Missing Vampire: Reward Available (Hypernaturals 6)

HPA Readiness

We parked on the same scenic overlook, and Renee once again studied the hall from the sky in IR. The difference this time is the number of Crew we have with us.

"I do not see many people in the hall or many vehicles in the parking lot. It looks like they closed the Hall down for this special event. However..." Renee showed Morgan the screen and tapped a blob. It was tiny. "This little warm spot is in the parking lot tree. I bet it's an active bit of electronics. Almost does not register."

Morgan zoomed back, moved the view to the back of the hall, zoomed in. She tapped a similar tiny heat signature. "I agree. This one is where the other camera set was. The HPA has been back here and mounted these again. That's what the single van we saw here yesterday on Satellite was doing."

"Which means that they are doing these things without Kuzman knowing they are doing these things." I said.

"Let's get these taken out before we go in, shall we? No point in them knowing our numbers." Renee said rhetorically, pulling out her encrypted walkie-talkie. "Interior team to Front and Back Teams. Camera's in the trees again. Same locations as noted from the onsite report. Please remove and pile on the front porch. Notify when complete. Watch out for any other camera's that might be secreted about the campus. Side teams, get in position and look for any sort of surveillance devices that may not be powered up yet. If you smell a human has been there, be cautious. If a human has been up on either ridge, it is because they were there AFTER the on-site visit."

"Understood. On it." Came one response.

"Back Team, going in" Came another.

"North hill team going overland now." Came another voice.

"Front Team. We are on the move. See the Camera on the satellite IR view."

There was additional chatter as teams moved into place. The front team reported "Wide-angle porch camera up under the eaves. Got it. In the pile." Said the front team voice.

"Back Team: Sending someone to look at the back porch now."

A few minutes passed. "Second back camera is disabled. Also under porch cover. Putting it around front."

"South Team: Nothing up here but trees."

"North Team: Same. No recent human activity."

"I guess that the HPA does not like to climb" I commented

"No advantage. On the ridge, you are higher than the roof of the hall. You cannot see anything but the roof and that one side of the Hall. The goal is to capture someone INSIDE the hall. They already had and likely will have people on the windows down low. Foliage up there makes it difficult to see either the front of the back approach. Cameras up there would see nothing. As an approach to the hall, it is OK once the battle is started and you need to be able to bring on more people fast or perhaps cover an escape route? Having the high ground is important in a war. Far better to have people charging uphill at you than be the ones doing the uphill charging." Morgan said.

"It's like being on an Op with Sun Tzu." Renee commented.

"Good Book." Helen replied.

"Front Team: Inside Team, you are a go. Be careful: I assume there are cameras inside. The porch cam was tiny. Wireless. Should be a repeater and a base station inside. We have found nothing out here." Came the voice of the Front Team leader.

Renee thought about that. Looked at the tablet. Tapped. No kitchen blobs. No hot stoves. "Back Team: Kitchen area is empty. Can you do a silent intrusion on the back door, and check cabinets and hidey holes for a receiver / recorder / server?"

"Back Team: Will do. Stand by." Back Team leader replied.

We waited for about five minutes.

"Back Team: Found a server and a radio set. Two of them. Redundancy. One had a power cord, and the other was set up to run on battery. The human scent led right to them. They are disabled and on the front porch. Storage server for the camera recordings had an accident as well."

"Thank you, Back Team. We are headed in. Watch our asses, Front Team."

"We are in the trees. Watching Asses." came the Front Team voice.

"Whoever was watching those camera feeds knows we just took them out. Stay sharp outside teams. I imagine we will have incoming soon." Renee added.

We started rolling. We are going in with the same interior team plus Rachel. Angel and Vera are here again, against our better judgment. Vera would not be left behind, and Angel was coming if Vera did. I did not say a word when Renee relented. Vera's point about being the ONLY Siren on the team was hard to argue with and I know when not to argue. It's not my Op. I am just the face of it.

We all have earpieces, so as we drove to the front lot, we put those in. I did not want to plug one ear with one, since it would interfere with my stereoscopic hearing, but there is no discrete way to tape it to my shoulder or something.

It is amazing how much I have come to rely on and expect to be able to see, hear, and smell things at the level that I do.

We parked the two vehicles under the tree again, and walked across the nearly empty parking lot, pausing long enough to remove the license plates from the vehicles and stow them. Quick-release hardware: Vampire issue. The plate numbers are not ever going to come back to us, but no need to waste a good cover.

I led the parade into the Siren Hall. Morgan, Helen, and Jessica stayed in close, Rachel, Angel and Vera in their wake. Behind them are six Crew: Renee, Liann, Denise, Anne, Luciana, and Carol. It is hard to imagine being able to have MORE Crew in here. It is a large Hall, but still. Nine full power Vampires, two half-power Vampires, a Siren, and an Angel.