Chapter 3 Tess #3
“It’s nothing,” he insisted, shaking his head. “We can talk about it later. I promise, it’s not a big deal and you have enough to think about.”
Tess was not convinced, but she had to agree that she had plenty on her plate already.
The two of them ate their fill and Tess sat sandwiched between Kal and Crystal at a table, only half listening to them talk about this and that, as she got increasingly riled up for the mission.
It was planned out well, she thought. But it would still be the biggest project she’d ever accomplished and people were counting on her.
It felt as if it were her best chance to prove herself to the people who had chosen her to be a leader.
Finally, it was ten and everyone was on schedule which she took as the first of, hopefully, many good signs.
The Free the Children people loaded up their vehicles and Crystal took the SUV.
They were all looking for her go ahead, and she gave them a curt nod before climbing into the passenger seat of one of the big cargo vans that would be transporting most of the kids.
It would be tight and they’d be relying somewhat on the willingness of the children to follow them.
Sometimes kids flipped out and didn’t trust you even as you were trying to help them. That was tricky.
Tess was edgy on the way but she focused on driving and breathed deeply. She had the best people for the job. At some point, you just had to trust that. It was like any other kind of work really.
They parked a few blocks away and not too close to each other so they wouldn’t be noticed.
The creche was in an urban area but it wasn’t densely populated these days.
The group of eight that would be ambushing the duped guards took off to their location.
They were mostly human, but they were well armed and they had experience fighting Vampyren.
That left the rest of them and Patrick gave Tess a curt nod before heading off to single-handedly break into the creche.
She’d gone over those details with Patrick already.
The kid was eighteen and already a talented cat burglar.
He’d been a street kid before a creche caught him breaking into rich folks’ houses even when they were locked up tight.
He could pick locks and shimmy into tiny places.
He knew what he was doing and Tess wasn’t worried about him.
“Okay, everybody,” Tess said, grabbing a baby carrier that she strapped around her shoulders. “The most important thing to remember is to becarefulwith your weapons. Do not trust your reflexes. We’re here to save kids not kill them by accident.”
With that last word of advice, Tess went with Kal and two others to get out of their way before coming back around to the back of the creche.
Each group had walkie talkies so they’d know when to strike and Tess checked her frequencies for the millionth time before the four of them took cover at a bus stop close by so they could move in as soon as they were given a green light.
Tess had chosen Mara and a punk looking guy with a black mohawk named Saul for her group. Mara and Saul leaned against the bus stop but their casual posture was belied by their intense gaze and their tapping feet as they waited to bolt into action.
“I’ll tell ya,” Saul said, chewing on his lip.
He was wearing a Dead Kennedys shirt that looked about thirty years old.
“This isn’t what I thought I’d doing when I joined the resistance.
Rescuing babies? Thought I’d be takin’ out vamps left and right.
” He nodded at Kal who only looked at him blankly and said, “No offense.”
Kal only shrugged and it surprised Tess how she bristled on his behalf. She leaned into him, deliberately brushing the back of his hand with her fingers in a gesture of support. “That was the goal...a year ago,” Tess said, shrugging. “Vampyren are too integrated now. Whether we like it or not.”
“We do assimilate pretty well, actually,” Kal said. Mara and Saul gaped at him in disbelief and he said, “Really, we do. We just have to stop fucking killing everyone first. Stop dehumanizing people. The leadership will come around. We’ll build something new. It’s inevitable.”
“Boy, you don’t sound like a vamp,” Mara said wryly. “Don’t look like one either. Except for the braid.”
“I hear that a lot,” Kal said. He didn’t look at all offended.
She supposed he understood the plight of humans.
And anyway, with the threat of the Lucian on the horizon, the Vampyren were at risk of being subjugated just as the humans had been.
They couldn’t be too excited about that prospect.
Maybe it gave them perspective. Not that you could alwayswaitfor people to get perspective.
At least, kids shouldn’t have to, by Tess’s reckoning.
The walkie talkie finally crackled and Mark spoke through it. “Patrick’s got the guards almost to the ambush site. Go go!”
“Copy that!” Tess said into the walkie, and stuck it in her back pocket. “Let’s move.”