"We brought in a CSI tinker," Armsmaster said. "She says she's ready to show us her findings."
"Very well," Director Piggot said. "She's not going to find anything though. We both know it. Lets get this farce out of the way."
The CSI tinker smiled at them when they entered. Then she opened a program on the tinker tech laptop. It was full screen.
"Now as you can see, the crime is clearly being committed by a Stranger. No sign of who did it. The containment foam canister is picked up and seemingly walked away by an invisible girl."
"We knew that," Armsmaster said. "Best guess, its the Stranger we've heard rumors about on the Undersiders."
"Right," the CSI tinker said. "Thats what I thought too. But… zoom," she said, pointing at the edge of the containment foam canister. It zoomed in.
"Apply reflection stabilization and correction algorithms."
A new image came up. It was the warehouse from a different viewpoint. The view point of the canister. Armsmaster's mouth opened. For a moment he stood there staring. Then he tilted his head. "That… I don't think that's actually possible."
"Are you a CSI tinker sir? I don't think you are. Please hold your comments until after I finish giving my findings. Don't ruin this for me. I live for these moments. Now… zoom."
This time she was pointing at a window across the street. "Enhance. Apply correction algorithms. Zoom."
Now they were looking at a very narrow antenna on the roof of the building. The zoom was such that it took up the entirety of the screen.
"Enhance. Apply corrections."
The roof was empty. The CSI tinker looked at them expectantly.
"What… am I suppose to be seeing here?"
"Glad you asked," the CSI tinker said, giving him a smug grin. "Now. Prepare yourselves. This is shocking. Uncrop."
The full roof appeared on the screen.
There was nothing there. Piggot huffed. "Can you get to the point?"
"Director Piggot, Armsmaster, I give you evidence of the true culprit. Rewind photo."
Rune became visible on the roof and it was earlier in the day. She was staring down into the warehouse through a sky light.
"That… rewind photo? How do you… you, but you're not lying," Defiant said. "This has to be some sort of trick."
The supposed tinker grinned at him. "The photo speaks for itself sir."
"You're Tattletale aren't you?"
The very smug CSI tinker smiled at him. "Syllogistic logic my dear Watson: Tattletale wears a domino mask, I'm not wearing a domino mask. Therefore, I'm not Tattletale. You learn about this stuff in an Introduction to Philosophy course."
"She's telling the truth," Armsmaster said, conceding the point.
Piggot gaped at him. "Logically correct and telling the truth are different things Armsmaster!"
"No," Defiant shook his head. "My sensors factor that in. She can't be Tattletale. No one is that smug when lying. My models are certain she was telling the truth. But how… how did you do it? Rewinding a photo?"
The CSI tinker sighed. "I'm not sure you'd be happy if I told you how I did it."
"Oh? And why is that?"
"I'm going to leave now, but I want to leave you with some parting words:" "I'm the smartest person in this room." "You can't accept that." "I want to leave." "Goodbye Armsmaster, Director Piggot."
The CSI tinker walked out of the room.
"Please tell me you're not buying that."
"She was telling the truth Director, as she believed it. I don't believe what she said, but I believe she meant it. I'll have Dragon ask about the rewind. She's better with people. Hopefully she can get the girl to open up about how her technology works. Can you imagine the things we could see? We've had photos from as far back as a hundred years ago."
1
