==Street Market, somewhere in Northern Beirut==
The sun was setting as Antoine and Nano made their way back from meeting their new acquaintance. They had coincidentally ran into a cheerful and helpful arms dealer who had been happy to get them anything they had US dollars for. Though many of the facades were nice, the side alley revealed an open garbage dump filled with mangly goats and even two skinny cows - wandering after an older man picking up anything valuable from the trash. Antoine sneered, clearly finding the place distasteful. "You've been chasing ghosts." He commented finally, the stress and the atmosphere pushing him to a point where he was openly complaining. "There's no trace of her and getting involved with these sick fucks will probably get you killed. I say we cut our losses and look for new opportunities. That old fucker seems to know everyone, he could get us a way better contact than whoever Isabel was involved with."
Nano tried to imagine what the buildings looked like before they were gutted. "Maybe you're right."She put her chin in her fingers. "Let's look into some income." She thought briefly about letting Asun know that she was backing out, but decided she'd do that later. For now, self preservation and get on our two feet if we're gonna hang out on this piece of rock for any length of time. She still wanted the gun deal to help support the Black Magpies, her gang back home. Spreading to Beirut seemed beneficial in that regard. She turned around and began to walk, as though she was walking away from the situation and toward something nicer.
Antoine seemed relieved, lowering his shoulders and feeling a lot more at ease now that Nano wasn't chasing danger. He moved up to the street and looked both ways.
A grey metallic Toyota Prius waited for an elderly couple to cross the street and then slowly pulled up to in front of them. The automatic window rolled down from the passenger seat side, revealing a rather eccentric looking older woman inside. Her braids were silvery grey, her ancestry more African than Arab. She was wearing a blue worker's jacket over a bright yellow top and pants. Her nose, ears, fingers, wrists and neck were adorned in golden jewelry. She tilted her head to the side and quirked a brow, clearly evaluating Nano. "You're Nano, right? Isabel sent me."
Nano raised an eyebrow. "Sent you to do just what?" She stood between Antoine and the Prius, wondering if some emo kid had sent her with Isabel's name on her lips... But she didn't move, neither toward nor away.
Antoine was at the ready, but the woman had her hands in view and wasn't reaching for anything. The older woman tilted her head to the side and smiled. "To pick you up to meeting. She's not been rascally; she's been busy making you rich while avoiding a policeman's bullet. Told me to tell you that the contact was bad and that songbirds back home better off not dealing with him." The woman shrugged her shoulder. "You decide. Hop in or stay here. Doubt she'll send another if you stay."
Silently looking at Antoine, Nano got in the backseat, hoping he'd follow.
Antoine didn't like it, but got in with her. As the doors were closed, the woman steered the car back to the street and started driving. "She told me to tell you that all phones here are listened, no need for warrant. All calls to America have ears." Her accent and way of speech was rather unique, not something Nano was familiar with.
"Good thing i haven't made any calls," Nano mumbled. She knew it was ludicrous to trust this woman, but she honestly had no reason not to. "You know me by sight and name, but you are...." She hoped the woman would finish her sentence.
"I'm Ife. I look for people. Isabel paid me well to find you. We have a working relationship." She smiled and looked over her shoulder as she stopped at a light, the sunset painting the car a deep red. She was clearly suppressing her accent, taking time to pronounce things clearly. "You are not an easy woman to find. That is a good skill to have if you don't want to be seen, I respect that." Ife turned back to the road and continued smiling. "There might be some trouble ahead, however. Isabel has made some very powerful friends and with that come very powerful enemies. Where she's staying is under siege by the police. American S-W-A-T, you would say." She spelled out the acronym. Antoine looked immediately alarmed by the news and looked to Nano with a bewildered look. Nano acknowledged Antoine's concern with a deep breath. Out of the frying pan and into the fryer. "Nice to meet you, Ife. Being brown has its benefits. She looked out the window at the red and purple sky. "What does she want to do about the police? What does my involvement do?"
"We will trick the policeman, so Isabel can escape." Ife explained and let out a laugh. "She said it would be a piece of cake for you, drawing away even the most vigilant eyes. Said you were the best, that you'd be the only one who could save her from her predicament."
"Trick the policeman? Didn't you say they were like SWAT? Not that that would deter me by any means." The best, huh? Nano smugged at herself and sat back in her seat, crossing her arms over her chest to get comfortable.
"Yes. These policemen are known as Al Fouhoud, it would be Black Panthers in English. The most trained and well-equipped force in Lebanon. Hostage rescue, S-W-A-T raids, killing terrorists, very secretive. They want Isabel alive and are stalking her like the hungry cats they are." Ife kept her cheerful demeanor as they drove through central Beirut toward the Eastern shore.
"That sounds more like a SEAL." Nano winced a little, but shrugged. Just meant they didn't have to be all that smart to do their jobs. "So that's why Isabel hasn't sent notification of any kind. Because the state is looking for her."
"Yes. She said she stole eighteen rocks. Must have been very expensive rocks, they want them back!" Ife let out a hearty laugh and tapped at the wheel, seemingly laughing in the face of danger - likely as a defense mechanism.
Rocks. They used to watch The Sopranos together. Million dollars. Eighteen million dollars. Isabel had stolen eighteen million dollars.
No wonder the police are sending the creme de la creme of their force." Nano was mumbling again. Trick a Al Fouhoud. Eighteen million... they could buy an island. boy would she ever celebrate. She targeted her stare at Antoine, reeling at the prospect of that much money. That was more than the hydrocodone trade.
"She told me where they have a weak spot in the perimeter. There should be no sharp shooters able to cover the area, only a few troops on the ground. What do you think is a good plan to get them away? You need to buy Isabel a few minutes so she can make it from where she is holed up to the car." Ife asked.
"A well placed bomb would do the trick." She briefly considered sending in Tajamal and his M4, but against that magnitude of law enforcement, that would equal a dead kid. Let's not kill Eessa's son.
They started getting closer and Ife slowed down. "Then we would have two terrorists, yes? Twice the chance of getting caught." The woman turned around to wink at Nano and pulled up to a curb. She reached into her glove compartment and pulled out a pair of binoculars, looking over to a fancy looking beach resort hotel across the bay. "Oh, things have gotten tougher since I left. Here." She handed over the binoculars and let Nano take a look.
The black armored personnel carrier had two soldiers outside it, one of them taking a leak against a closed up stall by the shore. They were out of sight from the road, but Nano could see their vehicle clearly. It had a special emblem on the side; a black panther's head on a white background.
Nano looked through the binoculars at the ....tank?! "I have a better idea." She smirked and lowered the binoculars, looking at Ife. "Antoine and i can figure out how to drive a tank."
"W-we can?" Antoine asked in disbelief at Nano's words. Ife clapped her hands together in delight at the idea and nodded. "Yes, this is why she trusts you. I can get you close and you can get out of the car before they see you. When they come to send me away, you will have some time to do what you need to do. Is this a plan?"
"Sounds like one to me." She smiled at Antoine. "We can! That's the spirit!" She posed in a way that communicated that she was ready to go at the earliest convenience.
Ife turned the car around and drove along the coast through rather narrow alleyways and side streets to avoid the main pathways. As they got closer, she looked at the back seat. Nano and Antoine were prepped and ready to go. "I'm going to drive up to that shack there and slow down enough that you can step out without me stopping. Then I'll accelerate and try to draw their attention so you can circle around the shack. There is a placed called the Warehouse Social Club, Nahr el Mot Street, Jdeideh. If you can get there, there's a garage behind the main building where you can drive in and be safe. I will bring Isabel there if we pull this off, otherwise my people there will put us in touch. Best of luck!"
Antoine's eyes were shifting around the car, obviously nervous about the task he was being asked to do. Nano leaned over and put a hand on his knee. "This is way more money that i ever dreamed of. You'd be getting a cut of that for sticking with me so far. Also, this is way cooler that anything we'd find in the states. You gotta admit, this is once in a lifetime."
After Nano checked the route to the location, it was go time. Ife did as promised; she drove up and slowed down the car to the point where they could hop out. The pavement was uneven and cracked, so the landing was hard with a prosthetic leg. Antoine had no such concerns, jumping out and rushing over to the corner of the building near the APC. After Nano caught up, her bodyguard moved rapidly forward to the other corner and listened.
The soldiers were shouting at Ife in Arabic, which she responded to by honking the horn and shouting back at them. The honking allowed Antoine - emboldened by Nano's reassurance - to make a daring dash for the APC. He tried the door handle and let out a relieved but silent sigh when it gave in. He waited for Nano to be in position and then pulled, the frustrated honking of Ife's car horn keeping the two soldiers from hearing the sound.
The APC's armored door slid open. Antoine listened for a moment through the honks and then rapidly pointed inside from behind he door to indicate someone was moving. By the time the black-clad driver in body armor got to the door, it was already too late to react to Nano's bold attack.
Nano had climbed the APC like a spider monkey and punched the driver as close to the throat as she could. While it didn’t hurt him, it certainly got his attention away from Antoine. The driver attempted to grapple her in a neck hold, but she was slippery like an eel, easing her way out of his grip. Antoine punched the driver in the back of the head, getting his attention again, and the boys began to wrestle. The found each other in a painful hold, Antoine using a move designed to break the wrist and the driver bending Antoine’s elbow to a painful point. Both howled, a sound drowned out by the honking of Ife’s horn. Nano jabbed at the driver whilst he was in the grapple, causing the driver to reassess who was the real danger here. He reached for Nano, attempting to put her in between the two men so as to use her as a human shield. She doesn’t go down without a fight, and both grunt with pain as they injure themselves on each other. Antoine provided one last forceful punch to the head, and it was enough to knock the man unconscious.
Antoine grabbed the man like a sack of potatoes and dragged him out of the APC. Nano dived into the vehicle’s cockpit as quickly as possible, excited about the prospect of being able to drive one of these things. Antoine was barely in the vehicle before Nano stepped on the gas. Then she noticed a switch. It had to be the siren. She was confirmed right as the siren began to howl as it careened down the street in downtown Northern Beirut. The soldiers scrambled to mobilize, giving the girl a two minute head start, which was all she needed.
The blaring siren and flashing blue light warned people of law enforcement approaching them from behind, but never had Nano seen people give way as obediently as they did now. The APC rumbled underneath them as civilian cars pulled closer to the side of the highway so the armored vehicle could pass at full speed. Antoine was high on adrenaline from the close quarters fight, the thrill of the ridiculous heist and the sheer dominance their vehicle exhibited on the road.
He turned around suddenly and went up to the gunner's hatch, peeking his head through while swearing. "Chopper coming this way, flying real low. That's not the news crew - that bird's got guns." He cursed under his breath and moved back to the second driver's seat, helping Nano navigate between the cars while reading the map. "We should be getting close. Take the next right, just before the bridge and then under it. I'll turn the sirens off."
The twenty-something seconds it took to hide under the bridge felt like an eternity, but they could hear the helicopter overhead flying past them and fading into the distance. The rest of the way was just two quick turns and up to a courtyard. In the distance, they saw a man turning a key on a wall socket and the large garage door opening. As Nano drove the APC in, the garage door was already closing behind her.
They were in the clear. They had stolen an APC and got away with it. Hopefully Isabel had too. She really owed the two.
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