A Thin Blue Line

[Kislath]

Hmmm... wonder if this is a case file number? I'll have to look that up the next chance I get.
Since we don't have a Chief of Police in this town, this might be a different town. Good grief; how many Adamsons are cops in this state, anyway? Hmmm.. what if it's not this state?

I think I'll doublecheck the Mariala Rodriguez case again to see if that town's chief was an Adamson. Wouldn't that be weird?

Oh, hello..what's this? hmm.. 23 infiltrators who seem okay? okay... Wolfpack's true nature not agreed upon? No kidding! I don't guess anyone asked La Loba what it was. I suppose I should tell someone her opinion. heh,heh..

Okay, lesseee... Internal Affairs.. here it is.. Sure hope the reception is a bit warmer this time.

"Hello! Detective Thad Tanner. I'm looking for Sloduski. He's expecting me. Well, actually, I guess he's expecting my partner, but she got sidetracked so I came instead. Anyway, could you point the way, or tell him I'm here?"

[Thrair]

Jules walked up to the senior-most techie, trying to remember his name. He thought he remembered, but he was certain.
"Jules, here. I think you're... Nguyen, right?

Anyways, got the documents and video footage from the bar fight Rodrick got himself involved in. Might be able to get something useful out of it.

Bartender says she wasn't there that night, but a couple of people named Wood and Beth were, plus some of the bouncers. They might know more. Will have to ask about them.

Any event, I've seen that look you all have, before. Problem?"

[Reltzik]

"Knock yourself out," Nguyen says. "I don't know how useful chasing after someone who got in a barfight with the vic will be, but if it leads to the killer then it might lead to the flash drive. Have you seen the surveillance video yet? It's on that disk there," he gestures to a DVD on his desk, "if you haven't.

"My three friends here are unhappy because they're new probies. I found them at the water cooler." Probationary Officers -- essentially cadets serving a year as interns before graduating from the Academy -- are deliberately run hard on a theory of toughening them up and weeding out those who can't take the pressure, and they're swapped around between various tasks and stations on the theory of both giving them a breadth of experience and also keeping them flexible, on their toes, and under pressure. Unless they're actually assigned to a task, ANYONE can give an on-duty probie an order, though the "drill instructor" hazing that was prevalent for a long time finally got stamped out in the late 90s. Probies eventually learn to take any breaks between tasks as far away from traditional break areas as possible, so that some enterprising officer won't decide they're in need of some work to keep them from slacking off. These three apparently haven't learned the lesson, yet. "I've set up a spreadsheet for these printouts and I've got them doing data entry. Pretty soon I'll be able to do intelligent searches on these printouts... if they move their lazy butts!" Two of the probies had stopped working to listen to the conversation, but now return their attention to the tablets.

"But for now I've got to do this the hard way," Nguyen continues. "I'M unhappy because I'm not liking what I'm seeing here. There was a definite spike in IA complaints when the Surge hit in the 23rd. That's what most of these are. The same thing happened with the 26th, or so my sources tell me. But it didn't play out the same way. The 26th got a huge leash put on it. A bit of scandal and a lot of rethinking, reorganizing, and reprimands. But at the 23rd, nothing, not one of these complaints made waves. It's like an experiment where one's the test case and the other's the control, but I can't figure out which is which. I don't think I like either scenario."

*****

The adjunct's office is large, but contains only one person (and a lot of file cabinets and a desk). It looks like the room's meant for two people, but there's only one there... a weak-chinned, pudgy man with hints of grey entering into his black hair, a Van-Dyke mustache, and an easy grin. He stands to shake Tanner's hand. "That's me. Call me Ian. What can I do for you, Detective?"

*****

The five brass and two Special Detectives stare at Lara for a moment, and then Captain Adamson just grunts. "I'd have expected nothing less, given how few details Tanner gave on the phone. Come on in, let's see what you've got. We were just doing some emergency contingency planning and we could use something more than speculation to work on."

OOC: REALLY? The forum won't let me type Van-Dyke's first name???

[D.KnightSpider]

Step One: Not Get Thrown Out - Check

Step Two: Try to Smooth Things Over - Pending

Lara moved forward, allowing the door to close. She took a quick breath and then measured her words carefully. This was thin ice. She needed to tread as such. Block out everything else but the immediate task at hand.

"And that leads me to the main reason that I'm here." She said, turning to look at... She didn't have a mental nickname for this guy. Great. That was going to have to be corrected soon. She looked at Captain Adamson. "I owe you a personal apology. This morning we put in a request for the records of the murder scene, which the judge promptly tossed out on its ear.

"We leaped to the conclusion that someone was trying to block our investigation and that that person was the 23rd. By the time we realized that there was a fourth player involved in this case, it was too late. The damage was done between our departments. We gave this fourth party what it wanted.

"That doesn't justify my actions in keeping information from the 23rd; I'm not attempting to justify them. It was unprofessional of me. I'm simply telling you this so that you have full understanding of those actions since I apologize for them in full." I extended a hand in Adamson's general direction. "As we move forward, I hope that there are no hard feelings between us."

[Kislath]

"Oh! Hey. My partner, Lara Brand, sent me over to pick up some info on the Herman Rodrick case?"

Spoiler

Show

Lara, what are you doing? Things were cool. Now he thinks that we DID try to block the 23rd

[Reltzik]

Ian Sloduski stands up, comes over and shakes Thad's hand. "Pleasure. Come on in. I'm happy to help and answer any questions you have... well, any that I can... but I told Detective Brand over the phone everything that I know. I don't know where those IA files come from, just that they didn't come from me."

*****

Captain Adamson considers Lara's hand for a moment, and then shakes it. "Fair enough. It was a mistake... but I suppose I made the same mistake myself. Apology accepted, and returned in full. All right. Grab a laser pointer... here, you can use this laptop. Let's see this file that was too big to email. Steve, can you get the projector set up?"

[D.KnightSpider]

Step Two: Try to Smooth Things Over -- Check

Step Three: Make a Presentation without Implying Corruption -- Pending

Since it was going to take a moment to set everything up for broadcasting, Lara opted to fill the time by setting the stage for the coming presentation.

"I'll give Herman Rodrick one thing..."

A distracted pause interrupted her, brought on by the realization of a peripheral thought. All along, they had been assuming that Rodrick had bugged his own place. But they didn't know that. What if someone else had done the bugging? It was something to pursue at a later date.

She recovered and continued. "... he left us with quite the bombshell. Monday, after Captain Adamson's meeting with Thaddeus Tanner, Tanner went over to Herman Rodrick's apartment. He reached the apartment shortly before Almeida arrived. They had a long conversation which I'll detail at a later time, because that's not what everyone's waiting to see.

"Long story short, Tanner drove Almeida out of the apartment. He then conducted a thorough search of the apartment and found three video recording devices scattered throughout the place. The apartment was bugged; said bugs were set to record everything and then dump the files to the internet via wi-fi.

"Tanner took the bugs to our lab boys and they managed to crack and trace the bugs' uploading habits. We salvaged roughly thirty-five hours of video and audio. The rest had been deleted before we found it."

By now, everything had been set up and was ready for use. Lara fed the DVD into the laptop, pulled up a media player, and navigated to the first time stamp. Right now, she was primarily interested in showing Rodrick's meeting with Almeida. The conversation between Almeida and her subordinates could wait.

"That brings us to the main event..."

Lara hit the play button, allowing Herman Rodrick to speak to them from beyond the grave. She all but ignored the recording. The reactions of those present (especially Adamson) would be far more interesting and informative.

[Kislath]

"Oh, okay... why am I here, then? Was there something I was supposed to pick up?
Nuts. I better text her. Sorry about this."

(texts Lara ) "I'm at Sloduski's...what am I doing here? What was I supposed to ask him?"

[Reltzik]

Captain Adamson watches the entire thing in impassive, stone-faced silence. He looks grim and serious, but then, maybe he always looks that way. The lieutenants watch with interest, and the bomb-squad guys watch in a bit of a bored manner... they obviously don't think it pertains to them. That is, until the bombshell hits. THEN they perk up. Still, aside from a few murmurs, they watch in silence until Almeida departs the scene.

THAT'S when the talking starts. In full.

The bomb squad guys immediately start speculating about what sort of ordinance La Loba might be talking about. The lieutenants start tossing out ideas about what they MUST do, immediately, and begin a spirited debate. One of them goes over to the map, insisting that they figure out WHICH of the stickers (which apparently represent La Loba's holdings) the bombs might be hiding at. Of the other three, two appear very hawkish, and the third seems to be arguing for a more rational, procedural approach. It's... not exactly chaos, but very difficult to follow.

Captain Adamson watches them, remaining stone-faced. He doesn't seem to want to rein them in... at least, not immediately.

Lara gets the text message from Thad during the video and has opportunity to respond. Meanwhile, Sloduski's waiting patiently for Thad to figure out why he's there.

[Thrair]

Looking at the probies, Jules raised an eyebrow and concealed a smirk.
"Ah. Caught napping. Explains that."
Listening to the rest of Nguyen's psuedo-rant, Jules grumbled, considering the information.
"Yah. I don't much like this, either. Someone's pulling strings from on high."

Nodding at the DVD, he gestured towards the envelope in his hands.
"Well, I've got some footage in here, along with some credit information from one suspect, and contact information on his associates. Not glamorous work, to be sure. But like you said, if we skip mundane leads, it might cost us."
Setting those down, he reached for his pack to find it empty.
"Dammit. Anyways, I've just been assigned this case, so I've not yet had the chance to go over most of this, myself. I'm hoping that DVD is a different vantage-point, and the one I've just picked up isn't redundant. Either way, I'm going to go over them now. There any incident or witness reports from the fight? Nice to be able to have those in hand while watching the footage."

[Reltzik]

Nguyen shrugs. "Not that I know of. You're the new guy by all of ten minutes. Sir." Technically, Nguyen and Jules are of equal authority.... even if Jules has been a detective for years and Nguyen only for a few months. That Sir was a subtle deference to Jules, Nguyen placing himself under the more senior detective's authority. "I think Detective Brand had some notes from witnesses. You might check her desk for them. But I don't think any statements got made at the bar fight, no police reports, no charges pressed. This DVD here is that conversation in the vic's flat that set us off thinking bombs. Definitely not different vantage points on the same scene."

((OOC: Lara filled people in on the phone while driving, but there could have been gaps in her descriptions.))

[D.KnightSpider]

((OoC: Ninja'd.))

As the first clip came to a close, Lara retrieved her cell and gave it a quick glance. Two messages. She looked at the first message from JV, gave it a quick nod, and a reply.

Thanks; it's appreciated. Any questions, feel free to ask. She typed. There was the brief consideration of adding more, and she decided against it. She didn't want JV developing the wrong picture of how she operated.

The message was dispatched. Lara scrolled to the most recent message and looked at it. She frowned. Hopefully, Thaddeus wasn't upset with her taking the lead on this case. It wasn't something that she enjoyed.

Sloduski was asked to look at copy of IA casefiles. See if he can make sense of them, if he has any idea how Rodrick came into possession of them, or from where they came.

The second message was sent. Lara pocketed her phone and tried to pay careful attention to everyone's actions as the show ended.

Said reactions were significantly less than impressive. If Adamson was unaware of Rodrick's actions, it wasn't showing. The other bomb squad and detectives present weren't really helping their cause either. This was precisely the reaction that she didn't want. But that reaction hadn't fed into action just yet. So long as she could prevent that action from happening, things would be alright.

She took a step back, remained quiet, and waited. This was Adamson's department and his show to run for the moment. She wasn't going to wade into this mess and try to take charge. That would send the wrong message and possibly spoil any good will that had just been built. She'd let things run their course for a moment and then try to influence the situation.

[Kislath]

"Oh! Right! Duh!

Here ya go. This is a copy of the printout that German Rodrick had in his apartment. We were hoping that you could maybe make heads or tails of it, you know, tell us what he might have been trying to figure out from it? So far all we see is that looks like a bunch of complaints against officers, but we're missing the "so what?" part.

Also, any ideas of how he might have gotten ahold of it?"

While he's looking at that, I'll look up the case number that la Loba sent me. I don't even know if its from our city or another, but I guess I'll find out in a minute...

[Reltzik]

Ian Sloduski takes the printout, takes a seat, and gestures for Thad to take one as well. He looks over the printout for a bit. "This definitely didn't come from my office. It's a database search. Someone made a specific query and got this as a result. I've got files and records here, but nothing like this here, and I work on my laptop, not with hardcopy. Obviously, whoever did this had some level of access to the IA secure database. Either someone hacked it, or someone on the inside got it for Rodrick. Those are the only two explanations I can think of." He considers. "You know... if I toss this up to our tech boys... and if they've kept a log of database searches going back far enough... they might be able to figure out when the search happened and who it came from. I think. I'm not entirely up to speed on how they do that, but it's worth asking."

*****

Adamson lets the hullabaloo go on for about a minute before knocking on the desk. He has to repeat it a couple of times before everyone quiets down.

"All right," he says. "Gut panic time is over. It's out of your system. Time to stop reacting and start thinking. Let's take this one at a time. Skip the obvious stuff you think we all got. What details did you notice?" And then he starts calling names, starting with the lowest rank and working his way up. That means he starts with the bomb squad.

"I don't think she's talking about real bombs," the first guy says. "She'd have to have six tactical nukes. No way in hell, not unless she's completely exaggerating ... maybe if she had access to the natural gas utility, something like that, but you can't partition that into six different major explosives."

"She DOES have access to the utilities," one of the lieutenants puts in.

"It still doesn't sound right," the lowest-ranking guy there says. "Best guess? Major exaggeration."

Adamson turns to the other bomb squad guy. "I concur," that second guy says. The video is paused and no one's brought the lights up yet, so the nameplates aren't readable. "And one more thing. I know Herman. Knew him. Solid guy. Never seen him scared like that. Okay, maybe he was acting for her, but still. But if he was acting, it was GOOD act. All of it, every bit of it. Had me fooled for a moment. Certainly had her fooled. It seemed like he was already part of her organization and had been on the inside for a long time, right? But here's the thing. He's a BOMB expert. That bitch has got to know that. So if she's had him on the inside for a long time, why was he finding out about this just right now? Why wasn't he working on that project from the moment he was cleared to know about it? That'd be like taking your star wide receiver and placing him on the defensive line."

"I see your point," Adamson says. "Almeida's a lot of things, but dumb isn't one of them. This seems to confirm that he had, indeed, just been brought inside."

Then Adamson turns to Lara... who, if one rates Detectives above Special Detectives, as is the unofficial tradition, would be the next to speak.

[D.KnightSpider]

"Unfortunately," Lara successfully resisted the urge to sigh. "This is about the point where my previous paranoia comes back to bite us. There's more information about this situation that we have that you need to know."

It was a rock and a hard place. The 'rock' was that Lara did not want to play the recording of the second conversation, not in front of this many people. There was a leak somewhere in the 23rd; for all she knew the leak could be any one of these people. She'd been ordered to trust Adamson, and so she would, but that was as far as her orders went.

The 'hard place' was that unless she played the second video and shared their findings about Metro, Adamson wouldn't have the proper context or understanding of the situation proper. Lara didn't know if Almeida had a bomb or not. But she did know that something very, very nasty was about to transpire.

"Let me preface my remarks with two related subjects. The first is that, for obvious reasons, we need to keep a firm lid on this information. Everyone's 'gut reaction' just now demonstrated what would happen if this information is leaked. If we assume the worst, then Almeida does have a few bombs tucked away somewhere and she decides that since we're on to her, she might as well just go out in a blaze of glory.

"The second subject is that Lieutenant Paige is already aware of everything that I'm about to tell you. She's presently putting together a task force to deal with this issue. Captain Adamson, I'd expect her to be in touch with you about that sooner rather than later.

"To get back to the subject at hand, there's two other pieces of information that you need to know about this angle of the case, because they paint a more complete picture of what's transpiring. The rest of our information on Rodrick's death is contained in a report on the DVD." Lara let her gaze circle the room and come to rest on Adamson.

"These two pieces of information are extremely sensitive. So much so that, to be bluntly honest, I would personally feel better if they were reserved for Captain Adamson's eyes only.

"Before I share this information, I need absolute assurance that said information will not and can not leave this room. No water cooler discussions. We're presently trying to navigate a minefield, and if the wrong information gets leaked, then it could ruin an operation and another cop could end up just like Herman Rodrick."

[Thrair]

Jules thought for a moment, and decided to message Lara about witness information before snooping around in her desk without asking. Then he went over and started to play the new DVD. Hopefully it wasn't long, as it sounded like the older DVD was much more important to the case.

Spoiler: ooc

Show

Dunno if she sets her phone to vibrate or ring.

[Reltzik]

Jules turns on the security video from the bar, and sees that it's pretty short. It's actually six videos assembled side-by-side. The video is black and white. The resolution is decent but every now and then it pixelates like a bad MPEG. Still, it's good enough to figure out what's going on. There's no audio.

Jules can't really identify the key figures until the shoving starts, but rewinding a bit lets him view it from the start, knowing where to look. The place is packed. Herman's sitting at a table with five other people (a man and three women). They're talking, and laughing, but again, no audio. One of the women, a blonde, slips out and makes her way towards the bar, and Rodrick pulls out his phone, apparently checking his email.

Meanwhile, a guy steps out of the back room, also heading towards the bar. He's dressed business-casual, tie and shirt. (And pants, and presumably shoes.) Race isn't obvious in black-and-white, but he's got dark hair in a loose pony tail (the kind that hangs down rather than juts out) and a very thin mustache. He's saying something over his shoulder as he emerges, probably to someone else in the back room. Then he turns and also starts heading for the bar. But halfway there he gets a sight line to Rodrick, spots him, and slows to a halt, staring. He seems indecisive and uncertain, but slowly starts moving towards Rodrick.

Rodrick notices the guy staring and, for a split second, looks completely alarmed. And then the second's gone and he's got a cool, casual poker face on. He glances around at the other people at his table (who are paying less attention to him), says what probably amounts to "excuse me a moment", then slips out and goes to meet the guy from the back room.

Working off body language, here's how the conversation goes.

The guy from the back room approaches cautiously and uncertainly, and says something, as an opener. He seems surprised to see Rodrick. Rodrick responds with angry scowl and what are probably angry words. The guy looks confused and hurt by this reaction and spreads his arms wide, as if trying to explain something. Rodrick's body language becomes even more aggressive, leaning in and jabbing a finger at the guy's face. Something accusatory or maybe threatening. The guy from the back room seems to be getting even more desperate in his explanation, holding his hands up to his side in a "hold on, hold on, lemme explain!" sort of gesture, and then he points towards the back room. He's talking fast. They're starting to draw attention. Rodrick cuts him off with a sweeping gesture and says something angry... and then repeats the gesture twice. possibly also repeating what he just said. He's clearly considering some matter firmly closed and not open for discussion.

Then Rodrick turns to leave, heading back towards his table. The guy from the back room follows. His hurt is turning into... maybe not anger, but offense. The guy from the back room tugs on Rodrick's sleeve just as Rodrick's about to sit down. Rodrick spins and shoves him, shouting something angry. The guy starts to say something but gets interrupted by another shove. Another, and another. The guy can't get a word in without getting pushed, and it seems like Rodrick's telling him, loudly, to take a hike. Another shove, and the guy shoves back. Rodrick shoves him again... much, MUCH harder this time, and the guy has clearly had enough and comes back with a hell of a right cross straight to Herman's face. Herman staggers back against the table and seems about to fight, but his friends have stopped gawking and suddenly bounce up to restrain both of them. The guy from the back room doesn't take much restraining... he's suddenly eager to get out of there, and heads back to the back room just as the blonde gets back with another round of drinks.

And that's about the end of the video.

*****

Adamson leans back a bit, considering. Then: "You're right. This dead woman's switch she's talking about... we can't afford to spook her. Now you don't know anyone in this room Detective, so it's reasonable for you to be cautious, but I'd vouch for every last one of them. But in deference to your knowledge of the subject material, I'll review what you've got to say in private once this meeting's over, and disseminate it on a need-to-know basis. If there's nothing else from the 8th, let's move on."

He goes through the lieutenants. One of them says he thinks that this is out of character for La Loba and that she's putting it in place as a last-ditch thing. He points to her comment on mutually assured destruction. "That's like insurance. You set it up hoping NOT to use it." Another one disagrees, saying she's under so much pressure, both from the police ("She's about to lose her eyes") and the more militant members of the Wolfpack, that she's got no choice but to do something. A third (one of the hawks) points out the danger of assuming anything other than the worst-case scenario, and being wrong.

The final lieutenant brings up an otherwise unnoticed detail. "What I want to know is, where did these cameras come from? We've only got the one model of wifi surveillance equipment. I never issued anything like that to Rodrick. Did he check them out on his own without telling us? It's a small detail, but if no one here knows I'd like to follow up on it." Various headshakes around the table show that no one knows where Rodrick got those cameras. Another one of the lieutenants, the "she's under pressure" one, suggests that the 26th might have been watching Rodrick, given that they didn't know he was undercover, but it's in the tone of unsubstantiated speculation/brainstorming.

"All right," Adamson says. "I'm going to step out to talk with Detective Brand for a moment. While I'm gone, start brainstorming for three ops. Scenario one, bombs go off and we have to start working disaster relief. This might include a bombing of our own precinct house. I want a security sweep of this building, the foundation, and any utility access beneath it for explosives ready to go within two hours, but do it QUIETLY. I don't want every officer for twenty miles in a state of panic. I also want a worst-case op plan in place, just in case there are bombs here and we don't find them before it's too late. Identify other worst-case locations where the bombs might go off. Don't start contacting the other emergency services just yet, but come up with lists of who to contact. Scenario two, La Loba reveals existence of bombs as a public threat. This will require us to pursue a short-clock, hard search for them. Get an op plan ready for that. Scenario three, she says nothing. We pursue a soft, subtle, long-clock search of the neighborhood for bombs. Greg, tell our undercover boys what to look for, and that it would be worth blowing their cover if... IF... they find it. It's not like their cover hasn't already been blown anyway. Clear?"

"What if these bombs are at one of La Loba's holdings?" the hawk asks. "Like that Easy Street homeless shelter she was talking about?"

Adamson REALLY doesn't like that thought, by his expression. "Include that possibility in those op plans. I'll be back shortly."

Then he pulls Lara out into the hallway... and then into a supply closet. "All right, Detective. What's this need-to-know information of yours?"

[Kislath]

"Hey, yeah! That's a good idea. I have an idea who it might have been already, but I don't have any sort of proof. This could BE the proof. Not that I'm all that sure what I'll do with it, but one crisis at a time, right?"

[D.KnightSpider]

Lara had just enough time to palm the DVD from the laptop before Adamson hauled her out of the room. She didn't want anyone in that room messing around with the video or her report and potentially stumbling across the information related to Metro or Thaddeus' relation to Almeida. Not just yet, anyway.

Her reaction to the supply closet could be summed up thus: Lovely office. It's funny, though, I thought that Janitorial Closet went out of fashion about five years ago. Unfortunately, she'd dealt with worse lately and any surprise that she should have felt at their location was sadly lacking.

Now, to get down to the brass tacks...

"The first bit of information concerns that 'fourth party' to which I referred earlier." Her words came slowly at first. She was navigating a tight-rope. "I'm not making accusations or pointing fingers. I've already made that mistake once in this case. All I'm doing is making an observation.

"There's someone else who has a stake in this investigation beyond the 8th, 23rd and the Wolfpack. One of our forensic accountants set her mind to tracking down the money trail behind that murder scene slash bunker. Whoever was footing the bills for that place covered their tracks by routing the information through the MPD of all places. We're trying to find out where the trail actually leads, but it's slow going.

"Whoever this fourth party is, they've managed to block the 8th and the 23rd from investigating that bunker, tried to drag Metro into this mess, and they quite possibly could have bugged Rodrick's apartment. Whoever this fourth party is, they have clout; we're going to have to cross them before this investigation ends.

"The second bit of information that I have is much more sensitive. The bugs in Rodrick's apartment recorded another conversation. It's also on this disk." Lara held the DVD out to Adamson. "This one took place between Almeida and a few of her cohorts after they found out that Rodrick was dead. The general gist of the conversation was that they have not one, but several contingency plans designed to cause havoc around this city. The one that Rodrick was involved in required some outside help; it was Rodrick's job to secure that help.

"As best we can determine, Herman Rodrick was attempting to negotiate with someone that the Wolfpack referred to as 'Baker'-- we doubt that's his real name-- over access to the bunker where he was slain. It's possible that Baker was his killer but we don't know that.

"What we do know is that Baker was integral to Almeida's plans. Now that she's lost him, she's trying to find a replacement. Right now, a certain cop named Thaddeus Tanner is at the top of her short list.

"Communication between them is entirely one way right now. Almeida contacts Tanner. Right now, he's trying to string Almeida along and curry enough of her confidence that she either brings him into her confidence or lets something slip. Lieutenant Paige is aware of this.

"But that's why this information needs to be kept very close to the chest. Tanner is trying to pick up where Rodrick stopped. Since he's my partner, I have a very vested interesting in making sure that Tanner doesn't end up in the same vein of his predecessor."

[Reltzik]

"All right," Ian says to Thad. "I'll run off a couple of copies for myself before you leave and bump it over to some friends of mine. Was there anything else I could do for you?"

*****

Adamson holds his chin, idling tapping his nose in a thinking gesture. He takes about a minute to process it. Then: "I'm willing to leave this fourth party to you, since you're the one on the trail. Just keep me updated. And I'm also willing to keep Tanner's operation confidential as well. But my detectives need to know about this original Baker business, as well as who is responsible for the death location. Can those pieces of information be separated? How entangled are those details?"

[Kislath]

"Hmmm... no, I guess that'll do it. Thanks a lot!"

Ugh. Waste of time. Unless he comes up with something juicy, of course. I'm outa here.

Back to the car I go, stopping to try another search on that case number La Loba gave me.

[D.KnightSpider]

Now it was Lara's turn to pause for a minute. It took her that long to mentally replay the footage and determine an answer to that question.

"They could be separated." She said, finally. "But not subtly. Almeida's conversation takes place immediately after her encounter with Tanner and makes it rather obvious that she has a mind to recruit him. While she doesn't call him by name, she does make it very clear that she intends to recruit a cop. She specifically mentions that it's a person old enough to have been in the surge, a better candidate than anyone in the 23rd, and--"

The familiar sense of a realization came crashing into her mind, cutting off Lara's words and leaving her stunned for a split second. Her mind finished what her mouth could not. --and more interested than anyone in IA.

The bit about leaving the city in flames, and trying to recruit Thaddeus, had seized all of their attention. So much so that they had completely missed that obvious clue. Lara cursed herself mentally and delivered a swift kick to the back of her brain. It had been such a sloppy mistake.

Lara shook her head and refocused herself on Adamson.

"I'm sorry. I've just now realized the importance of Almeida's third qualification. She said that Tanner was more interested in this case than anyone in 'I.A.'. In answer to your question, you could cut the video around Tanner and her reference to her 'Baker Nuevo', but it would be patently obvious that something had been done to it."

Her hand moved to her pocket and retrieved her cell phone. She didn't use it just yet, but kept it in hand. She needed to act on this realization sooner rather than later. Hopefully, Thaddeus hadn't let Sloduski off of the hook yet.

[Thrair]

Jules politely called Nguyen over. Respect worked best both ways, and he wanted it clear that he thought of Nguyen as an equal, not a subordinate. He then replayed the footage of the fight.
"What do you make up this? Clearly knew each other, and the guy who picked a fight with Roderick seems to have thought they were on friendly terms."
Picking up the credit information and calling one of the probies over to run it, Jules rewinded to the moment Roderick spotted the man approaching.
"See? Right there? Obvious enough that Roderick was caught off guard and didn't want this guy talking to him. But the guy seemed friendly enough, at first. Couple possibilities occur to me:

One, I'm thinking Roderick knew him, but didn't want witnesses at the bar to know that. Breaking his cover, or something.
Two, this guy did something recently to get himself in the doghouse, and didn't know it, yet. That type of thing happens in gangs, occasionally. Guy messes up big time, and gets marked. Rest of the gang suddenly wants to distance themselves as much as possible from him til the other shoe drops.
Third big possibility is that's I'm overthinking this and this is just a fight between friends after something went on between 'em.

Your thoughts?"

[Reltzik]

Nguyen watches the video a couple of times, frowning in concentration. Then he shakes his head. "Well I'm seeing and thinking the same things you are. But... see that oversized badge on the wall, and the lights from the old squad car over the door? That looks like a cop bar. I think we can rule out a gangbanger just hanging out there. Or Rodrick feeling like he'd have to maintain his cover. Guy had some balls. If I had a cover to maintain, I wouldn't go anywhere near a place like that."

The probie comes back. "Quick hit on the credit card information," she reports. "Company card. Belongs to... the West Street Theater Company." That's the name of the group that rented out the back room. The probie doesn't seem sure of who to hand the credit card information to, and so holds it out so that either Nguyen or Jules can grab it.

*****

"Then no," Adamson says. "If the information is that deeply entangled, I'm not going to redact it like that. You're a detective, so you know how they are. If I give them a big gaping hole in their data they won't rest until they fill it. So it's either give them nothing or give them all of it. Besides, it sounds like there's a lot of rich detail in that video that you're still processing. If it's that much of an information mine, I'd be handicapping the investigation too much withholding it. I'll tell them to keep it as close to the chest as possible and that it's need-to-know. But it sounds like they need to know."

*****

Meanwhile, Thad's let Sloduski off the hook easily and has headed back to his car. He might not be able to figure out his smart phone, but like most police cars his probably has a laptop with a connection to the police database. One of the numbers doesn't get a hit, but the other does. It's heavily redacted, but it's an IA case file that was worked on by Sloduski in the early days of the Surge.

[Kislath]

Oh, hello...what's this? A censored file? Hmm... Hey! What luck! This is one of Sloduski's cases, so after I read it, I can ask him about it right here and now.

Handy!

Now lessseee what we got here....

[Thrair]

"Thanks."
Reaching over and grabbing the info with a polite nod, Jules continued while looking over the printout.
"Yeah, I was mostly using the gang scenario as an example, though I'm not ruling it out completely given the nature of the area. Wolfpack has a habit of identifying undercover cops and using them for mundane activities, anyways. And that's before we get into this guy's complex history with La Loba. From what I've been told, he might have gone rogue. Not enough information to be sure.

As for his balls, the guy came back from a couple tours overseas and then effectively joined EOD for the 23rd. So I wouldn't be surprised if they clanked when he jogged.

Hm. West Street Theater... odd. Why would they be using a company card? I'm going to see what I can find out about that company. Maybe figure out who this guy is. Wish the bar had actually bothered to get his name after the fight. Sloppy. Usually the ID scanner has a memory that can be pulled up."

[D.KnightSpider]

It was like trying to win a race on a hamstrung horse. She knew that there was a leak. She knew that She-Wolf was trying to get her claws into this or any other department. But none of that could be shared with Adamson. It was checkmate-- and not in her favor.

At least Adamson wasn't going to throw the entire Wolfpack lot in the slammer and try to sweat the details out of them. She'd succeeded in that much, at least. It was time to pack it in and accept the wins and losses for what they were.

"Unfortunately, yes, it is." Lara admitted. "Also, we are still processing the data. We've only recently came across this video. We had just enough time to watch it and pass it up to Lieutenant Paige before Tanner called you. It's still very new to us."

She paused again, waiting just long enough for the conversation to reach a junction and the topic to change rails.

Lara spoke again. "Captain, I do want to thank you for your patience and willingness to hear me out before rendering a decision. I understand that it must have been... aggravating, I suppose is the word for which I'm looking... to deal with my paranoia in light of all the chaos surrounding this case. Nevertheless, I appreciate it."

[Reltzik]

Adamson just gives a stiff nod. "If I'd come across a video like that at your age I'd probably be paranoid as well. Do you want to sit in on the rest of the meeting? We could use your input and you could learn a thing or two. But I'm sure you have other things to be doing."

*****

"Maybe they were going with visual ID checks," Nguyen says. "Or maybe they just didn't think to pull the data. Want me to call this theater company?"

*****

The old IA case file pretty much goes like this.

Day twenty-two of the surge. Complaint made against officer (censored), badge number (censored), by complainant (censored). Allegations that officer (censored) extorted money from complainant (censored)'s at complainant's place of business. Complainant recanted six days after filing, saying that one Guadalupe Almeida had put him up to filing a false report. Case dismissed.

[Kislath]

Okay. I guess she's mad about getting fingered. Seems a bit minor a thing for her to lead me toward now, though. I guess I'll ask the man himself about it.

I head back into Ian Sloduski's office.

[Reltzik]

Thad gets back to Ian's office without trouble. Ian's there, working on his computer.