Bowling for Muldoon

Participants:

cardinal_icon.gif fedor_icon.gif jake_icon.gif teo_icon.gif zuleyka_icon.gif

Scene Title Bowling for Muldoon
Synopsis Planning at an old bowling shop, with a visit from Teo to represent Phoenix's interests.
Date March 9 2009

Bobby Ace's Bowling Accessories!

Years ago, this had actually been a bowling supply and accessory store. It had never been a particularly profitable store, it barely paid for itself on the good months so really it didnt need a whole bunch to go over the edge. Now it was, well mostly empty. Shelving units were stacked neatly in rows, save for a narrow passage down the very middle. Fedor had been careful to stack barrels behind the backdoor, and place a few more empty ones on the inside to ensure that door was atleast somewhat secure. That left one avenue of approach, through the front door that he'd propped open from a brick.


The bowling shop, had once been exactly that. Not a bowling alley, but a bowling accessory store. Now it was just another empty store, and hell there were no shortage of those these days right? Anyway on inside, Fedor sat on the old cracked tile floor. He'd propped his skateboard up as sort've a backrest before leaning back into it, beat up Ithaca laid across his lap.

"Hey you remember the old Algerian coats, the sort you were issued when we first met? Woolrich started making them again, look pretty nice online."Fedor huffed just a touch, checking his watch before peering towards the back of the store. "I think I may grab a dozen or so for myself, you want in on the order?"Thats the price of changing your shape so often, when you find garments you enjoy you need to buy them in a multitude of sizes."

"I'll take one," offers a tired-sounding voice of hollow echoes that comes from seemingly nowhere, a shadow sweeping its way up one wall beside where Fedor's seated to shape itself into the form of a man. It lingers there for a heartbeat, and then pushes outwards, like a man's hand pushing through a plastic garbage bag. Then the rest of Cardinal follows, darkness spilling away to leave the muted colours of the man and his garments, that fill in to the normal shades of life within moments. He slumps his shoulders back against the wall, a heavy duffle bag hanging from his hand and thumping against the wall behind him.

Jake was just about to say sure, in that noncommital way of his. Which means he'd love one but won't be heartbroken not to get one. And then this new guy speaks up. "This our guy?" he asks instead, face lighting up as he strikes a match and lights the cigar he just put in his mouth. It's a Cuban. You can get those when you don't give a shit about things like passports, customs, or laws. The rest of him looks like he's some scuffed-up soldier of fortune. Too grungy and world-worn to be a weekend warrior. He's more like a month-long in-the-dirt warrior.

Fedor shrugs some "Employees only buster brown, and I aint heard you tellin me to get you on payroll yet." Just the same, Fedor reaches over, producing a fat stack of big glossy color photographs and a notebook. "I got photographs, shift changes, where the transformer is, distances, headcounts, geographical study and some observations. They use a radio to buzz themselves in and out, and theres a van that shows up every shift change. Now, the real question is do you want to start firing or would you rather that we did?"He shrugs a touch, nodding towards Jake. "Jake says we blow the van with the gate open, so they cant close it. I say we go steal a helicopter right now and have you guys airlifted out, with Jake manning a doorgun of course."

Jake gives a thumbs-up. "I like claymores." he says by way of explanation.

"I should fuckin' bill Laudani after all've this is done with," Cardinal makes a disgruntled sound in the back of his throat, stepping forward away from the wall and dropping the duffle bag down; crouching beside it, arms resting on his knees as he leans over to take a look at the photographs. "I like your idea, Fedorno offense, Jake, is it?but we're aiming to make an impression here, to make 'em think twice about fucking with us. A van's easy to get. A helicopter with a gunner suggests a level of resources that even Muldoon might not want to fuck with too much, even if it's not precisely-speaking true."

"Hey I don't give a shit. Whatever he says," Jake gives a nod at Fedor, "I'm down with. Just offerin' my own touch for consideration." He seems to chew on his cigar a little and puffs it, the thumb-sized cherry glowing as he does so. "Only problem with going by air is I can be kinda heavy sometimes. But I think it's a good plan too."

Fedor rises finally"Goodness gracious, I do apologise. I've been a youth for too long."He clears his throat, immediately straightening his posture as his hands draw a touch closer for a polite gesture "Cardinal this is Jake. Jake is something of an expert at breaking things. Jake, this is Cardinal he's an expert at being sneaky."He looks almost sheepish for a moment dipping a foot to snag the sling of his Ithaca and fling it skyward into his hand in a single smooth motion. "I would need help, I cant steal a helicopter by myself and if we go this route we'll be dependent upon radio communication. If you think you can help, then sure I know just the bird. Jake here would need to show you how to take care of the rigging, we wouldnt have time to land if things are rough. We'd hover and drop down a ladder line, which is a very strong peice of rope with a bunch of hooks."

A tired nod from the shadow-walker, his gaze hidden behind those opaque shades even indoors as they are. "Jake," he affirms, before looking back to Fedor, a bit of a smirk twitching to his lips. "There isn't a security system in the world that can keep me out. I've got no fuckin' idea how to fly a bird, but I can get in anywhere you need, and open it up from the other side."

"Cardinal. Good name." replies Jake with a nod and a puff on the cigar. "Both of us can fly," he explains, gesturing to himself and Fedor. "Fly and dive. You okay with jumpin' out of aircraft?"

Fedor waves a hand dismissively "Naw theres a NY Executive bird, a brand new EC-155. Its pretty easy, actually. I can even sit you down and show you where the bird is. I'd need you to break in, rescue a log book and a pair of uniforms. Helicopter log books are like keys, they're checked out. If you have a uniform on and a logbook in your hand, nobody will ask questions. You'd walk into the hangar, find one of the ground crew and deliver him a work order I'll fabricate ahead of time for you. He'll remove the seats, put the aircraft in cargo mode then fuel it and tow it to the helipad we want. If he asks questions, you can tell him you dont know your just the crew chief. Meanwhile, whilst the aircraft is prepared you'll deliver the uniform to me. Then depending on how we want to do this, either me and Jake can fly it and just pick you up or me, jake and you can then board the aircraft and proceed to a holding position. Swap the IFF, and they wont know where to find us. Then we can either wait for radio call for pickup, or drop the entry team on the roof or courtyard." Fedor nods softly, motioning to Cardinal"If your worried about resistance, take Jake and give me anyone who can run the doorgun."

"I've done crazier shit'n my time," Cardinal affirms to the question from Jake, his head tipping in a slight nod over. Like everything in the past few weeks, for instance. Christ, what the hell am I even doing here? One hand lifts to rub against the side of his neck, gaze sweeping back to Fedor to listen in. A nod, another nod, and he states firmly, "I can do that. Did Laudani get us that teleporter, do you know, or are we going to have to go in the hard way?"

"Teleporter. There's a teleporter?" Jake asks, snorting a half-laugh that ends with a shake of the head and a shrug. He has no clue about any teleporter himself. "I'm sure we'll get along great though. If you're the greaseman I heard you are." Greaseman. He heard that off of Ocean's Eleven.

Theres a hand lift "I'm not Phoenix, I have no fucking clue what Teo is doing. I think everyone can agree here, that the guy though well meaning is beyond green and then some. So lets call him right now, if he cant secure lets say three to four people in the next four hours we can assume we're on our own."Fedor liked Teo to be really honest, it took a good heart to fight for a cause you could never claim to belonging to by birthright. He was trying, but the poor boy seemed to be like mortar. The soft stuff that held the hardasses together, but less than ideal as the primary construction component. "Jake, you know anyone local like who's up for a little action?"

"I diddled this one chick? She seemed kinda tough." Jake says. That's Jake-talk for: No, not really.

"I've called in a few people've my own, but some've those've already dropped off the map," admits Cardinal with a shake of his head, "I don't know who'll actually show up when I call them. Guess we'll see." One hand lifts, drawing the shades down a bit as he looks over to Fedor with bloodshot eyes, "He's… yeah, he's well meaning, got his heart'n the right place, but I'm not so sure about his stomach."

Fedor hmms for a moment. "Ok how about this. I'll call him, if I can get him over here then we'll break and I'll go get chow for us. Then we can continue with everyone present, does that sound kosher?"He doesnt touch on diddled, even though assigning an overly childish name to fucking some chick seems titanically far more bizarre and disturbing than Jake just luridly explaining the graphic sexual details. See, Fedor knows this because when your strapped into a two seat plane with less interior space than a broom closet with another man for ten hours you learn these things.

"So call the man." Jake doesn't really have a stated opinion on Teo except what he's told Fedor in the past about it. That Teo is no terrorist leader. It's not judgment on the guy.

"I am totally up for chow," Cardinal admits, tiredly, "Officer Magma-up-the-ass wasn't willing to stop for Micky D's on the way to booking."

Fedor thumbs up, grabs his board and tosses his Ithaca to Jake as he goes skating between the two men, and out the front door. He pops out the cellphone, and calls whats becoming a familar number.

"Dude, you got arrested? And you're out already? That's fast." says Jake to Cardinal, grinning. He's obviously amused, from the look on his face as he continues puffing on cigar.

Zu remains small. And her armaments are thus disproportionately large. She now has a pistol to go with her knife. No holster, so it's stuck through the sash she wears as a belt, giving her a rather piratical air. A cheap Walther knockoff, at first glance. She's frankly skulking, picking over areas that don't look too thoroughly scavenged already.

"I wanted to talk to one've the prisoners," Cardinal shrugs one shoulder, rocking back from his crouched posture to lean his back to the wall, one hand resting atop the duffle bag by his side, "I figured getting arrested was the easiest way in. Free ride to the precinct, an' all."

Two rings, halfway into the second, and Teo's voice clicks into the old man's hearing. "Buongiorno. I was about to call you."

"Its Fedor, look I've got my people and Cardinal. We're in the final stages, but you have the manpower so we need you here. Our time frame is a little tight, are you on the island?"Fedor was already down the street, round the corner, down a side alley and slowing as he neared his new favorite pizza joint.

"That's awesome, Cardinal. Yeah, we're gonna get along great, and…" He pauses. "What the fuck's that?" asks Jake, pointing over toward the girl that just turns up with a pistol stuck in her panties. Well, not really, but that's exactly how he'd describe it in words. "Hey!" he shouts, calling to Zuleyka. "Kya abka dada?!" Because she looks vaguely middle-eastern at first glance so he tries a lil Hindi on her, asking where her dad is.

At the call from the other man, Cardinal's hand jerks along the duffle bag's zipper to open it up; a black Remington 870 pulled out and into his hands, his knees unbending to push himself up to his full height. The barrel's kept low, though, as he cranes his neck to look around the door's edge and see what Jake's shouting at.

Zu's head snaps up. She's no longer looking for buried treasure, or whatever. She narrows her eyes at Jake and says in flawless Gulf Arabic, "I speak Arabic, asshole, not that heathen babble," Her tone is acid.

Huh. Well in a rather ugly broken form of Arabic Jake replies, <Get over here.> then explains to Cardinal, "Man we got kids wandering around. What the hell?"

"She looks like a pretty well-equipped kid t'me," Cardinal observes absently, bracing the shotgun up against his shoulder once it becomes obvious that they're not being targeted by Feds, or worse, some of Muldoon's men. The girl gets a once-over, appraising, although not in any sort've sexual way. More to see how she's carrying herself.

There's a rush and susurration of background noise, fleeting, before it cuts out from under Teo's voice with a clack of something. By default, a door. "No, I'm on a boat coming to the island. Uhh." That last syllable was more of a grunt, really, as he scrubs an eye with the back of his hand. "You need to know how many and what they can do, and you figure out where everybody has to be, when, and with what, right? That the short of it?"

Zuleyka comes picking her way warily over, like a kitten. She's got her hand near her pistol, and doesn't come within arm's reach. "What?" she asks, in English.

Oh good. "Who the…hey…" Jake says, his face brightening as he recognizes Zuleyka. "Zuzu, right? I know you. What're you doin' around here, kid?" His tone's done a complete one-eighty. Suddenly he's all friendly. He gives a wave to Cardinal as if to say she's cool.

"Thats correct my dear boy, why dont you drop by in oh fourty five? I'll text you the address, you'll probably want to be involved at some level. I mean we are talking about risking your people, to save your people."He cups his hand against the phone as he leans in to make the order. Meat lovers, cheese, hawaiian and a BBQ chicken affair. oh and cigarettes!"Is that cool with you, of course I think we really only have about two hours before we begin preperations lest we miss our window. We're taking a food break right now."

At the wave, Cardinal brings one shoulder up in a careless sort of shrug. He lifts his chin over towards the foreign girl, noting casually, "At least she's got some good music taste." Or she just scavenged the t-shirt. Six of one, half dozen of the other.
"I'm takin' a break from my lucrative career slinging booze at the speakeasy to see if I can find some shit worth selling," she says, bluntly. "What's up?" She's a little more easy, once she's recognized Jake's face and voice, standing comfortably hipshot. Still very, very aware of her surroundings, and reluctant to come too close. Make that a feral kitten.

There is a brief silence in which Teo is either nodding his head before he remembers that Fedor can't see him or peeing; it's hard to tell from the troubled reception he's getting out on the water. "A'right, that makes sense. Grazie. See you there."

And just like that, Jake gets a crazy, stupid thought. "That ain't your regular job?" Why did he think being a bartender at a sleazy dive like the Pelican was what Zuzu did fulltime? It seems stupid now. He glances at Cardinal. Shrugs. Looks back to Zuleyka. "Need a real job?"

"It is my regular job. Just not my -only- job. A girl has to make ends meet," Zu says. "Listen, if you're offering to pimp me, I'm gonna have to refuse." Her accent is pure Queens, despite the smoothness of her Arabic.

Fedor smirks, tossing some bills at the young girl behind the counter. "Roger Teo, text will be there in a minute. I'll see you when I get here."and click. Its really more like three minutes, before a text comes detailing the address ad where generally one can find this place.

A brow tic's up on Cardinal's face at the look in his direction and then the offer given to the girl; his expression hard to read, with the shades firmly perched there upon the bridge of his nose. He turns his head a bit back to the scavenger as she speaks, exhaling a rough chuckle, "She's got attitude. I like 'er."

"Fuck that shit." states Jake evenly, "Kid, I don't do that. In fact, I don't even LET people do that." He points at her midsection, thinking of the pistol tucked in her pants. "You any good with popguns or is that just for show?"

Today is avery bad day for one particular pigeon. Because Zu's answer is to blow it away into a spatter of feathers and blood. It's not fast, not flashy, but she is accurate. "I'm okay," she says, laconically.

Jake reams out an ear with a pinky and shakes the ash off of his cigar. "All right. You wanna job? How'd you like to be my assistant?" Because he can hire people. Cardinal can't hire anybody. And Fedor didn't say he was in on this so Jake's taking responsibility for it, hence HIS assistant.

At the sudden crack of gunfire, Cardinal tenses up—then relaxes, his fingers uncurling from the tactical shotgun he's got cradled up against his shoulder. He regards the slowly drifting blood-etched feathers for a few moments, before offering with a jerk of his chin up to the teenager, "Cardinal." He can't hire anybody, but he can award his name as a prize for impressing him.

She eyes them, narrowly, "Assistant for what? Like, do I stand around in a sequined bathing suit while you pull rabbits out of a hat, 'cause you sure as fuck don't look like David Copperfield."

"I'm a military contractor, kid. Name's Jake Hunter, that guy who went that way's MY boss," Jake points in the direction that Fedor went, "and it'd be a probationary status. I could use someone who ain't afraid to haul ammo, load gear, and clean things. And if you can do that and you got a backbone for the better stuff, then there's room for upward mobility. And I promise the pay's better than any bar. Interested?"

"Don't mind me," Cardinal adds casually, "I'm freelance."

Jake adds with a jerk of a thumb at Cardinal, "He's freelance."

'Man, the Army is really fuckin' desperate for people if you're a recruiter," Zu says, blowing out an amused breath. "Well, hell, I can do all that stuff. Or I can learn what I don't know," She takes a few tentative steps closer. "How do I know…..ah, shit, nevermind," she says. "I may be as dumb as a Natasha, but i'm tired of trashpicking."

Maybe years ago, bowling accessories was a big industry. Maybe, but Fedor doubts it. Perhaps thats why this is the only bowling accessory store he knows of in all of New York, which is really ok by him. Its a faceless empty husk now, like a hundred others. Caged and gated shut, but the front door is open. Inside the old racking, and some from other stores have been loaded in and stacked thick limiting the interior space of what could otherwise be a sizable space inside.

"Somone order a pizza?"He sets the stack of pies on an old counter top, and peers between Cardinal and Jake for a moment. "Who the hell is that?" out goes the accusatory finger pointing, as his other hand is extended to Jake for the return of his Ithaca. "I mean christ Jake, I'm happy you have a woman to help you with your urges instead of floofles the inflatable sheep for once but you didnt have to invite her along. "

"Apparently," Cardinal observes as he pushes off from the doorway, shotgun dropping to his side, to approach the stack of pizza boxes, "She's your new employee. I hope you don't have age restrictions, 'cause she kind've looks like jailbait t'me." A glance back to her, one brow arching over his shades as if questioning. Not that it stops him from digging out a slice of pizza. He's starving.

"Different woman!" insists Jake, "This is the bartender. Her name's Zuzu." He hands the Ithaca back to Fedor and explains, "I just gave this kid a job hauling gear and cleaning stuff. You like clean gear, right?"

After Teo stepped over the third prone corpus he found on the sidewalk, he started to have to remind himself underneath his breath. People die every day. A quick cant of his head confirms to him that there's no wallet present on this latest specimen in any discernible shape or form, and he exhales a lungful of smoke before he drops his cigarette and smooshes it flat in the same stride that takes him in through the door with a bang of collision between his shoulder and the hammered metal. He opens his mouth, starts to default his salutation toward politeness, but there is a little girl and these guys are going to pick a fight with Muldoon in two days, so what comes out instead is: "Who the fuck is that?"

Zu offers a sharp little salute, and creeps fully into the abandoned factory. "Zuzu's the nickname, real name is Zuleyka," she explains, eyeing the others. Jake gets a careful looking over. "You don't look like a Scot," she notes, a thoughtful wrinkle at her brow. Teo gets a cynical look. "I'm the hired help. I don't do windows."

Fedor just nods to the girl, Fedor straightens up some and offers his hand. "I am Fedor, your now an employee of Chicago Air international. You get a steady wage, health care, we're evolved friendly and the work is exceptionally dangerous. "and then, just as Fedor's about to tell Zu about donut day and bagel day.

"Teo, Zu, Zu this is Teo he's a professional european guy. So if you have any sisters, he can totally keep them occupied and out of your hair."All smiles Fedor is, before indicating towards the stack of Pizzas and the equally impressive stack of photographs and notebooks set beside it. "Photographs, shift changes ect. We're fine on this end for intel and hard equipment, but we need between four and six men I think."
Zuleyka jerks a thumb at Teo. "Can he be part of my compensation when this is over?" she asks, as if Teo either weren't present or simply can't be expected to understand English.

"You like that?" Jake asks Zu, glancing at Teo as if he's a little surprised. Like why would she like that? He's keeping his voice low for those around him, mostly Zu and Cardinal.

Cardinal's pulled himself up onto the counter, the tactical shotgun laid across his lap and a slice of pizza half-folded in his hand to be savoured as the 'new employee' is introduced to the business. He brings his head up in a gesture of acknowledgement when the Italian steps inside, then pauses, and snorts under his breath. "Girl likes pretty men," he mutters, then takes another bite of the pizza.

"Yeah, you're fucking hilarious." There's a wry grin, and this is the part where Teo generally starts to change colors but, thankfully, there's a dingy, atmospheric lack of lighting that suits the whole gang war genre while offering additional concealment. Right. —Wrong, actually, but off-topic. Anyway, he's scratching a nonexistant spot of irritation on his brow, and focusing with hair-raising intensity on the accumulation of intel that Fedor brought in. "Four of them are going to be women.

"Audiokinetic, pyrokinetic, empath, and another little donna whose weapon of choice as I recall is a tossup between some brand of pistol and M16. Ladies aside, there's a teleporter who can also fold time, and this kid who can duplicate himself. They can help with transport and keeping lines of communication open and fight too." He scrapes a thumb bridge of his nose, tilts a glance sidelong at Fedor.

Mutants. Huh. Zu shows no particular distress at this. Waiting to speak until it's her turn, apparently. She shrugs at Jake, "If I don' like him, he'll command a good price on the one market. He's even got all his original teeth, looks like." Is she joking?

Zu's remark gets a big grin out of Jake and he bumps her on the shoulder with a fist, saying, "You're all right, kid. Have some pizza."

Fedor shakes his head softly "Teo's his own man, I cant sell him. "Ok, business. "Thats Cardinal's purview. I'm staffed with jake and Zu, he'll have to tell you what you what he needs. I have room for thirteen persons not counting me and ZU, if there is fourteen they will be left behind. This isnt a question of risk, its a question of payload and space. I have room for thirteen passengers, not fourteen. Thirteen."

"I doubt we can count on much back-up from the prisoners," Cardinal observes, tossing a crust into the box and nudging the opened container a bit towards Zu in encouragement — the girl getting a brief grin of approval from the tired thief — and then he looks back up to Teo and Fedor, "According to Abigail, Magnes at least is near breaking. I don't know how bad th'others are, but, figure they'll be dead weight on th'way out."

"Uh, if this one guy who can teleport is coming, why do we even need to transport him? And tell the duplicate kid to keep it down to one." Jake offers his suggestions in this manner.

Why is the seventeen-year-old girl talking about selling him? Teo's eyebrows are threatening to pop so far out of joint they dislocate permanently, though hard to tell whether from genuine annoyance or exasperated laughter. When Fedor steps in on his behalf, his temper seesaws decidedly closer to the latter; he finally imparts a glance at the young woman, finds himself reminded of Delilah for as many similarities as there are differences.

He hopes she's joking. Jake's question is answered first by a shrug of his shoulders, second out loud. "He could transport himself and a handful of others. The duplicator can come as a few and merge before you pack it in for the night." He looks at Cardinal when Cardinal mentions Magnes, and recognition registers in a scowling way. Fuck. Magnes. "Are you bringing her?" He jerks his head sidelong at Zuleyka, before casting her another brief look, half in apology for talking around her and partly because the whole thing is fucking weird.

Ash makes a little moue of disappointment, but doesn't argue. She lifts a hand, just like the old obedient girl in parochial school. (Yes, she had the little plaid skirt) She takes a piece of pizza and nods her thanks to Cardinal. Once acknowledged, "I'm sorry to cover old ground, but what exactly are we after? Stealing the fighting stock at the Pancreas?" As if all the Evolved fighters were a litter of pit pups. "And if so, why? I mean, it's very noble of you, but he doesn't look like Robin Hood and you all don't exactly strike me as the Merry Men."

"The point, kid, is who cares why?" Jake points out. "It's a job. That's all. We're on board for the job." He's very simple with that philosophy. Then looks to Teo and explains, "We just picked her up tonight. She may come, may not. We'll see. If she does she's with us." He points between himself and Fedor.

Fedor Reaches across to lift a finger upwards…"stop, right there Zu."His gaze is intent and clear, focused but not anger. Intense but not hot, theres no malice here. "We're doing it, because they're human. Life and liberty are just as worth dying over, as they are fighting over. Now listen to me very carefully, they are not stock. They are people. When your older, when you've been around a little more. Heck hun, if you hang with me I'll make sure you see it. Slavery, the loss of liberty hurts all of us. Now you'll do this thing, because I'm paying you and because its the -right- thing to do."

"I'm just scum off the streets, but this shit's even too much for me," Cardinal admits, though the words are reluctantly dragged out of him as they're spoken, and he looks as if they were distasteful to state; his head shaking ever so slightly, "Forced prostitution'n blood-sport slavery goes way over th'fuckin' line. Compared to this sort've shit, killing's honest fuckin' work." He reaches out to tug a slice of pizza free of the pie, observing with a grunt, "Laudani. You know a girl, name've Cally? Brian's chica is lookin' for her, she's in th'cells too."

Zuleyka listens intently, doesn't sneer or let her attention wander. She nods gravely to both FEdor and Jake, and goes back to her pizza. Apparently that's more than answer enough for her.

Jake's reply got in the way of some proselytizing about principles and shit from Teodoro. It's ironic, or something, that Fedor ends up doing it anyway, and Cardinal chimes in, while the younger man simply stands at the corner of the table and studies the photography laid out underneath the spasmodic lights. The configuration of the two separate groups squares in his head. "Okay." He nods at Cardinal once, briefly. "If she's in the cells, she's part of the deal anyway." Anyway might indicate anything; that Teo would've wanted to go after her anyway, or that he wouldn't have bothered otherwise. "Where do you want your people?"

Jake leans close to Zuleyka and says, "It's good money." He grabs some pizza and adds, "And it's good pizza too." For the most part he's content to sit back and just kibbitz the planning, munching on pizza. "You know," he says between bites, "if we're basically breakin' up a prison, why don't we just burn in there, kill every swingin' dick who's responsible for this mess, and let the prisoners walk their own asses out?" Beat. "Except the ones you specifically wanna give rides to."

Fedor lifts a hand to rub at his ear. "Because we cant risk one of these, Str"theres a pause, as he narrowly overts cursing in his native tongue. "Because one of them might drop a grenade inside a cell, and besides. Jake, you and I have other dragons to slay. Lets not show our hand on this op, lets just be clean and quick and get it done."he inhales deeply, holds it before finally exhaling. "Graves are patient Jake."

"That is," Cardinal observes, his chin canting up in the direction of Jake, "Pretty much the plan. The fuckers responsible for th'whole thing are a hell of a lot better protected, though, over at th'Pancratium, and th'Dagger. They'd be a much tougher nut t'crack." He smiles, then, though there's not much warmth in it, "Once our people're safe, though… well, then this'll be a whole 'nother ball game."

About any money is better money than she was making slinging booze. And….it isn't so much against her religion. Zu nods sagely and continues to wolf down her pizza. Her table manners aren't bad, anyhow.
From afar, Jake nods

There's a slight jerk of Teo's head, weaving his long frame into the peripheral of Cardinal's vision. He doesn't answer Jake's question, apparently finding the other men's answers sufficient. Or, you know. He'd feel bad saying, Don't go out of your way to spare any of their men and he doesn't like feeling bad. Instead, he repeats, "Hey. Where do you want your little army to show?"

"Mm. That's what they call it? Pancratium? That's precious." sniffs Jake. He's still got his cigar but decides to shake out the cherry on it to save the rest of it for later. After squelching it on the floor he goes back to pizza. "And I hear you, Chief." he says to Fedor, "Just sayin', wrecking crew's the work I do. I get that it's a good deed and all. Just, there's actual ordinance moved in on Manhattan, National Guard fuckers. How hard is it really to take some of their toys and…aww you know how I like to do it. I'm a dirty fighter." He grins.

Fedor lifts his hands in defence"Jake, if your going to kill them just do it. What I dont want, is to sit outside with a chopper full of civilians while you and these soldiers play cat and mouse with leftovers. If you want to play dirty, do it on your own time for this job. We really need to be careful, this isnt like our usual op."because Fedor didnt have a plane, or a tank, or a mortar, or a huge cache of missiles, mines, explosives ect ect. They also had hostages to save, which would be very curious. "I'll supply you with a GPS co-ordinate by tonight. I'll have them meet me at my chopper, Cardinal will infiltrate and give the place a study before relaying the details to Jake. Jake is the element leader. The element will assault the facility under airborn covering fire, as soon as they enter the facility I will dust off and go hide. Upon radio request, I return and land outside the gates to load the prisoners."

Fedor clears his throat, before taking off his hat. "For the sake of this operation, we'll use some simpler terms. The assualting force, of four people and jake is to be the Element. Cardinal is the operator, the prisoners are packages or simply -the- package. My helicopter is a lift, and bad guys are jackasses. "then he goes about pointing. "Element leader, Element, Operator and lift. If Sergei isnt present, the operator may contact the teleport element and then we can just zap the packages out one by one. If not, lets keep them in reserve in case something goes wrong. The teleporter, will be our plan B."

"Sounds good," Cardinal states, "I can get in and send a signal from Abigail's cell to teleport in the Element, then, once I confirm things're safe. Cell phone text should work fine."

She figures they'll tell her what her part is. Zu is quiet, munching on the crust of her pizza. Waste not, want not. Her gaze darts continually between them, though back to Jake most often.

Element Leader says, "Jackasses. I like that." Not that Jake hasn't heard this term before. Or used it in various ops. He always likes it. He often says so. "Don't worry about me, guys," he says to Cardinal and Teo mainly, since Fedor knows him by now and Zu will learn, "I'm really just brainstorming when I come up with this kill-everything shit. We'll follow the plan and it'll be a good plan."

"Muldoon has a lot of friends," Teo notes, finally apparently zoning back into the conversation. "I can't be sure the quantities will stay as known when the neighbourhood smells smoke. I'd prefer to keep things simple and quick, but the prisoners are the prerogative. Any other shit you have the time or inclination to do is up to you." His teeth click shut; he nods at when Fedor and his second say their parts. Helicopter, GPS, that all makes sense to him; he's worked with similar terminology for a little while now, and it isn't exactly rocket science. He crooks a grin, which makes him look tired instead of younger. "Figure I'll hear about how it went in less than an hour after."

Fedor nods softly "Teo I will need a destination, Me, Cardinal, Jake and Zu will also need a ride back from that destination. Assuming I get everyone, and everyone is alive and healthy and we're all ok where do you want me to land all of us? I expect roughly a two hundred mile range, with passengers and allowances for a safety margin when it comes to fuel. Normally if this was an airplane I'd dump everyone off and then just skydive off into the woods but this doesnt work as well with a helicoper. "

Cardinal reaches down for another slice of pizza, tugging it free and noting, rather dryly, "Hope you've got an escape route've your own planned, Laudani. As soon as one've those guards gets to a phone or an alarm…"

The other half of Teo's smile hitches into view, and he looks a little less tired and a little younger again. "I'll find you a place," he answers Fedor, easily. "I'm pretty sure you won't have to worry about satellite coverage with these fucks, but I probably know someone who can help with that, too. In case. And some contact numbers in case anybody needs immediate medical treatment or shit like that. I don't know what kind of state Abby's gonna be in.

"Healer who got herself abducted," he adds, an informative caption for the yet-unenlightened. "You want another ride or more fuel?" Cardinal's concern — if that's the word for it, warrants a brief glance, a smile that doesn't reach his mouth. It passes for reassurance, or is supposed to.

"Speakin' of all this," Cardinal asks, after eating a mouthful of pizza, "I don't suppose anyone's got a spare -vest- I can have, eh? I have a severe allergy to bullets."

"That uh…thing you do? Doesn't help against bullets?" Jake asks, gesturing vaguely at Cardinal. He doesn't really have any responses to the other things. Fedor will secure them an extraction rally point. Teo will escape or not. That's all on the operational level. He's tactical. "Most times you gotta get the good ones fitted to you. Get the dragonskin if you got an option. Scare up six thousand bucks and you can buy your own."

Fedor sniffles a touch, pondering things quietly. Running checklists through his head, he wanted to be sure he didnt have to relearn which order he turned things on. Eurocopters are a little funy in that respect"I got a level two you can wear, its less like an army thing and more like a cop sorta deal. It'll stop handguns and shotgun pellets but not rifles, I'll bring that with me when we steal the chopper."He pauses for a moment, before fixing his gaze on Cardinal."What color you want your Algerian jacket in?" Zuzu isnt forgotten in all of this, she just doesnt have such a big role to play. "You'll be coming with me, ever been in a helicopter before?"

Zuleyka is silent. At that, she shakes her head. "No," she says, simply. "Never."

The Sicilian kid idles in silence, listening to the others discuss logistics and armor. Teo's pretty sure he's forgotten something, but that's not the kind of something you should be bothered to say anything about, so he doesn't. There's still time, and other things to use it on.

A tip of Cardinal's head to Jake admits to the point, adding in wry tones, "I can't exactly be holding a gun when I don't have a body, y'know, Jake. Li'l things like that tend to be rather difficult…" A look then to Fedor, brows raising, "Well, hell, that'll do. AEvery bit counts." A pause, a grin, "Tan."

"Fedor likes to dress up his kids." Jake says with a smirk after tossing a crust in the 'trash' box. You know, how when there's pizza there's always one box that becomes the Australia of pizza slices, where the unwanted and offending things go until they become some sort of other entity eventually discarded. He tells Zu conversationally and with a grin, "Careful or he'll have you flying that bird. I'm not kidding."

"In time, in time," she says sagely. Like all this happens to her every day. She's either got a really impressive pokerface for a teenage girl, or there's some sort of permanent shellshock, courtesy of Peter Petrelli.

Fedor nods, tan. Ok he can do tan. "Do you feel any better Teo, you dont look quite as wound up tonight."thumbing back towards the Pizza before moving to free up his spot near the Pizza. Fedor meanders back towards his pack, fwumping down cross legged beside it. He half opens the slide, before manually pulling the rounds in the magazine and stuffing them in a pouch. Swapping out thse bright orange less than lethal rubber missiles for tactical buckshot."I like to dress up kids when it keeps them alive, or when I can bribe them into working for me."a smirk, a little tiny one breaks out on his face. "Christ Jake, you say that like you didnt enjoy being my student."

"Got some sleep. It was great," Teo replies in terms that are probably too straightforward to be strictly true; what he had was better than sleep but he lacks the brazen — honesty that most of the people in this room seem to be suffering from. There's a fleeting shadow of rue for the lie, however white or transparent it was. His eye shifts automatically to the bright color of the rubber, before going to the man holding it.

"I have to head out in a little bit, though. There's another—" he motions vaguely with one hand, articulating either 'chaotic confrontation with law enforcement regarding fugitive I can't afford them to keep in custody' or 'whatever,' "thing to do. I'll text you the place, you text me the time by tonight, signor? And is that about it?" He turns his head to look at the other men in turn. Zuleyka now tacitly included in that category, despite differences in equipment and make.

"I'll warn you ahead of time," Cardinal offers in a rather dark voice, pulling the crust of a pizza from between his lips and shaking it over in Teo's direction, "The cyclops's in a fuckin' bad mood. Good luck, but don't tell 'im I said that. He might think I like him or something."

"The cyclops? Is that a gay joke?" Jake asks, half-laughing. Because it COULD be interpretted that way. He has a shake of the head for Fedor and says, "Just warning her. I WANTED to learn. But Chief, you're a fuckin beast when you get your hands on a good willing student." He gives another look to Zu. "Seriously, he'll turn you into an ace pilot if you let him. It's fun to watch. He'll be in a good mood for weeks."

Fedor hmmms"ok well Jake why dont you go get a car. Get us over to Jersey, then go get the guns and armor while me and cardinal steal the chopper. We'll worry about getting it set up when we land, we'll have a few hours then and some other folks to deal with. Then, Cardinal can take the car back to staten?"

"It's like I fell down the rabbit hole," Zu says, licking her fingers. But there's a definite gleam of interest. "Or I'm Wendy for a really deadly bunch of Lost Boys. I'll let him," she says, gently. "But first I learn the basic stuff."

If Teo didn't want to shoot Fedor's godson, he'd probably want to gather up the whole dysfunctional little family-in-the-making in a big warm hug. They're sort of adorable in that morbid way that hipster fashion prints with the lazer-eyed bunnies or cartoon clouds destroying cartoon cities with foamy-edged floods. He acknowledges Cardinal's well-wishes with a slight lift of a quizzical brow, a nod that folds into a laughing shake of his head when Jake asks. Naw. Not Deckard. "A'right. Hear from you guys Wednesday. Ciao." He turns away, throwing up a backward wave farewell.

Fedor waves pleasantly to Teo as he goes. Then a sigh, as he rises. "Ok guys, we have alot of work to do and I'd like to get it done so we can all get a cat nap in before the big dance. Lets get to it!"


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March 9th: God and Forgiveness

Previously in this storyline…
A Very Frail Thread


Next in this storyline…
The Tucker Family Reunion

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March 9th: Pulling Stitches
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