THE BEST LAID PLANS...

"Life is what happens when you're busy making other plans." -John Lennon

? (Elysium)

Irina Derevko sits on top of a yoga mat rolled out on the ground, legs crossed Indian-style, and her hands pressed together and pointed upwards as she meditates next to the chair in between the captives rooms. She looks completely at peace, like things are working as she's planned.

It's about 7 in the morning, the day after Irina and Mitch Hayes kidnapped Julieta Romero, Maria Falk, and Emilio Ortega.

One of her favorite pastimes in life was yoga and meditation. She spent a lot of time isolated or in captivity, and yoga and meditation not only helped her stay in fantastic shape, but also kept her mind fresh when the doldrums of isolation started to set in. Another purpose of yoga and meditation is for those nights where Irina didn't sleep very much. Last night was one of those nights.

She stayed up late chatting with Julieta. She went and cleaned up after the kids, but they weren't ready for bed yet. So while they played with their Leapfrog, Irina went back and chatted some more with Julieta.

They talked about Nadia as well as Julieta herself. Irina kept her own matters to herself, but found the conversation with Julieta quite enlightening. She felt she knew Nadia more when the conversation ended, even though she wasn't there for her childhood. Still, she got the next best thing with Julieta's account.

It was an uneventful night in the captives rooms. Julieta read for a while before going to bed and Emilio and Maria went to bed after Irina told them her Twelve Months story. Luckily for her, the kids didn't cause much of a fuss during the night. Emilio got up to use the restroom once, but took care of himself instead of asking for help.

Her meditation is broken up when the outside door opens. She opens her eyes and looks right at the door and sees Mitch walking in as she expected.

However, he was being followed by Arvin Sloane and Elena Derevko, something she didn't expect.

Irina gets up to her feet and asks "What's going on?"

Mitch glares at her with an incredulous smirk on his face, but doesn't say anything.

Instead, it's Sloane that breaks the ice. "What do you think you're doing, Irina?"

Irina is taken aback at that and says "I'm just meditating. It's a good substitute on nights you can't sleep."

Sloane quickly fires back "I'm not talking about that. Mitch tells me you spent two hours talking to one of the hostages last night."

Irina just shrugs and says "Just making conversation and gleaning more information on how things work here. Julieta was very cooperative."

Sloane points at Mitch and says "If you need to talk to someone to pass the time, you already have a partner."

With a chuckle, Irina says "Yeah right. I've seen and heard enough of him in the past couple weeks."

"You were the one that insisted he and Cesar be left under your command. If I had my choice, Mitch and Cesar would have been left behind."

"I never said I never made mistakes before."

Mitch steps forward and yells "I did the job I was told to do! I didn't to a damn thing wrong!"

Sloane puts an arm in front of Mitch and pushes him back. "He's right, Irina. I had a chat with him this morning. I'm placing him and Elena in charge of guarding the hostages now. I need you elsewhere."

Irina lets out a sudden offended gasp. "Excuse me, Arvin. You don't order me around anymore. Haven't you forgotten that we made this a group operation after the failure with the Elysian Council?"

Elena smirks and says "That may be true, but me and Arvin voted to allocate you to a new task. 2 to 1, Irina. You lose."

Irina lets a small sigh out. She doesn't want to be taken off this task for strong reasons that only she knows.

Sloane asks "Why do you care about what we do or don't do with hostages anyway? You know what the ultimate goal of this operation is."

Irina snaps back "Don't talk down to me, Arvin. What menial task you want me to do?"

Elena replies "I finally made contact with Kelly Peyton yesterday."

This makes Irina internally worry something fierce. Kelly was tasked with finding Francisco Alvarado's army that went missing when Alec Derevko plunged a hidden blade into the back of his head during the Elysian Council invasion. Irina didn't want her to find the army for a while, and hoped that maybe she'd get lost or get killed by the army or both. She wants to gulp, but thinks better of it. But the possible finding of the army causes new problems for her plans.

Irina asks "Did she find the army?"

Elena says with a nod "She found them, but Julian Sark had made contact first. They killed him, thinking he was an intruder. Kelly's in control now."

None of the four know what really happened, that Kelly shot Sark in the back of the head because she doesn't do partnerships anymore after her episode with Tom Falk when they slaughtered the Alliance of Twelve. It would seem that Kelly lied to Elena, thinking she wouldn't know any better. She would appear to be right on the surface.

Irina says with a curious tone "So she found the army. What do you need me for?"

Elena replies "They won't follow her orders. They barely listen to her. They'd rather hang out at Francisco's former compound in Campeche, Mexico and drink beer rather than hunting Tom Falk. Apparently they want to savor life again instead of risking losing what they've reacquired."

"Ok, I'll ask again. What do you need me for?"

"You need to try to convince them to fulfill their purpose here. I tried, but they wouldn't listen no matter what I said."

Irina looks over at Sloane. "You're the best at convincing a stubborn group to follow you. Why don't you go?"

Sloane replies "I left early last night to do just that. They treated me like I was some clown. I went in after Elena did."

Something about Sloane's mannerisms just now lead Irina to wonder if Sloane was telling the truth. Sloane has a tendency to dart his eyes around when he's not being entirely forthright and he did just that.

But instead of adressing that, Irina looks around and asks "So where's Kelly?"

Sloane replies "Still with the army. Apparently she's got some of their attention, but not enough. We need you to convince the rest."

Irina looks at the doors of the rooms the hostages are in. Irina did not anticipate this at all.

Irina then says "I've been leading the hostages along, getting them to gain my trust. You both know as well as I do that you can either handle hostages by giving them false trust or by instilling fear in them. Well, I'm not as cruel as you two, and changing tactics in the middle of the game means you run the risk of losing their cooperation altogether. They won't trust Elena and they sure won't trust Mitch. I don't care what the vote was, I'm not leaving here."

Elena raises a defiant eyebrow and says "There is something going on here. I knew it."

Irina snaps back "Is that a fact?" She then turns to Sloane and says "When Sloane went to visit Francisco's army, did you see him go, Elena?"

Elena turns to Sloane and unassumingly says "No, I didn't."

Sloane flatly replies "I went."

Irina smirks and says "Is that what the gang members are going to say when I see them?"

"Why is that important to you?"

"Why is reassigning me so important to you?"

"Because I don't trust you anymore, Irina. Mitch has given me an account of what has happened in the last 24 hours. Your behavior has been peculiar to say the least."

"Says the man that showed up with a suspicious cut at a recent meeting and who has been a little odd himself when it comes to disappearing suddenly. You're redefining peculiar lately." Irina turns to Elena and says "Come on Elena, you're better than this. You'd trust him over your own sister?"

Elena lets out a chuckle and says "Oh don't give me the poor sister routine, that excuse expired when you turned seven. I'll give you some credit every now and then, but that's pretty bad even for you."

"You didn't answer my question on if you'd trust him. This man was ready to sell you out in Sovogda and succeeded. And you're basing your vote of support on hearsay from a worthless little shit."

Mitch yells out "Hey!"

Irina looks at Mitch menacingly and says "Shut up, the adults are talking."

Mitch shuts up, but doesn't look happy about that little insult one bit.

Elena doesn't say anything. Instead, she gives Sloane a pondering stare.

Sloane returns the stare with one of his own and says "You once told me yourself, Elena, that you wouldn't trust yourself. You and Irina are cut from the same cloth. What makes you think Irina is trustworthy? The evidence here shows that something's going on with her."

Irina cuts Sloane off. "And we have evidence that you've been dodgy yourself. You have hearsay evidence, I have hostages. I've done my job. What about you, Arvin? What happened to finding the Elysian Council?"

Sloane replies "They're underground. There is no way they can be extracted at this point."

Irina turns to Elena and says "Sounds like he's giving up, Elena."

Elena lets out a sigh, unable to argue that Sloane hasn't been dodgy. Then, she says "No matter what, there still is the issue of getting the gang members to cooperate. Are you saying you won't help?"

Irina shrugs and says "No, I didn't say that. I have to leave soon anyway to get breakfast for the hostages. I'll go down there and check on them. I'll even leave the hothead to keep watch. But I'm coming back here when I'm done and I don't care what your vote is."

Sloane lets out a defeated sigh and looks at the floor. "I guess there is no convincing you. Very well. Get there soon, Kelly's expecting you. Here's her coordinates."

Sloane hands Irina a slip of paper. Irina then turns and walks out the exit, not saying a word.

But there is a bit of worry on her face now that she's looking away from Sloane and Elena. She dodged a bullet when she convinced the two to stay on hostage detail. She doesn't want to leave the hostages for reasons of her own. But the big concern is that the army has been found. Sloane's trap will be ready to go if she's able to prod them into action.

And that cannot happen under any circumstances.

She also senses that Sloane's patience may be wearing thin, and that the trap may be put in place with or without the army.

Before she teleports, she pulls out her cell phone and thinks about her next move. That move is going to have to come quick. But first, there's the army to deal with.

Campeche, Mexico (Elysium)

Deep in the jungle surrounding the Yucatan Peninsula city of Campeche, Mexico lies the former fortress of the Lobos Rabiosos gang.

Stone walls surround the compound, along with thousands of trees in the dense jungle. One muddy and bumpy road leads in and out.

Inside the walls are a few buildings for gang members to stay in, along with Francisco Alvarado's mansion. It's a very well insulated compound that isn't overly lavish since this gang wasn't a giant cartel like northern Mexican crews, but its obvious that there was some money that went into its construction.

Irina found a beat-up Jeep in a parking lot in town. Among her many talents is the hotwiring of vehicles. She's had to do just that on more than on occasion in her lifetime, since she didn't have a whole lot of possessions herself and was never in one place one long enough after leaving Jack Bristow to make owning a vehicle practical.

After driving through about a mile or so of jungle, she finally gets to the front gates of the compound. The gates are wide enough to drive a car through, but they require someone on the other side to open them.

However, there's no one there to open the gates. At least, no one within eyesight.

Irina stops the Jeep and listens to the sound of two guys talking off the the right and out of sight.

"¿Sabes lo que apesta de estar de vuelta con vida, Manny?" ("You know what sucks about being back alive, Manny?")

"Javier, que está siempre quejándose de mierda. Estás vivo, no hay nada de que quejarse, hombre." ("Javier, you're always complaining about shit. You're alive, there's nothing to complain about, man.")

"Hay un montón de qué quejarse cuando no hay perras alrededor para disfrutar!" ("There's a ton to complain about when there are no bitches around to enjoy!")

"Al igual que usted sabría qué hacer con una chica si se le ocurrió a usted..." ("Like you'd know what to do with a chick if one came up to you...")

HONK! HOOOOOONK!

Javier and Manny finally emerge from behind the wall and see an impatient and maybe somewhat offended Irina sitting in the driver's seat of a Jeep.

Javier is a shirtless bigger guy with a few tattoos on his body, a goatee, and a shaved head that shows off a nasty scar running from the top of his head down to between his eyebrows. The scar would seem to tell us that his death was rather gruesome.

Manny, meanwhile, is fully clothed and an average sized man with just a black mustache, short black hair, and a nasty scar on his neck. His death was also probably gruesome.

Javier laughs a bit at Irina, then turns to Manny. With his deep voice, he jokingly says "Mis oraciones han sido contestadas, amigo!" ("My prayers have been answered, friend!")

Manny snickers at Javier and rolls his eyes. "Por favor, hombre, no es lo que quieres ... no con esa maldita cosa fea corría por su frente." ("Please man, she don't want you...not with that ugly damn thing running down your forehead.")

Irina, with a sneer, says "Yo no estoy interesado en ninguno de los dos. Estoy aquí para hablar con Kelly y qué imbécil es líder de su grupo." ("I'm not interested in either one of you. I'm here to talk to Kelly and the imbecile that is leading your group.")

Javier and Manny look at each other. Then, Javier turns to Irina angrily and says "¿Quién demonios te crees que eres, perra? Usted está en territorio Lobos!" ("Who the hell do you think you are, bitch? You're in Lobos territory!")

Irina stands up in her seat and says "Y usted está en este territorio, porque yo era el voto decisivo para que tú idiotas y Francisco del infierno. Y si usted me llama perra una vez más, me voy a tomar esta pistola y le enviaremos de vuelta!" ("And you're in this territory because I was the deciding vote to bring you idiots and Francisco out of Hell. And if you call me bitch one more time, I'm going to use this gun and send you back!"

Irina then pulls out her silenced Glock and points it at the two men, who are now very startled at the sight of the gun since they don't have one themselves.

Javier races over and unlocks the chain holding the gate together. Manny follows and grabs the right side of the gate and, with Javier, opens both sides of the gate.

As Irina drives forward a bit, Javier says "Mis disculpas, señora." ("My apologies, lady.")

Irina, still driving forward, turns to Javier and says "Aún no sabes qué hacer cuando una mujer se acerca a ti."("You still don't know what to do when a woman approaches you.")

Manny has a good laugh at Javier's expense as Irina drives into the compound.

Irina drives up the now-paved driveway past the barracks, then around the cul-de-sac that ends the driveway and stops at the front door of the mansion.

No one else seems to be around. Javier and Manny, the two idiots guarding the front gate, are the only signs of Francisco's army being here.

The large front door opens and Kelly Peyton herself walks out, having heard the honking earlier and watching for her arrival. She trots down the six steps that lead up to the front door and walks around to Irina's side of the Jeep.

Irina notices that Kelly looks stressed out and ragged. She also notices that she's wearing the same black clothes that she wore over a week ago when The Nine invaded the Elysian Council.

Irina plainly tells Kelly as she comes to the door "You look like a mess."

Kelly lets out a loud sigh and replies "These freaking morons are an absolute nightmare. If I didn't have this gun, they wouldn't listen to me at all."

"What are they saying to you?"

"That I need to mind my own business and just enjoy life. They just absolutely will not attack the Falks until they're ready, and at this rate...they'll never be ready!"

Irina looks around and asks "Where are they?"

"A couple went into town to get more beer, the others went to the beach. I told them to stay at the compound and avoid detection, but they don't care. Their leader, Jorge Campos, is still here, though. He's too lazy to leave."

"Wait a second, Jorge Campos is here? The guy that got his leg cut off by Tom Falk before betraying the Lobos?"

Kelly just nods.

Irina remembers Jorge well. Mary told Irina that Tom had an attempt on his life by a wheelchair-bound Jorge and an accomplice early in his prison stay for assaulting Julian Sark. This forced Tom into protective custody in solitary for the next ten months. Jorge also was the one that Sloane was being ambiguous with when the subject of whether or not to kill Tom in prison in the first place was brought up. Irina never got a straight answer from Sloane on that subject in the over five years they were partially submerged in the frozen Cocytus Lake in the Ninth Circle of Hell. Eventually, she came to the conclusion that Sloane didn't know what he wanted at the time and was perhaps just tossing around his thoughts to a man with an extremely itchy trigger finger. Jorge was supposed to be sent to a Supermax prison for a very long time. Irina surmises that Jorge probably died in prison, probably at the end of a makeshift knife.

Irina looks at the door and says "Bring him out."

Kelly runs back inside. About 30 seconds later, Jorge walks out with Kelly. Yes, he's walking now. He got his leg back sometime between his death and now. He's short and stocky with long black hair in a pony tail, a goatee, and pits on his face that show his age as well as roughneck experience.

Jorge, speaking in a gravely voice and in fairly clear English, asks "You're here to try to convince us again to risk our lives so early into our freedom?"

Irina gives him an inquisitive look and takes an opportunity to get an answer to a question that's been rattling in her head all morning. "Who else tried to convince you?"

"This bitch standing next to me for one. Then there was that blonde-haired guy that got capped in the Russian woods. And then this Elena character came by last night. Kinda reminded me of you, actually. You two sisters or something?"

"Unfortunately, yes. Did a man named Arvin Sloane come by?"

Jorge shakes his head dumbfoundedly.

Kelly says "No he wasn't here. Is he coming down?"

Irina just smirks and shakes her head. "I guess not."

Sloane lied and she knew it then. He didn't come here when he left the hostages abruptly last night. Where did he go, though?

Jorge asks Irina "Every damn day, this uptight bitch keeps nagging and nagging...she sounds like my ex-wife!"

Kelly gives him a scowl and says "Because this nagging, uptight bitch wants you to do your jobs!"

Jorge stretches out his arms wide and says "Do something about it, bitch! I'm beginning to wonder if that's a toy gun you're carrying around!"

Kelly quickly pulls out her gun and points it at Jorge. "You want to find out, asshole?"

But just as quickly, Irina pulls out her gun and points it at Kelly. "PUT IT DOWN!"

Kelly gives Irina a shocked look over having a gun being pointed at her. Then, she grudgingly lowers the gun after a few seconds and says "Maybe I should start making an example out of these people."

Irina replies "No. We need every man we can get!"

Kelly just hangs her head and sighs. "At least let me leave these guys every once in a while. I can't stand it here."

Irina thinks about it, then says "I tell you what, I'll come down and relieve you every once in a while. But only for a few hours. I've been asked to oversee this situation now, but I also have the hostages to deal with."

Jorge says "Look, make no mistake about it, Miss..."

"Irina."

"Miss Irina, make no mistake, Tom Falk is responsible for every one of us being sent to Hell. We haven't forgotten that, and we want to do our part, you know what I'm saying? But you got to understand that we never have taken orders from white people. When we're ready, we'll be ready. And until then, we're going to enjoy the freedom we've been without for a long ass time."

"What's it going to take to get you to move faster?"

"Guns."

"Can't do it. We're lucky to have the ones we have."

"You say that we could be facing some real bad mofos, guys that have turned hand-to-hand killing into an art form. We have to have SOMETHING to protect ourselves!"

"There's probably more of you than them."

"Probably? That doesn't cut it, senorita. If you can't get us guns, get us some swords, daggers, anything. Without weapons, you're sending all or most of us back to that miserable Hell! But if you do get us something to arm ourselves with, then we might be in business."

Irina thinks about this for a bit. She can probably accommodate that request pretty quickly. One thing she's noticed is that sharp weapons aren't in as short of supply as guns. In fact, she knows there's some Samurai living in the Elysium version of Japan. Swords are still used mostly for show while there's no shortage of knives, since people still need to eat.

But knowing that, she still doesn't want to get these guys ready to go. Again, she has her reasons.

"I'll get you the weapons you need, but it may take a while."

Kelly anxiously chimes in "I can help!"

Irina shakes her head. "No." Irina then turns to Jorge. "I'll work on getting the weapons you need. But you need to start treating Kelly with some respect. Like it or not, she's your leader now. She's my voice as well as the rest of our crew's. If I hear from her that she's getting disrespect from you or her gang members, I'm going to let her come to me. The deal will be off and you'll have more than one gun to worry about. But consider my offer as a way to buy yourselves some more free time. That is what you want, right?"

Jorge smacks his lips as he thinks about that proposition. "That's right. I can sell it to the boys. And I'll tell them to start treating the white bitch better."

Kelly snaps "You can start treating me better by calling me by my name. It's Kelly, in case you forgot."

Jorge just lets out a grunt, acknowledging the comment.

Irina nods and says "Then it's settled. Kelly, you do remember where we're keeping the hostages, right?"

Kelly nods and says "Yeah, I can teleport there."

"Good. Don't teleport there unless you're under duress. I'll come to you with any updates and to relieve you from time to time."

Irina then steps out of the car. "Now that I know where this place is, I can teleport directly. I'll leave you guys this Jeep for use. It's stolen, but I bet you guys won't care."

Jorge smirks and says "We still have the fleet that Fernando had left us. But those are big Hummers. The boys will like having some open air when driving around! Let me check this bad boy out!"

As Jorge examines the Jeep, Irina waves Kelly over. They walk about 20 feet away.

Irina tells Kelly in a hushed voice "Listen to me. If any of these guys give you trouble, kill them. You're right, it is time we start exerting some authority over them."

Kelly lets out a relieved sigh and continues in a hushed voice so Jorge can't hear. "Thank you, Irina. These guys are neanderthals!"

"But you come to me if something happens. Is that understood?"

Kelly nods and says "Of course. Is Sloane going to be coming by?"

"Not likely. He told me he came down last night. You didn't see him?"

"No! Just Elena. Did he say he came down?"

"Yeah. I don't think we can trust him anymore."

"You think he's betraying us?"

"I don't know. But he's watching out for himself at the very least. I get the feeling he's losing faith in all this and putting us in harms way while he watches from afar. I thought for sure he burned just about every bridge imaginable before he died...guess there's still one intact somewhere."

"What are we going to do about him?"

"Nothing at the moment. Just keep doing what you're doing. Make sure Jorge complies with our deal and starts treating you better along with the rest of the gang. If they start getting fresh again, let me know and I'll pull the plug on them."

"Wait a second, there's over sixty men here! What do you mean 'pull the plug'?"

With a smirk, Irina says "I have a contingency plan. But they can still be of some use to us. Just be careful."

Kelly nods and heads back over towards Jorge's direction. When she turns back to see if Irina's following her, she sees that Irina has teleported away.

? (Elysium)

About a half hour after leaving the loony bin that is Francisco Alvarado's army in Campeche, Irina returns to the site where the hostages are, holding two big Denny's bags.

For the kids, there's a standard Grand Slam breakfast for each. Julieta Romero asked for an omelet, Mitch wanted a Belgian waffle, and there's biscuits and gravy for Irina.

But Irina doesn't go in the door right away. Instead, she assesses the situation as it is now.

The hostages are still under her watch. But Mitch complained to Sloane and may have forced his hand a bit. Sloane wanted her to prod Francisco's army to get off their ass and get ready for the ambush they have planned. She almost did the opposite.

Irina bought at least a day with what she did just now, stalling the army even further. Probably at least a week in all fairness, but a day's probably for certain.

She still has the hostages and the army's in check. That much is certain. The only variable here is Sloane. He has a gun and Elena can get her gun back from Kelly at any time. Sloane may decide at any moment to lure Tom and Nadia in.

That cannot happen. Not under any circumstances.

Irina sets the bags down by her feet and pulls out her cell phone from her pocket. She looks at it and it takes her five seconds to make a decision.

The time to set her plan into motion...is now.

She opens the phone up and scrolls through her contacts until she gets to 'Blackbird'. It's time to send Mary Falk a message. Irina starts punching in that message:

The hostages are located at the former Charleston Restaurant in Baltimore, Maryland. Tom can teleport here, he ate at this place frequently when he was in Dark Cover. Side entrance, down the hall, two rooms to the left. Julieta and the kids are unharmed and well-fed. Sloane and Elena were here earlier, they may still be, I'll let you know in a bit if they are or not. Mitch will be here for sure, as will I. Bring any Il Credo Divino assassins you can spare. Upon seeing Tom, Nadia, and the assassins, I will give up Mitch Hayes to them and then, I will

That's as far as she would get. The message wasn't sent.

She had to stop suddenly because she heard a gunshot coming from inside the restaurant.

END OF CHAPTER