Chapter 4 - The Plan

[BigRedRod]

May 19th 2003
09:00:59

A sudden stream of sunlight bursts into the room instantly rousing the four members of team GLAM. Stood before the large window is Lucinda, the contact.
"Rise and shine! Up, up, up!"

Smiling broadly at the four squirming sleeping bags on the floor of her apartment in the heart of Jalis City, Lucinda looks rather more conspicuous than she did on the bridge when she casually removed the team from the grasp of the police, dressed in an odd manner which might be described as Bohemian and having done away with the small square glasses,
"Get up. You have a job to do, and today is the day to do it. I'm going to be giving you intel over breakfast so get your arses in gear."

Sweeping away, Lucinda jams some bread in to the toaster and noisily sets about locating various things which might be placed on top of it.

...

Ten minutes later, with everybody sat around the breakfast bar eating, Lucinda stands up and starts her briefing,
"One you gets the camera, you just point it at what you want to take a photo of, press the button and bang, job done. Hein isn't looking for art but make sure that everything you want is in shot. I have some torches that I'll dig out for you... The archive itself has shifts of two guards at night and they tend to spend most of their time just playing cards. You can't go in during the day as there is a near constant stream of professors ambling about and four children in there would be too suspicious. There two night shifts: five pm to one am and then one am to nine am"

While she bites a chunk of toast she looks to be pondering whether anything needs saying,
"The storage block stands detached from the main museum block. It's just a warehouse with a few offices. Two doors in, one being a fire exit. Oh, I haven't told you what you're looking for, have I?"

Pulling a small sheet of paper from her pocket she reads three codes,
"DA272, DA754, and DA910. Those are the codes, everything is catalogued according to code so your stuff should all be clumped together. DA2 means it is a text (be sure to turn on macro mode for that one), DA7 means an urn and the nine refers to any miscellaneous objects."

After staring upwards for a moment in thought, the contact sets about finishing her toast while she waits for any questions.

[itches]

Silently chewing on her food throughout breakfast, Amicula appeared to be staring into space. In reality she was concentrating with her psychic powers - the telltale glow of their use safely hidden behind her sunglasses - to nudge Robyn thighs and legs in as distracting a way as possible while maintaining an innocent visage.

Dropping the game when the woman began to explain the mission, Amicula considered everything.

"Hold off the questions for now, I'll throw together a quick plan that we can pick apart to see what we need to learn. You might actually be useful for once Will." Frowning as her mind began to form a very basic plan, the girl tried to ignore any flaws for the moment, time enough to improve it later.

"First step should be basic enough, we go visit the museum at the same time as individuals. We might not learn anything useful if our target is held in a separate building, but at the very least we will have a physical memory of the location for tonight. I'll work a bit of makeup on everyone to subtly alter our appearance, nothing that will stand up to close inspection but it might help with the first glance. Just stuff like highlighting some attributes, concealing flaws and the like. Nothing major.

"Will, discreetly keep an eye out for the way security operates, do they carry walky-talkies and the such. Also see if there looks to be a way for you to access their alarm system either onsite or offsite. The fire alarm too. It's also something for you to look into later via the 'net.

"Sean, do the lost act and wonder over towards the building. You're looking for the little-boys room or something; see if you can tell where the guards are likely to sit, how quickly someone noticed you and so on. As soon as you're challenged offer your excuse and get out, no point putting anyone on edge.

"I'll try to go somewhere that will provide a view of the entrance and hang around there obstinately to have a smoke. I'll watch people going in and out and see if they have to use a keypad or card or something to gain access. I'll also give a go of taking a good look at the firedoor.

"Robyn, you'll be our ace in the hole for this one. If any changes or something new comes up it will be your responsibility. Also everyone needs to remember to actually take a look at the museum exhibits.

"After that we meet back up for lunch, exchange information and see about coming up with a viable plan for actually gaining entrance. This phase shouldn't take us very long so we will have some flexibility time. With any luck it will then be simple matter of sneaking in and then out again."

Taking a deep breath to collect her thoughts, Ami looked back at their contact and began to list of question on her fingers.

"Okay questions. First, is the museum actually open today? If so do you know what time it closes? Also in the interests of saving time, you wouldn't happen to know anything about the layout and security of the place? Lastly how far away is the museum? Will getting to and from the location be a problem?"

Taking another deep breath after her long speech, Amicula looked around at her companions to see if they had anything to add.

[BrianL03]

Robyn's face, during the entirety of breakfast, was one of a slight red hue, her skin blushing from what she claimed only to be "excitement of the situation", knowing full well that it was Ami's powers playing her way across Robyn's legs. She still was rather surprised about the group's easy escape from the police, although she knew that if that diabetic attack hadn't hit then, they would definitely have gotten more questioning about the situation than they had. Inwardly, Robyn thanked her cursed body.

Another psychic poke made Robyn's eyes widen in surprise, then flit over towards Ami, shooting an astonished and slightly amused glance the girl's way There's time for that later.

Listening to both the contact's information and Ami's plan for an idea, Robyn pursed her lip, "So, wait... I'm just going to check out what changes while I'm there, keeping an eye out for the differences in how we surveyed it? I'm not sure I understand how different that is than your specializations for Sean, Will, and yourself."

[itches]

"What?" Ami said in confusion. "Wait, I wasn't exactly clear there. Your job is to be ready in case something goes wrong and the plan needs to be changed at the last minute. Something almost always goes wrong and it's never something we expect, this way we'll be ready for it."

"I know it's not a great plan," the girl said with a small shrug of her shoulders. "But it's flexible, simple and should get us through for now."

[tyckspoon]

"So you want me to see how alert the day shift is? I can do that." Sean chews up a bite of toast-and-hotdog (Lucinda obviously needed to go shopping..) and clears his throat to speak again. "When do you think we should visit the archive building? First shift, second? Halfway through one of them?"

[itches]

"Close the end of the first shift," Ami answered confidently. "So about midnight. It's the middle of the night and as it's near the end of their shift the guards should be bored and less alert."

Amicula managed to maintain her confident demeanour for several moments longer before it cracked. "At least that's what I read in a book once," she added with an uncertain smile.

[BigRedRod]

Nodding along with a smile on her face, Lucinda listens to the youngest group of Foundation agents concocting a plan. It takes a look from Amicula to remind her that she was indeed asked questions,
"Yep, it is open to day. Is all days nine till five except Sunday and Saturday, but we don't need to worry about weekend hours. The museum is two metro stops from the one at the end of the street, so about five minutes away, although that shuts up at midnight."

Looking slightly sheepish she adds,
"Err no. Two guys, two doors, two shifts. That's as far as I go on the security front"

[SponkleofInfini]

"Sounds like a plan, I will see what I can find out before we go."

Will muffles with a mouth full of toast. Grabbing an extra slice he heads toward his laptop and starts searching for any information in regard to their mission.

[itches]

"While he's doing that," Ami said turning to Sean with an evil grin. "Robyn and I will make you over."

[BrianL03]

"Oh, okay," Robyn replied, her confused expression melting away, "Guess I just wasn't listening well enough, y'know?" she said, adding a laugh onto her comment.

"Now as to the makeover, I say we should start with a little bit of blush... you're much too white, darling," Robyn said, laughing at Sean.

[tyckspoon]

"Hey, what? Nonono!" Sean knocks over his chair as he scrambles away from the malicious expressions of the two girls. "Grab Will! He's paler than me! I go outside all the time.." He looks back and forth at Ami and Robyn as they advance on him. "I don't have a choice, do I?"

[BrianL03]

Robyn shrugged helplessly and smiled, "Not really. If we're going to be going in, we need to look as regular and forgettable as possible, but with enough differences from how we actually look. Now sit back down, this won't harm anything but your psyche."

[BigRedRod]

With a little know-how, a little makeup and a little time, Sean is left feeling very unhappy and looking rather different. Thicker eyebrows, restyled hair and one of Will's less conspicuous, but barely fitting, shirts seem enough to fool any casual observer that Sean is somebody else.

Leaving Will behind to browse the internet, Amicula, Robyn and Not-Sean leave the apartment block and moments later are speeding along courtesy of the Jalis City Subterranean Light Rail System.

...

The sun streams through the few hazy clouds that are drifting around the blue sky as the three emerge from the Metro station in a small plaza before an iron gate which bears the words Jalis Central Museum in large metalwork letters.

A pathway of light blue flag stones leads from the open gateway to what seems to be a small and rather modern looking castle although is more likely to be the main block of the museum. People sit on the patches of grass within the museum's outer wall enjoying the sun, while others wander between the gate and large glass doors of the museum. At the far end of the larger rectangle of grass is a glass near-pyramid shaped building which appears to be a fusion of a coffee shop, restaurant and gift shop.

Wandering around the perimeter of the central building on a rather more narrow pathway which is deserted leads the trio to find the archive. A squat grey building nestled by one of the outer walls near a car park which must be for staff only given the large automatic gate which is current closed and the general emptiness. Letting Sean head for the plain red door, beside which a small sign reads "Archive: Museum Staff Only", Ami and Robyn hold back.

Sean can't help but notice the camera's mounted outside the building as he pulls the handle on the red door. A rustling of paper greets his intrusion as a security guard hastily folds away a newspaper and pretends to have been carefully studying the bank of monitors sat in front of him.

Beyond the red door is a small room with only two exits. One with a sign identifying it as the toilet, the other is a rather more serious looking door which appears to be metal and has a small card-swiping device mounted on the way beside it. Other than the doors, there is only a desk in the room, upon which a bank of monitors are mounted. After a moment's confusion the guard speaks up,
"You shouldn't be in here kid."

Before Sean can respond a toilet flushes and another guard steps into the room, clearly having not washed his hands.
"Get separated from your group? What school are you with?"
Stepping forward, the man grabs a phone off the desk while he waits for an answer.



[ooc: I'll stick a map up of the museum grounds and the archive asap. Internet is playing silly buggers right now]

[tyckspoon]

Ooh..crap. Sean looks around with a slightly confused look as he searches for a plan, any kind of plan. Play dumb, don't talk, don't hear? The code of the delinquent; well, maybe it would work. Sean points at his ear, shakes his head, and hastily backs out of the room.

[BigRedRod]

By the time that the looks of confusion have started to fade on the faces of the security guards, melding in to comprehension of Sean's "I'm deaf" mime, the disguised monster trainer has closed the door behind him and is casually sauntering away from the archive at speed.

After a few seconds of no attempts to stop him, it looks like he may have gotten away with it and the guards are far too busy sitting around to start chasing down lost deaf children.

[BrianL03]

Slightly disappointed at not being able to travel the museum with Ami, Robyn gives Ami a smile as she heads off on her own to check out the properties. Heading up towards the main entrance, she makes sure she looks as touristy and un-remarkable as possible. Just another face to give the area more money.

[itches]

As she walked around the perimeter, Ami spots the secondary door and moves to walk past it. Trying to look board as she approached, the girl glances over to see what type of lock it has.

-You know what would be helpful in all of this,- the girl thought to herself. -If I took drama. Why aren't I taking drama?-

[BigRedRod]

Aware that she is most likely visible on the cameras mounted around the building, Amicula does her best to make it look like she isn't attempting to work out the best way to break in.

The door has EMERGENCY EXIT stencilled on it with green paint and looks to be the kind of door which is locked and only opens when somebody pushes from the other side. Perhaps there is some trick to opening this kind of door from the outside, but Amicula doesn't know.

[itches]

-Well so much for the backdoor- Ami thought as she continues to stroll pas the fire exit. Emerging from the corner of the building, the girl spots the made-over Sean walking away from the archive without any apparent sign of an alarm.

Sighing a little, she sends out a telepathic tendril to Robyn.

-I think I was worrying too much about anything going wrong Rob, if anything this is too boring. How are things inside the museum?-

[BrianL03]

Robyn casually pays the entry fee from her purse as she approaches the ticket counter, before collecting her complimentary museum map and plotting out a course that'll give her the best view of the facility as a whole.

Robyn passes by ancient Egyptian friezes, some random dinosaur and 'mon bones that have been assembled in a diorama to make it look as if they were actually engaging each other millions of years ago, and numerous other pieces of work that would be interesting, if she had any real interest in the history of the world.

Ami's thought suddenly pushes into her mind, and Robyn purses her lips, looking around at the museum before her.

Probably just as dull as they are outside. I swear, who really enjoys this stuff? You have to be a total nerd to find this history stuff that exciting. If anything, later tonight will be a breeze.

[itches]

-Yeah- Ami telepathically thought. -maybe I was over doing it a little before with my planning.- Setting out on an intercept course for Sean, the girl sent a final message before breaking mental contact.

-I see Sean out here too. Come on out, we might as well have an early lunch before we head back.-

[BrianL03]

Robyn nodded to herself before realizing that Ami wouldn't be able to see her. Blushing slightly in embarassment at her faux pas, she made sure that no one had seen her before letting the look of disinterest in the exhibit consume her and carry her back outside the museum.

Back in the sunlight of the nice day, she walked towards Ami and Sean.

"Well, I'm ready to head back whenever you guys are. I didn't see anything of consequence inside the actual museum."

[BigRedRod]

Team GLAM are reunited in the early afternoon back at their temporary base of operations, Lucinda's apartment. Their host left shortly after the trio set out that morning, telling Will only that she has "business" to attend to and would be back with pizza at about six.

Building plans and permits are a complicated affair, although after finally managing to figure out where the records would be located and hacking into a restricted network which wasn't so much protected as very awkwardly put together, Will manages to find a plan of the archive building. Tragically, it lacks any timestamp or label, so if any structural work has been performed on the building since it was first constructed then the plans may not be wholly accurate.

Although Will found much about the high-tech systems employed by the museum, such as motion sensors, Infra-red camera, laser-trip wires, a security team of over two dozen on-duty officers, and even hidden pressure plates, the archive building itself was hardly mentioned. The best insight came from an insurance agreement which stated that only "category three" or lower items may be stored in the archive. Category three refers to items valued between one fifty and ten thousand dollars.

The central museum alarm system boasts the ability to lock down an entire sector of the building the instant an alarm is activated and to immediately inform fire and police services who it is claimed will be able to be on site within two minutes. Looking at the distance between the museum and the nearest police and fire stations, Will believes such a time is a rather over-optimistic estimate and that unless a unit happens to be in the area it'd be at least five minutes before emergency services reached the museum grounds.

[itches]

"Guys," Ami began slowly as an idea formed in her head. "Maybe we're focusing too much on this 'break-and-enter' approach. Do you think there is any chance that the museum will just let us view them?"

Holding up a hand to forestall any comments from her team members, Amicula quickly sorted out her thoughts.

"Okay I know that we aren't supposed to arouse suspicions, but what if we send off the head of the museum an e-mail saying that we're a bunch of students from some school nearby and we're doing a group project on ... I don't know, something to do with the artefacts.

"We tell them that Professor whatshisface - Mered - was giving us some advice and info which he mentioned had something to do with the artefacts. But since he died in - what ever the Foundation's cover story for his death was - we've been left out on a limb.

"The idea has risks of its own, letting the museum know that someone is still interested in the artefacts for one, even if we hide our identities. But it might be worth having a go.

"What do you think?"

[tyckspoon]

"Well..what's the worst they'd do if we tried? Tell us no?" Sean had an optimist streak that sometimes popped up; at the moment, it was allowing him to conveniently forget that recent 'worsts' had involved guns, lengthy hospital residences, and narrowly diverted attempts at large-scale terrorism. "Sounds like it's worth trying to me. If it doesn't work, we can just go back to smash and grab, right?"

[BrianL03]

"I'm fine with such an idea. In fact, we all don't even have to go for the 'legitimate' approach," Robyn's phrasing of the word lets the whole mockery of the idea of following the law hang in the air for a moment before continuing, "Perhaps two of us could pose as the students, TAs even for a class, and the other two could be prepared as backup in case the plan goes awry. We could have it happen that the call goes in, and if they don't reply, or say no, we send the break-in team in, so that they have the least amount of time to prepare any additional security for the items."

Her toe tapping the floor, Robyn squishes up her face in contemplation, "Is there any chance we could implant false records quickly about our involvement in such a class?"

[itches]

Once Will had implanted false information of their attendance to a local prestigious school and dug up the information she needed, Amicula shoved him aside so that she could write the e-mail.

To Sir Henry Moore,
I'm a student at Greenwich Secondary Collage I am writing to you on behalf of my classmates. We are doing a project on archeologically remains from early Disgaea, with a particular focus on those found near Osrakum and Sulis in Novtopi.

To this end I was corresponding with a recently departed Professor named Mered who mentioned that he had recently viewed several artefacts at your museum which might of interest to us and our project. Unfortunately he sadly passed before he could explain why.

While I know that the items (DA272, DA754, DA910) are not available for public viewing, I was wondering if it would be possible for us to be allowed access to them.

Sincerely,
Larissa Avinger

With the e-mail typed up and sent off, Amicula turned to her companions.

"Presuming we actually get a reply, we just need to decide who is going to go on Operation Front-Door. Ideally I'd like Will and I to go, but - and no offence Will - he looks a too young and we want to try and avoid suspicion as much as possible. Instead how about Robyn and I go while Sean and Will act as our primary team on Operation Sneak-&-Peek, us girls will act as back up for that."

Seeing no disagreement to her casting for the different plans, Amicula quickly pushes along.

"I don't know how long it will take for the museum to reply - if they do - so we should spend this time coming up with an actual plan for Operation Sneak-&-Peek. Anyone have any ideas how to get past the guards?"

[BrianL03]

Looking over the e-mail herself, Robyn gave Ami a thumbs up, cheekily grinning, "Sounds like a great request. Even if I were to be a scientist who do not give anyone below me the time of hour, I would be particularly driven in responding to this e-mail. Great job, Ami!

"As to the issue with the guards, I think the best thing would be to create some sort of emergency, perhaps fake a fire or injured tourist, and use it as a distraction to allow ourselves entry. As to immobilizing both, I am unsure... is there any way we could possibly cause wild 'mon to roam in the museum, again a distraction?"

[tyckspoon]

"We could break into the museum just a little bit. Maybe break a few display cases, hide an object or two..you know, set off some alarms but not do real damage to any of the items, then get out. The guards didn't look too sharp, so I think they'll come out of the archives and join the people in the main building for a while. But we'd still have to deal with the cameras and stuff, and probably hit more alarms in the archives..uh, maybe we could just find a hobo or two and pay them to set up a distraction?"

[itches]

Amicula wondered whether Robyn was being sarcastic about her remark on the e-mail. Sure it wasn't great, but - but the other continued with the conversation before she got a chance to remark.

"I don't think we can just avoid the guard," Ami said slowly as she thought. "Didn't you mention something about a key card lock being on the door? The guards might have the key that we need to get through it."

Amicula rested her face in her hands, growling with frustration. "I think I’m just in a bad mood, but all I can think about right now is everything that can go wrong with the plan and not how to make it work."

[BrianL03]

"I think we need to just go through with it as much as possible," Robyn replied, putting her arm around Ami, "Obviously, nothing will be fool-proof, we just haven't tested anything against the truly moronic!" she added, grinning.

"I think we should drop a 'mon or two in on the museum, though. That would be sufficient for needing all the guard's attention while we could infiltrate. Is there anyway we could get wild 'mon to do it? Draw them out of the woods or something?"

[itches]

"It'll distract the guards in the museum itself," Ami agrees with her girlfriend. "But I don't know if the ones in the storage facility will leave, and remember unless one of our mon's can break down the door or Will can find a way to hack through it, we're going to need to get a keycard from them.

"Still it's not a bad idea," the girl conceded begrudgingly, trying to shake off her negative attitude. "Will you know the most about this sort of stuff; think there are any wild 'mons in the city or nearby that we could use?"

[BigRedRod]

Reclaiming his chair, Will looks up at the ceiling for a few minutes,
"Nothing really springs to mind. We'd need something we could get in there now and then count on to wreak havoc right when we need it. It's a tall order. Best way to find out is to go and look I suppose, although I still don't know how we're going to get it in even if we do catch something useful."

Casting a brief glance over the laptop, Will shrugs,
"It doesn't look like anybody is in a hurry to email back though."

[BrianL03]

"How about a Dewdop? You guys remember that situation back at Southmead where the first-years were trying to breed Dewdops but horribly failed and instead they just multiplied everywhere? What if we were to get a few of those 'mon, and unleash them into the museum quietly, perhaps label some '1' '2' and '5', so that they've got the guards looking for two Dewdop that won't yet exist? The Dewdops would be stressed out from all the people shouting at them that they'd more or less breed automatically, and we wouldn't have to do anything!"

[itches]

"That would be one solution," Ami commented with a smiling, remembering when the Dewdops overran the school. "I'm not totally happy about a plan to do anything with the museum itself. You all saw the info Will dug up on it, it has much higher security and a bunch of extra guards, all of which we'll have to tangle with to drop a 'mon in there as a distraction - and it doesn't actually get us closer to finding out target.

"We might be better off just focusing on the storage facility. If we can rush it, we should be able to overwhelm the two guards with our ‘mons- bored and distracted guards - before they have a chance to get off an alarm. Then we find the artefacts and get out of there, which we should be able to do in a couple of minutes as well, quick and simple."