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The Company
Time: Saturday, December 17, 2011 (night).
Place: Tokyo, Japan.
Last Event: The team reunited.
With the gang all here, discussion resumes regarding how to beat national intelligence services in the hunt for Dr. Sakata by exploiting information that those agencies don't have . . . yet. Jili believes that the best bet would be to check Toru's phone for suspicious-looking contact info. While the spooks doubtless would have thought of that, they lack access to Asuka, whose knowledge of Toru's associates and routine could provide a vital filter. Zhang notes that the phone Toru had on him when the TMPD found his body would almost certainly be in a police evidence locker. Jili is confident that she could use her back door into the TMPD network to arrange an appointment for Agents posing as foreign police detectives to examine the evidence, but for that to work, the others would have to come up with falsified police ID and a believable pretext for a visit.
The hour is too late for clearheaded planning, though – especially for those who just got off a plane. Everybody agrees that it would be best to sleep on these thoughts and work out details in the morning. With that, watches are posted and people get some rest.
It's late on Sunday morning by the time everyone is up and ready to work. Sleeping on air mattresses in an old restaurant isn't exactly ideal; Paul in particular complains of a crummy night's sleep. Vinnie is just serving breakfast when Anabel's Darmatech-issued phone rings. The voice at the other end claims to the customer-service representative of a courier company, and after identifying Anabel by her cover ID as a Darmatech sales rep, says, "Your shipment from Germany has cleared customs and is in the warehouse. The contract said to call this number on arrival." Anabel plays along with this, getting an address and having a QR code sent to her phone.
The Agents talk over this surprise development after Anabel hangs up. The QR code seems legitimate, as far as Hamid and Jili can tell, and conjures up a manifest that identifies the shipment as two crates of "biomedical equipment" from Darmstadt. Vinnie says that given the size and weight listed, he'll need a van. The decision is that Anabel, Vinnie, and Zhang will take public transportation to a rental agency, procure a small van, and go fetch the mysterious delivery. General consensus is that it's probably a package from the Company, courtesy of Staedert.
Zhang, Vinnie, and Anabel head out. They're careful to keep an eye out for anyone tailing them, but that proves unnecessary; they get from the safe house to the rental agency without incident. Anabel rents a suitable van, and then Vinnie takes the wheel and drives to the shipping depot, still alert for shadows. The destination proves to be a clean, modern storefront in a busy, upscale area – the sort of place frequented by business professionals – rather than the isolated warehouse that the Agents expected. The staff there is courteous and efficient; within minutes, Zhang and Vinnie are wheeling two large crates out to the van on a dolly.
Vinnie is extra-cautious on the drive back – both because he'd like to keep the latest rental vehicle off the radar of any enemies and because he doesn't want the police to stop him for speeding and take an interest in the crates. It's mid afternoon when he pulls up at the restaurant. The Agents do their best to get the mysterious cargo inside quickly and without being seen. As soon as the doors are locked, it's time to figure out what the heck this stuff is!
Top priority is to check for any evidence that the crates contain a bomb or similar booby trap. By now Wen is feeling well enough to be up and about, so she applies her expertise to the task. A slow, meticulous examination of both packages turns up nothing suspicious, however. If there's a deadly surprise inside, it's well-hidden. Given the recent poisoned bubble-wrap incident, though, Wen refuses to agree that this is the same as safe.
Once Wen is done, it's Hamid's turn. He conducts a thorough search for electronic hazards: small cameras, tiny microphones, concealed antennae . . . the works. However, he turns up nothing more worrisome than RFID tags. Like Wen, he can't be sure – that would take equipment he doesn't have.
By early evening, the crew is ready to uncrate the shipment. Vinnie, being the expert smuggler, gets the job of doing this – hopefully without being poisoned, incinerated, or blown up. Inside he finds exactly what the manifest claims he should find: a pair of expensive, fully automated machines for DNA analysis, complete with factory packaging and manuals, everything festooned with the Darmatech logo. Nobody seriously believes that Staedert would send them lab equipment, though; there must be something inside. As Jili has the most delicate touch with electronics, the task of opening up the machines falls to her.
Jili carefully pops open first one analyzer and then the other. Inside she finds not electronic guts and precision pumps, but a bunch of sealed foil envelopes of various shapes and sizes. The Agents move in and unpack all this stuff, at least some of which has the balance and feel of firearms and ammunition. After several minutes of opening pouches and extracting the contents, the spoils are laid out on the safe-house floor:
• Ten packages consisting of a folded-up shirt with a bulky envelope inside. Each envelope contains a bundle of fake ID for one Agent. Contents include not only credit cards, driver's licenses, and passports, but also false documentation fine-tuned to each person's skills and background, such as EMT certification for Qoqa, a pilot's license for Vinnie, and even police and INTERPOL papers for Paul and Zhang. The clothing turns out to be body armor tailored to the same Agent, cut to resemble a thick t-shirt, but with eight concealed magazine pouches sewn into it.
• Ten H&K MP7A1 submachine guns, which Lev examines and proclaims to have been tuned for accuracy and to fire high-powered ammo reliably. Each comes with numerous accessories: brass catcher, IR laser, reflex sight, suppressor, and one-point sling for concealed carry under a long coat. Each also has nine extended (40-round) magazines fitted with fast-draw loops. All 3,600 rounds of ammo appear to be extra-powerful armor-piercing rounds.
• Ten tactical folding knives – the sort with a belt clip for concealed carry, and a little knob on the blade for quick opening.
• Ten expandable batons.
• Electronics, including 10 pairs of next-generation thermal-imaging goggles; 10 secure radios with concealable wireless microphones and earbuds; and a portable "safe-house security network" consisting of 20 wireless miniature cameras with audio, tuned to five tablet-style receivers capable of displaying four channels apiece.
Hamid and Jili immediately get to work setting up the security network, planting tiny cameras indoors and out, on both stories, and especially overlooking doors and windows. The five tablet displays go in the Agents' makeshift "barracks," near the air mattresses set up for sleeping. Once that's done, Lev gathers everybody around for a quick lecture on the correct use of the MP7A1 and its accessories, demonstrating the weapon's controls, quirks, and behavior as best he can without firing live rounds. Then everybody takes possession of his or her share of the gear in order to adjust fit and work out how to carry it all. Consensus is that it would be prudent to acquire long coats for everybody at the next convenient juncture, as those would almost completely conceal the entire loadout.
Toward evening, the Agents discuss how best to gain access to Toru's phone. Given that Paul and Zhang now have what appears to be legitimate police ID, Jili says she could easily book those two to examine Toru's personal effects as part of some made-up INTERPOL investigation into Toru's alliance with Georgi. However, it's unlikely that the TMPD would let them remove the phone from the premises, so they'll have to get the information off it subtly. Neither Paul nor Zhang has the necessary technical knowhow, but Hamid does. Thus, the plan is hatched to alter Zhang's false INTERPOL papers to be Hamid's, and then send him in with Paul to grab the data from the phone.
For the rest of the evening, Wen works on turning Zhang's false ID into Hamid's false ID. Starting with a high-quality fake (in fact, Wen thinks it might have started life as the real deal) and using the excellent document-forgery gear that Staedert provided for the group's original mission, this is straightforward. Before long, Hamid has papers that make him out to be a French detective from Paris. Paul's docs identify him as a British policeman working out of London. Jili takes both sets of credentials, activates her back door into the TMPD network, and books a legitimate-looking appointment for the two INTERPOL men to examine the evidence. She forges a time stamp that's several weeks old.
The night passes without trouble, the job of keeping watch made far easier by 20 little sets of eyes and ears. On Monday morning, Hamid and Paul dress conservatively and pack their falsified identity documents. Hamid also loads his laptop bag with the gear he'll need to download data from Toru's phone. Then the two head out the door for what they hope will be a quick trip to a police station.
Things go well downtown. There's a little confusion initially, as nobody expected INTERPOL men to show up today, but the duty officer is of the view that the computer doesn't lie – and certainly, Paul and Hamid seem to be who they claim to be. The two are soon signed in and escorted to a small, clean room. After a short wait, a policeman rolls in a little cart bearing a number of carefully bagged and tagged items, including Toru's phone, handgun, and blood-soaked clothing. The officer politely informs Hamid and Paul that they have an hour to do their work, and reminds them to take proper precautions when handling the evidence.
Once the TMPD officer leaves, Paul stands in the way of the room's security camera and makes a show of properly examining Toru's effects, allowing Hamid to hook the phone to his laptop and copy its contents without being seen. During this exercise, Paul actually turns up something interesting: a tiny memory card, concealed in a pack of mints the police found in one of Toru's pockets. Given how it's concealed, and the fact that it isn't listed in the evidence inventory, he's almost certain that the police missed this. He deftly pockets it for later examination. After their hour is up, Hamid and Paul carefully replace the evidence in its bags, sign out, and thank the duty staff for their assistance.
Hamid and Paul return to the restaurant immediately, taking care not to be followed. As soon as the door is locked, Hamid and Jili get to work on the phone records that Hamid downloaded and the memory card that Paul swiped. The information that Hamid copied proves to be of no value – what little would surprise someone investigating a Yakuza boss, Asuka identifies as personal contacts. Nobody expected otherwise, of course; it's almost certain that the spooks entangled in this matter have already examined the phone and found the same information, which clearly hasn't led them to Sakata.
The memory card proves more interesting, but also more perplexing. Jili explains that it has high-security hardware encryption on it, and will only divulge its secrets if plugged into the correct device. Cracking it might be possible – say, if you're the NSA or get incredibly lucky – but realistically, that isn't going to happen. The other half of the card's key is almost certainly Toru's phone, which means that she needs the phone to unlock the data.
How to steal the phone is a bit of a puzzle. Certainly, Paul and Hamid could go back to the police station, claim that their findings turned up something that merits another look, and snatch the phone – but that would set alarm bells ringing. Simply swapping the phone for another, identical phone loaded with the data Hamid downloaded wouldn't work because Toru's phone is a vanity item, as much jewelry as electronics, and unique. However, Hamid does know the base model, so if he could find an off-the-shelf version, he feels he should be able to put the data he downloaded onto that, carefully remove its innards, carry the electronics to the police station, open Toru's phone, replace everything inside the fancy case with the mockup, and walk out with the hardware guts of Toru's phone.
Asuka says that she can help Hamid get a suitable phone, as the vanity phone was a gift she gave Toru in an effort to make him pay more attention to her. Apparently, Toru liked the ostentatious offering, although it didn't bring him any closer to Asuka. In any event, Asuka knows the address of the shop where she purchased the thing. She agrees to share it provided that the Agents get her a new phone while they're there – the promised replacement for the one that Wen made her discard the other day. Anabel agrees to this deal.
Thus, Vinnie finds himself driving Anabel and Zhang to go shopping that night. Yet again, he keeps an eye on the rearview mirror. Anabel dashes into the fancy phone shop and buys several phones on her new credit card – fancy ones for Asuka and herself, plus the older model that formed the basis of Toru's vanity item. On the way back, Zhang goes on a side-mission for Wen, fetching several large sacks of dumplings to boil up for dinner.