xp_logs | The Problemtique: Strategy

The team plans their rescue strategy

Most of New York had still been asleep when they had all left to make their respective ways to the airport where Emma's private jet sat waiting for them. Unsurprisingly, Bishop's assorted team wasn't yawning and trying to find comfortable spots to curl up in for the most part. They all hung on a tentative calm before the storm, unsure whether the storm would hit or pass them by. It was no small secret they were hoping for the storm, and hoping to bring Vanessa out of it alive. They tried to let it remain unsaid but the awareness was there for each of them, the worst case scenario. They might find her and only bring her back to be buried. Finding nothing at all was preferable to that, at least.

Wanda gently blew on the steaming cup of tea in her hands as she shifted in her seat and let herself enjoy the feeling of heat radiating from the cup into her hands. She had no intention of being the one to break the silence, content to let someone else do it. When someone had something to say, she'd come out of her own thoughts.

Bishop stepped back into the cabin from the cockpit. He had a timeline of their arrival with confirmations now, allowing for a much more specific plan to be set in place. He folded a file open to show the map pinned to the inside cover, holding it up for the group and tapping a red pen against it. "It's time to pin down where we're going so I can book some rooms. Starting with possible facility locations, then contacts, so we can intersect some hotels. I want to spread us out so if someone ends up on the run we have multiple locations, potentially with people already on stand by in them, to retreat to. Ideas?"

Doug leaned forward, stabbing a finger at a winding side street on the map. "We have a safe house here, which will give us a leg up on having somewhere to park people. I've got some raw data on the facility, but unfortunately that doesn't include a handy 'you are here' note, so we're definitely going to need to do some legwork." He wished he had more than some vague tidbits, but unfortunately that was the way things tended to go.

Warren always found airplanes strange. There was something odd about sitting in a metal shell when he was used to soaring the winds of his own accord. And he couldn't employ his usual strategy of winding down with a scotch or two and mindlessly watching in-flight entertainment, so he'd instead spent the time reading.

He looked over at the map, taking note of the little information that was available. "Monet and I can scout from the air, get a better idea of the area before people start moving in."

Monet nodded. "We can. Warren's got better distance vision than I do so he can stay higher but, people don't look up. Especially at night."

"If they aren't using any sort of psi-nullifers I can try to get a lock on something once we get there but if there are there will need to be a plan B," Jean said. And all of the fashionable villains as of later seemed to have them.

"I've also brought as much medical supplies as I could get on the jet just in case."

Their strategies seemed to lack focus, but Lex knew that to be a good thing - for the moment. They needed to cast a wide net, and he would not be too much help doing that. Of course, he could pinpoint large electrical systems if they got him close enough but there was too much inconsistency with relying on that. Instead, he'd let them do most of the searching and he'd prepare for the breach. He was fairly certain he had the most experience cracking bunkers, but he was damn glad to have the rest of the team along. He only hoped they would find Vanessa alive.

She felt some sense of closure of them being this far and this close, but the idea of what they might find disquieted her. She hoped for the best, but knew to prepare for the worst.

"Well, I can always try to get a trace of her scent, too." Laura was leaning from some distance, her eyes more than capable of seeing the map in detail from there. "We can't go snooping around carelessly anyway. We find her, kick everyone's asses between us and her, and bring her back, I guess." Not that she was against the idea or something.

Bishop marked on the map in red the safe house and places that would lend themselves to over watch by Warren and Monet. "I'll see what other places in the area I can get for us to base out of." He made his way up toward the front of the plane, posting the map on a makeshift cork board before reaching for an on board phone to check vacancies at on site hotels

As Bishop headed up front, Wanda leaned over the map and studied it intently now that everyone had had a say. "We've a contact near that area," she said. She reached out and tapped the map thoughtfully. "Not far from the safe house, actually. He's a bit of a seedy fellow but if you get past that he might be a wealth of information. He tends to lurk in enough dark alleys that he might either have heard or seen something or, perhaps, knows someone who does. Once we have landed, I will see about having a little chat with him."

"I'll go with you," Doug said to Wanda. Not that Wanda generally needed any assistance in being intimidating to contacts of that type, but Doug's ability to read body language would come in handy if the weasel tried to lie to them, which he had a tendency to do.

"That will put Jean and Laura at the safe house when we hit the ground. I want Lex with me on the streets." Some 'third world' places didn't take women seriously and Bishop wanted to avoid as much friction as possible, at least initially. Lex was also a well trained soldier, he would have had extensive training on how to work in a country like this. "Try to relax until we land. There won't be another opportunity for a while."