The rooftops of Mercy Island were oddly relaxing at night.
Given that most of the island had been a wasteland since the Rikti invasion, Arachnos didn't even make an effort anymore, and the Snakes had free reign, it was actually peaceful enough that Lily Abel was tempted to settle in for a short nap. She and her partner had set up an observation post overlooking Fort Darwin but, for two hours, nothing worth observing had occurred.
That had changed.
Thirty minutes earlier, a single word had echoed through her earpiece over the closed network that her team shared. That word, spoken by a man nearly one hundred miles away, let everyone who could hear it know that time was up on their operation. Ten minutes after that short transmission, Lily could see a helicopter on the fort's flight deck begin to bring it's engines up to speed. Ten minutes after that, the VIP of all Longbow VIP's re-appeared on the flight deck of Fort Darwin.
The stance, the stalk, the sway and the attitude were all Ms. Liberty. Or, as Lily knew, a reasonable impersonation. Whoever Etherfalcon had gotten for the job had done a masterful job of keeping the entire garrison wound up tighter than Imhotep but it was time for her to disappear before somebody started thinking.
Lily could see the pseudo-goddess of Longbow and her entourage of thoroughly deflated officers speak briefly on the flight deck and, after a few very proper and completely insincere salutes, she climbed into the waiting helicopter that would take her back to Paragon City.
Once she was safely on her way, her spell had broken. Lily could see the bright red sparks in the watch stations that hinted of completely against the rules cigarettes, and the slump in shoulders that had not stood at attention for that long in years.
Lily couldn't quite muffle her sigh.
"Teams two and three, eyes open. Here we go." She didn't wait for a response before she brought her binoculars back up to her eyes. Her view of the world shifted into shades of green as the available light filtered through the electronic eyepieces.
"Are you still secure, Spooky?" Lily asked her stealth specialist who had actually hitched a ride to the fort on "Ms. Liberty's' helicopter.
The woman called Carpenter laughed quietly. "No problems, one. I could be wearing a sequin disco suit, singing 'I will survive' and doing the Macarena and they'd never know I'm... oh, well that was fast."
"What do you have, three?"
"At least a dozen people heading for the front door looking like they have somewhere important to be."
"Can you keep close to them?"
"They seem a bit distracted. No problem."
The front door was the entrance ramp that led directly inland from Fort Darwin. During the Arachnos days, when civilians still lived on the North side of the wall, it was the site of carefully managed protests designed to show that Arachnos wasn't at all a repressive dictatorship. Those protests would regularly last all day, or at least until the Arbiters got tired of all of the shouting and used riot guns with live rounds to disperse the crowds. Now, since the capture of Fort Darwin and the 'liberation' of Mercy Island, there weren't any more protests. It wasn't because the people were happier, it was more because there weren't any more people. Anyone who had any sense had moved South of the wall where they could lead a reasonably safe, if not totally free and Democratic, lives. Those who could not or would not move, thought Lily, were probably discovering the joys of being cold blooded.
She shifted her focus from the flight deck to the base of the ramp just in time to see the people she had been told about walk past the guard drones, turn immediately to their left and walk three blocks to the second most vital installation on the island. The Dirty Duck.
Throughout history, wherever there have been soldiers, there has been someone who made a nice living selling them drinks. Although the amount of alcohol and the names changed, there was always one place that existed for just that purpose. Normally the Dirty Duck Bar and Grill featured reasonable drinks and even decent burgers, but the one on north Mercy Island didn't do anything for the overall reputation of the chain. By most standards of quality, service, and basic hygiene, it was completely sub-par and, if there had still been anyone enforcing health code violations, it would have been shut down long ago. It was horrible, but on North Mercy, it was the only place to go.
Lily lowered the binoculars and rubbed her eyes.
"Two, is there anything from your side of things?"
The last member of her team was actually the farthest away from her. He was looking out at the desolation from the window of one of the tallest buildings on the South side of the island, but he was also watching the Fort through it's own security cameras and sensor systems.
"You'd think they would have at least changed the passwords, " came back the rough voiced reply. "I don't have anything useful for you right now boss lady. Nobody is doing anything out of the ordinary. Well, nothing we weren't expecting anyway. I'm checking everyone who accessed the computers against the Zedarkov list. Just in case."
"Did you get pictures of everyone who left?"
"Yep, if you want the names, I'll need a moment."
"Cross reference those as well and get back to me."
Lily knew as well as anyone that over the years Longbow had suffered from poor leadership, a lack of true purpose, a perpetually ill-defined mission, and a somewhat checkered reputation. It had been infiltrated and corrupted by every terrorist group and every flavor of organized crime and was mostly little better than a well armed street gang but some people, like Lily and Etherfalcon and others, believed that there was still some hope for it.
Thanks to information gathered (quite unofficially and possibly illegally) by an ally named Akim Zedarkov, Etherfalcon had a list of several Council agents within Longbow. If, the theory went, they could be made to start jumping at shadows, they would most likely get nervous and make mistakes. That was the point of the night's adventure; to shake the tree so hard that some of the bad apples would drop and take a few others with them. But it was beginning to look like the night was a washout.
Behind her, Lily's partner (and possible bodyguard; Lily still wasn't sure about that) was making a slow sweep of the rooftop. They would be leaving soon and it was always a good idea to know where the local reptiles were before going anywhere on foot in Mercy. They wouldn't have to go far. A surprisingly comfortable safehouse had been set up inside an old church just a few blocks away. Once there, her team would be able to regroup, compare notes, and figure out where to go next.
Lily had finished packing her gear when Jake, her team two, started speaking in her ears again.
"There are lies, damn lies, and Statistics," he quoted with a slight chuckle. "Care to guess what the odds are that all of the people who left Fort Darwin are on the list?"
"You're joking," replied Lily.
"Can't make something like that up. It's not everyone we know about, but I'd be willing to guess that it's a fair chunk of the Council agents hereabouts."
"It'd be a shame to let a chance like this pass," said Sandy.
"You want to take on four to one odds?" asked Lily. "You people are insane."
"Nope, " replied Jake. "Just highly paid, skilled professionals. It's part of the job description."
Lily shook her head and wondered why that had somehow made perfect sense.
"Alright, " she said. "Everyone meet at the Duck. We're going to have some awful drinks with even worse people."