Penelope's Next Mission: The Dealer, Part 2

Penelope D’Arcy sat at her desk, her head in her hands, trying to process everything that had just happened.  Just a few minutes before, she had discovered that her assistant, Lianne, had been chloroformed and kidnapped, all because of Pen’s detective work in trying to connect the disappearances of several women to a string of casinos on the West End.

Penelope had been resisting the growing urge to once again become her alter-ego, the crimefighter Black Arrow, as her past experiences had been quite disastrous.  But, she surmised, what choice did she have now?  Her assistant, her friend, had been taken.  Could she go to the police?  Perhaps, but then she risked not only getting in trouble herself for illegally hacking into a secure corporate website, but also what these people might do to Lianne if they found out that the police were involved.

Penelope had no reason to believe that Lianne had been harmed as of yet, but she also knew she couldn’t sit around and wait for something to happen.  So, despite her reservations, she knew what she had to do; infiltrate the casino as Black Arrow and find Lianne, and hopefully get real evidence as to what was behind the disappearances!

As it was Friday morning, a normal workday for the brilliant young lawyer, the first thing Pen did was to call all of her appointments she had scheduled for the day and postpone them.  That would give her three days to complete her ‘mission’ and get back in time for work on Monday, she thought.  

The next step was to get maps of the area, as well as the casinos themselves.  Thankfully, this endeavor didn’t involve hacking into any protected websites;  Penelope found a detailed map of the entire area around the Casino on the Empire quite easily; and a trip to the city deeds site got her the floor plans of all six casinos – for a small fee, of course.

Penelope printed out all of the maps, and then began to study them, as she planned how she would approach and enter the casino.   The Casino on the Empire was by far the largest of the casinos, a two-story structure that totaled 55,000 square feet – about the size of a large department store.  The Underground ran all around the entire area, but not directly under the casino itself, which made sense to her; you wouldn’t want to spin the roulette wheel and suddenly have it start to shake!

The back of the casino faced a street with not much else on it; this seemed like the perfect place to try and enter without being noticed.  From the floor plans, there appeared to be a single door on the first level, and two windows high up on the second level;  Penelope surmised that one of the windows would be her best bet for entry without being noticed.  The floor plan included the locations of a number of security cameras throughout the building – very important information for someone trying to keep their presence a secret!

Now that she had the maps, and an idea of where to begin, it was time to get into her Black Arrow outfit for the second time.  Penelope opened the box containing the black clothing and gadgets, and a thrill went through her…a thrill she had experienced once before, the first time she had ever put it on.  She was equal parts terrified and excited; she knew that what lay ahead was likely to be just as dangerous as her first mission had been!  In a matter of a minute, she was out of her office clothing she had fallen asleep in the night before.

The tights went on first; black, smooth, and silky, they almost felt like a second skin.  Then came the main outfit, a black leotard-like piece, without sleeves or legs;  besides the fact that it perfectly matched her body’s contours, it was also where all of the hidden pockets were, to store all of her tiny gadgets.  Finally, she pulled on the black leather boots, completing her look.  Penelope took a deep breath as she stood and looked in the mirror; Black Arrow was back!

She spent the next few minutes placing all of the gadgets into their respective locations in her suit: her lock picks, descramblers, password cracker, climbing kit, and mobile phone with camera and stun gun.  She carefully folded up the map printouts and slid them into two larger pockets.  She took one last look in the mirror and smiled at her appearance; she was equal parts stunning, sexy, and lithe.  She tied back her blonde hair, grabbed her car keys, and a minute later, she was on her way!

Night was just starting to fall as Black Arrow arrived in the West End.  She parked her black Jaguar several blocks away from the Casino, and slowly, stealthily made her way to the back side of the building, using parked cars and shadows to keep from being spotted.   In no time, she was crouching on the ground, looking up at the brick wall before her.

She put on her thin black gloves, and tried the door before her; she wasn’t at all surprised that it didn’t open.  She had planned to get in through one of the windows anyway; but, as she looked up at them, she realized it was going to be harder than she thought.   The windows were a good fifteen feet above her, and there was nothing to use for climbing between her and the windows.

As she took in the whole of the task before her, she realized there were two viable options for reaching a window;  she could go to the far corner of the building, and scale to the roof, then make her way across the roof until she was just above one of the windows, and try to get in that way.  The other option was a grate that was a bit to the left of one of the windows; it looked like it might be part of the ventilation system.  Pen could shoot her grappling hook up to the vent and catch it, and then swing over to the window.

‘I didn’t bring along these toys just for kicks,’ Penelope thought to herself; she decided to try the second option.  She glanced at her watch – it was 7:48. She reached into her suit and extracted her climbing kit; a moment later, she shot the grappling hook up into the grate.  It took her two tries, but finally it hooked and stayed; a quick pull assured her it would slip out.  She slowly started to make her way up the wall.

She had gotten about halfway up when she felt something moving above her – the grate was starting to come loose!  She suppressed her sudden urge to scream as she awkwardly slid back down the wall, safely hitting the ground without injury.  She looked up just in time to see the grate as it landed hard against her temple.

“Uunnnnhh…” Black Arrow moaned, and then, her mind disappeared into blackness.

A few minutes later, she regained consciousness, her head still quite sore from where the grate had hit it.  A quick glance at her watch told her that she indeed had been out for only a few minutes; but the realisation that she had been knocked out sent a thrill through her, as it had every other time before.  She glanced around to make sure her presence hadn’t been detected, and then, after retrieving her grapple, slowly made her way to the corner of the building, still rubbing her sore spot.

“Got to be more careful,” she muttered to herself as she made her way to the roof.

Once Penelope had made her way above the windows, it dawned on her that it would be much easier to enter the building through the now-open air duct.  She wouldn’t have to bother with trying to pry open a locked window;  she wouldn’t have to worry about being spotted; and, as she took a qyuick peek at the floor plan, she realized there were at least two rooms she could likely drop down into, that didn’t have security cameras.  The decision was made!

Black Arrow carefully maneuvered her lithe body until she could get her head and torso into the opening without falling.  Once she did this, it was just a matter of wriggling like a worm until she was completely inside the shaft.  It was somewhat tight, but not too tight that she couldn’t move; it took a cross between a crawl and a wiggle, but Penelope slowly made her way down the air passage, and soon found herself above one of the rooms she had noted earlier on the floor plan.  A quick pull and the ceiling grate was loose;  Penelope slid it out of the way enough that she could slide through the hole it left behind.   She dropped down onto a desk inside the darkened room, and once down, she pulled the covering back into place.

The room she was in appeared to be an office of some kind; there was a wooden door, and a single window to the outside;  Penelope quickly concluded that it was one of the two windows she had seen from the ground.  She found a light switch and turned it on; other than the desk, and a chair, the room was empty.  ‘A good place to sit for a moment and plan my next move,’ Pen thought to herself.


In another part of the casino, a phone suddenly rang.  “Yes, Bob, what is it?” came the annoyed response of the man who answered it.

“Boss, there’s something on one of the cameras you’ve just gotta see.  You’re not going to believe it.”

“Fine, Bob, but this had better be good.  We have a tournament starting in just under an hour.”

The man hung up and made his way to the security room, where all of the monitors were, showing the activity in all of the rooms that had cameras.  As he entered, ‘Bob’ drew his attention quickly to one of the screens.

“That’s the office where you had me put in the new hidden camera last week.  Remember?”

“Of course,” smiled the man, as he watched the movements of the beautiful blonde woman, all dressed in black, poring over what seemed to be a  blueprint of the casino.  “What have we here?  This is quite an unexpected surprise.  Who is she, Bob?  How did she get in there?”

“I don’t know, Boss.  The light just came on a minute ago, and there she was.  Right purty too, ain’t she?” Bob replied, grinning.  “You want me to go take care of her?”

“Now, now, Bob.  Is that any way to treat one of our guests?  No, I want you to stay right here, and keep an eye on her at all times.  Do NOT let her out of your sight for one second!  We have a camera in every single room and hallway now, so there’s nowhere she can go where we can’t see her.  Use the radio, and keep me posted on her every move.  I repeat, do NOT lose her, Bob, or you will be the one losing something.  Got it?”

“Y-yes, Boss,” Bob shuddered.  He knew that his boss was not someone to disappoint, ever.  “What do you think she’s doing here?”

“I can’t say, but I know what she’s going to be doing here. “  The man looked over the form of Black Arrow on the screen.  “Make sure all of our little ‘precautions’ are turned on, Bob.  We do want her to feel welcome, now, don’t we?”

“Yes, Boss!”  Bob enthusiastically replied, as he watched the large, well-dressed man turn and walk back out the door.  His attention quickly returned to the screen, as his hands manipulated a number of switches on the underside of the console before him…