September 26, 2017:
Rin Nakano makes a risky decision to follow a potential Hydra mole. It pays off.
NYC
Characters
NPCs: Alvin Christiansen, Rank 9 Shield Agent (emitted by Phil Coulson)
Mentions:
Mood Music: [*\# None.]
Fade In…
Rin has a list of things that she needs to accomplish. Of course picking the best place to start is always difficult, but she figured that she would like to eliminate some people off of her list. Christianson has a lot of red flags, but those flags could be a red Herring. So she decides to start by tailing him. It takes a while to learn his routine, but once she does she sets aside some time to get this done. For now, she's cloaked herself and lingers outside of his office. He has one of those meetings set up where he usually isn't where he's supposed to be, so hopefully she'll finaly figure out just what is going on.
*
Christianson has been on the phone for an hour and a half. Some sort of very obtuse meeting about weapons requisitions. It has gotten heated several times now, though unless one had a good grounding in logistics and the budgetary concerns of covert ops teams it would be hard to make heads or tails of whether or not his decisions, the things he is pushing for, make sense or not.
At last he hangs up the phone and exhales.
Alvin is only a little older than Phil. At 55, he is fit, muscular, tall, and broad. His hair is close cropped to his skull, and he has a real nice smile when he makes use of it, which isn't terribly often. He takes out his keycard and heads to the elevator, swiping it. The silver doors slide open. He hits the P button for the parking garage.
*
Booooooooooooooooooooooooooooooring. It took a lot of effort to resist looking at her phone, or finding some other way to distract herself. Her training at least kicks in and she is able to focus on his conversation. Sure it's not her specialty, but he appears to be very passonate about… something. It isn't until he ends the call that she finally sighs in releif. Finally! Action!
She follows him to the elevator, careful to keep her steps light and her movement careful as to not allow herself to be seen. Even with the cloaking device activated, bumping into someone usually breaks the illusion. Still, she's small and limber and able to settle into the corner of the elevator, while he hits the button. So far so good, at least she hopes so.
*
The elevator stops at the next floor down.
Two people get in.
The elevator stops on another floor. Three people get in.
The elevator stops again. Barry from accounting, a guy who nobody would be surprised to find had some sort of an obsession over red staplers, gets in. And there are still five floors to go between here and the parking garage. The elevator fills with end-of-day body smell. The lingering odors of someone's tuna lunch. The smell of stale coffee. Throats clear. Small talk flies. And the space between Rin's corner and someone's butt shrinks with every passing moment.
Nobody ever said this spy shit was easy.
*
If it were easy, everyone would do it. When the first few people get in she backs up further, annoyed that there are people between her and her target. Still she keeps an eye on him, even as more people get on. She rolls her eyes in frustration, holding in the annoyed sigh she really wants to emit. Carefully she manipulates the elevator, forcing it to skip any further floors until it reaches the parking lot. No more stinky people in her elevator!
*
Nobody seems to notice the omission. They just assume nobody hit the button on those floors. The elevator dings when it reaches the parking garage. The doors slide open. Alvin is one of the first ones out.
Rin, by the very set-up, may well end up being one of the last. It's going to put another dent in her attempts to shadow him today, but she may be able to find a way around the sluggish throng.
Christiansen, for his part, walks like he's above all of it, measured steps taking him towards a black Audi parked right there on the bottom floor, right near the gated exit that leads out onto the New York City streets. Not that those move particularly quickly either.
*
Damn these tall people with their long legs and huge gait. Rin lets a few people slip off of the elevator, letting some of the chatty ones remain in the back of the car so she can slip out. Christiansen has a several yard lead and she frowns as she walks toward a near by car. It's plain, boring and looks like every other forgettable car in the parking garage. She needs time to slip in so she can follow him, so she focuses on his car. Most new cars have their own computers in them these days, so she causes a problem with the locks, delaying him from entering.
*
Christiansen lets out a sound of raw annoyance as he jiggles the lock. He hits the key fab three or four times. He starts trying to work the little key out of it, the emergency one meant to work the lock the old fashioned way. It takes a moment, those things never budge as easily as they were designed to. The crowd finally disburses, giving Rin the time that she needs to get right where she wants to be, right around the time he shoves the tiny key inside and starts twisting it about. The lock pops, and he grumbles in annoyance.
"Huh," he mutters. "No low key battery warning. What the Hell just happened there?" It doesn't sound alarmed or even suspicious, at this point it's more like anyone who just had a slightly weird experience with their car that they're trying to figure out.
*
The frustration he has from the car key is enough to let Rin slip through the rest of the crowd and to her stowed car. Slipping inside she keeps her eyes on his car, wanting a few others to pull up behind him before she follows. She knows tricks to not be seen in traffic by others, but it does mean she has to decloak herself, as it would bring unwanted attention to see a self-driving car. (It's a fun party trick though.)
Thankfully others are leaving at this time, and she simply hides her hair under a hat and puts on oversized sunglasses to help hide her identity. It wouldn't stand up to someone face to face, but it should suffice for passing other cars on the road.
*
Rin's driving skill is incredibly good, and she's able to dart in and out of traffic with ease. Christiensen never gives any signs of noticing her. He never even gives any signs of seeming to believe he has any kind of a tail.
Finally, he pulls off in an exit into the rural parts of upstate New York. A scuzzy motel called The Hot Box Motel awaits. Nobody should ever be allowed to name these things. It's the kind of place where they advertise Cinemax in every room and have a vending machine out next to an ancient pool that probably hasn't been cleaned since Jimmy Carter was president.
His Audi looks terribly out of place as he parks. He checks in.
*
Driving is one of Rin's strong suits, it's one of the few things she really enjoys. Despite her ease, she is cautious, watching him drive as they drive out of the city and into places she would never travel. There were several places that Rin investigated virtually when she was stalking Christensen but thhe pictures and Google Earth do not do this place justice. She makes a note to get some shots when she gets back to HQ, just in case. She parks her car behind the building, some where that it isn't easily seen.
Once she's out of the car she puts her cloaking back on and looks around the parking lot. Her car doesn't stick out like his does, it blends in with the others that are there so hopefully her escape is safe. She sneaks around to the office and tries to listen at the door to see wha troom he's going to end up in. Maybe she can get there first.
*
They're all exterior rooms anyway, facing the courtyard, but he gets 104, not far from the office. Her cloaking virtually ensures that she's not going to have a problem. He comes out with keys on an orange tab and heads into the room. No luggage.
About half an hour later a car rolls up and a young man in his mid-twenties or so gets out. He's wearing jeans and a black t-shirt which stretches out over a muscular frame. He knocks on the door of room 104. Alvin opens the door to admit him inside, and closes it gently behind him.
*
Again with the waiting, but this time she's at least paying more attention. She's checking the area to see what sort of technology is living with in. This wouldn't be the place to see high tech servers, at best laptops, and cellphones. She's watching for text messages and other forms of communication that she can see with her enhansed sight.
When tall, too-tight shirt and muscular pops out and joins Alvin in the room. She's of course making snap judgements, but she moves closer to the window and presses her cellphone up to it. It takes some manipulation, but she attempts to turn her phone into a listening device, using the microphone and vibrations on the glass to help her hear what's going on inside.
*
If it's a top secret Hydra meeting it's definitely a uh.
Rather intense one without a lot of talking going on.
*
It is as Rin expected, someone is hiding a secret lover and a secret shame, and apparently doesn't care how filthy the room is where it happens. Still she listens for a few moments to make sure, but the tell tale signs of hot man love are hard to ignore. She steps away and shakes her head. "Really dude?" She whispers to herself once she's inside of her car.
Using Stark's fancy device, she sends a secure message to the group. "Christiansen is off the list. He may have questionable taste in hotel rooms, but his meetings involve hiding the sausage and not being a Hydra Mole. Moving on."