Guardians -- Logs

Back at the hotel, Nikki and Lupis are both busy doing their respective tasks. Lupis is in a corner, testing chords on a guitar as tries to figure out a melody...he also has several texts open that seems to be on magical theory. Sasha is tending to Yin, though looking over at Nikki now and again to see how she's progressing. Nikki is finishing up checking over her laptop, and the tests all come up null. Sauvagine apparently left no presents on the computer.

Nikki hmmphs. "Everything's clean...I really don't understand how he could've gleaned our email address from our poking around on a couple websites."

The cartoon Gorgon shrugs. "Just because we can't find anything boss, doesn't mean there never was anything. Maybe there was a cookie, and he removed it. Or maybe there was some non-intrusive way he tracked us. Or maybe he knew from the beginning."

Nikki nods. "Well...I'd feel better if I could improve your defenses." The Gorgon thumbs up. "I have no arguments against that, kiddo." Nikki says, "Well...check mail and then I guess I'll start that."

Gorgon nods. "Gimmie a moment....okay, we're back online. I'll let you do this stuff yourself, and concentrate on protecting the system." The Gorgon disappears off the screen.

Nikki brings up the mail application, preparing to collect the email for the whole group. "I wonder if Ares is alright..."

Sadly, there does not appear to be any email from Ares....and only one other messages besides that. The address is un recognizable, but the subject header reads, "To Reynard."

Nikki hmms and takes the computer off the net again. "Well...there's a message for Ray." She glances over to Sasha. "He'll be back soon, right?" Sasha looks up at that. "He mentioned that his hacker friend was sending him something. And yes, he should. But why don't you go ahead and check it yourself?" The older woman smirks. "Unless you're afraid of it containing porn."

Nikki blinks. "I...are you sure? I usually..." She laughs and coughs.

Sasha looks bemused. "Usually what, Nik? I don't understand."

Nikki grins. "Oh...I usually don't open other people's stuff. Kind of a code of ethics among friends."

Sasha shrugs. "It's your call, dear. If it is just information, I don't see the harm in it. This is business, after all." Lupis actually steps up then, interested. "Just lets take a look at it, hey?"

Nikki chews her lip a minute, glancing between the two. Finally she nods and opens the message.

The message is short. "Hey, fox-boy. Here's the stuff that was showing up on the ticker tape. Looks like gibberish to me, but maybe it makes sense to you. Call me tomorrow, I'm working a few other angles." Then, apparently, then contents of Sauvagine's message:

CCLIX

A great vassal was Charles, of France the Douce;
That admiral no fear nor caution knew.
Those swords they had, bare from their sheaths they drew;
Many great blows on 's shield each gave and took;
The leather pierced, and doubled core of wood;
Down fell the nails, the buckles brake in two;
Still they struck on, bare in their sarks they stood.
From their bright helms the light shone forth anew.
Finish nor fail that battle never could
But one of them must in the wrong be proved.

Sasha frowns. "I don't like the sound of that. That implies that, in this battle between us and Sauvagine, only one of us is going to walk away."

Nikki hmmphs. "This guy's always so cryptic." She considers the verse, and then types the contents of the tickers into a search and waits for it to come back. "Huh. That was easy. It's from the... Song of Roland. Interesting. Wonder if that's a connection to Professor Roland Dash..."

Lupis scratches his chin, looking over Nikki's shoulder. "Those letters at the beginning...those could be Roman numerals, si?" Nikki nods. "It looks like a verse number. Yep...here's the quote, verbatim."

Sasha frowns. "Oh dear. And it looks very long...we might have to read the whole damned thing to find out what he wants us to know..." Lupis grunts, thinking about it. "It's a definite connection," he says, "Picking the Song of Roland. Whether it's Dash himself or someone trying to set him up though, we can't say yet."

Sasha scans the first few verses. "It's talking about Charlemagne...and there's talk of a war..."

Nikki putters around in another window as Sasha reads over her shoulder...and finds the Cliff Notes on the web and grins. "Here...the short form." Sasha breathes a sigh of relief. "Thank god for Cliffs Notes."

Nikki scans the contents of the site. "Hmmm...Ogier's mentioned here...Roland is Charlemagne's nephew and Ogier is one of his knights, it looks like."

Sasha sits back and considers. "Interesting. One wonders if one of the other people working with Dash is named Ogier...though that would been all too creepy if it were." Lupis chuckles, "Still, we should find out. Also find out who working in those labs studied medieval french poetry or music in their past academics. "

Nikki types in Sauvagine and clicks on one of the links. She reads a moment and her eyes widen. "Uhm... Sasha? What did Ray say the name of Dash's project is?" Sasha racks her brains. "Damned if I can remember...he only mentioned it in passing..."

Nikki chews on her lip, "Wait...It was Munifican wasn't it? Here it is. Munifican created Durandal for Roland and Sauvagine and Courtain for Ogier!"

Sasha was taking a drink of something and she splorts it out at Nikki's comment, spraying Lupis with juice. "What??" Lupis looks down at his ripped and now wet shirt. Sasha looks apologetically at Lupis, when she realizes what she did. "Sorry." Lupis waves a hand dismissively. "It's just a t-shirt, chica. Now, who or what was Munifican?"

Nikki says, "He was a legendary swordmaker according to this. He made three of the nine great swords that were destroyed by N.B. Oliver's sword Glorious. It hacked them all a foot from the pommel."

Lupis wrinkles his brow, "Who is NB Oliver? No wait, never mind that." He sits on the bed. "So Sauvagine was a sword made by Munifican for this knight Ogier?"

Sasha chews her lip as Nikki reads off from the screen. "Oh dear. If they're naming the project after this smith, who made three swords..."

"...then maybe the Munifican project is a project to make three new gibsons." Nikki finishes for her. Lupis shrugs. "So? Now, at least, we know what Sauvagine is, huh? Okay, so Sauvagine is one of three gibsons.. What are the others? What is Roland's sword named?" Nikki scans the text on the screen. "Uhm...Durandal."

"That's awful similar to the name that was on the tarot card...Durandan. Maybe it's the same thing." Sasha murmurs thoughtfully.

Lupis nods, and then squints at the top of the screen. "What are the roman numerals for? Lines or movements of the song?" Nikki shakes her head, "Verse numbers."

Lupis ohs, "You found the verse? What's it mean?" Sasha, who is reading the Cliff Notes, responds as she reads, "It describes a battle, Lupis. Between Charlemagne and his opponent, and says that the battle would not end until one of them fell. Lupis grunts. "So who won?"

Nikki says, "Charlemagne. Against some opponent named Baligant." Lupis looks thoughtful. "Wasn't Charlemagne that french emperor of Rome?" Sasha nods. "Yeah, exactly so. Charles the Great."

Lupis drums his fingers, "If this gibson represents a sword made for one of Charles the Great's knights, who is Charlemagne supposed to be? We have our knight Roland. Maybe Charlemagne is Roland's employer?"

Sasha frowns. "Maybe we're going too far afield. We have Roland Dash, and we have his three gibsons, one of which is Sauvagine. Maybe there is no Charlemagne." She pauses at Lupis's words, though. "Then again, you might have a point. He's working for *someone* in the government. Cause that's who's paying him." As Lupis and Sasha talk, Nikki pokes around at the first email message.

"And," Sasha adds, "whatever government agency is pulling Dash's springs could symbolically be Charlemagne." Lupis hehs, "Let's hope we don't run into them, eh?"

Nikki's fingers start flying and then she waits a moment for the Gorgon to crunch the results. Her eyes nearly pop out when she sees the result. 'Majestic 12' are the only words on the screen.

Sasha sighs. "We may not have a choice. Whoever is behind Roland is not likely to want us to crash Sauvagine, if the Gibson is working on its own...or want us to take down Roland or whoever is using Sauvagine. Remember, we still don't know if the person responsible is human or machine."

Nikki looks at the original email. "But, the message says he wants to be rid of Munifican. Not Charlemagne. Wouldn't that be the primary researcher? That person's life might be in danger."

Sasha's brow creases. "If we assume Roland is the primary researcher...then perhaps it is him who is in danger. And he might then, not be the hacker."

Lupis says, "Maybe Sauvagine or one of the others wants free of this Munifican project, and intends to do away with Roland and Ogier and their vassals. But why involve us? Are they hoping we'll help them?" He lights a smoke, his brow creased in thought.

Nikki frowns and taps her screen. "Uhm...Sasha...this is what Gorgon decrypted from the original email." Sasha looks at the screen as directed...and her eyes widen. "My god....but....no wait, that doesn't make any sense! Why would MJ-12 be interested in an AI project? They're concerned only with Aliens!"

Lupis blinks, "Did you say... Majestic 12? As in, Area 51, captured alien space ships? Sasha nods absently to Lupis. "Exactly. They keep trying to steal technology from the Falcar, and are always involved when Aliens are part of whatever power plays are going on..."

Nikki chews her lip. "Maybe it's purely to defend themselves against us. I was...involved in an incident where we stole something from them. But...they shouldn't have known who we were..." Sasha looks rather sternly at Nikki. "Are you certain? You left no evidence behind when you were with the Pantheon?" Nikki is silent, not having an answer.

Lupis coughs, to break up the tension. "Hokay, I see. And they are running this Munifican Project?" Sasha looks back at Lupis, and seems uncertain. "I don't know. Maybe. I don't know that MJ-12 even has access to Treasury funds...the government itself doesn't even know they exist."

Lupis says, "So what should we do next? You want to show Sir Dash this poem?"

Sasha shrugs at Lupis. "What good would that do? We don't have much but suppositions at this point...and the only one giving us answers is Sauvagine. Can we really trust anything he says? Maybe this really *is* Roland and he's trying to deceive us!" Lupis says, "Well, we gotta find out, senorita."

Nikki shakes her head. "While I was leaving the registration building, I saw a guy with red hair that looked like Frantz. I thought he'd died, but maybe he didn't."

Lupis says, "Is he Majestic 12, this Frants?" Nikki nods. "He killed my brother...and me. We'd gotten into their computer at Trypticon and I thought my brother wasn't using enough anti-ice, but he kept at it anyway."

Just then, a rather rapid, enthusiastic knock comes to the door. Sasha tenses, and Nikki glances up from her terminal, prepared to vanish in a second. Lupis is the only one spurred to action: he moves to the door, and peers through the spyhole. The only thing he sees is Reynard pacing, and looking rather rattled.

Lupis looks at the others, "It's Reynard. He looks... anxious." Sasha blinks. "Well, let him in, silly!"

Lupis looks back out. "What if it's a trick?" Reynard stops pacing then, and pounds on the door again. "Lupis, for the bloody love of all that is Holy, open *up*!" Lupis looks wryly at the others. "Hey, he knew the password." He says wryly, and then unlocks the door and opens it.

Reynard pushes inside and extracts the door from Lupis, closing, and locking it. "I don't know if we should be here." The bounty hunter is tossled; his clothes a mess, his hair windblown.

Nikki stands. "What happened to you?!" Lupis looks Reynard up and down. "I'm with the chica...you look like hell, amigo..."

Reynard runs fingers through his hair, moving into the bathroom, and splashing water on his windburned face. "I had a tracer; somebody in a dark car felt it need to take a joy ride on my ass for a good part of an hour."

Nikki blinks. "Dark car? What kind of car?"

"A Sedan," The hunter replies, combing his hair down. "Things were just peachy; I got Dash's card, I overheard a conversation with him and a guy named 'Dane'. Then I get on my bike, and they're on me. Thankfully, I got them off my tail when I hit the interstate. I circled and backtracked and thus, before coming here. That's what sucked up some of my time."

Lupis says, "Well, at least you're back in one piece. Sasha, tell him what Nikki found." Nikki, however, is in the process of looking stunned "Ogier the Dane...Sauvagine was his sword. And Courtain." Sasha seems momentarily confused by Nikki's leap of logic, and then oathes when she understands. "God damn. We got our second paladin after all." Lupis whistles long and low.

Reynard blinks, looking around at the others. "What's that? What'd I miss?" Nikki motions Reynard over to her computer. "Your hacker friend sent us email about the stock ticker. It was an extract from the Song of Roland. Roland was the nephew of Charlemagne and wielded Durandal. Ogier was Charlie's knight and wielded the other two swords." Reynard arches a brow, and motions her to tell on, so Nikki tells about the rest of their findings, including the part about Munifican, and the possible involvement of Majestic 12.

Reynard's face blanches, several times, especially when Majestic-12 is mentioned at last. "Bloody hell," he swears, and starts to walk the floor again. "Do you have any idea what this can mean?"

Suddenly, there's a 'ding' and Gorgon appears on the screen. "Hey, babe? We just got something new...and it ain't from Sauvagine."

Nikki looks down at the gibson. "Who's it from?" The bull looks wryly amused. "A friend, supposedly." Lupis sits down where he can get a better view of the screen. Nikki hesitates, and then nods "Well...scan it and then let's see."

The email window comes up, and all can see that the address reads 'afriend@asu-east.edu', shedding light on the Gorgon's comment When the email itself is opened it reads:

don't believE everything you're told
Clowns to the left of me, jokers to the right,
Here i am, stuck in the middle with you.
enEmies lurk all around.
they wilL not abide you to interfere
yOu wish to know what foe you face?
the aNswer is of capital importance.
-a friend
-------
Your lucky numbers for today are: 8, 5, 12, 16, 13, and 5!

Lupis says, "That's it?"

Reynard shakes his head. "If Sauvagine is working for Majestic-12, then Majestic-12 could very soon, if they don't already, find out about the UA. If Sauvy is a gibson, then he's got two brothers. But if he's a gibson, then how can he try and kill Roland, unless he's pulling a Ghost in the Machine? If he's another hacker, then what is the Munifican making?" He shakes his head. "Triple damn. And this conversation I overheard with Dash lends credence to this theory...

Nikki looks baffled at the message, and then even more so by Reynard's train of thought. "Go on..."

Reynard says, "He mentioned 'the making of the Trio'. That Eric was important to this. The 'Trio' is likely our Gibson Triplets.""

Lupis peers at the message on the screen, thinking, reading it again. The capital letters jump out at him. "E... C..." he mutters, "H.. E... L... O.. N...Echelon?"

Nikki chews her lip. "Isn't Echelon the name of that computer program that listens to voice conversations for keywords like bomb and assassinate?" Reynard shakes his head. "Echelon is actually the name of an organization, not the computer itself. They monitor all television, computer networks, Internet, radio, digital transmission...the works. They're like the NSA, only they work domestic-like, and they're secret. They don't answer to anyone."

Sasha nods grimly. "But they do use powerful computers and Gibsons to help them with their work. And...they might have access to Treasury funds. Especially if they're working through NSA channels, who are official." Nikki whistles softly.

Reynard taps a finger against his chin, "So, perhaps Echelon is wanting to bounce through computers, with their Gibsons. Gibsons that can prance across nearly all firewalls, and search for things." He rubs his chin. "Oh. What about the 'stuck in the middle' there?""

Sasha creases her brow in thought. "Those second two lines sound like lyrics to an old song..." Nikki hmms. "Maybe that means they're getting pressure by both Majestic 12 and Echelon."

"But the question is...who's writing the email? Roland? And if it was Roland, why wouldn't he reveal himself?" says Sasha, chewing on a pen. Reynard says, "Either he does, or he doesn't know the people he's contacting are us. If he doesn't, then perhaps he doesn't know who to come out." He makes a gesture to the email. "As you can see, the email address is centered in Mesa. Our friend is here." Nikki says, "Maybe it's Erik."

Lupis points at the part at the bottom. "What do the 'lucky' numbers mean? Do they point to letters in the message as well? Or is it something else, like a pass code?" Reynard hmms, "Could the numbers be pointing to lines or verses of the Song of Roland? Or perhaps they're a code into the lab?"

Nikki chews her lip. "Actually...I think it's like the first code. I wonder if he sent that, too. But that was signed by Sauvagine." She does some quick math on the computer and blinks. "The numbers spell 'help me'."

Reynard rubs his forehead. "Well, it's a shame we can't 'help him' unless we know who he *is*. But he's likely keeping himself hidden, because Echelon may be watching his transmissions.

Sasha frowns. "Well, it's probably not Sauvagine, or his controller then. Sauvagine is playing a game. Whoever this is may be a pawn, and wants out." Nikki says, "Maybe it is Eric then." Sasha shakes her head. "Maybe. We know we've got Erik, 'Dane', and Roland working on the AIs. How do we know they're the only three?"

Nikki holds up a finger. "Maybe Erik's the real magic, but he doesn't know how to get out without getting killed?" Reynard grimaces. "Maybe it's just another move in Sauvagine's game, to tempt us."

Lupis looks at Nikki. "Can you find out where his email was sent from.. hack into the campus mail servers, and, like that?" Nikki shakes her head. "I can't figure mail out like that. Anyone can just connect to the mail server port and compose a message, unauthenticated, and send it wherever they please with no backtrace except to which server it originated from. And that'll be in the header of the message we received." Lupis looks crestfallen, "So you can't tell if it can from a certain terminal in some lab or not, eh?" Nikki says, "Naw, Lupis. I can telnet to port 25 on a computer across the world from me, if they haven't locked it down, and use their machine to send an email message."

Sasha shakes her head. "That doesn't make any sense. They're being paid to work on the Gibson, likely for Echelon. Unless....unless MJ12 and Echelon are on opposing sides..."

Sasha groans. "This is getting more complex by the moment. We've got to tread lightly, guys. We can't afford to have MJ12 or Echelon find out about us." Nikki nods to Sasha, but adds, "Who's us? We don't know anything about anything, right?" Sasha smiles grimly to Nikki. "If they have us, torture is always an option, Nikki."

Lupis adds, "Or anyone really. When the message refers to 'clowns' and 'jokers', they might have meant someone either than the two groups Like maybe Roland and Dane Or even one of the gibsons referring to the other two...." Nikki blinks at Lupis. "Hmm, given that, you're right...it's hard to say, I guess."

Reynard has a thought, and then pipes up. "Hey, Gorgy?" Gorgon appears on the screen in a coat, deerstalker hat, and a pipe. "Yes, Watson?" he says to Reynard. The bounty hunter chuckles softly at the picture. "Can Gibsons resent their creators or controllers?"

The Gibson considers the question. "Technically, Gibsons don't have feelings, not being true AI. But....I have to admit I'm positively smitten with Miss Nikki here...so if these are top of the line prototypes, anything is possible." Lupis chuckles. "Man, I find myself wishing my guitar said sweet things like that to me."

Reynard just chuckles and looks "Exactly. We could be dealing with a Gibson under a Frankenstein complex; trying to get away from it's creators." Lupis says, "Maybe these next-gen gibsons are indeed true AI. Or closer to it."

Nikki, meanwhile, blushes and grins at her laptop. "Aren't you supposed to say that, though?" she murmurs at the Gorgon. After a moment, Gorgon gives Nikki a serious look. "Nik...Obviously, I was programmed to be wild and zany and flirtacious, and what have you...but do you remember that conversation we had the night you were hacking into the database? I told you that I liked you a great deal more than the man that made me...and in retrospect, I'd have to say that somewhere in my circuits, I meant it. I don't know what I am any more...but I'm not your father's run-of-the-mill Gibson." Nikki blinks, and then smiles. "Then I'm most grateful to Ares for introducing us."

Lupis stares at the Gibson, "Whoah." He says intelligently

The Gorgon abruptly appears to look like Pepe Le Pew. "Ah, cherie! Come vith me to the Casbah! We will make lo......"He abruptly realizes what he's doing, makes like he's blushing and emits. "Exit, stage left." The image of the Gorgon disappears. Nikki stares at the Gorgon, her face coloring again. "Oh geez..."

Reynard simply eyes the laptop. He glances over at Nikki. "Just what have you two been surfing the web looking at, at nights?" He asks, around a grin. Nikki smirks at Reynard. "Naughty bits of code, of course." Nikki looks back at Sasha then. "To get back to the subject, whatever the Gibson is, we can't let either of those organizations get it. And maybe the Minotaur would like an upgrade."

Lupis nods. "Right, I'm with Nikki. So what should we do?"

Reynard glances at his watch. "Whatever we do, we should do it quick. Dash is supposed to be at the lab at four o' clock. I think Nikki should be following him in, quick."

Lupis says, "Yeah, that's definitely one scene we wanna be watchin. Is there any way we can attach a small camera or mike to Nikki?" Nikki looks at Lupis. "Not if I'm walking through walls. I won't be able to carry anything unmanifested."

Reynard glances to Lupis. "What about a spell?"

Lupis says, "Well, let me think on that. Hmm...I have amplification spells. I could amplify what Nikki sees and hears.... Can we hook that watch up to a screen or something? I'm no expert illusionist. Or..wait! She already has a connection to the watch. If I amplify that, and we get an output monitor hooked up to it, maybe we can watch her."

"One problem, Lupis." Sasha interjects. "It's not a digital watch. We can't 'hook it up' to anything.""

Lupis says, "Uhm.. well, maybe with magic we can hook it up." Nikki looks worriedly at Lupis. "You'll not be doing anything to that watch. If you make it explode, I won't be around any more, and the whole thing will become moot. How 'bout I just carefully remember everything that is said and done?"

Reynard says, "Whatever the case, let's discuss this in the Van. I'd rather we have things figured by the time we get there, than hash them out now."

Lupis grabs his saddlebags and his guitar case."Should I park the bike somewhere, out of sight?" Sasha thinks about that. "If we're taking the van, let's hide the bike, yeah.

Reynard offers forth, "I could also try and get into the lab," He pulls the card he got from Dash's desk out. "I do have this. " Lupis looks at the card. "Wait... won't the Doctor be wondering where that is? He probably needs that to get into the building."

Reynard blinks. "You know... I did not think of that." He looks at the card, but the card has no insignia, as earlier determined. It's blank, with only an optical strip. "Assuming that's what the card goes to."

Lupis says, "Well, if he does notice it missing, he's more likely to blame it on those men in suits than you, right?"

"Point," Reynard replies. "I don't think he saw me. Anyway, let's hustle. Time's ticking."

As they head out to the van, Nikki looks at Sasha. "Just poking around, right? You don't want me to try any hacking while I'm in there, right?"

Lupis blinks, "Can you hack without the Gorgon?" Nikki nods. "Yeah, but I won't have my tools."

Reynard says, "Why don't we give you an hour. If you don't get back to us in an hour, we go and investigate. If you find something worth investigating, you can go back in, or we can come back tonight."

Lupis says, "And hey, we'll need the code that goes with that card, too." Nikki thumbs up. "Check."

Reynard abruptly goes into the hotel room, and then pulls out his gun bag. "Should I bring these, in case?" Lupis grins, "Si, Senor! Bring ze muzik makers!" he replies as he puts his saddlebags and guitar into the van.

Reynard grins. "Now we have the instruments for the party." He brings the equipment to the van, putting them in carefully. Nikki solidifies and packs up the Gorgon. "Whoever has my watch should stay close to an outer wall or sit in the lobby or something." She calls out to the others

Reynard nods, "There's no lobby. And the parking lot is protected by a tell fence. We'll have to park the van some where a little further away."

Nikki says, "You've been there, Ray?" Reynard chuckles, "How do you think I got the MIB tail? I went over there to check out the layout, and your red haired bad-guy was there, and made it look like I was with him. So they tailed me." Nikki blinks. "Where did Frants go?" Reynard looks apologetic. "Well, I tried to follow him first off, but he got away too quickly. I'm sorry." Nikki just sighs, climbing into the van and getting settled before resuming her normal intangible state.

Lupis considers his bike. "Hey, where should I hide this? Anyone got any ideas?" Sasha shrugs. " Just hide it behind the motel and put a tarp over it or something. Lupis chuckles. "Great plan, chica...'cept I got no tarp."

Sasha gives Lupis this look, like he has no imagination. "Then put it behind the dumpster, or put some trashbags on top of it, or something. Lupis looks offended, but he pulls his bike around behind the hotel to find a spot to hide the bike.

Reynard says, "Hey, wait...I'll be right back." Reynard hops out, and runs across the street to a convenience store as Lupis parks his bike. He returns, a minute or two later, opening up the side door. Bookworm, whom Sasha had helped into the car while he was gone, is sitting and weaving back and forth as usual. Rey grins, and offers Bookworm a nice, gooey chocolate chip cookie. "The Ogier bit proved useful, kid."

Nikki blinks at Reynard. "Huh?" Reynard, as he climbs in, simply grins at Nikki. "I promised him a cookie. One does not tread lightly on promises of Cookies to children." Bookworm just munches on the cookie happily.

After Lupis hides the bike, they drive off, and Reynard passes a pistol each to Sasha and Lupis, along with shoulder webs with holsters. Reynard directs them towards where the lab is located, which is at the corner of two streets of a mostly residential area. As the van inches closer, with the lab on the left, clearly visible parked on the street outside the lab, is....a black sedan.

Reynard frowns. "I don't like the look of this," He announces. Rubbing his hands, idly, "Ok, now I'm at odds to what to do. I was tempted to go interrogate Eric, and carry my beeper. So if anything goes wrong, you beep me on your cell phone, and I run back here... But with that sedan out there, I don't know. Sasha nods. "Best you stay with us, in case things go south."

Nikki looks out at the sedan. "Well...I can still poke around."

Lupis puts the holster in his guitar case. He glares up the street through the front windshield. "Yeah, she can look at the men in the car too. We'll just have to park further away, maybe."

Sasha is driving, and is on the street perpendicular to the black sedan. "Should I keep going or stop? It might look suspicious if they see us stop...." Lupis leans over Sasha's shoulder. "Keep going, but not too fast." Sasha nods, still about fifty yards away from the sedan, but slowing even further. Reynard points over Lupis's shoulder. "The church. Park by the church. That still gives Nikki plenty of range."

"I see it." Sasha says, and pulls into the church parking lot, which is practically empty. It's getting dark now, and is quarter to four.

Nikki looks at the others. "Okay. When should I come back?" Reynard says, "Do you want to check out who's in the Sedan first, and report back to us, then go in for an hour?" Lupis says, "Yeah, check those gringos in the car first, let us know who it is." Nikki nods and waves as she fades out of sight and heads across the street towards the car, glancing around a little nervously as she remembers Sasha telling about a ghost friend of hers that was tortured.

Lupis says, "Sasha, should I take Bookworm into the church, in case they're watching for people to get out?" Reynard says, "Good idea. If we do get into a firefight, we don't need Bookworm out here." Sasha taps her fingers on the steering wheel. "Maybe. It's probably not necessary, though..."

Outside, Nikki creeps up on the sedan, completely invisible. As she gets closer, she strains her ears but she can't hear anything. The car might be soundproofed. She does see that there are two men inside, however. Shrugging, she slides in through the wall of the car.

"....I don't like this. First that redhead, and now the guy on the bike with the crazy moves. Dammit, I hope Intel can find out who leaked this fucking project. No one was supposed to know about this!" says the man in the driver's seat. The other man lays a reassuring hand. "We'll find out., Besides, the project is almost complete. Then we take our booty and disappear. Let whoever it is try and figure out where our lab is located..." the second man snorts amusedly.

Nikki smiles, 'sitting' on the back seat, Lucky me...the villains are about to reveal their plans.

The first man sighs. "Okay, you're right. But dammit, I want more backup. We don't know who those people are! One comes up a negative on the plate search, and the other one covered up his plate and we couldn't run them down! Plus, Dash is acting edgy....like something might be going wrong with the project or something. I'd threaten the guy, but he doesn't threaten easy. He knows we need him."

Nikki whispers, knowing they can't hear, "Where was the secret lab again, boss?" She leans forward then, looking at the men more closely, and noting the men have bulges in their coats that suggest guns.

"Fine, Dirk, fine. We can get backup after that second guy prowling around, but they should be hidden somewhere, instead of in this damn conspicuous car." says the second man. "Now shut up and stay alert. let's not have anything sneak up on us while we're arguing, yeah?"

Nikki figures they're done chatting and returns to the van, fading into her seat as if she'd never left. "They're upset about the complications and talking about a leak. They're going to order backup because of the redhead - Frants - and the car chase earlier. They also said it's almost done and they're going to remove it to their lab when it is and there's not much chance of anyone finding that."

Reynard nods. "So, we know they're not working with MJ12."

Nikki says, "I really think we should attempt a snatch and grab very soon. Just as soon as we know we've got the location of all three."

"Snatch and grab of what? The Gibsons?" Sasha asks. Nikki nods. "Yeah." Sasha grunts. "Maybe. Assuming their portable like the Gorgon."

Nikki says, "They've got to be somewhat portable if they're talking about moving them to another lab. Or maybe...I can call Ares, and borrow the toy we stole from MJ12 that first time." She grins. Sasha arches an eyebrow. "I'd ask, but it's be a waste of time. It's just about 4:00, get in there before Dash does!" Nikki nods and fades out, heading towards the side of the lab building.

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