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"We received reports from an outside source," Rosa assures the secretary. "We're here to help." She frowns slightly. She hadn't expected to have run into a victim this soon. "We'll need access to the full list of victims so we can get started. We should collect what we need from records and get moving."
"Then I'll collect what you have and get started checking on the victims right away. Thank you kindly for your help." Rosa nods her head and stands to head out and get started. "And I'll make sure to call ahead and confirm if I need another appointment."
"Thank you very much," Rose says as she steps inside. "Since you're on a schedule, I'll be brief. It's come to our attention that there have been a rash of incidents in this area. Now, missing persons are hardly our area of expertise and I have full confidence that the local police force can do their jobs. However, there are... other concerns. Memory loss isn't exactly a common ailment and the situation has us worried. The last thing we need is a brain affecting virus or heavy metals in the water supply at a time like this. Those are worst case scenarios of course, but we need to know what the case is before we can act. And since our two cases seem to be intertwined, I've been asked to request your department's cooperation. If we find any signs of what's causing these memory loss cases, we pass it on to make sure you have everything at your disposal to solve your missing persons, and if you find any more victims or any signs of a cause, you pass it on to us so we can make sure they're all examined and treated. Can we work together on this Mr. Phillips?"
"Apologies Mr. Philips," Rosa says, stepping into the man's office. "I'm Miss Vasquez and this is Dr. Stein. We're from the Public Health Department. I'm afraid there was a mix-up and our department didn't properly inform anyone that we were coming. If I can have five minutes of your time, we'll get done what we need done and be on our way."
"Did they not call ahead? I was told that someone from the office would be in touch. I'm sorry about the mix-up. I'll try to get out of your hair quickly." Rosa smiles and nods to the secretary, then heads down the hall toward the office. She knocks on the door twice to announce herself. "Mr. Phillips? Are you in?"
My plan is basically just convincing them that we're from the Department of Health and that we're here investigating the strange cases of memory loss. Since Rosa and Stein both have official medical credentials, it should be a believable lie. Frankly, if you have any ideas to support the story, go ahead. Otherwise I don't have much to add.
Rosa takes the suit out of her suitcase and can't keep a small smile off of her face. She has to fight the urge to switch her ringtone to the MIB theme song as she quickly changes into the nondescript, but professional looking suit. Then she escorts the doctor and anyone who wants to accompany them to the police station to begin asking some questions. She absently straightens her tie as they enter the building. "Good morning," she says pleasantly to whoever is at the front desk. "My name is Miss Vasquez, and this is my partner, Dr. Stein, from the Public Health and Care Department. May we please speak to whoever is in charge of liaising with other departments? We're here on an assignment."
Rosa nods to Borax's plan. "I suggest we set up a base where the doctor can perform any lab work or tests he might need first, even if it's just a hotel room. And having a secure location to fall back to and meet up will likely be beneficial. Then we should check who had children disappear first and start on interviews and examinations. Starting with oldest victims should at least keep the trail from going any colder. And first victims might have been stranger or sloppier so there might be evidence we won't see other places."
Rosa just finds a bucket and either a mop or clothes or whatever she can make the best of and hands the bucket to the doctor. "Cleaning up potentially biohazardous blood shouldn't be a new one for a doctor," she points out. "Let's just do it quick and hope no one starts waking up."
"They have to have garbage bags, don't they?" Rosa says. "Surely that would at least get them out of sight for a while."
"We'll move quick," Rosa confirms. "Doctor, stick close to me, just in case." She hurries to find something to hide the bodies in and hopefully a mop.
I don't think you've thought this plan all the way through. I'm not sure there's any value to going after the last alien. We already have bodies to autopsy and we likely can't communicate enough to interrogate it. And I seriously doubt that their base is in walking distance of the train. It's most likely going for a pickup in a ship of some kind. Killing it to buy more time before any of its allies catch on to our presence has some value, but that's it. Plus there's no guarantee we can even keep up with the thing or that we'd make it back to the train before it starts again if we don't find anything. Which means we'd be gambling the entire mission on the very unlikely chance that the alien leisurely walks back to their base without trying to lose us and that the base is within walking distance at all. Dumping the bodies off the train and calling HQ to send a helicopter to collect them before anyone finds them is probably possible, but we don't need to disconnect the train cars to do that. We can just find a box to stuff them in and pour in some ice from the dining car. We'll need to make sure HQ has GPS coordinates of the location where we dumped the boxes so they can get here fast, but that's easily doable with modern communication technology. However, we have maybe half an hour until the train starts moving again, so there's no guarantee they'll get to us before we're moving again, so we need to take that into consideration. We also need the doctor with us for our actual mission, so unless we're planning to scrap the entire mission we can't send him back with the bodies, so we're going to have to wait on the autopsies until we're done hunting the missing kids. Additionally, disconnecting the cars is likely to create more problems than it could solve. The dining car is definitely not the last car on the train and all of the missing cars would be noticed, assuming the crew doesn't recognize that they're detached as soon as the train starts moving again, which is quite likely. Which will get people specifically looking for the missing cars and them finding more evidence. All trying to detach the cars will do is draw more attention to them since people will be looking for them.
"I've heard worse ideas," Rosa comments. "And I'd bet they'll have boxes of some kind there that we can store them in too. Given the circumstances, I don't think we really have a choice other than 'borrowing' what we need." She clearly doesn't like the idea, but they have little choice at the moment. "I hope you're ready for a field autopsy once we have a private space. I doubt they'll keep until we get back to base, even if we get them on ice."
"Right. Let's get these bodies under wraps before anyone wakes up. I hope someone brought body bags. Or a box we can shove them in until later."
Rosa keeps firing, aiming for the creature's center and continuing to fire bullets into it.
Rosa grits her teeth against the strange sensation and aims again, then fires two shots for the creature's center of mass.
Rosa pulls her silenced handgun from her shoulder holster and fires into the tentacled monster's face. "I guess that answers one question."
Rosa strokes her chin absently, examining the dead to the world passengers. "They've managed to do something that I didn't even realize was medically possible until right now. I'm almost more interested in how than why. What the hell are we working with here?"
Rosa leans in, careful not to disturb the passenger too much. As much as she'd like to wake everyone up, that would just cause a panic when whatever was doing this inevitably showed up. "Curious. Something forced them straight into REM sleep. But for what purpose? Did it want them dreaming specifically?"
Oh, I forgot to mention this when it came up earlier, but a collapsible baton should be an acceptable melee weapon, yes? Carrying a large combat knife when we're undercover seems like it would be out of character for Rosa.
Glad that you're safe.
"Something's effecting the whole train I think," Rosa says, reaching up and pulling out her vest to slip on under her jacket. "I have a feeling whatever is doing this will be coming our way shortly, so I'd keep my head down if I were you doctor."
Yeah, Rosa is definitely putting on her vest.
Rosa puts a hand on Doctor Stein's shoulder, shaking him and seeing if he responds. "Seems like the whole train. Maybe they don't want witnesses, or it's just a target of opportunity and we're here by chance." She doesn't want to add the option that whoever's behind this might just be trying to take the entire train. She adjusts her windbreaker and checks the sidearm concealed in her shoulder holster. "I'll try to wake them up. I think we want all hands on deck for this."
"Never really did autopsies before," Rosa agrees. "And I'd rather not start with missing children if I can help it." She takes a window seat across from the good doctor and reclines, absently staring out the window as the train moves along. Rolls:
While she doesn't feel the shift at first, the rest of the party's sudden shift, she shakes herself and looks around. One hand comes up to her temples and she winces. "That's not normal. And definitely not a good sign." She's hesitant to reach for her sidearm in a crowded train, but carefully reaches inside her jacket and pops the holster open so she can draw if needed.
"I'll stick with Doctor Stein since we're supposed to be working together then. We'll stay in touch as often as we can. Hopefully we'll find something useful examining the parents."
Hey. Quick heads up. My sister is going away to college for the first time this weekend and the whole family is going with to help her move in. I'm leaving tomorrow morning and I should have internet, but my posting may be slower than usual until Sunday.
Rosa follows the doctor to the platform. "I'm more worried that we're going to end up doing autopsies of the children we're looking for than on the members of our group," she says quietly as they head for the train. "Not exactly the nicest first field mission for you I suppose."
I'm pretty much ready and I think we've got some decent plans worked out.
"That seems like it may be the easiest option. I have full medical credentials. Not as a full on doctor, but they're official and someone who's not in the field probably wouldn't know the exact difference. So being Dr. Stein's partner or assistant should be easy to pull off. We'll have to be on guard though. If we act like the good doctor is the main investigator, hostiles will likely target him first."
"Sounds like we have a series of strange disappearances to investigate then. This'll be just like working with the LAPD again I guess. Sidearms, light weight, try to keep the civies from getting in the middle when everything inevitably goes to sh*t." Rosa rolls her shoulders. "If we're traveling by train, we can go over the files and dossiers once we're on the rails, along with our cover identities."
"I'm not going to say no to trying to stop children from being kidnapped," Rosa says. "But what makes you think this involves our kind of threat? Is there any unusual activity we should look out for? Any signs of trouble that we can prepare for in advance?"
At the Pub: "Romance?" Rosa snorts into her pint, almost splash it on the table. "Ha, I don't have time to date, much less have a special someone. You try managing a social life when you have to be on call with SWAT five days a week in LA. But..." She sighs, and downs the whole mug in one go. "Someone's going to need to order me another one if you really want me to talk about this, because it's embarrassing and I'm not nearly drunk enough to tell it yet."
Once she's got another drink in front of her, Rosa finally starts talking. "Okay, so this one if from back when I was still an EMT, before I even started working with the LAPD. So I was young and stupid and I blame that for everything." She takes a long draw from the mug before she keeps going. "So I ran a lot of night shifts, especially when no one else wanted to. And there was this one doctor who seemed like he was always on call in the ER in my area, especially night shifts. He was pretty young too, only about six years older than me and I would have been maybe twenty-one at the time. So he was kind of new too. Anyway, I got to know him over a couple of months while I was working there, and I guess I had a little bit of a crush. Never really had time to act on it though. It's really hard to make small talk when you're covered in blood from trying to keep a car crash victim stable. Then one day when I was leaving the hospital, I bumped into his fiance while she was coming to drop off something for him." She laughs bitterly and takes another drink. "And wasn't that just a f*cking awkward moment. She was pretty hot though. Just about my luck that they were into each other. Needless to say, I was glad to take different shifts for a little while after that. I wonder if he's still there actually. I haven't really seen him since I joined up with the LAPD"
"I was never military until I volunteered for the Peacekeepers," Rosa corrects. "They came around the LAPD looking for potential recruits. SWAT has send plenty of people to the UN before, so I volunteer to help out. Never thought I'd get drafted into an alien invasion task force from an old B-movie though."
Hello :) Good to have you.
With their target finally in custody, Rosa rides in the jeep with the others back to base, making sure to check that their prisoners and any critically wounded Peacekeepers are stable before patching up any injuries on the rest of the team. She's rather mystified by the sudden change of pace. "Wait, why are we going to London? Why do they need us there instead of here?" When they arrive, she just shrugs. "I don't know. We dealt with the terrorists and captured their leader as well as a deep cover agent for someone. But we got called here before we could actually find anything out about that, so you're going to have to tell us how it went."
Seeing what Gavril is doing, Rosa takes aim and does the same. Lena is far too valuable to get away now. Rolls:
"It's a prototype super taser," Rosa says. "It shouldn't kill him, but it's not like I have that much experience with it."
"You do not get to go anywhere," Rosa says, firing again. Rolls:
"I really hope this doesn't backfire on us..." Rosa braces herself and fires another burst of bullets at the fleeing woman.
Rosa growls and dives for cover, trying to keep herself from getting shot at again as the strap of her vest takes the hit and diverts the bullet into a harmless graze. "Don't let her get away!" she says, firing at the woman's legs, trying to put her on the ground.
Rolls:
"Let's go," Rosa hisses as the traitor goes down. "I want to stabilize her before she bleeds out and I can't do that while she's still surrounded by her buddies." She moves forward just behind Gavril, providing covering fire as they close in on the camp. Rolls:
If only Jacklyn can actually hit the chopper, I suggest that we have her fire as soon as she has her best shot, even if Jacob isn't ready yet. We can't afford to let that chopper get on the ground, otherwise we'll lose our targets.
"Not really, and hopefully we can circumvent any nasty little surprises they might have waiting up ahead. Otherwise this is going to be a really short mission. We're on a time limit now though, so we better get this done quick, otherwise they're going to get away."
Rosa sits in the back of the jeep, absently fiddling with her gun as she watches the scenery. "Understood," she replies through the radio. "We'll be ready." She releases the button and sighs. "They're setting up an ambush. I don't like this. Going in blind against someone who's already two steps ahead is just asking for trouble. Maybe we should slow down and watch our backs. If we're lucky, they'll get satellite up again before we run into our targets."
"She's in the vents. Lovely." Rosa sighs and holds up the radio. "And I think that she's getting ready to make her exit. Let's go spoil her day."
Rosa absently checks her sidearm to make sure there's a bullet chambered. She heads down to meet up with Jacob. "Well, let's see what she left here then. If she's a plant, she definitely will be ready to escape if she's found out."
"Thank you sergeant," Rosa says as the soldiers report in. "What's this woman's background? Any chance that she was a plant from the beginning?"
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