If you are looking to find intel on Heydrich, you have two possible avenues: the headquarters of the Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia, in the Prague Castle, or his own private office in the Rudolfinum, a concert hall on this side of the Vltava.
The castle is sure to be well-guarded by mundane ways, and there is a greater chance for magical traps or wards in Heydrich's private office.
"My suggestion would be to get some information on the defences. I can read the mind of some of the guards." She considered. "Once we know the layouts and challenges we can pick which target will be simpler."
"Men with guns, they are likely far easier to fool than the Hangman's defenses." Tomasz said. "The Protectorate Headquarters, I think are a better option."
"Presumably not everyone who works there lives there." Ada suggests "If we can find one we can learn a lot about their defences, and we have a vector for infiltration."
"A stake-out then. We identify and pick up some of the lower ranking staff for information until we have enough of a picture to send a team inside."
Ada nods, then embroiders the plan "They may be alerted if staff suddenly go missing. Katherine; how confident are you that you can do your... talent without being discovered?"
Titus raised a hand. "I'm pretty sure I won't be. I'm good at sneaking in." Being very small and able to teleport were advantages, and he had both.
"A suitably strong mind can realize that I've done something, but without a knowledge of magic most will have no idea what. And I'm good at not being noticed. It's quite unlikely. Given enough time and effort, of course, I can make them forget that they did notice." Katherine smiled.
She turns to Titus, but speaks to all "I don't doubt it - I never saw you at the theatre. No matter how good you are, Knowledge can only help. If we have a risk-free method to acquire that knowledge, I suggest we use it. That said, we will need someone to scout the outside of the location and keep track of comings and goings - including those of Katherine's targets."
"Leo; how familiar are you with stake-outs? I understand they are best performed in pairs?" She nods again at Titus as she talks.
Ada enquires further "Katherine; will you notice if they notice? If so, we simply need to be in a situation to ensure that realisation does not become a revelation."
With a self-deprecating shrug she puts forward her own contribution. "I myself have the ability to separate my own shadow - you can keep the Pan jokes to yourself - and use it as a flying, intangible spy. It's useful, but not foolproof. With the right precautions it can still be detected. It may be helpful to follow someone from the sky."
"My skills are not especially suited towards infiltration. If you need someone to cause a distraction, I can certainly help, but sneaking about is not my forte."
"The...Pan... jokes?" Tomasz asks, brow furrowed. "A shadow has to do what with the pagan god? I myself have a few small tricks, but, my accent, you understand. I can pass as Austrian, but it is still suspicious." He shrugs. "Like Mr. Farthington, I am better at the distractions."
Tomasz looks around at those who were in the theater. "Joking, I was not when I said I would blow you all... 'sky high' is the phrase, yes?"
Titus shrugged. "Hey, a good lift-off is a good lift-off." he said, apparently rather relaxed about the notion. "What kind of signals can you send up if there's an emergency? Best for us all to be familiar with those ahead of time, just in case."
Ada nods to Titus."And pass phrases, in case we are infiltrated."
To Tomasz "Peter... never mind. I understood you were... ah... debriefing Kleiner?"
"I will know if my spell fails to work, but I'll have no idea if it later broken." Katherine shrugged. "I'm quite good with fire magic, and can delay a spell going off, if we do decide to reduce somewhere to rubble. Find me something explosive and I can give you a minute's delay."
"Bright light, and bright light accompanied by the sound of explosions." Tomasz answers drily. "I can also yell, if that would help."
Titus grinned at Katherine's suggestion. "Nothing like an explosion to get people to look away. Ninety percent of the time, it works every time. It's that last ten percent - the ones who keep their eyes on their job even when they're in danger - that you really have to watch out for."
Not commenting on the problematic mathetics - for a spellcaster it made her brain ache a little thinking of it - she added, "The real advantage is the confusion. Even the cards who don't rush off are distracted, and it's easier to slip in a fake memory or use a good excuse to pass by."
"I can bring a man's mind to the edge of what one believes is possible, and then push him even beyond that. Like a vase of flowers shattering on a field of writhing monstrosities. If you need that as a distraction I am fairly certain that can be accomplished."
Leo snorted with mild amusement from the driver's seat, "Comme apporter un bœuf à l'orchestre," Leo noted to himself as the others discussed their proficiencies.
"I've considerable experience with... well 'infiltration' is a good enough word for what I do. This is especially the case when dealing with Nazis. I am familiar with their procedures and command structures, speak excellent Deutsche and my abilities are less easy for the strong willed to see through."
Leo checked the others with a glance, "If we are to do this, I will request a chance to infiltrate the outer layer of security and have a look around to secure a route of ingress and egress before taking a larger party into dangerous territory. Or," and now he grinned his horrible grin, "I could pretend to be Monsieur Boucher himself and stride right in. I do so like a bold entrance."
It's midday when you get up the hill and to the Castle. More than a castle, really, it's a motley collection of buildings from the long history of the city: from the thirteen-century core to the Asburgic palaces in the front. Here, the Thirty Years' War started with a defenestration.
This part of the city has always been quite busy, businesses flourishing around the seat of government: even during the occupation, officials and officers like to eat and drink. Here is easy to get cheap beer and expensive meat.
The main entry has a checkpoint with a handful of bored police officers, and some honor guards in ceremonial uniform, wielding bayoneted rifles, standing by.
First thing was first. Katherine began scanning the guards minds with a light touch, looking for the simple information that should be near the top - codewords and passwords, documentation needed and any prohibitions on weapons or other items into the castle. She didn't imagine getting in would be terribly challenging, all things considered, but the information was a good first step.
As they parked, Titus crouched low to ensure he couldn't be seen by others - and a moment later, he was gone, replaced by a small black bird. "...Caw." he said, flapping up and towards some nearby trees. First a quick circle of the building, then looking for some nice openings...
Ada stepped out, moved over to Katherine and mentally prepared herself to hold up both ends of a conversation.
In a cafe across the street, a young weak-chinned man in paint-stained clothing sits sipping a terribly weak coffee. Trying to bluff his way inside was hardly Tomasz forte, but as long as no one was asking him questions he could avoid being discovered readily enough - even if no amount of magic in the world would make the Polish accent go away.
Leo stays relatively close to Katherine, in the form of an out-of-work laborer, the exact kind of human detritus that the powerful find so easy to overlook. He wanted first crack at whatever information she could dredge up for the team.
Richard finds a seat at the same cafe, though a conspicuous distance away from Tomasz. He was, in a way, the opposite to the Polish man. Though he may not look terribly disguised, he could speak German with a near-perfect accent.
The thoughts of the soldiers are easily open to Katherine's manipulation: these guards are ordinary troopers, weak against any sort of mind manipulation.
As there is a large number of bureaucrats, ministers and functionaries moving in and out of the castle daily, passing through the checkpoint requires only that documents are checked, one's name is in a list, and that weapons are confiscated. This last ban on arms is not in effect for high-ranking officers of the German forces, from the rank of Lieutenant upwards.
Titus' flight reveals just the hustle and bustle of a normal day, with attendants and secretaries carrying around briefcases. For one who is gifted with of wings, gaining entrance into the Castle will be definitely easier than for the rest of the team.
Absorbing so much information wasn't comfortable, and was a bit tiring, but it was very useful on occasion. "Looks like we can sneak in without too much trouble. We will need the right documents, our names on a list, and to give up our weapons. We can probably hide smaller weapons without too much problem, or high ranking officers can remain armed - I don't imagine that will extend beyond side arms though. And forging documents shouldn't be difficult. The main issue is getting out names on a list, or making them think our name is there."
She sniffed. "I can probably make them believe we've been checked once and are re-entering the castle, but having the documents would be useful to wave and ease suspicion further." She considered. "Or we can risk taking a name and I can remove that they have already entered from there minds. Or we can disguise ourselves as someone who hasn't entered yet and...make sure they don't enter after." Smiling cheerfully, she added, "There are choices, at least."
After a loop around the building, Titus dropped down into their vehicle - and a moment later was a man once more. "Lots of secretarial staff - if you want to blend in, look like one of them." he suggested. "I'll stick to the shadows. It's better if they don't know how many people they're really dealing with if our cover is blown."
Tomasz clicked his tongue softly. "For myself, paint supplies and my own... ingredients," he demurred, mindful of being in public, "are not so different. Make papers for a room that is looking in disrepair, perhaps we could."
An opportunity presents itself soon enough, as a wiry bald man in a cheap grey suit leaves the castle for the same cafe you are sitting in. He has a yellowish complexion that suggests liver trouble, and two young aides carrying worn leather briefcases flank him. One of them flashes a tentative smile at Katherine as the trio sits at a nearby table, about to have lunch.
Katherine smiled demurely, lowering her eyes before glancing up again and sneaking another peek - and plundering their thoughts before selecting which one would know the most. It was probably the ill old man, but there was always the chance that he was going senile and his aides had more of the information that he did.
The old man does not appear to be senile. He's an undersecretary in the Ministry of Agriculture, currently struggling with some logistical issues concerning supply lines. One of the aides is currently worried about money issues and his wife's pregnancy, while the one who smiled at Katherine is entertaining some more... private thoughts about her.
The joy of mental powers - she had seen herself naked through the eyes of men so many times it was no longer a shock. It was less common with women, but neither bothered her especially. If she ever felt like taking advantage of such thoughts she could implant a memory inspired by there own fantasy back into there mind.
Still, as entertaining as such things were, there was work to be done. Katherine murmured, "Will the Minister of Agriculture do for our purposes?" She did have limits on her powers, after all, and didn't want to waste more energy raiding the man's mind if he wouldn't do.
But his worry was useful. She could use that to send him off in entirely the wrong direction for the night, if needs be.
Titus would have had an expression suggesting yes, but he was a bird, and quickly flapped his way to a discreet spot where he could keep an eye on things.
Ada sips her tea and whispers back "Absolutely." - then curses softly as she 'accidentally' spills a little tea on her blouse, lifts her watch out of the way and blots at her top with a napkin.
Nodding, Katherine reached deeper into the man's mind for anything that would be useful. She couldn't take everything, of course, but she'd take what she could, especially passwords, close friends faces and names and the like.
As Katherine touches on the undersecretary's mind, she unfortunately touches on the wrong area: while she tries to pull knowledge of the necessary documentation, what she obtains is instead a lengthy report on the seasonal fluctuation of potatoes demand and supply. Something inside him becomes slightly less human, but he doesn't seem to notice the intrusion.
She has better luck with her follow-up questions, and as a bonus she manages to discover that his name is Miroslav Podlezl, a 57-years old bureaucrat from Brno, and unremarkable in most ways. His office is beyond the first layer of security, and doesn't have access to the Reichsprotektorat's most secure sections. This means that he's only subject to basic inspections: a check for ID papers and a pat-down for weapons.
Additionally, she draws a short list of those who may notice a shift in behaviour. On it are three to four co-workers, his immediate superior and the two aides sitting with him now.
Wincing at the amount of power - and the toil of the mathematics - that it had taken to perform that little feat, Katherine passed the information along to the others. "Not as stunning a success as one might hope, but it should be enough."
"More than enough, I would think. Are any of you able to speak Czech?" Tomasz asks.
"Ale samozřejmě," Katherine replied with a small smile, in perfect Czech.
"Trochu. Nikde blízko, stejně jako ona." Ada smiled back to Katherine, a slight accent in her pronunciation.
"I will take all that as a 'yes'." Tomasz says drily.
Caw.
"We have what we need here then," Katherine said slowly. "What next?"
"Do we distract our new friends, or should we consider something a little more... persistent?" Ada asks carefully.
"The minister is concerned with certain logistics on the supply lines," Katherine murmured softly. "If a runner was to come with news of an allied attack some distance outside the city then it would take him some time to deal with the issue, and confirm it false."
Richard nods and says to Ada, "Well, there is nothing that says that a distraction cannot be persistent. If need be, I can go on for hours about nearly nothing. Or, perhaps it is about something, just nothing that most would recognize. We would have greater concerns if they recognized it."
"Should he be drawn out of sight, any number of means would suffice." Tomasz says darkly. "Do as you will, but err on the side of caution."
Ada nods slightly, as if in agreement with a point Katherine makes.