Participants:
Scene Title | You Go Zig, We Go Zag |
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Synopsis | Planning out tactics for their assault on the abandoned hospital. |
Date | January 26, 2009 |
Minea's Safehouse
Texted to everyone was an address as an offering for where to meet. A loftesque place in a not bad section of the island. FUrnished and airy. Everyone had been greeted at the door by the ISA agent and her gun. Standard op it seems with Minea. Coffee and sandwhiches laid out for those who wanted it, the heady smell of decent beans wafting through the place. One half of the main room taken up by a sophisticated laptop and a desktop, backlit drafting board, stool a true light system and and lots of documents that are being shuffled away by the dark haired woman. Another corner was taken up by her gear that was brought out for whatever it was they were going to do on Wednesday. "Make yourself at home, stay away from the computers please" the order offered to the others, always returning to the lit up area when she was done answering the door.
Wandering around the computers, Brian sends a few glances just in case he might catch something super top secret and federal. But he is more distracted by the sandwiches. Having one in each hand the young man nibbles heartily at one, his gaze wandering the room skeptically. Free food is always welcomed, and he might as well take advantage of it!
Having breezed past the last time Minea opened the door, Owen flits about restlessly, his comings and goings marked by otherwise inexplicable gusts of air and the fact that he's somewhere else nearly every time someone looks for him. Most of these passes are marked by the absence of a sandwich or a lowering of the level of coffee in the pot. He has a hard time sitting still on his best day, but with tensions mounting lately he stays in motion out of habit.
When she arrived, Elisabeth smirked at Minea. Oh good… yet another paranoid crazy. It's all good! She, too, is wearing her weapon, along with jeans, high heeled boots, and a tan blazer — she's clearly taken some time out of her workday to be here — and she's carrying a file folder with her. It's important. She has met both Brian and Owen before, so they are not a surprise when they arrive. "I'm sorry I couldn't be at the meeting the other night," she tells them. "The bomb disarmament on the bridges went as planned, however, so hopefully… assuming we got them ALL… the damn things won't go exploding like in our information. So… now that we're all here, I've got aerial shots of the hospital and I'd like to go over our approach tonight. Owen, Brian, first thing…. how good are you guys with firearms, if at all?"
"I said away from them" Comes Minea's flat voice when Brian swoops by for a visit. Her little cubby is being under the sun, but your in a building. There's nothing for him to see, just a music program up and playing some bach, scattered in a pile are some blanks for making birth certificates and other ID's. Anything on the computer has been shut down and any ID's in the process of being made are squared away. But then Elisabeth is talking and the brunette moves away from her work area, shutting down the lights with a few taps of her toes on various foot controls. 'That's good. one less thing to worry about when it comes down to the wire"
Brian gives Owen a little grin, and motions with his head to the sandwiches. Taking a big bite out of the one in his right hand. Turning to Elisabeth he gives a little smile with his overly full mouth. Taking a minute to swallow, he explains. "I'm used to pistols and shotguns. Anything else is kinda out of my… forte." He gives a look to Minea, giving a little shrug accompanied by a. "Sorr-yy."
"Um…Never used one?" Owen offers in response. "I mean, um. Yeah. Basically, never shot a gun before. Especially not at anybody." Judging by the way he's carrying himself at the moment he is clearly aware of the liability this might make him. "I usually don't get involved in this part. I mean, I'm totally up for it, but..just saying."
Elisabeth nods slightly at the reports they give, and she asks Brian, "Do you have ACCESS to a pistol in case you should need it tonight? I'd prefer to arm both of you, but Owen, you'd be more of a liability WITH a gun." Like, shooting his own team. She sets the file folder down to lay out the aerial shots she's got of where they're going tonight. "I put in a request to Hana to see if she had any way to give us a little better realtime info, so if we have that tonight, I'll let you know.
'Sorry doesn't cut it Mr. faulk. If you can't observe and respect a simple request like stay away from the equipment, how am I to trust that your going to follow a simple request when we're going through that hospital?" It's point plank, again no malice as the brunette wanders to the overhead shots of the abandoned hospital. So faulk knew how to handle weapons, not an issue. there wouldn't be enough time to witness his proficiency. But Owen didn't. But the boy had speed from the looks of it. Like Felix. "How fast can you go Mr. Whitcomb? Are you able to move others as fast as you by touching or would you be required to pick someone up? Not being able to weild a weapon wouldn't be that big a detriment" Minea looks to Elisabeth. "My thought.. is that Mr. Whitcomb should be the one to handle the thermite. His speed, once we identify where the dispersal unit is being maintained, we can have him make his way there. We can provide cover is needed for him. Get in, get out, pick them off as they run like hell from the after effects. If they're smart"
Pulling up his hoody, Brian reaches into the back of his pants and pulls out a weapon. A Desert Eagle .50. Holding it up for Elisabeth and Minea to see, he inclines his head. "Good enough?" He asks, before going to return the weapon to the back of his pants, pulling his sweatshirt over it. Looking to Minea he rolls his eyes. "Easy G.I Jane. I said I'm sorry, get over it. We've got enough trust issues already."
"I'd rather not shoot anybody accidentally," Owen affirms. "I can um-" His train of thought is derailed by Minea's question. Judging by his expression, he doesn't have a solid answer for that. "About-" he says from one side of the room, continuing across from where he was "-this fast. I mean, I can get what you need done. Just..Well, I can carry people too. So there's that." He tries to shrink back from prominence as the confrontation between Brian and Minea persists, noshing upon yet another sandwich purloined from the plate when he changed spots.
Elisabeth nods to Minea. That had been her thought, as well. "Good enough," she tells Brian. And she looks between Brian and Minnie. "Let's drop it." To Owen, she asks, "How much weight can you carry? Because what Minnie's said is basically the intention here. The thermite has a very specific destination, and the thought here is that Minnie, myself, and Brian can go in and be the cover — and the distraction. So that if they come at anyone, they come at us while you get in there, get to the place you need to be, set off the thermite, and get the hell out. It might also be good to know if you can get someone ELSE out if they're down when you go zipping past."
"I also suggest, that to save us from identification exposure, that names be chosen. To protect identities. While I hope that no one escapes, one has to take into account that someone might. Running around calling people GI Jane or Owen or Officer Harrison would not be good" Owen's studied, watching thoughtfully. "I agree. I really think he's the one that should be depositing the thermite Harrison. Harder to get a bead on him unless their carrying around heavy firearms. I wouldn't put it past them to. Defend the dispersal unit" Minea glances to Brian, seeming to indeed, drop it. "You okay to take a life?"
"What? Take a life?" Brian asks, arching his brows giving a shocked look at Minea. "What kind of question is that? I'm ready to do our mission. So, easy." He retorts, defensively. Taking another bite of a sandwich, he looks to Minea again. "Are you saying we need codenames? Can I be NightHawk?"
"I can carry enough," Owen asserts, looking a little indignant. It has been observed that he doesn't quite deal with the same reality everyone else does, so minutia that may make or break a mission like this one just don't occur to him. He rolls up his sleeve and makes a muscle. "I've been working out. Anyway, I can get in there with whatever you give me and then get out again no problem. And even if I have to drag somebody, I'm dragging them really fast, so yeah. No problem there either." After a moment he asks, "How heavy is thermite, anyway?" He looks over at Brian as he claims 'Nighthawk', snapping his fingers and muttering 'dammit' under his breath. Evidently he wishes he'd thought of that.
Elisabeth sucks in a quick breath and looks at the boys… and for her, in this instant, that's exactly what they both are. Boys playing at being freedom fighters. "I'm going to say this one time, and then we're not going to have to have a conversation like this again, right?" Her tone is pleasant, but there's pure steel underlying it. "I just spent the past week putting together a plan to take care of the bombs these fuckers put on every bridge into this town. I don't have NEARLY that long to plan this out, and I don't have the time or the inclination to fuck around while I try to figure out what parts of what you tell me is bluster and what parts are accurate. If Minnie or I ask a question about your abilities, take it *dead* seriously — we're asking because it may very well save your life or one of ours. I don't intend on losing anyone in this assault, but that means I have to know exactly what you can do, exactly how good you *are* at what you can do, and I need to know that when I say 'jump,' you're not even going to take the time to ASK me how high, you're just going to do it." She looks at the guys and says quietly, "This is it, guys. The whole ball of wax. We fuck up, we fail to do this, and that virus gets loose and decimates this city… and probably most of this world. I'm not playing, and I don't have time to joke around and be your friend right now, all right? I'd rather spend the next two days planning my fool head off so that afterward you have the luxury to talk amongst yourselves about what a bitch I am to work with."
She looks at Minea. "Codenames make sense. If you *must* have Nighthawk, Brian, so be it. Owen… if you push at top speed, you gonna be able to beat an explosion? Can you run faster than a train? Beat a bullet? Give me a basis for comparison here."
"I was going to suggest the phonetic alphabet, but hawk is fine. I prefer one word. easier to get out. I'll be Delta from her eon in once we leave this room" Minea's turning the pictures around, studying them. Her little lecture isn't for her. "Speaking of that. Can you make multiple bubbles like you did the other afternoon? or just one?"
His eyebrows arch high as the lecture comes on. His eyes slowly drift over to Owen as he lets out a small little sigh. Looking to get eye contact from the other young man, he gives him a look as if to say 'Shit.' Then slowly returns his attention to Elisabeth and Minea.
Owen weathers Elisabeth's stern admonition with a bland attentiveness, as if he were watching her on television scolding someone off-camera. "'kay," he answers simply. He meets Brian's look with a sidelong glance and fills his mouth with the remainder of his sandwich to keep from making any further trouble as he returns his attention to the women.
Elisabeth rubs her forehead and comments, "And my apologies for sounding off at you, it's been a hellacious week, quite frankly." She grimaces then looks at Minea. "You mean the silence bubbles? No, not that I know of at the moment. That particular sound stunt seems, so far as I can tell, to be in a radius around me. C… My mentor hasn't taught me otherwise, but I'll ask if he knows if it can be done. If so, I can try to practice between now and then. Meantime… " She makes a face. "So far as I know, we don't' have any idea where in this place they're going to have their stuff. I may be able to listen ahead of time… and I may POSSIBLY be able to incapacitate at least some of htem ahead of time… but my best guess would be the basement. Less light escaping and so forth. Thoughts from any of you on this? We're mostly goin' in blind."
"Practice. I want, if possible bubbles around the guns. There's just three of us, if it's possible, it'll keep down the noise and alert the others since we'll unlikely be right near each other" Basement, go in from there. "Odds are they will have someone covering all exits, and within the building. it's abandoned that means that we need to expect floors to be unstable. But we can't go in from the top" Minea sucks on her lower lip. "Faulk, whitcomb, leave me your clothing sizes, shoe sizes, head sizes, i'll get some gear for you, so that your not running around in jeans" Minea gestures towards the area's of the building that had been exposed to the air, near the roof. 'they'll either have it outside the building, or they'll have it on the highest stable level to fire it off. Not in direct sight from the air likely, or position so they can move it if they need to at the last possible moment"
"It's Fulk." Brian corrects. "And.. we have gear. I'm pretty sure. Already." Brian offers. "At least I do." Clarifying, he looks over to Owen and then back to the women. "Do we want extra me's?" He asks, clasping his hands behind his back, letting out a little yawn. "I don't know if the augmenter girl is going to be able to, but I think she'll give me a little boost, allowing me more.. me's. I could probably bring an extra."
As the subject of gear comes up, Owen looks over at Brian and then looks back to Minea, shaking his head. "I'll get you my sizes. One sec." It takes two, but only because he had to go find a tape measure for his head. He hands over a list on a post-it when he reappears next to Minea, his arrival preceded by a wash of displaced air and. "Do you have night vision goggles? If nothing's locked, or there aren't any really heavy doors, I can get in and out before anyone sees me."
Elisabeth looks thoughtful. "Honestly, Brian, I don't know how many extra 'you' we'll need on this." She pauses. "But given that I've been told you feel it when each one dies, I have to admit that I'm a little leery. I don't want you creating a bunch of 'you' just for cannon fodder, if you know what I mean. If it were that simple, I'd go for that idea. The trick here, guys, is fast and quiet. I'll definitely on the whole 'can I encase us in a bubble so they don't hear us' - my range is somewhat limited, but I *think* it's possible."
'I don't, not for everyone" that she looks to Elisabeth about. "Can you requisition stuff through SCOUT? Goggles, at least a pair for our delivery boy, and vests for the both of them? Vests would be harder for me to get as they'd be a permanent purchase. Hard to get on short notice. Radio's, I don't know if you have access to the ones that wrap around your throat. If you do, a pair for all of us" A glance to Brian at his offer. "Less is better frankly. Just you, maybe another copy, if they are able. Would mean one extra hand to fire a weapon , leave one version of you still for our canary"
Megan has connected.
Megan has left.
Brian gives Minea a hard look at being called a canary. A nickname he is not exactly fond of. "Nighthawk." He corrects, tugging his lips down in a frown. "I can bring just me. I'm sure the other teams will need more. And.. we have vests." He points out. "Throat radios? I don't know.. I'll have to ask."
Having supplied the information needed for whatever gear loadout Minea intends to provide, Owen settles back to listen as the other details are discussed. Specifically, the matter of how many Brians it takes to save New York. He frowns as he looks over at the man, shaking his head. "I'd keep a spare somewhere safe so…I mean….Yeah. Nobody should be cannon fodder."
Elisabeth nods to Minea. "I can get hold of throat mics, yeah. If we don't already have them. Maybe night-vision goggles, maybe not. I'll have to be a little careful how much I request through them, but it's doable. My captain'll back the move." She looks at Brian. "You've got Kevlar? That'll help," she agrees. "Okay… so…" She blows out a breath. "We're going to have to go in on the main level. And it's going to be dicey. We've got possibly rotten floors, and we've got an unknown, at this point, number of hostiles. My thought here is that we're going to send Owen in first, let him do recon and come back to report guard positions. Then we'll take as many as we need in there — a small team of shooters often works far better than a larger squad. If we need a distraction, I'm thinking a number of Brians could, in fact, be the distraction — it'll put them in the open, draw the attention of most of the guards, and let the rest of us get in. I realize this is sketchy at this moment, but without better intel, I'm not sure we can GET more detailed."
"I was inquiring of Elisabeth. I don't know Phoenix's capabilities. and yes your Night hawk, I was referring to your essential role in this besides providing cover for Whitcomb. The Canary to our miners" She'd be happy when this is over, to never deal with Brian again. But for now, bigger issues still. "we'll meet up a few hours before our appointed infiltration time, get gear dished out, make sure we're all on the same page" Owen speaks up and Minea raises her brows. 'That's a good idea. If there can be a copy spared. Keep him out of the immediate area, in case we end up needing him" The ISA agent looks over to Brian. "You agreeable to that? If it's possible? I'd rather not have a mass amount of you there, according to what Elisabeth says the affect is to you, but one might be good" She looks to Owen again. "You good with speeding through and doing recon. This will give us a good idea too fo what's stable and whats not. You'll be in navy blue, so, you'll blend in well. none of this camoflauge"
"Well everybody will be needing me." Brian reminds softly. "So.. I need to know ahead of time how many to bring. If I just replicate on the spot once we're there, I'm naked, and I'm drained in the rest of the teams. I can be a distraction, draw them outside or something with a lot of gunfire. But I need to know beforehand. I mean it's a good idea. I can have one with us, and then two outside drawing fire. And I will know what's happening in both locations. Yes. We have Kevlar."
Owen fires off a quick salute and grins as he assures, "That's me. Recon-boy. Usually that's what I do. So this shouldn't be any different. Get in, get done, get out, hopefully in the time it used to take for commercials. Y'know, before they started taking so /long/…" He nods, accepting the terms. Navy blue, blending in, dark, recon, thermite.
Elisabeth winces. "Oh crap. Okay…." She considers. "Bring me five. Keep an extra one in a hiding place somewhere too. Just…." She bites her lip. Just in case we fail miserably, she doesn't want to say out loud. She looks at Owen. Blowing out a breath, she shakes her head a little. "I may not be able to meet up with all of you until the night we're ready to go. But I'll text you any information I get from Wireless on guards and placements. Maybe she can even get us thermal imaging. I'll check on that too. It could make things a lot simpler." She looks at them. "Anything else before we head off to try to save the world here?" She grins a little.
"Send Whitcomb here to your friend, in regards to the thermite. Since he's handling it, it's better that he know. the rest of us can deal with the information sheet. Elizabeth, your Echo, Whitcomb, your omega Fulk, your night hawk and I'm Delta. Remember your names, use them. We will not be answering to our given names" That was all Minea needed to do, she seems satisfied.
"I can give four. Including the one with you guys." Brian says in response giving a little shrug. "I'm sorry but it's all I can spare. If I make too many, I won't be able to focus anywhere.. And we don't want that."
"Cool," Owen replies, with a slight bounce of his shoulders and puffing out of his bottom lip. "I get to be Omega. Okay, I'm good then. Where am I going for the thermite thing?""
Elisabeth shakes her head and says quietly, "Wherever you find what we're looking for, Owen. It'll be big, you'll know it when you see it. And when you find it, you're looking to hook the thermite to it, set it off, and get the hell out. Warn us first, though, so we can extract too." She smiles a little, and it doesn't quite meet her eyes. If push comes to shove… it's possible the team won't be ABLE to extract. She knows she and Minea know that…. whether Owen and Brian do? She's not entirely sure.
"Then we're good. Leave when you want to. I need the place alone tonight. I have work to do and preparation" Minea answer. 'No offense"
January 26th: Sharing Salma |
January 26th: Go If You Can |