Three Sides to Every Quarter

Participants:

bones_icon.gif mack_icon.gif

Scene Title Three Sides to Every Quarter
Synopsis Mack lets the Sandhog, Bones, in on what's really going on in the library, and the library gets a new resident.
Date January 5, 2010

Confucius Plaza Apartments


The text message Bones received mid-afternoon was simple. 'You have questions; I have answers. Re: Library. Meet at Confucius Plaza apts. 9PM' Simple, and to the point, but plain enough that Mack feels confident it will get the point across. Given that, at the appointed time he's seated comfortably in the lobby to the apartments, one leg crossed over the other, fiddling idly with his cell phone. There's nothing that stands out about him, really, though he keeps an eye on the door, waiting for the giant black man to give him access should he decide to show.

9PM, right on the dot… okay, maybe a few minutes passed nine, Bones makes his way along the sidewalk towards the apartment building he had been directed to, having stopped along the way to pick up a large bag of lousy roasted New York peanuts from one of those vendors that just look like they might be able to spread plague by looking at you. A large water bottle is tucked in to the large cargo pocket of his pants. He walks to the front of the apartment building and looks through the windows of the lobby, immediately recognizing Mack on sight as the guy he attempted to save from being kidnapped. Rapping on the glass, he nods, waiting to be allowed in or the man to come out.

Its the latter. At least for now. He comes out and lights a cigarette, watching the smoke drift lazily into the chilly New York night sky. "Glad you could make it." He nods his head, gesturing around the corner. It isn't an alleyway, but a space between the apartment building itself and a parking garage. Its more private without looking like the kind of place where someone might try to jump you, or you might get attacked by a pack of raving ninja's. "We both know what this is about, so I'm not going to beat around the bush. No bullshit. You found some weird shit at the library, and I need you to keep it under your hat."

Another puff, and Mack stops in his walk- apparently having assumed that if Bones came this far, he'd walk a little more to hear what he had to say. When he turns back around, he speaks quickly. Its the quickness of urgency and importance, not panic. "I told you once I was a firefighter. That was true, a long time ago. More recently, I was a homicide detective, and then one of the original members of SCOUT- you remember, basically Evolved S.W.A.T., right? Anyway, its a long story, but I resigned. Not because I'm lazy and not because I was burned out, but because the system is broke and I was sick of the bullshit and watching people let this city fall apart. Whats in that library is the alternative I found that refuses to let that happen. I expect you'll have a moment of incredulity at this point, which is reasonable. So… lay it on me." Apparently Mack realizes that he sounds halfway crazy, but is prepared for it.

Following Mack around the side of the building, Bones leans against the brick wall of the apartment block. He continues eating his roasted peanuts as he listens to Mack quite intently though he looks a little amused, as though he were at the cinema, taking in a very far-fetched tale of fantasy. All the while as he speaks though, Bones is nodding, allowing the other man to see that he is at least listening and paying attention, eyes flicking back and forth a little over Mack. Finally when this quickly spoken soliloquy comes to a pause and Bones settles his half-eaten bag of peanuts in to the cargo pocket opposite the one that his water is set in to and dusts those rather gnarled hands of his off. He takes in a deep breath and sighs it out, settling his shoulders. His lips work together a little and twitch as though he is coming up with the right questions to ask to the right words to say. But sometimes keeping it simple is just that much more… simple!

"Bullshit."

"You know, I /really/ had a feeling that you people were just stalling me in doing my job. I /knew/ I should have called in and had the cops down there the minute that pretty little socialite you got working for you opened her mouth and started weeping at me." Bones says, shaking his head, bringing his bottle of water out and unstops it. "No offense, my friend, but thanks for 'laying it on me'. Now that I have put off going over that place, I am going to have to tear it apart to figure out just what is going on there. I have a job and I really don't feel like losing it. Especially in this day and age." he raises his hands up helplessly in front of him and already begins to slide away from the wall he leans against.

"You won't find a fucking thing. We're not half trained kids playing pretend like the wanna-be terrorists, once PARIAH now Phoenix. You don't like what I have to say; fine. It was a risk even trying to reason with you, but you risked your ass to try and save a stranger. You seemed like our kind of people." Mack shrugs, flicking his cigarette off into the darkness. "You think you're job is important? The all-mighty dollar? Look around, my friend. Secret prisons, and they ain't even holding 'Al-Qaeda' agents, they're holding Americans. People disappear. Firefights on Ellis Island. But I ain't in the recruiting business, so if you want to close your eyes, pretend everything is alright, and hope Uncle Sam will take care of you…" He shrugs. "Your call. But you're not going to 'figure out just what is going on there'."

Giving pauses a moment, chewing in the inside of his cheek before he lifts the bottle of water to his lips, Bones sucks a good mouthful down and then lowers the bottle back to his side. He narrows his eyes a bit and settles back once more against the wall. "Look, mack," he starts once more, calling the man by his nickname without knowing, "Until rather lately, I have managed to trust my government with my entire life, save for one tiny aspect which I would rather not have shared with anyone. Obviously someone in the government thinks that they are doing the right thing and I'm sure you think whatever it is you are doing is the even /more/ right thing. I see Animal Farm playing out before me and really don't want to get caught in the crossfire. Caught period."

"Hey, there are good people in the government. There are a lot of them. And there's good people in the NYPD; I still have a lot of friends on the inside. Some of them work with us. I'm sure there are good people in HomeSec, too, although my experience with them was pretty much relegated to them taking our collars and making them disappear or letting them loose on the street. But its a complicated situation, and there are things going on that just… can't be left alone. We're not out trying to plot a coup. We're not trying to take power for ourselves. That's not how we operate. As for registration," This is, apparently, what he assumes Bones was referring to with that one tiny aspect, "I don't even mind that, other than its too easy to abuse right now. Look at it this way. You're uneasy- I understand that, man, I do. If I hadn't been SCOUT and seen it firsthand, I would be too." Mack pauses, lighting another cigarette. He's agitated, but other than the way he draws on the cigarette he doesn't give any outward signs of it. "You know, I really do think you're our kind of people, even if you haven't been kicked enough to decide that yourself. But that doesn't necessarily mean you have to be on the other extreme, either. The whole world is shades of grey; no reason to make this black or white."

"Shades of gray. I get that, yeah. Just like saying there are really three sides to every quarter." Bones shakes his head and picks up his peanuts again to keep eating, slowly thinking this over. After nearly a minute of silence from him, he sighs. "You want me to cover up the fact that you guys are at the library…? Alright. I'll keep quiet that you have people and things there. You say that you aren't terrorists and that you are proactively trying to help make things better. Fine, I'll see what I can do about lending aid where I can. You already know what I do for a living, so anything within that scope you know I can do. But…" Always one of those. "I'll be moving in to the library as well. I'm tired of renting in the dump I am in and I can see about getting the grid restored to the building. Gas too, maybe."

"We have generators, but if we can keep it from drawing too much suspicion, I'm sure my boss would appreciate it." Mack flicks his second cigarette off into the darkness. "Anyway, I knew I had a good feeling about you. Look, I'll make you a deal. You help where you can and, ya know, don't report us- and you get a place rent free. In a week or two the boss man himself will be back in town and I'll introduce you. For now, when you're ready, we can get you a little something set up- I can't just give you free access to everything, I don't have total authority, -but we can get you comfortable. I can have somebody from homicide give you a call to verify that I was, in fact, a cop. And we'll keep everything cool for the next week or two, til we can get a little more comfortable with each other."

"Generators are machines. Machines have a tendency to break down and not like to be run for prolonged periods of time and gas it too expensive these days for me, and I don't even own a car." Bones reasons quietly, already thinking things through. He listens as the deal is proposed and after he decides it is fair, he nods. "Don't bother calling your friends. I hang out with enough cops to know I'm looking at one, badge or no." he shakes his head and chuckles, then raises his hand, offering it to Mack. "Name's Bones."


Unless otherwise stated, the content of this page is licensed under Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 License