Late Night Operations

[Gemma Ridean]

The time was 3 hours, 13 minutes and 26 seconds past midnight. At this late hour, most of the hotel guests had retired to their rooms, while the weary-eyed staff members struggled to remain awake at their posts. Meanwhile, six floors up, a young female suddenly found herself caught in unexpected circumstances.

“Oh Hyne.” Gemma moaned miserably, grabbing a handful of hair in her fist to tug in her frustration. At this present moment, at 3 am, no less than five hours before the start of the mission, she felt ridiculous. Bare foot and wrapped in a cheap terry-clothed robe, she was scampering down a very narrow and dimly-lit hallway, desperately scanning the walls to find a room that would not reveal itself.

Let’s….see 405…607….678…913?

How could she been so reckless….so ? Right after the meeting, she had dutifully returned to her room and had begun to work out the details for her assignment. Fine. Nothing irresponsible about her actions.. However, upon finishing that, when she was supposed to immediately rendez-vous with Hadrian for further confirmation, what need Gemma decided instead?

/To take a nap\

--Which explained why she was running around the Nobleman at 3 am like some drunken fool. And If her mother knew she was heading to a….gentleman’s room at this hour….Gemma shuddered at the prospect, for she too was not feeling to eager about this meeting. If anything, she had been planning on using one of the hotel conference rooms, a café, or perhaps the Balamb library for a meeting place….

Luckily, it wasn’t difficult to retrieve his room number from the concierge. She suddenly frowned, realizing that the Nobleman was seriously lacking in security…

This was getting ridiculous. She was so flustered that she could hardly piece together her thoughts coherently.

She finally arrived at the door. Taking a deep breath, she knocked on the door.

[Hadrian D'arcell]

Hahah the title XD
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Hadrian's eyes were fixed at the ceiling. It was 0309 hours. His eyes wouldn't close. He felt pissed. And he felt exhausted. How many years did he waste trying to track those two?

He clicked his tongue in annoyance. This bed is too soft.

/Corpora Quadrigemina advices you to sleep for optimum function once the mission commences---which is approximately 120 minutes from now. Corpora Quadrigemina can not and will not be responsible should you malfunction mid-mission by then. I will repeat---/

"Mpft." Hadrian grinned at CQ. Everything he needed was all in his duffel bag when he left Garden. There was nothing to really prepare for. He was already ready as is. It was just that---

Knock. Knock. Knock.

He wasn't going down there to really work. The mission was 70% personal, 30% business.

Knock. Knock. Knock.

Hadrian grunted. Forget it. He didn't really feel like getting up. There was only two more hours before they check out. The bellboy should just get lost.

Knock.........Knock.

It stopped. He wondered if the bellboy left. Now, he wanted to know what it was he wanted. He blew the strand of hair away from his face and slowly got up. Sluggishly, he opened his door and lurked his gaze from left to right.

Hnh? He noticed there was a short person in front of him. It turned out to be a girl--Gemma. She was in her robes, her hair dishevelled like she had been drinking. Reminded him of that last time at the Ball. Usually, he would tease her about it, but he didn't feel like doing so this time.

What's she---? Oh...that's right. He had an 'assistant'. Hadrian wouldn't really be able to fully carry out what he was planning if he didn't have her. This had to work. No, he would make it work.

"Morning. Ready?" he asked unconditionally. "I'll meet you down the lobby in 30 minutes. Get changed." He looked behind him to look at the clock. It was 0315 hours. "Hope you had a goodnight sleep." He smiled fondly at her. Cuz you're not gonna sleep anymore. They were going to train till the sun rises.


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LOL Gemma can ask him questions if she want or you can go fast forward it till they're down at the lobby ^.^ Sorry if he's a little unreasonable.

[Gemma Ridean]

She had been completely caught off guard by Hadrian's reaction. During the ilngering minutes that she waited outside his door, Gemma had half expected that he would be asleep, or at least extremeley annoyed by her presence there. But instead, it became quite clear to her that not only was he slightly amused by her disheveled state, but judging from the neatly folded bed and the packed duffle bag laying on top of it, he was in fact, ready to depart tomorrow morning.

Confusion slowly began to sink in. Wasn't Hadrian the one who stormed off after the meeting? What had caused this change of heart?

Still staring in disbelief, realization dawned upon her as she listened to his words.

"Morning. Ready?" his voice was oddly cheery. "I'll meet you down the lobby in 30 minutes. Get changed."

Hearing his "command," Gemma felt a sudden surge of resentment well up inside of her. The very presumption...for him to suddenly take charge of the whole situation like that..and not even a single glance at the plan she had drawn up.

"Hope you had a good night's sleep."

She narrowed her eyes. Either he was being friendly, or he was mocking her.

"I-I-" she stuttered, trying to regain a semblance of dignity despite her raggedy appearence. "So I see you're back in the mission huh?" she blurted out in an attempt to refocus the conversation.

[Hadrian D'arcell]

Hadrian snorted. After what he just did in the conference room a while back. Did she want to rub it on him everytime? Or she didn't know what else to say.

"You know that already," he replied. "Since you even came here to greet me and all." He stared at her. He wondered what she would have done if he really pulled out of the mission. He had a feeling it would probably be the same as right now.

Lucky girl.

A few seconds of silence and he added, "You do know your brother's airship will leave at 5, right?" He leaned closer. "I'll slip out of that pretty robe if I were you." He straightened up and folded his arms. "Or if you have any questions for me, we can still waste a minute or so. Don't really care." Or so he said.


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edited cuz of the recent post:P

[Gemma Ridean]

_{Ah! Sorry Ani! I didn't see the post about Hadrian rejoining the team when i posted! That's ok, Gemma can't always be the sweet one. ^_^.}

"You do know your brother's airship will leave at 5, right?" He leaned closer. "I'll slip out of that pretty robe if I were you. Or if you have any questions for me, we can still waste a minute or so. Don't really care."

Why that presumptuous little prick...

But what really annoyed her the most was how right Hadrian was. After all, considering the trouble she went through to reach him, they were only wasting time with further chitchat.

Matching his smirk with her own, she roughly shoved the blueprint containing her own strategy outlines in front of his face.

"Fine." she snapped. "But while I'm gone, you might want to take a few moments to look this over. I'm thinking we can start with a basic 'hookswitch' bypass to intercept all conversations and calls withing the vicinity. Unfortunately that's going to depend on them having a working telephone or an FM transmitter for us to work with. If not, we can always resort to planting electronic tagging devices onto personnel. Then, again our ultimate goal is for long term surveillance, our strategy is going to rely primarily on discreetness. You know the works. Micro-optic fibers, UHF transmitters, disguised voice-activated cameras. Anyways, we can discuss all that downstairs. For now, just take a look. According to the blue prints we've got, the areas I've marked in red should be cleared of any kind of electronic traffic, so it's optimum for us to work in. However, I'm not the expert, you are, so take a look. I'll meet you in 7 minutes."

[Hadrian D'arcell]

I hope this is ok ^.^ I already put Gemma in the lobby.
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Hadrian read Gemma's outline while she prattled on and on about her strategies. She was talking so fast, her words just went past over his head.

Surveilance... All of the things that written in the paper would be provided when they get to the airship. There was no reason why Garden couldn't get such simple bugging devices. He smirked. It looked like Gemma's knowledge about sci-tech wasn't that of a noob. This would make things a lot easier.

He watched Gemma saunter away. She said she'd be in the lobby in 7 minutes. She was too diligent.

~*~

Twenty minutes later, a newly-showered Hadrian emerged from the elevator into the open lobby. His black duffel bag hung over his shoulder. Gemma was already there, looking a bit better than when he saw her in front of his room.

"Sup?" He threw the duffel bag on the long couch and sat across her, a crystal table laid between them.

"This." He placed Gemma's paper across the table and pointed on one of the areas in red. "...would work." He figured he'd go right into business before Gemma makes a comment about his tardiness.

"But since this map we have is subjective, we don't trust it completely until we squeeze the main frame for the whole floor pan of the area." He pulled a marker from his pocket.

"Things we'll need..." Hadrian crossed out all of the elaborate bugging equipments she suggested leaving only the two-way micro-cameras, and tagging devices. He then added the word, "detonators" at the end.

"There." He smiled at the new list. "Bugging is boring. It's all about cleaning." Should they detect illegal activity from their surveillance, not being able to intervene instantly sinks the whole purpose down the thrash.

[Gemma Ridean]

As Hadrian took a second read-through of her outline, Gemma felt her heart growing three times in size. It felt almost like an examination, one which she was compelled to succeed at. However, the seconds of silence that ticked by as she awaited his response were beginning to feel tortuous. She leaned forward, resting her elbows against the glass table that separated them. On the other side, Hadrian was scrutinizing her work--no, more like her intelligence and capability. She glanced back and forth between the two, trying her best to read the expression on his face.

Finally, he looked up at at. "This..." he said, drawing out his words. "...would work." Gemma smiled with relief. "But since this map we have is subjective, we don't trust it completely until we squeeze the main frame for the whole floor pan of the area." The sight of the large red marker in his hand was beginning to make her feel very noise.

"Things we'll need..."

She let a small yelp in protest as she watched in horror, the sight of her precious list being crossed out with the wretched red marker. And then...curiosity began to settle in as she stared at the word that replaced hers.

"Detenators?"

As if he immediately read her mind, Hadrian grinned and replied, "Bugging is boring. It's all about cleaning."

She took a few minutes to mull the idea over in her head. Surely they could think of any, more..delicate way to deal with any countersurveillance. But he had very good point about the reliability of the blueprint her whole scheme was riding on.

/Kaboom!!!\

"Detonators." she said outloud. "Ok...aren't those fairly obvious though? It's most likely that those will be discovered as soon as we leave. Also, I've never worked with these before. Is proximity going to be an issue for detonation? Or are we going to avoid manual triggers and go for automatic timers? If, so how do you propose to time it?"

[Hadrian D'arcell]

"Obvious?" Hadrian curiously repeated. After listening to another series of questions from her, he concluded he probably wasn't being that clear to her.

"Hold....hold it, hold it, missy," he said, motioning a hand for her to stop. The hacker brought out a mechanical lady bug from his pocket and set it on the table.

"This is it. I doubt Garden has this, but we're good SeeDs. We improvise," Hadrian stated. "Five bugs can blow up a telephone booth. I have..." He looked at his duffel bag. "...a box of it." He didn't really think they would be bugging so he was short on them from the very start.

"But that'll work, trust me," he lied, "I'd worry more about us losing sight of them, than the enemies discovering them. Unless the lab miraculously flies to the moon, detonation isn't an issue.

"We're not out to blow up the whole facility since it's underground, but if we target their core center, it should be enough to shut them down." He picked up the lady bug. "So as long as the lab is intact and these bugs are roaming around, your bugging dilemma is solved. We can erase them anytime. Cameras and tagging devices are only as needed. Other than that, they're irrelevant."

What else?

"Happy?" he asked her, inspecting the bottom of the lady bug. The bug only looked mechanical on the bottom.

Swinging his gaze back to Gemma, he changed the subject. "Hey Gemma...What do you know about hacking?"

[Gemma Ridean]

"Hey Gemma...What do you know about hacking?"

"Hmm?" she murmured absentmindedly, her attention drawn to the five or six "lady bugs" scattered all over the table. Picking one up, she gently prodded the tiny device with a finger and grinned. Except for its bottom, the detonators looked completely believe as insects. No one would suspect anything, except perhaps an minor infestation problem.

"What do I know about hacking?" she glanced at Hadrian with a wry smile as she scooped the rest of the bugs into the box. "Why do you ask? Am I being recruited?" she rolled her eyes teasingly. "Actually," she added on a more serious note, "I think it's a fascinating field, especially in this day and age, despite its reputation. But unfortunately, I have no pearls of wisdom to offer on that subject. Other than this, my tech-savvy skills are, to say the least, limited."

[Hadrian D'arcell]

"No, that's okay," Hadrian replied. Gemma didn't look like she resented hacking. All was well.

He cleared his throat. "I'm just doing this for insurance policy, you know, worst case scenario and all that." He shrugged. "You have to atleast know something." Unzipping his duffel bag, he pulled out a small laptop and set it on the table. "You can have those bugs, btw," he told her, she seemed too fond of the little critters.

Once the screen lit up, Hadrian paused. "What do you say? Wanna learn?"

Please agree.


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I probably won't go into details about the hacking thing cuz I might not be able to post the rest of the week. *stabs evil exam* But I just really want to conclude this little convo of theirs to the end XD I think it won't be long now though. ^.^

[Gemma Ridean]

Gemma was secretly beaming when Hadrian told her that she could keep some of the bugs. There was something about miniature objects that she couldn't resist, and these little darlings were no exception.

"What do you say? Wanna learn?"

As she opened her mouth to respond, she suddenly became distracted by the increasingly bright, orange light spilling in through the lobby windows and through the glass, she could spot the warm glow of the sun rising over the sea's horizon. The morning was here.

Checking her watch, she couldn't believe that it was already 4:25 am.

Sadly, she smiled. "Looks like we're a bit short on time for that. Guess we'll have to have that hacking lesson some time later huh? But there's still some time left. Is there anything else you want to tell me?"

[Hadrian D'arcell]

Hadrian's little expectant smile froze when Gemma changed the subject and deviated from his question.

He narrowed his eyes towards the glass panes of the hotel seeing the golden sunlight slowly making its way to light their green Earth. The bus would be here soon.

Tch. He grunted. There was no way she'd get it in 5 minutes. Closing the laptop, he placed it back in his duffel bag. He would just have to make do once they get to that main frame.

"Is there anything else you want to tell me?"

Hadrian stood up and stretched. "Here, catch." He chucked her a small communicating device.

"We barely covered everything, so just in case I can't be with you and you have any questions..." He pointed to his ear lobe to show her how to put it on. "Ask away."

[Gemma Ridean]

She caught the earpiece that Hadrian chucked to her and looked at questioningly. Was he always prepared like this? First the bugs, then this. It seemed like he had expected her to be incompatent.

"We barely covered everything,"

The way he emphasized the word made it seem like an insult.

"...so just in case I can't be with you and you have any questions..." He made the obvious gesture of pointing to his ear. "Ask away."

"I know how to use one of these." Gemma snapped, instinctively folding crossing her arms. "Besides, do you really expect me to come crawling to you for help in the middle of the mission? If there's nothing else you have to say to me that's fine. Any surprises along the way, I'll handle on my own."

The bus was coming in minutes. Skepticism and critique was not something she could deal with at the moment.

[Hadrian D'arcell]

Hearing Gemma's tone, Hadrian snorted. She sounded like he said something wrong. Was Gemma bipolar? Here he was being considerate of her and she got...mad?

"If there's nothing else you have to say to me that's fine. Any surprises along the way, I'll handle on my own."

Women...

"Oh, that's right, I forgot." Hadrian pressed a finger on his lip then pointed to her. "You're bodyguard #1." Slinging the duffel bag on his shoulder, he added. "Well, bodyguard # 1. I'm counting on you." He patted her on the shoulder and smiled broadly.

Being treated like a VIP had an opposite effect on him, but seeing people's annoyed expression once he acts all high and mighty, well, he found it amusing in its own way.

"I'll see ya." He walked towards the entrance to wait for the bus outside. There was someone he was dying to meet down the lab.

~*~

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Arrgh! I keep trying to post at the main thread but my posts are so long and I have lots to do. >.< I'll post sometime later. *pulls hair*