Jared tilted his head. “Now why would you run?”
Sanders licked his lips nervously. “If the Grand High Pair comes looking for you, it can’t be good.”
“That would normally be true,” allowed Jared. “In this case, we simply have a few questions for you.”
“Questions?” he echoed, doubtful.
“About The Order,” added Sam. “What can you tell us about it, Joel?”
His eyes darted from Sam to Jared. “Seriously? You’re only here for intel on The Order?”
“Seriously,” she assured him. “You don’t look very comfortable down there. Let’s fix that.”
Jared and I heaved up the male and plonked him on the old, swamp-green sofa. With the exception of Sam and Jared, we all stepped back; not wanting to loom over the Keja and make him feel even more intimidated than he already did.
Sam smiled. “Better?” At his shaky nod, her smile widened. “Good. Now talk.”
Sanders cleared his throat. “In sum, The Order is an association of vampires who hate what they are. They want our species to be completely extinct.”
Sam nodded. “How big is this association?”
“Last time I hacked into their database, there were hundreds.”
“Database?” Jared repeated. “How long ago was the last time you hacked into it?”
“About a week ago. One of Lazarus’ assassins wanted an update on the group.” Marco.
“If you’ve rifled through their database,” began Jared, “I’m guessing then that you know plenty. That’s good. The Order is proving itself to be a bigger threat than expected. We need to take them out before things go tits up.”
Sanders spoke. “I take it you know about their plan to destroy The Hollow, huh? I told Marco about it; he said he’d pass on the info.”
“He did, though he took his time about it,” grumbled Sam. “I’m hoping you can help us with a few things. There’s a blogger who’s leaking facts about vampirekind. His gift is technology based, which means we can’t electronically track him.”
“Oh, that guy?” Waving a dismissive hand, Sanders snorted. “He’s just a lowly member.”
Sam pounced on that. “So there’s a hierarchy?”
“The main guy, the leader, is like their Messiah. They all serve him. There isn’t anything they wouldn’t do for him. Suicide missions. Assassinations. Bombings. You name it, they’ve done it over the years if the content of their computer system is to be believed.”
Biting out a string of harsh expletives, Sam exchanged a look of outrage with Jared.
Staring at her, Sanders double-blinked, looking mesmerised. “Your irises really are mercury.”
She snapped her fingers. “Focus, Joel. Do they have a specific date in mind for the attack they plan on The Hollow?”
“If they do, it’s not on their computer.”
Jared slowly took a step toward Sanders. “We need to know where they’re based. Marco left out that part. We’ve narrowed it down to a short list of locations. But scouting each of those locations will take up precious time.”
Sanders didn’t miss a beat. “The place they meet is in Lost Springs in Converse County, Wyoming. It’s an underground bunker beneath a ranch.”
Satisfaction lit Jared’s eyes. “A bunker?”
“But you really don’t want to go there,” Sanders hurried to add, looking panicked. “The whole place is wired to blow in the event of an invasion. They have all kinds of scary shit, ready for war.”
Clearly frustrated, Sam said, “We need to get to them somehow. Do they live at the ranch?”
“Some do. Not many.”
“Can you get us the names of all the members and their addresses?” Jared asked him.
“Sure. I can print out a list for you to take with you.”
Jared nodded. “You do that. Highlight the blogger’s name so we know exactly which one he is.”
I understood why. Sam and Jared would need to punish him separately and via V-Tube as an example of what would happen to those who betrayed our kind by leaking information.
“And I want a big, fat asterisk next to the name of the bloke who runs it all,” Sam told Sanders, and he wasted no time in doing their bidding.
When we were all finally back at The Hollow, we had a short meeting in the conference room, where Sam and Jared informed the rest of the squads what Sanders had told us.
Harvey made a noise in the back of his throat. “We’re fucked. I thought that once we found out where they were, we could pounce on them all and stop our battle with the dragons before it started. But we can’t invade the ranch—we’d find ourselves bombed.”
Sam nodded. “It would be sheer stupidity to try it. They would set off explosions that would not only kill us, but maybe even lead to human casualties. I’m not so desperate to get to those bastards that I’d send us all on a suicide mission.”
“So we can’t get to them,” growled Reuben.
“That’s not strictly true,” said Jared. “Joel Sanders gave us the names and addresses of the members. We can pick them off a few at a time, show them what it feels like to be hunted. We’d start with the guy who formed The Order, Beau Irons, only there was no address for him. We’ll have Mona and Cedric look into it.”
“But they’ll realise pretty quickly that they’re being targeted,” said David. “The others will then hide. We won’t be able to get to them.”
“Yes,” allowed Sam. “But you know from past experiences how we reach people we can’t physically get to.”
“We get them to come to us,” said David.
“Exactly. One of the things that ticks me off most about all this is that I don’t know when the attack is going to happen. If Luther’s estimation is correct, we have at least two more nights before they arrive. I don’t want to rely on that. I say we take control of this. I say we taunt The Order into striking while we’re ready and waiting.”
Ava tucked her hands in the pockets of her jeans. “I can’t believe The Hollow’s going to be attacked again.”
“It won’t be,” said Sam.
Ava blinked. “Say what?”
“We know what direction the drove will come from,” Sam pointed out. “There’s another off-the-map island in that direction. We’ll wait for them there.”