The Company

[dr_kromm]

On November 26, we had Bonnie ("Xiang Wen," a.k.a. "Wu Xie Zhi" and "Dot"), Marc ("Anabel Windsor," a.k.a. "Abigail Wilson" and "Vicky"), and Torsten ("Qoqa Ramazanova," a.k.a. "Zoya Petrovna Sidorova").

Time: Tuesday, August 20, 2013 (night).
Place: Milan, Italy.
Last Event: Breaking into the Turatello house.

After discovering the armory in the Turatellos' basement, Anabel, Jili, and Wen elect to proceed with caution. They continue with their plan to head upstairs, but make stealth an even higher priority. The Agents listen at the door at the top of the stairs and – once things fall silent – tiptoe across the threshold and onto the ground floor of the sprawling house, leaving the door unlocked behind them. As they steal down the corridor and toward the back staircase leading to the upper stories, they can hear men talking loudly over the blare of television sets. The racket of the football game and associated shouting makes it easier to slink around undetected.

As the Agents want to search personal living quarters, they sneak up two stories to the top floor on the assumption that they'll find the bedrooms there. The hunch pays off – it's quite clear that this level is dominated by half a dozen large, private rooms. Since the area is silent and dark, and there's evidently nobody around, the three waste no time getting to work. The first room they search proves to be the master bedroom, as evidenced by both its size and the presence of pricey clothing and accessories. The next two are guest rooms, and not terribly interesting. On examining the fourth room, however, they hit paydirt . . .

Upon picking the lock and cracking the door, Anabel immediately smells Asuka's favorite perfume. The Agents slip inside, lock up behind themselves, block the crack under the door with a rolled-up towel, and switch on the light. If it wasn't clear from the scent, the sight of the room makes it evident that Asuka is staying here: clothing in her size and style is strewn everywhere. Wen notices that the towels in the attached bathroom are still damp, and concludes that the girl has been here recently. Beyond that, there are few clues of value, so the squad decides to move on.

The fifth room is "dark" but for the glow of LEDs on digital devices. After closing the door and taking precautions to block out light, the Agents hit the light switch. This dispels any doubt that Lu©a lives here – the sound system, band posters, funky clothing, and so on give it away. There's also a door to the sixth and final room on this floor, which proves to be a fully equipped recording studio filled with electronic instruments and related gear. Yes, this is Lu©a's lair.

On realizing what they've found, the Agents fan out to conduct a thorough search. Anabel finds drugs sitting around in plain sight. A closer look also turns up a concealable shoulder rig and several boxes of 9mm ammunition, minus the handgun, as well as a shoebox full of coshes, flick knives, knuckledusters, and similar toys. Meanwhile, Jili pokes at the costly laptop computer, only to discover that it's used strictly for video games; there's nothing worth hacking into. Wen stands watch, just in case.

With all of this established, the Agents conclude that they've learned all they can and might as well leave. Before departing, though, Jili rigs the computer's webcam and a few of the smaller microphones from Lu©a's studio to act as surveillance devices. Then she writes and conceals a concise script that will allow her to command this hardware to stream audio and video on demand. Given her abilities, this doesn't take long. Less than 15 minutes later, the squad is on its way out.

Wen leads Jili and Anabel back downstairs without incident. On the ground floor, the three smell cigars and hear men talking in hushed tones, but as none of them understand Italian, they decide to keep moving. In the basement, they pull on their street clothes over their skimpy "girlfriend" costumes. Wen simply cannot resist the urge to count coup by stealing some booze from the wine cellar, but she manages to check the urge to nick something truly valuable. Then the Agents squirm back outside through the window they opened earlier.

The trip across the yard is uneventful. Upon reaching a large tree that overhangs the front wall, the Agents shinny up and drop silently on the public side of the property line. Once the three are hidden in the shadows, Wen whips out her cell phone and calls Paul for pickup. Paul arrives in minutes, and has Anabel, Jili, and Wen back at the hotel by 01:00. Everyone is on the alert for a shadow, but as far as they can tell, their visit didn't attract any attention.

In the wee hours of Wednesday night, Jili sets up her computer (the one Chaturvedi had delivered to the Artist) to monitor the makeshift surveillance devices in Lu©a's room. Klas gets the thrilling job of watching it, since he's been resting on his laurels all day. Jili instructs him to start recording if anything interesting happens, and makes sure he knows how to do so. With that done, it's time to get some sleep.

Come daylight, Klas indeed has something to show his associates. He explains that Lu©a came home at about 04:30, with Asuka in tow. The video shows the two of them chatting, taking pills of some kind, and carrying on in bed. After about 40 minutes of this, they start chatting, using English to communicate since Asuka has no Italian and Lu©a appears not to know Japanese. The conversation is drawn out and disjointed, but the essence of it is that Asuka is trying to convince Lu©a to have his father send thugs to Japan to help her claim her late father's criminal empire, the proposed payment being import/export access to the Tokyo black market. It seems that Lu©a wants to have the discussion later, after his show on Friday, but his words hint that this is a serious request being taken seriously.

Qoqa watches and listens with special curiosity. In her professional opinion, Asuka is doing her best to get Lu©a to do what she wants while letting him believe that he is using her for sex. The girl is doing a great job of it, too – if Qoqa had to bet on who's the better deceiver, her money would be on Asuka, who seems to be drifting toward abject sociopathy. The Agents discuss this and conclude that they have to intervene before Asuka touches off an underworld war that puts her in a position where it's advantageous to reveal her knowledge of the Company. They agree that assassinating her would be unethical, while following and using her would be too risky. In the end, they decide to abduct her and institutionalize her for her own good.

Wen gets on the phone to Chaturvedi about this. Chaturvedi concurs with the team's analysis and promises to do what he can to set up a stay in the loony bin. He warns that pulling the right strings will take time. Wen acknowledges this and asks the handler to set up a safe house in case the group needs to hold Asuka for a while. Chaturvedi says that won't be a problem. Finally, at Qoqa's request, Wen orders a fast-acting, relatively safe injectable sedative to facilitate the abduction.

From Wednesday afternoon through Friday morning, the Agents prepare to snatch Asuka from Lu©a's outdoor show, where they assume she'll be a guest in the VIP area. Anabel uses this time to rent a van, taking care to show false ID and casually lie about where she's going. Then she and Jili shop for makeup, body paint, wigs, and clothing suitable for a dance party. Klas, Lev, and Paul survey the venue and the routes leading to it, paying extra attention to probable police hotspots. And everybody spends more time than is really enjoyable listening to Lu©a's music, so they'll know what to expect. Qoqa's special-order drugs arrive via courier on Friday morning.

On Friday evening, the Agents prepare to move out. Paul leaves early in the van, with Klas and Lev hidden in the back. He completely lucks out as he approaches the site: The security men drag aside the makeshift gate to admit a van full of keyboards and sound equipment, and Paul pulls in right behind them without anyone batting an eye. The three men proceed to play at being roadies, and do a fine job of it.

Meanwhile, Anabel dolls up Jili, Qoqa, Wen, and herself as much younger women, liberally abusing kandi, body paint, and hair extensions to disguise their appearance. Qoqa conceals her knockout drugs on her person, and Anabel packs backups, just in case. Then the four "girls" set out by taxi. They arrive after dark, pay their way in with the rest of the crowd, and join the party without incident.