Blood Bourbon

Eighteen Hours

Eighteen hours down.

Charlie had been hanging up the phone with the coroner's office, who had coincidentally on accident cremated his brother's body before he could see it, when Janek had stumbled through the door, packing an assault rifle and handgun and a completely new outfit. When he had told Janek that the officials were claiming Daryl was dead on scene, the man looked him dead in the eye and snorted.

"Your brother was fighting to stand up when the Hunters grabbed both of us." But the apology was in Janek's eyes. His friend had failed in the task he had been given, if only in Janek's consideration.

The trucks were packed and ready to move by the time Janek had showered and changed and he devoured food and several cups of coffee on the drive into the city. They moved in a three vehicle convoy and looked like an invading fucking army. And considering the small arsenal that they had with them, they were.

But they drove right up to Knight Corp's gates and the moment Charlie had rolled down the window and glared at whatever Scat was glaring back at him, the gate was opened and they drove into the public lot. Only bad part about that approach was that it funnelled them through a fence and straight through the front door.

His team, Mary included because she had threatened to skin him alive if he even debated telling her to stay at home as the kids had already been sent to stay with her parents, was with him. The whole team walked through the front doors of the Scat building, carrying their arsenals in the cases in their hands, backpacks on their backs, and the pockets of their clothing.

"Mr. Alesky says you have to leave your toys down here." The woman who spoke up was about Mary's height and weight standing in front of them without batting an eye. Jerking her head towards the counter where a couple other guards were standing, looking equally nonplussed.

"Cap'n" Vince growled, shifting ever so slightly. The sniper always hated to part with his gun.

"Weapons on the counter." Charlie wasn't going to waste his time with a pissing match and turning to stalk over to it. He putting his rifle case down first, before starting to pull out his guns and knives and magazines to pile on top of it.

Mary followed suit and after a couple moments of grumbling, the boys did as well, leaving them to carry only their computer equipment across the lobby and to the elevators. They were led by the woman who had spoken to them first and the several layers of very high tech security that she went through to get onto the elevator was more impressive than he expected.

The lift deposited them into a nondescript hallway, which led to a conference room that contained two men, neither of which was Ryker. Charlie raised a brow and motioned to Marty to start setting up his own computer beside the ones already open and running some sort of computer tracking system he had never seen before, before striding across the room to offer his hand to the man who had met him halfway.

"You must be Charlie." Carbry Alesky, someone he had tried to track down and eliminate once or twice over the years, shook his hand. The man gave him a look that told him the vampire probably knew exactly how many times Charlie had tried to put him in crosshairs, too.

"Janek confirmed it was Hunters who grabbed Daryl." He nodded to where the man was grabbing yet another cup of coffee at the side bar that contained several types of refreshment. How nice of the vampires to be so accommodating, Charlie thought ruefully.

The other man frowned as he looked to Janek, then back to Charlie. "We haven't had any luck tracking where they went."

"They ever try and fail at a grab before?" It was Chad, who was helping Marty set up their own computer, who spoke up.

"Yes. It failed quite spectacularly when we caught up to them. They were headed for Texas, from New Orleans. Similar style of snatching, fake medical transport. They were moving cross country." Alesky nodded towards the map, "Tim and his teams have been monitoring those routes since this whole thing started, no luck."

Tim, the other man in the room, shrugged. "My running theory is that they hid underground for a bit then took air transport out. I've only noted a couple light craft, mainly helicopters. I highly doubt they would have used any commercial traffic for this."

Charlie nodded as he looked at the map, frowning ever so slightly before letting his eyes travel around the room. " You can get anywhere in the world in eighteen hours, if you try hard enough. But they're trying to tell me that Daryl is dead."

"What are you looking for, Mr. Martin?" Alesky must have seen his glances around the room, to the door, everywhere. His words drawing Charlie's attention back to him.

"Mind telling me why Ryker couldn't grace us with his presence? Is he one of the teams out looking?" Charlie levelled his gaze on the vampire, forcing himself not to back down from the depthless eyes that seemed to bore straight into his soul.

"Ryker and his team were attacked at the same time Daryl was taken." Tim offered a shrug. "Ryker was chewed up quite badly, despite the vests your team provided us. Still, we had to sedate him when we told him about Daryl. He's awake, but he's not exactly responsive right now."

"Cap, we're up." Marty murmured from where he was sitting in front of the computer.

Charlie glanced to his team, to Mary who was watching him with a cool, demanding look and then looked back to Carbry. "I put a single use tracker in Daryl's watch after we found out about all this. I'm hoping they overlook the timex, or at the very least, his stuff travels with him. It'll give off a signal and they'll be able to block it in seconds but it can give us a general location."

The two men were silent for a long while and Charlie offered a shrug, gritting his teeth against the annoyance of having to beg for the next piece. "We're here, because we need your help."

"Even if we have a location, you must know the tactical feasibility of attacking a facility." Tim offered coldly, glaring right back at him. "For one person. Considering your previous job descriptions, why should we risk our lives, for one human?"

"Do it out of spite. To prevent those assholes from getting whatever they want out of him and making whatever weapon they're trying to make." Mary spoke up before Charlie could lose his cool. His wife stood not far behind him, her arms crossed, glaring at the two vampires. "Do it because there's been enough 'us and you' to last us for a lifetime. Don't do it for us. Do it for Daryl."

"Besides... best case scenario, we just have to find out where he is and wait for him to come to us." Charlie let out a slow breath, offering a tight smile when they looked at him in surprise. "Let me see Ryker."

"I'm mainly a spite kind of man myself." Tim offered him a dark grin and a shrug, before glancing to Carbry who nodded.

"We'll offer you our resources but we aren't going in on a suicide mission. And I am afraid that Ryker may not be of any use to us in this. He may not be functional until we get Daryl back." Carbry gave him a pained look, shaking his head. "It is... very difficult to deal with the loss of one's mate."

Charlie narrowed his eyes on the man. "He hasn't lost anything yet. And fuck both of you for thinking he has."

The statement drew a scowl from Carbry but it broadened Tim's grin several inches.