Date: November 11th, 2073
Location: New York, UCAS – Paris, France
Mr. Johnson: Jenny White Antoine Dupre/Mr. X/Katya Straylight
Team: Dark Tangent, Hawkeye, Hiro, Jack Gold , Ng’atuny, Sancho, Tall Boy
The call from Jenny came in with very little notice. There was a run in New York that she needed done immediately. I got in a cab to the airport and jacked in for a virtual meet. Jenny was her usual ‘charming’ self – meaning that she was quite condescending and a bit of a bitch. Apparently she’d been hiring some amateurs recently, or not paying attention to who she had on her payroll… surprising, since I know she’s been working with Cassie and Mad Dog. Maybe her clients aren’t willing to pay for quality anymore; maybe Denver hit her harder than I thought… regardless, the run seemed well planned, even though she wanted us to hit the Empire State Building.
I say ‘wanted us’ to hit for a reason. Once I hit the ground my comlink started ringing off the hook. Antoine called asking… no, pleading me to get a team to Paris. There was an incident that he needed help with. My other line rang, and it was X. The situation in Paris was dire, indeed. He needed me, Tall Boy and whomever we could gather on a plane immediately. “Terra First has a nuke in Paris and my operative on the ground just went dark”. Katya called seconds later. “I understand you’re heading into France,” she said,”You’ll need these”. She opened a file transfer and sent over to drek-hot skillsofts: Demolitions and Nuclear Physics. It seemed that we were headed there to find and defuse the bomb. Antoine had a man on the ground, a police inspector, who would act as our local fixer. Things were already well into motion, it seemed.
I hate burning a contact, but Jenny has always rubbed me the wrong way. Seconds after I hung up I had the team convinced to follow me onto private plane at another terminal. Jenny’s run was covered, I lied… it was only a half-truth, actually. Katya had assured me that she’d do her best to get a team of locals to take over the job, but it was a crap shoot, at best.
Once we got on a plane I looked at our assets. Tall Boy and Hiro were solid, I decided. I’d run with both before and trusted them as much as one runner can trust another. Dark Tangent and Hawkeye I was unsure of… very little in the government databases on them, but that’s not necessarily a bad thing. Ng’atuny and Sancho were both complete unknowns, and rabble rousers, at that. I started making calls.
I hit a few contacts in Paris and circulated a little bit of the info I had on the terrorists… I threw in dossiers on Ng’atuny and Sancho, just to be safe. If they came back clean, it would at least make me feel better. I also received intel from on the ground in Paris, a few leads to follow up on once we were on the ground. Ng’atuny apparently knew Santiago, and volunteered to call him to give our hacker a doorway into his comlink. The conversation was short, but it was enough… it irked me a bit. How did he have Santiago’s com number?
More legwork pulled up more options. Would they hit the Eiffel Tower? The agent had been killed there. Would they hit other large tourist spots… the Louvre? The Gare du Nord? Notre Dame? We narrowed our list down by cross-referencing them with monuments undergoing renovation… easily accessible, yet private places that they might be able to infiltrate with a maintenance crew.
We landed and headed to the morgue to followup on a lead – X’s dead agent on the ground. I extracted his comlink and a security key and handed them over to Dark Tangent. A bit of information there, and some research narrowed down our possible targets to one: the Arc de’ Triumph. There was a ceremony there in only a few hours marking the anniversary of the armistice signed between France and Germany in 1918, and the crowd would be huge. Not only that, but a large portion of the monument was covered by scaffolding and tarps. A quick check of Inspector Yi’s databases found that all 8 or our Terra First suspects were involved in the restoration.
Before we could investigate, Ng’atuny got a call. Terra First took his bait, and wanted to meet. I saw little benefit, since we had the Arc to investigate, but checking the lead felt right. We got to Notre Dame, where the meet was scheduled, and set up. Several of us blended into the crowd, Tall Boy took up a sniping position, and Hiro… well, he did was Hiro does. Minutes before Terra First arrived, I noticed ‘Noche Blanco’ in the crowd. I couldn’t get a fix from my position, so I moved closer. Terra First arrived while I was trying to get a line of sight on her.
My phone rang. It was Katya. “Ng’atuny’s Terra First, my intel is good”.
I passed the word along to Tall Boy and Hiro, “It’s your call, Tall Boy,” I said
He lined up his sights on Ng’atuny and fired.