Midnight Flock

Chapter 18: Family Meeting

A/n: this isn't edited at all so I apologize for any grammatical or spelling issues you find. But, I wanted to try and get this posted for you on time. It's not the best chapter, and I'm not confident about how well I channeled Kota for his POV. But, I hope you enjoy it regardless of how crappy it is.

Sang's POV

"Guys." I waited a moment to see if I had anyone's attention. "Guys!" I yelled louder, to no avail. They were not paying any attention to me. They were too busy fighting amongst themselves to listen to what I might have to say. Yes, it was not a great idea. But maybe if I just got recruited, that would be enough to get the names of the key players. I wasn't about to get sucked into a sex trafficking ring. I'd have back up, but I think this might be bigger than anyone realized initially. We'd need some more help. I sighed. That meant the guys. They were going to hate this. They'd hate every little aspect of this damned mission, but if we could get them on board, we'd be doing so much better. The success of this mission could mean helping potentially hundreds of people. It would be as big an impact as the Ashley Waters job that allowed the other guys to graduate. This could help me graduate. We would need to talk to the Academy too. Go to them with this new information and plan and see if we could get approval to bring in a third team, the Blackbourne team.

I stuck two fingers in my mouth and whistled at an ear splitting volume. This shut them up immediately. Now I had the eyes of Owen and two other teams on me. I gulped with nerves from the sudden attention. How would I ever be convincing as a prostitute?!

"Sit down, all of you, and shut up for a moment. We've just pieced together that this is bigger than anyone initially thought. We've already got two teams coming in at it from two different angles. I think we can all agree that a bird on the inside is what we need. Not just to talk to the waitstaff, but to get into the ring. No one, and let me be clear on this, that includes me, is all that excited about getting a bird involved in this mess. Especially because that bird will likely be me. I'm already established at the club where we think a lot of the other girls work. We know there's interest in me. What I'm not going to do is compromise my safety. I want a third team on this, I want my team backing me up. Otherwise, I'm out right now. I won't go any further without their involvement." I stood my ground on this. It was too dangerous to leave this up to other teams. I caught Owen's eye and I could see he agreed with my decision and he was...proud?...of me? It warmed me up inside.

"We'll need to go back to the Academy about this." Axel started, looking me in the eye. "I can't guarantee they'll approve a third team once they hear about the developing situation. Especially since the Blackbourne team tends to cost the Academy favors. We only cost them money in reparations." The others in the Toma team chuckled lightly.

"They'll likely agree to the third team. Ours is young and not seasoned enough for a mission this complicated. A third team would strategically make sense and if the Blackbourne team isn't already scheduled for a mission, they could be one of the only free teams in the area who could assist with this. But, they might prefer an all Bird team to go in with Sang instead." Haru spoke up this time. Speaking evenly with a contemplative tone.

"If they want to bring in a Bird team, I'll be out all together. I don't work well with other birds." I stated matter of factly. I wasn't going to sugar coat it for anyone. This mission just became a lot more complicated and we needed extra hands to help. All of the signs point to this sex trafficking ring being a large scale operation, larger than anyone could comprehend.

"Haru, Axel, why don't you two report back to the Academy with the information and Sang's proposal to bring on our team to assist in this operation. We need to call a family meeting and explain to them what's going on. I can't guarantee that Sang will still be on the mission once we talk to the rest of our family about the situation we find ourselves in. It may be decided to pull her and allow a more experienced Bird team to take her place. That would only be setting you back about a week or two at this point." Owen took out a handkerchief and cleaned off his glasses as he addressed the two teams. I was not happy about the prospect that my team may pull me from the mission, but I wasn't naive enough to think that wouldn't be a possibility.