Participants:
| Scene Title | A Spy From The French Government |
|---|---|
| Synopsis | Infosharing between Cat and Cardinal |
| Date | October 10, 2009 |
Somewhere in New York City
What a way to spend a Saturday morning, the woman thinks as she waits for the person expected to meet with her to arrive. It's still dark, Cat picked a time early enough to ensure that. Of course, she realizes, he may grumble about being awake instead of the sun being out, but nothing is perfect.
She waits in a section of the city not likely to be surveilled; the way she'd been approached caused concern. Care was taken to avoid being followed.
In the possession of the brunette who wears jeans, boots, a vintage rock band t-shirt and jacket which conceals weaponry on her person is a very thick document.
A shadow peels away from the wall, and Richard steps along out; cracking his neck to one side, then the other, before approaching her with a faint smile curving his lips. "Evening, Cat," he greets mildly, "Sorry, been a busy few days, as you can imagine…"
"Evening?" she replies with a dry chuckle, "I guess this means you've not been to bed yet. Not a bad thing, mind, it means I've not kept you from sleeping in on this fine Saturday." Cat studies him for a short time before pulling the printed material out from under her jacket and offering it up. "This was a gift from a man calling himself Anton. He found me yesterday when I was out to buy food. Claims to be a spy from the French government.
The panmnesiac doesn't seem entirely convinced of that.
"I sleep during the day," Cardinal points out with a wry smile, "That big yellow thing in the sky's a bit of a pain in the ass for me, you know." The document's offered over, and he reaches out to take it; turning it over, fingers brushing over the surface. "Me too," he admits, "Laudani as well. Seems like he wanted to make sure this got out…"
It's thick, some nine hundred pages. Inventory of Soviet nuclear weapons, circa 1989. "He said I should meet with you," Cat relates, "and told a story of Ivan having developed nukes that couldn't be disarmed. The only way to spot them, claimed Anton, is to know the ID codes which are in this."
"I don't know if this guy is legit; he could be from a number of operations trying to set a trap. Lure larger numbers of people into the same place. DHS, FBI, NSA, hell, even Humanis First. I don't like that he was able to find me," Cat grouses, "that was my favorite grocery. Hell will freeze over before I go there again."
"Anyway," she continues, "this is your copy. I saw the contents." If you're Cat, that's enough, and it only takes one reading.
"Thank you," Cardinal tucks the thick document under his arm, glancing back over with a twitch of both brows upwards, "I don't know how he found me, either, but he did say something… interesting… when he called me, that made me wonder. He told me that Kazimir Volken was alive, and killed Peter Kobrin." A pause, "I don't think I believe that. We both know where Kazimir's essence is now…"
"He may believe Kazimir's still around, it matters little. I've told a few technopaths I have this, gave them snippets and offered the rest if one of them wants it in hopes of vetting the info," Cat states. "I'm tempted also to show this to one of the Remnant folks and see if it rings any bells. However, international news has said the Vanguard has stolen Russian weapons, so I'm inclined to believe this is real."
"Which makes the question how someone gets into a Russian base, finds the weapons Anton described, and does away with them."
"Kobrin was one of Fedor's aliases, so… I think we know where this came from," Cardinal says, his head shaking a little, "If anyone could get into a base, he could have. Whether he's dead or not— it's impossible to say, given his ability. He could be anyone."
"He says time is short," Cat offers, "the Vanguard is allegedly looking for them. Getting to them might not be a problem for you, with your ability to turn shadowy. I wonder… are you able to take other people into shadow form with you, Mr. Redbird?"
"I've an idea or two on how to get rid of the weapons safely."
"Nothing alive," Cardinal admits with a slight shake of his head, "A person'd be beyond my weight limit anyway, I think. As for a time limit… there's two eclipses coming up, that seem to be important. New year's, and the twefth of December."
She is silent for a time, thinking over the problem of base access and the amount of time they have. When words are used next, Cat speculates "We may not have that long, Mr. Redbird, if the Vanguard are out to find and move some of these nukes. They'd do it before the 12th, and we'd have to find them wherever they went. Better to beat them to the punch, if we can."
"I should ask the Ferrywoman who makes portals what her range and limits are, she could maybe get us in. As to safely disposing of nukes that can't be disarmed, I think Officer Varlane can handle that."
"If someone doesn't shoot him in the head, first…"
Cardinal's lips purse in a grimace, then, before he looks at her curiously, "Do we know where the nuke is, though? If we don't, I don't see how we can just teleport to it…"
"I've read through the document," Cat states, "and I have the ID codes for the nukes in question, plural. I believe the location we're interested in is Stepnogorsk." She extends a hand for the very thick document, her intention turning to the very spot and showing it.
The document's handed back, and Cardinal steps over to look at it, brow furrowing a bit. "But if the nuke was stolen," he points out, "Won't it… not be there anymore?"
"That's what's confusing about all this," Cat agrees. "It's been reported long ago the Vanguard stole a nuke, now Anton gives us this and says they're looking for them. Maybe they intend to take more."
"Or," she offers after a few moments where she's quiet and the wheels turn behind her eyes, "Stepnogorsk is where the Vanguard took what they have. A disused base, perhaps, they've taken over."
"Or possibly," Cardinal suggests, glancing over with a brow's raise, "Since their leadership was killed, they've just lost track of everything? They had a cell structure, from what I understand, and I suspect Kazimir didn't tell them anything…" He shrugs, glancing back to the document, "I suppose we could check it out, though."
"I'm hoping the technopaths help us with this," Cat replies somberly, "getting their tendrils into satellites and checking out the site as well as Russian systems to verify which places their government is still using. Also," she notes, "I asked Anton if the name Munin meant anything to him. He said no, but his expression tells me that was bullshit. Looked like he recognized the word and was shocked to hear it."
"Not long after Else's song Shores Of The Empire State came out, Lucrezia Bennati told us Eileen Ruskin wasn't the original Munin. But she claims not to know what the originals are."
"Technopaths." Cardinal's gaze flickers up from the paperwork, sharply regarding Cat, "Rebel. Who is he?"
"The voice reminds me of the one calling himself T.Monk. His speech pattern, the accent. He also used the word we. We are Rebel. That suggests to me R.Ajas is still with him." Cat lapses back to silence, not certain Cardinal was ever told the story behind R.Ajas.
"I'm not familiar with either've those," Cardinal's lips purse in a frown, "If he's backing Norman White, though, that could be… a serious fuckin' problem."
"I don't believe he's the type to back Norman," Cat opines. "I've been in contact with him before; he brought Knox and Allen Rickham to me months ago. They tried to round up an earthmover called Sparrow Redhouse too. Knox and Rickham went to her home, found she was absent, and had to run from a DHS raid that came for her. What their purpose for her was, I don't know. But T.Monk warned us to prepare for a war, to gather people who'll do the right thing and be ready to survive." She pauses here, eyes closing.
When they reopen, she speaks anew. "Monk told me he had a plan for dealing with Pinehearst, and on one occasion put me in touch with Father. Monk advised not to assault the place, but he shared no details of what that plan was. And since a few days before that operation, he and R.Ajas have given me the cold shoulder. I brief them on things, and there's no response at all. It was refreshing to hear Monk resurface to end that Glenn Beck program."
"It sure sounded like he was trying to spur people towards a violent uprising…" Cardinal grimaces, his head shaking tightly, "…and he may've removed Rickham from the political arena once and for all with that little speech of his. I don't suppose you have Monk's number? I'd like to find out what the fucker is planning, since it doesn't sound good at all… the only friendly technopath we have right now is Hana, I think. Malice dropped out of contact…"
"It works much the same as Hana does," Cat shares. "Just send an electronic communication to T.Monk. He should pick it up in the same way Hana responds to Wireless. Whether or not he chooses to answer is another matter, and as I said lately the pattern is not."
"You might try Rebel too," she offers as an afterthought.
"White has some technopath on his side, I know," Cardinal says with a frown, glancing skywards, "Could be Malice, for all I know, but… fuck. I suck at computers, and they're in control of all of them. Makes me paranoid."
"I'll put some more thought into the question of how we get our hands on the nukes, Mr. Redbird," Cat offers dryly. "A plan will form somehow. Regarding Allen Rickham, his political future ended when he walked away without even taking the oath of office. He was toast, really, the way he said it went down. A man came into his transition office, administered the SLC test, and when it turned red that was it. If he'd showed up on the 20th of January, he'd have been outed." There is anger to her eyes in telling that story. "Our best hope, taken down in favor of a man who didn't honestly win his Senate seat. The '06 election was rigged."
"Of course it was," Cardinal says with a rough snort of breath, "I wish we could prove it, but… anyway. He could still have a future as a political advisor, even if not as a politician himself. I'm not sure anyone would care to take his advice after that, though, being associated with terrorism…"
"I'd like to prove a lot of things," Cat laments bitterly. "Top of the list is what Volken planned, and that we stopped him cold from pulling it off. DHS just stood by and let us handle the dirty work, then came swooping in to arrest people."
"One of the things R.Ajas told me was that the election had been rigged, and he vowed to make things right. Taking over the Beck program, declaring Rickham the rightful President, seems part of that goal."
"It's too blunt," Cardinal says with a tight shake of his head, "And it's just going to lead to greater violence… anyway, I suppose it was inevitable." He rubs at his face, eyes closed, "Edward wanted to stop this war, but it doesn't look like that's going to happen now."
"I can't tell you what Monk's mind is," Cat replies, "I just don't believe he agrees with violence. It doesn't fit with him cutting off contact because we didn't take his advice to not attack Pinehearst. I'll ask him soon what he's thinking. But I don't expect he'll answer. For all I know, he thinks we're all as uselessly hotheaded and insane as Norman White."
"Idiot," she mutters after a pause. "I get the basic idea of terrorism, politically. That like Jefferson wrote, governments operate on the consent of the governed. That even in a fascist dictatorship consent is given, whether through knuckling under to fear or by open agreement, and thus the people should be punished for that consent. What they don't stop to think about is number one, it's plain murder and two, it's counterproductive. Terrorizing people who fear us and took oppressive measures out of that fear will only make them more determined to solve it by extermination."
"Even if there's a time that bloodshed'd be necessary," Cardinal grimaces, "This isn't it, because there isn't enough public support for our cause yet. There isn't enough open evidence that we're being persecuted. Anyway, I need to get over to the island and make Shard deal with White once and for all, this is getting ridiculous. We're getting close to the event."
"Hopefully the way Mr. White is dealt with won't be such a spectacle as to make him seem a martyr and inspire people to his example," Cat mutters. "I still hope Sparrow turns up. She can at least counter any earthshaping move he makes."
The document is left with him, she turns partly to begin her own exit. "See you, Mr. Redbird," is offered.
"See you around, Cat." The shadows draw up about Cardinal, and he fades away into them.