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Recapturing a Fugitive
Topic Started: Feb 23 2014, 08:42 PM (1,046 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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Demoness
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Topaz smiled; at least she understood the gist. "<It is safer inside even if she is angry,>" she replied. "<Do you want a refill?>"
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Fenwick
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Erryn shook his head and waved his hand over his glass. "<No, one will suffice. Just enough to unwind, not enough to get stupid,>" he replied. "<Though I might take a cola if you have bottles? For the road.>"
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Demoness
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Topaz nodded and reached under a different part of the bar into the fridge. "<Cola is different in bottles,>" she replied. There were several different choices on tap, but only one came in a bottle and it wasn't the dark syrupy kind. She placed a pair on the bar. "<That all?>" she asked.
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Fenwick
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Erryn nodded and pulled out his wallet. "<Thank you, you keep working on your vocabulary. You're doing very well.>" He looked around. "<Eh, where is your tip jar?>"
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Demoness
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She nodded toward the register. "<I close your tab and then you can,>" she replied with her very pretty smile. She went over to the register, charged him for the drinks, and then gave him the bill. She took his offered money and gave him any change before wishing him a good evening and told him to be careful.
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Fenwick
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"<You should listen to your own advice. Be careful heading home, wherever that might be.>" Erryn nodded to her politely and left the bar.

As soon as he left and made his way a bit away from the bar, he found a good vantage point to observe the bar for Topaz when she left. He made a call to the other team members he had in the city and told them where he was and had them meet up nearby to watch other entrances and exits to the bar so that they could track her when she left work.
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Demoness
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Topaz thanked him and then went back to her job. He apparently was the first of a handful of individuals who wanted to brave the revolutionary streets for a drink. One customer had received news his son had perished and Topaz silently comforted him for three hours before one of his friends, or simply another patron, decided to take him home. Another was simply tired of watching the news at home and wanted company, no matter who it was. Most, however, were looking for the comfort of familiarity - a familiar place in an uncertain time. She didn't ask for their stories and they didn't tell her.

When Topaz left work hours later, she had completely forgotten about the stranger; she'd been more concerned about the situation in Buvaryst, which was more immediate than anything in her former life. There were already rumors that the riots would escalate to war, but it was still far too early to accurately predict anything and that overestimated Isaad's worth to Leghnia. The owner had let her go early and chosen to close the bar himself; there weren't enough patrons to pay her to stay longer. When she left, however, she was far from careless. After all, a revolution was still underway. She walked quickly and hesitated at every corner before turning it, pausing to listen for the police, Isaadians, or anyone else. She saw smoke hanging low in the sky, but the wind seemed to be blowing from the direction of the governor's mansion and she thought she heard a distant rumbling.
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Fenwick
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The other members of Erryn's team noted Topaz's departure and carefully tailed her to find out where "home" was for this particular target. Once that was determined, they'd be able to assess the threat of the building she lived in and could potentially scope out her living quarters and gather further intelligence on the former operative.
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Demoness
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Topaz noted a few of Erryn's team, though not all of them, and treated them with suspicion. However, her early training had been dominated by martial arts and it wouldn't have been until her teenage years that tactics would have been focused on. Even so, their behavior emulated ambush behavior - one of the first things she'd been taught - and she took a circuitous route back home, planning to ambush any of them if they strayed too close to her. The two she had spotted backed off, so she assumed she had lost them or that she had made an incorrect assessment, and she continued home.

She lived in an apartment complex and though this was distinctively not as well-run as their counterparts back in Demoness, they weren't of terrible quality either; it simply was. It was evident that they had taken some damage during the initial riots, with a pitted surface and scorch marks, and it was no surprise that Topaz had waited so long before venturing out again. Her apartment was on the fourth floor about midway down the main hallway. When she'd first arrived, she'd had a roommate - several, in fact - but as she became steadier on her feet she had pared that number down to one. Roommates ask too many questions, whether or not they intend to be curious, but her current one was rarely in the apartment, so it mattered little. Despite the loud neighbors and the thin walls, all that really bothered Topaz about the place was that the elevator was perpetually out of service; even when the repairman was sent it was out of commission again in less than a week. At least the stairs didn't bother her, since life on the Plateau involved a lot of climbing, but she would've appreciated the luxury.

Once she was back in her apartment, she locked the deadbolt and checked to make sure the windows were still locked behind the blinds. When her roommate came home, she tended to open the windows so she could "Hear the wonderful sounds of the city!" though Topaz imagined now that she'd enjoy the wonderful "sounds of the revolution!" It occurred to her suddenly that her roommate might actually be at the governor's mansion.

After she made sure the apartment was secure, Topaz settled down to read for a few hours before going to bed.
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Fenwick
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The Fenwicki intelligence team carefully monitored her movements through the city over the next few days to see if there was any particular routine she followed or to see if she met with anyone suspicious. After a few days, Erryn decided to visit her at work again, barring any further inflammation of the situation in the city.
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