Chaps

Posted on Mon Sep 2nd, 2019 @ 10:17am by Captain Gary Taylor

Mission: Mission 2: Heaven On Earth
Location: Chaps Gentlemen's Meeting Club-Cheyenne Wyoming
Timeline: 2030 the Night of OHMSS
1901 words - 3.8 OF Standard Post Measure

As the time of the meeting approached, Lomax found himself standing outside of Chaps with Grey Wolf, realizing as he looked on a holographic Cowboy wearing leather chaps and, from the waist down, nothing else, that he had been quite wrong about what kind of place Chaps was, ~Whatever.~ He thought, just happy to see that, due to the still somewhat secretive nature of these kinds of places, it was actually a fairly secure place to meet their contact, "This information had better be worth the effort we've already invested."

"Your telling me." Gary replied. His eyes sweeping the area for any signs of a trap. "Lets meet the contact, get the info and get out of here. The sooner the better."

"My thoughts exactly." Lomax agreed, checking his padd for the tracker he'd surreptitiously inserted into the contact via a bottle of Kanar, "This place is looking too good to be true from a security standpoint, usually means it is."

The contact, an exiled Cardassian scientist named Bre'nell, had decided to come to Chaps early since it was going to be his last visit, see if he couldn't find a companion for his last night on Earth, or at least enjoy a show; he loved the dancing cowboys. In his pocket was a single data crystal, on it the total of over a hundred years worth of Cardassian bio-weapon science. The very essence of their partially failed super soldier program, for which he was going to receive a new life and a nice chunk of change, too. He took a seat at his usual table, waiting for someone to come take his order.

Gary looked at Lomax. "How are we going to ID our contact? He isn't a performer is he?" as he looked about the crowded club, trying to spot someone who looked out of place other than he and Lomax. however with so many people mingling about it was hard to get a fix on just who was here in the bar/club/saloon.

"The man drinks Kanar like a camel drinks water." Lomax replied, chuckling a little at his remark about camels since it seemed every man here was looking for a hump, "He ingested a tracker the night we met. Plus, most likely he'll be the only Cardassian here."

Gary nodded, "Did you say Cardassian? I got him. Right side of the room at three o'clock." Gary told Lomax without pointing or otherwise drawing attention to their contact.

Lomax checked his padd quickly, nodding to Gray Wolf, "That's him." There were others hunting this man, they could've gotten him, they could've killed him and replaced him with a double, but there was no fooling that tracker's programming.

Bre'nell, meanwhile, couldn't have cared less about anything that was going on around him, so enraptured as he was in the waiter in the sequined blue trunks taking his order that he didn't even notice the Federation agents moving in on him until they'd sat down beside him, "Uh, yes, that'll be all for now, Rod, thank you."

The waiter, secretly glad to be away from that handsy Cardassian, nodded and moved to fill his order, wondering what was the deal with his sudden company but figuring he probably shouldn't ask.

"Uh, Lomax, hi." Bre'nell greeted him nervously, he hadn't expected the Feds so soon, "Who's your friend?"

Gary looked at the Cardie, then to Lomax and back to Bre'nell. "Someone, who doesn't want to hang around here too long. So let's cut the chit chat. You have what we want?"

"Right, right, of course I do." Bre'nell replied nervously, the old man seemed reasonable enough, but the younger one, the younger one was a killer, there was no other word to describe him, "But I want to make some... arrangements first."

"We've already made our arrangement, Dr. Bre'nell." Lomax said sternly, "And I need not remind you that this was a costly arrangement on our end, getting you off of this planet safely is proving to be quite expensive so your information had better be top shelf."

"Oh, the information is as good as Rod in his shiny shorts, honey." Bre'nell snickered, "Which is why I'm going to need a little something extra."

Across the way in the kitchen another quartet of eyes was on Bre'nell, watching the Feds get annoyed with him, ~Great, if they kill him we don't have to be bothered with doing it.~ The lead man laughed to himself, eating the sandwich he had made after snapping Rod the waiter's neck and dropping his near naked body in the freezer. He could only identify one of the two Feds with Dr. Death, Lomax was his name, he was old as dirt and nearly falling apart, Zhukov must really be desperate to drag him out of the deep freeze. He finished his sandwich and awaited his moment, the time was near.

Gary stared at the Cardassian. "Listen you little piece of shit. I'll drop you right here. You made a deal and your going to stick to it. Or I'll gut you like a fish." He whispered savagely "And I can assure that Rod won't have anything to do with you."

"Hey, hey, relax." Bre'nell raised his hands in a calming gesture, "All I want is a Federation medical license. Just want to get back into honest practice." He was being totally sincere about this, living the.... nomadic lifestyle his exile had required had made him realize how much he loved the idea of stability, "Won't cost you a thing and I know Admiral Lomax can do it."

"Fine." Lomax nodded, placing his padd under Bre'nell's thumb. After the scanner pinged he looked to the Cardie and said flatly, "Done. Congratulations, Doctor."

"Wonderful." Bre'nell smirked, "Now where is Rod with my drink?"

At that the doors from the kitchen flew open and two masked men stepped out, raining fire on the Cardassian. Before he could move he'd been hit five times and other members of the squad were waiting outside for the Feds as the original shooters backed out through the kitchen amidst the chaos, their part was done now.

Lomax leapt to his feet, looking for a shot on the hit team, unable to find one in the throng of people rushing past, screaming and looking for escape, "Damn it"!

"Gary was moving as the first shots were fired. He pushed Lomax down, even as he was drawing his phaser and firing, Hitting one of the attackers in the back and another in the shoulder as the others rushed out. He looked at Lomax. "You alright and how's our contact?"

"He's dead." Lomax replied, beginning to lift Bre'nell's corpse onto his shoulder, "Come on, we've got to get him out of here so we can search his body for the crystal."

The hit team, protected by their body armor, escaped into the alleyway where they were quickly beamed away to their cloaked ship. Now all that was left for them to do was wait for the Retrieval Team to finish their work and return.

"No." Gary stated. "They'll be waiting for us to leave with the body.. We'll take him into the freezer and search him there and then get out of here."

"Alright, then help me move him." Lomax said, draping Bre'nell's other arm over Taylor's shoulder. Once secure enough to move him they made their way into the walk in freezer, passing Rod's dead body on the way, "Gave that poor bugger the cold shoulder."

"Well, he's got company now. "Lets search him but first." Gary reached into his jacket and brought out what looked like two lapel pins. "Put this on. We we leave tap it. It's a holo imaginer. We'll look like staff." He looked at the Bre'nell. "Lets get this over with. Then he and Rod can share a cold night forever."

"Right." Lomax nodded, finding the crystal quickly in Bre'nell's coat pocket along with a few.... disturbing pictures that Lomax quickly destroyed, "Right, time to go."

Gary glanced down at Bre'nell's dead body. "Enjoy eternity." Then looked at Lomax. "Right. Lets go." As he tapped his lapel pin. "Tap your pin." he reminded Lomax.

"You know, I'm not that bloody old." Lomax laughed, tapping his pin and turning into a chef, "Right, let's get cooking."

The retrieval team waited outside for the Feds, then they waited some more, and then some more, until it became unsafe to wait anymore. Shots fired had some seriously detrimental effects to operations, the worst of which is they brought attention, unwanted attention, police attention, and the hit team had done just that. Without any further ado the retrieval team beamed away to their cloaked vessel, leaving instructions for the Trojan agent as they vanished from Earth orbit.

[Three Hours Later]

The Trojan agent, a Detective from Cheyenne PD, went over the scene with a fine tooth comb; everyone said the killing took place at this booth, and the forensics certainly backed that, but that wasn't important. The important part was two-fold: The crystal wasn't there and the recorder was. Slipping it into his pocket for further analysis, he turned to the uniformed officers under his direction, "Okay, spread out and find the body, gentlemen." He watched as they left to carry out his instructions, wishing he could tell them to find those damned Feds, but he couldn't. ~Damn wolves slipped the trap again.~

It had taken a while going over land to get to Lomax's safehouse, they couldn't risk a beamout triggering alarms after a murder just took place. When they got there, Lomax led Taylor to a disguised location with a cloaked tunnel, handing him the crystal, "Well, the good news is we have it, the bad news is they killed Bre'nell before he could tell us how to decode it. Fifty feet from here is a grav cart, ride it through the tunnel and you'll come out by the river, there's a raft on the river, turn on the motor and it'll beam you out. Take that thing to Little Wolf, she'll be able to decode it."

Gary took the crystal and slipped into his pants pocket. " Wait aren't you coming? We can both beam out of here. If someone is looking, and you can bet they are, they aren't looking for us."

"I'm not sure of that. The shooters had been watching us a while, they were there long enough to kill that poor lad in those awful swimming trunks, the possibility exists that we were made." Lomax nodded, silently noting that Gray did not ask who 'Little Wolf' was, ~He probably figured it out long ago.~, "Besides that, my ship is just 'round the corner and Her Majesty has need for me." He extended his hand and smiled, "Best of luck, Gray Wolf, I'll be back in contact soon."

Gary had to admit Lomax might be right and right now they couldn't afford any mistakes. "He took Lomax's hand in his and shook it firmly. "Take care of yourself Dire Wolf. I want to see you again and next time I'll buy the drinks."

"I'll hold you to that." Lomax nodded, turning to board his ship and, on the way, destroy Bre'nell's house before the opposition had a chance to search it.

Gary nodded and without another word disappeared into the tunnel.