In preparing for battle I have always found that plans are useless, but planning is indispensable.
Dwight D. Eisenhower
***
They were in the meeting room again, but this time there were more people present. Amara, who Kitty hadn't seen since before the mansion was attacked, was there, and all of the junior recruits. Some of whom she didn't even recognise until they talked to her.
One of these people was Bobby. His hair had gone from a light shade of brown to a shabby blondish colour. He had grown much taller than she expected he would, at least a foot taller than her. (Though that wasn't really hard considering her height). His voice was much deeper, but she could still hear the cheeky Bobby hidden underneath it all.
He was sitting across the table from her, next to Jubilee who had taken Remy's spot. Amara was sitting at the opposite end of the table to Rogue, looking quite pleased with herself. Multiple was also present, residing next to Warren.
Rogue coughed loudly to get everyone's attention. It took a while, but eventually everybody was silent, and Rogue continued on.
"Thanks to Amara, we have *some* solid information, that the Senator has been backin' controversial foundations. Nothin' solid on the FOH, but we have got phone records of him talkin' to who we suspect is their leader Boliver Trask." She held up the manila folder that was placed in front of her.
There were other identical ones sitting in front of everybody else. Kitty reached for hers and opened it. The phone records were sitting on the top. She flipped over the page and saw a photocopy of a hand written note. "There is also a hand written note that states a meetin' place and time. Now we don't know what's goin' to happen there, but we intend to find out. We also intend to find out if we can get any more information – more solid information – on his connections. They'll probably be held in his office. So what we're goin' to do is have two teams. One which is goin' to monitor the meetin', and the other which is going to break into the Senator's office."
"Gambit will lead the team that's goin' to break into the Senator's office. Shadowcat, Pyro, Multiple, Nightcrawler and Avalanche will be on that team. Pyro and Avalanche, you're a distraction. Nightcrawler, you're transportation. Multiple. Since the pier is in telepathic reach of the Senator's offices, you'll keep in contact with Jean at all times and provide the man-power if it's needed. Gambit and Shadowcat, you'll be gettin' the information. Kitty with your skills with computers, ya can hack into their network, Gambit you'll do all the hands on stuff."
Gambit and the rest of the team nodded. Kitty looked at the team she was assigned. They were basically the same people she had worked with in the danger room the day before.
"Everybody else - including you Jean – will be with me and Logan, at the meeting. Jean, you're going to keep us all in contact with everybody else, and if you wish, you can scan the people there for information. Will you be OK with that?"
Jean looked down at the documents in her manila folder, and answered a quiet 'Yep,'.
Rogue continued to assign tasks to the remaining members in her team. Toad and Jubilee: reconnaissance. Herself: undercover, using Mystique's power of course. Wolverine and Bobby would be backup. Angel would be lookout.
Finally when she was finished she turned back to Amara, "Amara, we can't assign you any tasks, as they could jeopardise your cover. However, you can help the first team in planning their operation. Then I want you to go back to work, see if you can get any extra details before we go ahead with tonight's plans."
Amara nodded.
Logan stood up, "OK, Team one are going to stay here to plan. Amara you stay with them. Team two are going to go to the communications room, so we can start our reconnaissance. We'll meet in the War room before we leave at 8:30. Team one will take the Velocity, you can fly that right Jamie?"
Jamie nodded, a huge grin plastered on his face.
"Good, let's go Team two." Team two stood up and left to go to the communications room. Kitty hadn't been there yet, but she'd heard people talking about it. Lots of computers and phones, from what she'd heard anyway.
Soon it was only Team one left in the room. Gambit cracked his knuckles and turned to Amara.
"OK chère, what can you tell us about dis buildin'."
"High security. ID badges, security cameras everywhere. About 20 guards are always on watch. Apart from that, it's a piece of cake."
"Any suggestions?" Gambit asked Amara."
"We light a fire." John automatically suggested. Gambit rolled his eyes and turned back to Amara, but John continued on.
"No seriously mate; I'm not just saying that for the hell of it. Say if there was a fire in the building that happened to oh, say, cut the electricity. People would be going crazy."
"Dat could work, where are de emergency escape routes Amara?" He asked Amara who began to scramble through her briefcase. She pulled out a map of the building, and a black marker.
She began to draw thick black lines on the map, all leading into the car park out the front. "People have to avoid elevators, so these staircases—" she indicated staircases at the back of the house, "get fairly crowded. The Electricity box is here, just outside from the kitchen, next to the generator. Maybe you could make it look like a Kitchen fire. That way, the fire would destroy the electricity box and the generator pretty fast, and it's away from the Senator's main office, so nobody would be going there anytime. You'd be fairly safe with the electricity off."
"Sounds good. Kitty an' I can do what we did de other day, in de danger room. Ya right with dat?"
"Yep, I'll need to practice my hacking skills a bit though. It's been a while."
"Can be arranged. I'll take you downstairs after we've finished here, and you can have a go with our computer systems. But no viruses." Kurt told her quietly from his seat.
"So does this mean that I get to light a fire?" John asked eagerly. Kitty had begun to notice a trend in John's personality. Perfectly likeable when not talking about fire, then totally obsessed.
Amara sighed, "Was there ever any question?"
John glared at Amara. Amara glared back another thing Kitty had noticed about John was the he really didn't like Amara (she also noticed that the feeling was mutual), and that made no sense to Kitty at all. She could create the fire, he could control the fire. That was a match made in heaven if she'd ever seen one.
"OK, break it up," Lance stepped in between them. He then turned to Gambit, "What am I gonna do while he's lighting his fire?"
"Watch out fr' anyt'ing unexpected. We dun wan' anymore accidents." Gambit told Lance who nodded.
"Anymore accidents? What's happened before?" Kitty asked curiously, looking from Gambit to Lance.
"Miss Ororo died because she didn't have enough backup. She was overpowered, and had no one to help." Jamie said softly when no one else would answer Kitty.
"Oh." Kitty fell silent, and looked down at her knees.
Gambit continued on with planning, as if Kitty had never asked the question, and before she knew it, Amara was leaving and she was following Kurt down to the main computer stations.
***
"Scott, tell my wife that I'll be home late tonight. I have a conference, and not to save me dinner." Senator McPherson said from his desk, not looking at his assistant, but at the letter he was drafting on his desk.
"Yes sir, anything else before I go?" Scott Summers asked from the door, carrying a large stack of files.
"Yes, come back when you've given those files to the intern. I have some personal errands I need you to run." The senator still did not look up from his desk.
"Yes sir." Scott said before pushing the large oak doors open with his back. The heavy doors slammed shut behind him with a small bang, causing the Senator to jump slightly in his seat.
He looked up at the doors, adjusted his reading glasses on his nose and smiled offhandedly.
The phone nest to him began to ring shrilly. He waited for 3 rings until he realised it was his private line so the secretary didn't answer it and picked it up.
"Hello, Senator Mark McPherson here, how may I help you?"
A gruff voice answered, "Mark, it's me, Bol."
The Senator leaned back in his chair, removing the reading glasses and placing them on the desk. "Hello Bol, didn't expect a call from you at this hour.
"Yeah well, I just wanted to confirm tonight's meeting with you. You're all set?"
"Yes, I'll be there around 8:50, is that early enough for you?"
"That's fine." Bol's rough voice said shortly. "How is our little test subject going?"
"Scott? He's perfect! Obeys orders perfectly, no back talking, no questions, and a deadly weapon if need be."
"Yes, we hoped you'd be happy with his services. He was one of the hardest to crack, but they all crack in the end don't they."
The Senator laughed harshly. "Yes, they all crack."
"Well if you're please with Scott, you just wait till tonight, more of where he came from."
"I like the sound of that,"
A voice came from outside his big oak doors, along with a soft knock. He covered the receiver with his hand and yelled to the door, "Just a minute"
He uncovered it, "Listen I have to go, but I look forward to tonight."
"As do I Mark," Bol agreed before the Senator hung up.
"Come in," The door opened and the Polynesian intern walked in. Miss Aquilia, if he remembered right. And he was always right.
"You're secretary went home sick just before, and she told me to bring you tomorrow's schedule and tell you that she wont be able to make it in tomorrow." She placed the manila folder on the corner of his desk and took a step back.
"Thankyou Miss Aquilia."
***
Disclaimer: This is to acknowledge that I don't own any of the characters mentioned in this particular story. Even Senator McPherson is based on my old form room teacher (bloody tyrant) and I don't want to claim him as my own.
A/N: Yeah… I'm posting this when I should be doing my homework and assignments. So No shout outs today. And no big comments. Good-o.