"What area are they in? We can douse everyone in salt water or gasoline or ash, or whatever won't be terribly out of place."

"The text said they were in one of the rich apartment places downtown."

"That could be troublesome. I'm not sure what smells would dominate there. I don't think I have good navigational sense of that area either."

"Gasoline might still work. Plenty of cars."

"How many cars still running? Far fewer. Perhaps... Say, Winona, aren't you in contact with a group of boys who managed to run a cargo ship up and down the Hudson? Rich apartment places are probably close to the water. If you can arrange for them to be hauling something unpleasantly smelly like coal tar, and then run aground or have an oil spill... It'd make excellent cover. If it's not waterfront, a truck convoy of compost or something."

"That might actually work. My son could probably convince them to assist us. Might cost us, but we can afford it."

"Of course it will cost. I was assuming we are going to use all available resources to extract the VIP?"

"Of course."

"Then supplying a group that will obscure our approach is necessary. Terence, forward me the maps and data you have from the area?"

"Of course. The wolves and punkers haven't even turned off any of their phones' microphones. They took Miss Woods' away but it's still transmitting."

They get to planning.

The next few days are spent in feverish preparation. Zeke is sent to negotiate with the boat-boys. 

"You gots a job for us?"

"Yeah. We need you to run aground."

"What, and wreck our boat? Why do you need that? And where?"

"We need to rescue a hostage from some wolves. They smell really good so oil might cover our tracks." He takes out a map. "Here."

"And I guess the running aground is so we can hang around an' stink up the place without looking suspicious? Well, I don't really want to run aground but we can sure develop mysterious engine trouble. And an smelly tar fire, if we're smart careful about it. I want a bodyguard for this. And stuff."

"Human or vampire?"

"You. Or Miss Crazy. Or Yvonne. Don't trust adults much and humans aren't that useful."

"I think I'll handle bodyguarding. Because Tabby might've heard that."

"Well, she's getting better lately. But yeah. We'll handle the engineering bits, just want you on standby in case the punkers or bridge trolls bother us."

"Agreed."

Meanwhile, Angie is getting impatient. 

"They're stalling!"

"I guess they can't decide whether it's better to abandon me to the wolves or lose control of vampireness."

"Maybe he hasn't gotten the text yet?" 

To be fair to Joey, he's not all that familiar with digital communication. He's imagining sometching like post.

Shrug.

(They've been stupid about phones this long, she won't give it away.)