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The Company
Time: Sunday, February 17, 2013 (night).
Place: Darmatech construction site near Gisenyi, Rwanda.
Last Event: Reequipping and regrouping.
After spending the day preparing to repel more assassins and perhaps strike back at them, the Agents sit down to discuss their next move. Consensus is that a counterstrike means returning to Kigali, which requires both lower-profile transportation than canvas-covered troop trucks and weapons more concealable than assault rifles. Some of the gang want to wait for Col. G to reestablish contact before taking action; others aren't so sure that he can be trusted. Anabel remarks that she has G's business card (though doubtless not an official one), so the team could take the initiative, whether that means phoning the man or trying to track him down. The final decision is to give him a call.
Anabel uses one of the secure satellite phones to make the call, and reaches the formal answering service of "Colonel Jean-Jacques Gisimba." She leaves the number of the sat phone along with her pseudonym. When Anabel informs the others of this, there's some debate as to whether it would be safer to stay put and wait for Col. G to show up or to relocate to a place unknown him. In the end, the verdict is that as the construction site is fairly defensible, it would be best to hole up. The Agents post watches – Qoqa and Wen, Klas and Lev, and Paul and Vinnie – and try to get some sleep.
The night passes uneventfully, and Monday morning starts with Vinnie preparing a hearty breakfast for everyone. Just as Vinnie is about to begin adapting one of the trucks for covert ops, installing a hidden compartment for smuggling guns and making the vehicle look a lot less military, the satellite phone buzzes. It's a woman from Col. G's office, with instructions to meet G for lunch at a café in Kigali in three hours' time. Vinnie says that given the driving conditions in the region, that makes the schedule kind of tight – he recommends leaving at once.
The hasty plan is for Anabel to go to the meeting – Col. G is her contact above all else – and for Vinnie to drive her there. Anabel picks Wen as her bodyguard, and Lev and Qoqa are tapped to provide backup. The five of them pile into the cleanest, most civilized-looking pickup truck and head for Kigali. Back at the Darmatech site, Klas and Paul keep watch, Jili monitors comms, and Zhang rests and recovers from his beating the other night.
Vinnie reaches Kigali ahead of schedule, arriving in time to make a few circuits around the café to check for trouble. Nobody sees anything or anyone terribly suspicious lurking in the area. However, Vinnie cannot help but notice that the rendezvous is in middle of the financial district, which is a traffic nightmare at lunchtime. This leads Wen and Vinnie to suspect that Col. G's plan is to use the crowd as cover for the meeting. If nothing else, there are enough foreigners in sight that the Agents won't look too out of place.
Lev and Qoqa get out of the vehicle and stroll into the café. Once those two are seated, Anabel and Wen follow, managing to get a table that's in sight of their associates. As Vinnie cannot find parking nearby, he decides to cruise around the area, ready to extract his allies if need be. Nobody sees Col G. approach. The first sign of him is when he shows up inside the café, dressed in a sharp business suit, and greets Anabel.
Anabel attempts to discuss Saturday night's events with Col G., but other than acknowledging the attack with "I wouldn't have picked that hotel," and expressing genuine surprise when Anabel mentions the use of a drone, he seems reluctant to speak of the matter. The rest of the lunchtime conversation consists of small talk. At the end of the meal, G simply stands up and says that he must be going. As he kisses Anabel on the cheek, he slides something into her pocket. Lev and Qoqa miss this completely, but Wen notices the drop.
With the meeting done, the Agents in the café take their leave as well. Anabel and Wen find that Col. G has picked up their bill. The man certainly seems intent on looking like a friend . . . or least Anabel's friend. Anabel and associates emerge to find Vinnie waiting outside. During the drive back to the Darmatech site, Anabel checks out what G put in her pocket. It proves to be a small envelope holding a microSDHC card.
Vinnie makes good time once again – and as far as he, Lev, and Wen can tell, he doesn't pick up a tail. As soon as Vinnie stops the truck, Anabel hops out and makes a beeline for Jili, asking her to find out what's on the memory card. Jili fiddles with the card for a few minutes and then reports that there are two folders on it. Each contains what appears to be a voice recording, as well as several other data files.
The recording in the first folder consists of Col. G talking about Saturday night's attack. He explains that he had people watching the group's back when everything went down, and that while his operators weren't close enough to help, they were able to track the assassins' departure from the area – largely because the Agents wounded the men too badly for them to exfiltrate gracefully! The attackers went straight to the airport, where they boarded a private cargo plane. G explains that copies of the aircraft's registration and flight plan are attached. He concludes by saying that the plane's destination was Monrovia, Liberia, and that he can confirm that it actually landed there.
In the second recording, Col. G talks about the nerve gas used at the hotel. He says that the RDF found and analyzed traces of the stuff, and concluded that it was a fast-acting and theoretically nonlethal incapacitant similar to one the Russians had developed. Once again, he has attached supporting information – this time raw output from laboratory instruments such as mass spectrometers. Qoqa asks Jili to display the data. After examining this, Qoqa confirms that the chemical would be nonlethal and incapacitating in small doses, but says that it looks like some new designer weapon, not any of the Russian agents with which she's familiar.
Anabel decides to call Chaturvedi and share all this – especially since she forgot to make today's scheduled check-in! Chaturvedi is relieved that the Agents are alive and well. He listens with interest to Anabel's report on Col. G's information dump, and promises to pass along the laboratory data to Darmatech if Jili sends it to him. He says he'll see what he can do about checking the flight plan and plane registration, too, but that he's unsure whether the Company has the necessary connections to learn anything useful. Chaturvedi concludes by saying that Ben's flight arrives on Tuesday morning, but that it will be a while before he can get new false identities to the group.
After Anabel concludes her call, she has Jili forward Chaturvedi the contents of Col. G's memory card. Figuring that G might have concealed something if he's as much as a spy as a military man – which appears to be the case – Anabel also asks Jili to take closer look at the data. It isn't long before Jili turns up something interesting: a well-hidden string of numbers. To Jili, at least, it's obviously a set of GPS coordinates.
Klas whips out a GPS unit, fusses with the coordinates for a moment, and then reports that they describe a location that's quite close as the crow flies. Vinnie glances at the map and says the roads in that area are poor – actually driving there would take about an hour. After a quick discussion, the Agents decide to check it out at once. Everyone dons full kit, even Zhang, and then piles into one of the group's captured troop trucks. As always, Vinnie is at the wheel.
Vinnie's assessment of the road conditions and driving time proves to be spot-on. Most of the trip is along a badly overgrown mud track through the bush, and it's slow going. Despite the very real possibility of an ambush, Vinnie drives with the headlights on. There path isn't clear enough to risk driving in the dark, or even with one hand while fussing with night-vision gear. Everybody else hangs on for dear life as the truck bumps noisily over rough ground.
Eventually, Vinnie stops at what looks like a concrete barrier blocking the road. Klas squints at his GPS receiver and says that the objective is 50 metres past the barricade. Wen, Vinnie, and Klas get the job of scouting ahead on foot. Once again, the need to see outweighs stealth – the three of them opt to use flashlights. This proves valuable, as it enables Vinnie to spot a landmine as well as a sign warning of mines. Wen examines the device and informs the others that it's antivehicular, not antipersonnel . . . but she, Klas, and Vinnie move more cautiously anyway.
Before long, Klas and Wen spot a camouflage net strung across the path. Moving up carefully, they discover that it conceals a large helicopter. Wen calls for Vinnie to come take a look at it. Vinnie can hardly believe what he sees: a Mil Mi-24 Hind, albeit an old one that looks like it dates to the 1970s. Though unarmed other than its internal cannon, it appears to be in operating condition. Vinnie also notices drums of fuel sitting nearby, and that somebody has recently dropped off a small pump for this.