[Nexus] DART Headquarters

[Fenric]

In an as yet undisclosed location (but revealed to be somewhere Inside), there is a surprisingly crisp, clean, nondescript office building. It appears to be five stories tall, with the usual mirrored glass exterior and a mediocre fountain out in a round drive in front of a car port that most motels might well scoff at.

But this is no simple regional bank branch or insurance company, despite how it might look. This is the headquarters of a fearsome group who feels that Robspierre had it right and the best way to ensure societal harmony is simply to kill everyone who might threaten it.

This is the headquarters of DART:

the Dastardly Agents of the Reign of Terror.

[Fenric]

A black Lincoln Town Car pulls up into the carport at a less than sedate pace. Three DART agents jump out and scurry toward the entrance, confident that no one could possibly have followed their clever ruse.

[Duck999]

A cat falls of the bottom of the car, crawling out. She smiles, which is not very noticeable on a cat. She runs into the shadows near the wall, unseeable since she is a black cat, blending in. She walks along the wall, following the men. If they enter without noticing her, she will try to slip in.
((Twice I have made somebody pick left, right, or middle, and both times it was left. So I picked left and got lucky!))

[Fenric]

Automatic sliding glass doors slide open and the agents hurry inside. It's a standard airlock-style office building entrance with exterior and interior doors. The exterior doors start to close very shortly after the agents pass.

[Duck999]

Faeles guesses that if she enters, she will be caught before the interior doors close. She waits outside and watches. As soon as they get in, she will look for any possible other entrances.

[Fenric]

There are trees around, and the windows appear to be able to open. It's a warm day, so there's a high likelihood that there is an open window near a branch. It will be rough to say if the room is vacant before making the leap, though.

Or perhaps a quick scouting around the building's perimeter for other possibilities would be wise.

[Duck999]

Faeles climbs a tree, but does not enter a window. Hidden among the leaves and branches, she leaps from tree to tree. As she goes around the building, she looks for any more possible entrances, or anything suspicious.

[Fenric]

The windows facing the street and the two sides facing other buildings would not look out of place at an accountant's firm. There is one promising room on the third floor: the lights are off, there's a coffee maker and a refrigerator, it's clearly empty, and there's no door at all.

[Duck999]

Too suspicious. Though as a ninja cat, Faeles doesn't care. Rather than going in, she jumps, clinging to the wall. She circles the room, looking in, looking for anything suspicious.

[Fenric]

There's a half-gallon "Community Coffee" pump-style urn sitting under it's proprietary automatic-drip brewing station. Smells like the standard "Breakfast Blend" in all its acidic, burnt-tasting glory.

The microwave needs to be cleaned, and the refrigerator somebody likes garlic more than whoever's coworkers probably appreciate: one can smell it clearly.

There's a can of diet coke on the table, open, but the lack of condensation hints that it's either empty or has been there long enough to reach room temperature.

But most noticeable of all: there is a strange, very old looking poster of a man dressed completely ridiculously by modern standards, holding a tattered flag and standing over a body. On a banner that is draped in defiance of gravity or wind is written:

Liberté, Fraternité, Egalité, ou La Mort!

One gets the feeling that it's more of a threat than a defiant statement.

[Duck999]

Faeles looks around. Seeing no way out of the room, she continues. The next time she sees an empty room through a window, she enters it.

[Fenric]

(( "There is no door" means "permanently open entrance", not "no exit". That was my office's breakroom this morning with the exception of the coffee - we retired the Community Coffee urn last year. ))

[Duck999]

(( "There is no door" means "permanently open entrance", not "no exit". That was my office's breakroom this morning with the exception of the coffee - we retired the Community Coffee urn last year. ))

((Derpish me))
Faeles just enters that room, assuming no alarms or anything, she hides behind anything she can.

[Fenric]

No alarm goes off, though the coffee pot releases a cloud of steam and gurgles softly.

the hallway runs parallel to the room, so it's hard to see far from inside. Bright ugly blue fluorescent lights in a tacky corporate drop-ceiling light up standard-issue grey composite tiles and walls of soul-sucking beige. The hallway is silent...

...until there is a faint *DING* from an elevator.

[Duck999]

Faeles peeks the tiniest bit outside the doorway. Being a cat, she should be hard to see. She looks around, trying to locate the elevator. If she does, she looks for anyone who comes out. If someone looks and/or walks towards her, she will jumo back into the room and hide behind something other than furniture or the coffee pot. Unless that is all there is, then she hides behind that.

[Fenric]

The click-clack of hard-soled shoes on cheap laminate echoes down the hallway, accompanied by a familiar voice...

I'm telling you: it was a CAT. It jumped on me like a staving flea and it knew our name.

You won't be allowed outside of the office for a year, if you're lucky.

Lucky?!

Yeah: lucky. Didn't you hear the radio chatter on the way in? Agent 27 ended up detonating his suicide vest in that stupid fox temple after killing their head priest and a bunch of others?

Their voices recede - they must have turned off down a side hallway

[Duck999]

Faeles thinks about what they saod, then comes out of hiding. She peeks down the hallway, looking for anyone else.

[Fenric]

The hallway is currently empty, but the rest rooms are near the break room so it's really hard to say how long it will stay that way. There's a door every ten feet or so, most of which are closed, and a hallway running off to the right around fifty feet down which is probably where the agents went.

[Duck999]

Faeles dashes for the other hallway. Before entering it, she peeks out. If it is clear, she will go into any open room. If there are none, she will continue down the hallway.

[Fenric]

The hallway is empty. The room Faeles enters has a brunette secretary who's desk faces the window, and she is busy typing on an electric typewriter.

[Duck999]

Faeles reapeats this process, going to the next open room.

[Fenric]

The next room that is open is next to the elevators, and has three vending machines and a garbage can. There is a man here listening to Nightwish on an MP3 player at a VERY loud volume.

[Duck999]

Faeles continues to switch between rooms until she hears someone talking (whether or not the door is closed), or until she gets to the end of the hallway. Whichever comes first.

[Fenric]

Faeles inevitably comes to the door at the end of the hallway. It is almost, but not quite, closed. The nameplate on the door simply says "4", and the man from the post office is clearly inside.

... cat was waiting at the post office for me, and even knew which box I was going for.

So you failed procedure and re-used a box for more than one contact, and now you have led a potential enemy agent to our office.

What? No, there's no way I could have been followed. Standard evasion tactic twelve...

... is a fool's hope, though I expect little better of you and the agents in the procurement division. We must move our plans forward without the cooperation of that particular disheveled establishment. Sixteen!

Yes, sir?

Execute plan "Playground of Tears". Number two has noticed our delay already, so don't mess this up.

Yes, sir! Immediately, sir!

(( The astute listener might expect the door to come flying open in the very near future ))

As for you, two-sixty-seven, I must make some calls before I can decide your fate: return to your desk and await further instructions.

Yes... sir...

Now get out of here: both of you!

[Duck999]

If the door flies open, Faeles lays low, and slips into the room. If she is not noticed, she will hide behind anything in the room.

[Fenric]

Um... ok. Agents 16 and 267 leave in a hurry, so Faeles has no trouble slipping in.

Agent 4 starts calling various others to discuss agent 267's performance and recommendations for disciplining him. It appears he's a relatively useful lackey overall, and the consensus seems to be heading for "dock a week's vacation".

[Duck999]

Faeles resirts to her usual tactics. She leaps on agent 4s head, slamming a paw over his mouth. Assuming she isn't thrown off yet, she says, who are you.
((and hilariousness ensues.))

[Fenric]

Agent 4 replies

Grrf errf mmmf hfff

as speaking with a cat's paw over your mouth is difficult. He seems rather a lot less high-strung than 267 was, though, and doesn't flail. He does reach up to grab the scruff of her neck, though.

[Duck999]

She jumps out of the way, landing on a shoulder. She says Do not call for help. Answer me. She takes away her paw, unsheathing her claws as she does so.

[Fenric]

The mans steely grey eyes bore into Faeles for a moment, then he chuckles, folding his hands in his lap.

I am agent four, cat, and you are very much out of your league.