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"If you are ignorant both of your enemy and yourself, you are certain to be in peril."

~Sun Tzu

Chapter Forty-eight: Smash and Grab

"This place is too clean."

"Yeah." Meysam didn't elaborate, but that suited Mariah just fine. She wished she hadn't said anything. Now Central would be thinking she didn't have what it took for a stealth operation.

I've got what it takes. I can do good. I'm going to do something right, whatever it takes.

"Menace One-five." Oh god, that was him. Mariah hunkered a little lower on the rooftop she shared with Meysam. "The target should be exiting the building momentarily, if our intel was accurate."

"Mysterious intel from mysterious sources is never inaccurate." Meysam at least left his com off for that, but Mariah fought a giggle anyway. She checked Narya and her shard gun, trying to stifle the mirth born of nerves. What was she? Ten?

"All call signs, check in." Mariah shivered, hearing the note in Commander Gallant's voice. It was the perfect mirror for that searing spark of fury that had boiled in his eyes when he briefed the team.

"Kelly and White." The captain paused for a moment after that, as if checking over her shoulder. "By the dumpster on the ground level. Clear and hidden."

"Liang and Richardson." The Grenadier's voice rang clearly, even if she and her all-black ninja wrap were hidden in the shadows along with the magic redhead. "We're in the alleyway just south of the lovers. No eyes on us."

"Bradford and Saleh." Mariah tried to stay professional, she really did. "On the roof, eyes up. Standing by to lay down suppressive fire as...as needed."

"Something wrong, corporal?" Her father's tone sharpened. "You hesitated."

"No, sir!" Mariah shook her head, even though he couldn't see her. "I'm fine. Just fine. I'm ready. Eager!"

"You'd better be." And then she nearly heard him pull back. "You'd all better be. This is our one shot at finding Vahlen, and likely Dragunova too."

"Yes, sir." Meysam checked down the Advent-issue scope fixed to his gauss rifle. "We're all ready."

"The target should exit the building momentarily. When she does, engage her guards, envelop the area, and bring her in alive. Volk and his people will take things from there."

"We have ways." The Reaper's leader didn't frighten Mariah as much as Advent, but it was a near thing. "We'll get the job done."

"I expect zero fuckups today." And then, just in case it hadn't been clear enough: "That means you, Mariah."

There was only one possible response. "Sir."

Meysam shifted his weight, but Mariah imploringly waved him down before he could say anything in her defense.

"Something to add?" For a moment, she thought Bradford was talking to her.

"No, sir. Just a cough." Had Jane almost sprung in? Mariah didn't know. She was just grateful that, if that had been her captain's idea, it had been aborted.

I won't fuck anything up today. I'm going to do it right - just right, just the way Dad would if he were here in my place. Mariah tasted that thought, fixing it firmly in her mind's eye. Today, I'm going to do good.

"Bit harsh." Commander Edward Gallant at least kept his voice down, which put him one up on the perpetually-guarded XO standing below his podium. "John..."

"It's a necessary warning. And if anyone would wind up shooting the target in a fit of sheer stupidity, it would be Mariah." Bradford shrugged. "That's why she's with Saleh, far enough away from the action that she can't make a hash of it."

"Hm." Gallant eyed Bradford for a long moment. "John, one question."

"Anything you need, sir, I'm here for-"

"Did you ever take her into the training ring?"

His jaw worked. "Things have gotten busy lately, sir. I'm not a range sergeant."

Gallant's eye twitched. "I gave you a direct order, Central Officer."

"Sir, you're at the end of your rope and you're not in the best of head spaces. You don't want to take out your frustration and fear for Vahlen's sake on me."

"I'm not talking about that." Forcing out those five words instead of tackling the smug son of a bitch was probably the hardest thing Gallant had ever done. "John, do you want her to be a good soldier, or not?"

"Good soldiers learn by experience." Bradford crossed his arms. "She's getting that now."

"That's an excuse to not speak to her if I ever heard one-"

"Reapers train their recruits by leaving them in the wild-"

"Mariah is not a Reaper." Volk's patience for pretending he couldn't hear a conversation happening ten feet away from him didn't apparently last long. He turned back to Commander and XO, and he and his quartet of Reaper guards took a few more steps up. "And we don't throw our people into the wild so we don't have to put the effort in to train them, John."

"Excuse me?" Bradford's tone became very flat, and his eyes flared. "Say that to my face, you bearded-"

"Gentlemen!" Betos put a hand on Volk's shoulder. Where she'd come from, Gallant didn't know - weren't Reapers the stealthy ones? "Only Angelis gains by our infighting today."

"Damn straight." Gallant leaned hard on his cane. "Can the shit, people. I asked a question and got an answer, and I suppose the rest of it can wait twenty fucking minutes."

"Hm." Volk left it at that, which was good, but he turned and marched to the other end of the bridge with his coat flaring out and his coterie trailing in his wake, which wasn't. Betos lingered, Mox at her right hand and another Skirmisher whose name Gallant didn't care to learn at her left.

"Whatever. I have an op to manage." Bradford turned back for the holodisplay, back stiff. Gallant let out a quiet sigh.

"Personnel." He made the word into a curse. "They say the military's as bad as politics."

"Things will turn out right, Commander." Betos ascended the steps to his podium as if she didn't notice them. Gallant tried to hide his envy and his cane alike, for all the good it did. "I do admit I have a question of my own."

"Shoot."

"This intel. This scientist, and her knowledge of Advent's prisons." Betos' big eyes narrowed, just a little. "How did you find out that she was involved with Vahlen's abduction?"

Gallant hesitated. "Well...I might have...see, we discussed opening contact with-"

"Contact in sight."

Everyone dropped everything. Literally, in Jiaying's case: she let a clandestine little wrapper fall to the floor, hurriedly kicking it under a command console before Bradford could spot it.

"Say again, Liang." Gallant clutched the rail. "Confirm target acquisition."

"Confirmed. That's the bitch." Liang made a hissing noise in the back of her throat. "I'll never forget that smug face, not after what I watched her do to Cameron."

"Excellent. Security complement?"

"Soldiers, priests...a sectoid and two mutons." David hesitated. "Some kind of heavy infantry armor system. Not sure about its function just yet."

"Understood. " Gallant straightened, setting his teeth. "Weapons free, Menace. Bring me that package."

Julie Richardson breathed in...then out.

"You...are mine." She reached out with her sixth sense, sending a purple tendril arcing under the hustling feet of a hundred civilians in busy Old DC. The lights reached up past the guard at the little waystation, moving fast and bright enough he turned in shock. But they weren't aiming for him, and Julie's power drove straight through the muton's cranial plate in a heartbeat.

"That's it...that's it!" Julie grinned as she twisted the creature's limbs like a puppeteer, and a moment later she had it draw its grenade from its belt. It hit the priming switch, and-

"Go!" Jane cried over the com, as the grenade detonated, taking the muton and the guard both with it in a flash of green hell. Julie laughed, bounding up to the alley's mouth and watching the captain and her boyfriend vault into action with a wild spray of yellow mag-tracers. Civilians screamed and dove for cover, ducking and sprinting in all directions, while the Advent soldiers on the ground did their best to fight through the throng and come to bear on the XCOM raiders.

"Target in sight!" Liang launched her incendiary a moment later, and a huge explosion of flame enveloped the waystation door, cremating the priest in the rear of the formation.

"Check your fire!" Bradford cried in Julie's ear, as the scientist screamed and ducked low, holding her smoldering floral skirt down as the concussive blasts of detonations tried to flip it up. "We need her alive!"

"We don't need them!" Julie fired to prove it, and her shot ripped through a soldier. He tumbled, and she turned to the next-

Boom!

"What the hell?" Liang raised her mag-cannon, but hesitated. Julie did too, as that heavy infantryman in white hit a button on his arm. Red light gleamed and glowed, and then it shot outward, forming a heavy energy dome protecting the column of Adventers.

"It looks like some kind of shieldbearer," said Lily Shen's voice over coms. Julie swore and ducked as Advent fire came from inside the shield, passing through harmlessly. "That field only allows one-way traffic. You'll have to-"

"Hit the damn thing!" Jane ordered. Her gun roared, and the field wavered. "Overload it and expose them before they can regroup!"

Regroup they did. Liang's cannon and David's should have shredded the Advent soldiers as they scrambled from cars to columns and exchanged cover behind refuse bins for heavy stone building facades, but the field held them at bay. Sparks and distortions flew over its surface, rippling like stones dropped in water, and Julie swore under her breath as she watched the scientist poke her head back out, head swiveling as she sought her escape route.

Julie drew her amp. She hit the trigger, breathing in and focusing, glaring at the shieldbearer as she thought of his mind in smolders-

Bang!

"Holy shit! No! No!" Julie threw herself flat, ignoring the blood bursting out on her hand. She didn't feel the pain, not for a long minute: shock and nerves burned any such recognition from her world, just as assuredly as the red-smoking shot had blasted her amp clean out of her hand from all the way down the street.

"I was aiming for your head." The Hunter's light voice grated, and she got a distinct impression of him whacking his forehead into the butt of his rifle. "I suppose everyone misses now and then."

"Menace one-five, we've detected the Hunter's energy signature-"

"Thanks for the fucking warning, Central!" Julie, sans amp, scrambled for her rifle. "Glad you people aren't asleep at the wheel or this might turn into a shit show!"

"Watch your mouth, Richardson-"

"Shield's coming down!" Wonder of wonders, Meysam didn't turn out as a liar. The shieldbearer must not have thought there were hostiles on the far roof, because one angry mag-projectile lanced out and punched through the back of his skull in a flash, unimpeded by energy fields. The shield must have been tied into the Adventer's implants, because as the corpse fell, so too did the energy barrier.

"Take 'em down! Now!" Liang and David opened fire, and Julie popped back up to join in, heedless of the risk she took by showing herself anywhere near the hateful Hunter and his gun. She snapped off a burst of mag-fire at the first soldier she saw, and whooped when he went down in a spray of yellow.

"Watch it!" Jane cried, as a form rose and tore through the mess. Julie nearly fired anyway, but hesitated when she saw the flapping of a floral dress. "That's the target!"

"She's running!" Julie hesitated a moment later. "She's running in heels?"

"Enemy's regrouping!" Meysam fired again a moment later. "And I can't see the Hunter-"

"Liang, David, Julie, lock this area down!" Jane vanished into the fray, firing blind and forcing the remaining muton to duck. "Mariah!"

"Come on!" Julie sprang up to a firing perch, sighted in on the sectoid, busy trying to raise a dead soldier's corpse like the idiot it was, and promptly shot it full of big steaming holes. "You're covered, ladies!"

"Thank God for Julie Richardson!" Jane bounded over a collapsed scanning tower, skidding around the first corner even as Mariah slid down a drainage pipe. "Some days I can understand what Sylvie sees in her."

"Captain?"

"Target's moving this way!" Jane tore past the befuddled corporal, reloading on the fly. "We need that bitch alive or the mission's a bust. We cannot let her get away."

"Got it." Mariah hesitated as they reached a fork. "Do we split up-"

"Firebrand?" Jane picked the right-hand turn at random.

"You got lucky, Irish. I've got her on thermals...damn, this chick hauls ass."

"Keep me posted!" Jane's boots thundered down over discarded Advent Burger wrappers and on forgotten rubbish. She nearly slipped as she stepped on a banana peel, of all things, but then she spun around a dumpster and right into an Advent soldier. Jane hit him with the butt of her gun without conscious thought, and he recoiled with a cry and a shattered helmet.

"Got him!" Mariah lunged, sword out. "Go, Captain!"

Jane went. She heard a scream, and she heard the corporal hot on her heels. She raced around the next corner-

"Still on target, Irish." The Skyranger shrieked by overhead, danger-close if any rocket-bearing MECs got frisky."You've got hostiles on the other side of that iron fence."

"Copy!" And Jane threw a grenade over it without looking. It blew wild and angry, and then she broke around the end of the fence into a decrepit cul-de-sac with shard gun up, not daring to duck for cover and risk letting the scientist open her lead.

Blam! Jane picked her first target, a reeling stun lancer, before she'd even taken stock of her enemies. She worked the pump and fired again, blowing a priest's head into soup, and then she had to release her gun, grunting as her shoulder took the hard yank from her strap. Her sword came out as a muton lunged at her, bayonet ready, and Jane deflected the stab and sliced his thigh in passing.

"He's mine!" Mariah's gun roared, and Jane turned her back on the alien. She sliced through two more soldiers, then tore to the end of the cul-de-sac.

"Up those stairs!" Firebrand spluttered a moment later. "Okay, Richardson is an idiot. There is no way...she did not just parkour her way over six-foot brick wall in stilettos-"

"Hostiles?" Jane supposed the open door hanging idly in the breeze was a good sign. She raced through an empty flat, then out onto a balcony. She supposed Miss Cardio probably had flown down the ladder, but Jane just jumped, rolling when she hit the ground and thanking God and the Shens for her alloy armor. She sprinted toward the commanding shape of a tall office complex.

"Hold on." The Skyranger rocketed by again, and this time she hesitated in the air, engines roaring. Jane kept going, covering her head as she came up on the heat. Just before she would have had to stop, the craft whined and shot off into the sky. "Okay. That's two roasted chryssalids and a faceless burger. One soldier might have made it."

"Where the hell is my shadow?" Jane raced around the next corner, punching the aforementioned survivor before he'd finished turning her way. She paused to smash his face into the nearest wall, then shot him between the shoulder blades.

"I'm coming!" Mariah called, but Jane only heard her over comms. "There's a shortcut in here through this club, I think-"

"Sure is," Firebrand confirmed. "Keep it up, Irish. You and Bradford will catch the bitch in a pincer."

"There's that wall you mentioned." Jane leapt, getting her waist almost level with the top. She hung for a moment, swearing, before she could start to pull over. "And she...she got over this..."

"Wall run, straight out of the movies. Jumped from the left to catch that right-side balcony and swing over."

"In...in a dress...and heels..." Huffing and puffing, Jane had never felt more inadequate than that moment. "Genetic enhancement. Has to be."

"Damn straight." Firebrand paused. "Oh, shit!"

"What?" Jane hit the alley on the far side. "The hell are-"

"Energy signature, second floor on your left-"

Jane yelped as something hit her. It wasn't...it didn't hurt, not like agony or...or...

She crashed to her hands and knees, gasping for air. Her chest compressed, like a band had locked around it, and the world swayed and swung worryingly. She clenched her fists, digging them into the muck and filth over the backstreet paving.

"What..." She wanted a drink...something just to wet her throat. Talking would be easier if her mouth wasn't... "Fire...was I doing something..."

"XCOM's finest. Captain Jane Kelly." That voice...did she know that voice? She knew the voice...she had to. Didn't she?

"Oh!" Jane couldn't fight as a foot pushed her onto her flank. Firebrand was yelling in her ear, and Central, and Gallant too, but she couldn't...they were so faint...

"I have to be honest, young lady." The Hunter knelt over her, shaking his head and clucking his tongue. "I expected you'd put up more of a fight."

Bradford's eyes blazed. "Get in there and hit him with your exhaust!"

"Sir, that would hit Kelly too!"

"Firebrand's right, John." Gallant clutched the rail, grinding his teeth. "Richardson? White? Liang?"

"All engaged, sir." Lily shook her head. "We've got...we've got Mariah-"

"No."

"Sir, she could be Kelly's only hope-"

"The answer is no, Shen." Gallant glared until Jiaying wilted. "Mariah is in hot pursuit of our target. If we lose her, this operation is a failure."

"Sir." Matthew Kipler hesitated. "Commander, isn't the survival of Captain Kelly worth enough to offset-"

"No." Gallant ran through his options, trying to come up with something - anything - that could rescue Jane before the Hunter took her. "We need that VIP. Whatever the cost."

"Sir, Doctor Vahlen wouldn't want-"

"Shut up, John." Gallant glared at the holodisplay, ignoring the sidelong looks Volk and Betos gave him...and each other. "Comms. I need to make a call."

"What..." Jane clutched her head. "What did you..."

"It'll wear off." The Hunter tapped the little projectile embedded in her neck. "It's good, isn't it? A derivative of viper venom, mixed with some chryssalid. A bit of muton, a bit of genetic tampering...it's a remarkably effective dazing dose." He cupped Jane's chin. "A part of me is tempted to take you with me, you know that?"

"Why...talking..." Jane coughed, and something green came out when she did. She shivered convulsively. Everything was cold, and everything was hot, and when she tried to punch the Hunter, she just flopped uselessly on the pavement. He made a stern noise.

"I respect you, hard as that might be to believe. I think you're fun to chase." Purple light seared on the Hunter's hand. He used his other to trap Jane's head, holding her down as easily as she might hold a two-year old, despite her attempts to thrash frantically. "But...I need something, just to finish this all out."

"No..." Jane had tried to shout, but it came out as a low - almost piteous - moan. She gasped when that purple light came down on her forehead, and then-

Her world shattered. She might have screamed, she didn't know. All she knew was wild...light, and pictures, and visions and thoughts and...

And there was agency. A hand moved through her memories, discarding childhood images of life in Ireland and parents who fought a bit too much but loved her unreservedly anyway. The hand discarded old boyfriends and mentor figures, but lingered for a moment on James, Obsidian, and especially Irina. She thought the Hunter chuckled at the image of the Russian's sacrifice, and Jane's stab of horror and loss and her long campaign to battle her grief. He passed over her phobic fear of the Lost, and he ignored her thoughts of Kipler and Jiaying.

Then he found what he wanted, and Jane thrashed feebly, making low and harsh gasping noises in the back of her throat, as he pulled - pulled - thoughts of the Avenger from her. It was like a red-hot coal sat in the middle of her skull: it burned, and burned, and though she struggled and kicked, she couldn't get away from it even for a second, and the Hunter was laughing the whole time she squirmed and moaned-

Bang!

He was gone. The heat remained, though not as intensely, and Jane could move easier, though she was still dull. More shots rang out, and footsteps, and shouting, but she couldn't...the world was fuzzy...

"Gotcha." Someone pulled the dart from her neck, and now she did scream, as if the violation's removal was a worse crime than its insertion. "Breathe, Captain."

"You..." Jane did breathe, much easier now, and she also rolled over on her shoulder, just in time to vomit. She shuddered, convulsing with a hand on her shoulder. She coated her own hands, but hardly noticed it at all.

"Easy does it." Meysam Saleh caught her around the waist, and he helped pull her to her feet. Jane leaned on him for a moment, but with the dart out and her lunch with it, her strength began to return.

"How did you...I thought you were in the firefight." Jane paused to spit acrid-tasting remnants in a very ladylike way.

"Commander's orders. He wanted you taken care of." Meysam had his sidearm out, and he gestured. "I had line of fire on the Hunter, even if it took me a minute to set up my shot. I was able to knock him back long enough that I could abandon my perch and get over here." He eyed her. "You good?"

"I'll kick your arse if you ask me that again, corporal." Jane cleared her throat, reclaiming her weapons. "Thank you."

"Come on." Meysam jerked his head. "The others have the fight well in hand. Let's catch up to Mariah."

Blam!

"Shut up." Mariah reloaded her shard gun on the move, stepping right over the feebly twitching body of the lancer who'd tried to stop her. She brought the weapon up as a priest appeared in the club's far doorway, shouting something stupid about taxis. "Shut up!"

Bang! That shot took out not just the alien-lover, but the doorway too. Rubble flew, and the patrons Mariah had ignored screamed and ducked lower under their tables. She didn't feel very guilty about it: in the badlands, fights like this happened all the time. These pampered Advent pets could learn what gut-stink smelled like and gunfire sounded like. They'd have forgotten it by Monday.

"Firebrand, do you copy?" Mariah emerged through the far door, hurrying out onto the second-floor balcony. "I need a bearing for the-"

Around the next corner, a floral-adorned blur appeared, sprinting right for Mariah's door. She ground to a halt, skidding so hard it was a wonder her shoes didn't snap.

"Drop it!" Mariah snapped her shard gun up, sighting in before the woman had a chance to raise her pistol. The scientist hesitated, not even breathing hard.

"You...how did you get here before-"

"I said drop the fucking gun!" Mariah contemplated putting a round in her leg, but no: a shard gun was lethal enough to a muton. If she fired, the scientist would lose the whole limb at best, and probably bleed out in minutes. "Put it down and kneel with your hands behind your head!"

The woman hesitated. "You...you don't want me dead..."

"I won't ask again-"

"Do it!" That was Meysam! He appeared on the next roof over, leveling his rifle and scowling. Jane strode up at his side, eyes cold and shard gun in hand. "You've got nowhere to run."

"I...I..." The scientist seemed genuinely lost. "You..."

"Mariah." Jane nodded to her. "Take her weapon and tie her up." She touched her headset. "Avenger? This is Kelly."

"Yes, ma'am." Mariah smiled tightly, letting her gun slide out of her grip. She started for the quivering scientist. "Hand it over."

"Roger that, Avenger." Jane nodded. "Mariah's work. She cornered the bitch herself. Package secured."

"I said drop it." Mariah tried to conceal her flush of pride and exultation. It would have been so easy for the Captain to take the credit herself, but...but...oh! She'd made a loyal soldier for life with that one decision.

Mariah dragged her mind back to the present, though it was hard. "The gun." She reached out. "Don't make me take it from-"

The pistol moved. Mariah hesitated as it came up, but even though every instinct in her body told her to dive for cover, she made herself lunge forward instead-

"No!" Her throat went raw from the cry, as the scientist put the pistol to her own temple. She smiled, wide and white and beautiful and terrifying in one heartbeat before-

Bang!

Author's Note 48: Mistakes Were Made

I love kidnap VIP missions, for multiple reasons. They're fun. They give a nice twist on gameplay, and they feel very...resistance-y. Not to mention, the idea of kidnapping some alien loving traitorous pieces of shit? Feels good, man. Justice!

On the other hand, things can easily go wrong. I once lost a VIP and there was nothing whatsoever I could have done about it. One of those gatekeeper shots, that does 4 damage in a massive radius. Instant kill, and there was literally nothing I could do. I also lost a VIP once because the aliens fired once, missed me, lit the VIP's truck on fire, and blew them up before I even got to them. Things like that are really annoying, even if they might be realistic enough after a fashion.

Shieldbearers are annoying. Less because they're dangerous - they're worse than a standard trooper, all things considered - and more because they make everyone around them better. They're like Supports from the first game. I've lost soldiers because I haven't been able to work a shield down far enough in time. At least they only have one use per mission - and if you knock out their friends, you can safely ignore them for their opening turn. Even if you leave only one other enemy standing, the bearer WILL shield, so they're almost a free hostile for that first turn...IF you're confident of your chances against the surviving enemies once the shield goes up.

Until next time, Vigilo Confido.