The quality of the CCTV at the rest areas is kinda variable. McWilliam shows up on a couple of the shots, and Trifonov shows up on one, riding on the back of a motorcycle driven by someone else. The driver's face is obscured by a helmet, but that does nothing to hide the number plate of the bike, and a brief call to the FBI office gets you a name - Varlam Rojas, a former Marine discharged for medical reasons after his squad was attacked and basically shredded by a hostile Supernal, shortly after the Unmasking.

Notably, Varlam is not in the list of McWilliam's patients.

Finding anyone that saw anything isn't easy, for the obvious reason that all the people who were there at the relevant nights no longer are. However you do eventually manage to find someone who was there at the time: a woman who introduces herself as Dewi Karl, who is currently on the return leg of the same journey that had led her to stop at the rest stop in question.

Dewi playfully flirts back at Elizabeth before eventually admitting that she got woken up by someone riding a motorbike - Varlam, you would assume - at what she describes as an ungodly hour of the morning. She went to investigate and found a group of five people (four women and one man) unloading something from a W.E. lorry, which she found suspicious (for obvious reasons, considering the time of night). When she confronted the group, they identified themselves as FBI - and one of the women showed her an FBI badge.

She can't, unfortunately, remember precisely what any of them looked like, probably because it was very dark and she was kinda half-asleep at the time. But there's only one person in your list of McWilliam's patients who might have had any reason to have an FBI badge (albeit a very tenuous reason) - Maria Jiminez, a former agent who was fired from the Bureau after a persecution suit was brought against her and the Bureau by a vampire.

***

Spoiler: Emily
Show
Hacking the smartguns wouldn't be too difficult so long as you can get within range of the signal - though, even without any cybersecurity, the guns do have some systems in place to mitigate the danger of hacking, so if the hack was detected then they'd just be able to turn off the smartlink systems and reboot from a backup.

Unfortunately, you can't think off-hand of any easy way to track the system.


When the W.E. people finally call Coemans back, she has a short conversation with the person at the other end of the line before handing the phone over. "Apparently you're cleared to talk to them." She sounds a bit surprised.

When you take the phone, it becomes obvious that Coemans didn't realise who she was just talking to. "Agent Equinox," Winters says, sounding slightly amused. "Perhaps I should have just given you my phone number."

"As far as tracking the smartgun system is concerned, I can send you the frequency at which it operates. Even something as simple as a radio tuned to the correct frequency would detect the signal. But they only broadcast at a comparatively short range - and, of course, it only works when the system is turned on."

"Unfortunately, I designed these weapons so that criminals and hostile forces could not use them against our country. I did not consider that I might one day need to track them down myself," he adds, with a touch of irritation.

***

Aina hesitates for a moment or two, but then reaches back out and takes Erin's hand again. She's still shaking, though, and looking around frantically as if expecting to be attacked at any moment. ~I'm not.~

~You don't know the whole story. And if your grandmother, and the rest of the council, didn't want you to know, then it isn't my place to tell you. But...maybe this is safe. I...I think it is. But if it wasn't, then you, me, and probably everyone in this entire block would be in danger.~

For the most part, her mental 'voice' is very similar to her real one. But that last sentence is said without a trace of her usual hesitation or uncertainty.

~And...there's something else I was worried about, too,~ she continues, in a blatant attempt to change the subject. ~These Hunters have iron bullets. What if...what if one of you gets hurt?~

***

"Yeah? And what's your plan, exactly? According to your team, the guy can fly thirty miles in about ten seconds, so what kind of plan is gonna be better for him than noping the hell out of there? 'Cos our psych guys are pretty sure that if he thinks anyone knows what he really is, he's just gonna run."