Heroes: Endings and Beginnings

[rhoenix]

Being hugged in public was something of a surprise, given where he was an hour ago - nonetheless, Agent Sunter followed this agent's lead, keeping calm but alert as he took a seat, looking happy to see his "old friend". "Good to see you too. How are things?"

[Dark Silver]

Legion waited, while he was able to read lips, in a fashion, he wanted to know what was being said. When Gemini hadn't responded to his request, he switched back to NeXT, "NeXT, let's get a pair of ears in there.....get into Fulk's phone, dialout and route it into our comm system...make sure it's on one-way speaker, I want to receive, not transmit."

[SirNitram]

"I feel I should change my holo-avatar to a switchboard lady at times like this. Yea, yea, already routing the call."

The signal was bounced to provide audio directly into Ultima, as well as into databanks. While not requested, the data on the kidnapper's phone was calmly dumped into the same databanks to be reviewed. So few people realized how much sat on phones. Call logs, messages, text messages..

[Dark Silver]

"Good Man NeXT...." Legion almost seemed to stress the word "Man" slightly, but took a swallow of the beer he ordered, and listened as the conversation from the table was pipped into his ears...and those of Gordon and Heidi....

[Agent Fisher]

Gordon smiled and nodded, holding out his hand to Pulse. "That you did, hun. Though I do object to boytoy." He retorted with a smirk at Heidi.

[rhoenix]

Smiling in return, Agent Sunter reached over to shake Gordon's hand as it was offered. "Pleased to meet you. I'm Jason."

[LadyTevar]

"ManToy?" Heidi teased, giving a grin that would make most young men fall over as she sat down as well. Or maybe it was the slight bend her body made as she said, giving a nice few of her 'tracts of land'.
What would you have done if he'd not played along?

Heidi chose to ignore her sister, speaking to Jason instead. "We're still waiting on the last of the party to show up," she said, trying for a subtle hint that the op was still in play. "Once they do, we'll see where they want to go."

[B4UTRUST]

The com units went silent for a second or two before the audio from Fulks' phone started coming through.
"-ow the deal, doc. It aint gonna be the same person comin' every time. This time it's your husband. Next time it might be your lil' girl. It might not. Up to da boss on that, ya know," came the voice of the male kidnapper. He was definitely a local by the accent.
"But I need to see my daughter. I need to know."
"Look, lady. Your hubby here talked to 'er last night. The kid's fine. For da moment. Just as long as you keep up with your end of da bargin."
"It isn't right! Damnit, how much more do you need from me? I've given you everything."
"And you'll keep doin' it until the boss tells us, and you, otherwise. Now keep quiet."

About that time a waitress wandered over, pad and pen ready.
"Can I start you guys off with something to drink?"
"Yeah," came the guy's voice again. "I think we're about ready to order too. Just bring us a pitcher of beer. And a large supreme. That okays with you, Abe?"

The husband just nodded, hands clasped together under the table. He was looking at his wife and not really all there, it seemed.
"Helen," the kidnapper inquired.
"Hmm? Huh, oh uh... sure. That's fine. No olives though please.

The kidnapper smirked and gave out a half snort of laughter.
"Well, you heard 'er. No olives."
"Certainly, sir. And what type of beer would you like?"
"Whudeva you got on tap."
"Bud, Bud Light, Michelob, Mic Ultra, Sam Ada-"
"Bud's fine," he said, cutting her off. There was a look of mild annoyance on his face.
"Alright, sir, we'll get that out to you in a minute and I'll put your order in."

The waitress walked away, putting the order in.
"So, doc, lets get dis over with, eh? Give me the data."

Fulks let out a breath, her shoulders sagging as she reached into her purse and pulled out a small flash drive. Discretely she set it on the table, out of immediate view and hidden by the napkin wrapped silverware.
The man reached into his coat pocket and pulled out a small envelope and slid it across the table to her, grabbing the drive and pocketing it.
"Now dat the business is concluded, you and hubby here can enjoy dis nice lil lunch. Be just like good old times, right? Right."

In the background of all of this NeXT began to pull the data from the cellphones of the kidnappers. There were no text messages and only one number that had been dialed recently, about ten minutes before the meeting in fact. No numbers were saved into the address book. The phone was a low end unit with no bells, whistles or real features beyond basic phone usage so it didn't store such nice little bits of data like how many times a number was called or when. Just that the number was dialed a short time ago. The same number was present in both of the phones. The man's had dialed the number, though the woman had received a call from that number several hours earlier.

[Dark Silver]

Legion listened intently to what was heard over the open phoneline. The husband was here, the daughter was elsewhere with another team, and they were all reporting (obviously) to a higher power...

"What did you get off thier cellphones, NeXT" Legion subvocalized.

[SirNitram]

"Almost nothing. It's like talking to a child here. Or maybe a Commodore 64. No text messages, no video messages, no audio messages, no stored numbers.. Ah. I have a number. It was dialed before we got here. Hang on, I'll get into AT&T's Room and run down what there is on that number."

[LadyTevar]

"And there's the party," Heidi said softly.
Can anyone get a better look at Mr Fulks? He seems ... drugged.

Heidi grimaced, her eyes flicking towards the kidnapped man. "Jerri thinks Fulks is drugged. Can anyone get a better view of him?"

[B4UTRUST]

The number came back as belonging to a Daniel Gilbert from Astoria Illinois. The address and phone records were legitimate. The person was real, the address listed on the account was real. The bill was paid in full on time, though it had only been active about two months. The one thing that did jump out at NeXT was that the phone was listed as a VoIP line.

[SirNitram]

Touching the NSA Datalink was an experience like no other. The sheer volume of data, sluicing through it every second, was more than enough to threaten even Albert's ability to retain his sense of self. He barely escapes as a coherent self, but he found what he wanted. "Looks legit. Paperwork all verified against outside records. Ahhhh.. I like this, it's Voice Over IP. I'm going to get in the flow, as they say. It's Daniel Gilbert that owns it, two months of uptime, all on time. Astoria, Illinois." ANd then the Ghost in the Line tapped in.

[B4UTRUST]

A few moments later the waitress returned with the pitcher of beer and the glasses for the table. The conversation seemed to have switched to were light conversation between the husband and wife, with the male kidnapper throwing in quips and off color remarks in every now and then, proving what a bastard he really was.

A short while passed and the waitress brought out the pizza, plates and extra napkins and went through the usual routine of asking if everything was okay and if they needed anything else. The kidnapper waved her off and immediately helped himself to two large slices of the piping hot pizza. The female kidnapper took a smaller piece, while neither of the two Fulks made a move to eat. Neither seemed to have much of an appetite. It was getting to be clear that the meeting would be ending soon.

Meanwhile, NeXT busied himself tapping and monitoring the line that he had found. A single call came in. A quick back trace identified the call as coming from a telemarketing company. The company dialed the number, and along the way it was translated into a data stream, passed through several servers then broadcast through the network to the conversion box at the end of the VoIP line and past that into the phone. It rang, though nobody answered. A disconcerting feeling that someone or something else was watching and monitoring that line came across NeXT when the call rang through, like it was looking for something and when it didn't find it went away again.

[SirNitram]

"That was disconcerting.. Something else is scanning the line, but it didn't feel like a wiretap. No activity outside of a telemarketer." NeXT reported, looking for where this stranger had come from into his senses.

[rhoenix]

Heidi chose to ignore her sister, speaking to Jason instead. "We're still waiting on the last of the party to show up," she said, trying for a subtle hint that the op was still in play. "Once they do, we'll see where they want to go."

Jason nodded in understanding, sitting back in his chair a little with a smile. "Sounds good. Do you think we'd have time for a bite to eat before everyone shows up?"

[LadyTevar]

Heidi started to nod, but was interrupted by the waitress coming over and delivering the food she and Mike had ordered. Thanks to her biology, she had ordered extra, and she cheerfully handed over the large italian submarine to Jason. "See? We got you covered."

Like the kidnappers, Heidi got friendly with her food, keeping up just enough conversation to make them look like a normal group of friends. Yet she was still getting impatient. "So, when do we move?" she asked quietly, knowing the question went over the comms to Legion.

[rhoenix]

Jason looked surprised, but looked at Heidi with a smile and a nod. "Aww, you remembered how I like my sandwich. Thanks!"

With that, he tried to pace himself and thoroughly chew each bite at least ten times. This was difficult, as he'd been living off of energy drinks and power bars for the past week, but the sandwich was well-made enough to demand it be savored.

[Dark Silver]

Legion was sipping the bear, pulled out his billfold, and paid his tab to the waitress as she came up. NeXT implied something else was on the VOIP line, tracking it, or at least monitoring it. Which could be any number of things. And it looked like the meeting would finish up within a few minutes.

He left the waitress a nice tip, and walked out, "Let them move out, have survillence keep them spotted, and we'll close in shortly. NeXT, keep a digital ear on their comms. If they try to ditch the cells, alert us so we can move in."

Legion wasn't satisfied, but the less chance the group had of alerting any potential backup, the better, especially if what he planned next would work.

"We'll get them when we can assure minimal collateral..."

Besides, he was wondering just how easy it would be for him to get a "taste" of the male kidnapper's mind...

[LadyTevar]

"Understood," Heidi answered.
We'll have to move fast. Once the others find out we've detained these two, the daughter's at high risk
Heidi noted what Jerri didn't want to say -- the kid would likely be killed.

"Well, guys, eat up and then we'll go for a ride and see what trouble we can get into."

[B4UTRUST]

The waitress came by with the check for the group. She laid it face down on the table top and smiled her cheerful smile
"Whenever you're ready," she said to the kidnappers.

The male grabbed the check, glanced at it and fished into his pocket for his wallet. He pulled out a couple of bills and tossed them on the table.
"That'll cover it. Unless yous plan on leaving a tip, doc," he said jokingly, half laughing at his own dim humor since no one else was apparently going to.
"Says your goodbyes. Don't worry, you'll get to seem em again soon enough and dis thing with da boss might be over soon so yous can be back in each others arms all warm and cozy-like."

The four got up from their table and began to walk to the door. Fulks had her head cast down, trying not to look at Legion. Something she'd been forcing herself not to do the entire meeting while inside her head she was screaming 'Stop them you bastard, don't let them take my family again! Don't just sit there, do something!'

They headed out the door and thats when they split up. Fulks began to wander aimlessly back towards her car while the trio of the two kidnappers and her husband walked the opposite way. They only walked for a minute when the male grabbed a set of car keys out of his pocket and clicked the disarm button. A small tan colored four-door sedan beeped cheerfully, its little lights flashing a quick two times to signal that the doors were indeed unlocked and anyone was welcome to climb in. The car was a foreign make and fairly nondescript. It looked to be in good condition save for a few scratches here and there along the side paint. All in all your average family-carrying rice burner.

The female kidnapper opened the rear door and 'lead' Mr. Fulks by the arm, somewhat forcefully it seemed, into the back seat before closing the door again. She didn't seem too worried about him trying to escape from the back, indicating that there was a large chance the child safety locks were engaged, preventing the doors from opening at all from the inside. That and the fact he still seemed somewhat out of it probably didn't hurt either.

The male kidnapper got in the drivers seat and cranked the engine. He dropped it into drive and as soon as he got a chance he pulled out into traffic. What seemed out of place, though, was that he rolled down his window, despite the temperature only being in the upper 40s. He snapped his headlights on and tossed a glance skyward at the clouds moving in. Anyone who bothered to look could tell that it was getting ready to rain.

[LadyTevar]

Cash. Oh how stupid some people can be
Heidi caught on quickly. "Stupid bastard left his fingerprints on the cash he just paid out. Legion, want me to pull rank and get those bills from the waitress?"

Try to replace them so she doesn't have to explain to her boss about it.
Heidi didn't answer, shoving the last bite of her sandwich in her mouth as she kept an eye on the kidnappers.

He's definitely drugged, or they'd restrain him more. Either that or one of the kidnappers is a psychic controlling him. Drugs seem more likely and the easier route.
"Mike, pay the bill," Heidi said softly, quickly draining her drink. "Add a nice tip for the lady as Jason and I take a walk outside."

Why is he rolling the window down? Why the headlights?
"A signal to someone, I'll bet..." Heidi said as she walked out the door, trusting Jason and Mike to follow orders.

[SirNitram]

"I can create a delay." NeXT's words whispered to the team. "I don't have their transit destination, but I can just wreck havok on the lights."

[LadyTevar]

"Copy NeXT," Heidi replied as she walked across the street. "Of course, a fender-bender or two would bring traffic to a halt and really slow them down."
HEIDI! Someone could get hurt!
"Only if they're speeding..."

[Agent Fisher]

Mike nodded and stood, grabbing a backpack he had with him, quickly paying the tab. He quickly left the restaurant and headed towards the park car, keys in hand, ready to follow the kidnappers.