| From: | "Paul J. Adam" <shadowtk@********.DEMON.CO.UK> |
|---|---|
| Subject: | Threats and Responses |
| Date: | Mon, 23 Mar 1998 15:47:11 +0000 |
>>>>>[+++++begin video
Lynch hotfoots it up the last flights of fire stairs: the police have
evidently finished collecting evidence, and only dark stains on the
concrete, chalk marks, and the scars and chips in the walls and floor
remind you of the fierce gun battle that had taken place there mere
hours before.
The corridor, too, shows signs of a return to normality; the burned
carpet has already been pulled up, and a team of painters and plasterers
are repairing the damage done to the walls (doubtless on double time,
given the ungodly hour): he knocks at the door of the suite, the
doorframe badly chewed by gunfire.
Kreutz opens it, in full raid gear, and lets him in. "All okay?"
"Yeah, they patched me up nicely. What have we got?" Lynch accepts his
L7 and the bandolier of magazines from Lilith.
Kreutz secures the door, drops back into his seat: Lynch sits on the
floor next to Lilith's chair, Quinn perched on its arm. "Well, things
are basically turning to shit before our very eyes. We've been ordered
out of Miami, both by that Rezar dickhead and by Carrigan."
"I heard, Rezar got in my face at the hospital."
"Who won?" Quinn asks.
"I broke his nose, if that's what you mean. Now he _really_ won't like
me."
"Well, no change there." Kreutz sighs. "Preliminary signs are that these
guys were local talent, swept up in a hurry by a local fixer called
'Slick the Stick', kitted out with weapons and Kamikaze, promised huge
money for every Fed they killed. Textbook deniable expendables."
"Figures. You think a gun-happy attack on a mob of Feds is going to be
easily traced?" Lynch replies.
"Thing is, why bother?" Barney asks, moving cautiously around his taped-
up ribs. "We're leaving town anyway... because of this. That simple?"
"Kill us or drive us out." Bates nods. "Win-win for the bad guys. So,
what do we do next?"
Lynch looks around the circle. "Well, we've got an investigation to
finish. So I say fuck Rezar and fuck Carrigan. We stay. We hunt. We
fight."
"We go rogue?" Kreutz asks after a long silence.
"You get attached to SIGA for the duration of an overseas assignment, if
push comes to shove and Washington get shitty. But I'm not walking away
just yet. There's something here, something key to Chronos, and we need
to find it."
"Gonna cost us a lot of support." Bates points out.
"Yeah. Less security, less open movement. We'll be plainclothes, that
limits us a lot in firepower. No real support from MPD, and less than
the little we've had from Torus. High risk, and harder work." Lynch
shrugs. "I'm staying. You guys could be risking a lot more than your
careers if you stick around, and you've been ordered out. Anyone wants
to walk, do it, don't feel bad. Anyone who's staying is here for the
duration. We can get away with a lot, I'm not so sure about you guys."
Kreutz sighs, deeply. "Hell with it. Okay... fuck it all, this bad guy
Samhain's down here and is tied in to Chronos, and I figure Achilles
sanction applies. Gotta stay, gotta find them. I'm in." The other Feds
quietly agree.
Lynch looks around: seeing not only acceptance but enthusiasm. The FBI
agents have made good headway in the investigation, fought off a lethal
attack, and their blood is up. "Okay. We make like we skipped town, then
we come back in, probably from Nassau. Just more flightplan magic, but
it lets us in without too much checking. After that, we play the mobile-
target game: instead of forting up the way we did here, we stay on the
move around the motels and hotels so we're never in one place long
enough for the bad guys to zero on us. Okay?" No dissent.
"Lilith, Quinn, we're going to check on Slick the Stick. Maybe a trap,
maybe not. Williamson, hit the Matrix, I want a full rundown on how
Rezar affords his flashy car and his designer duds. He used to be a
narc, fine, but now he's Homicide. There's dirt there, find it. Kreutz,
you and Barney and Bates are at own discretion, show me what trained
investigators can do when it really hits the fan. Everyone as happy as
they're gonna get? Good. Let's move like we got a purpose, people."
+++++end video]<<<<<
-- Lynch <15:47:54/03-22-59>
