![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
Entry tags:
The Company
On February 4, 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, January 21, 2014.
Place: Casablanca, Morocco.
Last Event: Keeping a low profile while wounds heal.
The evening of Tuesday, January 21, Qoqa deems everybody well enough to travel – a tribute to her exceptional medical skills and her associates' excellent health. The Agents agree that their next move is to drive to Tangier and then leave Morocco from there. To this end, Anabel and Paul set out to buy a second-hand minivan first thing Wednesday morning. They wear disguises just in case, and pay in cash for good measure, but the deal comes off without a hitch.
Anabel calls Chaturvedi as soon as she and Paul return, relying on her fancy new phone – and Chaturvedi's – for secure communications. She reports on recent events, particularly those surrounding V and her dossier on the Company's rivals, and concludes by recommending that the team hand-deliver the files to Chaturvedi. Chaturvedi agrees, commenting that such a meeting would enable him to bring the Agents a new set of falsified identity documents. Then the two discuss locations and settle on Barcelona.
With those plans made, the Agents spring into action. They carefully stash all the heavy weapons in the old hotel, and then Qoqa "cleans" the site. After that, everybody (including V) piles into the minivan, with Paul behind the wheel. The goal is to reach Tangier and catch a ferry to Tarifa, Spain before nightfall. Hopefully, the team's false identities will withstand one last border crossing!
The drive is uneventful and gets the Agents to Tangier by afternoon. There, the team splits up into ones and twos. Paul remains with the vehicle while everybody else plays at being day-trippers on foot: Anabel sticks with Klas, Jili with Wen, and Lev with Qoqa, and V opts to travel alone. A couple of hours of shopping turn up the necessary baggage, clothing, and knickknacks to pass as tourists. Then it's time to catch a ferry. For the most part, the crossing to Spain goes smoothly, though Klas and Wen attract more attention than they would like and end up getting their bags searched.
It's dusk by the time the Agents and V are in Tarifa. They're extremely careful to regroup out of sight of anybody who might take an interest. Ultimately, everyone ends up back in the minivan and on the road to Barcelona. Paul says that this means 11 or 12 hours of driving, so he'll need someone to spell him in the driver's seat. Lev and Klas volunteer. With that arranged, it's time to hit the road.
The road trip to Barcelona is long, boring, and not terribly comfortable, but there are no surprises. Paul is once again behind the wheel when the team pulls into the city, at around 07:00 on Thursday. The first order of business is to get a bite to eat. Anabel takes advantage of the break to call Chaturvedi and let him know that the group has arrived. Chaturvedi seems relieved to hear this, and informs Anabel that he will be in town in 24 hours and will call her when his plane lands.
With a day to kill, the Agents decide to make themselves comfortable and recover from a night of driving in a cramped minivan. They get rooms at an upmarket hotel, "generously" paying V's way so that she won't be forced to use risky FSB assets. The rooming arrangements partner Anabel with Klas, Jili with Paul, and Lev with Qoqa – all posing as couples – while Wen keeps an eye on V. In an effort not to draw attention, the group stays in and orders room service.
Friday morning comes without incident, and starts with Anabel being awakened by her phone. It's Chaturvedi, calling from the airport. Anabel recommends that he meet her and Klas at a nearby café she noticed earlier, just in case he's being followed. She explains that she and Klas will escort him from there to the hotel if the coast looks clear. With that settled, Anabel concludes the call and then alerts the rest of the team.
Once everybody is awake and briefed on the plan, Anabel and Klas get moving. The café – a clean, open place on a busy street dominated by upscale hotels and restaurants – is within walking distance. Anabel and Klas stroll there casually, while the rest of the team hangs back, ready to move if called for. As far as anybody can tell, there's nobody watching . . . but everyone remains on alert, just in case. Upon arriving at the meeting place, Klas and Anabel sit down, order breakfast, and wait for Chaturvedi.
Chaturvedi steps out of a taxi a few minutes after Anabel and Klas reach the café. He comes in and joins the Agents at their table. As Chaturvedi makes small talk about his trip, Klas casually hints that he sees potential trouble. Without pointing, he indicates that a car has been stopped outside for the past 10 minutes. Between the vehicle's tinted windows and the fact that the occupants are just sitting there rather than getting out and, say, buying a coffee, Klas doesn't trust the situation one bit. Anabel isn't so certain, but she calls Paul and asks him to bring in the rest of the team.
Paul asks Jili, Qoqa, and Wen to accompany him to the café, leaving Lev at the hotel to keep an eye on V. The four-person backup squad walks to within visual distance of the café, and then Paul calls Anabel back and fills her in on his position. Anabel lets Klas and Chaturvedi know that help is nearby. The three agree that the best move would be to leave on foot, head away from the hotel, and see whether anybody follows. If so, Paul and friends will shadow the shadow.
As Anabel walks out of the café and past the worrisome car, she decides to use her fancy new phone to scan the vehicle. She isn't especially good at this kind of thing, but Jili drilled her well: She intercepts a voice giving orders in Russian. It's only a snippet: "Mobile 2, get ready. Target is on the move. Rooftop, be ready to put them down if we can't intercept."
Anabel leans over to Klas as nonchalantly as she can and shares what she just heard. Klas does his best to look around like a gawking tourist rather than an alerted killer searching for trouble. It doesn't take him long to spot what looks like a sniper team on a nearby rooftop, barely visible over a parapet two dozen stories above the street. He casually leans over to Anabel, as if to chat, and warns her of the danger. She and Klas pick up the pace and hustle Chaturvedi along between them.
An instant later, honking horns and screeching tires alert Anabel, Klas, and Chaturvedi to a van cutting across the busy morning traffic and veering toward them. The three move away as quickly as possible. Klas looks around and spots a large, poured-concrete sign sitting in a plaza in front of a nearby hotel, just up a shallow flight of stairs from the street. He tells Chaturvedi and Anabel that if they can reach that, it ought to block the snipers' line of sight.
At almost the same instant, Jili, Paul, Qoqa, and Wen are just approaching the car near the café when the doors open and four large men emerge. These heavies are clearly on alert but focused on events further down the street. Paul and Wen can tell that they have concealed weapons – and Paul can make out the lines of body armor. All four Agents know trouble when they see it, and decide to take action.
Wen leads the attack, emerging from the rush-hour crowd, vaulting over the car, and landing feet-first on the heads of the two men standing on the far side of the vehicle, dropping both of them instantly. Paul follows Wen's lead, stepping out from behind a random passerby, ramming his steel coffee mug into the face of one of the thugs standing on the sidewalk, and sending his victim to the curb. Jili and Qoqa gang up on the last opponent; Jili swings and misses, but Qoqa lands a solid uppercut to the chin, taking out the group's fourth and final target. In her best Spanish, Jili manages to convince the crowd that everything that just transpired was police business, and that the occupants of the car are dangerous terrorists. This buys Paul time to kick the crap out of the fallen foes while Wen and Qoqa race down the street to help their allies.
Meanwhile, the van swerving toward Anabel, Chaturvedi, and Klas screeches to a halt and disgorges four beefy thugs in painter's coveralls. Anabel immediately puts on her best terrified face and starts shrieking in Spanish, pointing at the men and calling them terrorists. This has the desired effect on the rush-hour crowd: people milling about in shock and confusion, blocking the path of the menacing goons. The chaos buys Klas, Chaturvedi, and Anabel enough time to reach the safety of the concrete sign Klas pointed out.
By the time the heavies in coveralls clear the crowd, Klas is ready for them. He comes barreling down the stairs and bowls over two of them with a single tackle. Then he lays into the men who are still standing. Eventually, the four manage to regroup and tackle Klas, but not before they eat several vicious knee strikes that seriously wound three of them. Anabel takes advantage of this distraction to rush Chaturvedi to the relative safety of the nearby hotel lobby.
Wen arrives on the scene just in time to see Klas being pinned down by four rather bruised opponents, one of whom is pulling out a syringe. Before Klas' attacker can inject him, Wen sprints up the stairs and knocks the man out with a brutal head kick. Another of Klas' assailants turns to engage Wen, but he isn't fast enough – a snapping kick to the temple puts his lights out. By the time the remaining two attackers realize that Wen is a bigger threat than Klas, it's too late: Paul and Qoqa appear at Wen's side, Klas counter-grapples from the ground, and the fight ends in a bloody curb-stomping.
Time: Tuesday, January 21, 2014.
Place: Casablanca, Morocco.
Last Event: Keeping a low profile while wounds heal.
The evening of Tuesday, January 21, Qoqa deems everybody well enough to travel – a tribute to her exceptional medical skills and her associates' excellent health. The Agents agree that their next move is to drive to Tangier and then leave Morocco from there. To this end, Anabel and Paul set out to buy a second-hand minivan first thing Wednesday morning. They wear disguises just in case, and pay in cash for good measure, but the deal comes off without a hitch.
Anabel calls Chaturvedi as soon as she and Paul return, relying on her fancy new phone – and Chaturvedi's – for secure communications. She reports on recent events, particularly those surrounding V and her dossier on the Company's rivals, and concludes by recommending that the team hand-deliver the files to Chaturvedi. Chaturvedi agrees, commenting that such a meeting would enable him to bring the Agents a new set of falsified identity documents. Then the two discuss locations and settle on Barcelona.
With those plans made, the Agents spring into action. They carefully stash all the heavy weapons in the old hotel, and then Qoqa "cleans" the site. After that, everybody (including V) piles into the minivan, with Paul behind the wheel. The goal is to reach Tangier and catch a ferry to Tarifa, Spain before nightfall. Hopefully, the team's false identities will withstand one last border crossing!
The drive is uneventful and gets the Agents to Tangier by afternoon. There, the team splits up into ones and twos. Paul remains with the vehicle while everybody else plays at being day-trippers on foot: Anabel sticks with Klas, Jili with Wen, and Lev with Qoqa, and V opts to travel alone. A couple of hours of shopping turn up the necessary baggage, clothing, and knickknacks to pass as tourists. Then it's time to catch a ferry. For the most part, the crossing to Spain goes smoothly, though Klas and Wen attract more attention than they would like and end up getting their bags searched.
It's dusk by the time the Agents and V are in Tarifa. They're extremely careful to regroup out of sight of anybody who might take an interest. Ultimately, everyone ends up back in the minivan and on the road to Barcelona. Paul says that this means 11 or 12 hours of driving, so he'll need someone to spell him in the driver's seat. Lev and Klas volunteer. With that arranged, it's time to hit the road.
The road trip to Barcelona is long, boring, and not terribly comfortable, but there are no surprises. Paul is once again behind the wheel when the team pulls into the city, at around 07:00 on Thursday. The first order of business is to get a bite to eat. Anabel takes advantage of the break to call Chaturvedi and let him know that the group has arrived. Chaturvedi seems relieved to hear this, and informs Anabel that he will be in town in 24 hours and will call her when his plane lands.
With a day to kill, the Agents decide to make themselves comfortable and recover from a night of driving in a cramped minivan. They get rooms at an upmarket hotel, "generously" paying V's way so that she won't be forced to use risky FSB assets. The rooming arrangements partner Anabel with Klas, Jili with Paul, and Lev with Qoqa – all posing as couples – while Wen keeps an eye on V. In an effort not to draw attention, the group stays in and orders room service.
Friday morning comes without incident, and starts with Anabel being awakened by her phone. It's Chaturvedi, calling from the airport. Anabel recommends that he meet her and Klas at a nearby café she noticed earlier, just in case he's being followed. She explains that she and Klas will escort him from there to the hotel if the coast looks clear. With that settled, Anabel concludes the call and then alerts the rest of the team.
Once everybody is awake and briefed on the plan, Anabel and Klas get moving. The café – a clean, open place on a busy street dominated by upscale hotels and restaurants – is within walking distance. Anabel and Klas stroll there casually, while the rest of the team hangs back, ready to move if called for. As far as anybody can tell, there's nobody watching . . . but everyone remains on alert, just in case. Upon arriving at the meeting place, Klas and Anabel sit down, order breakfast, and wait for Chaturvedi.
Chaturvedi steps out of a taxi a few minutes after Anabel and Klas reach the café. He comes in and joins the Agents at their table. As Chaturvedi makes small talk about his trip, Klas casually hints that he sees potential trouble. Without pointing, he indicates that a car has been stopped outside for the past 10 minutes. Between the vehicle's tinted windows and the fact that the occupants are just sitting there rather than getting out and, say, buying a coffee, Klas doesn't trust the situation one bit. Anabel isn't so certain, but she calls Paul and asks him to bring in the rest of the team.
Paul asks Jili, Qoqa, and Wen to accompany him to the café, leaving Lev at the hotel to keep an eye on V. The four-person backup squad walks to within visual distance of the café, and then Paul calls Anabel back and fills her in on his position. Anabel lets Klas and Chaturvedi know that help is nearby. The three agree that the best move would be to leave on foot, head away from the hotel, and see whether anybody follows. If so, Paul and friends will shadow the shadow.
As Anabel walks out of the café and past the worrisome car, she decides to use her fancy new phone to scan the vehicle. She isn't especially good at this kind of thing, but Jili drilled her well: She intercepts a voice giving orders in Russian. It's only a snippet: "Mobile 2, get ready. Target is on the move. Rooftop, be ready to put them down if we can't intercept."
Anabel leans over to Klas as nonchalantly as she can and shares what she just heard. Klas does his best to look around like a gawking tourist rather than an alerted killer searching for trouble. It doesn't take him long to spot what looks like a sniper team on a nearby rooftop, barely visible over a parapet two dozen stories above the street. He casually leans over to Anabel, as if to chat, and warns her of the danger. She and Klas pick up the pace and hustle Chaturvedi along between them.
An instant later, honking horns and screeching tires alert Anabel, Klas, and Chaturvedi to a van cutting across the busy morning traffic and veering toward them. The three move away as quickly as possible. Klas looks around and spots a large, poured-concrete sign sitting in a plaza in front of a nearby hotel, just up a shallow flight of stairs from the street. He tells Chaturvedi and Anabel that if they can reach that, it ought to block the snipers' line of sight.
At almost the same instant, Jili, Paul, Qoqa, and Wen are just approaching the car near the café when the doors open and four large men emerge. These heavies are clearly on alert but focused on events further down the street. Paul and Wen can tell that they have concealed weapons – and Paul can make out the lines of body armor. All four Agents know trouble when they see it, and decide to take action.
Wen leads the attack, emerging from the rush-hour crowd, vaulting over the car, and landing feet-first on the heads of the two men standing on the far side of the vehicle, dropping both of them instantly. Paul follows Wen's lead, stepping out from behind a random passerby, ramming his steel coffee mug into the face of one of the thugs standing on the sidewalk, and sending his victim to the curb. Jili and Qoqa gang up on the last opponent; Jili swings and misses, but Qoqa lands a solid uppercut to the chin, taking out the group's fourth and final target. In her best Spanish, Jili manages to convince the crowd that everything that just transpired was police business, and that the occupants of the car are dangerous terrorists. This buys Paul time to kick the crap out of the fallen foes while Wen and Qoqa race down the street to help their allies.
Meanwhile, the van swerving toward Anabel, Chaturvedi, and Klas screeches to a halt and disgorges four beefy thugs in painter's coveralls. Anabel immediately puts on her best terrified face and starts shrieking in Spanish, pointing at the men and calling them terrorists. This has the desired effect on the rush-hour crowd: people milling about in shock and confusion, blocking the path of the menacing goons. The chaos buys Klas, Chaturvedi, and Anabel enough time to reach the safety of the concrete sign Klas pointed out.
By the time the heavies in coveralls clear the crowd, Klas is ready for them. He comes barreling down the stairs and bowls over two of them with a single tackle. Then he lays into the men who are still standing. Eventually, the four manage to regroup and tackle Klas, but not before they eat several vicious knee strikes that seriously wound three of them. Anabel takes advantage of this distraction to rush Chaturvedi to the relative safety of the nearby hotel lobby.
Wen arrives on the scene just in time to see Klas being pinned down by four rather bruised opponents, one of whom is pulling out a syringe. Before Klas' attacker can inject him, Wen sprints up the stairs and knocks the man out with a brutal head kick. Another of Klas' assailants turns to engage Wen, but he isn't fast enough – a snapping kick to the temple puts his lights out. By the time the remaining two attackers realize that Wen is a bigger threat than Klas, it's too late: Paul and Qoqa appear at Wen's side, Klas counter-grapples from the ground, and the fight ends in a bloody curb-stomping.