To The Earth Kingdom embassy in Republic City was a massive, lavishly decorated building in the government district. It stood by itself in the middle of a large garden, which was surrounded by a tall, metal fence. The building was wide and short, with thick walls and sloped roof. The general style resembled that of the inner circle of Ba Sing Se, although the windows were smaller and there were many foreboding statues on the walls and corners.
It was no doubt meant to give off the impression of wealth and authority. Instead, it mostly gave the impression of poor taste and wasted money. The Earth Queen's attitude towards the United Republic was cold, bordering on outright hostility. She still considered the lands it covered as having been "stolen" from her nation and only maintained an embassy, she claimed, out of necessity. Thus, the embassy was an unfriendly, highly secure building. During the day, the citizens of Republic City conducted their business there under the suspicious stares of the guards, some of whom were rumoured to be incognito Dai Li agents.
Now, however, it was night. The embassy was dark and quiet, save for the occasional light and constant quiet sound as the guards made their rounds. The outside of the embassy was also relatively quiet, by Republic City standards. All quiet, except for a group of four people wearing grey overalls and flat caps of matching colour as well as burdened by heavy bags. A night shift cleaning crew, it seemed. They were led by a tall, broad-shouldered man with an impressive beard and braided hair. He was followed by a shorter, lankier man with a long grey moustache and wrinkled face, wearing large glasses. Next to the old man walked two women, whose resemblance suggested a blood relation. They were both dark-skinned, of Water Tribe descent. They were of similar heights, but one of them was muscular, whereas the other one was curvy and soft around the edges. The hair of the former woman was short and hidden by the cap, but her sister's ponytail was visible.
The cleaning crew approached the gate of the embassy, where they were stopped by a guard in an Earth Kingdom soldier uniform.
"Papers," she said gruffly. It was her third night shift and she was too tired to be verbose. The examined the documents presented to her by the cleaning crew. Everything seemed to check out and she certainly wasn't going to prolong an encounter that actually required her to concentrate. The cleaning crews changed all the time, anyway. It was rare if any came more than once. A cost-cutting measure, since most of the funding disappeared somewhere. Someone knew where, presumably, but it was information above her pay grade. So she opened the gate for the cleaners and directed them to the service entrance. Then she went back to pacing around the grounds in an effort not to fall asleep. She knew the embassy employed many guards. So why were they stretched so thin that she had to pull three long night shifts in a row? She really should have listened to her father and found work as a private bodyguard… or a sculptor. Being a soldier certainly wasn't what it was cracked up to be.
The cleaning crew, meanwhile, walked along the wall of the embassy and got to the back, where they entered the building through a small door designated for "servants", as it said on the plaque. The other guards patrolling the grounds paid them no attention. They found themselves in a narrow corridor, full of stale air and only lit by two weak, bare light bulbs. The walls were lined with wet cardboard boxes, old cleaning tools and discarded clothes. Exposed pipes ran along the walls, leaking water here and there.
"Charming," said the taller, more muscular woman quietly. "The richer the front of a building, the more disgusting the rear part is going to be. Never fails to be true."
"It works in our favour," the old man, who was actually Amon's Lieutenant, remarked. "No one is going to come in here unless they absolutely have to. So we have some time."
"They're going to catch on eventually," the bearded man pointed out. "They don't care now, but they will once we start poking around. And those papers won't fool them once they do. We know one of the objects we're after is on the second floor, and the other one in the cellar. So what's our plan of action?"
"We should be able to get upstairs easily enough," Lieutenant said, shouldering his bag again. "Maybe do some actual cleaning to keep up appearances. We've seen people don't pay attention to the cleaners here. But I doubt our disguises will last after we break into the safe, so we'll use this part of the building to get to the cellar."
The rest of the crew nodded. The four-person team had been put together for the purpose of infiltrating the Earth Kingdom embassy and stealing the metalbending-resistant material, and the schematics for it. They were not high-ranking Equalists, but they had unique assets for this task. Tozan, the bearded man, worked as a cleaner as well. He was hired once by the embassy, and in the end, he was lucky to get half the money he was owed, after weeks of arguing and letter-sending. The upside of the whole thing was that he had a good idea of what the inside of the embassy looked like, and could get them in touch with another cleaning company that was down enough on its luck to take out a contract with the embassy. Bribing them was easy enough, since it meant guaranteed money – something they couldn't be sure of if they'd done the job. Apart from his knowledge, Tozan's other asset was his prodigious strength.
Puja and Iqualuq were two young women from a very bad part of town. Growing up on a street all but owned by the Red Monsoons, two non-benders had to do what it took to survive. They were drawn to the Equalist movement by the promise of a world where they won't have to steal for a living. And where the Triads will be taught their place. There were not the only criminals in the Equalist ranks, but they were the best at what they did. Puja was a security expert, able to pick locks with ease, crack safes bypass other safety measures. Iqualuq could move undetected like few others, and was a master at throwing knives and darts. Their talents at breaking, entering and quietly removing guards would be crucial to the mission.
Lieutenant led them up the service staircase towards the first floor. It was a dull place, filled with identical corridors lined with door to small offices where the embassy's clerks handled the many papers which came through the building. There, the Equalists briefly occupied themselves with actual cleaning – with Tozan directing the others to make sure they didn't mess it up too badly. It was partly in order to familiarize themselves with the layout, but also to ease any suspicion on the part of the guards. Predictably enough, there were a few of them making rounds on the first floor. Not too many, however – which might have been a sign that the things considered to be really important were above and below. They all watched them with an air of disinterest.
After spending some time on the first floor, the fake cleaning crew slipped back into the service area and made their way up another flight of stairs, to reach the second floor. Someone might have started to suspected them at that point, so they had to hurry. Emerging from the stairway, the team found themselves in a narrow corridor, similar to those on the lower floors. This time, however, they were not alone there. Two people were standing in front of a door at the very end of it. They were both wearing metal breastplates and helmets that concealed most of their faces. They stared at the cleaners without hostility, but with a clear implication that they should not stay there for too long.
It was clear, now, that what the Equalists were looking for was located there. They had no choice but to take out the guards. They began to move towards the exit from the corridor, in order to ascertain whether a patrol was nearby. Luckily enough, it wasn't. Iqualuq reached under her overalls and snapped around in a flash. Two thin daggers flew out of their hand, one aimed at each of the guards. She was skilful enough to strike the points on their bodies that weren't covered by the metal armour – their elbows. The guards raised their hands in order to bend at the sudden attackers, but then they collapsed in a heap, affected by the powerful knock-out poison the knives had been coated in.
The intruders acted quickly. Lieutenant and Tozan tied up the guards and gagged them, hurrying to finish the work before the poison wore off. Ropes would not necessarily stop skilled benders from using their powers, but they would at least slow them down. Meanwhile, Puja quickly rifled through their pockets for a key.
The door was opened quickly and the guards dragged inside. The room beyond was very small, and had no features of note, other than a strong safe. Puja immediately went to work on it, while the other three Equalists exited the room, and pretended to busy themselves with their cleaning equipment after leaving the guards in the safe room. Hopefully the time it took a patrol or change of guard to make sure they're impostors would give them an edge. Lieutenant took a moment to produce a pair of wooden sticks from his bag and hide them under his overalls. They were the original weapons of his homeland's martial art, without electricity. Using shock weapons would be a sure sign of who was responsible for the burglary.
And in fact, two guards did arrive on the scene. These were clad in more standard Earth Kingdom uniforms, and were part of a regular patrol. They looked at each other in surprise when they noticed the absence of the other guards.
"Hey, you!" one of them yelled at the trio. "Where are guards who were here?"
"How are we supposed to know?" Tozan asked, looking up from cleaning a part of the floor. "We're just cleaning here. They went off somewhere. We don't ask questions of them."
"What the- just went off somewhere? Look- just get over here and show me your papers. Right now," the guard retorted angrily.
Lieutenant nodded slightly to Tozan and they both approached the guards while Iqualuq remained back. The air was thick with tension, but the guards, although they were vigilant, could not expect what would happen next. As Tozan neared the guard, he launched himself at her instead, moving with speed that was truly astonishing for a man of his girth. The guard was simply thrown off her feet at the opposite wall. Meanwhile, Lieutenant, who had reached under his overalls as if to produce documentation, retrieved one of his sticks instead, lunging towards the other guard and interrupting his attempt to bend and scream alarm with a well-timed thrust to the solar plexus, and an upswing that caught him on the chin. Leaving the man temporarily helpless on the ground, dazed and out of breath, he jumped over him and delivered a good bump on the head to the other guard, who was trying to get up after being thrown by Tozan.
Lieutenant looked around as his large companion hauled the guards into the corridor. They had not managed to sound an alarm, but the racket they made was probably audible throughout the entire building. He ran back towards the safe room.
"Please tell me you cracked-" he began to say, but he was interrupted when Puja emerged quickly from the room, holding a binder and slamming the door behind her.
"I've got it. The schematics. That means the sample of the metal is in the cellar."
"Move!"
The Equalists ran swiftly down the service stairway. The bags with cleaning supplies had been abandoned, after removing the concealed weapons and tools from them. Their cover was well and truly blown, and from now on they would need to evade and fight any guards they encountered. They also pulled balaclavas over their faces, to minimize the chances of someone remembering them. Before they ran down, Puja stopped to put a metal bar onto the door, to make opening it difficult. It appeared to have worked, as they heard banging and shouting from upstairs just as they neared the bottom floor.
The service corridor on the ground floor was empty. However, after opening the door to the embassy proper, they were greeted by a flying rock on head level. Lieutenant bent his head just enough for it to miss him, while the rest of the Equalists simply hit the floor, startled and not as used to combat as he was. Lieutenant lunged through the door, immediately inclining to the right to avoid yet another piece of rock, launched by an Earth Kingdom guard behind the door. He was using small, but dense stone discs, presumably not to tear up the embassy floor. This concern evidently evaporated when the guard saw the armed man launch himself towards him, however. He stomped his foot to cause a section of the floor rise in a wall, making a huge mess of the carpeting. Lieutenant did not stop, but merely weaved his way around the wall and tried to strike the earthbender with his sticks. However, his advance was more successfully stopped by a pillar of rock erupting horizontally from the wall.
Lieutenant barely evaded being brained. In such close quarters, surrounded by stone walls and floors, an earthbender was at a distinct advantage. However, at that point Iqualuq got up from the floor, no longer threatened by enemy attacks, and sent a knife at the bender. It struck him just above the elbow. Not a serious injury, but a painful one. And it interrupted his momentum for long enough that Lieutenant closed his distance and put him on the ground with a series of rapid attacks.
Once the guard was unconscious, the Equalists rushed down the corridor, to the right from the door they entered through. The entrance to the cellar would be somewhere in that direction. The sounds of alarm and hurried footsteps were coming from all directions now. Luckily, they were still disorganized. The Equalists still had time before a proper defence was mounted.
As they turned around a corner to the left, they were greeted by a barrage of small rock missiles. The two guards stationed in front of the stairs to the cellar had attacked them immediately. Unlike most Earth Kingdom soldiers, they relied on a rapid series of small rocks. One of them caught Iqualuq in the shoulder, knocking her backwards and sending pain through her arm. However, with her other arm, she threw one of her bolas at the earthbender's legs, sending her sprawling on the ground.
The other guard cried out for help loudly as he kept sending bursts of sharp rocks at the attackers. Lieutenant advanced, deflecting the missiles, but he could only walk slowly while doing that. Unfortunately for the earthbender, he was outnumbered, and Tozan used the opening created by his commander to bodily slam into the guard. That particular fight was over by then. But the Equalists' time was running out more and more. They had to hurry now. Their best chance of getting out of there was grabbing the metal and escaping before the guards could converge on their position. The longer they spent there, the more complicated a getaway would become.
As it turned out, there was only one door there – a thick, secure metal one located right at the bottom of the stairs. They had no key, and trying to pick the lock would take too long. So they used their last-ditch solution. Everyone ran back to the corridor, on lookout for guards, while Puja attached an explosive to the door and ran out herself. An explosion followed shortly after, and the Equalists stormed into a small room through the shattered door. It only contained a small table with a thick metal case on it.
"No time to pick the lock," the security expert said. "We need to get this thing away from here and open it later. Let's move!"
The Equalists ran again. Fatigue was setting in after a period of intense activity, but they couldn't let it stop them. Going back the way they came in wasn't an option. They could hear guards there and they'd be swarmed. Fortunately, they had come prepared. A generous bribe had resulted in a minor clerk leaving a small door to the left of the main entrance unlocked. It was just close enough for the Equalists to make a quick getaway through. There were two guards, of course, but they were taken by surprise when the intruders burst through the door and taken down quickly. The Equalists vaulted over the fence, the case with the metal thrown above it by Tozan.
Everything seemed to be going well. They had entered quickly and left quickly, leaving the security flailing about. However, all was not well, and Lieutenant knew it. Surprise or no, there had to be some pursuit, and the fact that there wasn't boded ill.
"What are they playing at?" Iqualuq asked as they all ran down a side-street. Her arm hung limply at her side; the guard's attack had done more damage than it had initially appeared. "I know the schematics and metal were kept quiet from the Council, but we did break in. They could still chase us and call the police."
The answer came quickly enough. Two hands made of rock came at them from the dark. One of them was aimed at Lieutenant, but he was quick enough to spot dodge it. The other grabbed Puja's ankle, pulling her to the ground. She struggled, but Tozan came to her aid, smashing the hand with the metal case he'd taken from the embassy.
"Damn! Dai Li!" Lieutenant swore. "Everyone, move!"
They did not need to be told twice. They barrelled down another side-street in the maze of buildings towards the river – which was their destination, as they had an escape boat prepared. The plan was to follow the river to the coast and disappear in the city's sewers. The opulence of the government district eventually gave way to the transience and poverty of the riverside. However, the Dai Li were persistent. Lights went on and people shouted as they kept harrying the escaping Equalists from the shadows. It was obvious they wouldn't be able to get away. Lieutenant ducked behind a ramshackle house and motioned the others to follow him into the temporary cover.
"Blasted Dai Li. Iqualuq, give me some of your bolas. Then run. I'll handle them and get back myself," he said. The thief looked at him in shock, but did not question her orders. She hastily handed Lieutenant a few of her bolas before joining the others in their flight.
Lieutenant gnashed his teeth as he stepped out of the cover and immediately had to duck sideways to avoid two stone hands. It was risky, he knew. If he was captured, it would compromise the movement. But at this point he could either risk capture himself, or end up getting the entire crew captured, which would be far worse. Those schematics and metal sample were too important. Without Hiroshi's inventions, the revolution would go nowhere.
The soldier peered into the gloom. He was hardly dressed for combat – he did put on some armour under the overalls, but they were hardly suitable for such an engagement. But an Equalist did what he had to. Now that he was no longer running, he quickly spotted the Dai Li agents, clinging to the walls of the building to the left and to the right. Some sort of earthbending trick allowed them to do it, he remembered. Staying on the ground would make him a sitting turtle-duck as they shot rocks at him. They would have a much easier time getting away once the police arrived, as well.
Thinking quickly, he ran towards the opposite building. He leaped as the rock-hands once more flew towards him, grabbing the fire escape ladder and frantically climbing up. The buildings were only one storey high, so he hoped fervently that he could get up there while the angle of the corner prevented the Dai Li from shooting. He was almost to the top when a rock-hand grabbed his leg. He managed to get it off with a desperate swing of his leg against the wall, before heaving himself up onto the roof. He ducked behind a chimney, produced his kali sticks and waited.
As he had planned, the Dai Li lost the advantage of height. There was no taller building nearby, so they could no longer rain missiles on him from above. They both leapt up the roof he was on, and Lieutenant had been waiting for it. One of Iqualuq's bolas flew from his hand, wrapping itself around the legs of a Dai Li agent. He screamed in surprise and toppled off the roof. This would not stop him, obviously – he would earthbend himself up there in short order. But it gave Lieutenant an opening he needed to deal with the second one. He leapt out of cover and charged. The Dai Li agent punched twice, sending two pieces of the flat roof at Lieutenant. Evidently, collateral damage was still a concern. The rocks flew hard and fast – Dai Li were trained well in using more subtle and precise earthbending techniques than most. After Lieutenant dodged those missiles, his opponent threw caution to the wind and simply raised a piece of the roof under his feet, trying to knock him over. With a desperate leap, Lieutenant vaulted over the rising block of earth and descended upon the agent. The only thing that saved him from being struck and possibly knocked off the roof was the return of his partner. Rising above the roof after launching himself with an earth pillar, the man sent his rock-hand at Lieutenant. The Equalist was struck in the chest and fell backwards. He got up quickly, but he was on the defensive now. He weaved and dodged around another barrage of rock missiles, before ducking behind a chimney again. But he couldn't hide; he had to keep them occupied and take them out before they followed the others.
The Dai Li agents had evidently seen through his ploy, as one of them turned around and jumped off the roof. Without thinking, Lieutenant dashed from his cover – which the other agent had actually begun to collapse over him – and rushed the man as he descended, clinging to the wall with earthbending. He threw himself over the roof as well, well aware of the possibility that he'd break his neck. As he fell down, he grabbed the Dai Li agent and forcibly pulled him off the wall. They were halfway down when he accomplished it, and tumbled to the ground in a heap. The Lieutenant did not waste the opportunity to put a few kicks and punches into his enemy, so when he got up, the Dai Li agent lay senseless on the ground. The other one, however, had regained the upper ground.
It soon proved irrelevant, however, as police sirens blared in the distance – increasingly small distance. The Dai Li agent earthbent a pillar of rock to launch his unconscious comrade into the air, grabbed him and disappeared into the darkness. Lieutenant didn't stop to question this turn of events and concentrated on getting away himself before the police arrived. The Equalists had anticipated that they might become separated, so there was more than one boat waiting on the riverbank. He ran as far as he could, despite his bruises. If he managed to get out and reach an Equalist safehouse, the mission would be a success. The political fallout would be tremendous, but it was Amon and Hiroshi's job to handle.