Participants:
| Scene Title | The Bosses Right To Change His Mind |
|---|---|
| Synopsis | You know when you make a decision, then something comes along and you have to go back on that decision for the betterment of the situation? Yeah. That happens here. |
| Date | June 9, 2009 |
Primatech: Kailin's Temporary Cell
There isn't much to a cell, but Kailin doesn't seem to mind. He spends most of his time working out, doing sit ups with his feet hooked under the bed, or push ups with his feet planted on top of it. Currently he is bare from the waist up, wearing his top as a belt, and he is doing push ups. The gray, bare walls around him match the floor and he gets a good look with each rep, his nose almost touching before he thrusts himself back up.
Len's boots are probably heard clopping down the hall as the soles hit step by step against the tile. He carries a bundle with him as he steps up to Kailin's cell with Agent Castillo in tow. He swipes his card and the red light turns green as he's let into the room. He normally wouldn't involve himself, or would have just come himself — but he needs to address the two agents together, and this is probably the best way.
He tosses the bundle of Kailin's clothing from last night onto his bed. "Alright — enough of the push ups. Let's get you out of here. Before I let you go, I want you both to know that overall, last night went as I would have expected it to occur. So, nicely done on both of your parts."
Looking less then thrilled, Carrie follows after Agent Denton, her own boots taking a bit faster of a rythmn to his. She doesn't fully come into the the cell, but leans against the door jam eyeing Kailin rather coldly. Yeah, she found out who he was as soon as she got there, but she had been beyond pissed. So he ended up there in typical detainee clothing. Len's comment just get's a snort, but she leaves her comment to herself.
Kailin steps down from his bed and brushes off his hands, first together, then on his pants. He gives Len a nod, then a nod to Carrie. "I apologize for the inconvenience of last night." He reaches down untying his top from around his waist. "I understand you didn't ask to be involved in anything like that, but circumstances took on a life of their own." He tosses the top on the bed and grabs his own shirt, peeling the lycra onto his body. "The incident was certainly… enlightening though."
Len waves the two of them off. "Both of you acted as I would have expected under the situation. Agent Knight was undercover — we do not need his cover blown. We were probably rather lucky you two hadn't met previously, but make no mistake — Agent Knight's cover is important to one of my ongoing operations. It is /not/ to be compromised."
"That being said, Agent Knight. You come across any further law enforcement situations, I expect that you'll stay out of sight from this point forward. I will be duly unhappy if you are made." He glances from one agent to the other. "Might be best for the two of you to stay clear of each other from this point forward. Am I clear?"
"Enlightening how? Like walking away when the nice agents give you an out and not fucking threatening one and insulting the other?" Carrie snaps out before she thinks about it. She gives a flick of her eyes towards Len, before glaring back at Kailin. As she speaks her words are edges in ice, said carfully and precisely. "That's fine with me, Agent Denton. I'll have no problem staying away from Agent Knight." She gives her boss a tight lipped smile. "In fact, I think it's a grand idea."
Kailin gives a nod to Len and says, "I hadn't expected to run into any law enforcement on Staten Island. As far as I was aware, they had abandoned the place. Dead bodies are dead bodies." He gives a shrug and says, "But I'll do as best as I can, given the cirucumstances. If this Dutch guy is Law Enforcement, hopefully he'll do as he said and spread my name around." He glances back towards Carrie with the raise of a brow, looking back towards Len. "Is she not familiar with nature of undercover work?" Looking back to Carrie he says, "I've already apologized. That was the cover. When you get pushed, you push back. There's no need to keep antagonizing. I'll be sure to inform Agent Denton of my observations."
Len doesn't have much more time to deal with this stuff as he has an appointment, so he starts to head out. He turns to the both of them. "I expect this all to be written up before you both leave here today. I need to send up the report to make sure we don't have any repercussions from the incident." With that, he turns and heads out of the cell, leaving the two agents alone.
"Who fucking pushed first? Mr. 'You can still get arrested for being black.'" Carrie is not happy at all. "or how about.. 'Golly gee are you guys doing something bad? You can tell me I won't tell.' " She crosses her fingers of one hand and holds it up like she's doing a pledge. "'Scouts honor.' Seriously, Knight… I ain't listening to any of this BS." She steps out of Agent Deton's way and with a final glare she turns to follow after Len. "Yes sir.."
Kailin lets Carrie go without a word, not bothering to try simple logic. He just continues to finish dressing, his resolve in keeping his cover more firmly resolute. Next time, dead law enforcement would be the outcome. Everyone knew what they signed up for and Kailin had given his freebie. He grabs his gloves from the bed and exits, heading to his office. It was becoming easier and easier to fit into his assumed role.
Some Chinese Restaurant
A phonecall was made. A meeting arranged. And now, in that same dinky old chinese resteraunt, Tracy can be found, slurping away at her soup. By slurping, of course, she's eating very daintily in her pretty creme suit and pearls. Her hair is pulled back in a power-ponytail, and it looks like she's just had her nails done. She's clearly here for business - when is she not? The rcecipient of the call was Len, and what she could want is anyone's guess.
The Chinese place is rather busy, but most people are here for pick-ups, and you'd be hard-pressed to find someone who speaks English. There's some arabic floating around, one or two spanish, and a couple arguing in what can only be some african native tongue. The shopkeepers? All asian, with thick, difficult-to-understand accents of their own.
The phone call was unexpected. Len figured that it might take weeks to get a response — if he was going to get one at all — from Tracy Strauss. When she asked for a meeting, he was happy enough to oblige and so off he went.
Chinese restaurants come in handy for things like this. Great for secret meetings, if you can keep your voice low enough, that is. Hard to tell at times if the folks in these types of places are bilingual or not. The looks he's received since coming to the city have begun to be the norm — a big black cowboy isn't something you see very often.
He immediately spots her and heads on over towards her table and slides in opposite her. "Evening, Ms. Strauss."
Tracy lifts her head with a polite nod, but no smile for The Company man. "Agent Denton." She answers in response, gesturing to the chair across from her. "This isn't about Magnes, if that's what you're hoping for. It's about something else. I have a gift for The Company." She takes another bite from her soup, watching him with her icy blue eyes, that political smile still clinging to her features. She loves her job, she really does.
A brow arches up over one of Len's eyes as he seems intrigued.
"A gift, you say? Always happy to receive gifts, Ms. Strauss — but I am afraid I didn't bring one for you."
"Yes you did," she says, without missing a beat. "You just aren't aware of it yet. Let's see how good your memory-recall is. I'm going to say a name, and I want you to tell me the first thing you think of." It isn't much like Tracy to be playing games, but the soup is good and she wants to make sure he's on board. So. Games it is. "Ready? Mortimer Jack."
Len tends to like to repeat questions that he is being asked, so the words 'Mortimer Jack' come from his lips as he leans back and glances up towards a spot above and beyond Tracy's head.
"'Fraid I haven't run into that name as of yet. Is he someone I should be looking into?" Len doesn't even try to hide the fact that he's a tad bit curious as to where the aid is going with this.
Tracy nods easily. "It is. He's an evolved - unregistered from what I could tell, says he has the ability to build things." She's not going too far into details with that, considering it was a Very Bad Experience(tm). "At any rate, he's going to be offering me a criminal, an evolved criminal, a real prick according to him." Her lips pucker around the 'p' in prick, a little awkwardly - it's not a word she usually says. "I figured that would be something right up your alley. These are Staten Island guys."
Fortunately, Len knows just the two perfect agents for such a task. The unfortunate part is that he just told them earlier they were to have nothing to do with each other. This /will/ be interesting.
"Can you tell me where to find him?"
Tracy shakes her head, tsking the man softly. "That's not my present, Agent. If I wanted you to just pick them up I'd have sent you a memo. What I do want is a very visable operation - I want your men working with Homeland Security, in the guise of it if you need. Parkman's informed me of the deal you two have going together. I want the world to know that these two dangerous crimminals were caught by the DHS. And in return? You'll get a call concerning where they are, when they are, in a few week's time." She pushes her soup away, smiling that political smile, that secret smile, as if she has something in her head no one else can see. "And look! It's my favorite color too." See what she did there?
"Can you hook me up with Parkman?" Len has not had the pleasure of meeting him just yet. And he certainly saw exactly what she did there. He thinks. Perhaps.
"If you give him my number, I'll send a couple of agents his way as long as we keep them out of the news. DHS can take all the credit. Will that work for you?" Len grins as he leans forward, his elbows on the table as he returns her stare with one of his own.
Tracy is unafraid of Len and his stare, and she proves it by meeting it with her icy own, amused though it may be. "That's perfect. I'll talk to Parkman and get things moving. But a lot has to happen before this works, and the information will come through me only. I want to grab both of them, not just the one Jack thinks he's handing over. Do you understand?" She's double-crossing the hell out of this guy is what's happening here.
Len's intention is to be far from imposing. In fact, he thinks he's being charming. It doesn't always work.
"Understood. And, as they say, you're the boss. Of course, I expect that my request for Mr. Varlane will be expedited in some way as a favor for my assistance in this matter, correct?" Now, technically it's not a threat. He's not /trying/ to be threatening. I mean, a favor for a favor, right? You scratch his back, he'll scratch yours? And Len's all about backscratching. "It only seems fair."
"What seems fair is that I'm letting you guys know about this before it goes down, and getting you in on it. DHS will have the public credit, but privately if this works, we all know who is going to come out of this smelling like roses. Don't go asking for more," she warns him, stuffing her empty plastic soup container into the paper bag. "As for the Varlane thing, I'm working on it." She's also got DHS guys tailing her, a crazy man kidnapping her, and death threats. So if she's a little slow - well, if she's being slow it's still on purpose.
A little slow is still movement in the appropriate direction, so he'll accept that. He stands. "I'll be waiting to hear from Parkman." He slips from the booth, leaving the aide to her soup - or whatever it was she was smuggling out of the restaurant. Before he even reaches his Jeep, he's on the phone.
The Office of Len Denton
Len has already phoned ahead asking for both Carrie and Kailin to meet him back in his office as he makes his way back. He steps into the facility and peeks in on both agents, letting them know he'll see them immediately and then he's to his own office. When both agents are seated, he starts off with: "Earlier I mentioned that perhaps you two should stay away from each other until Agent Knight is finished with his undercover operation."
"Unfortunately, I'm going to have to rescind that particular statement. I need you both on something that has just come up in the last couple of hours. Both. Together." As is, teamed up.
There is a sort of dread that desends on Carrie at those words. She had been thrilled at the prospect of staying clear of the other agent. "Please tell me that's a joke." Carrie says it before she can stop herself, immediately giving the boss man an apologetic look. Bowing her head some a hand comes up to rub agaimst her forehead as if she's suddenly a rather large headache. Hating even muttering the words she says.. "What are we doing?"
Kailin comes into the office with pursed lips, settling into the seat as he lays his gloves across his knee. He leans forward intently, interested in the assignment. He doesn't seem to take Carrie's obvious dislike to heart and doesn't reciprocate with similar feelings. Instead, he's eager to work. "Certainly, sir." He furrows a brow, wondering only what he might be able to help out with.
Carrie's question is answered as Len continues. "You with both continue on with your current assignments." He doesn't mention what those assignments are, the two agents know what they're supposed to be doing. "However, at some point you will both be called in to assist DHS in bringing down a couple of evolved criminals." Which makes it plainly obvious why they are going to use Knight in this. "Dangerous criminals, so I expect nothing but complete professionalism on your parts. You.." he looks to Kailin ".. will have to be very 'out of the way' when this goes down. It's going to be a high media circus when this hits and I do not want to see your face on my television. Clear?" His eyes look from one agent to the next.
Carrie's head comes up as Len continues, unable to hide the look of curiousity. Okay.. so it made sense why /he/ was going, but why not stick him with someone else. She decides not to voice that thought, instead she says. "Really? And what criminals are we going to have to bring down?"
Kailin nods to Len and sits back in his seat, his interest piqued. Secrecy in public. It brought back the challenges of past assignments with other agencies and his fingers come together in his lap, arching up as they connect. "Of course. Sounds like it will be a challenge that I am willing to take on. I can be inconspicuous when I need to be." He turns his head slightly, glancing to Carrie and back again to Len. "Just point us at the target and we will get it done." He chooses to use the words 'us' and 'we' intentionally and glances back at Carrie to see how that plays.
"You will both be issued a pass phrase. When you are contacted with that pass phrase, you will report immediately to the designated location." Len glances over to Kailin. "I'm finished with you. Get back out on Staten and continue to try to infiltrate your current target." To Carrie he grins. "You on the other hand. When you are not working your case with Agent Grim, I want you to find out everything you can…"
"… about Mortimer Jack."