Log: Remy and Jubilee
Feb. 8th, 2009 01:49 pm![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
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xp_logsBackdated to 8th February 2008. Early afternoon
Remy sends Jubilee on a solo mission in order to evaluate her training.
"Stop complaining. You keep asking for New York style pizza, Remy going to duct-tape you mouth shut. And no more espresso." Remy said, walking down the rich streets of the Aventine Hill in Rome. Tourists were not quite as regular here, but security was everywhere. The homes here were almost palaces, some of them dating back hundreds of years, prized for their closeness to the parks and ancient churches. LeBeau had collected Jubilee at the airport, and bustled her into the transit system. They exited into the sunlight at the Circo Massimo, where she'd had all of two hours to drop off her bags and explore the nearby streets before being dragged off by Remy.
"Dis is de Aventine Hill, de ancient home for thieves, assassins, and all kinds of bastards. De guild teachers say you getting better, now it's time to prove it. You got a lot of hard learning to do before you catch up to de others for de rest of de intelligence duties. But right now, it's important for you to be ready in de field. Both de Assassins and de Thieves Guild say you 'bout at de level dat dey'd send you out on independent missions. Now I'm going to judge dat."
"How?" Jubilee asked, letting the comment about pizza pass. "I didn't exactly pack my ninja outfit, Remy."
She'd spent some time watching the people around her, and becoming familiar with the layout of the places near her hotel but she'd needed a shower badly after the long flight and hadn't had near enough time to get any reliable feel for the place. Still, the coffee was buzzing through her body, and she felt ready for almost anything.
"De point of training is to be ready at any time, in any circumstance, to do what needs to be done. You're expected to improvise, adapt, survive and succeed. Dat's de job." Remy paused at the corner, and took out the newspaper he had tucked under his arm, and handed it over. Just by gripping it, she could tell that there was a slim case hidden between the folded pages. "De third to last house we just passed is dat of Giacomo Hermessila, an art broker of moderate success. He can afford dis neighborhood because he his real expertise is in smuggling. Two days ago, Hermessila accepted a package containing a Morreno vase, valued at twenty thousand euros. Inside the vase, hidden from detection by de lead based glaze, are three vials containing DNA from a Chinese mutant weaponization program. De DNA is supposed to go to an ex-Soviet research lab in de Ukraine dat's now being funded by de mob. De package goes out tomorrow morning from his house."
Jubilee tucked the paper under her arm firmly, her expression showing nothing as they began walking again, turning left into another street. "What sort of security are we talking about here? Armed guards and dogs, or a little more sophisticated?"
"You'll find all of de material dat I was able to uncover inside, blueprints, security specs, along wit' a basic thieves kit." Remy said, turning down the street and walking towards a wide staircase down towards a cluster of restaurants. "You have until 6am tomorrow to either retrieve or destroy the materials. It's up to you to decide how you want to proceed. Hell, you can steal de damn vase as a bonus if you want. De Thieves Guild will fence it for you, get a good price."
"You'll excuse me if I let you go on alone then." Jubilee noted, not waiting for a response as she turned around and headed back toward her hotel. She was going to need time to study things, she could eat later on.
***
Jubilee casually leaned against a wall as a couple walked past, smiling politely at them as they greeted her. She'd waited till night time, even though from what Remy's security notes had said, it would mean the house and grounds would be more heavily guarded then during the day. It was a sacrifice she was willing to make to be able to move about a little less conspicuously to the outside world.
From the blueprints, she'd worked out a particular point in the grounds that seemed furthest from the house, and seemingly the least visited. It was where she'd go in, and if all worked out well, where she'd go out. Jubilee took a deep breath to steady herself and then turned, and ran toward the wall opposite her, jumping at the last moment to hook her fingers onto the top of it. Hanging for a moment to make sure her grip was sure, she began to pull herself up, using her feet to push herself over and onto the other side.
Typically, there were sensors on the walls, both motion and movement, but their placement amidst the garden foliage was not optimal, and Jubilee's training had more than covered how to exploit the weakness. The files had mentioned a decently reputable Roman security firm, so she could expect professional guards, but not overly aggressive ones. Hermessila might work for criminals, but he was not a man looking to run a private fiefdom of goons. His guards would mostly be ex-police or military, thorough, patient, but not trigger happy. Her Assassin's Guild instructor had pointed out that the more professional a force you had to avoid, the better. The security was tougher, but also more predictable, and you didn't risk blowing a mission by stumbling over a wise guy sneaking a cigarette in the corner instead of standing his post.
Jubilee waited for several minutes at the edge of the garden, watching a set of guards on their round. For this mission, it was much better to avoid then to kill.
Most of the windows in the building were too high up for her to get to without some form of scaling equipment, but if she'd read the blueprints Remy had given her correctly, there were still points a particularly agile climber could reach without too many problems. Security was another matter, and she'd poured over that section of her brief for what seemed like hours, trying to find the best way through.
She had a feeling that Remy wouldn't give her an assignment that she'd readily fail, although he and his guild friends had used previous failures of hers as much as they'd used her successes. Everything was grist for the mill in the end, and you could learn a lot from either state. She liked to think that they preferred her to succeed, and she was positive that Remy did. However, she wasn't blind to the fact that if she failed spectacularly, she wasn't likely to get a save.
She couldn't let herself think that they'd ever risk anything saving her ass, it was easier to believe she was on her own.
***
It was the work of moments for her to be across the gardens and pressed up against the rear wall of the main house. From here, she'd work her way around to the side servants entrance and go in over the roof there. There wasn't as much security in that part of the building, and it would give her access to the laundry, and hopefully the ability to pass as staff.
Breaching the wall sensors wasn't that difficult, since they were standard out of the box security measures, and her training had many ways to counter them. As her Thieves Guild teachers had said, time and time again, human security was the dangerous part. Locked doors, motion detection systems, remote cameras; all of these things were simply there to slow down an intruder long enough to make a mistake and alert the guards. Then it became their advantage.
Sadly, the service entrance seemed just as secure as the main one. Jubilee had gambled on her assumptions again, falling into Hollywood thinking that the servant would be ignored. Tucked on the ledge, she finally thought through the perspective of the site security, and the biggest threat for intrusion into the house would be from the service staff; not terribly well paid, the access point for strangers making deliveries, temporary workers. If anything, it was likely better guarded than the front, since that would only be used by the owner and his guests, with plenty of warning. Going through here was next to impossible.
Jubilee rested back against the heels of her feet, taking a moment to rethink her previous assumptions, making and rejecting several plans in quick succession. She only had till 6am, which made any kind of 'wait till an opportunity presented itself' sort of plan out immediately. Remy and his friends had already done the surveillance for her, she just had to use it now.
'What's the best way in?' she asked herself mentally.
There would be weak points, things she could exploit. She just had to be methodical and actually use her head to find them. She would need to do some recon, check out the points of the building that offered the best ways in. Maps and intelligence gave you nine tenths of any plan but the last tenth was entirely up to your own eyes and ears.
She moved back onto the balls of her feet and sprang, pulling herself up over the roof and toward the other side of the building. She'd noticed a little office situated back there, along with a set of French doors that led out into a small enclosed garden. It would be patrolled, of course, but with the security team being so professional, she should be able to slip through the breaks in their patrols if she was careful and fast.
***
Jubilee slid down the wall and into the garden, her feet moving soundlessly over the light leaf fall that appeared scattered across the paving stones of the medium sized courtyard. She could see the black portal of the large french doors across the way, and the glint of metal as the light caught and flashed on the buckle of a belt. She was at the wrong angle to be seen easily from the position of the guard but she paused even so, her breathing even and unlaboured.
The door was protected by a simple lock, but a quick glance also showed the telltales of a sensor on the door frame. Obviously there was a second level of security, with a motion sensor that needed to be circumvented before she could even think about picking the lock. It was only a moment to slip a block over the sensor lens, and to use her picks to open the simple lock. There was a moment of apprehension as the door cracked open, but no signs of an alarm being triggered were apparent.
She glanced around the small space, eyes moving from the laptop that had a screen saver slowly revolving on it's surface to the small light that cast a glow over the otherwise darkened room. Someone had been working late, possibly the guard who had left moments before. It wasn't Hermessila's office, that was further into the building, on the north side from what the blueprints had said. Security here was professional, she knew he wouldn't have left the computer unlocked but she carefully moved her fingers across the mouse pad, confirming that it was password locked before she moved toward the door.
She could crack a password encryption, Doug had trained her well enough in the past few months but after Africa she was a little less willing to try if she didn't need it. A laptop like this, especially one left unattended in an office by a trained security guard was not going to have anything of worth on it that could justify the time she'd have to spend cracking it.
Jubilee inched the door open, her eyes peeking into the hallway before, seeing nothing before she grabbed the small mirror from her pocket and held it out, getting a look at the other end of the hallway, the side she couldn't see from her vantage point.
There was a guard at the end of the hallway, but he was seated towards the window, looking out. There was still the danger of reflection, and she'd need to be absolutely silent crossing the hall to avoid him.
He was just a security guard, some guy looking to make some money at a reputable profession. That and the fact that leaving dead bodies behind would bring a lot more heat on her then just a stolen vase meant that killing him was not an option. Instead, she now had to make her way down a hallway, and hope that he didn't turn his head, or decide to go for a leak or a dozen other scenarios that she quickly went through in her head, trying to weigh up the odds of different approaches. The hallway had three exits, the room she was currently in was one of them, and then there were two more doors, each end of the hall.
She could go with the classic of making a noise down the other end of the hall and then ghosting through the door he'd just vacated his position in front of. The other two options were finding another way in, time consuming and she wasn't guaranteed to find an easier entrance anyhow, or she could quietly and slowly inch her way toward the other door and hope the bastard remained in place.
She ran the scenarios through her head again, taking her time to think them through rather then just reacting. Listening to the voices of her instructors from memory, wondering what they'd do in a similar position. She wished one of the others were with her, Remy preferably since he was somewhere in the city but any of them would do as long as she wasn't here alone.
Jubilee made a decision, and pushed the door open wider, grateful that it opened into the room rather then out of it. Setting her feet onto the carpeting in the hallway beyond, she thanked whatever Gods were watching that the owner of this house hadn't been a hard wood floors man. She was going to have to try to make it up to the other end of the hall, it was really the only viable choice.
Walking silently, holding her breath, she went up the hall. Fortunately, even the best of guards get bored during a long shift, and while he wasn't doing anything to compromise his station, it's obvious that the guard wasn't on full alert, especially this far inside the house. Instead, he stared off, half day dreaming and occasionally listening into his ear mike for updates. There was a radio playing softly behind him, which masked her further, and Jubilee was able to reach the door without being discovered.
She stopped for a moment to take a breather, closing the door softly behind her as she took in her surroundings. Remy hadn't known exactly where the vase would be kept, and so she'd spent quite a bit of time scanning the blueprints trying to think like Hermessila in order to make the best choice. She'd finally decided on a smallish room in the east wing of the building, on paper it looked like a sitting room or a library. Hermessila didn't seem the type to be having tea parties, or to be reading a great amount, so it was the perfect room to store things you weren't going to hold onto for long.
She didn't expect a lot of security other then the standard guards, and perhaps a video camera on the room itself, the man relied on secrecy more then anything, and this was his home after all. You didn't wire up a home for bear unless you were expecting bad people to come knocking in force.
Jubilee pulled her gloves further up her arms, flexing her fingers in the black silk. They were annoying, but needed if she didn't want to leave any annoying fingerprints behind.
The door to the room was a secure door, at least a half inch of steel behind the wood paneling. The small room was essentially a vault, and while the plans didn't list anything, it was a simple enough manner to place steel inserts into the walls around it, closing it off and making it secure without looking particularly different from the rest of the house. There was a thumb print scanner for the lock, and that was a bit of luck.
The problem with thumbprint scanners is most people didn't wipe the screen after using it. All it took was some graphite dust blown on to the reader, and then a piece of ordinary silly putty to lift the print. Wiping the screen, Jubilee pressed the putty against the screen with her thumb, and the reader turned blue, with the door lock clicking open.
It was dark inside as she softly padded in, allowing the door to close behind her with a soft click. It took her a few moments to search through the small bag she'd brought, but eventually she came up with a torch. Flicking it on, she moved the beam around the room, touching on the few objects that lay within.
It was a somewhat mishmash of objects, but she'd expected that, Hermessila wasn't a collector and so display and presentation of the objects he possessed wasn't going to be high on his list of things to do. The room didn't have any cameras that she could see, also not unexpected, he wouldn't want anyone identifying these things if the place was ever to be raided. It made her job a lot easier however, something for which she was grateful.
She found the vase sitting rather inconspicuously on a large wooden table, mahogany if she had to guess. She looked about for pressure censors, or any kind of infra-red but couldn't see any. It was possible that the door had been the only safe-guard, which seemed insane to her but she'd also been trained by thieves.
Jubilee took a quick breath, steadied her nerves and then picked up the vase, letting her breath out when no alarms went off. She needed to be quick now, as while no visible or audible alarms had sounded, that didn't mean there hadn't been one. Upending the vase, she felt along the bottom till she could make out the small edges of the false bottom. She closed her eyes for a second, and then slowly pushed her fingers in, twisting off the base of the vase and then looking at the inside. Four small test tubes lay in sectioned compartments, this is what she'd come for.
Having retrieved her target, she placed the false bottom in the pack she carried and settled the vase in another, larger pocket before zipping it up and throwing it over her shoulders. The trip out would be just as careful as the trip in, but at the very least she knew what to expect of it. It took her a little under half an hour to move back through the house, avoiding the security patrols and bypassing any electronic security that had been put in place.
She finally ended up outside the house, working her way across the back lawn and toward the higher vegetation that lay against the brick wall that surrounded the property. Once she got over the wall, and further way from this place, she'd destroy the genetic material and then find Remy.
She was up and over the wall, and hadn't taken more then two steps on the street before getting a surprise. "You don't stop looking as son as you out over de wall. Otherwise, dat wasn't a bad job." The Cajun fell into step behind her, emerging from the shadows like a wraith.
Jubilee had managed to not jump out of her skin, but it was a close call. She hadn't heard him, not even the scrape of a foot, or the wuff of an expended breath. At one time she might have made excuses, noted that a simple theft should require her to keep her guard up till she was home, but nothing was ever simple in her group, and she took the advice on board, determined that she'd remember it for next time. "You were following me?" she asked instead, giving him a sideways look.
"I told you dis was a test. Not much of one if I didn't watch how you performed. Dere's a lot to improve on from dat insertion, but dat's going to be de case while you build up de next decade or so of experience." Remy said, directing her down the hilly street. "You've come a long way in a short time, Jubilee. De Guild was right. You're at de point dat you'd be sent out on Guild work on you own. Just remember, petite, dat's just de start. Dere's always more to learn, and just one stupid mistake, one bad choice cause you think you got it figured out, and it's over in a heartbeat. Never be anything but wary."
Jubilee simply nodded, not offering any protests, there was a long way for her to go before she knew even half of what Remy, Betsy or Pete knew. She was okay with that, she was only twenty two, after all. She had her entire life in front of her to get good at her chosen career, as long as it didn't kill her in the meantime. "How we going to destroy these vials? I figured I could just melt them into glass, but it might have looked a little strange leaving it out like that."
"Vials full of delicate genetic material in chemical stasis." He held out his hand for them, and when she passed the small package over, he unwrapped them and smashed one end of the tiny pack against the wall they were walking beside, shattering the lids. LeBeau scooped a half finished and abandoned paper coffee cup from the top of the wall, tossed the now open and leaking vials into it, gave the cup a shake, and tossed it into the garbage. "Never take a complicated solution when an easy one works just as well."
"Dude, you really know how ta take the wind outta a girl's sails, ya know that?" Jubilee noted, but she was smiling, all the way to her eyes. "Come on, old man. I'll buy you a fruity girly drink, you can tell me all about your wacky adventures in espionage, it'll be fun times all round."
"You 'bout five seconds from getting dropped into de river." Remy said, motioning her down into the metro. Once we on de train out of de city, den you can buy me a drink. And if you're lucky and pay attention, you just might learn something at de same time."
Remy sends Jubilee on a solo mission in order to evaluate her training.
"Stop complaining. You keep asking for New York style pizza, Remy going to duct-tape you mouth shut. And no more espresso." Remy said, walking down the rich streets of the Aventine Hill in Rome. Tourists were not quite as regular here, but security was everywhere. The homes here were almost palaces, some of them dating back hundreds of years, prized for their closeness to the parks and ancient churches. LeBeau had collected Jubilee at the airport, and bustled her into the transit system. They exited into the sunlight at the Circo Massimo, where she'd had all of two hours to drop off her bags and explore the nearby streets before being dragged off by Remy.
"Dis is de Aventine Hill, de ancient home for thieves, assassins, and all kinds of bastards. De guild teachers say you getting better, now it's time to prove it. You got a lot of hard learning to do before you catch up to de others for de rest of de intelligence duties. But right now, it's important for you to be ready in de field. Both de Assassins and de Thieves Guild say you 'bout at de level dat dey'd send you out on independent missions. Now I'm going to judge dat."
"How?" Jubilee asked, letting the comment about pizza pass. "I didn't exactly pack my ninja outfit, Remy."
She'd spent some time watching the people around her, and becoming familiar with the layout of the places near her hotel but she'd needed a shower badly after the long flight and hadn't had near enough time to get any reliable feel for the place. Still, the coffee was buzzing through her body, and she felt ready for almost anything.
"De point of training is to be ready at any time, in any circumstance, to do what needs to be done. You're expected to improvise, adapt, survive and succeed. Dat's de job." Remy paused at the corner, and took out the newspaper he had tucked under his arm, and handed it over. Just by gripping it, she could tell that there was a slim case hidden between the folded pages. "De third to last house we just passed is dat of Giacomo Hermessila, an art broker of moderate success. He can afford dis neighborhood because he his real expertise is in smuggling. Two days ago, Hermessila accepted a package containing a Morreno vase, valued at twenty thousand euros. Inside the vase, hidden from detection by de lead based glaze, are three vials containing DNA from a Chinese mutant weaponization program. De DNA is supposed to go to an ex-Soviet research lab in de Ukraine dat's now being funded by de mob. De package goes out tomorrow morning from his house."
Jubilee tucked the paper under her arm firmly, her expression showing nothing as they began walking again, turning left into another street. "What sort of security are we talking about here? Armed guards and dogs, or a little more sophisticated?"
"You'll find all of de material dat I was able to uncover inside, blueprints, security specs, along wit' a basic thieves kit." Remy said, turning down the street and walking towards a wide staircase down towards a cluster of restaurants. "You have until 6am tomorrow to either retrieve or destroy the materials. It's up to you to decide how you want to proceed. Hell, you can steal de damn vase as a bonus if you want. De Thieves Guild will fence it for you, get a good price."
"You'll excuse me if I let you go on alone then." Jubilee noted, not waiting for a response as she turned around and headed back toward her hotel. She was going to need time to study things, she could eat later on.
***
Jubilee casually leaned against a wall as a couple walked past, smiling politely at them as they greeted her. She'd waited till night time, even though from what Remy's security notes had said, it would mean the house and grounds would be more heavily guarded then during the day. It was a sacrifice she was willing to make to be able to move about a little less conspicuously to the outside world.
From the blueprints, she'd worked out a particular point in the grounds that seemed furthest from the house, and seemingly the least visited. It was where she'd go in, and if all worked out well, where she'd go out. Jubilee took a deep breath to steady herself and then turned, and ran toward the wall opposite her, jumping at the last moment to hook her fingers onto the top of it. Hanging for a moment to make sure her grip was sure, she began to pull herself up, using her feet to push herself over and onto the other side.
Typically, there were sensors on the walls, both motion and movement, but their placement amidst the garden foliage was not optimal, and Jubilee's training had more than covered how to exploit the weakness. The files had mentioned a decently reputable Roman security firm, so she could expect professional guards, but not overly aggressive ones. Hermessila might work for criminals, but he was not a man looking to run a private fiefdom of goons. His guards would mostly be ex-police or military, thorough, patient, but not trigger happy. Her Assassin's Guild instructor had pointed out that the more professional a force you had to avoid, the better. The security was tougher, but also more predictable, and you didn't risk blowing a mission by stumbling over a wise guy sneaking a cigarette in the corner instead of standing his post.
Jubilee waited for several minutes at the edge of the garden, watching a set of guards on their round. For this mission, it was much better to avoid then to kill.
Most of the windows in the building were too high up for her to get to without some form of scaling equipment, but if she'd read the blueprints Remy had given her correctly, there were still points a particularly agile climber could reach without too many problems. Security was another matter, and she'd poured over that section of her brief for what seemed like hours, trying to find the best way through.
She had a feeling that Remy wouldn't give her an assignment that she'd readily fail, although he and his guild friends had used previous failures of hers as much as they'd used her successes. Everything was grist for the mill in the end, and you could learn a lot from either state. She liked to think that they preferred her to succeed, and she was positive that Remy did. However, she wasn't blind to the fact that if she failed spectacularly, she wasn't likely to get a save.
She couldn't let herself think that they'd ever risk anything saving her ass, it was easier to believe she was on her own.
***
It was the work of moments for her to be across the gardens and pressed up against the rear wall of the main house. From here, she'd work her way around to the side servants entrance and go in over the roof there. There wasn't as much security in that part of the building, and it would give her access to the laundry, and hopefully the ability to pass as staff.
Breaching the wall sensors wasn't that difficult, since they were standard out of the box security measures, and her training had many ways to counter them. As her Thieves Guild teachers had said, time and time again, human security was the dangerous part. Locked doors, motion detection systems, remote cameras; all of these things were simply there to slow down an intruder long enough to make a mistake and alert the guards. Then it became their advantage.
Sadly, the service entrance seemed just as secure as the main one. Jubilee had gambled on her assumptions again, falling into Hollywood thinking that the servant would be ignored. Tucked on the ledge, she finally thought through the perspective of the site security, and the biggest threat for intrusion into the house would be from the service staff; not terribly well paid, the access point for strangers making deliveries, temporary workers. If anything, it was likely better guarded than the front, since that would only be used by the owner and his guests, with plenty of warning. Going through here was next to impossible.
Jubilee rested back against the heels of her feet, taking a moment to rethink her previous assumptions, making and rejecting several plans in quick succession. She only had till 6am, which made any kind of 'wait till an opportunity presented itself' sort of plan out immediately. Remy and his friends had already done the surveillance for her, she just had to use it now.
'What's the best way in?' she asked herself mentally.
There would be weak points, things she could exploit. She just had to be methodical and actually use her head to find them. She would need to do some recon, check out the points of the building that offered the best ways in. Maps and intelligence gave you nine tenths of any plan but the last tenth was entirely up to your own eyes and ears.
She moved back onto the balls of her feet and sprang, pulling herself up over the roof and toward the other side of the building. She'd noticed a little office situated back there, along with a set of French doors that led out into a small enclosed garden. It would be patrolled, of course, but with the security team being so professional, she should be able to slip through the breaks in their patrols if she was careful and fast.
***
Jubilee slid down the wall and into the garden, her feet moving soundlessly over the light leaf fall that appeared scattered across the paving stones of the medium sized courtyard. She could see the black portal of the large french doors across the way, and the glint of metal as the light caught and flashed on the buckle of a belt. She was at the wrong angle to be seen easily from the position of the guard but she paused even so, her breathing even and unlaboured.
The door was protected by a simple lock, but a quick glance also showed the telltales of a sensor on the door frame. Obviously there was a second level of security, with a motion sensor that needed to be circumvented before she could even think about picking the lock. It was only a moment to slip a block over the sensor lens, and to use her picks to open the simple lock. There was a moment of apprehension as the door cracked open, but no signs of an alarm being triggered were apparent.
She glanced around the small space, eyes moving from the laptop that had a screen saver slowly revolving on it's surface to the small light that cast a glow over the otherwise darkened room. Someone had been working late, possibly the guard who had left moments before. It wasn't Hermessila's office, that was further into the building, on the north side from what the blueprints had said. Security here was professional, she knew he wouldn't have left the computer unlocked but she carefully moved her fingers across the mouse pad, confirming that it was password locked before she moved toward the door.
She could crack a password encryption, Doug had trained her well enough in the past few months but after Africa she was a little less willing to try if she didn't need it. A laptop like this, especially one left unattended in an office by a trained security guard was not going to have anything of worth on it that could justify the time she'd have to spend cracking it.
Jubilee inched the door open, her eyes peeking into the hallway before, seeing nothing before she grabbed the small mirror from her pocket and held it out, getting a look at the other end of the hallway, the side she couldn't see from her vantage point.
There was a guard at the end of the hallway, but he was seated towards the window, looking out. There was still the danger of reflection, and she'd need to be absolutely silent crossing the hall to avoid him.
He was just a security guard, some guy looking to make some money at a reputable profession. That and the fact that leaving dead bodies behind would bring a lot more heat on her then just a stolen vase meant that killing him was not an option. Instead, she now had to make her way down a hallway, and hope that he didn't turn his head, or decide to go for a leak or a dozen other scenarios that she quickly went through in her head, trying to weigh up the odds of different approaches. The hallway had three exits, the room she was currently in was one of them, and then there were two more doors, each end of the hall.
She could go with the classic of making a noise down the other end of the hall and then ghosting through the door he'd just vacated his position in front of. The other two options were finding another way in, time consuming and she wasn't guaranteed to find an easier entrance anyhow, or she could quietly and slowly inch her way toward the other door and hope the bastard remained in place.
She ran the scenarios through her head again, taking her time to think them through rather then just reacting. Listening to the voices of her instructors from memory, wondering what they'd do in a similar position. She wished one of the others were with her, Remy preferably since he was somewhere in the city but any of them would do as long as she wasn't here alone.
Jubilee made a decision, and pushed the door open wider, grateful that it opened into the room rather then out of it. Setting her feet onto the carpeting in the hallway beyond, she thanked whatever Gods were watching that the owner of this house hadn't been a hard wood floors man. She was going to have to try to make it up to the other end of the hall, it was really the only viable choice.
Walking silently, holding her breath, she went up the hall. Fortunately, even the best of guards get bored during a long shift, and while he wasn't doing anything to compromise his station, it's obvious that the guard wasn't on full alert, especially this far inside the house. Instead, he stared off, half day dreaming and occasionally listening into his ear mike for updates. There was a radio playing softly behind him, which masked her further, and Jubilee was able to reach the door without being discovered.
She stopped for a moment to take a breather, closing the door softly behind her as she took in her surroundings. Remy hadn't known exactly where the vase would be kept, and so she'd spent quite a bit of time scanning the blueprints trying to think like Hermessila in order to make the best choice. She'd finally decided on a smallish room in the east wing of the building, on paper it looked like a sitting room or a library. Hermessila didn't seem the type to be having tea parties, or to be reading a great amount, so it was the perfect room to store things you weren't going to hold onto for long.
She didn't expect a lot of security other then the standard guards, and perhaps a video camera on the room itself, the man relied on secrecy more then anything, and this was his home after all. You didn't wire up a home for bear unless you were expecting bad people to come knocking in force.
Jubilee pulled her gloves further up her arms, flexing her fingers in the black silk. They were annoying, but needed if she didn't want to leave any annoying fingerprints behind.
The door to the room was a secure door, at least a half inch of steel behind the wood paneling. The small room was essentially a vault, and while the plans didn't list anything, it was a simple enough manner to place steel inserts into the walls around it, closing it off and making it secure without looking particularly different from the rest of the house. There was a thumb print scanner for the lock, and that was a bit of luck.
The problem with thumbprint scanners is most people didn't wipe the screen after using it. All it took was some graphite dust blown on to the reader, and then a piece of ordinary silly putty to lift the print. Wiping the screen, Jubilee pressed the putty against the screen with her thumb, and the reader turned blue, with the door lock clicking open.
It was dark inside as she softly padded in, allowing the door to close behind her with a soft click. It took her a few moments to search through the small bag she'd brought, but eventually she came up with a torch. Flicking it on, she moved the beam around the room, touching on the few objects that lay within.
It was a somewhat mishmash of objects, but she'd expected that, Hermessila wasn't a collector and so display and presentation of the objects he possessed wasn't going to be high on his list of things to do. The room didn't have any cameras that she could see, also not unexpected, he wouldn't want anyone identifying these things if the place was ever to be raided. It made her job a lot easier however, something for which she was grateful.
She found the vase sitting rather inconspicuously on a large wooden table, mahogany if she had to guess. She looked about for pressure censors, or any kind of infra-red but couldn't see any. It was possible that the door had been the only safe-guard, which seemed insane to her but she'd also been trained by thieves.
Jubilee took a quick breath, steadied her nerves and then picked up the vase, letting her breath out when no alarms went off. She needed to be quick now, as while no visible or audible alarms had sounded, that didn't mean there hadn't been one. Upending the vase, she felt along the bottom till she could make out the small edges of the false bottom. She closed her eyes for a second, and then slowly pushed her fingers in, twisting off the base of the vase and then looking at the inside. Four small test tubes lay in sectioned compartments, this is what she'd come for.
Having retrieved her target, she placed the false bottom in the pack she carried and settled the vase in another, larger pocket before zipping it up and throwing it over her shoulders. The trip out would be just as careful as the trip in, but at the very least she knew what to expect of it. It took her a little under half an hour to move back through the house, avoiding the security patrols and bypassing any electronic security that had been put in place.
She finally ended up outside the house, working her way across the back lawn and toward the higher vegetation that lay against the brick wall that surrounded the property. Once she got over the wall, and further way from this place, she'd destroy the genetic material and then find Remy.
She was up and over the wall, and hadn't taken more then two steps on the street before getting a surprise. "You don't stop looking as son as you out over de wall. Otherwise, dat wasn't a bad job." The Cajun fell into step behind her, emerging from the shadows like a wraith.
Jubilee had managed to not jump out of her skin, but it was a close call. She hadn't heard him, not even the scrape of a foot, or the wuff of an expended breath. At one time she might have made excuses, noted that a simple theft should require her to keep her guard up till she was home, but nothing was ever simple in her group, and she took the advice on board, determined that she'd remember it for next time. "You were following me?" she asked instead, giving him a sideways look.
"I told you dis was a test. Not much of one if I didn't watch how you performed. Dere's a lot to improve on from dat insertion, but dat's going to be de case while you build up de next decade or so of experience." Remy said, directing her down the hilly street. "You've come a long way in a short time, Jubilee. De Guild was right. You're at de point dat you'd be sent out on Guild work on you own. Just remember, petite, dat's just de start. Dere's always more to learn, and just one stupid mistake, one bad choice cause you think you got it figured out, and it's over in a heartbeat. Never be anything but wary."
Jubilee simply nodded, not offering any protests, there was a long way for her to go before she knew even half of what Remy, Betsy or Pete knew. She was okay with that, she was only twenty two, after all. She had her entire life in front of her to get good at her chosen career, as long as it didn't kill her in the meantime. "How we going to destroy these vials? I figured I could just melt them into glass, but it might have looked a little strange leaving it out like that."
"Vials full of delicate genetic material in chemical stasis." He held out his hand for them, and when she passed the small package over, he unwrapped them and smashed one end of the tiny pack against the wall they were walking beside, shattering the lids. LeBeau scooped a half finished and abandoned paper coffee cup from the top of the wall, tossed the now open and leaking vials into it, gave the cup a shake, and tossed it into the garbage. "Never take a complicated solution when an easy one works just as well."
"Dude, you really know how ta take the wind outta a girl's sails, ya know that?" Jubilee noted, but she was smiling, all the way to her eyes. "Come on, old man. I'll buy you a fruity girly drink, you can tell me all about your wacky adventures in espionage, it'll be fun times all round."
"You 'bout five seconds from getting dropped into de river." Remy said, motioning her down into the metro. Once we on de train out of de city, den you can buy me a drink. And if you're lucky and pay attention, you just might learn something at de same time."
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