Eve Mallory is staring at the wall in front of her small cell, sitting on the short bench, looking at the bed that was locked to the wall as it was not yet time to go to sleep, according to the BPA Customs and Excise Officer that had shown her her new "appartment". They had taken all electronic equipment and every personal belonging, so she is alone with herself and her thoughts.
Her thoughts wander off from that place to how she got here:
She had taken small arms from New London, into Dublin and she had delivered it to the Molly base. She could swear that buying the goods did not show up as illegal anywhere, but she slowly got the feeling that even though Mallory & Lambert had spent a small fortune on intelligence, it was still lacking out on details.
"Important details..." she mutters to herself, shaking her head. Details like that Bretonia likely used advanced scanner systems at their Border Stations that could penetrate the reinforced sections of the cargo hold of the Foggy Dawn.
"I will make you pay..." she mutters in a short moment of anger, thinking about the vendor in Gallia that had outfitted the cargo hold with "... the best anti-detection technology in Gallia and Sirius" she repeats his words sarcastically, shaking her head.
Details like the one that Essex Battleship was outfitted with scanners that had a far longer range than Gallic technology and that these scanners had also caught her cargo, and the vector that made it likely that she was heading to Arranmore with it.
"Such a foolish mistake..." she bumps the back of her head her head against the wall.
The rest happened fast, much faster than she had expected after having read the dossiers about the lack of effectiveness of the Bretonian Law Enforcement. She was stopped for a routine scan at Border Station Durham when travelling without cargo, and placed under arrest for the suspicion of having transported arms to the Molly base some hours ago. At that time she was so surprised, she had not even considered to evade.
She mutters a silent curse in Gallic, shaking her head, staring at the wall opposite to her... not much she could do but wait.
*click fzzzz, click fzzzz*
The cell comm light flicked, a quiet clicking interrupted by short burts of static.
Eventully the small screen flickered on only to show a black image, the voice was
heavily distorted.
"So, seems you've managed to get yourself in a bit of 'trouble' " The image laughed
softly. "Smuggling weapons to Mollys, hehe, they really don't like that. You know what
they do to Arms smugglers? It's not some some little cell they dump you into, oh no,
Bretonia transfers it's more 'undesriable' crimals to Liberty. I think you know what
happens in the prisons there."
There was a pause to let the information set in.
"I'm sure you understand your position, which is one you can't refuse. So I'll make
this simple, I open the door, you escape. Your ship is in Hanger 3, the bay door
access codes are in your computer. In the Cell block office you'll find a weapon taped
to the underside of the desk, the desk guard will be distracted for, oh, 5 minutes."
"I'll contact you when it's time for you to return the favour. Incase you think it's
'safer' to stay there I'm going to unlock you door anyway, and attempted escape puts
you in a whole new heap of trouble regardless of whether they catch you in or out of
your unlocked cell. Just nod."
There was click from the door. "Oh by the way, you can call me Lambert"
The Screen went blank.
Eve stared at the screen when it switched on, listened attentively first at the end disconcerted to the message and exhales audibly when the message ends, her brown eyes widened slightly after the unknown voice had made it perfectly clear what she had to do... and what the consequences would be if she resisted.
She nods slowly, watching the comms unit directly, trying to put up a show of coolness and professionality that would deceive many, but likely not work against an unscrupulous, well-informed, corrupt police officer who was in complete control of the environment she found herself in.
All the time she wanted to ask the question "Why?" but she follows the clear orders, nods again and gets up, puts on the leather jacket, places the chair in its original position and approaches the barred cell door. There is the faint "click" that could only mean that whetever the voice had said was actually true.
She curses under her breath in Gallic, as she knows that this might end not well. Then, after having looked through the bars up and down the short corridor, she pushes the door open, closes it again behind herself, and walks down the corridor with fast, not hasty steps. Her heart beating like crazy, she reaches the office and there is no one there. She enters, bends over, finds the handgun taped to the desk. She rips it off, readies it and hurries out...
She reaches the hangar breathlessly although it was only a very short distance, but she is not used to escaping from prison cells with a gun in her hand, ready to shoot someone who might want to keep her from getting away. Realizing that she holds the gun in her hand openly, she places the gun in her pocket, to make it look less like an escape...
"Hangar 3... Hangar 3..." she finds it after stopping at a junction, then forces herself to calm down before she enters the sliding doors to the Hangar. She walks in there at a fast pace, refraining herself from just running to the ship in order not to raise too much unwanted attention. "Stay cool, Eve..." she tells herself... "You can make it..."
She covers the last few steps, opens the ship's door and jumps into, slams it shut and starts the undocking procedures, expecting the hangar doors to close every second, and the alarm to ring... the codes not to work... this all being a setup... but the lights signal her launching permission. And it feels like a small miracle.
I miracle that would have strings attached. She knows it. But it can't be changed any more.
The ship does not take the lanes but disappears into the blackness of space, far off from any known patrol route or trade lane. Mistakes made once must not be repeated.
The bord computer interrupts her thoughts: "Eve, shall I navigate? Is everything okay? Your vital signs are above normal, you seem agitated."
Eve can't help but chuckle: "Thank you, Maurice... it was just a little too close for comfort." she answers the computer voice. "I see..." answers the AI, not asking any more questions... "You want me to take over? Get a shower. Calm down." and Eve nods. "Yes, avoid any contact. No lanes. Get me out of this system." and Maurice answers: "Oui, Evelyne, taking over control."
While she walks into the small bathroom of the Border World Transport, she keeps pondering what happened... a look in the mirror tells her that Maurice was right: "What a day..." she sighs...
There was a thud and the Guard collapsed soundlessly. Lambert stepped over the
unconscious figure and watched as Eve disappered into the ship. It had take some not
small effort to get her out, normally it wouldn't have been worth it but it had been a
favour for the family. None the less a small transponder had been placed hidden on
board, finding Eve to collect wouldn't be too hard and Lambert always collected.
The cell guard had been messing with Lambert anyway, getting in the way, something
embrassing and suspicious would've had to be organised. The Hanger access code,
gun, the opening of the cell door and not to mention how the 'fault' with the camereas
all were done using his ID access, hidden well enough not to be easily found while
still being trackable. Lambert had brought lots of corrupt officals to Justice before,
some of them had actully done something wrong. Lambert walked silently away as the
ship lifted off, there was alot of work to do.
![[Image: cell.jpg]](http://www.augedergasse.de/temp/cell.jpg)
![[Image: BPAsig.jpg]](http://i863.photobucket.com/albums/ab198/lonsmar/BPAsig.jpg)
![[Image: BPACorruptBadge.png]](http://i863.photobucket.com/albums/ab198/lonsmar/BPACorruptBadge.png)