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Post by Riley Lo on Jun 20, 2012 15:25:39 GMT -5
The Roulette Lounge was tucked away in a secluded, quiet corner of the Imperial Grand's second-floor casino. Based on photographs and anecdotal stories, the bar was modeled after the infamous speak-easy, the Cotton Club, which had operated in the 1920's, in New York City. There was a long mahogany bar that ran the entire length of the large room and butted up against a stage, where tonight a jazz quartet was playing covers of Thelonious Monk, Wynton and Branford Marsalis, and Charlie Parker. Riley was seated at the end of the bar closest to the stage, sipping a martini. She was dressed like a grown-up tonight, in a navy blue shirt-waist dress with lime green accessories and the ubiquitous pair of very high, very pointy Blahniks.
Darien, meanwhile, would have cleaned up nicely if he hadn't only just arrived from a shuttle. Or cared enough to clean up, for that matter. He outfitted like he always did--a vest-slacks-oxford combination that doubled in both casual and semi-formal situations. By the looks of things, that was exactly the kind of environment the lounge was trying to convey. Briefcase slung over his shoulder, the journo made his way inside and scanned the place's interior until he spotted a contented Cat on the other end of the bar lapping up liquor. The side of his mouth hitched upward in approval as he approached. He was only a man--a human man--and though he'd never admit it aloud, she certainly knew how to make an impression.
She gave Darien a little patented Riley smile--lopsided and friendly--and leaned forward to pat the bar stool next to her. "Plant it," she said to him and then raised a finger to the bar tender. "Two more, Maurice." The bar tender inclined his head and set about making two more martinis for the boss lady. Riley turned back to Darien and gave him a once over. "A plane, you said? Or a space shuttle thingie?"
"Shuttle. Which reminds me." He dug around in his bag before dropping a tiny Red Sox key chain in front of the former Minister. It could have been because he cared. Or it could have been because he secretly hoped she was a Yankees fan and his first and only intention had been to piss her off.
She grinned at the key chain and picked it up to examine it. "Awesome," she gushed. Yeah, it was probably easy to guess that Riley was a born Sawks Girl. "Thanks." Then her eyes narrowed a bit and she examined it more closely. "It's not bugged, is it? Or has a GPS chip or something?"
"Wait... ya mean your owners didn't put a chip in your ear when they got ya? Y'know... in case ya got lost?" A cinnamon pick slid in between that toothy smirk of his.
"Naw, they couldn't figure out how to make it stay between Shifts." The bar tender dropped off the martinis, complete with skewers of cocktail olives, and Riley gave him a grateful smile before he moved off down the bar, pointedly giving Riley and Fenner privacy. The Cat wrapped long, slender fingers around the stem of her glass and saluted Fenner with it, saying, "Slainte," before sipping from it.
Tit for tat, the Aussie replicated Riley's suspicion by eying his own drink speculatively. Why did he have the feeling if he drank that night he would awake on the other side of RhyDin, nude, and with obscenities written on his face in permanent marker? Well... it wouldn't have been the worst thing that happened to him. "Cheers." He toasted the wicked and alluring vision that was Riley Lo, and he drank. They always said beauty and the devil were the same thing.
"So. This favour. It's for both David and I, actually." She paused for a second, clearly reluctant to speak what was on her mind; perhaps the idea of owing Darien anything was beyond comprehension for her. Perhaps it was the single most terrifying thing she could think of. Perhaps she just needed a moment to compose herself.
For the first time, Darien didn't extend some smart-assed remark. With jaw-dropping civility, he only sipped his drink appreciatively and gave her a moment of peace and quiet.
She licked her lips and sighed a little before jumping in. "Have you ever heard of the Multiverse Authority?"
"By reputation only." They were a secretive bunch.
Her brows flew up. "So you have heard of them?" She didn't bother keeping her surprise to herself. "What can you tell me about them?"
One of Darien's brows lifted. Was he not clear enough in his limited response? "Not much; only that they're some kind'a policing force and ain't from around 'eah." But that wasn't exactly a foreign concept to RhyDin. He paused. "Why?"
She chewed on her lower lip for a moment, weighing the wisdom of letting him on the secret. "Off the record? Pinkie swear you won't breathe a word of it to anyone? Confidential source and all of that?"
"In that case, y'might want to stash the key chain," he replied, deadpan. The only indication of jest was the amused look he shot at Riley over his glass.
She plopped the key chain down in her martini and smiled sweetly at him for a moment. "They want David and I to do something for them," she said, leaning a little closer to the journalist, lowering her voice so that it barely carried over the quartet's version of "Billie's Bounce".
Darien nodded once, seeming to understand the reason behind her inquiry. "And you want t'make sure they're legit."
She nodded. "Spot on. David's chatting up a couple of his old CIs, too. Maybe between everyone, we can come up with a clearer view of what's going on."
"What d'ya want me t'find out?" He unskewered three olives with his teeth before replacing the pick back in his empty glass.
"Whatever you're able to find. If they are what they are, if they do what they claim to do, if they're really a neutral party, if they get involved in things that perhaps they shouldn't get involved in. You know, the usual stuff."
Darien's expression conveyed mostly agreement, but suggestion behind his eyes reeked of a caveat. "Ar'roight. But ya know this information ain't exactly free."
Her lush, expressive mouth thinned into a line and she arched a brow. "I said I'd owe you," she said in a distinctly annoyed voice.
His teeth seemed unnaturally white and far too perfect, set off by the dim lights of the lounge. "That's all I needed t'know. Gim'me forty-eight hours."
"Shall I prick my finger and sign something in blood?" She left off the 'Your Infernal Majesty'.
His chuckle was honeyed and baritone. "Oh, I trust you're good f'r it, Kit. If not, I 'ave oth'a ways of enticing your cooperation." The threat didn't harbor any danger, but neither was it benign. If it was possible, he reassured her with another charming smile.
She gave him a slightly disgusted look and then slid off her stool, shouldering her bag and nodding to the bar tender. Then she turned to Darien and said, "Give my love to your much better half and the babies, okay?" She leaned in and bussed his cheek, as if they were the best of friends, and then headed out after plucking the key chain from her martini glass.
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Post by Riley Lo on Jun 20, 2012 15:31:13 GMT -5
It wasn't what one would call a seedy bar, but it wouldn't be a stretch to say that germination was likely if Ra didn't relocate from WestEnd soon. The once thriving Japanese-inspired sushi and sake joint--feeding off the fad from Riley Lo's Asian revamp of the WestEnd provinces, no doubt--was now environmentally offset by the occasional bullet holes and shattered glass. Elegant outdoor iron furniture had long since been stolen and replaced with old wooden benches and the entrance door had been boarded up where it had been broken into, but the drinks were still good and the patrons were scarce. If it had been located just a few blocks east, it would have been smack-dab in the middle of Little Asia and it no doubt would be thriving now. In Darien's mind, that was all that mattered. He watched the door from where he sat inside; far from the non-functioning conveyer belt sushi bar and closer to the stage that had been vacated nearly an hour previously. Contrary to Riley's upscale lounge there was no music--only ambient noises of the bartender and foreign chatter by quiet customers.
Riley entered, nostrils quivering and working overtime as she sized the place up. The air smelled of fish that wasn't too far from going off, cigarette smoke, and surprisingly decent sake. The Cat, dressed for this more clandestine meeting in khaki shorts that showed off her most famous asset, flat leather sandals, and a green Celtics t shirt, greeted the chef with a slight bow and ordered ocha, a small cup of green tea, and then went to settle next to Fenner. "Interesting choice," she said to him.
"Three doll'a sake bombs," the journo justified, lifting a glass of foaming Kirin. "Kanpai."
She raised her tea cup to him and sipped it delicately. It was a good blend and the dive earned a bit more prestige in her mind. "It's funny, but I've never heard of this place. I didn't know there were any sushi joints in the city."
"I figured not. If ya had, ya would've bought 'em out by now." There was a bowl of steamed and salted edamame on the table that he took advantage of, freeing a few beans with his teeth and discarding the pod on a nearby saucer.
She snorted. "Contrary to popular belief, I am not some bastard love-child of Donald Trump and Leona Helmsley." She helped herself to a few edamame as well, crunching with satisfaction. Her warm caramel eyes never left Fenner's face.
"But the'ah is so much resemblance," he muttered with mock derision as he bent down to retrieve a thick folio from his briefcase and set it on the table. Another sip of his beer was taken as he unwound the elastic that secured the folder and slid a few photographs of an innocuous-looking building across the table at Riley. "MVA, f'r your viewin' pleasure." He waited for her to prompt him further.
She reached out and snagged one of the photos, pulling it closer so she could see it more clearly. "Wow," she said in a quiet voice. "This building is right behind Dewy, Cheatham, and Howe." She looked up at Fenner and raised a brow. "Coincidence?"
"Normally I don't believe in coincidences, but until proven wrong let's 'jes say th'vibe I get from this group is a little naive." He laid out another document in front of her, this one a hand-drawn schematic of some kind of portable hand-held apparatus. "As I said, a police group that operates in multiple universes by way of this." He tapped the schematic for emphasis. "Th'Quantum Tunneling Device."
She nodded; it was something she was familiar with, though only from second-hand accounts. "Quantum Tunneling. Worm-hole travel, right? They use worm-holes to pop in and out of universes, kinda like the Nexus?"
Darien lifted a shoulder. "Not anywhe'ah near as bipolar, th'way I hear it." He and portals didn't mix, and he didn't bother to hide his distaste. "Rumor is they actually moved 'eah once they discovered th'Nexus was basically a hub. Used to operate out'ta a different universe. Alpha Universe, they called it. Go figure."
"Not terribly imaginative, are they?" She finished off her cup of tea and then made a thoughtful face. "So they really are what they say they are. Huh. I think I was expecting some sort of...oh, I don't know...some sort of shadowy quasi-governmental agency that combined the worst of the NSA, CIA, and KGB." He made a yielding gesture with his hand. "I couldn't gath'a much on their operations outside of RhyDin, but from what I understand they're government funded and moderately effective. Would be more if they didn't 'ave t'get a warrant and authorization from INTERPOL every time they blow their nose. Or their employees didn't royally screw 'em ov'a."
Inwardly, the Cat went cold and still. No sign of this showed on her face though. She even managed a flip smile and a chuckle. "Bureaucratic red tape's red tape, no matter where you are." She left the comment about employees alone, desperately hoping that he'd turned up something on someone other than Jill Mckerras or Dave Luo. But hardly a beat was missed before a profile picture and dossier of Dave Luo himself was slid across the table. The journo scrutinized Riley very carefully, waiting for a reaction. "Somethin' you might be interested in. Look familiar?"
Riley gave Fenner a look that screamed 'Don't let's pussy-foot around'. "What's it gonna cost me to keep this secret?"
His returning look was penetrating and acute. "Only what y'promised me, Kit. And some answers."
She made it a point not to touch the dossier or the photo, instead folding her hands together on the edge of the table and giving Darien a penetrating look. She nodded curtly. "Ask. If I can answer it, I will."
His expression steady and unchanging, Darien began unloading photographs from newspapers, security cams, driver's licenses and employee IDs--all of men that could very well be David Lo's doppelganger. "See, aft'a that sh*t you and Lo went through with that dysfunctional transport medallion last year, I tracked that wizard down and 'ad a source at th'Watch identify the magic signature and locate the universe ya visited. Wouldn't ya know it, this bloke," his finger hit the dossier of Dave Luo with a loud tap, "began a multi-dimensional massacre right the'ah, and every one of the victims were..." He finished his statement with a wave of his hand over the handful of images, then paused, studying Riley. "Somethin' y'want t'tell me?"
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Post by Riley Lo on Jun 20, 2012 15:32:01 GMT -5
"Want to tell you? No. There's nothing I want to tell you." She crossed her arms over her chest, definitely a defensive pose, and once she realised it, she lowered her arms, her hands gripping her thighs now, manicured nails leaving little half-moons in the muscles of her legs. "Why don't you tell me? You're the writer; write me a story."
"Kit, I can't tell you what I think unless you tell me what this was about." His voice, though deep and rich in timbre, also sounded surprisingly honest.
"Swear to me that you will tell no one. Swear it, Darien. David's life...my life...is at stake." Her normal flippant, easy-going attitude had been replaced by something far more earnest and serious.
He could swear on his mother's grave or the souls of his great-grandparents, but it wouldn't mean much. If there was one thing Darien Fenner took seriously, it was his career. Though he did not speak, his slow nod was a sober confirmation.
Where to start? She made a thoughtful face, one slender hand reaching out to twist and turn the empty tea cup on the table in front of her. "David started noticing that he was getting stronger and faster and smarter about three years ago. At first, he said it was in steady increments; as time passed, it started growing exponentially. Then he started feeling like someone was watching him all the time. Finally, he ran into himself. They had a knock-down, drag-out, and he caught hold of this," she reached out and tapped her fingernail on the schematics of the tunneller device, "and somehow, it activated and sent him to Rhy'Din." Darien made an encouraging gesture for her to continue her narrative. "That was in May. By September, Luo had somehow arrived in Rhy'Din. He...he kidnapped David, hid him away in a warehouse, and took his life. Impersonated him, you know?" She ducked her head for a moment, the shame and self-recriminations obvious in her posture and expression. She felt she should have known that a complete stranger who had her husband's face, but not his heart or soul, had stolen him away from her for over a month.
"I take it he escaped." Else the two of them wouldn't be there having such a ball of a time.
She nodded. "David killed him. But not before the bastard killed two friends of ours," she stated in a flat, emotionless voice. Clearly she wasn't quite comfortable with the idea. She raised her eyes and met Darien's. "That what you wanted to hear?" The look in her eyes was challenging, as if she dared him to exploit her pain and David's anguish over the deaths of his former colleague at the Watch and the innocent psychic girl.
Darien nodded very slowly, even reached up to scratch at the stubble on his jaw as he considered his opinion. By the way he hitched his mouth, he wasn't entirely sold in one direction or the other. Unexpectedly, he respected her distress and moved back to the original topic. "Well, aft'a this whole doovalacky the'ah's a strong possibility th'MVA is 'jes tryin' to pick up the pieces again. The'ah wasn't much else that 'as been on their radar since then, seems like. I've caught wind of some unsanctioned missions, but nothin' the organization has actively pursued or anyone can verify. So they could be givin' it a burl. Or..." He didn't bother finishing that sentence, fairly certain Riley had already contemplated an infinite number of scenarios based on what she might decide.
She sniffed and brushed at her hair, shoving her fingers through it in a human facsimile of a cat grooming itself when caught doing something embarrassing. "So...they're indulging in a lot of CYA," she said thoughtfully. "Unsanctioned missions? More than one? Do you know where? When? Anything?" Were they recruiting other mercenaries to clean up their messes, or were she and David the only lucky suckers?
"That I couldn't tell ya. Short of askin' an actual agent about it, ya probably couldn't find out much. And even then, it seems like th'ones in charge play things pretty close t'the chest."
She nodded; that lined up pretty much exactly with what Jill had told them. She sighed and began playing with the tea cup in front of her again. Was there anything else she needed to know? She'd learned the the MVA was precisely what Jill said it was; she also learned that there was the possibility of other mercs out there, doing other off the book, black ops. That was something David would have to take up with Jill; maybe it would effect their decision to work with the organisation.
Darien chose to fill the silence made by Riley's speculation by offering her one more piece of advice. "I wouldn't trust 'em as far as I could throw 'em. And keep in mind, I ain't some psycho super cat."
One corner of her mouth lifted in a smirk. "Psycho," she repeated with amusement. She licked her lips and leaned forward a bit, suddenly possessed by the need to unload a little of what had been sitting on her shoulders for so long. "They have surveillance everywhere, Darien. CCTV, unmanned drones drifting around the city, agents out in public spying. They bugged our house."
At that moment the bartender rung a tiny gong to herald last call. By then the edamame had gone cold, but Darien plucked one up and continued munching. "Then throw them very far." His mouth twitched as he left the empty pod on his saucer and scooped up the documents back into the folio. After a look at Riley, he leaned back against his seat, chewing. "I might could find out more. Want me t'keep lookin' into it?"
She nodded mutely. If anyone could find the dirt she needed to use as leverage against the MVA, it was Darien. "Anything you can find. Anything at all. I'll owe you big time."
Darien nodded in return, about to slide the folio back into his briefcase. After a moment's hesitation he decided better of it and offered it to Riley. "I'll be in touch. Don't talk about it over the phone." But she knew that.
"Be careful," she said as she took the pile of documents and photos from him. "You never know who's listening and watching. Maybe you should invest in some anti-listening equipment or something."
The Aussie cracked a smile at her that showed almost all his teeth. "Clearly you don't know me that well."
She chuckled, flashing him the first smile she'd worn in an hour. "Yeah, I'm not surprised." She rose, setting enough money to cover her tea and leave a nice tip on the table, and tucked the folder under her arm. "Give my love to your girls?"
He made a sound that must have been acknowledgment. "Watch your backside, Kit." He paused, then smirked. "S'a nice view."
She winked at him, turned tail, and with a long-legged, hip-swaying strut, no doubt playing up the rear view for his benefit, headed out of the sushi dive and into the night.
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Post by Riley Lo on Jun 20, 2012 15:33:36 GMT -5
It hadn't surprised David much to hear that Fenner didn't have a lot of information about the MVA. He'd gotten the distinct impression that they really tried to keep themselves out of the limelight. He was fairly confident that the journalist would come up with something, though--annoying as Fenner could be at times, the man knew his stuff.
He'd had some difficulty locating his CIs from his stint as a Watchman--most of them weren't the kind of people who hung around in the same place for too long, generally because they were afraid someone would stick a knife in their back or something equally unpleasant. The majority of the ones he did manage to find gave him a blank look when he mentioned the MVA. A couple had heard of the organization, but couldn't tell him more than he already knew. One of them, however, had something much more interesting and informative, assuming it was true.
Frankie the Tuna was what people called him. He was a small-time money launderer for the Mob, using his seafood restaurant to do the deed. That was what had gotten him the name. According to Frankie, he knew a guy who had a friend who'd seen a couple of MVA agents apprehending someone, presumably someone using an illegal quantum-thingy. Frankie liked to tell a story with lots of dramatic embellishments, but what it boiled down to was this: The dimension-hopping perp appeared in the same sort of eye-searing pillar of light that had brought David himself here to RhyDin, whereupon he was almost immediately jumped by two guys carrying high-tech guns. He tried to run, but they caught him, handcuffed him, and tossed him into a van that seemed to appear out of nowhere, then disappear in an eye blink.
If Frankie wasn't full of sh*t, it was some very good information, and seemed to go along with how Jill had described the MVA. David was inclined to believe the story, though, mostly because of the accuracy of that description of the pillar of light. He'd seen it first-hand, after all. After thanking Frankie--and paying him a mildly exorbitant fee--he headed back home to tell Riley what he'd learned.
When David got home, Riley was seated out on the back patio, curled up in front of the outdoor fireplace. Finn was lying next to her on the ground at her feet, a huge beef bone held between his front paws as he gnawed at it. The long, low table in front of the sofa where Riley was seated was covered in stacks of paper, each of them topped by David's face in a mug shot, or a driver's license photo, or a work-place badge ID. Riley looked like she was shell-shocked.
When he got close enough to see what--who--she was looking at, he felt a chill slither its way down his spine. He knew immediately who the faces were--his other selves, those alternate versions of himself from other dimensions. People Luo had killed in his quest for ultimate power. People whose deaths had made David so much more than he'd been before. "How...?" he asked, sounding considerably more stunned than was his usual.
She glanced up at him; her eyes were red-rimmed and the tip of her nose. It was obvious she'd been crying. "Fenner found it all," she said in a raw voice.
"Christ." He dropped onto the couch next to her and wrapped his arms around her. He didn't want to look at the names and the faces--all his--even though he knew he'd have to.
She snuggled into his arms, burying her face in the junction of his neck and shoulder and inhaled his scent deeply, using it to soothe her shattered Centre. After a moment or two, she lifted her head and looked up at him. "There's 123 of them, David. You're 124, I guess; Luo was 125."
He shook his head. One hundred twenty-four dead people who looked just like him. How could a person even comprehend that? "How the hell did Fenner get a hold of all this?" he asked, partly to avoid the real topic.
She shrugged and leaned forward to gather everything up and stuff it back into the folio the journalist had given her. "How does he find out about anything? Diligence and persistence. He found schematics for that tunnelling thing, too. As well as where their HQ is located."
"He's better than I thought," David murmured distractedly, watching as she put it all away. He could still feel the eyes of all his alternate selves looking accusingly at him. We died, and you lived, they seemed to say. Lived and grew stronger.
"Yeah," she said distractedly and turned to face him, drawing one impossibly long leg up onto the sofa, her knee pressed into the cushions at the back. "But he ultimately said that they are what Jill's said. He also mentioned the fact that they seem to be in a serious CYA and clean up mode, as well as overhearing a bunch of rumours of unsanctioned missions. I'm wondering if we're their only suckers."
He shrugged slightly. "Doesn't seem likely--or smart, for that matter--to put all their eggs in one basket. Most of my informants didn't know jack about them, but one guy told me a story about some MVA agents apprehending an illegal tunneler."
"Here?" she asked surprised. Finn suddenly seemed to notice that David was home and made his funny growly sound as he rose and went over to nose impatiently at David's hand. The puppy was growing by leaps and bounds; at nearly 6 months of age, he weighed more than 50 pounds already.
"Yeah," he replied, scratching Finn's head. He didn't have to reach down much for that head anymore. Finn was turning into a monster. "Near the Marketplace."
"Huh," she said thoughtfully. "How'd he know what it was he was seeing?"
"Well, he said they yelled MVA at the guy. What clinched it for me, though, was his description of how the perp came out of a pillar of blinding light. That's exactly what it looked like when I was in it."
She nodded and leaned down a bit to plant a kiss right on the top of Finn's muzzle before the big puppy ambled off into the yard, his bone firmly clenched in his teeth. "So. They're on the up and up...for the most part. What do we do now?"
"That's the question, all right. Do we go along with their plan, or ignore them and hope they're exaggerating Makepeace's potential damage?"
"We can't ignore it, David," she said in a soft voice. "We both had those dreams, remember? And that psychic you went to see said something was coming, right? It has to be dealt with."
"No, we can't, can we?" He sighed softly. "There's too many separate sources telling us that the threat is real." He glanced at the folio, then back to her. "You're right, it has to be dealt with. And that means telling Jill we'll do it."
"But...I want to do it on our terms. I want to be in the driver's seat for the whole deal...and that means digging up more dirt on these people. I want redacted stuff. I want financial information. I want their dirty little secrets." She reached out and tapped the folder. "This is just the tip of the ice burg. I can feel it. There's more they're hiding. We just need to ferret it out somehow."
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Post by Riley Lo on Jun 20, 2012 15:34:01 GMT -5
"How? Going through people like Fenner? Or sneaking into the place ourselves?"
"I'd much rather the latter. I don't like him having too much on us. And he's going to make me pay for this."
"I don't like it either. Especially knowing that he knows about Luo."
She nodded. "Yeah, exactly." She sat up straight and flashed David a dangerous smile. "So, we turn the tables on them. Break into their HQ and snoop around in their dirty laundry."
He couldn't help smiling back at her as he nodded. "I'm game," he said. The idea didn't bother him as much as it would have, once. He'd spent so much of his life upholding the law, but he lived in a different world now, literally as well as figuratively. He'd changed in many ways, not least of which was the realization that the world was more shades of grey than black and white.
"Awesome," she said with a lopsided smirk. "How do we do it?" She snorted a little laugh; although she was a night hunter and spent a lot of time tracking prey and setting up the perfect ambush, she wasn't by nature a sneak. She far preferred doing things the in-your-face sort of way. She'd need a lot of help in planning a successful infiltration.
"Well," he said slowly. "You understand that I'm more trained to catch the people who do the sneaking in than doing it myself, but first we have to case the place, find out how many people are there on a regular basis, see what kind of security they have on the entrances. Look for other ways to get in. That kind of thing."
She nodded. "Okay. Hey, you know what? I'll bet Oliver and his crew would be perfect for this sort of thing," she said, referring to the small band of ten or twelve orphans who inhabited the burned out buildings near the Gardens. Riley had long ago established a close relationship with them, feeding them, sheltering them, giving them cast off clothing and furniture, and offering them small jobs from time to time.
"Maybe, if we can make sure they'll be safe." Breaking and entering personally was one thing, getting kids into trouble was entirely another.
"They can case the place pretty safely, can't they? No one notices those kids."
"You're probably right," he agreed.
She nodded and turned thoughtful. "Okay, so was ask Oliver to get some of his charges to find out how many people go in and out, what sort of security they have, where the exits and entrances are... Maybe how people get into the building, too? Swipe card, retinal scanner, secret password, whatever."
He nodded. "Yeah, definitely. If it's a card or a key, we can try to, ah, acquire one."
"The kids'll be good at that, too. Sticky fingers and everything." She chuckled softly. "I should feel awful about employing them in this, shouldn't I?"
"Probably," he answered, smirking.
She shrugged a little. "I don't. At least this way, I know what they're doing and I can keep them safe, right?"
"It makes sense. In a mildly twisted way." He chuckled.
"There you go." She rose from the couch and gathered up the folio. Finn, who was clear over by the koi pond, staring down into the depths and no doubt wondering how much trouble he'd be in if he went fishing, leapt up and bounded over to Riley, seeing that she was about to go inside. "We should go plan," she said to David, raising her hand to keep it from Finn's mouth; he loved to nibble on her fingers.
He nodded, standing up and stretching before following her into the house. "Look at us," he said, chuckling. "A lawyer who's also the ex-Minister of Justice and a former cop and watchman, heading off to plan a B&E job."
"It just means that we should know exactly what not to do, right?" She grinned and headed into the kitchen, the one room in the house that they were absolutely certain was bug free. Although Jill had promised that she'd cut the surveillance on the house, Riley didn't trust her and preferred to keep sensitive discussions in the safe, listening device-free environs of their kitchen. Plus there was food. And beer.
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Post by Riley Lo on Jun 20, 2012 15:34:37 GMT -5
Riley spoke to Oliver the next day and outlined exactly what she wanted from him and his crew. They were to count the number of entrances and exits, how many people went through those doors, what time of day they usually came and went, as well as what sort of security measures the building employed. He was also to attempt getting his hands on a set of janitor's keys as well as ID badges or magnetic swipe cards, although of lifting those items proved to be too risky, they weren't to put themselves in harm's way. Oliver rolled his eyes at Riley's concerns and assured her that he'd been picking pockets longer than Riley had been a lawyer. With a chuckle and a large handful of gold and silver coins, she sent Oliver back to his crew so the kids could begin their own planning. They had a few days to complete their reconnaissance and report back to Riley and David.
Some four days later, Oliver met with Riley at the Bodhi Tree, where she treated him to a plateful of keema and aloo naan and a mango lassi, as well. He reported his crews' findings and turned over two swipe cards as well as a set of janitor's keys that apparently opened every door in the place. Riley was impressed and proud of the kids' work and was shocked to discover that there was a door at the rear of the building that was unlocked all the time and didn't appear to have any surveillance around it. Oliver said it was the "smoking door", where employees would take cigarette breaks. The Cat was skeptical of this; a major government installation with an unsecured door that led right into their most secret and important of facilities? It didn't sound possible, but Oliver assured Riley that it was.
After her meeting with Oliver, she returned home and reported his findings to David. Then they began planning their own break-in. They'd first need to establish alibis for themselves, if it came to it, and Riley thought perhaps she knew the perfect way to do that. They could go to the Red Dragon and see if there was anyone present who would be willing to lie to authorities on the off-chance that Riley and David's break-in was detected and they became suspects.
A week after Riley had her meeting with Fenner, she and David headed to the Red Dragon and were happily surprised to find Mesteno in the place. They convinced him, with a small amount of hassle (as was to be expected), to give them an air-tight alibi. Then they left the Inn, they broke into a steady run that made short work of the distance to Dan and Lelah's cabin. It also warmed them up, loosened muscles, and burned off some of the nervous energy which had been building up as the night went on.
They greeted Danny and Lelah with hugs and cheek kisses and found the studio's head make-up mistress, Emma Valentino, waiting for them in the small kitchen. Lelah seated herself atop the kitchen counter, making more room for Emma to maneuver around, and said to Riley and David, "Why couldn't we get one of the illusion mages to do this? This is going to be hours in the make-up chair."
"Illusions can be seen through," David replied after glancing at Emma. He trusted Dan and Lelah completely, but he hardly knew the makeup artist—they'd only spoken a few times when he'd been at the studio for the movie. Emma nodded and started her work.
After three and a half hours, she had finished them both, completely transforming their facial structure, hair colour, body type, and even the way they walked. Riley had gone from a tall, willowy Japanese to a tall, slightly plump woman who could pass as either Italian or Greek, and David was now a chubby blonde of obvious Scandinavian extract. Lelah stared at them both and then giggled and clapped with glee. "Oh, my god, Emma!" she exclaimed. "That is fantastic! I would never, ever guess they were Riley and David!"
He turned to look at Riley, eyes widening in surprise. The effect was so complete that he felt like he was looking at a stranger. "Damn. You're good," he said to Emma. I can't recognize my own wife."
Riley joined in Lelah's giggling as she gave David a careful once-over. "This is wicked," she said, her Boston Brahmin carefully modulated into a non-accent, making her even less distinctive than before. After thanking the make-up artist, the studio owner, and of course, the Leopard, Riley and David headed out once more, walking carefully through the night-darkened streets of Rhy'Din. They came to a halt at the edge of the small plaza that sat in front of City Hall and carefully looked over the building that Fenner said was occupied by the MVA.
He kept glancing over at her as they walked, amazed by the thoroughness of the disguise Emma had created. "Which side did Oliver say the door was on?" he asked, leaning close to Riley and lowering his voice to a bare whisper.
She nodded towards the side of the building that butted right up against DCH's offices. "I think it's on that side, furthest away from the street. I can go over the roof... Oh, no, I can't. Damn," she said softly. "We can just stroll that way, right? On the opposite side of the street and peek down there?"
He nodded. "Sure. We're not doing anything wrong. Just an average, anonymous couple out for a late night walk. Completely innocent and harmless." And with any luck, that's exactly what anyone who happened to notice the two of them would think.
After taking a deep, centering breath, she reached for David's hand and they started down the street. The sign on the front door of the building said 'LogTech', which matched the company IDs they were both carrying in their pockets. "Think it's a real business?" she asked as they passed by the building. There were no lights on in the offices on the second floor, or cars in the lot, or people entering or exiting; it looked completely empty, except for a single guard who sat behind the desk just inside the front doors. Perfect. Ollie's crew's intelligence was spot on.
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Post by Riley Lo on Jun 20, 2012 15:35:02 GMT -5
He shrugged slightly. "It would be better cover if it was a real business, even if the employees are all actually MVA agents. Looks pretty deserted right now, just like the kids said. As long as they don't have a lot of cameras inside, should be pretty easy."
"Yeah," she said, her nerves apparent even to anyone who happened to pass by them. She couldn't quite figure out why she was so nervous and scared about this, though it probably had something to do with the fact that she had never broken the law in such a profound way. "Are you ready?" she asked David once they'd drawn even with the small alley that ran alongside the building and which ostensibly led to the door that Oliver assured them would be unlocked.
He nodded, but put a hand on her shoulder before turning towards the door. "Take a deep breath, love. Focus. Think of it like a sparring match, where you're trying not to get hit. Don't let your nerves get the best of you." His heart was beating a little harder than before as they prepared to go in, but he told himself it wasn't any different than going into a building full of an unknown number of possibly armed suspects.
She did as he instructed and felt better almost instantly. Flashing him a grateful smile, she stepped off the curb and crossed the street quickly but, she hoped, not suspiciously. Soon enough, they were headed down the alleyway and found the door. It was surrounded by cigarette butts, two thigh-high cans of sand for extinguishing cigarettes, as well as a wooden picnic bench and a small, pathetic attempt at a flower patch. She stared at the door for a moment, almost expecting it to spring open and a whole platoon of Watch members to come spilling out, screaming at them to get down on their knees and put their hands behind their heads.
He surveyed the dismal tableaux as shook his head slightly. "I can hardly believe they're this lax," he whispered. He reached out and laid his hand on the door, as if he could somehow feel through it and determine if there were ambushers waiting on the other side.
Riley held her breath as David touched the door, but when nothing happened, she let it out in a rush that ended in a nervous giggle. "Well, it's now or never," she said and nodded for him to enter, allowing him to be chivalrous without complaint for the first and only time in their entire relationship.
He lowered his hand to the knob and twisted it, slowly and cautiously. It was unlocked. He shot a glance at Riley, pointed to her nose, then eased the door open just a crack. No light spilled out of the crack.
She inhaled deeply, nostrils working overtime, making her look a bit like a hunting dog who'd just gotten a nose full of game. She shook her head a bit. "Nothing," she whispered. "Only one recent scent; it's gotta be the guard at the front."
He nodded, grateful for her Super-kitty nose. There wasn't much that could fool it—if anyone was hiding in the darkness, she would've smelled them. He swung the door open slowly until there was enough room for him to slip through. Inside, he moved immediately to the left, giving Riley room to come in, just like he'd done when he still on the force. Keep fields of fire clear. Not that either of them were carrying guns tonight, but the principles still held.
She slipped in right behind him, still taking her cues from him as a very small and remote portion of her brain marvelled at this. Once upon a time, there would have been no way she'd trust someone as implicitly and completely as she trusted David; she would have had to be first in, checking all the lines of sight, leading others down hallways. But not now. She knew she could rely on David to take care of what needed to be done without second guessing him. "Clear," she whispered and then started down the hallway, carefully checking doors and opening them when she found them unlocked. On the first floor, down the hall that led to the smoking area, they found a small kitchen and break-room, as well as a janitor's closet, bathrooms, and an entire room filled with filing cabinets that begged to be dug through.
When he was still a cop, he would've killed to have a partner he worked with as well he did Riley. Sometimes the two of them seemed to be able to read each other's minds, they were so in sync with each other. Of course, the SFPD kind of frowned on married couples working in the field together. But then, they'd never had a couple like Riley and David on the force. He nodded to the filing cabinets, then went over to the nearest one on the left side and tugged it quietly open, looking over the folders there.
She started opposite him, quietly and quickly rifling through the folders, occasionally pulling one out to give it a closer look. She found personnel files from employees in the LogTech firm, accounting information, closed accounts, and sundry other files pertaining to the day-to-day workings of a real business. "Huh," she mused quietly. It seemed that LogTech was a real business and not merely a front for the MVA. She couldn't, however, make heads or tails of what sort of business they conducted. Something to do with the logging industry was her best guess.
It was all completely mundane and thoroughly uninteresting, he realized as he started on the second filing cabinet. This was obviously a real business—no front would have this volume of all but useless information, sometimes going back for years. He left the cabinet and moved over to Riley's side. "I don't think there's anything here," he whispered into her ear. "This feels like a legit company. Maybe the MVA just uses it as cover."
She nodded, agreeing with him as she closed the last filing cabinet. "That's my guess, too," she whispered back. "Upstairs?" she asked. Somehow they'd have to get across the lobby without being spotted so they could gain access to the flight of stairs that went up to the second floor. If this building was anything like the thousands of businesses in Boston, Pittsburgh, and Tucson, the executives and worker drones would have their offices and cubicles on the second floor. There existed the possibility that there would be something worth recovering in one of those offices.
He nodded. If they were lucky, the single guard was bored, reading a magazine, watching TV, or even taking a nap. Otherwise, it was going to be hard as hell to cross the lobby without alerting him to their presence. He left the room and crept down the hall towards the lobby, keeping a careful eye out for any cameras.
There were no cameras present, or at least there weren't any that Riley could spot, but considering she'd lived with cameras and mics in her home for nearly two years and hadn't had a clue about them presence, she couldn't rely on that assumption. When they finally reached the lobby, they saw that Murphy had decided to take it easy on them...for now. The guard wasn't present at his desk and Riley smelled a scent trail going down the hall in the opposite direction they'd gone. He was either in the bathroom or the kitchen. They were free to cross to the stairs.
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Post by Riley Lo on Jun 20, 2012 15:35:28 GMT -5
A tight grin curled up his lips when he saw the guard's absence. Someone was smiling down at them, apparently. He glanced around again, making sure the guy wasn't coming out of one of the other halls, then ran quickly and quietly to the stairs, trusting Riley to follow him without needing to check up on her.
She followed just as silently and quickly and paced behind him as they went upstairs. There was another, smaller reception area that sat at the junction of two hallways. One clearly led to a cubicle farm; they could probably skip that area. Any employee who rode a desk wouldn't have access to the kind of secrets they were hunting for, so they headed down the opposite branch of the hall, testing doors as they went.
Near the end of the hall, David froze suddenly as he spotted a camera mounted at the center of a T-junction. He held up a hand and pointed at the camera, which was currently looking away from them, but could swing back at any time.
"Sh*t," she said softly and quickly tried the closest door. Finding it open, she slipped inside and was confronted by another door, this one secured by a magnetic strip. "Double sh*t."
He piled into the tiny room after her—there was just enough for two people to stand in single file between the two doors, and he could have reached either wall with an outstretched arm. "What the hell is this?" he muttered, plastering himself against Riley's back so he could shut the door behind him.
She grinned and reached for her swipe card. "A secret," she said and then ran her card through the reader. Nothing happened; the red light on the panel stayed red and when she tried the door, the knob wouldn't turn. She turned the card around and swiped the other side. Still nothing. "Crap."
"Let me try mine," he said, reaching around her and swiping the card he'd been carrying through the reader. The red light switched to green, and there was an audible click as the door lock disengaged. "Jackpot," he said, grinning."
"Cool," she said with a grin and carefully opened the door, sniffing intently. The scents that wafted up the dimly-lit staircase on the other side of the door were recent and strong—at least twenty people were currently down there. "Double crap," she said quietly to David as she slipped through and stood on the top step. "I think we've found what we're looking for, but there's a bunch of people down there."
"How many?" he murmured next to her ear. He couldn't hear anything ahead of them, but his senses were paltry compared to hers.
She sniffed again and then shrugged. "Twenty, maybe more. It's hard to tell. Kinda wish I had a dog's nose right about now," she admitted. Then she glanced back at him. "What do you want to do?"
He couldn't repress a little snicker at the mental image of her with a dog's snout. "Uh...these disguises won't help much if we're caught snooping around in here."
"True, so how do we make sure we're not caught?" Probably the first they could do was to descend the steps; it wouldn't do to be caught at the top, standing around like slack-jawed yokels on their first trip to the big city.
"We've got two choices that I can see. One, we try to keep sneaking around, or two, we try to pretend we belong. They're both pretty risky."
She chuckled softly as they went carefully down the steps. "We need files or clipboards or something," she said, referring to the myth that anyone carrying a bunch of files or a clipboard and walking with purpose can go unharassed anywhere in the civilised world.
He snorted very quietly. "Maybe we can find some lab coats, too." The bottom of the stairs opened up into a large hallway—considerably bigger than those of the business above, and went on for quite a distance. He could see doors on both sides of the hall, and a larger set at the far end. "This is big," he muttered.
She took a deep breath and slowly shook her head. "Maybe it's time for some triage? We cannot possibly go through all of these doors and whatever's ahead. So we need a formula or something to figure out what might be the most important."
"Well, there are a couple of likely spots to find something. Offices and file rooms. The MVA seems pretty fond of their tech, so I'm guessing computer storage."
"Let's go for the computer stuff. 125 universes they have under their thumb; surely they've mastered the paperless office by now, huh?"
"You'd think. Okay, so let's find a computer." He looked down the long hallway again. Where to start? "Okay...I'm going to check some doors. You keep watch for anyone coming, okay?" She had the senses to notice someone long before he did.
She nodded and moved out of his way, standing in a spot where she could both see and smell from either direction. Her nose told her that these doors—and whatever lay beyond them—hadn't been passed through in at least three, maybe four hours. Some of the doors had windows in them—that made things quite a bit easier. Most of them also had nameplates, but those weren't of much use to him. He noted through the window that each office had a computer sitting on a desk. Would any computer do? Probably not. Some would have more access than others. But they weren't exactly free to pick and choose at their leisure. The first door he found unlocked, he opened and slipped inside, motioning for Riley to follow him.
She did so, taking a look around the room once she was inside. It looked like a typical middle-management office—pictures of a pretty brunette with three kids and a dog that looked like a Jack Russel terrier on the desk, sticky notes surrounding the computer monitor, a Rhy'Din University mug filled with pens, pencils, a pair of scissors, and a highlighting marker, an in box that was stuffed full to over-flowing, an empty out box, a sickly potted plant, and a motivational poster that spoke to the joys of team work.
"Huh. I was expecting the Enterprise, and ended up with the Office. Where's all the high-tech gadgetry?" He went over to the computer and turned it on, waiting. It seemed to take forever for the computer to boot up; though it was actually considerably faster than the ones they used in the hotel, for example. When the screen came up, a cursor blinked patiently in a box, awaiting a password. "F*ck."
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Post by Riley Lo on Jun 20, 2012 15:36:15 GMT -5
She shook her head. "C'mon. We don't have the time to d*ck around guessing passwords." She carefully opened the door that led into the hallway and then stepped out, trying another door. It led to another similar office, though this one conveniently had a sticky note with passwords next to the keyboard. "Jesus, I didn't know anyone was that stupid," she said as she sat down in the desk chair, booted the machine up, and waiting for it to start running.
"The level of people's stupidity has ceased to amaze me anymore," he said, going over to the door to watch the hallway as Riley tried her luck with this one.
Soon, the same prompt came up, and Riley entered the first code on the sticky with success. "Wow," she muttered, and then began exploring all the files on the computer. There were two files that intrigued Riley greatly. One seemed to be a list of all the tunnellers the MVA had captured, as well as a listing of their crimes and sentences. The other was an extensive dossier on Dave Luo beginning with his recruitment and ending with his death.
When she was silent for several minutes, he glanced over his shoulder at her. "Found something good?" The hallway was still empty, thankfully. It seemed that even though there were people around, they were in some other area of the building for the moment.
"Oh, yeah," she said, reaching into her pocket to withdraw the USB memory stick she'd brought with her for just such an occasion. Loading it into the computer, she quickly copied over the files; as they copied, she continued snooping through the computer's local files and then accessed the network, finding three different data storage hubs.
Down at the end of the hall, the larger set of doors swung open, and a man walked out, heading down the hall in their direction. "Crap," he said. "Company. Shut it down."
"Sh*t, sh*t, sh*t," she said and backed out of what she was doing and turned off the computer. Panicking a bit, she dove beneath the desk, huddling in the knee hole and praying that David could find an equally safe and accessible hidey-hole. There was nowhere for him to hide; all he could do was press himself up against the wall on the side of the door and hope like hell that the guy wasn't coming to this particular office. There were tons of them down this hall, what were the odds?
Riley strained her ears listening to the soft footsteps as they became slightly louder as the man walked towards their door, then faded as he passed by. With a sigh of relief, she crawled out, told David that it was safe, and righted everything she'd touched, wishing she'd thought to wear gloves or something before doing this.
"Just use your sleeve," he said, noticing her hands hovering above the keyboard as if she were reluctant to touch anything. "If the prints are smeared enough, it's as good as them not being there in the first place." She nodded and did so, hopefully smearing away the damning evidence of their thievery. "Okay," she said, moving back to his side. "What now? Do you want to go deeper or go home?"
The cautious side of him immediately advised going home, but...they hadn't really learned much yet. "Let's go deeper," he replied. "We might not get a chance to do this a second time." She tipped him a lopsided grin; he'd chosen what she'd hoped he'd go for. They headed towards the larger door at the far end. It, too, had an identical swipe card to the one at the head of the steps, so figuring that David's card would get them through it, she stepped back and watched their rear.
He pulled the card out and ran it through the reader. Once again, he was awarded with a green light. The door opened to reveal another set of stairs, which proved to lead to more offices. He glanced over at Riley. Did they search through these, or look for something other than an office? She shrugged lightly; she'd leave the decision up to him. She hadn't been able to look through the files on the data storage hubs so there could be something damning and useful lurking there. On the other hand, there was another magnetic strip on another door that was calling out to her.
Going by the theory that the magnetic locks lead to more important things than regular locks, he headed over to that one and tried it. More stairs. "Do we go down?"
"Oh, yeah," she said. "This floor is the most occupied, though. We'll have to be extra-super-duper careful."
He nodded and they went cautiously down the stairs. As soon as they reached the bottom, it was apparent that this floor contained something other than just offices. There were several branching hallways, and an impressively large set of doors down the longest one, which ran straight ahead. There was a big red sign over the hall on the left, reading 'Detention Area, Authorized Personnel Only'. "Bound to be guards down that one," he said. "We'd better stay away."
She nodded and turned to head in the opposite direction. There were recent smells in this hallway, including the distinctive scent of cordite and fresh blood. "Someone's fired a gun recently down here," she whispered, fighting with Jaguar over Her urge to go and see about the injured. "And someone's bled, too."
He frowned, wanting to check it out, but concerned that recent fighting might mean people still around. "All right, let's go see. Carefully." He started off down that hall, skin tingling with the anticipation of someone popping out at them any moment.
They quietly passed by darkened observations rooms and here they would find what David had been expecting—banks of computer screens, dials and levers, switches and meters. Beyond a large glass window, was a strange round room with something that looked like a five-petaled flower on the floor. "Wonder what goes on in there?"
He was wondering the same thing, since the room only had a single door, no windows, and no visible equipment in it. "Some kind of testing room?" He shrugged. "I don't know. Where do you smell the blood?"
"Next door," she said, nodding to the room to her left. When they peeked around the corner, they discovered that it was the same sort of set-up, only there were people inside—white lab coats dominated the observation room, while beyond the window two tall, heavily muscled men in black body armour stood around a pool of blood in the centre of the flower design. The body that had leaked all over the floor was no where to be found. "Holy crap," she said.
He frowned again, trying to figure out what could have gone on in there. Some kind of interrogation? "Let's get away from here," he said, worried that one of the lab coated people was going to turn and spot them.
She was already moving away from the window, heading in the direction from which they'd entered the hall. There was another doorway opposite the one they'd just come through and she looked curiously between it and David.
This one didn't have a window, and there was a keypad next to the magnetic strip. "Heavy security here," he murmured. "I bet there's gear in here."
She nodded and cast a quick look over her shoulder. They could go no further. "I guess this is the end of the line." She looked and sounded disappointed. Whatever she was expecting, the reality of the MVA was very disappointing. Of course, once they got those files analysed, things might be different, but it appeared that what Fenner and Frankie the Tuna reported still held true—the MVA was a straight-edge organisation.
He nodded back. "Yeah...we've been here long enough. Time to make our getaway before those guys in the round come out and spot us." He turned and made for the stairs leading up, moving quickly and quietly.
She followed him and once they'd hit the pavement in the smoking area, she let out a relieved breath. "Jesus. I felt like I'd been holding my breath the entire time we were in there."
"No sh*t," he replied. "I haven't been that tense since rookie year, I don't think." He glanced behind them, and finding no angry MVA agents boiling out of the door nodded and continued. "Okay, let's get home and take a look at these files."
"Right on your heels, baby," she said and followed him out of the alley and then turned steps back to their Seaside residence.
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Post by Riley Lo on Jun 20, 2012 15:39:37 GMT -5
Almost precisely 72 hours after Jill had last spoken to David outside the Zen Gardens building, his cell phone rang one afternoon. The ringing of his cell phone itself wasn't exactly an uncommon occurrence. He generally got a couple of calls daily, either from Riley, students, or hotel staff. No, what was unusual was the caller ID screen on his cell remaining completely blank, even as the phone rang. Not even an 'unknown number' or 'private'. Just blank. He stared at the phone for a moment, then shrugged and answered. "Hello?"
"David, it's Jill."
Ah. Well. That explained the blank ID. The MVA, he was learning, really loved their gadgets. "Jill," he said. His voice wasn't exactly warm and welcoming, but it didn't make the phone freeze, either.
"Have you and Riley had time to discuss our proposal?" She probably knew damned well that they had and much, much more.
"You mean you haven't recorded every conversation we've had over the past three days?"
There was a soft snort on the other end of the phone. "We've halted active surveillance, so no. We haven't."
He made a noncommittal noise, the kind he was so very good at, but something told him that she was being straight with him, so he added, "All right. Yes, we've talked about it, then."
"And...?" she asked in a 'come on, out with it' sort of tone.
He remained silent for a moment, not because he was trying to annoy her, but because he was thinking about how this moment was something of a point of no return. If he told her they'd decided to help, they were committed. It wasn't something he wanted to give a glib answer too. There was a tiny noise on the other end of the phone, maybe a sigh, maybe the whisper of a breeze. "We've decided to help," he said a second or two after the maybe-sigh.
The smile in the recovery agent's voice was audible when she replied, "Good. Excellent. Will you come down to HQ tomorrow? You don't need directions, do you?"
"No...we don't need directions," he said, wondering if her comment meant she knew about their little...excursion. "When do you want us to come?"
"The sooner the better, I'd say. Just ask for Marie in IT at the front desk. Let's say just after eight in the morning?"
"All right." He'd have to let his students know he'd be gone for the first class. Luckily, the assistant teachers could handle it well enough. And they'd also have to tell the hotel staff that he and Riley would be gone for a while.
"Great. See you then." The phone went dead in David's hand almost immediately.
"See you," he said pleasantly to the dead phone. Self-serve sarcasm for the win. He put the cell away and headed for home so he could tell Riley that they were in it now.
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Post by Riley Lo on Jun 20, 2012 15:54:06 GMT -5
The next morning Riley stood in front of her open closet, staring into its bespelled depths. She'd had breakfast, done an hour of yoga, showered, and was now getting ready to traipse into the den of the enemy. What did one wear to do such a thing? "David?" she called out, unaware for the moment where in the house her husband was located.
His voice floated into the room from somewhere near the kitchen. "Yeah?" A moment later, the man himself followed his voice in, walking over to stand just behind her as she gazed into the TARDIS of closets.
"We're just meeting for like...a briefing or something, right?" Standing in her underwear, she glanced over her shoulder at David and smiled a bit. She was entertaining thoughts of being late to this meeting.
He smiled back at her, reaching out to rest his hands on her slender waist. "I guess," he said, more than a little distracted by the smile and the state of undress.
She sighed and shook her head. "Later," she said, firmly shoving that thought away and turning back to her closet.
"Later is very far away," he said, echoing her sigh.
"It is, but...waiting will make it that much sweeter, right?" she tossed over her shoulder as she selected a pair of jeans, a Dr Who t-shirt, and Chuck Taylors. Dressing quickly, she headed into the bathroom to put on makeup, brush her hair and teeth, and spritz herself with a little honeysuckle scent.
"True." He was mostly dressed already, just lacking socks and shoes, so he sat down on the bed to wait for her to finish up. He enjoyed watching her get ready. Hell, he enjoyed watching her do just about anything.
She came back into the bedroom and gave Finn a smile. He was laying in the floor at the foot of their bed, chin resting on his paws, looking up at her with sad, puppy dog eyes. "He knows we're leaving."
"We could take him with us," he said, smirking. "I'm sure Marie in IT would love a dog the size of a pony."
She laughed and leaned down to kiss the dog before going out to the living room to slide on her shoes. "I think it's probably for the best that he stays home for this. I have no idea what we're going to be doing."
"Yeah, me either. Or how long it'll be. Sh*t," he said suddenly. "What if they want us to leave right away? What about the hotel and classes and everything?"
"They'll have to cut us some slack. We need to make arrangements. If they can't understand that, they can f*ck right off." She slid her phone into her back pocket and headed out the door. The walk to the MVA headquarters passed quickly, with neither of them speaking very much along the way. When they were standing in front of the unassuming building, he looked over at her and smirked. "Guess we'll use the front door this time, huh?"
She laughed and nodded, "Yeah. We'll be legal this time." She went and opened the door, stepping through and giving the bottle blonde behind the big desk a wan smile.
"Can I help you?" the receptionist asked.
He nodded. "Yes, we're here to see Marie in IT. She should be expecting us."
The blonde nodded and rang an extension. "Marie? Your appointment's here." She looked back up at Riley and David and flashed them a smile. "She'll be right with you. Take a seat. Can I get you some coffee or water?" Riley moved to perch on the edge of a hard plastic chair and nodded. "Coffee, thanks."
"I'll have some coffee, too, thanks." He took a chair next to Riley's and looked around. Reception areas pretty much looked the same anywhere you went, even when it was another world entirely. He smirked slightly, leaning over to murmur his observation to Riley.
The blonde brought them coffee in real china mugs and moments after that, a tall redhead dressed in blue jeans, a sky blue t-shirt, and a grey blazer came down the stairs that led off the side of the reception area. Riley's nostrils flared reflexively and she knew instantly that this woman was Jill. She could feel Jaguar's sudden pushing against the walls of Her mental cage and Riley's fingers tightened around her coffee mug.
One eyebrow rose slightly as 'Marie' turned out to be rather familiar. He glanced over at Riley, seeing her reaction to the woman, and he dropped one hand from the coffee mug to give her knee a little squeeze. Face-ripping could come later. They had to hear what Jill was going to tell them first. At David's touch, Jaguar subsided enough that Riley could think clearly. She bumped her shoulder against her husband's and reached up with her free hand to pick an imaginary fleck of lint off her shirt.
'Marie' smiled and said, "Mr and Mrs Lo? If you'll come with me, we'll get you taken care of."
One corner of his mouth curled up slightly at the contact. He loved that the two of them could so effectively communicate without ever saying a word. It was supposed to take married couples decades to manage that. He stood, nodding to Jill. "Lead the way," he said. Riley followed in David's wake, silent as she struggled with Jaguar's urges to attack the woman who tried to take away her mate.
Jill led them back up the steps, past the cubicles and management offices to the secret doorway. Fishing an ID card out of her blazer's pocket, she swiped it and opened the door that led to the steps that took them down three flights to the basement that contained the MVA's headquarters. Those stairs were rather familiar to the Los, even if the circumstances were quite different. He wasn't about to just come out and admit this fact to Jill, though. "Place is a lot bigger than it looks from the outside," he commented.
"Yes," Jill said, tossing a look over her shoulder as they descended. "I'm surprised you didn't get lost Monday night."
"I've got a very good sense of direction," he replied, making no attempts at innocence. He wasn't really surprised that she knew about their break-in. The only surprising thing was that no one tried to stop them. Or perhaps that was intentional. Maybe they'd let he and Riley snoop around simply because they knew he and Riley wouldn't find anything to contradict what had been told to them.
"You knew," Riley said, her tone making it clear it wasn't a question.
Jill nodded. "If we hadn't wanted you in here, you wouldn't have made it past the edge of the sidewalk outside," she said, pausing at the bottom of the steps and swiping her card again. They entered the t-intersection hallway where Riley and David had chosen to go left and discovered the large fishbowl rooms. This time, though, they continued forward to another secure door.
He wasn't sure how he felt about knowing that they'd so easily anticipated his and Riley's plans. Then he sighed inwardly. Of course they'd known what he was going to do. Jill had studied him, watched him. She knew more about his life than practically anyone, possibly even Riley. If anyone could predict his choices and actions, it was Jill.
Once past the secure door, they entered what looked like a giant television studio. There were banks of screens, hundreds of dials and switches, people with headphones on sitting at desks, typing transcripts of whatever they were listening to. Riley paused for a moment, eyes sweeping over the screens. She saw scenes she immediately recognised—Shuijin Park, the Marketplace from near Teas N' Tomes, Kazon's Mithril refinery and warehouses, even the street in front of the Red Dragon Inn. "Christ," the Cat muttered under her breath as she began walking after David and Jill once more.
He knew the MVA had surveillance all over the place, but knowing it wasn't the same as being confronted with it. Almost unconsciously, he took a step closer to Riley, brushing his shoulder against hers. "They really are everywhere," he muttered.
"It makes me want to take a shower," Riley admitted softly. Jill was waiting for them next to a door that led into a small conference room. Inside, gathered around an oval-shaped table were three men and a woman. They were all staring at the Los as they entered behind Jill. He knew what she meant. He started to reply, then stopped as they reached the conference room. He didn't know who the people around the table were, but they were staring at him, so he stared right back.
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Post by Riley Lo on Jun 20, 2012 16:20:19 GMT -5
An older man with a greying buzz cut nodded to Jill, who stepped behind the Los and closed the door gently. "Thank you for coming, David, Riley. I'm Pete Scott, deputy director. Why don't you have a seat."
Now that they'd decided to help, David figured there wasn't much point in being belligerent, or getting in people's faces about the surveillance on him and everyone around him. They could fight about it later, if need be. For now, he nodded and sat down across from them. "Thanks," he said.
Riley settled in at David's side but didn't speak. She let her gaze travel around the room and noted with extreme satisfaction that no one would meet her eyes for longer than a second or two at a time. Jill took the last empty seat to David's left and nodded to Pete.
"I'll bet you have lots of questions," he said, looking at David while he spoke. "I'll try to answer them as best I can."
"I do have a lot of questions, but let's focus on why you want us here for now," he replied. "We're going to need to know everything your organization knows about Makepeace if you want us to have a chance of catching him."
Pete nodded and then reached for a stack of files that were piled up in front of the woman to his right. He slid them across the table to David. "That is all the information and intel we have on Makepeace. I'll let you two go over them in more detail later, but for now, I'll just sum up. He's been spending a lot of time in the Middle East, especially after the Arab Spring, as they're calling the various uprisings from Tunisia to Syria. We've been tracking him and he seems to be spending most of his time in Syria, so when you go, that's where we'll send you."
He sat forward as the man spoke, leaning his elbows on the table. When Pete paused, he cut in with another question. "How are you tracking him if he can move between universes?"
"We can track the wormhole activity," said a particularly nerdy young man who sat on the other side of Jill. "Every time a wormhole opens between his Universe and yours—" he nodded to Riley, "we track it."
"But, unless I'm completely wrong," he said, pressing for more information, "can't he open the wormhole virtually anywhere in either world? Even if you see it happen, how do you expect to get a team there before he come move on?"
The same nerdy guy answered. "We have people in the area in Mrs Lo's Universe. We're never more than four hours from any point he's been to. Yes, it may seem like we're always playing catch-up, but soon we will be ahead of him." The man paused for a moment and then continued, "He can only open the hole in one place in his Universe—the lab where he keeps his equipment."
"So why aren't we going there, then?" Riley asked.
Pete spoke up then prefacing his answer with a slightly sheepish shrug of his shoulders. "His facilities are far too secure—even for the two of you. And well, we have no active presence in that Universe." He paused for a moment and frowned in thought. "You're familiar with The Prime Directive on Star Trek?" he asked, directing this question to David.
"You can't interfere with them because they don't have the tech to move between universes?" Of course he was familiar with the Prime Directive. Wasn't everyone?
"Exactly," he said, beaming at David as though he was a particularly bright student. Riley rolled her eyes expressively and the smile faded from Pete's face. "So, yes," he said after clearing his throat. "That Universe is still years away from tunneling knowledge and we cannot interfere with their development of it."
He shook his head in disgust. "So all a bad guy has to do is go hang out in one of these universes protected by your Prime Directive, and they're home free? Seriously?"
Pete's face flushed. "It's not a perfect system, but we do the best with what we have."
David made the non-committal sound he was so well known for, then said, "Okay, so hitting Makepeace at home is out. Go on."
"Right." Pete seemed lost for a moment and then rallied. "We'll send you to Syria, where as I said, he's been spending most of his time. David, you'll pose as an arms dealer and present him with some weaponry that he's never seen before. You'll tell him that there's more where they came from and lure him back here." He glanced at Riley for a moment. "I'm afraid, Mrs Lo, that with your level of notoriety, you'll have to lie low while David is at the meets we set up."
"Wait, wait." David cut in again. "Why the elaborate setup? Just drop us nearby, we'll grab him, and come back."
Pete grimaced and the four MVA agents exchanged oblique looks. "We tried that already," Jill explained in her serious, quiet voice. "He made our team, killed them, and we've not been able to get anyone near him since."
"Your team isn't us, " David pointed out.
"Exactly," Pete said, rallying strongly in the face of David's unrelenting logic. Riley felt a moment of sympathy for him. Her husband often did the same thing to her. "That's exactly why we agreed to bring you in on this project," the deputy director explained. "We are aware of your...unique abilities. We are confident that you will succeed where we have not."
Which just seemed to prove David's point. "Right. So let's get it done quickly. Drop us outside of Makepeace's place, and we'll go in fast, grab him, and come back. Setting me up as some kind of weapons dealer is going to take time. It could be weeks or even months before Makepeace would meet."
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Post by Riley Lo on Jun 20, 2012 16:20:49 GMT -5
Pete's face flushed red and he opened his mouth no doubt to shout out an answer that amounted to 'because this is the way we planned it and you will do it this way!' Jill reached over and put her hand briefly on her boss's arm before turning to face David and just beyond him, Riley. "He's spooked already," she explained in that serious, emotionless way. "We've already sent people after him and they've failed to bring him in, so he's expecting more attempts. If you and Riley show up, overpower his guards, get past all his security measures, he'll jump out before you can get close enough to him to do anything. This way, you'll have established some sort of relationship with him that while not build entirely on trust, will still make him feel somewhat comfortable with you."
David frowned, but nodded after a couple of seconds. It made sense, unfortunately. He knew he and Riley could take out however many guards Makepeace might have, even if there were dozens, but it would take some time, even for them. He could only assume that it wouldn't take Makepeace very long to jump back to his universe. "All right," he said with a touch of reluctance in his voice. "I see your point."
Jill flashed him a grateful smile before turning her attention back to Pete. Pete took a deep breath and glanced down at his notes. "So," he said after a brief pause during which he took a moment to collect himself. "We've taken the liberty of creating an identity for you already, David." He pulled out a driver's license, a passport, car registration, and a Social Security card and passed them across the table to David.
David picked up the driver's license and looked at it. His own face, with a stranger's name. It was uncomfortably reminiscent of the folder full of Luo's victims. Knowing Luo himself had worked here, had known these people, made the comparison even sharper. He reached out with his free hand and found Riley's, drawing strength from the contact.
She rubbed her shoulder against his, gave his hand a gentle squeeze and then turned that level predator's gaze on Pete. "And where's mine?" she asked.
The MVA agents, including Jill, exchanged looks before Pete answered carefully, "We didn't develop a package for you, Mrs Lo. Your face is far too well known on your world. You run the risk of blowing David's cover if you're spotted."
Riley's eyes narrowed a touch and her grip on David's hand might have grown a touch too tight. Like the bones of his hand were grinding together too tight. "And what will I be doing while David is out having fun?"
'Fun' wasn't exactly the way he'd describe what they were talking about having him do. The blood being forced from his hand wasn't all that fun, either, but he was too busy glowering at Pete to complain about it. "You're not suggesting she stays here while I go in alone." It wasn't really a question.
"No, no. She'll go with you but she'll have to lie low. Once you make contact with the subject and establish enough trust with him that he's willing to come back to Rhy'Din with you, Riley will be available to help with the apprehension."
"Lie low," he repeated. "Meaning hide in a room somewhere, so there's no chance of someone accidentally recognizing her." He looked over and caught Riley's eyes, then glanced down at the hand she was trying to make peanut butter out of.
She grimaced and let go of him immediately. "Sorry," she muttered and then turned back to the deputy director. With a heavy sigh, she capitulated to the plan. Though it chafed and she hated it, she saw the wisdom in it. "When do you want us to be ready? We have commitments to take care of before we can take off."
"Especially if we're going to be gone for an extended time," he added. They'd have to make arrangements for others to teach classes, make sure the hotel wouldn't fall apart in their absence, get someone to feed Finn...
"We can give you an additional three days to make these arrangements," Pete said. "But we'll need you to report back here Monday morning at eight o'clock so we can jump you there."
"Three whole days," he muttered. "Generous of you." Well, it was what it was. They'd made the choice to help, now they had to live with it. "All right," he said. "Give me the details on your plan."
For the next hour, Pete and Jill explained the plan and Riley and David poked holes in it. By the time the noon hour rolled around, they'd worked together to perfect the plan and had come up with what both sides pronounced bulletproof. During that time, they'd also managed to develop a passable working relationship with Pete and the other MVA agents. It couldn't be called cordial, by any stretch of the word, but they were all working towards the same goal, at least.
Confident that he had the details down fairly well, David leaned back and said, "All right, we've got plan we're all okay with. Is there anything else you need from us, or can we start making arrangements to be gone for a while?"
"No, you can go take care of what needs to be done," Pete said. "We'll contact you if we need to. If not, then please be here by eight 'o clock Monday morning." He rose from his seat and extended his hand to David.
The tiny pause before he reached out and shook Pete's hand was so brief that only someone who knew him very well would have noticed it. Of course, there were two such people in the room. "Monday, then."
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Post by Riley Lo on Jun 20, 2012 16:21:35 GMT -5
The director nodded and then extended his hand to Riley as well. She looked at it, looked at him and then nodded, deliberately sticking her own hands into the pockets of her jeans. "See ya," she said before moving to the door. When she passed Jill, she let Jaguar off-leash a bit, and a bone-chilling growl threaded through the room. Jill shivered and scooted away from the Cat.
He wanted to smirk at Jill's reaction, but it really wouldn't have been an appropriate response in this situation. So he just gave a tiny shrug and followed Riley out of the room. They didn't bother hanging around for someone to escort them out of the building—they knew the way, after all. A couple of minute later, they stood in front of the unassuming exterior of the MVA headquarters.
"Blerg," Riley said eloquently as they headed to the Gardens. "Do you really think it'll work?"
"I don't know," he said slowly. "The plan seems solid enough, but plans can only get you so far. I think we can handle it, though. And I'm not going to worry about going easy on Makepeace, if it comes to that."
"No, definitely not. If half of what they've told us about him is true, then it's the least he deserves."
He nodded. "Getting him back here for their trial or whatever is a lot less important than stopping him from wrecking Earth."
"How angry do you think they'd be if he...oh, I don't know...met with an accident before we got him back here? If he lost his arm or leg, for example."
"Honestly, I don't give a f*ck," he replied, a tight grin curving his lips. "If this guy's even a little responsible for the sh*t Dan went through, and now trying to do even worse..." He shrugged.
She nodded, glad that they were simpatico on this subject. "Do you have people to cover your classes? And do you think Danny's up for watching everything while we're gone?"
"The assistant teachers can handle the classes, I'm not worried about that." He sighed. "I don't know about Dan, though. I mean, when he's at work, he seems more or less okay, if quieter than usual. But...part of him's just not there, you know?" He figured Riley knew more about what Dan was feeling than he did, what with her super-Kitty nose.
She sighed softly, the sound filled with pain and heart-ache. "Maybe this will help him," she said after a while, needing to put a positive spin on things for a moment. "Maybe it'll help him get his mind off things by making him so busy that he'll be unable to think of anything else."
He hugged her, holding her close against him for a moment. "It might. It helped me some, when I first got here." Another thought struck him. "Do we tell him? What we're going to do, I mean."
"Yeah, I think we'll have to. I can't imagine going to take care of something this big, this...important and not let him know what we're doing. You know?"
He nodded. "Yeah, I know. They're not going to like it," he said, jerking a thumb over shoulder at the building they'd left behind. "Well, screw them anyway."
"They kinda owe this to him. I mean, had he not encountered this *sshole, we wouldn't be going to clean up their mess."
"True. Makes me wonder why they didn't ask us to bring him in on it, actually. He's the only one of us with anything like real experience with Makepeace, and we both know he can fight."
"Who knows? Maybe...maybe he's too close. Too unpredictable." She hated saying that about Danny, who had always been her rock.
"Afraid he might just take Makepeace out without even trying to bring him in, you mean."
"Yeah, something like. Maybe they're afraid of an all-out blood bath."
"You don't really think he'd just go in and start killing people, do you?"
"It's hard to tell. The things he saw and did because of this guy..." Riley shrugged. "I wouldn't bat an eye if given the opportunity to waste him and all the people who work for him."
"Maybe it's just as well they didn't ask him, then," he said after a few seconds of chewing on that. Then he shook his head. "All right, enough with the depressing talk. Let's go get things set up, and then go have a nice, expensive dinner and pretend we're not about to head off on another crazy-ass adventure."
"Are you buying?" she asked, her head filled with visions of Signore Carito's best red, a huge plate of steak Florentine, and a bowl of zabiglione with fresh berries.
"Absolutely." He grinned, taking her hand again. "I can almost hear[/] you drooling over Carito's steak, you know." No, he hadn't developed the power to read minds. At least, not minds he wasn't married to.
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Post by Riley Lo on Jun 27, 2012 10:20:05 GMT -5
Damascus was tense. Upwards of 11,000 people had been killed in the country since the Arab Spring had begun in 2011, including some 400-800 children, some as young as two. Government troops in armoured personnel carriers and tanks lined the streets of the world's oldest city, carrying Kalishnakov rifles and Soviet-made gas masks. A strict curfew was in place and anyone caught out after dark without a pass from the government was immediately detained, and if the rumours were true, executed soon after.
It was into this atmosphere that Riley and David were dropped with nothing more to protect them than their Sig Sauers and their wits. Well, and Jaguar, too. They immediately sought shelter in the MVA's safehouse, a ramshackle garden flat in the neighbourhood of Abu Rummaneh. While Riley began gathering intelligence, using TV, radio, and the limited internet, David prepared for his meeting with Muhammad, the man who would eventually introduce him to Makepeace.
He had to assume that the man would speak English--David certainly didn't speak any Arabic. It was going to be a short trip, otherwise. Being dropped into a country in the midst of a violent civil war was bad enough; not having a contact he could communicate with would be grounds for aborting the mission immediately. "You know," he said to Riley, "I've only been outside the US a few times so far, and I gotta say, I'm not terribly impressed by this place so far."
Riley chuckled, her attention on the screen of the laptop in front of her. "Hey, where did what's his name say you were gonna meet? Al-Midan?" She glanced up at David and jerked her chin towards a bulge at the small of his back. "Your gun's showing."
"Sounds about right," he said distractedly as he tugged on his shirt and shifted the gun around until it was completely concealed--assuming someone didn't put a hand on the small of his back.
"There was a huge bombing there in January. Killed 26 people. The anti-government people say it was staged." Riley made a sad face. "I wish he'd picked somewhere safer," she said in a quiet voice.
"If they're right about the bastard's plans, he probably started this sh*t for the fun of it." Then he shook his head slightly. "Maybe it's more dangerous, but everything going on here might make it a lot easier to get in and out without being noticed."
She nodded and looked at the clock. "Better get going." She rose from her spot on the bed and went to him. Wrapping her arms tightly around his shoulders, she just held him, her nose pressed into the junction of his shoulder and neck, inhaling his scent.
He pressed his cheek against the side of her head and stroked her long, dark hair. "I'll be okay," he murmured. "A few guns and rebels can't keep me from coming back to you."
"But what about a bomb?" she asked, her voice soft and weighed down with barely contained terror.
"Don't worry," he said softly, turning to press a kiss against her cheek. "If I hear anything explode, I'll take cover. I'm very fast, you know." He pulled back enough to cup her face in his hands, lifting it so he could look into her eyes. "I'm not going to die on you."
"Promise," she said, meeting his eyes forcefully, her gaze intense.
"Cross my heart," he said, doing just that. Then he smiled gently. "You're stuck with me, babe. I'll tear down this whole damn city before I let them get between us."
She smiled and hugged him fiercely again before letting him go. "I'll just, you know, sit here and pretend I'm happy to be doing research." She tried not to sound too disappointed or petulant over being forced to sit this adventure out.
"Believe me, I'd rather you were coming, too." He leaned in and kissed her, hard and intense. Then he turned and went to the door, pausing briefly to mentally ready himself before stepping out.
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