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The Company
Time: Tuesday, March 12, 2013 (night).
Place: Darmatech HQ, Darmstadt, Hesse.
Last Event: Defeating the enemy with a smashing rooftop surprise.
With six armed attackers down – including a pair who were manning a machine gun – and only one Agent badly hurt (Jili), the team maintains its momentum and moves in on the enemies trying to force Staedert's door. Klas' arm injury limits his contribution, and Qoqa is more concerned with Jili than with fighting, but the others take the offensive. Lev doesn't let his wounded leg keep him out of the action . . . he cuts loose with the captured HK21 and mows down the two visible intruders. Then Schreiber and Wen burst into the reception area brandishing pistols. Behind them, Anabel and Zhang snatch up G36K carbines.
What Wen sees next is rather bizarre: a hitherto concealed intruder suddenly hurtles through the air, from the direction of the reception desk, and lands atop Ms. Chang on the floor. Pulling her up by her hair, he presses his pistol against her head and starts shouting. Deafened by machine-gun fire, nobody can make out what he's yelling about, but it's obvious that he's warning the Agents to back off or he'll execute Chang. Wen calmly drops him with one clean shot to the face.
As Wen fires, however, a second intruder emerges from hiding, handgun at the ready, and shoots at her. He scores a hit, but it's only a graze – Wen feels the slug pass clean through. The next few seconds are a whirling dance of death, with the enemy shooter, Schreiber, and Wen ducking and rolling, firing like mad yet scoring no telling hits. Lev doesn't have a clear shot and can't move in effectively owing to his wounded leg. It's Zhang who settles matters, barging past Schreiber and Wen, and blasting their opponent with a G36K. The bullets tear through Ms. Chang's lightly armored desk and the man behind it.
When the smoke clears, 10 intruders are down: the two who were watching the main corridor, the four who emerged from the fire stairs, the pair who were cutting through Staedert's door, and a couple more who were up to something behind the reception desk. On the Agents' side, Jili is seriously hurt, Klas has a clean arm wound, Lev has an uncomplicated leg injury, and Wen is a mess of shallow grazes and cuts. Qoqa corrals the wounded, leaving Anabel and Zhang to help Paul and Vinnie in through the window. Schreiber is already at the door to Staedert's office, swiping his card and placing his hand on the biometric scanner.
Qoqa examines Jili and finds that she's alive but in bad shape. As Qoqa starts treatment, the wounded Wen staggers over to Ms. Chang and determines that she, too, is still breathing. Wen does what she can for Chang while waiting for Qoqa. Lev likewise decides to start rendering first aid despite his own injuries, and sees to Klas' arm.
While half of the team is busy patching up, most of the rest see to area security. Zhang binds the downed intruders with zip-cuffs. Vinnie does a quick sweep for booby traps and finds only another flechette mine, down by the lift the team didn't use. He easily disarms this and collects it for later examination. Paul busies himself searching the defeated attackers and gathering up the tools and weapons left strewn around the area.
As all of this is going on in the reception area and corridor, Schreiber cautiously enters Staedert's office, Anabel in tow. Staedert is alive and hiding behind her desk, which is armored, just like Ms. Chang's. Anabel helps Staedert up, while Schreiber assures them that this suite is the safest one in the building, complete with bulletproof windows. Anabel is apprehensive nonetheless, and suggests that nobody approach the windows. Staedert acknowledges the warning and hits a button that darkens the glass.
By now Paul is inspecting the reception desk, where he finds two cases of electronics set up. He has no idea what any of it is, and asks his associates for any assistance they can render. Done bandaging Ms. Chang, Wen stands up painfully and takes a look. She identifies one of the setups immediately: a comms base station with an active cellular link. Plugging in a headset and listening, she hears an American-accented voice asking someone named "Terry" what's going on. She silently signals for Anabel.
When Anabel takes the headset, she recognizes the speaker: Deringer! Faking a hoarse male voice, she plays the part of "Terry" and tries to convince Deringer that his men were gassed and need backup. Deringer responds by asking whether the assault team has "the package." When Anabel confirms that they do, Deringer makes it clear that there will be no extraction – orders are to get the target to the rendezvous point or, if that's impossible, to execute her ". . . for America!" Anabel acknowledges this and fires a few rounds from a G36K. When Deringer hears this, he responds with, "Good job, Terry, and good luck – I have an event to get to."
Vinnie shows up shortly after that and identifies the other case of electronics on Ms. Chang's desk: remote controls for the drone that Wen shot to pieces. He finds joysticks for steering, plus buttons with fun-sounding labels like "Cannon," "Mortar" (he guesses that's the gizmo that lobs canisters of deadly gas), "Electrify Exterior," and "Self-Destruct." He powers it down and packs it away. Everyone agrees that once Jili is feeling better, she may be able to put this gear to good use.
Meanwhile, Anabel briefs Staedert and Schreiber on the situation. She explains who Deringer is – notably, that he's the man the team was stalking in Florida, with shady connections to former CIA men. She also notes that the intruders were equipped similarly to the assassins who came after the team in Kigali. She makes it clear that there's a shadowy organization stalking the Company, and that their goons followed Darmatech's money from the school near Gisenyi back to Darmstadt and all the way up to Staedert's office.
Vengeance is on everyone's mind, but it's painfully obvious that medical needs come first. With Jili stabilized enough to move, though, Qoqa figures that she can at least see if she can learn the intruders' exfiltration plans. She wakes up the least-wounded attacker and, while he's still extremely groggy and unfocused, manages to convince him that she's a medic sent by Deringer. Through leading questions, she discovers that there's an extraction vehicle waiting down in the executive garage. Her victim clams up when he realizes what's going on, but by then it's too late.
Qoqa asks Schreiber about the executive garage. He points to a lift in one corner of Staedert's office and says that's where it goes. It's locked at this end, which is why the attackers couldn't use it to get in. Realizing that the intruders almost certainly planned to leave that way, the Agents decide that it would be wise to send a group down to deal with any waiting vehicle. However, the lift is barely large enough for four, so there are some hard decisions to make about who gets the job.
In the end, the plan is for Paul to don body armor stripped from one of the downed goons and then ride down to the garage with Anabel slung over his shoulder. Anabel will do her best "unconscious Staedert" impersonation, a pistol concealed on her person. Wen will stay out of sight in the lift, ready to pop out when needed. With this scheme agreed upon, everybody prepares as quickly as possible. Qoqa helps Paul into his disguise, doing her best to conceal bullet holes, while Wen procures and checks weapons for herself, Anabel, and Paul.
Once everyone is ready, Schreiber calls the lift. As the Agents wait for it to arrive, Staedert describes the executive garage in detail. Then the door slides open and it's time to go. Paul lumbers in with Anabel over his shoulder, her face out of sight behind him. Both have pistols cocked, locked, and tucked out of sight. Wen presses herself against one wall of the lift, a captured G36K at the ready and a grenade hanging from her belt.
When the lift door slides open again, Paul steps out, carrying Anabel and looking like one of the armored attackers bearing Staedert. He sees a white van waiting nearby, the driver of which nods at him. An instant later, the back gate of the vehicle pops open. When Paul ambles over and peers in, he notices that the rear compartment is outfitted like a SWAT transport, with gear racks and bench seating. There's a lone man in there, and Paul's goggles and helmet appear to have him fooled – he reaches out to help manhandle Anabel into the van.
As soon as Anabel is in the van, she grabs the man inside and pins his arms to his sides. Before he can shrug her off, Paul joins in. There's a brief two-on-one fight back there, with Anabel using a risky yoko-sutemi-waza to drag her opponent to the ground, followed by Paul dog-piling him. Paul's main contribution is repeated blows to his foe's jaw with the butt of his pistol. Eventually, Anabel manages to apply a cross-body pin, which leaves her victim's face exposed for further pulping by Paul and effectively ends the scuffle.
Of course, this is hardly silent or subtle – as soon as the fighting begins, the whole van starts rocking and it's evident that something bad is going on in the back. As the driver turns to deal with it, however, Wen emerges from hiding. She calmly puts the red dot of her reflex sight on the man's head and squeezes off one shot. The results are graphic, nasty, and thoroughly fatal, taking the driver out of the equation. Wen moves in and sweeps the garage, but there's nobody else around.
By the time Wen reaches Anabel and Paul, their opponent is beaten unconscious. Anabel pulls off the man's helmet, hoping to identify him, but all she can determine is that he's older than the goons upstairs. All three Agents agree that he might be the senior operator on the raid, and decide that he needs to meet Qoqa. They drag him into the lift and ride back up.
While Qoqa is happy to have another captive to interrogate, she wants to treat the injured first – especially Jili, but also Ms. Chang and of course Klas, Lev, and Wen's bullet wounds, however non-life-threatening they might be. Thus, Schreiber gets the job of isolating the prisoners. Anabel and Zhang remain with Staedert. The others hurry to the research wing to make use of one of Darmatech's well-equipped operating theatres.
Patching up goes well. Jili's injuries, while serious, are well within Qoqa's ability to treat; indeed, with the excellent equipment available, she's able to do what's necessary very quickly indeed. Klas and Lev's gunshot wounds aren't nearly as worrisome, but they still need – and get – attention. Qoqa figures that Klas' arm and Lev's leg will heal up without complications. Wen is mostly just a mess of grazes, but Qoqa still makes sure that she gets antibiotics. And Ms. Chang proves to have nothing more severe than a mild concussion from being hit on the head with a rifle butt; the blood was from a nasty scalp cut, nothing more.
Once everyone is sewn up, Vinnie escorts Ms. Chang upstairs to join Staedert, while Qoqa and Schreiber visit the man Anabel and Paul double-teamed. Qoqa brings along bloody surgical tools from the operating room. What follows is a classic Qoqa-style interrogation:
Q: "Where were you supposed to deliver the package?"
A: "I didn't memorize the address. It's on my phone."
Q: "Who's waiting there?"
A: "A mean motherfucking Marine and his boys."
Q: "Does he have a name?"
A: "Sir."
Q: "What does he look like?"
A: The prisoner describes Deringer's assistant, Fred Patrick.
Q: "How important was it to take your target alive?"
A: "We were told to get her alive if in any way possible."
Q: "Where's your home base for all this?"
A: "We have a little place in Florida – all 100% legal, too."
Q: "How many people are there?"
A: "I think I told you enough about that."
At this stage, Qoqa suggests that she knows all about his base. She volunteers a few details about its location and appearance, and mentions Emerson Tactical Solutions by name. This makes the prisoner very nervous. Qoqa continues:
Q: "When and where was your last mission?"
A: "A helicopter drop in Alberta, back in January 2011."
Q: "And this team?"
A: "This is their first field op with me. We've been training in the time in between."
Qoqa drops a few snide comments about the operation in Alberta not going well. She makes it plain that she knows about that raid, and rubs in the fact that it went horribly wrong. Then she presses on:
Q: "How about mission before that?"
A: "It wasn't for these people. It was for the Company."
Qoqa is certain that this means "CIA," not her own employer. She decides to see if she can learn more:
Q: "How did you get from CIA to this group?"
A: Before the man can answer, his eyes glaze over.
Qoqa knows a seizure when she sees one. She examines the prisoner, but he's insensible. It's clear that he isn't currently under the influence of a substance, but Qoqa suspects that he was conditioned, possibly pharmaceutically. His pals across town were carrying M201 in injectors, and Qoqa suspects that whoever makes that churns out all kinds of fun stuff for deniable assets who don't officially work for CIA . . .