Summary:Meeting up to discuss the attack the day before, a plan is hatched Log Info:Storyteller: None |
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Wanting and needing the talk with folks after the 'church' incident, Hank emailed Sarge a time and location to meet, the terms used in the message very bland and generic - indeed, to anyone reading it it sounds like a lunch date. The same info was sent to Spider-Girl, and of course Hank and Hisako have more direct means of communication since she's affiliated with both of the jobs he works - teaching at the Institute, and doing research and REACT work with RESCUE. You know, when not consulting with SHIELD, or speaking at one of the universities in the City.
The meeting location is a small restaurant near Mutant Town, a classic Diner setup - one of the old style diners that looks like it started out as a railroad car. The place is probably just as old at it looks, worked hard all its life too. Inside it shows that the people inside though far from wealthy still do their best to maintain the place, and the food smells good, the restaurant is clean, though slow at the time chosen, the only one inside is Hank and the staff at the moment. He's seated at a good sized table, a carafe of coffee in front of him, and reading something on his tablet.
Isis is running late to the get together. When she comes in she's looking a bit frazzled. Seeing Hank, the slim feline-like mutant waves and stops at the counter, placing an order for food - no doubt.
Finally joining Hank at the table, Isis rubs her ears against his arm and takes a seat. No apology for being slightly late but she does try to see what's on his tablet.
Because, you know. Cat is cat.
Brandon Davis shows up when he shows up, looking around the diner to spot the most obvious Hank before heading over to the counter. A short wait produces a bagel and cream cheese and a beer which he takes over to the table and sits down, nodding a greeting to the others.
While Hisako would have liked to get to lunch earlier, she had to not only make her way across from school, but had to do so without drawing attention to her departure. She's learned a few tricks about getting from point A to point B quickly within the city, though, and is only moderately the worse for wear when she joins the others, heading straight for the table rather than stopping to order lunch. "Sorry I'm late …"
Hank scritches Isis behind an ear, and cheek rubs the top of her head when she does the same to his arm. "Hello Isis." He says with a warm rumble. On his tablet is what is obviously a chemical formula, and some sort of three-D model next to it, slowly spinning. A toothy grin as he makes room for the kitty girl."Try the ice cream, they have a wonderful salted-caramel vanilla." Yes, he knows his audience! A moment to save the molecular model, and then he calls up his research on the people featuring large in the recent events.
Half rising, he offers a massive hand to Brandon. "Thanks for joining us, Brandon. Just need a few moments for the others."
One of whom arrives shortly after. "Hisako, good. I hope you didn't have any trouble getting free or here?" He waves off the apology. "We'll give Spider-Girl a few more minutes, so if you want to there's a menu on the table, you should order something to eat." Of course he's buying.
"Hi. Hi Hisako, Sarge." She only knows the soldier by that name. "I've already ordered, they'll bring it out soon …" Isis says just as the woman who owns the place looks over at the table and shakes her head.
"Y'all are gonna need more room at table with what she's ordered." And on, Isis has only ordered for herself.
"I've ordered the icecream and three burgers and the fries looked good as well as the roast beef roll." the feline-like mutant says like there's nothing strange in the world about it. "Did you see the news? Those men from last week were given bail at Five million each. Apparently someone has paid it and Nicks contacts are saying it wasn't done by a bond agent."
She thinks about it for a moment and looks at the other two "How are you?" It's almost an afterthought.
"That fake church probably has some wealthy supporters. Ones who prefer not to be publicly associated with them. Having money doesn't mean you're a good person." Just the reverse more often than not. Brandon takes a sip of his beer before starting in on the bagel.
Hisako makes a wobbling gesture with her right hand as she sits down, claiming the menu to decide on her order. "They let students leave campus for lunch if you're in relatively good standing, and since I haven't been there long enough to get into any trouble yet … I'll probably wreck *that* getting back, though." She grimaces, then shrugs.
Then stares at Isis. THREE burgers? Hisako almost asks if the feline mutant will be eating all of that … then stops herself. "Turkey club," she requests of the waitress, sitting back in her seat. "Five million each, and somebody *paid* it? In *full*?" she asks grimly.
If this 'Church' was a tenth as holy as it makes itself out to be, she thinks, that kind of money could do a lot of actual good in New York.
Hank doesn't even hesitate, the tablet is used (rather illegally) to hack into the NYPD's files, and access who was signatory on the bailout. He expects it will be some lawyer, but that's still another lead, he'll do a more proper hack when he's got the tools to better pursue it. Fortunately he already ate, his own appetite considerable and really…Hank's a regular here, and always eats a lot and tips well, if he starts bringing in more friends to do the same? Yeah, the owners are not going to complain.
"Actually, no, I hadn't heard that." He says with a grimace. "Well funded, and very slick, I'll see if I can't follow the money to its source."
"Oh hey. They've got apple pie. I'll have one of those as well." Isis says to the waitress.
"Sure thing, One slice of Apple Pie to add to your order."
"No, a pie." Isis confirms. Poor Nick, he's got a line in their budget which is just Feeding Isis
"In full, that's the word on the street." Isis answers Hisako and looks at Sarge. "That's just the point - the Purifiers were gutted when Registration was repealed. Nick says they spent all their political capital, and capital, and no one wants anything to do with them. The police investigation into the members haven't revealed anyone with real money but …"
She looks to Hank and Hisako who have this information "… there's a connection between three of them and a guy at Lobo Technologies. Not through the church but through the Rotary Club." Isis still isn't sure what that is, besides not being an engine.
Hanks hacking takes a few moments but it does get a result. It's not a lawyer who's signed the bail. It's one Leland Hadrick. The same person who was named by the police last week.
"Then I have no idea." Brandon's not really the research kind of guy unless it involves a strike force. "Maybe some of those papers they were trying to shred will give some info. Or we could fly one of them up till he can barely breathe and then drop him." After a moment, he adds "I can catch him before he hits the ground." It's not like he'd kill someone in cold blood just for intel.
"Slice of apple pie for me, too, if there's an extra pie," Hisako appends to her order. She's going to need the comfort food at this rate.
"I wonder if any of that money is going through the school you've got me at," she says more quietly, once the waitress has gone to fill the additional orders. "I don't know if I can personally break into the offices and rifle through papers or computer files, but if we know somebody who doesn't find those things a particular obstacle, I can point at the outside windows they'd need …"
Hank nods to the server when she looks to him. "A whole pie, she means." He doesn't even bat an eye either. "Actually, I'll take a slice as well, blueberry if there's only the one apple, and a scoop of vanilla icecream on top, please." Yes, Hank is an eating machine - and Isis makes him look like an utter amateur! A tyro! A scrub!
"Actually…this is very interesting." Hand states thoughtfully. "The bail was paid by one Leland Hadrick. He used his Amex Black."
He nods to Isis's information. "It all tracks back to Hadrick, looks like I'm going to need to do a deep dive on the man. Might even need to get some help." The Palladium Knight - his hacker handle - is good, one of the best, but Hank is smart enough to know that he's far from the best around, hell, he even knows a cyberpath or two.
He looks to Sarge and Hisako. "I can make you a drive that has a dataminer, Hisako-chan. All you'd need to do is get it in place. Once we get some solid proof, I think we'll need all the help we can get bringing these triply-unmentionable fiends to justice." This to Sarge. A snort at the idea of aerial questioning. "Nice. Very direct."
"Hadrick? That's the guy that was mentioned by the police and the one that Nick and I are following up on for … other things." She shakes her head. "Your approach might work with him, Sarge. If you don't mind going up against a corporation. Maybe a dark alley would be a better bet."
If Sarge wants to do the foot work, Isis and the others can get the evidence they need and then confront him.
"At the moment, it's all circumstantial, right? I mean, he might be just a really nice guy and is helping his friends out."
"Nicks fairly sure they're doing stuff through that scholarship, Hisako. We just need to find out what and how."
"It works." Brandon says simply. Which means he's done it. "Falling for fifteen thousand feet gives someone a lot of time to think about hitting the ground. But considering who bailed them out, they probably wouldn't be able to tell us anything important. Hadrick though…" Seems like the better choice. "Something to implicate him before we question him would be nice."
So Hisako *will* have to do the burglary thing, from the sound of it. Well, it's not like she's been planning to stay a student there for any longer than she needed to in the first place … but Hank's virtual rolodex had better include a couple of friendly lawyers if this goes anything less than swimmingly.
"I'll see what I can plot out as far as getting access to the offices when nobody's around," she says, frowning at the repeated mention of Hadrick's name. "Laundering money through an academic scholarship program … I guess there are worse ways to use it, but I'm still sorry for the students who are being used like that."
"Sadly, yes…highly suspicious, but still circumstantial and probably insufficient to get a warrant, though it might be enough with a friendly judge, I cannot assume that any such will be amenable to reason, Isis." Hank nods agreement to what Isis says about the scholarship.
Hank's yellow eyed gaze shifts to the soldierly mutant, and looks thoughtful. "And it gives you plenty of margin for error, that altitude." Of course hitting the ground at terminal velocity is no joke, it hits with about 48 tons of force! One has to be VERY tough to deal with that, Hank isn't, not unless he lands on his feet. "We'll get some evidence, and I'll see if I can't provide some sort of itinerary for the guy, Sarge."
As the food starts arriving, the server just stacks it on the booth next to the table so it can be easily rotated empty plates for full.
Hank is delighted to find himself with a thick wedge of pie, and a large scoop of vanilla ice cream too, apparently they did have a second apple pie!
"These are highly amoral, at best, individuals, Hisako. They would and have and are stooping to much lower things, they've suborned a church after all, murdered, committed racial hate attacks…but…I'll get you that drive, and when you're going to make your attempt, let us know." He looks to Brandon. "Sarge…would you be willing to use a comm I provided?"
Isis sighs as looks at Hisako. "I just hope it's money laundering and nothing else they're doing. How many mutants, do you think, are in the program?" That's a good question and not one that Hisako could answer just yet but she might be able to get a feel for it now she's looking.
"How about I come down to the school and you can show me around? Say I'm a prospective student or something?" Because Isis would be such a good student.
"Nick and I will see what else we can come up, Hank. But I think we need to sort out Hadrick to untie all this."
And it's just about now that Isis' food starts arriving.
"If it doesn't have GPS capability." Brandon answers. "And it won't be active when I change so I wouldn't be able to hear anything you said. I can monitor your thoughts though if you're okay with that. Just don't think loudly about anything embarassing." After a bite of bagel, he adds "You should dig deeply and see if he has any ties to other countries and what they are. His corporation probably has international assets."
Rather than digging into her pie, Hisako carefully removes the toothpick from a section of her club sandwich before taking an equally careful bite, munching in much the same way as she's chewing over Isis's questions. Isis could *probably* pass as a prospective student - maybe a little less easily than Hisako herself; it'll depend on how she carries herself. She's weighing Hank's points as well - whatever Hisako's own feelings about stepping on the law, they're dealing with a group which has no qualms about completely disregarding laws or morals that conflict with their violently anti-mutant agenda …
"I can't really guess how many mutant students they have in total," Hisako answers the catgirl, "but I've seen a couple who stand out as not baseline humans. It's enough to deflect suspicion that the school might be anti-mutant, at least. I could ask around a little, see who's friendly or who else might be mutants themselves. Do we need a headcount?"
Hank is thoughtful. "I could loan you my mini-cerebro, it can pair to your phone and run off it, subtley—the thing does have a fairly exotic EM field it emits however, I'm not sure it would be wise to do this." Hank's not sure it /isn't/, however, hence his voiced doubts in response to Isis' question about the mutant students. "Actually…that's not a bad idea, Isis. Though…if they are the same people who are involved with the noisy metal experiments it might be bad." Even though he's reasonably sure they're secure, he doesn't speak Reverbium aloud here.
"It does have GPS, but I can disable that feature readily enough." He takes a small earbud, and then pairs it with his tablet, issuing commands to lock out all GPS functionality from the device and disconnect from it. The bud is offered. "The mic works well with sub-vocalization, it is designed to be very discreet. As to the monitoring of thoughts…that's fine, I have had some training with such things."
Hank really hates sending Hisako in without backup, having Isis there would really salve his nerves, a lot. "A headcount could be useful, it might also tell us if they have any who have been indoctrinated - that could be quite important."
Nick might not be pleased to have Isis go in there - he's already said he's worried about her being taken. "Let me check with Nick first." It's interesting how the independent feline defers to the wolfman.
"You should be careful with that type of tech at the school though. If she's caught with it, it would be bad."
Right now though, there's food and that's all Isis has bandwidth for.
Brandon takes the earbud and slips it into a pocket. "OKay, if I see you somewhere I'm at, I'll put it in. Once I change, I'll just tap your mind. And I can be outside the school listening in on her thoughts. If she needs a rescue, I can be there quickly."
Hisako's nose wrinkles over her sandwich at Hank's use of the word 'indoctrinated'. It's important to know, to be sure - for a few different possible reasons - but how is she supposed to find out in casual conversation, without tripping over some unseen border?
"I'll see what I can find out," she finally says. "And I'll be super-careful with the gadget," she promises Hank. Sure, Isis was talking to Brandon rather than to Hisako, about the other gadget that'll be in play, but … same principle, right?
"Thank you Sarge, I'll keep in touch and see if I can't find any Hadrick related leads that are promising." Hank's smile fades as Isis points out the inadvisability of risking the mini-cerebro, and mulls it over. He looks to Hisako, and nods slowly. "I truly hate having you there without backup, if we can get Isis in I would fee a lot better about things. These are dangerous people, and the more I think about it, the more likely it seems that with their tech they'd sense the scans and might be able to reconstruct the waveforms used…from there…just a matter of time before they have their own." A shake of his head. "No, too risky."
After a few moments, he smiles. "Lets eat, I'll prep that drive for you, and we'll see what we need to do to make Isis a credible applicant…assuming Nick signs off on it, of course."