| New Directions |
| Summary: | Kate has new directives in the Missing Teens case |
| Date: | 2014-08-25 |
| Related: | N/A |
| NPCs: | N/A |
| Scene Runner: | N/A |
| Social/Plot: | Plot |
| Players: |
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Kate Bishop walks into the office in her traditional workout gear of spandex running shorts and a sports bra. The duffel she carries clunks a bit and gets tossed onto the couch in the private office.
"Okay." Honeymoon says as she pulls the gun from her holster and brings it up into a shooter's stance. Legs well placed. Both hands on the weapon. Sighting down the barrel. "See how I'm standing? Do NOT buy the concept of shooting without using your sights. Only the very best marksmen can do it. Properly aligned sights are there for a reason, giving us a way to make sure our bullets end up in the bad guy and NOT a bystander." She holsters the gun and unclips the holster, offering it out to Mary Jane. "Now, you try. Put it on, draw, take your stance, and look down the sight."
The redhead stands, nervously, where Honeymoon said to stand. But she is still nervous, reaching out for the holster and weapon. "Shouldn't you … maybe … take out the bullets, or something? I don't want to do something stupid and terrible." Because Mary Jane is one of those rare teens who actually believes she can make a mistake, and understands the magnitude of what mistakes a teen can make. But she still accepts the burden, clipping it on as she was directed. She fidgets and adjusts it a few times, until she thinks it's at least /close/ to where it should be. "Like that?" she asks. Nope, has't even unclipped the holster yet, but she's asking.
Kate Bishop blinks as she steps out of the private office.. "Whoa!" She shouts. "Please please pleasepleaseplease be damn careful like that… If you want to show her how to carry and how it feels and how to aim, then it does NOT need to be loaded." Says the girl who carries around a small arsenal with her lingerie. "I have no problem with legally carrying firearms.. It's just that this is not a shooting range, and god forbid if something goes off accidentally. We have neighbors downstairs." She says, trying to state her concern without sounding bitchy. She looks to Mary Jane. "I understand you wanting to learn, and done right I believe it will help. Just get comfortable with it first. Last thing we need is a shaky-handed Barney Fife shooting up the place…" She places a folder on the desk. "Anyways, we have some work to do."
Honeymoon rolls her eyes. "Okay, first? The gun is loaded with dummy rounds. They weigh the same as the real thing but they don't shoot. No gunpowder. Please give me some credit? Second, the safety is on." She snatches her holster back. "Seriously, Kate. MJ. Do you really think I would put anyone at risk?" She clips the holster back onto her belt for now. "I'm honestly hurt you think I would."
Mary Jane makes a face at Honeymoon. "You silly. It's not /you/ I wasn't trusting. It was /me/. I didn't want to screw up, OK? You didn't tell me about dummy rounds, and I got scared." MJ respects the potential, just as Kate would clearly wish. "And I do want to learn. Just … I'm sorry, OK. I couldn't help it. I got scared." That said, though, no more time for funning around with guns. Mary Jane looks to the folder and Kate. "What can I do to help?" she asks.
Kate Bishop raises a brow to Honeymoon. "Listen… I see a gun, I think deadly. I can't naturally think it's got safes in there. if this is your personal piece then I would expect there to be live rounds or else it's no good to you if you need it on the street. I'm not judging. I wouldn't be alive… or sane… right now if I thought differently…" But that's an entirely different story. Thankful for the distraction she looks to MJ. "I need you to do a search on medical records… Any sign of pediatricians reporting initial concern of metahuman ability in children anywhere in the country." She thinks..
"At the same time, I want to look for anymore missing persons reports from parents of meta teens. Just because it's stopped in New York doesn't mean that it's not happening anywhere else in the country… or the world for that matter. Is there any way we can do this? Money and resources are no object." She says, adding. "Our client is deeply interested in these kidnappings and they have deep pockets."
"This isn't my gun. Its Mary Jane's. She'll need to register it after she gets her permit." Honeymoon explains. "My gun's a little bigger and a little heavier." She smiles, unclips the gun and tosses it onto MJ's desk. "It doesn't get loaded with live ammo until you're legal for it. Happy birthday." She settles onto the client couch and tosses up her legs onto the coffee table. "National Center for Missing and Exploited Children doesn't list kids as metahuman or not BUT that doesn't mean people don't know. They have a regional office in the city but their main office is in Alexandria. I can go down, talk to the people there. Give me a few days to canvas all the case workers and I can build profiles of meta abductions or runaways throughout the country."
Mary Jane frowns momentarily as she considers Kate's request. It's a big deal, but that doesn't mean it's impossible. "Nothing I've found so far would allow for us as private investigators to gain access to medical records. Not legally." she admits. "But … theoretically, we could hire a medical investigator. They would be licensed to look at records that do not include personally identifying information, looking for the patterns you're thinking of. It's possible that the files they'd see would include enough information that they could then give to us, that we might be able to track down the kids from there." She nods to Honeymoon's suggestion. "For taking a national search for missing kids, I would absolutely start there. No question. And I'd say of all of us, Honeymoon is the one most likely to get somewhere with them. I can look into the medical investigator. Preferably, I guess, someone with WHO, NIH or CDC clearance."
At Honeymoon's speech about the gift of the gun, Mary Jane gawps a moment, and then just wows softly. "That's a lot. Thanks." She's a tad stunned. But she does reach over, knowing the gun is stupid-MJ-safe at the moment, and run her fingers over it. "I know. Gotta wipe it down, later. Take my oily fingerprints off it." She has been reading about such things. This was going to be a bit of practical, before she panicked.
Kate Bishop shrugs. "We could go through them… I think it may take too long. I'd prefer to search directly through police reports, if we could. I know it may be difficult, but.." She looks to Mary Jane as she makes the suggestion. "Sounds good. Find some people and do a good background check. When you have something, give me their files before we make a call." She gets up and makes herself a cup of coffee, placing herself above the lovers exchanging gifts. It's time to be the Boss. "Listen." She says, as she slowly walks to the desk and takes a seat on the corner. "This is big. Bigger than anything we've dealt with before. We're not looking at a single perp. We're not looking to gather evidence for a trial." She swallows nervously then looks between the two. "I want this information, whether we get it legally or not. I'll understand if you want to back off. You're still part of the team and you'll still get paid. I just.." Her eyes water. "These are kids… not much younger than us.. who have been tortured and killed, and we think…" She stops, regaining composure. "We have strong belief that our own government is behind this." She says, as the weight of the room feels heavier.
"This is what we're up against. This is why it's so important, both to me, and the client." She sniffles, wiping her face. "Again… You both have the chance to walk away from the case. Sally and I can try to work it ourselves, but…" She looks both in the eyes. "I could really use the two of you on this."
"Going though the police files will be slower." Honeymoon doesn't even give Kate's "you can get out now" speech a second thought. Its tossed out in the rubbish bin where it belongs. "Going through the thousands of police reports of missing kids in this entire country for the last year? It'll take us weeks. Going down the Virginia and asking around? It will take me a weekend. The idea's simple. Other people have already combed through the police reports and the FBI reports. Better to pick their brains and narrow down our search parameters. But you're the boss. If you want me to start combing through reports I'll do it. In a few weeks, I'll have a list for you."
Mary Jane tries not to let her lovely green eyes widen in shock as her Boss shows such emotion … and explains how big, and dangerous, and scary, this is. "It … uhm. OK." She curses softly - a shocking thing. MJ almost never uses foul language. "I'm no hacker, Kate. I don't even know any really good ones. But that's what we'd need if you want to shave more time off of this. Otherwise, I'd have to suggest we go with Honeymoon's idea, and I get started looking for the medical investigators immediately. I just hope it's enough."
Kate Bishop looks to Honey and nods. "No, no… if you think you can get it done faster, than please do it. I just didn't know if there was a way to skim through the reports and look for shared keywords.. Also, if the Center's already done that work for us then we're that much closer." She nods then to MJ. "Exactly.. but I want the client to get a look at who we hire for the medical, see…" She sighs.. "Well, let's just say that it's important who we look at. There may be a compromise within any of those organizations. get me the backgrounds on people you like, and I'll bring them to the client. They'll have a way of looking deeper into their backgrounds." She says, placing a hand on both of the girls' shoulders. "Thank you… Really. Both of you." She wipes her eyes. "If you want to take some time off before working on this, go ahead. Take a long lunch or something. On me." She hands both girls a couple hundred dollars each.
Honeymoon takes the cash. "This should cover the train and the motel." She says as she folds the bills and slips them into her pocket. "I'll head down as soon as I leave here. I don't know anyone in that office." GASP! "But I'm pretty sure I know someone who knows someone. That should get me inside. For the record, your idea has merit but we'd still need to go department by department. Each has their own database." She gets to her feet. "Oh! I have something for the office." She walks over to her bag and opens it up, then yanks out a hatbox. From inside that she produces a yellow fedora with several bullet holes in it. She tosses it into the desk. "Tada!" She says, as if this thing were as worthy of veneration as a Smithsonian relic.
Mary Jane starts to protest the money, but instead shushes up, nodding and folding it, tucking it into her sort-of-pocket pocket. "I do have one more idea. But … I don't know who has a contact we could use to accomplish this." MJ starts, stopping at the production of … the hat! She barely resists groaning. She's already sure that's one of 'granddad's' hats. "I know another place where there's a central repository of missing persons' and kidnapping cases." Beat. Pause. "The FBI. They'd have it all cataloged, from all over the country. And feds love mega-unified databases. It would all be in one place, in one index. If we could get to it." She glances at Honeymoon. "Who put the holes in granddad's hat that time?"
Kate Bishop groans at Honeymoon and gives her another two hundred. "If you have any other expenses, get me receipts and I'll reimburse you. You're also on the clock." She gasps when she sees the hat. "We'll need to get a glass case for it. That's awesome, Honey, Thank you." She turns to MJ and nods. "I'll look into it. Our client has connections." To say the least. "Thank you both again. Now go.. Have fun or something… Whatever you kids are calling it these days.."
Mary Jane glances at Kate questioningly, and then at Honey, back and forth. "Wait. What?"