Page 67 of Flesh and Fury
“And these two are working together with Bradshaw at the I.S.R. to provide information to advance the vampires cause?” the lion shifter pack leader David asked. “Why?”
“I presume money,” Priest said. “I’ve had an IT specialist looking into their finances ever since pinpointing the two of them as culprits using the computer program another shifter developed for us. They’ve both got deposits which can’t be accounted for in addition to their normal wages. Also, Night, our IT specialist, has also found a private server where they’veallbeen communicating and coordinating their moves.”
“You said…all? You’re not sure the conspiracy is limited to those two?” Rana asked.
Priest nodded. “As far as the I.S.R. goes, yes, it’s those two. However, we think Bradshaw has tasked some of his vampire leaders in the cities up on this board with the same knowledge. There are other people talking to each other on that server using only initials. We’ve counted one inAlbuquerque, Santa Fe, Phoenix, and Tucson as Eoghan has marked on the board here.”
“You’ve also marked Vegas,” Vance said, “but I can verify there’s no one operating there. That’s certain.”
“I wasn’t sure,” she said, turning to look at them. “Until you confirmed that a few minutes ago, I wasn’t able to independently verify that it hadn’t reached there yet.”
“Good, well there is that,” Juan Garcia said. “Now, it’s getting hot in here for the werewolves so we should move this along. Is there a plan that you’d like to explain other than what we’ve just gone over?”
“Yes, thank you for asking, Alpha Garcia,” Priest said. “I’ve already been over this with you and Edward from the Hawthorne pack. But I’d like to say that with the agreement of all the other packs and clan elders, I’ve come up with a battle plan as we move into containing Bradshaw’s vampires.”
“Sorry to interrupt but aren’t we going to wait until the undead are here to go over all this, so that we don’t have to be redundant?” Andy Red Crow asked.
“Andy—” Rana chided. “Stop it. That’s not helpful.”
“Tribal Police Chief Rana Fields is right,” Priest said. “That kind of language isn’t helpful, Mr. Red Crow. Listen, I know it took a lot for some of you shifter packs to agree to work with the vampires to stamp out Tillis Bradshaw and his bloodthirsty vampires. But calling them undead or anything else deliberately derogatory doesn’t move us in the right direction. It certainly doesn’t help. When you agreed to join us in this quest and brought your tribe into it as well, you agreed to work with vampires. Once this existential threat is vanquished, you can all retire to your own lands and if you want to never see another vampire as long as you live, that’ll be your choice. But now, we need to work with vampires and I personally think you should look to this as a growthexperience.” She held up both hands. “Look. I’m not your nanny, so take away from the experience what you will. That’s totally up to you.”
“Why don’t you explain the plan you came up with to those who don’t know the details, Deputy Chief Priest?” Joe Two Trees asked.
“Okay.” She smiled, looking relieved before turning back to the board. “If you’ll notice, all these strings are strung between Flagstaff and these cities spread out on the map. These are existing synthetic blood routes and based on the computer program we’ve been using at the I.S.R. we’ve learned that our presumption has been correct. Bradshaw started in Flagstaff and has since been using these established routes for his drug distribution. He packages the drugs and the blood from their manufacturing plants together in trucks and ships them out across the nation, doing drop offs everywhere that carry synthetic blood.”
“That means he’s distributing drugs in every mom-and-pop liquor store and convenience store in the Southwest?” Rana asked. “That’s really smart.”
“Yes. He’s piggybacking his drug distribution on those established blood routes. Now that you have a visual, I’ll take the pins out and show you the plan I’ve devised.”
She nodded to Ari and Eoghan who began pulling out the pins and removing the strings while she walked over to pick up the second rolled tube. She pulled a colored, plastic overlay out and with Eoghan’s help, tacked it to the map so the various cities she’d highlighted before were divided into colored sections. On the right-hand board, she tacked a color-coded list of all the tribes and packs represented in the room. Thanking them, she swiveled to face the room.
“I’ve divided the cities and assigned each of your packs and tribes to a city.” She pointed to the board. “The Coloradopacks are assigned to Phoenix.” She looked at Andy Red Crow and Rana Fields. “The Phoenix biker pack is massive since Tillis Bradshaw used to be part of that chapter of the Phoenix Pagans. It was the first city he went to after Flagstaff, so you’re going to meet a lot of resistance there. If you two would take both of your clans to Phoenix and work together, I think that’d be good.”
“Sure, Chief, we’re happy to do Phoenix,” Rana said. She looked at Andy. “Wanna kill a bunch of vamps?”
“Hell yeah,” Andy said as several people in the room nodded their heads and let out whoops and cheers.
The chief raised both hands to quiet them again. “Listen…listen…” When they’d settled down, she continued. “Please remember that the I.S.R. may be heading this operation, but we won’t tolerate any unnecessary killing. You’re responsible for documenting each death as unavoidable. Murder for murder’s sake will be treatedasmurder and your tribe may lose our protections and be disbanded if we determine that you’ve gone on an excessive killing spree simply because you hate vampires. That won’t be tolerated, understand?”
“Yes, Deputy Chief Priest. We’ve got it, don’t we, Andy?” Rana asked, looking pointedly at her younger counterpart from Colorado.
“Got it,” Andy said, exchanging a glance with Rana.
Ari breathed a sigh of relief. At least it was clear that they were all on the same page. He liked the way Arizona Priest worked. The chief had an authoritative and yet not overbearing or micromanaging style which worked for all involved.
“Okay, next,” she said, turning back to the board, “I’d like to have the Bishop werewolves in Santa Fe. How do you feel about that task, Alpha Walters?”
Edward looked first at his lover, Juan Garcia before turning back to her. “Yes, that seems like it would work. Do you know how many vampires the Santa Fe clan consists of?”
“We believe there are about twelve, two more than you’ve brought with you,” she replied.
He grinned widely and nodded. “Easy peasy then.”
She smiled back, nodding as she seemed to check off a mental list. “Good. Next, you, Alpha Garcia from Hawthorne.” She pointed at him before referring back to the board. “I’d also like you in New Mexico. Tillis Bradshaw’s Albuquerque clan is about twenty strong which is larger than the contingent of werewolves you’ve brought with you. We think they’re also the youngest pack with makes them the most blood crazed, though. It might be more than you can handle on your own which is the only thing that concerns me.”
“Why don’t you let me send some of my wolves with them, Chief?” Vance Ross asked. “I’ve brought three gray wolves with me. They’re not werewolves but they’re great fighters and it might be fun to see Vegas represented in a werewolf pack.”
“Hell yeah!” A biker at the back of the room said, raising a fist. “I can fight just as good as any werewolf.” Ari was taken aback when his eyes flashed neon purple, then yellow for just a second…before returning to normal.