[WaM] 024 - An Unfamiliar Feeling

Time: Unknown - Location: Unknown

The first thing she notices is the sharp pain that's in her neck. It's not even to the point of a dull throb, it's a pinch of pain and as the darkness turns to blurred vision and the sight of her own lap comes into focus her head picks up too rapidly her voice cracking the silence as she screams in pain. Her hands are behind the chair, tied not to themselves, but wound around somehow through the bottom of the chair and once more tied to her ankles. It's all connected and it doesn't take her long to figure it out as her foot moves and it pulls her shoulder taut. No more of a scream comes from her though, the back of her throat feels raw and she knows that the first utterance from her has already alerted whoever took her.

It doesn't take long for her eyes to finally focus and feel the pain in her neck start to dull a bit, now that her head isn't hung over her body. The blood she could taste at the corner of her mouth dried and the room she was in seemed like every other empty warehouse back room she'd ever seen before. She hated that about terrorist groups. Always clinging to stereotypes and then getting upset when they were held to them.

From behind her she could hear the approach of footsteps and her entire body tensed. Her eyes shut tight for a moment as she ran through the list of things she was supposed to keep close to the surface so that she could ignore whatever it was they were going to do to her. Each breath she took in though felt too sharp, a pain in her side throbbing with the expansion of her ribs. The way her shoulder shifted pulled on the ropes too tight on her wrists which in turn pulled her ankles back more as well. The feeling of fingers winding through her hair wasn't exactly an unfamiliar feeling, but the tension that came with it, the twisting of strands around fingers until it felt knotted at the back of her head wasn't comfortable at all. It pushed beyond that when the fingers yanked her head back, Rachel wincing in pain and trying not to bite the inside of her cheek to keep from crying out.

She didn't recognize the man looking down at her from above her head. Once more she was forced to believe that he looked just like any other guy that had some horrible agenda. Destroy the world, take it over, find bombs... in this case it was just a virus. One that she'd destroyed when she torched the lab. She wanted to laugh at him, to just start a sickening fit of laughter but she knew that meant her chest would move, and her throat already dry would feel even worse. She was pretty sure it'd get her hit too.

"Before you... made the choice to destroy my facility, you took something from me. Information. You need to tell me where you sent it, and you need to get it back for me."

Rachel swallowed hard against nothing and tried to pull away from his finger as it ran down her cheek. His accent was thick, but his English was perfect. When she struggled he held on tighter, nearly jerking her head with his motion. The files had been on the hard drive they had copied and destroyed in Arezzo. She had transferred the files to Vaughn... Vaughn... he knew she'd been taken. She had been relaying to him right before it all went dark.

Hating herself that she'd forgotten that key piece of information she tried to keep silent but his fingers gripped against the side of her face, the tips of his fingers pressing harder into a bruise on her cheek that she had vaguely been aware of before. The more he pressed the more she fought to keep silent, but when she felt her jaw shift, and her teeth grind from the pressure of his thumb she whimpered through gritted teeth. Her face connected with his palm for a moment before he shoved her away from him. Her body shifting, once more causing the ropes to pull her body into the chair again. Watching him move to face her he crouched down to her once more those dark brown eyes of his, seemingly hollow and devoid of any real emotion staring into hers.

"You took something from me... and I don't like to repeat myself."

The sound of footsteps coming up behind her once more nearly startled her. She'd been so focused on keeping still, on keeping silent, on the eyes bearing down on her that she'd forgotten the perimeter. She watched as the man in front of her motioned to whoever was back behind her, the pinch at her neck was sudden and she knew it'd been an injection of some sort. Before she could even think to ask what it was, what they'd just given her she already felt her vision start to blur and the word muffled in around her.

Then darkness.

72 HOURS EARLIER

[MGW] 100 - Music is the Soundtrack - Self Scored

June 20th - 1632 hours - Arezzo Italy
(Pay For Me - Rachel Gibson Remix)

The sound of heels clicked against the checkered tile floor of the building. The pace they were set at forced the smaller man at her side to quicken his own stride just to keep up. Never looking back, never dropping her chin she kept her mouth in a tight line as she made her way toward the back room. There in front of the door she stood waiting, her stance a bit too wide for casual, it commanded attention, it begged for someone to notice her. Who couldn't notice her either. Short black skirt inching up against her thighs as she walked, the lines of her stockings drawing even the stray mans eye-line toward her. The bright green eyes that stood out behind the shag of brunette bangs, with the length of her hair dropping just below her shoulders. Her hands rested on her hips, elbows jutting out with a series of silver bracelets tight to her wrist.

The smaller man moved around her, trying not to touch her, trying not to shift her arms which were clearly in the way. Pressing a few passcodes into the door it opened and once more the pace began. The sway of her hips, gave the man who still trailed behind her something to watch, and perhaps that was the point. Her hand moves to her hair flipping it behind her shoulder more, still keeping that posture in line, still standing tall and confident and it's no wonder she was able to just walk in and demand this sort of attention.

Katarina Eskienne not only demanded it, she was given it. With ease and grace. Once more she comes to a door, mere minutes before the gentleman with her does, and her impatience with his speed is evident as her fingernails tap against her teeth as she waits for him to open the door to the vault. His downcast eyes seem some sort of silent apology and she ignores it blatantly. The sound of the vacuum pressure of the air tight vault releases and her head tilts aside for a moment looking into the chrome and black lined walls.

Her hand holds up the key she's had pressed to her palm the entire walk there, and he nods moving into the vault in front of her and pushing to the wall. His own keys are on a ring at his hip, they'd been clattering with his uneven steps. Now they are pulled into his hand selecting the one that goes to the box she's asked for. Two keys, for one box, as his slides in her hand moves toward the other lock the key she has fitting to it. His smile curves up slightly almost as if he's sharing in something intimate with her. Both keys turn and the door swings open. Sliding the drawer out she brushes against him as it's heavier than he thought it might be. Whatever slight smirk was there on his features now slips to a near grin at that contact.

It barely registers on her face and he's immediately disappointed. Both her hands take the drawer over to the table where her elbows rest letting the curve of her body set his imagination a bit further. It's the one moment she's allowing herself not to be so stiff and upright, as she allows her weight to rest on her elbows, the small of her back arching so slightly that it's so subtle. The front of her foot runs against the back of her stocking, heel lightly mocking the man who is by now no doubt staring at her ass. Her fingers rifle through the papers until she calls him over to her, "Signore."

Her voice nearly snaps with the accent biting and once more demanding all the attention that her body was getting before. He's startled and of course moves over to her promptly. Standing back up her hand seems as if she's going to show him something, but instead she's gripping to one of the bracelets on her wrist, and a fine mist of an aerosol comes out into the mans face, and down he goes.

Her hand moves to her ear clicking her comm on, "He's down." Her hand pulled the large black box out of the vault box. The light along one side bright red, "I've also activated the feed disrupter, it should be cutting all the surveillance for the room. Just keep an eye on the short wave. They're going to notice he's not back sooner or later."

"Copy that Oracle, so tell me... was that disrupter as heavy as it looked?"

"Shut up, he said it was going to be heavy, I didn't think it'd weigh that much," Rachel paused taking the keys she'd taken from the guard in case he had opted to leave her alone to check the contents. Pulling her heel off she pulled at the insole and found the second key, "Moving to the box." Her fingers ran along the row of boxes until she found the one she was sent in for, sliding the first key in place then the one from the guy now passed out on the floor. Turning the keys she pulled open the door and slid the box out. Opening it she found the hard drive, lifting her skirt up she pulled the 80 wire ATA IDE cable off her leg. The PDA with the wireless modem was in the first box, and all of it connected together within a few moments. "Shotgun I'm sending the files through the network."

"That's confirmed Oracle, I'm getting them here. Once we've got it all I'll send it to Merlin."

Rachel nodded and silently started to count to herself. She knew the guy on the floor would only be out for so long. The PDA beeped and she glanced at it, "Fifty percent Shotgun, are you able to read it yet?" She wasn't going to leave here if the information was corrupt.

"Looks good on my end. Some of these files though... their dated this weekend."

Rachel shook her head, "That doesn't make sense.. it's supposed to be in trial phases only, the train.. that was supposed to be the only prototype." Her mind was racing a bit trying to recall all the files she'd read on the plane ride over, all the different variations they'd eliminated during mission prep. There was nothing active on their intel... nothing proving that they were ready to launch. The PDA beeped again, "Shotgun, transfer complete can you confirm?"

"We got it all, pack it up and pack it in Oracle."

Nodding Rachel fired up the PDA and ran the system sweep, "Erasing hard drive now." The file made the drive spin and make a weird noise, but she didn't even care. Her heel tapped a bit impatiently as she waited for the program to run. Her fingers moved back to the first box retrieving the small set of screwdrivers as she unscrewed the case. Exposing the inner workings of the hard drive she waited for the drive to stop spinning. The PDA beeped again and it seemed the drive had been erased. Of course that didn't mean there wasn't still a chance of data recovery which was why she had to corrupt the drive too. She'd have taken it with her but she still had to get out the front door... with the guy she'd knocked out... and nothing in her hands. Slipping one of the bracelets off her wrist she separated the ends and unscrewed the small piece of metal before she poured the contents into the drive. It popped and sizzled before it started to eat through all the metal, making it a congealed mess of wires and silver. Wrinkling up her nose at the smell she screwed the case back on and wiped it down before putting it back in the box and slipping it back into the wall. Locking the door she returned to put the feed disrupter inside her own vault box flipping the second switch to delay it turning off, she added the PDA and the IDE cable as well before closing the box.

"Not to rush you... but..."

"I know.. I know.." Rachel replied as she moved the box back into the wall and locked the door, before returning the keys to the belt of the guy still on the ground.

"Time to run," Rachel replied as she ran toward the first security door. By the time she got there the feeds were back on and the security which had been trying to fix the glitch saw her at the other side of the door pounding on it. Rushing to her aid it opened and she grabbed the man by the shoulders. Expressing her concern for the manager who fainted before her she pushed the guard behind her shoving him toward the back room with the same sort of urgent demand that had already been seen by most of the staff at the bank. She was hoping to slip out the front door while they worried about the health of the man. Her stride remained confident as she pushed open the large glass door and made it onto the streets before turning down the side street and finding the van with Vaughn in it pulling up. Climbing into the passenger seat she glanced over to him.

"We've got a problem."