No one bothered Kheshig during his preparation for the operation, and that suited him just fine. It was less distracting that way, allowing him to focus his attention fully on packing and sketching out a rough plan for his part. Detailed plans were never his strength, and he never liked them anyway. They left him too little room for improvisation, and imposed unnecessary restrictions on his actions. Operations were rarely ever straight-forward affairs; the ability to change a plan on the fly was itself an often over-looked advantage. It was written somewhere in the Art of War, Kheshig recalled, to be formless as the water when planning, and Kheshig was determined to be as formless as possible.
His task was simple, compared to the others. While Condor and Birdseed had to work their charm to distract any guards, all Kheshig had to do was just lie his way in to access the shop's electronic grid. With his legal line of work, getting his hands on an electrician's uniform had been child's play. He only had to ask around for any unwanted suits, with the excuse that he had outgrown his current one. That effectively made his job a rather literal walk in the park. He would waltz in, give some plausible excuse for his appearance, then proceed to covertly kill the shop's sight, voice and hearing.
Easy.
The open duffel bag on the floor in front of him contained what he needed. EMP charges to disable the cameras - and any unshielded electronics along with them - should he suddenly be required to work fast, resonator breach charges to bring down walls with minimal mess and noise should the need for a rapid exit be necessary and low-frequency, directed noise charges to just give his opponents splitting headaches should they get in the way of his team's getaway. Of course, he had included the tools of the trade for an electrician.
He walked across his bare, austere room towards his closet and carefully opened the doors. Now this was another reason why he preferred to be left alone when preparing, especially with this current team. As far as he knew, most of them were agents from the get-go, but Kheshig had began his career as a soldier, and old habits were very hard to break. He wanted to be able to fight his way out of the shop if it came to it, and while usually he would only be armed with a pistol and knife, this time he had the luxury of using a large duffel bag. Reaching into the closet, he pulled out an AS VAL assault rifle, his most prized possession. It had taken him a lot of trouble and dealings with unsavoury characters, as well as no small amount of money to get the thing into the UK, but it had been worth it.
Kheshig walked back to the duffel bag and gently laid the rifle on the ground. There was a reason he had hunted down this particular weapon, and it was not just because it was one of the few truly silent weapons in the world. The rifle could be disassembled and hidden in a purpose-built, lead-lined carrying case, perfect for Kheshig's needs. He took the weapon apart with practiced ease and placed the parts into the mid-sized carrying case, barely any larger than your standard business briefcase. The entire thing fitted nicely into the duffel bag.
He heard someone call out for him from the outside. "In here!" He shouted out, then quickly got to throwing on his attire. It was time they got the show on the road.
---
Several minutes later, Kheshig walked out of his quarters in his electrician's uniform. It was a pretty tight fit for him, but he preferred it that way; it made it harder for him to get snagged on any protruding objects. The duffel bag was slung across his back, not exactly stuffed to the brim but neither was it too empty. Perfect for someone playing the part of servicing a small shop's security system. While Condor and Birdseed had opted to use the vocal patches to mask their native accents, Kheshig had decided against it. It was far more suspicious for him, a Chinaman, to be speaking with a butchered accent than for him to speak with his semi-Cornwallish accent.
He wore a baseball cap low to obscure the top-half of his face, more for his own comfort than anything else. Showing his full face in public never did sit well with him, and this was not a job where he could use a face mask or anything of the sort. He exited the safehouse, squinting as his eyes were suddenly assaulted by the full-force of the sun's glare. Pulling the cap lower over his eyes, and walked over to the car and stopping in front of Condor and Birdseed. While he supposed that most men - or all men, he corrected with an inward grin - would have had their gazes lingering on the two women far longer than what was polite, Kheshig just gave the two of them a cursory glance. "The two of you are distracting, that is for sure." He said off-handedly as he threw his duffel bag into the backseat and took his place in the driver's seat.
"Strange, never heard of that vote. Sounds like a Chinese democracy to me. Many votes, but only one choice." He said dryly as he started up the engine and got the car moving. Reaching into his pocket, he pulled out a small radio and pressed the transmit button to inform Angelo. "Callsign Kheshig is oscar mike. Break. Transporting callsign Condor and callsign Birdseed. Break. Will stop them no less than ten - I spell, tango, echo, november - blocks away from the target building, over."
The drive was a long one, but Kheshig had plenty to discuss with the two women. "As you heard, I will drop the two of you off a distance away from the flower shop. Safer that way, and the mid-afternoon crowd should cover your approach. Give me maybe twenty minutes to hide the vehicle and get around to the back. I will make sure I am heard when I enter. Once I am done, I will exit through the front door." He said, then glanced at the rear view mirror to look at whoever was seated behind. "That is what I hope will happen, but if things go south..."
He trailed off for a moment, his eyes returning to the seemingly unending road. If things indeed went south, there was very little that he could do that would not at the very least piss off Angelo, but there was little choice. "I will do what is needed to get us out, you have my word on that." He said, then glanced sideways at the person seated in the passenger seat. "Feel free to tune the radio to whatever you want. There is only so much talk we can have."
