<strong>The Major - Getting a little worried about the timing, here!</strong><br/><br/><tt class="bbc_tt"><em>Major?</em></tt>Iffy intruded on Anne's thoughts. Anne wasn't watching the show. She was going over the plan in her head one more time to make sure she hadn't missed anything. She'd checked it a hundred times already, but she had seen her lover torment her prey often enough. She knew how it would end, and the smell of blood was making her breakfast sit rather uneasily.<br/><br/><em>Yes, Iffy?</em><br/><br/><tt class="bbc_tt"><em>Desmond just activated a bomb. It's not on any circuit I can get at to disarm. We have about two minutes to detonation.</em></tt><br/><br/><em>Thank you, Iffy. I'll deal with it.</em><br/><br/>Anne sighed and stood up. "Sorry, Niki, but there's no time for this". She stepped from behind the table. Her silenced Browning swung from behind her, lined up on the crippled girl's head and emitted a soft<em>phut</em>. A hole appeared between Kate's eyes.<br/><br/>She glanced around . "Apologies, ladies and gentlemen. My name is Major Anne Laughton and I'm the CEO of Iron Fist. The evil bitch who just earned herself half an hour with a mop and bucket is my second in command, Nikita Stack." She turned to Desmond, her gun slipping back into her back holster. "Mr Webber. I'm sure you have no more desire to die than the rest of us. Please deactivate your bomb, and we will say no more about it. NIKI! PUT THE FUCKING GUN AWAY!"<br/><br/>She knew her second in command too well. She didn't even turn to look, to know that Stack's firearm was lining up on Desmond.<br/><br/>"You all came here with suspicion in your heads. Is this a trap? Is someone after you? Why so much money? I will answer your questions in time. But first, I would like to assure you that this is a genuine offer of employment, the money is real, the client is real, the target is real. That..." She nodded in the direction of the fresh corpse "... Was supposed to be our replacement Sys-Op."<br/><br/>She resumed her seat. "Mr. Preston, it seems you might be in with a chance to redeem yourself! Iffy, play the sequence...."<br/><br/>The holo-projector lit up and displayed a recording from the last mission.<br/><br/><div class="quoteheader"><div class="topslice_quote">Quote</div></div><blockquote class="bbc_standard_quote">“Good news, people, we have a replacement locksmith meeting us on-site.”<br/><br/>She strode up the ramp and onto the blimp, making her way to the pilot’s seat. The man sitting there didn’t stand a chance. The silencer was already on the Berretta as Anne put it to his forehead, as he turned, and pulled the trigger. There was a soft PHUP, and the back of his head exploded.<br/><br/>“ONI?” she yelled. “Get in here and clean up this mess... you created it, you clean it!”<br/><br/>As she passed him on her way out to make sure everything was loaded, she murmured “If I wanted a pilot, I would have asked for one!”<br/><br/>When the Major yelled for him to get forward and clean up some mess, Oni suppressed a groan. Sure enough, a dead body waited for him in the cockpit “You gotta be fucking kidding. Who’s going to fly us!” He shouted as she left. She didn’t say shit about no pilot, and he was convinced the poor bastard’s death was meant purely to fuck with him. They’re in an airport…where the hell is he going to hide a body out here!?<br/><br/>Anne heard Oni's shouted question about who was going to fly them, and turned. "Oh, I thought you were a pilot. Oh well, if you aren't you're no further use to me." She levelled the Berretta at Oni, aimed directly between the eyes. As she pulled the trigger, there was a click. "Oh man, your face!" She grinned at him and shoved the clip back into the weapon.<br/><br/>And then her expression turned hard. "Do not, ever, question my actions or orders again, or next time I won't eject the clip."<br/><br/>She turned to the others. "Anyone able to fly one of these things please raise your hand?"<br/><br/>She didn't actually care whether any of the others raised theirs, because her own hand was in the air. "Who me? Why yes, I can, fancy that!"<br/><br/>’Stay frosty, Oni…stay fucking frosty'. No where on the ship…that would be a problem for later. He had glimpsed a maintenance bot cleaning around the airport, a distance away and nodded. The bot had no ties to his ship, like the cargo hold did. The pilot would be identified, but hopefully they’d be in the air and miles away by then. ’Worth a shot…’ he thought as he closed his eyes.<br/><br/>The freefall to the airport’s security was surprisingly lax, but maybe that was because he was accessing their bot servers. Who the fuck thinks anyone’s going for the bots, right? He had to make this quick, which means he had his trust cleaner right behind him as he moved. In and out, and no one gets hurt…except for his present company meat-side. Once the proper change was made to the bot, and specific directions given, Oni slipped back out of the net and the cleaner took care of his egress before it simply dissolved and vanished.<br/><br/>When he opened his eyes again, Oni saw the bot now driving towards the airship. “Well…let’s get this shit done” he muttered, as he dragged the pilot’s body out of his seat. Moments later, he was feeling a little clammy and cleaning off some of the more minute traces of blood and brain splatter. It was through sheer will that he didn’t add to the mess with his own insides.</blockquote><div class="quotefooter"><div class="botslice_quote"></div></div><br/>Anne was grinning at Oni. "You bumbling idiot! You got all the others killed, you blew the mission and got yourself burned! I wondered how they knew we were even there... why the fuck they were waiting for us. So I had Iffy run a check, after the three of us got out. Airport security found the fucking pilot. They knew which flight he was supposed to be on. They traced the flight then alerted MI5. Those bastards are not stupid. They had their AI put two and two together and came up with a list of possible targets along our flight path, and alerted all of them." She sighed and shook her head, sadly. "Oni, you made two mistakes. You exceeded your orders twice. I told you to get us a blimp, not get us a pilot, and I told you to clean the mess up, not dispose of the body!"<br/><br/>Her eyes went to the corpse again. "Fortunately for you, she made a worse one. Disobeying an order, no matter how stupid or trivial that order may be, is not something I tolerate. And I need a Sys-Op on this job. Iffy, open Oni's channel to BigBoi. (http://elliquiy.com/forums/index.php?topic=95725.msg4267928#msg4267928) Let him get his AI rebooted, and back on-line."<br/><br/>She turned to the others. "Introductions, then... Richard 'Oni' Preston, Sys-Op. Alexander 'Grim Reaper' Jackson, Point man. Desmond Webber, Demolitions. Kacy Anderson, Close combat support and back-up point. Calvin 'Longshot' Wallace, Overwatch. The black box on the table is the Iron Fist Artificial Intelligence, I.F.A.I. or Iffy for short."<br/><br/><tt class="bbc_tt">"Nice to meet you all".</tt>The AI chimed in.<br/><br/>"Now, I'm sure you all have your exit strategies in case it turned out to be a trap. Well, so did I, in case any of you decided to have a go at me. The curtain, please, Iffy?"<br/><br/>The curtain at the far end of the room swung aside to reveal a cute, buxom blond, sitting on a chair behind a small table, on which sat a vicious looking heavy machine gun. "The final member of the team, Francine Littlejohn. Frannie is my PA and back-up. She doesn't go feet wet. It's her job to refund the client's deposit if it all goes tits up! Normally she wouldn't even be this close, but this time out, we have a special job for you, don't we Fran!"<br/><br/>"Yes Major". Frannie giggled, getting up and taking the empty seat at the table.<br/><br/>"So, ladies and gents. I imagine you are wondering why I called you all here?"<br/><br/><tt class="bbc_tt">"Because they're the very best at being bad?"</tt>Iffy interrupted.<br/><br/>"Iffy, if you play that clip I swear..."<br/><br/><tt class="bbc_tt">"What clip, Major?"</tt><br/><br/>"You know damn well what clip, now..."<br/><br/><tt class="bbc_tt">"Oh, you mean <em>this</em> clip?"</tt><br/>Bugsy Malone - Bad Guys (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w1FgpBxXho4#)<br/><br/>"GOD DAMNIT IFFY!" Anne roared, and then creased up laughing at the expression on Niki's face. "She does it every fucking time!"