Log:Waterfront Spies
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| "Waterfront Spies" (Spies, Lies, and Family Ties, Pt. 10) | |
|---|---|
| Emitter | Odin |
| Players | Feral, Blackjack, Ace |
| NPCs | Banshee, Mystery Man, Mystery Woman |
| Place | Port Liberty Waterfront |
| Time (IC) | August 29, 2012 - Night |
| Time (OOC) | August 29, 2007 |
The sparkling reflection of the moon on the water, the lapping of waves along the shore, the glimmer of city lights in the distance all speak of one thing. The waterfront. There is a soft creak of boats tied to their moorings at the docks and the scent of salt water.
The Boardwalk is presently empty. The night sky clear of clouds, leaving the gleam of stars overhead here at the Waterfront. It's peaceful. It's be a nice place to take a moonlit walk on the beach. This area of the waterfront is away from most of the businesses that are still open and serving meals. What it is close to is a small family operated Marina where several small fishing boats are moored.
It is also the place that Tyler's nose allowed him to track the scent of the man from the Blind Dog Tavern. The one suspected of poisoning Jasmine Henry's drink and the one who abandoned his car and left that explosive little package in it. Unfortunately this is about as far as that scent has led him, for now. To that Marina, before the man's scent mingled in with too many others. A couple of the boats here have lights on, houseboats where people actually live.
It could be that the mystery man with the target tattoo on his hand lives in one of these boats. It could be that he is stowing away on one. Or, he may simply have had a ride waiting for him here and this is simply another dead end. But that is for those investigating to determine.
Blackjack crouches on a rooftop with Ace, scanning the marina with his darkvision and a pair of micro-binoculars. "Well... Feral, this is where it goes cold?" he says. "We could set up surveillance of the area, see if we can see him come in or out of the area. Search the boats, though that'll be fairly slow. Have a look in the immediate businesses..."
He has to approach carefully, since that red laser-light animal outline that surrounds him doesn't make Feral's power all that subtle. The image around him, for any who get close enough, is that of a bizarre fusion between Hawk and Wolf. The gift of the Hawk lets him fly, and he uses the Gift of the Wolf to scent his prey. It's a liberating feeling; this is to avenge an attempted murder, and rescue the friend of his friends, perhaps. He has never met Odin, but he's heard the stories. As he alights on another roof, the image around him winks out. "'Fraid so," he admits over the comm. "This close to the waterfront, and the people around, I can't get a clear scent, but he's in the area." Which is more than they had, right? There's almost that unspoken question in his voice.
Ace scans the various houseboats with his own binocs, shaking his head. "It'll take a lot of time to search them all. Can't he...I dunno, go sniff the boarding area of each, see if the guy got on one?"
Blackjack shakes his head. "Feral's power won't let him do that subtly, though, and people from the boats might see; I think it's a given that if he's in the area, he's watching for any possible pursuit for a reasonable length of time." He scratches his chin and hmmms. "Feral, can you slip in the water and use a dolphin's sonar to ping the boats, see if you can see 'inside' each and note which ones are occupied? You should get a reflection from the inside of a hollow object well enough, like they do with subs."
"The hologram effect can't be supressed," Feral answers. "If I get that close, it'll be a giant red flag." He pauses, and he winces from where he is. "Or I could do that," he says, surpressing the sigh. For all the talking he's done, he still feels very much the idiot sometimes. Climbing down from the roof, he slips into the water before activating his power, calling on the gifts of the Dolphin.
Ace scans a bit more. "What about a distraction? Something that'd get everyone in the marina out and in the same place? A fire in one of the empty boats might do that." He pauses, lowering the binocs to look at Blackjack. "Not a -real- fire, of course. A series of smoke bombs and someone shouting at the top of their lungs should do the trick. If everyone's milling around, either trying to put out a fire or rubbernecking, and Feral spots someone still on one of the boats, that could be our guy."
The outline image of the dolphin surrounds the man known as Feral as he closes his eyes. Dolphin sonar is very keen, and he comes up every so often to take a breath since Dolphins are air-breathers, technically. But the images and shadows he 'sees' with his sonar inside the boats helps him narrow it down. But something happens in one of the boats that causes him to stop dead in the water. "Guys," he calls over the comm. "I just caught one on this boat." He points out which boat it is. "Man with the height and weight of our guy, a female, and someone else just freaking teleported in!" Thank goodness he's underwater. He starts heading to the pier, awaiting orders.
Blackjack shakes his head. "Don't want to spook our boy with something unexpected right now. And don't need to get people calling the authorities. At least not right now."
Ace turns his binocs toward the boat Feral has pointed out. "What's our next move, BJ? Storm in? Call for backup? Sneak aboard and see what's up?" He lowers the binoculars once more. "If she's aboard, things could get ugly. Really ugly."
"I'm at the pier's edge," Feral answers, keeping under the water lest he be spotted. "I...look, Black, I trust your judgement on this." He's at a little bit of a loss of what next, which furthers his 'dunce' self-image when the costume is on. "If it's their boat, we could always trace it, but if this involves what's been going on, whatever help we can find."
Emerging from the boat in question is a young woman in military fatigues. Auburn hair is pulls back in a loose tail. She sticks her head back through the door to call something down to those still inside and then she's marching across the front of the boat and out onto the dock. A hand is stuck into a pocket and a cellular phone pulled out as she walks toward the dock house and the gate. "Yeah honey, I'm on the way home," a slight southern accent tingeing her words, "I was just out for some drinks with the girls."
"Sneak aboard, see what we can hear, then jump them," says Blackjack. "I think those are the simplest options open to us. Feral, can you listen to their conversation though the hull while we get into place? Dolphins have the best overall hearing in the animal kingdom."
Ace follows the lady with his binocs, frowning. "I can't tell if that's her or not," he says over the comm. "Doesn't look like her, but it could be a good disguise. Can you see who's in the boat now, Feral?"
"That, I can do," Feral replies, his head ducking back under the water, going towards the underbelly of the boat. He calms himself, trying to listen through the hull, and get a sonar-sense of how many are still inside. The guy who 'ported in might have brought friends.
Blackjack shakes his head. "Not her. I.." He frowns as Feral reports. "OK, at least meta activity, then. Let's get down there once the woman leaves, or at least hear what Feral can tell us is being said in there."
"Damn," Feral whispers, as he gets another reading. "There's only one male left on the boat." He curses himself; he should have kept listening. "They might talk if the woman goes back inside, but the teleporter, who's probably gone, was female." Might be the Mysterious Lady, whom they might have just missed.
Ace frowns, moving the binocs back to the boat again. "If she's going home to 'honey', it leaves the guy in there alone. Unless the Lady -is- still in there, but insubstantial enough to elude Feral's sonar."
"Scratch that," Feral says. "He's not alone. Maintaining radio silence to listen." It's interesting conversation, to say the least.
The woman on the dock closes her phone, dropping it back into her pocket. She glances over her shoulder, back toward the boat. Shaking her head, she starts back toward the gate and the parking lot. Her hand is on the gate when she pauses. She tilts her head to one side. Her face wrinkling up a bit as she puts her hands to her head, as though she has a headache. The gate is opened and she walks quickly toward her car.
Blackjack licks his lips slowly as he taps one side of his visor. "Our woman in the parking lot.. she's getting a radio communication, or was; she's being jammed from a source about 20 miles away.." he hmms. "And it just stopped. She's getting more.."
Ace frowns a bit, focusing on the woman again. "Can you pick up the transmission?" he asks softly, waiting also to hear what Feral has discovered.
"Oh hell," Feral says, suddenly cutting in. "The woman who just left, her name is Banshee. They're sending someone named Crosshairs to the hospital to get to Jasmine Henry again." Well, they at least found the right boat. Point for the good guys. "And...they're getting someone's background. Says they're a thrill seeker, the one they're getting a background on. Something about electricity...you know anyone like that?" Beat. "But get on the horn, and make sure Henry's hospital room is guarded."
Just outside of her car, the woman with the auburn hair stops as her earpiece finally stops ringing. "Christ." She lifts her collar, "Technological difficulties. Are you going to do something about that?" A pause. "I was going to take my car. Fine." Irritation shows on her face and it's back toward the dock the woman goes, talking into her collar, "Do I look like a damn taxi service to you?"
"I say we take her out now," Ace whispers. "Then get her friend on the boat. Radio whoever's on guard duty at the hospital to be on the lookout for this Crosshairs character. If we can contain these two, maybe we can get something useful out of them. At the very least, they won't be a threat to any of the women."
Blackjack frowns. "'Stubborn as his old man. Yes, I'll take care of it. I need a lift. The Sergeant needs one as well, we're leaving the boat.'" he repeats for the others as he listens in on her frequency. "A man's voice 'We may need to lay low for a few days. Red and her games might have compromised the whole operation.'" he gives to Ace and the other man. "Ace, call the hospital on the untraceable line and alert them in case things go bad here."
Ace nods and taps his earpiece until it's switched over to the cell line, then phones the hospital. He switches his commlink back and looks through the binocs again. "What about these two?"
Banshee, the woman on the dock practically stalks back toward the boat. "Give her a break, Sarge, she didn't know the civie today was meta," she says into her comlink as she boards the boat. She steps down into the cabin, and even though you all wouldn't be able to see it, places hands on the other two. In the blink of an eye and with a sulphur-smelling 'pop' the trio vanishing from the boat and reappearing... who knows where.
