Participants:
| Scene Title | It's Not Dinner and Candlelight |
|---|---|
| Synopsis | Cardinal's newest recruits…. or something. At the very least, they're new links in the chain. |
| Date | Aug 11, 2009 |
Elisabeth's Apartment, Dorchester Towers
Well, she did offer to cook dinner… for Cassidy and Coren as a thank you and for Cardinal at one point too. So for this, Elisabeth gets Baxter to cover for her and gets out a little early to actually cook. She's working in the kitchen on the last touches, potato gnocchi ready to go, table set, salads chilling in the fridge, wine breathing on the counter, and the sauce for the veal marsala reducing for its last few minutes. It doesn't actually take all that long to make, but hey….. when you're saying thank you and/or … well, whatever it is she's doing in the case of Cardinal… you go all out, her grandmother always said. It doesn't look romantic, it's just … homey. Maybe moreso than some of them might expect of her. As the bell rings and she heads for the door, she's pulling her hair up into an alligator clip to keep it off her neck.
Standing at the door, Cassidy waits feeling a touch nervous. Mostly because of the man standing next to her. It's always been her and Liz.. and a lot of things were discussed. So having Coren and Elisabeth in the same area for an extended amount of time make Cassidy very nervous. Part of that being, trying not to think about what was discussed especially when both women were completely drunk off their asses.
Hand brush at the white silk buttoned shirt she is wearing, she was never a huge fan of silk shirts, but she wanted to dress semi-nice. Blue jeans and white Keds keep her from being too formal. "Don't embarrass me Coren." She murmurs softly, moving to tuck red locks behind her ear, sounding much like a wife nagging her husband. "Seriously, I will have to hurt you.. and I'm rather fond of you."
Of course, even if it weren't for the fact that he arrived home late — very late — in the day to find Cassidy very hung over at his apartment, he would have known that both women got completely drunk off their asses. Coren has already determined that from the many attempts by Cassidy to hide what they did, and he has intentional not pressed the matter. If he did, he knew she'd fold, and she knows that he knows that she'd fold like a house of cards if he so much as made one thought to question what they did.
As Coren almost always dresses formally, there is little different in his attire: an embroidered white button-up and suit jacket with black slacks. His shoes are boots, as always, because you can't pursue someone in dress shoes. There are a few choice phrases that go through Coren's mind, all of which Cassidy hears: Don't give me a reason to embarass you, you're more likely to embarass yourself… Of course, she knows he's only teasing, and he can only give her a slightly crooked grin and a wink as he waits to be let into Elisabeth's apartment.
When she opens the door, Elisabeth is definitely in casual mode — denim capris, a sleeveless black blouse, bare feet. She invites them in with a quick grin at Cassidy that says she's remembering the last time they hung out. But her emotions are a bit of a roil of nerves over the conversation that's upcoming — it certainly can't be over dinner, because that, ladies and gentlemen, is pure Italian grandmama at work. It smells divine. "Hey, guys, c'mon in," she says as she steps back. "Make yourselves comfortable. Dinner's about four minutes from ready. Wine? Fizzy water? I think I even have some Scotch, Coren, if you'd like," she offers with an easy grin. She closes the door behind them and heads toward the kitchen to give her sauce a quick stir and check the veal cutlets staying warm in the oven, grabbing olive oil and a balsamic vinaigrette to toss into the salads now that most of them are here. "Coren, if you wouldn't mind pouring?"
Cassidy turns a mild glare to her partner at his thought, but she doesn't get to retort as she feels Liz's emotions just before the door opens. When the door opens the redheaded detective has a bright smile on her lips. Though with Liz being nervous as well, the blond wouldn't probably know she might be feeling Cassidy's nerves as well. Her greeting is cheerful enough though, "Liz, hey girl. Thanks for having us over." She steps into the apartment, of course, as soon as she's inside… Coren gets a flash of the tow women giggling over something, margaritas in hand. Although, there is a sense that it was about him. She follows Liz into the kitchen, "Anything you need help with?"
So that was their poison. Margaritas. He'd point out that it's rude to laugh about a person while they're at a funeral but, well, he doesn't have to point it out verbally now does it. "Wine is fine, thank you, Harrison. It's nice to not have to cook for once, or eat take out." He can only offer a curt nod as he takes the bottle of wine. "A fine, home-cooked meal is always preferred." He pours an equal volume into each of the four glasses. "We appear to be one head short."
The bedroom's door swings open unexpectedly, then — at least to two of the three officers in residence — and out steps Richard Cardinal, dressed if not to the nines then at least a bit nicer than he usually does. A faux-shirt collared shirt in black, one button undone at the neck in a casual fashion, some pleated pants also in black worn with a leather belt cinched tight about the waist. That would be the fourth head, it seems.
"Hope I'm not late," he observes with a cheerful grin as he saunters casually towards the table, "Had a little matter to deal with downtown…"
How did she know he was going to make an entrance? Elisabeth barely has time to glance up when the bedroom door swings open, and she merely shakes her head at Cardinal with an affectionate grin. And then her eyes slip to the other two cops and she shares a look with Cassidy that sends her into a brief, stifled paroxysm of giggles while she tops the salads with the oil and vinegar. Leaving the bottles on the counter, she instructs mildly, "Not at all. Put those on the table, please, Richard." Because if he's having dinner with them, a real name would be preferable. Meanwhile, her own hands are pulling the veal out of the oven to pour marsala over top of them. "Cass, if you'll grab the gnocchi, we're ready to go."
His thoughts are ignored as Cassidy moves along side Liz. "It told you I would give you food poisoning if I cooked, Coren. It's not in my genetic make up. I burned water once." He look shifts over to the bathroom as the Library Cutie steps out of the bathroom. Yes, she even thinks the name. The red head glances over to lock eyes with the blond in a brief moment of female telepathy as they both seem to think the same thing and both go into giggles, Cassidy tries to hard to stifle hers as she bites her lower lip.
She quickly does as her friend bids and takes the dish with her to the table. "Ahhh… so Mr. Cutie.. You have a name." Cassidy teases with a big grin, offering her hand to him after she sets the gnocchi on the table. "Thank you, for the call." She says in a softer tone.
The 'library cutie', I'm guessing? Coren thinks simultaneously, catching the name before it's been fully thought by his partner. Frankly, it's not hard to put two and two together. And he cannot help but wonder if 'downtown' is somehow code for something, given where the man arrived from. At least, he's almost certain there's only one entrance, beyond the fire escape anyway, and who would take that? He finishes filling the fourth glass. "It smells absolutely delightful, Elisabeth," he says, finally picking up on the fact that she's using first names and dispensing with his own customary formalities. Why stick out like a sore thumb?
"I should hope so, otherwise nobody could call out my name in bed," Cardinal replies without missing a beat, a cocky smile curving to his lips even as he reaches out to lift the salads from the countertop and meanders over towards the table, "Of course, I don't believe I've had formal introductions, not that I don't know who you are…"
The plates are set down, and he reaches out to clasp the offered hand, his smile touching a bit more with rue as he answers Cassidy, "No problem. S'what I do."
As the last things hit the table, Elisabeth offers introductions even as she gestures for everyone to take a seat. "For the formalities…. Richard Cardinal, meet Cassidy O'Shea and Coren Shelby - NYPD. Cassidy, Coren, this is Richard - my friend and my confidential informant on the Evo underground." May as well establish the best — maybe the only — cover that can be offered to Richard in light of what they're planning to talk to Coren and Cass about tonight. "Please, by all means, take a seat. The timing worked out perfectly," she says with a grin.
Yeah, that's him.. Be nice. He's not half bad really. Cassidy glances at her partner, as she thinks that giving him a warning look. Cardinal's comment gets a laugh, "What.. no shouts of Library Cutie?" she tsks softly as she releases his hand. She leaves the introductions to Liz, giving Richard a smile and a nod, "Nice to be formally introduced, finally." Another amused glance goes to Liz, before she finally moves to take a seat. "Does smell great Liz. Best I know know to do is dial a phone number and order in."
"Mister Cardinal," Coren says, offering his hand. It's only best to be polite, after all, even if he's slightly cautious of the man given his partner's apparent infatuation. He takes a seat only after he holds out Cassidy's chair for her and then tucked it in. Now that he's seated, he can't help but wonder what Liz has been planning, but he does remark to Cassidy, with a gentle hand on her shoulder, "But you do it so well."
"I'm a 'confidential informant' now, am I?" An amused look's slanted over to Liz, before Cardinal reaches out to clasp the other man's hand as it's offered, a wry smile tugging up at the corner of his lips, "I'm a man of many titles, it appears. Good to meet you, Coren, although I suppose in a roundabout way…" He slants a look to Cassidy, then back before settling down in a chair, "…I already have. Or vice versa, at least."
"Mmmmm …. my grandmama came from Italy as a kid would have had a heart attack if I didn't know how to feed people properly," Liz comments with a grin. "I'm not a chef or anything, but…. I'm pretty good at certain things." Cooking's only one of her talents, a comment Elisabeth keeps firmly behind her teeth lest the talk turn all kinds of places she does not want to go in polite company. She wouldn't put a bawdy rejoinder past Richard one single little bit. She does wrinkle her nose at him, though. "I said friend first." She looks at the two cops and comments quietly, "Please… fill your plates. Enjoy it. I owe you both a huge thank you… Cassidy for covering my ass physically, and Coren for covering it via paperwork. This is my way of saying that. But I owe you more than that…. and Richard and I agreed that it was time to fill you in on some things, considering all that's already happened. I figured there wasn't a better time than over a good meal."
The look Cassidy gives Coren would be deadly for just about anyone else, but there is a touch of affection there. "I notice you're not complaining." A glance to Cardinal and she smiles a bit at his comment, even though she's thinking for her partner. And I am not the one infatuated.. her blue eyes move to Liz, as she reaches to take the salad. As she fills her plate she listens. "Yeah well, Liz. I have just as much to be thankful you for as well." Like keeping her distracted while her partner was away. She glance at Coren, and offers to put salad on his plate as well. "And I admit. I'm really curious about things. I mean, Liz has told me… er… us a few vague things."
Italians have a tendency to eat the salad last, and from a few of his relatives, it's a habit Coren has picked up, himself. But to not appear unusual — if he hasn't already — he allows his partner to fill his plate as he adds some gnocchi at the side of hers. May as well round out the meal, at least. "My childhood friend's Nonna, God rest her soul, made this absolutely amazing Caesar salad. I was delighted to get the recipe for it, because I frankly have not found any restaurant, beyond a few Italian ones, that even come close to comparing." He doesn't comment on the few vague murmers they've heard. His partner's already done that. For now, it's smalltalk, until the more import things are brought up. He does, however, remark as to his covering Elisabeth's ass, "I couldn't very well let either of you take the heat for it, now could I?"
Hey, if people are eating salad first, then Cardinal'll start with the salad; far be it for him to stand out any further, given that he's the only wanted felon in a room of police officers. If he weren't so confident of them not attempting to arrest him, it might make a man nervous! As he spoons the leaves and other garnishes upon his plate, he admits in slightly wry tones, "I suppose it's unnecessary to mention that anything I say doesn't go out of this room, for the most part…" A glance up and over the edge of the shades he's still wearing, "…and I really hope you've got an open mind, because some of it's pretty fuckin' out there."
Elisabeth gives Coren a smile. "Well, I doubt I can stand up to that level of accolade, but I think it's probably edible." Though she fills her plate and her salad bowl, passing the dishes around, Elisabeth's attention is more centered on the people at the table. Much as it might look like a dinner party, the truth is that it's more than that. And she knows it. Depending on how Cardinal presents what they've decided to talk about, tonight's conversation could go very far south indeed. Oh, it's not the end of the world — she covers a small smile as she realizes that she's nervous enough about all this that she's mentally doom-and-glooming it again. Gawd…. she does hope that at least for the moment, neither of the others recognizes Cardinal's name as 'wanted for escaping police custody.' And she's forced to laugh slightly at the tail end of that spiel, cuz…. "Like time-traveling telepaths killing people who haven't actually committed a crime against them as vengeance isn't out there enough?" There's some minor amount of incredulity that Elisabeth gives the sunglass-clad criminal-turned-vigilante.
She must be a little different then the rest, cause Cassidy was raised on the mentality of eat your greens first. So eating her salad first is more of habit then anything. Thanks is sent Corens way as he adds food to her plate, but out loud she says to Cardinal giving him a smirk. "Somehow… I think I can safely say, there is no worried there," she glances at her partner, before giving her attention back to Richard. "It's been an odd couple of months to say the least." Motioning between her and Coren, she adds. "Let's not forget about this thing. So I'm at least pretty open minded."
There's only a hearty chuckle from Coren. The man doesn't actually laugh — he's British. "Especially to each other," he says with a crooked grin as he finishes dishing out food and actually goes to take a bite. He can get extra-long without eating, but frankly, he likes his food. "At this point, I can't say much would shock me." At least, it is his assumption that not much would shock him.
"You'd be surprised," Cardinal murmurs around a mouthful of salad; finishing off the bite, he swallows, leaning back a bit and reaching over for his drink. The glass is waggled lightly towards the pair, asking, "So… why don't you tell me what you've both surmised so far, so I'm not just re-treading obvious ground."
She's not stepping into that — Elisabeth shares a glance with Cassidy, because that's the person she's told the most to. And even that wasn't much. And she slowly takes a bite of her veal to chew while she listens.
Stabbing at a few leafs of salad as she thinks, Cassidy turns a bit more serious. "Not a whole hell of a lot. Most of it started with when Mortimer gave me those files. Told me he had to do it, told me to look at the files." a small smile tugs at her lips, probably much to Coren's dislike. "Anyhow, he mentioned that the Paper company had been a holding place for Evolved." she nods at Liz. "I gave her the files, cause after everything she's mentioned and all.. Better then me having them." Glancing at Coren, she takes a moment to take a few bites. "Course Liz explained it was a group called The Company. But I really didn't know what to do with those files. I couldn't give them over. How would I explain I got them." She says that rather blandly.
"Going from there.. I realized Liz was in on that thing a little while ago. I know something is going on below the surface of this city. Something a lot of us seem to not know about." Leaning back in her chair she shrugs. "Beyond that I'm pretty clueless."
Coren has to rub his eyes at the mere thought of Mortimer. "There seems to be a lot of that going around," he says, "Things going on behind the scenes that most people aren't aware of. Hell, it's a bloody miracle we've kept this serial killer business out of the press. Of course, that's probably only because there's another one…." He takes another few bites and looks about the table, "You know what we're missing, Elisabeth? Rolls. Fresh rolls would be a complement to this feast."
"Somebody put Mortimer up to that, I'm not sure who…" Cardinal spears an olive with the tines of his fork, lifting it up from his salad and gesturing with it lightly, "…he was right, though. The Company is a— decades old conspiracy, really, started up by Evolved long before just about anyone figured out what was really going on. Originally they were supposed to be to protect each other, to keep the secret, but…" He shrugs one shoulder, "Power corrupts. They've produced viruses that could potentially've killed everyone in the world, assassinated people, they have their own secret fucking prisons - one of them was under the Primatech building, that Mortimer cracked."
Elisabeth ohs! and jumps up. "Actually, I have some," she says. They were in a basket on the counter and she forgot them. She comes back to the table with the rolls and a small tub of margarine. Setting them at Coren's elbow, Elisabeth resumes her seat and says quietly, "There are a lot of things going on that …. frankly, you're going to be better off not knowing. But I can't in good conscience keep some of what I know away from you in light of the cases we've managed to catch so far."
Her chewing slows at the mention of the serial killer, but Cassidy doesn't say anything. But when Cardinal starts talking, she glances at him. Conspiracies… oh great. as he continues, he looks over at Coren. Secret evolved prisons? Viruses? She gives a little shake of her head then adds, Hand me a roll?
Cassidy looks at the other woman and smiles a bit, "There have been some really weird cases.. such at those three boys and the technopath." she smiles a bit. "And I guess that's probably going to start being the norm." And I left New Orleans only to fall deep into some really weird stuff.
"Hard to smell over the other good food," Coren says as he helps himself to a roll, tearing it in two. He manages to find the butter admist the somewhat crowded table and slathers it down, before setting it on Cassidy's plate and then grabbing one for himself, "So wonderful to know that our jobs are being made so easy by people. Buggering sods." He looks at Cassidy, "Let's not forget the evolved who's been tormenting us. Bastard's been around at least ten years doing what he does. God knows what he's up to this very moment, but it's probably not good one way or the other." Not that he really wants to know.
"Charitable of them, isn't it…?" A wry note to Cardinal's tone, even as he leans over to claim a roll as well, waiting patiently for Coren to finish up with his and Cassidy's rolls before taking the butter to spread upon his own. He gives his head a slight shake, admitting, "The technopath— that was a pretty fuckin' weird situation. A number of people came back in time from ten years in the future, he was one of them. They brought a lot of information back with them, too, hoping to change the future."
A hint of amusement to his voice as he notes, "Sounds like a fuckin' sci-fi novel, doesn't it?"
Elisabeth rubs her forehead and comments around a bite of gnocci, "I still say a little bit of future knowledge is a bad thing." She swallows the bite and murmurs, "I always thought that's why the temporal manipulator stayed back. How many times has he tried to change something only to make it worse? We'll never know." Her blue eyes rest on the thief for a moment, but she's going to let him tell it.
"I try not to think of the serial killer when I'm eating.. not since that dorm room." Cassidy says blandly, though her appetite seems fine at least. You can be a cop for so long and not learn to continue eating. "Anyhow, yeah.. that case.. there was no way to stop it." She sighs softly."Yeah. It does sound like a Sci-Fi novel. Or it would if there wasn't always so much impossible stuff in the world. Like us." the evolved. "So.. there was future knowledge that came back to our time?" she glances at them both, her head turning just slightly as she asks. "Did it work? I mean, what could be so bad?"
"Not particularly appetizing, no," Coren says before he takes a bite of his roll, and then has a few more leaves of lettuce. Well, a fair few. Fine, more than a few. The man almost never stops eating, really. "Always remember that good science fiction is based in fact. It makes the impossible plausible." No, that doesn't really help things. "Knowing the future changes everything, even knowing a few things," he says. Of course, he has a PhD, so he has a lot of University courses under his belt. Hello Science Fiction course. "I can only imagine how wrong science fiction in general has time travel, of course, without knowing this … temporal manipulator, who knows how it really all works."
Fortunately, Cardinal hadn't actually seen any of those crime scenes, so he can continue eating; crunching through the crisp outside of the roll and chewing on the softer insides and the butter spread within, gesturing vaguely with the one in his hand. "A fascist dictatorship. The world looked bright on the surface, but scratch it… and you found Pinehearst. You might remember them from the news," he notes in wry tones, "They were in control. Their… CEO was in control, of everything. FRONTLINE belonged to him— the government belonged to him. You stepped out of line, and you got killed, or thrown in the secret prison. Moab Federal Penitentiary."
The wine glass is lifted again, gaze dropping to its surface as he slowly stirs the dark liquid about the inside of the glass, voice dropping a little, "Obviously… that won't happen now. Pinehearst fell. He's dead. Moab was cracked open like an eggshell. But that doesn't mean the new future we made'll be a bright one, not without work. Ar— Pinehearst managed to prevent a shitload of threats to the country, to the world. Threats that don't have a counter now." He glances up to Liz, stating a bit defensively, "Foreknowledge is never a bad thing. If we didn't know what was coming, Liz, we wouldn't have a future."
Ugh. Elisabeth makes a face at Cassidy because they're STILL commenting on the serial killer, and that scene brings to mind the other scene related to it. The boyfriend. Which absolutely makes her stomach clench. She sets her fork down with a moue of distaste until she can shove THAT memory back into its box. She nods her agreement with Cardinal and says quietly, "On the other hand, we didn't have enough knowledge to stop some 400 Tier 3 Evo criminals getting out onto the streets, did we?" She grimaces and glances at the other two cops. "Hence why a little can be a bad thing. That's all." And Cardinal has stated himself that if he'd had a full picture, some things might have just played out differently. "And so in taking down Pinehearst… we've left the playing field still open for the Company — Primatech Paper's people, who are already the ones in power." She grimaces.
Her brows lift at the mention of Pinehearst and it's involvement in things. "Really?" Cassidy murmurs thoughtfully. "And it was blown in a terrorist attack." Amazing what you learn when you look below the surface of what you hear. Her attention goes to the blond detective and she frowns a bit in confusion, "400 Tier 3?"
"Tier three?" Coren echoes. "If they're anything as bad as the tier twos. Bugger me. Talk about some short-sightedness." He rubs a hand through his hair and tentatively resumes his meal, picking apart pieces of his roll and eating more salad and gnocchi. "How on earth have they managed to keep all of this stuff under wraps all these years? They must have fingers in everything."
"Hey, I offered to do reconnaisance," Cardinal replies with a sidelong glance to Elisabeth, frowning a bit over the edge of his glass, "It's not my fault the firebirds like to blow up shit first, ask questions later… someone needs to teach them the meaning of 'surgical extraction'." A sip of wine's taken, and he sets it aside with a sigh of breath, "They aren't all tier three, either, honestly, from the looks of the manifest. Some of them, they just felt they needed to lock away, or had information they wanted. Still, some— fuck, there's Evolved out there who scare the shit out've me with what they can do."
Elisabeth chuckles faintly. "Yes…. yes, someone does. I didn't say it was your fault, don't get so defensive." She nods slightly to that and takes over a little bit. "Basically, you guys… Tier 3, from what I can find out from various sources, are either criminally minded or sociopathic — in general — with powers they have no qualms about using against anyone in their way. *Or* they're also maybe people with really really destructive powers that aren't in control — like that BOLO on the chick from Mexico?" She's referring to Maya, since she's topping a couple of 'most wanted' lists.
"Wonderful," Coren says. "It's bad enough we have some loony going around, the mere idea of a fair few more isn't particularly a thought that leaves you all warm and fuzzy inside." He spears, quite literally, a piece of lettuce and eats it, nearing the end of the salad. "You've mentioned there's a lot we're better off not knowing. I'm starting to think you may be right, but at the same time, I can't help but wonder if it's best we know anyway."
Cassidy's stomach twists that the thought of anything worse, her forks set down on the edge of her plate. Resting her elbows on the table and laces her fingers. She presses them to her lips for a moment and then says, "I know I sure as hell didn't hear about them, which means we're being kept in the dark?" Her arms slide off the table. "Fucking, government. Of course, when these wack job starts showing on the streets then we'll know about it." She rolls her eyes and picks up her fork again. "And we'll be expected to deal with it, without any damn idea of what's going on." the irritation at the idea showing clearly on her face. Making a bit of a sweeping motion with her hand, "Walk right in without any fair warning." She glances around and adds "Canon fodder anyone?"
"That's why they're bringing in FRONTLINE…" Cardinal gestures vaguely with one hand, a frustrated motion, "…honestly, we can deal with this without the fascist brigade tromping down the door. You have no idea how much shit has been dealt with just in the past year. How many times…" He grimaces, cutting himself off; they're cops, they won't appreciate that particular point of view. "Anyway. More often'n not, you don't hear about it. People take care of it. People like me."
"Oh, the whack jobs are already out," Elisabeth comments. "We're seeing them every day." She sighs and plays with her fork once more. "Richard… brings information my way when it's things we can actually act on. And… in return, when there are things I need to know or things I can't act on that need someone to look into…" She leaves it there.
"The whole being in the dark, really bothers me." Cassidy says rather unhappily. "I mean really bothers me. Even FRONTLINE doesn't sit well with me, even if they are the legal way around these things." Tapping a finger on the table, Cassidy says, still sounding irritated. "FRONTLINE is out in the open, but it's inevitable that they will be just as corrupt as that Company… or those kind of groups." She turns to look at Coren briefly. "Only a matter of time before they are dragging in innocent people. It's happened over history, it'll happen again." Shaking her head she glances at the two across from her. "I'm tired of being in the dark." She sighs softly and and glances down at her plate. "Sounds like you both have a good system going there, though. Things are getting done." she admits, giving Liz an understanding smile.
"That's how the gov'ment likes to operate," Coren says amidst chewing on his roll. He swallows. "Keep even its civil servants in the dark with all of its 'national security' horseshit under some delusion that it's better that way. Sure, mass panic could ensue if people knew what is dealt with behind closed doors, but at least they'd know. They could be a bit more cautious, and then maybe, just maybe, there wouldn't be as much concern. Unfortunately, people don't know. People aren't aware. Of course, it's too easy to have a problem one way or the other. Given even our situation, this recent case, that's not something people can easily avoid."
"You don't want to be in the know, Cassidy," Cardinal says quietly, his gaze down on his plate as he starts to eat, "You think it's stressful hunting a guy who'll kill one— or two— or a dozen fuckin' people?" A swallow of a bite, and he glances up, his light-strained eyes reddened at the edges, "The guy I'm after right now? Will kill or hurt eighty thousand if he isn't stopped. And past that, there's worse fuckers out there…"
He grimaces, head jerking to Liz a bit, "She knows a bit about the bridge incident. The firebirds stopped the release of a virus that could've killed everyone in the goddamn world if it went wild. You think people want to know that, Coren? You think they'd be better off if they knew there're Evolved who could rip apart a city if they were provoked?"
There's a sigh at that. Elisabeth says, "Thanks, Richard." She looks at her partners and says quietly, "The 'bridge incident', as he so eloquently put it, was…. ugly. The bridge was already wired to blow, first of all. And I convinced Commissioner Lau to let us take a teleporter in to teleport the bombs off the thing and disarm them somewhere OTHER than in situ. Unfortunately, we missed at least one — there were…. more than a dozen out there. And if you remember, we didn't actually close the bridge down for very long — that's how we kept it out of the news that it was wired." And that, friends, is what Liz has been sitting on. And, if you believe what she said, what William Harvard and Karen Lau probably had at least an inkling of — that 'unorthodox' methods were used. "Meanwhile… we knew that a truck full of human vectors of the virus was inbound the following week. The virus itself was …. projected to kill 90 percent of the world's population, basically. Phoenix people — the 'terrorist' organization that people keep talking about?" the air quotes came out, you can hear them in her voice, "put their lives on the line with a few of us in various branches of law enforcement to stop it from happening. And God help us, we succeeded."
"Maybe not Cardinal, but when as life ever been fair.. or just or any of that. How are we to protect these people if we don't know of things like the Tier 3's or this virus?" Cassidy's words a calm even though her mind is a whirl with thoughts. "I am a big girl, Richard, " she gives him a small smile, then shakes her head. "Either way, I'm not pushing anything. I'm here when you need me… well, except for the trip home I'm taking. I'll be gone a week or two. Mom is insistent." She doesn't sound all that thrilled about going.
If not for the fact that he only just recently swallowed his food, Coren would choke at that comment. "There are a really evolved that powerful? Well, fuck." He licks his lips, "No, I suppose most people shouldn't know that. There are some things the populace are better off not knowing, but as far as I am concerned right now, who else is there?" It's almost resignation in his tone, after he nods to Cassidy, "I'm not about to let my partner go off getting herself killed, so we're in this together."
Closing pose pending.