Interagency Cooperation

Participants:

cesar_icon.gif colette3_icon.gif elisabeth3_icon.gif kaylee5_icon.gif

Scene Title Interagency Cooperation
Synopsis NYPD's new SCOUT task force and SESA get together to begin their investigation into the Zeitgeist drug.
Date July 30, 2019

Fort Jay, Governor's Island, NYC Safe Zone

July 30th

9:17 am


A call to the NYPD was placed through SESA channels, asking for the presence of a few newly minted officers of the Safe Zone to come in for an investigation into the drug known as Zeitgeist. The SESA agent in question, Cesar Diaz, had opened it up with the evidence thus far attained through undercover means.

It just so happened that there were some coverings being thrown off in the process. From the video, a sequence of strip-tease dancing, then the ministrations of the two Chinese men - one young, one old - in administering the drug through an aerosolized format, shows the blue fog and how it affects the trio of women.

“The establishment in question is a known gentlemen’s club, Little Darlings. The Ghost Shadows triad is operating through it, but the business itself is not under their control. I believe the relationship is symbiotic more than parasitic.”

Cesar has somehow managed to keep his face straight this whole time. It’s serious business, ladies.

“At a price tag of $2,500 per experience, they are probably aiming to clean out some banks with this stuff. And our concerns are far ranging: where are they manufacturing, who and how are they distributing, and all the way up to what can we do if this hits the streets in a much grander scale. Are they using the Safe Zone as the experiment market?”

From there, Cesar sets the remote control to the projector down and slides over a couple folders to the gathered. “Inside’s what we’ve found out so far about the parties involved.” Hands planted on the table, he waits for the others to peruse and comment as they will.

Slouched into her seat at the glass-topped conference table, Detective Demsky crosses one leg over the other and drums her fingers on the arm of her chair. There’s been more than a few looks fired across the table to Kaylee, worried ones, given the topic of Refrain. “I’m pretty familiar with Staten Island,” she chimes in. “Back when I was with Wolfhound I made a few contacts out there, people from the war, you know…” She waves a hand vaguely at the legality of it all. “Ghost Shadows’re tight out there, they basically run the island.”

Uncrossing her legs and sitting forward, Colette folds her hands on the tabletop. “I’ve got an informant out there,” she looks over at Elisabeth, “trustworthy, Expressive. He could do some information-gathering for us, but I’d probably need to fill out the proper CI paperwork for him. We haven’t had contact since I joined the force.”

Elisabeth is carefully keeping her fingers covering her lips while they watch Cesar Diaz gyrate on the screen. Her demeanor is serious enough despite the need to maybe grin at the poor man. When the drug fog comes up, though, all amusement flees.

"You can pay him a visit before you think about the paperwork on that… he may not want to be identified in paperwork," Elisabeth points out mildly. Not all sources are CIs. "If he does agree to work long-term on info gathering, then fill out the forms."

Tilting her head, she studies what happens in that room and says slowly, "My initial thought had been to ask Detective Sumter to hit the streets and see if she gets approached. She's a known face associated with Raytech — wealthy and in their demographics. But I'm not sure that's a good plan at all. Refrain was highly addictive and we have no idea what properties Zeitgeist may share with it." She glances at Kaylee to get her thoughts.

Kaylee finds the video… interesting. There might be a few unspoken comments1 between her and Liz, which might account for the older woman’s mouth being covered. Sorry guys… this is between sisters.

In fact, during the course of all this, Kaylee sends a side glances Cesar’s way, a brow tipping up slightly if he looked her way and a bit of an amused smirk. A comment about the dancing without saying it outright. To speak it… well, that would be totally totally unprofessional. She was not her brother in that case.

Whatever amusement Kaylee might be feeling is doused at the mention of Refrain. The word is like a bucket of ice water over the telepath. Her history with the drug a bit more involved than anyone other than a few people here knew.

“Your right, it’s addictive enough that one dose and I’m hooked.” Drawing the file for ‘Amelie’ closer, Kaylee expression turns a bit more neutral. “I’ve spent my share of time caring for Refrain victims when I was with the Ferry. It’s horrible to recover from, as soon as the memory trip ends you are begging for more. However, more than that we need to worry about how it might react with my ability.” She knows what it potential did to Odessa and Eve, but she didn’t feel comfortable bringing up two rather infamous names.

Turning to Cesar, Kaylee holds up the file she was flipping through, “Have you, or anyone else, been able to talk to her since? See how she’s doing or what she might be experiencing or has experienced since? Any of them really,” she adds motioning to the other folders. That answer could tell them if she can do this safely. There is no question of if she would, it was if she could.

"I'm wary of jumping in to a CI relationship when we're spread out enough as is. What's his name? How fast can we vet him?" Cesar's tone sounds skeptical of the contact, but not heavily so.

Turning to Elisabeth, the SESA agent skims a bit off the top of that skeptical look to aim upon her. Cesar glances over to Kaylee for the explanation of Refrain's effects, and the power of it makes him squint at the SCOUT lieutenant. "No, we're not throwing Rookie out there for the sharks," concludes Cesar with a shake of his head. "Any of 'em worth their salt who knows of her or recognizes her will know she's one of us now."

Kaylee's added query about investigating 'Amelie' turns him back to the folders. "We've only just begun with these three, but I'm willing to guess there have already been others who have taken Zeitgeist. What I'd like to know is if the Ghost Shadows are definitely looking to establish repeat customers, how hard they're selling and who're their distribution ties." He pauses a beat. "And how much of their claims about the effects of Zeitgeist are actually valid."

According to Cesar, that means investigating those who have taken the drug. "Maybe that's where SCOUT's going to be best," he notes with a scan of the trio. "But I think finding and questioning these three women first will be a start. Figuring out where they heard about the drug. Why them, why were they asked?" He settles down into a chair, then looking to the screen of the paused video. And reaches over to tap the recording off, thus cutting off the view.

Colette bobs her head in a steady series of small nods as she listens to Cesar. “My contact’s name is Erling Olson. He's an informant from my days with the Ferrymen,” is a half-truth but truth enough. “He's an avian telepath, but he doesn't broadcast that wide. As far as information brokering goes, he's literally got little birds everywhere. Operates out of the Rookery, primarily.”

Taking in a deep breath, Colette pushes back and slouches against her seat, fingertips still clinging to the edge of the table. “I trust him with my life, and he owes me a favor. He's good about that. Discretion too.” It's clear from her posture that Colette is anxious about naming Erling, but what's more surprising is that neither Kaylee nor Elisabeth have ever heard of a Ferrymen informant by that name, and they've met quite a lot of the network that operated out of New York back in the day.

“As for these,” Colette says with a motion to the darkened screens, “the clients. I mean, the cost here is what like ten times Refrain’s street value? It's absurd. If they wanted to make cash they could just by pushing opioids and Refrain. There's a larger market…” Something about this doesn't set right with Colette, and the way her brows knit together indicates she hasn't quite puzzled out exactly why.

A glance of amusement is what Cesar gets from Elisabeth at the not sending the Rookie. He apparently has no idea of Kaylee's history or her capabilities, but that's okay. She wasn't entirely thrilled with her own idea anyway — Refrain and Refrain derivatives are not really something she wants the telepath exposed to if they can go another route. "It's your investigation, Agent Diaz," she replies mildly.

Blue eyes flicker to Colette, a very subtle furrow pulling her brows together. The Ferry, she's sure, picked up a number of people over the years with whom Elisabeth wouldn't be familiar… but an avian telepath? She has a somewhat visceral reaction in her stomach to that … for reasons. "Touch base and see if he's willing to talk to you — don't call in favors just yet." Liz considers. "There's no real need to be as formal as listing him as a CI. A good cop always has a network of people, Demsky. CI status is more for someone you're deliberately putting undercover or to protect and/or pay someone you're using long-term in a case due to their placement in a group."

Blowing out a slow breath, Elisabeth considers the queries from both Cesar and Colette, though. "There are a couple of possibilities that spring to mind right now," she admits. "Neither resonates strongly for me as yet. But we're really just getting started in the investigation. I know where to find Amelie Laurent…" And Rue Lancaster shouldn't be hard to locate either. The last name she's not familiar with and it will take a little searching. "We can pay them all visits to have conversations." She's not intending, at this moment, to just up and arrest them, but there's a significant amount of pressure available to be brought to bear on 'Amelie.'

Whatever thoughts the video might have invokes are knocked askew when he calls her Rookie in front of everyone. Kaylee wonders if she could slip under the table unnoticed the rest. Gawd! It was embarrassing, even if she was one.

The only thing that escapes Kaylee is a long sigh, because she knows she is a rookie. Her life in the Ferrymen or with Adam has no bearing on her LEO career.

Speaking of the Ferry though, Colette will find Kaylee staring at her in confusion. The telepath knew a lot of the Ferry, spent time in the minds of many, but this name was unfamiliar to her.

Kaylee knows right away that she couldn’t really handle being around Amelia, but Rue… “Rue might be a good one for Colette to interview,” Kaylee comments shifting her thoughts from what she doesn’t know, to what she does. Her focus moves to the SESA agent; “She might be more comfortable talking to a former teammate. Since Colette is ex-Wolfhound” Tibby was their hardest catch. The telepath picks of the picture of the woman and studies it.

Cesar, no doubt like several officers of local law enforcement, makes a face at the mention of the Rookery. There's other thoughts that cross the agent's mind when it comes to that wretched hive of scum and villainy, but he mostly keeps it off his face. "Favors that don't eventually turn into evidence won't get us very far. But, if you trust him…" He seems to accept that explanation of the man well enough, and that he's willing to trust Colette to handle it.

At Elisabeth, he shakes his head with a verbal wagging. "Don't do that. It's our investigation," Cesar insists to the SCOUT lieutenant. "More importantly, it's going to be your people being more boots on the ground. Coordination between us will be key in keeping this investigation tight and moving."

Which leads him to looking back to the telepath he'd called a rookie, but here Cesar flashes a crooked smile. "Guess that leaves the last one. She was pretty cagey, that I remember. Might be tough drawing that one out."

"So we good? We got the CI, the club, and these three to start. Asking them what they got approached with is going to be the start in figuring out what's the deeper reason for putting this shit out there. And soon as we got something viable, we'll coordinate, see what gets shaken out." He sweeps his gaze over the trio, not settling on any one face for long.

Elisabeth acknowledges his admonition with a faint smile and a tip of her chin. Their investigation, then. "Sounds like a plan. Seems like a free pass on drug charges would be good incentive to share information, buuuut… you never know." She pauses and grimaces, but she doesn't say aloud what causes it. "At least a couple of them will be easy." Look at the bright side, right?

That crooked grin turned her way, gets one in return; an arched brow added. “I’m not worried about cagey or hard to find. Just need an interagency APB. Locate and report.” Kaylee glances at the others in the room. “Send out her picture to NYPD, SESA, and the MPs out on Staten. Whoever we need too.” Her shoulders slowly shrug. “Someone is gonna see her, she can’t hide forever. Then we can chat with her.”

There was a touch of giddy excitement in her expression when she looks back to Cesar. “Your lead on this, so it’s your call, of course.”

Colette is back-straight and attentive as she listens to Elisabeth. It seemed like she wasn’t even listening for a second as she keyed something into a phone, but after she sets it down it’s clear she was adding notes about what Elisabeth said to a notepad app. “Okay I’ll— talk to Erling. After I get with Rue, because you’re right she— she’d probably listen to be first more’n anyone else.”

Looking over to Kaylee, Colette nods and then turns her attention back to Cesar. Judging from her posture she’s about ready to bolt straight out of her chair to get on this. Her eagerness for a real, substantial, case is both an opportunity to do something meaningful but moreover prove to herself that she really can do the work.

“When do we start?” Colette asks, brows raised.

Cesar rubs a knuckle against his chin in thought as he looks over the trio of SCOUTs, gaze moving down to the distributed dossiers. "We want to keep it as local as we can, so keep a lid on what we've got thus far." He arches a brow at Kaylee's use of the lingo, a humored smile widening. That expression shifts to Elisabeth, nodding on the bright side remark and traces the optimism along to Colette's enthusiasm. Her question gets a low chuckle from the SESA agent.

"Right now. But first," he swirls a finger in an inclusive gesture to the three women, "you're all going to join me for a little café cubano. To seal our partnership."


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