New Calling

[Jacinda]

Jacinda frowned as she looked at Vega's record. The man had been solid.

Yoshi spoke up and for a moment Tweedle Dumb and Tweedle Dumber seemed startled. Jacinda smiled and winked at him. People always under-estimated the quiet guy. Even ignored him. Jacinda knew his worth. Not that she was gonna be the quiet person. Not her style.

More importantly, he was right. Vega had been Atharim for a long time. In her life, politics was not something she really care all that much about. Who cared who was President or whatever when you had rougs and chupes to hunt down. Or some poor sap who'd been taken by a wefuke. But even with all that, she knew that sometimes something happened- some national disaster or calamity or whatever- school shootings, the thing in Dayton with the nuclear reactor, stuff like that- that put everyone up in arms and looking for a scape goat. Congressional hearings that went on for days. Damn, but she'd been sitting at a bar trying to have a drink and the ticker along the bottom would always be talking about this or that investigation or special prosecutor.

Brandon, the prick, had already outed the Atharim. It was bad but livable, as long as there was nothing concrete to blame on the them. Well, the attack on Brandon was something, but that was Brandon and he'd lived- how she didn't know- and there hadn't been a lot of collateral damage. If specifics got out about Atharim jobs, though....well, she didn't know if the CCD had congressional hearings or whatever, but she'd bet that it'd be pretty easy to get a mob going. Brandon- the man the Regus had called Apollyon, which she was more inclined to believe now, after seeing his injuries and return to health days later- would be a fool not exploit that. They even had a Consulate of Propaganda (and how about that!?! They didn't even shy away from calling it what it was! It made he laugh.)

No. They had to do this quietly. They needed intel. "Yoshi's right. We don't want to cause a scene. Likely the kid has hunkered down."
She frowned, thinking. "We need surveillance. Find out the lay of the land. Back entrances. Stuff like that. And..."
trailed off, something occurring to her. "Vega was a solid agent. There has to be a reason he decided to abandon his principles. That may give us some leverage. If we can't lure him back to our side- at least enough to let us at Nox- we may be able to use it in some other way."
What, she didn't know. She had his file. He was married and had a son. They could be useful.

She looked at them and then around at the safe house. She knew there was a bunker here with stuff. "Let's get what we need and and go find out what we can find out."
"She had her staves strapped her thighs. And she had her EM weapons too. Wasn't going anywhere without those.

[Borovsky]

Stephan listened while Henrik was grumbling. He was not happy that things had turned out this way. They were back to where they were before these two showed up. Back to surveilence. Back to staking out the mansion and doing the actual work they were set out to do in the beginning. Henrik thought dumb American think she knows everything.

Thankfully Henrik didn't say anything and he and Stephan were out the door ahead of the others and in their unmarked van that wouldn't be too conspicuous in a rich neighborhood. They would stand out if they stuck around. But once they got the tech they needed they would be able to watch them without even being in the area.

Problem was, their tech had scattered into the winds when the Atharim HQ fell. They had no idea where he'd gone. But the Archangel tech was in a safehouse not too far from here. They weren't Archangel's but they had been heading there to see about the cameras available in the area. Stephan said as much to Jacinda as they all loaded up. "We were going to speak with Annemarie Wijnhoven. I think you've worked with her before - tech specialist. To see if she might be able to tap into the security systems of Vega's estate. He's bound to have security. Hopefully Ms Wijnhoven can get us in without alerting our presence to them. In the mean time we should go see what we can see. Nothing beats using your own eyes." That's how they always did it - him and Henrik.

Inside the van Henrik called Annemarie to see if she could hack into the former Atharim's home security system and the surrounding area. They were confident they could get in.

But once they came to the house it self it was going to prove to be difficult to surveil without the cameras. The whole place was surrounded by ten foot high walls. And the nearest neighbor was another posh mansion with a gated estate. Everything around them was gated.

Stephan was about to ask if anyone had any bright ideas when a series of explosions sounded inside the perimeter of the Vega Estate.

[Yoshimura]

Yoshimura could sense the frustration in the two. They didn't like doing the grunt work apparently. Did they not know that it was the most important part of the job. Without appropriate intelligence, the whole mission could be shot from the start. Impatience would be their downfall. Thankfully, they went to work.

A tap was set in the Vega estate with help from Annemarie. The gated walls made it hard to track outside of the building, so they might have some blind sides going in.

Explosions shook the building. Ichiro could hear them clearly from the van they were in. Terrorists? Other Atharim that had heard of Vegas betrayal?

Ichiro voiced his thoughts. "Hmmmm...who would bomb Vega? Or..."
He turned to Cross and gave her an uncharacteristic smirk. "Perhaps our godling has decided to play?"

[Jacinda]

She'd give 'em this. Tweedle Dumb and Tweedle Dumber followed orders however much she could imagine their rolling of eyes and murmurs of "bitch" under their breath. She could be long suffering. For the time being anyway.

Annemarie was as good as always. Technically, they didn't have to be here to get the surveillance set up. Beauties of hacking and all that. Still, seeing with their own eyes was important. It was all part of getting into the other person's mind.

In this case, one Detective Dorian Vega. Closet Atharim. Traitor. As Annemarie had worked, she called up his file. She'd not really heard of him- this side of the world and all that. He was a mole, feeding information, rerouting cases, helping to sweep Atharim activity under the rug. She would have classified him a mole too if it weren't for the fact that he was so damn beautiful. Not in that effeminate metro-sexual way either. Not like his file was a calendar shoot or anything. But between that and the web, she could see the man. And man he was.

She didn't ever crush. But she liked a rugged man. What was the saying? Things that looked best covered in mud: Jeeps and Men. So she wouldn't call him a mole. He seemed too solid for that. Didn't give off the squirrelly vibe. The file said he was rich. Well, his house said it too.

So...Atharim by choice, not blood. Rich. Handsome. Successful. Why had he chosen the Atharim? And why would he betray them now, after years of faithful service.

There was a mystery there. The key to this man. Perhaps she could find leverage. Not to redeem him. No. He'd made his choice. But to control the situation.

The tap was finished and Jacinda was about to speak when there were explosions. The high walls of Dorian's place hid what was going on. Yoshi looked at her and asked the obvious question with a smirk.

"Good question. Either way, it isn't good. Getting the cops here will make things more difficult for us. A God forbid the godling has decided to play."
This wasn't some sick kid.

She pulled up her tablet and hit the link Annemarie had sent, sharing the view with Yoshi. Rich indeed. She cycled through camera after camera. God, how many rooms did a person need?

Finally, they were outside. A group of young men were standing around, along with Dorian and some woman. She didn't look too pleased. She flipped on the audio. [coor=lightblue]"You are harboring one of them."[/color] Her eyebrows raised and she looked at Yoshi again as they listened to the rest of the exchange.

The mystery at least was solved. Both of them. "Looks like the gods have decided to show off. At least now we know why Vega flipped."
So....two gods out there. Nox and Dorian's son. Given her words, the woman likely wasn't one. There two other guys there too, keeping quiet at the moment.

She screen-shotted their faces and put it in for facial recognition. They'd know soon enough.

"Two gods, at least, and not messing around. Fortified house of a CCDP cop in wealthy neighborhood. I think we need to head back to the safe house and watch them from the feeds. Figure out our best angle in....or how to get them out and alone."

[Borovsky]

Stephan jolted as the van rattled from the concussive force of the bomb that went off. Henrik was stunned from his brooding. What the hell?

A name the boy said when talking with the girl made Stephan wary. What's that the girl who noted his last known location - his former partner? Stephan grabbed his wallet and flipped through the records he had on the boy, Aria - was the name. Aria was Sentient? It said in her file she was Furia...

But Stephan didn't get to say anything before Annemarie was over the comms "Cross, I have another tibbit for you. The security system is being monitored by someone else. He's good, but there are tiny trails everywhere in Vega's systems. It looks like he usually monitors them, but not here in the system right now. When he comes back you'll likely lose your feeds. Like I said he's good. I'm good, but some of the things I'm seeing are going to take me days to unravel. I don't know how long you'll have those feeds."

Vega was proving to be a formidable foe. He'd aligned himself with the gods because his son had become one. It made sense. But he was Atharim. He should have killed his boy - dealt the final blow himself. Done the right thing. Stephan would have done it. He was certain anyone in this van would.

Stephan volunteered. "Henrik and I can stay here. As we had planned on doing from the get go, and watch here. You can't watch all those feeds all the time. At least we'll know who comes and goes. Track a schedule. I have not seen any staff on site, I'm sure the Vegas have plenty. We might be able to get someone inside as a staff."

[Yoshimura]

For a brief moment, anger flickered across Ichiro's face. He wasn't one for showing his emotions, but it was hard to avoid. Vega's son was a godling and he didn't have the honor to at least do the deed himself. Ichiro had - it had been his friend, but he had killed him. His brother had submitted himself for his death sentence. Ichiro had been his second and he had been honored to cut off his head.

But the moment passed and Ichiro regained control of his emotions. Cross and Stephan were right. They couldn't do this now. They needed to be smart about this.

"Agreed. We should evaluate their schedules and wait for a good moment. Patience is our friend here."


He nodded at Stephan as he suggested staying and watching. Trying to get someone on staff would be a good idea, but their guard was up. No doubt that Vega would be wary of anyone new joining his staff and had the resources to investigate them thoroughly. "Be careful. He'll be prepared for something like that. It was his job as Atharim to spy - and spies see lies and deception everywhere."


It wasn't a flat out refusal, just a warning to be cautious.

[Jacinda]

Yoshi backed her up. Not that she expected different. Culture aside, he was old school Atharim. He knew how things went. If ot came down to it, she trusted him. And would listen.

So. Tweetle dumb and Tweetle dumbass would stay behind. Good. You never knew when you needed actual eyeballs on the scene, regardless of whatever tech the squints brought it

And they seemed to want the job. Probably jerk off in the van, they were so happy to be on point on this. So to the safehouse it would be. They needed more intel anyway. Aside from the traitor Atharim, there were other people there. And them holed up in mansion was a bad idea.

So it wasnt too long before they were back at the house and the squints were running facial recognition on the others. The woman was a shrink as far as they could tell. Part of the CCDPD team set up to hunter monsters....made her laugh. They'd beem doing it for centuries and millenia. And now the CCD decided they were ready for big boy pants? Hah! What a joke. Johnson was as bad. Rookie cop. Not even a blip.

Sarkozy though. She saw his file. Not just police reports. They had their moles in Domovoi. He was supposed to be a CCDPD secret weapon. A godling that was supposed to make a difference.

Well getting nearly killed was a way to get on the news anyway. Other than that, he was not impressive in the slightest. Cute and all. But not what she meant. She'd put down godlings only a little less abled than him. If that was what Domovoi had on the varsity team, they were in trouble.

Course Durante was formidable. Being an Atharim gave him all kinds of advantages. The band needed to be broken up. Split em up. At least get them moving. Always easier to take down targets when travelling. They couldnt cover every avenue.

So....bait. They needed bait. Durante had none. Vega had his son there. That left Sarkozy. If they could lure Captain America out, Durante might follow.

And....of course. Even as she thought of this, the squints reported that the feeds into the house had gone dead. Yeah. Past time.

To Yoshi, she said, "I think we need to lure them out. Sarkozy has family and he is a godling. I say, lets pay them a visit. Not serious enough, not yet. But enough to bait him out of there. You game?"

[Borovsky]

Three of the new comers left. Two together and one alone. They were of little consequence. Jacinda Cross and the Japanese guy would take care of the intel on their guests. There job was to watch the house. And try to infiltrate.

But it wasn't long before Durante was leaving the driveway on foot. Stephan followed him while Henrik stayed and watched the house.

Stephan sent an communication to Cross. "Durante is on the move. Following solo."

continued here

[Jacinda]

Jacinda smiled at Yoshi, a toothy evil smile. The bastard was was coming out.

Thoughts of Sarkozy left her. He would be taken care of in due time. Durante, though. Her lip curled in a sneer. His dad would be disgusted. He would have, back when he wasn't a drunk. He'd been a good hunter. She'd gone with them a few times. Not that she'd beem into him. Too small. She liked them big. Dominating. He was lanky, like his son.

She even remembered Nox. He'd been underfoot, mostly. His sister had her nose on in book or her tablet. Cute kids. Before everything fell apart. Kid had a smile on him, now that she remembered, was flirty. She'd tousled his hair and told him he'd be a heartbreaker one day. She smiled at that.

But the girl was gone. There seemed to be no record of what happened to her. Just Nox.

Funny how the world changed. With Seth, it had been the argument over his beloved Runey. And she'd turned out all right. But Nox was the opposite. He'd ended up being a monster.

Still, she was glad his dad was dead. Be a tough thing to accept.

"Roger that. Keep a watch. Radio any change."
So....question was, how to ambush Nox. He was alone. They needed a plan.

[Borovsky]

Radio Communcation with video from Stephan

Henrik wateched the video that his partner sent back. "We need to take action. He's distracted now. Kill him before he regroups. He can't have much left in him."