Last Fare of the Night (IC)

[Supercape]

The Red Rat crept through the darkness, gun in hand. Hopefully she wouldn't need it. But better safe than sorry, that was for sure. The dogs annoyed her - not because she wasn't a dog lover. Its because they had a knack for barking when she walked pass. 

 

"Shhh! Good dog! Good dog!" she whispered at one, putting fingers to lips. Unfortunately, the Dog did not speak English and carried on barking. 

 

"Bah! Stupid dog!" she grunted, pressing forward. 

 

She wouldn't forget her last customer for a while. It nagged and gnawed at her. He was one crazy ass tough as nails guy. And with a story or two to tell, except he didn't seem like telling it. And she didn't want to live her life not knowing what that story was. 

 

So it was a little naughty, probably even breaking the law. But it looked like her ride had snapped a few dozen laws clean in half. It was...civic duty?

 

As quietly as she could she sneaked up to the house and peered through a window...

[Heritage]

GM

 

Noemi was only able to see the blue glow of a large flat-screen TV before a bright light hit her! A quick look upward revealed the source, a motion sensitive floodlight attached to the garage, the kind that goes off whenever racoons are digging through the trash. She'd have to move a bit more carefully not to set it off again!

 

Inside the house, she saw a shadow briefly eclipse the light of the TV as someone moved within.

Edited September 16, 2014 by Heritage

[Supercape]

Analysis: Detection Imminent!

 

I wish you would be more, you know, useful sometimes...

 

She should have noticed the light. She should have, but she didn't. No use crying over spilt milk. She just wished she had brought a raccoon as a back up. 

 

Gently on her feet, she scuttled to the wall of the house, and crouched low, moving as carefully as she could. At least the darkness gave her an advantage. She could see in infra-red, able to move through the shadows with relative ease. 

 

And, in a way, this could be an advantage. 

 

She grabbed a stone, ready to throw when the owner of the house came out. A distraction, maybe? With a bit of luck he would come out of the house a few steps, and she could sneak in behind him!

[Heritage]

GM

 

There was a heart-pounding pause that seemed to last a few minutes, but it was probably a lot less. Then the back door opened and The Man stood there on the back porch in an athletic shirt and pajama pants, staring into the darkness; in one hand, he held a small silenced pistol, hiding it somewhat along the length of his leg. The former Russian agent recognized the type; .22 caliber, low muzzle velocity, it would make about as much noise as a disposable lighter when fired. If there could be any doubt this man was a professional, it was now long gone.
 
The Man squinted as he slowly scanned the yard from side to side, twice passing his gaze right over the patch of shadow that concealed the Red Rat, but he saw nothing; finally the floodlight went out on its own, and after a few seconds the large dark shape slowly turned and went back inside.

Edited September 16, 2014 by Heritage

[Supercape]

As Slave gave the Red Rat a printed feed roll on the weapon, she let out a slow sigh of relief. Who was this man? He was clearly as tough as nails, and was a professional, But a professional what? assassin, quite possibly. Spy, very possibly. Something else?

 

No way of knowing right now, but clearly she had correctly followed her nose on him. 

 

She crept forward, wondering where to go. What she needed was a personal computer, something Slave could hack into. Upstairs or downstairs? She couldn't know for sure. First things first though...she started to creep around the house, using her X Ray vision to scan the building. Hopefully, somewhere, she could find a computer...

[Heritage]

GM

 

As her amazing mechanical eyes scanned the structure, the solid brick walls turned ghostly, and the Red Rat could see everything inside; The Man returned to his seat and picked up the remote for his giant flat-screen TV and resumed viewing a movie, something in black-and-white with angels, from the look of it.

 

There was also an active laptop on the coffee table, right next to a large sandwich the home's soul occupant was absently munching. The laptop had a built-in wireless remote that appeared to be operating. The Man was more focused on the laptop than the TV, and he appeared to be a surprisingly fast typist.

Edited November 10, 2014 by Heritage

[Supercape]

No sudden movements. Just watching. 

 

She kept her body deathly still, and studied the man and the computer. Then, she kicked Slave into play. 

 

Analysis: Standard home computer. Scanning....Establishing remote link...Remote link completed...Processing computer system interfaces...Activating Intrusion Routines...Virus Defence Wall Modulated...

 

It went on and on. It was hard to say who was Slave to her when they worked like this. The Rat had a sense of control, of direction, but the truth was, without Slave she wouldn't know her way around the intricacies of computers. Slave dove in, giving heads up readings of the invasion into the computer, readings she only half understood. It was a time when she felt symbiotic with Slave - an unnerving and serene experience rolled into one. 

 

She was trying to find out what secrets were hidden in that computer...

[Heritage]

GM

 

Slave was able to crack the computer with relative ease, but the inside was rather surprising.

 

Most people's computers are cluttered with all kinds of digital detritus; mp3s, family photos, funny downloads, spam emails and all the other junk that clog up the world's hard drives. The Man's was Spartan, much like his rented home (the Rat's X-ray vision had verified his statement of the night before was indeed true), with only a handful of files and almost no software. It was a Linux-based system with only a web browser loaded, not even a word processor or spreadsheet.

 

The Man must have purged his files on a regular basis, but a few emails were still present, under an account somewhat hilariously marked 'sexxxyblondegril'; no one would link that face with that handle! The emails were very short, consisting of times, dates and locations, and usually a few image attachments: a face, the front of building, a Google Maps screenshot. At the bottom were always number, followed by either a 'K' or an 'M', such as '400K' or '3.5M'; it soon became clear that these were references to currency of some sort, and that The Man was both very busy and very, very rich. He never negotiated, and his response, which were always sent to 'samoanstalion57', consisted of only two words: either 'received' or 'done'.

Edited September 19, 2014 by Heritage

[Supercape]

the Rat pulled back Slave from the Computer. Most telling. 

 

There could only be one conclusion. Sexxxyblondegril, or whoever he was, was a professional assassin. 

 

She had known several assassins. Even assassinate a few assassins. Such was the nature of the clandestine world of the Cold War. They could, and usually were, cold people. Psychopathic or militant or devoted or fanatic or any other such quality which made life of little value. Sometimes, even there own. 

 

But, what was samoanstallion57? The head behind the sting. That was the more interesting, and more vital question. 

 

Only one way to find out. Go to the next meeting...or the next target...

[Heritage]

GM

 

The most recent email contained the name 'Arkady Ilyich Dragomirov' and an upscale address in Parkside, a modern high-rise with a view of the park. The date was September 4th, three days hence, and judging from The Man's response, he'd already accepted the assignment.

 

Slave did a quick net search for Dragomirov and found he was ex-Spetsnaz GRU and currently under investigation by both the FBI and the FPD's Major Crimes Unit; the 'Black Dragon', as he was sometimes called, was linked to all kinds of nastiness, but he also was very rich and had excellent lawyers.

 

Two very dangerous men would soon be meeting each other...

Edited September 19, 2014 by Heritage

[Supercape]

Which is the killer?

 

Both of them. 

 

This was war, cold and hard. In such circumstances, violence happened without a moral context. Who was right? who was wrong? was there even such a thing? Life often boiled down to survival and hard snap choices. 

 

She crawled carefully away from the house, careful to avoid the raccoons and the automatic light. Three days time, a location, and an hour. The Red Rat would be there, probably poking her nose in. Possibly not. 

 

In the mean time, she would make her plans and look into just what the Black Dragon was about...she had no contacts she could trust in America, but the world was a bigger place, and she could look elsewhere...

[Heritage]

GM

 

The Randhurst, Parkside. Thursday, September 4th 2014. 10:33 pm

 

The condo was a tower thirty stories high, with an attached mall, restaurants and a health club; it was sheathed in blue glass and every unit had a balcony that looked out over the north end of Liberty Park. Deliveries came to a loading dock at the rear, shared by the commercial and residential sides of the complex. An underground parking garage provided two spaces for every unit, truly a luxury in such a built-up section of the city.

 

Dragomirov's unit was on the twenty-eighth floor, at the northeastern-most corner of the tower; it was served by a high-speed express elevator dedicated to the building's wealthiest tenants, and could only be called with a special magnetic keycard. The building had excellent security, but the Black Dragon's unit was custom made and cost a small fortune. He also employed a small army of private security personnel, two of which who were with him at all times.

 

The hit was scheduled for 11pm, which coincided with Dragomirov's nightly swim in the health club's Olympic-sized swimming pool; the pool was cleared of all other residents at this time every night, per his security detail's request.

 

The stage was set; now it was time for the actors to arrive.

Edited September 19, 2014 by Heritage

[Supercape]

This was an undercover Job, she reckoned. 

 

Back at the Safehouse, she had done all she could to disguise herself. Redhead today, and spiked hair. Blue eyes, not green. And makeup giving her different skin tones and different cheekbones. 

 

All part of Spy training. All done with attention to detail, and several reworks. She looked at herself in the mirror as she entered the tower. No disguise was perfect, but she looked markedly different. 

 

She wore a tight business suit and bluffed her way up to the top. Slave was printing out the time for her. 10:54. She was cutting it close, but together with Slave she had worked out the entire layout of the building. Slave was a combat computer as well as a hacking one. Every escape route, angle, and layout had been studied and analysed. She was as confident as she could get. 

 

Slipping into the pool area she whipped off her clothes. Not all of them, of course. She was wearing a one piece swim suit underneath, as Red as her hair. She looked like a Baywatch character. And then, in she slinked, and into the pool she dove...

[Heritage]

GM

 

Two very large men in suits entered the pool; they looked very uncomfortable in the boxy suit. One had his head shaved down to stubble, while the other had a bad Steven Segal ponytail. They paused for a second at the sight of the lovely redhead, and looked at each other with mild surprise.

 

Once she broke the surface, Ponytail stepped close to the edge of the pool and kneeled down; he looked mildly annoyed, but was trying to hide it. "Uh, miss? You're gonna have to clear the pool area; you can come back in about an hour. Sorry for the, uh-" He was momentarily distracted by her beauty. "Inconvenience." He smiled, though it was creeping towards a leer, emphasis on 'creep'.

[Supercape]

"Hey, I just got here!" she complained. The water didn't wash up the make up easily. But too long and...the deception might falter. 

 

"You must be the hired muscle, yeah? Keeping the man safe? Dragimov, I mean?" she asked innocently, pulling herself out of the water. 

 

The men were beefy, no question, but she had fought larger. And whilst her face was made up, there was little she could do to hide her own physique. Tall and lean and strong. The Darwin-X virus had forged her body into a sculpture. In a swim suit, there wasn't much she could do about that. Except maybe bluff and distraction. 

 

"I would have thought he would have wanted a girl like me in the pool, yeah? I can be very good scenery!" she said with a wink, hand on hip. 

[Heritage]

GM

 

Ponytail smiled the biggest s###-eating grin as his eyes freely roamed over the Rat's toned body, and he took a step closer as his body became more visibly relaxed. "Well y'know if it was up to me, hey sure; swim, float, dive, whatever you want. But the boss, see, he likes his privacy..."

 

Meanwhile Stubbles narrowed his eyes and reached up to his ear, a gesture familiar to anyone who's ever watched an action movie; he was about to use a comm!

[Supercape]

Sigh. They must be getting a better class of hired muscle here. In my day, soldiers were as thick as two short planks....Not strictly true, but she had noticed the breed of soldier and military moving from barely contained brute to a trained professional. Which was probably a good thing. Except ex-military body guards and the sort where less likely to have soup between their ears. 

 

As Slave started punching out all sorts of tactical information on this, that, and the other, the Red Rat sprang into action. 

 

"So do I. So do I" she said, turning her body slightly. Quick like a fox, she clenched her fist and rammed it into Stubbles chest. 

 

"You guys are sure making a difficult job just that little bit harder. I'm on the clock..." she explained, as Slave flashed the time in front of her eyes. 

[Heritage]

GM

 

"Oof!" Her punch to his solar plexus knocked the wind right out of Stubbles, and he dropped like a sack of potatoes.

 

For his part, Ponytail looked confused, almost hurt; he reached under his jacket to pull out a piece, but looked very reluctant to shoot the redheaded beauty.

 

"Hey now, wait, wait. What's goin' on?"

 

It seemed his brain could not process the fact that the hot girl he was just talking to had now dropped his coworker; he looked from Stubbles passed out on the tile floor to the Rat and then back again.

 

"You can't do that!"

Edited September 23, 2014 by Heritage

[Supercape]

"I think you will find I can, mister" replied the Red Rat taking a step back. The Ponytailed guy was no faster than his unconscious friend, and probably no stronger or iron of jaw. He would be easy enough to fight - but that wasn't the issue...

 

Slave dutifully reported the time, flashing down the seconds in front of her cybernetic eyes. 

 

This was going to be close. Too close. She should have got here earlier. Already Slave was scanning the room, the windows, the view, to see if there was any sign of a sniper. But it might not be a sniper. It could be poison in the pool, or from the air vents. Maybe even Ponytail himself, manipulated or coerced into an assassination of the man he was protecting. Or the ponytailed guard could even be her fare in disguise. If so, she told herself, it was the best disguise in the world. 

 

She came forward again, lifting her knee and extending her foot into the ponytailed mans jaw...

[Heritage]

GM

 

The kick was so fast it dropped Ponytail before he could say another word or raise his gun; he fell to the floor right where he stood, and ended up in a heap. The whole skirmish was over in a matter of seconds.

 

There wasn't a sound other then the gentle lap of the water in the pool. Suddenly there was a loud buzzing from inside Stubble's suit jacket; someone was trying to reach him on his cellphone!

[Supercape]

Oh great...what perfect timing...couldn't you have phoned just a few minutes earlier?

 

The Rat would have loved to drag the two bodyguards out of site and resume her swim. She probably had just enough time for that. But now, a cellphone was ringing, and she could only speculate on what it was...namely, the target phoning to check the coast was clear. 

 

This was all going very badly. 

 

She ruffled through the jacket, picking up the cellphone. 

 

Slave, shut this down...like it has no reception or something...

 

It was a poor tactic, but better than anything else she had. She directed Slave into the cellphones small microchips, flipping through the SIM card, and taking all the information and numbers she could. Who was phoning him?

 

And directing back a "no signal" reply. 

[Heritage]

GM

 

It's not too hard to block the signal or access to the contents of the phone; the owner, one 'Karel Drabik', had set up a fairly easy password which the AI unlocked in a few thousand attempts, which only took a matter of seconds. The incoming call appeared as 'Private Number', but there was a listing for 'AD' that appeared regularly on the outgoing call log, which probably stood for 'Arkady Dragomirov'.

 

Slave soon had a wealth of information about Drabik, including call logs, contact list (looked like Ponytail was probably 'Mazzuli'), photos and browser history; many of the web addresses ended in '.cz', which along with his name probably placed him as a Czech national.

 

There were two more Private Number call attempts, which Slave easily blocked. Then it was time for Mr. Mazulli's phone to go off, though in his case it played 'The Emperor's Theme' very loudly from inside his jacket.

 

It was now 12:01.

Edited September 29, 2014 by Heritage

[Supercape]

Great, another one...she frowned internally. 

 

Crush it like the other...she ordered Slave, who dutifully dove into its digital world. 

 

The Rat sighed as she picked up both of the men by the scruffs of their collars, and started to drag them across the wet floor into the mens changing rooms. She just hoped the changing rooms were empty. Given that someone had taken great efforts to clean the swimming pool of any swimmers, it was a good guess. But even a good guess could be a wrong one. 

 

She hauled the two men, one on top of the other, into a lavatory cubicle. It wouldn't be long before they woke up or were found. But she was off schedule anyway. She was hurrying, almost frantic, pocketing both mens phones as she crept back to the swimming pool. 

 

At least she could come away with some names and numbers if all went bad. But there was still an assassination. And mayhap an assassination she had already missed...

[Heritage]

GM

 

Slave dutifully complied, and the second phone was blocked and scanned. No one appeared to be in the men's locker room, so the Rat was easily able to stow the two bodyguards in one of the stalls, one on top of the other, before making her way back out into the pool area.

 

And that's when all the lights went out

 

Emergency spotlights went up over the exit, but the rest of the pool was shrouded in darkness.

[Supercape]

That's not good...though the Rat as she slinked into the Shadows. About the best that could be said for that is that a Sniper would be in the dark...

 

Analysis: Dark. Switching to IR spectrum...

 

Mind you, that did give her and advantage. 

 

Mind you again, a Sniper could easily have infrared vision too. 

 

What a terrible mess, she thought as her cybernetic eyes switched automatically to infrared display, and the room lit up, with all the eddies and currents of the heated swimming pool...

 

If anyone was using Infrared, the Pool would be her cover. Not perfect, but still. 

 

She slid over the tiles, and into the pool, keeping her head just under the water, where her eyes could still see...