xp_logs | Congress of Behram: All In The Details

During the conference, Remy and North run across one of the assassins, and almost catch him in the act.

"Dat was a lot of stairs." Remy muttered as they stepped out of the stairwell and on to the top floor of the hotel. At one point, it had been a single luxury suite, owned and used as a residence by some German steel magnate until the turn of the century, and was now being gutted to put in more rooms and offer suites to guests. Only the service elevators were running to the last two floors, leaving North and LeBeau to trudge up the stairs virtually the entire way to avoid lift security.

They had no idea what SIROCCO's plans consisted of, but assassinations only had some many variations. You either removed your target at a distance, up close, or remotely. Remy had decided to eliminate distance first, and they had been prowling the conference centre and hotel for potential sniper positions all morning. Fortunately, it wasn't a terribly open concept hotel, and the number of potential perches which offered both a decent line of sight and some cover were comparatively few.

North nodded, leaning carefully against the wall to catch his breath. "I will make a note to exercise more. The doctors recommend more cardio at my age, anyway." He patted his chest pocket reflexively, disappointed at the missing quick-draw holster he favored. Remy had been adamant about subterfuge, and given the security in place, any situation that would involve using a gun would blow the entire operation. Reaching for a cigarette, he held it between his lips without lighting it, peering around the corner. "Looks like they're
still doing the wiring here for the new suites. Means no alarms to worry about. Good for us, but also good for a potential sniper."

Remy stuck his head into one of the rooms. Some of the windows were gone, replaced by hanging sheets of plastic, breaking up the sightlines from the ground. "A little bit of wind, and de moving plastic would cover de muzzle flash. You'd take at least ten minutes to sight this perch if you were lucky. Plenty of time to get clear."

It was looking more like a promising perch, especially since security would be minimal since there wasn't anything to steal. Remy stepped back out in the hall and stopped, putting a hand on David's shoulder and pointing to a cleaner's cart at the opposite end of the floor. "Think dat dey need a lot of towel service and toilet paper up here, homme?"

"Huh? No, they wouldn't set that up until..." North stopped and looked at the cart Remy was pointing out. Silently, both men ducked around opposite sides of the corridor, peering to try and get a glance through the hanging sheets of plastic and exposed drywall.

David squinted and eased out into the hallway, crouching low. "Not seeing anyone," he pitched his voice low to carry to Remy. "Could be someone catching a smoke up where no one's--"

At that moment, a man in a drab grey coverall and knit cap walked over to the cart, whistling slightly. He locked eyes with North, startling the German for a moment, and in the resultant rush of adrenalin --

plastic blocking view // staircase // lights flashing // alarm

-- North wasted no time, bolting towards the man like a linebacker. "Halt! Polizei!" he shouted, hoping the bluff would at least temporarily fluster the intruder.

Unfortunately, the man moved unnaturally fast, spinning the cart and tossing it with both hands down the hallway at them. Remy and North were forced to flatten against the wall as the cart tumbled past, letting them know that at the very least, their target had mutant speed and strength. The delay had given him time to crash through the stairwell door on the opposite side, and down the flights of stairs.

"More fucking stairs!" Remy muttered, smashing through the door after him, and both men were several flights behind their attacker. Remy was tempted to drop straight down, trusting in his agility and sense to allow him to check his fall, but they didn't know the full capabilities of the assassins, and leaving North behind was not a sound tactical move. They both flew down the stairs on the heels of their prey.

"Scheisse! Scheisse! Scheisse!" North swore, practically throwing himself into the walls to avoid taking a full-on tumble down the stairs. Steeling himself, he gripped the railing and flung himself out over the edge, clearing an entire flight at once and wincing at the strain to his knees before continuing after their quarry.

The pair had almost caught up to the apparent assassin at a landing when he ducked through a steel door, slamming it behind him. North threw his shoulder into it, slamming his hand down on the handle but to no avail. Glancing at the small card reader next to the door, he swore again. "He's got an access card from somewhere!" he growled, kicking at the door ineffectually.

"Merde!" Remy hissed. They had found the conference security to be too tight to arrange for access cards through their channels. How had the assassins gotten hold of them. Remy glanced around the stairs. On the other side of the landing was the door to the conference hall. LeBeau pulled out his phone and thumbed a number. He had memorized everyone's schedules, and he was hoping that in this case, they had stuck to them.

"Angelo? I need you to leave dat panel and come out to de stairwell two doors down from dat room. It's urgent." Remy switched off the phone. "Dere's more den one way quietly through a door."

He didn't have to wait long before a slight grey-skinned figure joined them in the stairwell. "What'd you need?" Angelo asked simply.

"Through dis door. It's passkey locked from dis side, but if you can hit de latch on de other side, it'll open." Remy explained. There wasn't a lot of space at the bottom of the door, but enough to make it worth a chance.

Angelo eyed the door speculatively, then stooped to examine the mechanism of the handle, then the gap at the bottom of the door, more closely. Kneeling, he looked up and nodded. "I think I could. Hang on." And his stretched fingers slipped carefully underneath, then up.

North arched an eyebrow at Angelo's display, then raised both when he heard the click from the door. "That's quite possibly one of the more disturbing powers I've ever seen," he deadpanned as he stepped out into the hall, looking left and right but seeing no sign of the "cleaner".

"Dis is a service access hallway. Leads out to de main lobby." Remy began trotting down the hall, looking at each door as he passed, incase the man had decided to try and hole up. That didn't seem to fit the profile. If their target had gone to ground somewhere, it was to prepare an ambush, not hide and wait things out. Thanks to North, it was likely he believed they were police, and that meant distance was where safety lay.

Remy opened the door to the main lobby carefully, and looked out. "Dere." He whispered to David, and on the other end of the room, they could see him talking to a security guard at a door, and showing the man his pass. The guard nodded and let him through the door, keeping his spot infront. "Damn, we need to get dat guard off de door for a second."

"Gott, this is almost embarrassing..." David grumbled as he flipped his phone open, holding it to his ear.

"Mark? David. Main lobby, east side. There is a security guard on the door. We need him to leave that door for at least fifteen seconds."

"Got it." Mark was down there in just a few seconds, ruffling his hair and clothes on the way. "Sir!" he shouted frantically at the offending security guard. "Oh thank God I found someone. There's someone . . . I was almost attacked . . . I didn't know what to do!" His breathing grew fast and more erratic, as if he were having a panic attack. "Out in the parking garage! Please." He forced back fake tears, and the guard bought it. Shaking, Mark followed him to the stairway that led down to the garage.

Remy and North dashed over to the door and slipped through it as soon as the man's back was turned. Remy almost grinned at Mark's performance. Without any warning and with only limited instructions, the young man had pulled off what they needed perfectly. The younger members of X-Force were finally starting to grow in the roles they had volunteered for, and their talents were starting to shine through as they got more comfortable with the basics.

"Looks like more service areas." Remy looked around. Laundry services, access to the kitchens, supplies; this was the guts of a major hotel, and with the right identification and an armload of towels, it was simple to become invisible here. Definitely pros. "Dat way." Remy pointed, where one of the far doors was just closing.

"Please God, no more goddamn stairs..." North grumbled as he took the lead, heading for the door --

-- alarm // panic // shots fired in the chaos --

-- he blinked away another precognitive flash, glancing quickly through the crack in the doors to see a broom propped directly under a partially-pulled fire alarm. "Canny bastard," he breathed. If he'd charged through the fire doors, the alarm would have sounded, giving the perfect opportunity for an assassin to target someone in the middle of the chaos.

Swinging the door open, Maverick's hand shot out and caught the handle of the fire alarm before it snapped closed, keeping it from activating. Down the hall, he saw the familiar grey jumpsuit moving towards an open elevator.

"Elevator! Go!" he called to Remy as he reset the fire alarm and picked up the broom. Might as well arm himself with something.

Remy raced past Maverick, moving as he turned the corner. Only his enhanced reflexes saved him from having his head taken off as a blow went over him, shattering the concrete block construction of the corner. The assassin had obviously decided to try a brief ambush, and remove an attacker before disappearing into the open elevator.

LeBeau slid awkwardly on the tiles, but threw a charged coin, which bounced off of three walls in the elevator, to impact against the tenth floor button with enough force to activate it, closing the doors behind the man and cutting off his escape.

North leaped right after Remy, swinging the wooden broom handle like a golf club, only to have it shatter to splinters upon connecting with the assassin's head. His eyes widened, the irises paling to white as rapid-fire outcomes of the next six seconds sped through his brain.

Vacant-eyed, North dodged smoothly to the side, away from a bone-shattering punch he could easily see coming. But the best his precognition could offer him was a stalemate - this guy was a far better combatant than he was.

The elevator behind him dinged, and Remy scrambled to his feet. He knew that he could take the man, not easily, but for all his strength and speed, Remy's powers more than made up the gap, and with North, there was only one conclusion two on one. Before they could move, the doors of the other elevator opened. With his back to the people emerging, the assassin tugged his collar open enough for them to see the automatic pistol inside.

He let the collar closed, hiding it from the people edging around him as he backed into the elevator. As each person went be, he pointed at them, still looking at Remy and North, a smile on his face. Three people were still in the elevator as he stepped in, continuing to point. The message was clear; make a move, and you're not my first targets.

They stood there, watching as the doors closed, and the various maids, cooks, and cleaners went about their jobs without any idea of the fight they'd missed by a razor thin margin, or the closeness of death. LeBeau shook his head disgustedly. They'd blown the chance to bring one of the assassins down.

"At least we now have a face. Wonder how many of dem using covers as service staff to move 'round." He turned to David. "Get Morgan a description, see what she can shake loose in de city. Think Remy go tell de others dis mess dat I made out of dis."

David just nodded, the sudden crashdown hitting him after the adrenalin rush. "So long as I don't have to take the stairs."

David tracks down some vital intelligence on their opposition.

In lieu of any sort of explanation, Marie-Ange greeted North with a question once he picked up his phone. "Regular contract security, they do not use high quality earpieces, yes? They would just have a walkie talkie or phone?" She was speaking quickly, the French almost too rapid-fire to follow.

She turned the corner in the hallway, and went quiet as a small group passed her. "A bodyguard? No. He was at one of the stairs, checking badges. But he had an earpiece and an antenna, and there were no guards at those stairs yesterday." She and Doug had taken a private moment on them, because Doug's problems with crowds were overtaking his patience. "Yes, I can go check."

North winced as Remy headed off in the opposite direction, slowly getting his breath back while he walked towards the main convention area. "Do that. Convention security should be in... wait, which stairs? Hold on..." He pulled a folded map out of his pocket, taking a sharp turn down an access corridor. "That leads to a number of storage rooms, access hubs, and... aha, interesting. What's he... wait, what? Say that part about his uniform again?"

Marie-Ange bounced her laptop bag back up on her shoulder, shifting it's weight as she passed in front of the doorway where the security guard was still checking badges. "I tried to get a picture but I could not without drawing attention. Three swords, on a red background. I thought it was a letter X at first. I do not think I can get a better look without him being suspicious." Not when she had walked past him twice in the last few minutes already.

"Three swords?" Suddenly a number of things clicked in North's mind as he flashed back to the tarot reading Marie-Ange and he had done the week before "The Emperor reversed! It's Bastion, not Xavier! Marie-Ange, try and delay him, I'm going to double around to that hallway... Scheisse! I'm going to need an access door opened between my location and yours. Hold fast and contact me if he leaves."

Looking over his map and cross-referencing the markers on various doors, North raised his phone to his ear again. "Jubilation, this is Maverick. Get to the south service hallway and open the floor access doors for me, marked two-A-twelve on the map. No, I don't care how, just be subtle and make it quick."

Jubilee clicked her phone closed and shoved it into her back pocket, a roll of the eyes indicating what she thought about North's admonition to be subtle. She might be one of the more gregarious of X-Force's staff, but that didn't mean she couldn't do subtle...sometimes. She'd taken a look at the map on her phone, and knew that there was a stairwell not far from where she was that would lead her up to the south service hallway.

Stubbing out the cigarette she'd been smoking, a quick break while she kept an eye on the delegates enjoying the hotel courtyard, she took off at a run. Her hands rested briefly on the walkway wall before launching herself over it's edge, gripped the edge below, and then a turn and on toward the ground below. It was a brief contact with the pavement on her shoulder as she rolled, and then she was off again toward the back entrance to the fire stairs she'd use.

David holstered his phone and walked briskly through the halls, mentally marking his location at each turn. Running would attract attention, and possibly alert their target. No, this had to be subtle, it needed.

"Achtung! Was tun Sie?"

The pointed query came as North passed an open door, and instinctively he turned to see a group of what appeared to be convention center employees gathered around a table, obviously a team of maintenance workers either coming off duty or preparing for their shift. Thinking quickly, North whipped his wallet out of his pocket, flipping open one of the panels to reveal a photo ID and an official-looking seal that he hoped no one looked too closely at.

"Bundespolizei," he announced sharply, "Internal Safety Division. How many of you know how to operate a tow truck? Quickly, quickly!"

As expected, most of them responded to the sudden appearance of assumed authority with stunned silence. A few slowly raised their hands and North snapped his fingers, pointing at them as he pocketed his wallet again. "You, you, and you. Take those three and head to your motor pool. We are moving every auto parked within seventy-five meters of the building not displaying the proper permits. Which of you is shift supervisor? You? What is your name?"

A mousy-looking man stuttered briefly before managing to squeak out "Gunther, mein Herr Inspektor, we will need paperwork..."

North rolled his eyes and pointed to the door. "MOVE! For the love of God, people, do you want us to be shown up by the Americans? Move with a purpose, now!"

In seconds, the room was emptied and the group of workers sent off on a fool's errand. Casually, North picked up a maintenance jacket and hat and changed into them, tucking his blazer into a locker. "Bavarian Fire Drill," he chuckled to himself. "Works every time."

Heading back down the hall, he looked at his watch and raised his phone to his ear once more. "Jubilation, status on the door?"

"Keep your pants on, dude. I had to go the long way, I'm just gettin' it open now." Jubilee replied, phone held to her ear by one shoulder as she maneuvered several wires, and then patched them into a modified palm device. She quickly brought up the security layout of the floor and then opened the door Maverick had asked her to. "Okay, I've rerouted the security, and they should be open now. Be quick, I'm kinda out in the open here. Maintaince decides it's time to get efficient and I'm out in the cold with no pants, yeah?"

David approached the door and pantomimed swiping an access card through the reader, pushing his way through the now-unlocked door. He keyed in another quick code on his phone and held it to his ear. "Marie-Ange? Update on Three-Swords?"

"He looks -bored-." Marie-Ange said, and then quickly corrected herself. "No, not bored. He looks like he is trying to look bored." If she hadn't been scolded for the exact same expression, she wouldn't have recognized it. She fidgeted with the hands-free device for her phone and frowned. "I do not think I can check on him again without either him noticing, or ..."

As she passed again, the guard looked up sharply, said something into his earpiece, pushed the door he was 'guarding' open with a backwards shove of his foot, turned and ran.

"Merde! He is noticing."

"He's what? Scheisse!" Maverick swore as he saw the individual in question back into the hallway. Noticing David, the guard turned and bolted down the hall, pushing double-doors open in his haste.

Without missing a beat, David ran after him, sidestepping a cleaning cart and smashing through the doors. "Jubilation!" he yelled into his phone's earpiece, "Need you in here now! Target is moving down Hallway Three - where in the hell does Hallway Three go to?"

Jubilee pulled wires out of the device she was holding in haste, plugging them back in and closing the access panel she'd been using. "Hotel rooms, but there's access from there to a set of elevators downstairs."

She had taken off at a run, pushing through doors and sidestepping a young man and his wife as she went. Doors flashed past, and she was thankful all of a sudden for the amount of practice Remy's friends had put her through over the past year. Trying to do this right after she'd come back from Madripoor and she'd have been gasping for breath within seconds.

She pushed through a last set of double doors and fell into pace with Maverick, matching his longer stride as she flipped her phone closed. Now that she was right here, she didn't need to talk to him through it. "This hotel has panic rooms, there's one not far from the elevators."

"If he gets to a panic room, then we won't find out why he's running," David said between breaths. It was a simple axiom he'd lived by in the Stasi - only the guilty run. Rounding a corner, they saw the security guard run for a bank of elevators, only to luckily (for them) find them all closed. He glanced over his shoulder, then ducked into a stairwell heading downwards.

Without having to speak a word, North lunged for the door, throwing it open as Jubilee slid through, finger cocked like a gun in case she needed to unleash a barrage of explosive fireworks into the stairwell. A split-second of silence, and David hurdled over her, hugging the wall of the stairwell as his younger teammate covered their descent.

Bursting out into the hallway, North flattened himself against a wall, Jubilee right behind him. The security guard was attempting to input a code into a keypad by a door, then turned and levelled a pistol at the two of them.

"That is close enough," he said in German, albeit in a distinctively non-German accent. "Whoever you are, you cannot stop us."

He pulled the trigger, but instead of the crack of a gunshot, all that was audible was a dull click.

A young blond woman stood outside the elevator, having arrived just in time to see the peril facing the two members of Snow Valley currently pressed up against the hallway across from where she now stood. Powered reactions tended to be instantaneous with her when she perceived a threat, and barely a moment was needed to stop the security guard's little gun from working. She recognized Jubilee from the Xavier's journal system and North from their brief meeting in her suite, and while she wasn't at all sure as to why they had a gun pointed at them, there would be no chance for explanations were they to find themselves shot and quite possibly dead. Therefore, the oxygen around the gun had been removed, rendering it naught but a useless little toy at the moment the man pulled the trigger was pulled. Moments later, the security guard was on the hotel floor, unconscious, having suddenly found himself unable to breathe properly.

"It looks as though I arrived just in time," Crystal said. She glanced quickly around the hallway, then nodded. "Good. No cameras. I would certainly have hated to have gone through the trouble of avoiding one set of cameras only to fall prey to those which do not allow the possibility of having the recorded material somehow being conveniently destroyed without ever being viewed. Now, do I need to worry about someone else coming around the corner with a gun, or perhaps some manner of explosives nearby?"

North quickly knelt by the unconscious guard, motioning for Jubilee to watch for anyone approaching. "Quite lucky for us that you chose this particular moment to avoid the paparazzi, your Highness." He picked up the pistol, checking the slide quickly. "Makarov, tsch. Reliable and easily made untraceable. Nothing any kind of legitimate security guard would be issued. And as well... here, what's this?" He patted down the guard and produced a small envelope. Opening it, he smiled. "Well now. At least thirty thousand euros, this man was paid well for his part in this. If I'm right, he's likely the inside man for our potential conspirators - I'll wager he was probably fired from this hotel in the past month or so, which would explain how the assassins got inside the building."

Shaking the envelope, four sheets of cardstock fell out, each bearing what looked like a military-standard photograph and what looked like identification numbers. "These are our men. We need to get this information out of here safely, if any of us are caught with this..."

North looked at Crystal, a plan forming. "Your Highness, this may be an imposition, but can I ask if you are carrying a diplomatic pouch?"

Crystal's eyebrows rose slightly. "Assassins?" Yes, assassins, of course. "This is certainly not a school field trip, but with the number of people from there currentIy being present in this particular location, I suppose it amounts to the same thing." She paused. "Yes, I have one. Why? Where is this information supposed to go?"

North held the envelope out towards Crystal. "As you know, documents carried in an official diplomatic pouch may neither be searched nor seized. I would be in your debt if you would convey these with you to the Attilani embassy, and from there have them couriered to the Snow Valley Research Center under official seal. These men intend to kill William Bastion and potentially ignite an inferno of conflict. We intend to stop them. Will you help us?"

"Would a personal delivery be better?" Crystal asked. "I can fly back to New York and deliver these documents to whomever might still be at your offices, if that would be preferable."

North shook his head. "Courier. You want to have those out of your possession as quickly as possible. In fact--" He stopped as he heard his phone. Quickly raising it to his ear, he looked to Jubilee and motioned towards the elevators. "Of course. Yes, we found their entryman. No, he'll be out for at least ninety minutes. Make it look... of course. Right there."

Dropping his phone into his pocket, David nodded to Crystal. "Thank you again for the timely intervention, your Highness. But right now, we're needed elsewhere."

"Thanks," Jubilee noted, following along behind North as he left. "So, do we have time to stop for lunch?"

"Nein", North responded, walking briskly down the hall and donning a pair of dark sunglasses, pausing only to retrieve his coat from the break room. "We're on the clock."