update coming soon...

Moten puts the limo in "H" and accelerates away from the turmoil. Running right towards him are two women exiting the treeline to his left.

"What the...."

Wrestling with RAO in the back compartment, Brian looks up for a half-second and peers out the window.

"They're with me." Brian interjects, twisting RAO's ankle at a painfully awkward angle as he does so.

RAO seems to be backing off any attempt at a struggle, content with his broken ribs and mangled foot. He holds his hands up in surrender.

Moten pulls up to Carla and Ayumi, popping the door locks and letting them inside. From the side-mirrors, the G-Man can see Andropov's guards running towards the limo, guns drawn and radios in hand.

"Hey, Malory. Nice collection you've got started here," Ayumi says, referring to the bodies. She sticks her head forward through the open partition and grunts with further approval at the sight of the dead driver. She then looks over at Moten.

"I'm driving. Move over."

She then proceeds to wriggle through the partition and into the driver's seat.

Moten, knowing that he's nothing special when it comes to driving talents and also a big believer in the "Never argue with a lady, especially a lady carrying large sharp objects" rule of thumb, moves over.

"It's all yours," he says.


(Edited by Punkey at 1:34 am on Feb. 23, 2005)

Settling into the driver's seat, Ayumi steps on the accelerator--not flooring it, not yet sure if the limo is up to the challenge--and starts away from the scene.

The limo's got a lot of power, but it seems to in desperate need of a tune-up as getting the boat up to speed takes some time. Its handling over icy pavement is another story. Anything over 80KPH (50MPH) is a shaky affair...although the vehicle was designed for protection, not fast getaways.

Looking through the back window, the team can see the crossroads begin to fade. The highway ahead appears to be in good shape and for the first 30km or so, their escape seems to have gone uncontested. That was up till the small explosion 40m in front of them.

Ayumi immediately reacts by putting both feet on the brake pedal with the limo fishtailing about the roadway as she stops the car just short of the crater.

A unanimous What the fuck? is exclaimed by everyone inside the limo. Winding the window down, Brian looks out and follows a smoke trail up to a gunship currently swooping down on them from behind. Given the fact that its got two racks of rockets, the crater in front of them appears to have been a warning shot of sorts.

Nan da gou? Defer to the military man.

"Bryan, keep to the car or hit the trees?"

Ayumi has one hand hovering over the seat belt, ready to sweep it across and snap it into place if the SAS veteran votes for pavement.

Brian gets something of a maniac look in his eye.

"I finally get a pretty girl in the back of a limo, and these cheeky bastards have to ruin the moment..."

He takes up the remaining MP5, switching the safety off, nodding down to the soldier on the floor.

"Watch him for me...but em...be ready to bail if this doesn't work."

Carla, being the pretty girl in the back of the limo, is quick to state that "British charm only gets you so far, buster. You shoot down that chopper, then you might have something."

Brian leans out the window and takes aim at the chopper.

*fwip*

The 9mm slug goes through the main rotor housing, ricocheting about the metal enclosure. Smoke begins seeping out the top of the chopper as the pilot begins a series of erratic manuevers to keep the helicopter in the air.

Despite the lack of complete control of the vehicle, the Mi8 opens up on the limousine.

Rockets streak down towards the limo, destroying parts of the road and uprooting nearby trees, one smacking into the front end, shaking the car as its hood bursts into flames.

They don't build like these used to...

Aside from a larger indentation in the front end and a charred windshield, it seems the limousine is no worse for wear.

Ayumi deftly manuevers the limo around the rocket crater, accelerating up the highway as Brian attempts to take out the helicopter.

He sends another round downrange, spiderwebbing the co-pilot's side of the windscreen. The chopper returns fire with a full barrage of rockets flying out of its starboard sponson.

Explosions stitch a path of destruction around the limo with Ayumi swerving erratically, narrowly avoiding two direct hits. Rocket fragments rake the driver's side of the limo, its armor barely holding against the onslaught.

Elsewhere...

Peter reflects that getting shot isn't much fun. He also reflects that leaving behind your biggest asset isn't exactly nice, either. Annoyed, he shifts in his seat and checks his gun.

"I never got Please shoot me tattoed on my forehead, and yet here we are..."

Artis mutters something about Happens to me all the time as he refamilarizes himself with Le Car's controls.

SATCOMMs compromised, the two of them might as well be disavowed as they have no way of telling who is with 'em and who's against 'em.

It's at this time Peter vaguely remembers an email about an proposed Agency safehouse somewhere west of the city, near Omsk. Services would be limited as it's probably less than optimized for usage, but it would be a good place to lay lown for a while.

Peter stares out of the window, mind soaring in unknown dimensions, when a flash of recall inspires him to speak.

"You know...there's another place we can go to. I've never been there, and I'm not sure if it's perfectly safe, but it's better than potentially leading them to my safe house. If I get my laptop to a phone line, I can wipe the critical data remotely. Pity about the gear I had there, but I guess it's safe unless we lead them there."

(Moving right along...)

The limo speeds down highway, its left side rattling a bit as the tires run over an uneven stretch of road. It's not the sound you'd want to hear if it were your vehicle, but definitely not the morbid metal-on-metal sound of imminent doom.

Brian takes another pot shot at the helicopter, which currently is flying more sideways than straight. Somethings gotta give and it does.

*fwip*

The chopper's windscreen cracks just above the pilot's controls with the operator noticably effected by the bullet's impact. It begins to descend in an uncontrollable spin as Ayumi puts distance between them.

Remarkably, the helicopter appears to land but not without incident. It's tail-rotor scrapes the wet tarmacked roadway sending sparks all over the place. As soon as the front wheels touch down, all those currently aboard bail out of the chopper.

Safe for now, Ayumi lets up on the accelerator after a few kilometers.

Time to check in to HQ...

Everyone pulls out their SATCOMMs, peering down at the flashing [color=red:ea6e7b6339]NO SIGNAL[/color] alert lights.

"We can do that, but we gotta meet back with my team and find out what the hell is going on. How far is this 'other' place?"

Moten leans back in the seat. "Well, that was exciting." He slides his SATCOMM back into his jacket pocket and looks over to Ayumi. "I think it would be best if we were to continue on to Novosibirisk and keep up our search for Agent Spiner, don't you? Also, if we could stop at a convenience store of some kind along the way, that would be perfect."

"It's nearby Omsk. About two hours, I'd guess, unless you'd like to try and wreck this car."

"Is that a challenge? We'll be there in an hour and a half."

Peter just sighs and shakes his head.

"Als ob der Leibhaftige hinter ihm her waere...please be careful with the car. The decals were a total bitch to get right."

(Edited by Gatac at 7:15 pm on Mar. 2, 2005)