Jay notes the change to Lev's van. Nice tech, if you can get it.
"This guy's going to be ready to rumble. Figment, have you anything to knock down those sensors?"
Jay watches 0nyx summon her sprite, or ghost, or figment. It's kind of reassuring to know the spirit will be out there watching.
"Do you think the rigger's got a description of us?"
”If we want to scout ahead, I should join,” Raptor says, ”in case things get dicey.”
The spirit nods, "Follow. Got it."
Raptor moves quietly toward the building. Expecting trouble, he takes his composite bow off his shoulder. If there are any threats, he wants to be ready to take them out quietly. He sizes up the building and decides to check out the back first.
Jay steps into the street, slumps down to sit on the curb next to a dead streetlight. He leans against the light's stanchion and pulls his coat around him. "I really hope we can get some sleep after this. I've never had a night like this. Bad biz, this."
Danny and Raptor manage to get themselves to the alley, between the buildings -- and without any obvious reaction. The space is just a hair wider than Raptor could stretch -- certainly no more than another 10 centimeters past his fingertips -- with the shorter building containing your target to your left.
The alley -- or, really, the gap between buildings -- ends about 40 meters ahead -- in a pile of rubble that originates from the top floor of the taller, right-hand building. The mound of rubble is at least 2 meters high, but you can see a number of small, flat areas in the pile -- probably from past climbers. Looking over the pile, Raptor can see a good-sized open space -- seems likely to be (or have been) a shared parking lot.
Raptor looks up and sees there's a fire escape about 3 meters above his head -- but the ladder has been deliberately pulled up, and a sheet of plastwood covers the hole.
0nyx half-shrugs. "Maybe. With luck, it won't be too bad for us. We just need to do good enough work to get a good rep for the side we chose... and have them survive. And try not to be loud enough to set the other guys against us." She sighs. "Hope we picked the right side. Underdogs are romantic and all, but they're sucker bets."
A short barking laugh. "I thought you placed that bet for us. Though in truth, I liked the skulls better. They say when you do biz with the Triads your biz becomes their biz."
”Maybe we check out the lot behind?” Raptor whispers to Danny. ”The fire escape won’t be easy from here.”
As you start to head to the back, Raptor, you think you note a small red light on the wall about 2 meters ahead of you -- but it vanishes as soon as you do.... but then comes back on about 30 seconds later - again for just a tiny fraction of second.
Raptor raises a hand to signal Danny to stop. He points in the direction of the light.
Raptor points out the trip line. ”Best to avoid it,” he whispers. ”We don’t know if disabling it could trigger an alarm.” He continues sneaking toward the back of the building.
Danny slides under the wire, well Raptor jumps over it -- both take a moment to look and see that nothing's changed behind them. After 10 seconds, they turn their attention forward, heading toward the pile of rubble separating them from the parking lots behind the building.
With his height, Raptor looking over the pile sees what looks like a small tank - about 1m per side, plus its turret... Holding and waiting, he notes that it seems to be driving a set triangle pattern.
”Paranoid bastard… not without good reason I guess,” Raptor mutters.
Raptor backs off a little and whispers to Danny, "Guy's got a tank. A little drone job, but... a tank. We might be able to sneak by it - it's following a set path - but that just separates us from the others. I'm thinking we look for another way in. Taking that thing out could wake up the neighborhood. What do you say?"
Raptor nods and begins making his way back to the others.
Raptor and Glassman dodge the sensor and head back to the others.
Raptor tells them what he has seen. ”The back is patrolled by some sort of drone - like a tank. We might be able to sneak past, but that’s a delicate operation. I don’t think we could take it out quietly.”
”There’s a ladder - like a fire escape - but we’d need a boost up to it. Or we focus on going in the front.”
"I'm smaller than either of you. If it's a question of boosting, maybe I should go. Does anyone have a line?"
Figment says, "Reckon if you move the sheet, you could lower the ladder for the rest of us."
"Or that. We wouldn't need rope."
Raptor nods. ”Sounds like a plan.”
Raptor gives Jay a boost, trying not to hurl the smaller man like a caber, but just with enough hest to get onto the fire escape balcony. While not necessarily dignified, the approach is successful -- putting Jay into a rusted metal rectangle about 2m wide and just under 4m long. The sheet of plastwood is slightly slimy from rain residue, but he's able to pull it to the side without too much hassle. However, as he starts to reach for the mechanism to slide the ladder down, he notes a small cube of explosive wired to the mechanism.
”Hmph. You have experience with that sort of thing, Jay?” Raptor whispers.
Jay pauses to look at the little cube. "It's rigged to blow up. Doesn't look too difficult to defuse. But you might want to stand back."
Jay reaches into his sleeve and extracts what appears to be a knife hilt. He flicks his wrist downward and a surprisingly wide blade drops into place. He leans down to examine the wires again and takes a deep breath. Then he inserts the knife and snaps it up quickly to either sever the wires or rip them from the plastique.
Jay manages to disconnect the blaster from the explosive, freeing the ladder. The cube of explosive was very small - and, thankfully, not under a sack of shrapnel -- probably not enough to kill someone who wasn't leaning against it.... but, as he looks, he realizes it would have blown the lock, causing the heavy ladder mechanism to come down like a guillotine, taking his hands, if not more. Still, crisis averted, and he's able to lower the ladder -- surprisingly quietly considering what it looks like.