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Thinning The Field

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DaveIronside:
It wasn't exactly the reason why Redfern had set up the Nightwitches but the group where off the radar, they'd all disappeared several years ago from public view, officially their ID's had been erased and anyone searching them up would find a series of people who had died in various wars of East Moreland. Now they'd been given the responsibility of wiping out as many members of the Rokkenjiman intelligence service as possible. It wasn't the target they'd imagined, that was Borlanders, but after the betrayal by Rokkenjiman assets in terms of helping the terrorists it made them just as bad in the eyes of the team.

The first name on the list hadn't been too hard to track down Arisa Mizuno, she'd been moved to Zimalia, the group suspected it would have been because of the fact the Borlanders still had a small settlement there, perhaps she was there to be a conduit with Kyle Barren. The end result was thanks to the file that Redfern had given them and a few bits of digging around the local areas, after all an asian women in Zimalia didn't exactly blend in easily. The team had been watching her for a week now, they'd found it much easier to blend in, lots of tourists came on safari to Zimalia and then there was a herd of charity do gooders from the various nations of Alba Karinya. The woman had a rather irregular routine during the day, it cut down chances of any attacks on her but there was one thing that she did everyday without fail and that was her morning routine. She woke up at 6:30 am, went for a run, got in back to her apartment, showered and then brushed her teeth, it was a small window of opportunity but it was all they needed.

The next day as she went for a run Graham Upson managed to get into the appartment, it wasn't exactly difficult for a man of his skill set. While he was doing that his partners Kelly Matthewson and Adam Marsham broke into the appartments either side, they'd been empty for days and belonged to some rich business types who normally used them only at weekends. While Graham went about his work the two other Nightwitches ransacked the neighbouring appartments while the rest of the team kept watch. It didn't take Graham long, the apartment was neat and tidy and the fibre optics they'd set up outside the bathroom window had given them a glimpse of the target. Graham donned his latex gloves lifted the toothpaste tube up and examined it, he took the other one from his jacket pocket and did his best to carefully make it look like the other with a squeeze here and there. Satisfied that it was as good a match as he could make it he placed it down and walked into the living room, Kelly was busy throwing draws on the floor, she found a watch and took it, a bundle of bank notes too. Ten minutes after entering they left.

As expected their target appeared exactly when expected, there had been an hour or so of her standing around waiting for the Police and then beginning to tidy up. The team sat watching on the small screen that connected o their fibre optic passed into the window frame. They spotted her walk into the bathroom and they leaned forward in anticipation, as expected she showered before wrapping a towel around herself, "Any minute" Graham grinned as she picked up the tooth brush followed by the toothpaste tube. As she squeezed the tube there was a momentary second where the target looked puzzled as nothing came out and she squeezed harder. There was a boom and the camera went off, the TATP powder contained inside the tube had been activated by the hard squeeze and detonated in a deadly fireball parrallel to her chest, the explosion punctured her chest cavity sending her flying across the small bathroom slamming into the wall before sliding down it lifeless and her heart split in two. "Chalk that up" Graham flipped the computer screen closed as he stood up. "Next stop, Claith"

DaveIronside:
Mark Yates, a Nightwitch Bravo, was more used to watching over one of the Alpha's, today however he was working alone. The shed he was using was full of the smell of paint and newly worked wood, it was a smell he loved but hadn't indulged in for several years now. He'd been a late comer to the military, he'd done his national service of course and then left to join his father's carpentry company but at the age of 28 for some reason he'd fancied a new challenge and that took him into the Royal Marines where he'd served for six years before Redfern approached him with the offer of becoming a Nightwitch. Mark hadn't a clue what one was until the day Alex had recruited him and beyond the ten of them who were part of the merry band only around five others knew of their existence. He took his phone from his pocket and swiped past a few pictures before examining the one he had on the screen and looking back at his work, he did this several times before he was satisfied. "Ammy, you got the top?" he turned and asked the Charlie he was working with. Amir Ram was a strange one for the Morelanders, his grand-father had moved to East Moreland to open a restaurant after falling in love with a Morelander and crazily following her home, he'd never married her, instead marrying a woman from his homeland, but he had opened the restaurant and made a success of it, two generations later and Amir now served their adopted homeland ensuring the unit's Alpha's and Bravo's had everything they needed.

"Yeah, give me a moment" he had been sat on a work bench checking a few facts and figures and now jumped down and worked over towards the corner of the shed they were renting in Silverhills. Amir picked up the heavy table top and carefully carried it over to Mark who used a tape measure to take its length and width. He carefully checked this twice on the table body beside him before helping Amir lower it into place. "Careful" Amir urged as they slotted it into place, a satisfying click coming. The table was being specially built to be an exact replica of the one in Misako Anno 's front room. They guessed that the agent had been placed in Silverhills to keep an eye on the coming and goings of many business people who used the city as a 2nd home, plus some of the exclusive bars and clubs were always a hive of gossip. She was renting a small two bedroom house on Whitmoore Avenue, a quiet little street of tall, narrow and elegant grey stone houses just on the edge of the government offices that used the city. The day after Redfern had got the list they'd rented the house next door and had a Junior Finance Minister moved in, all an elaborate part of their mission. Two weeks later they'd turned up at Misako's letting agents with false credentials as building inspectors, by law every two years rented property needed to be inspected and Mark was going to do it. They'd used tiny drilled holes in the Junior Minister's house to place fibre optics to spy on Misako and now they had their plan, every evening before bed she'd sit by the houses old fireplace, turn on the lamp on the antique table on and read. The table was an odd one, a kind of bowl shape made from light supporting a heavy  dark wood top, the lamp integrated into the design coming through the frame at the edge. Amir had spent a good week trying to find another but they'd failed miserably and so now Mark had fallen back on his old carpentry skills and been working around the clock. That final click had been the finishing touch, everything was in place including the tables special cargo. They'd photographed it when they'd carried out the inspection of the house and using those images Mark had made this replica.

"So we go tomorrow?" Mark asked as he sat back snapping pictures of his own work. He sent them to Redfern along with some of the original and asked him to pick out the fake table. When Alex admitted he couldn't tell a difference the pair were satisfied.

"When she goes out we use the key we got cut when the landlord let us go in. We've Paul Grayson on shadow duty, while she's gone we take her table, leave yours and then just wait." Amir ran through things in his head. 24 hours later he was doing it for real, they'd turned up once Paul had told them he'd turned the corner, quickly they were inside the Rokkenjiman's rented accomodation, they moved the real table, replaced it with Mark's version and checked everything was as it was left, quickly they left taking the original table with them.

"You reckon they'll let us keep this one?" Mark asked as they loaded the original into their van and calmly drove off, Paul's commentary on their targets movements showing she was still heading in the opposite direction. They all meet up at their own safe house two streets away and flicked on their laptops showing feeds from the fibre optics, two hours later Paul indicated she was heading home having spoken to some guy in a restaurant. He'd got some pictures of the man and they'd hand them over to Redfern, they could be useful. They watched as for the rest of the evening their target potted around her house much the way a normal person would have, then bang on schedule she took her book from the bookshelf and settled down in the armchair, once comfortable she turned to turn on the lamp but stopped, she looked carefully at the table top. "Shit" Mark exclaimed, grabbing a set of gear near the door, this was the back up plan, the three of them dressed as Red Legionnaires would hit the house and claim they were acting on intelligence that a Borlander was targeting the Finance Minister, the bomb being their proof. They held their breath as she licked a finger and rubbed at the top before scratching at it with a finger nail, she seemed satisfied with whatever she'd done and made herself comfortable once more using the voice controlled lights to dim them, a hand reached out for the switch on the lamp and she flicked it they heard the explosion even from two streets away, car alarms outside the house began going off. "Got the bitch, shame about the table though." Mark said as they watched people coming out of their homes to see what was happening. "Cup of tea anyone?" Mark asked as he casually made his way into the kitchen.

DaveIronside:
Seiko Morishita was tracked down to the Ecclesiastical State, thankfully the folder Redfern had been given made it easy to track her down and then they'd inserted two Red Legionnaires that , Grace Yacobs knew could be trusted to pull this operation off. Cpl.Barkshad flown in first using the CNN's visa exemptions made it rather simple, later that afternoon he'd been joined by Legionnaire Saxby. The operation was rather a simple one for their expertise, they'd used the money and fake ID's given to them by Grace to acquire a nice little townhouse in a suburb of Celestis. It had been selected for two reasons, the first was that it was furnished with a cellar that someone had turned into a games room, and the second was that it sat upon the route of Morishita's run from home to a gym that she seemed to be a member of, they'd seen her pass by a few times and on one occasion Saxby had posed as a customer thinking of joining the gym simply to place an electronic sensor on her car, it was tiny and was attached above the rear axel, even with a mirror you'd struggle to find it unless you knew it was there. Part One of the plan achieved they switched to part two.

For a week they used the premise of being builders renovating the property to drill a tunnel from the cellar out under the road. It didn't take them long using the hydrolic drills and once sat under the westbound carriageway of the street above they began building their bomb. It wasn't to hard to make once you gathered the right amounts of ingredients, namely fertiliser and diesal, Saxby would make daily trips out to garden and farming stores, and on the way back fill their diesal car up with fuel, where they'd later syphon off what was needed. Four days later Barks was ready and rather pleased with his creation, nursing it like a little child they placed it at the end of the tunnel they'd dug and added the electric trigger. Two more days were spent backfilling the hole and then doing a patch up on the wall. Satisfied with what they'd created it became a waiting game, everything had to be right.

The first time they'd seen her coming towards their location they'd prepared to trigger the device, Barks stood at a safe point on the road, a black box with a small switch on in his pocket. Saxby meanwhile watched the street from the houses roof. Bark's thumb twitched next to the switch but waited. "Stand down, children on the road" Saxby had spotted two girls on bikes cycling on the opposite carriageway and so Barks moved his thumb and just watched as the car went by. The next day it had been the fact someone had illegally parked that meant their target had moved onto the opposite side of the road to avoid the obstruction. It was beginning to look like this might take longer than expected. The forth attempt however had everything perfect, no one in the street, no traffic, and Saxby gave the order. With a smile Barks flicked the switch and began walking away from the scene of what was about to happen.

As Morishita drove she was unaware a tiny LED had changed colour from red to green, the trigger switch on her car now active, it began searching for its partner, which conveniantly was attached to a massive bomb buried under the road. The two meet about ten seconds after Barks had flicked the switch and instantly the bomb exploded, launching the rouge Rokkenjiman agents car almost vertically upwards as the road turned into a crater. The car continued its vertical and now slightly right trajectory, clearing the stone wall of the neighbouring park, and then clearing the trees before crashing to the ground upside down. House and car alarms along the street where sounding as people came to see what was happening. Barks pulled his shirt up over his nose and began yelling, "Gas Leak! Gas Leak" as he ran up the street. Many rushed back inside as Saxby vacated the house via the back door and hurried away having double checked they'd removed everything from the house. They both meet up at the airport and boarded their flight to Nya Aland.

DaveIronside:
The Nightwitches had gathered at one of the many metro stations in Gaia, it was rush hour and as you would expect the platform was heaving with people seeking a way to work. The Nightwitches had mingled between the natives, their eyes peeled looking for their target, the next name on their extensive list. It was Graham Upson who spotted her, the rouge Rokkenjiman agent stood on the edge of the platform waiting like everyone else for the inbound train. Graham keyed his microphone three times, followed immediately by a further three after only a brief pause. Immediately everyone began moving in towards him, all except Kelly Matthewson who moved towards the bathroom. She worked quickly once secure in one of the stalls, she had roughly three minutes to pull this off. She first removed the thermos flask from her bag, unscrewing the bottom smoothly to reveal two icey pellets from their containers, she loaded them carefully into the device designed to look like a a vaping pipe. The flask was placed back in her bag, the pipe in her jacket pocket and her gloves flushed down the toilet. As Kelly made her way back onto the platform she could spot the familiar faces of the four others in a box around the Rokkenjiman ready for their move. Kelly wandered over and took up a position just behind them all and stood waiting looking at her mobile phone as the station announced the train was about to arrive.

Time was now not there friend, the pellets had a limited lifespan outside of the flask and they only had four of them, two for this attempt, and two for a backup should today not work out. It had taken them a good week to work out the agents routine, she woke up, got the train into the centre of Gaia where she apparently had a job in a business that provided financial advice to the soldiers of the Lodjain military, perhaps a cover for some sort of spying, or maybe the woman was a sleeper of some sort, either way it didn't matter because hopefully soon she'd be dead.

The train arrived, they had about four minutes of time left to pull this off and Kelly considered making a move now, but then waited. The line of people shuffled onto the train carriage, all seats had been taken and so people stood, little did she know it but the Rokkenjiman was now boxed in by Nightwitches. As was typical on a Lodjian train people struck up conversations and the Nightwitches did their best to blend in as tourists, asking people about places to eat and the like. Graham began swatting the air near him. "Damn mosquitos" he complained loudly as Mark Yates took up a similar act. Soon everyone around them was under their subliminal suggestion and this was when Kelly made her move, she took what appeared to be a puff on her vape but that was merely a rouse to allow her to fire a pellet at the back of the agents neck. It slammed home and instantly the Rokkenjiman swatted at it but felt nothing more than what she assumed was a mosquito bite, she even joined in complaining about the state of these old carriages as she rubbed her neck. Kelly took another puff on her pipe and fired the second one, it impacting higher than expected in the right hand side of her skull, not that it mattered, the tiny pellet was fully small enough to be hidden by hair. The train came into the next stop, they had roughly five minutes but couldn't be around for the next stage. The train doors opened, the team mingled with those leaving the train and walked away in different directions.

The train continued on its journey, three more stops in short succession and then the final station Gaia Central. The Rokkenjiman felt hot, that wasn't unusual as the trains air conditioning often failed. She began feeling a tingle in her left arm and a shortness of breath, those around her asked if she was OK and she nodded and tried to smile as though reassuring them she was fine. They came out the tunnel into the main station and her legs buckled, she crashed to the floor and a few people around her stumbled and fell onto her. Passengers screamed as the woman on the floor began gasping and moaning. Rumours of bubonic plague in the Iwi and East Moreland made several people step back before someone finally began trying to offer first aid. Four minutes after the train got into the station a group of paramedics turned up to find the woman wasn't breathing, her heart stopped, they began shocking her but each jolt did little to help. A large group had gathered at the platform wondering what was going on, among them was Amir Ram, one of the Nightwitches who had been sent to check on the results, while those around him muttered prayers to Sessifet for the poor woman he silently said his own to Jekar, "Lord of War, take this enemy of your people to the Underlords, bless our blades" he watched as the paramedics did their best to do CPR while moving her off the train and up the steps, he followed as best he could and was certain by the time they'd got her into the ambulance it was all over. The pellet containing the heart inducing frozen poison was gone by now, the only entrance hole a tiny red dot that looked like a mosquito bite. The pellet has thawed out in their target, releasing its lethal cargo as it did. As the ambulance pulled away, its lights not even activated he knew they had chalked up another enemy of East Moreland handed over to the Gods for judgement, and no doubt now being tormented by the Underlords. 

DaveIronside:
Quintelia was a nation none of the Nightwitches had ever travelled to before, but using the cover of some small technological expo they'd entered the country with relative ease, the boxes full of photocells had arrived at the airports cargo depot exactly on time. They'd got the targets last known address and Amir Ram had booked some accommodation in an industrial estate about 1km away. He'd been in the country much longer, sent to do the ground work of identifying and confirming the targets location, it came in handy him looking the least like a Morelander, his fake Seleucid passport helping to extend the fantasy. It hadn't taken him long to find the agent, she was living in a small one bedroom bungalow in a walled compound, Amir had to admit it was a nice place, leafy garden, trees to obscure most of the windows and a large water tank on the roof. He'd managed to build up a schedule of the woman, she was less predictable than the others, but generally speaking when she was out of the house it was for at least an hour, that gave them a window. Once he'd worked out her coming and goings he'd followed her, it appeared she had some kind of cover job at a school teaching foreign languages, he'd gone in one day to ask for details about lessons, pretending to be a new immigrant to Quintelia hoping for help with the language. While he had not really found out about the chances of learning the language he did spot her taking a class teaching Rokkenjiman, perhaps a secondary opportunity for a hit could be the school but that would present a chance of collateral damage and while the Nightwitches had a pretty liberal attitude to that sometimes it wasn't worth it for a Rokkenjiman.

It was then Amir had put the call in to the team who was now sitting in the back of the mini van the boxes of the Photocells piled up on one of the seats. Once at their rented industrial unit the team set about unwrapping each of them and with a mini production line began dismantling them, they were after one of the sensors inside and as each was removed Amir set about carefully crushing them into powder. The Thallium Sulfate could have probably been sourced locally but the quantities they wanted would maybe raise suspicion after all it wasn't really an everyday product. It took several hundred Photocells to be dismantled for them to have enough for their purpose and the others in the unit were thankful they'd done as they peered at the small Tupperware box that now contained enough of the dust to do the next stage of the mission.

As the target left her house the next day Amir tailed her, no sooner had they turned the corner and headed into town than Graham Upson and Kelly Matthewson headed into the walled compound, they were wearing uniforms made to look like they were gardeners and while Graham kept watch pretending to be mowing the lawn Kelly slipped onto the roof, to anyone watching cleaning the guttering, she prised a panel off the roof water tank and peered in, it was as Amir had predicted, filling up slowly over the day providing all the houses water needs. She took the plastic tub from her utility belt and sprinkled the powder in before turning the water off. There was enough of the powder to do its job three times over. She securely replaced the panel and joined Graham back on the ground, the pair left and returned to the industrial estate, their job completed.

That evening the team left the country with the exception of Amir who remained behind. The next day the target failed to emerge, or the day after, Amir sneaked into the compound one night and using a fibre optic probe looked through the letter box, he couldn't see anything but as he moved around to one of the windows he noticed a figure lying prone on the ground unmoving, it wasn't the confirmation that he wanted but it was a good sign. He contemplated his next move should he break in and ensure she was dead, after all he'd heard Thallium poisoning could be countered if found quick enough, but the higher than normal dose they'd put in her water tank should have been enough to kill three people. This was the problem with this kind of lifestyle, the targets often had no friends, no contacts living a solitary life it would be days, maybe even longer before anyone would find her, meanwhile Graham and Kelly and the rest of the Nightwitches would be running down the next target and Amir was keen to join up with them. He made a decision, he picked up a rock smashed the front doors small window and reached in opening the door from the inside it would be enough, he walked in and checked the prone body, no signs of life but clearly a struggle for life had taken place, the woman had vomit over herself and her eyes had rolled back. Amir wasn't a doctor but it was clear she was dead, the blood around her mouth sent a shiver down his spine. He left without looking back leaving the door open, in the morning the postman or someone would probably find it open and alert the authorities, not that Amir was worried. He headed straight for the airport, gave them some phony story about having to head back to Seleucid for an emergency, booked a ticket and disappeared.

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