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The Company
Time: Sunday, June 24, 2012 (predawn hours).
Place: An old, abandoned factory in London.
Last Event: Scouting one of the bomb-maker's possible hideouts.
Zhang rejoins his associates in the alleyway and then the squad returns to the van, where Paul takes the wheel and drives back to the apartments. As far as Paul can tell, he hasn't picked up a tail. The first order of business on arriving home is to make a list of gear the team will need to take a closer look at the old factory: bolt-cutters, fire-escape ladders, flashlights, lockpicks, etc. After that, it's time to get some sleep.
Later that morning, when everyone is feeling more energetic, Wen decides to risk calling Chaturvedi to ask whether he can arrange for the Agents to have access to a little of their money so that they can buy equipment. Chaturvedi cuts the request short with "Meet me at our usual Indian restaurant." Everyone remembers the place, which is greasy and dismal, but also conveniently out of the way. Anabel, Paul, Wen, and Zhang get the job of meeting with Chaturvedi and dining on heartburn-inducing "Indian" food.
Toward lunchtime, the four head out. Once again, Paul drives – and once again, nobody spots a shadow. The trip to the restaurant is uneventful. When the group arrives, Chaturvedi and Ben are already seated. They have a relatively private booth in a back corner of the dining room, but everyone speaks in hushed tones just the same.
Wen explains what's going on, including the meeting with Terence, what happened to Vinnie, and why she and her associates require gear. Chaturvedi says that as far as he can tell, the Company approves of the Agents stopping a dangerous bomb-maker. However, he advises against going anywhere near the Luna-Tech offices to fetch equipment – there's no easy way to determine whether the group's enemies know about the place. He promises to see what he can do about hiring professional movers to cart the hardware to a dodgy storage facility that the team can break into. In the meantime, he counsels buying whatever is needed, which is Ben's cue to kick a messenger bag over to Wen under the table.
With that, the meeting ends. Chaturvedi pays the bill, and then he and Ben get going. Paul makes sure that nobody is following them, while Wen ducks into the ladies' room to examine the bag Ben shoved at her. Inside, she finds £30,000 in crisp £10 and £20 notes done up in neat bundles. There's also a high-impact plastic case containing a factory-fresh L106A1 (SIG Sauer P226), two magazines, a box of ammo, and a handwritten note:
I knew that Chaturvedi wouldn't think of this, and I wouldn't trust the gun if he had.
— Ben
Wen rejoins the others in the dining room and asks them to wait for her to order lunch for the gang back at the apartments. Once Wen receives the rather sizeable pile of food, Paul drives home, yet again checking the mirrors for trouble but not seeing any. Wen leaves the pistol with Lev and then distributes the cash. The plan is for her and Zhang to take a trip to Chinatown to get hold of lockpicks, while Paul chauffeurs Anabel around the city to pick up the other tools in half a dozen places, so that the purchases don't scream "Heist!"
The team is reunited at the apartments by early evening. Zhang shows off a nice set of lockpicks, very complete and exceptionally rugged. Paul and Anabel unpack several heavy bags of tools that have both legitimate and break-and-enter applications. After that, Hamid, Klas, Lev, Paul, Wen, and Zhang decide to get some sleep so that they'll be fresh for their next look at the factory. Anabel and Jili have the night off, and of course Qoqa is looking after Vinnie, who's in no shape to go anywhere.
In the first hours of Monday, those paying a return visit to the factory visit gear up. Everyone takes a flashlight and a radio with fresh batteries. Qoqa insists that Klas and Wen bring first-aid gear this time, just in case. In addition:
• Hamid's role is to tackle electronic security, so he fills a shoulder bag with suitable tools.
• Klas and Lev are designated as lookouts and muscle. Klas brings binoculars, while Lev straps on the group's pistol and a knife for backup.
• Paul is the driver, but as he might be needed as a lookout in the street, he brings binoculars as well.
• Wen gets to handle any explosives found on site, so she grabs her EOD toolbox.
• Zhang has the job of climbing up and getting everyone else inside, so he packs bolt-cutters, a couple of fire-escape ladders, and his lockpicks – not to mention his tonfa the group's remaining stun gun.
The night stalkers sneak down to the van and hit the road. Everybody is alert for trouble, but nobody sees anyone following or even showing much of an interest. Before long, Paul is quietly pulling up in a shadowy parking spot down the street from the factory. Then the six slip out of the vehicle and steal toward their objective.
As Paul skulks toward the alleyway, he notices a car that fits the description Vinnie gave of the one he was trying to steal when he was beaten. On closer examination, it proves to have a starred driver-side window and dents suggestive of a fight – it's almost certainly the same vehicle. Paul feels the bonnet and finds it cold, suggesting that it has been parked for a while. He tells the others what he has found, but the group decides that getting revenge on Vinnie's attackers isn't a priority.
Eventually, the six reach the back of the factory. The area seems quiet, so Zhang dumps all his heavy gear but one of the ladders and starts climbing to the roof. He checks the skylight, sees nothing going on down below, and then lowers the ladder for the others. Zhang's work is so silent that even his associates, alert as they are, don't know he's done until the ladder nudges Klas' shoulder.
The Agents in the alleyway grab the rest of the equipment and quietly climb up to join Zhang. Hamid does a quick sweep of the rooftop, searching for cameras and sensors, but finds nothing of concern. Then Paul soundlessly eases open the skylight, whereupon Zhang carefully attaches the other ladder and lowers it into the darkness below. Zhang, Wen, Paul, and Hamid use this to descend into the factory one at a time, leaving Klas and Lev on the roof as lookouts.
Once inside, the Agents switch on their flashlights and start their investigation. Hamid identifies car-alarm-style security systems on the two caravans, as well as a sensor next to the alleyway entrance that the team saw in use during their initial stakeout. Wen checks the drums and concludes that they're full of liquid explosive, her best guess being acetone peroxides in solvent (hopefully water). Her conclusion is based more than in part on the complex, tamper-resistant trigger she finds attached to the barrels. She and Hamid run into each other following wires, which connect the detonator to the electronics box on the door – the place is rigged to blow if anyone breaks in.
Meanwhile, Paul and Zhang apply their old police skills to checking out everything else: fingerprints, footprints, cigarette butts, trash, and so on. It soon becomes clear that the place must be "cleaned" on a semi-regular basis, as there's little to be found. About all they can deduce is that at least four people and perhaps as many as six sometimes work here. They agree that learning more would require a look inside the caravans. Hamid advises against this . . . he could probably defeat the security systems on the trailers if that's all they were, but after what Wen showed him, he fears explosives and doesn't think that the potential reward would be worth the risk.
At this stage, Wen has an idea: She believes that she could tamper with the drums just enough to make it look like something has gone wrong. Based on the complexity of the trigger, she suspects that a master bomb-maker put the contraption together, and that mere mooks would be extremely reluctant to mess with it. If said mooks felt that they were in danger, they might just call in the professional to solve the problem.
The other Agents are a little leery of this, given the potential for being blow up, but Wen assures them that she's up to the challenge – she just needs a dead rat and somebody to help her examine the drums next to the detonator for a rust spot or a bad seal. The team gets to work. After a few minutes, Paul hisses that he has found a barrel with a dinged crimp. Wen fiddles with this and manages to start a very slow leak, which is soon detectable by its faint-but-sharp solvent smell.
After that, Wen corrals Hamid and has him assist her with the trigger. They work slowly and carefully, until one of the LEDs on the thing starts blinking when it shouldn't be. Then Wen asks if anybody found a dead rat for her, whereupon several Agents toss deceased rodents her way. Wen examines these, selects a particularly fresh one that Lev discovered, and positions it near the detonator as if it had chewed on the wiring. Paul then disguises Wen's handiwork with handfuls of dust and suitable scuffing.
With that tense moment behind them, the Agents start back up the ladder. Wen is the last out, and takes care to cover the group's tracks. Once everyone is on the roof, there's a huddle to discuss their next move. The decision is that Klas and Wen will remain up here to keep watch, while the other four will return to the van and await their signal. With that, Hamid, Lev, Paul, and Zhang sneak back to the vehicle and get out of sight; Paul slouches in the driver's seat while the others lie low in the rear.
It turns out to be a good thing that the group got some rest, because there's a long wait before the situation gets interesting again. It's almost noon when Wen and Klas see someone approaching the alleyway door. It's one of the men they spotted the other day. He keys in a code and ducks into the building. Klas and Wen sneak over to the skylight to watch the man as he walks inside. At first, he doesn't seem to notice that anything is out of order – but as he goes to unlock one of the caravans, he sniffs at the air and turns to face the stack of drums by the wall.
Wen is thrilled to see her deception play out almost flawlessly: The man sniffs and sniffs until he locates the leak, looks up with alarm when he spots the blinking LED on the trigger, and then dashes for the exit. He carefully keys himself out of the building, and then runs outside, shutting the door behind him. As soon as he's in the alleyway, he whips out his phone and makes a call. Neither Klas nor Wen can understand the language he's speaking, but he's clearly anxious. Wen radios the others to expect new arrivals.
For almost an hour, Klas and Wen watch the man in the alleyway pace, checking his phone repeatedly and slowly drifting away from the door to the bomb shop. Then they get word from Paul on the radio: a vehicle is approaching. Paul sneaks a glance into the car as it passes, and catches sight of the bomb-maker and three associates, two of whom he recalls from photos in the briefing packet, one of these the man who went into the factory with a leather satchel the other day. He hisses this to Hamid, Lev, and Zhang, and Lev sends word to Klas and Wen.
There's little time to plan, so the Agents decide to keep things simple. Paul will wait until the men are in the alleyway, whereupon he'll pull the van across the end behind them, allowing Hamid, Lev, and Zhang to jump them. Since firing the pistol in broad daylight would be a bad idea, Hamid will carry it and use it strictly for intimidation. Lev and Zhang will focus on grabbing the target, Zhang wielding the stun gun. Klas and Wen's job is to get down off the roof and come up the alleyway from the other end.
The plan is barely made when it's time to act. The bomb-maker's car stops just down the street, whereupon all four occupants get out and stroll toward the alleyway. As soon as they're in the lane, Wen leaps from the roof onto the man pacing down below! She lands squarely on his shoulders, sending him to the ground. Klas follows more cautiously, despite which he ends up prone in the dirt. Still, this unorthodox move distracts the newcomers so effectively that they don't hear Paul smoothly block their escape with the van, or Zhang, Lev, and Hamid leap out behind them.
Zhang uses the stun gun to drop the bomb-maker, Lev kicks one of the target's associates unconscious, and Hamid tackles another of them and starts throwing ground-and-pound. The last standing opponent draws a handgun, and by blind luck knocks the stun gun from Zhang's grasp in the process. Before the gunman can start shooting, though, Lev is on him with a knife, slashing at the wrist of his gun arm and sending him to the ground clutching his wound. Then Klas and Wen arrive, and curb-stomping ensues.
The whole thing is over in less than 10 seconds, and ends with the Agents binding their five victims with zip-ties and relieving them of phones, car keys, and two handguns. All that's left to do is stuff the prisoners into the van and the car, and arrange delivery to Belinda's people – which is to say, to the British, albeit indirectly.