information recently and have noticed the number of traffic increase.
Do you think they’re getting ready to launch their attack?
No, I don’t, because nothing else has been put into place. I’m not sure if they are moving it to another location, which means the information I have is incorrect. More importantly though, if they change the location, they must have a reason to do so. I’m worried, Hunter.
I’m on my way over to the address you gave me, and I’ll get back in touch with you soon as I know if it’s them or not. If it is, I’ll come up with a plan to move them and make it look like they just escaped. Last thing you want is the vampires to realize that someone has helped your parents get out because then they will look at you and I’m not doing anything that’s going to risk your life.
Just get them out and I’ll deal with it. Don’t worry about me. This is your job, Hunter. I know you can get them out and make it look any way you want it to.
Look I’m the way over there now. If anything happens, contact me immediately.
I will, Hunter. Just promise me that if it is them, that you’ll get them out. Knowing they’re safe...
Carter broke contact, emotions overwhelming him as tears threatened to fall. He rubbed his eyes with the palms of his hands and breathed raggedly.
They are your family, and you love them. I’ll make sure they’re safe. Once I’ve been there, I’ll head over to meet you. You think you can still get away?
Yes, I’ve got the perfect reason now. Someone has to check out all those weapons and make sure everything is up-to-date, don’t they?
I’ll see you soon.
Carter stared at the monitor in front of him. God, he hoped it was them and Hunter could help. He needed them to be free.
Hunter stared at the houses, his eyes glued to one in particular. Nothing stood out. It was just an ordinary house in the middle of an ordinary street and Hunter had his concerns that the information Carter had got his hands on was correct until the front door opened and a vampire stepped out.
He slid down in the car seat, keeping out of sight as much as he could, and watched the vampire glance up and down the street before he walked towards a black car and got in.
Once the car pulled away, Hunter’s eyes returned to their original focus, and he stared at
the house. The curtains were all closed so we couldn’t see in, but that didn’t stop him.
Getting out of the car, he quickly shut the door and jogged across the street. A few houses down, he walked up the path and made his way around the side of the building and stepped into an alley. He used all of his senses to scan the area and became aware of one vampire that was in the back garden.
He trod quietly, slowly making his way towards the back of the house, and when he was close, he searched for any weaknesses. He found a gap and glanced through and sighed in relief. The curtains to the rear of the house were open and all he had to do was wait until he caught a glimpse of whoever was inside.
He was used to waiting, having done so in multiple missions when he was enlisted, and now was no different. He waited, and he watched, gathering as much information as he could in case this was a rescue mission.
If it did turn out that it was Carter’s family, he would let Chester and Ale know. They were aware of what he was doing and had given him the go ahead. Plans would be made to help get Carter’s family free and to a place of safety.
Roughly two hours into his wait, he saw movement and a slow smile covered his face. It was them. He waited until he had a visual on all the members of Carter’s family and then quickly and quietly left the area.
Once he was in his car, he immediately called Chester and gave him the information, then he contacted Carter.
Carter, it’s them.
You saw them?
Yes, I saw both of them. I’ve let the team know and we’ll work on a plan to get them free. Don’t worry, I’ll make sure they’re safe.
I’m just leaving now to meet you. I’ll see you soon.
Starting the car, Hunter drove away. He knew he would be back to save them, but first he needed his mate.
Carter pulled to a stop in front of the cabin. Hunter’s vehicle was already there, and he got out, eager to see his mate.
As he approached the cabin, the door opened, and Hunter stepped out to meet him. Carter grinned, noticing Hunter’s eyes and when he stepped closer, Hunter pushed him against the cabin wall and kissed him hungrily.
Rescue Inc Collection Vol 4 Page 6