They all took seats around the conference table in their usual positions, except Christian’s chair was empty, and so was the one next to Cassidy, where Brandon would be sitting if he were there. Cadence regretted excluding him now. Aurora wasn’t there yet, which would give them each a few minutes to get their thoughts together. “Anyone else want coffee?” Elliott asked, standing and heading back out to reception where Mrs. Carminati always had a fresh pot and plenty of K cups.
“I’ll take a cup, if you don’t mind,” Hannah chimed in. She was the only one, and as she reminded Elliott how she took it, Aaron got up to grab a stack of papers off of the printer she imagined he must’ve sent there while they were still in Cassidy’s apartment, it was so thick.
“Sorry I’m late,” Aurora said, rushing through the door and taking her seat. “I got hung up. New recruit with lots of questions caught me.”
“No problem,” Cadence said with a smile. “We haven’t started yet.”
Elliott walked back in the room. “Here you go, Hannah.”
“Thank you, sir.”
He pulled his chair out just in time for Aurora to make a small noise in the back of her throat, something akin to “hmmm,” if Cadence had to put it into words.
The idea that the two of them might actually still be angry at each other hadn’t occurred to her at all since she’d left for the honeymoon until right then. She prayed Elliott would ignore it. He didn’t.
“Somethin’ on your mind, Roar?”
“Aurora, to you, thank you, and no. Nothing.”
“Okay.”
“Just... other people like coffee, too. That’s all.”
Cadence looked at Hannah, who was seated at the end of the table but also between them. Her face blanched as she struggled to determine whether or not to interject herself into the conversation.
Elliott’s eyes narrowed. “I asked if anyone else wanted any, and no one did.”
“You didn’t ask me.”
“You weren’t here.”
Jamie stood up before Aurora could say anything more. “Smells good. I think I’ll have a cup. Aurora, how do you take yours?” He was behind her and rested his hand on her shoulder.
“Oh, no thanks, Jamie. I’m not thirsty.”
“O....kay,” Jamie said, heading out the door, shaking his head. Cadence imagined he probably didn’t even want any coffee but was just trying to dispel the argument.
Under his breath, Elliott mumbled, “You’ve gotta be shitting me.”
Aaron was back at the desk now, giant stack of papers in hand. He looked at Elliott and then at Aurora, and Cadence spun her ring around on her finger glad Aaron didn’t look at her like that--anymore. “We done?”
“I’ve been done for six weeks,” Elliott said only in Cadence’s head. She reached under the table and squeezed his hand.
Aaron didn’t really expect an answer, so he didn’t wait for one. As soon as Jamie was back in his seat, he said, “Okay, Cass has just informed us that we have hundreds of missing people in and around the two target areas where we know Daunator and Holland were most recently spotted. This is a list of those missing persons.” He took a chunk off of the stack of papers and dropped it on the table in front of him. “If we enlarge that radius to take up all of Eastern Europe, we add this many people.” He dropped another stack of papers on top of the first pile. “This is the rest of Europe.” Thunk. “And this is the rest of the world.” The last section wasn’t nearly as large as the first few, but it was still several pages.
“How many are there?” Hannah asked, and Cadence thought she should already know the answer to that question.
“In total, in the last twenty-three days, since we destroyed Holland and Hines, in Europe alone, eight hundred people have gone missing. An additional two hundred people are missing elsewhere.”
“Holy hell,” Elliott mumbled for all of them.
“Why isn’t this all over the news?” Jamie wanted to know.
“I honestly don’t know,” Aaron replied. “Cassidy mentioned that a lot of these people may be invisible—homeless, no families, no jobs. But not all of them.”
“Could Christian have been controlling the media somehow?” Hannah asked. “Does he have that authority?”
“To some degree, but I don’t think he would’ve been doing that. Why would he?” Aaron asked.
“Maybe to keep things under wraps until you got back and we could handle it?” Hannah guessed.
“Is it possible Daunator is doing that?” Cassidy asked. “Maybe he doesn’t want people to be afraid to go out because then he’ll have more trouble snatching them up.”
“If I said I had any idea what Daunator was capable of, I’d be lying,” Aaron admitted. “I guess that is a possibility.”
“Does Mila have any idea why the media isn’t reporting it?” Cadence asked Hannah.
“I didn’t realize it was this many people, but when I asked her about the people who had gone missing recently, she said that it’s getting a lot more local coverage than it is out of the region. Some are saying it’s the second coming of Jesus, while others have other religious explanations. Still others are blaming the economy and saying people are going to other countries. Or they blame the government, saying these people are all enemies of the state. For the most part, no one has an explanation. In the places where these people are disappearing, they don’t have cameras on every door and every street corner like we do here. And I’m sure the little footage they may have gotten, Christian has taken care of that.”
“Who would be doing that now that he’s gone?” Aurora asked.
“I think he may have spoken to Fannie about it,” Hannah replied. “I’ll check in with him and see.”
“Have you talked to him since he left?” Aaron asked her, a hopeful tone to his voice.
“No, not sense he left.”
“I wasn’t able to get him a few minutes ago when I tried,” the Leader explained. “Neither was Cadence.”
“Why didn’t you just force him on?” Elliott was chewing on his thumb, an indicator that he was still upset at Aurora.
“We tried. Couldn’t get him.” Cadence glanced around at the faces of her teammates, and they all looked shocked and concerned. Except Cassidy. She just looked... nervous.
