Of Knights and Aliens

Chapter 155

Lena waits for her guard to gather the others and then they all head to the DEO to be officially briefed. The DEO is understandably busier than usual, both because of the imminent Cadmus attack and because of the Danvers Kingdom Annual Festival in general. J'onn is standing in the center of the main area, Alex and Maggie by his side. His body is more rigid than normal, and his face seems more stern as well.

J'onn looks over as soon as they walk in and some of the tension leaves his body. "I'm glad you could all join us."

Lena nods. "Of course."

Winn pipes up. "Have you found out anything more, sir?"

"Yes. Which is why it's good that everyone is here. If you could all settle down, the briefing will now begin." The DEO gets almost eerily quiet as everyone pauses what they were doing to listen to J'onn. "Thank you. As many of you may now know, there is a group in National City that sympathizes with Cadmus. We captured one of their members just earlier this morning. We interrogated him first, but he refused to give us much information aside from the fact we should be prepared. I then used my abilities, so we know more now than he ever would have told us."

"I'm sorry you had to do that," Kara says.

"It was what needed to be done," J'onn says gruffly. "But thank you." He clears his throat and then continues. "This is going to be worse, bigger than we originally thought. They aren't hitting one area. They're hitting three." It seems like everyone in the DEO sucks in a breath at the same time.

"Do we know where they're going to hit?" Alex asks.

J'onn nods to Winn, who spreads out a large map on the table at the center. Everyone gathers around to look at the map, which is a rather detailed one of National City.

"To answer your question, yes and no. He knows they will hit three areas, but he doesn't know which three. He was told of the five possibilities, but only their group leader knows which ones will be hit. They would be told the day of."

"What are the five possibilities?" Maggie asks. "We have some of the finest minds in the world in this room. I'm sure we can use logic to figure out the three most likely to get hit so we can focus our attention there."

Kara's eyes brighten as she gets an idea. "Oh! J'onn, you and I could go to the other two just in case! That way there's someone there watching who can quickly get to where they need to be if there isn't an attack, and can quickly get reinforcements if there is one!"

J'onn nods. "That works." He looks back down at the map. "The areas are the Danvers Square and the four main roads branching off of it."

"I think it's safe to say that the Square is definitely going to get hit. That's where a lot of the merchants set up their stands. Whenever I've gone there during the festival, there's barely enough room to maneuver around people," Vasquez says.

Winn writes that down in his notebook as Maggie speaks up. "I would assume they would attack along the main road that leads to the Castle, as well. That's crowded as well and it'll create more chaos."

"Makes sense," Vasquez shrugs.

Kara looks over at her fiancée and can see how her brow is furrowed slightly as she looks at the map. She gently nudges Lena. "What are you thinking Lee?"

"I'm thinking that a group like this is going to need financial support. Usually, xenophobes are rich people who think they're better than everyone and look down on people that are different, or they're poorer people who are terrified of change. Of course, that doesn't excuse their behavior and beliefs. What I mean is that if their plan is to garner more support from the people, that probably means they don't have a lot of members, let alone members with the money and influence to push their agenda. Are one of the remaining roads one with more well-off people? Where they would go to shop for wares during the festival? Somewhere the average person could walk and not be noticed, but would be unable to afford to buy anything."

"Yeah. Croix Road here is exactly like what you're describing." Alex points to it on the map.

"Wonderful. Winn, you said that they bought off aliens to wreak havoc, right?" Winn nods. "If they attack on that street, it could turn some rich and influential people against aliens."

"That... Actually makes a lot of sense. Okay, so we should focus on those three areas?" Maggie asks for confirmation. "Send J'onn to that one and Kara to the other?"

J'onn nods. "That's the plan so far."

"Pardon me sir," one of Lena's archers speaks up. "But you said you used your abilities on one of their people. So you read his mind?"

"I did," J'onn confirms.

"Then do you know how many people there are in that group? Or what they look like?"

"I know both, actually. They were all careful not to use their real names, so attempting to track them through that will prove fruitless, but I do know what they all look like. There are approximately three dozen in that group, excluding the aliens they hired."

"Sir!" Winn says excitedly, drawing J'onn's attention. "You know what we could do? We could have you draw or explain to someone who can draw what everyone looks like and then circulate it to the guards that will be patrolling!"

J'onn nods. "It would help if we could catch some of them before the attack. I'll draw them."

"J'onn, I can use my superspeed and art skills to replicate the drawing so that multiple people can see them all at once!" Kara offers. "We could also pin them up at the jail so that when some are brought in, the guards can make sure they got the right person!"

Well, that was a lot of planning! And there's still more to be worked out haha. Thank you all for reading and for your lovely comments! Stay awesome!