7392/Without A Trace

Without A Trace
Date of Scene:	15 August 2021
Location:	Old Gotham - Founders Island
Synopsis:	A group of very committed postal workers track down a gathering of young costumed vigilantes atop Gotham's roofs to deliver a message.
Cast of Characters:	Tim Drake, Strix, Lonnie Machin, Gabby Kinney

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Tim Drake has posed:
    A storm sweeps through Gotham during the daylight hours, gathering off the coast in the morning before it stretches itself out over the city like a miasma. It leaves everything waterlogged by nightfall, the rooftops glistening and the smell of gasoline and garbage subsumed by dampness.

    It's quiet, now, except for the distant rumble of thunder. The storm has already moved inland. Gotham after a night like last night, eight dead and thirty-seven more injured at a hotel downtown, it goes one of two ways: pure chaos or silent as a graveyard.

    Some small part of Tim wishes it was the former.

    But it's not, and as he sits on his perch next to one of the gargoyles that overlook Old Gotham, Red Robin tunes into the police scanner. Generally his systems at the Roost automatically transcribe and catalogue everything that comes in, but on slow nights like these, it's nice to listen in. Pretend.

    Even if the only thing on the line is chatter between cops on patrol. Red Robin tucks his chin against his knees and smiles faintly as one officer ribs another about some ongoing sports rivalry.

    In the corner of his peripheral, he sees a faint flicker. Just a shadow. Maybe nothing at all. And Tim is slow to respond, blinking once, twice, before he stands, staff extending as he pulls it from his belt.

    "Who's there?"

Strix has posed:
Strix isn't sure why she's out in costume during a major storm. Patrolling the rooftops just seemed like a better thing to do than stay at home and watching television. One of the things about her costume is that it's pretty watertight, so she's keeping mostly dry underneath it. Other than that, she leaping from rooftop to rooftop searching for people in need of help. It's such a refreshing change to actually help people than to assassinate them.

Its during one of these rooftop leaps that she notices a shadowy figure that she recognizes, that of Red Robin. With a light hop down, making sure she's visible to keep from spooking the other vigilante, she walks towards him with a clawed hand raised in greeting.

Lonnie Machin has posed:
Lonnie was doing... things. Anarky things. Things that involved dropping off an envelope full of instructions to a person with instructions to carry themselves out precisely on a certain date, at a certain time. Instructions he's not going to tell Red Robin about and he made sure to check himself for a trace because he knows Tim well.

But that said, he looks up the grain of rice-sized trace he stuck in the tread of Red Robin's boot to see where he is (HE CAN DO IT TOO TIM) and he pauses. "Ugh. He's *brooding* again." He uses the grapple gun in his cane to swing across the city, making a beeline for Red Robin's location. Sure, Tim would find it eventually. It's a game. A fun game that they play.

Gabby Kinney has posed:
There were more than a few costumed sorts out tonight, really. With what had happened in New York it meant that Gabby was currently flitting between a few different places while things were... handled. She hadn't spent much time in Gotham anyway, and felt she ought to make up for lost time by doing some patrols herself. Really it was *great* to get to do something to help out without being questioned about why, or was she sure she wanted to, or shouldn't she wait for her sister to be around? Adults. Bah. Her attire wasn't so much a costume as functionality, though. Boots laced up tight, leggings with padding in the appropriate areas, and bodyarmor over her chest. Long sleeves are worn along with a few straps to attach various weapons or tools. A half-mask is worn over her lower face with jagged yellow and red 'teeth' while a pair of goggles that could shift between night vision, regular, and infrared were worn atop. Her dark hair is left to hang freely besides a few barretes that were very much... not tactical... kept her hair out of her face.

As Red Robin and Strix greet one another she's busy climbing up the building itself. It's not lonng before she pauses to drape one arm over the edge, the other raising to prop her chin up while regarding them as if she were amused. Hard to tell with the mask. The toes of her boots press into the side of the building, and one might wonder just HOW she got up this far by climbing, but the clawed devices strapped to her hands may answer that. Not everyone could fly darnit.

So since everyone was apparently announcing themselves, she offers a simple, "Boo."

Tim Drake has posed:
    There's nothing there.

    Staring at that corner of the museum's rooftop doesn't resolve what is absolutely just a normal shadow into anything, so after a long pause Red Robin gives a shake of his head that sends a cascade of rain droplets scattering from his still-damp hair and turns away. He sees Strix coming, and the grim disquiet of his expression breaks, one corner of his mouth lifting.

    "Strix," he says, and he collapses his staff so that he can tuck it away and wave back to her. "Good to see you. Balm had good things to say about you after India."

    He looks out over the rooftops, eyes narrowing behind the white lenses of his domino mask. Was that movement he just saw? A flash of red, maybe? Time will tell. Red Robin's cape rustles in the wind as he turns slightly so that he can see Gabby's head poking up over the edge of the rooftop. "It's not Halloween yet, is it?" he asks.

    Mostly joking. He knows what today's date is! ...because there's a timestamp in the corner of his HUD.

    A faint whistle through the air and a glint of metal over Red Robin's shoulder is the only warning anyone gets before he's pelted with a pair of throwing daggers from behind, and with a sharp intake he drops to one knee. He just barely manages to pivot his body so that not laid out flat and can roll himself against the glass dome of the museum's roof; not much cover to be found up here.

    Three dark-clad figures approach from the far corner of the rooftop, another climbing up over its edge, and then two more further out, preparing to make the leap from the building adjacent. The leading figure throws another dagger, this one aimed at Strix, while the two flanking them pull out swords.

Strix has posed:
You can't see it but something about the tilt of the head makes it seem that she's grinning at Red Robin. She gives him an enthusiastic thumbs up at the compliment. His comment about Halloween causes her to look over to where Gabby is, and she gives her a friendly wave.

Then the assassins attack! She chides herself for not being ready as she's caught by surprise and the throwing dagger *thunks* solidly into her chest. She pulls it out, dripping the black ichor that is her blood, and the wound is already starting to heal. She doesn't waste any time and throws the assassin's dagger back at him, and for good measure follows up with a few daggers of her own.

Lonnie Machin has posed:
    Oh hey. Assassins. Anarky stops short, and takes a moment to assess the situation. He asks his 12 year old self if when he put on that fake head and neck, did he imagine a life where he'd have to fight assassins? And when the response is a shrug, he straightens up and unclips something off his belt. What is it? It's a surprise! Must be some sort of grenade, because he lobs it across the distance between the two buildings.

Then Anarky vanishes into the shadows for a moment and then crosses over to the building where Red Robin and the others are, and he lands in a crouch, before he stands up and begins to casually advance on the assasins, out in the open.

Gabby Kinney has posed:
That was a surprise to say the least, and not a good one. When those blades sink into Red Robin, and Strix, Gabby shifts from the casual posture she'd, somehow, managed to take while hanging off the side of a building into a quick pullup to hoist herself over the edge to the rooftop itself. Legs tuck to send her into a roll so she can spring to her feet a short distance away. Then like the tiny ball of fury she could be she launches herself toward one of the sword weilding assassins kicking her feet down to stomp at feet while her hands come up to use the clawed grappling gloves she'd been using as a weapon of her own meant to catch and entangle the blade of the sword.

Tim Drake has posed:
    Red Robin is on the ground only long enough for him to reach around and pull the daggers free from where they've sunk only a few millimeters into him. Between the body armor and deceptively resistant material of his cape, he's not actually that worse for wear. He'll probably bruise more than anything. Well, if they weren't poisoned.

    Hopefully they weren't poisoned.

    He tosses them to the ground as he rolls to his feet with a grimace, turning to face the assassins.

    The first has already gone down to one knee, his own dagger and two of Strix's in his chest. A few seconds later and then he crumples face first onto the rooftop, unmoving. But the other two continue to advance and behind them, another one has finished climbing up and pulls two swords from x-crossed sheaths on his back.

    Tim's on the move at about the same time Gabby gets up onto the roof and has crossed the space to take on one of the assassins, who side-steps out of the way and swings his sword in an arc to try and take her out. But she's too fast and manages to catch it on her gloves as he brings it down towards her, leaving him open for attack.

    Both remaining assassins on the roof engage Red Robin, who manages to deflect their initial sword strikes with a twirl of his staff. One gets a taser strike to the midsection but the other, the one with two blades, is less easily knocked out, and they continue to trade blows amidst the sound of metal against metal.

    And underneath those repeated sounds comes more whistling as another double set of throwing daggers comes flying through the air, aimed at Strix's back. From the building behind her, a trio of similarly clothed assassins make the leap to join the fray.

    This is about to be a crowd. The object Anarky tossed gave the two who had been about to make the leap before some pause, but when nothing seems to happen they each take a couple of steps back and then run forward. Both make the jump with ease and then withdraw swords, advancing on Anarky one after the other.

Strix has posed:
Strix pulls her own swords out and looks like she's about ready to engage with one of the assassins that Red Robin is fighting, but then some more throwing knives come her way. This time she's ready for them and whirls around, knocking a couple of them out of the air, but the third landing squarely in her gut. Again, she pulls it out to let her body heal it on her own.

She leaps into the air with a twist, her foot lashing out to connect with one of the assassin's head, sending him for a loop. Her blades flash to counter those of a second assassin. She has to remind herself that she really shouldn't kill these guys, so instead she simply disarms him, using little nicks and cuts to the arms and wrists. She follows up with another kick, this time to the solar plexus, causing the assassin to double over in pain, and then using the flat of her sword knocks him out cold.

Lonnie Machin has posed:
One of the assassins sticks his sword through Anarky's chest, a guaranteed deathblow - and his form just sort of fizzles and wavers. The hired killer stares dumbfounded at the hologram of Anarky, which proceeds to to start Flossing in front of them. The real actual Anarky then proceeds to drop off of one of the building's big Air Conditioner units onto the assassin fighting Tim, boots-first. "LEEEEROY JENKINS!"

Gabby Kinney has posed:
Gabby Kinney lifts her arm up when the sword is caught making it momentarily useless. More than momentarily it would seem as she brings her other hand around in a punch right toward the wrist holding the sword. It's not just the impact of the punch, but the fact that a sudden SHLUP of bone shoots out the center of her fist aiming to punch right through where each of his bones lie. It wouldn't kill him by far, but it would certainly make holding a sword near impossible until it was healed. She had promised not to kill long before even joining the group here in Gotham. That didn't mean she wouldn't maim just a bit if it came to keeping others from being hurt.

Tim Drake has posed:
    For the most part, these assassins are certainly trained well but also obviously of little threat to the general vigilante populace of Gotham. They go down swiftly, one crumpling beneath Anarky's boots, another twisting through the air to land nearly halfway off the edge of the roof from the force of a well-aimed kick from Strix, a third on his knees clutching his ruined arm after Honey Badger punches a bone shard through it. None of them let out a peep as they go, tough but ultimately of little real threat once faced head-on.

    All but the one that wields two swords. Their strikes are precise, forcing Red Robin on the defensive, making him give up valuable ground. He just barely manages to stumble back a step in time to dodge an attack that likely would have cut his arm clean off, though it still slices into a thin point between armor plates on his bicep, skin and blood showing through.

    But he's still holding his own. Enough that he starts to shout out "Really, Anarky?" in abject disbelief at his memelord of a friend before another assassin climbs up over the edge of the rooftop just behind him and grabs Red Robin around the neck.

    He drops down on one knee to avoid the tip of the sword trying to stab itself through his face and rolls, throwing the assassin off him and towards the one with two blades.

    The assassin facing Tim down barrels through their supposed associate as if they were nothing and continues advancing on Red Robin, who at this point is forced to leap off the edge of the building. His cape flutters around him before snapping open into the familiar winged shape, though a second later a body collides with his, sending them both tumbling to the streets below with a strangled shout.

    Atop the roof, still more assassins crawl up over the edge like a swarm of spiders. They're distracted now, a few giving token resistance to the three vigilantes remaining while the others peer over the opposite side of the building to where Red Robin and what must be their leader have landed. One tosses a dagger at the fully corporeal Anarky. Two more advance on Honey Badger, one diving in low to try and tackle her while the other aims for distraction with a strike of his sword, and then another one leaps off a nearby gargoyle, bringing his sword down in an overhead strike towards Strix.

Strix has posed:
Strix sees that Red Robin is in trouble and decides it's time to end this. The assassin that leaps at her gets a sword in the shoulder, and a severed hamstring for his trouble, and she makes her way towards the edge of the building and leaps after him and his assassin. She doesn't have the cape to slow her descend so she'll just have to land on the assassin. Swords first.

Lonnie Machin has posed:
"Better be careful Red, if it's a woman under that mask she's gonna want to *date* you later." Anarky says, tart as a lemon, before he suddenly twists, and that knife sinks into his armored jacket with a SHUNK = he looks at it with that blank expressionless mask and then he pulls the knife out of the coat and throws it *back*, aiming for the assassin's hand.

"Listen, I know he's baby but trust me the beating you'd get from Batman if you actually hurt him is very much not worth this. I *know*." He drops two canisters of tear gas from his belt and sends them rolling toward the assassins climbing up the side of the building, where they go off with a *FOWF!*

"You like that? I grow the ghost peppers myself!"

Gabby Kinney has posed:
Gabby Kinney leaves that poor injured man alone... Sans his sword which she now twirls around in her grip testing the weight. It's a momentary test--she was used to using swords bigger than herself, and while she was no ninja, samurai, or other, she wasn't a slob with it either. Her training had made sure she could use a fair range of weapons both handheld and projectile. The one that dives low for her is responded to by spring jumping right off his back, sword up to deflect the downward strike from the other. The extra weight from the impact helps to drive her heels into the shoulders of the one she had jumped onto. Before the swordman she grapples with can react, hopefully, she ducks to the side and simply... Lets go of the sword she had. It was now all his strength and momentum and blade that was coming down toward his compatriot as she dips to the side swinging a steel-toed kick out toward his side. Right for the kidneys.

Tim Drake has posed:
    The two figures falling from atop the Gotham Museum of Antiquities are little more than a blur of red and black against the backdrop of the streetlights. Red Robin hits the ground first, momentum stolen just enough by the spread of his cape that the fall doesn't take him out.

    It does, however, knock all of the air out of his lungs in one big rush, and he's winded and stunned by the impact, enough that all he can do as the assassin above him aims both swords downwards is lift his arms up to block the attack. The armor plating of his costume isn't enough to deflect them.

    Neither is the material of his cape, which the assassin pierces both swords through to either side of Tim's torso, pinning him down like a butterfly beneath glass.

    Behind his domino, Red Robin can only blink dazedly upwards. The assassin has just enough time to mutter a few words before Tim's savior arrives in a close mimicry to the assassin's own attack, though Strix's blades find real purchase through flesh.

    Red Robin's attacker crumples.

    Up on the rooftop, a handful of the assassins leap away from the cloud of gas bursting forth from Anarky's grenades. Several get caught in it, though, and they drop to the ground. No screaming or crying, just down for the count, like their HP has hit zero. It's the same for the one with his own knife in his hand, on his knees and unmoving in nearly the exact same pose as the one Honey Badger stabbed through with bone, shielding his injured hand and making no other move to attack or defend.

    Similarly, the assassin-turned-springboard faceplants into the rooftop and stays down, not even trying to move out of the way of the other assassin's blade. The one wielding it tries to stop himself, turn and face Honey Badger, but instead his own movement is used against him. When Gabby's kick strikes true, the combined force of it and the assassin's own momentum has him spinning in the air and tumbling right off the edge of the building.

    Things are suddenly very quiet.

Strix has posed:
With one smooth motion, Strix flicks the blood off her swords and sheathes them, before reaching out a hand to Red Robin to help him up. Hopefully his attacker is still alive, but Strix won't lose any sleep if he isn't. Once Tim is standing she pulls out the phone that he gave her and taps out a message. "R U OK?" the little voice that sounds much like, but legally distinct from Siri says.

Lonnie Machin has posed:
When the assassins drop, Lonnie looks around and then says, "...Really? You take out the Prime Ninja and the rest of them just drop like-"

He kneels down next to one and peels up their mask, hurriedly. He kneels down to examine it, to check their vitals. He unclips a small light from his belt (he's crazy prepared) to shine it into their eyes.

Gabby Kinney has posed:
Gabby Kinney watches the man fall then looks away before... well before anything else, she hopes. The others are regarded only to tilt her head curiously at them as they seem to just be *done*. She stoops to grab the sword she had dropped swinging it over her shoulder while making her way off to join the others. It doesn't take long, really, and she approaches while Anarky is examining one of the goons. "Sooooo are they zombies or something? They're acting kind of, uh, dead. For not being dead. At least a few of them," she adds gesturing over her shoulder with a jerk of her thumb. "Oh, right. You guys okay?"

Tim Drake has posed:
    Just for a moment, Red Robin lays there, staring up at the night sky. He hasn't quite caught his breath yet but he reaches up to unclasp his cape from around his neck and then takes Strix's offered hand. Up he goes.

    A little too fast, or maybe a little too soon after his landing, because he stumbles into Strix and then starts to crumple, knees giving way. He's about to drop to them if he's not caught beforehand, and black bleeds into his vision. It's only a tiny dip into unconsciousness, brief, and he shakes his head after, staring mostly unseeing down at the ground. "Yeah--yeah. I'm okay," he says. Though he doesn't really sound it. Something's shaken him.

    He pushes himself up and looks past Strix, only for his mouth to drop open slightly.

    "Where'd he go?"

    There's no body on the ground behind Strix. No blood left behind, either as a pool under where the assassin fell or on Strix's blades. It's the same story on the rooftops above. No throwing daggers, no bodies, no overt signs of the struggle. Except for the drips of black blood where Strix had been when she'd been hit and the remains of the holographic projector and tear gas canister Anarky had thrown out.

    In fact, even the one Anarky is interacting with disappears between the space of a blink, there and then gone. Underneath the cloth face wrap it'd been an entirely normal human, the kind of face that's hard to describe because of its averageness. Alive, pupils reacting, but then gone without a trace beneath Lonnie's hands.

    It's the same story for the sword in Gabby's hand. The weight of it is solid against her shoulder until it's not, and suddenly her fingers are clutching around empty air. No sound of it falling, no pressure of it being tugged from her grip. Just gone.

    Down on the street, Red Robin takes in a deep breath and then winces hard enough that he has to brace himself against his thighs, and that movement only makes him groan a little bit. "...I think I would've preferred the date," he calls out, and then he lets out a breathless chuckle. "Hah-ahhh, uh, no I wouldn't have." When he straightens back up, he's expecting the pain so it doesn't show on his face.

    A car eases through a stop sign at a corner and takes a left turn towards where Red Robin and Strix stand. Before the beams of the car's headlights sweep over him, though, Tim has fired off a grapple line and lets it pull him up into the air, tripping only slightly over the edge of the rooftop. "Wait," he says, perplexed. "They're--gone?"

Strix has posed:
Strix takes Red Robin into her arms, to keep him from slumping to the ground, even when he loses consciousness for that tiny little bit. Her head tilts in concern, as if she doesn't quite believe him when he says that he's okay. She gives him a sympathetic pat on the back once he's got his breath back, and looks when the car starts to come down the street.

She fades into the background, merging seamlessly into the shadows as the car passes, and somehow shows back up on the rooftop in record time. She pauses when she sees that all the assassins are gone. Just gone. She pulls out her phone and asks, "WHAT HAPPEN 2 THEM?"

Lonnie Machin has posed:
"Well that's." Lonnie says, "...That's a thing that just happened." He walks over to Tim and casually kneels down, before he begins to check his injuries. "Do you remember when I stole those shards of the Heart of Darkness and we scuffled over one and knocked it off the roof and down the back of that woman's shirt, and she turned into a Kaiju?"

He gets out some antiseptic and some spray on liquid bandage and gets to work doing a temporary patch-job, "Why does that make more sense than what just happened, Red? Why does a lady turning into an evil shadow-monster dinosaur make more sense than what just happened? And why were these disappearing assassins after you, specifically? There's always a maddening lack of important need-to-know information around you, and I think you like it that way."

Gabby Kinney has posed:
Gabby Kinney steps back and away from the edge of the roof to glance over her shoulder when the sword just... vanishes. It's all taken in with a quiet, thoughtful 'huh' as she scans the remnants of what were once ninjas. Not very good ones. But ninjas. The fingers that had been holding a katana mere seconds ago flex a few times giving a testing wiggle just to make sure they were all still left there. Satisfied they were she ambles over to the others after they so deftly avoided the car headlights below. "Magic," she reasons with a shrug. "Seen enough of it to know that it's some form of it even if I don't know the particular flavor. Also, don't lick magic, it's not good for you."

Tim Drake has posed:
    The one down at street level disappearing was... weird, but not exactly out of the question. Assassins tend to do that, slinking off when you're not looking.

    Hell, Batman does that. Most of the Bats do, in fact.

    But a whole roof of them, with Anarky and Honey Badger right in their midst?

    When Strix emerges from the shadows and holds out her Outsiders-phone to ask that question, all Red Robin can do is shake his head. He drops down to sit on the edge of the roof, breathing carefully to avoid causing himself any more pain than he absolutely has to suffer through right at the moment. "I don't know," he says. He really, really doesn't.

    The casual reminiscing has Tim briefly confused, mind lagging a little bit, until Anarky makes his point. And then Red Robin's hands flex against his knees. "I don't--" he starts to repeat, before bites his lip and looks downwards. "The one that attacked me, he said he--that he had a message. From Lady Shiva." The next inhale he takes comes later than it should; even Tim, or maybe especially Tim, knows just how serious a threat the world's deadliest assassin poses.

    "She wanted to tell me that I was... getting sloppy." The minute pause between words is the only tell for exactly how deeply Red Robin is affected by that comment, even delivered second-hand. He's quiet as Anarky tends to him, bruised to all hell with a knot on the back of his head and two small cuts beneath one shoulder where he'd been pierced by throwing daggers, but ultimately okay.

    He's been left alive on purpose.

    "This isn't something she--I mean, weird things happen, right, but this isn't something I'd expect from her. And maybe that in and of itself is her play."

    Gabby's mention of magic has Tim shaking his head, but it's less a rejection of her suggestion and more a rejection of magic's presence in Gotham. What else explanation is there? "Noted. No licking," he tells her. And then more quietly, to Anarky, "There's nothing about this I like."

    After Lonnie's temporary patch-job is in place, Red Robin leverages himself up to his feet once more. He's still taking small breaths to avoid expanding his ribcage. "Good work," he says to all three of them, though with a serious nod to both Honey Badger and Strix, acknowledging it as Red Robin in that moment speaking to them as the leader of the Outsiders and not just a fellow crimefighter.

    This is going in their permanent record, for sure. With a gold star sticker, even.

Strix has posed:
Strix looks around her in puzzlement before going to sit down beside Tim. If they could see her face she'd be scowling in concern, and she gives him another sympathetic pat on the back. She types a quick message on the phone. "LADY SHIVA IS BAD NEWS" it says. She brings it back and types out another message, "I WILL HELP."

Strix knows about the League of Assassins. Her Talon training has warned her that they might get involved with their activities in Gotham, and had been trained in how to counter their fighting styles. But Shiva? Only the best of the best of the Talons would even dare to go up against her. Strix would try. She might not win but she knew that she could slow the master assassin down enough to keep people safe.

Lonnie Machin has posed:
Lonnie keeps what he thinks of some sort of elitist society of assassins to himself - wait, pffff, ha, nooooooo he doesn't. "Lady Shiva. What a despicable creature she is. She's nothing more than a common hired killer made to sound fancy. I don't care how *good* at it she is." He gives Tim a nudge with his boot.

"Get up."

Tim Drake has posed:
    Bad news is an understatement, and Red Robin's soft huff of breath is almost laughter. Adjacent to it, at the very least, even if it comes with a faint hiss of pain. "She really is," he agrees, and at Strix's offer of help he tips his head towards her. It's a bit bird-like, as befitting his codename.

    "Thank you."

    He looks up at Anarky and tips his head to acknowledge what he's saying. No argument from Tim on that one. A bit of grumbling when he's prodded into standing, but up indeed he gets, even if it's slow and careful. "Guess I have to get back into a stricter training regimen." If only there were more hours in the day.

    There's no mess to clean up, no collateral damage to account for, nothing but memories and bruises to prove anything happened on this rooftop overlooking Old Gotham. Once the assorted costumed folk clear off, it's as if it never happened at all.

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    Two streets over, a hooded figure lowers the binoculars from its face. "Confirmed materialization," it reports into some sort of device in its hand. The voice is like the one from Strix's phone, just on this side of robotic, enough that it can't quite climb out of the uncanny valley. "Hume readings briefly dipped below zero-point-three before stabilizing at the expected zero-point-nine-repeating."

    It makes a soft noise of acknowledgment to some sort of unheard response.

    The figure closes the laptop balanced on the air conditioning unit nearby and unplugs a wire from one of its USB slots, before it folds closed a device not all that dissimilar in shape to a parabolic microphone mounted on a tripod. Everything is carefully folded away beneath the robe it wears, and then the figure opens a nearby door and passes through, descending down steps.

    "Target is a match for the psychological profile. When shall we acquire?" A pause. "Understood. Will proceed as ordered."