Chapter 2: Into The Lion's Den
Forlorn Hope Rescue Team:
Knight Captain Elena Voigt
Knight Mason Coleman
Knight Sarah Leroux
On board their Trojan Horse
Only the sound of clattering engine noises was audible inside the ship, in full blast that could have shattered ears easily. The metal walls, in their obsessive Gray and drabness, vibrated and oscillated rapidly, and every now and then a major jolt rocked the entire ship and its crew. Loose instruments rolled over the floor, creating another fraught noise, sounding as though a child gave drumming a burst for the first time. The chaotic rhythm it produced, together with the fulminant clang of the walls, chimed in with the whooshing engine sounds. It was no question of melodiousness though. Almost the entire cargo hold was dipped in all-embracing darkness, only a dimmed lighting at the ceiling, guttering inconsistently like a dying flame, shed light on the ambiance. Just another sign of the sordid state of the ship. It had something in common with an occult ritual, or at least the spare illumination made such an impression. An evocation of evil spirits. Only sporadically the light decided to dance over or along the figures, otherwise they would have remained unnoticed in the dark for sure. The air was free of any kind of odor, weirdly. It anything, the smell of metal might was distinguishable, but that was about it.
Short of the recognisably noisy backdrop, there was a heavy silence among the people in the room, two in number. Sitting opposite to each other, none of them was bent on breaking the deathlike hush. Instead, they left it at perking up their ears and observe the wildly chaotic rhythms of flying stuff inside the cargo hold. Their lack of words was akin to the privateness during funerals, only that today they didn’t have anyone to bury. At least not yet. Depression and uncertainty hovered in the air, but nobody dared to change it. Instead, they let the uneasy feeling lull them into immersion in their thoughts, turning the plan over in their mind time after time.
Elena’s heart had been beating like crazy for a while now, ever since she had stepped into this particular Eagle. Proving to be difficult to sit still, she would have loved to walk around, to get into motion. Yet she kept restraining herself, and instead had sat down near one of the metal walls, her knees drawn up in huddled fashion. She tried her luck at some breathing techniques – inhaling deeply through her mouth, holding her breath for a few seconds, then releasing the air through the nose again -, but to no avail. Her pulse couldn’t be lowered, apparently. The broken lights she cursed to herself, as the thick darkness comfitted her a great deal. It made her paw at the brown leather jacket she wore, checking for the gun hidden underneath her clothes. A minor sigh of relieved slipped her mouth as she could feel its contours. Burying her head in between her knees, she began to fiddle around with her hair, then held a single strand of her hair in place and moved it in front of her eyes. Though light was a luxury in there, Elena could still see enough to shock herself again; she could not help doing it. The sight catapulted her in an even more torn state of mind, visible through her grimace. Quickly she put the hood back over her head. Somehow, it felt as though she had got rid of some part of herself when she had decided she would have to get rid of anything prominent about her. There it was, the brown tone of her hair, seeing the light - of a defect neon lamp, that was – for the first time since years. She already began missing the blue after a few mere hours. It made her feel like a completely different person altogether, even worse than the one she thought she had become by now.
Elena sighed and shook her head while rubbing her forehead. As she examined the case more carefully, she only then realized how forlorn this whole plan of theirs was. It might as well resembled true suicidal tendencies, but she had come to a point where it didn’t mean all too much for her anymore. She had grown more and more desperate over the last weeks, perhaps this was her way of expressing it. She had watched her life go south in every possible sense of the word, which had driven her to do this. To infiltrate a hostile base full of homicidal pirates in order to rescue her missing once best friend. There was no profit or gain to be found this time, it was merely and solely about her deep desire to set the mess she had caused straight again. Yet no matter how much she tried, she couldn’t for the life of hers concentrate rightly. Saying she was not in her right senses could be called an elusive euphemism. If she was champion at one thing, then it was giving herself an enormously hard time. Various insecurities, coupled with self-hate and nervousness were in no way qualifying her to be on this mission, which would possibly demand a strong mind in a possibly hazardous situation. Something she was not in possession of anymore. None of this she wanted to acknowledge to herself, though. In lieu, she had got completely embroiled in making up for her misssteps towards Kiara, and would not crawfish out of this until she was either dead or successful. Frantic stubbornness probably was the best way to describe her reasoning to go on this mission.
She raised her head slightly to look asquint at her company, who sat right in front of her, dead silent. He seemed lost in thoughts just as much, he mostly just stared at the ceiling and kept his eyes closed Seeing that she was not all on her own placated her, if only a little, even if the atmosphere was not the most pleasant imaginable. A small smile played around her lips as she eyed Mason, but then lowered her head again. He had seemed somewhat irresolute about the whole Kiara story, and to Elena he had appeared to really believe in Kiara’s dual nature. Elena on the other could not. She had spent too much time with her friend, had shared too many unique events with her, that she was profoundly convinced there had to be more to the story than met the eye.
It had been a mere bonanza that they had managed to salvage an almost fully intact transponder originating from a Brigand vessel in Tau-23, yet a bonanza they had made sure to put to good use. Installed on a randomly bought Eagle – which had proven to be a bit too careless, given its current state -, it would make for a perfect chicanery. An illustrious example of a costume with which you could join the masquerade ball. To make the masquerade ideal however, they had needed an indigene, someone who could speak the Gallic language fluently – in case of problems arising – and they were foreseen to arise. A solution Elena had found with one of their latest additions to the Forlorn Hope, Sarah Leroux. While not being an honest-to-goshen Gaul, Sarah had been raised in Gallia and had a strong accent, which was virtually everything Elena had been in need of. A Brigand with a remarkably Rheinlandian accent would have been the most preposterous attempt at a deception maneuver since time immemorial. The only key part Sarah would have to play in this was getting Mason and Elena to Boulogne, and getting them out again, with as few incidents as possible in between.
That was the plan. Sounded simple? Only time would tell if it really would be that simple.
Elena felt relieved when the journey finally came to an end for the time being. That meant she could step out of this damn cargo hold again. But it also meant she had arrived at the place that happened to be somewhat angst-inducing for her. Through the door could she hear Sarah brabble some nonsense in Gallic through the intercom. Some seconds passed, then a male voice piped up, slightly distorted, muffledly sounding through the metal wall that separated the cockpit from the cargo hold.
“You are cleared to dock, Madame,” said the man. He sounded a tad dismissive, but only as though he was busy with doing different stuff at the moment.
“Oui, merci beaucoup. On my way,” answered Sarah with a flawless accent.
Inside the cargo hold Elena stretched herself, slowly standing up from her huddled body position. Her body felt far too heavy and dead for her likings, as though resurrecting from rigor mortis. The creaking of some of her joints was well audible. After she had vented a weary sigh, she would stare at Mason for a few seconds, almost absentmindedly. Then, with an expression of slight pain flashing over her face, she would indicate him to get moving as well with a simple motion of her head.
“Alright, time has come. Let’s move,” said she hoarsely, immediately clearing her throat afterwards. She hadn’t spoken in a while, as she had preferred to stay silent during the flight, which had made her throat turn quite scratchy. Trying her best at sounding and appearing as cool as a cucumber, she showed a more or less bitter smile passing over her face. Ambiguous it was, as it told multiple things. “That’s gonna be interesting,” it told for once. “For fuck’s sake, why did it have to end this way?” it also did. And last but not least it told “We’re so done…”. Mason would let out a quiet sigh and take a deep breath.
"This is going to be fun," meant he rather happily but obviously sarcastically.
With a loud bang, the Eagle touched the ground of Boulogne’s hangar bay. While Elena and Mason were readying themselves for the task that stood before them (which consisted either of trying to calm the hell down or checking their weapons once again), the door to the cockpit went open. Sarah stood in there. She seemed not amused, as her mien hardened.
“You’re good to go,” said she and laid one hand on the doorframe.
“But I swear, if you fuck this up … I’ll fuck you up twice afterwards.” Mason would just tilt his head slightly, looking over Sarah, a playful smirk on his lips.
"We'll see, maybe fucking up is worth it then."
Elena, who had spent the time wandering around the cargo hold aimlessly, spun around. Hand on her temple, where she could feel her rapid pulse, she contemplated the figure in front of her. It rather seemed as though she stared into space though, preoccupied in thought. No eye contact whatsoever. She had so many things to worry about right now, that Sarah’s voice only reached the back of her mind dead-sounding.
“We won’t fuck this up,” said Elena, as monotone as a roboter with no emotions clinging by. One quick look at Mason, and he would nod at Sarah in affirming fashion. He had his hands tightly clutching at the gun.
“We won’t fuck this up,” he repeated in his typical deep, male voice.
The small hatch of the Eagle’s cargo hold slowly opened. The two fearnaughts unhesitatingly jumped out of the ship and made their way to the hangar’s exit. From behind they could once again hear Sarah’s voice.
“Au revoir, and bon courage!” she called and waved for a few seconds before turning around and moving back into the ship. Her first part of the job was done.
Courage and luck is exactly what we could need right now, Elena bethought to herself as she walked right by Mason’s side. A slight sensation of giddiness appeared, probably related to the fact that she had her heart in her mouth at the moment.
Focus, Elena, focus, she thought. Already now she breathed heavily and fitfully. Her own mind was again rankling with her. There was the feeling somebody, or something, was behind her and crept along her path. She didn’t dare to turn her head around to check, hoping that she would be spared the horrible nightmare that would manifest in case she opened herself up for it. However now was the worst point in time to let this happen, and so she did her best in blocking the guilt trip. The mere thought at it certainly spooked her. Withdrawn into herself, she desisted from starting a conversation to make the situation more agreeable, up until the point she realized she had to distract her. So she recited the plan again, silently to herself. It was loud enough for Mason to hear it, though.
“Okay. Find people, ask people stuff. Find out about Remy’s room. Go to Remy’s room, check. Top priority, find Kiara. Rescue her or,” said she in a protocol manner. Having it recited hundreds of times already, she had memorized it by now. At this point however she always stumbled with her word.
“Or put a bullet through her head. Second priority, find Cross. Same procedure. Depends on circumstances. Don’t generate buzz. Get the hell out as soon as the priorities are accomplished.” And that was the end of her little poem recite. But it had worked miracles, Elena was distracted, at least for now.
Confused and disorientated as they were on board Bolougne, they confined themselves to following the signboards hung up at crossing corridors. Their man aim were the bars, self-evidently. Somehow they would have to find the location of Remy’s apartment, after all, and asking near one of the terminals was far too suspicious. After all, he had gone missing some time ago, and Mason and Elena were the ones responsible for exactly that. Careful asking-around in the pubs was the name of the game, so to say. As always, those were not hard to find at all, as the corridors were well-signposted, at least for a pirate’s hub.
The bars were crowded. Nothing Elena fancied too much, but it was the perfect condition to lay hands on information. Doffing the hood from her head, she entered the first one, closely followed by Mason. To mingle with the people in the bar, looking from afar like typical cutthroats and murderers, didn’t prove to be difficult, albeit some initial reluctance. Elena wanted to get over with this as quickly as possible, so she submitted to the obligatory “Hi!” and “What’s up?” and “I’ve got a little question, if you don’t mind”. Pecksniffery. She didn’t want to be here, where all the happy people were. While Mason was sitting down at a corner of the bar, obviously scanning the area, searching for any trouble arising, Elena approached the matter differently. Instead, she would go to the counter, ask the bartender, people near the bartender, virtually everybody who seemed to be tipsy. Sugarcoating it a little to not make her questions sound too suspicious.
Nonetheless, they would soon manage to successfully gather the information they were in need of. Drunken men were so reliable sources when it came to provision of information. Maybe not reliable, but at least they were all very open to suspicious questions, different to more austere men. And so they didn’t have any difficulties in finding out about Remy’s erstwhile whereabouts (besides the usual “Yada yada, he’s gone missing, yada yada”). Section 5, Housing Block 3-C, corridor 2, door number 41. Chances that the door number was wrong were high, considering they came from drunks, but they couldn’t think of an alternative to trusting those information. Leaving the bar again, they would make their way to Housing Block 3-C.
“Watch it,” Elena whispered into Mason’s left ear huskily when they were about to turn to the corridor to their right, number two.
“This must not turn out shit.”
And then, they were in said corridor. Ominous, sinister silence.