Operation Moralltach: Implementation

Their table was in a private dining room at Dominico's, a five star Italian restaurant frequented by the nouveau riche of Boston's technology sector. The room was dark, lit by ornate wall fixtures, chandeliers, and candle light, the walls were crimson, and the waiters wore evening jackets. It was the kind of place that one would imagine mafia dons used to hold meetings. Something that Liam had quickly disillusioned them of, the local commission apparently met in a little place called Scivola's in the North End.

Tonight however, it was the meeting place of spies. Madison had reserved their table at the last minute, she'd originally planned on ordering out for their meeting, but her favorite delivery place was closed for the owner's birthday. So she decided that if they were going out for this meeting, they were going somewhere great.

And that was how they found themselves ordering from the wine list and waiting anxiously for the waiter to leave so that they could discuss the matter that was on everyone's minds. They made awkward small talk while over the appetizers until the servers presented the main course. Once the glasses were filled and the meals presented, Madison slipped the waiter a fifty and told him they weren't to be bothered for an hour, and to leave the bottles of wine.

"So," Madison said. "Liam, what do you have for us?"

Liam took a long drink of his wine before speaking, "Me and greeny got a couple of my old buddies from Winters crew good and deep in their cups last night." He grinned at Madison, "I kept the receipt, I expect to be reimbursed for the expenses."

Madison rolled her eyes, was he always such a smartass or did he just decide to get annoying when I brought him in on this? But she waved her hand for him to continue.

"They told me about a couple of things that Winter has going within the next week. He's got a guy dealing illegal cigarettes out of an old Corvega over in Hangman's Alley, his boys are doing the protection rounds on Wednesday, and he's got a shipment of Buffout coming in that'll be stashed in warehouse in the harbor on Friday."

"Hmm," Madison processed the information as she chewed a mouthful of spaghetti. "Nate, what do you think, are these viable from a tactical perspective?"

Nate picked at his ravioli, "The dealer is a soft target, bash him in the head, grab the cigarettes, and leave. That's as easy as it gets. The guys on the protection run, it's iffy, but if they take the route that Liam's friends talked about, I'm pretty sure that I can find a good ambush point for us to hit them. The warehouse is the one I'm really not sure about."

"Why is that?" Ming asked between mouthfuls of tortellini.

"There are too many variables, we have a location, but not how many guards there will be, we don't know what weapons they'll have, we don't know where the Buffout will be in the warehouse, I'd need surveillance on the location before I could confidently say we could hit the shipment successfully." Nate sipped his wine as he spoke. He's a lot less awkward when he's in his element, Madison observed.

"Alright, one of us will just have to run surveillance on the place." Madison pointed to Nate with her fork, "you and Liam can handle the surveillance while we're in class, we'll set up a shift system and come up with an assault plan on Thursday. Is everyone comfortable with that?"

There were nods around the table. "Good," Madison said, "We'll hit the cigarette dealer tomorrow night. Nate, you and Ming can take point on that, make sure that the guy doesn't see you before you knock him out, I want Winter confused for a day or two. We'll let him know he's dealing with someone new on Wednesday. After we hit the shipment on Friday, then we'll make our big debut on Saturday to set up a meeting with Winter."

She turned to Emma, "Speaking of the meeting, Emma, you were the one in charge of preparing our look. What do you have for us?"

Emma, who had been silent up until now, practically burst with glee, pulling sketches out of her handbag. "I'm thinking that for most of us, we'll go with a classic secret service look. Black jacket and pants with white undershirts, the uniformity gives off that organized feel, the black and white oozes professionalism. And the black body armor adds that nice intimidation factor. If we're looking for anonymity, then we could add balaclavas, but I feel that kind of takes away from the overall feel."

This is surreal, Madison thought, she's describing the uniform for a series of government sponsored crimes like she would pitch a design in Milan.

"This is great Emma-" Madison began.

Emma cut her off as she dug another sketch out of her bag. "Do not speak until you've seen what I have for you Maddy, you haven't seen anything yet. This is my freaking masterpiece for this collection."

She reached across the table to shove the paper into Madison's hands. "The suit is a level above the rest in quality to make it clear that you are the leader. But more important than that is the theme. I went biblical with this, classic blood red undershirt and tie with a pure black jacket and pants. I'm also thinking we dye your hair crimson and have you wear red contacts. The accessories are gold with ruby gemstones. I call the look fire and brimstone, I wanted to really push the classic woman of wealth and taste feel, the red is a bit overpowering, but the black contrast will really balance everything out."

"Emma," Madison said, "you have outdone yourself."

Emma just grinned.

"When Eddie Winter meets you, he'll feel like he's looking into the eyes of the devil herself." Emma being herself, she had to pause for dramatic effect.

"And he'll remember the name Lucy Ferris.

So what do you guys think? The action gets going next chapter and I'm looking forward to it.

BTW, I'm thinking of starting an XCOM story, would anyone be interested in that?

Read and Review people.

Later.