The Meet Meat

Participants:

conrad_icon.gif william_icon.gif

Scene Title The Meet Meat
Synopsis William and Conrad finally meet and it goes wonderfully. If by wonderful you mean terrible.
Date January 8 2009

Some street corner

A street corner. in New York City, New York, USA, Planet of Earth.


On the street corner, Conrad Wozniak stands wearing jeans and a Houston Texans jacket with a matching ballcap. First time he's ever broken that particular sports team out, and he's got the entire NFL. He's got an iPod and is listening to it. And bopping with just his neck like really classy guys do that can't dance to save their lives. At least not without beer.

"Wozniak? Conrad, Wozniak?" Comes the crisp overpronounced words from the man in the suit walking up behind the other man.

Captain William Harvard is dressed in a black suit with a blue tie hanging over it. A dark pair of sunglasses are set on the brim of his nose as he approaches the other man. Though when he notices the iPod, he brings one hand out to lightly tap the other man on the shoulder to get his attention.

"I'm here to speak with you?"

Con doesn't seem to have any trouble at all hearing over the earbuds from his iPod. But he does wait until being shoulder tapped to turn and look. "Hey. You Harvard?" he asks, all business, tugging the earbuds out and wrapping the wire around the iPod before putting it in a pocket. "Where you wanna go?"

"Yes, Captain William Harvard." He offers his hand in greeting to the other man. Eyeing the other man over his glasses he gives a little nod. "My car is just around the corner. We can go get something to eat, or just drive around." He gives a shrug. "Whatever you're comfortable with."

The hand is taken and shaken. "Cool. Let's just go for a ride. I don't wanna look like we're gay." Conrad isn't saying that like a joke. There's no grin.

Retrieving his hand William gives a little look as if he's somewhat hurt if not shocked by the statement. He wouldn't want that either but, if it were to happen what would be wrong with having him as a life partner? He's a perfectly good looking man. He would be a great gay-mate! Though he only nods. "Right. This way." He quips, turning his back on the man. The Captain makes his way for his own car.

Following with hands in pockets, Con doesn't say another word until he's seated in the passenger's seat of the car. Once the doors are closed he goes, "So what's the deal? Liz told me you wanted to talk alone and I heard you were leaning on Abby. You oughta leave that kid alone. She's crazy anyway so you can only trust half of what she says to begin with."

"Granted." William says to the part about Abby. Though he tilts his head at the other man. "Easy Wozniak.. What is that? Russian?" The Captain asks, closing the door behind him. His keys are taken out and put in the ignition. The car is started and the vehicle starts to move.

"I think it's Polish. I don't fuckin know for sure to be honest. I'm from Louisiana originally." explains Conrad easily, looking out of the window. He's pretty relaxed, judging by body language.

"Polish." William repeats, he gives a little nod to Conrad being from Louisiana. "What part?" He asks, following up quickly with a, "I'm from Omaha." The car slows down at a stop light, coming to a full stop. He seems also to be relaxed, or as relaxed as a police Captain in a suit can look.

"Nebraska? Heh. Man, is there anything out there other than corn and football?" asks Con with a grin. He glances at William briefly and then shakes his head, going back to the window. Belatedly he remembers to buckle his seat belt. "Guess you'll want me to do this." he mentions. "Nah, I came from N'awlins. Joined the Army outta high school, never been back."

"I saw a car once." William remarks, though his lips don't sidle up into a grin. His gaze remains emotionless and on the road. Though when Conrad goes to put his seatbelt on, the Captain leaves one hand on the wheel to do the same. "Right. Good thinking." He says absently. He frowns slightly though at Conrad's talk about home. "Was your family okay? With the whole hurricane, and all?"

"Just had my mom there. She got out before it hit I think. We weren't that close." Probably not a huge surprise, knowing what one can know about Conrad. He gives a glance into the back seat, looking to see what he can see.

The car is a BMW, William's personal favorite. There is nothing in the backseat save for the buckles and belts. It is alarmingly clean, and looks like it was freshly vacuumed. Perhaps the Captain is trying to impress Conrad. "I hope she's alright." He offers, navigating the car quietly. "Well, I suppose we should get down to business."

"Yup. Business." agrees Con easily. "Nice car. You probably make a pretty good penny to keep up the payments and insurance on this baby." Briefly he glances at the steering column, probably assessing how hard it'd be to crack it open.

"They try to keep me happy." William says softly, as if confiding in the other man. "It's not so bad really. They mostly hired me to be a symbol. That the government is doing something against the Evolved crimes and supports Registered Evolved." He gives a little shrug. "So I guess they don't expect much, right?" He shrugs again, placing his other hand on the wheel. "Well, I don't really know where to start with this, Wozniak. You're an ex-con who just happens to know a lot about an alleged large terrorist cell?"

"You know, I've never actually spent time in prison?" points out Conrad with a grin. "Jail, yeah. All the time. I've been a bad boy before." But enough of that. He nods and looks out of the window some more. "But yeah. I know some shit that goes down with the terrorists. I can name some of em. Tell you which ones are bad. I can even tell you that whole business raiding PARIAH? You guys did a right thing shutting them down, but they weren't the ones you thought they were. PARIAH were some misguided people that didn't care who they hurt, but they weren't the ones shelling out those videos on the news and shit. The ones I name like Wu-Long, Ethan, Sylar…those are the ones you should've busted first."

"I'm well aware of /that/ Wozniak." William notes. "I'm a better cop than most give me credit for. Along with the information that I assume was passed on from you, I pieced together that was not PARIAH. But…" He gives a little shrug. "All I have is theory. I don't act on theory, I don't even talk about theory. But I can't tell you how many sleepless nights were spent on trying to figure all this out." He waves his hand in the air, as if gesturing to 'this'. "So, can I ask how involved you are?" He asks with an arched brow. "Can you tell me Sylar's entire life story or you just going by hear-say?"

"I dunno his life story. I just know he's an asshole and he's attacked good friends of mine. And he's a boogeyman. And if you ever come for him you better bring some backup." Conrad says, fingers tapping a rhythm from his head on the car door. Something that, after a while, might be recognizeable as the melody Sweet Home Alabama by Skynyrd. "As for how involved I am, it's mostly a rumor mill. There's an underground of unregistered Evolved in this town that doesn't talk to people like you because they don't trust people like you. Almost all of them are good people. Legal, too. It's just they hear the stories about roundups, people getting hauled off the street in vans, shut in prisons, experimented on. So it's a community. Me? I don't care. I'm already Registered. I know what you can and can't do. But as for how I know about Sylar? I've never met the man. But he's attacked three friends of mine and I know he's killed others."

"Honestly, Wozniak. I try to enforce the law. I do the job I'm supposed to. But there are priorities. If I have to rub shoulders with a few unregistered Evolved and let them run around for whatever reason to get to the demise of a large terrorist cell and a wanted man like Sylar." One hand is thrown into the air, shaking his head. "I'd like to think I have my priorties straight."

"Yeah? That's the way it oughta be. You know you're never gonna get every last criminal off the streets. So what'd you wanna talk for? I tell Liz plenty and she's a good cop. And I actually trust her." Which by implication means Conrad DOESN'T trust other cops, of course.

"Credibility, Wozniak." William explains swiftly. "As of now, I don't have enough to act on. I don't know who you are, though so far, you seem like a decent guy." He concedes with a nod. "If you're getting information, that means there's a trail. I don't care how careful I have to tread. If there's a trail to these guys, I need to follow it."

"How about this, then?" points out Conrad with a tone, "Find other leads. I gotta tell you if I EVER found out where Sylar lives I'm telling everybody I can about it. I'll call the news. If I ever find out where Ethan lives, I might pay his ass a visit myself. I listened to that motherfucker on a phone call, where he called a friend of mine to threaten her, that he cut a woman's fingers off after kidnapping her. That's what kinda people you've got out there, Harvard. Real al Qaeda type bastards. Kidnapping, torture, murder…and I'm giving up anything I can to help see em caught and hopefully shot in the process of arrest. That'd make me real happy."

"There's nothing wrong with that." William quips at the end. "Can you tell me how the names were gotten, Wozniak? IF there's anything, anything you can give me, I would be most grateful." The man murmurs, turning a corner.

Con shakes his head and makes a slight cutting motion with his hand. "I'm not giving you names of other people you can lean on. You already showed me how you do with that. Abby? You talked to a mentally ill nineteen year old girl who works in a bar in and asked HER what this is about? What the fuck, dude? Now if you want me to try to find something harder I can give you that you can go look at yourself? I can give that a shot. But it seems to me like I'd just be doing your job for you." He fishes in his inside jacket pocket and comes out with a CD in a case, holding it up. "Why don't you just take this? It's got everything on it I'm willing to talk about. Yours for a limited time only. Supplies are limited to one per caller."

Bringing out his hand, William goes to take the CD from the other man. Bringing it in he goes to tuck it into his suit jacket. "Like I said Wozniak, I do my job. She demonstrated an ability in broad daylight. I asked for her registration. And then she goes on a rampage how she's not evolved." His eyes roll as he relives the pain of that fateful day.

"I told you. She ain't right in the head. Like that's the first time you've ever met somebody like that." replies Con with a rolling of the eyes.

"That's obvious, you should be taking more care of her." William reprimands crisply. "Are you going to give me a number to reach you on?"

"She's not my fucking kid." replies Conrad simply. "I ain't her daddy. And no. You don't need my number. You got Liz. Or is she off the case or something now?"

"Come on now, aren't we good enough friends that we have to go through her?" William asks, looking over his shoulder at her. "Frankly, she hasn't been very honest with me, Wozniak. I don't know what her deal is, if she doesn't trust me, or whatever. How do you know her?"

"Man I dunno you. You may have talked me up pretending to give a shit about my past, or where I'm from, or whether my name is Polish, but I can see you a hundred miles away. You're not my friend. I don't even know if you have friends." Conrad looks around the car again and says, "Nothing says Asshole like a BMW. I'm just bettin' you'll be an asshole to the right people for a change instead of fucking with Liz and Abby. She oughta have your job, not the other way around."

The car slowly comes to a stop, as William pulls off the side of the road. "I was trying to be polite." William allows out, accompanied with a breath. "Do you want me to let you out here or take you somewhere else?" Harvard asks, setting his head back in the seat.

"Hey I'm okay with polite. But I'm better with real." answers Con, sitting there. He looks right at William and says levelly, "Basically it's like this. You can't make me talk. I'm talking to you because I wanna talk to you. And nothing I tell you or give you is gonna be any different from what I give Liz first. If you want the scoop, you go to her. Because I'm not playing the game where you play me for information and then ditch me and anybody I'm stupid enough to name to you as soon as you're done with me. I believe you'd try to charge me, Wrongfully, just to try to squeeze me. That is if you thought it'd work. You're a reptile, Harvard. Doesn't mean we gotta be enemies, but I'm not your drinking buddy."

"Here, it is, then." William says, pressing the button to unlock the doors. His eyes don't go to the man. He looks out his own window as he waits for the other man to leave.

"Catch ya around." Con says with a wink and a snap, opening the door and getting out. He pulls out his iPod and proceeds to wander off.


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January 8th: Tuning In
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January 8th: Executive Rights
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