xp_logs | Sanguinicity

Emma's group begins their work in the financial markets, targeting the Schmidt Bank.

With the full spectrum of the Countessa’s financial information on Strucker, along with Emma’s carefully constructed group of shell companies, it was almost a hostile takeover atmosphere in Frost’s banker’s booth at the SIX Swiss Exchange. Normally managed by brokers and automated systems, they had rerouted everything over into the computers in front of Doug, which piped to monitors for Marie-Ange and Emma. The Countessa had demanded to be a part of the action – her price for the information – although she seemed to believe the attack was some kind of Hellfire Club action between the courts, which they made no effort to debase her of. Emma’s shell corporations would funnel money back and forth, into and out of investments, using all manner of cut-outs between brokers and investment companies to hide their legal trails. By the time the dataphage hit, Schmidt would be heavily overextended and relying on their secret accounts to maintain liquidity. Once they compromised those, the axe would fall.

"Well, this should be easier since I persuaded darling Jose to call in the bail out on Portugal," murmured Emma. "The paranoia about the Euro zone is really quite entertaining and should feed in nicely to this process."

With the Contessa there, Marie-Ange could not exactly just dose herself - again- with recreational chemicals and hope the precognition just took over, and she certainly could not start dealing out tarot cards. Some of the trades she was marking for Emma to approve would not have the intended effect. But most would - Marie-Ange had a very good memory, and her list of potentially useful investments from the planning process still overlapped the hints she was getting from the precognition now.

Doug was managing a data feed that normally required a small army of brokers utilizing heavily automated systems all by himself, but rather than feeling overwhelmed, he felt completely in his element. As long as he didn't think about what had happened to him the last time he'd been in a stock exchange, that is. His job was to watch the results of trading and provide real-time feedback on the results of Marie-Ange's precognitive work and Emma's business acumen, in order to maximize the impact of the moves they made. "So far, so good," he said to Emma.

Valentina waited patiently as the worker bees did what they needed to do. Frost, the White Queen, appeared as if she might have been the ringleader behind their bold venture. She had the drive and the resources to do so. Still, Valentina remained impassive about the matter.

"When it has fallen, then it is good," she said. She had her previsions set in place in case it blew up in their faces, but she had hope, held together by the satisfaction she would get from the end result. Revenge was....a delicacy far more succulent than caviar or champagne.

Marie-Ange was fairly absorbed in the scrolling numbers, only glancing over when Emma was particularly firm about a trade - either to go ahead, or to stop because the financial numbers no longer looked solid. "It is falling, rather quickly." She said, absently. "Jacob is leaving Egypt, he has caused the last drought and the Canaanites are withering."

"One has to pity the Canaanites," replied Emma. "They always seem to have God directing his wrath at them. Though I doubt God's ever worn Armani suits before." She touched the screen in front of Marie-Ange's, a quick and silent instruction to make one of the pre-arranged trades.

A small alert window popped up on the screen of the laptop Doug had brought in himself to keep an eye on information. "Ah," he said with a nod of concentration. "The news stories are starting to hit the wire." He inclined his head toward Marie-Ange, indicating that her rather oblique Biblical pronouncements were right on the mark. He chuckled. "Jake did a good job. Those are some...lurid headlines, for financial reporters."

The Contessa briefly glanced over to the red-haired woman after the announcements were made with a note of interest before looking back to Douglas.

"And?" she said. They did not all have the luxury of a computer monitor to stare at.

"What is the bank doing in retaliation?"

If you were being stabbed in the heart you would not just sit there and take it. She wanted details.

"They can't retaliate," Doug said bluntly. "They're overextending. Look," he instructed, putting part of the feed up on a larger monitor and freezing it. "Here, and here. Their liabilities are starting to outstrip their liquid assets." He replaced the feed with another screenshot, of a list of assets that, at least on paper, had no relationship to Schmidt Bank. "They're starting to draw on the off-the-books stuff."

Marie-Ange did not stop with the trading, despite Doug's announcement, although she slowed slightly because despite the attempts to pre-medicate, the precognition was starting to take a toll. "As long as we do not overdraw our accounts." Which was unlikely. The tidy little profit that was coming out of this was... entertaining, although small.

"That's not going to happen," said Emma, watching another screen and nodding at the sudden dip it illustrated. "It's not just us now. Panic is spreading."

The team goes into the bank, ready to plant the next part of their plan.

The big windows on the top floor were alarmed, with careful alert systems to measure movement, laser emitters to check the integrity of the glass, and more simple sensors to maintain they remained shut. However, all of these things were fungible, and it was the small black box that Jake had been provided with, once planted, that would negate the sensors and allow the team to enter. It was the almost comical Hollywood part of the plan, firing a rappel line from the opposite building through the glass and zip-lining over. Fortunately, a broken pipe up the street – broken by X-Force – diverted most of the traffic, and the tight confines of the still medieval planned city gave them time to make the seconds transfer in relative safety.

It had been a while since Jake had worn a woman's guise for this long. Thankfully, this was one of the more progressive banks that didn't have any qualms about female security. One less detail to worry about, and it had been an easy matter to slip into the bathroom once his role as Sarah was complete. A quick shift of the face and change of clothes, and he was ready. He dumped the assistant's outfit, especially the godawful high heels, into the trash bin, shoving them far down into the bin and throwing paper towels on top.

He left the restroom, making his way toward his destination. A few smiles at the right people, and no one even remembered that 'Greta' wasn't scheduled to work today, or that she didn't usually go to the upstairs offices. Truth be told, getting to the large glass window presented little challenge. Jake glanced around before, putting the little black box in place and hitting the button to disrupt the alarm signal. He pulled the flashlight that was a convenient part of the guard's uniform, flashed the quick signal to the others across the street, then stepped back and waited for the show to begin.

Remy signaled back and shot a quick glance to either side of the street. Their position had been chosen because it was outside of the arc of any camera, but there was still the chance that someone would notice. With it clear, he sighted the grapnel gun at the roof and fired, driving the pylon into the copper flashing over the window. The line drew taut, and he secured it quickly. After another quick glance at the street, he used the zip line to cross, taking only a few seconds to traverse the distance. The second his feet hit the window ledge, he leaned forward, and drew a wide glowing circle on the glass. The charge from his powers caused the glass to particalize where he'd touched it, and Remy tapped the glass inward, with Jake catching the cutout before it could fall and shatter. With a motion for the others to follow, he stepped through and into the bank hallway.

"Nobody told me we'd be hurtling through the fucking air on a zip cord." Sarah glanced back at Jubilee with a decidedly unhappy look, clipped herself onto the line, and pushed off, forcing her eyes to stay open in case something should go wrong. Safely across, Sarah made her way into the bank, preferring to keep as much distance between herself and the broken bank window as possible.

Jubilee grinned as she watched Sarah enter the bank, securing herself on the zip line and pushing off in one graceful movement. These sort of stunts had always been her favorite parts of the work they did. She unhooked herself at the other end and threw herself through the hole in the window to land with a quick tumble beyond.

"Whee!" Cammie had decided to, if nothing else, have fun with this. Her career as a petty thief before coming to the mansion had never included stuff like this. Breaking and entering, that she was good with. The ninja shit? She was going to have fun with that. As long as she could have fun and do her job, things were okay. Mostly. At least, once on her feet, she could move along quietly. Keeping her mouth shut actually took a bit of work.

Remy reached up through the window and pulled the hook from the flashing, and severed the line. There was a slight buzz as the wire was reeled bck automatically from the other rooftop. In less than twenty seconds, there was no obvious evidence of their entrance beyond the window, which Remy pulled down the blind on.

"Courier, Marrow, and... you," Remy said, realizing that they hadn't developed an operational name for Cammie yet. When they got back, he reminded himself. "De dataphage will automatically start once you plug in de USB stick. Cypher says dat de main datastores should be on de ground floor. Jubilee and I will installed de datatap at de mainframe, and leave through de roof. Courier, I hope dat you've identified a safe way to de vehicle bay."

"Well then, might as well get this started." Sarah glanced around at the rag-tag group, then back at Jake. "Since you've been here a while, I assume you know where the guards are. Lead the way."

"Yeah, let's get this fucking show on the road," Cammie said, cracking her knuckles. She was keeping an eye out, and despite her how she was carrying herself wasn't really jonesing for a fight the way it might have looked like. Work first, and then she could go beat up a pillow or something. As long as it could be disposed of, anyway. "Come on ballless, lead the blind like the blind you are."

Meanless, Remy led Jubilee quickly down the hallways. The alarms were drawing people to other sections, and once Remy planted the tap, Doug would have direct access to the computer systems. That was a key part of their escape, to shutdown systems and to lock access points so both teams could escape without leaving any evidence of their passing.

Jubilee moved quietly behind Remy, ears and eyes alert for any movement around them, although she knew quite well that Remy would know before she did if anyone was close. Just because your companion had a mutant ability didn't mean you dropped your own guard.

Remy eased the door closed behind them and pointed to the banks of computers. "Plant de datatap dere. Den we can get de hell out of here."

"If I do a good job, do I get ice cream?" Jubilee cracked, moving toward the bank of computers and pulling out racks one by one till she found what she was looking for. "Come to Momma, gorgeous."

She waved her fingers at Remy in a 'gimmie' gesture and caught the CD he threw, pushing it into the side slot and tapping a few keys. She bit at the underside of her lower lip as she waited for the software to load, tapping a few more keys in order to hide the Trojan that would allow Doug full access once he activated it.