OPERATION: Hidden Dragon

[Requine]

((Hello, players!

Here's what's on the table for stuff to do

-> The Seoul Dawnbreak cell is unclaimed.

-> There is a male (from the West Virginia rescue) and a female (from London) Dawnbreak being held by Venice; they can each be interrogated.

-> Ashleigh DeFlemsey can begin to prepare to assault the NYC sell

-> Grace Mereland can contact me for assaulting the LA cell

-> After a period of time, the files from Fowler's computer in Toronto and the London cell will be unlocked and released

-> Ian Rothcraft-Glenisle can contact me about contacting Olivia Bass to try and find Ezekiel King

-> Jericho Blake has been ordered by Toolbox to acquire Xue Zhang - he can contact me to start that scene.

-> There are also various internal Toolbox politics that can be handled between players. Please, be kind and let the DM know what's going on, on that front!

Also, if you have any ideas - pitch 'em at me.

We're almost done Act 1, people. Good luck.))​

 

[Sarah Willis]

Sarah cashes in some favors to track Towser's accounts and spending through the Illuminati surveillance network, in an attempt to find him, and therefore the people he has with him. She briefly considers Seoul, but concludes that she is too young, and indeed, too pretty to die.

 

[Russell K. Kobayashi]

While Russell's main focus is the surreptitious investigation of Temple Hall, he will take an active role in the interrogations in Venice. ((Though preferably not a solo one. ))

Secure Detention Center ("The Catacombs")
The Sunken Library, Venice
17 March 2015 (0930 local time)

Aislinn Donnelly passed Russell the manila folder marked with the Interpol sigil. "Here. This is the unsuppressed file. It's not pleasant reading, I warn you." His Venetian handler gave him a searching look, her ancient eyes in eternal contrast with her mid-twenties good looks.

"Thanks," he told her softly, cracking it open. "Let's see... Bekaa Valley graduate, huh? Never a good sign..." He continued reading. As he did, his expression began shifting from serious to grim. "...I see what you mean." Abruptly, his knuckles went white, and his fingers curled hard, crumpling the dossier's edges. He looked up sharply at Aislinn, who wore a similar expression. "You knew?"

"Imagine our reaction," she replied in a tight voice. "Three times, she slipped through a net that God himself shouldn't have been able to. After the last time, we found that someone had been paid off." She didn't mention what had happened to the bribable individual. She didn't have to.

Russell nodded in understanding, and continued reading. In a slightly too controlled voice, he noted, "Quite a career for someone who's still in her twenties.'

"Indeed." Aislinn eyed him carefully. "You know that I didn't get you this file simply out of the goodness of my heart."

Russell gave her a slightly pained look. "Aislinn, I told you -- "

"No. I know you better than you think. You'll keep dodging this as long as you can." Aislinn gave him a piercing look. "You can't save them."

"I don't know what you're talking about," Russell muttered. He didn't quite meet her eyes.

"Ordinem Palatini." Aislinn said the words indulgently, the tone of a parent indulging a pampered child's fancy. "Idealists to the end. You don't know how easily your society falls into infighting. I've seen what the arguments can do. One of these days, the conflict between Progress and Tradition is going to tear the Templars apart."

"I don't know that I believe that." Russell gave her a stony look. "And that's not a subject open for debate right now."

Aislinn shrugged expressively. "I'll table that for now. But you can't escape this. We're going to have that discussion after you have this discussion."

"Fine," Russell muttered. "You win." He cleared his throat. "Anything I need to know about Miss Congeniality here? That's not in the file?"

Aislinn shook her head. "Everything I'm aware of is in the file." She rose from the small table. "You know where my office is. Come find me when you're done." She strode towards the elevators.

Russell took a deep breath, glancing towards the cell block, and started walking towards it.

 

[Collapsible Myth]

((if no one is set on taking the Seoul cell, can have Marli on course to infiltrate the cell))

 

[Requine]

((It's yours))

 

[Jericho Blake]

((This afternoon Blake will be available to help either Marli or Ashleigh in their assaults, should either of them want help. He will then start his search for the mysterious Dragon agent. ))

 

[Cleretic]

Welcome to New York. Concrete jungle where dreams are made of 'there's nothing you can't do'.

Ash hated that song, but she found it stuck in her head. It was time to fight on home turf, to secure what should be a discontinued asset. Correspondence with Russell indicated that this was probably going to be a big cell; London was around three dozen, and here in New York they were protecting a big asset.

She needed to tip the scales, get clever. Ensure victory through unconventional means... this was an Illuminati fight, after all, only fair to fight it in an Illuminati way. A straight-up firefight was a bad idea; it is their building, they've likely fortified it. Additionally, a firefight would be dangerous to the computer, which was going to be an important thing to capture, if only to learn what they're doing with it exactly.

She reviewed just the ideas that had come to mind so far, to 'unfairly influence' the fight.

• If they had a water supply, drugging it and attacking later would be a great weakening tactic.
• If they had a PA system or other means of broadcast communication, she could resort to one of her personal favorites: sonic warfare. Blasting them with sound loud enough to debilitate.
• Dawnbreak do so love their anti-bee gas, but the fact they rely on it means that they need some kind of delivery system. Hijacking it, and replacing it with something else, would serve a twofold benefit.
  
• Hacking the computer again would be another option. Steal their most crucial asset, use it against them in an effort to secure it permanently.
• Or, of course, she could just destroy the building. Burn it down, or set off an explosive. It was more important that Dawnbreak lose their central computer than the Illuminati regain control of a hopelessly obsolete relic of a long-dead project, and destroying the building would be easier than fighting in it. Additionally, it was a Cold War relic, and a very tactile one; there's every chance it could be salvaged from a strike like that.

She reviewed what they could find out about the location of the New York cell. Confirming the viability of any of these tactics, or looking for potential new weaknesses to exploit.

 

[Russell K. Kobayashi]

"Yes, it's me again," Russell tells the guard as he steps out of the elevator. He holds up a pastel-blue plastic bag that hangs lopsidedly. "I presume you need to check this?"

The guard, unimpressed by his aplomb, does take the bag. After looking into it, he shoves it back at Russell and makes a sound of irritated assent. "Same place as last time." He hesitates for a moment before adding, "Last person to visit said she was falling asleep."

"Oh. Um, thanks." Russell blinks at the unexpected volunteering of information, and nods at the guard. He raps softly at the door. Hearing no answer, he peeks in, finding Cass passed out. Smiling a little, he sets the plastic bag and its contents on the rotating table.

When she wakes, she finds a large birthday cake, with extra sprinkles, sitting next to her,

 

[Requine]

Ashleigh, you have a DM from @RequineRP.

 

[Jericho Blake]

Blake sends an email to Ashleigh. 'Meet me in the Labyrinth. We'll plan this op. --JB'

 

[Ms. Zhuge]

Armed with information, Gillian begins to go about constructing a visual representation of the connections, yarn-and-corkboard, overturning interrupting furniture and more shockingly, clearing away clutter to devote a wall of her unpleasant apartment to the internal quandary Temple Hall faces.

A text manages to find its way to Russell: 'May we meet? We have things to discuss and information to share.'

The rest of her time is spent navigating the Templar bureaucracy as best as a largely-speechless, low-ranking agent can, in a bid to pry more secrets loose from the buckled-down conspiracy.

 

[Russell K. Kobayashi]

About ten minutes later, a text replies: "Tomorrow night, 9 p.m." There is an address for a Italian restaurant in SoHo attached.

 

[Ms. Zhuge]

'Acceptable.' With that, the phone is cleared and tossed in the garbage outside of a McDonalds.

 

[Miriam Zielinski]

In her hotel room on the run, Miriam has gone into full-scale stalking mode. Detective work, it's called, and she was nothing if not a diligent and committed finger-outer of things people didn't want her to know.

There's so much one can learn from twitter, from facebook, from tumblr. All the little drips and sips and tiny nibbles of day-to-day lives, all of them mind-numbingly boring, but combining to become a beheamoth, a Transformer of data, when taken together.

One feed for photos. Another for mentions of landmarks and locations - pinned on a gps grid, of course. Another for mentions of people, another for emotions. All of it slowly coming together, just as sure as any high-octane data collection algorithm - with one essential difference. This was no computer, chugging away. Just a few simple scripts, and one girl, sitting with her knees pulled up to her chest in a cheap motel room, her face a pale moon illuminated by the white-blue glow of her laptop's screen. Just one girl, turned twitchy and electric by endless pots of coffee, searching her way out of a mess as her hunted sweetheart slept beside her.

She wanted out of this situation; she wanted movies and fun and sleepovers again. She wanted out and she'd get out - strait through the bad guys.