Oh crap.
Angus
Oliver and Hugo arrived back at the house with the armoured vehicle just under two hours after they'd left. They appeared to have bonded during their short time together, and were loudly discussing the finer points of the Ratel when they walked through the front door. Words such as top speed and manoeuvrability were bandied about as they carried their deadly cargo through into the dining room and deposited it casually on the table. Fergus had spent the intervening time setting up a secure comms system that we would use to stay in contact during the coming confrontation. I had spoken to Rebecca, and then to Marcus. The rest of the time had been spent reviewing the plans of the warehouse and maps of the surrounding terrain. I had been particularly interested in a couple of seemingly insignificant outbuildings situated about fifty metres from the main building on either side of it. I would be quite willing to bet that Anne had a couple of dozen blood feeders hidden away in those two structures as a kind of collateral force. We'd have to secure those first, then. Or blow them up. Either of which would do fine.
And then I'd turned my attention to the dimensions of the warehouse. It was large but not so large that you could fit six hundred individuals into it. You could fit maybe half of that number inside, but with very little room to manoeuvre. They would be packed in like sardines in a tin. I wondered if that would be an issue for Anne. Probably not.
So between three and four hundred blood-drinking vampires. Still too many.
I shared my thoughts with the rest of our small group. Hugo and Fergus looked worried, but Oliver's eyes brightened perceptibly.
"I brought some goodies we could use," he explained with a big grin. "C4, love the stuff. We could rig up the two smaller buildings to explode just as we attack the main one. A diversion second to none."
"What about the noise? We could attract the attention of actual humans living nearby."
"Who cares? This is a desperate situation, and we have to get that boy out of there tonight. If we decimate the majority of Anne's force, even better. Don't tell me you don't believe the government can't keep this hushed up if it gets ugly."
"You're right. And if they can't, maybe it's time the world found out that vampires really exist."
"Yeah, who gives a damn now? That woman has brought this on her own head," Hugo sounded angry. "We should really try and target her first, you know. Once she goes down the monster loses its head. The motivation of the troops will be shattered, and they may even scatter."