Mission Report Part (8/?)Potter Properties' Heist of Martinez & Sons (Part Two)Under the cover of darkness, your operators' Gator ATV pulls up to the back of Khadija Gilani's office. Smoking a hand-rolled cigarette in the alley, the young woman takes the file folder off Team Leader Erik Heller's hands.
"How long's this gonna take, Dee?"
"Maybe fifteen minutes? Maybe an hour? Maybe more? I haven't even taken a look at it yet. You got somewhere to be?"
Heller takes a deep breath, trying not to lose his cool, "Seriously? You know we got a tight timeline here..."
She flicks the cherry off her cigarette and stows it for later, "I know, I know. But this ain't exactly easy. Do you have idea how much White Out I'm going to be using tonight?"
Heller gives an incredulous look.
She laughs, "Just fraking with you. Inshallah, this should be pretty straightforward. Still, it'll take a bit. You going to be waiting on it-"
He interrupts, "-no. I mean, it's probably more secure not to loiter around. Call me when it's done"
***
"You see any movement in the building?"
"Nope."
"And you got everything on the list?"
Hoxton gestures to a trunk full of cleaning supplies, "You were right, the 24 hour pharmacy had everything we needed."
Heller gives a sigh of relief and looks over a bottle of hydrogen peroxide, "Now here's the hard part..."
This wasn't the first time Heller had to clean up a murder, but it was the first time he'd have to do so under these kind of conditions.
It's after 11 as your operators re-enter Martinez & Sons. With the amount of work to be done both thoroughly and quickly, both men make the intrusion this time. They considered bringing a carbine or two, but already have their hands full with cleaning supplies and the soon to be filled body bag.
Keeping full light and sound discipline, your two men creep to the safe in the stairwell. Crumpled in a mess of bloodied papers lies the body of Grandma Martinez. She had the misfortune of discovering Heller's intrusion about halfway down the stairs. He had tried to subdue her, but melee on a flight of stairs proved deadly for the octogenarian.
Heller had initially hoped he could rig the scene as household accident, but his second look confirms his misgivings of that plan. In her tumble, the old woman took some major scalp lacerations, bleeding profusely on the walls, stairs, and floor. Even without viewing it in full light, it must be horrific enough to look like a violent murder. That alone wouldn't rule out a gruesome but tragic accident, though. The real dealbreaker was all the loose paper covering the floors. They didn't make any sense left in place, and cleaning them up would break up the natural pattern of blood stains and spatters.
He plays out the scenario in his head, "Grandma got up in the middle of the night and took a walk: never was seen again. Psychosis from a medication reaction? Senile dementia? Some last ditch one-way-trip bucketlist fantasy? She had a long and happy life, and maybe it was just her time, anyways."
If he and Hoxton could pull this off, her family think some version of that. It's far-fetched, but so long as it keeps them from suspecting it had anything to do with the Tranquility Hill Report, that's all they needed. Even then, the courier would pick up the report first thing in the morning, and the real estate closing was scheduled the next day. They had barely 48 hours to blow the whistle, and the Martinez's would probably be too busy with funeral arrangements to even think about work.
"Just a simple plan," he thinks to himself as his gloved hands unfurl the thick vinyl body bag.
Wordlessly, your operators lift the 130lb woman wrapped in paisley nightgown into the body bag. Carefully navigating the office floor, the ersatz pallbearers walk the bag out the back door. With an unceremonious heave, the battered remains of Grandma Martinez are chucked into the trunk of your Landrover SUV.
With the body out of the way, your men get to work cleaning up the mess Heller made. The bloodied papers are scraped up and into black trashbags. This takes longer than it should, as some are already adhered to the floor by the victim's congealing blood. With the incriminating debris gone, they break out the hydrogen peroxide.
If Ocean PMC had a staff biochemist (which they don't), they would explain the methodology as such:
"Hydrogen Peroxide (H2O2) is common and highly versatile oxidizing chemical compound. It is a toxic by-product of various biochemical processes, that reacts and destroys proteins, lipids, and even DNA. Thus, virtually all organic cells possess the peroxisomal enzyme catalase. As its name suggests, catalase catalyzes the rapid decomposition of H2O2 into O2 and H2O. When applied to damaged organic material, such as blood, the free-floating catalase produces an immediate fizzing effect with the H2O2. Many metals also rapidly catalyze H2O2, which was how highly concentrated peroxide was used as 'monopropellant' in the Cold War space program. In a monopropellant system, a 70 percent concentration of peroxide pumped through silver screen will instantaneously expand 5000 times its volume into a 1000 degree steam cloud. As an oxidizer nearly as potent as liquid O2, high concentration H2O2 can also be ignited as a combustible rocket fuel as well. Household antiseptic bottles thus are only in single digit concentrations for this and other safety-related reasons."
If Neil was here, this would be the point where he'd bring up that 'high-test peroxide' (HTP) was what Nazi Germany used as 'Substance T' in the their rocketry, most notably in the Me 163 Komet rocket interceptor. Russians also used HTP for their torpedoes back in the day, leading to the disastrous loss of the submarine Kursk in 2000 when a torpedo leaked HTP onto a copper-lined torpedo tube. All 118 hands were lost.
Heller instead has a more workman-like knowledge of his tools. Peroxide works great as a destructive forensic 'indicator.' The foaming action quickly identifies the tiniest droplets of blood and other bodily fluids. The destructive part is great for his kind of work, because it'll degrade (if not complete destroy) any compromising DNA evidence he may have left behind as well. Also, unlike chlorine bleach, it doesn't leave a tell-tale scent either.
After several arduous hours, all stays quiet at Martinez & Sons, and the crime scene is thoroughly sterilized (both literally and figuratively).
***
"Mijo, is your mother out there?"
Miguel Martinez stretches as he gets out of bed in the morning, "No?"
Humberto Martinez shakes his head, "She's not here. Could you check if she's downstairs?"
Miguel throws some pants on and trots down the stairs, "¿Mama? ¿Dónde estás? ¿Mama?"
The rear door is cracked open in the morning light.
***
Elsewhere in Rattlesnake Ridge, Hoxton wipes the blood off the Blackhawk! Thundermaul axe/sledge. He doubts he'll miss this part of his old life.
***
Oscar Martinez's three kids bounce up the stairs playfully seeking their grandparents. Opening the safe, he takes out the Tranquilty Hill report. The courier will be here shortly, and they had a lot of money riding on this project. A project this big was only the start of Martinez & Sons being sought for even grander work. Humberto already had one foot out the door towards retirement, and Oscar hoped he could bring the family business interplanetary once the torch was passed. Someday, one of his own sons might even open a branch office on Rivendell. Imagine that.
"Seems prudent to give it a final once over," he thinks to himself.
Oscar takes the report out of the folder and goes to grab his morning Green Owl out of the fridge. Leisurely walking through the office with the report in hand, he takes a long swig from his energy drink and flips past the cover sheet.
"Oscar? We need to talk, Mijo."
Oscar sees his father standing direly, one hand on the wall, seemingly steadying himself. "Is everything okay?"
"It's about your mother, Mijo..."
Oscar puts down the report.
Mission Results: Success. Zero casualties. 100k profit. Personnel notes updated on Data Sheet.
Plan Rating: Very Good (+2)
Roll (2d4): 3
Plan Execution Result: 5 - Competent
Setup Mission Bonus: Very Good (+2)
Mission Difficulty Roll (2d4): 5
Mission Difficulty Result: 7 - Pretty Easy
Operator Improvisation Roll (2d4): 7 - It's Like Somebody's Done This Before
