324/Fancy Meeting You...

Fancy Meeting You...
Date of Scene:	08 May 2017
Location:	Gotham City
Synopsis:	Summary needed
Cast of Characters:	Winter Soldier, Karrin Murphy

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Winter Soldier has posed:
Crime Alley earns its name. It's the kind of deep abscess throbbing in the heart of Gotham that not even the Batman and his ilk can fully excise. Its many alleys and tenements host hundreds of illicit transactions per week, from trivial and obvious weed trades on up to the vague machinations of international smuggling rings.

Daniel Posada has been a fixture of Crime Alley for some time, running a shipping and trucking company nobody has been able to pin down for anything concrete for about a decade -- though suspicions have periodically risen among Gotham PD. Mostly because of the routes he runs and the people he runs them to. He's always clean anytime any eyes turn to him, however. No one's ever been able to find anything, to date.

People attribute that to a lot of things. Nobody suspects it's because there's a deep dark shadow backing him up, with far greater reach than anyone could guess.

Reach enough to notice when Posada, he starts to keep some of the stuff he's supposed to move for himself.

Even now, Posada remains kind of a hands-on guy with his operation. He's got a couple warehouses where they mark and hold inventory, and even at ten at night he's still there, holed up in a top floor office going over his accounts, along with a number of employees milling around loading trucks. Nothing suspicious, outwardly -- at least, nothing that can be seen from a distance.

Karrin Murphy has posed:
There are a million things wrong with what Karrin Murphy is doing tonight, she knows it. This is probably Federal level, since she's pretty sure it involves smuggling in through international waters, but the last time FBI agents got involved in the supernatural, half of them turned into lycans and that didn't go well. She really didn't want them touching this. Not yet. She also shouldn't be here alone, but this was still off the record where SI was concerned and Rudolph was going over ALL her books with a fine toothed comb, so she couldn't even sneak away on a shift.

So. On her own time, without a partner, with her own weapons, Karrin Murphy is hunting down one of the most dangerous smugglers in Gotham. At least she's wearing a vest, she did take that precaution. And she's got a higher calibre gun that almost any cop is issued these days. One most people would say someone her size couldn't handle. Most people would be wrong. Dressed all in black, her blonde hair tucked into a black band, she hugs up the fire escape of Posada's warehouse silent as death. Almost two decades of Martial Arts training has served her well in more than one aspect of life and she uses it to move silently, not even making rust squeak or letting her boots scrape. She hugs up to the top floor, listening in on what she can through the open window for the spring weather. People were still present. So much for picking up evidence and running, but maybe she could get other information.

Winter Soldier has posed:
There's not much traffic around the fire escape where Karrin is making her way up, but she's afforded a decent vantage point of the warehouse floor below in periodic glimpses through the windows. Most of the goods look ordinary, nothing that should make anyone bat an eye, but there's something going on at the far end of the warehouse that looks a little more iffy.

The men there are taking much more care with what they're packing, and the items are tightly wrapped. To a one, there is a look of apprehension on their faces... the sort of tension that dogs men who know they're doing something they shouldn't be doing. It might not be obvious to the average eye, but to a trained one like Karrin's? It's loud and clear.

The window she's beside opens onto the top floor of the building -- which is, more accurately, a sort of balcony overlooking the warehouse floor below. The balcony wraps around the building, with intermittent doors along it that presumably lead to various offices or other administrative rooms.

One of those doors abruptly opens. Someone comes out, holding a file folder. He's looking down, squinting at its contents, but he's perfectly placed to look up and catch sight of Karrin through the window if he looks up and to his left.

He starts to. Then there's a distinct slapping *crack* -- the sound of a suppressed pistol being fired -- and a moment later, a perfect hole appears between the man's eyes. From the trajectory, the shot has to have come from the far side of the warehouse -- a not inconsiderable distance, in the dark. Yet flawlessly aimed.

A glance in the direction of the shot reveals nothing. But the people on the floor noticed something, and they're getting antsy.

Karrin Murphy has posed:
The blonde stiffens as she realizes her very good angle, suddenly, has turned into a very bad angle. A single look up and she'd be revealed to the man coming out the door. She's about to shift down, sink into the darkness and hope, when that faint crack comes echoing to her ears. Others might not realize what it is, but she damn well knows what that means. And the hole between the man's eyes. She blinks, both impressed and mentally cursing. She's out of time, it seems.

While a *glance* in the direction of the shot reveals little, someone else clearly knew more about this than she did to be taking out her target. So, Karrin decides to redirect her efforts. Lithe, small frame moving fast as two decades of training can take her, she's mow cutting her way up the fire escape and a fast jump, almost not making it, to the next roof over. SHe's heading straight for where that shooter should have been. She knows the exact angle in only the way another expert marksman and sniper would know, and she's tracking down that narrow window of an angle fleetly. Even if the Winter Soldier starts moving, her blue eyes are tracing all exits. She's determined to find who took out her target, but she hasn't yet unholstered her own gun. Nominally, they were on the same side. Right?

Winter Soldier has posed:
Karrin's quick leap to the next roof gains her something: a better vantage point on the spot from which the shot originated. It reveals a fleeting hint of movement where she expects it. Someone is sliding into the building through a window, moving swiftly, vanishing like a wraith just before she would be able to identify any distinguishing features.

Whoever it was, they must have shot through that window, thus hiding their presence from anyone looking from the building's interior. But why the urgency to get into the building? He's shot his target, hasn't he?

"Call over to Building 4. Tell Posada someone is here!" The call is distantly audible from the warehouse floor. Looks like the guy wasn't the one either of them wanted, after all, but now both of them know where he is.

Trouble is, Building 4 is on the other end of the row of warehouses, and it's a bit of an open stretch between there and where they are now. And not all of those employees are helpless. Two come boiling out of the warehouse and catch sight of Karrin moving across the roof, and they're holding guns with which they open fire.

Karrin Murphy has posed:
The woman is moving fast as trained legs can take her. She caught sight of the figure, but she knew she would lose him in the wind if she slowed down in the least. Or her. It could be a woman. So, while it gives away her position a bit more, the blonde streaks across the roof top and towards the shooter... just as the news that Posada wasn't the one down echoes through the the call.

It's a split second decision -- go after her man, or go after a shooter. Karrin's jaw sets, but she doesn't have time to agonize over it. Especially as those employees catch sight of her and she hears gunshots coming up in her direction. SHe curses, getting low and continuing to move FAST towards Building 4 because she had an original target and plan, she should stay the course.

The cross between buildings is going to be the most dangerous, and Karrin turns back just before she makes that other leap, firing off two fast, incredibly accurate shots. They are not meant to be shots to kill. She disables one gunner's arm and the other's shoulder, distracting them long enough that she's able to get across to building 4. Hopefully they don't have too many competent friends, because she's quite alone and has no one to watch her back as she moves into the hot territory.

Winter Soldier has posed:
The men are armed, but they aren't exactly fighters. Getting shot pretty much dampens any interest they had in being involved in this mess. They drop their weapons, fall and scramble for cover, and stop firing, giving Karrin a clear way through to scale to the roof of her target building.

But of course, if she's still after her target... so must be the other person who's here. Could they have gotten here faster than she did?

This building is broadly similar to the other, up to and including the few employees that pull guns and fire on her once she gets close. There's more of them in this particular warehouse, which makes sense because their boss is in the building somewhere, and some of them look like actual hired muscle. They take aim at her as she moves in, and while most of them are clumped together and can thus be evaded or shot back at rather easily, there's one outlier standing at an angle which gives him a great shot at her back--

--up until that suppressed pistol fires again, and puts him down with that same deadly precision. A glance up reveals her unlikely companion for the evening already striding along the top-level balcony, lowering his weapon after his shot.

There are no identifying features she can see, other than the fact he is a man. His face is impassively, implacably masked.

He hangs a swift left to vanish through a door.

Karrin Murphy has posed:
It's that very faint itching at the back of her head, the itch that every good cop gets a second before they are dead, which makes Karrin turn just in time to catch sight of the fact that she should be shot. She was almost shot. But she's not. Another shot blossoms through the head of her almost assailant and, instead, Karrin looks upwards to catch an actual glimpse of that masked man. Her brows arch, a moment of surprised and respect. She gives him a single, thankful nod, but their work isn't done here yet. Posada was still very muc on the lamb and there were still gangsters fighting back.

So, that interaction having taken a handful of seconds, Karrin rushes forward again, on the lower level but in the same direction that the man above her has taken, towards the more interior corridors where their target might be hiding. The only different operational strategy between herself and the masked man is the fact that she still doesn't shoot to kill, only to disable, but her shots are just as precise and practiced. For a short blonde woman who seems enhanced in no way, she's making some impressive shots. SHe dashes deeper into the building, searching for their target and hugging walls with her back now. SHe couldn't risk baring it again, especially as they dive deeper into a warehouse. She keeps her ears peeled for more action or words, trying to move upwards if she can get to a stairwell, but she's playing it all by ear now.

Winter Soldier has posed:
It's so hard to say if that shot was intentional to help her, or a shot just for the expediency of having one fewer gun-wielding man for which to account. Hard to say...

And there isn't much time to think about it. There's men firing at her. Her skill ensures they're put down quickly, however, and all with nonlethal shots. They're fortunately not paid nearly enough to keep fighting once hit, instead seeming to opt to count their blessings and crawl off.

This leaves Karrin, eventually, free rein to comb the warehouse. She's playing it by ear... and, once she finds a stairwell and gains up to the top floor where she saw the masked man disappear, there's finally something to hear through a mostly-closed door at the end of the hall.

"Y-you--!" An older man, low to the ground. Probably on the floor. Posada. "They sent //you//?!"

"Don't consider this an indication of your importance." The second voice emanates from a man standing, filtered through a mask until all the humanity is strained out, leaving his words as cold and sharp and remote as the peak of a mountain. "You are categorically a waste of my time. I would not have bothered if you weren't already in the area of something much more pressing--"

Karrin Murphy has posed:
It's not work she loves, hurting people, but the fact there is another high level shooter here tells Karrin that she's onto something far bigger than she ever thought she would be, so she has to work fast. She doesn't have a silenced gun, something that she might have to correct down the line but right now she's still trying her best to be a law abiding citizen, so the echoes of her gun fire down the hall are almost defeaning. Her ears are ringing by the time she's in the final, top floor. It's pure luck and the fact the men aren't actually trying to whisper that she can hear them at all.

Karrin hesitates now, not in fear, but curiosity. Something more pressing? She steps in the door, her gun pointed down to the ground but still in her hands and immediately ready to fire, should it be needed. She waits a heartbeat or two for the men to go on, but it seems her presence is enough to stop it. Finally, she clips out, coldly. "Whatever he is doing, it'll end behind bars. If you know where evidence is, I can be sure that he goes away for a long time considering the damage he's done to this city." Karrin's voice clips out, cold and flat, none of the mercy that she shows in her shooting is evident in her words.

Winter Soldier has posed:
Stepping through the doorway yields the sight of one man on his knees, and another standing over him at his back, pistol pressed to the back of his head. The kneeling man is wholly ordinary, somewhere in his mid-fifties, sweating and shaking and breathing hard. The other is wholly extraordinary... masked and swathed in tac gear and leathers, heavily armed and with long, straggling hair.

The eyes of the masked man turn to Karrin as she appears suddenly in the doorway. They are eyes that match the voice she heard: ageless and cold and unremitting. He is quiet for a long few moments as he considers her, her words, her vows. His silence has the timeless, patient quality of a slow snowfall over an empty field.

If he knows where any evidence is...

He moves slightly, and the slight hum of metal sounds incongruously in the dark. There is no indication from where that noise might have come. Both arms are covered up. "That's the problem," he eventually says. "Very shortly, there will be no evidence."

He pulls the trigger.

Karrin Murphy has posed:
The cop doesn't even wince as the trigger goes. Karrin half expected it, and from the outfit she's wearing, she's certainly not here on official business either. The blonde levels pale blue eyes in the triggerman's direction, studying him quietly in the echoing after silence of a fight that is now firmly over. She does not pale at the dead man on the floor, or the blankness behind his eyes. She knows, sometimes, it's better just to kill all emotion. It's certainly one way to stay sane.

"You saying he was the only evidence? He certainly was trafficking something into this city. Look..." Karrin exhales slowly, daring to take another step forward, though not quite close enough to step in that growing pool of blood from the deadman on the floor. "He was into... weird things. Dangerous things. A regular cop picks that up, or FBI, or someone... who doesn't understand? It could go really bad. I just want it handled. I want it out of my city and I want this place safe. How do you plan to make that happen?" She's not threatening him, she respects her own life enough for that, but she isn't running away scared.

Karrin Murphy just waits. She stares down the Winter Soldier like he was some teenage hoodlum she was debating letting off loitering charges and she waits for a good enough explanation to convince herself of that course of action. She might look small, she might even look a but young, but she's got the eyes of an old, practical cop.

Winter Soldier has posed:
Karrin dares a step forward. The Winter Soldier does not move or lift his pistol from where it has lowered after his final shot, but the stare of his eyes grows sharper with her forward movement. His presence electrifies, like an animal warning silently against further invasion of its space with the soundless baring of fangs.

You saying he was the only evidence?

His head cants, just slightly. Long hair obscures one eye, something which does not seem to bother him. "No."

He lapses back into silence as she elaborates that she just wants its handled. Just wants it out of her city, this place made safe. He studies her narrowly, thinking. He's carrying a SIG. No manual safety levers. Only the decocking of the hammer. He decocks it now, watching her the whole time.

"By tomorrow," he says, "it will be gone. All of what he was doing. All that was here. It was no longer suffered to exist."

Karrin Murphy has posed:
For just a moment, the woman looks tired. Like those are words she's heard before. Karrin's brow furrows, her own Kriss Vector, a .45, lowered to be pointing at the floor, but still not holstered and the safety is still off. She's a woman very much on alert no matter how much the fight seems over or how tired she seems. "And how do I know to stop it again? How do I recognize the shit when it comes through here next time?" She's not dogging him, the questions are genuinely concerned.

"Look, tall, dark, masked and handsome, I appreciate the back up here and I like a good clean up job as much as the next. Much less one done with someone who shoots almost as well as I do." She flashes him just a moment of a smile, challenging, appreciative, not exactly flirting but one might think it was, "But I have a feeling I'd know if you were around a lot. And you aren't. Give the home team some help here and at least let me see what the hell I'm working with so I can handle it next time?" She takes one more step forward, no fear in her eyes, no matter how dead his seem. She isn't backing down.

Winter Soldier has posed:
The Winter Soldier says nothing in response to her queries. His blue eyes look through them distantly, fierce and empty as an eagle's eyes, almost as if he is not equipped to parse or understand the questions she asks. How does she know how to stop it? How does she recognize it when it comes again?

It doesn't seem like he is unwilling to answer her questions. More... incapable of it. How can an automaton, a killing machine, answer the questions of a thinking human?

Then the impression passes. Some semblance of humor crosses his eyes. A scripted algorithm fires, a cover-story of a conditioned response that provides him with just enough humanity to briefly pass as another human. "You recognized it well enough this time, I think," he says. "You don't trust your own capability?"

His lashes lower slightly as she flashes that 'almost as well as I do' quip. It's an expression somewhere between amusement and displeasure: hard to identify which, without context cues from the rest of his face. At least let her see what she's working with so she can handle it next time.

His left arm moves, and this time the soft whir of metal is distinctive. At first it seems as if he's bringing the pistol in his left hand to bear on her -- but then he just holsters it. His head tilts. "I could," he allows, the sly smiling nearly audible in his voice. "But then I'd have to kill you right after."

He turns away, making to leave with long, quick strides.

Karrin Murphy has posed:
"Oh, buddy... You could try. I don't lay down nearly so easily." Karrin Murphy calls after the strange man with the even stranger arm. She could have sworn she heard that sound of whirring metal when he moved his ARM, but maybe there was some strange attachment to his gun. Still, she barely moved when he might have brought his pistol up. Never let them see you sweat. Prey runs. Prey sweats. She wasn't prey. So she stands there, calm and cool as she's been since she walked in the room.

"...This isn't over, Mr. Mask... You ever wanna get the real ear on this city, I shoot every Tuesday and Thursday evenig at Archer's Range down on 22nd. We could settle whose better then." Karrin calls, having taken that glint in his eyes more so as amusement. It was just safer that way. But, having dropped the trail of breadcrumbs and interest, she sights and steps back up to Posada, leaning over to confirm he's dead. She'd have a lot more paperwork to go through tonight...