Andy entered the hospital room and was amazed at the pristine, antiseptic cleanliness of the place. Even around campus, the buildings and rooms had that edge of decay, a lack of paint or a dustiness associated with no vaccuum cleaners.

The rest of the world he'd seen was even worst, at best there was a layer of grime everywhere and the worst...well, best not think about that. He looked at the HA lying in the bed scowling at him. The guy must have been a good assassin, if Andy'd been of a nervous disposition, the look alone would probably have killed him.

He kept his face pleasant and walked up to the man's bedside and sat down beside him. He placed a pack of cigarettes and a lighter on the HA's bedside cabinet and saw the man's lip curl.

"Please, don't start with the fuck you pig, routine." Andy said, "I know you aren't going to fall for the "good cop" routine so there's no need to get all agressive."

He watched the man pause for a moment, "I know there's a no smoking sign there, but if you want to smoke, feel free. To be honest, the amount of stuff they've got on you, smoking in a hospital just ain't going to make a difference. Anyway, my name's Andy Montgomery, I run the sniper team for this outfit and I've got a friend who can't "Bear" to think about you being hurt and locked up."

The man barked a harsh laugh at this, "Fuck you and your games man, any pig with half a brain knows that Bear runs the chapter here. That shit ain't going to fly."

"No, I know that," Andy replied, "and I don't expect you to trust me at the moment, you don't know me from Adam, by the way, Adam's the cop guarding you, nice guy but don't play poker with him, he was a big time player befor the war. But what I have to tell you is true. Later I'll prove myself but I wanted you to know that someone in the inside was looking out for you."

"Yeah," the man picked up the cigarettes and lighter and lit one up, inhaling deeply he continued, "and pigs might fly. What you promising man? You gonna get me out of here?"

"Not yet," Andy said, "and I'll tell you, I'm really pissed off that you're here. Man, you were away, on your hog and just me to beat. Normally, you'd have been dead meat, I don't miss much, but last night, well, I needed to prove myself to a certain ursine sobriquet (Andy was proud of that, he'd looked it up in the library) and letting you go was my path to pussy heaven. Then one of your boys yells something about you running off and shoots you! Man, that really put a downer on my plans, though, I guess not as much as it did on yours. Anyway, the back-shooting bastard is dead, sorry, I guess I should have left him for you, and your laid up here. The good news is that you'll live and make a full recovery. The bad news is they want to try you for charges from gun offences to murder to rape to screwing the regimental goat. Basically, they want you hale and hearty for your execution."

"Fuck that, man," the HA replied, "you can't scare me. Bear'll have me out before you can find a lawyer that'll prosecute me."

"I don't doubt that," Andy said, "and I aim to profit from that. OK, you don't trust me and I don't blame you. I'm certainly not expecting you to let me into your bed and tell me all about the HA while we make sweet, sweet love."

He laughed at the man's facial expression, half disgust and half amusement, "So what do you want?"

"I want you to hang tight," Andy replied, "I'll work on getting you out but don't go doing anything stupid in the meantime like trying to bust your way out or taking hostages or something, or even," he pulled a face himself, "cutting a deal. I'm going to see our mutual friend tonight and I'll start getting the plans together to bust you out. Is there anything you'd like me to ask him for?"

"I can do those things, but I'll only wait for so long," The HA said, "tell him I want some good tequila and a few lines of top quality snow, also ask him to remind me who my favourite bitch was."

"OK," Andy replied, "I can do that. Who do I say I'm asking about?"

"Bear'll know who I am," the HA replied, "ask him."

"Will do," Andy concluded, "I'll see you in the morning. Now, a word to the wise, one of my pals works for the surveillance team, I arranged for a technical fault during our conversation. I won't be able to do that too often, the others'll get suspicious. If I come in with things in my left hand, it's OK to talk, my right, go back to the fuck you pig routine. See you."

As Andy headed for the door, the HA called out, "Hey!"

Andy turned and saw the one fingered salute, "Fuck you pig!"

Andy chuckled and opened the door, he closed it behind him, nodded to Adam and headed out of the hospital.
This message was last edited by the player at 09:16, Mon 15 June 2009.

In reply to Andrew Montgomery McRae (msg #26):

Kelsey smirks a little and taps her recorder, shaking her head.  Fault.. right.
Andy did have a friend on the surveillance team, certainly.  A cold smile, plays across her normally pleasant features as she talks softly under her breath.  Crippled isn't enough for you scum, but turning you into a traitor before your death.. maybe.  She shakes her head and tries to shake that cold feeling, reliving that alley again, the smell.. the rain, the blood, the shattered bodies.  She shakes herself and shivers, taking a moment to hug her arms about herself as if to warm up a bit.
"Funny... he thinks we aren't on military law.. lawyers..."  she chuckles a little, holding onto herself a while longer.  "I hope you get to dance on the end of a rope.  Soon."  This man's crimes against women.  It lit a cold little hate inside the comms tech, she knew she shouldn't have listened in on this... these feelings made her a little ashamed of herself.

Interview with the Biker complete, Andy was ready for the next phase, the spreading of disinformation to the at-large Bikers manning Brandie's.

Belanger met with the team and said, "this is going to be simple, no masses of police and milita but backup will be available. We send Andy in, he does his thing, and we're the immediate backup. I suggest Rob and Tyler be positioned in the building across the street from the club to cover the front, and the rest of the unit plus the LAV nearby on standby at Harbour Centre, a few minutes away."

He pointed out the relative positions on the map.

"There is a ground foyer with main elevators, a security room in the rear behind the foyer with a heavy door. There is a freight entrance in the rear alley, as well as a fire stairs exit. There's probably a garage back there."

"Second floor is the club."

"Third floor is the brothel."

"Fourth floor is the girl's quarters, offices and rooftop veranda. Probably that's where their main armoury is."

"If we have to go in and up, we think there are two ways. In the ground floor behind the security door is one internal stairwell up, and the freight elevator. From the earlier recce we think that's where their at least part of the 6-person armed security team is located (the rest being upstairs). That's aside from 2 bouncers downstairs, and 4 bouncers/bartenders upstairs. We could lever our way into the rear fire door or into the loading bay, and enter the ground floor security room though the rear access corridors. Or, we could go up the next door building, which would allow us easy access to the roof."

"There is the main elevator from the ground foyer but that's obviously out."

He pointed out different features on several photgraphs.

"There is the MG position on the roof and a bank armoured car parked out front."

Andy listened to the Boss's assessments and nodded.

"Sir," he said solemnly, "I appreciate your planning but have to say I hope you don't have to use it when I'm in the thick of things. However, if there is an issue and you have to use force, I fully intend to make my last stand in the brothel, it seems like the Army way to go, Sir."

In reply to Alain Belanger (msg #28):

"Whoa.. we are so not prepared to take all that on.  Big operation."  She mumbles something further, from the few intelligible words she isn't very thrilled about the cathouse existing at all, let alone there.

In reply to Kelsey Sarah Champlain (msg #30):

"In a sense, I agree that we could do a lot more in the way of preparation."

"On the other..." he sighed and shrugged helplessly, "...the Bikers could do something unpredictable, like kidnap someone, bring in a load of weapons, or otherwise act to force our hand before we're "ready". For that matter, Andy could get into trouble and we need to act immediately."

"While Andy goes in the front, we'll recce the building next door and put a team into position. Going over the roof seems the best course, if we need to effect a rescue. Anyone have a better idea?"

Belanger looked around for comment.

"Oh yes, Taras, before I forget, your friend from up North is in West Van. He's safe, and wants to meet up with you as soon as you like."

"Having backup would be good," Andy said, "although I'd rather people didn''t do a recon of adjoining buildings when I'm conducting an undercover operation. If the HAs are as keen on booby traps as the last place we encountered, it could be really dangerous. Added to that, if the HAs rumble the search teams, my life expectancy isn't going to be very long."

In reply to Andrew Montgomery McRae (msg #32):

"We monitored it before, we will again.  This time, bring a thumper, and maybe that ma deuce we recovered"
She smiles at Bellinger
"Right chief.. I am just worried that it can get out of hand fast.  We better be ready to radio up the line if shit breaks loose.  Ah.. right, I will be"  She laughs nervously.

Taras was looking at the exchange of options and keeping a reserved position. The good news about the arrival of his old friend brought him back to life:

Ah! Most excellent! Good to hear that the Captain arrived in good shape! Since we are too busy over here with the preparations for our operations I guess it will be wiser to meet him in the North Shore and make sure that Bulat can offer some accomodation for the time being. Lets hope the best for tonight's move and tomorrow I shall go with the zodiac. I will bring the situation up to speed with our allies for the impending Stanley Park clean up...

Once he grabbed the attention he also added:

I'm very confident with Andy's ability to infiltrate the Hell's Angels and I don't have many concerns about tonight. We will have a reaction team ready but I wouldn't like to nose around too much and create suspicion. The flares in the alley was a good indicator of the amount of caution that we need...

Sgt. Shevchenko was tired and felt that a late cup of tea would help to boost the stamina to finish the long day. The memories of Chinatown, the steep climbing of the Harbour Lookout and even the recent news about the arrival of Bezhov were building up fast in the system. He decided to break the intimidating silence of the hall with some classic music.

Salvaged from some basement of the Unicersity came up a record of Tschaikovsky. One of Shevchenko's all time favourite: the piano concerto no.1 It was certainly a most daunting task to keep a balanced state of mind while dealing with lunatics in a park, rampant Hell's Angels, befriend americans that used to kill you...It was like trying to play the very piano concerto whilst escaping from a sack, three padlocks and a pair of handcuffs...

 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v...JdE&feature=fvst

Andy said, "OK, if there's nothing else to discuss, I'll excuse myself and get ready to go to Brandies."

He waited to see if anyone wanted to say anything before he left.

This message was deleted by the player at 01:12, Wed 24 June 2009.

"Okay, we'll not probe too deeply next door. If that's all, let's get going."

"To reiterate, Andy is going to tell them we got a call about trouble in Chinatown. But that the Americans shot their HA friend, not us. And their friend is safe. Finally, our operations are directed primarily against deserters and not against them. Sorry if you all knew that, I was just making sure I had it straight."

He paused. "Any questions? No? Let's get going."

It got later on in the evening, towards sunset. OPs DREAMCATCHER and CROWSNEST were completed, this little side mission of spreading disinformation would hopefully be the cherry on the top of a very successful and productive day.

This time there wasn't much more than a few vehicles and the LAV, the team plus a half-dozen armed militia. There were more police and militia units in the area for backup. They hid the LAV a few blocks away so that suspicions were not raised.

They waited at a slightly closer concealed position for Andy to get ready to go in.
This message was last edited by the GM at 12:05, Thu 25 June 2009.

In reply to helbent4 (msg #38):

Kelsey sits on the communications personally, and ready for a reaction force.
In particular she pays attention to any "breaks" of the channels, thinking it possible someone may be trying to do simple communication through subtle means, but more likely she thinks the HA's are using the couriers mostly.
She wanted to be on top of surveilance and communications.

"Can I get you to carry a simple transmitter, bud?  Or you think that is too risky?"
She offers her smallest.. smaller than a cigarette lighter, and concealed as a butane model in her spare time.. it even sparks off the wheel still.  A Bic

Andy looked at the lighter Kelsey was showing him and he said, "Cool. That looks fantastic. For now, I'd rather just go in without it. They'll search me and I don't want anything to hot me up. Later, if they start trusting me, we can try something fancy."

He got himself ready for the visit to the HAs. He changed into his civvies, but kept his carbine and a few magazines as well as his pistol at his hip. He commandeered an SUV to take him to Brandies and put his gear into it.

Once he was ready, he informed everyone of his intention to commence his mission and then headed off.

In reply to Andrew Montgomery McRae (msg #40):

"How about a shoe phone?  Kidding!"

"Aw!," Andy chuckled, "you were getting my hopes up then!"

In reply to Andrew Montgomery McRae (msg #42):

After a bit of friendly banter, Andy hopped in the Jeep and drove over to the club. There was a few cars, a van, a bank car and a half-dozen motorcycles parked outside.

Having monitored the local radio channels for traffic, Kelsey knew the people at the club were nervous. The door bouncers were on the lookout for cops, but were under orders not to start any trouble.

The two security outside sized Andy as he drove up. They were not visibly armed now (as opposed to earlier). The larger one ("Tweedle-Dee") looked Andy in the eye. "Hey man, no guns. Also, I gotta pat you down."

He moved forward to take Andy's weapons and to establish his physical dominance over the other.
This message was last edited by the GM at 20:45, Sun 28 June 2009.

"No, problem, man," Andy replied, handing over his weapons and assuming a stance that made him easy to search, "the weapons were to make sure I got here, I won't need them inside. And the search, hey, everyone's got to be careful. Is Bear in tonight? I have news for him."

In reply to Andrew Montgomery McRae (msg #44):

Preofessionally, the bouncer patted him down starting from top to bottom, doing a thorough job. He lingered in the abdomen and small of the back, obviously checking for a wire, then checked Andy's crotch and so on down the legs.

"Bear? Uh, yeah, I think so. Check upstairs.

He finished, handing Andy a coat-check chit for his weapons. "You're good to go. Have a pleasant evening at Brandi's."

The elevator grounded and Andy entered. A minute later he was stepping out into the bar. The music was the same (taped 80's and 90's hits for the ladies to dance to) but the clientele was almost non-existent. The bartender wasn't a biker and Andy didn't recognise him from before.

Andy walked over to the bar, his feet tapping to the beat of faintly remembered music, he looked at the barman and said, "Hi, the name's Andy Montgomery, and I'm looking for Bear. Do you have any idea where he is? While I'm waiting, I'll have a Jack Daniels and Coke and whatever you're drinking."

He lay a handful of silver jewellry next to the scales on the bar, "Take what you need out of that, I'm not sure of the prices, but there's a couple of hundred grams there so it should cover it, let me know if it doesn't"

In reply to Andrew Montgomery McRae (msg #46):

His nervous face lightening a little, the bartender took the jewelry and poured the drinks. "Thanks, man. I'll let Bear know you're here."

After talking on the bar phone he said, "five minutes, I'll let you know when you can go up."

The bartender moved off, obviously not wanting to make small talk. After fifteen minutes the bartender answered the phone, looking at Andy. He nodded at something he heard, then hung up. "Okay, you can go up, you know the way?"

Andy finished his drink and said, "Yeah, I know the way up, thanks for your help."

He got up and made his way up to Bear's den.

In reply to Andrew Montgomery McRae (msg #48):

The man himself looked worried but tried to hide it.

Bear, dressed in a vaguely-paramilitary looking black fatigues, offered Andy something to drink. He asked how Andy was doing, not really listening to the response. Then he asked the real question on his mind, "what the fuck is going on, man? Is the army moving downtown? What about the cops? Not that we're doing anything "wrong" here, but you understand, we don't want there to be... misunderstandings with the law."

"After all, we don't mind if Army boys come here to party or have some women. The cops, they, uh might not understand."

He offered Andy a rail of coke, then snorted one himself.

"It's complicated," Andy replied, "the army forces here are minimal and have been subordinated to the Civil Authorities. Today was a security sweep, there'll be more but I'm not sure where."

"If you have any specific questions you need to know, ask them and I'll try to find out," he continued, "On another issue, there was an incident last night. A night security patrol ran in to a gang of American deserters beating and raping some women. I was part of the response team, they guys were caught llike rats but they still fought back. That's when I realised that one of your guys was with them. He made a run for it and I was feeling really pleased with myself because I was in a position to let him go. Then one of those punk deserters nailed him. I got the little bastard but your guy's hurt bad. He'll live, but he won't be up and about for a while. Given the weapons he was carrying, he's going to attract a lot of cop interest. I've spoken with him and let him know I'm looking out for him."

Andy continued by describing the man and the goods he'd asked for from Bear, "He also asked me to ask you his name and the name of his favourite bitch. He seems a solid kind of guy I warned him not to talk. Now the issue is, how do you want me to deal with him. Getting him out may be possible but it'll take time, he won't be able to be moved for a while. If you trust him, that's fine, I'll work on an escape, if you don't, making sure he doesn't talk will be easier, but it'll cost you the same either way."