I got a text message from Hernando Vespucci when we landed. “Found the missing things but not the girls. I’ve sent a driver to bring you. Still looking.”
“Shit,” I whispered to myself, forcing back the anger. We’d missed our chance. “I got an update from the Coven,” I sent to my people. “Sally, you’re going with me on a shuttle to the hotel with our luggage. We’ll get our rooms and start setting up a command post.” If the girls were gone, this was more of an investigation than a rescue mission; I needed to coordinate the response, not get out there in the field. I had Colleen Underwood with me, and as a Deputy Sheriff, I placed her in charge of the two trackers that would be going with her. “The vamps are sending a car for us to take you to their last known location. They are helping us out, so be on your best behavior. Also, NO ONE is alone, ever. If they can take Sharkbait, they might be after us too.”
Esmerelda was waiting for us, holding a sign with my name. She was a petite vampire with a dancers body and raven-colored hair to her waist. She looked to be about twenty but was probably closer to a hundred years old. “Is that everyone?”
“These three will be going with you. Sally and I will be setting up at the hotel until the rest of our group arrives,” I said. “Please pass on my thanks to your Master for his help, and I hope to hear from him soon.”
I went to work as soon as we got to the hotel. Check-in went quickly, and I gave the concierge a list I’d prepared with what I needed. As a resort that hosted convention visitors, they had everything I needed. A steady stream of orders went out to employees, and I had it all within an hour. I rented a conference room on the hotel’s second floor with keycard access for the five cards I’d requested. Even hotel maids would not be able to enter without being let in. I had them stock it with office supplies, plus it had a half-dozen large monitors I could connect to the computers we were bringing in.
I was just setting up when I got a text from Alpha Steven; they were pulling in to the hotel. I gave him the conference room I was in, along with my warning to stay escorted. “Thank you for coming,” I told him as I opened the door to his group.
“We’ll get them back,” he said after the door closed. “What do you know?”
“I was waiting for you to go get Linda,” I said. He left his investigator in the room with Sally while the other three escorted us to the elevator. Linda looked like hell when she opened the door, and I pulled her into my arms and gave her a big hug. “Grab your computer and come with us,” I said. “It’s time to find our girls.”
“Damn right, it is,” Linda said as she picked up her laptop. “Thank you for getting down here so fast. I’ve not been able to do much on my own.”
“You stayed free and got word to us, Linda.” We got back in the elevator, getting off at the second floor and going into the conference room. I had a map of the Yucatan Peninsula on one of the monitors, and when everyone sat down, I started. “We’ll get to Linda’s story shortly.” I pointed at a large wall monitor displaying a satellite image of the Yucatan Peninsula. “We are here, and the property where they got kidnapped is over here. I have a team traveling to this area with the vampires; Master Hernando Vespucci said it is where he found the tracking devices. Ensuring the girls remain in this area where we can find them has to be our highest priority. We need to cover the airports, not just here, but in Isla Mujeres, Playa del Carmel, and Cozumel.” The first a little north, while the other two resort areas were to the south of us and closer to the kidnapping site than Cancun. Cozumel and Isla Mujeres were both islands, but there were ferry services to the mainland.
“The police will be watching the airports,” Alpha Steven said. “It’s all over the news.”
“It’s more likely they leave in a private aircraft from one of the smaller airports, disguised as cargo, perhaps. I want to make sure we have a wolf there, preferably a tracker, to search for their scents.”
Roger, the Three Sisters investigator, agreed. “We should also keep at least two people at the main airport for the same reasons. It will be suspicious if the same people are there all the time. We can rotate people through, especially as more people arrive. We keep one inside the security area and one outside, at a minimum.”
“We’ll have a dozen more people here in the next two hours,” I said. “Should we keep the warriors here, ready to move out if we get a lead?”
“No, we need a mix of skills in at least three teams,” Roger replied. “We can fit six people in a car. One driver, one tracker, and four warriors.” He got up and pointed at three locations on the map, spaced evenly. “From these locations plus here in Cancun, we can respond within an hour to anywhere over a wide area. Once those teams are in place, we can expand out as we need.”
It was a good plan, and it made sense.
We just needed a clue as to where they might be.