Shoot to Kill, Part 1: Introducing Ginger Fox
Posted on Sat Nov 5th, 2022 @ 7:30am by Lieutenant JG Jane Sinclair & Lieutenant Alisha Reno
3,598 words; about a 18 minute read
Mission:
Insurrection
Location: Holodeck
Timeline: Before the encounter with the Nikko
In the magnificently appointed suite on the highest floor of the Parisian Hotel bearing her name, Angeline Toussaint lay asleep, pale skin barely covered by the slightest of silk sheets only but lighter. Blonde hair splayed over a pillow. One arm reached across, no longer atop the person with whom she spent the night.
The heiress began to stir when the white noise of a running shower suddenly stopped. She smiled warmly, if sleepily, when another figure exited the bathroom in a towel.
Jane Sinclair, aka Agent 007 of British Secret Service, grinned at the beauty on the bed before making her way to the suite’s walk-in closet.
In the canon of the game, Jane (her character literally James Bond, reprogrammed as a gay woman instead of a straight man, and all characters responding to her the same way they would him) and Angeline had made passionate love before falling asleep after she rescued the heiress from thugs working for a ‘Mr. Graham.’ In reality, the sex scene faded to black and the intro music began to play. When she reactivated the holodeck, the first Act was starting, set the following morning.
Jane (the real Jane, not the character) had fiddled with the programming shortly before starting this evening, the main change being that her girlfriend was joining her later. One NPC had been removed, and would instead be played by Alisha Reno. A text package of relevant character information had been sent Alisha’s way, none of which Jane had seen. It would truly be a surprise. All she knew was that she’d come across Alisha in about thirty minutes to an hour.
Looking back over at Angeline, who stared up toward the closet, Jane was tempted to drop her towel and go back for another snog. She probably had time, and a quickie before business would be within character. But she and Alisha hadn’t had talked about their expectations of each other around monogamy, or whether holodeck characters ‘counted.’ So instead, she began to get dressed. “I suppose I should ask," she said from her side of the closet, "not everyone at the expo is on the side of the angels, are they?"
"Asks the woman who killed two men with a bottle of champagne and the glass it came with," Angeline replied, rolling onto her back. The harshness of her words was lost in the beauty of her Parisian accent. "You're hardly one to talk about good versus bad, Ms. Sinclair."
"You're alive, aren't you?" Jane quipped back. "And I'm not implying anything about you or your father right now, am I? But I need to know who those men were who attacked us last night. One of them mentioned a Mr. Graham."
The blonde in the bed let out a sigh. "Carter Graham. He wants to provide security for my father's hotel and his assets abroad, and get preferential treatment in the expo, but we don't trust him."
Jane emerged from the walk-in closet in a stylish business suit -- white shirt, grey jacket, grey skirt, black pantyhose, and black flats, obtained authentically from a tailor on Spacedock. Also procured was a leather holster, hidden at the left breast. She couldn’t get an authentic weapon, but the holodeck provided Sinclair with Bond’s weapon of choice, the Walther-PPK pistol, and even though she was a decent shot, the holodeck targeting assist system made her a badass with it. The holodeck also provided her Omega wristwatch, currently a simple model but Jane knew that Bond stories often featured tricked out watches, and an era-appropriate mobile phone which reminded her of a 23rd century communicator.
“Shall I order breakfast?” Jane asked, raising an eyebrow and flashing her charming smile. She stepped closer to the bed and bent down, taking Angeline’s lips with her own.
“Mmm, oui (yes),” said the Frenchwoman as the kiss broke. “Then come join me. Just for a moment.”
Jane let a hand trail along Angeline’s soft skin before leaving the bedside and going to the phone near the desk. The woman in bed stretched and rolled over as the spy picked up the telephone and dialed room service.
“Luxury tier breakfast, with champagne sunrise, please,” she ordered.
“For two, Mademoiselle Sinclair?”
“No. For one.” Without another word, she hung up and left the hotel room.
“Carter Graham.” This was Bill Tanner, Chief of Staff to Section Chief M, speaking to Jane over the mobile phone. “Owner of Graham Securities, a private security company based in London. Set to market lots of new technology at the Expo.”
“He's not a person of interest at this time, Sinclair.” This was M. An older woman, Jane knew that M, her superior officer, was a badass from the work she did in the Cold War. How much of the collapse of the Soviet Union could be directly attributable to her would never be known.
“But if he has thugs trying to intimidate the Toussaints,” Jane noted, “perhaps he's less innocent than we think.”
“He isn't to be touched, 007. But check out his people on the ground.”
“According to flight records, he sent twelve people to the Expo,” added Tanner.
“Ten now,” quipped Jane as she flipped her phone closed and walked into the main exposition hall of the Toussaint Hotel.
The 2004 International Arms Expo was packed to the brim with every conceivable need an army or private security firm may want, need, or covet. Professional and legal arms dealers, whether selling handguns or missiles, trucks, tanks, or jets, all had booths, as did dozens of corporations selling their uniforms, protective gear, and other technology that improves humanity's ability to kill on the battlefield. Milling between the booths were representatives from more than half the world's governments, the procurement officers whose job it was to find the best military hardware and software to advance their state's agenda.
Jane Sinclair moved through the crowds as if she belonged there. Her credentials gave her full access, and being experienced with the world of war, of weapons, and of espionage, she could navigate the space as well as any of the procurement officers or vendors. It didn't take her long to find the booth of Graham Securities along the outer wall, occupied by two experts guiding some dignitaries through their catalogue while a pair of women, 'Booth Babes', if Jane remembered the term correctly, charmed some others as they waited their turns.
Out of the corner of her eye, Jane caught movement. Three large men leading a woman toward a door, into what Jane assumed was a backstage area. And the woman looked mighty familiar.
Alisha caught a glimpse of a well-fitted suit as she led the three men towards the door, one of them jostling her arm that she tore away from him "Let go of me." She hissed at him, throwing him a glance that dared him to take a hold of her just one more time. "I'm coming, I'm coming." Another glance around... No, no one had heard her and she reached up to brush some of the bright red hair the character of Ginger Fox came with, tucking it behind her ear. Her eyes dashed around and the man behind her bumped into her once again, causing her to stumble in her heels as the third one opened the door and ushered her through, one wide eye flashing around as she left the large room.
Jane checked to make sure no one was watching her. There were guards, who seemed focused on stopping people from going behind the booths; no one was watching the back area itself.
The spy smiled and gently slipped the watch off her wrist. She understood it to be worth a lot of money, even if she lacked much knowledge of the concept. She walked against the flow of the crowd until she was just a bit away from the Graham booth and let the watch fall to the floor.
As expected, someone in the crowd stopped to pick up the expensive watch, which caused a cascade of people behind him to trip and fall. The nearest guard left his post to investigate the disturbance, allowing Jane to sneak behind and follow where the men had taken the redhead.
In the back, she saw it all. Three large men, each visibly armed, cornering a beautiful redhead that closely resembled Alisha Reno.
She acted without hesitation. "Maybe you should leave her alone."
There was a sharp intake of breath from the redhead as a single wide eye peered around one of the large men. The men themselves acted rapidly themselves, one spinning in place, hand reaching for the gun under his coat, but not pulling it out yet as he noted the newcomer not reaching for a weapon herself. That didn't stop one of the men from grabbing the redhead roughly and pulling her around in front of him, making her stumble on her high heels. The third stepped to the side, also reaching for his weapon, but it was the first one, closest to Jane that spoke, "Perhaps you should leave before you get hurt, girl."
From her place with an arm across her chest, something went through the redhead's eyes as she adjusted to the situation, a look of shock on her face. A pink tongue came out to wet her lips as she looked at Jane and they moved noiselessly in a single word: 'Help.'
Jane couldn't get to her weapon in time. The others were too close to theirs. As before, she needed a distraction.
She switched her focus to the empty hall behind the aggressors and showed relief on her face. "Thank god you're here, officers," she said, which prompted them to turn away. They immediately realized they'd been duped but by that point Jane's gun was out and one was down. Another got a single shot off, but it went wide, while Jane's didn't miss.
The third held his pistol to his hostage's head as he stared down Jane, his eyes opened wide as his compatriots slumped to the ground and his grip tightened on Alisha as he stared at her. "Screw this, I'm not being paid enough to get killed over this!" He dug the muzzle of his gun into Alisha's temple, causing her to wince in discomfort, "You're going to step away from that door or Girlie here gets her brains splattered across the room."
Jane held her gaze, and her weapon, on the surviving gunman, but said nothing. Her icy stare said it all.
He considered for only a moment, alternating his aim between her and Alisha, "Tell you what, you let me out of here in one piece, promise not to come after me and I'll give you the person behind a plot to kill a helluva lot of people." He again moved his gun from Alisha's temple to swing it towards Jane when the redhead made her move. She released the arm that held her captive with her hands and reached for his arm, even as the tip of her heel came down on his inner ankle. He grunt-screamed in pain as his right ankle buckled, while her right hand closed around his wrist and her left hand clenched into a fist and swung as hard as it could in a backhand to his groin.
He bent forward slightly, grip loosening on her and the gun at the explosion of pain and her left hand came back up to smack him in his face and she wrenched the gun from his hand and broke the now truly loosened grip he had around her chest. Both hands came together on the gun, adjusting it to a proper grip as she took a step away and turned. Her face changed for a moment from panic to determination as she didn't hesitate with her trigger discipline and put one round into his face from the range of one foot, then two more far wilder shots that hit him in the shoulder and grazed him.
The redhead's face turned back into terror as he crumpled to the ground and she let the gun fall out of her hands as she let her legs wobble underneath her and she took two wavering steps back before she collapsed to the ground and began to cry.
Jane rushed forward, holstering her weapon, and crouched down to hold the crying redhead by the shoulders. "Are you hurt?" she asked, firmly and loudly to break her away from her tears. Crying was fine, but they had to get out of there. Someone probably heard the gunshots.
Alisha shook her head and looked up at Jane with tears streaming from her eyes. She paused for half a moment to wink deliberately at her girlfriend, just to make sure the pilot knew that she was acting in the best traditions of role-playing, then squeezed her eyes shut again with a sob, "No, I-I-I'm fine, I was told that if-if I made a scene, they'd kill me!" Her voice was a flawless Australian accent, "Wh-who are you?"
"We need to get out of here," Jane said, helping the woman to her feet. They walked together toward a service exit that would lead outside to the street and away from the bodies. "I'm Sinclair. Jane Sinclair." She couldn't help but smile at getting to say the line, but then got back into character and continued hurrying the girl away.
Alisha stumbled as she half-turned back to look at the three bodies on the ground. To make sure they were dead and not going to come after them, then turned in her high heels at the tug from Jane, "I-I'm Ginger, Ginger Fox." She mumbled in a pale imitation of Jane's use of 'the line' that she'd smiled inwardly about, "I'm a microbiologist from the Royal Institute, I... I... Thank you, Jane, I would have been kidnapped without you!" She clung hard to Jane's arm.
“Come on,” Jane said, conscious of the way in which Ginger clutched her. She looked to see if there was anyone else in the area before pulling Ginger away from the bodies and toward an emergency exit.
They rejoined the crowd in the hotel convention centre and became anonymous among the crowd.
“That was very stupid what you did back there,” Jane observed. “Very brave, but very stupid. Next time let the professionals handle it.”
"Thanks..." Ginger mumbled softly, not daring to release Jane's arm, though it loosened considerably as they were consumed by the crowd, "I, I didn't think that I had much of a choice... I saw an opportunity and didn't even think about it... Wh-where are you taking me?" Her grip tightened again, "Somewhere away from here? What if they had friends?"
“They probably do,” Jane agreed. “Which is why we’re leaving. This way.”
They got into the car park, just as two more men, wearing suits very similar to those sported by the thugs who’d almost kidnapped Ginger, spotted them. “Run!”
Jane pulled Ginger in between parked cars as bullets impacted concrete pillars and shattered car windows.
Ginger let Jane guide her, it was after all her show and she had her part to play in it, "How much farther?"
“Almost there,” Jane said, and she smiled when she saw it. It was instantly recognizable; in a car park full of expensive cars, one stood out from the rest.
The profile said BMW Z8. She didn’t know what it meant, but she knew she was in love — and was glad Takumi had shown her a few street racing tricks.
Keys in hand, she remotely unlocked the doors and shooed Ginger toward the passenger side before jumping in herself, starting it, and pulling out of the parking spot. “Keep your head down!”
Out of character, Jane couldn’t hide a grin as the James Bond theme began to play.
As she ducked as low as possible to keep herself from being seen or targetted by the gunmen, Alisha Reno, aka-Ginger Fox, allowed herself a smile. Oh yes, this would be fun! this wasn't the first time she'd been a Bond Girl, but this one would be far more interesting than the one she had already been in.
The car raced through Paris's narrow streets, weaving between tightly packed buildings and narrowly avoiding tourists. Behind them, two black cars gave chase.
Machine gun fire crackled along the back windshield, thankfully bulletproof.
Jane couldn't use her gun here, or employ any of the car's weapons and gadgets. There were just too many people. But she had a few tricks up her sleeve.
A quick right down an alley caught the lead chaser unaware, causing him to crash into a restaurant.
The alley led down, and Jane knew exactly where. She knew this would be tricky, but if she timed it right...
As the building cleared, she made a sharp left and down some stairs toward a pedestrian path which lined the Seine. Her chaser wasn't so lucky. He tried to turn but he went over the bank and straight into the river.
It wasn't long before they found a roadway back up to street level. They drove slowly and quietly for a few minutes, just until they could find a quiet side street where they could park and talk.
"Are you alright?" Jane asked her passenger.
Ginger nodded as she sat back in the comfortable car, glancing over her shoulder to look at the rear windshield and how it was spackled with bullet impacts. A quick gauge of it told her that she would have been missed if one had penetrated, "Thank you, Miss Sinclair," The accent was thickly Down Under, "I think I know why they wanted me, you see, I was telling you I was a microbiologist for the R-Royal Institute, but I was here to give a presentation to some senior government officials about biological warfare techniques practiced by Russia and what remains of their Warsaw Pact allies. I was interested in some of the exhibits in there, my father was Aussie SAS you see, and someone must have recognized me or something."
“Well, we can’t go back there,” Jane replied. “I’ll get you back to London, and we’ll have someone clear out your hotel room and ship your things home. The presentation, is it on you now, or back at the Toussaint?”
"Encrypted laptop, in my room safe." Ginger admitted, "I've got all the information up in my head as well, plus I uploaded a copy to the Institute's secure databanks for them to scan for viruses and the like. No one is going to guess the six digit key to the safe, not unless they're really lucky. But if we can't go back to the hotel, where will we go?"
Jane nodded at Ginger's answer. The laptop would be safe until the end of the expo, when someone could exfil it safely. All that was left was making sure Ginger was safe. "I know a place," she answered.
As the car found its place on the highway exiting Ile-de-France heading North, a musical cue became audible to the players and the world around them began to speed up, accelerating them to the next scene. The suspension of the story made Jane break character and grin. "My god this is fun," she said. She looked over at Alisha and winked. "Hey. You look fantastic, luv."
Alisha giggled at the wink and reached out to rub Jane's leg gently, "Why thank you." She said in her own Texan accent, "Ah mean it's what they said I should wear and I do look rather fetching, but you are just dashing in that outfit." She waggled her eyebrows at her girlfriend, "It's definitely different than the last one I was in, but this is going to more fun than that one! No stupid re-takes, it's all on the fly!"
"Did you ever do improv?" Jane asked while they drove.
"Of, of course!" Alisha giggled, "Back at the Academy, during most of my undercover operations, even..." She glanced around theatrically, "In my own Bond movie, that scene where Salatta Rhindhard was bantering with Bond right before the bedroom? They had a script, but it was dull, so Benny and I just started making a quip or two and it made it into the final production."
"Mum encouraged me to try it in high school," Jane said. "I had fun, and while I wasn't very funny it was good to learn how to go with the flow in any situation. Act without hesitation. 'Yes And' in any situation. She'll be glad to know that I'm using it to play spy and kill bad guys," she added with a laugh.
Alisha caressed Jane's thigh gently as the scene began to coalesce again into a large house, one that had the feel of a safehouse in the country and she smiled softly, already getting back into the role of Ginger Fox once more, "It looks like we're about to see where a relaxing house in the rolling hills will take us, love." She switched back to the Australian accent in mid sentence, "Oi'll tell you this, we're goin' to have lots of fun."
Posting by (in order of appearance):
Jane Sinclair, MI6, played by:
Lieutenant Junior Grade Jane Sinclair
Chief Flight Control Officer, USS Myogi (NCC-65918)
Dr. Ginger Fox, Royal Institute, played by:
Lieutenant Junior Grade Alisha Reno
Chief Intelligence Officer, USS Myogi (NCC-65918)
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