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The Company
Time: Saturday, February 16, 2013 (morning).
Place: Construction camp near Gisenyi, Rwanda.
Last Event: Building the rehabilitation school.
With their work in Rwanda done and Darmatech's (supposedly) humanitarian project well on its way to completion, the team prepares to leave the country. Forethought on Wen's part means that there's a concealed compartment in the floor of one of the new buildings, giving the group a place to stash gear that's liable to draw unwelcome attention – particularly weapons. Klas, Lev, and Wen get the job of disassembling the firearms, and then Qoqa and Vinnie pack the parts in oil. The Agents square away their equipment carefully, just in case they have to return at a later date.
By late afternoon, all of the hardware is out of sight – everything but the jeeps and personal items (and a couple of knives, for those who trust no one). The plan is to fly out of Kigali the following morning, taking advantage of false papers that Ben brought with him back in December. To give the group a chance to rest up and wash away the mud and explosives residue, the Company has arranged for a night in a hotel in Kigali. The drive into the big city goes well and gets the Agents to their lodgings near dusk.
Nobody is completely at ease with the departure plans. Consensus is that things went so well over the past four months – and the drive into Kigali was without incident – because the team's enemies are waiting to strike at them as they leave the country. The Agents' enthusiasm for showers and beds is dampened by the fear of a last-minute ambush. Thus, Anabel arranges for a suite large enough for everyone, to make it easier to watch each other's backs.
After checking in, Lev, Qoqa, and Zhang take a good look around for escape routes and chokepoints. In the process, they notice that the hotel is rather old, with heavy walls and large balconies. Toward bedtime, the Agents post watches in the common area, just in case: Anabel and Wen, then Klas and Lev, and finally Paul and Qoqa. Everybody who has a knife straps it on, and nobody sleeps far from what little gear they've brought along.
Toward midnight, Anabel thinks she hears a sound in one of the air ducts. Wen doesn't want to take any chances – she goes to wake the others. Meanwhile, Anabel takes a closer look at the vent. It's far too small for a person to get through, but there's definitely a mechanical noise coming from inside. To Anabel, it sounds like the whirring of a small motor. She decides to pry off the grille to take a closer look.
Klas is the first one up and about, and decides to give Anabel a hand. He's still crossing the room when Anabel discovers what's making the noise: a small drone rolling on treads, resembling nothing so much as a small tank! It appears that the thing's controller sees Anabel right back, because the tiny gun barrel slews toward her . . . Anabel dives out of the way, and an instant later there's a muffled shot from the air duct, followed by the crack of shattering glass on the far side of the room.
As Anabel and Klas move to deal with the situation, both see a small cylinder – about the size of a lipstick tube – arc out of the open vent and land on the floor. Instinctively, the two of them dive for cover. There is no blast, however. Instead, Anabel hears a faint hissing sound. She tries to shout a warning but can't – her throat is closing over. When Klas notices Anabel's distress, he pulls her off the floor and starts hustling her away from the canister, bellowing "Gas!" the whole time.
Thanks to the noisy scramble in the common area, Klas' shouting, and Wen pounding on doors, the whole team is awake. The room farthest from the canister is Vinnie's; within moments, everybody ends up there. At this point, Jili, Lev, Qoqa, and Zhang are feeling ill – though not quite as bad as Anabel – while Klas, Paul, Vinnie, and Wen are still fine. There's brief talk of escape out the balcony exit from Vinnie's room, but when Qoqa learns that gas dispersed mere seconds ago is causing symptoms, she concludes that it's a nerve agent that has already reached effective concentration and warns that there's little to be gained by risking a climb while afflicted by it. Wen points out that enemies with drones and nerve gas would surely have snipers watching the windows anyway.
Lev advises his associates to head through the suite to the hall exit, and then breaks into a run. Everybody follows his lead. Given Wen's warning about possible snipers, the Agents stay well away from the windows. The door to the hall seems to be jammed, but Lev and Zhang pile into it forcefully enough to force it open. As Lev stumbles through the doorway, he spots a small rubber wedge that definitely wasn't around when he did his rounds earlier.
As soon as the door is open, the whole team pours out into the hall. On their way out, Anabel and Wen see the little drone crawling down the wall, probably on spikes or suction cups. In better light, it's apparent that its turret bears a suppressed pistol-caliber gun and a cluster of sensors. The thing takes another shot at the fleeing Agents, but misses everyone. Wen warns that the controller almost certainly knows that the group is escaping.
The hallway is empty aside from an unfortunate room-service waiter, who's sprawled on the floor, twitching and foaming at the mouth. Fearing snipers, Lev leads the team toward the interior staircase rather than the exterior fire escape. Vinnie pulls the fire alarm on the way there. Then the whole group barrels down the stairs with Qoqa shouting "Gas! Gas! Gas!" The alarm causes general chaos, which helpfully masks the Agents' flight for the rear service exit.
As the Agents sprint for the back door, Jili and Lev collapse. Anabel isn't looking very good, either. Qoqa feels her own symptoms worsening, and realizes that she must act soon or she won't be in any shape to help. Unzipping her fanny-pack first-aid kit, Qoqa whips out meds for treating nerve agents – a standard addition after Wen's close call in Tokyo. She treats Lev and Jili first, and Lev responds remarkably well. Then she injects Anabel, and finally herself.
Vinnie claims that he's fine, announces that he's going to fetch a vehicle from the rear parking area, and requests backup. Zhang appears to have shaken off the effects of the gas and feels healthy enough to help; Paul and Wen also volunteer. Klas wants to go along as well, but gets tapped to keep an eye on Anabel, Jili, Lev, and Qoqa until they're functional again. Thus, the team splits into two squads, Klas' group remaining just inside the back door while Vinnie's group moves out to procure transportation.
Outside, Vinnie spots a tour bus parked at the back of the lot and decides to go for it – it's big enough to hold everybody and should be able to survive some gunfire, if need be. He, Paul, Wen, and Zhang move toward it carefully. Thanks to the fire alarm, there's quite a crowd in the area, so all four Agents keep an eye open for trouble lurking among the innocent hotel guests. It's Paul who finds it, in the form of an East Indian man standing around, looking like a confused tourist. Without warning, the man whirls toward Paul and tries to stab him with some sort of injector strapped to his wrist. Fortunately, Paul sees the attack coming, evades it, and then hurls his assailant to the ground – hard.
Catching up with his associates, Paul warns that there are enemy operators mixed with the crowd. Vinnie, Wen, and Zhang all keep their eyes peeled, but no more attackers show up. On reaching the bus, Vinnie asks the others to cover him while he coaxes the door open. Zhang, Wen, and Paul do so, watching in all directions.
Sure enough, trouble is on the way, in the form of half a dozen burly men making their way through the crowd toward the bus. Paul warns Vinnie, who leaves off messing with the door and pulls a pair of knives. The others, being no good with knives, look for anything else to use as a weapon. Paul spots a length of old rope, which he knots around his fist as a makeshift knuckleduster. Zhang finds a hefty branch under a tree on the grassy margin next to the bus. Wen, who was on watch, has her trusty combat boots on and decides that's all she needs.
As the dangerous-looking men walk closer, they flick out collapsible batons. These weapons look like high-tech stun wands, not simple clubs. The four Agents form a line, with the bus a couple of paces behind them, to guard against being outflanked. Their show of tactics and readiness doesn't deter the approaching thugs, however.
The ensuing fracas is vicious. Paul scores first blood with a brutal kick to the kneecap of one of the attackers, but from there things go rather badly, what with the enemy having the advantages of superior numbers and better weaponry. Vinnie gets whacked and stunned early in the fight. Wen gets some payback by knocking out an attacker with repeated kicks, but then Zhang gets bludgeoned unconscious as well. This forces Paul and Wen onto the defensive.
Paul spends much of the melee restrained by one attacker while the man he kneecapped tries to blast him in the face with some sort of chemical irritant. He soon finds himself choking on CS and being dragged from the fight. Realizing that these men work for someone who tried to nerve-gas the entire group, and thus who are bent on incapacitating and then murdering him, Paul makes a heroic effort to twist free. This works, and he backs away, luring two of the remaining attackers toward him and away from Wen.
Wen finds herself facing two foes as well. She fights cautiously, making every effort to avoid the stun batons. When she sees that Paul is backing away with his own pair of opponents, she does the same in the opposite directing, buying time with a retreating battle that pulls the goons away from her fallen friends. Feinting and ducking, she makes her attackers pay for every mistake with a sharp kick to the groin. This punishment eventually drops one man, and then the other.
As soon as Wen takes out her two opponents, she takes stock of the situation. She sees Paul about 10 metres away, red-faced and coughing, backing off and just barely ducking baton swings. Between her and Paul she sees the unconscious forms of Vinnie, Zhang, and one of the attackers. The kneecapped man with the can of CS is propped up against the bus, shouting advice to his allies.
Wen decides to run wide around the injured goon to go help Paul. The man with the smashed knee shouts a warning, but it doesn't come in time. Before Paul's attackers can fully react, Wen is sailing through the air behind them. She connects with a flying split-kick that cracks two skulls. Both of Paul's assailants collapse instantly.
Then Paul and Wen turn to deal with the crippled thug over by the bus. Wen circles one way; Paul, the other. Having already been sprayed, Paul decides to take the risk of moving in first, hoping to buy Wen an opening. He charges the man, which does indeed get his attention. However, the goon's timing his off, and he misses Paul with his blast of CS. Paul takes advantage of his opponent's error to close the gap and deliver a running soccer kick to the face, which ends the fight with a sickening crunch.