Operation: Reality Check

Early on Wednesday morning, several men were gathered together in a small conference room in an otherwise unassuming office building. Each of them wore The New Path silver compass as a pin on the lapel of their black suits. It was the same logo that was emblazoned on the top of the building. They were not made to wait long before yet another man entered the room. He wore the same pin, but his pinstripe suite looked tailor made. He walked with a sense of purpose, moving directly to the podium at the from of the room.

"Thank you all for coming here on such short notice. My name is Jonathan Javian. As many of you know, we have a bit of a situation on our hands. We're hoping it might be nothing, but we must be prepared for the worst," He addressed all those in the room, and though he wore a pleasant smile there was a sense of urgency in his voice.

"Very simply put, Kimberly Scott has gone missing. Scott is one of our more celebrated and accomplished security contractors in the information department. She has an impeccable record of service and has never failed to make her daily report until just yesterday. All attempts to contact her have failed. For those of you who might not understand, an agent in the field who does not report in can mean almost anything. She may have simply been unable to check in due to personal negligence, though her record suggests that is unlikely. On the other hand, she may be in grave danger at this very moment. In light of the worst case scenario, we must take action as quickly as possible. Hopefully, it will all be for nothing and this will just be a wasted effort and a wild goose chase. As per standard protocol, we need to send in a small team to investigate her disappearance and provide support if needed. That support team will be those of you gathered here," Javian explained the general situation, hoping that all present would be fully caught up with that.

"Scott was working undercover at a local newspaper, she was known to frequent a coffee shop after work, she lived and operated out of an apartment that she rented here in the same town. These are the three locations I suggest you start your investigation," He went into just a bit more detail, then gestured to the various beige files that had previously been passed out to each of the individuals in the room.

"Please refer to the provided dossier for more information that might help you in your investigation. I'd also like to remind everyone that these are the United States and that civilian casualties will not be tolerated. New Path does not have the authority to roam the streets mowing down enemy hostiles wherever we see fit. That's why we're prepared to equip you all with non-lethal weapons and ammunition as needed," Javian went on to add as he began to step down from the podium. The tall man began making his way closer to the others in the room.

"Finally, due to a shortage of time and available man power, we have decided to hire an outside contractor to shore up our numbers," he gestured to the only man in the room not wearing a silver compass pin.

"Would you please take a moment to introduce yourself?" he'd state with his friendly smile, as he gave the floor to the additional help they had hired for this mission.

Quick Scope was pleased, a corporation like New Path would pay well even for a small mission like this. "Looks like I will be able to afford some more protective gear..." the gun for hire thought as he did one last inventory check. "Honestly, is money really all you can think about QS?" Rajesh admonished him causing Quick Scope to snort out loud, however he quickly regained his professional composure as the man hiring him walked into the room.
"He knows how to control and focus the crowd rather well" Rajesh noted, Quick Scope nodded in agreement as he partially listened to the client's debrief, but his full attention was brought to the front as the spotlight was placed on him, "Crap..." Quick Scope thought as he made his way to the podium, "I hate public speaking..."
As briskly as possible the gun for hire addressed the crowd, "My name is Quick Scope and I will be working with you all for the duration of this mission. I am primarily a sniper and secondly as a scout"

"Thank you, Quick Scope," Javian followed up Scope's introduction rather quickly.

"I'm sure your ability to scout out the situation and spot targets will come in handy. While you work with us, you're welcome to use our gear. You'll find radio frequencies in the dossier you were handed. You can tune your own equipment in or borrow some of ours. The others will help you out," Javian gave some instructions just for Quick Scope. With that done, he gave everyone one last look over.

"Remember everyone. Do things by the numbers. We don't need heroes. Now, I'll leave you to it," he'd wait by the door for moment, encase anyone had any other questions, but then he'd take his leave of the group. With him gone, the others would relax a little. There were not many of them. One of them, a young man with round glasses approached Quick Scope.

"Nice to meet you, Quick Scope. I'm Jerald. I'll be Soothsayer 01 for this op. That's what we call the coordinator. I'll be hanging back here at HQ and handling all the logistics. You need a vantage point, or the floor plan to the building you're in, just call it in," he explained as he offered he hand to shake.

There were only two other men in suits in the room, they were discussing something while going over the dossier, but came up after Soothsayer was done with his introduction.

"Hi, I'm Jim Hopper, or Assassin 02," Another young man said with a nod, also offering his hand to shake.

"Assassin 01. Use Sin and Sayer for short. Try to keep chatter on the comms light," the other man stated flatly. He was a middle aged man. If QS had shook the other's hands, he'd also offer his hand to shake.

"Eh heh, do you prefer Scope or Quick?" Sin 02 said in a bit more of a friendly tone.

"We're trained to work together, and with mercenaries like you. Though for legal purposes, you've been hired as a temporary security contractor- not a mercenary," Sin 01 would do yet more explaining to the new guy. The hiring of mercenaries was prohibited in the modern age by the United Nations Mercenary Convention. However, there's nothing wrong with hiring a security guard or a body guard. A security contractor could still be considered an illegal combatant if they behaved a certain way on a battlefield. The devil was always in the details.

"Walk with us to the armory," Sin 01 instructed, more than invited.

"We know how we like to operate, that's why it's up to you to make your voice heard if you want to do something. At least, that is if you want our support in the matter. So tell me, new guy, where do you think we should start our investigation? Do you think we should split up, or stay together? The boss man himself choose to remind us to keep things quiet. Should we only use non-lethal, or should we pack live ammo- just encase?" Sin 01 shot a bunch of difficult questions over to QS. He had to. There wasn't a lot of time to get to know each other, and they might be putting their lives in each other's hands during this job.

By the time he was done asking these questions, they had arrived at the armory. It was a small room, packed with many shelves of ordinance and equipment. However, all of it was beyond a counter. More men in suits sat behind the counter, and handed forms to the team. They began filling out what they wanted to request for the mission. After reviewing the requests, the men behind the counter would prepare what was needed and hand it over.

QS, was also handed a form. It seemed like now was the time to request extra things he might need or want.

Quick Scoped sighed in relief as his client took charge once again, public speaking was really not his forte. Give him someone to shoot any day and he would be able to deal with it but talking to large crowds was not in his job description. "Oh just hurry up and read the file QS" Raj quipped as Javian handed them a dossier, "We should probably request for some non-lethal ammo seeing as how they wanted us to minimize the death count"
Quick Scope nodded slightly in agreement as he glanced over the information presented to him, it was as he was scanning the dossier's content that a young man wearing glasses walked up to and greeted him, "Thank you Soothsayer, I look forward to working with you" the gun for hire quickly replied and shook the offered hand. "He seems nice!" Raj added cheerfully causing Quick Scope to smirk slightly underneath his mask.
As the other two men came up and introduced themselves the sniper shook both their offered hands. "I will attempt to keep the chatter as light as possible" He told Sayer in an equally flat tone, this one was someone not to be trifled with. In response to Sin Quick Scope shrugged, "I don't particularly mind although most people I work with tend to use QS..." he suggested quietly.
As soon as Sayer made the suggestion Quick Scope found himself agreeing to head to the armory seeing as he needed to pick up some non-lethal ammo for this mission. On the way Sin began firing question at him about how they should go about the mission, "We should probably split up, that way we cover more ground and on the matter of ammo, pack both. It is always a good idea to be prepared for all situations".
When they arrived at the armory the gun for hire swiftly filled out the form he was handed and requested a Glock-17 hand gun and non-lethal ammo for it. While they were waiting for the new equipment Quick Scope began adjusting the radio that he'd been given and matched it to the frequency that was to be used for this mission. "Looks like we're almost ready to go..."

The Dossier would reveal some basic information on the situation. Most of it was already covered, and not much jumped out at QS. He also wasn't given much time to go into the documents. There was a picture of the missing agent, though. It looked like an official picture taken for record purposes. There were more details about her cover story as well. She was working as a human interest reporter. The last time she reported to work was last Friday, when she worked for a full day. Though it is unclear when she last checked in with them.

With all of the greetings out of the way, the team felt a little bit more at ease. It felt like they could work together with QS pretty easily. Of course, no one objected to calling him QS.

"Interesting tactics. We tend to stick together," Soothsayer replied to QS's answers.

"Scott was operating as a lone agent, and whatever she ran into might have taken her out. What are the chances that when we find out what happened to her, we meet the same fate?" Sin 01 replied to QS's answers in a more through manner.

"Though, carrying both types of ammo is not a bad idea. Consider requesting a silencer if you don't have one," Sin 02 added as they reached the armory.

What QS had requested was not unreasonable, even if he decided to ask for a silencer at the last moment. There was no mention of fee, but it was probably expected that he return what he could. They did mention that there would be forms to fill out if he didn't return something. Each of the men requested a handgun of a certain type, some non-lethal and lethal rounds, and a silencer. After they recieved everything they needed, they'd nod to Sayer as he went off on his own separate way. The other two would begin to show the way to the garage.

"We're cleared to use these two cars," Sin 02 pointed out two indistinct town cars, both in black.

"Of course you can use your own wheels if you got them," he added.

"So which of the three locations are you heading to? We'll be sticking together wherever we go. Do you still want to go solo, or do you want backup?" Sin 01 would ask. They'd make their movements based on his answer here.

As QS was handed the new gun he pulled out two of his own silencers and attached them to the glock and to his own sniper rifle. "The threat may be greater than one agent could handle alone...A point well made Sin" QS slipped into one of the cars as he conversed with the two remaining members of the team, "Meet me at Scott's apartment, there's bound to be something there on what she was working on before she disappeared"
After revving up the engine QS drove out of the base and started towards the apartment address listed in the dossier, "What could have caused a highly trained agent to just disappear like this anyway QS?" Raj questioned as they headed to the city. "I don't know Raj but I highly doubt that she hasn't checked in on accident...she's definitely in some sort of trouble"

"Affirmative," Sin 01 replied. He and 02 got into the other car and followed after QS.

The drive would not take long, and since they were headed there directly it'd still be early morning when they arrived. Along the way, Soothsayer would contact them over their comms, if they were tuned into them.

"All units, check in. This is Soothsayer 01, testing comm frequencies," Sayer would call in.

"Assassin 01. Loud and clear," Sin 01 would reply.

"Assassin 02. Loud and clear," Sin 02 would similarly reply. There'd be a pause for QS to check in if he choose to. After that, Soothsayer would continue from back at the office building they left behind.

"...Alright, confirm the line is secure. So you guys are heading for the apartment? Good choice," Soothsayer's voice would soften up a bit after the line check was done.

"How do you guys intend to get in? If you guys decide to break in, you should try to make it look like a burglary," Sayer would suggest.

"We could also try to get the key from the landlord. Though, Scott's cover story had no connection to the New Path. We have no actual authority to search her apartment, and no way to prove our connection to her," Sayer would go on to describe.

"What do you think, QS?" Sin 01 would again pose the question to him.

"Quick Scope. Loud and clear" QS checked in with everyone else, "Sin 01 and 02 we will be breaking in, Soothsayer I need you to check if Scott had any neighbors or friends that might we may run into while entering the site. During this we will all be using non-lethal weapons, it is unlikely that lethal force will be necessary".
QS had Soothsayer check for two reasons, this way they knew more people who they could possibly interrogate for information on Scott's location or what she was doing before or disappearance and secondly so that they were ready for anyone who could have a possible reason to enter the site while they were searching for clues.

No one seemed to complain or object to the orders QS gave.

"Good thinking, QS. I'll get right on that," Soothsayer replied rather positively. He began checking over the dossier right away. Meanwhile, the two cars pulled up to a five story apartment building in a typical residential district. The kind you'd find in any old town. It was an old looking building, but by no means run down. It had a central stairwell, but no elevator. That old. Rustic, they'd call it in marketing.

"Hmm. No persons of interest, aside from the landord- being a landlord. It's apartment #303 guys," he was tracking them through gps, as well as monitoring the basic life readings from Sin team. QS wasn't using their radio equipment, so they weren't keeping track of him. The cars themselves had their own GPS, though.

"Heads up guys, the bathroom and bed room have window access to the back alley. Oh, and the bedroom even has fire escape access," Sayer would tip them off before they could get out of the car. The Sin duo nodded to each other, then they seemed to look to QS. Once again, they'd begin moving in order to support him.

QS pulled out his borrowed glock as he listened to Soothsayer and loaded in some non-lethal ammo,"Good work Sayer, Sin 1 and 2 you will enter the site through the front door after I head up the fire escape and check out the apartment". After relaying his orders he quickly moved around the building to the back where the fire escape was located, "I wonder if anyone actually uses these?" Raj thought as QS made his way up the rusting metal staircase and to the windows of room #303. "Shut up Raj, I'm working here..." QS muttered under his breath, he had made it to the right room and stealthily scanned the room from the shadows using his hawk's vision, depending on what he saw he would tell Sin 1 and 2 to enter armed or unarmed.

Sin 01 and 02 also made sure non-lethal ammo was loaded into their guns, but then concealed them. Neither would argue with QS's orders. It seemed like he was settling into the role of leader quite nicely. They'd give him just a short head start, then begin to casually walk up to the front door.

The windows would be locked. Each apartment door was also locked. The building itself seemed to be open, though. There was no system for a buzzer or anything like that.

Beyond the window, QS would see a modestly furnished apartment. It seemed pretty neat and tidy. Certainly not a bachelor's apartment, though not excessively frivolous either. There was no suspicious figures or movement that QS could spot. However, he could only reliably see most of the bedroom.

After ensuring that there was no visible threat QS spoke into his radio, "All clear on my end, Sin 1 and 2 begin investigation of the apartment from your end, I'll start from the bedroom, remember we're looking for any kind of hint of what Scott was working on before she disappeared or hints as to where she's gone to ground alright?"

"Affirmative," was all Sin 01 whispered into his comm as 02 picked the lock to the front door. He wouldn't be able to do it without leaving some kind of marks on the lock, so he went all out. He intentionally tried to make it look like a clumsy amateur trying to break his way into the apartment.

The lock to the bedroom window could not be accessed from QS's side of the window. The only way in, would be to cut or break through the glass to reach the lock.

The room beyond the window was dominated by a queen-sized bed against the far wall. Against the wall that connects the bedroom with the living room stands a dresser with an attached mirror, and next to that is a small closet. Both the dresser and the closet are full of clothes, and atop the dresser is a jewelry box containing various pieces of inexpensive costume jewelry. Against the outer wall of the bedroom is a computer desk that supports a tower PC, a large CRT monitor, and a color printer.

QS quickly pulled out one of his diamond tipped bullets and used it to cut open a hole large enough for his hand to slip in and slip the lock open. Within seconds QS was inside the bedroom and looking around, "Sin 1 and 2 are either of you much good at hacking? i've got a computer in Scott's bedroom it may have what we were looking for" As QS relayed his orders he looked around the bedroom to see if anything was out of place and if there were any signs of a fight or a struggle.