Bad Choices (Hypernaturals 8)

Scouting

Dressed in what seems to be becoming our traditional Ninja clothing, we are scouting the warehouse. Last time I wore an outfit like this, we were hunting Tommy in an import / export warehouse. Not that the two warehouses are remotely similar other than what we are wearing. The import/export warehouse would fit inside this one, parking lot and loading zone included. Conversely, the little warehouse was full of actual things. Imports. This warehouse? Not so much. It is full of the echos of the things it tried to be.

The day after tomorrow we will be here and facing the group. We have no idea how many people will be attending something like this. Pierre said that it is a big deal. People coming far and wide. Perhaps marrying a child is more stimulating than merely sexually abusing one for a lot of these... People? It is hard to think of men like this as being people. Call me prejudiced.

They don't have to all be men either. Just willing participants in this. Pierre did not even blink at the idea that Morgan had daughters she wanted to give away.

The more that are here of any gender, the better as far as I am concerned.

In our planning, we decided to be here with a day of buffer to be on the safe side, just in case they have someone showing up early for building setup or for their own scouting ahead of their event.

It seemed likely to Morgan that they would. In the last meeting before we came here, she pointed out: "We never heard of these people before. Not by any means or channel. We are Vampires, connected to all sorts of law enforcement via various means, and the only way we came to know of them is because of some crazy women and their plan for domination of another group of people. It was not directly from missing children or bodies or even rumors we turned up when we were doing the research for this. The point is: these people are careful. What they are doing is wrong, and they know it, and they are very good at hiding it." Morgan then paused and amended that. "Actually, people like this don't know what they are doing is wrong quite often. They only know others persecute them for what they want. They often feel as if they are the victims. That what they want is normal and natural and that society is against them. Pierre is very much of that mindset."

"We need to be damn careful. We need them all here, so we can excise this disease. Also: I have no words for anyone that would feel that way about a child, other than 'die'." Helen said, agreeing heatedly with Morgan.

That Helen is on board with this plan is not a real shock. I do not think of her as bloodthirsty. She has a five-hundred-year-old point of view on some things. When she makes up her mind a thing needs to be done, it is done. She has, on her subcommittee, condemned male Vampires to death for far less than this.

A large gravel parking lot led to the 'front' of the building, with the main people entrance there, up some stairs. The front of the building has double glass doors that are intact, but standing back away from the building I can see some of the glass windows up high in the cupola are broken. I assume shot out because it would be damn hard to throw a rock that high for a human. Besides: this is TEXAS. People shoot Stop signs here. Empty building equals target practice for some people.

The chain and padlock on the front doors took about 1 minute for Jessica to pick. The lock is new, high end, and well lubricated against the corrosive air. A lesser lock would not have taken so long. I doubt Morgan could have done it much faster.

Morgan agreed in essence by examining the lock in a gloved hand after it was popped. "Nicely done." She said.

"Thank you, my love." Jessica replied.

Helen, Jessica, and Morgan have a funny thing about locks: who can do it fastest, followed by encouragement, not 'Hah!, beat you!' kinds of words. Helen was smiling about the complement at the moment because she taught Jessica.