Adam and his troops were waiting to launch the first part of the plan. It could all easily go wrong here as if the SDC local office or the Atlas military were notified of the attack then the plan would need to be abandoned. On the other hand, this was a small refuelling stop and although it had a transmitter in the office, security was light. They also had a useful distraction.
Originally the plane had simply been to sneak up on the place after dark and simply trust on the lack of security and poor night vision to allow them to take out the office premises without giving the assistants a chance of giving a warning. One advantage of having had a practice of not unnecessarily causing casualties was that that the temptation for people to be a hero when confronted with a gun was not to surrender without making that much of a fuss. He had been ninety per cent certain that this part of the operation would work. Even if this did not work, it would have an economic impact. All the supply bases would need to upgrade their security arrangements. This would not only mean armed guards, but people with unlocked auras. This would increase the attractiveness of the bases to Grimm so combat schools graduates at least would be needed and a concrete barrier would have to be added to the perimeter fence.
However, the fact that Beige had insisted on taking Blake and Julie on safari had allowed them the luxury of a small team driving up openly to buy top up supplies for the expedition and to buy fuel. When the person asking for the supplies and paying for them was a high-ranking member of the SDC bureaucracy the reality was that the senior personnel would vacate the main office to ensure that the VIP was given a first-rate service and made to feel appreciated.
Also, the fact that the SDC had unwittingly cooperated in the taking over of a facility by the White Fang was the type of detail which would appeal to even those Faunus who did not approve of the White Fang. White he had hated the Mistral film of the stories, the Comrade Rabbit stories had been among his favourites as a child with the trickster Faunus outwitting his opponents. It had been quite clear to him that Comrade Fox had been a Mistralian aristocrat and Comrade Bear a member of the Atlas military.
The convoy had four vehicles in it. One was a sturdy but comfortable cross between an all-terrain vehicle and a limousine which contained the guide, his assistant, Beige, Julie, and Blake. The second had a driver supplied by the guide and had the tents and other essential equipment. The third had Julie and Blake's alleged servants who were of course White Fang soldiers plus Perry who doubled as a butler. The fourth had security guards who again were said to be employed by Julie and Blake's parents. Julie had hinted to Beige that she was the favourite daughter of a Faunus crime boss in Mistral and that Blake was the heiress to a chain of Faunus convenience stores in Vale. Beige had accepted the story and as Julie was paying for the staff members rations had not objected to them being added to the safari. They were taking a little more of a risk with the guide, but he had a reputation as someone who while he enjoyed the desert and liked the fact that he could make a living from driving around in it, had a limited appreciation for some of his more entitled customers from Atlas and Mistral.
Adam had still not entirely decided what to do with Beige. He would play it by ear when he saw how the man reacted to his predicament when it was brought home to him. On the good side it was almost certain that he could ensure that the man spent a sleepless night realising the level of his humiliation and the fact that he had been fooled into giving the White Fang assistance. He also was looking forward to seeing the man's face when he realised who had captured him.
/-/
Blake was sitting by the side of Beige with Julie on the other side of him. She had been able to avoid having to get Beige too well last night with a reference to the time of the month and Julie had promised to keep him entertained. She felt guilty about being complicit in allowing Julie to do things with beige she would not do herself, but Julie had told her not to be silly.
Julie's view was "The way I look at it, Blake, is that while I am an adequate fighter, I can best serve the cause by entrapping foolish men and women. This was the easiest way to get access to a lap scroll carried by a high ranking SDC official and I have basically conned the man unto kidnapping himself. Imagine if we had tried to take him in the middle of Vacuo and the likelihood that at least some of our comrades would have died in the attempt and we may not even have succeeded. Still if we can achieve it by only having one of us pretending to enjoy his caresses rather than both, then why not? Also, I am a better actor than you are, and it amuses me to flatter him. While your shyness attracts him, I do not believe that you would be relaxed if it came to having to perform. Besides which the man is a hypocrite who pretends to himself that he is a decent person. He is not a sadist. The worse physical damage I am likely to risk is a hickey. Besides which we can both do without Adam being more upset than he has to be. While I still expect him to kill the man, it will at least mean that he will consider the other options before doing so and it will not be quite so messy."
Blake thought about her friend's answer and decided that she was probably right about both her and Adam's reactions to her getting close to Beige. Whatever it was in Julie's past which meant that she saw this as an acceptable means to an end was her own affair.
Anyway, it had been easy to divert both the guide and Beige to the base. The guide was happy to buy in supplies using Beige's corporate discount and Beige enjoyed showing off how important he was in the SDC hierarchy to everyone on the safari. In effect the discount would be shared with the guide who would refund half of the saving on the supplies he wanted to obtain by a discount from the price of the safari.
The lead vehicle pulled up at the gate to the base and the guide and Beige got out of the vehicle. The sentry at the gate seemed to welcome the distraction. He welcomed the guide as an old acquaintance and accepted a gift of a bottle of spirits. On seeing the corporate identity card for Beige, he moved to being embarrassingly sycophantic. He called ahead to the office and told the guide and Beige to drive up to the office where the site manager and his team would meet them and deal with their order. He actually accompanied them to the office which reduced one residual problem. While the gate would not have access to the type of communications device which could use the CCTS network at this distance from Vacuo, it reduced the need to ensure that the takeover of the main base was carried out noiselessly.
She smiled as the manager agreed to open the safe where dust crystals were kept and when it became evident that all of the staff for the base were now in the open air stirring at the VIP and his companions. It was hard to tell whether Julie, Blake, or Beige most caught their attention. In addition, the guide, and his staff were also all in a confined space talking to the people they knew from the supply base.
Blake signalled to Perry who nodded and then ten seconds later the mood changed as the White Fang fired tranquilliser darts into the unsuspecting security guards and guide. Their auras had not been activated and surprise had been complete. Ronald Rouge stepped forward with his mask on and said, "Ladies and gentlemen. You are in the custody of the White Fang. We have no intention of harming you unless you give us reason to. Your colleagues are merely drugged. In order to avoid attracting Grimm our attention is to drug most of you, but I assure you that you will wake up tomorrow with nothing worse than a mild headache and feeling hungry. "
Beige who was looking ashen said, "It is standard White Fang operating procedure not to harm civilians or junior employees. I would recommend that you cooperate with them, and you at least should live to tell your children about the day you were hijacked by the White Fang."
Rouge and the others were wearing their masks. Blake and Julie did not don them. It would confuse matters if they were also seen as kidnap victims. Perry and one of the others emerged from the office building and said, "The Office is secure. No messages have been sent."
Ronald nodded and then took the site manager and Beige into the office building. The other employees were instructed to carry those who had been knocked out to the living quarters after the White Fang members had bound them securely but not sadistically.
Perry said to the human prisoners the agreed description of the mission which was designed to relax them and reduce any risk of heroics. "We expect that you will all be released within 24 hours. Our mission here is designed in part to show that we can take over any inadequately garrisoned supply site and cause the SDC and the other multi-kingdoms to pay through the nose to improve security. We will of course also steal all the supplies here apart from essential food for yourselves for a few days. We will also be purloining some ships tomorrow to make good our escape. You will be unharmed provided that you do not try and prevent us from carrying out our mission."
Blake could see some of the employees relax. Perry had been chosen for the speaking role on the basis that he sounded reasonable. He had taken off the glasses for the speech. It was one thing not to scare people into acting heroically, it was another to make you seem too mild mannered.
Rouge and the site manager appeared from out of the office. The site manager said, "James, Bill, you will be needed to assist our uninvited guests. The rest of you will be allowed to eat something before being tranquillised in your beds."
The site manager looked more upset than the others. The plan was that Rouge would have stressed to him that on him lay the main responsibility for ensuring his men remained unharmed and that while the White Fang had no particular desire as an organisation to kill junior employees, individual members might be glad to have an excuse to kill humans who worked for the SDC and any investigation would be carried out with the same expectation of acquittal as a Mistral police force investigation into the deaths of Faunus in custody.
After the employees had been taken to the living quarters under close guard, Blake send a shortwave radio message to Adam that "Camp has been pitched. We look forward to seeing you for dinner."
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Winter, Major Magenta and Clover Ebi were meeting to discuss developments over the last 24 hours. The rest of the Ace-Ops were keeping a watching brief on the SDC building in case Adam Taurus did try to assassinate Umber Raddock. Qrow had gone out drinking again with Mr. Corkran although he referred to it as intelligence gathering.
They first called in Lieutenant Amin to be questioned further on his report from last night. The Lieutenant had been given permission by Winter earlier today to allow his liver a chance to recover.
Clover asked about what it was like spending time with the two of them. The Lieutenant paused and said, "I think they get on with each other, but the problem is that are too used to being the bad influence in the room. They seem to regard themselves as in a drinking competition in which I have no desire to compete. They do not drink to get paralytic but will not duck a challenge from the other. They also enjoyed flirting with staff and other customers. If I can put it this way, if I said some of the things they say I would expect to be slapped or snubbed, but the women they speak to seem to find it amusing. I also think that Qrow enjoys an audience to wind up."
Winter had decided that Qrow was more likely to attend to business if he did not have Lieutenant Amin to tease.
They explored again the meeting with the junior accountant from the SDC who clearly hero worshipped Qrow as being a member of a two-time Vytal Festival winning team and respected Marrow for being the strongest member of an also ran team. It had been annoying to find that Arnold Beige had disappeared on 48 hours leave. He was going on safari with a human guide who the embassy staff and the Major had confirmed was not known to be a White Fang sympathiser. The Major had said that the man might not actually love non-Vacuoans, but it was more of a dislike of jerks. On the basis that it kept Qrow out of the way and Corkran had the best local contacts Winter had suggested that they look for more details about this safari. Winter's view was that even if it did not seem a likely lead, it was one of the only possible leads they had to follow, and it was better that a Faunus and a non-Atlas huntsman be the ones following it up.
Marrow confirmed "There was no sign of the Fox Faunus in town last night and Corkran commented that the alleged Chameleon Faunus seemed to be invisible. Qrow Branwen said that his niece and her dad would find that funny."
Clover said, "Thank you. Lieutenant."
After the young Lieutenant had left, Clover continued, "I have now heard back from the Atlas Social Services department. The young Chameleon Faunus was handed over to the Menagerie consulate and she was apparently taken there. They have no record what happened to her afterwards. The records are rather sketchy and the person who handled the case is no longer with the department. Between ourselves, our contact was obviously trying to avoid certain subjects and only reluctantly admitted that the reason the reason the person who handled the case had left the department was because they had been imprisoned for theft. He did say that he could see the logic for sending her to Menagerie. She had spent her life pretending to pass for human and had been rejected by her friends after her parents died. It was unlikely that she would be treated well by the other clients of the department as hiding the fact that she was a Faunus would go down badly with both her human and the Faunus contemporaries and she came from a background where her parents made enough to make ends meet and educate her."
Winter said, "So there is no proof one way or the other as to whether this is the same girl. Is the theft conviction relevant?"
"Perhaps, it involved misappropriation of funds belonging to the parents of an orphan which were meant to be kept for the orphan in question. There were also hints of selling orphans as cheap labour under cover of adoption. I did not get that from my contact, but the General put me in contact with the Ministry of Justice."
The Major said, "Even if this is the same girl, we could not detain her and even if we did detain her no one but the White Fang would thank us for dredging up her past."
"Correct, sir."
Just then Winter's scroll vibrated. She checked it and found that Qrow Branwen was calling her. She answered it and then put it on speaker mode.
"Major, Specialist, Ice Queen, this may be nothing more than a scam, but the more we hear about it the odder our acquaintance from the SDC's vacation sounds. Could you ask the embassy to give us a lift back to the base as I would prefer not to talk about it over the airwaves."
Clover turned to Winter and Magenta and said, "Major, perhaps we should meet them at the embassy? The rest of my team are already in town."
Qrow said, "Fine by me. You had better warn them."
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Umber Raddock was feeling the tension in his shoulders. His first boss had referred to the condition as being as though a coat hanger had been inserted into your jacket while wearing it. The next 24 hours would decide whether he became a main board director of the SDC or would have to disappear off the face of Remnant. He did have his numbered bank account in Argus to fall back on and there were various assets he could realise quickly. There was also the small risk that he could be arrested, but his fellow conspirators had too much to gain to risk an immediate betrayal.
Strictly only two could testify directly to his involvement although he suspected that they had hinted to their subordinates that the idea came from him. Major Bronze commanded the secondary base in Vacuo for the Atlas military. The major knew that he had no real supporters at headquarters in Atlas. His mentors had lost the power battle with Ironwood and Colonel White had made it quite clear that he would recommend Magenta rather than Bronze to succeed him and the multi-kingdoms preferred to bring in an outsider. Still Major Bronze had a down payment of 50,000 lien in his account with another 50,000 due on satisfactory implementation. He also had an offer to become the head of security for the SDC in Vacuo which he would activate in two months when he took retirement on reaching his full pension entitlement.
Similar considerations applied to the manager of the Rising Sun mine. A smaller lump sum and a promotion to being a district manager had been sufficient persuasion. Also, Raddock had enough dirt on him to make betrayal inadvisable. It also helped that the manager had personal reasons for wishing to kill the chief engineer at the mine who was going to be the fall guy for the accident. They had even arranged for some self-serving reports by the manager to Raddock saying that he was concerned that the man was cutting corners dated so that Raddock could not eb blamed for not having acted on them and the manager could be praised for having identified the issue and having gone through channels. He was also implicated in the original brandings and the threat of the White Fang taking personal revenge would help concentrate his mind. Actually, telling him that Adam Taurus was rumoured to be in town had clearly scared him stiff.
Having decided that the thirty Faunus branded in the eye would die in a mining accident, Raddock had decided that it would be better to ensure that it was not only the new transferees to the mine who died. Another twenty unmarried Faunus would be added to the ill-fated work party plus the chief engineer and a few overseers who were generally unpopular.
He had hoped to postpone the decision for a few months, but the rumours about Adam Taurus had unnerved him and he was concerned that someone might say something in the wrong bar to the wrong person. Clearly Winter Schnee and Lieutenant Beamish had known where to look for the evidence and so quick action was needed. Also, on reflection delaying the inevitable was stupid.
He had prepared a line for the managers who might wonder what had happened to their workers. He would say that ten was the maximum number to which the SDC could admit to in public, but that the others were being treated appropriately. The hint that compensation was being paid under the table would deal with any bad consciences with only the mildest application of his semblance.
Of course, it could all fall apart, but it was the only game in town. He could not admit to thirty additional eye brandings having happened while he was in charge. Jacques Schnee would have no choice but to sack him without compensation.
Anyway, the plan was that tomorrow morning Major Bronze would be at the mine officially to check that the new arrivals were not mutilated Faunus. He would say that he had chosen to do so on his own initiative. He and his CSM would be the only ones to see the workers who were being kept in a special compound. The CSM was a human supremacist and the Major had offered him a job as the Major's second in command at the SDC.
On the positive side, it seemed that the Atlas military legal team had agreed with the inspectorate that technically the pricing mechanisms at the SDC stores were technically hard to challenge, although clearly outside the spirit of the law. It was also clear that the other multi-kingdoms had not been told about the loophole and were vulnerable to backdated penalties and refunds. He wondered again about Arnold Beige. Perhaps he would employ him as a special assistant when he went to Atlas. Beige had made it clear that he preferred Argus as a place to live with its easy access to Mistral and the man did not react well to stress. Still, if you gave him an abstract problem he would normally come up with a solution.
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Qrow had had a weird couple of days. It had been a long time since he had been with someone who even wanted to try and keep up with him while drinking and flirting. He had decided early on that he would certainly recommend to Ozpin that he recruit him as a Mustang if only to see whether he could outdo Taiyang and what Glynda would make of him. He had already slightly changed his opinion as he realised the man changed the emphasis of his act for the audience.
He remembered that when he had first arrived in Vale he had used to enjoy the evenings when he had watched classic films with Summer, Raven and Taiyang. They had mostly been in black and white and nowadays people felt short changed if they were not in colour. As far as Qrow was concerned while colour was mostly better, some films were more effective in black and white. He felt that younger people were punishing themselves by wholeheartedly rejecting black and white films. On the other hand, perhaps he should use it to his advantage. The Lynx Faunus would in some circumstances channel Errol Flint and in others Jaune Mason.
Qrow respected anyone who was good at making it difficult for others to work out how best to deal with them. He had exaggerated his state of inebriation for years so as to be underestimated. Possibly by not so much as he would like to have believed, but enough. He wondered whether the Lynx Faunus was in reality a Vacuoan orphaned Faunus who had spent his childhood watching old films and had reinvented himself as a bastard child of an Atlas aristocrat. Still, it was a good shtick and it clearly worked for him.
Still, whatever the truth was, the man seemed to know everybody in Vacuo and had identified the normal caterer for the safari guide who had taken the Arnold Beige party out into the desert. The man said "Fine by me, the Mistralian said that his guests had their own chefs, but that he was happy to cover my charges before food, provided I did not extract the urine. I am happy to be paid for doing nothing for two days, but I wandered along to see them drive off. There was team of five carrying cooking utensils and ingredients, but I felt only two of them knew what they were up to."
"Why was that?" asked the Lynx Faunus.
"One was telling them things to do and how to store things which were sensible but should not have needed to have been told to experienced individuals. The second gave the vibe of being a good butler but was not quite treated with the respect he should have been given."
"Could you work out where they came from?"
"I think that they were all Faunus. The butler may not have been, but as his employer was clearly Faunus I suspect he was."
"Who were the guests of the main employer?"
"Two Faunus girls. One had a fox tail and the other had a bow over her head, but occasionally the bow moved as though there were ears behind it."
"Do you know where they were going?"
"The boss normally takes them north. The Grimm out there are fairly predictable and the wildlife distinctive, but slow moving. There are also some views that people who do not live here say are very impressive."
The man showed them a photograph of the group setting out and Qrow was startled by the look of the girl wearing the bow. She reminded him of someone he had once met with Ozpin.
"Who are those others?"
"Apparently the security team employed by the parents. It seems as though they are being worried at the girls as being seen as collaborationists by the White Fang and targeted to put pressure on the parents."
They moved bars shortly thereafter and on the way the Lynx Faunus said, "I was looking out for security types at Rick's when I met the Fox Faunus and none of those were there. It may be that there are there for the lady wearing the bow, but I would not like to bet on it. Also, the two girls I met with were on their own and were glad of my presence. Put any of those we saw in that photograph in a dinner jacket, and they would have been sufficient protection against curiosity."
"You are preaching to the choir, kiddo."
Qrow reached for his scroll and called Winter.
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Arnold Beige had been tied up and blindfolded for two hours or so. He hoped that this was simply a kidnapping combined with a robbery and that he would be released in exchange for a ransom paid by the SDC. Still, the ambush had been rather more efficient than he would have expected from the Vacuo wing of the White Fang. He should assume that his captors came from Mistral and engage brain before he said anything to them. He decided that the best way to go would be to ask after the girls. Showing concern for Faunus, even if they were regarded as traitors by their captors could not hurt his chances of survival. He could also hint at the level of ransom that the SDC would be prepared to pay without much haggling.
He heard someone stride in and speak to him, "Well hello, Arnold or should I say Mr Beige or Sir."
"I rather think that you can call me what you want to at the moment. I am not really in a position to object."
"How very realistic of you."
"I would like to say the young women are very recent acquaintances and had no reason when they first met me to connect me with the SDC. I think that they are apolitical."
"My dear Arnold, I know that the SDC does hostage training for its executives and that Patch syndrome can go both ways. It might even have worked if we had not met previously."
The blindfold was removed from his face and Arnold saw a bull Faunus with auburn hair wearing a White Fang mask.
"I apologise but I do not recall our ever meeting."
"Well, I suppose your attention was engaged elsewhere most of the times we met before."
Beige racked his brain. The person before him was clearly powerful and strong and he recalled no one he had met who was likely to have joined the White Fang with that build. Still how old was the Faunus in front of him.
Suddenly his memory worked, and he soiled himself. If this was the person he thought it was, then he was about to die horribly.
The Faunus removed his mask and revealed the scar over his eye, "Hello, Uncle."
Beige cringed. He knew he was about to die but wanted to make it as painless as possible.
"Young Adam. If anyone has a reason to kill me it is you. For what it is worth, your mother did what she did with me in order that you could eat, and I pretended to myself it was because she was attracted to me. The last thing I wanted was for her to die and at the time I honestly believed that you died in an airship crash on the way to hospital to treat you for the wounds Crimson inflicted on you for biting off his finger."
"I am prepared to believe that you are a weak man, but you are an intelligent one. Crimson and Raddock may have scarred me physically, but you played your part. Your ability to game the system legally has caused more misery than Crimson's sadism and Raddock's opportunism and all you seem to get out of it is a high wage. You have twelve hours to think of a good reason why I should not kill you. Do not even think to talk about my mother in that regard. While technically she may have consented, we both know that you gave her no real choice. If you want to live, you need to think about any smoking guns we can fire at the SDC which will be more creditable because you are supporting them."
Beige realised that he must be giving the promise of potential survival some credence as he was busy trying to work out how to liquidate his assets before revealing what he knew about the SDC. At the very least he knew that he would not reveal any juicy information until he was in front of Sienna Khan. She at least would prefer him to be a live whistle blower while he was certain that Adam would kill him as soon as he told him what to look for.
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At the embassy, Ambassador Campion said, "If there is anything in this, then it will probably happen in the next 24 hours. As soon as Beige fails to report back from his trip, they know we will sound a full alert and put all the SDC mines on lockdown. Major, is there any training exercise you have on the stocks which can be implemented?"
Major Magenta said "Operation Quick Response. We can put three airships with a full quota of soldiers in the air so that they are no more than two hours from any mine which could call for assistance. We do not have to use our secondary base for that."
"Why have you planned it that way?"
"Major Bronze is not really a team player."
"I think I know what you mean but hope that I am wrong."
"Shall we say that I think that precautions are sensible, but that the evidence is not so overwhelming that I wish to convince sceptics to take it seriously."
"Major, this is clearly a military judgement. How will you divide your forces?"
"I will consult with the colonel, but I would have one ship commanded by myself, one by Specialist Clover and one by Captain Schnee. Captain, I will allocate Lieutenants Marrow and Beamish, Mr Corkran and Sergeant Hartnell to your team. You will be in the south-east nearest to the secondary base. The fact you are a Schnee will reduce the risk that Major Bronze will refuse to cooperate if needed."
