Xaviers!

"You're making me regret saving you already," he responded with a sigh before ducking out.

He returned moments later. Looking to Natalya, he asked, "If we accept her deal, what will you do?"

"You've already guilted me into stitching her up. What more do you want from me?"

"For what it's worth, I am looking forward to leaving this place and never setting foot in it again."

"You don't have to help us any more than you already have," he told Natalya, "I only ask if you'll accept our choice."

"The choice is made, we're taking her information and cutting her loose," Tereza says, "What," she glowers a bit at Natalya, "she thinks really doesn't have much to do with it."

"Fantastic." Weikun groans as she slowly tries to get up, steadying herself against the wall. "I've scoped things out for a couple days and he's been holed up in the Mayor's mansion most of the time. They probably 'liberated' that place when they rolled into town."

"Any idea what the security's like around the Mayor's house?"

"Military guards at the gate, heard rumors he dismissed the ones inside for some reason."

"I imagine it's hard to engage in rogue operations with guards listening."

Tereza turns to Natalya, "You wouldn't happen to have a way to get in the mayor's residence?"

"I can't believe I got foiled and saved by you guys." Weikun mutters. "Pretty sure you'll manage without asking dear old mummy for help."

Tereza turns yellow eyes on Weikun, growling deeply. "Do not make me regret agreeing to free you. I am still perfectly capable of changing my mind on that."

Later, outside the Mayor's Mansion...

The three can see the building in question as they approach. It's a fairly isolate building on the side of a hill. There's some garden around it and a hedge grown over a fence. They can't spot any signs of activity except for two military guards standing at the wrought iron gate in front of the gravel path that leads up to the kind of garish-looking house itself.

"Shame they didn't burn the place down when they took over. It's hideous," Tereza mumbles, watching the building for a bit. "They must be super confident with only two guards."

"Expect private security forces inside," Natalya says quietly, reaching out with her powers to try to get a count of the heat signatures inside.

The house itself radiates quite a bit of heat, just from it's radiators being cranked up, but other than that she can't sense anything else inside.

"...well then, I can't make much sense of the inside. Could be they're expecting me. Could be it's just a house in Russia in November."

She looks to Tereza.

"I can't undo what was done. I don't know if I'll see you again. Maybe it's better if you don't. I do owe you one thing though. My name is Natalya, and I wish things could have been different."

"I'll draw their attention. Do what you have to."

She takes a running jump that goes far higher than it should, landing on a nearby rooftop. She gives a cheerful wave to the two guards.

"[Hello there!]" She shouts in Russian, grinning. "[The enemy of the state would like to lodge a complaint!]"

"<Hey! Is that... Call for backup!>" one of the guards tells the other as he readies his weapon and aims it at Natalya as he sprints towards the building she's on. The other guard is reaching for his radio, sidearm drawn as he follows close behind.

Tereza fights the urge to prowl after the two men, a hunting instinct washing over her and making her uncomfortable. Instead she shakes her head and moves quickly but quietly towards the now vacated gate.

Chase followed suit, keeping a trained eye out for security devices that needed avoiding. He had noticed Tereza's brief distractions but he felt sure Tereza could keep the wolf in check. Mostly. Like, ninety percent.

There's a small camera built into the doorbell along with the speaker-system, but that seems to be it.

Tereza gestures at the camera, a fine pattern of frost forming over the camera. "They'll notice that in a minute if there are guards inside. We need to keep moving," she whispers as they get to the door.

"Really? You want to use the front door?" he asked skeptically.

"It's here, it's handy, and it hasn't already opened, which means either there aren't any guards in the house, like our informant said, or they're not going respond to an exterior threat. Either way, I'm going in the front, find your own entrance if you don't like it," she growls, pushing her hand against the door as ice forms and begins to worm its way between the handle and the door frame to try to release the catch.

"Fine. At least let me pick it open the silent way," he urged. His own instincts were screaming that this was a bad plan.

The door, as solid as it might be to regular means, can only withstand so much cold and pressure and like rocks are cracked by ice the lock eventually gives and the gate is blown open.

No obvious alarms go off and there's no obvious response from the house. Everything is quiet.

Tereza steps out of the way and gestures to Chase, "After you?"

"Russians just don't do subtlety, do they?" he muttered as he otherwise quietly slipped inside.

Approaching the house they still can't spot any activity inside. What they can see through some of the windows and past partially drawn curtains is open cabinets, random things, strewn about, signs of taking important things and elaving quickly.

"Looks like they bailed, but be careful anyway." Tereza falls back a bit to cover the rear since there seems to be no one in the house to respond to their intrusion.

"I'm keeping alert but if that bastard with the necktie shows up I'm not going to be able to spot him most likely," she says as she works her way in after Chase.

At the front door, Chase defied his better judgment and began picking the lock. Going along with the overzealous werewolf seemed the smartest idea at the moment.

It's not the simplest lock in the world, but at the end of the day it is just a simple civilian lock and opens after a couple moments. The inside of the house is roughly as ugly and ostentatious as the outside as well as nice and warm, which is a welcome change after the cold air outside. Making their way through the place they get a clearer view of the rooms. Some of them are neat, looking like they haven't been used at all lately. Meanwhile the kitchen is the exact opposite to that, mountains of dirty dishes clutter the counters, countless packages for instant-food stick out of the trash. No staff has been taking care of this for a while now, that much is obvious. From the papers that were left behind in other rooms they can figure most of this was related to military things. Most of it is just that, boring paperwork that is probably of no interest to anybody. But a couple of pieces seem to relate to military contracts of some sort. One in particular shows up a couple of times, relating to something called 'Islands Industries'. These seem to be somewhat recent, selling various things to the Russian Navy. The exact details seem to be missing, but quite a bit of money is being moved.

As they're making their way through the rooms on the first floor Sam suddenly senses a weak presence. It's not nearly strong enough to be a person, really, but something about it feels weird. If minds are usually like a river of thoughts, this one is more like molasses at best...

Tereza's nose scrunches at the dirty dishes, "Are these people animals?" She covers her nose and moves off towards the other rooms.

"There's... someone here. I think. It's weird. I can't quite get a fix on it."

The presence doesn't seem to move at all, just sitting there somewhere on the second floor.

"Can you at least tell where they are?"

"Second story. Not budging that I can tell."

"You want me to go find it?" Tereza inhales deeply, trying to ignore the scents coming from the kitchen.