Somewhere in the Mojave Desert...
"Sir, the recon team we sent out has just come back they said they found it right where the coordinates said it would be." Said a voice behind Colonel Erickson.
"What do they me by it" The leader of the HLF's military on this side of North America snapped his frustration showing through his short temper. It was bad enough that they had their opportunity to strike right at the heart of the problem humanity now faced stolen from them replaced by a cryptic note that had what had just been confirmed by his recon team to be coordinates, but now he had to deal with his own team being mysterious about what they found.
"It seems that a USB drive was found at the coordinates" The assistant to one of the most powerful people in the human resistance clarified.
The colonel rubbed his forehead with his left hand as he spoke this time sounding more tired than frustrated "How do we know it's what we're after".
"There was a business card it was taped to" The assistant said handing the card to the colonel.
The colonel took the card and examined it seeing the same golden circle with the black silhouette of a man grabbing the brim of a wide-brimmed fedora with the only feature of the silhouetted man was a perfectly white smirking smile. This was indeed the twin of the card they had found in place of the launch code and keys they were after, but on this card the word "CHECK" was written in sharpie instead of numbers that turned out to be coordinates. After the card confirmed that the USB was indeed what they were looking for he asked the important question of "Where's the drive?"
"Well sir, It's being run through scans now to make sure that it doesn't contain malicious code of some sort. We are dealing with someone who apparently didn't agree with our actions against Equestria, so checking for something that could damage us more is only smart." the assistant said hoping the explanation would curve some of the frustration his employer had.
"I know why they're scanning the damn thing I wrote the damn security protocols around here for christ's sake! I just wanted to know where the drive was!" The colonel said losing his temper again. "Jesus, how much longer do we have until the drive is ready to be loaded up?" he continued.
"It's ready now sir" came the reply as Sergeant Greenbrook walked in carrying a flash drive.
"I take it the scans came up clean?" he asked as he took the drive from her hand.
"Yes sir" She replied quickly
"Well at least something went our way" the colonel sighed as he popped the drive into the computer on his desk. Shortly after a window popped up asking if he wanted the computer to display the contents of the drive which the yes button was the quickly given answer. The small text window was replaced with a window showing the contents of the drive which turned out to be only a single file.
The file was named "lets_chat" opening it gave them a list of frequencies and some random numbers and letters which the colonel realized after staring at the file for around five minutes was an encryption pattern. So it seemed that this person who stole their only hope of striking back at pony kind wanted to talk. It also seemed that they wanted this chat to just be between them and Colonel Erickson's HLF force, as he was using a custom encryption pattern.
"Well, let's input the data into our com equipment and see if we get anything" The colonel said handing the drive off to one of his subordinates who plugged it into his computer and began placing the data to connect to whatever communication set up their thief had set up.
After a while the technician said that the data was uploaded and he had SATCOM working on the connection.
They all watched the screen intently as it displayed "SEARCHING FOR SIGNAL..." it continued this for a few minutes before it was replaced with the words
"SIGNAL LOCATED, ESTABLISHING UP-LINK...
VERIFYING IDENTITY...
ESTABLISHING TRANSMISSION...
TRANSMITTING".
The last word taking up residence in the bottom left hand side of the screen while erasing all the other updates on the screen as a picture flicker to life on the screen. On the screen was a man with a fedora identical to the one on the desk the colonel was sitting at now. The man was back-lit so all that could be seen was his darkened silhouette, the colonel noted how similar it was in appearance to the image sitting on the card in front of him drawing the conclusion that this was the purposes of the back-lighting.
Shortly after the silhouette popped into existence on the screen it decided to speak. "Ah, so did decipher the message I left for you." It said with a hint of glee in the shadow's voice.
Colonel Ericson composed and presented himself as the calm military leader that was needed in order to take control of this situation. "Hmm... I expected you to be a pony or some kind of PER lunatic" the colonel voiced his thoughts in his calm demeanor. He then continued his train of thought "but, you are clearly not a pony and you seem like you want to talk instead of boasting about how beating us to our goal shows the superiority of the equine race. So exactly who are you and why interfere with our plans?"
"I must admit that I don't particularly like to involve myself in the ongoing race war occurring over the conversion of humanity; therefore, I wouldn't have save the HLF from there sure destruction if it weren't vitally important" The silhouette on the screen said punctuating the word "important".
"You saved us!?!" The colonel said to the shadow in front of him incredulously. "You want to explain to me how stealing the linchpin in our entire operation to finally strike back at Equestria is ‘saving the HLF from sure destruction'?" The colonel asked showing the cracks in t=his calm demeanor he had constructed.
The figure on the screen rested his head on his hand and even though the colonel couldn't be sure he was pretty sure a smile had found its way on to the face of the shadow as it began to speak "Well it would have been true that I stole your linchpin if the coded and launch keys you were after weren't an Interpol trap".
The colonel was caught off guard by this news and his last bit of composure was broken as he shouted "A TRAP!?!" in disbelief.
The figure continued just as calm as ever explaining "Yes as soon as you attempted to use either of them the launch site you tried them on would lock down and the members of the HLF there would all be captured plus the ones they could find because of those member subsequent capture."
"We checked out those keys and codes they were the real deal, don't try to tell me that they were fakes made to bring our downfall!" the colonel raged had finally lost all patience.
"I figured you wouldn't believe me that's why I made it so you won't have to, you see I'm currently transmitting a hidden signal embedded in the carrier wave." After the shadowy figure said this the colonel glanced over to one of his technicians and gave a small hand gesture which she instantly responded to with rapid type on the keys in front of her. "Said signal contains the Interpol documents that prove my claims." the figure said as the technician finally isolated the embedded signal resulting in what seemed like a wall of random characters scrolling across the window showing the raw input of the signal. As she started to run the raw input through the encryption algorithms the man on the screen spoke again saying "I take it that you've isolated the signal now that I pointed it out". After the shadow finished speaking the technician finished the translation of the encrypted signal and placed it on another large screen next to the one that showed their thief, the screen displayed documents Interpol documents that did indeed show the entirety of the operation to shut down the HLF including the detailed report of the person they had believed to their informant. In fact it even had the connection to his record with Interpol agent service record.
"Go get a background check on our informant see if he does have a connection to Interpol." The colonel said to a subordinate who quickly saluted and then exited the room. Turning back to the screen he ventured the question that had plagued this entire interview "If you don't like getting involved in our war then why help us?"
"Because you are an important part of a plan that will benefit the both of us" The thief said like it was the most obvious thing in the world.
"What exactly is this plan exactly?" The colonel squinted distractingly at the screen.
"Well I know you have informants in Equestria, I also know that you would have started digging anywhere you could to turn up any information on who stole the key to your master plan so, you tell me what did you find?" The shadow said shifting its posture again this time sitting back in its chair, what were apparently hand going to the back of its head.
The colonel narrowed his eyes as he spoke "The only thing we turned up from the card other than the coordinates in the back was a connection to some professional criminal who left a similar calling card at the scene of his thefts. However, until now we had ruled out this "Shadow Thief" as our culprit as he stuck to targets in Equestria, but after our chat here I am willing to bet that you are indeed the Shadow Thief."
"I am indeed" the black outline in the screen confirmed.
"So, I suppose you're enlisting our help to pull a heist." the colonel scoffed "I hardly see why helping you commit petty theft would benefit us in anyway"
"While you would be aiding me greatly in grand larceny, more specifically by providing me with a distraction it is not merely petty theft. In fact if all goes according to plan this will be my last major heist, and it will be big enough for me to get out of the thief business for good, also you will indeed benefit from helping me because of the way you will be providing the distraction" The Shadow Thief said with an air of confidence about him.
Colonel Ericson had to admit that this "Shadow Thief" fellow sounded like he knew what he was doing and the way he carefully worded his reasoning for them agreeing was very convincing he still had some concerns which he voiced "Okay first off why should we trust that you're going to get out of your career in crime once this is over let alone that we will benefit from this heist, in fact why should we trust you at all?"
The silhouette on the screen paused for a moment seeming to consider the question before he finally gave a response "You shouldn't come his reply to a shocked Colonel "but after I explain why I need you, you'll see that I can't betray you if I want what I'm after." The thief continued calmly.
The colonel whose anxiety had returned after the admission that the thief should not be trusted asked him "How do you plan to do that?"
The figure on the screen leaned forward so that the bottom part of his face became lit revealing a sly smile as he said "Tell you my story of course."
