March was fun, Part one.

Isn't this what you love?  Coming back to the internet after a long bout of sleuthing and misadventures that resulted in injury and dead ends, as if you were an upright businessman returning home after a long trip to a meeting where you were outbid, and you found your wife shacking the mailman.  Only in this case, the wife is the other stalked, and it's not shacking so much as it is completely going to shit.

...Fuck off, my metaphors are the best.

Sufficed to say, I've been busy.  And while I do my best to keep people appraised of my movements, there wasn't a lot of time to update this blog while I was fighting for my life.  Again.  This makes, what, twelve times?  At this rate monotony is going to kill me before any proxy does.

Here's how it started.  I received an email.  Offering the location of Rise for "a favor."  Right.  So, I replied with my usual charm and social grace but left the implication that I wasn't completely closed off to the idea.  The response gave me an address, and a time, midnight (again, very subtle) and away I went.

So I showed up at the place and started looking around for the guy who was trying to take me by surprise.  Train station.   Heavy fog.  The atmosphere was such that I was half expected Slender to have learned to type.

Fog wasn't so big that I could miss a certain massive figure, though.  Obstruction wasn't trying to hide, to be fair.  He lumbered forward, watching me.  I raised my eyebrows.

"You gonna try to kill me, or...?"

He shook his head.  I sighed.  "Okay, so it's charades.  Go for it.  First word?"

He pointed behind me.  I looked.  "Oh.  You're good at this game."

Rhodes was leaning against the booth, eyes glittering green in the dark.  His suit was finely pressed as ever.  Somebody has an obsession.  You know, other than with torturing me.  I went for my sword.  He laughed.

"Just a minute.  I knew where you were staying, I could've come there if I wanted a fight.  I just want to talk."

"Yeah, but you didn't really take what I want into account, did you?" I snarled.  "And I'd like to gut you pretty bad.  The fact that you'll probably get up after it isn't really helping the urge."

 That damned slasher grin of his.  "Ohhh~?  Yeah, you wanna waste me because of what I did to little miss sketches crazy.  I raped her, killed her, probably kneed her in the sides, too.  ...Or did I?"

I wasn't in the mood for games.  "You got something to say about her?"

"Oh but it's so much more FUN when it's left ambiguous, don't you agree?  Half the blogs seem to go that way, and THOSE are the ones the readers drink in deeply.  You're left to draw your own conclusion, because let's face it, after all the buildup, what possible conclusion couldn't fail to meet your expectations?  I mean, just look at LOST.  So...No, I won't tell you what happened to Nessa.  But between you and me?  Whether I tortured her before burning the body, or whether I never laid a finger on her...You won't be seeing her again.  It doesn't really make much of a difference."

I crossed my arms.  "Okay.  So you draw me here, and then decide you AREN'T going to tell me something I'd like to know.  Great start.  I feel like cooperating already."

He held out his hands, a gesture of peace that was as ironic coming from him as it would be from someone with a bomb strapped to their chest.  "I didn't lie.  I have information for you.  I don't know where Rachel is, but I can point you in her general direction."

"And what do you gain from this?"

Rhodes looked straight at me.  "I'll be blunt, June.  If you go here, you'll mess up the plans of someone I really don't like.  For me it's simply a matter of setting one enemy against another.  Our personal history aside, you're not really the type to let a lead to a friend go dry just to spite me.  So you will find a way to save her, and I will have inconvenienced a serious annoyance.  More importantly, I will be very amused."

I had to let out a laugh at all of this.  "I take it proxydom isn't one big happy family?  Although, honestly, I could have probably deduced that on my own.  You just pissed they didn't let you in on the job?"

A shrug.  "As far as you know!  Think of it as a mystery.  The quest giver usually has ulterior motives in today's RPGs, doesn't he?"

"...Give me the address."

He rubbed his hands together.  "Now this is the crazy part.  The people you want a word with are closer than you think.  They're in this very city, as a matter of fact."

I snorted.  "Come on.  That's bull."

"It's the truth!  It may seem like a crazy coincidence.."

"...but it's no coincidence.  They're following me, aren't they?"

He frowned.  "To be honest, I'm not sure if they're following you OR me.  Either way, them being here at the same time makes perfect sense.  At any rate, you're just getting the address out of me.  If you're too prepared, that's half the fun gone.

"Alright.  The address.  Now."

And believe it or not, he just gave it to me.  No ambush, no tricks.  He just handed me a slip of paper and that was that.  He must've really hated this guy, I thought.  The two of them walked off into the night.  And I was on my own, with a piece of paper as my only guide.

Honestly, better odds than I've had in the past.

The address was for an abandoned store in a less than reputable part of town.  Specifically, a toy store.  The place certainly looked like no living being had stepped in it for years, the paint was flaking, the wooden sign was practically chipped away to nothing...the glass on the door was broken, even.

It was almost a little TOO picturesque.  Like it'd be prettied up to look abandoned, or prettied down in this case.  It didn't matter either way, I suppose.  I knew somebody was in there.

Walking into a proxy den is never advisable.  But they weren't exactly going to come out and talk if I asked.  I didn't have a choice.  I had some tricks up my sleeve, anyway.  I've learned my lesson about just charging in- don't do it unless you're using a bulldozer.

I walked around the back.  There was a rear entrance, noticeably in better shape than the front.  Locked, but it was pretty easy to pick.  The door swung open before I could stop it...almost silently.  Oiled hinges.  That was a pretty slick thing (ha ha) to catch for a proxy.  They weren't amateurs, so I had to step lightly.

Closing the door behind me, I gave a quick look around.  Fairly normal backroom stuff.  Boxes, shelves...stairs down.  With a quick look at the front (empty), I started down them.  It was dark, pitch black in fact, so I waited for my eyes to adjust before proceeding.  Helped just enough for me to not fall.

There was only one flight.  And it led into a cellar.  Now that's an odd thing for a toy store to have.  Guess this building had quite the history.  And this was no ordinary cellar.  It was HUGE.  Easily more room down here than the entire floor above.

And footsteps.  I wasn't alone.

They weren't urgent.  In fact, they were slow.  Relaxed.  I actually heard someone humming lightly.  I sat back and listened.  When they were receding from the stairway, I peered around.  There was a door ahead of me and passages on either side.  I followed the sound of the footsteps, to the right.

There was a figure, strolling in the dim light a few ceiling lamps were providing.  He was going slowly, comfortably.  I couldn't really make him out very well, and at any rate, he could've turned around at any moment.  Instead, I went back to the left.  Clear.  Stepping lightly, I could hear the occasionally footsteps from a few directions.  There were a few people here, couldn't really get a good estimate.  I leaned around a corner and froze - somebody standing guard.  He was hunched over on a bench, facing the turn.  I didn't pull back fast enough, he gave a grunt of surprise.  I heard him get up and start towards me.  There wasn't much time, had to do this quick.

I pulled something out of my pouch and quickly shot around the corner, holding it up to his face.  A hanky, specifically, soaked in cooking spray.  Just about the cheapest anesthetic one can get.  Hey, when I say prepared, I mean I tried my best not to half ass it.

He struggled, but thankfully he was pretty muffled by the cloth.  Soon enough, he slumped down.  Good thing he wasn't much bigger than me.  I risked a pencil light to give him a once over.  Wearing pretty nondescript clothing, not a lot to him...except the gun at his belt.  That could've been trouble.  I took it, to be safe, and the ammo I could find on him.

There wasn't any time, or place for that matter, to hide the body.  All I could do was press forward.  And soon I reached the end.  Another door.  No other passages.  I'd have to risk it.  I stepped forward and opened the door, entering into what was clearly the main room of the cellar.  Which had been converted into...

A listening post.

There was a huge server set up, and wires everywhere, with a pretty big-ass monitor and a computer right in the middle of it all.  To the side there were cots set up- six of them.  At the computer was another man, and to his side a woman.  In the couple of seconds before they turned around, I had the gun out.

"Not in the mood to fuck around.  Hands up."

They complied.  I walked forward.  "Now, for starters-" That was as far as I got.  The woman was right next to me faster than I could follow and had knocked the gun out of my hand.  Then her fist was in my gut, and her other hand reached around, grabbed at the back of my neck.

She was trained.  These weren't any mooks.

I'd just about had it with people getting in my way these past few months, so I sort of lost my temper with the lady.  She got a headbutt to her forehead and a boot to her leg.  Shoving her forward, I pounced with the chloroform, holding it to her mouth.  The guy at the computer wasn't doing anything, I like to think he was kind of confused watching a scruffy teenager beat up his pal.

Once she was out, I turned to him.  "Okay, answers."

Silence.  I held my gun up.  He looked me straight in the eyes, defiant.  There was a pause.

"You aren't gonna shoot me, are you."

...I holstered it.  "No.  But you are going to tell me where my friend is.  You know that's what I'm here about."

Confusion.  "Friend?  Your boss doesn't have friends.  He's got lackeys, disillusioned teenagers.  Who are you?"

"I think you just implied I work for Rhodes.  First mistake.  Second will be not telling me what the fuck is going on here."

"You broke in here, pal.  You owe me an explanation, I think."

He was a lot chattier than the others.  Maybe that's why they kept him cooped up at the computer.  "If you aren't talking, then get out of the way."  I admit, I really wasn't sure what to do here.  So I checked him for weapons (unarmed) and opened what he was doing on the computer.

A lot of it was in code.  Eagles leaving nests, walruses shining their tusks, all manner of things that implied coming out of the closet or were just plain ole double entrendes.  Or however the fuck that's spelled.  Anyways, I got a bit out of it.  Stuff about Rise, and a lot about a Snake. (no prizes for guessing)  Finally..."Subject transferred to Walker Alpha." Timestamped three days previously.  I got out a thumbdrive and starting copying everything on Rise and Rhodes onto it.

The desk jockey was backing off.  I got up and grabbed him by the scruff of his neck.  He wasn't that much older than me.  "Who are you people?  Talk.  This can be a Batman interrogation, or a Jack Bauer one.  Pick."

He stared.  "You really are a fuckin kid, aren't you?"

"Shut up, I have to take cues from something."

"This is ridiculous.  You really have no clue what you're doing, do you?  You're downloading encrypted files.  Those files mean more than your life.  You have the option of backing off right now and living, or getting into even deeper shit.  Get out while you're still ignorant, and not a liability."

That pretty much settled it.  "You're government, aren't you.  Goddammit."  Silence.  "Well, as a taxpayer of the United States (theoretically), allow me to provide you with some valuable feedback."  I dropped him, removed the thumbdrive from the computer, picked up, and threw it at the server.  There was a lot of wrecked technology in record time...and a shrill alarm ringing out.  Whoops.  Time to go.  I bolted out of the room.

On my way out, I heard a thump coming from the other corridor- the other guard tripping over the wire I'd planted in his path.  I was up the stairs and out the door before anyone could catch me.

...So.  I probably could've handled that better.  But I had to do spur of the moment thinking.  At least I had information.  Decrypting it was going to take some doing.  But I had a few ideas planned.

And for the sake of length, I'm ending the first half of my recap here.