Participants:
| Scene Title | Sharing The Plan |
|---|---|
| Synopsis | The title says it all. |
| Date | October 13, 2009 |
Phoenix HQ
This is a finished basement with pale blue carpet except in the utility rooms where floors are easy to clean grey stone. Walls are painted a soft cream color. It's been soundproofed to keep noise from reaching the Alley Cat Couriers franchise above, and measures were taken to prevent water from leaking in.
Much of the HQ is common area with recliners and couches before a large HD set, but there are business areas. One portion has state of the art computer systems (both PC and Mac), equipment to handle footage from various camera and surveillance systems, and a large executive desk. Another zone is set aside for various armaments and protective gear. Weapons, hazmat suits with portable oxygen bottles, body armor, comm gear, disposable phones. Then there's the conference room with a large table and sixteen seats. An exercise area with the basics is also provided.
Scattered around the periphery, where space isn't already taken, are a number of rooms with beds for members to use when in need. A sizable closet is stacked floor to ceiling with cots which can be used if a sudden need to shelter numerous people arises.
Access to and exit from this HQ is by the stairs and large open freight elevator which leads to the ACB manager's office and in the future by outside means which make it possible to come and go without approaching the building.
That went well, Cat thinks as she makes her way into the basement headquarters under the Bronx franchise of Alley Cat Couriers. She took care not to be spotted approaching the concealed entry point. Once inside she sets down the guitar case which holds a selection of weaponry and removes the jacket hiding a silenced pistol. She carries those items into the conference room and settles into a chair. Her eyes close and Cat gives over to remembrances of things past. The abduction of herself and Dani, which resulted in her lover's death after being tortured. The inability to find and rescue her.
Then there are snippets from the time Helena was imprisoned and the efforts to locate her, which meld into images of seeing Helena when they carried out the prison raid.
From this she flashes forward to visualize Elisabeth as she was when they talked after her being found nearly dead from a head shot. The failure to locate her quickly enough to prevent that.
Then there's Mona Rao, hanged by HF. Another failure, a complete one. Utter inability to locate her or Joseph before the captors carried out their planned public execution.
Now Helena is taken. She doesn't understand it, really, how neanderthals like Bill Dean and Emile Danko managed to grab people with attack powers. But they did. So much failure weighs on Cat now, and the people lost because of it. One central thought is in her head as she prepares to spread the word of what's in motion.
This time, it will be different. She will not fail.
Inconspicuousness for Delilah in Fall and Winter is just as hard as the other seasons- instead of colorful dresses, it turns into coats, gloves, sweaters, et cetera. She is a length ahead of anyone that she might be showing the way, heading for one of the new meeting places with a half-spring in her step. A brown coat, contrasted with a colorful scarf and a somewhat long skirt and boots. She does not usually do it, but recently has been falling into the habit of bringing Samson along most places she goes these days. Perhaps she was biding her time to make sure that he knows Dee is the boss.
Spared no mercy when it comes to having Lilah as an owner, Samson has on his black harness lead- though underneath of it he is wearing a multicolored argyle dog-sweater- pink, tan, green, brown, white- but nobody wants to laugh, and it is chilly!
Delilah puts a glance over her shoulder before turning down the way to get to the technically secret entrance. The first thing Cat will hear other than the dull silence of a basement will probably be the 'snuff snuff snuff' of Samson sniffing his way along the hallway and walls as Delilah reaches the door to open it. He nudges his way into the room even as the door cracks a few inches, effectively forcing his way in to see what is there. Dee thuds in behind him. "Hey, Cat."
Sounds from the underground entranceway made by that canine companion don't reach Cat's ears, she's adrift in the thought process. What does draw her out of it, back to the here and now, is Delilah's voice from the main floor and the dog coming through the conference room door. She looks up, the expression to her face one which indicates focus, determination, and perhaps distress. She's poised as usual still, there's no indication she might lose it and start to toss things around in rage, but it can be seen her mind is heavily weighed upon.
"Delilah," she offers in terse greeting, "it's good you're here. I was just about to spread the word. Candy Allard contacted me, Brian and I met with her earlier, and we contacted Peyton. Met with her too."
"We may have a way to locate Helena's body."
"Candy?" Delilah mutters, trying to think back and remember a face to the name. She leads Samson into the basement, closing the door and letting go of his harness. He begins to investigate along the corners of the room, bumbling his way around furniture looking like a big argyle shark. Eventually he does get to Cat's area, though he is hesitant to go right up and stick his nose on her leg. "Oh, the Asian lady?" Delilah finds a seat nearby, her demeanor quiet and attentive. Somehow. Helena's fault, incidentally. Imagine that. "What's the news?"
Taking out her iPhone, she taps in a number for the pastor who recently joined their ranks and prepares a text message. It's brief, saying simply 'Info to share, and place to show.' Once it's sent she gives Delilah her attention. "Candy, yes. She says she got in with HF, told me she's met Bill Dean. I explained the risks, and she agreed to meet Peyton. That meeting happened too, but we took care so Candy doesn't know Peyton's name, hasn't really seen her face, and has no idea what she can do. Peyton should be able to see through her eyes now, and that can help us find where Helena's body is being held."
"Yesterday Brian saw Peyton and reported back, he says they're in an underground parking garage. Might be Midtown, Jersey City, or Long Island."
A faint beep, or ship's bell from the iphone can be heard chiming soon after the text has been sent. It would read: Take pic of outsde. Make it clear. No ppl pls. Apparently when it comes to spelling on a telephone text message-Scotch is one of those unfortunates that uses internetspeak.
Delilah seems less pleased as Cat continues on, one hand reaching out to steady Samson's hip as he leans onto her leg, tail wagging hopefully at the two ladies. "So basically, she could be in any abandoned parking garage. What, do we just start looking in all of them?" Delilah realizes right away that it was snappish, cringing seconds after she says it.
"Sorry. I'm just kind of tired. Are they just …keeping tabs on where she is so they can keep checking, see if she leaves and can see landmarks?"
The texted reply is read, and another message sent in response. It has a photo of the access point which leads to the HQ by underground means, an explanation of that fact, and a description of how to get from there to the HQ itself. There are no people in the photo, and the image is clear.
Then Cat answers Delilah. "It's an ongoing thing," Cat informs, "it won't get us a concrete location immediately, but it's progress. I also suggested Candy try to leave seemingly innocuous marks on buildings and other places where she meets with folks in HF so we can spot them. Things which might hint at a human presence. I asked Eileen to scout things out with her birds too, did that yesterday."
"We may or may not be able to contact Candy directly, if she's exposed she's probably tortured and killed. I warned her of the risk, and we took measures so she doesn't know who Peyton is or what she can do. And of the risk she faces that HF might decide to use SLC tests. Knowing that, she chose to stay undercover."
After a few moments, out on the street a muted sound of crackling and tonal discharge heralds the arrival of another. The sickly smell of sulfur in the air, clings on while smoke wafts off of the newly arrived person. A look about, And Scotch continues to the secret entrance as was instructed on his phone. Right now, the Pastor is clad in a dark green coat- ex military make, along with dark non de script clothing. Simply put he looks like anyone else off the street.
Down the tunnel he arrives, taking his time to pick his way back up to the central meeting room where everything is taking place. And yes he does manage to get lost once, before finally appearing .
"Sorry I am late-traffic was a bitch." a joke, but its likely not to carry. "What did I miss?"
"So right now, it's basically a game of tracking in the urban jungle?" Delilah sighs heavily, leaning her forehead onto one hand. "Does she not have a GPS in her cellphone or anything? I thought all phones had extras like that now? Or is that only in the movies? We could get a favor from Wireless and just track that signal down when we know she's there- but I guess all we'd need to do is have her call us, or call her from somewhere and have her leave her phone on in a pocket."
Samson sits down only to bounce up again when the door opens; he has made himself at home and bounds across the span of room before coming to a prance-like halt beside Scotch, nose to shoes. "Hey. Not much. We're going over the whole…finding…part."
"If the captors didn't destroy her phone for that very reason, that we might have technopaths who can track things like that," Cat remarks. "Wireless has been advised, and is being kept informed. I expect to succeed in finding her." Her expression is stony now. The weight on her from people having been lost before shows through to a point.
To Scotch she greets "Thanks for coming. This is our most recent place, only people in the organization know about it. Not even Ferrypeople know. The firehouse is a business, the parts of it we use are hidden from public view, and we made the entrance you just used so we can go in and out without being seen anywhere near it."
For his benefit, she continues on. "I've got something in the fire I hope will lead to where Helena's body was taken."
And for both, Cat says "We still need to scout Staten Island and get a fix on Doc so we can plan to move on him about fixing what he did."
A nod given over the same before the Pastor is looking down at his shoes, and the dog smelling them. One hand coming out to reach and scratch the top of his head, before he's letting eyes flick up to Cat. "I'll keep the picture then, till I get used to jumping here." Yes he did Bamf outside in order to not worry about finding a boat over. Once the dog has been sufficiently petted, McCoy moves over to the table, only to half perch his ass there.
"I can look around with a few other people. We find him, we'll keep him at the church till he can be extracted here." Yes he's not talking like a pastor, or even a Chaplain at the moment, but more like a marine. "As for when we find her body." Not if-simply, when. "What do we plan to do and how do we plan to proceed if there are hostiles?"
A lick of his lips. "Basically, how far are we willing to go in retrieving Helena's body?"
Delilah tries to not squirm about being misunderstood. "Not Helena's phone. Allard's." Other than that, she remains quiet even as McCoy comes over and proceeds to ask about how far they have to go. She waits a few moments before piping up again. "As far as we have to, now."
"I hadn't thought of that," Cat admits with a grin forming. "I'll let Wireless know. Thank you, Delilah." Maybe she had, maybe she hadn't, at the very least she lets it seem Delilah provided the idea. Then a nod is given to the redhead. "Very true."
To both of them, she states "First we do as much recon as we can. Learn numbers and weaponry they have, try to see when they're weakest, and scout the actual location where people are held. Then we can plan our move. Ideally we could get Carolina to use one of her portals, dash in and grab, dash back out. Then once we have them we tell the cops, Frontline, DHS, anyone we can think of exactly where to find Bill Dean and Emile Danko."
"Thinking of it now, Speedster Helena can help us a great deal. It's easy to disarm people when one is that fast." Her chair is risen from. "I'm headed upstairs to talk with her. Our access points to the upper floors are hidden behind the manager's office. There's no way anyone working in the courier business will ever know we're around."
"I am going to tell you right now, the cops Frontline, or the fucking DHS aren't going to give a shit, even if they are looking for either of them. If we go in, you better believe they will have her guarded and heavy. I've seen what they have done to our kind on the TV and in the newspapers." Scotch quiets down for a bit. "If we go in there to get Helena out, we all go in armed. We won't be passive about this. If you're uncomfortable with killing, then I suggest you shoot to wound, and disarm, because they will be looking to kill us on sight." Just the harsh reality of it girls.
A rub of his jaw and Scotch looks to them "We do have guns right?" He'd hate to only go in with shotguns and pistols, but if that's what it has to be.. "And it won't be easy either. I doubt either men will give her up without a fight. No, we go to kill..Now I am not saying we suddenly become all terroristy-but we got to show them not to fuck with us..and if they do, we're not afraid to come at them hard." Yeah this might not go over well. "Just my thought- But I've been trained in situations like this. Regardless, we find her, I want in." Now Scotch isn't usually a big fan of killing, in fact what he preaches from says to abstain from that. This though, is a different ballpark.
"That all right?"
"That will be so weird. Rescuing herself." Delilah mutters. "Do you think the other Helena has any clue that there's- er- this one? God, this is so weird period, what the fuck. Sometimes I am sad about not having a more interesting power, but then there's shit like that one, for fuck's sake, and suddenly I feel much better about it." Nothing important to add except colorful Delilah commentary. Even to Scotch.
"We have more guns than you can shake a small ex-Soviet country at. As for the 'dangerous killers' part, yeah, we get it. This isn't the first time anyone has planned some manner of armed rescue slash infiltration slash takedown, nor would it be the first time we'd be likely to or will kill, maim, wound for life. your military training is still priceless, though." Just the reality of it.
With Delilah handling the bulk of the response about weaponry and their likelihood to conduct an armed operation, Cat simply nods along where she stands behind the formerly occupied chair. "If we need to engage them in an armed operation and trade fire, we will. But if we can pull it off without that, so much the better. It would truly suck," the brunette explains, "to have them able to claim they were assaulted by Phoenix and make themselves look like heroes or martyrs, gain a recruiting advantage from this. We may not be able to pull it off without a battle, but we can at least hope."
And she shows a confident grin for the next segment. "I'm certain Frontline will be very interested to come get them," she asserts, "because Danko nearly got arrested at the Frontline debut ball. His HF buddies stormed the event to rescue him, and in the process battled Frontline members. You don't remember that? It was just over a month ago. I saw it happen, Helena and I were there."
A few steps are taken, she resumes the path out to go speak with Marilena, but pauses at the doorway after collecting her guitar case and jacket. "I need to brief the boss on this. Can you talk it over and cook up ideas for finding, catching, and containing Doc? I think he operates on Staten Island, maybe one of the people around Norman White. His ability, as demonstrated, is putting people in bodies other than their own. I don't know what others around him have."
"Just as long as you know what's at stake. I figured you all did, but you never know when someone wants to play hero- and not be able to handle that mess." Perhaps the newest member testing to see how dedicated the group he just joined. Yeah. A little. He only knows so much of what the news sources have put out and what casts he's seen. "I can tell you right now, Cat-that there's probably a good portion of America that thinks of them like that, no matter if they came in here and shot us all up." But that's his thought on that. "Either way, I say we plan for battle-then sigh and have cake when we don't."
As for the Frontline debut "I didn't have an invite strangely enough." As for Norman White, that gets a faint nod and a frown from the Pastor "I'll see if I can find a way to run into them, then." He'll put his feelers out on Staten though. "Either way I'll come by to see what you have…Maybe offer training for any wanting to go- just so we're primed when the go time is." Might as well start prepping now. "I'll call when I find out more on Doc." And with that he is moving to stand before he's looking back to Delilah for a second. "Come by sometime tomorrow if you can?" meaning the church "You can bring your dog too.." He'll need to jump back, as he does have a few things to take care of at the church. But, he'll at least wait for Delilah's answer, before he offers a smile-black smoke forming on his shoulders, before that crackle and tonal discharge is heard, blurted out. Leaving nothing but an explosion of sulfur smelling smoke, in the room.