The next two weeks passed slowly as I talked with both Justin and David over the phone about the future of the psi race. Both were extremely eager to help us and were willing to negotiate things that we would need and not considering we could produce a lot of our own things. Justin and I had to negotiate rules that would need to be added to the law book to not only protect us from getting hurt, but would appropriately punish us if we committed a crime.
But these things took time, and it was taking even longer since I had to negotiate with everyone else. Levi and I were standing next to one of the vans by the gate. It was a white one with no markings on it, and was good to travel long distances on it. Levi was leaning against the van, trying to remain calm.
"I'm going to be fine," I said as I threw the last of the bags into the back of the van.
"I know you will, but I still have to worry," he said.
"I know you do, but I will be fine," I said, closing the doors. "You have everything settled?"
"Of course," he said with a smile. "Now get going." '
"Sure thing," I said, turning to see Calvin, Agent Parker, Bob walking up to me. They were dressed in blue jeans and brown shirts. Both were extremely happy and I could see Felicia and some of Bob's friends in the distance walking back to the housing to go to their rooms. "You guys ready?"
"Of course. Are you?" Bob asked.
"Yep. Bags are packed," I said, pointing towards the van.
"Good. See you later Levi," Calvin said walking towards the driver's side of the van. I gave him a bright smile, before walking towards the side of the van and using the side door to jump into the vehicle. I closed the door behind me and settled next to our loose bags. Bob walked up to the passenger side and jumped into the seat and pulled the door closed behind him. Parker joined me in the back.
The four of us were going up to Canada so that we could see the locations we would use incase of an emergency leave. We already had places to go incase someone got word what we were doing, but since Canada was already being nice to us, they offered us different locations in several of the larger cities. Calvin started the van and pulled the van out of the gate to start the almost twenty hour drive up to Toronto.
Luckily nothing happened over the eighteen hours between Tundra and the Canadian border, but as soon as we were close I found a van following us. It wasn't very far away and it took me a second that they weren't Americans but instead Canadian's. "Hey, pull over," I ordered, and Calvin pulled off the road and onto the shoulder. The van pulled to a stop right behind us, and collectively we all jumped out of our respective vehicles. Some of the men I recognized, not everyone but enough to recognize them.
"Hey," I called out, and Whatt waved at me. We stopped a healthy difference between the two vans.
"Ava, this is Shawn McKinley. Former Canadian Armed Forces Reserve Force, he'll be your guard for the foreseeable future. I trust your men, but Justin wanted to talk with them in person," Whatt said and I looked around Whatt to see Shawn was a five foot six white man with light brown hair.
"Fine," I said, and the three men who came with me walked towards the other van, with the others joined them. Shawn stood for a second before he started walking towards the van I showed up in. He jumped into the driver seat, and I waited for a second before I joined him in the passenger seat. He didn't say anything as we crossed the border with no problem, and drove into Toronto.
As McKinley pulled to a stop in front of the Chelsea Hotel, I noticed a small group of people waiting by the doors. McKinley wasn't even surprised at the group of people. He turned off the car and unbuckled himself from the chair. "Come on," he said as he opened the door. I unbuckled myself and opened the door. As I slammed the door behind me a woman walked up to me.
"Ava this is Maggie Cassidy, the owner of the Chremont Hotel," McKinley introduced. "Maggie, this is Ava McBrian, she's the leader of one of the American refugee camps that we're helping out."
"Hi," Maggie said, reaching her hand out for me to shake. I took it and gave a firm shake.
"Did McKinley tell you what you're getting into if we needed to enact Project Hammer?" I asked. Project Hammer was the name given to our evacuation plans and what would happen to us after we escaped.
"Yes. He was quite clear what could happen to us if you enact it. He was quite adamant that he tell me everything that your people can do, and what has been going on. Everyone's background here has been checked, and we have things like canned food and clothing coming in rapidly in case you need it. If we don't use it we'll just send it out with you to the West Coast."
"Thank you," I said with a smile.
"You're welcome, but if you wanted to we could walk around the hotel to see if it's to your liking, and we can meet everyone on my staff. It might change in the future, but you can at least meet some of the people who are here."
"If it wouldn't be much of a hassle, I would like that very much."
"Of course," Maggie said with a smile. She turned and led me inside the building. The adults inside instantly turned to pay attention to us.
"Hello," McKinley said, and I really hoped most of the attention was being paid attention to him and not me.
"Alright everyone," Maggie called, getting the attention of everyone. Once everyone was paying attention to her, she waved her hand at me. "This is Ava McBrian, leader of the refugee camp Tundra. Now I want you to treat her with the utmost respect. Anyone who doesn't will be removed. If you have any questions please ask her." Several people looked at me and I felt a bit uncomftearble about it. McKinley walked up next to me.
"Come on," Maggie said, turning to me. She started walking and I followed behind her. "This hotel had three restaurants and fifteen hundred and ninety rooms. We also have two swimming pools. We might not have enough room for every single person, but the apartment buildings next door have agreed to house the overflow in their empty apartments. And there are a few other hotels in the area. I can also clear the conference rooms that we have here, but I am not clear why I would need to do it."
"We're sending the one's without powers and any kids under ten first. The adults are coming up last, so we're trying to keep calm before they show up."
"Ah," she said, and continued showing me around.
I was standing in Alex's office once again two weeks after my trip to Canada, trying to figure the details of the next raid we were planning. Mateo was sitting in one of the chair's, while Alex was sitting in her own chair. We had called Justin when we had started the meeting and laid the phone in such a way that he could see what we were talking about. I heard a beep on Alex's computer. She looked away from the blueprints that she had pulled up and looked at the email that was meant to be the old captain of the guards. Her jaw dropped, and I looked at her concerned.
"What's wrong?" Justin asked, concerned in his voice.
"One of my teams was accidentally spotted near the camps and a skip tracer sent pictures up the command," Alex said, shaking her head as she looked at the pictures on her computer.
"Alright, we've prepared for this," I said, trying to remain calm. We had always made plans in case of evacuation, but still our bases were huge and would need time to evacuate.
"Ava. Start your end of Project Hammer, and I'll start my end here," Justin said and I sighed in relief.
"Alright," I said, and reached down and grabbed the emergency button. I could hear the alarm starting to ring through the building and people around me to starting to move. We had done this routine many times and everyone knew to remain calm in this situation. "Alex, make sure your people go to their rooms and get their things, and start shutting down your systems, clear as much evidence as you can. Mateo, check the warehouses and make sure everyone gets out. I'll clear the school."
"Alright," they said together.
"Justin, make sure that everything is good for us to come up," I said, and he nodded.
"Of course. I'll make sure everything gets done, and I'll call everyone to send them up here" he said, and closed the call on his side. Alex turned to her computer and started typing. Mateo stood up, and we walked out together. We walked out of the building together and went our separate ways. Everyone was already going their own ways to their rooms to pick up their things to leave. They seemed to be moving quickly and as soon as they saw my face they started moving even faster.
I quickly walked up to the gate, where some of the cars were being pulled up from the parking lot. The drivers looked bored at the prospect of the alarm, but as soon as they saw me approaching the gate, which I had never done before, boredom turned to concern. "What's going on?" someone shouted.
"We're getting out of here," I yelled back, and their faces paled. They parked the cars, and we waited for the first of the kids to show up from the tower. The kids from the school right behind them. Jaquine gave me a sad look as the youngest of our kids showed up.
"Come on everyone," I called out. My presence, and the trailers, seemed to startle them and what was about to happen seemed to settle in. None of them started crying, but they gave us hugs goodbye before hopping into the back of the trailers, and when we closed the doors on the first trailer, and it was starting to pull away, my stomach sank to my feet. I had to wonder if I would see them again, but I couldn't think about it much as I loaded the next trailer.
When Justin and I had finished the details of Project Hammer, I had buried all the trailers we had collected over the last two years, a grand total of a hundred and forty. I didn't know how we had managed to collect so many until I checked how many of our trailers had been pinged by the PSF's. So when we shoved a hundred people into each, and sent them on their way, there were few left over to drive amongst the cars that we had. We had also put all the rest of the prisoners into a couple of the trailers, and were driving them up as well. I was standing by the last of the trailers with the rest of the control tower in the back.
There would be a small skeleton crew remaining in the camp, a total of ten people. Three of Penelope's people, a purple, and six adults. There was enough food to last them a while. Some of Justin's men would come down and help us guard the remainder of the buildings, but even they knew when to leave in case someone came too close. Bob was right in front of me reading the inventory list that he held in his right hand. His eyes scanned it one last time before he looked back up at me.
"Alright, everything's good," he said with a grim smile on his face. "I'll see you soon, I promise."
"I'll see you soon," I said, and quickly hugged him before jumping into the back of the trailer and settling down next to the remainder of the control tower. Alex looked at me and gave me a small smile as Bob locked the door behind me. This particular truck full, like the rest, would be straight shooting it from here through South and North Dakota where we would be gathered at an airport and flown to Toronto Airport and driven to our respective hotel accommodations. Most of the trailer was filled with workers from the control tower. I liked them well enough to spend almost twelve hours with them. I settled against the wall, and mentally prepared myself for the long journey ahead of us.
Luckily for everyone in the trailer other than the gas refuels we weren't stopped until the Canadian border where we passed the truck headed down to replace the guards and picked up our new passports. After that we stopped at a military base where we were immediately put on a plane and flown down to the airport in Toronto where we were split into smaller groups to be taken by cars.
It only took us twenty minutes to drive from Toronto Airport to Chelsea Hotel, which was supposedly a good drive, and as we pulled in front of the hotel I could see people milling around the front streets. No one seemed to really notice the bus that we were on, and I couldn't be happier about that fact. McKinley, who was driving, pulled us to a complete stop right in front of the hotel and everyone quickly grabbed their bags to stand up and single filed walked out of the bus and into the entrance of the hotel.
The entrance was just as beautiful as it had been before and I could see Maggie walking around talking with people trying to keep everyone calm and organized. She was worn and I could tell that this was wearing on her even though we had practiced this before and she knew what was coming.
"Maggie," I called out and she turned to look at me. I waved at her and she walked up to me with a smile on her face.
"How was the trip up?" she asked as she stopped in front of me.
"Went good, no problem at all. Did everyone get here safely?"
"Yes, I heard from the other hotels and apartment complexes that everyone else showed up as well and they are expecting everyone else to show up soon. I also heard from David that he is getting everything ready for your arrival. They should be ready soon." I sighed in relief. This entire plan had been crazy in its entirety, but I was happy that it was going as well as it was.
"Where are we staying?"
"This group is going to conference four," she said, and I remembered the room from when she was showing me around earlier.
"If you don't mind, we're going to go to sleep for a little while. We've had a long trip up here and we're extremely tired."
"Of course," she said and waved us back.
"Thank you," I said gratefully and led my friends away towards the conference room. We got some strange stares from some of the people we passed, but I didn't pay them any mind and continued on my way. Conference room four was like the rest of the conference rooms. The tables in the room had been removed and mattresses had been brought in. There were several bunk beds already put together and mattresses were on them.
The group dispersed and started going towards individual beds. Some were already claimed, so I avoided them and placed my backpack on one of the beds in the far corner away from the door. I laid down on the bed and because of my years of experience fell asleep right away.
My sleep was interrupted ten minutes later when I was shaken awake by Mirable. Her face was drawn and I could see line's in her face. She had grown a lot in the last few years and I wondered if she was the same person she was years ago.
"What's going on?" I asked sitting up. I was happy to see her again, but I couldn't bring myself to start with the pleasant conversation.
"David wants to show the leaders how the city is coming along and Justin says he has something to reveal," she said, slight concern in her voice.
"Alright, I'm getting up," I said, sitting up and looking around the room. Some people were sitting and eating some food. Other's were sleeping. While other's were talking quietly. I stood up and several people noted the action. Some waved hi, and gave small smiles. Mirable and I walked out of the room together and out into the hallway. We had six small city towns in the group and as we walked around the corner I saw the other four leaders. Gage waved at me, and Victoria, Ryan and Harrison all gave me small waves.
They were gathered together in a small group and I could tell that they were tired as well. Ryan and Harrison were twin brothers from Portland, Oregon. They had been picked up by the PSF's and taken to a camp in New Mexico. There had only been a couple dozen kids on an old farm near Salt Lake City, so instead of sticking around we moved everyone to Tundra. After we taught them everything we knew they went to Moore in Maine, and Orington in Mississippi individually.
All of them looked much older than they should have, but I was extremely happy to all see them. We hadn't seen each other in awhile, and it was good to see them again. I stopped beside Victoria and Mirable stopped next to me. "Where's David and Justin?" I asked, looking around. They weren't anywhere in the lobby.
"Front of the hotel," Mirable said. "I wanted to gather everyone before we met up with him."
"Good idea," Victoria said, stepping away to lead us out of the building. We all stepped behind her.
"Any idea what they wanted to talk about?" Harrison asked as we walked out of the door.
"No idea. They didn't really say anything and I was too tired and busy to get a good read on them earlier. Justin said that his thing happens to involve Parker and the rest of the old NCIS team and some of the other adults."
"That sounds slightly ominous," Gage said and a car pulled in front of the hotel. It was a black SUV, and looked like the stereotypical government agencies cars. David, Parker, and Justin both slid out of the back of the car and approached us. All three were dressed in black suits and as soon they started up the stairs the car drove away.
"Hey," Justin called as he stopped in front of the group. "I see that all of you made it up fine."
"Yeah, and I'm wondering why you called all of us out here?" I asked, slightly bitterly. I hadn't gotten much sleep in the last few days, and the trip up hadn't helped. I had managed to get maybe three hours of sleep in the last three days. The three men gave me a pointed look before shaking it off.
"Come on," Justin said, waving us towards the building once again. We followed him into the hotel once again and into a small hallway that was not filled with anyone. Most of the rooms in the hotel had been filled with people, including storage rooms, so it was next to impossible to find a room we could hide in private.
"What's going on?" I asked. All three men looked at one another before Justin opened his mouth to explain.
"I created a new international agency," Justin said, holding his hands up in a hang on motion. "It's supposed to help us legally go in and get everyone in, and make it easier for us to track illegal behavior that psi does. It's why I wanted to talk with Parker he has experience running large agencies. I didn't have him tell you because I wasn't sure it would work."
"How did you manage to get it up?" I asked.
"There are a few United Nation judges who don't see kindly to what Gray had been doing. They wanted him imprisoned, but since we couldn't find him, they allowed us to keep looking for him as well as tracking down other camps."
"That was fast," I said. It had only been two weeks since we had agreed to come up here.
"I asked three hours after I grabbed the Hare team. It took them this long to come to a decision. It's still pretty fast, but it's been a while. Parker's taking it over," Justin said, pointing at the man.
"Really, why did you never mention that earlier?" I asked.
"Same reason as earlier," he said with a shrug. He shook his head, and raised his hands further. "Anyway, it means you no longer have to depend on your people to raid camps. Which should help get everyone out of all the camps faster."
"Good," I said, and looked at David. "What did you want?"
"Pictures from New Rose Hills," David said, grabbing some pictures from his pocket to show me. It was the city we were moving to, and the city was mostly built and looked like it just needed the final touches.
"Looks good," I said, handing them to Mirable.
"Don't worry, you won't end up here for very long," Justin reassured.