Paris Rience
Retrieval Team
Paris took in the warning of incoming gangbangers in aggravated silence. They had touched ground only a minute ago, and already things were fraying at the edges. It also wasn't a good sign that there was yet another hostile faction interested in Eve. The medical files she carried where valuable, of course, but shouldn't be of much value to raiders. They wouldn't have the equipment necessary to take advantage of the cache of information, and even then, raiders needed victims to rob. A biogenetic plague would be as devastating to them as it would to their enemies.
As for U-ARM, they most likely
did have the necessary equipment.
Doesn't seem to fit their style, Paris thought. From what he had read, they preferred explosions and excessive destruction. A plague provided neither.
There must be more than the files. After all, why else would the Council be so adamant about bringing her back alive? There was something else going on that was being kept from the soldiers. Something that a wide variety of enemies had somehow discovered.
Whatever the cause, there were most likely raiders inbound, and Paris did not relish the idea of waiting for them outside while his own vision was reduced by the rainfall. "That building across the street is clear," he broadcast to Mairwen. "I'm going to take up position in there. Try and get the drop on whoever shows up instead of the other way around." With that he jumped out of the bed of the pickup and jogged through the door to the opposite house. He pulled out a laser tripwire and set it up inside above the front door, pointing down.
Finding a room on the first floor with a window providing sight of the mansion's front door, he set up another laser tripwire in the entrance to that room. As an afterthought, he also set up his motion detection camera in the hall outside. Suitably assured that he would know if anything entered the house, he placed himself by the window and began ordering his drone to begin hopping from house to house towards the eastern side of the mansion.