Home » The Archives » Chapter 8 » Home is Where the Heart Is
| Re: Home is Where the Heart Is [message #2039 is a reply to message #2029] |
Sun, 29 July 2012 11:42   |
Lillehafrue
Messages: 478
Registered: July 2012
Location: Northeastern USA
Karma:
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TB Pilot
Evil Genius |
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From: Tikatu Sent: 8/18/2006 10:12 PM
Thursday, July 26, 2068, noon, local time, Paris (10 p.m., July 26, Tracy Island)
Giles Hightower paced back and forth in his suite, grumbling in a low tone. He rounded on Celeste, who stood at attention. "How much longer is the conference?"
"Today and tomorrow, monsieur," she said promptly.
"I have never known a man so... so... charmed in all my life. You say he's been oblivious to your attempts?" Giles stopped long enough to give her a sharp, scowling look.
"Oui, monsieur. We have not been able to trap him, but he seems unaware that we are trying to do so."
"Well, hopefully our absent-minded professor will remain oblivious," Giles said. He waved a hand in dismissal. "You may try again. But your fee for this caper has already been cut in half. If you cannot detain him today, then it will be cut in half again. And, if you cannot bring him to me at all, then you will not get paid one Euro. And you will find many doors closed to you which were open before." He took hold of her arm before she could leave. "Do you understand me?"
She glanced at his hand, then looked him in the eye. "Oui, monsieur. Je te comprends," she said, a trace of haughtiness in her voice. Giles removed his hand, and she stalked out.
4:30 p.m. (2:30 a.m., Friday, July 27 at Tracy Island)
Lady Penelope was sitting in the lobby of the conference center, dressed in her long, dark wig, and reading a gossip magazine. She was waiting for reports from both Jean-Claude and Parker, both of whom were also incognito. Brains was in a lecture at the moment, and seemed safe enough there. The three agents had been shadowing him since Brains's dinner with Professor Borrender. They were the ones who had found the half-dressed waiter, put two and two together, and called the police. Penelope in particular was relieved to find that her self-appointed charge had managed to confound the machinations of those seeking to capture him. His luck cannot last forever, though, she thought as her eyes glanced about the room behind her dark glasses. I do hope we can discover who is behind this effort.
Parker's voice crackled in her ear. "Milady, Ay fink Ay see the bloke 'oo was at the table the other night. The one 'oo distracted the waiter. He's 'eaded down one of these side hallways."
"Good work, Parker," she said softly, the boom mike of her communicator looking much like the wireless connection to a satellite phone. "Anything else suspicious?"
"No, Milady, not as yet."
"Remain vigilant, Parker. We must keep Brains out of the clutches of... whoever this is."
"Right, Milady."
Jean-Claude came up. He commandeered a chair whose back was to Lady Penelope's chosen seat, but off to one side, so that he was sitting behind her, yet could speak with her. He laid the briefcase he carried on the seat directly behind her so he would be turned in the proper direction.
"Any news?" she asked.
"Oui. It seems that a small group of known mercenaries have been hired by someone who is very interested in our Monsieur Hackenbacker. No one seems to know just who has hired them, but the impression is given that whoever they are, they are English."
"Oh, dear," Penelope murmured. "If they are English, then I may know who is behind this. The problem will be proving it, of course."
"Of course."
In the meantime, the lecture Brains was listening had wrapped up. He had been busy taking notes, and now was going over them as he prepared to leave the hall. The speaker had discussed artificial intelligence, and some new developments in maintaining such an AI once one has been created. I wish Lena could have heard some of this, Brains thought briefly. I think she'd have found it fascinating. I'll want to be sure to pursue a correspondence with this lady; she seems very knowledgeable.
As he left the room, he kept checking the information he had typed into his PDA, fascinated by the discussion and mentally coming up with questions he wanted to ask the speaker, then putting them into his data assistant. As a result, he was walking on autopilot, and when he came to a part of the hallway sectioned off by a velvet rope, he turned from it without thinking and walked down into a less-traveled part of the conference center.
"Milady!" Parker whispered as he saw the scientist heading away from the lobby. "Mr. Brains is walkin' down the 'allway where I saw that bloke go. Shall Ay go after 'im?"
"Yes, Parker, but be discreet," Penelope said. "Watch him and intervene only when there is danger."
"Yes, Milady."
Penelope turned to Jean-Claude. "We may have a problem. Come with me." She got up and went off in the direction that Parker had indicated, and a moment later, Jean-Claude closed up his attaché case and casually followed her.
Near the rope barrier, a half-concealed Celeste signaled to her compatriots through an earbud communicator. "He is coming your way." She got a quick, quiet reply, then stood by to wait. She was not best pleased to see a stout, older man with a prodigious proboscis stride down the hallway, nor was she happy about the brunette who followed, idly primping in her compact mirror. When a businessman with dark, curly hair and an attaché case bustled down the hall, she knew something was up.
"Luc, there are three people heading your way. You must capture him now."
Luc and his companion, the fake waiter from the night before, were counting the seconds. They could hear their mark's footsteps as he came towards them, towards the slightly open door to the stairs where they were pretending to be painters.
When he was close enough, Luc would back out with the ladder in hand, stopping the man while dumping a specially prepared and very slick bucket of paint on the floor. He would slip and slide on it; they would grab their target and "escort" him down the steps to the parking garage, where their van waited. Right now though, all they had to go on was the sound of his approaching footsteps.
The steps quickened, and Luc nodded to his compatriot. They stepped out into the hallway, and knocked the paint on the floor as planned, but, to their great surprise and consternation, it wasn't their mark who slipped on the wet stuff.
" 'Ey! Wot's goin' on 'ere!" the portly man with the big nose said as he fell to the floor, his tweeds getting covered by the white goo. The two false painters glanced at each other, and dropped the ladder with a loud clanking sound, turning to flee.
"Arrêtez-vous!" came a female voice. Luc glanced back to find a pretty brunette leveling a gun at him. He put his hands slowly up in the air, as his friend, who was a bit faster on his feet, made good his escape.
"Monsieur?" The woman addressed a man who had come up beside her. She indicated the fallen Englishman with a nod of her head. "S'il-vous plait?"
The businessman helped the Englishman to his feet, and the young woman advanced on Luc. "Now, monsieur, tell me why you were lying in wait for Monsieur Hackenbacker?"
Back near the lobby, Celeste was stunned to see her mark come walking past her, unharmed and muttering to himself. "I must have left it in the lecture hall," he said, snapping his fingers. He didn't notice her, hurrying off instead toward the room he had just exited.
"What happened here?" she asked herself as she stepped out of concealment to peer down the hallway. She couldn't see what was going on; the hall took a sharp, ninety degree bend. Making sure no one was following her, she stepped quickly down to the corner, and peered around. She was not surprised to see the three people she had watched follow her target talking with Luc.
She was startled to see that the brunette carried a gun. "I had better make myself scarce," she whispered to herself. "I will not be the one to report back to Monsieur Hightower, though. If he wants this man so badly, he can try to catch him on his own!"
Penny smiled slightly as Jean-Claude interrogated the culprit.
She had been both relieved and highly amused to see Brains double back along the corridor, muttering something under his breath, completely oblivious to her presence. She had signaled Parker to keep going, basically impersonating Brains for those lying in wait for him. Now that we have this man, perhaps we can get some confirmation on who is really behind all this.
98% pure evil...and loving every minute of it.
 
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