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Post by Ylanne on Apr 7, 2020 12:16:45 GMT -6
On a good day, those who lauded the old woman's patriotic heroism and unflinching defiance of the greater galactic powers called her Terra's lion, or sometimes Terra's dragon. Those for whom she'd been more of a mentor called her the bureau's guardian owl. But most of those who knew her only by tradecraft would shake their heads, smiling, at the wily old fox. Her instructions were rarely easy, though never complex. She meant for others to understand. Beneath the pizza in the second box was an oil covered receipt, with a glossy business card promising Stella's Fine Italian Kitchen, with the discounts Qahtani had mentioned, stapled to the receipt. Handwritten on the back of the business card in the old woman's painstaking script, crude and childlike, with a hole punctured at the corner of one of the letters, was a Terran address with the words "TOMORROW 5AM BE READY TO GO." Qahtani knew the old woman preferred her recipients to burn these messages, but, well, she couldn't quite convey that. Not without arousing potentially more suspicion.
Qahtani had returned to the car, two more deliveries to make that night, and driven away, careful to check an app with the map of the city, like the actual delivery people did, before heading to her next destination. Whatever Drulović had decided to pull off this time, Qahtani did not want to stick around for all of it. And yet she knew she'd be there, as requested. And dressed quite differently, for that matter. For now, she had a delivery to make to the Aschen consulate.
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Post by demikara on Apr 7, 2020 12:27:54 GMT -6
So quickly. Hope memorized the address and shredded the note into small pieces, then found a candle to burn the pieces in. She had been in this business for awhile after all. The pizza didn't last long as Hope cleaned the house, packing away essentials and memories alike, but leaving behind furniture and less sentimental things. Everything was stored in her goggles, and Hope made certain her house was clean. Tomorrow at 5 am. She didn't sleep well that night, an internal alarm waking her up. Tired, she stretched back, then forward and shifted back to a two legged form and pulled on the clothes she had set out. It didn't look like she'd be returning here, and she made one last pass through the house before heading out and taking her hoverbike to the address.
Five am. She was right on time. Good, she hadn't been certain. She hadn't wanted to just port here, just in case, but it did mean they'd have to do something with her bike. She'd leave them with her keys and let them figure that out though. Based on the neighborhood, she may not need to worry about the bike though. It was kind of sketchy. It was 5 am. The pizza parlor wasn't likely to be open, but Hope tested the door anyway, just in case.
Drulovic would find her bribes well paid for this.
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Post by Ylanne on Apr 7, 2020 12:39:29 GMT -6
The door swung open on rusty hinges that strangely did not make a single sound. A portly man with thinning hair and a bald crown, a grease-spattered apron, and rough, dough-covered hands pulled it the rest of the way, a massive fire roaring in the brick oven less than ten feet away. Two dingy tables crammed into what passed for a "dining room," close enough where any patrons unfortunate enough to sit there would be practically breathing on each other's meals, but most of the space appeared to be taken over entirely by crates, boxes, and endless bags of dough, cheese, sauce, and other basic ingredients for pizzas, towering over the already rather tall proprietor. Then oven was clearly the centerpiece of the space, and there were three pizzas inside already, in varying stages of completion. The lights were only half-functional, but the shades were drawn in the windows, where a neon sign glowed "CLOSED" and a metal sign below it said "DELIVERIES/CARRYOUT ONLY." The name of the place wasn't even visible, the paint chipping on the sign, and the faded colors illegible before the sun would fully rise.
"You want her." The man pointed.
Qahtani had been perched, carefully and rather uncomfortable, atop the short counter, looking at something on a notepad. She was dressed in all black, much like the old woman was wont to do, black jacket, plain black trousers and shirt, combat boots that almost passed for civilian wear, and a simple black hijab tucked neatly into her collar. She looked up, her brown eyes almost seeming to glow in the light of the place. Barely visible behind her jacket, Hope could see Qahtani's wand tucked beside an old-fashioned pistol. She was, at least, prepared. "You've got everything you want to take? We won't be coming back."
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Post by demikara on Apr 7, 2020 12:45:13 GMT -6
Hope tapped he goggles on her head. "I've got it all stored here." She handed over her keys. "Have fun with the bike." It would probably be taken apart for parts. "I doubt I could take it with me." After all, she was disappearing. This would be very interesting after all. "What's the next step?" Where was she going now, what would she be doing? She was in the other's care at this point and it was more than a little intimidating. She had a lot of trust to give on this. The old woman better not be pulling anything. She didn't seem the type, but hey. They were both in intelligence. They could both seem like something they weren't.
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Post by Ylanne on Apr 7, 2020 12:55:47 GMT -6
The man had already turned back to the oven, removing one pizza on a giant wooden paddle before inserting another, freshly made. "We've got a lot of orders cooking in here," he said over his shoulder. "You all gotta head out back before Mikey gets here."
Qahtani took the keys, pocketing them. "I'll figure something out." She smiled, a genuinely friendly expression, though there was a bit of weariness underlying it. She hadn't been able to sleep much through the night, not with the other work she'd had to do. "We're headed for a private hangar." She jumped easily from the counter, landing near silently on the surprisingly clean tiled floor, and motioned for Hope to follow her, into what looked like a warren of restaurant storage. "We don't want to be seen anywhere near Stella's." Between the towering stacks of bins full of packets labeled flour and cornmeal, each weighing the same as half of Qahtani's weight, she navigated expertly through the maze, without once flipping on a single light in the back. As they receded from the main kitchen area, it grew darker and dimmer, and colder. Qahtani grabbed a particularly tall rack and with a grunt of exertion, dragged it a foot or so away, revealing a trapdoor in the floor. She pulled it open, careful not to let the door slam on the ground.
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Post by demikara on Apr 7, 2020 13:01:43 GMT -6
Hope followed through the maze with ease shifting her vision to accommodate the change in light level. The place was a mess, wasn't it. But apparently they did good business, and apparently good under the table business as well. "I figured you would. I didn't want to just port. The bike is clean though." She had always made sure to check for bugs periodically when it came to her vehicles. It was a habit that was hard to shake, but given their line of work, and her position in it...her soon to be former position. "Are we going off planet for the surgery?"
Or were they going to have it here? She'd have to recover here too. It had taken weeks to recover from the initial surgery. She barely remembered them, and had been kept asleep most of it while her body integrated the parts. "Or should I save questions for when we get to the transport?"
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Post by Ylanne on Apr 7, 2020 13:32:25 GMT -6
"It'll look like it," said Qahtani, stepping down into the space below the trapdoor. There was a ladder, but also what appeared to be rough-hewn shelving cut into the rock, where she stepped gingerly. "Don't forget to close the door behind you. It'll lock automatically." And then Qahtani could levitate that damn rickety shelf thing back over to cover the spot. "It's going to take us about forty-five minutes to walk through this tunnel. Will you be okay with that?" While waiting for Hope to follow, Qahtani looked up, watching, and withdrew her wand, quietly releasing several softly glowing orbs that floated ahead of them in the corridor, illuminating the rock and dirt walls, some partially crumbling or taken over by weeds. It had been in use a long time, this tunnel, for many wars and simple business exchanges alike. The old woman had sometimes trodden along here, insistent on going it alone, without help. Qahtani had always waited with wand at the ready just in case, but carefully kept it out of the old woman's view. She was stubborn. But then again, so was Qahtani.
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Post by demikara on Apr 7, 2020 13:39:53 GMT -6
Hope closed the door behind her and heard the lock click into place. She looked down the tunnel curiously. Old and rough, but these sorts of things tended to be, didn't they? "I'll be fine with that. I am- was- still active after all. It's important to stay in shape in this field." Otherwise, you could die. "Though I suppose I'll be leaving this field behind. I wonder how long it'll take me to get used to that." Probably a while. She had been in this field for a long time after all. Hope sighed. The world was rapidly changing. The facilities wouldn't be adjusted for an erutin, and she knew it. And she knew the surgery would be better done in her natural form, along with the healing.
Would the doctor be prepared for that, on such short notice? Staying in a human form would...would it get everything? Hope didn't understand, fully, how each step of shifting worked. She had never had to think it through after all. It just was for her, a feat of biology that came to her as easy as breathing.
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Post by Ylanne on Apr 7, 2020 14:02:16 GMT -6
"It could be a long time," Qahtani admitted, "maybe never. I can't imagine what it would be like." She'd always been in government, in one way or another. Law enforcement and intelligence were very different fields, but in some ways expected the same kinds of things from her. They moved briskly through the tunnel, the illuminating orbs floating ahead of them, keeping pace. It smelled of tree root and rainwater. All they could hear were their own breaths and steps. "Sorry there aren't more lights. The director never paid for them and sadly, I'm not an engineer or an electrician." Just clandestine operations. Trained first in magical academy. Not exactly a place you expected to find many future spies, even if you should. "How long before any Erutin will notice you're gone?"
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Post by demikara on Apr 7, 2020 14:07:32 GMT -6
Hope considered it. "I can keep up the electronic work right up until the surgery. I don't do in person meetings often since I have the chip. I think I'll miss my first meeting in two days. In five days though, I'm supposed to meet the empress. She'll know if I send a double, so by then the jig will be up. Hopefully they'll assume I was killed or something like that, but I doubt that's what's going to occur to her." Hope shrugged, an uncertain twist at her lips. "She'll assume the worst of me. She always does." So they'd have to put up with that.
"Realistically, we have five days, so long as I can continue to work remotely."
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Post by Ylanne on Apr 7, 2020 14:17:54 GMT -6
Qahtani nodded. Five days, then, huh. "I guess it's a good thing we got this set up so soon then." At one juncture, the tunnel appeared to branch in three separate directions, each fading entirely into darkness. But Qahtani saw the familiar vine hanging by the tunnel to the left, and turned that way, directing her orbs to spread down the path ahead of them. Something in the air shifted, became lighter and changed in scent. "The doctors are saying best to do it offworld, on their ship, but the old woman suggests a spot elsewhere on Terra. The doctors can do either. It's your head that's on the line, though. So what do you prefer?" Qahtani sounded friendly enough, and she meant to, though this was all entirely out of her wheelhouse. She did not envy Hope's position.
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Post by demikara on Apr 7, 2020 14:24:42 GMT -6
"Off world may be safer." She admitted. "Harder to track something off world after all. But with the recovery period, Terra may be a better choice. Besides, tracking on Terra s damned hard. The magic interferes with everything." Boy did it ever. They had needed to design tech specifically for Terra. Hope didn't have any of that on her or in her. She had been careful. She wanted one planet where she could be mostly anonymous at least. "So Terra, if the doctors can do it in either place." She was getting to make fun decisions from the get go, wasn't she?
"Does she do stuff like this often?" Rescue spies who would rather be free?
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Post by Ylanne on Apr 7, 2020 14:35:24 GMT -6
Qahtani considered that a moment. "Who, the Director?" None of them were ever likely to break that habit anytime soon. It didn't matter that Khayyam had orchestrated Drulović's ouster. She had been the bureau's director for so long it had become part of her identity, almost inseparable from the woman herself. "She likes to help people. She hates to see others suffer." The old woman had outright refused orders that had come down from the defense ministry, the prime minister now and those before her, had defied the Aschen and the Taiyou, but even her own country. It had gotten her stripped of her title and position in the end. Qahtani had never understood why the old woman had cared so much about Kendra Shaw, but she knew there had to be something. Qahtani kept moving, though her posture stiffened, her gaze looking down a moment. She hadn't seen the old woman since that day in court.
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Post by demikara on Apr 7, 2020 14:40:37 GMT -6
"I like helping people. But I don't call in favors this expensive for such a low price." She hadn't been asked for anything. Annoyed, Hope sighed. "I feel like I'm taking advantage of her." She wasn't thrilled with that at all. Hope shrugged, uncertain. "It should at least cost more, getting away from the empire." It shouldn't be so cheap, escaping. It was costing her...everything really. But she paid so little to the people helping her do it that she thought it was insane. Treasuring her kids...what little the other had asked...Hope felt damn near ready to give up state secrets at this generosity.
And wasn't that a trip.
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Post by Ylanne on Apr 7, 2020 14:50:37 GMT -6
"Maybe, for most people," said Qahtani, shrugging. "I've seen her do much more, for much less, before. All of us have." She glanced at Hope, walking with her. "She's got a lot of people in her debt. And when she comes to collect, it's usually to ask one of us to pay it forward somehow. And so... she sent me to come help you." Qahtani looked forward again, seeing the orbs come to a pause. They were still quite far, though they'd been at it for nearly ten minutes already. At one time, Qahtani had memorized every bit of this walk. But she hadn't been here since ... well. When the old woman asked her to take this route, she knew there was a damn good reason. But even Qahtani could not have predicted that this time, it would be the Erutin spymaster. "She's not finished with whatever all she's been working on. I don't think Terra will ever really hear the last of her." Qahtani folded her arms over her chest, but continued to tread carefully, not wanting the inconvenience of a twisted ankle. The ship would only wait for so long. Though it wasn't the ship that worried her, so much as the cloaked lightflyer. Têmardo it would be.
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