Chapter 5: Infestation
"FUCKERS!" Revy screamed. She tugged Leroy's shirt and pulled him inside. She took cover at the doorway as more shots landed where they'd been standing. "WE ONLY JUST GOT THIS PALCE FIXED FROM LAST TIME YOU NO-DICK LOWLIFE SONS-A-BITCHES!" the gunslinger shouted.
Rock was scrambling, he pulled Leroy into cover behind the couch. "ROCK!" Revy shouted. The salaryman looked at her. "THAT BOX OVER THERE, TOSS ME THE G3 AND AMMO!" she ordered. Rock nodded sternly and dashed over to a munitions box where he found a rifle and a chest-rig with extra magazines. He pulled back the bolt handle and made sure a round was chambered before he tossed it and the rig to Revy.
"ROCK ON, BABY!" Revy shouted. She came out of cover on one knee. She took aim at the approaching attackers, and she flicked the select fire to semi-auto. Revy took calculated shots down onto the street, leaving heads with holes and hearts broken… literally.
She ducked back inside and ejected the magazine. At this point the commotion had gone on long enough that Dutch and Benny had raced up the stairs. "What's happening?" Dutch asked.
"Buncha murder-hobos are chasing that asshole." Revy said, nodding towards Leroy, who was still ducked behind the couch.
"I see, and he thought we'd bail him out?" Dutch asked rhetorically.
"ONE HUNDRED GRAND!" Leroy shouted frantically, holding up a band of bills from his messenger bag. The outburst got the crew's attention, usually they liked to play with their clients first. "Half now, half on delivery." Leroy said, pulling four more bundles of cash from his bag.
Revy growled. She heard footsteps racing up the stairs towards the door. She switched the rifle to full auto before going back out. She unloaded two controlled bursts of fire into the man, who fell back down the stairs in a bloody mess, his compatriots who were following him not appreciating the way he had died.
"We don't have the time Dutch!" she shouted after ducking back in.
"No, we don't." the Lagoon's captain said, "We also don't have a boat."
"WHAT!" Leroy yelled in amazement.
"We were reworking the electronics." Benny piped up, "I'll need some time before it's seaworthy."
Revy looked more annoyed. "How long ya need?" she asked.
"Can you buy me fifteen minutes?" Benny asked.
"You got ten." Dutch said as he drew his revolver. Benny nodded and raced back down towards the dock where the ship was. Rock meanwhile was helping Leroy get somewhere more secure. Dutch took a position by Revy.
"I'm not about to see this place get burned down again." Dutch said as he checked his weapon.
"It would be a damn shame." Revy said.
"You wanna make 'em dance, partner?" Dutch asked. Revy got a crazed look in her eyes, and that's all Dutch needed to know. She handed him the rifle and ammo before drawing her Cutlasses.
She checked the chambers and nodded to Dutch. The captain swung out of cover and laid down bursts of bullets to suppress any enemies who were moving up. Revy took the opportunity to charge down the stairs.
The area outside the Lagoon office was pockmarked with crates and spools of rope. They didn't offer good long-term cover, but they would take a few shots. Revy came upon a crate, and she vaulted over it. A man was on the other side with a sawed-off shotgun and was expecting the move. Revy was quicker however, and she kicked the gun away as he aimed it before pumping two bullets into the man's head.
She stomped down and did a roll into cover behind another crate. Dutch had to take time to reload. Revy popped out from her cover and gunned down two more souls who had decided to peek her. She then continued to fire, keeping the attackers suppressed. Dutch came back out of his cover, allowing Revy to reload.
The slides on her pistols clicked forward with a satisfying force. She bared her teeth before diving back out again. In front of her were two longer crates that were stood up straight, plenty of room for a man to stand up and be fully covered. Her instincts told her that there were three guys behind there.
One of them darted out between the crates as she approached. He was holding a beat-up MAC-10 and he let it loose from the hip. Revy focused on this guy. His fire was inaccurate, but at five yards that didn't matter, she had to dodge. She dived out towards the man, aiming her two pistols out in front of her. She filled the man's chest with holes and his fire seemed to curve around her.
Her dive came to its peak as she crossed between the crates. She turned onto her back mid-air and aimed a pistol at either side. With a duo of clean shots the two men fell with a brand new nostril each.
Revy scrambled up again and took cover behind a spool of rope. However, there was another attacker on the other side of the spool. She reached around with one of her pistols and blind-fired until her mag was empty. The man screamed out in agony and toppled over, an MP5 falling out of his hands.
Revy eyed the SMG and took it. "Not bad for a punk bitch like you!" she taunted as the man she had shared cover with was crying in pain. She put him out of his misery with the SMG and looked back to where Dutch was.
The captain had switched out the G3 for a Pindad SS2-V4 that was modified with an ACOG sight. He was picking off enemies from his perch at the top of the stairs. He noticed that Revy was looking at him. He scoped in on her and waved. She saw his acknowledgement. Revy pointed down and then to Dutch and made a wave motion with her hand. Dutch got the message.
The captain ducked back inside and made for the doorway down to the docks. Rock had managed to get Leroy down to the boat, and the fixer was posted near the bow with a pistol in his hands.
"Dutch!" Leroy yelled, "The other two are down getting things ready, I've been keeping watch." he said.
"You best stay up here, I'm gonna get us started." Dutch said as he opened the hatch to the cockpit. Rock was at the console, doing a check of all the systems with radio directions from Benny. The captain shoved his employee out of the way and handed him the rifle.
"Where's Revy?" Rock asked.
"She's fine, but we're going now, she'll come along soon enough." Dutch said. Rock nodded and went towards the front of the ship where the crew slept. He placed the rifle on a rack and went back towards Benny's room. The hacker was hard at work organizing his equipment, which Rock joined in on.
Meanwhile Revy had retreated into the office. Dutch and she had done some good work, there were around a dozen bodies littering the ground by the office, but there were still an equal number of attackers left.
"Goddamn rats why're you still here!" she shouted before ducking out of cover and ending a man who was climbing the stairs towards her position with her stolen MP5. Despite the weapon's surprisingly high level of quality, she didn't have an extra mag for it, so she tossed it away.
Revy reloaded her pistols and heard a slamming sound at another door. Apparently one of the attackers had gotten the bright idea to try and flank his target. Revy wasn't expecting them to be that smart and only noticed the man at the last second. From her couched position, she sprung up and dove towards the office's couch and easy chairs.
She lined up the sights of her Berettas carefully as she saw the attacker's bullets curve past her. She put her right sight over the man's trigger finger and her left sight over the man's left knee. In one motion she squeezed both triggers and her bullets flew into their targets perfectly.
Revy landed behind one of the easy chairs with a hefty grunt. She got up and walked demurely towards the attacker. He was on the floor, yelling incoherently and nursing his now-gone index finger.
"Y'know that was a clever move buddy, if only you had an easier target." Revy said as she aimed one of her pistols down at the weeping mass of man. The attacker whimpered one last time just as Revy cocked the hammer, a delicious smile growing on her lips.
Almost as if it were a sixth sense, Revy felt the intense urge to duck just as she was about to pull the trigger. And against her worse nature she did. She bent her knees and leaned backwards, bringing her arms up and around to aim behind her. She saw a bright red streak of light shoot over her. The thing that astonished her however was that despite leaving a trail, she didn't see where it came from.
From Revy's best guess, being laid out on the floor like she was, she shot her pistols between the sofa and the coffee table. Her bullets didn't hit much of anything however except for an old box of pizza. Although she thought she heard a stifled grunt, maybe it was from the man she was going to execute.
Revy bent back up from her position, and forgetting about the fight, she booked it for the stairs leading down towards the dock. She flew down the stairs and hopped on board the boat as Dutch got the engines revved up. Soon enough the Black Lagoon was far away from the office, making for the exit to the bay where the Buddha stature stood, forever watching with its ruined eyes.
The one thing Hermione couldn't stand was disorganization. Ever since she was little, even the smallest things like the pencils in her pencil box being uneven or her folders being mislabeled always miffed her. Not to mention the herculean effort it took her to keep her two best friends, Harry Potter and Ron Weasley, on track to graduate Hogwarts on time. She even hated the word itself, 'disorganized', it lacked class in her opinion. It was too utilitarian, too technical, too… unorganized.
So, when she entered the lair of Albie Stanley's office to find folders strewn about everywhere, no less than three wastebins full of teabags and balled up reports, and the boldly placed coffee mug on the edge of a desk, she nearly blew up the whole Ministry. How dare one of her superiors be so disheveled! Luckily the old Auror was a tactful man and stood up quickly after she had entered the room.
"Good afternoon Ms. Granger." he said, walking towards the younger woman.
"Good day, sir." Hermione forced out. Albie waved out towards the Auror bullpen where the magical law enforcers were hard at work. Since Harry's last dispatch, lots of Ministry machinery had gotten spun up, and many of the Aurors were stuck verifying evidence though tracking paper trails and reading through Muggle news reports on the activities of the denizens of Roanapur. Although many might have found the effort to be difficult. Since the incident with the NSA and the Bloodhound of Florencia, Mr. Chang had made efforts to further bury Roanapur out of the way of the public's conscious.
Hermione and Albie, however, found themselves walking to the conference room where Harry's operational intelligence was collected in one place. To Hermione's pleasure Ron had the foresight to organize the room before he left on assignment, he knew his fiancé would be disappointed in the Auror Office if their main operations center was a huge mess. Ron wasn't there to see Hermione's relieved smile though. He was stationed in Brighton, heading up Cho Chang's clandestine protection detail.
That detail was doing surprisingly well by Ministry standards. Harry's report of the Triads looking to abduct or otherwise move the witch to Roanapur was accurate. With help of their Scottland Yard connections, the Auror Office had apprehended around a dozen suspected members of the 14K triad. The Muggle police were happy, the Ministry was happy, and the Triads had significantly reduced their efforts to accomplish this particular goal, all without Cho Chang ever knowing.
"Before we begin, congratulations to you and Ron on the engagement Ms. Granger." Albie said, motioning for the young witch to take a seat across from him at the conference table.
"Thank you." Hermione said pleasantly, showing off her new ring subtlety to the man across from her.
"Well, I'll just get right down to business." Albie said, "Minister Shaklebolt has so far been displeased with the progress the Auror Office has been making with Operation Loose Cannon. And after my own investigations into what turned out to be false Thai Ministry intelligence, he has had to step in personally to quell tensions between our people and theirs. So, he's asked me to brief you on our current operation."
Hermione nodded along, not really knowing where this meeting was going. Her position at the Ministry was mainly within the administration of the larger Department of Magical Law Enforcement, she was also a recent transfer, something told her that this assignment was likely the reason why. Not two minutes after she had gotten to her new desk than she had been summoned to Albie's office, leading to where she was now.
"Sir, if I may, why me?" Hermione asked.
"As soon as I find out, I'll let you know. These are just orders I'm following from on high. But from what I can tell, the Minister thinks you're uniquely qualified for this assignment." Albie said.
"Anyways, Operation Loose Cannon was started by yours truly shortly after the Dark Lord was defeated. Our mission is to track down and apprehend, or otherwise neutralize rouge Death Eaters who made it out of Hogwarts and didn't turn themselves in to the Ministry." Albie said. Hermione nodded and Albie continued.
"Before this current mission, the operation had largely been quiet after we caught up with a dozen former Death Eaters, we captured eleven and killed one, although he didn't give us much of a choice. Regardless, the target this time is a Thai woman named Malee Thucrit." Albie said. He picked up a folder from a neat stack on the table and handed it to Hermione as he spoke. Hermione was greeted by Thucrit's photograph and dossier, as limited as it was.
"We sent Harry Potter down to Thailand to a city called Roanapur to track down and apprehend this target a little while ago. So far, his progress has been somewhat standard, but the last dispatch he sent has some people in the international community worried about the Thai Ministry." Albie said, giving Hermione a copy of Harry's last letter.
"The short version is that the Thai Ministry said that Thucrit had killed some of their Hit Wizards during a routine raid on magic criminals who help Muggle syndicates. As it turns out, Thucrit is a decent duelist, and only two of the Hit Wizards made it out, their after-action reports are in that folder too." Albie said.
Hermione nodded as she eyed up the reports. "But, according to a local source in Roanapur, the Thai Ministry might have fabricated a Death Eater background for Thucrit, forcing us to become involved as they claim it's our mess to clean up essentially." Albie said.
"Well sir, I think it's quite fair for them to be pushing it on us. If the Ministry had taken the Death Eater threat more seriously before the battle at the Department of Mysteries, things wouldn't have gotten so bad. Why should we expect the Thais to fix a problem we dropped on them? It's not equitable at all." Hermione argued.
"That's a fair argument Ms. Granger but you don't know the whole picture yet." Albie said, pushing another folder towards the witch. "In there is a detailed report on my findings after I met with the Thai delegation to the ICW. I asked them for some simple things that would prove Thucrit's Death Eater connection, such as family records, travel logs, and any activity that might represent a form of pro-Voldemort influence campaigning among the Thai magical community. But at every turn they were hesitant to give me this simple information and even after they gave me their 'evidence' it was shabby at best and borderline fabricated at worst."
"So, they were lying?" Hermione asked as she skimmed the papers.
"I can't say that for sure. And the Thai delegation has been acting very stubborn about this whole affair, and my probing seems to only have agitated them further. I tried to mediate it on my own using a contact I have in the ICW, but by the time those talks were getting somewhere, the Minister stepped in." Albie said.
"Is that contact, 'Ms. Kirk', I see here?" Hermione asked.
"Yes, she's a brilliant diplomat with a lot to learn, but that's by and by. What the Minister wants now is a solid look at who Malee Thucrit is, and why the Thai Ministry is being so cagey with their intelligence. This is where you come in." Albie said.
Hermione's eyes went a little wide at the suggestion. "That would be an-" she began to say before getting interrupted.
"Hold on, you don't even know what I'm about to ask of you." Albies said, holding his hand out amicably. Hermione's fervor calmed and he continued.
"Seeing that we have our hands full here at the office providing security for a VIP and preventing travel to Roanapur, I want you to get an on-the-ground perspective of what's happening there. Ever since Harry's dispatch, he's only contacted us once during a very brief Floo conversation with our MI6 liaison. I'm not sure what they talked about, but I'm tired of being left in the dark, and it seems that the Minister is as well." Albie said, crossing his arms after he was done.
"Sir, just so I understand, you want me to join Harry down in Thailand?" Hermione said. She fiddled with her documents a little bit, her body not knowing how to react to the assignment.
"Yes, Ms. Granger. But there are some caveats." Albie said, "Your first objective when you get to Roanapur is to establish a safehouse for the Ministry to use, make sure it also has a suitable place for a Floo Network connection. Harry said that his hotel room has a fireplace, but that it's not a permanent solution when he spoke with the liaison. After this, you are to collaborate with Harry on his investigation and focus specifically on Thucrit's connections to the local Chinese Triads and whether she was or is still a Death Eater."
Hermione swallowed a lump in her throat, she wasn't about to refuse an assignment from the Minster himself, but she doubted her qualifications. Since the Battle of Hogwarts, she hadn't gotten into any sort of serious fight. She was also newly engaged, and she didn't know how Ron would react to her going around the world just after he popped the question.
"I know what you're probably thinking." Albie said.
"Try me." Hermione said back.
"You're probably thinking that you're too inexperienced. What I say is that you are an accomplished veteran of one of the worst magical conflicts the world has ever seen. Not to mention accounts of your efforts to destroy Horcruxes with Harry and Ron." Albie said.
"Speaking of, I also bet you're thinking about Mr. Weasly, and your recent engagement. My response is that he knows more than you do when it comes to this kind of investigatory work. He's been an asset to the Auror Department for a reason. When he finds out the details of your assignment, I can guarantee he won't hold it against you." Albie said.
Hermione thought about these two observations some more. "It's almost as if you read my mind." she said quietly.
"You could too if you spent as much time here as I have." the elder wizard said.
Hermione smiled, "I'll get packing then."
"After-Action Report
Auror Involved: Harry Potter
Incident Summary:
Auror Potter acted on intelligence purchased by sources within the city of Roanapur, Thailand to track an associate (known as Ritchie Leroy) of suspected Death Eater Malee Thucrit. While interrogating this associate Auror Potter was ambushed by Thucrit and initiated a duel. While holding off Thucrt's attacks, Leroy escaped from Auror Potter's captivity and fled to the office of transportation specialists known as The Lagoon Company. After fighting off Thucrit, neither Auror Potter nor his quarry faced any injury.
After tracking Leroy to the office/dock of The Lagoon Company, Auror Potter spectated an event wherein roughly three dozen local residents of Roanapur launched an assault on the office with the presumed intent to harm Leroy or the smugglers inside. After initial gunfire was exchanged, the members of Lagoon defended themselves, namely the crew's enforcer who goes by the name of 'Revy' and the crew's leader, who goes by 'Dutch'.
These two exchanged gunfire with their attackers to great effect, killing about a dozen of them before they fled on their boat. Throughout the course of the engagement Auror Potter, with the aid of an Invisibility Cloak, inspected the corpses and behavior of the attackers. It is highly suspected that these people were under the influence of the Imperious Curse. Given the context of this engagement, the suspected caster of this spell is likely Malee Thurcrit. Further examination of Tucrit's wand after she is apprehended is advised.
During the engagement, Auror Potter was struck in the upper left arm with a 9mm bullet. The util-"
`Harry set down his quill. His arm was starting to complain again, and it was a little past midnight. He had been lucky when he took the bullet, it went clean through his arm, and it missed the bone by a hair. Using the basic healing training he was given when he became an Auror, he had managed to close the wound and in a few days he would probably be fine.
He still couldn't believe he was clumsy enough to get himself shot though, and leaving out his attempt at stunning Revy from his report was a no-brainer. He wasn't exactly in the mood to get told off by his boss. The hell he would get from Ginny when she found out was going to be enough for him.
He was thinking about ordering some room service when he glanced over to the fireplace that was in his room. It wasn't like most of the fireplaces he had seen around England. Instead of cobblestones it was made of stainless-steel paneling and was just large enough to fit someone if they ducked down. He had made the effort to find a hotel room with a fireplace, a difficult task considering the climate of Roanapur. But the benefit of having a Floo connection has outweighed the extra cost of upgrading his room to a suite.
Harry was eying up the room service menu when he heard the fireplace crackle a little more than it usually did. He looked back at it and as he did the orange flames turned into a brilliant shade of green and the flames nearly burst out of the confines of the fireplace. Harry bolted up and grabbed his wand. But to Harry's surprise out stepped one of his good friends, a confidant he could go to with anything, Hermione Granger.
The witch brushed off ash and soot from her clothes and looked towards her friend. "You look like a mess." she said. Harry's face had a dumbfounded look on it and he relaxed his wand.
"Wha- Why are you?" he managed to get out.
Hermione meanwhile looked around the room and walked towards the bed which was cluttered with spare papers and Harry's sports coat. "I was recently assigned to the Department, and the Minister himself asked me to come here." Hermione said as she waved her wand. The papers and coat levitated off the bed. Soon enough a neat stack of papers landed on the desk next to the report Harry was writing and the coat zoomed off towards the closet where it hung itself on one of the wooden hangers.
The witch looked at her friend, "It's good to see you!" she said, extending her arms. With that the awkward tension seemed to fall away as they embraced each other. Harry stepped away and waved his hand towards the bed, where the pillows were fluffing themselves as the blanket had finished de-wrinkling. Hermione sat down, and Harry pulled up the chair from the desk he was working at.
"So, you say the Minister sent you?" he asked.
"That's right, I can tell you more tomorrow, you seriously look like you've been through it." she said, a concerned note in her otherwise excited tone of voice.
"Yeah, I could definitely use some rest. I just got out of a big fight. Today not only did I duel my target, but I also got shot." Harry said.
Hermione's eyes went wide and her mouth agape. "YOU WERE SHOT!" she shouted. Harry made a hushed motion with his hands.
"Keep your voice down, it's honestly not that big of a deal." Harry said as he rolled up his sleeve. "Look, the bullet passed through cleanly, and it didn't hit the bone. A bit of dittany and Vulnera Sanentur were good enough to fix me up. I'll just need to take it easy for a day or two."
Hermione pulled his arm closer and looked at the bandages that Harry had applied himself. "You ought to replace these before you go to bed." she said.
"I know. This isn't my first go-around." Harry said as he pulled his arm back lightly.
Hermione sighed, "How did you get shot?" she asked.
"Well, after my duel, I was tracking a person of interest and I got caught up in a gunfight. I had my Cloak on, but a stray bullet hit me." Harry said.
"I see, is the Cloak alright?" Hermione asked.
"Yes, it's in my jacket with the rest of my supplies. I couldn't seem to find the bullet hole anywhere in it. I'm not sure if I'm blind or if it repaired itself somehow." Harry said.
Hermione nodded and inspected her friend more, "Do you know who shot you?" she asked.
"Yeah, I even shared a drink with her when I got here." Harry said. Hermione's expression was questionable.
"Her name is Revy, she's a crack gunslinger around here. In fact, just from watching her fight, I wouldn't be surprised if she is magically sensitive." Harry said.
Hermione only looked even more interested now, "How so? Did she use a wand?" she asked.
Harry leaned back, "Not at all, she only used guns. But watching her fight was weird. I saw bullets literally curving around her. She also dove around a lot, and while it could be excused as acrobatics, it almost seemed like she was floating at points. I've also become a little familiar with guns while I've been here. The level of focus she must have to be as accurate with hers must be more-than-human." Harry said. Hermione nodded along.
"But wouldn't the Ministry or the Congress in the US have picked her up if she was?" Hermione posited.
"That's the one thing I'm getting hung up on, the magical detecting tools are too good. But I guess they might not be as perfect as they seem." Harry said, "I guess the only way to know is if she literally could cast a spell."
"But I take it she might not be the kind of person you'd want to give that power." Hermione said.
"I'm not sure what to think. I've only talked with her once. All I know is that she's as mean as she is deadly." Harry said.
"So, you think it wasn't an accident?" Hermione said.
"I'm not sure. She's not one to make mistakes. There's a non-zero chance that she knew I was there in my Cloak, there's also the same chance that it was just a stray. I'm honestly not sure at this point." Harry said. He felt bad about lying, but once again, the news that he got shot was enough to get shouted at over.
At that, Hermione decided to go and get her own room. The two decided to catch up on their official business in the morning.
It was the morning after the fight at the office and the Lagoon was heading back to Roanapur after they dropped off Leroy in Bangkok. He said that he had friends there who would shelter him until everything blew over. So, the crew left him, $100,000 lighter of course.
Dutch for his part wasn't exactly happy about this job, he had sunk a lot of money into rebuilding that office and the dock after it was destroyed during the "Greenback Jane" debacle. He was also a pragmatic and neutral tempered man, however. So, once he learned about Rock's connections to the job, he told the Japanese man that all the repairs to the office were coming out of his paycheck. Rock for his part didn't exactly care. To say that he was a modest man when it came to money was putting it lightly.
The best part about Leroy's escape was that Rock got to sit down with the man while in transit. Leroy filled him in on Malee Thucrit and her desire to get out of the country without the Triads or the Russians getting on her tail. Sadly for Rock however, the only further details on Thucrit that Leroy knew was that she was responsible for killing the men that were in the morgue, and that she wasn't responsible for attacking Mr. Chang. Leroy also seemed to be cagey about the method that Thucrit used, giving non-answers and dodging questions. Rock didn't like it, but it was all he could get out of the man.
But the thing that really confused Rock was the story that Revy was spinning him about her last moments in the office. She told him that she had been attacked with a red streak of light, only just escaping it with a well-timed dodge.
"I'm telling you Rock that fucker was trying to pull the same trick he pulled on Chang." Revy said, still not convinced that Rock was taking her story all that seriously.
"Revy, it's not that I don't trust you, I just don't see the motive." Rock said softly.
The two were on the deck of the Lagoon, the early morning light casting a supple glow in the water around them, making the cold steel of the boat a little warmer to look at too. Revy was leaning against a torpedo tube, and she lit up a cigarette.
"I was about to execute that bastard who flanked me." Revy said. Rock winced at the implication. He had been in this line of work for years now, but he still couldn't stomach how cheap life was. His heart didn't go out to the victims of Revy's skills, it went to the ones that were probably missing those people.
That's when it hit him though, maybe the motive wasn't to capture Revy or anything like that. Maybe the motive was to save a life. He wanted to tell Revy, but a small part of him knew that for all the progress she has made over the years of softening up, she probably wouldn't even except the premise of a motive like that.
Rock just sighed and leaned up next to Revy on the tube, lighting his own cigarette.
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