Chapter 10 – Team Meeting
Soundtrack: The Chain – Fleetwood Mac
At eleven-thirty that morning, Lie Ren had finished tending to the Nikos townhouse, and sat down to do the crosswords, as per his custom. He was just finishing the hard one within the Times when there was a sudden knock at the door.
"Coming!", Ren called out as he leapt from the dining room and jumped towards the door. "Who's there?"
"Your favourite sloth bear!"
Ren chuckled as he opened the door and cuddled his girlfriend and occasional hunting partner.
"Hello, my chailín," he said tenderly, before kissing Nora on the cheek and closing the door behind him.
"My buachaill," Nora replied, before booping Ren's nose. It was at this moment that Ren realised that Magnhild hung astride Nora's left hip, and that she was wearing her combat outfit.
"Nora, how come you came here in full combat garb?"
Nora's eyes lit up in recollection. "Oh, thanks for the reminder! We've both been asked to help Pyrrha and Jaune arrest a bunch of crooks for the SDC. Big pay-day and everything."
Ren's eyebrows shot up in surprise. "That's reasonable from a financial standpoint, but why us in particular? I'd have thought that the SDC would've had people on their payroll for this kind of job."
"Well, they do have Yang and Ruby helping us," Nora admitted, "but our experiences were what the SDC wanted. Because these crooks are the pirate crew you told us about, and they're being led by your old bosses."
At this, Ren grimaced as he flashed back to his days amongst the Grimm, training with Mercury. The man was a libertine in the worst sense of the word, and an alcoholic sot at the best of times, but he was an unholy terror when it came to fisticuffs. And that's before considering that Emerald had some skill with pistols and was crazed beyond reason. Ren then paled at the thought of them hurting his friends, and began to shudder at the idea of Nora getting endangered. No, Ren averred, I will not let that happen.
"I'll do it," he vowed sternly. "Anything to ensure you and our friends don't come to harm at the hands of the monsters I should've tamed all those years ago."
Nora took Ren's hand in her own, and looked unusually melancholic at this. "Ren, please don't put yourself down like that. You've been forgiven and befriended by all of our friends, and I love you regardless of your past. All I ask of you, Rennie, is that you forgive yourself for your mistakes."
Before Ren could respond, Nora enveloped her boyfriend in a strong bear hug. "Let's protect one another out there, sloth bear," the ginger Galway girl tenderly affirmed.
"Agreed," Ren calmly concurred, before sweeping Nora off her feet. The typical squeal she'd have unleashed was quickly silenced as Ren planted a pash on her lips.
"Nice one!", a wry voice called out from the doorway.
Ren quickly dropped Nora onto the ground, and the pair looked embarrassed as Pyrrha and Jaune stood in front of Ruby, Yang, and two other women – all of whom were dressed in combat gear. Behind them stood Yang's motorcycle and Weiss's car.
"It's okay, you two," Pyrrha laughed. "Anyway, I'd like to introduce you two to Weiss Schnee, and her companion and secretary, Blake Belladonna."
Turning back to Weiss and Blake, Pyrrha completed the introductions. "Weiss, Blake, meet Lie Ren, my butler and bodyguard, and Nora Valkyrie, huntress."
Ren bowed, as befitting a servant and an Asian man, while Nora curtsied as demurely as she could manage with Magnhild on her hip.
"Well met," Weiss started in her business voice, walking forward and shaking Ren and Nora's hands firmly.
"Likewise," Ren replied, with Nora nodding with a smile.
Blake followed afterwards.
"Nice to meet the two of you," she said calmly, but with a slightly more friendly tone. "Ruby's told us all about her 'awesome ninja butler and crazy blacksmithing huntress' friends."
"Well," Ren said with a small chuckle, "it seems our reputation grew in the telling."
Blake's trademark smirk revealed itself, while the others chuckled at the quip. After regaining her composure, Pyrrha came up to him.
"Now Ren, I'm sorry for foisting this onto you in a hurry, but we'll need to have lunch for this meeting. It could go for quite a long while."
Ren nodded and promptly bolted to the kitchen in a frenzy. He quickly pulled out the bread, meats and salad ingredients that he needed to assemble into a lunch platter, while firing up the kettle and preparing a pot of tea. Right, he started, I'll do ham, lettuce and tomato, chicken & cheese, and tuna with mayonnaise and lettuce. That should be enough to satiate their needs.
As the Asiatic butler worked at breakneck speed, Jaune and Pyrrha ushered their five guests into the parlour. Ruby and Yang parked their backsides on the couch in front of the window, while Weiss and Blake took up both the armchairs. Nora dragged the piano stool to a spot next to the hearth, and pulled up a hard wooden chair with a magenta cushion on it, ostensibly for Ren. As for the hosts, the engaged couple sat on the last remaining couch next to the piano and stairs, opposite Ruby and Yang, with Weiss and Blake on their left and Nora on the right.
And finally, a rather perspiring Ren came in with a tray full of hastily-arranged sandwiches, along with a pot of strong Irish breakfast.
"My apologies for the state of the food," he began without much breath, "for I wasn't expecting guests at this hour."
"There's nothing to forgive, Ren," Weiss uttered.
"Come and sit with us, please," added Pyrrha with a smile. Ren nodded with a calmer expression, and took his place next to his girlfriend. Meanwhile, Blake opened her briefcase, and retrieved a pair of pencils and a slightly used notebook. Closing her briefcase, Blake balanced her notebook on it.
"All right then," Blake started with a tuna sandwich in her hand and a pencil in the other one, "let's go over what we've learned over the last few days."
"So now that's all on the table," Jaune summarised an hour later, "here's what I suggest we do. After taking all of your statements down and processing them at the Yard, I can lead a search effort on Salter Road and the surrounding area using plain-clothes detectives, then apprehend these conspirators and have them thrown in the dock for robbery, attempted kidnapping, attempted hijacking and all the Grimm crimes. We're talking at least five years of hard labour for the whole lot, and around twenty-five for Emerald, Mercury and their master."
"That would be ideal," Weiss admitted, "were it not for the fact that their ringleader has a grievance against my father for ruining their family's fortunes in a rather underhanded way two decades ago. As convenient as it would be to clap them in chains and call it a job well done, we need to be a little more discreet about dealing with them – lest my father's reputation be ruined and our company dragged into the quagmire with it."
"If that's the case, Weiss," Jaune responded, "how do you propose we deal with the matter?"
"Well," Weiss began, "my father is arranging for a safe-house on Rotherhithe Avenue itself, for us to use for surveillance. It should be ready by now, and we'll be receiving my family's full-time automatist and weapon-smith to aid us in making ammunition and maintaining our weapons this evening. The goal here is to entice the enemies to make their move first, and give them the idea that nothing's going wrong, while we prepare some tricks of our own device."
"Exploiting the element of surprise," Ren realised. "Smart move."
"Thank you," Weiss courteously replied. "What we can do in the lead up to them making a break for it is two-fold; first, we'll need to stock up on ammunition and the like, and that means we need to acquire parts and Dust components for our weapon-smith to use."
"I can help you there," Nora offered. "There's a blacksmith next to Baron's Court station that supplies ammunition to us hunters for our use – Neptune Vasilias. I used to work for him, so I can vouch for his skill, and we should be able to get those parts without breaking the bank account too much."
"Money's no object to me," Weiss responded, "but I'll still go with this Neptune fellow. After all, he'll have your individual needs memorised, and will likely have surplus parts for your benefit."
"Sweet!", Nora replied. "I'll give him a call once we've finalised the plans."
Weiss nodded. "The second idea is a bit more experimental. Yang and Blake both have a couple of our top-shelf motorcycles, and our weapon-smith has been prototyping a new addition to the ensemble."
Blake's eyes lit up in recognition. "You mean -"
"Yes, Blake, we're using the sidecars."
"Sidecars?", Yang asked confusedly.
"They're wheeled carriages that can carry two people," Blake explained, "and they attach to our motorcycles through the use of extra-strength violet Dust magnetic latches, and a power feed that links a verdant-golden Dust propulsion system to the main engine's controls. Dr. Verhart Grünwald has a couple of prototypes for military use that have operable Gatling guns within the front chassis."
Yang whistled. "Nice. Now I know what I can get so Ruby can ride to missions in comfort with me."
"I'll admit I like the idea," Ruby said, "even if motorcycles are noisier than Nora on the bottle."
Ren quickly stifled Nora's squawk of indignation while Jaune quickly diverted the room's attention with another idea as the others muffled their laughter. "This plan seems more dangerous than mine, but it could work. However, I have another idea to add. If we convince both Special Branch and the SDC's militarised security to prevent civilians from going near the Spring Maiden during the mission, then we could use that as an advantage."
"Good thinking, Jaune," Weiss admitted. "Not only would we minimise civilian casualties, but we'd effectively be trapping these villains in the process. In any case, General Ironwood, who leads said military, would likely be happy to help. Getting him to come heavy in person will take some doing, but I'm confident I can manage."
Jaune nodded. "And I've long since become friends with Inspector Branwen, who helped me in the Lionheart case. Getting him to agree to aid a sting operation would be child's play for me."
Weiss smiled while fetching a piece of paper. "Glad to hear it, Jaune. I'll arrange for a cab to ferry you all to the safe-house, which is at this address."
She handed the paper to Jaune, who tucked it in his breast pocket.
"Pardon me, Weiss," Ren interjected, "but wouldn't it be more economical to pick up the ammunition supplies before going there?"
"That's a good point," Jaune noted. "How about we get Nora to fetch those components while the rest of us repair to the safe-house?"
"That's a decent idea, actually," Pyrrha replied. "Ren, feel free to use my suit-carrier upstairs to store my safari outfit along with your combat gear and our weapons and ammunition."
Ren nodded, before hopping quickly up the stairs to retrieve the gear in question. Yang, meanwhile, decided to speak her piece.
"If no-one minds, I'll help Nora with the ammunition too. My motorcycle can ferry the essentials to the safe-house faster."
"Good thinking," Weiss admitted, not noticing Yang's slight smile of victory. "Jaune, once we've arrived at Rotherhithe Avenue, I'll have you call Qrow Branwen about this."
"Absolutely," Jaune enthused. "Now let's get this operation into gear."
A/N: And here's the mid-fic finale. I'll be taking a month to build-up more backlog, and should be back on the 17th of May - or the 16th of May for the American readers. Next chapter will show Yang and Nora meeting up with Neptune, but that's all I'm saying at this point.
And lastly, I extend my thanks to all of you for getting this fic over the 1,000 hits mark!