the week in review...
Some of this is a little incoherent...
Trying to organize my thoughts while still half-doped up on sleeping meds is irritating. I am going to kill Hank for this. I'm at the Mansion, for anyone who didn't already know. So are Domino and Cable. And Irene. I think I saw her before Hank snuck up on me with a big honkin' needle.
So much has happened in the last two weeks. Week? God. I'm still so exhausted, I'm not sure I can put this in any proper order, but I'm going to try. If for nothing else than my own sanity.
On Monday, I set out for England. I figured I could get Alistaire and his people to help me run down the two money leads I'd gotten. Most of the ones I'd had so far were dead ends. This guy? Was good. Damn good at hiding his tracks. I'd gone through twenty dummy companies, so far, and I wasn't any closer to knowing who had paid Dom off much less where the fuck they'd sent her.
By the time I reached London it was too late to visit Alistaire, but I did set my laptop up to continue running one of the search algorithms I'd started before I left the states. I also downloaded and sent out two search bots looking for any email relating to Domino sent anywhere within the last three weeks.
Once I was awake enough I tracked Mr. Stuart down, handed over my demands, and met with resistence. Luckily, Al has never been able to resist my girlish charms. By the time my hand was down his pants he was talking.
Wisdom's alive. I'd suspected, I think Dom told me. Now I knew. And, according to Al, Wisdom knew things I needed to know.
Things go a bit fuzzy here. I know I went back to the computer and ended up with a handful of contacts I needed to talk to. I hit the Crown in early evening and talked to Doyle and Pittman, who didn't know anything, but told me to watch my back.
I wish I'd listened better.
Ran Wisdom to ground sometime after 1 am. Fuzzy on the time because he made me wait, and I had to kick him a little.
What he told me wasn't pleasant. He said that Dom had run afoul of some of Black Air's old pals, but he wasn't sure which. After making him buy me a drink I gave him the stuff I needed him to do for me. And he did it.
He told me not to talk to Scicluna.
At the time, I thought he was being over-protective. I occasionally forget that not everyone loves what Excalibur did in taking down Black Air and the Hellfire Club.
Convincing Scicluna to talk to me wasn't easy. Getting in was. I... I'd never realized I had a capacity for things like that. I'm not sure I want to remember. When she'd told me what I needed to know, I left her. She wasn't bleeding too badly, but I didn't have the energy to check.
God.
I remember being sick in an alley halfway between my hotel and the ministry where she was housed.
It saved my life.
Never let it be said that ninja-trained shadow assassins have easy lives. My attacker would have knifed me if I hadn't doubled over to be sick. By the time he'd recovered from the mis-swing, I'd heard him and tumbled out of the way.
I was too sick to do more than defend myself and get the hell out of there. I'm still not sure he even knew who he was trying to kill until I rolled through the wall of the building we were next to.
Made it back to my room and sent everything I'd gotten from S to everyone I could think of. I digitized the audio file and hoped it would make it through to Fury intact. Hopefully S will get life, this time. Fucking bitch.
Wisdom's supposition that Gryzanova was behind the plot against Domino was mostly right. She's pissed off enough people over the years that when G went looking, she had allies.
That's why it was such a tangle of threads.
Belgium wasn't as much of a red herring as they'd thought it would be, fortunately. Although this time, the attempt on my life knew who she was dealing with.
I had to ditch everything on a train, phazed it into the wall.
And I can't remember how many days this took. I was on the run the second I stepped off British soil. S had more contacts than any of us had given her credit for. Al owes me a hell of a lot, right now.
The man I found in Belgium was a country boy, he looked like he should be on the Guthrie farm, working the soil. More blood stains my hands than I want to consider. He died in my arms, taking the bullet meant for me. I cursed at him in every language I knew. If he hadn't moved, the bullet wouldn't have hit anyone.
But he knew enough that I knew the states were where I needed to go.
It took me two days to get the hell out of Dodge.
If anyone ever tells you that flying in the cramped, nearly full section of an airplane with the pets is fun? They're wrong.
I used my mutant abilities way too much, although I was hyped on caffeine.
Nate was waiting for me in Tulsa, and the only thing that kept him from tearing the city apart was that I had the address for the person we needed to interrogate. This did not keep Nate from ripping the man's brain apart.
Considering what I knew the man'd done, I didn't care.
We hit Nevada with every intention of destroying the state if they didn't give her up.
Luckily, G hadn't planned on us tracking her so quickly, so her back-up plan to move Domino wasn't in effect until we were already tearing the place apart.
I left Nate on the surface ripping the foundations out of the building and headed down. The map we had wasn't completely accurate, but it was a bit old, so I won't kill anyone. Not unless they were part of the group who were still there.
Domino was unconscious and unresponsive, trapped inside some contraption that made me want to cry and be sick at once. I didn't wait for Nate to get down to us, I just pulled her out of it, phasing her through the parts that didn't want to let go.
It didn't take long for Nate to find us. Or us to find him. He took her from me and began using his tk to keep her alive. I disappeared to lay the charges I'd brought, and returned to tell him we needed to leave. By the time the reactor went up, the place was already in flames. There is now a large smoking hole in Nevada.
Nate probably isn't entirely aware of how we got from there to the Mansion. I'm not entirely sure how we did it without killing each other, Domino, or anyone else. There was a stolen plane involved. I think.
By the time we hit Westchester, I'd been up since Tuesday.
According to Irene, there's more to this, but I don't know it all. I don't know that I want to know it all.
Hank, may he burn in hell, snuck up on me with a needle not too long after he bundled Domino into the medlab. Someone else caught me. I think. And now I've typed all of this, I'm going back to bed.
Trying to organize my thoughts while still half-doped up on sleeping meds is irritating. I am going to kill Hank for this. I'm at the Mansion, for anyone who didn't already know. So are Domino and Cable. And Irene. I think I saw her before Hank snuck up on me with a big honkin' needle.
So much has happened in the last two weeks. Week? God. I'm still so exhausted, I'm not sure I can put this in any proper order, but I'm going to try. If for nothing else than my own sanity.
On Monday, I set out for England. I figured I could get Alistaire and his people to help me run down the two money leads I'd gotten. Most of the ones I'd had so far were dead ends. This guy? Was good. Damn good at hiding his tracks. I'd gone through twenty dummy companies, so far, and I wasn't any closer to knowing who had paid Dom off much less where the fuck they'd sent her.
By the time I reached London it was too late to visit Alistaire, but I did set my laptop up to continue running one of the search algorithms I'd started before I left the states. I also downloaded and sent out two search bots looking for any email relating to Domino sent anywhere within the last three weeks.
Once I was awake enough I tracked Mr. Stuart down, handed over my demands, and met with resistence. Luckily, Al has never been able to resist my girlish charms. By the time my hand was down his pants he was talking.
Wisdom's alive. I'd suspected, I think Dom told me. Now I knew. And, according to Al, Wisdom knew things I needed to know.
Things go a bit fuzzy here. I know I went back to the computer and ended up with a handful of contacts I needed to talk to. I hit the Crown in early evening and talked to Doyle and Pittman, who didn't know anything, but told me to watch my back.
I wish I'd listened better.
Ran Wisdom to ground sometime after 1 am. Fuzzy on the time because he made me wait, and I had to kick him a little.
What he told me wasn't pleasant. He said that Dom had run afoul of some of Black Air's old pals, but he wasn't sure which. After making him buy me a drink I gave him the stuff I needed him to do for me. And he did it.
He told me not to talk to Scicluna.
At the time, I thought he was being over-protective. I occasionally forget that not everyone loves what Excalibur did in taking down Black Air and the Hellfire Club.
Convincing Scicluna to talk to me wasn't easy. Getting in was. I... I'd never realized I had a capacity for things like that. I'm not sure I want to remember. When she'd told me what I needed to know, I left her. She wasn't bleeding too badly, but I didn't have the energy to check.
God.
I remember being sick in an alley halfway between my hotel and the ministry where she was housed.
It saved my life.
Never let it be said that ninja-trained shadow assassins have easy lives. My attacker would have knifed me if I hadn't doubled over to be sick. By the time he'd recovered from the mis-swing, I'd heard him and tumbled out of the way.
I was too sick to do more than defend myself and get the hell out of there. I'm still not sure he even knew who he was trying to kill until I rolled through the wall of the building we were next to.
Made it back to my room and sent everything I'd gotten from S to everyone I could think of. I digitized the audio file and hoped it would make it through to Fury intact. Hopefully S will get life, this time. Fucking bitch.
Wisdom's supposition that Gryzanova was behind the plot against Domino was mostly right. She's pissed off enough people over the years that when G went looking, she had allies.
That's why it was such a tangle of threads.
Belgium wasn't as much of a red herring as they'd thought it would be, fortunately. Although this time, the attempt on my life knew who she was dealing with.
I had to ditch everything on a train, phazed it into the wall.
And I can't remember how many days this took. I was on the run the second I stepped off British soil. S had more contacts than any of us had given her credit for. Al owes me a hell of a lot, right now.
The man I found in Belgium was a country boy, he looked like he should be on the Guthrie farm, working the soil. More blood stains my hands than I want to consider. He died in my arms, taking the bullet meant for me. I cursed at him in every language I knew. If he hadn't moved, the bullet wouldn't have hit anyone.
But he knew enough that I knew the states were where I needed to go.
It took me two days to get the hell out of Dodge.
If anyone ever tells you that flying in the cramped, nearly full section of an airplane with the pets is fun? They're wrong.
I used my mutant abilities way too much, although I was hyped on caffeine.
Nate was waiting for me in Tulsa, and the only thing that kept him from tearing the city apart was that I had the address for the person we needed to interrogate. This did not keep Nate from ripping the man's brain apart.
Considering what I knew the man'd done, I didn't care.
We hit Nevada with every intention of destroying the state if they didn't give her up.
Luckily, G hadn't planned on us tracking her so quickly, so her back-up plan to move Domino wasn't in effect until we were already tearing the place apart.
I left Nate on the surface ripping the foundations out of the building and headed down. The map we had wasn't completely accurate, but it was a bit old, so I won't kill anyone. Not unless they were part of the group who were still there.
Domino was unconscious and unresponsive, trapped inside some contraption that made me want to cry and be sick at once. I didn't wait for Nate to get down to us, I just pulled her out of it, phasing her through the parts that didn't want to let go.
It didn't take long for Nate to find us. Or us to find him. He took her from me and began using his tk to keep her alive. I disappeared to lay the charges I'd brought, and returned to tell him we needed to leave. By the time the reactor went up, the place was already in flames. There is now a large smoking hole in Nevada.
Nate probably isn't entirely aware of how we got from there to the Mansion. I'm not entirely sure how we did it without killing each other, Domino, or anyone else. There was a stolen plane involved. I think.
By the time we hit Westchester, I'd been up since Tuesday.
According to Irene, there's more to this, but I don't know it all. I don't know that I want to know it all.
Hank, may he burn in hell, snuck up on me with a needle not too long after he bundled Domino into the medlab. Someone else caught me. I think. And now I've typed all of this, I'm going back to bed.