Post by Aurora on Nov 26, 2006 17:03:24 GMT -5
The plan to impersonate a member of the Sombra staff was abandoned when they realized not one of their prospectives would work. If Mystique had been working alone and had the proper time, she’d have cased the situation for weeks before going in. Unfortunately they only had a few days at the most. After much thought and discussion, they decided the best course of action was to have Mystique go in as Graydon himself. They had received information via the audio monitors that Graydon was not planning on coming into the facility that day, that in fact he didn’t often visit the project at all. This gave them the time and authority they needed to get into any area they wished; and a chance to go through Graydon’s office.
Standing in front of Aurora as Graydon and adjusting her tie, Mystique looked at the young woman. “Wish me luck,” Graydon said, and turned to go.
Within the hour he had pulled up in a cab, suitcase in hand, looking irritated as he walked to the door. He pushed the security button. “God dammit where’s Cyndi. Let me in. She scheduled the wrong flight- I don’t have any of my identification. Push the damned button already!” He barked. The doors slid open, and he walked through.
Aurora listened to Mystique speak through Graydon’s mouth, staring at the blank screen in front of her and concentrating. “Mm, good one,” she murmured, partly to Mystique and partly to herself. She’d be keeping mostly quiet, only speaking if there was something relevant to tell Mystique. But she knew that a small comment wouldn’t do anything to throw Mystique’s concentration off; the woman was far too good at what she did to be thrown so easily.
Mystique had memorized the plans on the floor, but for some reason when she got inside, she became a bit lost. “Where’s the security room…” she murmured to Aurora, keeping a frown on Graydon’s face as she marched down the hall.
Aurora had the blueprints on her lap, and she looked down at them, sharp eyes scanning for the room labeled ‘security’. “Okay, from that door you want to go straight until you reach a cross hall. Take the left hallway down and it’s the last room on the right,” she directed softly and clearly.
There was no answer from Mystique as she got the directions, nodding curtly to a few passing employees and rounding the corner Aurora had indicated. She had been telling Aurora the night before how people take what they see for granted- even those that knew of her existence rarely suspected the person they were looking at was anything other than what they saw. It made walking into the security room far too easy.
“Let me see the cameras.” Graydon’s voice said gruffly. The two security officers nodded and swept aside.
Mystique noted a basic set up. Nothing extraordinary. They obviously anticipated the brainwashing done on these children to work strongly enough that they would not try to escape. Had Hannah been the first child to do so?
“I am meeting a consultant in here to give me an estimate on a new camera grid.” It was a likely reason, his equipment was a few years behind industry standard. “Give me an hour. You’re both off with pay- but I EXPECT you back in an hour. Understood?” Glaring at the men, the murmured ‘yessirs’ and were shuffling out the door soon enough.
Graydon’s hand shut the door behind him and walked over to a wall of wires. His fingers ran down them, quickly gaining a grasp of what controlled what. There would be a central feed…. There.
Reaching into the pocket of Graydon’s suit jacket, Mystique found the clip and split the wire with a small blade, locking the clip onto it. That wireless feed would be sent to Aurora.
“Got it?” She asked under her breath.
The screen Aurora was staring at flickered to life, and she cycled through the different camera views until she found herself back at the one she’d begun with. “Got it,” she confirmed. “Not much going on in your area,” she assured Mystique.
“Okay good.” Stepping out of the security room, she suddenly remembered the blueprints from the direction she was facing. Heading towards Graydon’s office, she passed by a number of employees who greeted him and said nothing more. If she was lucky, Graydon had few who would even WANT to chat with the intimidatingly tall man.
She reached Graydon’s office, and the door was locked. Reaching inside the pocket, Aurora could watch on one of the screens as Mystique found the electronic pick, held it up to the door(it looked no more unusual than someone grasping the doorknob), and within seconds, was inside the room. She locked it behind her once more.
“Alright.” She said quietly in Graydon’s voice. “I am sure he’s on their network and can access all the files we might need. I need to find solid info…” From inside Graydon’s shirt she pulled a flash card on a chain, and slipped it into the port on the front of Graydon’s PC.
Then there were long minutes of silence as Mystique worked her magic, fingers flying over the keys.
Aurora watched each of the cameras in the area near the security room. They were mostly clear of people. When someone walked past, Aurora alerted Mystique, and then again when it was clear that they weren’t going to bother the security room. Aurora switched camera angles to watch them walk off, then returned to the one outside the security room. “You’re still clear as crystal,” she murmured.
It took only about ten minutes to get into the right files. Not taking time to look, Mystique saved all the data on the children at Sombra onto the flash drive, and went looking for more. Emails, confirmations of business deals, anything that would help bring Sombra down in the public eye. It would take a lot of time to get it done any other way, and Mystique simply didn’t have the patience she once had. Not with Graydon. He’d made things too difficult.
Aurora watched as a car pulled into view on a security camera outside. “There’s a car pulling up…” she said, thought without much urgency. It could have been any number of people, after all.
But when the door opened and the irritated face of Graydon Creed stepped out, Aurora’s heart froze. “Shit. He’s back. Get out of there now.” Aurora looked down at the blueprints, eyes searching for the room Mystique was in. “There’s an emergency exit at the end of the hall straight out your door.” She paused a moment, staring at the screen as Graydon buzzed in. “He’s going in now…”
She carefully moved the equipment off of her lap, keeping only the blueprints in case she still needed them. She tried to swallow the tight feeling in her chest. She rolled down her window, ready to speed through it and go to Mystique if she needed Aurora to grab her once she got outside.
Mystique shifted to the appearance of one of the employees she’d seen in the hallway. Standing, she continued to work as fast as she could until she was able to pull the flash card from the drive. Taking a second to attach it again- what good would it do if she didn’t get away with the information they’d come for- and left the office quickly, making sure to lock the door behind her.
“Get your audio fixed on the security room and tell me what alerts they’re at.”
Moving quickly, she was cursing in her head the whole time. She’d needed more. Needed to get visuals of the classrooms. Then she thought of something.
“There’s a record function on the video feed. If you go to File, then Record, then choose All… I need to get as much as we can. Get the truck running, and pull around to the turn off to Sombra on the road we came in on.”
She ran for the emergency exit at a full clip now.
The guards that Mystique had dismissed from the security room were running towards it as Aurora flipped through the camera views into the security room. She fixed the audio feed coming to her into the security room. “They’re on Emergency Alert…All guards are being dispatched to every exit…” she relayed as she heard it.
She directed the mouse of the laptop beside her to find the record function of the video feed as fast as she could. Even as she located it, she heard the guards try to open the door from the outside. God, there was so much to do at once. She decided that getting the rest of the video took top priority; if Mystique had to, she could fight her way out. They needed that video.
As it began to transfer into her computer, Aurora looked back to the screen, which showed her the camera in the security room’s viewpoint. The guards got the door unlocked and barged in, and Aurora switched through camera views until she was on the hallway she’d directed Mystique into. There were employees running to doors, or being ordered to stop by guards. Obviously, they’d been informed that anyone could be the intruder. Graydon himself had disappeared, most likely herded into some safe room. It seemed to Aurora as though they’d taken the real Graydon to be the real Graydon quite easily, which amused Aurora. It would be interesting to see how long they’d all be paranoid of each other afterwards, and what measures would be taken to ensure that the intruder was out. It was a pity they weren’t sticking around for long.
It was impossible to tell which was Mystique in disguise, but Aurora didn’t have time to watch anyway. She turned the key in the truck’s ignition, and the old engine rumbled to life. The blueprints in her lap slid off and down in between the seat and the door as she pressed on the gas. She’d gotten one day’s worth of driving lessons, having never driven before, but it would have to do. She wasn’t about to let something as trivial as driving be the thing that slipped up their entire investigation.
As she rushed with other employees down a hallway, one of the guards noticed the double. “Kevin! Matt! There’s another Kelly Lewis here in the hallway, it’s got to be her!”
Mystique wasted little time. Without dropping her disguise, she pushed over the two people in front of her and leapt towards the emergency exit. She hoped they hadn’t locked them down as she spun around, placed both hands on the alarm trigger, and kicked the security officer trailing her square in the chest with both heels. She heard cracking bones as the door trigger gave way, another alarm sounding loudly.
Turning and breaking into a run, she pressed the flash key to her chest through her shirt to be sure it was still there. Pushing herself as hard as she could, she saw the truck making its way down the road.
“I’m almost to you- don’t stop, just slow… down a little..”
Mystique wondered where Graydon had left to, and if he’d know it had been her. She’d only met two other metamorphs in her entire life, and what were the chances anyone else would have interest in Sombra. This was going to make the entire endeavor more difficult. If Graydon knew they were coming, he’d make pains to make it as difficult as possible. They’d be lucky if the entire project wasn’t moved from the location. She’d have to act fast.
Reaching the road, she waited only a few seconds for the truck to approach and jumped at just the right time, curling her arm around the bars securing the side mirror to the cab, and perched on the foot rail just beneath the door. “Now go! Go!” She yelled, not looking at Aurora through the window. “Just get us into town and we’ll go from there.”
Aurora sped off, trusting that Mystique had as a secure hold as she thought she did; there was no time to make sure. She didn’t turn back to see if they were being followed, just drove. When they were out of sight of Sombra, she took her eyes off of the road a moment to glance at the screen of the laptop. It had successfully transferred all of the video feed. “We got all of the video,” she said through the open window, her heart beginning to slow from it’s initial racing.
They stopped at the rental place, dropped off the truck as quickly as they could (without replacing the license plate) and got into the rental. Taking that back, they checked out of their hotel, rented another car from a separate location, and were on their way out of the state within two hours.
Mystique had said very little. She seemed upset, though less distressed than angry, and kept her eyes sharply focused.
She hadn’t gotten out of the endeavor what she’d hoped to. She’d alerted Graydon and the Sombra staff to some sort of presence. She’d rushed the job out of emotional attachment, and things had gone wrong. She was losing focus. It was the first mistake she’d made in years, and was having a hard time forgiving herself for it.
Standing in front of Aurora as Graydon and adjusting her tie, Mystique looked at the young woman. “Wish me luck,” Graydon said, and turned to go.
Within the hour he had pulled up in a cab, suitcase in hand, looking irritated as he walked to the door. He pushed the security button. “God dammit where’s Cyndi. Let me in. She scheduled the wrong flight- I don’t have any of my identification. Push the damned button already!” He barked. The doors slid open, and he walked through.
Aurora listened to Mystique speak through Graydon’s mouth, staring at the blank screen in front of her and concentrating. “Mm, good one,” she murmured, partly to Mystique and partly to herself. She’d be keeping mostly quiet, only speaking if there was something relevant to tell Mystique. But she knew that a small comment wouldn’t do anything to throw Mystique’s concentration off; the woman was far too good at what she did to be thrown so easily.
Mystique had memorized the plans on the floor, but for some reason when she got inside, she became a bit lost. “Where’s the security room…” she murmured to Aurora, keeping a frown on Graydon’s face as she marched down the hall.
Aurora had the blueprints on her lap, and she looked down at them, sharp eyes scanning for the room labeled ‘security’. “Okay, from that door you want to go straight until you reach a cross hall. Take the left hallway down and it’s the last room on the right,” she directed softly and clearly.
There was no answer from Mystique as she got the directions, nodding curtly to a few passing employees and rounding the corner Aurora had indicated. She had been telling Aurora the night before how people take what they see for granted- even those that knew of her existence rarely suspected the person they were looking at was anything other than what they saw. It made walking into the security room far too easy.
“Let me see the cameras.” Graydon’s voice said gruffly. The two security officers nodded and swept aside.
Mystique noted a basic set up. Nothing extraordinary. They obviously anticipated the brainwashing done on these children to work strongly enough that they would not try to escape. Had Hannah been the first child to do so?
“I am meeting a consultant in here to give me an estimate on a new camera grid.” It was a likely reason, his equipment was a few years behind industry standard. “Give me an hour. You’re both off with pay- but I EXPECT you back in an hour. Understood?” Glaring at the men, the murmured ‘yessirs’ and were shuffling out the door soon enough.
Graydon’s hand shut the door behind him and walked over to a wall of wires. His fingers ran down them, quickly gaining a grasp of what controlled what. There would be a central feed…. There.
Reaching into the pocket of Graydon’s suit jacket, Mystique found the clip and split the wire with a small blade, locking the clip onto it. That wireless feed would be sent to Aurora.
“Got it?” She asked under her breath.
The screen Aurora was staring at flickered to life, and she cycled through the different camera views until she found herself back at the one she’d begun with. “Got it,” she confirmed. “Not much going on in your area,” she assured Mystique.
“Okay good.” Stepping out of the security room, she suddenly remembered the blueprints from the direction she was facing. Heading towards Graydon’s office, she passed by a number of employees who greeted him and said nothing more. If she was lucky, Graydon had few who would even WANT to chat with the intimidatingly tall man.
She reached Graydon’s office, and the door was locked. Reaching inside the pocket, Aurora could watch on one of the screens as Mystique found the electronic pick, held it up to the door(it looked no more unusual than someone grasping the doorknob), and within seconds, was inside the room. She locked it behind her once more.
“Alright.” She said quietly in Graydon’s voice. “I am sure he’s on their network and can access all the files we might need. I need to find solid info…” From inside Graydon’s shirt she pulled a flash card on a chain, and slipped it into the port on the front of Graydon’s PC.
Then there were long minutes of silence as Mystique worked her magic, fingers flying over the keys.
Aurora watched each of the cameras in the area near the security room. They were mostly clear of people. When someone walked past, Aurora alerted Mystique, and then again when it was clear that they weren’t going to bother the security room. Aurora switched camera angles to watch them walk off, then returned to the one outside the security room. “You’re still clear as crystal,” she murmured.
It took only about ten minutes to get into the right files. Not taking time to look, Mystique saved all the data on the children at Sombra onto the flash drive, and went looking for more. Emails, confirmations of business deals, anything that would help bring Sombra down in the public eye. It would take a lot of time to get it done any other way, and Mystique simply didn’t have the patience she once had. Not with Graydon. He’d made things too difficult.
Aurora watched as a car pulled into view on a security camera outside. “There’s a car pulling up…” she said, thought without much urgency. It could have been any number of people, after all.
But when the door opened and the irritated face of Graydon Creed stepped out, Aurora’s heart froze. “Shit. He’s back. Get out of there now.” Aurora looked down at the blueprints, eyes searching for the room Mystique was in. “There’s an emergency exit at the end of the hall straight out your door.” She paused a moment, staring at the screen as Graydon buzzed in. “He’s going in now…”
She carefully moved the equipment off of her lap, keeping only the blueprints in case she still needed them. She tried to swallow the tight feeling in her chest. She rolled down her window, ready to speed through it and go to Mystique if she needed Aurora to grab her once she got outside.
Mystique shifted to the appearance of one of the employees she’d seen in the hallway. Standing, she continued to work as fast as she could until she was able to pull the flash card from the drive. Taking a second to attach it again- what good would it do if she didn’t get away with the information they’d come for- and left the office quickly, making sure to lock the door behind her.
“Get your audio fixed on the security room and tell me what alerts they’re at.”
Moving quickly, she was cursing in her head the whole time. She’d needed more. Needed to get visuals of the classrooms. Then she thought of something.
“There’s a record function on the video feed. If you go to File, then Record, then choose All… I need to get as much as we can. Get the truck running, and pull around to the turn off to Sombra on the road we came in on.”
She ran for the emergency exit at a full clip now.
The guards that Mystique had dismissed from the security room were running towards it as Aurora flipped through the camera views into the security room. She fixed the audio feed coming to her into the security room. “They’re on Emergency Alert…All guards are being dispatched to every exit…” she relayed as she heard it.
She directed the mouse of the laptop beside her to find the record function of the video feed as fast as she could. Even as she located it, she heard the guards try to open the door from the outside. God, there was so much to do at once. She decided that getting the rest of the video took top priority; if Mystique had to, she could fight her way out. They needed that video.
As it began to transfer into her computer, Aurora looked back to the screen, which showed her the camera in the security room’s viewpoint. The guards got the door unlocked and barged in, and Aurora switched through camera views until she was on the hallway she’d directed Mystique into. There were employees running to doors, or being ordered to stop by guards. Obviously, they’d been informed that anyone could be the intruder. Graydon himself had disappeared, most likely herded into some safe room. It seemed to Aurora as though they’d taken the real Graydon to be the real Graydon quite easily, which amused Aurora. It would be interesting to see how long they’d all be paranoid of each other afterwards, and what measures would be taken to ensure that the intruder was out. It was a pity they weren’t sticking around for long.
It was impossible to tell which was Mystique in disguise, but Aurora didn’t have time to watch anyway. She turned the key in the truck’s ignition, and the old engine rumbled to life. The blueprints in her lap slid off and down in between the seat and the door as she pressed on the gas. She’d gotten one day’s worth of driving lessons, having never driven before, but it would have to do. She wasn’t about to let something as trivial as driving be the thing that slipped up their entire investigation.
As she rushed with other employees down a hallway, one of the guards noticed the double. “Kevin! Matt! There’s another Kelly Lewis here in the hallway, it’s got to be her!”
Mystique wasted little time. Without dropping her disguise, she pushed over the two people in front of her and leapt towards the emergency exit. She hoped they hadn’t locked them down as she spun around, placed both hands on the alarm trigger, and kicked the security officer trailing her square in the chest with both heels. She heard cracking bones as the door trigger gave way, another alarm sounding loudly.
Turning and breaking into a run, she pressed the flash key to her chest through her shirt to be sure it was still there. Pushing herself as hard as she could, she saw the truck making its way down the road.
“I’m almost to you- don’t stop, just slow… down a little..”
Mystique wondered where Graydon had left to, and if he’d know it had been her. She’d only met two other metamorphs in her entire life, and what were the chances anyone else would have interest in Sombra. This was going to make the entire endeavor more difficult. If Graydon knew they were coming, he’d make pains to make it as difficult as possible. They’d be lucky if the entire project wasn’t moved from the location. She’d have to act fast.
Reaching the road, she waited only a few seconds for the truck to approach and jumped at just the right time, curling her arm around the bars securing the side mirror to the cab, and perched on the foot rail just beneath the door. “Now go! Go!” She yelled, not looking at Aurora through the window. “Just get us into town and we’ll go from there.”
Aurora sped off, trusting that Mystique had as a secure hold as she thought she did; there was no time to make sure. She didn’t turn back to see if they were being followed, just drove. When they were out of sight of Sombra, she took her eyes off of the road a moment to glance at the screen of the laptop. It had successfully transferred all of the video feed. “We got all of the video,” she said through the open window, her heart beginning to slow from it’s initial racing.
They stopped at the rental place, dropped off the truck as quickly as they could (without replacing the license plate) and got into the rental. Taking that back, they checked out of their hotel, rented another car from a separate location, and were on their way out of the state within two hours.
Mystique had said very little. She seemed upset, though less distressed than angry, and kept her eyes sharply focused.
She hadn’t gotten out of the endeavor what she’d hoped to. She’d alerted Graydon and the Sombra staff to some sort of presence. She’d rushed the job out of emotional attachment, and things had gone wrong. She was losing focus. It was the first mistake she’d made in years, and was having a hard time forgiving herself for it.
