FourtyTwo

GEARS: Silent Line - The Silver Bullet (Silverwind Blade & KingKonrad)

Max smiled, chuckling at her comment about getting it done proper. Max had to empathise, Cat had some stones about her and well, didn't mince her words She seemed considered, profound and thoughtful in what she said and thought. The sheer size of Cat reminded him that when kicking down a door, someone like her was not gonna ever be an easy fight- but her warm nature made conversation soothing. The lion smiled, as she mentioned coming back to fitness.
"You'll be kicking in doors, GEAR or not all in time I bet. Can't keep us down, can we?" Max added, giving a light laugh as he brushed his eyes out of any sand, shaking his hair to get any more out. It caught a little from lying here, and whilst he was used to it, it wasn't a nice feeling for anyone- Max aware more than just most as he sat up a little. The lion's slender, optimised nature seemed almost what you would expect from an operator of his type, used to the long slogs of recon rather than the confines of a GEAR and heavy arnaments. His golden eyes and hair blew in the wind cooly, as care-free as the operator who had let them grow out. He knew of no lion with a particularly short mane, but his was surely one of the wilder ones, well, given he hadn't bleached it or done anything truly unruly to get him kicked out of his position.

Watching on at Silverwind, the older fox was letting himself go as he swam in the ocean, Max chuckling as he heard Cat's next comment.
"Who knows....he probably had an insight into it's development, I mean, if you're gonna have an artificial limb, may as well get something else put into it, right? With him, nothing suprises me anymore." Max said, shrugging, watching him go.

"Remarkable for his age, really. Guess we're all a crazy breed. All fighters." The lion commented, smiling to Cat, letting his own side down a little, yawning as he stretched out a little, his lean, well chiselled physique on display. He seemed balanced, but knew that comparitively, someone like Anna took that even further. While she was shorter than both him and Cat, there was no doubt in his mind that the jaguar was almost twice as terrifying, someone who had been forged by the operations she'd gone on, and her own unbreakable nature. The black feline was like electricity in pace, quicker and somewhat more applied in her brute force, a needle rather than a hammer. Size mattered in CQC, but sometimes, it was the cerebral that sometimes won fights too.

Checking his Pebble, Max tapped through a few, realising that their GEARs were getting worked upon, given the diagonstics nearly coming to a close. It wouldn't be too long till they were done- but the lion knew that moments like these were going to be far and few between. With that in mind, he rested his head back down, and exhaled, smirking.
"Oh, this is the life."

Burning Rubber Three (Bee and kingkonrad)

Mark took his own P226 after pulling to a stop, watching on, cocking the 9mm after checking the slide, eyeballing the same house that Athena had an eye on. A handful more people were going in, about six or so, going in and out, though nothing actually on them. One was on the phone, and while they couldn't hear him from here, Mark's interest was piqued.
"Shit. No, wait, Athena. This makes things interesting. They're not buying. No cases, and besides, he wouldn't do it here. Let's watch this." Mark said, looking across to Athena, reaching over across into the back seat, pulling out a monacle, looking through the telescopic lens and looking on. They were going in and out, not without cases, but with laptops and computers. No money on hand, whatever they were taking, it was small. The two cars outside were quite nice, a pair of Range Rover Velars, in fact. Not a stupidly expensive car, but still, something snobbish, as he gave the monacle over to Athena.

"They're clearing house. Fuck, they are good. Fast. Right, so they know their network could be comprimised, so they are taking anything of value out. Why the fuck aren't they destroying it?" Mark added, almost in commentary, watching on as a few more came out, Mark taking a sip from his water bottle as he let Athena watch on, all to spit in shock at what happened barely a second later. At the front of the house, a few of them had gotten into an arguement, and what was an arguement had turned into one of them getting stabbed. They dragged the poor bastard's bleeding body inside, the five other men now getting to work and carrying on. Mark hadn't arrived early enough to tell who he was, but he must have been inside the flat to begin with, given he was being walked past and bleeding out through the frame of the door.

"Shit....jammy fucks. Fucking of course, they're not just clearing house of whatever's on those laptops. They're vulturing his network. His own protection probably went and fucking realised what just happened before he did. Taking it underground for his bosses before we lock him up. Cut-throat wankers...that is what we are up against. From the cars, plates and look of em, they look like Serbian Mob types. Someone above them is smart." Mark added, still watching on, knowing they were still loading both Range Rovers up, beginning to finish up their work now.

"Damn. Okay, we can rush them now, punt the car into em', or tail em'. See if we can hit them at a junction instead, recover the key stuff, but if they floor it, or go into a densely populated area, we're fucked. Thoughts, Ath?" Mark asked, getting ready to start the car, knowing either way, it was gonna get pretty brutal. It had escalated, yes, but the reason being was that this opportunity was about to slip. This was important, and well, it was very much in the interests of them both to get this info. If the Serbians had killed one of their own out of spite for it, then it had to have value to someone.

GEARS: Silent Line - The Silver Bullet (Silverwind Blade & KingKonrad)

Max looked to Cat as he watched Silver run for the sea, shrugging.
"What I say? It's just got an appeal to it..." Max added, taking his own BDU shirt off and wringing out the moisture, sitting down by Cat, for a moment panicking as he checked his pocket. His Pebble was in there! Shit....well, it wasn't ruined, but that he should have thought of first, the lion thought to himself. Not a great move had he have ruined that....thankfully, the casing on it was pretty solid, as he checked it over, deciding not to go into the sea, aware he'd already gotten himself soaked already. Lying back on the sand, he looked across to Cat, chuckling.

"This is the life. Gotta enjoy the downtime whenever we get it! Gotta say Cat...good to have you with us. Honestly, back last time, I really did think....well, you're still here, and still showing them how we do things." Max mused, sighing as he looked back up, soaking up the sun's rays, and taking in a moment to enjoy it all. The feline seemed a natural fit here, almost more at ease than he had been before in any other unit, aware he had the creativity and flair to work under a man like Silverwind. There were some horrible bits to it too, of course. Stuff he was pushing back in his mind.

Max hadn't served anywhere near as long as Silver, but he had seen his fair share of pretty horrible, awful things in war. He was pretty sure it had affected him in some ways, the playful and spontanious side of him keeping him going somewhat, given back on the job, he had a rebellious, cold and strange detachment. Not like Anna of course- she was just a cold-blooded cat, his felt more like it was more the servitude he had, the decisions he made, and what came out of that. Being positive at least kept his spirits aloft at least, hey. And as for family, well, not much there had changed either. They were doing the same old, unchanged. Helen was thinking about a career in local government, actually- but other than that, they were the poster children that his Mum and Dad had dreamed of. And yet here Max was, enjoying this downtime. Somehow, it all felt a little more real to him. And despite that slight nagging in his head saying he should, he wouldn't want to have it any other way.

Burning Rubber Three (Bee and kingkonrad)

Max handed it over, letting her put it in, before taking it back, chuckling.
"Thanks! I mean trust me, that wasn't a setup or something, haha....how you feeling after that?" Max asked, sighing as he leaned against his own car, himself now recovering from the sheer amount of adrenaline that had run through him, the chatty Brit just taking in this moment in its entirety. This didn't feel real, racing on the streets of LA, and running from cops. Why there was so many cops out, Max didn't know, but for $1000 lost, this had been a hell of a rush for this race here.

---

Part Two: The Dutch Connection

Amsterdam, the Netherlands

Sitting in the driver's seat of the dutch-plated blue VW Passat, Mark Torridon looked like he was at home, natural as he watched on at the phone on the dash, the agent not working alone today. Wearing a black puffy jacket, a kevlar vest and a pair of jeans, he looked more criminal than cop, more like was selling drugs from a car like this than actually going after a network.

The morning rain poured down in the Dutch capital on an unusually cold morning, and even so, the very slight smell of weed cafes could be smelt from here in the Bijlmer district. He looked across to his right to Athena, knowing their re-introduction had already been covered at Schipol a couple hours ago.

"Any second now. If our friends in LA follow through, we're gonna be green. Should be around here, if our guy's right. Shit, Amsterdam's like fucking Miami....with shittier weather and more canals. Hey, nice as it is to be working again Athena, sorry I can't give you the high life all the time, eh?" Mark said, looking then to his phone, and almost exactly on time, the phone buzzed. Mark leaned over, hitting the recieve button, and putting on the speaker. The man on the other end was another Interpol agent, a man implanted in the LAPD who had been part of this little operation, someone Mark knew a little about, but never in person.

"Hey. It's your guy in Cali."
"Yeah? Enjoying the sun?"
"Mostly- it's getting colder though out here. Anyway, the guy in the BMW. We got him. Arrested on a lot of bad, but he talked quickly when it was gonna get worse for him. Punk was out racing, guy was easy as hell to track, so we just sprang it on him. You were right about that- dude with a car like that was gonna flash it around." The voice on the other end spoke, Mark chuckling.
"Of course I'm right. And what did our mutual friend have to say?"
"Yeah, there's a place in Amsterdam. I'll send you the co-ordinates. Should be what you're out there looking for." The voice called, as Mark nodded, chuckling.
"Good. This place is a shithole, sooner the better. Thanks." Mark replied, picking up the phone, pinging in the location that had come across, the drive not too far from here.
"Happy hunting." The voice called out, an impersonal remark, given Mark's identity wasn't really one for an Interpol to disclose in any format, given how grey he was and unknown. A good double agent had that ability about him- nobody actually knew who the fuck he worked for, bar a few people above his paygrade in Interpol itself.

Cutting the phone, Mark looked across to Athena, opening the glovebox and checking his own P226, the solid gun-metal black Swiss-engineered 9mm pistol loaded and cocked, as he slid it into the driver side door store. The Scot started the VW's engine, pulling out of the parking spot on the side of the road, and quickly putting hammer to throttle.
"Right, so if we're lucky, this place is gonna be empty. Kick the door in, hopefully nobody's in, take whatever intel we can get our hands on, and get out. Fancy, I know. But if we get this, we're gonna have a serious bit of leverage." Mark started, turning a corner, keeping it slow now on the residential streets, canals passing by as they drove through the Dutch capital.

"So, the Syndicate's got a pretty serious drugs running operation out of this guy's flat. Something actually to do with Sobotka, funny to mention. There's a laptop in particular we're looking for- basically it's their transit. We get that, we might have an idea of who this dealer's network looks like...and more importantly, who his boss is. Then we can do some serious bloody damage." Mark added, aware Athena had some idea of the brief, but wanted to give a brief reminder, something before they went into the lion's den. This shouldn't be too intense an op, Mark reminded himself, but anything could happen in a place like this. Anything could be on the other side of the door, after all.

GEARS: Silent Line - The Silver Bullet (Silverwind Blade & KingKonrad)

Max chuckled as he swam back ashore, completely soaking wet and completely lacking regret at all. While perhaps it was a little juvenile, stupid even, Max just relished the opportunity from time to time- given how serious some of the shit they went into was, he always remembered to live a little between operations. He'd realised in his time, even however short it was with Silver and the team that being miserable and constantly on edge was just gonna rail him out, almost something Anna reminded him of his past self. S ometimes, he just had to embrace that part of his quirky nature, and hell, take the opportunities he got.

Looking across to Silver and Cat, he shrugged, looking about at the gulls and back over at the waves he'd just swam out of.
"Sorry for that...just what can I say, the abyss was calling! Been way, way too long since I did something as stupid as that....well, apart from stay in the RSDF, I guess!" Max said, chuckling as he sighed, putting hand above his eyes to look off into the horizon, using his other paw to brush his long, sopping wet golden hair back over his shoulders. Some of his longer hairs were braided at the ends, a style he'd gone for now he was in Silver's good books. Max certainly wasn't the most elegant of lions, but he certainly had a charm to him, a warmth and a pride that came with one, that and his commitment to doing risky, stupid things.

Still though, he had to admit, hanging about with Cat and Silver was always a pleasure- the former someone he'd gotten to know more throughout much of the last op, a girl he had a lot of respect for. Her resilience, and yet her warmth was something respected, almost reminding him of Hopper but a lot more potent, in a way.
"Yeah, as you were saying earlier I guess. Pretty pheonominal. Nothing like the sea to take away the fate of our world, right?"

Burning Rubber Three (Bee and kingkonrad)

Max did follow Kaitlyn, following her out and knowing full well he'd forfeited his race. Well, nobody was gonna get that fucking paper if they carried on that way, they weren't gonna make bank. The sheer amount of cops coming by meant they'd be totally exposed at the finish line- not by design, but by happenstance after what had happened.

Pulling into the construction site, Max followed through into the warehousing block under construction, seeing Kaitlyn's gravel trail kick up as he kept close to her. Going past, Max quickly darted through, picking a line almost to say "this way", as he found a badly-rutted road that went into an underground park of some sort. Driving in, Max pulled the car up, the darkness only illuminated by the headlights of his car, as he pulled in, tail lights on to show to Kaitlyn where he had come up to.

The sound of a helicopter could be heard, as well as other police cars, but they were a long way away, and out of sight. Clambering out of the car, Max exhaled, shaking his head.
"Fuck!" He called out, cursing more to oblivion than anything else, looking across to Kaitlyn as he leaned on the roof, getting used to the lack of light in here.
"That was insane, Kaitlyn. Fun race, till the cops showed up. Jesus Christ, first time in America, nearly first time in the fucking clink. They must be out for some serious blood today." He added, shutting the door, the sirens still present, but not getting closer, thankfully at least.
"So, now what? Fate's thrown us into the basement of a warehouse in LA. I mean aside from the cops....it was fun racing with ya, Kaitlyn. Mind if I get your number, while I'm out here if I hear anything more?"

GEARS: Silent Line - The Silver Bullet (Silverwind Blade & KingKonrad)

"Coolio. That thing there might be our procured one. Has a....yeah, that's a QR on it for us." Max said, checking his Pebble's reciever, looking across to the open-topped tactical buggy, more a jeep but a nice little vehicle to have as a get-around.
Stepping into the open-top military jeep, Max sighed as he looked into the back, seeing Silver and Cat clamber in, the lion aware he was the chauffeur for this little run. Seeing his equipment get carried away on a trolly, including his GEAR, he gave a smirk as he turned the key and started the jeep's engine, giving it a tap of revs, grinning.
"Sights it is then. Hang onto your hats. We're not too far from the ocean at all, actually...man, now I fucking wish I had a surfboard!" Max called out, chuckling as he put it into gear, squealing the tyres as he pulled away. Whilst considerate at the gate, on the open road he was anything but, going a positive number over the speed limit, only a little however.

The coastline here seemed fairly beautiful, the red sandstone rock contrasting against the golden-yellow sand, the cliffs in front of where Max had parked fairly stunning. Clambering out, Max cut the engine and looked out, whistling. The ocean, the cliffs, everything here. Shit, he only wished he wasn't here for business.
"Shit, I forgot how pretty this country was. The Red Bluffs....not exactly tourist season though? This place is too busy fighting people here, I guess. What do you think?" Max said, the mediterrenian-warmth of summer and the impressive sight of the ocean something Max was glad to see again, and perhaps it was a new sight to Cat and Silver. The sunlight on the horizon was pretty impressive, as Max headed down the rocky top of the hill, realising very quickly there was no real way down to the water, as he stood back from the very edge. The drop must have been a good 10m vertically, onto an overhang that went straight into very deep, ocean water. There was another way around, it seemed more of a scramble down, but Max, given that this was R&R, couldn't help himself. Even in his fatigues, the lion felt something very, very stupid brewing. It was the fact he was comfortabel wtih Silver at this point that even allowed the thought into his mind, as he looked back to the fox, shrugging.
"Two ways down. Uhh....yeah, don't mind if I go express!" And with that, the lion burst from a standing stop forwards into half a sprint, before leaping off the cliff, legs first plumetting straight into the azure-like water, wooping the way down.

If there were prizes for doing stupid shit, Max won them every time, as he surfaced, yelling up as he brushed the salt water oout of his eyes, chuckling as he looked up.
"Holy shit, it's way colder than I remember!" He yelled back up to them, as he began to swim back to the beach, getting absolutely sloshed by the waves as he made it back into shore, having a laugh while he still could here in this seaside.

Juggernauts (BigPapaBelial and kingkonrad) IC

Ross nodded, as did Natalie and Andrew. With that, they fell out and headed out to get loaded up, Ross nodding to Carl.
"He certainly did. Makes all this worthwhile, you know.."

Kitting up, the Juggernauts in their end of the hangar were imposing, Ross and Jenny getting balaclavas on, as well as their respective LMGs- Ross with a Mk48 Minimi and M32, as he usually took, and Jenny now using a MG3 and an AA-12, to improve her rapid fire and blam potential. Way they saw it, Ross was more about blowings shit up and more targeted fire, while Jenny had an LMG that sprayed fire like a fucking chainsaw. A fairly decent arnament, the two thought, armoured up once more and back into the fire.
"Carl, how you feeling?" Ross asked, Victor and Natalie coming over, grabbing the rest of their kit, the giants looking like fucking something out of a fantasy novel with how enormous their armour and weaponry was. Honestly, it felt terrifying to be in their presence, but then again, it was just how they rolled.
"Don't mind us. Good to be working with you again, Knight." Natalie said, Ross chuckling.
"You too, Bear."

Looking across, Nolan and Andrew whistled, taking it in. They had a bit of a different remit for this, as they saw the Juggs assemble.
"Those crazy motherfuckers have more firepower than a company's worth of men. No shit, it's like bringing a pike. Guess we're gonna do something pretty insane too." The New Zealander added, pulling out a DSR-50 from a reinforced weapons case, a German-made bullpup anti-materiel rifle. Silencing a .50 cal seemed almost stupid, but then again, it killed some of the worst of the noise and made it more difficult to differenciate in a snowy hellhole where the round had come from. He also took an MP5SD6 from the same case, the silenced sub-machine gun having a foldable metal stock rather than its usual. Unlikely he'd need it, but a tool nonetheless, alongside a USP.45 pistol as a sidearm. He equipped the rest of his bits, aware that their sniper op was a bit different.

"First time for everything, I suppose. Thermal drysuits and rebreathers, with ghillie suits in the packs. This is the weirdest fucking thing we've ever done, chief. I've driven one of those SDVs like, once. Then going up into the hills, sniping, covering an infiltrator and sniping off AA defences. We do seem to get ourselves into some fun, Nolan." Andrew said, chuckling as he 'HK slapped the MP5, the SMG only equipped with iron sights to improve lightness.

Burning Rubber Three (Bee and kingkonrad)

Max followed her down, his lack of aero compensated for by the sheer aggression he was applying to his Skyline through the corners, the Michelin shoes that the Japanese car sat on screaming for reprieve through the corners, even in spite of the overwhelming grip the car wanted to try and keep. The G-Forces felt like he was pushing the car on the very limit of what it could do, the Brit in total focus to keep in control. But man, was this fun. Right where he wanted to be.

Foot down, Max followed Kaitlyn through the corner and past the 350Z, which had taken a crap route. It felt strange, the girl he'd talked to and led to Magnus was now kicking his ass. Damn, now this was an irony. But hey, he was way too in the moment, and having too much of a ball to even care. The cops could still be very vaguely heard, but Max's only priority right now was to get back in front. Coming back onto the right through the junction, Max tailed closer, coming up and around after getting a nicer exit, barely getting in front before braking hard for a heavy left-hander, coming right up onto the beachfront. It was a long sprint out of here, as he drited through, cursing as he realised he'd gone way too deep, leaving Kaitlyn far, far too much room. It was inevitable what would happen next, getting back behind her and keeping foot to floor.

That moment of fuck-up had taken up his mind, but not enough to realise that in the darkened skies over Long Beach, there were an absolute shit-ton of cops now amassing, and from every street, it seemed like they were pouring out. Something big was going down. And...yeah, that was a helicopter. Well, fuck. Max wanted to say now he had only one priority, but he didn't, knowing he was going to lose, and was gonna have to try and not get arrested. There was the option of pulling over and hoping he got it lenient. But that was gonna be the end of this project car, and any future opportunities to come back. To option two it was, and that was no matter what, keep foot to floor. He knew he wasn't gonna win. But he wasn't gonna get arrested, not today. He only hoped Kaitlyn might have a similar idea...

GEARS: Silent Line - The Silver Bullet (Silverwind Blade & KingKonrad)

Faraenal was a place Max and Anna had been a while away from, a stopover while supporting peacekeeping and recovering work in the region, a scrubland and warm, mediteranian-like clime that had suffered its unfair share of natural disasters. It was phenominal how well it had recovered after the hurricane a few years ago, coming barely a couple of years after a nasty earthquake had hit prior to that- wrecking much of the coast. Efforts from many nations had helped recover Faraenal, the people resilient and willing to recover the country through its industrious and resistant core. Perhaps it was what made the small deployment here easier, Max thought- hey, at least the people weren't complete dicks. While it was a nation locked into war, it had perservered through it, and was a very under-the-radar place to visit for its attractive little towns, its beauty often conflicted with the fact the media had depicted it as in ruin.

The plane halting was the moment Max could unclip, the lion looking across to Silverwind and giving him a nod.
"I'm game for that. Anna, you coming?" The lion asked, Anna shrugging as she looked up to the other feline, not really up for going out, on account of her combat gear.
"In this? You think I'd fit in?" Anna said, Max chuckling as he knew he just had to pull an absolute bastard of a line out for that one.
"Yeah, okay, maybe not. I mean, it does make you look kinda kinky." To which Max got a slap, Anna swearing as the lion barely even gave a shit and laughed, the jaguar sighing in response as the lion yawned, stretching a little as he walked down the ramp, looking across to Silverwind.

"I'm gonna head out to get some rays. Grab some sights at the cliffs over on the shore. Silver, Cat, you in? "