"Doesn't look like he's coming," Sam said with a slight look of annoyance.
"Lets get started shall we?"

"I'm only going to give you a basic set of orders and leave you to flesh out the rest yourselves. This isn't the mission we had planned for you, but circumstances have dropped this one in our laps overnight."

"Situation"
"A metal sculpture by the renowned late Danish artist Veronika Grønnegaard has been stolen from the Tate Modern in London. The owners in Copenhagen would very much like it back.
The Metropolitan Police has discovered that the statue, which weighs about 20kg, is going to be smuggled out of the UK via the Trans Europe Express service leaving from London heading for Venice and a private collector."

With a deft flick she turned on the projector.



"We have not yet been able to obtain plans of the train, however we do know it is a sleeper service operated in a TGV-style 20-car train, operating at a speed of 186mph or 300kmh. The layout is as follows:

Locomotive - electric
Crew Quarters and Storage
4x Standard Sleeper
Restaurant Car
2x First Class Sleeper
Lounge and Bar
Conference carriage akin to the Thaly service
2x First Class Sleeper
Restaurant Car
4 x Standard Sleeper
Luggage Coach
Locomotive

"Enemy/Friendly Forces"
"The item is likely to be escorted by an unknown, but likely small number of probably armed people. It is unlikely this will be more than two in immediate proximity to the item, however there may be others aboard the train."
"Enemy weapons are expected to be limited to pistols and other small, concealable weapons."
"It is unknown where the target item or it's escorts will be located besides somewhere on the train."

"Neutral Forces"
"Almost all the passengers on the train are likely to be uninvolved and need to remain that way if at all possible."
"The porters and other crew are known to be well trained in armed and unarmed forms of combat and it is believed at least some are equipped with Browning 9 millimetres and kevlar vests."

"Mission"
"To find, retrieve and deliver the sculpture without comebacks."
"I say again, to find, retrieve and deliver the sculpture without comebacks."

"Execution"
"You will travel to London and board the train there to begin your search. Method of travel to the embarkation point is to be decided up by the team."
"As mentioned, embarkation commences at 1830 hours tomorrow and the train leaves the platform at 1930 hours. It is scheduled to reach its destination at 1020 hours the following day."
"The train will be departing from St Pancras' international platform in London at 1930 British Summer Time tomorrow evening. Boarding will commence at 1830 hours."
"The train will travel through the night, stopping first at Ashford, then crossing the channel to Lille, Marne-la-Vallée, Lyon for a brief halt to top up water tanks and take on supplies, Turin, Milan, Verona, and arriving in Venice just under 15 hours later at 1020 hours local time."
"Weapons, if any, are to be kept concealed and used only as a last resort."
"Avoid combat if at all possible. In the event of one of you being discovered by the opposition, the others are to maintain cover unless there is a high probability of immediate successful conclusion of the mission."

"You are to try and blend in with the other travellers so it is suggested only civilian equipment and clothing be carried unless properly concealed."
"Special equipment will depend on how you intend to carry out the search."
"Weapons and ammunition are to be kept to a minimum to avoid detection. Remember there will be several border crossings during the course of the journey and customs and security searches may occur."
"For this mission, Braende has overall command due to his previous rank and seniority. Woods is second in command."

"Now I must stress that this must be done quietly and without attracting the attention of the authorities. If there is "trouble" and any of you are identified or taken into custody, Lindgren will not be able to assist you and will deny any involvement."

"Now I suggest you spend the available time obtaining information on the layout of the train, deciding on how you should search it, gathering equipment, organising transport and anything else you can think of. The time is now oh eight fifty. You don't have long."
This message was last edited by the player at 10:08, Wed 18 Nov 2015.

Karl had been furiously scribbling in his notepad as the briefing went on, pausing in surprise at his appointment as commander. He'd thought somebody else would get that headache.

"Woods, Random, I think this is more your area isn't it? How should we do this?"

"Already doin' it boss."

Jack had started from the moment the target train had been named.

First he downloaded all of the companies public info and add copy.

Second he searched the manufacturer of the engines and the individual cars. Here he intended to recover schematics legally or otherwise.

Third he ran a search of people who have posted pics of traveling on the trains on social media and began to build a picture of what the train looked like when it was occupied. Particularly useful photos he shared to the team members smart phones.
This message was last edited by the player at 19:33, Sat 24 Oct 2015.

"Is it possible to get the passenger manifest?  Maybe we can cross reference names for criminal records or associations.  At least rule out possible players and thin out the crowd.", Palmer suggested.

"Good idea. May as well try to get the personnel files as well. Probably be able to match up passengers with where they will be berthed on the train as well."

That will be fourth.
This message was last edited by the player at 19:38, Sat 24 Oct 2015.

In reply to Jack Random (msg # 12):

Chewing " Ye might want ta do a check on those porters and so on ye know like they may have some ties to a bad boy brother or what ever or maybe a missing mommy or, well they get ta have weapons and will not be checked so close."

Patrick swallowed and looked around.
" If I was wanten to grab something off this train I would get me one of them on my side some how...just sayen."

At that point, another woman entered the room, dressed in a tan jacket and trousers, with a white T-shirt on underneath.

Other woman

Everyone recognised her as Melissa Messervy, who combined a posh English accent with being a rail enthusiast... and objected to being called a 'trainspotter'. She was a traction basher, thank you.

"I've actually been in this train before - Class 814 unit, multi-voltage; can even run third-rail for the old BR Southern Region", Melissa replied, "There's a total of 100 beds on board for passengers, but we can probably rule out anyone travelling with a child. What might be worth checking are married couples - of whatever combination - as this will likely be a two-person job".

She took an empty chair.

"The compartment are covered hotel room style locks, activated by your ticket - they're probably easy to hack. Or you can nick a master key".
This message was last edited by the player at 10:07, Sun 01 May 2016.

Jack tipped his cap to the newcomer.

"I'll separate people traveling with children but I'm not dropping them until we at least look at them. Don't want to get burned by some clever monkey working with a midget."

"Take a look at these pics and see if they jive with what you saw."

OOC: Have we got a monitor in the meeting room that Jack can commandeer and use to show everyone the information he is gathering?

"You're quiet Woods. We need your input too."

"Better book our own seats as soon as possible, get them all in the same cabin or adjoining if possible."
"What about transport to London. Weapons and other equipment. Anyone got ideas about that?"
"Communications too, both with each other and back to here. Need to arrange transport from the train back home too, or perhaps to the client in Copenhagen?"
"How about a cover story? Can't tell people we're mercenary's looking to steal back stolen art..."

Jack commandeers the projector and uses it to show everyone the information he is gathering.

"I was thinking," Eric replied to Braende as he leaned forward in his seat. "To my way of thinking they will almost certainly have either a private car where they can keep it separated or they will be in the car closest to the luggage car. The second one is risky. If I were transporting it I would want it where I could keep an eye on it and not leave it up to chance that a security sweep might randomly inspect it without my supervision. Easier to talk your way out of that - or silence a potential informant quick enough to disappear with the item and use a secondary mode of transport."

He took a breath and said, "What that means to me is that they will most likely be passing a couple renting out a private car. Probably one in the car while another keeps watch from outside in a public area of the train. If they armed it will be easily concealed weapons or they will have bribed the appropriate security personnel along the way. I would do both."

"As for us," the stocky man continued looking around the table. "I would most certainly break us up. Five men all embarking at the same time with the same destination and in the same car will attract attention. They will be watching the manifest just like us. So we need to break up. Communication through the train can be accomplished by cell. Texting is quiet, circumspect, and god damn everybody does it all the damn time. The goal is to look like civilians. Everything needs to follow that if we don't want to arouse suspicion."

"Melissa," he started looking over at the Brit. "You know more about these train services than I do. How likely are we to encounter security checks and how thorough are they?"

"By "car" I assume you mean cabin?"
"I'm not happy about breaking up, so what if we were to pose as five men on a business trip, or perhaps on our way to do some rock climbing or scuba diving in Italy? We could hide weapons and other gear amongst the equipment that way and it wouldn't look at all suspicious for us to be travelling as a group and be regularly talking to each other. A lot of heavy equipment would also explain why we're not flying."
Excess baggage fees were pure murder, especially if security spotted the half dozen weapons each one of them usually carried in their luggage.

"Yes. Car's the American term," Eric answered Karl. "And even with that kind of cover story I would oppose the idea. If this were me watching I would definitely note the presence of a group of 5 men. Especially ones carrying a lot of heavy duty luggage."

"But," he said shifting back in his seat. "The biggest part of my opposition to that comes from the problem of surveillance. If we go in as one group we have to break apart from that central location and move through the rest of the train. It's big and noticeable. The kind of thing that paranoid art thieves are watching for. If we go in in smaller groups we can be seated in all the public cars without drawing attention to ourselves. Allows us to rule out the public areas before moving on to the private ones. Systematic, easy, and unremarkable to observers."

"I agree with that completely. Ones and twos at most and every group should have a different destination."

"We're already up against it with you and Pat looking like Central Casting's idea of a Stone Cold Ex-Military Killers."

Jack looked thoughtful.

"Now there's an idea. Suppose we put you guys on the train as exactly that. Hard ass military contractors pulling security on a high value shipment."

"Except it isn't a high value item at all it's an empty crate large enough to contain our 20 kilo sculpture. You guys get to make sure noone touches it because that's your job after all."

"We finesse this right and we may be able to get them to let you on the train armed and with clearance to enter the cargo area. Hell we've already got the credentials. You guys wouldn't even need cover identities necessarily."

"Eric and I can go in separately and concentrate on the passenger areas."
This message was last edited by the player at 05:54, Wed 28 Oct 2015.

"We need at least one private cabin I think."
There were many things they wouldn't be able to do without a bit of privacy, not without risk anyway. Just preparing equipment could draw unwanted attention and questions.
"What if we're not the only ones looking for the package? What if the competition thinks we have it? No, not worth it."
While Jack's suggestion had some merit, the risks appeared to be too great in Karls mind.
"Another consideration is that all of you are American or Canadian. You're all obviously foreign, at least you are the moment you open your mouth. What cover do you suggest?"
"Might be best if I book in separately to the rest of you?"
He still liked his tourist idea as the cover, but wanted to hear everyone's ideas.

"who's to say that we all have to board the train at the same time?  We can put a recon element on at the home station and then trickle on over the next  couple of stops.  We look like people going to and from different places and not knowing each other." ,  Michael said.

"I think you may be overlooking the most important aspects. How will you search for the item?"
"Don't forget that the train is travelling overnight and all berths are sleepers. Each cabin is likely to be occupied and closed for about half the journey."

"We're rejecting that idea with no discussion? Based on assumptions that we have no intel to back up?"

"Hell if someone comes sniffing around our crate they just became a resource. We either just spotted our targets or smoked out our competition and turned them into an asset that will help us find the target."

"How is that not worth it?"




"As for the search my first idea is to use an MRI. We're searching for a 20kilo chunk of iron on a mostly aluminum train."
This message was last edited by the player at 05:54, Wed 28 Oct 2015.

"I should also be able to access their security cameras and maybe even some of the smartphones onboard."
This message was last edited by the player at 05:56, Wed 28 Oct 2015.

In reply to Jack Random (msg # 26):

"Well I am going to weigh in on the side of a berth err cabin for a lot a reasons." He looked around for comment.
"Also I like the idea of either two or three man action teams armed similarly." Patrick sat down and went on
"We need to search, locate then take possession of the item. I think that means the top priority is communication. We locate, that means we have found the bad guys as well, we take possession that means we neutralize said op forces."
Locate and take do not mean one right after the other in time, my hunch is, it very well might happen that way but not for sure."
He looked around once more.
"I think we need to be concerned with how we take possession, I vote for quiet and that means a Taser or such and do we hasten the departure of the bad guys after they are down?"
“We move a forty-five pound item plus it's packaging to our cabin or do we secure it and defend the location until the shit hits the fan?”
He stopped at that and waited for the yelling.

In reply to Jack Random (msg # 25):

"Is it iron though? Hubcaps, which is what this thing seems to be made of, are most commonly plastic these days."

"Anyone "guarding" our crate would be automatically blown. We should try and keep unnoticed for as long as possible I think, and ideally we'd recover the item without anyone even knowing until we were gone. If any of us are detected, we could be traced back to Lindgren which would probably be a bad thing?" he looked at Sam for confirmation.

"How would you tap in? I doubt it could be done wirelessly so you'd either need to hook directly into the trains cabling, or somehow get access to where it's all monitored? Are we even sure there's cameras where we'd need them?"
Privacy concerns may have prevented any cameras being installed into the cabins, so only the public spaces were likely to be covered Karl thought.

"As I said before, I agree with sticking together as much as possible, but breaking up into two teams is definitely worth doing. If it comes to it, who've we got able to quietly deal with locks?"
Karl could open anything, anywhere, anytime, but not without a very loud and obvious bang. Random was known to have certain useful skills also, but other than that Karl wasn't too sure of their capabilities.

"What if we simply locate the item while on the train, then carry out the actual recovery once it's taken off? It's possible the opposition will have a team waiting for them so it's risky, but we may be less restricted in how we go about it too."

"Anyone know why we've been called in and not the police? Aren't they supposed to deal with this sort of thing?"

"Looks like sheet metal to me. Don't mean for the magscan to be our only method just a potentially useful one."



"Not blown, Seen. Played right it would actually act as a double blind and reduce suspicion on that team while allowing the rest of us to watch anyone surveilling  them. Delta and SAD have both used similar camouflage to get shooter's near targets. I honestly think it's our best bet for you and Pat but if your not comfortable with it."

"A reporter and photographer for a travel magazine or blog would be another good idea. Pretty sure I could pull that one off."



"Some of that depends on the results of what I am doing right now."

He taps his laptop.

"I think there is a good chance they are transmitting to a site off the train and I can just pick up their signal. Push come to shove I will connect wire to wire and take over their system. As I said unprotected cell phones may provide some visuals on area that aren't covered by cameras."

"Again though this is not an "eggs in one basket" proposition. We will use as many sources of intel as we can create and put a picture together from all of them until we see what we need.



"Absolutely no way we can keep a squad of shooters off the radar. No offense but you guys are too good at this stuff to turn it off and the fact that you instinctively space and turn yourselves to cover each other is going creep people out even if they don't know why your doing it. Bust it down to ones and twos and noone will notice."

"As for locks, I can't guarantee there isn't a lock or security system I can't beat but I can tell you I haven't encountered it yet and I broke into Dick Marcinko's office once to return a pair of underwear he left in the Pentagon. With the gunslinger cred some of you have I can only assume that's my infiltration skills are why I'm on the team."




"Certainly a viable option but that puts us potentially in a scuffle with a well armed team while we have only what we were able to sneak on the train. Given my druthers I'd want to have the item in our possession and miss that party all together."



"Curious about that myself."

Melissa was making notes on a paper pad as the discussion was continuing. With a convenient lull in the conversation, she now chose to speak.

"Regarding security, it's your standard airport kind before boarding the train... security arches and bag scans. If you want to get any weapons on board, you'd better know someone who can slip them on via another method... anyone know anyone? As for cameras, in all the public areas"

She pulled out a PDA and after a few seconds held up a copy of the timetable of the train.

"Splitting up is a good idea... that includes the arrival in the UK and making our way to St. Pancras... There are three stops before we hit the Channel Tunnel including that, so that's an obvious three way split there as I'm coming with you".

She paused and thought for a second.

"As for private cabins, all of the 100 on board are single occupancy, but you generally get pairs linked together by connecting doors for families... or couples. Sinks in standard class with toilets at each other and en-suite facilities for those in first class. These are all fairly cosy. You ever seen the Bond film From Russia With Love? Well, let's hope there's not a Red Grant on the train".

She got up and walked over to the screen, then took a look at some of the social media pictures.

"As for getting off, we either get off at the next station... or find a way to activate the emergency brakes... then open the door somehow".

"If we can find a way to do that, it opens up a lot of options. We can plot some  pickup points on the GPS and exfil on our terms." Michael added.

"My best position would be operating by myself or with one other person who can pass as someone without military training. That way I can move, observe, and low key interrogate people as need be," Eric said mulling over the options.