Erasure and Affirmation (Hypernaturals 11)

Incoming

In the final briefing early this morning, Denise was clear to the assault teams. "We are waiting for the Siren staff to arrive. We want not only the information in that building but the Sirens in that building. Or the people the Sirens have co-opted. There are likely humans as well. We need to know everything they know."

Denise held up a weapon. "You each have two assault weapons. They came after us with a dart gun, so we are returning that favor. Tranquilizer darts. We may kill a few with those because they are loaded for bears, not humans. I want them put down, and I want them to stay down. Once you clear an area, it stays clear. No one wakes up in your rear and shoots you in the ass."

Denise held up a different weapon. "You also have the normal Crew standard untraceable assault rifles. Protect yourselves. Use them if you have to. Make every attempt to take these bastards alive. They have knowledge we need."

Denise looked across the room full of Crew, of which I am, as usual, the only male. "When we do this, we are declaring to the Sirens that we are at war. They started it, but we have accepted the terms of the engagement. After we take this place, they will have to make a choice about continuing the Siren / Vampire conflict. In that sense, this is like the last time Sirens attacked a Vampire. Same one as it turns out. That time we neutralized their advantage by coming into an understanding of their second gender and finding out they had taken a Vampire captive who they raped, tortured, and studied for five years. We took their advantage and made it into ours."

Morgan reached over a squeezed my hand. Her acknowledgment of my part in those things.

"We need to do that again." Denise continued, but I saw her notice Morgan's gesture with a tiny glance and mouth flicker. "Therefore, we need to be crisp and clean and surgical. We need everything in that building. We need evidence of what they were planning against us so that if they do try to escalate, we have not only the superior tactical position, but we have neutralized their plans to take us out. They already know that we know about where they are out in the world. They do not yet know that we know about this place. We don't know everything about this place other than this one thing: They engineered an anti-Vampire bioweapon here. We need that off the table. We need to know if they shipped it anywhere else. When we next have a conversation with the Sirens, they need to know they are facing complete extinction this time, if they do not comply with our demands. I don't know what those demands are. That is the Council. Our job is to give the Council what they need. Any questions?"

A hand went up. "Yes, Emily?" Denise called on her.

She pointed at me. "Why is he here?"

I give her points for being unafraid of power. Negative points for being anti-male Vampire.

Denise took a deep breath. Controlled herself. "I will answer that question with a question. Do you know who he is?"

"Yes. He is Adrain. The guy that found the Sirens. Spoke about them at that one Conclave. All that." Emily pointed at the ground to underline her point. "This is an Op. A Crew op. He is not Crew. Males are not Crew."

Denise pointed at Ava. "Ava. Sorry to pick on you for this. You fought alongside Adrian in Mexico on two different Crew operations. Your evaluation of his suitability for Crew Ops, please?"

"The best. No one better on the Crew, and I include myself and you in that. I saw him kick Cert's ass three times in a row. Cert! He made her look like she had never been in a fight. At the same time, even as he trounced her ass, he did not hurt her. He is so fucking fast. He and Morgan are a team, and while each of them is the equal of anyone in this room individually, together they have no equal. Not even Denise and Anne. Sorry boss. No lie."

"No. I agree. He beat me in a contest to qualify for this Op." Denise said. "He and Morgan together are untouchable as a team."

Ava smiled at that idea. "The first operation in Mexico Morgan and Adrian made us look like amateurs. Mostly Cert, since she tried to sideline them and they turned that on her and did all the heavy lifting while we shot up a house uselessly."

"Thank you, Ava. I agree." Denise pointed at Marina. "Marina: you were on those operations. Do you agree?"

"I would fight alongside Adrian and Morgan anyplace, anytime, and I feel better about our chances on this one with them here. Also: Adrian is amazing at field triage. You get your ass shot off? You want him to be the person fixing it. Him or Jessica."

Morgan chuffed out some air on that comment.

"Harper?" Denise asked.

"The best. Also: Jessica is a fighter AND a Doctor like you would not believe. If I get shot up, I want them there."

"Valeria?"

"Same. Even Cert said to Victoria after Mexico that he and Morgan are 'Crew level'. You know Cert would never say anything good about a male Vampire. He beat the shit out of her, and then the two of them made a fool out of her. 1000 years on Crew. Cert looked like a dumb ass that never ran an Op compared to them."

Denise stopped there, went back to Emily. "Emily: I called on those people because in the past you have worked with each of them on Ops together. There were others. Anne. Myself. Luciana among them. I picked them because you know their quality as teammates. One last thing: You know what a so-called 'hypersensitive' is? The Vampire kind? A Vampire with hyper senses?"

"I heard of them. I never met one." Emily replied.

"That is because there are about five. One lives in a monastery to get away from the world. Morgan and Adrian are BOTH hyper's. Their hearing, sight, scent, even their sense of time is as far better than YOURS as yours is than your current human lover. In this operation, we have half of the entire world's functioning set of hyper's. Right here. That gives them situational awareness no one else in this room has. You want them at your back. One last thing. Luciana: You were against this. Are you still?"

"No. I was operating out of my lifelong knee jerk reaction to males. It's easy to forget sometimes we are not talking about some guy we found in a bar that we took out for blood and a date. I was in Mexico. I saw him kick Certs butt to hell and back. I have seen him in other combat situations. I saw him win against you to qualify for this mission. I would, upon reflection, rather have Adrian and Morgan on my squad than anyone else. I'd be safer. No insult intended to anyone else. They are just that good. We took down two entire drug cartels with them."

Denise nodded them addressed the room. "That's it, kids. I need all of you with your head in this game. This is the most important operation we have ever done. This is potentially species ending if we do not do this right. If you are not comfortable with my leadership, this plan, or the people I have picked for the Ops, I will say nothing about you not coming. I will not punish you. I will not send you to backwater assignments. This is too critical for bullshit like that. If it makes you feel any better, Council knows who I selected for this."

Denise nodded Helen's way. "All of them. Victoria could choose to replace me if she did not like it, but it is MY team. My choice. My responsibility. I am Lead. I will not publicly embarrass anyone that is not on board with the plan. After this, we have one hour before we begin. Fade on out of here if you are not on board."

After that, there were technical questions only. Things like "How will we know when the alarm is off: What is the signal?" and things like that.

Emily looked like a kid the teacher made go stand in the corner with a ruler balanced on her head. She did not leave.