“Absolutely not!” Wallace had half risen from his chair, but he took a deep breath and forced himself back into his seat before continuing. “I’d ask if you’d lost your mind, but I think that is self-evident. You think I would agree to bringing a succubus in on this operation?”
“I don’t see why not,” I shrugged, remaining studiously casual. “We used to use ubarae for this kind of thing all the time, in the old days. They are expert social engineers; this is what they are best at. Why wouldn’t I use them?”
“You don’t think it might be a… conflict of interest?” Wallace asked carefully.
“Why? I don’t know what you need this chemical for, do I? I am assuming it will be used to treat the victims of the Domini, right? That is certainly what I plan to tell her. Are you going to correct me?”
Wallace reflected on that possibility for a moment.
“This doesn’t seem like the best idea, Rayna.”
“And yours was spectacular?” I raised an eyebrow. “Look, you said you didn’t care how this got done as long as it did, right? Just let me handle it. Trust me, this will work.”
“Perhaps it would be better to use one of the prisoners, instead? Vicki, for example? Surely, she is talented enough.”
“Oh, come on, Wallce. Now who’s lost their mind? Vicki? You want her out in the field? Around civilians? In an uncontrolled environment? I’m trying to avoid a bloodbath, remember?”
“Fair point,” Wallace pinched the bridge of his nose. “You truly think Ward would agree to this, no questions asked?”
“I told you, she owes me a favor. She’ll do it.”
I held my breath as he rolled the idea around in his mind. Finally, he nodded,
“Alright, I’ll consider it. No promises, though. Once I have seen the plan, if it all seems viable, then I’ll give you my approval. Until then, no contact with anyone on the outside, understand?”
“Of course, boss.”
“And we don’t have infinite time, here. So, I expect to see something by the end of the week.”
“In that case, I had better get started. Alright boys, come with me. Luke, I’m going to make a list of the things you need to get for me. Tom, I want to hear everything you know about this place. Which I am hoping is a lot, seeing as you were planning an armed attack on the building. I am also going to need to know more about the chemical you are trying to obtain.”
“I am not sure about that, Ray…” Tom hesitated.
“Don’t be ridiculous. I need to know where it is stored, how much it weights, what precautions we need to take when transporting it. Does it need to be kept cold, can it be exposed to light, do we need a van or a big rig to haul it? Are we going to need ventilators just to be near it? You can’t expect me to plan this without that information.”
Tom glanced over at Wallace, who nodded,
“She’s right, Tom. Don’t worry, you’ll be there to keep an eye on things, right? Just tell her what she needs to know for the heist. Nothing beyond that, though.”
“Right,” Tom nodded.
The two of them were cute when they thought they were being subtle. He might as well have just said that Tom’s job was to make sure I didn’t fuck this up, either intentionally or otherwise. And as to their long-term plans for the chemical, the broad strokes of that were obvious, too. The details I would have to figure out once I had more information. One step at a time. I rose from my chair,
“Alright, we have a lot of work to do, so let’s stop wasting time. I’ll let you know when I have a rough draft, Wallace.”
“I am looking forward to it,” he replied, then turned back to the papers on his desk, dismissing us.
I placed my teapot in the centre of the table and turned back to Tom.
“Now that Luke is off hunting down my supplies, how about you catch me up on the situation?”
“Are you sure you want to do this, Ray?” Tom fretted at his shirt cuffs. “I mean, I am perfectly capable of heading this operation myself. There is still time to tell Wallace that this was a mistake, and you aren’t interested in participating.”
“Why would I want to do that?”
“You are the one who told me you were done with this kind of thing, ready to retire.”
“Yeah, well, I guess I was wrong. I am bored out of my mind down here. At least this will be interesting. I mean, who hasn’t wanted to plan a heist, right? And no, you aren’t ready to run an operation like this by yourself. I mean, no offense Tom, but your plan was going to get a bunch of people killed.”
Deciding it had steeped long enough, I poured two mugs of tea and slid one across the table to him as I spoke.
“Hey! That wasn’t my plan,” he slammed a fist down, splashing hot tea onto the table, I yanked my hand back just in time.
“Wallace, then? Yeah, that checks out,” I blew on my own mug and took a tentative sip. “He always has been an ‘ends justify the means’ type of guy. Still, you agreed to go along with it.”
Stolen from its original source, this story is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.
“He can be… challenging to disagree with. You know that. Now that you have convinced him to try something different, I can manage just fine from here,” he insisted.
“Have you ever planned anything like this before?”
Tom kicked at the table leg with his foot, sloshing his tea again. I took another quick sip of my own, before he spilled it, too.
“No, but everyone has to start somewhere.”
“Yeah. And the best way is by learning from someone more experienced. It’s better to get some practice in, before you go solo, you know?”
“Yeah, I guess,” he lifted the mug sullenly and took a small sip.
“Is this going to be a problem, for you?” if he was going to spend all of his time sulking like a teenager, I was going to have to ask Wallace to give me a different babysitter.
“No,” he shook himself. “No. I’m disappointed, but you are right, there is clearly a lot I need to learn, still. So, let’s get to it. What do you need to know?”
“Let’s start with our target. Tell me about the lab, just the broad strokes, for now. We can save the fine detail for when Luke gets back with the blueprints and other materials.”
“Ok, the place is called NovaChem Pharmaceuticals. They are a relatively new company that specializes in cutting edge drug manufacturing. They have been testing a new product for the last few years that has shown promise in recent clinical trials, so they are ramping up production for the next round of testing and investing heavily in it.”
“And what is this product?”
“Well, I am not a chemist, myself, so bear in mind this might be a bit simplistic, but it is a new opioid pain medication that is supposed to have a much higher therapeutic index than existing products, being much more difficult for humans to overdose on than the existing drugs on the market. They are pitching it as a safer drug for people who need to manage chronic or extreme pain.”
“Sounds good. Is it just marketing, or is it true?”
“I don’t know. I told you, I am not really conversant in this kind of thing, but the research scientists that Wallace has working for us say it looks promising, and they have some tests in mind for confirming it, if we can get them the product.”
“What are they planning to do with a painkiller, anyway?”
“That isn’t something that you need to know right now,” Tom shook his head.
“Fine. Let’s move on, then,” I had some ideas of my own, but thinking about that could wait until Tom was gone. “What is it called?”
“Why do you need to know that?” he narrowed his eyes.
“Don’t be an idiot. How am I supposed to find it in this facility, if I don’t even know what it is called?”
Tom cleared his throat,
“Right. Well, they are currently calling it Profentanyl, but the name hasn’t been approved, yet. It may also be referred to in research documents as ‘Compound 37’, as that was its name in the early testing phase.”
“Great. Ok, now what are its physical properties?”
“It is experimental, so we only know so much. But it is stable at room temperature and highly potent. There shouldn’t be any difficulties in transporting it, because a fairly small amount, mass wise, is more than enough to satisfy our needs. It really shouldn’t be any more complicated than picking up a package from the post office, logistically speaking.”
“Even so, if we are going to be working with a potent, experimental opioid, I might have Luke pick up some Naloxone for us to carry with us, just in case.”
“That’s… probably a good idea,” Tom admitted.
I didn’t mention that it would be especially important for Liz, given her enhanced sensitivity to this sort of thing. He probably wouldn’t be receptive to my concern. But there was a real risk to her here, which made me doubt my plan, for a moment. But I really did need her involved, for more reasons than the ones I was admitting to. Hopefully, this would cover me, in case things went wrong.
“Great. Well then, let’s move on to the other challenges. What kind of security does this place have? How tightly is it locked down?”
“It isn’t exactly Fort Knox,” Tom shrugged. “They are a small company, funded by some major players, granted, but still trying to get their first big product out. They aren’t a big target, and so the security is much lighter than it otherwise would be. Few armed guards, no other lethal defenses. It’s why we thought a simple raid would be enough. But being small, outsiders will definitely be noticed. Infiltrating and getting away clean seems practically impossible. Every access point is alarmed, so breaking in without triggering a police response seems unlikely, too. From my research, the doors all have swipe card access, each individual room needs an entry code, and there are security guards in the lobby and doing periodic sweeps of the building. How do you plan to get in, without triggering the exact armed standoff you want to prevent?”
“That’s easy enough. I have no plan to hide the fact that we are outsiders. The trick is to appear as invited outsiders and have them willingly bring us in past their main defences. Then, all we have to do is get our hands on the product, without anyone noticing.”
“Wow. You just put forward several impossible steps, all at once. How are we supposed to earn their trust in what, minutes? Hours? That’s ridiculous.”
“Not for an ubarae,” I grinned. “Why do you think we need Liz? As long as we can establish a semi-plausible excuse to get in, I expect her to handle the rest.”
“I don’t know, Ray, that is awful risky.”
“It’s a risky business, Tom. You don’t have to take part if you don’t trust my judgement. I understand,” I held his gaze.
“It isn’t that,” he protested. “It’s just… I don’t know how you could trust one of them with something so important.”
“Liz has proven herself trustworthy. To me, that is worth more than anything else. Just… let me handle her, ok?”
He nodded hesitantly.
“Ok, let’s put that aside for now. How do we deal with the first problem? What is our ‘semi-plausible’ excuse for being there?”
“That’s easy enough. All we have to do is appear to be someone they expect to drop by, and thus won’t be overly suspicious of. Fortunately, most labs are pretty used to being visited by various brand representatives, trying to pitch their products. Usually consumable materials, test tubes, gloves, that sort of things. There are dozens of these companies, and the reps change pretty regularly. So, it should be relatively easy. All we need to do is pick a company, get some merch, and make an appointment to pitch our wares to whoever they convince to take that meeting.”
“Does the fact that we know nothing about any of these products throw a wrench in there, anywhere?”
I shrugged,
“You’ve got time to learn. I’ll get some brochures.”
“I also somehow doubt that they let random salespeople into sensitive areas.”
“Probably not. That is what Liz is for, we’ll get to that.”
“Right. So, if we are going to make this work, we should probably pick a company that either hasn’t pitched to them lately, or possibly not at all. So, I guess we should start by making some calls and seeing who counts NovaChem as one of their loyal customers.”
“Good plan. We don’t have much time, so let’s get right to it.”
I drained my mug and placed it back on the table. That was one hurdle cleared. Tom and Wallace were both, tentatively, on board. They had their reservations, of course, that was to be expected, but they were willing to let me convince them. That was all I needed, for now. Beyond that, I had a tricky line to walk, here. Because, while I was nominally planning to fool one group, I was, in fact, attempting to pull one over on basically everyone involved, without either side realizing. This was going to be… challenging. I was really starting to look forward to it.