Josh Nolan had awakened, luxuriating in the lack of an Ewok alarm system, about a half-hour before sunrise. He was mildly surprised to find he had not been the first to wake - a note from Brad lay on the table, explaining that Brad had left to do some reconnaissance. Josh smiled slightly at that - he recognised the euphemism for 'I couldn't think of anything useful to do'. Josh left the note on the table, and began his morning exercises.
Josh Cochran joined him not long after, though the American's routine seemed to focus less on a muscular work-out and more on breathing and flexibility - presumably part of his Jedi training.
Becki was next to emerge, dressed in some of the clothes she had purchased the previous day. She smiled at the males with an expression that was all too awake for the time of morning, and did a few stretches, in keeping with the spirit of the gathering. She kept most of her smiling for Josh Cochran, which was hardly surprising since Josh Nolan was busy doing hanging sit-ups with his legs hooked around a rafter when she arrived.
Mike arrived next, bleary-eyed, the bruises on his face having well and truly set in overnight. He saw the gathering, shook his head, and sat down to breakfast, chewing very gingerly.
Finally, just as the various exercise routines drew to a close, Vickie arrived, her eyes alert, her stance relaxed. She was holding her glasses in one hand, rubbing the bridge of her nose with the other absently, as if her nose itched. She sat down to breakfast, sniffed the air, and grimaced. "I think you guys ought to shower - this is gonna taste like your sweat."
Mike barely managed to stop himself from snorting milk out his nose, and Vickie smoothly added, "Not that I really want to know what your sweat tastes like." She glared at Mike, who began to pay strong attention to his glass, as if he'd never seen one before.
Josh Cochran nodded to Vickie, then turned to Nolan. "Yeah, Crispy, you stink. You're first."
"You're not exactly lavender yourself," Vickie grumbled, munching on a piece of toast.
"At least I smell better than a Wookie," Cochran said, leaning his head toward Nolan.
"Don't count on it," Nolan and Mike muttered in unison. Mike again had to fight against nasal milk ejection.
Cochran's eyes widened, glancing between the two of them. Finally, he narrowed his eyes at Nolan. "And make it quick, Crispy. We're moving as soon as I'm out of the shower, got it?"
Nolan grinned at Cochran. "Finally. I'll be quick."
After a breakfast subdued by Brad's conspicuous absence, the rest of Team Paris set off for the nearest Metro station. The new day had dawned clear and warmer than the day before, and the snow was melting quickly. There were considerably more people on the streets than there were the day before, and Josh Cochran assumed the improving weather had brought the tourists back out of their hotels. The more ominous reason he would discover later didn't even occur to him.
He took a few long strides to bring himself alongside Vickie, who was leading the group while studying a paper map of the city. "I'm a little concerned about this Brad situation," he said without preamble.
Vickie looked up at him with a neutral expression on her face. "What about it?"
"I hear he caused a lot of trouble before I joined the team. Crispy tells me no one was sure whose side he was on until he killed Thrawn."
"I was," she replied firmly.
"I've heard that, too. Are you still sure of him? Here it is the first real mission day and he's wandered off on his own because of some stupid prank with guacamole."
"Brad's just like that," she said as she led the group around a corner and onto a wider boulevard. "I'm not even sure it's about that. He might have gone off on his own even if it weren't for that."
"It still bothers me though. If I can't count on him to do his job and work with the team, he's useless. Might as well send him on back to Mendellia."
"Trust him. He may not do things the way we'd like, but he's on our side."
Cochran shrugged and nodded. "Okay, I'll take your word for it. But he better get in the game soon. I didn't bring him along so he could have a nice French vacation."
A snappy response died unspoken on Vickie's lips as they passed an alleyway and a sudden gust of wind down the narrow chasm tore the map from her grasp. Before she or Josh could think to pull it back with the Force, Mike, who was a couple of steps behind them, made a jumping grab and managed to catch it. "Here you go," he muttered as he handed it back to Vickie.
"I still don't see why we didn't just use a map on a datapad. People would have just thought it was some kind of PDA," Cochran said.
Nolan sighed, reluctant to get into this again. "You rely on disguised technology way too much. The less we have to get caught with, the better, especially when the local equivalents will work just as well."
Josh could almost see his point. In his pocket was his comlink, disguised as a cell phone. In a concealment holster at the small of his back was his blaster, disguised a Walther PPK pistol. About the only thing he carried that wasn't a disguised advanced technology was the earbud headset for the comlink. But still . . . "What's the point of having access to all this cool technology if you never use it?"
"You're not James Bond, you know," Mike remarked with an exaggerated roll of his eyes.
"Yeah, you're missing the suave sophistication," Vickie remarked.
"And his skill with women," Nolan quipped.
The group was approaching the Metro station now. A long line of waiting people came up the stairs from the underground station like a snake disappearing into a hole. From the faces of the would-be passengers it didn't look to be moving very quickly.
"What's going on?" Becki wondered aloud.
"I don't know, but I don't know that we have time for it, whatever it is," Josh said.
The team worked their way close enough to the stairs without joining the line to elicit a few angry shouts from the people waiting. Josh walked right up to the top of the stairs and looked down into the station itself at the beginning of the line. A group of three Gendarmes, one of whom was armed with a submachine gun, were methodically checking each person's identification. As he watched, they waved a young man about his own age impatiently through the checkpoint after apparently finding nothing wrong with his papers.
Josh rejoined the rest of the group a few paces off from the entrance to the station. "What is it?" Becki asked when she saw the look on his face.
"Trouble," he said quietly, his voice barely above a whisper. "They're checking everyone's ID."
"And we don't exactly have proper passports and entry stamps," Mike reminded them needlessly.
"We're probably better to just avoid this mess altogether. Vickie, where's the next closest station?" Josh said as the group turned to head back to the main sidewalk. They all stopped dead in their tracks at the sight of another Gendarme standing right behind them.
"Vos papiers, s'il vous plaît?" he demanded. Suspicion narrowed his eyes and crackled from each word.
Honestly, Josh couldn't blame him. They had obviously changed their minds about taking the Metro when he saw this man's comrades downstairs. That didn't change the fact that there was no way they could actually produce the identification being requested. "You don't need to see our identification," Josh said with a slight wave of his hand.
"Je n'ai pas besoin de voir vos papiers," the Gendarme said.
"We aren't the people you're looking for," Josh continued.
"Vous n'êtes pas les gens que nous cherchons," the cop said.
"You can go about your business."
This time there was a long pause. The Gendarme stared blankly at Josh for a long moment and seemed on the verge of contradicting him when Josh waved his hand slightly one more time. Almost reluctantly, the Gendarme finally said, "Vous pourriez vaquer à vos affaires," and walked away.
"Whew! That was close!" Josh said.
"It might have helped if you'd tried saying it in French," Becki remarked dryly.
"What she said, Padawan Bitch," Vickie said with a smile as she smacked Cochran on the back of the head.
Josh barely noticed, though, because he was busy pulling out his comlink and dialing in a frequency. "Seven to Zee," he called into the device as soon as the link was established.
"Zee here," the protocol droid's voice responded. "What can I do for you, Lieutenant?"
"I need you to check the French police radio frequencies if you can, Zee. There're Gendarmes all around the Metro station. See if you can find out what's going on."
"Of course." There was a long pause, and Josh could hear Zee fiddling with her equipment and listening to what sounded like several overlapping transmissions at once. Finally she retuned and said, "The city seems to be on some sort of terrorist alert. I heard a reference to someone arrested near la Tour this morning."
"Wonderful," Josh muttered.
"What is it?" Becki asked
"Anything else, Zee?" Josh asked, ignoring Becki's question.
"Yes sir. The Gendarmes and the Paris police are coordinating a large joint operation of some kind all over the city. There's been talk of relief schedules and break times, indicating they expect it to continue for some time. The locations they're discussing all correspond to a major landmark, or a transit point of some kind."
"Great," Josh growled. "Thanks Zee."
"What is it?" Vickie asked as soon as he cut off the transmission.
"Zee says there are cops at tourist locations and Metro stations all over town. We're probably going to run into this," he said, indicating the Metro station with a casual thumb tossed over his shoulder, "everywhere we go."
"We could start walking towards Cheriss's apartment and check the next Metro station along the way, and use that if there aren't any gendarmes," Becki suggested, bringing her attention away from the checkpoint. "I don't know why they're there in the first place. It's most unusual."
Mike grinned. "Well, dealing with the unusual's our stock in trade. That sounds like a good idea, my Queen."
"Thanks," said Becki, smiling.
Mike grinned at her ferally. "Sorry, wasn't talking to you." He nodded to Cochran.
Cochran rolled his eyes. "Okay, we go with Becki's idea. If there are gendarmes at the next terminal, we Force our way through, and get through that way."
"And what are the odds you run into a strong-willed cop who it won't work on?" Nolan asked, nervously glancing in the direction the Gendarme had gone. "It almost didn't work on the last one."
"Well, Vickie - you'd be up for it, right?"
Vickie looked around at the gendarmes briefly and looked back at Cochran. "I don't know - there's no good reason to go mind-bending cops - I mean, I think we should leave it as a last resort."
"I don't see what harm it'd do," Cochran protested. "It's the only way we'll get on the Metro."
"What, you're that afraid of a long walk?" asked Nolan. "For starters, what happens if it doesn't work? They try to arrest us - if we go along, we're screwed. If we don't, we're screwed. It'd be a total clust-" Nolan broke off, and glanced at Becki. "Er, charlie-foxtrot. Walking will be a hassle, true, but it's a lot less risky."
"The beatnik has a point," agreed Mike.
"Yeah, he does. Okay. We do it the long way, then." Cochran stood. "Let's move."
"Some serious stuff's going down. I mean, that's how many Metro stations guarded now?"
"All of 'em we've passed. And a few public buildings, too. Ever since September the whole Western world goes on lock down every time someone says the word 'terrorist.'"
"Damned weird."
"Well, I guess we should stay on our best behaviour, then."
"What did you say the address was again?"
"There you go, read it yourself."
"Dude - this is the wrong street."
"Tell me something I didn't know."
"Becki's got a crush on you."
"WHAT?"
"Well, you asked me to tell you something you didn't know..."
"But..."
"And I figured, you couldn't know that, since I just made it up."
"Mike..."
"Remember this if you get promoted. Promise?"
"Don't you have anything better to do?"
"Not until we find the apartment - where is it, again? Oh, that's right - sorry."
"I have a bad feeling about this..."