Participants:
| Scene Title | No Specific Date |
|---|---|
| Synopsis | While food is cooked and eaten on a roof, business is conducted. |
| Date | July 29, 2009 |
Village Renaissance Building Roof
This is a flat roof, the surface grey concrete, which covers a building with enough space for sixteen apartment units on each floor along with elevators, stairwells, and maintenance areas at the center. It can be reached by an elevator and/or staircase near the right edge, a large freight elevator just back of the center, and stairwells centered on front and back of the building. The back left corner holds the large machinery needed for climate control of the interior. Discreet cameras placed all around the edge monitor the roof.
Near the elevator and stairs from the penthouse below is a pair of picnic tables and a sophisticated grill for cooking outdoors and eating when the weather permits. It's covered by an open air tent of sorts for shelter when rain and snow come.
The right front corner, overlooking 4th Street, has a sturdy wooden structure ten feet back from the edge. Here there are outlets for plugging in amplifiers and other electrical devices should Cat choose to come up here and make music. It has a set of glass doors which can be folded aside to allow approaching the edge and closed to protect against weather.
The front left corner features four each of small apple and cherry trees with garden chairs here and there around them, a number of sunflowers, tomato plants, potatoes, carrots, onions, peas, and various other plants chosen for their appearance in pots or planters large enough to hold them. Someone with access to the roof likes to garden, and has been doing so at any chance.
They've spent some time recovering after the raid on Pinehearst, both to regroup and get people healed, not to mention the time it took Cat to get free of the fog Tyler Case put in her head. Today, they undertake to address a piece of business left hanging for some time now. An invitation has been extended for Minea Dahl to come to the building's roof, where Cat and perhaps Helena too will be waiting for her at the picnic tables.
It's an hour most would call dinnertime, and Cat intends to eat well. She's grilling steaks, her own a ribeye to be eaten medium rare along with mushrooms, baked potato, and a wine to suit the meal.
The lovely thing about having Helena around is the fact that she makes the summer day perfect. It's warm enough for it to definitely be summer, but not so warm that it's a misery to be outside. The breeze keeps things refreshing. She'd taken a few trips these past few days: moved with assistance to see Mrs. Hadley, and then upon hearing that Peter was at the Garden, she'd gone there, as well. Having been back for a bit, Helena hasn't said word one about Peter, and currently lazes away on one of patio chairs, sunglasses on and head tilted back toward the sun.
Done meeting Maya and now with another set of ID on her plate to do, Minea moved from the fourth floor to the roof once she was told to do so. The former company agent has been hopping from place to place since Carrie had been hot on her heels somehow. "Knock knock," Minea calls out once she's made the transition from recycled air to the fresh, albeit smoggy, air of New York.
She looks over at the voice and its source as she flips meat over on the grill and nods once. "Excellent," Cat greets. "Thanks for coming up, Minea." Her head tilts again, toward a cooler on the surface near the closest picnic table. "I've got Pepsi, beer, and wine. I hope you like ribeye steak," she offers.
"How've you been?" she asks conversationally, not letting on at all she's occasionally taken interest in security footage featuring the former agent.
Helena straightens her head and lifts her shades. "Dahl." she greets easily. The air on the roof's a little cleaner than most. Again, courtesy of Helena's refreshing summer breeze.
"Whole, in one piece thanks to Darla. She helped get me out of an ambush in the ruins. Company agent took something far too personal and tried to kill me, and a ribeye is perfectly fine. They've been feeding me good in the other safehouses. Sorry about moving around but…" Well, wouldn't be fair to lead the Company right back to them via her stupidity. "Glad to see you made it back whole from whatever adventure you ran off on. How many'd you lose?"
"I see you've been paying attention to the news," Cat replies dryly. She eyes the meat before her a bit longer then takes a fork and knife to test the center of one, cutting a little into it and being satisfied with the pinkness. It's pulled off and placed on a plate, then moved to rest by her wine glass on the picnic table.
Her attention goes to the two others then, she checking the second to see if it's cooked to Helena's taste yet, then the third with a question directed to Minea. "Does medium rare work for you?"
Minea's inquiry is addressed last, her voice solemn in doing so. "Only one. Mason Chesterfield."
Helena likes her steak mooing, so likely it's time for Cat to grab it off the grill. She remains quiet as the pair talk, and though her head straightens and turns to them, the sunglasses are pushed back up her nose.
"Pink is fine. Mooing, not so fine." At the word of Mason Chesterfields death, though, it's a grave look across Minea's face. "I'm sorry, Ms. Chesterfield. It's a tragedy. He was… a good man, what little I knew of him and if it wasn't for him, and Agent Goodman…" Minea shakes her head. What else can you say at the death of a woman's father. "So Pinehearst is going down. You have the information to expose them further?"
Helena's is set on a plate and moved to the picnic table, it being right at that point, then the third is looked at and left on a bit longer as she speaks in a subdued voice. "It was a hard battle, and the end of it wasn't a situation where my memory was what I'd have liked it to be," Cat replies honestly. She chooses not to bristle at being called Miss rather than Doctor, though it does cross her mind to wonder why people fail to remember attorneys earn doctorates and this one claims what she worked to earn.
"He gave himself to save us. A man made of metal chose to try damaging the reactor in the basement, Father shut it down and didn't make it out," she informs. "At the end we witnessed someone's final move. As part of it, powers were suppressed for a time. That bid failed," Cat relays, "and we departed ahead of charges demolishing the building. Regrettably, there wasn't time to secure files and evidence. We have to hope enough has been made public in the aftermath to prevent a whitewash."
No files and evidence were secured. Here's an unreadable look on Minea's face. "None. You rigged the place to blow, regardless…" Minea's palm comes up to rub at her face then fun her fingers through her swept bangs. "You don't have any employees that you saved who are willing to come forward and testify, to blow them open? No Pinehearst equivalent of me?" SHe had told them that the building would need to be in one piece.
Maybe just on time, or maybe not, the door to the roof creaks open quite suddenly. Delilah is behind the door as it opens up, dressed in a black tank top, a skirt the colors of a sunset, and brown sandals. Dee, in black? Interesting. But not new, just different. "Oh, whoops. I didn't think anyone was up here right now…" The redhead seems tired and just a little bit puffy-eyed, lifting a palm to her face to rub wearily at the corners of her eyes. "I usually just take a chance. Figures that someone's up here this time…" She laughs once, and it brightens her presence considerably even though it is surprisingly forced- at least, for Delilah.
There is silence as Cat watches Helena sit at the table and commence to eat, while Cat continues to grill the slab of cow Minea will have until it's pink in the center, not yet replying to the former agent's questions. Delilah is sighted when she steps out and speaks. "You're good," she states. "Come eat. Ribeyes. How do you like yours?" She grabs another steak and puts it on the grill.
Then she gets to Minea's questions. "It was judged necessary," she replies with a neutral voice. "At the end, having failed to achieve the serum he needed to sell formula to General Autumn so he could pad the ranks of Frontline, Arthur opted to run fake demos. He injected people with a failed version which would give abilities, but soon after kill them, to buy time. That false serum was virus based." People are about to eat, and Helena is eating already, so Cat opts not to describe what biorejection means.
"Also, we had people who were critically injured and alarms had gone off regarding the reactor. Time was lacking for the gathering of evidence, sadly. But it seems investigators on scene are finding some. The news has mentioned the illegal reactor, and the possibility of experimentation."
"We did, however, get Mother out." Will she testify? Cat may find out in the near future. It seems entirely possible she'll be looked for in any case.
Alarms about a reactor were going off so they blew the building? Consolation prize in her mother. That still makes Minea's lips thin as her steak is done and she takes it over to the table, glancing to the fearless leader as Delilah enters. She'd seen Miss Pinup while she'd been here. "So then. I suppose that you've filled the first requirement. What now?"
Helena doesn't seem to have anything to say. She eats her steak, and keeps that as the sole occupation of her mouth, for now.
Not that she would have, but there's no real arguing someone that basically commands you to come eat with them. Delilah does it herself, sometimes. Mostly with the people that she knows never take time to sit down. "Uh. Hm. Well-done, I suppose." Dee wanders over closer to the table, tentatively opting to just have a seat at the end of the table's bench and wait. And listen. She came to get some air, and air is what she is getting, even though now she has company for it. Being outside already seems to be helping that slightly puffy, tired look go away.
Commencing to prepare meat for Delilah, Cat is delayed in getting to her own. It's not going anywhere, however. As the fresh meat rests on the grill, Cat reaches for her wine glass and sips from it slowly before resting eyes on Minea. She doesn't look to the leader for guidance. As the glass is replaced on the table, she makes a matter of fact voice-toned statement.
"You will, or won't, give us the rest of the information. It's regrettable we weren't able to deliver on all conditions. By the time of moving, and the reason for needing to move as we did, Arthur had become so strong as to take everything we could muster and then some. There must have been ten copies of him," she relates. Fortunately they had the Brians and Gillians to keep him busy, otherwise… "We managed to dispower him, and end his threat. But then we found ourselves facing the endgame of another party's agenda." That isn't elaborated on.
"We hope you'll give us the rest of the information. You will, or you won't. Either way, you stuck your neck out and will not be abandoned. So… do you need a job?"
If she had a hood on her shirt, Delilah would probably be pulling it over her head. The thing she came up for a break from thinking about is the same thing that they're still discussing, relatively speaking. "It seemed more like a hundred of him." Arthurs all over the place. Then again, the specifics are a blur now. Dee glances over at Minea for a moment, unsure of if she should even know many specifics- but, well, Cat seems to think she's fine to talk to. Meeting new faces all the time.
"I can arrange to bring them. I have them stowed away at various points to protect them from being found by the Company. Was easier to stow them away as I got them. As for a job," Minea shakes her head, "Helena here has promised me that I can be smuggled out of the country. I made provisions to set up in another country, I have ID's ready that the Company doesn't know about." And speaking of ID's… "There's a Maya downstairs. I'll make her a set of papers and ID's, Should be able to by the end of the weak if I put it in on the tail ends of the Ferryman requests."
"I didn't promise." Helena speaks up now from chewing on her beef. She's been attacking it vehemently, perhaps imagining it some other victim. "But I did say I would use whatever resources I could, and it's the Ferrymen I'd be going through."
"The Ferry are good at this," Cat replies. "I've no doubt they'll get you to safety abroad." Her voice has complete confidence as she speaks. "It's one of their primary purposes. Please do make arrangements for the information, and thank you."
Delilah's slab of cow is served up, set on a plate and placed on the table for her to eat while one hand dips into the cooler for a bottle of Pepsi.
"The Company has gone underground, dissolved Primatech and vanished. I've no illusion they just got souls and quit, they're out there somewhere waiting to make moves."
"Thanks also for making documents for Maya." Now Cat sits and tastes her wine again before beginning to consume her own beef.
"Thank you." Dee offers a grateful answer to Cat when she plays the part of Mom- only in handing over what will probably be her dinner, period. "Maya's sweet. I'm glad someone can help her with at least that." Little bites. As for the Company, well- she just thinks of Magnes then. "She was interested in getting some other help, too. Of a, um-" Dee pauses, searching for vague-enough words and peering over at Cat. "-a special nature. She has something that she doesn't want."
"That I was tracked and hunted," there's no small expression of dislike and distaste at that, "by them only prooves that the fall of Primatech has done shit to stop them." Minea purses her lips. "Ferrymen can get me out. That was the assumption when Helena had said they'd try. I've made more than a handful of ID's for them." She's tucking into the meal, cutting off steak, eating it, and a little of everything else. "Is there a specific date you want the files delivered?" And then Delilah's talking about… something of a special nature. Minea looks confused but concentrates on her meal instead.
"No specific date," Cat answers. "I trust you not to take up more time than you need in supplying them." Her knife and fork make genteel work on the meat before her, then she adds mushrooms and A1 sauce before deciding to sample baked potato. Butter and sour cream, Cat is very much a woman who eats.
Delilah's statement gets her a nod of acknowledgement, but no words. There is food to consume, and with business concluded, Cat intends to focus on that. To enjoy the company, the roof, and being alive with Helena not having died from rebar impalement and here to provide her breezes.