Waters of Lethe, Book 2

11. Traveling Light

When Audi ran the new last resort by the people in the meeting room, they all fell silent. Some stared at me, but most stared wide eyed at Audi.

"So," an unfamiliar person said, "the tracker plan is completely thrown out?"

Audi nodded. "Too risky. Could lessen his value and the chances we have of finding the two others, which, I assure you, isn't very great as of current. Why make those chances dip even lower?"

"But, Audi—" someone interjected.

"No. It's. Too. Risky," Audi shot back.

Another person spoke up. His name was Mark, I believed. "So, let's all get this straight. If we don't get a facial, we're going to send him to them? We're basically going to hand him over? Ridiculous."

Audi sighed. "Let's focus on getting something from Phantom first, alright? We'll work on plan B in the meantime. Nothing is set in stone, so let's not get our panties in a knot, alright?"

Mark looked offended, but continued. "But what's the context? How are we sending him in and what will he accomplish?"

Burk, who had been quiet so far, chose now to join in. "Pros and cons, Audi."

Audi stared the two men down, then took a deep, annoyed breath. "Pros. They want him. If we can't get them, they'll be more than happy to get Jai by tracking his chip. Which, in turn, helps us get them. They won't hurt or kill Jai, because he's a necessity to all parties. We can equip him with a secure phone, have him send a report back to us. After we get a location and a general idea of their numbers we could send people in, take out the captors. We could rescue more than we originally planned to. The list goes on."

Burk raised his eyebrows, crossed his arms over his chest. "Cons?"

"He could die, sure. They could mistake him for a regular old intruder and put a bullet in his brain. But, Burk, would that really happen? We aren't dealing with your run of the mill criminals. Another con would be that he got in and couldn't get out. El and Jai are strong, the people holding them could put them together to cause some serious problems. Then again, we're assuming they have several of them now, so there has to be a reason why they aren't causing problems already. Get what I'm saying?"

Burk still stared at Audi, his lips in a hard line.

Audi detected his discontent with the plan still. "Okay. Let's take a trip back to the nineteenth century. If you have something against sending Jai, if it comes to it, raise your hand. And if you raise your hand you better have an A-1, top notch, better-than-anything-I've-ever-come-up-with kind of plan to compensate."

Of course, when Audi threw in that last part, no one raised their hand. No one had anything. It was a pretty terrible situation.

"What do you think, Jai?" a woman asked me. She sat a little ways from me down the table. I didn't know her, but I secretly thanked her for wanting my input.

The answer I gave her wasn't any less harsh, though. "I think everyone knows where I stand," I told her in a hard, low voice. "The only issue I have with how deep you all are venturing into this is the fact that you want to, quote, rescue more than we planned to. That is, if conditions are favorable. Let's all be real, here. No part of this is favorable. Everything's pretty fucked—"

I stopped short, not meaning to curse in front of everyone. I caught Audi suppressing a smile.

Oh well. They all thought I was a barbaric savage either way it went.

I cringed involuntarily, closing my eyes and gritting my teeth for a second to get a grip. "What I mean is, she's the priority. Before Enzo, before anyone else that she may be with. If you send me in, which is looking like the best option we have, realize that. She's my priority."