"It is all about the consequences of such an act. You eliminate the one, the others come looking for who did it...which is to say you'll be taking spitting in the face of the big bosses in Odessa. I'd rather re-up my enlistment in the Army than having to look over my shoulder every time I exit a building."
Ayumi lets the shadow of a crocodile's grin creep into the thin line of her mouth. In her head is one of King Theodèn's lines from The Two Towers:
Quote: from Gatac on 4:59 pm on April 18, 2005
Peter contemplates that for a few seconds.
"Honestly, I'm not worrying about this now. Just getting our foot in the door will be quite enough for now."
"Knowing her whereabouts is my job." smirks Denko, taking a long drag off his cigarette.
"She stays on a strict rotational schedule with her guards never being more than a few meters away from her at any given time."
Denko opens a small leather-bound notebook and thumbs through the nicotine-stained pages.
"Today is...(checks watch) Friday. She has her weekly spa treatment at a Turkish bath, followed by a manicure and pedicure at Le Cirque afterwards. Meetings at her apartment in the afternoon then cocktails on the verandah with the local bourgeois officials and the associated payouts for useful information about her competition..."
"But it's also going to ruin my job security. Before I agree to help, I want certain assurances that you will keep me abreast of any activity that you and your people conduct with regard to our mutual friend. I don't like surprises and I can assure you Moscow most certainly does not like them. Every time we have an incident, the President's approval rating goes into the sewer for six months. I really don't want to be on the receiving end of that crap. I'm too old to be looking for a new job."
Denko gets up to leave.
"You assure me that I will be kept in the know and I'll give you all the leads you need."
"I shall look forward to your progress reports. It would be a shame if I were to have to personally involve myself and my colleagues in this matter."
(hands Peter a business card)
"Call this number. The person you talk to will know how to reach me. If you should happen to need a temporary refuge, the address printed on the back is well recommended by those in our line of business."
"Well, it's a hell of a deal for him. If we succeed, he has all the details from us and can use them to get ahead in his job, since we can't exactly call them up and set the story straight. If it doesn't work, well, we're just a bunch of mercs, no relation. And he was playing hard to get to make it seem like he's losing in the process."
Peter shrugs.
"Nothing like a good dose of Russia to cure excessive optimism."
Ilyanna gets Team B set up in the safehouse, brewing a pot of coffee as they stew over what to do about finding Jessica.
Thoughts meander around the table, the best one coming straight from Brian's MI6 training.
"Want to find someone, read the newspaper."
Peter looks online with Ilyanna, Brian, and Carla thumbing through the local and international newspapers. The TV playing GSRN International in the background.
"Stunning news from outside Odessa. Full report after the break..."
"Several high-ranking members of the notorious Russian Mafiya group, The Odessa Syndicate were killed in a violent exchange of gunfire at an apparent leadership meeting in the seaside town of Bol'shoy Fontan. Before we continue, I'd like to advise our audience that footage you're about to see is graphic."
-GSRN EXCLUSIVE-
Bol'shoy Fontan
(The TV screen shows what appears to be a bombed-out hulk of a large seaside mansion. A helicopter zooms in on a grisly scene of shot-up/dismembered bloody corpses strew about the beachfront side of the residence, most gathered around a few tables. A few small fires still smolder in the backyard as a ground camera pans across the back section of the house where it appears that all the windows have been blown out. A crew of firemen are seen outside putting out a blaze on the first floor of the three-story complex.)
"At approximately 8:21am local time, authorities responded to an anonymous call to go the home of Teodor Raskov. It was at his estate where they discovered the remains of no less than twenty members of the Odessa Syndicate, many found executed Mafiya-style. As of press time, there are no known suspects but Captain Alexy Karnov of the Odessa Police Department's Organized Crime Unit was quoted in saying,"
This is just another example of why there needs to be more government support for local law enforcement and a sad showing of its lackadaisical attitude towards the Odessa Syndicate and other the multitude of other criminal activity which has plagued this region for years.
"This is Michael Smythe reporting from for GSRN News."
The recent events in Bol'shoy Fontan have led to a thinning of law enforcement resources in the region. Oleg Petrovski's house, once the site of a major investigation, has been put on the backburner with most of the region's manpower being diverted south to incident on the coast.
They leave only a skeleton crew behind, consisting of a bivouacked military tent set up on the mansion's backyard, with two UAZ jeeps and a Ural transport truck parked nearby. Two men (armed with AKs and sidearms) stand on guard at the gatehouse of Petrovski's mansion. One more stands idly, ducking his head in/out on the main entrance...probably a Chief-something-or-another. From the comings and goings of various personel, there's about ten men inhabiting the house at any given time, cut that number in half after dark. The guards at the gates are the only permanent fixture on mansion grounds, with everyone else going back to the nearby bivouac.
Ilyanna drives by the place once so that Carla and Brian can scope it out. She then parks a couple blocks away so that they can make their plans for whatever they want to do here.
Team A stakes out Samantha's residence, utilizing a section of the top three floors of a luxury the high-rise (20-story) in downtown Odessa. The covered entryway inside the building has your standard doorman (concealed carry, earpiece) and a person working the front desk (behind ballistic glass, earpiece, most likely also carrying).
That's where the interior reconaissance ends as whoever had entered is greeted by two men of increasingly larger size working the entrance to the elevator bays. They make no attempt at subtlety, relying on their girth and slung weaponry (MP5Ks) as their means of persuasion. It's these two individuals who curtly, yet kindly ask them to leave the premises.
Ayumi eyes flash at Peter then before anyone else can react, she draws her blades iajitsu-style, slashing at their gunstraps.
(speed lines)
[color=red:0d0171676e]Yatta![/color]
Her first blade is a bit off target on the first guard, but her second cleaves through the other's heavy nylon gunstrap with little effort.
Noting this team's lack of subtely in a shape or form, Moten draws his weapon and spins around to cover the impending reinforcements.
Artis draws his weapon, spraying the guard with a narrow burst and stitching the man across the chest. Somehow, the guard manages to stay up, most likely due to body armor. No one takes that kind of wound without it. Both men begin screaming for back-up.
Ayumi's dance partner then proceeds to go to work on her, jerking her arm then applying a swift kick to the upper ribcage. It's by no mean lethal, but its an obvious display of the guard's martial arts prowess.
His partner moves toward Peter, also engaging in HtH combat. The attacks are labored and (no doubt) under great duress with Peter easily dodging the blows.
Brian sits in the car, taking a look at the scene.
"Great, more uniforms, just what we need. We need a way to get in there that doesn't involve shooting out way in, as much as I tend to favor that solution..."
Ayumi stabs at the guard's face, gouging out a groove across the man's temple; her second blade tearing out a piece of his tricep. He's a bloody mess, but remains on his feet.
Artis gets up close and personal with Peter's opponent, jamming the rifle barrel into his side and letting loose. The bullets tear through the guard's torso, nearly cutting the poor bastard in two as the mutilated body ragdolls itself down to the marbled floor.
Peter holds onto his lunch...barely, spinning his revolver around to Ayumi's foe and fires. The round catches the guard in the shoulder, spinning him slightly about.
Keeping overwatch, Moten sees at least half a dozen men rush past the four-way junction towards the north end of the lobby. They didn't seem to be ready for such and incursion...at least not something this heinously overt.
A couple of guards stay behind with pistols, taking cover at the corners on either side of the hallway.
"Drop your weapons and come out with your hands up! This is your only warning!"
Quote: from CrazyIvan on 6:03 pm on April 27, 2005
Brian sits in the car, taking a look at the scene.
"Great, more uniforms, just what we need. We need a way to get in there that doesn't involve shooting out way in, as much as I tend to favor that solution..."
"I can try talking to whoever's in charge," Ilyanna offers. "Maybe I can pull some strings or something to get you in. I can't promise anything, though."
Ayumi continues to stab her opponent, jamming her blade into the man's lung. A slow wheeze comes out of his torso as the cold steel is retracted. Her second blade slices at the guard's leg, but is deflected by something metallic in his pocket...perhaps a concealed hold-out pistol or lighter.
Artis and Moten take up defensive positions against the new shooters down the hallway before opening fire. Our resident wheelman sprays their positions, punching holes into their cover and taking a piece out of each of them.
Moten channels Jack Bauer for an instance, shooting through wall and scoring two direct hits on his target.
Lastly, Peter sees that Ayumi's dance partner is still standing and swings around for a shot on him. The bullet zips past the Master of Blades (for that is what she does) and lodges itself into the guard's gut.
A worthy shot that would have dropped the guy, had it not been caught by the guard's vest.
The death tango ends as Ayumi slices her dance partner across the arm, following through with her second blade and stabbing the man in the neck. He slumps to the ground holding on to his spurting carotid artery.
Meanwhile...Artis and Moten continue their suppressive efforts down the hallway.
The wheelman's rifle barks twice at the guard, sending a cloud of busted sheetrock and blood into the air, the guard falling dead. Moten puts two into his target, hitting dead-on but the man's vest takes alot out of the impacts. He fires back at Moten with his sidearm, one round going wide as the other impacts the agent's collarbone, feeling like someone just buried a pick-axe into him.
