Hotel Saragarhi: Best Laid Plans and Worst Case Scenarios

[x-dominion.livejournal.com]

The X-Men assemble for a briefing involving a strange and dangerous request from Bastion.



The operations room was characteristically quiet, as the small team of X-Men assembled around the 3D situation board they used for plotting missions and refining intelligence. Garrison Kane was making some notes, punching them directly into the computer, humming tunelessly to himself as he worked. It wasn't until they had arrayed themselves around the board that he finally looked up and acknowledged them.

Does the name Mankaran Singh Shahraj mean anything to any of you?" He held up his hand before anyone could answer. "Yeah, me neither. Until about an hour ago. Ms. Munroe pulled me in for a conference with herself, the Professor, Farouk and a gentleman that you should know, General William Bastion. It seems that Mr. Shahraj is a very important man in India. He's also about to be killed in the name of political expediency and Bastion is suggesting that we might want to do something about it."

"Do we know who wants him dead?" Jan asked. "I mean, whoever it is that's intending to kill him now, and why they want to do that. Or is just someone wants to kill him because of his importance, whatever that importance is?"

"Shahjah is a Sikh politician, who is the head of the largest coalition of Opposition in the Indian Parliament. Right now, he's the only real political figure that has the statue to possibly check any of Prime Minister Neramani's ambitions. We all know what he pulled in Sri Lanka, or his mutant smuggling links with Indonesia. If Shahraj should accidentally die during a hostage rescue attempt, Neramani would be free of his biggest obstacle, without any hint of guilt." Kane said, tapping the keys. "Word got to Bastion that there are orders to make sure Shahraj is an unfortunate casualty of the rescue operation."

A tall structure formed out of the silver surface of the planning table. "Normally, I'd say we fly in with the Blackbird, have Clarice teleport in, pop back out with Shahraj into the plane, drop him somewhere safe and go get some tandoori. But that's not an option here."

"Of course not," Clarice agreed wryly, was it ever that easy? Sometimes, but not often. "But...why not? I'd be nice. Lemme guess, Neramani, like every other yutz with dreams of megalomania has guards and such that we can't predict? Or is he more creative?" She was curious to find out why really, each time someone thwarted her powers she learned something new about them.

"Five bucks says it's some kind of politics thing. Man, it's always some kind of politics thing. NATO or the UN or OPEC finds out that some American mutant came in and grabbed that guy, they'll flip their shit." Kyle wasn't entirely sure which of the International Organizations India belonged to. He supposed he probably should know, but that's what people like the Professor were for. "And you know some asshole reporter always has an in on that stuff."

Tabitha studied the information in front of them. "It's always power or money," she commented absently. "If we're not going for the snatch and grab, then what?" she asked.

"Three big problems with just busting in. One, we get seen as Americans in the hotel doing the rescue, a lot of questions get asked about why we're in the country in the first place. Shahraj getting pulled out by us publicly before the official assault undermines him just as effectively. According to General Bastion, Neramani's already making issues with the UN peacekeeping mission in Pakistan."

Kane tapped the display. "Second, the area is mountainous and near enough to the border that it is covered by the Indians extensive anti-aircraft systems. For us just to buzz it with the Blackbird, we'd need absolute treetop flying, which means all of our stealth systems now break down against eyes and ears. There's a good chance we'd be spotted and take fire. Finally, and this is the most important thing, there are close to three hundred hostages other than Shahraj. We take him out alone in a flash of light, and the possibility exists that they start shooting innocent people before the Indians can come in. Shahraj is important, but not at the risk of dozens or even hundreds of people."

Moving in closer to see, Lex looked across at Kane. He could think of a half dozen ways to pull off a stunt like the one Kane proposed, but with the stipulation of 'not at the risk of dozens or even hundreds of people' he wanted to see what the man had come up with. "What's the plan then?"

"Shock and awe." Kane said simply. "One team goes for Shahraj. We think we've got him roughly pinpointed in his suite. There's some tactical data that we'll be getting Pakistan to help narrow it down. Another team kills the power, and gets out through the rear, disabling anyone on the way. When the power goes, it looks like the main group of hostages are in the ballroom. Possibly wired next to a bomb of some type. Last group hits them, clears a way for them to flee. Chances are the Indian forces will move as soon as the power blows, so from that point, are window to be out of there is under three minutes."

"Huh," Lex sighed, "Well, it could be worse, I guess. I assume you want me to kill the power?" Lex had grown much more confident with his powers, and he figured he could manage something as simple as cutting the power to a building, if there were no surprises.

"Yeah, I think so. For all we know, they could be wired into the grid a dozen ways, and we can't afford to kill just part of the building's power. We need it all to go down at once. Also means we need to blow their backup generators here, in the basement." Kane pointed to the part on the map, rotating the display to show it clearer.

"I can manage that, do you want it diverted or overloaded? The former is less destructive but much more difficult to pull off." Lex pointed to what he thought was the main incoming feed. It wasn't too far from the back up generators and he thought he could make it there if he drew himself a small map.

"We want blind, not broke. Five minutes should give us all the time we need."

Jan looked over the display, imagining how the various areas would look from her unique perspective. "Where should I go? I can help with making the power go boom, but it sounds like maybe, um, Hamster, has it covered." She'd voted for the name, but that didn't make it any less of a silly sounding and nonsensical codename. "Where do we need the tiny flying girl to be sneaky and unnoticed?"

"We need to know exactly where Shahraj is and when he doesn't have a gun trained on his head to let Clarice get him out of his room. Looks like you get to be our eyes in there." Kane said. "Clarice, you think you can get him out of there before they get a chance to react?"

"I think so," she replied, that could require as much as three different open teleportation disks at the same time, her limit. Hopefully it would be less, "I can definitely get him out before they react. I can't promise myself or anyone else...and we need to decide on a safe place to store our prize once I get him," she added. It was never good to teleport someone somewhere and then let them wander around and get into more trouble.

"We're going to be going across the border in an Indian helicopter, disguised as one of theirs. Send him back there, and we'll warn the pilot to hold on to him until we can get away."

Kyle raised one hand. "Lemee guess. I get to hit people." Not that he had any real problem with that, and it wasn't like there was anything to try to track or climb. "What are we looking at in terms of, like, the Indian forces or whoever's gonna be there to stop us?"

"Actually, Kyle, you get to nose out where they're keeping the other hostages, and whether or not we're going to be dealing with some big, nasty explosive pile in the middle of them while taking out the terrorists around them. See, it's all about variety."

"So I get to sniff out bombs and hostages and hit people?" This mission was looking more and more interesting by the minute. "So, uh, what are we gonna do if there are bombs? Because hey, I can't grow back parts if I'm blow into lots of little ones." Kyle asked.

"We'll have access to EOD specialists over the comm if we need them. Plus, I'm going to take along one of those big ziplock bags for any little bits of yours I run across." Kane said, as the display melted away back into the table. "Any other questions? No? If so, we leave in thirty minutes. Be at the hanger in leathers by then."