(Stormwatch Hangar - 6PM)
The day ends back where it began, the Stormwatch hangar. Kylia has finished working on 'her baby,' and found time to shower and change into street clothes, rather than wait around in a grease-stained set of coveralls.
"The underwater rig is a gem. And it's good footage," Rob says. "Interspersed with file from 2010, there's enough for anything from a mini-package for our own show, or a half-hour standalone."
"Need some interviews to make it pop. Some locals, someone from the University, even flashbacks from the crew," Ryan says. "Then we can gin up a narrator's track for TWC by Monday or Tuesday."
"Sounds good," Sebastian says. He glances at Diana, who crosses her arms and looks at him expectantly.
"So, what's this 'I wasn't wearing a chute' story you were babbling about back at the crime scene?" she asks, immediately putting you on the spot.
Sebastian grimaced at the accusation in her tone, but told the whole truth. The story didn't take very long but when he finished it was pretty clear none of them believed him.
"You expect us to believe that load of horse-shit," Diana asked pulling out her phone.
"Not without proof," he responded, opening up his locker and pulling out Arashi. _Good thing I put it in there when we got back,_ he thought watching Diana carefully. "Just watch." He grabbed the handle, drew the blade just the barest amount and started concentrating. Practice since his fall had granted him some level of mastery and quickly a moderate breeze picked up inside the still hanger. In moments his feet were off the ground and the crew's collective jaw was on it. He took a few slow laps around the hanger and performed a few loops including around the wing of the plane to emphasize the lack of any cables.
He landed gracefully in front of Diana and fully sheathed the sword. The wind died down instantly. "Believe me now?"
"I've seen car hoods driven through trees by tornadoes," Diana says. "I've seen hurricanes wreak havoc no one anticipated. Our business goes hand-in-hand with the unexpected, but this ..."
"It sure looked real," Rob says. "But I'm with Diana. I feel like I'm getting punked. Doing a Peter Pan around the hangar doesn't prove anything - stage magicians have been doing that one since I was a kid."
"He can climb up the old tower on the North Field and push him off," Kylia suggested.
"Look, all he has to do is float in midair for a moment, and we can wave broom handles or whatever around him, right?" asked Ryan.
"Still in the room," you point out. This isn't really going how you expected ... but, then, what did you expect? You're actually kind of flattered that the rest of Stormwatch crew is approaching this so rationally.
Well, at least for now. That might change when the others show up.
"I should also mention I can breathe underwater and go all Avatar with a bucket of water." he said, upending a bottle of water and suspending it as globe in air. "The others all have their own things. None quite as flashy as mine though."
"What the hell is this," Kenari mutters to herself as she pulls up her bike to see a number of cars outside the hangar. She focuses her eyes to peer through the darkness to see a license plate dimly lit by a lone street light. "NLM 505... recognize it?"
Registered to one Diana Tribbit, currently employed as a member of Stormwatch. Looks like Sebastian forgot to share the guest list.
"Shit... what's the point of secrecy and burner phones if you're just going to have a Show and Tell without asking?" she mutters as she pulls out her phone to send a text to Sebastian.
Thought we'd b meeting w/o unexpected guests. Whole point of hangar/phones. WTF
It's about this time that Kenari looks over to see Twylla's El Camino rumbling into the lot, Roscoe sitting up in the back, his jowls and ears flapping merrily in the wind.
Spotting Kenari, she pulls into a space next to her. Roscoe hops out and lopes over to greet the Scion of Bast, tail wagging.
"What's going on?" Twylla asks, spotting all the cars. She recognizes them as belonging to the rest of the Stormwatch team.
"Near as I can tell Sebastian decided to invite his team to our private gathering," Kenari replies with a scowl. "I must have missed the memo where we agreed on this."
She gestures with her cell phone. "I sent him a text to see what's going on before I go any closer."
She slips the phone into the breast pocket of her leather jacket and pulls out a thin black cigarette and a lighter as she sits back on her bike. "I take it you've had an interesting day since you called this meeting?"
The buzz of his phone disrupted is concentration right as Rob was looking at the water orb from below. "What was that for?" he sputtered.
"Sorry. Still new at this. Flying is easier." Sebastian said as he pulled out his phone. "Uh oh."
"Something wrong?" Diana asked, concerned.
"Looks like some of the others are less than thrilled that you guys are here." he said with a frown, "Let me go out and make peace. Wait here."
After getting a nod from each of them, Sebastian walked out talk with Kenari.
Kenari flicks cigarette ash away from her and lets out a slow cloud of smoke. "Sebastian," she says dryly. "Either our group is larger than I thought, or you told somebody about us."
She glances at the cars in the parking lot before looking back at him. "Multiple somebodies. Care to explain?"
"Aw, don't jump to conclusions, Kenari," Twylla smiles good-naturedly, ready to give Sebastian the benefit of the doubt. "I mean, weather doesn't exactly abide by our schedule. With the thing on the beach and whatnot, work could've just run late."
"Work did run late, right?" she looks to Sebastian, hoping that she's right.
Sebastian shook his head. "They called me on my strange behavior lately and with stumbling on that murder this morning, Diana was thinking I might have been involved in a more nefarious way than I am. So I told them the truth." He shrugged before continuing, "And before anyone gets all indignant, the Storm Watch has faced death more than once. We count on each other to watch our collective asses every time we go out into the field. But they were beginning to feel they couldn't trust me. Without that trust, people can die."
He looked Kenari directly in the eyes. "Besides... They are my family.
Twylla stands there, one hand resting on Roscoe's head. Honestly, she can't argue with that. If they were getting suspicious, Sebastian had to do something. She waits quietly to see how Kenari will react.
"What you tell your friends about yourself is your business, but you had no right to tell them about the rest of us, Sebastian. Your family has just been confronted with the fact that their friend and confidant now has potentially dangerous 'super powers' and the knowledge that an unknown number of people around them could be the same, while my family has known we've existed for generations," Kenari replies as she tosses her cigarette away.
"Can you honestly say that they will be so accepting? That they won't let something slip to the wrong person or post a video from their phone on Facebook?"
She sighs in frustration and runs a hand through her hair before regaining her calm composure. "Look, Sebastian... they're your friends, and I get that... but you should've talked to us first. After I share what I found, you might regret bringing them into this."
Twylla nods, "Someone is looking for us, Sebastian. Catherine Martinez had a file on her computer labeled "scions," and it contained our names, addresses..."
She frowns, "And the Feds were already in Socialize!'s system. Black ice level shit. I knew they were being called in to help search for Catherine, likely as a favor by Petrelli's father since he used to work for some alphabet agency. But, they were already there, Sebastian. That security network had already been established. I'm pretty sure of that."
"Someone has been watching us."
"Look I understand your concerns, Kenari. So far only Diana knows anything about you guys. If you want I can send the crew home, but knowing them they will want to help."
He turns to Twylla, "You know them Twylla. Telling them that this is going to be dangerous will most likely increase their drive to help. And if the government is after us having a support network will be vital."
Kenari sighs as she gets off her bike. "No... what's done is done, and their fates are now entwined with yours." She motions with her hand towards the hangar as if to say after you. "Just keep in mind that if I want people to know anything about me, it's because I told them myself, OK?"
I'll set up some programs to key in on any mentions of real people with powers or abilities on the internet, as well as keep a tab on their social presence just in case...
Twylla nods, thinking about all of it for a moment before answering. Inwardly, she snorts in amusement. Teams of people who jump out of perfectly good airplanes for fun aren't going to be deterred by much, that's for sure. And, unlike Kenari, she has a history with these people. She trusts them. The question is, will they be in danger no matter what?
The files she grabbed showed that Kenari's family was being watched. So, the whole Stormwatch team could be under surveillance, too. They work closely. It would make sense to keep en eye on all of them. If they are already being watched, then...perhaps forewarning is warranted, after all.
"Let me check something, real quick," she says. She leans in through the open window of her car and snags her laptop. Flipping it open, she reaches into her top and pulls a thumb drive out from where she had secured it to a bra strap. She pops it into a slot and pulls up the list, doing a search for the rest of the Stormwatch team.
Twylla's search does yield the names of the Stormwatch team, though the results are varied. Diana Tribbit is marked negative, Ryan Kingsley, Kylia Cota, and Rob Wilkins are all assigned percentages (ranging from a coin toss to 75%). Todd Crimson is marked MIA/Unknown.
"Hey, guys...whoever it is is already watching the whole team," she looks to Kenari and Sebastian, sighing. "They were already involved before Sebastian even said anything. It's probably best that they do know what is going on, in that case."
She closes her laptop but does not power it down. She's certain that the rest of the team will want to see this...if they will even believe that it's not something that she cooked up for...reasons. Twylla can't even fathom why anyone would think she'd make a fake list like this but, who knows?
"Let's go see everyone," she says. "Oh! And let me text Sven so he's not surprised when he pulls up."
Stormwatch team knows about Sebastian. They are all here. Just a heads up. Kenari and I already arrived.
She then turns to follow the others into the hangar.
They walk back into the hanger and Sebastian clears his throat, "Alright team, before we go any further I want to make a few things perfectly clear. One: what is discussed among this group stays within this group just like the time we had to sneak into Cuba for emergency repairs. This is not part of the show. This is not going on social media." They all nodded solemnly, though Ryan had a puzzled look on his face since he hadn't been part of the team then.
"Second," he continued, "Is this is likely to be dangerous. Not "ripped apart by a tornado" dangerous; we're talking "kidnapping, murder, and torture" type danger. Somebody is trying to find people like us and we don't know why. That murder this morning is tied in. If you aren't up for it you are free to take off, no judgement."
Sven texted back, Really? WHY?
Sven stopped driving towards the hangar and pulled over to think. He had kept his scion-inity a secret only shared by Christine for years. That silence only broke when he fell into meeting the rest of his... cousins? Plus Kenari's family. Now a bunch of thrill-seekers on a TV show he never even met know far more about him than he liked.
Sven hadn't had a chance to connect with Christine yet about the aftermath of her meeting with the Chief of Police earlier. He pricked his finger on his earring and broadcasted, Hey Christine, any fallout from the meeting? It sounds like I've lost control of our little secret, seems our Scion Club is making privacy decisions without me.
Hearing the beep on her burner, Twylla figures Sven has gotten her message and has questions. Falling a step or two behind Sebastian so she doesn't draw attention away from him, she replies quickly.
Diana got suspicious of behavior at beach. Called him out. Don't think he's said anything about us. Just himself.
"As the saying goes, three can keep a secret if two of them are dead," Christine says, dryly. "Someone always sees or hears something they shouldn't, Sven. It's more dangerous now, with the internet, but even though Father and the others are considered 'mythology,' people end up being drawn to us. In some cases, we shape their fate; in others, they shape ours."
"You'll have to establish your own terms. If we need to, we can disappear and re-establish ourselves anywhere on the planet," she tells you. Knowing Christine, this isn't wishful thinking - it's a plan, with resources and contingencies. And yet, it doesn't feel right - you've never run from a fight in your life, and you're not about to start now.
"As for Detective Spinelli, she will be useful. An exemplar to direct future conversations about the department. Ashton can change his ways, or be left behind."
Sven hadn't told Christine about his discussion with Art, he kept the dirtier laundry to himself. He stewed, half of his brain processing how to react to this breach, the other half contemplating the bug-out option. Finally he projected back, No, I don't think we need to skedaddle. We run into the fire, not away from it. I think I'm going to lay the rest of my cards on the table tonight, including letting them know about you, but only after I take some... precautions. Thanks Christine, see you tomorrow. Christine closed the connection after sending a sort of mental friend-hug feeling.
Making up his mind, he sent a mass text to the rest of the group before driving the remaining 5 minutes to the hangar. Please keep Stormwatch on the premises, and please don't talk about anything til I get there.
"Personally I think the fact that they're being watched is even more reason not to go broadcasting your secret to them," Kenari mutters to herself. "Which he'd know... if he waited to talk to us."
She stops before the door and sighs. "Put on your face... time to find out what they actually know." Her lips curve into a seductive smile that she's practiced in the mirror for years before she opens the door and saunters into the hangar to meet his crew.
Sven drove right up to the hangar and stormed in. He was visibly trying to control his anger. "Hello everyone, hello Stormwatch. I understand we have some introductions to make. But before we do that - before anyone is going to leave this hangar- " Sven flipped open his suit jacket and flashed his shoulder holster to varying reactions of alarm, "We are going to have a discussion about privacy."
Having gotten the attention in the room, he made cool eye contact with everyone individually before continuing, "My name is Sven Merrick. As some of you may or may not know, I work in City Hall. As some of you may or may not know, I also happen to be the child of a God. I want to make it crystalclear that I will bring my full force to bear in both of those arenas against anyone who betrays this group.
"I have a magic power. And that power is to know when someone is lying. I am going to go person by person and make sure we do not have a security leak present in this room. I will ask a simple question - 'Do you plan to fuck over anyone in this room'. You will answer yes or no. Simple enough?"
"Would now be a good time to say that I'm an atheist?" Rob smiled weakly.
Diana crosses her arms somewhat defiantly. "That would go both ways, wouldn't it? You have a magic power, we don't. What assurances are you going to put on the table so we know you won't fuck us over?"
"I'm out," Kylia says. "I joined Stormwatch because we all have a shared passion for what we do. Not to get accused of being ready to fuck someone over for a buck or a pat on the head."
"Kylia, wait," Ryan pleaded. "Don't go. Let Sebastian say his piece."
Kylia works her jaw as she reconsiders, then puts her duffel bag down.
"Shit. Make it good, Sebastian," Ryan says.
"Oh for the love of..." Twylla facepalms. Sebastian had specifically said that only Diana knew names.
"Well, Sven...actually, they didn't know about us, specifically, until you burst in here all guns ablazin'. They were only told 'others exist.' Not specific names."
"And, exactly what the hell do you think you are doing barging in here and threatening people?" The normally cheerful, laid-back tech bristles, anger starting to light her eyes. She stalks up to Sven, putting herself between him and the rest of the crew. She pokes him squarely in the chest, "These are good people. And I'll be damned if I'm going to let you try to scare them or hurt them, throwing around your power like...like..."
She trails off, too angry even form the words. Like some of the asshat cops that push around the brown folk because they can. Like the politicians that push the poor aside because they have the power to do so. Just like Sven has the power to do this...
Twylla stands there and, though she is shorter and smaller than Sven, certainly weaker and with no training in fighting, she does not back down.
"Let Sebastian handle this," she states through gritted teeth. "This is his team. He knows them better than you. Hell, I know them better than you. So, back the fuck off...politician."
Sven averted his eyes a bit, not meeting Twylla's glare, but he didn't change his posture. "The very fact that I am a politician is why I cannot take any chances. If I am betrayed, if someone here isn't able to stand above board, then it's not my own life I'm concerned about. I stand here representing Councilwoman Porter. I stand here representing the people who voted for her. I stand here representing the people we are working to protect, and the lives we work to improve. If the details of my heritage get leaked on a level where my job is impacted, everything, everything that we have worked towards goes down the shitter. I can't let that happen, and I will never let that happen, I can swear that to you on my Father's name."
He turned to look expectantly at Sebastian, not so much seething now, but determined in his course.
Somewhat mollified, Twylla crosses her arms and steps back from Sven. "Still doesn't give you the right..." she mutters angrily.
She, too, looks to Sebastian, wondering what he's going to make of this mess.
Sebastian was very still, except for the hint of a breeze sending his hair and clothes dancing. He is still holding Arashi and now the blade is about three inches out of the sheath.
"Sven, since you can tell when someone is lying listen closely because I am only going to say this once." his voice dangerously quiet, "If you so much as think about going for that gun, I'm going to make it you look a lot more like daddy. This is my home and my family you just threatened and that is not the way we do things here. If you have a problem with my team knowing than your problem is with me, not them. If that's the only way you know how to operate than it would best for everyone if you don't come back here. Regardless, you have my word that your secret is safe with them. And I don't need to swear upon someone else's name. I'll swear it on my name."
He pauses a moment and looks at each of them in the room.
"Perhaps I should have given the rest of you a warning that the rest of the Storm Watch would be here. My bad, it must have slipped my mind with the recent murder. But for fuck's sake there was a dead woman on the beach today and if she wasn't one of us then she at least knew about us. I'm not big on secrets and I'm a terrible liar so this whole Peter Parker shit wasn't working out for me. And these 4 people are the bravest, smartest, and most trust-worthy people I know. More importantly without each and every one of them I wouldn't be here today. So if you want Sebastian Vogel, you get the Storm Watch because without them I am not whole."
Sebastian leveled his gaze to his team, "I could really use your help on this but I'm not going to force the issue. If you don't want in on this it's your call. It won't change my opinion of you or endanger your job. You can walk out that door right now with no questions asked." Sebastian glared at Sven and emphasized the last few words sliding Arashi out another inch.
"There is danger coming and whatever these "gods" are, they think we are the ones to stand against it. So I say stand we do. Together."
Sven blinked as he felt power surging through him from Sebastian's words. He turned and faced Sebastian squarely, but didn't escalate the situation and kept his hands from his jacket.
"I'm not here to have a dick measuring contest. I'm here to ensure that we haven't been compromised. And you're right, it is you I have a problem with. I don't care if they're your until-recently conjoined twins, you don't go around telling people about us - about me - without consequence. If I don't leave here tonight without expecting a knife in my back, then I will indeed not be coming back. I won't allow the safety of those who depend on me to be compromised again. And that includes disappearing to lands unknown, if that's what I need to do to protect this city and its people from my mistakes.
"So the choice is posed. We're either all of us," he swept his gaze at Kylia, "allof us in this together, or I start mitigating my losses, Gods be damned. We don't have to do it my way, but it must be done."
"We make a living chasing hurricanes and tornados, and he asks, 'Are you in?'" Kylie rolls her eyes. "Sure. I'm game."
"I'm in," Rob says. "I've always said that the only thing that could change my opinion about there not being a god would be hard evidence. I still don't entirely believe this stuff, even when it's you, Sebastian. But I'd kick myself if I backed away now."
Ryan paces back and forth, running his fingers through his hair. "Fuck. I'm good with maps and statistical models. Gods and goddesses and demigods? Fuck. I'm good, but it's like this morning. I feel like I'm about to throw up."
"You always were good with a sales pitch," Diana says. "And I hate to pour ice water on things, but I won't even go as far as Rob. I'll be here for you, but I don't want any part of this. I don't want to know your names, or special powers, or who's your mommy or daddy. I'm sorry."
Kenari walks past Sven with a smile and a gentle hand on his shoulder. "Sven dear, I thought politicians offered bribes first before threatening people."
She turns to Sebastian's crew. "You'll have to forgive us... we are all rather high strung after discovering that a woman was killed because she knew about scions. When we heard that Sebastian told you all we didn't knowwhat to think. All your lives are now potentially in real danger... whether it's from our government trying to track us or whoever might be trying to kill us."
She gestures to Sven. "He really does mean well and he's trying to improve this city... he just has a lot to lose... as we all do, if that information fell into the wrong hands."
She sighs. "If you want no part of this I understand, and we will find a new place to meet and stay out of your lives. I only hope that whoever has been keeping a record of all of us will do the same."
Twylla shakes her head in disgust at Sven's ultimatum. Better do as I say or I'm going to take my marbles and go home, Politicians. Bah!
She takes a deep breath and says nothing. Twylla can clearly see that Kenari is trying her best to smooth things over and she can't think of anything to say about the situation that wouldn't make it worse.
Instead, she turns her attention to Ryan, who seems to be taking this worse than anyone else. Sure, Diana is dead-set that this is all nonsense, but she seems fairly calm about it. Poor Ryan looks practically green around the gills.
She moves to him and catches his arm gently, stopping him in mid-pace, "Hey, Ryan. Look, ummm...magic...you know, it's, it's...not so different than science."
Her anger quickly dissipates as she turns her mind to this new idea, and the task of comforting her friend, "Think about it. We do things now that someone from the Middle Ages would think was sorcery, right? Clearly, it's not. We know it's not because we better understand the world and how things work, now. I think that's all that our magic really is: a new science. It only seems impossible and illogical because it's something that we haven't had the chance to study, to quantify."
"Record? What record?" God, what a clusterfuck. I never should have come here. When did I get so sloppy? I never even did a background check on these people. I don't even know these StormWatch people's names.
Sven took a deep breath and looked around with some clarity. Kenari having to play the placating host with a petulant child up past his bedtime. Sebastian ready to pull a fucking katana to defend his friends. Twylla, innocent little Twylla, getting in his face and now showing such compassion for one of the crewmembers he had actually managed to put the fear of god into.
What have I become?
Sven suddenly slumped down, sitting on a supply crate.
He turned his head to Diana, and put his fist to his chest, over his heart. He pulled from the pit of power in his stomach, almost literally radiating with sincerity. "I don't know you. And that scares me."
He glanced around the room and back to her. "But you don't know me either, and I'm the idiot waving a gun around. I'm sorry. I make no excuses, but please believe me - people have put their faith in me, and I cannot betray that. As scary or confusing as it may be for you right now, imagine how it is for me - for us. We didn't exactly get a user manual."
"Twylla said someone's been keeping tabs on us," Diana said. "All of us. And that makes me wonder about the lock-cutting on the North Field. Nothing was missing ..."
"Oh, come on. No one is listening in on us," Rob says, holding a finger to his lips. "That's a silly idea."
"Rob's right," Ryan says, making a rabbit-ears sign. "I think we're all a little on edge from this morning."
Rob moves towards the drone locker and takes out a small module. He turns it on and begins walking around the hangar ...
"Are you picking up anything interesting coming from here?" Kenari whispers to her guide as she looks out the window nervously.
Sebastian holds out a beer to Sven. "I think we've both been jack asses tonight," he said quietly,
"Truce?" He was holding his own beer and his sword was leaning against the far wall from where Sven was sitting. He sat down next to Sven and gestured at Rob and Ryan working. "They do good work," he said and then took a drink.
"Hey, Kylia, did you check the doohickey on the plane?" Rob asks.
"I told you before, Rob, it's not the interface," Kylia sighs. "You've got some wires crossed on your toys."
"Well, something is interfering with the drones," he says. "Crap. I guess I have to take them apart again."
He sets down the unit, its antenna pointing in a specific direction and the display clearly registering another signal. He picks up a clipboard and scribbles LISTENING DEVICE on a piece of paper.
"I thought you said the new drones would solve that problem," Diana frowned. "How much time will it take?"
"I honestly don't know," Rob said, throwing up his hands. He looks at Sebastian and the others. "What do you want me to do?"
Sven only hesitated briefly before taking the beer and clinking it against Sebastian's, mollified. "I'm sure they do. I can't even begin to understand how closely you all need to depend on each other just to do a single scene, flying into tornadoes and shit."
Sven took a small swig but otherwise just slowly swirled the beer around, keeping his eyes downcast. "Look, I'm sure they're good people. but we're facing real danger here. We godlings have a little extra oomph and are able to defend ourselves, more or less. But these guys are just quote unquote mere mortals. We can't just throw them in the mix willy nilly. I'll trust your judgment of them - I have to at this point anyways - but we need to be more careful about who we bring in. Imagine if we lose someone? I don't want to put your friends in any danger, any more than I want to endanger the people I work with."
Twylla sighs, crossing her arms as she watches the others go about the task of searching for listening devices.
Her anger was already dissipating before Sven made his speech. At his heartfelt words of apology and his confession of uncertainty and fright, she lets it all go, though. Of course he's scared. They all are, most likely. They are being watched by someone, the purpose of which remains unknown. Could it be just because they are scions, curiosity driving then with the need to document them like someone else might search for sasquatch? She snorts softly to herself. Unlikely. With the murder and the Feds being called in, that likelihood is slim to nil, and Slim just left town.
She walks over and puts a hand on Sven's shoulder, giving it a squeeze. Leaning over so she can whisper, Twylla says, "I'm sorry, too. We're all scared."
Then, a thought occurs to her and she reaches into her purse, pulling out a small notebook. Quickly, she scribbles a message there that she shows to Sven and Sebastian.
Whoever is listening must have heard us fight. Maybe they don't hear us making up. Can we use the ploy of a fracture in our group to our advantage, somehow?
Silently, Twylla waves Kenari over so that she can show her the message, too.
Sebastian stood up and set his beer down. "We're gonna have to fix them for tomorrow's shoot even if it takes all night," he said as he crossed to the whiteboard As he continued to talk, he started writing on the board. _Twylla can you crack in to the signal?_
"As for you Sven," Sebastian shouts, "If I ever see you here again I'm going to do more than punch you." _Play along_ was written on the board as he spoke.
Kenari catches Twylla waving out of the corner of her eye and walks over to read the note before scribbling down her reply.
Talking with a friend of mine to see if they can track the signal, but two heads are better than one. If someone knows we're all here I want to make sure we're not sitting ducks for an ambush.
If it gets too noisy in here they won't be able to hear us, the thought struck Sebastian. "Kylia, looking over these readings I think Rob might right. Can you get the plane idling so we can run another test?"
Twylla doesn't reply, but nods, making a 'no kidding!' face. She then holds up her fingers, crossed in the universal sign of 'let's hope for the best.'
She moves to the whiteboard to stand beside Sebastian. She quickly jots a reply.
No. If they are just listening, there is nothing to crack. The best we can do is try to find it, here. Use your equipment to home in on it.
Twylla waves to catch Rob and Ryan's attention. She then points to her message and looks at the two questioningly.
Sven read the notes passing around him. Listening? Who's listening? Sven hadn't been paying attention at what everyone else had been doing, but as he looked around he was stricken with horror once he realized what was going on. Oh Gods, what did I say? What have I done?
Sven scribbled a frantic note, 'Don't turn it off or destroy it, find it then let's try to turn it to our advantage.' He took a deep breath, pulled in the roiling guilt in the pit of his stomach, and threw the beer on the hangar floor, careful not to actually hit anything that may not take kindly to a beer bath. "I was leaving anyways!" he yelled on his way out.
Twylla reads Sven's note and nods, giving him a thumbs up. Knowing that the device is there, the group can spin whatever tale they want to and, hopefully, keep things under control.
Be careful out there! Possible ambush. Maybe. Twylla quickly scrawls on the board, making sure that Sven sees before he walks out the door.
What's the range on that kind of signal? Sebastian scribbled under Twylla's reply.
Going to get the plane on to drown out the noise of what we're doing. Ear plugs are by the front door. I'd also rather have her hot if we need to bug out.
Sven paused a beat after seeing Twylla's note. Why does she even care about my safety after all of that? He stewed in his puddle of adrenaline, shame, and fear.
He went out and got in his car, but didn't turn it on. Finally alone, he let out a sob or two before controlling himself, punching the dashboard.
Taking this as her chance to slip out, Kenari motions with a hand gesture that she's following Sven and pulls up the hood of her jacket before creeping out into the shadows outside the hangar as Sven leaves.
No luck with a signal... as long as they're receiving and not transmitting, there's not much to work with. If they decide to change their minds, though, I'll be the first to let you know.
Kenari leaps and with a push off the HVAC unit and a few handholds thanks to the frame, she climbs and pulls herself onto the roof of the hangar where she lays low and keeps an eye on Sven as he leaves. If anybody tries to follow us tonight I'll be damned if I don't pay them back in kind. Seeing Sven's hesitation in his car, Kenari sighs and pulls out her burner phone to send him a text.
We are all afraid and doing the best we can. You are not alone. Remember that.
While the team was working, Sebastian pulled out his burner. Sorry about the mess, drinks are on me when we have a moment. Stay safe and let us know if you run into any trouble he sent to Sven.
Sven read through the recent texts after he leashed his emotions. He texted back to all of them, "We need to regroup. Fall back to safehouse B later 2nite, not under my name so should be safe, will sweep beforehand. There's something I haven't told you all about. Keep cellphones home, park a few blocks away."
He set his teeth. What's done is done, time for us to take control of this situation. He started his car to get ready to go to his off-site office, taking the battery out of both his phones.
"Now that the asshole is gone," Sebastian spoke, while writing a note furiously. "Jessie you said you found some information to share?"
On the board, Twylla, with this much secrecy the left hand might not know what the right is doing, can you make it sound like Sven might be in on the tracking as an undercover agent or something? Anything to help protect him?
Sebastian nodded to Twylla as he finished.
Twylla nods and thinks furiously, trying to spin something. This is the first time she's ever had to do actual acting that other people could see through. Most of the time, all she has to do is fool the beeps and boops of computer programs...
"Yeah," Twylla presses her lips together and tries to tap into her earlier rage at Sven, anything to give her voice the edge it needs. "I know that we're being watched and I'm pretty sure that Sven is in on it. Why else would someone working with the government have any interest in us? Why would he care about a techie and a storm chasing crew?"
Twylla leaves Kenari out of it. Her brothers' names had been on the list, but not hers. Best to just glide over that...
"I don't know what the hell he was trying to do bursting in here, like that, though. That was insane! I mean, honestly?" she scoffs. "Was he trying to scare us into giving him information about...heck, I don't even know. Demanding truth and loyalty from us..."
Twylla gives Sebastian a worried look, not sure that she's doing well. Acting is not her forte!
Kylia shrugs. "Yeah. Okay. I'm not paying for the fuel."
She climbs into the cockpit and does a routine preflight, then calls out over an external speaker, "CLEAR!"
Rob makes sure everyone who isn't part of Stormwatch is outside the circle marked on the hangar floor, gives a thumbs-up to Kylia.
The plane's engine turns over, and the thrum of its idling engine is enough to give any unintentional listener fits.
Rob motions to Sebastian with a 'gimme a boost' gesture, indicating the top of the storage lockers ...
A thumbs up and a smile Twylla and then plane roars to life. _Don't break it yet_ Sebastian writes on the board and then moves over to give Rob a boost.
Rob peers over the tops of the row of storage lockers, then hops down. He nods and points to the lockers, indicating that there is some kind of listening device placed there.
Audio only he scribbled on the dry-erase board. May not be the only one. What's next?
(Sven)
You lock the car doors, of course. A deep exhalation helps you center, but the awareness that the group is under surveillance is still unsettling. Your anger still wants to latch onto it for justification.
Until you realize it's been going on for some time. You wonder if Christine has any political enemies who might have kept this as an ace-in-the-hole, dismiss it as too over-the-top. Despite Hollywood's best efforts, politics is gritty and down-to-earth, even at its most Machiavellian.
There's a tap on the driver's side window. A uniformed officer has his Streamlight to hand and is looking at you with a raised eyebrow. He makes a roll-down motion at you.
Hacking the cameras.
There's a long pause as minutes scroll by. You can gauge the difficulty of the task by Mouser's uncharacteristic silence - he's not one given to nervous chatter, but he also isn't this quiet unless a run is going sour.
In. Don't see anything yet. Let's see, gate ... taxiway ... fence line ... hangars ... yeah, there you are. Looks like Sven is getting checked out by security, nothing looks out of place ...
There's a brief squeal of feedback in your earbud, and then you can hear what is transpiring in the hangar and wish your putative enemies luck. The feed is basically like trying to listen in on a whispered conversation at a dance club, and then ...
"Let me go! I didn't do anything!" someone protests.
"Shut the fuck up, gwailo."
There are footfalls, and then a quiet, "Oh, shit."
"You understand now, yes? Good," a more measured voice says. "Your ... intemperate behavior has drawn attention to things I do not wish to have in the spotlight."
"Look, okay, I'm out, I didn't know ..."
"It is too late for that."
There is a wet, punching-meat sound.
"See to it he is found on the docks, with the appropriate clues."
There. That should mess with their heads.
"What was that?"
A clip from last night's episode of Delta Blue. It'll be amusing to see if they waste time looking for another body. If not, I'll have to come up with something more ... fun.
Kenari chuckles and shakes her head as she takes out her burner phone to text Sebastian. You might want to tell Security that Sven is OK. He was in car when they pulled up.
After a moment's thought she sends another text. You DO have Security, right?
I'll check it out, Sebastian replies to Kenari. Security might just be being cautious after the break-in, but the way tonight's gone I don't trust it, he thought. He grabs a sports bag and sets Arashi in it and heads towards the door.
"Gotta take a leak. Be back in a few," he shouts over the sound of the engine before jogging out the door to help Sven clear security.
For fuck's sake what now.
Sven rolled down the window, and let loose some of his agitation at the guard. "What? I was meeting with StormWatch in their hangar, I'm leaving now."
"Guard at the gate didn't recognize your plate, Sir. Not a problem. You'll want to have Mr. Vogel notify us if you're working with them," he says. "Drive safe."
Sven huffed and managed a "Thank you officer" before rolling his window back up, then started driving off the lot.
(Twylla)
Twylla glances at the phone, taking note of what is going on. She leaves Sebastian to check that out. After all, Kenari is out there and Twylla would only be in the way in a fight.
Instead, she scribbles on the board, Going to get any ID info off the device. Can't hurt to have that . Gonna need a boost.
As she moves to the lockers, she considers what could be done with that information. Would it be possible to determine who might have bugged them by tracing back suppliers and point of sales? She doesn't know. But, better to have the information than not.
Twylla stands by the lockers, awaiting a helping hand.
Ryan and Rob look at Twylla's skirt, then at each other. There's a certain level of familiarity among friends - Kylia wouldn't blink an eye about stripping out of coveralls and down to a bra-and-panties, because she doesn't have any romantic interest in either of them. (Not to mention, she also wouldn't blink an eye about decking either of them with a right cross.)
Ryan puts his hands up as if to say, "You first." Rob gives an 'after you, Alphonse' kind of bow and kneels to offer Twylla the requested boost.
"You're not wearing spike heels, are you?" he asks with a wink.
It's not that Twylla is experienced in surveillance, but the knowledge is readily available to hats of all colors - black, white, and gray. The bug is a standard unit - a microphone, a transmitter, and a lithium battery, all crammed into a compact package. Nothing to spill the beans at a first look, but finding out what frequency the device is on would reveal who planted it.
But, this would also involve disabling the unit ... and tipping them off that their device had been found, unless it just happened to have been smashed by something weighty tossed atop the lockers ...
On any other day, Twylla may have given thought to the fact that she was in a skirt and being hoisted by a man. Today is not that day, though. Her mind is so occupied with everything that has happened and is currently still taking place that someone accidentally catching a glimpse of her panties is completely off the radar.
Even then, she would still laugh the incident off. After all, even if someone did get a glimpse up her skirt, they would still be seeing less of her than they would if she were wearing a bikini!
"Thanks!" Twylla says softly as Rob lets her down.
She walks over to the board and writes, Standard unit. But, if I crack it open, I can probably decipher what frequency was used. So: "accidentally" smash it or continue ruse? Thoughts? Twylla looks to the others questioningly.
She holds up her burner and taps it, indicating to the others that she's going to contact the rest of the crew. Twylla quickly types up the same message to everyone else, along with the question: Votes?
Kenari reads the message from Twylla and thinks for a moment as she taps her phone against her bottom lip. She smiles as a thought comes to her and types her reply.
Accident. We can catch them if they try and replace it.
I think leaving it for a few days would make it less obvious. We're not going to be here as a group this weekend and we can smash it Monday when we clean the floors. We normally throw stuff we want to stay dry on the lockers anyway. Plus the team and I can do a more thorough sweep while we are prepping to wash. Was Sebastian's reply.
Kenari pulls out her phone to read Sebastian's text and forms a reply.
Since this meeting is a wash I'm going to head to Plan B. I didn't see anything out of the ordinary when Sven left... so if we stagger when we leave and take different routes hopefully we'll be OK. Keep an eye out and be careful.
After she clicks SEND she slips the phone into her breast pocket and gives one last look around from her vantage point before making her way down from the roof.
I'll keep an eye on things until they leave. You be careful too, girl.
She grabs her helmet off the back of her seat with a sigh and puts it on as she straddles her motorcycle. With a kick of her foot the engine revs and she speeds away into the night.
Twylla checks her phone and quickly jots the tally up for the others to see.
So far, consensus is we leave the bug to be smashed on Monday when you guys clean the floor. Continue ruse, for now. Stagger leaving here, tonight. Haven't heard from Sven, yet, but I think this sounds like a good plan. Unless he comes back with argument against, I say we run with this.
Twylla considers text about whether the rest of the Stormwatch team will be coming to the next meeting or not. But, Sebastian was only going to be gone for a few minutes. She figures he can fill them in on details when he gets back, if he wants.
Sven took a circuitous route to the office. He halfway convinced himself he was shaking possible tails, but he didn't really know how to do that - and really just wanted some time to think.
Man, I was ready to literally shoot somebody. A few years ago I never even touched a gun, and I still have only pulled it out at a gun range.
Christine had warned him that Tyr's blood running through his veins - what she called ichor - would make certain emotions run hot. Contrary to the stereotype of the dour Nord, he could feel his blood positively singing with the drive to defend those in his care, to seek vengeance against his enemies.
He had been trying to keep from thinking too much about the recent ramping up of weird things in his life. After that first meal with Kenari and the rest of the group, he had dove deeper into his work. He had been telling himself that he was tying up loose ends to prepare for this change in priorities, but he ultimately knew he was really trying to run away from all the craziness.
Now he was acting out of borderline paranoia. First a murder-most-foul this morning, then it turns out someone had already found them out. I still don't know what Kenari meant by "someone keeping a record of us." I need to find out what that was about. His stomach did a flip, and if "all of us" includes Christine. If they bugged Sebastian's hangar, they could easily be targeting her as well.
Sven decided on three things. One - he wasn't going to trust his work phone, but the burners shouldn't be compromised - why then would they bother bugging the hangar?
Two - he needed to focus the fury in the pit of his stomach towards this... Malevolent Force, not against his newfound cousins and their extended families. If that murder is related, which he had a strong feeling it was, then a political scandal about a council staffer going crazy and calling himself the son of a God from a dead religion wasn't quite the mortal threat he had been treating it as.
Three - he really needed to bring the rest of his... his cousins fully into his trust, and try to earn their trust in return - or earn it back.
Sven pulled over and fumbled with the burner to put the battery back in. I can't isolate myself now. If I fail, or if they fall, we need to do it together.
Seeing the latest text exchange, he replied, "I vote keep it where it is, even long term. I'd rather feed false information then risk them escalating their strategy."
Seeing that Sven got away from the guard with no apparent trouble, Sebastian decided jog a few laps around the hanger to clear his head. He didn't regret telling the team. Honestly he should have done it sooner. He did regret the way things played out though. He needed to do something to make it up to everyone. Particularly Sven and Diana.
Seeing the last message from Sven, Twylla nods to herself and writes on the board, Okay. Definitely leaving the bug in place, for now. We'll regroup and talk about smash vs. no smash later. I'm going to text Seb and then split. Thanks for all your help, guys! You're the best! 3
Once she knows that the others have read her message and know the plan, she erases the whiteboard. As an afterthought, she sketches quick, chibi versions of Jessie, James and Meowth blasting off.
Pulling out the burner, she relays everything to Sebastian so that he's caught up, along with letting him know that she's headed out to the Plan B location.Also, I didn't tell them about Plan B. I don't know what you want to do, if you want them there. They are involved, so they have every right to be included, imo. Leaving it up to you.
Gathering Roscoe, who has been waiting patiently while all this went down, Twylla heads out to her car and heads towards the second meeting location.
The Other Office
If you were looking for a seat of power, a secret chamber wherein decisions of import were made, influence brokered, and enemies broken upon a political lathe, you probably wouldn't look twice at the tiny office with its windows taped over by months-old newspapers. There was no name, corporate or otherwise, to suggest this was The Place.
It was a strip mall that had seen better days. A Burger King, the smell of stale grease and 'char-broiled' burgers in the air. Homeless people who seemed to gravitate back and forth between the fast-food joint, a coin-op laundromat, and a bar that advertised a big screen TV to watch the weekend's games on.
Still, the mall wasn't a complete dump. The Chinese restaurant on the other end of the block was somewhat cheerier and in better upkeep, and seemed to be doing brisk business ...
Kenari took a seat at the bar so she could get a view of the people meandering around the mall without looking out of place. She gave her best seductive smile to the bartender as she leaned forward to get his attention. "Blue Moon with a twist of orange if you've got it, deary."
The bartender can't help but smile back before he realizes she's asking him to do his job. With a sigh he replies as he grabs a glass and activates the tap, "Sorry lady, no can do with the fruit. Let me know when you want another drink, though." He flashes a crooked smile that has seen more than its share of back alley fights as he hands her the glass. "Name's Rudy."
"You're a sweetheart, Rudy," she drawls in reply as she runs a well-manicured finger down the side of his face and takes her beer with a smile. "I just want to enjoy my drink in peace... so would you be a dear and make sure nobody bothers me while I enjoy your company?"
Rudy smiles wide and nods. "You got it, ma'am. You just say my name if you need anything, now." He grabs some glasses to clean with his towel and rather obviously tries to show off the flexed muscles of his arms.
Kenari smiles. "I feel safer already, Rudy."
She then grabs her drink and turns around to scan her surroundings for anything odd or out of place as she takes a sip. "How hard is it to find out who owns that office?" she whispers to her guide. "If you can do it easily... so can whoever is tracking us."
Sven parked a few blocks from the strip mall his office was in, on a residential block. Despite his very humble car, he hid his work phone under the driver chair just in case. He was pretty sure he was suffering full-blown paranoia at this point, but until he was up to date on who their stalkers were, he took every precaution he could drum up.
He reached the office with no difficulty and went in. The place was an absolute mess. 3 years' worth of machinations sat in unlabeled file boxes, various projects were displayed with photos and paper clippings on the wall with strings connecting them. He hadn't cleared out his more sensitive materials yet, but at this point he had no more secrets to hide. He started trying to make the place as comfortable as he could for 4 people to sit in - cleared the blanket off the small raggedy couch, set some of the boxes in chair-like positions, and started picking up random detritus. He also took a good, hard look to make sure no one had tampered with anything - it may be a mess, but it was his mess, and knew where everything was and how he had left it.
As she drives towards the strip mall, Twylla has a personal revelation. She's not subtle. Nope. Not in the least. _Yeah, no one is going to notice the blue-haired lady walking the Mega Dog. See that every day..._ Changing course, she starts heading home. It shouldn't take too long to pop in, put on a hat, and drop off Roscoe.
It is, at this point, that her stomach rumbles, empty and quite angry at this state of being. She had been so intent on coding after hacking Socialize!that she hadn't thought to have dinner before heading to the hangar. ...And swing by the sub shop. I need food, and I promised Roscoe some roast beef. Maybe that will make up for the fact that I'm dumping him at home.
Once home, Twylla digs around in her closet until she turns up an old, battered baseball cap that she had gotten during a date ages ago. She also changes to jeans, a T-shirt and a hoodie. She'd look silly in her regular clothes with the cap. Plus, she's not sure that she can actually stuff all of her hair under the cap. The hoodie should help hide it.
Roscoe was delighted to have a whole, roast beef sub all to himself. He was not so delighted as Twylla tried to leave him behind. When she tried to slip out of the apartment, he pushed past her and stood on the front stoop, waiting. Twylla went back in and Roscoe followed. Again, she tried to slip out but the mastiff muscled past her and back outside. For a good five minutes, the two of them do a crazy in-out door dance until, finally, Twylla throws up her hands in frustration.
"Fine. You can come! Just try to be..." she waves at him,. encompassing his vast canine being "...inconspicuous."
Somehow, Roscoe managed to look smug as he settled into the back of the Camino.
Before setting out to the strip mall, Twylla shuts down her phone and takes the battery out. She knows that Sven asked them to leave them behind but, honestly, there's no way for anyone to track a dead phone. As long as it has no power and isn't connected to anything, it's just a chunk of metal and plastic. She pops the phone and battery into her purse, puts on the baseball cap, and munches on her own sub as she drives.
Sebastian left his apartment in running clothes and started jogging towards the meeting place. He usually went for a run most nights so if his place was being watched this would be par for the course. It was a good run and let him sort out his feelings along the way. The team hadn't been happy that he was going alone tonight, but he had promised to update them at bar night tomorrow. This had satisfied most of the team, but Diana was still upset. The action of investigating the bug had broken through Ryan's reluctance and now he was excited about the possibilities. "Maybe they are aliens, like the Asgardians in the new Marvel movies," he had suggested as they walked out the hanger. Sebastian had agreed, but he wasn't really sold on that.
It was about 8 miles from his apartment to Sven's hidey hole by the route he had planned, so he left about an prior to the appointed time and put in a good pace. He also tried to keep a watch out for anyone tailing him.
There are no mysterious panel vans, no sedans driving with their headlights off, no unfamiliar neighbors out for an evening stroll. A man in well-worn Army jacket is sitting on the bench at the bus stop, enjoying a thin cigarillo and perhaps a flask of rum tucked in a pocket, but this particular route is a commuter run ... and over for the night.
It's not that easy. Shell corporation, fake board of directors. Faces are all stock photos. But, someone's gotta answer the phones, yeah?
A pause as an auto-dialer pulses out a number. Voice-response system. Too bad I know the admin codes. You hear a pair of off-key chords, followed by more single keypresses as Mouser navigates through the system. There. Anyone tampers with this puppy, I'll know. Decent job of hiding the trail for an amateur.
"Thanks... I want to make sure the same thing doesn't happen to this place too," Kenari mutters into her drink as she finishes it off and leaves a fiver on the bar. "Thanks again, Rudy, you're a doll," she calls out before she casually saunters across the way and leans against the door of the office, the heel of her boot tapping against the door as she pulls out a cigarette and searches for her lighter.
There's a purpose to Sven's chaos, so to speak, with a few tell-tales hidden among the junk. All of them are undisturbed. The tangle of threads is an incomplete picture of the nuances of New Orleans politics. There's the City Hall crowd, of course, with the usual parade of prominent citizens and business owners ... and then there's the organized crime presence, not at all surprising for a major convention city.
None of the others have shown up yet. Despite your challenging Sebastian's Stormwatch crew, you don't entirely feel like you've put your foot in it. It's more like the elusive clarity of a slug of absinthe, or, as Edgar Allan Poe put it, "... a class of fancies, of exquisite delicacy, which are not thoughts, and to which, as yet, I have found it absolutely impossible to adapt language."
"Hey, Sarge!" a young African-American man calls out to the man on the bench, who waves at him. The young man is dressed in a dark grey hoodie, with a small gymsack slung across his back. He is carrying a bag from a nearby sandwich shop.
"What's for dinner?" asks the man.
"Pastrami," the young man says, doling out a sandwich. "Got some Fritos and your choice - ginger ale, or a Coke."
"Ginger ale, please."
Sebastian waved to the two strangers with a smile as he ran past. The jog had been particularly easy tonight, he wasn't even a little winded. Maybe another side effect of his parentage? After rounding a corner, he decided to push for a bit more speed than usual and see how he felt.
Twylla finally gets close to the office. She finds a place to park the Camino a block or two away from the strip mall and pulls into place. She takes a moment to make sure that her hair is tucked away before getting out and locking up. Not that she's all that concerned about her car being stolen. Even she is pretty certain that no one is going to look at this thing and think,Oh, yeah. Jackpot. If somebody steals it, they obviously need a car far more badly than she does!
Roscoe jumps out of the back and takes up a position by her side as Twylla begins to make her way towards the office. He is a model walking partner, staying beside her and paying no attention to cars or cats or other people. Though, the people take notice of him! Once or twice, strangers stop her to ask about Roscoe and pat him. Roscoe, of course, soaks up the attention with all the love and gusto of any other dog.
Once satisfied that it was as domestic as it was going to get, Sven positioned the one luxury item in the office - his desk chair - in a "position of power," facing it towards the door so he could strike a brooding-esque pose. After a few minutes though, he really had to pee.
He finally figured squirming wasn't very cool, so he got up to head to the Burger King. But just as he was about to open the door, there was a rap on it, from below somehow. Of course.
Opening it, he saw Kenari, smoking a cigarette. "Hey Kenari. Ummm I was about to step out to the bathroom, you're welcome to wait but I'd rather if you didn't smoke in there. Or smoke cigarettes anyways." A sheepish grin took hold as he was once again caught off guard.
"Afraid I save that for rituals," Kenari laughs as she exhales a puff of smoke. She then licks a finger and puts out her cigarette before putting it back in her pack and in her jacket pocket. "I'll hold down the fort for you, hon... you can trust me." She winks as she walks past Sven and sprawls out on his couch.
There's a black-and-white patrol car parked in front of the Burger King, which makes you hang back for a moment. A couple of officers are visible from the window, just sitting down with their trays. There's probably a negligible risk that they would recognize you, but your rule-of-thumb is 'low profile.'
Until I know what's going on, I think I'm going to err on my paranoia.
Sven checked his watch - Happy Wok should still be open. He went the long way around and entered the Chinese restaurant.
"Ah, yes sir!" Sven didn't know the man's name but they've spent a lot of time talking about the neighborhood. He and his wife ran the restaurant, his two daughters worked part time while going to school, and his oldest son was off at Tulane.
"Hi yes, hey could I use your restroom? Burger King's is out. Also, let me get like 2 dozen crab rangoons? Aaand one of those jugs of lemonade."
"Sure sure okay. Here this way," and he ushered him to a little backroom toilet.
A few minutes later he headed back to the office bearing late night snacks.
Kenari arched her back with a yawn as she stretched on the couch. "Well, a girl has to keep herself busy," she mutters to herself as her curiosity gets the better of her and she takes a closer look at the photos pinned to the wall with various strings attached to them.
She giggles as she recognizes more than one photo of people who have walked through her door. "Oh this guy was rich," she says as she taps a photo of an elderly gentleman with a rather dour look being escorted by men in suits and sunglasses.
Was that the one with the "toy" closet?
She snickers. "No... though that was a good one. I still try not to laugh whenever I hear a squeak toy. This guy..." she taps the photo again. "This guy was so worried about his name living on that he didn't realize that his sons wanted everything to live on but him."
People only believe the parts they want to hear, unfortunately.
"Tell me about it," she replies in disgust as she scans an article about the latest religious protest rallies turning to violence at the Gay Pride Parade.
Twylla makes her way to the strip mall unmolested. Of course, that's not surprising. Anyone would have to be a teensy bit bonkers to try anything weird with Roscoe by her side. Though she was grateful for the sense of security he imparted, she was still worried about how much he stood out.
Granted, I'm not the only person in New Orleans with a mastiff, I'm sure. But, I'm also betting that there aren't a ton of us, either, she thinks to herself.
Soon, the office comes into view. Not having Kenari's street saavy, she just walks up to the door and knocks because...what else is she supposed to do? With the state of mind that Sven was in earlier, she doesn't trust him not to accidentally put a bullet in her head should she waltz in like she belonged there.
Kenari turns to the door with a raised eyebrow and a twitch to her lips. "Well well... seems we have company. I doubt Sven would knock on his own door."
Careful...
She saunters over to the door, dodging file cabinets and stacks of newspaper articles piled on the ground. With one hand ready to grab the dagger out of scabbard hidden in the back of her pants she places herself against the wall and reaches over to knock in reply as she whispers "Shave and a haircut..."
KNOCK-knock-tap-KNOCK-knock...
Sebastian turned down the street to see Twylla and Roscoe walking up to the front of the strip mall. _Don't want to be too obvious,_ he thought and decided to do another loop around the block keeping an eye out for anything odd.
Twylla tilts her head to the side, wondering exactly how she's supposed to respond to that. Any old Tom, Dick or Harry could respond with the appropriate follow-tap to Shave and a Haircut. It's not like that tune isn't well known. Plus, no one said anything about a passcode!
So...if she taps the tune correctly, does that mean she gets let in or does it mean that Sven expects enemies to respond as if they know the code and she'll get shot?
'Oh, for Pete's sake..." she whispers in exasperation.
Rather than risk it, she reaches into her purse and pulls out a business card. Flipping it over, she writes, "It's me! Twylla" on the back and slips it under the door.
Sven turned the corner and saw Twylla crouched in front of the office door with Roscoe nearby. "Hey Twylla, thanks for coming. Want some rangoons?"
She jumped what felt like several feet in the air, before turning and looking at him, face white as a sheet.
"Sorry! Sorry." Sven tried to look as placating as he could with a big bag of Chinese food in one hand.
"Oh! Oh..." Twylla's hand flies up to her heart, resting there for a moment as she recovers from being startled. Then, she glances at the door in panic, stepping to the side as she reaches out to catch Sven's arm and pull him along.
"There's someone in there! Is it one of us?" she asks quickly, not knowing if there is reason to be worried or not.
Kenari sighs and rolls her eyes as she picks up the card and opens the door. "And here I was under the impression you had a sense of humor," she pouts before slipping the card into her back pocket and walking back to claim her spot on the couch.
Great, I've infected her with my paranoia.
Sven took a deep breath, and tried his best to radiate calm. "Well. So far the only danger tonight has been myself. We should be safe here, let's get comfortable and wait for Sebastian?"
Sven ushered Twylla into the office.
"I honestly don't have much of a clue as to what security protocols are worth following. I've always lived on the 'if I can think of it so can they' principle, but I tend to outsource most of the actual work," he waved his hand at a whiteboard with what looked like internet handles listed out, red twine connecting them into the spidery network of connections on the wall. Names like 'Pyrobob451, MAdHattr, Paprika, Woodstock...'
"Honestly about 99% of my precautions have been a waste of time, it's not like I'm embroiled in DC politics or fighting SPECTRE, the most I've ever really faced is some thugs following me once or twice. But I figure it only takes one slip to get screwed so... paranoia it is. Might be a good first point of order to discuss what is actually effective, after we all get caught up on what we've found so far that is."
Heaving a sigh of relief, Twylla walks into the office, "I swear, if some mysterious enemy doesn't kill me, one of you is going to give me a heart attack, instead. I'll wind up in the afterlife and Anubis will just laaaaugh and laugh. There will probably be some pointing and giggling involved, as well."
She finds a seat and settles down with an embarrassed grin, Roscoe taking his place by her side.
"Considering someone is dead, I'd say there's nothing wrong with paranoia," Kenari replies with a slight frown before turning to Twylla with a smile. "My apologies... just trying to find some humor in what's turning into a veryunfunny situation."
Twylla waves the apology off with a smile, "It's okay. I'm just still tense and feeling way out of my depth, right now. Any other day of the week, I probably would've tapped out some M.C. Hammer in response or something."
Standing, she moves to look at the board Sven indicated. Her eyes rove over the names, and she mentally takes note of the internet handles...until she spots Paprika. Her eyebrows raise in surprise. Keeping her back turned to Sven, she silently flips through all the jobs she has done, trying to decide who Sven might be. After all, her clients are just as cautious as she is, in this regard, and would not use their real names. Obviously, it would've been something connected to politics but...she does a lot of those jobs. Hard to say...
Feigning mild curiosity, she taps the place on the boards with the handles and asks, "Who are these people?"
Sven glanced back up after laying out the rangoons on a desk and breaking out some plastic cups for the lemonade. Roscoe was taking up most of the remaining floor space, effectively pinning him to his desk chair. He glanced up at what she pointed at, chewing on a rangoon.
"Various folks I've went to for outside work. Some consulted on security stuff, like helping me set up Tor and email anonymizers. Others helped me in my, umm, more nefarious purposes, from digging up dirt on Christine's political opponents to hacking an email account or two. None of them know who I am though, at least as far as I could tell. I figure you're our resident hacker for our little club here, but some of these are good resources if we need outside help."
A low whistle comes over Kenar's earbud.
Damn. I mean, damn. This is almost too hot for my tastes.
"What is it?" you ask quietly.
So much for 'curiosity killed the cat.' I'm looking at a database of people like you. Not cat burglars, mind ... a database of Scions. Nationwide. And this is the feds, their fingerprints are all over it. Shit, some of this data is medical, which means they dug really deep. I don't know many cat burglars who advertise on social media.
Kenari curses quietly as she feigns boredom and acts like she's checking her nails. "Let me know what they have on me."
She gets up and walks over to the desk to grab a crab rangoon from the improvised table and clears off a space before sitting on the corner. "If I'm not mistaken, you called us for this meeting, Twylla. Was there something important you wanted to share with us?"
Twylla continues looking at the board, but glances over her shoulder as Kenari speaks, "Oh, yeah. But, it's already been said. It just sort of got lost in all the...hoo-haa. You know, the whole 'we're being watched and they have info on us' thing. I figure we can talk about it when Sebastian gets here."
Nothing, Mouser tells you. Which means my little tapeworm is happily munching on your digital footprint. Hard to do the work of the goddess when the heat is looking over your shoulder.
Sven half-raised his hand, "For the record, I still don't know what you all are referring to. All I know is some woman died on the beach this morning, her heart fucking cut out. I didn't catch what prompted looking for that bug in the hangar, and I don't know anything about this record of us that keeps being referred to."
He wasn't being impatient per se, but until he had some grounding for whom to be paranoid about, then his mind would just keep running the hamster wheel, fighting imaginary threats.
As if on cue, Sebastian walked through the door, a slight sheen of sweat on his skin, but no other sign that he had just run eight miles to get here. "Sorry I'm late."
Twylla grins to herself as she remembers the incident that little, red string links to Paprika on the board.
Oh, yeah. That guy was a piece of work. He had the bogus investment deal for those retirement homes he owned. Cooking the books so that the money was funneled into his own corporation rather than going back to the retirees' families after their deaths like it was supposed to. Glad to have seen the back end of that slimeball...
"Oh, sorry," Twylla turns back around and shuffles over to take a seat, avoiding stepping on Roscoe's tail. "I suppose we can catch Sebastian up when he gets here."
And, just as she says that, the door opens to admit Sebastian. She smiles and waves him in, saying, "Right on time! I was just getting ready to explain to everyone why I asked us to meet."
"So, this morning I was supposed to be running some tests over at Socialize!when my appointment is cancelled. They tell me Ms. Martinez has the flu. A little while later, I get a call from Scott over at Delta dishing me the truth - Martinez has gone missing and the Feds are being called in to look for her. It's not long after that that I get the call about the body. So, I start connecting the dots and decide it's time to take a look at Socialize!'s files," Twylla says.
"Now, I'm not too surprised that the Feds were called in on this case. Martinez's fiancee, Mr. Petrelli, is the son of a man who used to work for some federal agency. I figured the father called in the Feds as a favor since it's his future daughter-in-law that has gone missing. Knowing this, I decided I needed to work fast. I hit the network this afternoon."
"But, here's the thing - when I got into Socialize!, the Feds were already there. They have some serious black ice level security laid down in that network. I didn't have a whole lot of time to poke around. I grabbed anything that looked potentially interesting, pulled it down, and left then pinging around in the Idaho utilities network." She shrugs and adds, "I still had two minutes to work, but...I didn't want to risk them pinpointing where I am, this early."
"What I pulled out were some financials that I haven't had a chance to really look through, yet, and a file that was marked "scions." It has evidence that we're being watch. Names, addresses, percentages pertaining to likelihood of being a scion...all kinds of stuff," she shakes her head.
Looking to Kenari, she says, "You're not on the list, but your family is. However, they are all marked as 'negative' for being scions, so...I don't know how closely they are watching them, right now."
"Also, all of the Stormwatch team is on the list," she looks to Sebastian.
Kenari makes a kiss noise and whispers "You're the best," before standing up and turning to Sebastian with a smile.
As if the Goddess would pick anybody less...
"On the contrary, you're right on time, Sebastian... because it looks like we've all got something to share." she gestures for him to take a seat and join them as she paces for a moment and decides how to start.
"Last night while out and about I came across a sweet little cat with quite a big problem. It turns out its owner, one Catherine Martinez, had gone missing three days ago. After I fed the poor thing I decided to do some...investigating of my own. Since I'm not the computer genius like you, Twylla," she gestures to the blue haired girl with a slight bow, "I went to the Socialize office personally to see what I could find out."
She laughs. "Turns out there aren't a lot of people to talk to other than security at two in the morning and it seemed a shame to bother them... so I let myself in." She grabs another rangoon and sits back down on the desk. "I didn't want to overstay my welcome, however, so I borrowed two hard drives as a parting gift."
"Wait... you did what now?" asks Sebastian as he grabs a lemonade.
"Well that's one way to do it," Twylla chuckles as she shakes her head.
"When my friend finished going over them, I discovered what you did, Twylla. The database that these people have been gathering about Scions isextensive. I'm talking about a national federal database of us with family histories, medical records, you name it."
She munches on the rangoon for a moment as she thinks. "I'm guessing that after Las Vegas, somebody high up in the government got very interested in the stories that were circulating about what happened, and they've been keeping it hush-hush by using Socialize as a front."
She frowns and gestures towards Sven with her rangoon. "What I can't figure is why she ended up dead. Was she killed by an angry scion who found out they're on the list? Or maybe someone who wanted the list for themselves? Or hell... maybe she was on the list." she sighs. "Until we can figure out that, we all need to be extra careful."
And I need to get word to my family...
"Hey Sebastian, sorry for the cramped quarters."
Sven turned to the others, "Well, can we look and see if Miss Martinez is on this list? Also..." he got quiet, "Also, could we check if Christine Porter is on the list?"
Las Vegas? What happened in Vegas? He thought to himself, but figured there were enough balls in the air for now.
"Sure can!" Twylla says as she reaches over to grab her ever present laptop. Popping the thumb drive back in, she pulls up the list and searches for Ms. Martinez's and Christine Porter's names.
"Sharing is caring," Kenari mutters as she pours herself a lemonade.
(sigh) I'll see what I can do...
Catherine Martinez' name pops up almost immediately with Twylla's search. Her file is appropriately marked with the requisite gold star or Hello Kitty sticker or whatever b.s. excuse the federales use to identify a friendly asset.
There is also a file on Christine Porter, but it's inconclusive, with sub-headings on various staff members (including Sven), and a memo from on high reminding Project Argus staffers not to get all tin-foil hat on the subject.
Las Vegas? Why wouldn't Christine mention something significant happening on the Scion front? Two answers come to mind, the first being that she doesn't know about it, and the second being that she's obligated/bound not to talk about it.
Which means Tyr could be involved. And/or Odin. And the rest of the Aesir.
Kenari leans over the back of the couch as she watches Twylla work. "By any chance do you have a program set up for..." she gestures with her hands as she tries to think of the right words.
Anonymous P2P file sharing...
"...anonymous P2P file sharing?" Kenari asks. "That way my friend can share with you what he found on the hard drives and vice versa."
She places a finger against her cheek as she rests her chin on her hand. "I wonder... if she went missing 3 days ago, maybe we'd be able to find clues as to what was going on with her before the end. You know... social sites, friends and family, web history, that kind of thing."
"Yeah," Twylla says, chewing on her bottom lip as she looks down the list. "Yup. There's Martinez. She's marked as a friendly asset. And, Porter is in there, too, but is marked as inconclusive. You're in here, too, Sven, along with some other staff."
"Hmmm...and there's something called 'The Argus Group' mentioned. Anybody familiar with that?" Even as she asks, Twylla is already pulling up the internet to do some searches...but not before she turns on some software to hide her own activities.
"Huh?" Twylla turns her head to look at Kenari. "Oh! Yeah, absolutely. Do you know if he would prefer to use opennet or darknet? Both have their advantages and I can use either."
"Project Argus?" Kenari asks so the right ears can hear. "No... haven't come across it, myself."
Somebody likes their Greek mythology... great name for a project aimed to spy on Scions if that's the case. Let me start digging.
"What happened in Vegas? Sounds like it didn't stay there." Sebastian mused while the group scanned the files. "Also are any of the other families known for removing people's hearts? And are there any suspected members of those families nearby?"
"Sounds Aztec, to me," Twylla says after thinking for a minute. "They were big on the whole human sacrifice and removing of hearts...let me see how specific this database is. Anybody know any good search terms for those gods other than 'Aztec?' Like, Greek gods may be known as 'Olympian.' What else would these guys be called?"
She starts doing some searches, looking for 'Aztec.' If that turns up nothing, she'll do an internet search to see if there are other terms that could be used.
Well...after she finishes searching for Argus Group, of course. Twylla shakes her head at herself. Slow down, there, hoss. Can only do one thing at a time.
"I know that us Nordic folk are called the Aesir, but I haven't really done much research on the other pantheons or whatever."
Sven thought a moment. "After tonight's performance, assuming our invisible audience earlier is the same group, I'm guessing I'm going to have a big ole check mark next to my name." Sven shifted a bit and decided to just get his last secret off his chest.
"At this point too, I want to let you folks know something. Christine isn't just my boss, she's my half-sister, on my Dad's side." He let that sink in a moment.
"I'm able to link up with her thanks to this stylish piercing of mine. I worked with her long before I found out about my heritage, but evidently she was vetting me. The day after my Dad showed up, she started training me for... for whatever may come."
Sebastian nodded, "We'll do what we can to protect her as well. For what it's worth we tried to make a show of you not being part of our group after you left even calling into question whether what you said was even true." He shrugged, "I don't know that it will work, but it was worth a shot."
"Based on what we've found so far though, it doesn't look like the feds were behind the murder since they considered Martinez an asset. That means someone else might know about this list."
Sebastian paced as much as he could in the small room, "I wonder if we should try and lure out whoever is listening in. If it's feds we might be able to help each other. If it's whoever is behind the murder then we can eliminate the threat."
That elicited some worried glances from the group. "If we do this I would be the bait. I suspect I have the most experience in surviving life or death situations and I have some martial arts training. Besides I need to do something to make up for the trouble I caused."
"Try searching South American religions, maybe?" Kenari asks. "There's a lot more than just Aztecs. There's the Incans and the Mayans too, as well as I'm sure others the Discovery channel knows about."
Kali-Ma... the voice in her ear intones in their attempt at a deep guttural voice.
Kenari chokes down a laugh as grabs a cup of lemonade. "Rangoon went down the wrong pipe."
Got you...
After she clears her throat she turns to Sven. "I'm not sure... but something happened there... I could feel it. Father won't tell me much, but I woke up in the middle of the night with my nose bleeding screaming about how the city broke the world." She shudders and rubs her arms. "Apparently that didn't happen."
"I don't know about the rest of you, but since I've managed to stay off that list I have no desire to give the Feds reason to put me back on it," Kenari replies after considering Sebastian's offer. "If it is one of us that's killing people involved with this list, the feds are going to think all that surveillance is justified, if they don't just arrest us outright for being scions in the first place."
"What if... assuming the bug belongs to the Feds...we leave the bug in your hangar where it is, in case we need to feed them information after we've found something? I don't want to deal with the Feds unless we've got a strong position to bargain from."
I knew there was a reason I liked you...
Twylla gives Sven a sympathetic smile, her feelings towards him softening.He has family to watch out for, too... Her own growing relationship with Kenari, who is also her half-sister, giving her the perspective to understand why he spaz-panicked so hard. Plus, if she helped him drag a corrupt politician out into the light, well...maybe Sven is one of the good ones.
"Don't worry," she says. "We'll all do everything we can to make sure everyone's families are safe."
"Buuut," she continues, after hearing both Sebastian and Kenari's ideas, "...we don't know for certain that it is the Feds who bugged the hangar. It seems like the most probable answer, considering this database exists. But, things like this...well...they don't always stay hidden. There's always a market for this kind of information. Before we decide what to do about it, let me do some digging and find out if this list has turned up for sale, anywhere."
"Plus, keep in mind that I can find out the frequency used in the bug if I break it. We can confirm if it was the Feds, that way. But, we lose the ability to feed them info..." she trails off, thinking. "But only there! Surely, there are more bugs that we simply haven't found. Maybe the Stormwatch team can do a sweep of homes and workplaces? I know I can easily bring Rob and Ryan into Delta under some techie excuse..."
Sebastian put his hands up, "I'm not saying we do this right now, but it is something we should consider. And I'm not saying we reveal our whole hand either. Just me. I'm a fairly public figure so they can't just disappear me without people noticing. I also have some good escape tricks in mind... like being able to breathe under water and fly.
"Let's just do some digging first and see if we can find some more information before anybody starts thinking about thrilling heroics OK?" Kenari replies with a placating hand gesture as she sits beside Twylla on the couch. "I'm in no hurry to see you put yourself in danger if you don't need to be, Sebastian."
"So Twylla... what do you use for anonymous file transfers? I can get you the information on those hard drives so we can compare what you've got in case there are any holes. And Sven, you said that Catherine had ended up murdered. How'd you find out? Is there anything else you can share that might give us a lead?"
"Well, I drew that purely from Twylla's text assuming that the dead body was hers. I passed that on to the NOPD detective that was there but they hadn't confirmed anything yet. In fact, hang on." He pulled up his laptop and googled Miss Martinez to see if her face matched the corpse he saw earlier.
"I have several that I use, depending on the situation," Twylla says. She then lists off three different programs and proceeds to tell Kenari the advantages and disadvantages of each. "I'm sure your guy knows about them, already, though. Just let me know what he prefers and we can use that."
The corporate photo of Catherine Martinez matches the appearance of the deceased, particularly a necklace she is wearing in the photo. It's not a unique or particularly expensive item, so robbery wasn't the motive.
Both of you are aware that transferring terabytes of data - especially in a manner that won't draw undue attention from law enforcement and/or snoopy telecoms - won't be a moment's work.
Um, yeah. Might be safer to make a copy or two, give one to T, and keep one around as blackmail/insurance.
Kenari repeats the programs Twylla mentions as if to make sure she's got the names right.
... that'll work. Let me set things up and I'll start the transfer. Tell her to look for Fafhrd.
"OK got it. When the transfer happens, the name will be Fafhrd," Kenari replies with a wink. "Then we can get two big brains looking through the list."
She leans over and refills her cup of lemonade. "So... I find that Catherine Martinez has gone missing. Twylla finds her files because she had a job with her. Sven is there when they discover her dead body." She takes a sip as she thinks for a moment, and then looks over to Sebastian. "That just leaves you then, Sebastian. Has anything happened to you lately that can be tied back to Catherine Martinez?"
Twylla nods, "I'll be Ene. Tell him not to start anything until I'm home. I can call you to let you know when I'm ready, and you can pass it along. I don't want anything sitting out there. In and out, done. I want to leave as small a footprint as possible, so that means being as quick as possible."
"I'll also put a copy of what I have on a thumb drive, for you, Kenari. Keep it hidden, somewhere, just in case. I can remember anything I read but...if knowledge of my ability gets out...I'll be the first person the enemy will try to whack, most likely. Knowing is half the battle. Go, Joe!" She makes a 'wheee' face and chuckles ruefully.
"I was actually already at the crime scene when Sven showed up. We were heading to the beach to get some footage for a TWC special when we ran into the blockade." Sebastian explained. "I convinced the troopers to let us use our equipment to help. I found the knife under the waves and the team found some horse droppings nearby which suggest her body was brought there by horseback. So yeah, I'd say I'm connected now."
Twylla thinks for a second, then asks, "Can you describe the knife? Was there anything unusual about it?"
"I can do one better," Sebastian said as he pulled a small ziploc bag out of his pocket and tossed it to Twylla. Inside was a small thumb drive. "That has all the footage we got including some really good shots of the knife."
"Well that's old school to say the least," Kenari replies. She bites her bottom lip in thought as she thinks of all the things she has to consider when preparing to raid a target. "I wonder if the police have any leads yet about the case? I mean horses leave hoof prints, right? If the horse didn't come from near by, then he must've been brought there in a trailer... and if he was brought to the beach in a trailer, he should show up on traffic cameras or something... right?"
The knife appears to be of a classic design rather than contemporary - a bronze blade with a bone handle and a darkish stone set in the pommel. It doesn't take specialized knowledge to recognize it as Egyptian in design.
Twylla quickly copies the data over from Sebastian's thumb drive onto her own. Best to have copies so that if one is lost, there are back-ups.
"Do you see anything about this that might tie it to one of our pantheon?" Twylla asks Kenari as she gazes thoughtfully at the footage playing on her laptop. Though she has been learning much during the time spent with her half-sister's family, Kenari's knowledge of Egyptian religion and culture still surpasses her own.
Sven broke out a little USB projector and aimed it at the back of the door, the only clear white space in the room, and plugged his burner in to project the pictures Sebastian had texted them earlier.
"We should be careful to not jump too far ahead of our evidence. We don't know that this is a scion-on-scion crime yet. Sure, horses and heart-culling knives sure sounds mystical, but for every one of us there's probably dozens of cults, loonies, or even organized crime that would put on a show like that."
"Well that's worrisome..." Kenari mutters as she looks over Twylla's shoulder to see the pictures of the knife. "I was expecting Mayan... not Egyptian."
She sits back on the couch and hums in thought as she runs a hand through her hair. "Egyptian rituals involving the heart... first thing that comes to mind is when the soul comes to the gods for judgement. The heart is placed on the scales by Anubis and weighed against the Feather of Maat. If the heart is unbalanced, it is consumed by Ammit, the Eater of the Dead."
Her lip curls in disgust. "Do you think... I mean... could someone be a scion of Ammit? Ugh... how would they even..." she shudders and holds out a blocking hand. "You know what, I don't even want to know."
She looks to Sven. "There's always the possibility that someone is setting upscions because they know we're being watched by the FBI. I'd almost prefer that, honestly. Regular monsters I've had experience with."
Sebastian shook his head, "This is all Greek to me, or Egyptian I suppose. What does that mean. And what did you mean about something happening in Vegas?"
On a whim, Sven googled for recent news of any other ritualistic-looking murders in the past few years, especially unsolved ones, broadening to look beyond just the NOLA area.
"As far as where the police are, they're probably going to be a lot slower than us. My office and I are trying to cozy up to the Detective on the scene - Detective Spinelli - for political reasons, I'll try to wheedle information from her if the opportunity arises."
Kenari sighs. "I don't know anything more than what I said, Sebastian. The Gods did something in Vegas that changed things... and for better or worse, more people know about the existence of scions than they did before because of it."
While there's no shortage of unsolved murders across the the country, only a handful appear to be ritual or serial in nature, and none share the 'signature' of cutting someone's heart out with an ancient dagger.
"Looks like it's not a serial killer spree or anything... So, let's take stock: this lady is a scion who is in league with 'the Feds' who was helping them compile a list of scions, or vice versa. She ends up with her heart cut out, and her database was locked up tight before that was public knowledge. And since the FBI wasn't on that scene before the troopers, I think it's safe enough to assume they weren't necessarily aware of her murder. Which stands to my reasoning that that 'government ice' was in place already, right?
"Are we sure it's the FBI she was working with? And was she married or anything? Might be worth digging into who she was as a person, scion or not."
"She was engaged to Trey Petrelli. As far as I know, he's the one that called in the FBI. His father used to work for the government in some agency. I don't know which one, though," Twylla answers.
"Maybe his father was involved with that Project Argus," Kenari theorizes.
"If this killer was influenced by the gods of Egypt, then I hate to say it... but I should talk to my brothers and see if they've seen anything or anyone weird around the shop lately. I don't want to get them involved... but it's not like there are a lot of Egyptian temples in New Orleans, you know?
Sven leaned back, staring at the ceiling pensively as he tried to put all the dots together. "Any other intel to throw in this pot? If not, maybe we should set ourselves to action. Oh, and speaking of which," he motioned towards the sofa, "Under the sofa are the bugout bags I made for us. Each has standard Boy Scout equipment, a grand in small bills, some spy stuff like hair dye and gloves to keep fingerprints clean, and of course a towel. I don't think we should make it a habit to meet here," he glanced down at poor Roscoe, who has been valiantly keeping anyone from stepping on him throughout the ordeal, "but it's about as fall-back as we have for now for emergencies."
"What do you guys need me to do?" Sebastian asked pensively, "My skill set isn't super useful for an investigation."
"Maybe you could start looking for places nearby that have horses? You're a weather guy! You have an excuse to be pretty much anywhere out in the open. And, whatever farm or stable it came from would have to be close by," Twylla suggests.
"Not to mention you're practically a celebrity... that's got to be good for getting through doors to talk to people, right?" Kenari adds with a hopeful smile.
"I can do both of those, just tell me what doors need opening." Sebastian nodded. "Also if anyone wants some self-defense lessons I can talk to Kylia. She's an MMA fighter in her spare time she might be able to help with that. I should probably ramp up my training too."
"If she agrees, I think I may take your advice on that, Sebastian," Twylla says. She chuckles and looks to Roscoe, "He's an excellent guardian, but he can't be with me all the time."
At this, Roscoe makes some soft, grumbling noises. Getting to his feet, he moves the short distance to the sofa and plants himself firmly in front of his charge. He pushes his massive head against the laptop. Laughing softly, Twylla lifts it out of the way. She leans forward and hugs Roscoe's neck, scratching his fur playfully.
"Oh, I know you'd be there all day, every day, if you could. But, I'm pretty certain that Swanson would have little fits if you came to the office with me. It will be good for me to learn to defend myself!"
"Ok great. I can try to press Detective Spinelli, but that may be more of a slow-burn given the NOPD's resources," Sven replies. "I also wouldn't be surprised if the case gets taken off their hands altogether. I wouldn't mind following the Trey Petrelli lead either, I've got some legitimate concerns over how the murder of an internet startup exec is going to affect our efforts to attract such businesses to the city. Was he involved with the company too?"
"Petrelli is the CEO of Socialize," Twylla offers.
"OK... so I'll check with my family and try to find things on the Egyptian angle. Sven will talk to Detective Spinelli to see if the police have found out anything else. Sebastian can check out the beach locals to see if anybody saw someone with a horse at the beach yesterday, and Twylla can see if she can find anything about Project Argus, especially if any names on that list come up involved with it. You never know... they might be this killers next targets."
Kenari looks to everyone to see if they have anything to add. "Does that sound about right for our next plan of action?"
"That sounds like a plan! I'll also check to see if this data has been leaked out into the open market. Most people wouldn't give it a second glance, figuring it's all fantasy but...someone's gunning for us. So, there is someone out there who takes it very seriously," Twylla says.
"Also, we need to decide what to do about the bug in hangar. Are we going to leave it, for now, and try to remember to be super careful about what everyone says while there, or smoosh it and try to figure out who bugged us in the first place?" she asks.
She chews on her bottom lip as she thinks. After a moment, she says, "I vote we smash it. Yeah, if it belongs to the Feds, we can use it to feed them information. But, we don't know for certain that it's theirs. And, the longer it sits there, the greater the possibility that someone forgets about it and says something they shouldn't."
"If we smash it, we need to be prepared for what might come after," Kenari replies. "Whether that's a new bug, or a personal visit because we've escalated things... who knows. We'll need to up our own surveillance of the hanger just in case."
"My team can handle that part. We were already planning on bumping it up and we have the equipment to do so," Sebastian nodded.
"All right then," Kenari replies as she takes one of the bags from underneath the couch and stands up to sling it over her shoulder. "I guess we all know what we're doing next. Keep in touch if anything goes wrong or if you learn anything new, and I will be sure to do the same."
She reaches down to scratch Roscoe behind the ear and stands, pulling the hood up over her hair with a smile. "I suggest we not all leave at once, and keep those eyes in the backs of your heads focused."
"Here!" Twylla pulls the thumb drive out of her laptop and hands it to Kenari before she leaves. "That has my info and a copy of Sebastian's video."
"Be careful, out there," she smiles. "I'll swing by the shop later in the week."
Kenari unzips her hoodie just enough to slip the thumb drive into her cleavage with a wink before zipping it back up. "I'll keep it safe. You just make sure you do the same."
She looks to Sven and Sebastian. "You two be safe too."
She then smiles and nods to everyone before hunching her shoulders in a slouch, the hood of her hoodie hanging low over her face as she walks out the door.
"Twylla, is there a way to keep a pair of digital eyes on me? Whoever listened to us last night will most likely turn their attention to me in some way, or to Christine. I have all my protections in place, but they've never actually been put to any test, and they're more intended to cover my tracks rather than to keep people from getting at me."
Twylla nods, "Sure! Tracking phones is simple enough, as you know. So, as long your phone is on, I can find you...if you have it with you. I can also install some monitoring software that will alert me if anyone tries any funny business with your computers."
Sven passed her his work phone and laptop for her to fiddle with. "You both have your keys to this place too, right? Feel free to leave your bags here if you want, or secure them elsewhere like Kenari. The door deadbolts if someone is in here but otherwise that key will open all the locks."
"Yup! Got my key. It's safe and sound. Hopefully, we won't have to use this place but...it's good to have it. Thanks for putting those bags together for us, by the way," Twylla smiles over the top of the computer.
"Oh!" she pauses and looks to Sebastian, a new thought occurring to her. "Would you like for me to put this software on the Stormwatch computers? I can teach Ryan how to use it, so he can help keep an eye on you guys. He's smart. It'll be a piece of cake, for him."
"I'll have Diana schedule something unrelated with your company to keep things appearing as business as usual," Sebastian answered Twylla. He then sat down and waited patiently for Twylla to finish her work.
It's not all that late - perhaps nine pm - but late enough that common sense can take a back seat to bravado.
"Look," the bouncer from the bar was saying. "You're done for the night. Just move along."
"Immajusnjoyinmabeer," a patron slurs. "Whynyalemmenjoymbeer?"
"Hey, Pal, you've had enough. Go home."
"Fuggyou," the patron mutters, trying to push past the bouncer and re-enter the bar.
"Last time," the bouncer warned, finger-thumping the patron in the sternum. "Go. Home."
"Can you access the mall security cameras?" Kenari whispers as she leans against the wall and pulls out her lighter to light a cigarette.
I am the Eye in the Sky, looking at youuuuuuuu ...
"Not even with a bucket with handles," you cough.
Don't forget the road map.
Kenari strolls across the way with a sigh, cigarette in hand.
"You don't want to drink here, man, these things are overpriced and watered down. The Tikki Lounge down the street, they've got Ladies Night going on. Not only are the well drinks cheaper, but the eye candy is a lot better thanthese assholes."
As she looks over her shoulder at the bouncer she gives him a wink and then inhales a puff of her cigarette as she waits for the drunks reply.
"Jeswhodya thinner talkinto?" the drunk slurs. He staggers a half-step in your direction, but the bouncer pivots to block him.
"Nuh-uh, Champ," the bouncer says. "Leave the lady alone."
"Nobuddy telsme whadda do," the drunk tries to push around the bouncer, but fails. The effort leaves him off-balance, and he falls on his ass, sitting there as if trying to remember how he got there.
"Evening, folks," says a police officer. His partner is hanging back off to one side, setting his Coke on the hood of a nearby car. "Something wrong, Mike?"
"Nah. Guy's just had one too many, being a jerk."
"Are you going to be all right, Sir?" the officer asked. "We'd be happy to give you a ride home."
The patron shook his head angrily as he got unsteadily to his feet. He staggered a few steps, leaning against a post along the covered walkway.
"Mmm-hmm," the officer says, nodding at his partner. They begin following the drunk. "Have a quiet night, Mike."
"Some people just don't know how to have a good time without trying to ruin it for the rest of us," Kenari sighs as she exhales the last of her cigarette and flicks the stub into the ashtray used to prop the door of the bar open.
"Maybe next time he'll listen... but I doubt it," the bouncer grunts. "Nice try, though."
"Hey, least I could do, Mike," she replies as she walks over to her bike and sits astride it. She pauses and turns to look back at the bouncer with a wink. "Oh, and don't tell Rudy I said that about his drinks... he'll never forgive me."
Mike chuckles. "Your secret's safe with me, ma'am."
You should know, the bar's a mob joint. Not a front for anything, but part of the Scorselli crime family.
"Oh, great," you say.
The nice thing is that family is family. Only time you get hung out to dry is if you screwed the pooch. What else you have on deck, K?
Kenari kick starts the bike and coasts forward to the exit of the parking lot as she checks traffic. "Well, I don't want to bother dad this late and Senbi is probably on a date... but I'll bet Haji is still up at the shop. Might be a good time to ask him if he's seen anything strange without worrying dad."
She quirks an eyebrow. "That is... unless you've got anything interesting for me?"
Negative on the 10-30, Mouser says, using the police 'ten-code' for burglary. Enjoy the night off. Stay out of ... oh, nevermind.
The shop is quiet, though there are still one or two customers browsing the bins. Two young women are discussing which potpourri blend will appeal to their respective boyfriends, and Haji is studiously trying to not look like he's scoping them out.
"Masa al xeir," he smiles at you.
"Masa an nur," you reply.
It doesn't take Twylla long to finish installing what is needed onto Sven's phone and computer. Since she uses her laptop to monitor clients' systems when she is out, she has just about everything she needs with her. And, what she doesn't have is easily downloaded.
"Alright, let me show you some of the goodies I've put on here..." she says as she turns the laptop around so Sven can see the screen. "If you are going to do any anonymous searching, you'll want to run this program...it'll hide your IP and your activity, for the most part. Your ISP can still see what you do, but this will stop casual observation. And this right here will send me notifications if anyone tries to monkey with your system from outside. So, don't turn that off! I also installed some blockers and whatnot that will make it harder for people to hack. They are...here and...here..." Twylla points out the programs running in the task manager so that Sven knows what they look like.
"Great!" she says to Sebastian. She hands him back his original thumb drive with the footage of the knife. "If you need me to figure out the frequency on that bug, just let me know. I don't if that's something that Rob and Ryan can handle, or not. But, as always, I can do it if you need me to!"
"If you two don't need anything else, I think I'm going to skedattle. I have a lot of poking around I need to do on the webs and I'd just as soon get started while everything is still fresh," she says as she puts away her things.
"Thanks Twylla! I think we all know what we need to do," replies Sven.
Twylla knows her craft as well as anyone on the Stormwatch team. It's a kind of magic that is difficult to describe to those who have never been 'in the zone' or riding that perfect high of adrenaline and dancing on the razor's edge. In moments, she's crafted a technological web that is a comforting 'reality' set against things like being able to walk on air or breathe underwater.
You wonder, briefly, what Catherine Martinez' parentage was, and whether or not she had even gotten a chance to spread her wings, so to speak. And then, you also consider there could well be a 'god of computers,' but have no idea who it would be.
Not that you're looking for an introduction. Or a demonstration.
Sven's business phone bloops while Twylla is fiddling with it, but she presses on, rooting it or modifying some aspect of its firmware. She does the same for his burner phone, even though it's a deniable asset.
"Message," she says, handing both back to Sven.
You glance at the phone, and it's a message from Faren.
Heads up, CP got a call from the Mayor, he's being pressured to 'do something' about beach murder this morning. Staff on standby if you need us, otherwise have good weekend.
The phones are easily modded. Prepping an .exe that will perform the same tasks on the Stormwatch computers takes slightly longer, but you're able to provide Sebastian with a one-click solution.
And then it's time to disappear, not just because there's a hit list of Scions accessible to the government, but because after-hours hacking is often the best time to breach someone's security.
Ain't no rest for the wicked / Money don't grow on trees ... you whistle as you head for the door.
"Alrighty, then! Ya'll take care," Twylla puts her baseball cap back on and tucks her hair away as best she can. She pulls up her hoodie and waves cheerily before opening the door.
Roscoe hops up and bumps into both Sebastian and Sven on the way out, giving them a couple of licks good-bye before he follows his charge back out onto the New Orleans streets.
After Twylla had left, Sebastian turned to Sven, "I really am sorry about earlier tonight. We good?" He extended a hand to Sven.
Sven shook his hand, "Absolutely. We should try to do something with your team soon so I can make it up to them. I hadn't realized how close you were to them - I trust my own staff only about as far as I can throw them. Not because they don't deserve my trust, they do, but I'm just... I'm very careful with who I decide to let my guard down around. But my insecurities shouldn't be a burden on my compatriots."
Sven got more comfortable and pulled a small humidor from his desk.
"I was thinking, tonight we looked at our murder case from the perspective of who, how, and why - but we didn't cover where. I know you were going to look into the horse angle, but could you also see if there was something significant to the location of the body? She was brought there on purpose from somewhere else, it's not like they dumped her out of a moving car. Maybe something like odd weather patterns, or maybe some geographic significance, either on the beach, or out in the water. Did you see anything while you were diving?"
Sven started rolling a joint and raised an eyebrow to Sebastian, his version of offering someone a beer.
Sebastian shook his head, "I'm good. Still need to run home. I can definitely look into the location data see if there are any storm trends like an overly common landfall location or something." He turned to go and hesitated. "Again, I am sorry about the hanger. The bug happened on my turf and that means I am responsible. Whether we like it or not we are in this together. I will do everything in my power to protect you and your boss." His tone definitive.
Sven sincerely nodded his thanks, "We didn't know we were already being targeted. We're all making this up as we go along, we just gotta hope we do a better job of that than the other guy."
"Take care," Sebastian said as he left the building and began his jog back home. I think I'll stop by and visit the shrine tomorrow. Maybe the old man will tell me something useful this time.
Sven sat back and lit his joint, staring at the ceiling, organizing his thoughts and planning his next move.
Kenari hangs up her jacket and walks over to the girls with a smile as she picks up a small vial of essential oil with a jangle of her bracelets. "I recommend Jasmine. It's good with a diffuser for the room, or with more personal applications." She takes a dab of the oil and places some on her wrist.
"It's a light scent that stimulates the senses without getting too heavy. If you have any doubts, however, I am sure my brother would be more than glad to play guinea pig if you need to try them out."
She does her best not to laugh as she hears Haji clear his throat behind her.
One of the girls giggles as the other answers, "We'll take your word for it," and picks up the Jasmine to take it to the counter where Haji rings them out with barely a blush.
Kenari sighs with a shake of her head and turns the Open sign to Closed as the two girls laugh about who gets to try it first and head out the door.
"As much as you are my sister, I do not need any help dating," Haji huffs as he starts counting out the register for the night.
"That may be the case, but I do need help from you, Haji," Kenari replies. "Tell me... have there been any customers as of late who have given you a... bad feeling? Maybe Manu or Senbi or father might have mentioned someone in the past?
"You mean, did I feel a disturbance in the Force?" Haji asks. "No. Our usual customers and tourists. Manu did have a run-in with some religious kooks, though. Wrong city for that sort of thing."
"Oh, tell Father we're running low on cassia, cedar oil, and cedar resin," he adds. "I ... let them get lower than I should. I'm afraid he'll blow his stack if I tell him."
Kenari sighs and rolls her eyes. "Don't we have two other brothers for that, Haji? I'm serious... there are bad people out there taking it upon themselves to carry out the judgement of the gods personally... and rather brutally. According to the police one woman has already died because of them, so I need you all to be careful. If someone comes in asking for information about funerary practices, the book of the dead, that kind of thing... please... let me know but don't do anything else to get involved,
OK?"
"Wait, wait ... you're serious?" Haji asks. "I mean, I understand you and father worship Bast, but ... there's someone else? And what do you mean, 'judgment of the gods'?"
He swallows nervously. An arm's length relationship with the gods isn't unusual; most people don't think about it - really think about it - or the consequences of their beliefs in the real world. It's all about an afterlife, or heaven, or paradise, or whatever.
"You mean the whole Anubis weighing your heart against a feather thing? He's here, in New Orleans?"
"I don't know who is doing it Haji... but somebody is certainly trying to make it look like they're carrying out the rites from the Book of the Dead... and making quite a mess out of it. It could be another Egyptian Scion like myself, or it could be some psycho trying to lay the blame on us."
She gnaws at her bottom lip nervously as she paces back and forth. "I don't want any of you to get involved in this... especially Dad... but if the police have anybody intelligent on staff, eventually they're going to start asking questions considering our shop and heritage. I just wanted you all to be aware... and be careful. If you or the others remember anyone or see anyone new in the shop asking especially about that kind of thing, please let me know."
Haji blanches. "Shit. Cassia, cedar oil, and cedar resin are all funerary items. But I don't remember any single client making large purchases of those items. Perhaps several clients making smaller purchases. I don't know. I mean, one year we had that archaeology professor buying up the same stuff."
"Have any purchases been more recent, maybe?" Kenri asks hopefully. "I know how you get with your books, so any information at all could be helpful, Haji."
"No. We've been low on those items for ... two, no three weeks. So almost a month ago," he says. "Hey, Sis ... you're not going after these weirdos, are you?"
"I'm afraid these weirdos could be going after me and my friends next, Haji." Kenari replies as she takes his hand with a smile. "Not everyone is blessed with such accepting surroundings. I must take the offensive in this... which means you all need to make sure you take care of father."
"And who will take care of you?" he asks with a frown.
She shrugs. "The gods will have their way, Haji. I promise to be as careful as I can be though if you do the same."
"If the goddess will keep you safe, I'll convert. Or whatever," Haji says. It is, of course, not the first time one of your brothers have made such a promise. Neither your father nor yourself knows what the goddess thinks of their oaths, as she has never held them to account. "But, yes, I'll tell Manu and Senbi to keep their eyes open."
"Keep your eyes open for what?" your father's voice precedes him as he comes down the stairs.
"For my new friends, Father," Kenari replies with an easy smile. "The goddess brought us together, but I have yet to find out why. I feel I may just have to ask her myself if I want answers."
"I picked up a new collection of herbal teas and inhalers that should help with the headaches... if you feel you must," Haji offers.
"I am having good results with the white flower oil," Amon says. "Kenari. A moment, please?"
He goes over to a corner where a statue of Bastet watches over the store.
"You know that if you ask, she will hear you. The difficult part is understanding her answer. It is part of why your brothers do not 'believe' as you and I do - they are too grounded in this world to be mindful of the world beyond our senses."
"Yes father," Kenari replies with a resigned sigh. "I sometimes wish they could see what we do... but perhaps..." she chews her lip in worry. "Perhaps it is better that they don't."
She takes her father's hand and smiles. "I will trust in the goddess and what she has to say... and hope she listens when I ask her to watch over you. Whatever may come, father... I do not wish to see you or my brothers hurt for it."