first place. You and I were never really on it, and Alec had
the advantage of leaving while most of his father's assets were
focused on the more visible threats, but Jaclyn doesn't have either
of those advantages."
Adri was
putting on a brave front, but I could see her legs starting to
tremble ever so slightly. I forced an ornate black wrought-iron bench
into existence behind her and then gestured for her to take advantage
of it.
"Yeah.
Jaclyn's pack is one of the most heavily watched. My bet is that the
Coun'hij knows where every penny of the pack's money is headed before
it even leaves the bank. They'll have satellites watching the area,
and assets close enough to head her off if she just grabs her people
and jumps in vehicles to make a run for it.
"The only
way they have a chance of getting out is if someone sets up
extraction routes for them and then comes in and wipes out the quick
response force that's been assigned to make sure she doesn't try
anything.
"Once we
know for sure how many people we're dealing with, Jack can probably
set up extraction plans that will suffice to help everyone drop off
of the radar, but that's all for naught if we can't deal with the
enforcers down there."
Adri shrugged.
"So go down there and deal with them. Based on what you did in
Minnesota, you can wipe out the entire group of enforcers all by
yourself."
I wasn't sure
whether to be happy that she'd managed to reference the battle where
her parents had died without crying or sad that she'd put on such a
callous front.
"That was
my first thought as well, but what little information I'm getting out
of that area indicates that there are more werewolves active down in
that area than there should be."
"Puppeteer."
Taggart said
the name like it was the worst kind of curse, but I couldn't blame
him. Puppeteer was a big part of why nobody felt safe expressing
their dissatisfaction with the current regime too loudly.
"There is
an uncomfortable amount of similarity between my power and what the
werewolves do. It's not a hundred-percent match, obviously, but I've
seen werewolves absorb an insane amount of power. Jaclyn Annikov's
power doesn't even faze them…"
"You're
worried that your power won't work on them."
"Correct.
I'm eager to find out—preferably in a fairly controlled
setting—but until I know that I can drop them as easily as
vampires, it's a bad idea to depend on my ability to bail us out. We
need a big enough force down there to handle whatever Puppeteer can
throw at us."
Taggart sighed,
and I saw the same exhaustion in him that I'd been feeling before
Adri arrived. "It's not going to be easy to keep that many
people hidden for very long."
"I know. I
wouldn't ask this of you if the stakes were any lower, but if we can
safely extract the Tucson pack—right out from under the
Coun'hij's noses—it will change everything. Even if it doesn't
result in a tidal wave of support from the smaller packs, it's still
worth it if we can stop the Coun'hij from intimidating everyone into
going the other direction."
He still didn't
look convinced, but I wasn't done playing my cards. He was still
thinking of things the way they'd been before I'd manifested my
ability, before we'd pulled together such a strong coalition.
"I know
what you're thinking, Taggart. If we're all in one spot for that long
we'll be giving Kaleb and the rest the opportunity they've been
hoping for since before I was born. The difference is that they no
longer have the ability to wipe us out all at once—they just
don't know it yet.
"It
doesn't matter who they bring, I can neutralize them. At this point
I'm praying to run into Brandon because I'll finally be able to put
him down once and for all. Nobody the Coun'hij has is a match for me,
not when I can immobilize them for the few seconds it will take me to
kill them. The only thing we have to be afraid of right now is
Puppeteer's werewolves, and there has to be some kind of limit on the
number of them he can
the advantage of leaving while most of his father's assets were
focused on the more visible threats, but Jaclyn doesn't have either
of those advantages."
Adri was
putting on a brave front, but I could see her legs starting to
tremble ever so slightly. I forced an ornate black wrought-iron bench
into existence behind her and then gestured for her to take advantage
of it.
"Yeah.
Jaclyn's pack is one of the most heavily watched. My bet is that the
Coun'hij knows where every penny of the pack's money is headed before
it even leaves the bank. They'll have satellites watching the area,
and assets close enough to head her off if she just grabs her people
and jumps in vehicles to make a run for it.
"The only
way they have a chance of getting out is if someone sets up
extraction routes for them and then comes in and wipes out the quick
response force that's been assigned to make sure she doesn't try
anything.
"Once we
know for sure how many people we're dealing with, Jack can probably
set up extraction plans that will suffice to help everyone drop off
of the radar, but that's all for naught if we can't deal with the
enforcers down there."
Adri shrugged.
"So go down there and deal with them. Based on what you did in
Minnesota, you can wipe out the entire group of enforcers all by
yourself."
I wasn't sure
whether to be happy that she'd managed to reference the battle where
her parents had died without crying or sad that she'd put on such a
callous front.
"That was
my first thought as well, but what little information I'm getting out
of that area indicates that there are more werewolves active down in
that area than there should be."
"Puppeteer."
Taggart said
the name like it was the worst kind of curse, but I couldn't blame
him. Puppeteer was a big part of why nobody felt safe expressing
their dissatisfaction with the current regime too loudly.
"There is
an uncomfortable amount of similarity between my power and what the
werewolves do. It's not a hundred-percent match, obviously, but I've
seen werewolves absorb an insane amount of power. Jaclyn Annikov's
power doesn't even faze them…"
"You're
worried that your power won't work on them."
"Correct.
I'm eager to find out—preferably in a fairly controlled
setting—but until I know that I can drop them as easily as
vampires, it's a bad idea to depend on my ability to bail us out. We
need a big enough force down there to handle whatever Puppeteer can
throw at us."
Taggart sighed,
and I saw the same exhaustion in him that I'd been feeling before
Adri arrived. "It's not going to be easy to keep that many
people hidden for very long."
"I know. I
wouldn't ask this of you if the stakes were any lower, but if we can
safely extract the Tucson pack—right out from under the
Coun'hij's noses—it will change everything. Even if it doesn't
result in a tidal wave of support from the smaller packs, it's still
worth it if we can stop the Coun'hij from intimidating everyone into
going the other direction."
He still didn't
look convinced, but I wasn't done playing my cards. He was still
thinking of things the way they'd been before I'd manifested my
ability, before we'd pulled together such a strong coalition.
"I know
what you're thinking, Taggart. If we're all in one spot for that long
we'll be giving Kaleb and the rest the opportunity they've been
hoping for since before I was born. The difference is that they no
longer have the ability to wipe us out all at once—they just
don't know it yet.
"It
doesn't matter who they bring, I can neutralize them. At this point
I'm praying to run into Brandon because I'll finally be able to put
him down once and for all. Nobody the Coun'hij has is a match for me,
not when I can immobilize them for the few seconds it will take me to
kill them. The only thing we have to be afraid of right now is
Puppeteer's werewolves, and there has to be some kind of limit on the
number of them he can
Similar Books
