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The Company
Time: Monday, December 19, 2011 (night).
Place: Tokyo, Japan.
Last Event: Buying new phones for a new scheme.
After a long day involving a visit to the police station to download data from Toru's phone and pinch a memory card that the TMPD investigators missed, followed by a long evening spent analyzing the findings and then plotting how to swipe the phone in order to read the hardware-encrypted card, the Agents call it a night. On Tuesday morning, Vinnie drives Hamid and Paul back to the station. Stashed in Hamid's laptop bag are the innards of an off-the-shelf version of Toru's vanity phone, loaded with the information copied from the original. Vinnie drops off his associates and then leaves the area, taking care not to be tailed.
Hamid's story for the TMPD duty officer is simple: His INTERPOL superiors asked him to take another look at Toru's personal effects while he and his partner (Paul) are in Tokyo, as there's one last thing that needs checking out. Given that Hamid and Paul have what appear to be valid credentials, already on record thanks to Jili, this works. The only hitch is that because Paul and Hamid have no appointment, they can have just half an hour with the evidence if they insist on seeing it now. Hamid tells the policeman that's all the time he can spare anyway, as his flight back to Paris leaves shortly.
For the second time, Paul and Hamid are escorted to a small forensic examining room, where an evidence clerk wheels in Toru's effects, gives a short speech about evidence-handling, and reminds the Agents that they have a time limit. As soon as the cop leaves, Paul steps between the table and the security camera to shield Hamid from sight, feigning interest in Toru's jacket. Hamid then whips out his tools and gets cracking. He's on a tight schedule for such delicate work, but his extensive experience pays off – he opens the phone, swaps its insides for the duplicate electronics, and reassembles it in record time. Then he puts his prize in a foil envelope and tucks it out of sight in his bag. With that done, Paul and Hamid thank the clerk, sign out, and are on their way.
Vinnie drives Hamid and Paul back to the safe house, yet again taking great care not to pick up a shadow. As soon as the three are inside, Hamid hands off the guts of Toru's phone to Jili, who knows far more about encryption than he does. Jili puts the memory card in the phone, attaches various probes and a couple of headsets, and then calls the others over. She explains that in order to go any further, she must power up the phone – and she has no way of predicting what will happen then. Depending on the setup, it might work normally but with access to different data, dial a number, or even run an app that could do almost anything, up to and including advertising the phone's location.
The Agents discuss the risks and decide to proceed. Everybody agrees that Anabel ought to be present and ready to improvise, in case the phone calls an actual human. With her impressive linguistic and interpersonal skills, she might be able to learn something, even swing a deal. Anabel informs her allies that she intends to impersonate Asuka if she needs to speak – her logic being that the most likely people to pick up would be Sakata or another of Toru's associates, who might recognize Asuka – and then dons one of the headsets. Jili puts on the other headset, starts recording, and inserts a battery into the phone.
At first, it seems as if the battery is flat – the phone's screen remains dark, and neither Anabel nor Jili hears a tone. Moments later, though, Jili and Anabel are greeted cautiously by a male Japanese-speaker. Anabel immediately takes the initiative. Imitating Asuka's voice, she identifies herself as the girl and says, "My father told me to put this card in his phone if something happened to him. As you know, he was killed. But he made it clear that the deal he had with you could pay the bills, so I'm willing to work with you on the same terms."
After a pause at the other end, the voice informs Anabel that he's willing to think about the offer, but that's all. The man tells her to keep the phone nearby, charged and with the special card in it. He states that if he calls her back, it will be with instructions, and that he'll expect her to be ready to travel on a moment's notice. To this he adds, "And you might not like it." Before Anabel can inquire further, the line goes dead.
Anabel tells her associates the details of her short exchange. There's no way of knowing whether the man with whom she spoke was Sakata, but the weird circumstances surrounding the call seem consistent with precautions that an expert in communications and computer security might take. The Agents decide to call Chaturvedi and ask him how to proceed if they do find Sakata. For instance, should they attempt to recruit him as a Company asset? Chaturvedi states that he's merely a handler and cannot speak for those higher up the food chain, but that he'll pass along the request. He warns that a response might take a while, so it may be necessary to keep Sakata on ice.
While the Agents have Chaturvedi on the line, they also ask about the recent delivery of equipment from Darmatech. The handler is surprised to hear about this, as Staedert's people didn't mention anything to him. This worries a few of the group, and they ask Chaturvedi to look into this as well. He promises to do his best.
Toward evening, the Agents decide to double-check the gear from Darmatech, just in case. Specifically, Klas, Lev, and Wen carefully examine the weapons and ammo, while Hamid and Jili look over the electronics. As far as they can tell, though, the guns will shoot and the gizmos don't conceal any surveillance devices. The strangest thing about the equipment is that none of it has any serial numbers. Otherwise, it seems functional and safe, and fairly consistent with the kind of thing that a secret organization would provide to operatives in the field.
When that's done, it's time to get some sleep. The team posts watches, the main task being to keep an eye on the surveillance network that Hamid and Jili set up. This turns out to be a good idea: In the middle of the night, Vinnie finds himself being prodded awake by Klas, who's clutching a tablet receiver showing a view of the street. "Check this out, Vinnie. The same car went past out front four times. There's no way that's a coincidence."
Vinnie and Klas immediately rouse the rest of the squad. Jili and Hamid take over monitoring the surveillance cameras, and within moments, Jili is hissing for the others to take a look at a dark screen. There's little but shadows visible, which leads several Agents to ask, "What are we supposed to be seeing?" Jili then explains that she positioned that particular camera in the back alley specifically because the location was well-lit. Shadow is consistent with somebody having taken out a few lights, perhaps in order to sneak up unseen.
This is all the team needs to get moving. Everybody dons his or her armor, tactical radio, and night-vision goggles. Within moments, the only sounds in the safe house are those of magazines being slammed into submachine guns, followed by rattle of cocking handles. Klas, Lev, and Wen are the first to gear up and take action. Lev hustles a sleepy Asuka into the restaurant's steel meat locker, wraps her in the armor vests that Vinnie and Zhang were using while posing as her bodyguards, and tells her to keep quiet and out of sight. Klas and Wen, meanwhile, head upstairs and climb the ladder to the roof hatch.
Wen and Klas open the hatch just enough to creep out onto the roof, and then crawl toward the front and back, respectively, doing their best to stay unseen and unheard. Stealing a glimpse into the back alley, Klas sees four shooters moving toward the rear entrance, each equipped with a tricked-out M4 carbine, grenades (probably flash-bangs), an assault vest, a visored ballistic helmet, limb protection, and night-vision gear. Wen glances into the street and sees four more such figures sidling toward the front of the building. She also spies a sniper and a spotter on the roof across the street, apparently watching the restaurant's main entrance. All 10 men are armed for bear and don't look friendly.
Klas and Wen radio in their findings. Things don't look good, but the fact that these night visitors are working in two teams of four, with only a single sniper team for cover, suggests that they've come looking for four or fewer people – for instance, Asuka and her highly visible staff of three (bodyguard Zhang, driver Vinnie, and personal assistant Wen). As far as Wen and Klas can tell, the armed callers don't seem to be aware that they've been spotted, either, which tips the balance in the Agents' favor. As Wen reports on all this, she sees one of the men at the front point a small electronic device at the group's rental car, wait a moment, and then gesture for his associates to proceed.
Lev acknowledges Klas and Wen's reports, and then motions for the Agents indoors to fire up their night-vision gear, switch on their IR targeting lasers, and follow him to the kitchen, at the rear of the building. This puts two walls between them and the front entrance, which opens into the dining room. On arriving near the back exit, Lev signals for his fastest, most-skilled shooters – Paul, Vinnie, and Zhang – to hide nearby and get ready to move. Then he crouches, draws a bead on the door, and signals for Anabel, Hamid, Jili, and Qoqa to do the same. Over the comms circuit, he hisses his strategy: Hit the attackers coming in from the rear, lure in the men out front, turn on them, and hopefully destroy the enemy in detail.
On the roof, Wen and Klas set a trap of their own. Assuming supine shooting positions, weapons braced along their bodies, they aim. Wen whispers that she'll take the sniper, leaving the spotter to Klas. Given their keen eyes and excellent night vision, the two decide to line up their shots without using their IR lasers, which might give them away. When they're ready, they check in by radio, saying that they'll deal with the men on the opposite roof as soon as there's enough going on downstairs to act as a distraction.
The enemies in the street strike first. They breach the front door with a sledgehammer and hurl a flash-bang into the dining room. Of course, there's nobody there. The stun munition serves only to help the Agents coordinate their actions. Everybody in the kitchen gets ready to shoot, while Wen and Klas take their shots. Wen puts three rounds into the face of the sniper across the street, dropping him, and Klas does the same thing to the spotter.
Even as Klas and Wen fire, the enemies in the back alley breach the rear entrance. In an amazing feat of marksmanship, when an arm appears in the doorway, cocked to toss a flash-bang, Lev shoots the man's hand off, causing the grenade to roll out of sight and explode in the alleyway. An instant later, Anabel, Hamid, Jili, and Qoqa open up with full-auto on the wall just left of the back door, where Klas saw the men out back stacked for their assault. The thin brick does little to slow the 4.6×30mm armor-piercing rounds: 60 slugs punch holes in a three-metre segment of wall and the men on the far side.
While this is going on, Zhang leads Paul and Vinnie in a charge out the back door. They dash outside, looking to the left as they hook right in order to steer clear of friendly fire. Zhang collides with a man attempting to escape the kill zone and promptly bears him to the ground, clearing the way for Paul and Vinnie. Those two emerge a fraction of a second later, shooting down the alleyway at anything that moves. Between Lev's hit on the lead assaulter, the grenade, Zhang's flying tackle, and the ensuing hail of armor-piercing bullets, the enemies out back are neutralized before they can pull a trigger.
Lev suspects that the attackers moving in from the front will pick up the pace after hearing MP7s firing but no M4s, not to mention cries of pain and calls for help. He runs for the back door, gesturing for those in the kitchen to follow. When he gets outside, he sees Paul and Vinnie executing downed targets with double-taps to the face, while Zhang twists his victim like a pretzel. Lev signals for the Agents out back to turn, cover their associates emerging from the kitchen, and get ready for more shooting.
Up on the roof, meanwhile, Klas switches to full-auto and sprays bursts across the street. He can't see any signs of life over there, but he isn't one to take chances – if there's anyone left, he wants them to keep their head down. Wen rolls to her feet, dashes to the rear of the building, and covers the alleyway from above. By the time she gets there, Anabel, Lev, Paul, Qoqa, Vinnie, and Zhang are pointing guns at the back of the restaurant, presumably to cover Hamid and Jili. On the ground are four enemies, all of them with multiple gunshot wounds.
Every plan has its flaws, though. As the last two Agents flee the building, the kitchen door bursts open, revealing two shooters. They fire at Jili and Hamid's departing backs. Jili gets lucky and escapes without injury, but Hamid is hit between the shoulder blades. His body armor simply isn't up to stopping a full-powered rifle round, and he collapses, badly injured.
As soon as Jili is clear, Lev and Zhang – the former standing, the latter crouching in front – shoot through the doorway, aiming high so as to avoid hitting the fallen Hamid. Both score headshots, dropping the two leading enemies instantly. There's some return fire, but about all this does is cause Zhang to sprawl to one side when he sees a burst walk too close for comfort. As the last two men inside move forward to seek cover and rescue their associates, history repeats itself: Anabel, Jili, Paul, Qoqa, and Zhang open up on the wall, this time punching holes in it from the outside. Lev joins in, blazing away into the doorway. Finally, Vinnie snatches up a dropped M4, calmly walks into the kitchen, and delivers coups de grâces.
Within seconds of the initial assault, the engagement is over. Glancing at the attackers' injuries on her way to Hamid, Qoqa suspects that three of the men are already dead and five more will certainly end up that way without prompt medical care. None of them are less than gravely injured, more than in part because most have multiple wounds, some of them delivered execution-style. Compared to them, Hamid barely has a flesh wound – although it's certainly nothing to sneeze at, and will require Qoqa's prompt attention. From the roof, neither Klas nor Wen can see any enemy backup coming.