Disclaimer: I don't own Human Target and intend no copyright infringement.
So finally the day had come. After weeks of planning it was now going to be all or nothing. They were going to free Michele – or, given who their opponent was, going to perish.
"Don't die, will you?", was a frequent farewell wish they used among themselves before entering the action stage of a job and although they usually added it in a semi-joking manner, there was always a touch of seriousness to it, a bitter grain of knowledge that they very well might never see each other again.
Know your enemy. Study him well, find out his weaknesses and take advantage of them. Wise words from a true Samurai.
Absentmindedly Guerrero traced the intricate tattoo on his skin with his right index finger tip. As usual he had heeded Master Ryuu's advice to a T and dug deep into Innokentij's life. Problem was, this time around he had found no weaknesses. Not even a sweet tooth or some other petty idiocy. Innokentij was dangerous.
Luckily, the Master had had some advice for that unlikely case, too. If he doesn't have any weaknesses, get to know his strong sides. Then work around them. Never challenge someone on his own battlefield.
Guerrero rested the complete palm of his hand on his ink-covered upper arm for a moment. As he looked up he saw Chance on the other end of the room doing the same. Ryuu had trained them for these kind of situations. He had helped them to find the balance of mind that was needed to succeed in battle. And he had taught them to trust each other.
Chance suddenly looked up, too, met his eyes. Knowing what Guerrero was thinking, he nodded briefly. His friend replied with an equally brief nod.
Winston noticed the wordless exchange between the two and harrumphed loudly. Time was running out. This time tomorrow Michele would be sold out to the highest bidder. They only had this one night left to act.
"Working around Innokentij's strength" in this case meant they were going to go diving at night in a canal with a high flow velocity and an extremely low average temperature of 59°F. Since that canal, Smith's Canal, cut directly through the city of Stockton, CA, it was likely to have huge pieces of garbage on the ground – prams, shopping carts, bikes… The usual crap that accumulated when city finances were too tight to ensure a regular dredging. Very dangerous for a diver, especially if said diver was as inexperienced as Winston.
But Winston had insisted. He was going to tag along. Shame is a damn powerful thing. It can guilt you into stupid decisions.
Chance had pleaded with Ames that at least she stayed above ground, but she had pointed out firmly and, yes, correctly too, that above ground in this case she was totally useless and below ground they needed all the firepower they could get.
The thing was that Stockton in better times, when taxes had been rolling in thanks to some successful locally owned factories that by now had all closed down, had wanted to build a subway network, similar to New York's or London's.
Not exactly a bright idea when a city is mainly characterized by an enormous amount of waterways. Water inrush became such a hazardous problem (two construction workers drowned) that in the end the city gave up its grandiose plan.
What remained, though, were a couple of subterranean subway stations, disconnected from the rest of the world, left to themselves, ghost towns underneath the city's busy surface, buried and half-forgotten.
Guess where Innokentij had chosen to build горизонт's new HQ?
Right under Grange Avenue, unbeknownst to the residents, lay the one subway station the construction company had almost managed to finish. Interestingly it was the one at the most precarious location – very close to Smith's Canal, high danger of flooding, destabilization of walls, enormous corrosion rate of building materials… but the workers had drowned elsewhere, after heavy rainfall. The engineers at the Grange Avenue site had constructed an enormously clever system of sluice chambers to keep the station dry. Huge steel gates protected the station… still.
Tonight, however, they would serve as the team's way in.
You cannot simply blow open an underwater sluicegate. Not when the general idea is to enter secretly. Undetected. As quietly as possible.
They'd use a very small amount of plastic explosives to work a very tiny opening into the thick sluicegate that separated Smith's Canal from the first sluice chamber. The water level in that one would inevitably rise, but hopefully slowly enough to not show up on Innokentij's radar too soon. Guerrero had gotten them a special type of foamed concrete that would hopefully cover the hole at least partly once they were in.
From the first chamber they'd slowly worm their way through the next four and eventually come out in the short tunnel part that had once been meant to form the beginning of the West Stockton-Midtown line. Thanks to their anonymous source they knew Michele was kept in a small cell close to that tunnel part.
Once they had her there was no other option but to shoot their way through to Innokentij's supply shaft on the other side of his HQ. Hopefully they'd have the element of surprise on their side…
If the hole accidentally became too big…
If they were detected to soon…
If Michele was not in that chamber…
They had debated calling in the police, but what evidence did they have? And Innokentij had important people in his pocket. Had he gotten wind of any kind of operation against him, he'd have made Michele disappear forever, a risk they couldn't take.
The dark waves of the canal's icy-cold water lazily slapped against their rented boat's hull. Ames felt oddly reminded of the tropical island she and Chance had been stranded on mere days ago. The night after their return she had crawled into his bed and he hadn't protested. From then on she had done it every night.
It would really not be fair if she died right now.
Taking a deep breath, she put on the last piece of her diving equipment.
After entering the canal they had switched off all lamps on the boat, even the navigation lights. It now silently floated in the darkness like something not quite of this world. Scylla and Charybdis…
At Chance's command, they slipped into the water one by one.