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Recapturing a Fugitive
Topic Started: Feb 23 2014, 08:42 PM (1,031 Views)
Demoness
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In an unspecified Third World Country...

Crafty Roukai was mostly satisfied with the way her life had gone so far. She was in her late twenties, naturally pretty, and athletic, but best of all, she worked with a mercenary group called the Hessi. She would have preferred a private military company, as they provided better pay and benefits, but her current situation and contacts only provided her with so many resources. She was still wanted by Demonessian authorities for her role in the 2011 ITC Patin attack, among other reasons, and so she could only be involved in low visibility operations.

Even if she was living in what some would consider terrible conditions, it wasn't too bad. During her time with the Apostates, she had discovered she had a talent for destruction and her current line of work allowed her to explore it. The Hessi were enforcers for a local warlord and though she lived in a misogynistic environment, she had earned fear by reputation: she didn't shy away from brutal techniques to quell the local population and she had disemboweled the first man who had tried to take her by force. While she was not in a position of power, she was respected.

That wasn't to say she hadn't suffered. Her athletic build had become slimmer since food in the Watari region was scarce, even for the Hessi. News traveled slowly, so she couldn't stay informed on her wanted status, and the equipment she used was nowhere near the standards she had used as Special Tactics. She had acquired a few scars along the way and malaria had nearly killed her the first month in Watari.

She now lived in the Hessi compound, which was a collection of six buildings - more accurately a collection of sheds - and smaller huts that also housed Hessi families. The compound was walled with tin and barbed wire and had an armed guard in a tower. Crafty should have been boarded with another mercenary, but after disemboweling the last one she ended up housed with a young pregnant girl named Darli; Crafty didn't know her story since Darli didn't speak English, but she strongly suspected Darli wasn't here willingly. The Hessi compound was approximately ten miles from the nearest town, a goat farming village with no name, and fifteen miles from Warlord Ekard, who lived in a much better guarded compound in an isolated mountain. Tomorrow, Crafty would take the Jeep with a few other Hessi and head up to Ekard's place to replace the guards. She liked it better up there - there was clean water - and she planned to catch Ekard's eye, but she never saw him.
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Fenwick
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Erryn Davion and his companion Nikolaus Georgiev sat side by side at the briefing table as they waited for the rest of the intelligence representatives to file in. Both were in meticulously kept uniforms with their paperwork and the notes they needed for the meeting sitting out in front of them.

This particular briefing was bringing in intelligence assets from both Fenwick and Demoness and as such was being held on Zauha Air Force Base in Sacred Rock. Nikolaus and Erryn were the main representatives for JSITR, while they expected the arrival of Adoni Orikasa.

The briefing was to cover the recent intelligence gathered on a set of high value targets in the Apostate camp. First was Crafty Roukai. Second, was her sister Topaz. Topaz had been an undercover agent that had gone off the radar and while their goal for Crafty was to bring her in one way or the other, Topaz was to be retrieved alive if possible.

The last of the representatives filtered in, Erryn and Nikolaus stood up for the Adoni. Nikolaus leaned over to Erryn and whispered, "You still having visits with the Adoni?" Erryn just raised an eyebrow and gave Nikolaus a silencing look. Nikolaus raised his eyebrows and smirked.

They took their seats after being told to and waited patiently for their portion of the briefing.
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Demoness
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Megumi Orikasa had a way of directing attention to herself when she wanted it and deflecting it when she did not. As the active director, however, she was often the center of attention and did her best to keep a clean appearance. Despite being in her fifties, the redhead was arresting, both in appearance and personality, and she dressed professionally in a pantsuit with her hair in the customary Demonessian authoritative style - a ponytail at the nape of the neck. Her expression was serious as she limped in, which was normal for briefings; smiling was reserved for flirtation.

In front of each individual was a file with a copy of information for the Roukai sisters and the projector was running behind Megumi. She spent no time on niceties and went straight into the meeting as soon as the door closed. "We have confirmed location on Roukai Crafty and Roukai Topaz. Unfortunately, they are not collocated and it seems that the sisters have not been in contact since before Topaz went undercover. The files in front of you go into detail about each sister's capabilities, so I'll be brief and focus on their location. However, I will say this: both are considered very dangerous due to their level of training and knowledge, which is why they are high value targets. Both were former High Guardsmen. Topaz managed to pass screening and was trained by us. Crafty was Special Tactics before switching sides and she has escaped custody once already."

The briefing was quick: Crafty was the older, more influential sister, and they were nearly identical in appearance. Crafty persuaded her Topaz to leave the High Guardsmen and she was picked up in college for NDAISE training. Topaz was trained briefly and immediately inserted into an Apostate operation where she was used as a drug mule; NDAISE lost contact with her a year later and assumed she'd been flipped by the Apostates. When Crafty used her NDAISE ID, Topaz was placed on the wanted list.

Crafty was more active with the Apostates, joining them soon after the Traditionalist Reformers had broken away from them. Internal Affairs realized she had joined the Apostates, but she caught wind of the raid and fled the police before she was captured. She spent the next few years rising in the Apostate ranks and is suspected to have intimate knowledge of the leadership structure. She was also key in the 2011 Patin gas attack on the ITC Apartment Complex, for which she made the Most Wanted list, and captured by Megumi personally a few months later. Unfortunately, she escaped custody before she could be transported to a more secure facility.

Megumi reviewed what she had personally observed from Crafty, but she could only provide speculation on Topaz based on her NDAISE employment file and the psychological profile it contained. She invited an analyst to discuss the Watari region where Crafty was spotted and it was no different from any other war torn province. They were advised of any precautions and hazards in the area and especially the tactics of Warlord Ekard and the Hessi.

Thankfully, Topaz was in a safer part of the world - or at least she had been a month ago. The Demonessian intelligence network had located her in the city of Buvaryst, a metropolitan area currently in the midst of civil unrest and rioting. The government was unstable, despite having declared independence from its neighbor fifty years ago, and still bent to its former master's will. This time, however, the people did not stand for it and rioted. It is uncertain what Topaz did prior to the riots, but she was attempting to lay low. The violence had reached a point where police were firing into crowds, who used improved weapons and explosives in retaliation; the region was in months of collapsing into civil war.

---

Topaz Roukai often wondered where her life had gone wrong. Despite being alike in appearance to her sister, she had always been called the pretty one, a compliment she credited to her smile: it was light and sweet whereas her sister's always had an air of mischief and deviousness about it. Growing up, all High Guardsmen were treated the same way, as siblings, yet she attracted attention from her peers, even as a preteen, but it was her sister's attention she craved. Crafty, only a few years older than she, held her enthralled and she eagerly followed her steps, essentially abandoning her friends and family to go to school. She'd taken to computer programming, doing fairly well in the course, but fate had a different idea in mind for her: she attracted the attention of NDAISE recruiters and was inducted as soon as she graduated college. Whatever her mission would have been, she was diverted to a deep cover assignment in the Apostates.

Being a drug mule changes a person. While she was never given a second glance at the border, she saw what her drug contacts did if someone didn't pay or failed to deliver and the Apostates didn't offer her much protection - after all, she was doing it for the cause. When she crossed the border back into Demoness, she was privy to Apostate plans and saw the horrors they created as well - burned bodies, screaming children, violence in the name of religion - and her mind snapped. She eventually retreated so far into herself that she fell into a walking nightmare. She didn't remember much from that period, nor even how she had come to Buvaryst, but she knew important facts: she was wanted and she needed to stay hidden.

Her beauty didn't do her many favors in Buvaryst, but she cut and dyed her hair and began dressing like the locals; the scarf she wore over her head helped to disguise her face when she pulled it up. She had begun to slowly pick up the language at the bar where she worked illegally and had even started to feel attached to the region. Then Governor Tehern decided to declare Isaad independent from the rest of the country and accepted the offer to return control of the territory to their neighboring "homeland", inciting the fury of those who remembered how hard life was under the Leghnian Regime. Clashes soon followed between the police and the locals and Topaz tried her best to stay out of the way. Rioters, when caught, were brutally beaten, but sympathizers to Tehern and Leghnia were treated no better by Isaadians, and she rarely risked leaving her apartment.
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Fenwick
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It had taken Erryn almost a week to get into the country and then properly situate himself in Buvaryst, his intelligence team looking for any snippet of information on his target, Topaz. Coincidentally, it had been on a trip to meet with a source where Erryn spotted his quarry.

His source had seen her in the area several times, but had supposedly never entered the pub where they were to meet. As soon as Erryn walked in, he spotted Topaz. He looked quickly for his source who waved him over.

"<That is her, no?>" the man asked, to which Erryn nodded an affirmative and slipped him a small payment.

"Thanks," he stated as he left the table and went to the bar. He sat down at an empty stool and watched her bar tend for a moment before ordering a drink. "<Whisky, two ounces. A Fenwicki, if you have it.>"
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Demoness
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Topaz looked frazzled and there were deep, black bags under her eyes. Her brown hair peeked out from beneath the red scarf she wore and her face, despite being scrubbed cleaned, still appeared dirty thanks to the smoke that hung over the city. For the first few weeks, she'd stayed sealed in her apartment, but as the riots moved away from the town center and toward the governor's mansion, she decided to risk walking down the city streets and returning to work. It wasn't because she was a particularly studious worker, but because routine was comforting.

She had been slow in picking up the local language, but she knew the common words used in orders. "Fenwicki", however, caught her off-guard and she hesitated as she processed it. "<I don't think we have any. Is it a grain or malt?>"
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Fenwick
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Erryn tilted his head slightly to give a perplexed look. "<It would be a triple distilled, non-peat malt. If you don't have that, just give me a bit of rum in whatever cola you have.>" He looked at her again. "<Are you new? I don't recall you being here last time I came to visit my brother.>"
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Demoness
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Topaz stared at him a moment as he'd spoken too quickly for her to decipher everything. "<You visit your brother? Is it not a bad time?>" she asked, and then turned away to pull some glasses from beneath the counter and a bottle of whisky. She served him as she waited for the answer.
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Fenwick
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Erryn shrugged as he took the glass from her. "<It is what it is. My brother was injured on the way home from work. His path strayed too close to the fighting and was hurt. I am here to help his family while he recovers. I'm sorry, is there another language you prefer? You seem to be struggling a bit and your accent... I can't place.>"
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Demoness
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Topaz smiled, but she had begun to feel uneasy. The stranger's story didn't seem right and though he lacked an accent, she had noticed he appeared Fenwicki, a detail she might have missed had he not asked for Fenwicki whisky. "<No, it is fine. I am learning. Who is your brother?>" she asked, feigning curiosity. If he was a regular, she might be able to vindicate his story. If he was not, then she might pull more details from him and make a better assessment. She could, however, just be on edge due to the riots. She had laid low for several years and there was no reason to assume she'd be found now, especially by Fenwicki intelligence. When she had been hired by NDAISE they were still striving to keep the depth of the issue from their allies as well as the international community and with Hikari dead there was no reason to assume there would be a change of strategy.
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Fenwick
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"<Oleksandr Kravchenko. Would you like me to speak a bit slower or is this fine?>" Erryn replied. Oleksandr was one of the contacts that Erryn had used to infiltrate the city and had, in fact, been injured in the riots earlier in the week.
Edited by Fenwick, Mar 2 2014, 10:11 PM.
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