REMY'S ELEVEN: You Get Dental Wit Dat?

[x-gambit.livejournal.com]

Remy and nathan break into the designer's office to see exactly how difficult this is going to be to pull off. Clink the link for the long version. The short version: 'We're boned...'



"Your contact is an IT manager." Nathan said as they walked through
the dim office bays.

"Dey set all de electronic locks, homme. 'sides, dis one also has a
thing for on-line gambling and a total lack of luck. Keeps him
honest." Remy caught Nathan's look. "Honest to me, anyway."

"Mmm. Charming." Nathan's eyes went distant as he let his mind roam
the floor. "All quiet," he said, but kept his voice low anyway.

"Dat usually when de alarms go off." Remy said idly, checking the
notes he'd made from Edward's e-mail. They stopped at a long cabinet
of wide, flat drawers. Remy pulled a pair of lockpicks and popped the
tumblers in a minute, snapping open the drawers. "Open sez a me."

"I've been practicing picking locks telekinetically lately. I'll have
to get you to critique my technique sometime soon," Nathan said,
watching Remy open the drawers.

"If dey open, you doing it right." Remy said dryly, earning a grudging
smile from the older man as he started to pull out large sheets of
blueprints. Remy muttered to himself as he sorted through them,
finally coming to the right page. "And here's our target." He pulled
the sheet free and laid it on a light table, switching on the screen
beneath.

"Well, shit," Nathan said, leaning over to take a closer look at the
plans for the vault. "The Pack went into one of the Swiss banks once,
and I thought that was tricky..."

"De wonders of technology." Remy let out a breath. "Ring locking
portal, tungston/titanium composite, motion sensors, pressure
sensors." His fingers traced lines along the complex blueprints.

"And empty nodes. What do you want to bet dat dey we left so Arcade
could fill dem wit' his suppression and disruption systems?"

"Suppression and disruption... psi?" Nathan asked quietly.

"Likely. If de Agency has de technology, den someone like Arcade sure
does." Remy shrugged. "De casinos have dumped a lot of money into
mutant detection and suppression, in case one wit' luck manipulation
or psionics comes in and breaks de bank. Stark, Shaw, all sorts of
electronic companies have been working on it."

"Limits my usefulness, then. At least when it comes to anything
subtle." Nathan fell silent, studying the plans more closely. "So what
are you thinking?"

Remy closed his eyes for a moment, and Nathan's telepathy caught the
high-speed hum of thoughts even through LeBeau uniquely scattered
mental scape. "Dis is going to be a con job. If we going to get dose
files, Arcade needs to think dat someone else took dem, and dat anyone
involved is tied off somewhere else. He also needs to believe dat he
can't go to de government to start digging."

Remy looked up, and meant Nathan's eyes. "Which means one of de
biggest scams ever run on someone in dis country. As dangerous as a
job can get, homme."

Nathan smiled humorlessly. "Complicated plans. Delightful. My least
favorite kind." He glanced back down at the plans. "So are we making
copies of these, or do I utilize ye old telepathic memory here?"

"Telepathic memory. Besides, I've got it committed." Remy tapped his
temple. "At least conditioning is good for something. Way I see it, we
might be able to make this work using de students. Something..." Remy
flashed a grin. "Stylish."

Nathan frowned at him, but swallowed the automatic protest. Try and
think tactically, Dayspring. Not like a history teacher. Come on, you
remember how to do it... "So long as there's substance to go along
with the style," he said. "I'm assuming you've got something
developing in that very odd brain of yours."

"Slowly. De weaknesses are pretty simple. De place is a hotel, so dat
means tons of staff, lots of faces in and out at all times. No matter
how good his security is, de control over de facility is not going to
be total." Remy said absently, fingers tracing lines over the plans.
"And he's a technology freak, which means dat he's going to trust it
more den people. And he's dirty, so he expects dat in others."

"The basic intel-gathering shouldn't be too difficult, then," Nathan
said, thinking it through. "And you weren't kidding when you dropped
the word 'con', were you?" He shook his head. "Most of my undercover
stuff's been fairly straightforward."

"Dat's sort of what I'm counting on." Remy scrubbed a hand through his
hair. "Both you and Haroun look like dey either criminals or de law.
Figure dats where we get our fix. But for de con, dats going to be
about misdirection. We make Arcade look de one way, and de kids go de
other way."

"Could work," Nathan conceded after a moment. "The misdirection would
be critical, though. The kids aren't your average teenagers - " He
managed a faint smile at that. " - but they're not operatives either."
He looked back down at the plans, visualizing them carefully.

"Dat's sort of what I'm counting on. Arcade and his people know
professionals by sight. But dumb kids?" Remy grinned. "Plus, it will
leave him even more confused at the end of the day. Non, I think I
might have a plan even Charles will agree with."

"As many safeguards as possible," Nathan said almost absently.
"Remember, these are his kids. I could probably take care of some of
that - I know he's going to feel better if there's a telepath onsite,
and he and I have been working hard enough lately that I'm
considerably more of a telepath than I used to be."

"Except for the fact that the second we walk into dat casino, all de
telepathy in de world doesn't matter one bit." Remy said. "Which
hinders us a little."

"Doesn't mean I can't monitor them the rest of the time," Nathan
pointed out. "Keep an eye on their stress levels, make sure they're
handling it all okay... and I'm assuming we're going to have back-up
communications of some variety worked out by the time we're actually
walking into the casino."

"Hopefully. Have to take some time with the specs first." Remy said,
sliding the plans back into the drawer. "De only problems is this
needs multiple things going on at once, and complicated is not de best
way to do things."

"No, it's not." Nathan watched him close the drawer. "But between you,
Haroun, and I, we should be able to at least make a decent stab at
keeping things on track." He frowned. "Would feel better with one more
adult in the group, though."

"Maybe dat Wanda? A bit of chaos might be de best thing if things go
completely south." Remy said, relocking the set of drawers.

Nathan nodded, liking the idea. "She's level-headed, and pretty
experienced with her powers. Not to mention she's got a good rapport
with some of the kids."

"Actually, Remy figure we just drop her shirt and throw her at Arcade
like a greande while we all run for it."

Nathan suppressed a laugh. "Uh-huh. Why don't we keep that as a
back-up plan? And maybe not mention it to her unless it becomes
absolutely necessary?"

"It's not her back that we'd be using against Arcade, but fine." Remy
said, turning and heading for the elevator. "Off de top of my head, I
figure dat we'll need Terry, Doug, Forge, Jubilee, 'manda, and Clarice
to pull dis off, along with us, Haroun and Wanda."

"Jubilee and Amanda," Nathan said dryly as he followed Remy,
absently scanning ahead of them to make sure that no night watchmen or
anything had decided to appear. "You like to live dangerously."

"No choice. Besides, figure if dey start fighting and I have to kill
both of dem, everyone will believe dey did it to each other, and Remy
get off scott free."

"They won't fight," Nathan said a bit grimly as they stopped, waiting
for the elevator. "As for the others... Clarice might need careful
watching. Forge too, possibly, although I may have to leave that to
you or Haroun or Wanda." He smiled a bit thinly as the elevator doors
opened. "Kid's under the impression that I'm a paranoid schizophrenic
ninja."

"Really? Remy always thought you where a psychotic international
mercenary." Remy smiled, and Nathan looked momentarily embarassed.
"Potato, pah-toto, homme."

"Yeah, yeah." As they stepped into the elevator, Nathan gave the other
man a thoughtful look. "Interesting combination of powers and talents
there... I'm guessing you've got something pretty specific in mind for
each of them." That would certainly help sell it to Charles, too.

"Mostly. I'll let you know once I've run de numbers. Figure dis
morning." Remy said, as they both faced the closing doors. "So, ninja.
You get dental wit dat?"

"Shut up."