Operation: Gold Medal Con

2012 (8/15) – After the meeting, the team brainstorms ways to get their hands on $300,000 in gold.  First, they could get it from ORION, but there isn't enough time.  Second they consider taking it from local jewelers, but there isn't enough in one location and would require multiple heists.  They could steal some of the Royal Family's gold collection kept in the Tower of London, but when they begin plotting the assault realize that the security for such a job would be overwhelming.  Suddenly Owen blurts out that there is a lot of gold readily available close by... London is hosting the 2012 Olympics!  Stevie says the gold is held in the Tower of London under heavy security and that it is just too risky for the Team to get it that way when Blind says “If we don’t stop them now... there may not be another Olympics.”      

          Each Olympic gold medal is worth $45,000 each so they will need to acquire at least 7 gold medals in order to make the down payment to keep the undercover operaton going.  The first plan was to kidnap different gold medal winning Olympians from smaller countries, but that would create a mass panic and raise the security levels everywhere.  They realize the trick is to make sure no one realizes the medals have been stolen, so they buy some replica medals and decide to stage a fake sports interview show to get the medal winners in one location.  It may prove too difficult to coordinate having different medal winners come to one interview or trying to steal one medal at a time.  They debate over which gold medal winning team to invite to the interview that wouldn’t draw a lot of attention when Guido says "Mexico, no one will care about the Mexican Soccer team."

The plan: Feto uses his fame from his international swimming background to pose as the interviewer and invites seven bench warmers from the Mexican soccer team to his show.  During the interview, they ask for a picture with all of the players medals on a tray with the Mexican flag on it, but Blind will hack the light controls so the lights will go out.   During the blackout, Guido will swap the tray of real medals for a tray of replicas and the only risks is the players noticing during or after the swap.

The result:  The Mexican players are not alarmed with the blackout (Guido "power loss is common in Mexico.") while one player has a hint that something is wrong when he inspects his medal, he shrugs it off.  After all, he is just happy to have the gold medal that will feed his family and village for years.  The heist works and the ORION team spends the rest of the day smelting the Olympic medals into two gold bars that will be the down payment they need to keep the undercover operation going.

                At the exchange, Amir tests the gold and satisfied that it is authentic he agrees to the deal to see them on the 28^th with the entire order of Chemical Weapons launchers as long as they bring the rest of the gold bullion they owe him.  

               When the team returns to the hotel for some much needed rest the evening news reports that the bomb in the trunk of the Nigerian nationals resulted in an international incident between the UK and Nigeria with tension being at an all time high.  Their rest will be short lived, as in the morning they have to pick up the trail of the missing ORION agent, Paul Anderson before its too late.

Operation: KRYPT at Midnight

2012  (8/16/) - Despite a few lingering wounds, Owen is discharged from the hospital and meets up with the rest of the team to pick up the new agent who is coming by train from Cardiff.  There standing at the 9 and 3/4 platform is a powerful Samoan man named Fetu, who gained fame as a competitive swimmer and his expertise in a bio engineer who has been sent to fortify the team as they head back to 14 Opal Street.  Finding no one home, Owen picks the lock and they enter the home which seems to be undergoing  renovations with plastic tarps in the living and dining room covering the furniture.  While Blind keeps an eye on the street, Guido checks the medicine cabinet and finds medicine prescribed to Walter Wainwright (Stevie Bullet identifies as the Assistant Director for the London & Egyptian museums & no criminal record) and realize he was the same  grumpy man who answered the door on their previous visit.  The home has lavish artwork including a painting by Monet, but there are no bugs or security cameras.  Their search turns up a ledger, that a flight number (#447 which flies from London to Jakarta every Tuesday), an airport code and the name Ha Chan-sook. (a wealthy S. Korean real estate dealer who lives in Indonesia)  In the dining room, Guido discovers the floor tarp covers a large hole in the floor with a ladder to gain access to a tunnel that leads to the backyard.  In the tunnel they find paperwork listing Acar, Egypt, Battambang, Cambodian and Den Pasar, Bali is discovered by a sarcophagus which Feto and Guido team to open the sarcophagus and discover a body in a shroud with a small crown.  It turns out the Wainwright family was royalty and this is the body of the Duke of Cheshire so they decide to repackage the body and head out.  As they exit, Owen plants a transmitter bug below the China table to capture any worthwhile conversation.  The midnight meeting looms, so they head down to the dock to scout the area for any ambush.

          Fetu hides himself completely (another roll of .00) and the rest of the team welcomes Amir (they soon find out he works for KRYPT, an international arms dealing company lead by Maccaressh.) and his crew of five thugs arrive.  Suspicious, Amir asks “Tell me, what the deal is again?”  (oops we still didn't know!) so Guido says we will pay 1.5 times the agreed price for twice the payload.   Amir waves in his thugs who reveal a small turreted gun, specially designed to deliver chemical weapons in the battlefield.  They agree to meet Sunday at midnight to drop off the down payment deposit and the weapons will be delivered in two weeks.  While Guido fails at negotiating the price down, Amir agrees to the deal so long as they can deliver $300,000 in gold bullion by midnight Sunday.  Otherwise, the deal is off, but with less than 48 hours until that meeting, where will they find that much gold in London?