[code]accessing database “event_record” ...

ACCESS_ID: ktakeda3168
ACCESS_DATE: 2120.08.23
CLEARANCE: RED-4[/code]

[color=d6d6d6]“Fireteam One give SITREP.” “Fireteam Two, confirm alley is secure, over.” “Viper reporting all clear on top. Orbiting at two hundred meters.”[/color] Two black SUVs, a tactical van, and an MRAP were already on site when the third finally caught up. The growl of a V-72 on patrol saturated the air. From the third vehicle, another six burly men in full SWAT gear burst from the rear doors. From the passenger seat emerged a petite asian woman wearing a hard-shell armor vest calling out orders the minute her boots hit the ground.
[color=cc99ff]“Team Two stack up on rear entry. Team One stack up front, Teams Three and Four secure a perimeter at one block radius. Viper keep us posted. All teams, breach in tee minus forty seconds.”[/color]

She sauntered over to Fireteam 1, pulling a small silver device from her belt. The device was placed against the wall and given a hard smack, anchoring it to the surface. [i]Agent Takeda[/i] stared off into space as though she could see through solid matter. Except that was exactly the case. The silver gizmo was a sensor beacon linked into the tactical feed running into the soldiers’ helmets, and into her optical implants. She racked her weapon and gave a three finger countdown and on “go” the preplaced charges blew the door in. Explosive breaching had startled the literal piss out of her the first time she was around it. Now after having done it over a dozen times it was just another day in the field.

She filed in with the rest of the team, sweeping left while the agent behind her swept right. The sensor beacon had the target located to a room but the picture was fuzzy. There was no telling if he was armed, or had company, or both. Takeda gestured two of her goons towards the hall where the room was while she and another two held steady aim on the suspect. She slid a hand forward from the grip to squeeze a trigger, but not for live rounds. He kept a sensor cartridge loaded on the lower rail that embedded another, smaller sensor node into the sheetrock. The suspect was clearly alone, and was seating the magazine of a pistol. The agents knew what needed to happen the moment the sensor feed updated. The door was kicked in, commands were yelled, and then shots were fired.

Both agents with Takeda had fired one shot each. Her rifle had fired a three round burst. The odds of any suspect surviving [i]five[/i] bullets to the head was next to zero. The breach had come just two seconds too late to catch the suspect without a loaded weapon. He panicked and tried to shoot his way out, and there was never a chance that would have worked. Of course that meant any leads the suspect could have provided just died with him. [color=cc99ff]“Secure the location then we sweep the place.”[/color]

Takeda stepped out to make the requisite series of phone calls following the unfortunate change of plans. Her team could sweep the remainder of the building by their lonesome. Evidently caller ID was on point by Bill Card’s prompt greeting. [color=d6d6d6]“You’re early. Tell me something good.”[/color]
[color=cc99ff]“For better or worse, the pharma burglars case is over.”[/color]
Without a live suspect, the prospect of leads were entirely in the hands of scene investigators. Still, this was the last suspect on the list and the last end to tie up. Dead was almost as good as alive in this case. [color=d6d6d6]“Why do I get the feeling you’re bringing me a corpse instead of a detainee?”[/color]
[color=cc99ff]“Because I’m bringing you a corpse instead of a detainee,”[/color] she joked, [color=cc99ff]“it should go without saying that wasn’t the initial plan but things happen fast on the ground.”[/color]
[color=d6d6d6]“No need to remind me I suppose,”[/color] he grumbled, [color=d6d6d6]“Can you let Strike finish up by themselves? The higher-ups are hounding me about wanting you free for something they haven’t told me about yet, and there will be paperwork to close out this case.”[/color]
[color=cc99ff]“I’ll get right on that...”[/color] she patronized, and clicked off the headset.

[hr]
She had stayed to monitor the building sweep anyway. Jian gave her full authority over Strike Bravo and she wasn’t about to feed them to the wolves. Anything that happened to them was on her head. Besides, who ever actually [i]wanted[/i] to do paperwork? No one, that’s who. The paperwork wasn’t going anywhere anyway.

The team had found no other individuals on the premises and the labrats went to work picking apart the apartment for anything useful. Takeda knew the likelihood of a lead strong enough to keep the case open was low, though it didn’t bother her. This was the fifteenth and final suspect they were running down. There was no one else identified in the case file to be hunted unless this guy had given her one. After eleven different sting operations, she was comfortable letting the case be put to rest.

That did mean the aforementioned paperwork though. Maybe Card would be helpful and part of it would be done already. She would find out soon enough as the not-at-all-suspicious black SUV pulled into a gated below-ground parking deck. Card was waiting for her when the driver dropped her off by the lift. [color=cc99ff]“Well someone’s impatient ...”[/color]
[color=d6d6d6]“And someone’s late ...”[/color] he scolded back.
[color=cc99ff]“Koko de jissai ni nani ga okotte imasu ka?” [i](what’s really going on here?)[/i][/color] she questioned as they got in the elevator and headed up.

Despite his British-American descent, he still spoke rather fluent japanese, or at least enough to carry on full conversations with Takeda, her being a native speaker, and enough to know she had put two and two together and knew there was more to the story than what he let on. [color=d6d6d6]“on'nanokodesu ...” [i](clever girl ...)[/i] “whole office has been retasked. That big assignment that was gonna be yours? They made it mine now since you’re so good at administrative work, and they said you’re the most qualified agent we have to be point man on this.”[/color]
[color=cc99ff]“Point man on what? You haven’t said what this assignment is.”[/color]
Card didn’t answer immediately, gesturing her forward as the elevator doors opened to let them pass. There were people in briefing room 02 down the hall she could see. The briefing room walls were soundproofed double-layer display glass. Unless set to blackout, the occupants were plainly visible. Thus it was readily apparent half the agents of Jian’s number 35 complex were already waiting for them.

The number of file folders that the man got barraged with when they joined the gathering was impressive. Moreso was that he seemed to be expecting all of them, and that everyone then went quiet expecting him to start explaining this mess. [color=d6d6d6]“I know it’s early in the morning so I’ll get right to it. The situation is simple enough. A top priority assignment came down from way high up and it’s all hands on deck. Every branch on the east side of Arcadia is on hand and Central will be assisting the coordination efforts. Everything else has been tabled.”[/color]
Suddenly this was huge, grand conspiracy huge. Somebody very high up in the corp ladder must have screwed the pooch big time to necesitate this kind of cleanup. Card was digging through his stacks of files for who-knew-what before he carried on.

[color=d6d6d6]“We are in charge of coordinating the effort in Ghajotia, Pleiades, Kyoto, and Ishmirynsk districts, so that’s a lot of pressure. Everyone needs to bring their A-game. We will be inserting agents into various criminal syndicates within these districts in order to attack the problem at the grassroots level. Our objective is the location of this data disk.”[/color]
He had handouts prepared it seemed, judging from the papers he circulated around.
[color=d6d6d6]“When we locate the package, we will secure and extract it, or if extreme circumstances present themselves, we will destroy it. This data disk presents an extreme security risk and it cannot be allowed to remain in the hands of dangerous criminals. Briefing packets are here on the table for everyone and individual assignments will be handed out shortly. We will meet back here at 1pm to touch base with 33, 34, and 37. Let’s get to work people.”[/color]