Participants:
| Scene Title | Your Mission… |
|---|---|
| Synopsis | … if you choose to accept it, could be impossible. |
| Date | January 11, 2009 |
Once upon a time, the New York Public Library was one of the most important libraries in America. The system, of which this branch was the center, was among the foremost lending libraries /and/ research libraries in the world.
The bomb changed that, as it changed so much else.
By virtue of distance, the library building was not demolished entirely, like so many others north of it; however, the walls on its northern side have been badly damaged, and their stability is suspect. The interior is a shambles, tattered books strewn about the chambers and halls, many shelves pulled over. Some have even been pulled apart; piles of char in some corners suggest some of their pieces, as well as some of the books, have been used to fuel fires for people who sought shelter here in the past.
In the two years since the bomb, the library — despite being one of the icons of New York City — has been left to decay. The wind whistles through shattered windows, broken by either the blast-front or subsequent vandals, carrying dust and debris in with it. Rats, cats, and stray dogs often seek shelter within its walls, especially on cold nights. Between the fear of radiation and the lack of funds, recovery of the library is on indefinite hiatus; this place, too, has been forgotten..
It's become customary in the time since she's been away from performing on stage. Sleeping overnight in broken blocks at a different place each night, usually an upscale hotel, and being active not long after sunrise the next day. On this particular Sunday morning, Cat has come to the library after tending some minor details. She leaves a pair of boxes with the name Helena printed on a card someplace where the weather-altering blonde will hopefully find it, and settles in to work.
Her first order of business is to enter the data Gillian gave them yesterday into the records, but there is the larger project. One she can't do alone. For this purpose, she spreads the maps and other documents relating to every single bridge linking the island of Manhattan to the outside world on the same table she was using the night before, and hopes the word she left for Anne pays off with the musician's presence.
Since the weekend has been one devoted to the transportation of things from one headquarter to another, and Anne is arguably one of the people who can move things fastest and with the least noise being made about the whole thing, she's had her work cut out for her. Still, even if her body is protesting the strain now, it feels good to have had something to do that she knew she was good at. Otherwise, this whole resistance movement wasn't exactly within her usual skillsets. At the moment, though, she's decided to take a bit of a break, and found the message from Cat while doing so. She knocks slightly on the doorframe before peeking her nose in, with a big mug of tea in her hand. "Hey. I got your message." Her eyes dart around for a while before settling down on Cat proper again. "What can I do for you?"
The knock draws her eyes away from what she's looking at; they settle on the teleporter. Her face is calm enough, but there's urgency about it. Cat stands, seen then to be casually dressed in a plain hoodie and jeans with boots, the iPhone at her hip saying it's nine a. m. "Morning, Anne," she greets.
Then she turns her attention back to the documents. "Have you read the synopsis of Doctor Ray's recommendations?" she asks. "There's a mission your name was mentioned as being good for by Teo. I'm not, however, certain what your ability is."
"Oh." Anne offers Cat a bit of a smile, and ducks her head. "I'm a teleporter. That's how I've been helping out with moving the headquarters, this weekend. The less that's moved over from one place to another where people can see, the better it is. I just have to make sure I walk out of the same place I walked into, and such things.." She figured that just in case they were being watched or something, which one should appereantly assume, it was probably the wisest thing to do. "Yes, I've read it. I am not quite sure I fully understand all of it, though. But then this kind of thing is very new to me."
"Teleportation. Very fitting to this task." She nods. "Basically, your mission, should you choose to accept it… Yes, it could be very much Mission: Impossible, but we still have to try…" Cat begins, "is to conduct recon of every single bridge connecting Manhattan to the rest of the world and see if explosives have been placed there. It would also help if some on the ground recon was conducted of places on the ground from which mortars could be fired at and damage those bridges."
Anne nods a little bit to this. "Getting to the sites and exploring them as such shouldn't be much of a problem, and I could likely do it pretty fast as well, but." She raises one hand slightly, one finger held to suggest there's one problem. "I know absolutely crap all about explosives. This seems to be a bit of a problem in this situation. However, I could perhaps take someone with me who /does/ know something about it." Otherwise a serious crash course was needed, here.
Another nod, as Cat glances at the documents again. "You won't be alone, we have a really fast guy to get in on this too. I don't know how your location finding works, for teleporting: presumably you'd need to see where you're aiming for first? If that's the case you can walk the riverbanks and see the spans, sight in on your targets. Take a camera with you, to photograph the examined areas, so anything present can be compared against what should and shouldn't be present. Making this recon is probably going to wear you down enough, without the effects of an added person."
Anne shakes her head slightly, at that. "Actually.. I don't. I can go pretty good distances without seeing my destination, and I know New York and the surrounding areas well enough that I could go to a spot under any of the bridges at a moment's notice." She rolls her shoulder back in a slow circle. "If something occupies the spot I'm about to land in, I just have to flicker out, is all." Something she might not know what it means, but appereantly it works for Anne. "How much of a range does a mortar have? And how big are they? Do they need anything in perticular by way of placement?" The rest she just nods to. "Camera it is."
"It's unknown what the details are on the mortars," Cat replies. "It's a covering of bases to check for spots they could be used from. They are sufficient to release the virus, that was our initial assessment of their purpose, but since we expect an attempt to cut off Manhattan, and they are artillery pieces…" Cat trails off, letting Anne get to where she's going.
Anne just nods, though. She had no specific purpose with the question aside from trying to figure out the range of the weapons. It would influence the range on her observations, but as it is she'll just have to look it up before she goes. Maximum known ranges, add a little bit to that, and then continue with the work. "You mentioned that someone else was going to be doing this as well? Mind sharing who that is? If we divide the work between us we'll likely end up being more efficient than if we double up… though on the other hand, doubling up might have us spot something the other didn't."
"His name is Owen," Cat replies, "and he's very fast. But I haven't had a chance to approach him yet." Her eyes rest on Anne's face as she speaks, then take on the look of her having the metaphorical wheels turning behind them.
Anne rolls her shoulder back in a slow circle then. "In that case I'll just get to work. Would you let me know when you've talked to him?" They could get to it then, if at all. It would be alright. "Oh, and. Is there anything special I should think about when I do this? I realize that when you're in this buissness you should probably have all this cloak and dagger stuff down pat.." But she didn't want to get everyone in trouble by making a mistake she could have avoided by asking. Maybe she should bug Teo.
"I've never been near a mortar when it was fired, but they are artillery pieces, and a bit large, so it's a safe assumption they would be very loud. That being the case, it seems likely when I think about it they would want to have some sort of security when or if they're used, to have time in completing the task before anyone can get to them. It may also take a sustained shelling to do what they want if they go that route, making the problem worse, so we can possibly narrow it down, concentrate most on areas that look like they could afford enough time to do the work and get away. Also… with the goal being to seal off Manhattan, those locations would perhaps not be in Manhattan."
"Not unless the people who're supposed to get away have some special kind of transportation." And, well. Anne wasn't the kind of person who'd exclude that possibility. Not given the way she could jump around when there was need for such a thing. "Thanks for that, then, Cat. I'll get to it straight away." The preparations, anyway. The actual work might have to wait an hour or two, but she'd get to that as well.
"Photos of all the spots you look at would be good too, just like the bridges themselves, so we can go over them and look for things that don't seem right," Cat suggests. "No one expects you to know all there is to know, the basic idea is to identify possibilities and make plans from there. It's… we just know they want to seal the island, so we have to prepare best we can for multiple methods." And she pauses there. "We can't even rule out sites in Manhattan. It wouldn't be the first time people like that would be on suicide mission."
"Good luck, and success, Anne," Cat offers solemnly. Because they have to succeed, or die.
 January 10th: Why Do You Even Come Down? |
 January 11th: The Codger And The Poppet |