Episode 502: Reacquisitions

Air Date: 18 Jan 2011
Present: Kim, Maer, Terri, Andy, and Bobby

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Reacquisitions, Special Features

Wednesday, 08 Jan 2522
Acropolis, Athens
Georgia (Huang Long) system
Morning …

The situation stands as follows:

Nika is closeted in an unknown location with a black market surgeon getting her eyeballs replaced with new ones. This surgeon is sorely wanted by a group of armed and possibly dangerous men. They want us to find him. They have Rina in their custody to leverage us to do it.

Oh, Joshua is not happy. Neither is Arden. They can go crazy with worry over the women they love or they can get busy getting them back.

First order of business: know thy enemy.

Joshua: Arden. I need you to figure out from the Cortex who’s in Berth 3119. Tell me who they are. We can’t make decisions if we don’t know who they are.
Arden: Okay.

Then: Subterfuge

Joshua: Kiera. Prep the surgery room in case I need to be a small Chinese man within the next day.
Kiera: Kneecap a Chinese man? What?
Joshua: Kneecap a small Chinese man before I become him.
Kiera: Don’t forget the limp.
Joshua: I can do the limp.
Kiera: We should do a berth call and see if his ship is still here. If he’s gone …
Joshua: That’s actually probably a good idea.

Arden’s efforts on the local Cortex yields some results. Using the information from the caller ID, he finds the name of the ship: The Garretson.

Joshua: (brisk) What do we know about the Garretson?
Arden: It’s a ship and it’s at berth 3119.
Joshua: Okay. Can you find me more about the Garretson?

Arden taps on the keys a bit more. It’s 1800 tons, smaller than our ship. It’s licensed and armed. The Captain’s name is Henner. Crew complement isn’t listed: it’s a private vessel. However, ships of that sort usually carry 4 to 7 crew.

Joshua: That’s something to know. Doesn’t mean they’re still not working for the Alliance, but at least they’re not officially Alliance.

There’s room to maneuver in that. We may recall that sometime in the last year, one of the things that started happening with a number of vessels—both regional and originally-Alliance—were they were licensed in theory for anti-piracy activities. After which some of the licensed ships might have turned to piracy in the name of enforcing anti-piracy. So it’s possible this ship is an anti-pirate pirate ship. Or it could be making a living doing armed escort in a perfectly legitimate fashion. Then again, it’s only lightly armed, making it unsuitable as a pirate vessel but good enough for escort duty.

Joshua: We need to know, next step, as Kiera’s suggested, is figuring out whether Hannibal’s actual ship is still in-berth or whether it’s actually left planet already.
Arden: Do we know the berth his ship was in?
Joshua: We do.
Kiera: Yeah.
Arden: Is there a ship in that berth right now?

Arden goes back on the Cortex to look and sure enough, it’s still there and it’s scheduled to leave.

Kiera: Thought so.
Joshua: When?

From what we can get on the Cortex, the ship is already listed as being in a “departing” mode, similar to the arrivals/departures boards in any spaceport announcing the status of inbound and outbound flights. Arden wonders if it’s possible to put an alert on the departing mode, do something that could keep the ship on the ground for a little while?

Probably. The problem is, doing so might attract more attention to the ship than we or Chu wants. Arden looks pointedly at Joshua.

Arden: I’m waiting for the First Mate to give me orders.
Joshua: If you can stop it, how would—it would be a fake police report or something like that?
Arden: Yeah. There’s against the law and there’s against the law.
Joshua: Do we think these guys are tuned into the Cortex feeds. They are mercenary types. If they caught wind of… I don’t want to pull a fake police action on them and immediately draw the mercs into their target.
Arden: I got the impression they were Marshalls.
Joshua: Why?
Arden: I don’t remember why. I just know there’s a reason.
Joshua: (rolls with it) Okay.
Kiera: I thought they said they were.
Joshua: No. I’m reasonably sure they didn’t say they were Marshalls. I believe it was from the guns they were wearing.
Kiera: The question still is—are they monitoring Chu’s ship? If they are, they know that he’s leaving. If they’re not … See, the thing is, Hannibal never gets left behind. He’s not gonna let the ship take off. If the ship takes off, Hannibal’s going to be with them. And that’s a problem.
Joshua: (grokking it) Yeah … We gotta keep it here. We can’t even pull off the fake if the ship is not here. If they’re aware that he’s gone, then … yeah. (to Arden) See if you can stop it.

Arden gets right on it, tries to gin up a charge to pin them to the ground. Kiera suggests a low level criminal thing. Arden counters by suggesting coming up with something that involves so much bureaucratic red tape that they can’t easily get free. Say … the ship owes back taxes and they’re grounded til they pay them off. Joshua suggests something mechanical that won’t allow them to leave. Radiation leaks. Fuel leak in the docking area.

Something!

The Hacking Gods are not in charity with Arden. He’s unable to hack into the system to gin up those charges. He looks up from the keyboard.

Arden: Anybody have local contacts? HUMINT?
Joshua: Departure mode is what? half an hour?

Within that time, yeah. Kiera cuts an eyeroll.

Kiera: Why don’t I just call him?
Joshua: Then do it.

We’ve been back at the ship for a little while but Kiera knows we haven’t been back long enough for Chu to have completed his procedure on Nika.

Joshua: All right. Whatever. Give him a call. If he’s there we can ask him about it—
Kiera: If he’s there, then it will be like—(brightly)—Oh, glad everything went good. (normal voice) And then bring a gun,we’re gonna shoot his ass, cuz there’s no way that he’s done.
Joshua: Call him.

She calls. There’s no answer. Looks like she’s not shooting him for rushing the job on Nika.

Arden: There’s a surprise.
Joshua: Actually, that kind of is a surprise.
Kiera: I’ll just ring him again. See if it will go. Just bug him.
Joshua: How much money does Hannibal have? Is he uber-wealthy?
Kiera: Depends on whether he did a job or not recently.
Joshua: My question is—
Kiera: Is Hannibal likely on the ship that’s getting ready to take off on us?
Joshua: Does he have another ship? Does he have another one?

After all, we just gave the man thousands of credits. He could just take off.

Joshua: If he could have sold the one he already had, or had two of them, and is running …. (gives up) Okay. If he’s not answering the phone, so to speak, and his ship is getting ready to take off—If he’s on it, I don’t think we can stop it. And if you’re saying he doesn’t have enough time to complete the eye surgery, you know him better than I do. What’s his alarm-level on this kind of thing?

Kiera knows Chu’s business survives on word of mouth. Doing a client wrong, just once, had the potential to ruin him. It behooved him to follow through.

Joshua: What’s the time frame on a successful eye surgery?
Kiera: Four and a half, give or take. I’d say four and a half hours. Cuz you got to reattach the nerves and—about four and a half to five. He could be letting her take off as a decoy while he finishes Nika.
Joshua: Okay, well, either way, it don’t matter. At this point, if he had gone or if he is gone but on planet, he’s gonna be—Gone-on-planet we might be able to track him down if we need to track him down. But he is, at the moment, banished to us.
Kiera: Did they file any flight destination plan?
Joshua: No. So what I need from everybody on board is a potential plan of action. Now that we don’t have easy access to Hannibal, the immediate choices I can think of is for me to be Hannibal for some sort of set up not to trade me for her but to try and spring an ambush to get her out. Or to try and track down Hannibal to actually get him to set up the same sort of ambush or just try to figure out a way to spring Rina from the joint and solve this problem altogether. If their ship is the size you’re saying it is there couldn’t be more than what? seven? I don’t think we counted more than seven.
Arden: Unless they’re passengers.
Joshua: What’s that?
Arden: I said, unless they’re passengers.
Joshua: (agreeing) Unless they’re passengers.
Kiera: Well, then at least there’s four.

Joshua pauses to pull it together.

Joshua: So I think the next step is for me to try—I don’t know what our time frame is. They didn’t get us a timeframe, did they? They didn’t mention something specific.
Beglan: Ahh….He did not. He said soon.
Joshua: Yeah, soon. But he didn’t say exactly when.
Kiera: Did he say where?
Joshua: No, he didn’t. ‘Where’ would depend on what we had to offer. I can try to go in and basically do some observation on the berth and if somebody comes by, see if I can’t maybe Read one of them to get some information about who they are specifically and what they might be …
Arden: Too bad you can’t do that over a video com.

Yeah. No joke.

Joshua: It might be possible but it would stress me beyond—I don’t know if it’s possible. It’s probably safer just to do it, or more reliable, to do it in person.
Arden: Sure.
Joshua: So … what can everybody else be doing if I’m going to be out? Give me some options. We need to pursue other potentials. How can we start to try to track down Hannibal currently if he’s still on planet?
Arden: His ship’s still here so we can assume he won’t leave without his ship.
Joshua: Unless he has another ship.
Kiera: Unless it leaves without him.
Arden: He has another ship?
Joshua: I’m assuming that if his ship is leaving and he hasn’t had time to do the surgery and he’s still doing the surgery, then he has either a second ship or this ship is launching off—.
Kiera: As a decoy …
Joshua: Or flying somewhere else on planet.
Arden: I can try to foul it up in some kind of red tape. Some sort of alert.
Kiera: Either that or Hannibal’s escaping with the unknown person.
Joshua: If he’s doing that, then he’s gone anyway and we’ll just have to work from there. But I would like to see if we can’t track down his trail from his ship to his location currently. (to Kiera) If you and Aden want to go do that, Beggar I’m gonna leave you here to man the comm in case Nika—
Kiera: Calls in and lets us know.
Beglan: Okay.
Arden: So, he’s on bat-phone duty.
Joshua: Pretty much. It’s crucial duty at this point.
Kiera: Arden, I suggest you and I wear something with a hood because we were part of the melee that happened before.
Arden: Okay. I’ll change clothes.
Kiera: Yeah. I’ll put on my fancier duds, wrap my head in a fancier scarf.
Joshua: Two hours.
Arden: Okay.

They start to move and Joshua stays them with a word.

Joshua: Now the question is, is Rina going to do something that destroys any possibility of rescue.
Arden: It’s not a question.
Joshua: That is a question.
Arden: No, it’s a statement.
Joshua: She could do something that could actually enhance her possibility of rescue. She might even rescue herself. (off everyone’s look) I’m being optimistic here. She’s talented. She’s got skills. Yes, I’m a biased source but she’s got skills.
Kiera: Things do happen. She’s not your average bear.

Kiera and Arden arm themselves with their pistols and Kiera slips her knife somewhere on her person. Arden carries a small backpack with med supplies, just in case. As prepared as they can be, they leave Equinox for Chu’s berth to try to pick up his trail. Joshua goes with them to the airlock.

Joshua: Best judgment, please.

And they part company. On the walk over to Chu’s berth, Kiera muses over his ship—how many people does it take to fly that thing. Which means Chu’s assistant Li could conceivably fly it, with or without him, if she had the skill to actually fly it. They arrive to see Li prepping the ship to leave, attaching the sunglass container to the ship for take-off.

Kiera: Why don’t you go up and have a conversation while I watch?

Arden walks up to the pretty Miss Li. As he walks into the docking area he sees a figure across the way in the shadows, clad in a long coat, leaning against a wall strut. Arden takes this in from the corner of his eye and continues forward without looking—no point in giving the game away, right? He marks the position of the watcher and comes up to the container. Li is on the roof of it, double checking the couplings. She looks down as Arden approaches.

Arden: (hails) So you’re giving up on the other container?
Li: Guess so.
Arden: Well, I might have something that needs shipping if you’re in the mood for shipping stuff.
Li: (dismissive) Hey, that’d be great. Why don’t you go get that? Have it delivered here and we’ll wait for you.
Arden: You have no idea what I’m talking about.
Li: You’re talking a container?
Arden: No.
Li: Cuz we’re missing a container.
Arden: I see that.
Li: Why don’t you go get your container, bring it over, and we’ll ship it up.
Arden: Well, it’s full of toxic sludge. You sure you wanna carry it?
Li: Sounds good. How much does it pay? Normal rates?

Li continues pacing the container, checking the couplings. It’s hard to tell if she’s really interested or talking to Arden just to put up a normal front for the man she knows is watching.

Li: 25 tons?
Arden: Less.
Li: Not gonna do that. Well, find another guy. Thank you. We’ll be taking off pretty soon so you might want to get some cover.
Arden: Well, I don’t know. Flyin’ this … ship, I guess to be generous … might be a little on the hard side.

Li stops and glares daggers at him and launches into a stream of Chinese invective. Which mostly flies over Arden’s head. While Arden’s sweet talking Li, Kiera’s moving to the side, looking for anything on the ship she can easily disconnect to thwart take off. Fuel lines, hydraulics, whatever. Kiera comes up empty handed—Li’s already stowed the lines, battened hatches, and whatnot. It’s going to require a little more work to keep the ship on the ground. Topside, Li runs out of pejoratives and glares at Arden. What the hell is wrong with the man?

Li: Aren’t you…don’t you have reason to want things to go smoothly?
Arden: Which is why I’m here.
Li: Well, you’re not helping things go smoothly.
Arden: Neither are you. My twitchiness counter’s up with getting you ready to leave. I want to be sure things go smoothly and you don’t leave before things don’t go smoothly. Are you sure you don’t want to have this conversation elsewhere?

Kiera walks over quickly to stop Arden from making things more less-smooth. She hears Li say to Arden as she walks up:

Li: As long as I don’t make any calls your friend will be fine.
Arden: And I want to be sure of that. So you won’t make any calls and you don’t go anywhere until she’s better.
Li: That’s not the way it works.
Arden: That’s the way it works for me.
Li: (to Kiera) You know how this works. We don’t stick around.

Kiera gives Arden a quelling look and tips her face to Li.

Kiera: Miss Li, you’re missing—
Li: We do not stick around for whatever might be after your friends or our clients. We leave. We do our job and we leave. That’s how it works. If you break the deal, things get broken.
Kiera: (firm) ETA. How quickly are you leaving?
Li: I am leaving now.
Arden: And I’m staying—
Kiera: Okay. That’s all I need to know. (to Arden) Walk. She’s leaving now.
Arden: I don’t—
Kiera: Git. Walk.

Kiera grabs Arden by the arm.

Kiera: (to Li) Thank you. (off Arden’s look) No.

She pulls him along. He drags his feet. Arden throws a daggered look Li’s way and gets Kiera’s elbow in his ribs for his trouble.

Kiera: (undertone) Look, she’s told us what we need to know. She is leaving. Walk.

Meanwhile, on Garretson …

Rina is finally aware of her surroundings. She comes to her senses in a cell with plexiglass or some sort of transparent metal walls. Looks like the interior of a ship but she can’t be certain. She has a pounding headache and she’s standing barefoot in her skivvies and her bra. She rakes her hair back and holds her head.

Rina: (to self) Bozhe moi. And I didn’t get to drink any vodka …

She investigates her cell. It’s got a bunk, bolted to the deck. A sink and toilet unit. She tests them. They work. Looking through the plexi, she sees a fairly elaborate mini-prison. There are three other cells identical to hers. One sits opposite her against the wall with a walkway between. Two others are forward of her corner position, to port and starboard. The one to starboard is forward-most and is wedged into an odd triangular run of bulkhead. Just aft of it is a plexi-walled office. They are all empty. She’s the only person in here. The only other feature to the space is an airlock door between the office and the cell opposite.

Rina goes over everything she can reach. The bunk is a platform shelf with a one-piece mattress. No bed springs for her to take apart for their metal, nothing like a stiff length of wire she could use for a lockpick or a stiletto. Above her at standard height off the deck is a recessed light behind a clear panel. Standing on the bed and stretching up on her toes, she can just reach it. It’s smooth and cold and it’s the same material as her cell walls. Nothing she can shatter with a blow of her fist, no pieces she can use for a lever or a shiv. She investigates the toilet and sink. Standard prison issue combo unit, with the plumbing and the valves sealed off internally, nothing within reach. The controls are buttons flush with the housing, with nothing she can pry up with her fingernails or teeth.

Damn, these guys are good. And at that moment, one of those guys walks in. A man, not too old or too young. Military in demeanor, he’s dressed in civilian clothing, a shirt and cargo pants. He has a gun belt, minus the gun. Instead he’s carrying what looks like a stun baton. He steps up to the plexi and Rina does the same, abeit warily. His tone is friendly when he speaks.

Guard: Hey, you’re awake. (a beat) Mostly, the interrogation’s over but I have a question for ya.
Rina: (narrowly) Yeah?
Guard: You know how to play chess?
Rina: Some.
Guard: Yeah? Okay.

The guard’s expression brightens and he quickly leaves and comes back without the stun stick but with a chess set. The guard grabs the wastepaper basket from the little office, turns it upside down for a makeshift table next to Rina’s cell and sets up the chess board. He pulls up a chair and sits down to play. Rina’s not sure what to make of this.

Chess? Seriously? Or is this some kind of off-the-wall interrogation technique? She gives the idea a poke.

Rina: I’ll play but … could I get a shirt or something? (rubs her arms) It’s cold in here.
Guard: I’ll turn the heat up.

He adjusts the thermostat to the compartment and sure enough, the atmo hisses a little more forcefully through the vents and Rina can feel it like a warm breath on her bare skin. There being nothing for it, she sits on the floor of her cell and the guard turns the board around to let her play white. He starts talking. He seems very nice and Rina feels like she’s landed in the middle of a Robert Altman movie.

Guard: I find it makes things easier if you get a rapport going. We’re going to be here a little while.

Rina opens with her Queen’s knight, placing it in front of her bishop. The guard makes his move, Rina moves her Queen’s pawn forward two spaces and the game is on. As they play, he introduces himself as Reich and he tells her that the crew of Garretson is made up of bounty hunters. Rina moves her pieces and nods and generally keeps the man talking as they play.

Rina: You ever go after Reavers?
Reich: What?! Is there a bounty on Reavers?
Rina: (moves a piece) There should be.
Reich: It’d be pretty high.
Rina: Well, you look like you could take one on.
Reich: Yeah, maybe. (moves piece) I dunno. I seen some’a the pictures from the war and all that.
Rina: (moves another piece) Were you in the war?
Reich: Was I in the war?
Rina: Mm-hm.
Reich: Umm, well, a little while. I got wounded.
Rina: Hm.

Of course, just about all of Rina’s scars are visible and she’s got enough for two or three wars. Reich moves his piece and Rina frowns.

Rina: Are you sure you want to do that move?
Reich: I’ve played this game a few times.
Rina: (skeptical) Hm. Okay …

She counters with a move of her own and the game plays on.

Back at Chu’s ship, Kiera’s managed to drag Arden clear of the berth and back onto the street. Arden settles down and tells her of the watcher in that alcove over there.

Kiera: Yeah, we need to go cruise the alcove. They already saw us there, they know we’ve been visiting the ship like crazy.
Arden: Right.
Kiera: (sarcastically) We’ll be sneaky. He won’t notice.

As they approach, they see him talking into his collar. Kiera mutters to Arden.

Kiera: What is it with them and their clothing?
Arden: Maybe they’re close personal friends.

Kiera walks right up to the guy and asks him what time it is. She’s a very pretty lady in pretty clothing and what guy wouldn’t give her the time of day? The man in the alcove does a little double take and then recovers.

Watcher: That’s some mighty fine detective work you guys are doin’ there.
Kiera: Really? (delighted laughter) We gonna come clean now? Okay. (laughs some more) So why are you still hanging out here if she’s leavin’?
Watcher: Hm. Why indeed?
Arden: Probably because he wants to follow her to wherever he is.
Watcher: (dry) Yeah. That’d be a good idea. Of course, can’t run as fast as a spaceship.
Kiera: Yeah.
Arden: That’s why you have another spaceship someplace else nearby.
Watcher: Maybe.
Arden: In any case, could we possibly work together?
Watcher: It wouldn’t really be fair to you guys. (tries not to be too smug) I don’t want you guys carrying my dead weight. You guys got yer great plans and all that and I’m just doin’ things the old fashioned way, I guess.
Kiera: Nah, we don’t have plans at all. We’re just kinda wingin’ it.
Arden: You know I can remove that sense of humor with just a few scalpel strokes.
Watcher: Oh … (unimpressed)
Kiera: He woke up on the wrong side of the bed this morning.
Arden: (ignoring her) Obviously, we need help. I’m now asking you for help. Don’t push it.

Don’t write any checks with your mouth your butt can’t cover, Arden.

Watcher: Ah, I wouldn’t worry about it too much, sir. You’ll find Chu. If our quarry is still out there, we’ll find her. You’ll get your friend back. Probably in one piece. Everything will be fine.
Arden: What quarry are you looking for? I’m confused now.
Kiera: Yeah, I was under the impression that ‘she’ you was looking for was climbin’ all over that ship. What ‘she’ is that?
Watcher: I’m not at liberty to discuss business matters, I’m afraid.
Arden: Who is?
Watcher: I don’t think you’re goin’ to find any one of us is willin’ to talk about that.
Arden: Why don’t you let the boss know we want to talk to him about it?
Watcher: All right. I’ll leave him a note. You wanna write it down? I’ll pass it on’ta him.
Arden: Why don’t you talk into your collar there and pass it on?
Watcher: Okay. I don’t think he’s goin’ to be real keen, but … (talks to collar) … Yeah. Get me Henner. (a beat) Yeah. A couple’a them came down here and started getting’ in a shoutin’ match with the co-pilot. (listens) No, they wanna talk to you. (pause) You r’member what we talked about. You want—? All right. Don’t think it’s gonna do much good. (to Kiera and Arden) He said you can head down to the ship if you wanna talk to him. But, you know. Best come unarmed. You bring your weapons, we’ll assume you’ve come here to… (you know)
Kiera: So where is the ship again?

He gives her the berth number and it matches our intel. Kiera nods at the man.

Kiera: Well, all right. Gotta go de-arm. We’ll be right back. Tell’em we’re comin’. (to Arden) Let’s wander back—oh, before we do, let’s go shoppin’ then.
Arden: Okay … but I think we have more important things than shopping right now.
Kiera: (to the Watcher) Thanks!

She steps off and tugs Arden along with her, trying to see if the Watcher leaves his post to follow them. He doesn’t and Kiera starts rounding back toward Garretson’s berth. They find a spot off the street and start pulling their weapons and stashing them in Arden’s pack. If they’re not looking like they’re wearing weapons, they might just pass muster.

Arden: I thought our orders were to find the trail that leads to Chu.
Kiera: The problem might be that the trail that ends in Chu means that Chu, who’s currently in the middle of the surgery—going from my watch going ticky-tocky—will either terminate it or leave one eyeball hanging out and the other inserted. Hell no, I’m not going to go lookin’ for Chu cuz he’s not done yet. (tosses her head back at Chu’s ship) She’s not headin’ off the ground yet. I don’t want to take that chance. She’s already threatened it. I know us. We’ve left people before. I know we’ve left people before. Half-done if we were threatened. If he believes his life’s endangered, he’ll flip. I know we’re only two hours into the procedure and it takes at least ten minutes to go down. So there’s no way he’d be finished yet and I don’t want to jeopardize that.

Joshua goes to Garretson’s berth to observe their watch patterns and perhaps manage a Read off one of the mercenaries, perhaps find out information about who they really are. Are they really mercenaries or are they something more? He’s also wondering if Kiera and Arden are following his orders. Maybe he’s made a mistake letting the shyster and the straight shooter go off with the parting words ‘Best judgment’ … but there’s no rescinding that order now. Joshua stealthily approaches their perimeter and finds a good spot to watch. He sees a couple of men down by the ramp leading up into the ship. They’re sort of just hanging out. They also move like they’re nursing hurts, limping and rubbing sore spots. He thinks those two might have been the ones who tussled with Arden and Kiera.

Joshua Reads one of them, hoping to find out who they really are. He gets the name, Scally, he’s in guard mode and he feels somewhat contrite. Like he got in trouble for losing his tailing subject. Joshua also finds out that these guys really are bounty hunters and they’ve been together for quite a while. They’re professionals and work together very well, thanks to their long association. Henner is their boss. Joshua also gleans they have Rina aboard their ship.

And aboard Garretson, Rina and Reich are evenly matched as players, with neither getting the upper hand on the other as of yet.

Back outside, Joshua watches the guards for any changes in their watch patterns and shifts. Nothing happens. He ends up watching them engage in casual conversation with each other. About half an hour later, he hears footsteps approaching and ghosting over to the berth entrance, he sees Kiera and Arden. What? Has the trail to Chu lead them here? Does this mean the bounty hunters have Hannibal already? For their part, Kiera and Arden walk right on by, taking a quick glance into the berth and going on. They recognize the two men at the ramp as the people they fought with earlier. Arden is still fretting over finding Chu and Nika. Joshua picks up part of their conversation.

Arden: You know him better. If he was going to do an operation on somebody that he’d be leaving behind so he can escape, where would he do it? Would it be a … Would he rent an apartment? Would he get a hotel room? Would it be an abandoned warehouse?

No. Kiera tells him it would always be in a comfortable place, where there will be a refrigerator, a mini-kitchen, that sort of thing. Water. Toilet facilities.

Arden: So, no abandoned warehouses.
Kiera: No. He’s a professional. He’s not going to do it in a warehouse.

Not unless somebody asked him to. Some clientele prefer it done at their secret hideouts but no, no warehouses. Not in Kiera’s experience working with the man, at least. Knowing that Chu would likely use a place that has power and water and sewer lines hooked up to it, Arden wants to go back to Equinox to do a search for the facilities that match Chu’s MO. Kiera tells him to keep his voice down and they go. Joshua watches them turn the corner and he starts back to Equinox by a different route ... cursing under his breath the entire way. He knows about eleven different languages and starts off with Latin, working his way through the romance languages before he gets to the Chinese.

As they approach Equinox, Kiera and Arden notice some people outside, milling about looking at our ship. Since it’s her mood for the day, Kiera walks right up to them to see what the hell is going on. They’re wearing grease-stained jumpsuits, work clothes, stuff like that. They’re looking at something off the back of our ship.

Uh oh.

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Reacquisitions, Special Features

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