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Raleigh Devrees turns off Couture Street into Peery Industrial Park, steering the unmarked silver hovercar with San Angeles plates past a sign that reads: "EXPANSION COMING - FALL 2651!". The chief checks the GPS record overlay against their current location. "Looks like it's that warehouse over there." He points left toward a cluster of three or four warehouses, then turns right down an alley between two modest office buildings and switches off the headlights before killing the engine. "Got a plan yet?" he asks Faith as he takes his pistols out, one at a time, and checks the charges.
Inside the warehouse, Lead Agent Grim peruses the holographic displays showing images acquired by numerous sensor scans of the Gankri. Nothing physically intrusive so far. They've just been running scans to look at his insides without tearing him apart. The cops, it seems, are not as interesting to the CIS...yet. Inside, 10 agents armed with projectile pistols stand watch at various positions. Up on the roof, a couple of spotters with sniper rifles keep an eye on the surroundings within the complex.
Iseul sits inside of the cell erected for the SAPD detectives and just keeps her eyes focused on Grim, occasionally flicking her gaze to study the other agents there and to check in on Mert to ensure that he is still breathing.
"You never struck me as the type to like plans, boss," Faith smirks in the car, looking over her PDA, "Although on a more serious note: I don't like that we have so many buildings to look through, but I imagine they would have centered their masking attempts around the Detectives. Heart of the complex is our best bet. As for methods, well, you do have more experience with this than I do, even after being behind that desk. I would suggest stealth tactics, but I imagine that will only get us so far."
Sharai Dravik sits and watches the agents as well, a look at Mert now and then to also check his continued good health
Raleigh Devrees nods, holstering the pistols before shoving open the driver's side door and stepping out into the alley. He takes a couple of steps toward the mouth of the alley so he can look toward the site where the nanotrackers last blipped for Iseul and Sharai. Keeping to shadow as much as possible, he says, "If they're imprisoned in one of these warehouses, chances are it's not with much of a presence. Right now, it's the weekend. Not many eyes around. But when the work week begins, this place will get busy and it'll be harder for them to hide in plain sight. So, we might only be dealing with a handful of people keeping watch over them. Maybe some people on the roof, watching for trouble." He looks toward Faith. "We need a pretty good plan to make sure those CIS agents inside don't get spooked and execute our people just to spite us. First thing, I guess, is killing the power throughout the complex. After that, it's a pretty simple matter of scanning for independent energy sources and maybe some thermal readings. You've got a program for that, right?"
"How is killing the power not going to spook them?" Faith replies almost absently as she exits the car and joins Devrees at the mouth of the alley, carefully sweeping her gaze over the buildings, "But yes, I can do all of that. Shall I?"
Iseul's attention shifts from Grim to focus on the patterns of the various agents, frowning in consideration as she tries to track their paths and how they are clustering, looking for clues that could indicate a weakness or when and where would be the opportune time to strike.
Mert remains in his cage and does not appear to be harmed in any way. Just doing his shivering fear thing.
Sharai Dravik also keeps watch and as ready as possible to move if an opportunity arises, as she has been doing this since capture however the stress is beginning to tell.
Raleigh Devrees shrugs. "The power grid glitches all the time, especially out here in the industrial sectors. San Angeles Hydro switches grids off sometimes to conserve energy or to push it toward other sections that need bonus electricity. In particular, they like to draw power away from places that aren't actually occupied by anyone. So, yeah, it might make the agents wary, but they aren't likely to panic." He points to a circuit breaker terminal just down the alley. "Hack in and start shutting down."
"On it, boss," Faith nods, heading for the circuit breaker and keeping her eyes open for any unanticipated complications. Assuming she finds none, the woman whips out a multitool and gets to work shutting down the power. She targets more than just the complex, to avoid suspicion.
Iseul tilts her head to the left and then the right, slowly and subtly working her muscles out of the kink they would have from sitting in one place for so long. "They're gonna remember we're here sooner or later," she mumbles under her breath to Sharai. "And come at us like they have with Mert."
Sharai Dravik nods as she continues to watch, no longer even trying to pretend she isn't, not worth the effort. "Yeah, I know. I don't know if that will be a good thing to just get it over with or not."
The initial effort to hack into the circuit breaker terminal doesn't succeed.
Meanwhile, inside the warehouse, Grim turns and walks toward the cell containing the police detectives. "No one has forgotten you," he says, clasping his hands behind his back. "But, to be quite honest, we are puzzled about what to do with you."
Faith's brow knits, but she doesn't speak, just continuing to work on the task at hand. Hopefully Devrees is watching her back, because she's slowly becoming oblivious to the world.
Raleigh Devrees is, indeed, keeping watch.
The second attempt to hack into the circuit breaker terminal is unsuccessful. Apparently, the programmers at SAH are top-tier. Possibly even ex-Vanguard or...perish the thought, CIS.
"You could always just let us go," Iseul says sweetly to Grim. "And reward us very generously so we keep our mouths shut about what's happened so far." She looks aside to Sharai, and then back to their captors.
Sharai Dravik points at Izzy as she talks to Grim, "Yeah, what she said."
"That is certainly an idea," the lead agent replies, glancing from Iseul to Sharai. "Perhaps not the best one, though. I mean, yes, we could pay you and give a try at trusting you to keep your mouths shut but...not to put too fine a point on it, everyone thinks you're dead already and it would be so messy trying to explain away your sudden resurrection. I hate messes."
About this time, another vehicle is turning in from Couture Street: Unmarked black hovercar with tinted windows. Raleigh frowns and sinks back deeper into the shadows. He looks down the alley toward Faith and says, "I've got bad news and good news. We've got company, but my guess is they're heading toward the mystery warehouse. How are you doing?"
Faith growls softly. "Only in San Angeles," she mutters softly, "No other city on the planet would go this overboard for the power grid, but we have to be in the goddamn capital of the goddamn everything." She huffs and adds, "One more try and then I'm going the property damage route, I swear to Murphy." And then she falls silent to continue working.
"We are on the same side here, however," Iseul points out. "Doesn't it make less sense to kill two detectives who are committed to San Angeles and doing whatever it takes to get things done." She smiles, nodding in the direction of some of the agents. "They are doing their work because they have to, but how passionate are they? It's just work. Something they can leave behind at the end of the day." She gestures to Sharai and herself. "/We/ believe in whatever has to be to be done. The ends will always justify the means, don't you think?"
Sharai Dravik again waves vaguely at Izzy, "Still what she said."
Grim checks his watch. His eyebrows lift. "You have given me much to think about during the drive," he replies, then turns to four of the agents and says, "Prepare the xeno's cage for transport. Car should be here any moment."
The car, in point of fact, has just passed the alley where Faith is working. Raleigh says, "I've got my commlink. Forget hacking. Just knock that power out as soon as you can. I'm following the car to the warehouse. I'll give a shout once I find it." He doesn't stick around to wait for an answer, as he doesn't want to lose sight of the black hovercar.
"Don't die," Faith reminds the man flatly, giving up on the software solution and remarking under her breath, "I have to meet that programmer, they're /good/." She types on her PDA a bit and then starts mapping the wires to figure out which ones need to die. Erm, be severed.
"Mert," Iseul breathes out quietly, eying the cage. She takes a sweeping glance around her personal cage to see what kind of mechanisms are keeping them in. "He'll be more use to you alive," she points out absently. "The alien, that is. He can tell you all you could ever hope to know about this Hiverspace and where the weakest points would be if you ever thought about wanting to do a hostile take over. For the good of the Consortium, of course. To prevent them from coming at us."
Sharai Dravik gives Izzy a /look/, "Staying detached my ass." she says under her breath before saying to Grim, "There really isn't any reason to need to take him, there isn't much more you can learn medically that your scans didn't already tell you and honestly, it would be a waste of time and resources. Why not just let us all leave and we will be good little worker bees and keep our noses clean, hell we can even find a new way to do the Consortium proud while remaining officially dead. New profession new life but same work and same passion."
"Yes, of course," the lead agent replies, a faint smile touching his lips. "I will take your counsel under advisement." He sees that the four agents have taken up positions around Mert's cage and picked it up. They carry it toward the door leading out into the industrial park. One of the two agents guarding the door opens it to make way for the passage of the cage.
Raleigh Devrees peers around the corner of an A-frame office structure that sits diagonally across the street from the CIS-held warehouse as the black car whirs to a stop and the agents with the cage come walking out. Grim follows soon after. Devrees unclips his PDA and activates the image recorder, which he aims at the agents, their cargo, and their leader. Satisfied with the image capture, he re-clips the PDA at his side and then speaks into his commlink: "I think we've got the location. They're moving something." His eyes drift toward the roof. "At least one sniper up there. Might be more."
The agents load Mert's cage into the back of the limo-length car and then climb in with him. Grim settles into the passenger seat up front. The agent who held open the door pulls it closed. As the car pulls away, this leaves a grand total of four agents inside the warehouse with Iseul and Sharai, and two more up on the roof.
"What do you mean 'something'?" Faith replies as she finds the power conduits. With serious frustration in play, she snaps on a pair of her crime scene gloves for electrical insulation, flicks open her multitool, and starts wantonly cutting power, "Let me know when the right place goes dark, don't have time to be picky."
Iseul shoots a look in Sharai's direction, rising to her feet and stretching as she watches Mert be taken out. "Damn," she mutters under her breath, eying the four remaining agents. "Don't suppose I could get some water, now could I?" she asks sweetly.
Sharai Dravik looks over to the agents as well, "Yeah, could use one over here too."
The agent closest to the cop cage - about six feet - is about to fetch a canteen for Iseul when the power goes out. Lights flicker and go out all over Peery Industrial Park, striking the CIS-held warehouse about fifteen seconds after Faith starts cutting lines. The agents inside are looking around, puzzled by the blackout. While the snipers up top are shifting to their night goggles, Devrees is crouched and scurrying across the street. He flattens himself against the side of the warehouse, then crabs along, making his way toward the ladder. He whispers into the commlink: "Heading up. Snipers."
"Good luck," Faith replies shortly and quietly, before falling silent to let the man do his thing. Her revenge taken on the power system, the woman draws her stunner, checks it, and moves back to the mouth of the alley in hopes she might catch sight of the car Devrees had mentioned.
The car has taken a different route through the industrial park complex, departing through another exit and taking Grim and the cargo away.
Inside the warehouse, it is now pitch black, save for the glowing telltales on the commlinks carried by the agents.
In the sudden dark, Iseul moves up to the edge of the cage, feeling for a weak point where it looks like she might be able to break through the links. "Stay low," she whispers to Sharai. "I'm going to try and break us out." She touches at the spot again that she's chosen and after summoning up the strength she can muster, pushes it down into her leg as she tries to kick through and bring them to freedom.
Sharai Dravik stays low as suggested and stands ready to assist, "You got it," she says quietly.
Raleigh Devrees scales the ladder, trying to be as quiet as possible, and then ducks behind one of the bulky air handlers on the roof. From behind it, he has a decent view of the rooftop as he peeks around. He can see both snipers, one on the left and one on the right. Time to try and take out at least one of them with a sneak attack. He pulls both guns from their holsters and aims at his target on the left.
The sniper on the left never knows what hit him. He buckles after the shot strikes him in the spine, penetrating his armor, and drops against the low wall of the roof's rim. The second sniper, on the right, turns to see his partner drop and then spins toward the source of the pistol blasts. He won't be surprised. His rifle comes up, ready, aimed toward the air handler.
Inside the warehouse, meanwhile, Iseul has managed to kick a handy hole in the accordion fence while the agents scramble to find a way to turn on the lights.
With no car in sight, Faith sighs and decides to move out. She keeps her eyes open, gaze on the rooftops for signs of snipers. And then the pretty light show and the noise gets her attention, and the woman moves quickly for that building to aid the bossman. Or at least watch the show.
Iseul slinks through the hole that she has made and in the darkness moves towards the closest glowing commlink to try and take out the agent as quickly as possible with a kick in the hypothesized direction of the head.
The kick is well placed, hammering the female agent in the side of the jaw and sending her slamming against the column with the nanotracker signal dampener affixed to it. The device crumples on the floor under the agent's unconscious weight as she hits the floor. Outside, Faith's PDA will ping as it detects the GPS signals from Sharai and Iseul inside that warehouse. Three agents left inside. One sniper on the roof, and he's about ready to squeeze the trigger in Raleigh's direction.
The sniper's shot blasts through the innards of the air handler and bits of metal shrapnel dance in the starlight as the police chief rolls out from behind cover and comes up into a crouch with both pistols so that he can open fire on his opponent.
Two more shots from the rooftop, and Faith will now see someone staggering back and toppling backward onto the turf below. A sniper rifle clatters on the sidewalk. Faith peers at the body. "Rifle, not boss," she intones as she heads to enter the building instead of climbing it. Bossman can obviously take care of himself, she has a pair of GPS signals to track down. She turns the audio off on her PDA and starts working her way carefully through the building to try and locate her colleagues.
She doesn't stop to wait for the sound of the agent hitting the ground. As soon as Iseul's booted foot connects with face, she's bounding off to the next target, coming at them with the added momentum of her quick gait for a hard punch toward the windpipe to silence any noises they might try to make.
That's two snipers down from the roof and two agents down inside the warehouse. The two agents flanking the front door hear one of their comrades thump on the ground and move toward that noise just before the door starts opening, pushed open by Faith. They don't seem to notice her just now. The chief, meanwhile, has holstered his pistols so that he can climb back down to ground level and join the fray inside.
The CSI sees the agents and startles, and her fight-or-flight reflex decides on fighting. Faith shoves the door open hard and lets a stunner shot off at the agents, ducking aside rather than entering. They're bound to shoot back, after all.
Just as the two CIS agents inside the warehouse are about to double-team Iseul, there's a zap-and-pop sound from a stun pistol set on the widest beam setting possible. They both topple to the floor with bad headaches in their future.
Seeing shots fired into the Warehouse, Iseul takes cover behind whatever piece of equipment she can find. Once she sees the other CIS agents down, she shouts out into the darkness. "I'm Detective Koh Iseul with the SAPD. I'm unarmed. Hold your fire."
Raleigh Devrees stops just outside the warehouse door and pokes his head in. "Detective, you're in a heap of trouble for all these unexplained absences. I've got a case load piling up." He then inquires: "How many agents in here? Any stragglers?"
"I might just shoot you anyway for making us have to come rescue your ass," Faith replies as she pulls out her cuffs and detains the CIS agents she just stunned. "Sharai and Mert?"
Iseul emerges from behind the equipment. "Agents are down," she replies to Devrees. "Sharai is fine. CIS took Mert to an undisclosed location. They just put him in a vehicle moments before the power went out." She frowns, saluting Devrees. "We're in it deep, sir. CIS is not going to take it kindly that we got out."
Raleigh Devrees switches on the flashlight application of his PDA after detaching it from his belt. "Not sure what a Mert is, but we've got a car waiting. No sense waiting for the next bunch of CIS thugs to show up when this group doesn't check in." He looks around at the unconscious agents, sweeping the light from one to the next. "Nice job. We'll worry about CIS tomorrow."
"Mert is the name of the alien we had with us," Faith clarifies, "Kinda like a kangaroo, very hyper. Annoying little fuck, really." She sighs, and then eyeballs the agents. Checks the nearest one for suicide methods, and then says, "Can we fit this guy in the trunk?"
Iseul gather sup her equipment previously taken before following Faith and Devrees out. She rubs at her face, "I am going to paralyze the next person who tries to hold me hostage," she mutters under her breath. "Sir, are we still dead, or can I return to my apartment without someone screaming that a ghost is breaking and entering?"
Raleigh Devrees nods to Faith. "He should be able to fit. I'll bring the car around." He looks toward Iseul and says, "Your status is complicated. Let's get you quartered at the police station for the time being. I want to make sure any threats against the three of you are neutralized." A frown, then, "Sorry about that alien friend of yours. No telling what CIS is doing with him. Maybe I can work some kind of a deal for his release, but I can't promise anything."
"/I'm/ still dead," Faith remarks, "At least for now. I have no preference for your public status, just leave me out of it." She pulls her glasses open and hangs them about her neck, "Great. When sunshine here wakes up, we're going to have a little chat."
Iseul nods and stiffly walks out of the warehouse to wait. "Never thought seeing the San Angeles skyline would be so good," she muses, mostly to herself as she wraps her arms around herself.