The Art of Murder

"The Art of Murder" is the eighth mission for No One Lives Forever 2: A Spy in H.A.R.M.'s Way There are four scenes that can be found in this chapter.

Briefing
''Having proven her value to H.A.R.M., Cate has secured a job with the very organization she has vowed to destroy. A higher security clearance should help her get close to the prize: the main vault. There she hopes to find the missing piece of the puzzle.''

''Unfortunately, the vault is off limits to all but the highest ranking H.A.R.M. employees, so the biggest challenge still lies ahead. If only she could have unearthed better intelligence about the security countermeasures she must face.''

Scene 1: The Vault
Anoop Banerjee is impressed and hires Archer on the spot. Now that she has free reign over the top part of the facility, she must get into the vault. Kamal Khubchandani suggests she wash her hands with hot water. Archer visits the restroom and when she turns on the hot water, the steam reveals a message written in the mirror to look in the corner stall. There Archer finds a package with information from Kamal about what he knows about the vault. Before she heads downstairs, she finds another package from Santa requesting that she plant three Telephone Bugs that will be picked up later by another agent.

After completing this task, she heads for the vault. Using her Code Breaker she gets past the locked gates and works her way past the guards. There are two traps that she encounters before she enters the vault. Spikes dropping from the ceiling and an animal trap. Another locked door is bypassed with the code breaker and Archer is in the vault. After grabbing weapons and the information on Project: Omega Archer must fight her way to the street where Magnus Armstrong is waiting for her.

Scene 2: Crossfire
Archer exits the H.A.R.M. compound looking for Armstrong. She overhears two fruit vendors talking about organized attacks from Monkeys. As she fights her way through thugs and snipers she finds Armstrong who instructs her to follow him. Armstrong enters a building and Archer follows.

Scene 3: Invisible Walls
Inside the building Archer and Armstrong suddenly find themselves captured in a glass box by Pierre the Mime King. He dangles them over a deep hole and threatens to drop them into it killing them when the glass box smashes at the bottom. Before he can do so, one of his Mimes summons him to a problem that needs to be resolved. After Pierre leaves Archer uses her Hairspray Welder to get them out of the trap. Armstrong tries to ram a barricaded door, only to find himself trapped by falling debris. Archer works her way through the building to the courtyard, encountering Mimes along the way. As she fights her way to the courtyard she is able to free Armstrong. Armstrong works on opening a stuck door and Archer protects him from the horde of Mimes attacking them.

Scene 4: The Getaway
Angry about the events that just took place, Anoop Banerjee confronts Pierre over the fate of Archer. Pierre state that he will personally punish Archer. When Banerjee realizes he is confronted with gun-welding Mimes, he backs off stating that he will report this to The Director. Pierre lets him walks off and walks the other way. Armstrong and Archer are waiting around the corner and make an attempt to capture Pierre. As Armstrong grabs him, Pierre slips out of his long coat revealing himself to be a dwarf mime riding a tall Unicycle. As Pierre rides off, Armstrong hops on a Tricycle and follows along with Archer on his back shooting at the Mimes trying to stop them.

The towering combination of Archer and Armstrong took off after the fleeing Pierre with his mimes trying to block the way. Straddling duo chased after Pierre around and through a few districts while fighting off his mime thugs ambushing them. Unfortunately after a long chase, Pierre gets away. A few turns after Armstrong got too winded pedaling the tricycle, Pierre slipped to a very narrow path between the district wall and a house where they can not chase him anymore. Archer vows "You won't be so lucky next time."

Memorable quotes
"I tell you the woman is driving me crazy."

"I warned you not to marry her."

"Not my wife, you idiot. Her mother! She was so sweet and friendly up until the wedding, then she turned into a vicious demon. All she does is complain."

"Maybe you should remind her that she's living in YOUR home."

"Are you crazy? She'd kill me."

"I'm thinking you need to be more assertive."

"You don't know this woman. She's dangerous."

"You work for one of the evilest terrorist organizations on the planet. If anybody in your household is dangerous, my friend, I think it must be you."

"You know, when you put it like that the logic suddenly becomes clear. How can I repay you?"

"Don't mention it. I hate to see a good friend emasculated."


 * -Indian H.A.R.M. Thugs

"Look what you did, you idiot!"

"Me? This is YOUR fault!"

"MY fault!?! You weren't even looking where you were going!"

"THAT is an exaggeration. Maybe I looked away for a second, but you're the one who came racing around the corner like a maniac!"

"I thought I saw a Monkey."

"So did I! That's why I was looking back."

"Likely story! Why would a monkey chase YOU?"

"Sometimes they smell my bananas. Last week a mob of them attacked me. They stole half my stock!"

"They're always after my Mangoes too."

"It seems we have a common enemy, my friend."

"You don't suppose..."

"Suppose what?"

"Can it be a coincidence that two fruit vendors should glimpse monkeys at the exact same moment, at the exact same street corner, causing them both to panic simultaneously, resulting in a collision that disables both carts?"

"You mean THEY engineered this? Those BASTARDS!!!"

"Be wary, my friend. They may attack at any moment!"

"They have guns!!!"


 * -Calcutta fruit vendors

Trivia

 * In the previous mission, Archer set explosives in the Evil Alliance headquarters located in the movie theater. When she passes the theater in this mission, it is still standing.
 * One of the acts in Pantomime is the glass box, just like shown in third scene of the mission. So it's fitting that the Mimes use a glass box to capture Armstrong and Archer.
 * One of the Intelligence items found is a photo of Cate Archer standing next to the drunkard in the green jacket seen in several missions of The Operative: No One Lives Forever. The photo appears to be in the basement bar at Das Einsame Valkyrie.
 * Due to modern GPU acceleration at the last chase scene Pierre may show some desynchronization problems such as slower movement, getting stuck and straying away from waypoints. Activation of Vsync from Display options is a recommended solution.
 * As a slippery assassiner, Pierre's trademark ability is throwing knives which he never done it in the chase part at the last scene. Perhaps Pierre is incapable of riding his unicycle backwards.