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
The sound of conversation and laughter poured out of the house so loudly, Jo thought the neighbors might call the cops if someone didn’t make the loudmouths tone it down a little bit--especially Elliott whose laughter was noisy enough to wake the undead.She took a sip of her beer and set the bottle back by her boot. The sky here was even more polluted by light than it was in the city since most of Denver was desolate now. Hardly any of the stars were bright enough to compete, but those that did made her wonder for a split second if it was possible her dad was right, and her mom was stuck between them somewhere. She dismissed the idea and took another swig of the alcohol, wishing it would do something--anything—for her.The door behind her creaked open, causing her head to whip around. Relief washed over her when she saw it was Zane--not her dad. Or Cadon. Or Scott. Zane had two bottles of Bud in his hand. “Mind if I j
Zane spoke politely to her dad as the two passed each other, and then Aaron sat down in his spot next to her. “You doing okay?” he asked, and Jo nodded, still trying to figure out what she was going to say. While it was a huge compliment to be asked to lead the mission, Jo knew she wasn’t really the right person for the job. Even if she was the most strategically minded--which she was pretty sure she wasn’t--and even if she was the best shot--which she was pretty sure she was--she wasn’t a leader, not like her dad was. Not like her mom had been. He was disillusioned as to her abilities because she reminded him so much of his wife.“I’m okay,” Jo finally said. “Just… not used to dealing with so many people.”“Yeah? You never really did like parties much. Even when you were little, you’d try to go hide somewhere, off in your room if we were at home, or in a qui
Flying on small planes was nothing new to Jo, but this one was even tinier than the ones she remembered traveling on when she was younger, and she doubted she’d have much of a chance to speak to Cassidy without everyone else hearing while they were in such cramped quarters.The plane seated four besides the pilot and the co-pilot. She climbed in next to Zane with Brandon and Cassidy behind them, and hooked her seatbelt. It would be a long flight with several fuel stops, but Jo decided not to drink too much since there was no bathroom on board, and she doubted they’d be stopping frequently enough to accommodate too much water in any one bladder. She couldn’t help but wonder if her brother was on a nicer plane, one with a restroom, maybe even seats that reclined. No one else was complaining, so Jo didn’t either, but the seat was uncomfortable, and she had no idea how the guys were managing to squeeze their longer legs in behind the
The flight was long and boring, but at least Jo was able to use her IAC the further away from home they got. Rather than spending her time chatting with other team members who had also rediscovered the wondrous device that was the IAC, she spent her time looking through the archives, trying to get a sense of what tools she would be working with, what sort of strategies might work given the terrain and the obstacles they’d face in locating Holland and bringing her in, and researching the teammates she wasn’t familiar with. She slept a little, only ate a few bites when they stopped for fuel, and probably said less than ten words to anyone else on the plane, so by the time they landed in Moscow, the plane waving around in the snowy breeze like a ribbon, she was exhausted and felt just as ill at ease as she had when she’d agreed to do this several hours before.It didn’t seem like it should be snowing this time of year, even in Moscow
The Russian soldier standing next to Brandon’s window barked orders at them in a language none of them spoke, though their IACs were capable of translating what he was saying. That didn’t help in replying. Brandon said, “English,” politely about ten times before he finally held up his badge for the gun toting militant to see. This guy was more of a boy than a man, maybe nineteen at best. Jo fought the urge to reach inside her jacket pocket and finger the cold steel she had strapped there. She caught Cassidy’s eyes and knew the Hybrid was considering tossing all of them out of the way.Once the soldier boy had the badge in his paw, he shouted for a few of his comrades to come over. They looked at it, exchanged some speculative jibes with each other in their native tongue, laughed and then, in broken English, a different soldier, one a little older than the other said, “You all LIGHTS, eh?”&ldquo
The SUV wound its way through a dense forest, and the snow grew thicker the further north they went. Rarely did they see another vehicle, and for the last twenty minutes before Jo directed Brandon to turn right on what didn’t even look like a road, they didn’t see another soul or even a house.“You sure about this?” Brandon asked as he made a sharp turn between two trees.“That’s what the map says.” She could see the red dot that represented their vehicle turning onto the thin line of a road on the map she was following using her IAC. “It’s narrow and winds around a lot, but eventually, it should come to a fence with a steel gate. The cabin is another thirty yards up the drive.”“Oookay,” Brandon said, steering them between trees whose branches reached out and slashed at the roof of the vehicle. The road was bumpy, so he took his time. Even with th
Conversation continued as Jo walked into the cabin, Zane behind her. He didn’t stay there for long. Dax raised a hand to him, and Zane tapped Jo on the shoulder before he went over to say hello. Everywhere she looked, groups of people were swapping stories or getting reacquainted. Some were laughing, as if they were caught up in the glory days of the past. Others were clearly irritated or even downright angry about what LIGHTS had become. A few of them smiled when they caught her staring, but no one approached, and Jo wasn’t sure what to do.She felt like at least a half hour had passed as the groups ebbed and flowed, people shifting to other parts of the room or disappearing into other parts of the house. No one said anything to her, which wasn’t too surprising considering she didn’t really know anyone save the people she’d arrived with--and Scott. From some of their expressions, it was clear she wasn’t necessarily we
Jo stared at Scott as he came to a stop in front of her. He took a step to the side and gestured for her to step forward. “Let’s get on with it, Little Mac,” he said.If Scott was willing to listen to her, then everyone else had to be, too. The others gathered around, and Jo tried to determine what would be the best place to start strategizing.There was a pool table in the corner. Jo moved toward it, and the others saw where she was headed. A screech of wooden legs against wooden flooring filled her ears as they moved the table and assembled chairs around it. “Do we have a paper map?” she asked Mila because she was standing nearby and had been there a while.She looked a little confused, but Mikali stepped over with the requested item. It was large, and he’d pulled it from the corner of the room where it had been propped against a bookshelf.“Thank you. I app