Cadence bolted upright in bed, not sure if she’d heard a knock on her door or if the zombie apocalypse she’d been dreaming about had infiltrated her bedroom. She wiped the drool from her mouth and glanced at the clock. If that was the door, and someone was actually knocking on it at 8:30 AM the morning after a hunt, whatever the person wanted better be pretty damn important. Another banging noise let her know that it was, in fact, the door. “Stupid non-sleeping, non-human Guardians,” she mumbled as she pulled on her robe and clambered out of bed. Her IAC wasn’t on, and since no one could force it on, not even Aaron, the only way anyone could contact her was through normal methods--a phone call, a text, beating her door down. She glanced through the peephole and sighed, throwing back the locks. She could think of a million other people she’d rather talk to. “Christian, what do you want this time of morning?” she asked before the door was even completely open.

Christian, who was the tech expert of the team, stood before her dressed in a similar black outfit to the one he had worn on the hunt the night before, just a few hours ago. He had a goofy grin on his handsome face, and Cadence was tempted to see how many times she had to slap him to wipe it off. “It pinged!” he exclaimed, practically jumping up and down in the hallway. “Can you believe it? After all of these months, we actually got a ping!”

“What the crap are you talking about?” Cadence asked, shaking her head. He was irritating enough when he wasn’t unusually cheerful and she wasn’t unbelievably tired. She fumbled with the tie of her pink silk robe. “What pinged? I ought to ping you for waking me up.”

“Is Aaron here?” Christian asked, leaning over her shoulder to look into her apartment, clearly ignoring her question and subsequent insult.

“No, he’s not here. He doesn’t live here,” she reminded him, leaving out that it was true her boyfriend did stay over at her place most nights, at least until she fell asleep. “You mean you haven’t shared your great pinging news with him yet?”

But Christian had already made his way over to Aaron’s door, and as he began his knocking again, he replied over his shoulder, “No, I wanted to tell you both at the same time.”

Cadence followed the few steps down the hall, leaving her apartment door open, hoping she would be climbing back into her own bed in just a moment. “What are you talking about, Christian?” she repeated.

He didn’t answer her, however. As a clearly wide-awake, well put together Aaron, pulled open his door, Christian proclaimed, “It pinged!”

“You’re kidding!” Aaron replied, a look of shock and excitement on his face. “That’s fabulous! Where?”

“Some little town in Texas, near Dallas,” Christian explained. “I’ve got the coordinates. We should be able to be there in a couple of hours if we fly.”

“That’s incredible. Let’s just hope that it’s our man,” Aaron said, slapping Christian on the back.

“What the hell are you talking about?” Cadence repeated, taking a few steps closer. “What pinged, and who’s our man?”

Aaron looked at her for the first time, and Cadence tried to ignore the shocked expression at her messy hair and disheveled appearance that briefly crossed his face as he formulated his response. “Sam,” he finally explained. “His phone--it pinged.”

Realization set in pretty quickly for Cadence once she had this pertinent information. “Oh! That pinged!” she remarked. “Well, why didn’t you say so? That is important!”

“I know,” Christian replied, already on his way back to the elevator. “I’ll contact our people in the area and get things moving.”

“Not Alex,” Aaron warned. Sam had a good relationship with one of the Hunters in the Dallas region, so it was important to make sure that he was not tipped off.

“Right,” Christian confirmed. “I’ll try to avoid that at all costs. You mobilize the team here?” he clarified as he stepped into the elevator, holding the button to keep the doors open as he waited for a response.

“Already on it,” Aaron replied. “Meet you at the hanger in twenty?”

“I’m there,” Christian stated as he let go of the elevator button and disappeared from sight.

“Twenty minutes?” Cadence asked, remembering that she had just climbed out of bed.

“You’re right. Better make it fifteen,” Aaron replied as he opened his apartment door.

“No,” Cadence replied. “I’m not sure I can be ready for a hunt of this proportion in twenty minutes.”

“Cadence,” Aaron said, turning to look at her, “this is Sam. If we can finally get him, after all of these months of looking… this is huge.”

Nodding, Cadence said, “Okay. I understand that, but--what are the chances this is actually him? Who keeps a cell phone that can be tracked?”

“Old people,” Aaron replied, realizing this had more to do with her fear of failure than her appearance. “Maybe it’s not him, but we’ve got to find out. If we can finally get vengeance on the person who….”

Aaron hesitated, and Cadence nodded, assuring him that he didn’t have to finish the sentence. Sam had killed Elliott, and even if there was just a slight chance that they could actually find him based on this ping and bring justice for their friend, she knew it was worth it. “I’ll be there in fifteen minutes,” she confirmed.

He nodded, disappearing into his apartment as she did the same, her mind finally wrapping around the significance of this moment. As she threw on an appropriate hunting outfit, she couldn’t help but wonder--given the opportunity, would she take Sam out or bring him in? She wasn’t sure, but she was hopeful that she would find out shortly. Either way, it was promising to think that Elliott might actually get some vengeance in the next few hours. It had been a long time coming.