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Desirea expressed how sad she was that April, her favorite field agent, was no longer around, and also let her know that she knew, through conversations with Jessica, exactly what had transpired.
April, tentatively, wrote back, and being assured by Lyndsey that there was no chance of her email being traced back, - "They'd need a carrier pigeon to find us," were the exact words used, - and said she was happy to hear from Desirea, and she was disappointed to, but if Jessica wasn't going to help, then she had to do what was right for her.
What came back was a bonanza. Desirea mentioned that she empathized with April; if she'd had her way, they would be all in with Chris Morgan's group, and rounding up every agent they knew could be trusted into some kind of task force to take down these bastards. Apparently, some of her whispering in Jessica's ear had had some effect, and Jessica was now employing Talia and her group to 'keep tabs' on the Storm Clouds group, for her own edification. She wanted to know who was where, and when, and was employing Talia's group of researchers to see what they could dig up.
And since Desirea wanted to help, she'd included a dossier of what they'd found in the email, along with an appeal to "not mention this to anyone; her job was on the line here."
When they went through the dossier, they found all manner of interesting facts. Personnel moving from location to location. Some membership information, although not much and some of it was pure speculation based on locations and coming and goings of various people with public itineraries. It was all more information than Morgan's group already had, and they devoured it, doing their best to verify what they'd been given. April had discovered that Chris was a suspicious man, and very much inclined to look a gift horse in the mouth. But, as she expected, it all came up clean. They discovered that the man who had taken Chris' wife from him, the big man with the slight accent, was named Michael Turnbull. He had, in fact, been brought up in the UK, although he'd been born in Syracuse, New York.
He was the de facto Chief Operating Officer of the Storm Clouds group, responsible for the running of all the branches. He had built the organization into what it was today, and held pretty much absolute power, while doing the boards bidding. And when it came to the board, there were apparently two boards. One public facing one, who were mere figure heads, and a second board, who actually made the decisions. There were many partners in the company too, none of which were public knowledge, nor where the second board membership.
It was Turnbull who had implemented the secrecy of PCs installed on USB devices, and Turnbull who had created the infrastructure that allowed many rich and powerful people to have their fantasies played out, no matter how depraved, or who was involved. There were no evidential records, of course, but some was inferred just from the records of who came out of the Storm Clouds clutches, and where they went once they did, and with whom.
Of course Morgan, at root, wanted to know two things, - the current locations of Michael Turnbull, and Trisha Morgan. And, unfortunately, neither was in the packet of information forwarded on by Desirea.
April sent a very appreciative email to Desirea, and asked for any updates on the movements of the two people Chris was most interested in, if Ingrams team should see it.
Desirea did reply, asking where April was, but, adhering to Morgan's desire for secrecy, she just pointed out that if Desirea didn't know, she couldn't pass that information on, inadvertently or not.
They ended up casing the Storm Clouds establishment just outside of Bangkok proper, located in the prosperous district of Sai Mai. After watching and tracking for almost four months, they infiltrated the building, this time using a ruse involving a broken-down bus, full of travelers from outside the city. They were tourists, wearing colorful outfits, and by coincidence, face altering makeup, of the variety normally used with fat suits, in the movies. Enough to fool face tracking software, at any rate.
After the information from Desirea, they did discover that one of the couriers, carrying the mini PC USB sticks, was in transit to the Bangkok Storm Clouds facility, and they then decided to intercept him, and try and get his USB stick. Better than trying to brave the facility yet again; they were running out of ways to get in undetected. Better to grab this guy in transit and get the data they needed that way.
They concocted a plan, - elaborate in initial proposal, and Chris just kept iterating and simplifying and iterating and simplifying, explaining that "a plan with more than five moving parts is asking for something to fail or get screwed up."
Further to that, he pointed out, "As it is, something is likely to go wrong anyway. With only five steps, when it does go wrong, it becomes that much easier for those involved to work out what to do to get it to the next step."
They built a plan involving replacing the driver assigned to pick the courier up at the airport. April was involved in working out who was assigned to that task, - and determined it was actually two people; the driver and his partner. Storm Clouds was taking no risks with picking up their people. From there, the plan called for Chris in broad daylight, dressed as a local cop, to replace the driver waiting in the waiting area, while his partner picked up the courier inside the airport arrivals. April protested that Chris, dressed as a Thai Cop, would stick out like a sore thumb in a snow storm, but she was voted down when she didn't have a better suggestion.
April would jump in the back of the limo, when the two got in, because the pickup agent would almost certainly realize the driver was not his partner. April would be armed and subdue the two in the back, and, once they were clear of the city, administer knock out drugs to the pair. Once they were out, the limo would be driven to a deserted building, where the team would search both men and the luggage, for the USB stick.
Once found, Chris would return the two unconscious men to the Storm Clouds building, dumping them out, and then abandoning the vehicle in another part of the city.
That was the operational outline. And, as Chris had predicted, it did not go according to plan.
They picked up the driver, right where he was supposed to be, and Chris subdued him, dumping him in the trunk. The two men, - the courier and the pickup agent, - climbed in the limo exactly as the plan called for, and April jumped in, unexpectedly. The two men were taken unawares. And April was astounded to see she was staring into the dead eyes of none other than Gene Rainer himself. He was the courier.
She could see he was as taken by surprise as she was, but she held the gun on him anyway. She smiled coldly at him. She and he would be having words when they had got what they wanted from him, she owed him that.
"Chris," she said, as Morgan glanced around from the driver's position. "We have an unexpected catch here. This is Gene Rainer. Last seen in Spain, dropping off a bomb. I think we may have some catching up to with him, right?"
Morgan grunted, "Sure. He has a lot to answer for..." and started the car moving.
Rainer was silent, and looked away from April, staring out the car window.
April held the gun on them, and they started to drive to the rendezvous with the rest of the team, and in making conversation, April used the words, "USB key", and suddenly all hell broke loose. Both men just suddenly appeared to lose their shit, ignoring the threat of the gun entirely. Rainer suddenly started stamping his feet on the floor, as hard as he could, and the pickup agent threw himself at April. She was taken totally unawares, and ended up clubbing him with the gun, and then grappling with Rainer who while thin, had a wiry strength to him. Chris pulled over, jumped out and ran to the back of the car, opening it to join the fray.
He eventually got a neck lock on Rainer, when suddenly he just relaxed, and went limp, his body just sagging. Chris draped him on the ground, next to the car door, and crouched down, examining him. April knelt down next to him.
"He's not breathing. I think he's dead," he declared, sitting up after listening at the man's chest and using his phone as a reflective surface, holding it under his nose, to look for breath smudges.
"In fact..." he continued, reaching down and sniffing at his mouth and noting foam around Rainer's lips. Chris declared, "Wow. Cyanide. Not seen that in... well, ever. It's a bitter smell, apparently that's the giveaway."
"You're not serious," said April, staring at Chris in wonder. "A Cyanide capsule? That's just so fucking James Bond."
"Yeah, look," said Chris, forcing Rainer's mouth open. "Look, cracked molar. Holy shit. This is real old school cloak and dagger shit. These guys play for keeps."
"He'd die for what he's carrying?" asked April, still not believing what she was looking at.
"Well, I doubt it was his choice. He's probably programmed. Something you said set them off. Still, no loss, knowing who this is."
"But what's he doing here? You think he knew we were here?" she asked, suddenly worried and glancing around.
"Doubtful. If he did, he'd have come with a lot of backup. We'd have been taken as soon as we got in the car. I think he's just a courier right now. Probably as punishment for not getting us in Spain. Still, it does confirm that he works for Storm Clouds, and he was out to get us with the bomb. At least we know that."
"Shit," said April, suddenly realizing why Rainer had been stamping his foot. "Give me his shoes?"
Chris looked at her quizzically, but did as she asked. And sure enough, in the heel of one of the expensive shoes, they found a USB shaped cutout, with a shattered USB key in it.
"Damn!" Chris hissed, frustration brimming out. He slumped back in the seat, next to the dead courier. "FUCK. All that time wasted. And this guy... dead."
"Well, let's get to the rendezvous anyway. Maybe there's another one, or something in the car or luggage that can help us?" said April, glancing around and looking for any building mounted cameras. She didn't see any, which helped the hammering of her heart in her chest slow a little.
"Yeah, I guess you are right," replied a defeated sounding Chris. He got out and went back to the driver's position, and pulled out, taking the car to the meeting point.
Once there, there was more bad news. On looking in the trunk, they discovered that the driver had come around, and had also triggered his own 'death tooth', as Beatrice coined it. The only survivor was his partner, and, once he regained consciousness, it was clear he was trying to activate his tooth, - his eyes were crazed and there was no reasoning with him. He was just insane for trying to injure himself. April stuffed his own socks in his mouth to stop him crunching down on his tooth, and then Chris applied a neck lock that had him unconscious in seconds.
They searched the bodies, the car and Rainer's very basic luggage, and found nothing of any value. The only thing of any interest was the passport and ID, both of which they discovered later, were fake. Or, real, but in the names of people who'd been dead for the past five years, they discovered when Lyndsey did the research later.
The only debate at that point was what to do with the man who was still alive. In the end, a note was written, detailing what the sleeping man would try and do when he woke up, and the car, - with the dead bodies and the unconscious survivor, - was dumped outside a hospital.
After the USB key misadventure, a demoralized team called in Wendy, and decamped to Moscow, to start the whole process again. While Chris' team had performed many illegal acts in the past, people actually dying on them was not something anyone besides Chris, - and April, to a point, - had any experience in. That those deaths had not resulted in any actionable intelligence, only in loss of life, was an even harder pill to swallow. They were devoted to stopping cataclysmic events, not creating them. There was much discussion and late-night sessions with April after this event. Several of the team were extremely demotivated, and it took everything April had to persuade them to stay on, that they'd get what they needed.
And then, after three months of observation in Moscow, a miracle occurred.
April got an email from Desirea.
* * * * *
"Hey, Chris, come look at this?" she shouted, jerking up from the lounging pose she'd been sitting in, while looking at her little Microsoft Surface Pro, pointing at it wildly.
They were sitting in a somewhat decrepit building they'd leased, in the Kuzminki District, south and east of Moscow proper. They'd been there several months, and April had still only learnt the most basic of Russian phrases, instead letting Chris take the lead, since he was fluent.
They'd been generally staking out the local Storm Clouds building, and not finding a way in so far, and April was taking it easy for a few days. She was starting to seriously worry about her family planning implant, since it was due right around then to be renewed, and she wasn't sure how to go about getting another one, at least not in Moscow. She'd seriously started to think about asking Desirea to send her one, using Wendy as a cutout in Hong Kong, and thus had opened her email to send a request, and discovered what was waiting for her in inside her inbox.
"Chris! Come here, quick," she shouted again, sitting up and checking the email, and it's attachment a second time.
"What?" Chris protested, coming in to the room she was working, bare chested and sweaty. Such was April's immersion in what she was looking at, she barely glanced at him, even though such an image would have got her hot and bothered any other time. She had learned to stay out of the room when Chris was working out with his cheap free weights he bought new everywhere they went, abandoning them when they moved on.
"Desirea found them! Trish and Turnbull! They are in New York! Or, they will be, in two weeks. Look. Ingrams found reservations for them at the Four Seasons."
"Really?" inquired Chris, bending down to read the screen. April was uncomfortably aware of his proximity, and his musky smell.
"Well, look at that. I'm surprised they are using their own names though. I guess they don't feel like they have much to fear from us. Or anyone else, for that matter," he said, straightening up.
"Is that usual?" asked April.
"I've no idea. We've never found them before. That said, they probably aren't aware that we, - I, - am looking for them specifically. I mean, why use fake names if there's no need?"
"Yeah, I guess," answered April. "Makes sense. Helps us though. I guess you wouldn't know if they normally stayed at the club facilities or not. Seems a bit... ostentatious though? This high-end hotel?" she mused.
"This is good. I have contacts in that area that can help," mused Chris, obviously thinking of logistics.
He smiled, looking down at April. "Well, guess we need to get Wendy on the phone then?"
April looked up at him, running her tongue around her teeth inside her mouth.
"Can it wait an hour?" she inquired, staring intently into his eyes and communicating a large amount without saying anything.
"Oh, I'm sure..." was all Chris got out before April pushed herself upright and just grabbed him, kissing him for all she was worth.
* * * * *
A week later, - over a very angry Wendy's objections, in both written and verbal form, - they were in New York State. She had to put off a shipment of who knows what to get them from Moscow to the States, and she gave them no guarantees of her ability to do it undetected, which was something she was extremely unhappy about. But, she did it, using two private aircraft and a shipment of turbines, delivering them to upstate New York early in the morning.
The team was ensconced in some disused office space in Brooklyn, provided by an old friend of Chris Morgan. Jon Bones, a man with florescent orange hair, and a huge old-fashioned handlebar mustache, had met them in the commercial terminal at Rochester International airport, and just grabbed Chris in a bear hug the moment they had climbed out of the shipping boxes they'd been stuck in for the past twelve hours.
"Dude! So good to see you!" he said, smiling like a lunatic.
"Hey, Jon. Glad you were here to meet us. Jesus, I'm getting old," said Chris, cracking his back. Twelve hours of sitting hunched in a box will do that to anyone.
"Hey, Bea," said Jon, as Beatrice crawled out.
Beatrice smiled at Jon and punched him in the shoulder. "How's Meredith?"
"Good. Great in fact. Just got certified as a Physician Assistant in fact."
"Awesome," replied Beatrice, also stretching her back. "Even shackled to you, she's done well. Kudos to her."
April climbed out next, and Jon glanced at her, then turned to the rest of the team as they crawled out of the box.
"Man, I'm glad to be out of there," said Darrell. "I need the bathroom. Hey, Jon."
Eventually the entire team had greeted Jon, and it was only April left. April surmised he had been part of this team at some point.
"And who is this?" Jon inquired.
"New recruit. This is April Carlisle," Chris explained. "She's had practical experience of Storm Clouds, and she is the first person I've met who was able to resist it. And she tracked us down. Almost got us blown up. It's a long story."
"Wow. Sounds like it. I want to hear that! We've got a long drive down to Brooklyn, tell it to me. Keep me awake," exclaimed Jon, eye brows raised. "Welcome, April," he said, opening his arms to embrace her. "As you may have guessed, I was part of this team for a while."
April shrugged. If he was alright with Chris, then... She stepped into his embrace, and got a hug the likes of which she'd never had before. Whoever this Jon Bones guy was, he knew his hugging business.
"Let's go. I have a bus outside," he said, turning to go. "Grab whatever you need."
The team always travelled light, and only brought a few bags with clothes and computers. They grabbed them and followed Jon out to a party bus, parked outside the terminal.
"So, yeah," Jon said, falling in beside April. "My wife, Meredith, came into the clutches of these vampires. She had no real idea of what these bastards were up to. Thankfully, we got to her before they could get their tentacles into her too much. Like you, she is just too strong willed to go easily. Once she realized what they were doing, she resisted, and we got in there and got her out, back in Texas. We moved out here to New York to get away from those memories."
"Did it work?" inquired April.
"Somewhat. I don't think it will ever go away completely. You know how it is..."
April nodded, more because there didn't seem to be anything else to say to that.
"Chris there, he helped me. I met him via some forum I was on, looking for information on what goes on behind closed doors at these clubs. I had no idea the Pandora's box I was opening."
He shrugged. "He helped me get her out. Get her help. I owe him. We couldn't continue in his merry little band though. He wouldn't let us anyway. So, we've made a life out here, and it's a good one."
"Well, that's good," murmured April. "I hope our story ends as well."
Jon glanced over at April, speculatively.
"What is your story? If you don't mind my asking?"
April smiled grimly. "Long story," she said, simply.
"Long drive," responded Jon, with a smile.
* * * * *
They loaded up the van and were away, as the first tendrils of light were coming over the eastern horizon, yawning all the way. The rest of the team made themselves as comfortable as they could in the bus, and Chris and April sat up front, where April explained her background, and how she came to be a part of the team.
