"We don't have too much time for this job either. It's the twenty ninth of March today, so we have to be ready to leave here in four days if we're going to be in place in time. I want to have at least five days to scope that place out before hand."
We started going over equipment lists then, I wasn't happy with the amount of stuff it looked like we might need. This whole affair was going to be tight.
The next few days were very busy ones and I found myself getting more and more frustrated as much of the equipment I would like to have had was unavailable by our leave date. My temper was getting shorter and shorter, and even my team was beginning to get upset. I finally took matters into my own hands and went to see Siedman.
"Mr. Siedman, I have a problem," I began bypassing his Secretary and walking right into his office.
He was in there with several people, none of which I recognized. Jaime burst into the office right behind me, I hadn't seen or smelt her in the office, but she had obviously been nearby. I tripped her, and let her momentum carry her into the edge of the table.
"Opps, sorry." I said, making it obvious I sure as hell wasn't. Everybody looked quite shocked as her head made a very loud 'thunk' on the table.
"What is the meaning of this Jotun?" Asked Mr. Siedman, obviously unhappy about my interruption.
"Sir, I need to clarify a few things with you. It would seem that there is a problem with the current task."
"Wait here gentlemen," He said and got up. He walked around the table and led me out of the room, motioning for Jaime to follow as she picked herself up off the floor.
"Now just what the Hell do you think you are doing?" He glared at me.
"Sir, I am not being given any of the equipment I need to complete this mission. Somebody is delaying all of my requests," I looked pointedly at Jaime. I wasn't sure if she was behind it, but she was handy, so I pegged her anyway. "I cannot guarantee that I will be able to do the job, on time, at the specified place, if this problem isn't cleared up now!"
"What's a matter? Can't handle the hard ones?" Sneered Jaime.
I spun and punched her in the face, hard! She went down and didn't get back up.
"And
that
one is off of my team. I see her again, I hurt her, Bad!"
Siedman had looked like he was going to explode, but when I hit Jaime and knocked her out cold, he blanched a little. I was shocked by that, he acted like he had never seen violence!
"I'll see what I can do Jotun," he started off a little shakily, but quickly gained control and carried on. "But this job is of the highest priority. You must hit this target, period. That is imperative! As for the date and place, those are both highly important too."
Jaime groaned suddenly and he looked over at her again. I could see he was worried, and maybe even a little afraid.
"This behavior is unacceptable, but I can't afford to punish you at this time. There is too much at stake!" He looked back at me, "That goes for you too Jotun! Now go!"
I left, heading down the hall away from where Jaime lay.
"I'm gonna make a rug outta' that damn cat!" I heard her swear quietly.
I couldn't hear Siedman's reply as he bent over and helped her up, but I really didn't care. I still had a job to do, and a lot of equipment still had to be gotten.
"Well, we got most of it," sighed Shotoon as we got ready to leave the next morning. "But nowhere near as much as we could have used."
"Ah that's always the problem with these rush jobs," I griped. "Never enough of what you need. We'll just have to play it by ear for the most part, and hope it all goes according to plan."
"What plan?" He retorted. "This thing is so full of holes I'm not sure we can pull it off Jotun! This is Earth we're talking about, not some backwater planet with lousy security!"
"So?" I asked looking at him cockeyed, "What does that have to do with it? We do as we're told, so this time it's local, who cares?"
He shook his head, "I don't know, this whole thing seems unreal somehow!"
I laughed, "This 'whole thing'! My whole life is unreal!"
We finished with our packing, got everybody together one last time, then headed out. We went down to Earth on three separate company shuttles. Not too difficult when you considered the amount of materials that get shipped back and forth. But it was still six hours until we were able to rendezvous and continue our mission.
The next step was actually fairly simple, we simply got in an automated truck, and when it passed by our destination, we jumped out the back. We had rigged the truck not to know we were in the back, and to slow down for an imaginary deer that was standing in the road. So traffic control never even noticed a problem.
It was well after
midnight
by the time we jumped, and there was no traffic on the road to speak of.
"Well, that went off with out a hitch at least!" Shotoon said with a sigh. "Now it's just a matter of walking in. I hope this forest isn't wired!"
"Oh, quite worrying so much!" I groaned. "We both know that the environmentalist lobby would never let them wire a National Park! Even if the government could justify the funds it would cost, they'd spend it on votes, not wiring a forest for sound." And I headed off into the woods after examining the small Nav unit strapped to my wrist.
"Yeah, really, put a damper on it!" Rieselle grumped and followed me as well. He brought up the rear.
We hiked the remainder of the night, and a good part of the morning as well. Then found a secluded spot to sleep until the evening. We were pretty far from any of the busier parts of the Park, so were undisturbed. When dusk did start to fall, we were on our way again, and had reached our destination by dawn.
We set up our equipment then, and started to watch what went on in the house.
"Not much in the way of activity," mumbled Rieselle looking through the thermal scope. "You sure we got the right place?"
"What do you mean?" I asked looking over. I had been busy rigging up the listening gear.
"I only see a low level of heat throughout the place, I know it's early and all that, but it's only about fifty degrees in there."
"Maybe they're still in bed. How many of the bedrooms can you see?"
"Well, according to the layout we have, four of them should be visible from this side. The Servants' quarters and the other guest bedroom aren't visible from this angle."
"I'll go check," Shotoon volunteered grabbing the other thermal scope. "If there's something wrong, the sooner we know the better."
I turned to Rieselle as he snuck off through the underbrush and trees. "What is it with him anyway?"
"I'm not sure Jo, he's been worried about this mission."
"It's not like him though."
"I know, and it's beginning to worry me too, but things have been a little strange lately. Even you have admitted that!"
"Well, yeah, that’s true. But I've seen even stranger stuff during the Leverage conflict. So I'm really not that worried yet."
"Well I think it might be safe to humor him a little bit, and be just a little more careful this time," She grinned over at me as I finished my work.
"I'll try," I grinned back.
"It's cold over there too!" Said Shotoon a few minutes later as he came back through the brush. "I don't like this!"
I thought about it a few minutes while he and Rieselle both looked at me. "This could be a bonus you know," I started and they both looked quizzically at me.
"How so?"
"Easy, tonight I can go in and look the place over good. See what kind of alarm systems and such they have. Then when they show up for whatever it is they're gonna be coming here for, we'll have a better advantage."
"What if they don't show?" Asked Rieselle.
"Then we get to go home after a few days of rest and relaxation," I laughed.
"What if it's a trap?" Said Shotoon.
"Relax, ok?" I sighed, "You know I'm careful. And stop worrying about traps. Nobody knows we're here."
"We hope." He muttered.
I just sighed and went back to work.
It took us all day to get things set up like I wanted. It's not that there was very much, it's just that we had to be very careful, the house was only a half mile away from where we were staked out. As dusk started to approach, I started to get ready for my little reconnaissance mission.
"You got all your gear?" Shotoon asked.
"Pretty much, do you think I should take anything else?" All I had was a pair of non-metallic binoculars, a non-metallic lock-pick kit and an accompanying kit of small security tools that should get me by any alarm systems I'd likely run into.
"Got your knife?"
"Of course!"
"How about a radio link? Think it's safe enough?"
"I don't know on that one," I admitted. I wasn't as worried as Shotoon was, but I still liked to play it cautious myself. "What do you think Rieselle, would a radio link be too much of a chance?" She was the one monitoring the local channels, so she would probably have the best idea.
"I don't think it's a good idea," she frowned, "there isn't that much local radio traffic up here, anything that takes place is sure gonna stand out if somebody happens to be listening. If it's a trap," and she looked pointedly at Shotoon, "then somebody is sure as hell gonna be listening too!"
We looked at each other, Shotoon and I.
"Good point," he said quietly. "Look you two, I'm sorry if I'm being overly paranoid. I know that's usually Jotun's job," he gave a wry grin when he said that, "but I just can't shake it."
"That's okay," I replied. "Well, I'm off. Hold down the fort you two." I smiled and slipped away into the bushes.
I took my time as worked my way down the mountain side. It wasn't much of a mountain really, and we weren't up all that high, but why take chances? The forest was a nice old one, with little undergrowth for the most part. It had a nice rich smell, and I could pick up the scents of the local wild life fairly easy. It was perfect, just the kind of place I could really enjoy. I hadn't been in an Earth forest in over ten years, since I had been through my original training. Too bad I couldn't stay.
It was full dark by the time I got down to the grounds surrounding the house. I hadn't seen any security up till now, so I took my time searching the perimeter. I did turn up a security fence, of a fairly good design, and in good repair. Nothing I couldn't easily deal with though, so I quickly bypassed it and went on to the house.
The house itself had a much more sophisticated system then the grounds, but it was obviously more for burglary protection then for anything I would have to worry about. It still would make it a little more difficult getting inside though. I took my time and examined all the entrances. I then climbed up on the roof and carefully checked the second story as well. I was getting ready to go inside when I heard the sounds of a car approaching.
I jumped off the roof and hit the ground rolling to my feet, I ran to the perimeter fence and cleared that in a dive. Turning around I removed the jumpers I had set on the fence to cover my passing, and then found myself a good vantage point to see what was going on.
I listened as the car came down the driveway and pulled up in front of the house. I waited for the driver to shut the headlights off before I risked a peek. I could see two people getting out of the car, neither of them were my target however, that was fairly obvious. I watched as they went up and opened the house up, then they started carrying in all sorts of things, mostly paper sacks. It took me quite a while to figure out what they were doing until a stray breeze blew the answer my way. Food, they were bringing in groceries. Quite a bit too, apparently more people were coming from the amount they were bringing in.
They didn't talk too much however, just the usual mumblings of overworked servants everywhere. That they were Human made it much more likely that this was the place my target was coming to. He was a fairly powerful person, and on Earth that usually meant Human servants. Animen servants weren't too common, we weren't very well liked by the upper social classes on Earth. Actually I don't think the other classes cared much for us either.