Jun 10 14:40:26 109 PA - More Detailed Information to Hand Out

From Chronicles

Jun 10 14:40:26 109 PA.

STRATEGIC SERVICES - GABRIEL'S PRIVATE OFFICE

Gabriel steps inside his private office, escorting Leonard through the main floor without needing any of the other staff to rise up and take any weapons, as would be necessary if unguided. The neat little office is just that, neat. A little homey, too. He waves Leonard to any one of the comfortable chairs while he takes his own seat behind the desk, leaning casually forward rather than looking like some kind of authoritative boss. His hands disappear beneath the desk for a moment, and his eyes dip to look. Moments later, he retrieves two bottles of cool water. He keeps one for himself, and gently pushes the other across the desk's surface. "Thanks again for coming, Leonard. Some water, if you're interested."

"No, thank you," Leonard shakes his head after following Gabriel into the man's, and business', inner sanctum. "I assume that you have important news?"

"Suit yourself," Gabriel replies amicably, retrieving the bottle and returning to where it had come from. He screws the plastic top off of his own bottle and pokes a button on a small hockey puck-like object. "Acoustic dampener," is the quick explanation before saying, "Not so much 'news' as information. You were asking where the real location of the nexus was, so you could get prepared? I don't know how it helps, but I do have the information. Like I said before, the Ottawa thing was bullshit that I made up for St. James to chase - and praying that it wouldn't be a terrible coincidence that I was right. The real spot is distant, out on the western front. To quote the good folks at Tolkeen, 'The closest nexus to the city. A ways south of the large lake west of the city.'" He pauses. "Ring any bells?"

Leonard listens and considers. "I'm not familiar with precisely where the lines fall at the moment, but it's enough information. Nexi are larger beacons to my senses than they are to sight, and they are hardly inconspicuous even to you. Pinpointing it will not be difficult, and then transportation there will be simple."

Gabriel nods a few times. "Good, good. Was it all about transportation, then? Not some special stealth ability or bringing down hellfire on potential enemies? Because that could be very useful." He grins, then sips some of that nice water.

"Arriving at the destination is the first issue," Leonard smirks, "Remaining there, intact, is the other. The simpler the journey there, the more resources remain for defending our position afterwards. I can and will do what I may to complete the task. Hellfire isn't necessarily the most efficient option, however."

"Whatever you can do without losing enough that we can't jump out in an emergency," Gabriel allows. "Sithik is going to be extremely useful, if we need combat. Tek... will drive. I suppose that over the course of half a day, we may have need for weapons repair or something. As for St. James? I'm very worried. I think that we need to tie her down and ask questions before anyone leaves. Which, incidentally, brings me to another question - how many questions do I get before it... ah... wears off?"

Leonard shrugs. "That depends on the 'it,' and I have several means of persuasion. The most direct, and effective, would put her at my disposal for hours. More than enough time to have her answer your questions, clean your home, and possibly perform at the Ivory Lady..." A chuckle and another shrug. "Or whatever you had in mind."

Gabriel chuckles at that concept. "Hold her in place long enough for me to slap some 'cuffs on her, answer every question I have to my satisfaction, and perhaps have her transmit some false information should she turn out to be a spy. Hours should be plenty, thank you. We can hold her somewhere quiet as long as she's of use to us with counter-intelligence, and then dispose of the body." The man leans back slightly and offers a raised hand. "It's a shame that the roads outside of the city have so many monsters and ne'er-do-well. People might get hurt, or worse." After a brief moment of thought, he adds, "Make her strip naked. Expose any bugs, microphones and hidden weapons."

"Not to mention the countless random events that can send one to anywhere on the planet, or beyond," Leonard adds with a knowing nod. "All we need is to bring her somewhere where we won't be disturbed. I assume that you haven't spoken with her recently?"

"Nope. She shows up now and then, but only by word of mouth, then she's gone again. It's... frustrating," he admits. Gabriel then scrunches his brow slightly, asking, "I thought we were going to bring her here under the guise of discussion for the company?"

Leonard chuckles. "Yes, but that does require that we inform her and she arrives," he notes. A brow then arches in concern. "You don't think she's caught wind of suspicions, do you?" It would explain her being scarce, and pose problems.

Gabriel shakes his head. "Nothing can be said with complete certainty, but I don't believe that she's spotted me, and when I have seen her, I've only spoken like any other time. There's always the variable of intuition, but I don't think that I've given her any reason to be directly suspicious. You're suggesting that we simply grab her and take her where we want?"

"We could," Leonard nods, "But we'd need to be discreet. As much as we can't wait forever for her to come to us, we don't want interference from misguided Samaritans or the police. Even if your suspicions prove true, it would make matters ...awkward."

"Explain?" Gabriel asks, waiting for more detail on a kidnapping that doesn't look like a kidnapping.

Leonard chuckles. "If I can coerce her into stripping naked for you, I can convince her to accompany me here, Still, I'd rather not make use of it in the middle of a market full of witnesses. It's possible that she could resist, for one."

"So... ultimately we still need her to come of her own free will, or grab her somewhere out of sight." Gabriel thinks on it for a moment, and states again, "Bringing her here is legitimate. Bringing her to my home is legitimate. Interrogation could be conducted at either place, or we could jump to my old camp out in the wilderness. I go by every week to make sure that it's still ready in an emergency. However, all of that still requires her coming to us. We could go for the gun to the back, 'keep walking' method. Not sure how much people would care about that these days, since everybody carries weapons."

"I'll allow you to handle that option, if necessary," Leonard smirks. "Spy or not, she's still a trained combatant and I don't trust a gun when that close."

Gabriel leans forward comfortably again, almost leaning sideways on the desk. He then bemoans, "Yeah. I'm cheap and stupid, squishy and useless without much knowledge or ability." He winks at Leonard. "That's a very difficult image to cultivate and maintain when you're out actually doing things. Anyway... unless you can think of a quiet way to grab her - even if it's just off of a dark street somewhere - it's best that she come to us. Might not be suspicious, so less apt to immediately try to lie. But if you can grab her, by all means please do. I wouldn't throw away a useful tool." A finger is gently direct across the table. "One thing that worries me is making sure that she's held still until I can get 'cuffs on her and disarm her. She's been batting into my head that she carries a plasma grenade at all times. It's been rather tasking continually needing to tell her that I didn't want her to heave it at you."

Leonard shakes his head. "I didn't imply that you were, but that you'd be far more skilled in dealing with her should she fight back in close quarters. I'm no grunt." Gabriel's comment on St. James' urges only confirms that, in some ways. Leonard lets out a small laugh at that. "If you didn't need to, I'd be even more suspicious that she's lying. I'll keep that in mind."

Before Gabriel can answer, he's doing a good job of trying to muffle some polite laughter. "*I* try to imply that I am," he explains. "The more people in the city - like young Tek - who think that all I am is a forty-two year old man, out of time who can carry around a rifle with that being the end of his usefulness, all the better." A brief nod punctuates his amusement. Then he manages to get back to the serious matter at hand. "As far as mages go? If she grew up in Chi-Town, voluntarily enlisted and stayed out of the officer ranks for twenty-years, it seems reasonable that she'd have a certain compunction about working with or being around mages. However, she has gone to great lengths to let me know that she's suspicious of all mages immediately upon sight with her first instinct being to shoot. It's a tossup as to whether I've heard that the most, been called 'sir' the most, or been saluted the most. All of which is very suspicious." Gabriel's face scrunches. "She claims to be an expert sniper, yet continually salutes an officer, and when I warned her that you don't salute officers in the field, acted as if that was news to her. No way. Saluting your officer's the best way to have him shot."

"Perhaps the quality of Coalition training is not up to your standards?" Leonard shrugs with a grin. "I'd prefer that they promoted outright stupidity, myself, but even enough idiots with large weapons can be fatal to their enemies."

"Enough idiots. Usually a combination of fear and moderate idiocy, if you want to do it that way," Gabriel says with a smile. "I can't imagine that they'd be so dumb. Hell, the British learned not to salute because a Kentucky Long Rifle could reach out and touch the guy with the white hair, shiny teeth and extra attention. But you might get lucky, because who promotes stupidity?" He allows a moment for suspense to build... "Dictators. A classic failing."

Leonard nods his agreement with, "A side-effect of the ignorance they promote to maintain their control. I expect that the officers and political powers are the only ones who can read and have access to any legitimate materials /to/ read. But," he waves a hand, "We didn't come to discuss imperialism. Do you have a timetable for Tolkeen, yet?"

"Unfortunately, no. Just a location. But that's better than nothing, particularly if I've gotten them to look in the wrong direction." Gabriel's brow furrows in curiosity. "I was speaking with Rasputin last night, and he didn't really have this information, suggested that some other kind of magic user would. If we get lucky enough to land without being noticed, and this 'ambassador' starts to draw on the nexus - I assume that's what he's doing - how long would it take someone to... trace? Trace the location?"

"Ah," a slight nod from Leonard. "Skilled users at any of the lines that connect at the nexus might be able to notice, depending on how heavy the draw. It can create ripples and fluctuations... like any other interconnected power system, I suppose." He shrugs, unsure of the comparison on the technological side. "There's no simple answer as to how long before others notice or arrive, if they even cared to investigate. They could be hundreds or thousands of miles away."

Gabriel nods as he listens. "Well, I suppose the best that we can do is hope that either nobody notices, or they're too far away to make it to our location in the designated maximum twelve-hour time frame." As the immediately important discussion is winding down, he idly tosses out, "Now that we're getting closer to whenever it is, I'm wondering why Tek is coming along. I just hear him whine about his cut and not being a combatant. I dunno. Not like I'm going to cut him out now, either way. Thanks for swinging by, Leonard. I'll contact St. James over the airwaves with an urgent request regarding critical information. Maybe that'll be enough bait."

Leonard rises as Gabriel makes it clear that the discussion is nearly completion. "I would appreciate as much notice as you are given. The better I can prepare, the better the odds in our favor. As for Tek," he shrugs again, "I'm sure that his toys are expensive, and Kingsdale is a mercenary city."

Gabriel rises as well, extending a hand. "It is. Doesn't mean that I have to like it. I can get you over the radio if I manage to hook our possible spy?"

Leonard takes the offered hand. "Yes. I'll be monitoring. It wouldn't do me much good to miss the prior notice that I hope to get, now would it?"

With a smile, Gabriel offers, "Just being thorough. If you see Valeriya around, please pass along the message. I'd like to have invisible vindictive brawn around." Set.

"I won't forget," now Leonard grins. "She enjoys being the invisible, vindictive brawn, also. Keep me informed." He then turns for the exit.