The others were gathered in the kitchen when he got down there. All dressed in black like him. Sam, Aaron, Cole, Nick, Smith, and Logan had been joined by Callum, Alice, and four more of Isaac’s pack.
Callum stepped forwards and unrolled an impressive selection of knives across the table. “None of us know how to shoot a gun, so there’s no point asking the humans for any. But we all know our way around knives. Isaac made sure of that.”
Michael noticed that the six of them already had knives strapped to their thighs, and as Alice handed out sheaths to everyone else, Callum invited them forwards to collect a knife.
He picked up one with a six-inch blade and examined it. “The HRU will be armed with guns.”
“And the majority of them are decent marksmen.” Smith picked his own knife, looking at it like an old friend.
Sometimes Michael forgot that he’d been in the HRU. Cole too. “Smith and Cole are proficient with firearms. Do we have any here?”
Callum shook his head. “No, sorry. But we’re meeting the humans just outside of London, right?”
Michael nodded.
“We can ask them for some. Pretty sure the more of us who are armed, the better.”
True. “Nick, can you ask your contacts if they can supply Cole and Smith with weapons?” Michael had delegated contacting the humans to Nick since he already knew them.
“Yeah, I’ll do it now.”
While Nick stepped to one side to make a call, Michael took a good look round their group.
With the exception of Nick and Smith, who were going with the Cox pack, everyone else in the room would be targeting the McKillan pack. They were the only ones likely to come up against armed shifters, and Michael wondered how many of them would be in one piece at the end of this.
They had accelerated healing, but so did all shifters. A bullet to the right place and they’d be as good as useless while they waited for the wound to heal.
When Nick reappeared and gave Michael a quick nod, he addressed the others. “Everyone ready?”
A chorus of yeses met him.
“We’ll all travel to the meet point together, then split up from there.” Michael said, nerves fluttering like butterflies in his belly. “The journey itself should take approximately three hours, forty minutes. We’ll give each other until eleven o’clock. Anyone not there by then, you’re on your own.”
They filed out of Isaac’s house and into the three cars parked outside. Michael got in the passenger seat, way too keyed up to drive. Callum climbed in next to him, a calm presence in the storm around them.
With Smith and Nick taking up the back seats, Callum started the engine, and they led the way out of the Flete Estate and headed towards London.
At this time in the evening, traffic had died down enough not to be a problem. Thank the Goddess, or Michael might have lost his mind if he’d had to sit in traffic.
The rendezvous point with the human resistance was Black Park, off the M4, top side of Slough. Outside of the London territory boundary. The park itself closed at 8pm, but as a member of the resistance worked there, they could meet without interruption and without witnesses.
Michael rested his head against the glass and watched the scenery go past, his mind inevitably drifting to Isaac.
There’d been no updates since the last one saying the council had given the approval for interrogation. Jacob texted to say the HRU was locked down tighter than ever. Even getting hold of his contact was near impossible.
What that meant for their attack tonight, Michael didn’t know, but he doubted it would be anything good.
He could only hope they got there in time before Simon did something to Isaac he couldn’t heal from.
