Participants:
Scene Title | Howdy Partner |
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Synopsis | A temporary partnership between two non-evolved Agents begins. Time to show those Evolved they're just as good as they are! |
Date | August 17, 2009 |
Offices of the New York Times
A young woman held hostage by a terrorist organization is big news, so in the main office of the internet section of the New York Times, there's a lot of activity on the phones as people call around for information. What is the Law Enforcement doing about it? Is Homeland Security looking in on it? Does the Suresh Center have a statement? A lot of excited talking, and activity, from various people inside the offices.
A long line of cubicles, a receptionist directing phone calls and visitors. The cubicle in question is near the middle, decorated with newspaper clippings and a couple of pictures. Family members from the looks of things. No children.
Corbin sits in his chair, typing on his computer, a stack of papers sitting beside him that he pauses to shuffle through, looking for a specific note reference in the margins. He's one of the few people not trying to make phone calls.
After a trip to the Tech Dept to put in a request for a trace. Of course, they immediately insisted on wiping the phones info remotely, but after Carrie explained the situation they promised to make it priority. Add a side trip to get a new phone issued and Carrie was able to finally get to track down one Corbin Ayers, who was suppose to be her temporary partner. Company records are wonderful for tracking people down.
Stepping off the elevator of the New York times, a home sec badge hanging around her neck, Carrie casts a look across the floor, looking for a familiar face. A stop at the reception deck and the darkhaired woman is moving in Corbin's direction.
She didn't wear her old army BDU's, no this time she opted for a nice pair of dark blue jeans, white fitted button up shirt, of course she is still sporting boots… So she more feminine, course the last time she saw the man she was dressed for the beach. "Hey, partner." She drawls easily, resting an arm on the wall of his little office.
A slip of his fingers and a word ends up mangled quite a bit. Corbin rolls his chair back, turns and looks up at the tall dark haired woman. He's been with the Company long enough to at least recognize her on sight, though the name doesn't crawl up immediately to the forefront. Starts with a C, he's pretty sure. Like him. Corey? No… "I wasn't told of a reassignment," he says, blinking, running fingers through curly hair. There's so much activity that even a beautiful woman visiting his desk doesn't gain too much attention from anyone else.
"That's cause I'm the bearer of news.. Good or bad is up to you. I only found out about it a few hours ago. It's only temporary though." Carrie pulls her sunglasses off her head and slides them up to sit on top of her head. " Gotta couple of things that need doing." Her arm drops off the wall and offers her hand. "I've seen you around.. But I don't think we've met yet. Carrie Castillo."
Standing, the man isn't tall by any means, and looks younger than he probably is because of it. That and his eyes, hair and face. Only the beard help make him look over thirty. Corbin takes the offered hand, just nodding at the assignment, "Corbin Ayers. Nice to meet you, Carrie." He glances around at all the activity, people hanging up, calling again, holding and tapping pens against their desks. It's not the quietest place for a talk, but it also means the busy people all around may not be able to listen in. "There's a big story, so everyone's a little noisy today. Between this, earthquakes and serial killers… busy times. I'd offer you a seat, but I only got one. We can go for a walk so you can explain what needs doing, though."
"Nice to meet you finally as well." Carrie says with a grin, before letting her hand slide out of his. She motions at his chest as she adds. "By the way.. The picnic.. I gotta say most guys can't pull off those shirts like you were wearing. Looked good." As someone passes behind her, Carrie's attention is pulled to the rest of the room. "Yeah. Humanis First seems to be stepping it up. Bastards really need to burn. I mean.. I've got my prejudice, but that's taking it a bit far." Backing out of his little office, she motions him to join her. "Walk sounds good, wouldn't want sharp ears to hear what I have to say." she holds up her hand with two fingers showing. "Two cases. One is ours. The other, I'd sure like another pair of hands for. Both I got my hands on today."
Turning back to his computer, Corbin backspaces the mangled word, saves the file onto a flash drive, waits til it stops flashing and then pulls it out and drops it into a zipped up laptop case. He doesn't bother to shut down the computer, but closes out the programs and turns around, all ready to go. "Glad you liked it— I always liked adding color to those events. Some people even wore suits to the beach…" And that's just inappropriate use of off-hours. As they start walking away, he leads the way toward quieter hallways and offices, with few people. The hallways get more and more empty the further they go. Less activity where he's going. A lot less. "It should be okay to talk, but if we keep going there's a rarely used stairwell that lets off outside— or the roof, if you're adventurous."
"I'm always one for adventure." Carrie admits with a small grin, walking along side the man. "Okay.. I'll start with the one you were actually assigned to me for." She takes a deep breath and lets it out slowly as she collects her thoughts, it's a touchy subject just yet. "Seth Grimalkin AKA Grim. The name ring a bell?" she glances at him out of her corner of her eyes, brows lifting a bit. Hopefully, he got the Company memo about the rogue agent.
"Our newest rogue," Corbin quotes, recognizing the name from the newest set of memos. It's also… "I think I saw his name next to you once or twice, actually," he says, now that he has her name right, he remembers some of the old memos in the past, the archive files. "We need to figure out what he's up to and bring him back? There anything that wasn't included in the memo?" as they get on the stairs, there's no sounds of footsteps either above or below, and he starts the steps up toward the roof. Only a few floors up, but more than people out of shape would probably want to do.
"Yeah, he was my partner for awhile." Carrie explains grimly, unable to hide sadness that comes with that admission. "Anyhow, yes. We are to find him and bring him in. Two.. Non-evolved Agents against an illusionist." she takes a deep breath, starting up the stairs a hand on the railing. "It would be easy if I had my phone. But I lost it, more then likely when I was slogging through the recesses of the new place looking for freakin' squirrels."
"I know how to handle a gun, but it's not really my thing, you know," Corbin warns, though from the glance over, he expects her to know this. Quirky as he is, he's never been a big fighter among the agents. "You'll have to let me know if there's any limits to his illusions. Partners should know that kind of thing," he says, a few more flights of stairs and not even heavy breathing. "Heard about the squirrel, too. I missed that one— you— wait." He stops with one foot higher up than the other, glancing up at her as she's moved up a bit ahead. "The other thing isn't slogging around to find a cellphone, is it?"
"He got.. some limits.. but he can really make you believe it, if your not prepared. He can make you walk off a building and you'd never know till your dead." The slogging comment makes her chuckle. "What? Afraid of a little squirrel?" Carrie teases, glancing back down at him where she is stopped a few stairs higher. "But no.. not unless Tech can pin point where it is." She eyes him for a moment, a little lop-sided smile on her lips. She looks rather amused. "No. The other is finding the Sandman."
"I definitely don't want to walk off a roof and fall to my death after all these years," Corbin admits, frowning a bit at the thought of going after an illusionist with such ability. It won't make things easy for them. "I'm surprised they didn't throw the Haitian at you. You'd think he'd be good for this kind of thing. He's trained by us, even, so he knows our methods, which'll make it even more difficult…" Training in abilities plus training in methods of retrieval. They're at a serious disadvantage. But that may be one of the reasons he's being asked. He doesn't quite sing to the same tune as a normal agent. The tourist shirt he wore to the beach as a kind of visual evidence.
"The Sandman… I heard a bit about that in the stories. People with those abilities are why HF is making such headway," he mutters, moving on ahead to the roof. Still no sounds of anyone in the stairwell. Why would people use the stairs unless there's a fire? And it could easily be taken as investigative reporting. Things don't need to be quite as clandestine as before. People know about Evolved now.
"No idea. But he's got to be in high demand." Carrie says thoughtfully. "Though to be honest. We got one thing going for us. Grim… trusts me. And I am pretty confident that he will hesitate when it comes to me." She turns away and starts up again. "But if we get to where we need him, I'm sure we can call in support."
Studying the man, for a moment she asks. "Think you can look up and see if any older new articles match the one known case? Maybe some help going through Company files. If we know what we're looking at…" she trails off thoughtfully. "I think we need to go dig in NYPDs files too. You have a Home Sec badge?" There is a small amused smile as she says rather sarcastically, "They will be so very pleased to see us."
"That happens with old partners, especially if you've had them a while," Corbin says, seeming to understand it better than he might like to admit. One partner for five years and he certainly could be called attached… Retired in good standing and he still pays visits off duty. "Just don't you hesitate long enough to get me killed, okay. I haven't even reproduced yet." This is an important comment!
"I got a badge," he adds, opening the roof access doors and stepping out into the warm air. There's a slight breeze, but the clouds are limited, so it's warm. Very little chance of anyone overhearing now. "I don't use it often. It doesn't help my cover too much. But can check the older archives. If we've got anything on record that matches, I might be able to dig it up." But no, he doesn't imagine they'll be pleased at all… They rarely are.
The is a light chuckle from Carrie, "No no.. I won't let you get killed. I've at least 'Reproduced'" Her hands come up to make quotes in the air, her tone amused as she says the word. "But I do hope to 'Reproduce' again. So I do plan to come out of all this alive." She moves to the edge of the building, her black hair moving in the breeze. "Well, get the badge out.. .We'll be using it soon enough." her head turns to look back at him, "Sounds like you need more field time anyhow. Might be why Denton assigned us together."
"Field was never my strong suit," Corbin admits, rolling his eyes up toward the light cloud cover. "I'll trust Denton wasn't just putting me out there for punishment over the Ghost of the Montauk Monster article." He'd waited long enough after the actual incident that there shouldn't be any tracing back to them… Or so he'd hope. "I'll start looking up all the paper work I can on Sandman and anything the archives at our work or mine that might be similar. In the meantime, find your cellphone and let me know if there's any way to see through his illusion."
He pauses, then looks back down, "I actually have to do some checking on the tunnels too, but if I can avoid going down there myself, I will. If you see anything besides your cellphone that shouldn't be there, grab that too."
Moving back from the edge, Carrie gives Corbin an odd look. "What are you hoping to look for?" A brow arches, "And why avoid going down there? It's not that bad down there. Kinda musty, but nothing scary." She put her new phone and wiggles it at him. "I'll need your number.. and me yours so that I can get a hold of you. I'm gonna try the new tracking system first to see if I can pinpoint him and we'll go from there on Grim." she sighs, "Just in case I can't find that damn phone."
"There was something about papers down there. I heard mention of it and decided to check it out if I can, since paper work is one of the things I am actually good at," Corbin says, meaning more than field. "If it's not that bad, I might join you when you go down to search. Would give me a chance to see if there's anything else down there besides crazy squirrels." That, according to rumor, outsmart a bunch of agents. Reaching into his pocket, he fishes out a card from his wallet, which he hands over. "Just call me and I'll have your number— or call me from home. My home phone and cellphone are on there, as well as my extension at work, but don't use that unless you absolutely have to. My cellphone's better."
Tucking her phone away, Carrie takes the card and gives him a small smile. "I will make sure to do that. And trust me — you'll do just fine, Ayers. If anything. I'm military and SWAT trained. And use to dealing with crazy." She reaches out to pat him on the shoulder, and grins. "Lets show them us non-evolved are just a capable of bringing in the bad guys."
"We can prove we're just as good without taking little girl's hostage, too," Corbin says, referencing that news report that's been playing over and over far too often on television. Never a fan of dangerous Evolved, it's not worth threatening to murder young girls. If she'd been really dangerous, he doubts she would've been held easily. Not like Humanis First has the kinds of resources that they have.
"I do hope those bastards burn in hell." Carrie says with feeling, moving towards the door again. "She is someone's daughter.. I had one once." She pulls open the door, "It's part of the reason I joined the company. Damn evolved killed her. But… I wouldn't do the same to them." There is a cold edge to her voice, but then she starts to step in. I'll call you later, Ayers.
"Sorry to hear that. I don't have quite the same reasons for joining, I got recruited for my training in newspapers," Corbin admits, with little else to add to the situation. "But there's a fine line between insanity and what's necessary to protect people, and HF's crossed it. We don't. I'll look forward to your call, Agent Castillo."