Players:
Summary: Maxwell enters the Lions Den
Date: November 4, 2012
Log Title: Seeing The Lions Den
Rating: R
Church of Humanity Base
Early evening and Max (Frank) Cruises Hell's kitchen on his Harley motorcycle around the outskirts of mutant town. The sentinel robots never cease to give the man the creeps but thankfully he's below their notice. He's been plotting out the security patterns since the lockdown of mutant started, memorizing shift changes, gaps in the coverage, cameras and other things he'll need to get past to get supplies to the refugees. He's had his contacts outside the walls gathering supplies and essentials to be delivered and has caches of food and other items all over Hell's Kitchen waiting for delivery. He keeps his phone on in case the church calls, not having heard from the leadership since the fight at the stadium.
The first thing Maxwell would notice from his surveillance is that they run a tight watch here. There aren't many gaps in shift changes except for one. In the Northwestern most part of the Mutant Town barricade, there's a decent sized gap between patrols and the sweeps by the Sentinels. Another thing Maxwell would have noticed is that there are solders guarding the place but their are small differences between their uniforms and the US Military's, along with a patch on the arm that show they're a sect of the Church of Humanity.
Maxwell takes note of the gap as he drives past it, he'll mark it on his map later for delivery to Rashmi. The soldiers earn a frown, either mercenarys or more church fanatics. He's starting to wonder what the hell he's gotten himself into if this organization has it's own military force.. and wonder even more about how they're managing to pull this off. Definately bares some looking into. Having finished his sweep for the day he heads back to his apartment, if he's seen doing this too much he'll raise suspician.
It's hard to tell what's going on in Mutant Town but it's obvious it's not good. At least a dozen sentinels patrol the area and any way out is heavily guarder. Unmarked black vans and large SUVs form barricades out and in the streets of the relocation camp. Once back in his apartment, his phone rings and it's Matthew Risemn's name that comes up on the caller ID.
Maxwell answers the phone quickly "Harrigan here." He answers simply as he sits on his bike outside the apartment building. Checking for the hundreth time to make sure he's not being followed around as he speaks.
"Sorry it's taken so long for me to get in contact with you." Risman says and there's a bit of an odd hesitation to his voice. "Just things got really ugly out here with the plans didn't go through….it was best for you to lay low avoid….the..um…backlash." It's obvious he's choosing his words too cautiously. Looking out the window Maxwell wouldn't see that he was followed, in fact, the streets just look abnormally empty. "We're gonna need to proceed with part two, which we need you for."
Maxwell nods despite being on the phone. "Of course father, perfectly understandable given all that's happened. Where do you need me to go and what do you need me to do?" He's getting on edge with it being so quiet and Rissmen's choice of words. Hoping he hasn't overplayed his hand and blown his cover.
"We want to bring you out here for a meeting, if that's okay. I can go over some of it on the phone but we're going to need you out in upstate New York." Risman says. "After what you did that the rally, saving Jackson's life like that, well you've impressed people." There's a hint of a smile to his voice. "Now that we've got things set up in mutant town, we need to deal with some problem senator. New York Senator Kirsten Gillibrand has been causing a few problems for us. How are you with kidnappings?"
Maxwell blinks at this little revelation and is at a loss for words for a moment but recovers quickly enough. "No real experience in that kinda thing but I learn fast. Just tell me where to go."
"That's what we need to bring you up here for, they want to go over the details on what to do." Risman explains not catching any difference in Maxwell's words. "It's taken us years to put this together, we're not about to let some whore of a Senator ruin it. Upstate New York, there's a town called Dannemora, we're right outside of there. We can fly you up here if you want, or we can give you directions."
Maxwell keeps his tone as normal as he can. "Directions are fine, I can leave right away and be there in a few hours if that's acceptable." He reachs into his pocket and removes the mini-recorded he's carrying, adjusting the phone to hold it up to it. "Ok got a pen and paper.. whenever you're ready."
Risman gives him the directions in full detail. "…when you turn down the road after three miles you'll see an old church. That's the base, the church there. Just go inside and go up to the stone alter, there is a wooden cross on top. Press the wooden cross back and someone will be up to bring you down here. We're almost in Canada."
Maxwell nods "Got it, I'll be on my way in 15 minutes. See you then." He keeps the recorded to the phone to catch anything else Rissmen might say, waiting for him to end the call.
"It's about five and a half hours from New York, see ya later on." Risman says as it sounds like he's probably already there. "Drive safe Frank, May God be with you." And he hangs up the phone on the Hooligan.
Maxwell turns off the recorder and pockets it. Releasing a sigh of relief. "Ok.. best get moving." He heads out of the city on the bike, heading back to the Salvage yard via a more roundabout way to make sure he's not followed. Once there he downloads the conversation from the recorder to his computer with the other conversation he's recorded, replaces the recorder's memory chip with a blank and switchs to a vehicle better suited to a long-distance trip. Leaving the yard in an old pickup truck and heading to the designated meeting place.
Six hours later Maxwell finally arrives at the church and it just looks like an old run down church that's long since been in use except for a large black van in the drive way. The grass is over grown and there's a significant chill in the air. The church looks to be dark but the front door is a bit ajar.
Maxwell parks his truck behind the van. Stepping out and adjusting his jacket against the chill a moment he heads for the door and nudges it open before looking into the building.
The only thing that seems off is Maxwell might notice some well hidden cameras in the area, they probably know he's already here. Stepping inside he'd enter a small hallway before to the main chapel. The door opens easily enough and he'd notice that there are lights on but every window is covered over with a thick black cloth to make it look like there are no lights on. Before he even gets the chance to do much, Matthew Risman is already sitting in one of the pews waiting. "Good to see you Frank."
Maxwell takes note of the cameras and window coverings. Upon spotting Rissmen he smiles a bit and heads towards the pew, his hands in his pockets as he he gives a nod "Father Rissmen, good to see you too. Pretty dull trip but all things considered quiet is a good thing."
"Come, let's head to the conference room." Risman says after offering his hand to Frank for a handshake. He goes over to one of the walls and presses a spot on it so a hidden door opens up. Down a flight of steps he's lead to a hallway with cement walls, floor and ceiling. In one direction is a steel door with a high tech looking lock and a second door with Mutant spray painted on it in dark red. In the other direction, the direction they walk in, they past a surveillance room, an armoury and a few other doors before leading him into a cluttered room with a large table, monitors covering one wall and binders, papers, discs, hard drives and so much more. Standing at one end is the man that Maxwell rescued at the stadium, Jackson. "Hello there Frank, how was your trip?"
Maxwell shakes the offered hand and nods, following Rissmen through the compound and making mental notes of what he's seeing as well as any cameras or other security. When he sees Jackson he nods "It's good see you again Mr. Jackson, was a bit worried after things at the stadium went sideways. I hope you're healing well. The trip was quiet but no complaints."
"As were we, as were we." Jackson says motioning for Risman to shut the door leaving the three in the room alone. "This is one of our headquarters, it's where we kept some of our prisoners, but…we're not going to talk about that night." Risman and Jackson caught a lot of slack for the execution going awry. "Anyway we brought you up here for the Senator Gillibrand. She's starting to be quite vocal in regards to Mutant Support and she's getting a few others to listen. Right now she's the leader and we need to get her out of the picture. We need you to kidnap her, we have everything about her here." He says putting a folder with documents and a flash drive in front of Frank. "Where she lives, all of her personal information, social security, birth certificate, stuff like that. Those are copies of everything we have on her. We need to you remove her from the picture so we can have her replaced with some….thing on our side."
Maxwell pauses a moment at the choice of words "Thing?" He lets it trail off at that and turns his attention to the information. "Ok, once I have the Senator where do I take her? Can't really keep a hostage at my apartment after all without drawing attention to myself. Still alot of sympathetic folks in Hell's Kitchen.. misguided fools but still could be a problem."
"No, once you have her you bring her here. Then will transport her to where the rest of them are." Jackson says. "Yes Thing. Some how our leader, Stryker, found out how to make what's known as a Life Model Decoy. SHIELD, if you've heard of them, is fond of using them. Somehow he got the plans and has been able to make LMDs of people in Goverment so that we have more pull. It's been a plan that's been in the works for years. They don't even realize some of them have been missing for over a year."
Maxwell looks over the information and looks up "Life Model Decoy? Sorry not familiar with them. SHIELD tech was a bit above my paygrade back in the service. Ok I can pull this off, is there a timetable on this operation or do I have time to prepare and gather what I'm going to need?"
"You do have time to prepare but do you think you can get her by next Sunday? At the very latest the following Wednesday. I understand you need to plan and figure everything out but we do need her in a reasonable amount of time from now." Jackson explains. "Also if you need back up, let us know, we can provide you with transportation and a small team, anything you need."
Maxwell nods "I can do sunday, just need a few days to get a couple of things and scout out the home and her daily routine. Anything else you need taken care of while I'm here?" He sits back a bit, mulling over all this while he talks.
Jackson shakes his head. "No, that's all for now. If you want to spend the night here, we have a few rooms. A lot more comfortable than the room we gave those mutant bastards to stay in." There's a chuckle in his voice as he says that. "If you need anything to eat we also have a small kitchen."
Maxwell shakes his head "Thanks but no, best get back and get started on this. I'll have Gillibrand here before sunday, no worries about that. It's been good to see you both again, and I'm honored you'd choose me to act on behalf of the church like this."
"Thank you very much Frank, God sent you to us for a reason." Jackson says shaking Frank's hand and moving to towards the door to hold it open for Risman and Frank. Risman walks Frank to the staircase. "I trust you can get out okay on your own? Good luck Frank and just between us, don't screw this up. Stryker is already mad enough about those mutant boys getting away and took it out pretty hard on Jackson and I. I don't want to see you see his ugly side. Take care and best of luck to you Frank."
Maxwell nods "No fear of that Mr. Jackson, I'll be back soon." He shakes the offered hand and gives a nod to Father Rissmen and a polite "Good evening as well Father" before heading out and back to his truck. Starting it up he heads home and after checking his mirror a few times to ensure he's not being followed he reachs into his pocket and shuts off the recorder before breathing a sigh of relief. "Hoo boy.. Frank you've walked into it now." As he heads back to Hell's kitchen he ponders how best to approach this.. and decides it's time the Hooligan met somone.
