Participants:
Scene Title | This Is Increasingly Baroque |
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Synopsis | Felix and Liz talk about the Case case (yes, that always sounds stupid to us too), along with Deckard's mindwipe and the orchids that showed up at the precinct. |
Date | March 10, 2009 |
NYPD HQ
When Felix is really, really angry, he doesn't rage or rant or swear or throw things or get red in the face. He just goes very pale, very tight-lipped, and very soft-spoken. At the moment, he's speaking with the desk sergeant who was on duty when Home Sec came through last night. He's very quiet, hollow-eyed after a bad night, but the line of his back is absolutely rigid with repressed fury, and the knuckles of the hand clutching some minor bit of paperwork are white. "They took the tape of the interrogation?" he says, as the sergeant nods to him. "Left no copies?" He's out of his suitjacket - the building is warm enough, in a blue Oxford shirt, shoulder rig worn openly.
As Elisabeth walks into the precinct, she sees Felix there — and she sees the look on the desk sergeant's face. No one likes to give Felix Ivanov bad news. There's always this 'holy shit, he's going to bite my face off' kind of wariness in the expression of anyone who has to do it. Except maybe Liz — she just gives him the 'well, you gonna blow up anytime soon?' face most of the time. Not always, but often. Then again, she's never been the full-on target of that tone. She doesn't interrupt him, but she waits in the hall there until he's done with the desk sergeant to ask him what's going on.
Felix doesn't actually seem to be angry at the sergeant in particular. He actually pats the man on the shoulder as he sends him off. "Thanks," he says, simply. And then there's Liz. Fel merely quirks a brow sardonically and offers a feral, humorless grin. "I take you heard about our little visit from the memory fairies, last night?" He's visibly biting back his anger….saving it for when he can get a HomeSec agent in reach of ravenings jaws, presumably.
When the sergeant heads off to go about his business, Elisabeth smiles at Felix a bit. And then he speaks and she *stares*. "What happened?" Because she clearly has no idea. She precedes him as they head back for the SCOUT squad room.
"Last night, after you and I had gone home, two HomeSec agents paid one Flint Deckard a little visit. They wiped his memory, Liz. He doesn't remember a whit of Tyler Case. Not a goddamn thing. They beat up on him a bit - he's got some bruises. And then they either took or wiped the tape of the interrogation. It's so many fucking level of shady it makes my teeth ache. It's completely ruined any case we have against Deckard save for me possibly pressing assault charges. I mean, fucking hell, where do they find these oprichniki?" He says, flinging the paperwork down on the desk with a contemptuous slap.
There's a look on her face that resembles … alarm. She doesn't even notice the bouquet of a dozen orchids sitting on her desk with a pink bunny except in an abstract way, her blue eyes are on Felix. She slaps a silence bubble up around the two of them, raking her hand through her hair. "Those stupid motherfuckers! They're doing that so that Deckard can't ID their fucking agent on the scene — which we've already done thanks to DNA on the site!" She stares at him. "I already got Deckard's information… but they just wiped him for nothing. My big concern is that they're going to be coming for one of us next. Shit!!"
"I know. The mythical and mutiplying, late and lamented, Veronica Sawyer, right? Jesus H. Christ, it's like inter-agency cooperation with the Keystone Kops." He looks a little sheepish. "Good on you. Coming for us? What do you mean?" And hey, flowers. Without asking, Fel reaches for the card. So, Lee moves fast, huh? As if.
The note says, "Wow. I bet this was embarassing as hell. Happy hunting babe. Alec."
Elisabeth says quietly, "Well, if they're trying to cover their tracks, don't you think they asked him who he told? Do you think he'd have said he told the cops, told you, told whoever what he saw?" She shakes her head. "The worst part is, what he saw? Is hardly WORTH anything that I know of — he saw a couple of Asian goons haul Case out of the white van, zip-tied to hell and back, the kid was trying to get away. And then he saw two agents, a man and a woman — Veronica Sawyer, already ID'd by DNA — chase into the alley after Case. He saw something try to climb OUT of the Sawyer woman, but didn't mention whether she was still alive or not. So I put out some feelers with Minea Dahl to see if she knew the woman or could find out. *She*, in turn, got apparently fubar'd by an Evo last night and is in the hospital — I need to go see her — and told MARKS what I was looking for. Which I left at 'we have Sawyer's DNA in that alley, if she can talk to us about what she saw, that'd be great, I didn't wanna report her dead if she wasn't.'"
"I think these are for you," Fel says, nudging the flowers towards Liz. He's…blushing? Really "And poor Dahl. I was there. Man, she was hallucinating some serious crazy shit. Damn near started firing at her visions in a public market. Which means there's a little Evo breadseller out there who just almost caused a serious incident." He wipes a hand down his jaw, that familiar gesture of weariness. "They can stomp all over some poor slob of a suspect, but man, if they come for you or me, they are in for a nasty fucking surprise. So Sawyer isn't necessarily the vic, huh? Those might be remnants, and she's just running around live?"
Elisabeth now looks nonplussed at the 'they're for you,' taking the card and skimming it. She, too, looks a bit pink. Well…. geez. She's never gotten flowers at work. Holy crap! "I, uhm…." She tucks the card in her pocket and rolls her eyes, offering a little bit of an embarrassed grin. And then she gets serious. "Well, it lends credence to the idea that Case's ability may be a ramping up of latent powers. Cuz Sawyer's not Evolved, and so far as Marks knows, she was alive as of a few days ago. Which means it's not her BODY in that alley — remnants or something of whatever tried to pull out of her. Now…. I have two theories on that. One…. and it's a long shot, but honestly? I've never seen him do it. Theory one, Brian's Company-employed clone was involved in this and Case somehow magnified and amped Brian's power and basically landed it on Sawyer somehow, and then when he got out of range, it stopped happening." She shrugs. "Hey, it's all speculation at this point, but that idea keeps coming back to me with this Sawyer thing because of the fact that something tried to climb OUT of this woman's body and the forensics tech said it was amniotic stuff in the report. So … 'birthing' a clone? How's it done? I don't know. But there's no proof of any kind that Brian was the other agent on the scene, Deckard said he didn't really get a look at the guy except from the back, I guess.
"Theory two: We know that whatever this kid can do, it's now been used all three times in what APPEARS to be a self-defense situation. Which really is for his lawyer to deal with, honestly. But anyway… theory two is that Case's power is some kind of 'create a demon' kind of thing. Deckard said something was trying to climb OUT of Sawyer, evidence backs that up. And the Chinese grocer said that he saw a demon — a real, describable one — leaving the scene. Originally, I thought that was Case himself, but maybe it's not. Maybe it's the whatever he did to Sawyer."
"This is increasingly baroque," Felix says, with a faint note of despair. "Also, scuttlebutt down in Chinatown says they are offering an arm and a leg for Case. Honestly, I think if we ever find him, it's gonna be Harbor Patrol and a floating body. And that if we're lucky. So, option one is that Mister Multiple was there, and Case sent him haywire, which in turn did something to Sawyer. Option 2 is that Case calls out monsters, but doesn't kill people doing it. Now, why do the Triads want him so damn bad."
There's a shake of her head, and Liz replies, "The grocer seemed to indicate that he owes money. Lots of it. But… maybe it's something more. I mean, how much money could this kid owe that they'd expend such resources to find him?"
Felix drops into his seat, puts the unwounded side of his head in his hand. "I think it's more a matter of face, now. You don't, you just don't, fuck over a big boss and get to live to tell."
"Christ, Felix…. you really think it's that simple? He kills the first collection agent and now the rest of this is all a matter of saving face? Really?" Elisabeth doesn't really get the Chinese mindset — it wasn't her beat and well… not exactly her specialty either. She moves to sit on the edge of his desk, one hip perched up on with her foot swinging. "So why'd Homeland involved? Why'd they chase him to begin with?"
"The power. If he's Evo, or connected with this, he's a problem. That ability, gone haywire? They'll be all over that likea cheap suit on a tall man. I think face is a lot of it. Like you said, he can't have taken anything physically worth that much."
Elisabeth shakes her head, trying to wrap her head around that idea. "I don't… even know what to say." She looks at the wall. "And Myron called, too. Said he wanted to have a chat — something new popped, but he said keep it under our hats. I told him I'd let you know."
Felix flicks a brow up, sits back. He looks terrible with a shaved head. "Yeah? What's the story, morning glory?"
"Not a clue," Elisabeth replies. "He was being a little hush-hush." She eyes him. "Morning glory? Really?"
Felix just grins at her, puckishly. "'Soooo," he says, cutting his gaze to the bouquet. "Who's Alec, huh?"
Elisabeth shrugs and shoves herself off his desk. "A guy!" she replies defensively. "Who'd *you* think they were from?" she demands with a cheeky grin.
Felix rolls an eye at her. "What guy? You know we have to vet any possible boyfriends here. I mean, Jesus, if you can't abuse your privileges and do a background check, what's the point of being a cop? And I didn't think you look liked the type who liked girls, though there's this little dyke sergeant down in Vice who's totally been giving you the eye."
Elisabeth raises an eyebrow at Felix and says, "I've already done as thorough a background check as one can, up to and including his financials, thank you." She doesn't comment on the dyke in Vice, though it makes her snicker. "He's not a boyfriend. He's a spectacular lay — good stress relief, which I tend to appreciate right now." Although flowers? Expensive ones? Yeah…. that's venturing into boyfriend territory, actually. She eyes the orchids like they're going to give her answers or something.
Felix just grins at her, cheerfully. "Lucky you. I'm out on the skids these days," he says, mock-mournfully. "Ah, well."
She turns and looks at him speculatively. "So…. Leland's as straight as he looks?" Elisabeth's honestly curious. "You're just roommates?"
Felix meets her gaze without flinching. "Yeah," he says, with a faint laugh. "Straight as an arrow. He's a good buddy, but I don't think he has any idea I go for guys as well as women. Deliberately so, you know?"
Elisabeth shrugs easily. "I was never entirely sure myself until I opened my mouth to gnaw on my kneecap that day," she smiles at him. "Lots of people are deliberately blind to lots of things… sexuality, evolved status. But I do recommend you *don't* mention to him that we're friends… he's probably got some extremely strong opinions, very negative, of me just now." After all, Liz is the one who is taking the heat for the botched 'hostage' situation in the harbor.
"He asked me about you," Fel says, with a shrug in return. "I told him you were good police, that was as far as it went. You were both at the clusterfuck at the harbor, right?"
"Oh yes," Elisabeth replies with a roll of her eyes. "Oh hell yes. And so far as most are concerned, it was my fault. Hell… as far as *I'm* ocncerned, it was at least partially my fault."
Felix sighs. "Sounds likea mess." He rubs at his eyes, runs a finger over the stitches. "I need a vacation."
That would be an understatement. Elisabeth smiles faintly. "Don't we all? C'mon… since I've got you here, wanna see if we can grab Myron and figure out what he's all being cloak and dagger about?" She nudges him with her foot. "Then I gotta let Teo know what happened to Deckard," she sighs. "For which I'm going to take a lot of shit, I'm sure."
And with that conjuror's swiftness, Felix's bad mood is back. Talk about Jekyll and Hyde. "You will? I will. He's given his little cronies a shoot on sight order where I'm concerned, you know," he says, quietly. "I do feel guilty - Deckard got fucked more than he should've. All I can do is not press charges, for the moment."
Elisabeth glances at Felix and offers a small smile. "It's little enough recompense for letting your personal beef get in the way of what we were trying to learn. Not that he actually had anything worth running for that I can figure." She shakes her head. "I think he's just damn scared, Felix. All the way around. He seems like he really just wants out and there's nowhere to go. But maybe that's what little optimism I have left." She shrugs. "C'mon, let's get out of here. And no one's got shoot to kill orders…. just stay-away-from orders," she tells him mildly. "Except me, I get a pass." She winks at him and drops the silence bubble so he can hear the noises of the precinct once more.
March 10th: Talking Veronica Sawyer |
Previously in this storyline… Next in this storyline… |
March 10th: Piss Poor Planning |