Participants:
Scene Title | I Have a Job for You |
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Synopsis | Members of PARIAH come together to discuss their goals. |
Date | September 25, 2008 |
A wrought-iron fence borders several small garden beds and the stone stairs leading up to the house's front door. The house itself is a structure of old stone - not even concrete blocks, but quarried stone — with natural-color wood doors and window frames. The windows on the ground floor are barred.
Inside, the level is divided into only three rooms. The first is the foyer, with polished hardwood flooring, a freestanding coatrack on either side, iron-dark against soft-amber interior walls. The main staircase spirals up from one corner of the foyer, girded by a wrought-iron railing.
To the right from the entrance is the kitchen. The walls just off from white, the floor tiled in dark gray. In the center of the kitchen is a black-topped island, matching the counters that line the room. One wall is dominated by an eminently modern stove framed by an anachronistic brick hearth. Cabinets above the counters have glass doors; the windows above the sink are framed in light-colored curtains, the illumination they let in adding to the expansive atmosphere.
The dining room takes up the back of this floor. The far wall is brick and stone, with a facade of a fireplace mantle in the center. Interior walls have been painted a tone intermediate between amber and ivory, which is also the accent color in the dark rug beneath the long dining table.
After word went out about Claire, Helena had ended up using a contact number to get a message to 'Sergei' and let him know that she wanted to talk to him at the safehouse. She's waiting in the dining room, finishing off a bowl of mac and cheese, a few crumpled pieces of paper resting on the table next to her.
Trask slips in after going through normal protocols in his normal Sergei gear, His eyes look like he hasn't slept in a while.
Alexander has hidden the cab, and come limping in, having gone through the various arcane rituals to gain admittance. He's still bandaged on his right side, but he's healing well.
"Hey, guys." Helena greets them quietly, with a weary smile. "There's food on the stove, if you want some." Helena is in jeans and a pink shirt that belongs to Claire. Draped over her chair is a dark men's jacket, several sizes too big for her.
Trask pulls out a seat and shakes his head, "I am good," He is keeping up the accent. "I haven't gotten any news except that all seems to be quiet on my front."
Alexander drops heavily into a chair, having gotten himself some of whatever's cooking. "Thanks," he says. He's obviously bone-weary.
Helena nods, and reaches behind her to dig into the pocket of the jacket. She withdraws a picture, apparently a secondary copy of the mural in Peter's old apartment, of a black woman eating a man's arm. "This woman was one of the people who got out of Level 5." she says solemnly. "And I don't think Sylar's dead. These people are dangerous, and god knows what the other people who escaped from that level can do. I think it might be smart if we task you to investigating their whereabouts, Sergei. It's a long term kind of assignment, in conjunction with whatever immediate missions we end up establishing. If we were to bring down any of the dangerous Evolved we released, not only would we be making up for letting them out, but it might spin a better shine on us in the media. What do you think?"
Trask shakes his head, "Fighting Evolved in the streets will just get us labeled as costume vigilantes, they media will ask how they got out in the first place and Homeland will point a finger at us. This won't get us any brownie points, the best it will do is ease our consciences, and if that's the reason to do it, then sure. But we will never win the PR war. They are way to good at it. As for tracking them down, I can let you know if I find anything, but by the time I find it out, Homeland will likely already be there."
"It sounds like trying to start a two-front war to me. Now, if we run into them and problems come up, we'll deal with them. But I don't know we should go hunting them," Alex opines, gingerly, already wolfing down whatever was left.
Helena blinks. "Who said anything about fighting them in the streets?" she asks, confused. She never said anything about fighting in the streets. "I just want you to do the detective thing, and you know, detect. Don't go after them, it would be a bad idea anyway. If we did try for a capture, it would involve major planning." Helena's genuinely baffled at how Trask seemed to reach that conclusion. "Also, just an FYI, guys — Eve's gone on walkabout. She thinks she may have found her sister or something. Hopefully she won't compromise us or get killed." She looks at Alexander. "Okay," she says patiently. "What do you guys think we should be doing?"
Trask closes his eyes, "Dah, I can try. I will ask around some, it will be a bit tough keeping my head down, with Cameron's jobs he has me doing I'm already walking the line. Honestly I don't know. We use to be about getting the government to pay attention and realize registration was to expensive to keep going. We then switched to liberation, but our first try at liberation ended in disaster. We need to decide if we are redefining ourselves, or we are going to get back on the horse.
"We need to find out what happened to Petrelli," Al says, simply. "And figured out a better plan for liberating those less dangerous Evolved."
"I think liberation is still the way to go, too. But I also want to raise awareness amongst the population as to why this is wrong. I think we can do that without stretching ourselves too thin." says Helena thoughtfully. "Cat's got some decent media contacts. But getting back to the liberation part? We need more training. We need a better understanding of how the Company works, and any other faction that is dealing with suppressing the Evolved population. I've talked to Noah Bennet and Wireless. They're willing to train anyone among us who's willing. I may have some other resources in that direction too, but I'm still sorting them out." Her expression grows a bit more neutral. "Claire is going to see if her grandmother has anything on Peter's whereabouts. There's not much we can do, since we don't even know where to start. I think right now our best bet is to rest, rebuild, and re-organize. We can't go back to the tenement, Sylar's been there and even though Daniel and I didn't see any HomeSec presence, it doesn't mean there isn't one. So we need to look for a new HQ, too. There are some empty buildings skirting the edge of Ground Zero that I think might be safe from the radiation. Alex, could you handle checking those out? You're a cabbie so it's easy for you to move around."
Trask says, "The Subway…we could take that Subway station we first met Peter at, it was pretty well protected and clean. With some work……" he smiles and shrugs, "Have you all been going back to work regularly? Keeping up appearances?"
Alexander nods. "Can do," he says, easily. "Under guise of looking for a new place to squat. Shouldn't be a problem," Al says. He nods. "Been drivin' again. Looking for somewhere new to bounce."
"The subway station is a possibility." Helena agrees. "Some of the museums that got shut down on the edge of the blast zone might be viable too. So we've got that. What do you guys think about letting Bennet and Wireless give people better training and more understanding of the Company?"
Trask says, "Training? If you mean firearms and special ops stuff I have been offering that for some time. If you mean specifically about the company…I have to ask where they are getting thier info."
"Met's on the edge of Central Park, if we're willing to risk it," Al muses. "I'd be glad of whatever training I can get."
Helena blinks at Trask. "Bennet's ex-Company, Sergei. He was their agent since before Claire was born. He quit, for her." She seems surprised Trask doesn't know this, adding, "You've got a lot on your plate, and you're only one person. Which isn't to say you can't offer training, but do you know stuff like how specifically to handle subduing Evolved opponents? Or preventing mind readers from getting into your head? That's the sort of stuff the Company teaches its people, and that's the sort of stuff we need to learn." She nods to Al. "Check out the old Museum of Natural History, too. And maybe the UN building. There's also lots of high rises."
Trask nods, "Sorry…I guess my own …talents have left me unable to develop those skills. " He shakes his head, "No no one tells me anything most of the time. Cameron just sends me out to collect info on his own people and keep an eye on anything major over the wire."
Alexander offers a mocking little salute, but he's still busy with scarfing down the noodles in question like eating is going out of style.
"It's cool." Helena says. "So I guess for right now, that's what we do. Get ourselves sorted and then review how to tackle our goals. I'm going to talk to West and Daniel about handling the drop stuff with Claire while she's with her grandmother. You guys got anything to bring to the table before I crash?"
Trask shakes his head, "Nyet, Helaina, I think we have covered it all."
Alexander shakes his head. "We need more doctors, I'm thinking. Or healers. If we can find 'em."
"More medics would be great. I think our best bet for resources there are developing relationships with some of the underground clinics in Chinatown and stuff." Helena admits. "It's not like you can go to a meet and greet at a bar and find people with healing abilities. Keep your eye out, though. If we can figure out a way to recruit medical aid contacts, let's do it."
Trask hmmms, "There is a new Evolved….just registered a couple of weeks ago, a street kid with healing abilities."
Alexander perks at that, pausing in his singleminded wolfing to blink at Trask. "Really?"
Helena perks as well. "Oh yeah?" She looks over. "Could you get more info? And then you and Alex can try checking him out, see if you can bring him on board."
Trask says, "He knows me, my cover id, so we might want to be careful about me recruiting him. His name is Caim, he lives in central park." He writes down some info and slides it over to Alex, "This is the address of the homeless shelter he has been working on his GED at, and the second is the Homeland office he does his regular check ins at."
Alexander takes it, runs his eyes over it, vanishes it into his jacket pocket. "Ah can look him up," he says, quietly. "Damn near homeless myself."
"Sounds like that's it, guys." Helena says. "I'll give everyone a call in a couple of days, see where we're at. I'm headed for bed." She rises, taking the jacket draped on the chair and draping it over her arm. Giving the pair a wave, she heads for her sleeping area.
September 25th: Call by Morning |
Previously in this storyline… Next in this storyline… |
September 25th: Retroactive Damage Control |