(2014-10-23) Finding an Expert (Switcheroo)
Finding an Expert
Summary: Dane Whitman finds Detective Pezzini to help with the radiated gorillas (switcheroo - Power Woman is still in Sara's body)
Date: (2014-10-23)
Related: One - will find it
NPCs: None
Scene Runner: NA
Social/Plot: Social
Players:
power-woman..black-knight..

The NYPD has precinct houses and buildings all over the five burroughs, but Manhattan has the most. The majority of the spaces in buildings like this is given over to the activities of the uniformed men and women on patrol - so-called 'radio cars' and 'sector patrol', as well as those who walk the beats or stand guard wher ethey are detailed - but space is also allocated for bureaus of detectives. These plain clothes officers are the professional investigators who help track down the criminals. They can be specialty bureaus - violent crimes, special victims, robbery homicide, intelligence, etc. - or general.

When one comes to the NYPD with a case that is 'weird', one usually finds their way to a select group of detectives. Often, the men - and very few women - in this bureau were viewed as crackpots and weirdos. But with the advent of the second Age of Heroes, some margin of respect as started to creep in. After all, much of the weird and unexplained is nonetheless quite real. And one of those very few women is NYPD Detective Second Grade Sara Pezzini.

That explains why the brunette with the leather jacket and jeans is sitting at her desk today, computer up, working on at least a half-dozen different cases. Or trying. Unfortuantely, while she may be in Sara Pezzini's body, the mind behind those eyes today is actually Kara Zor-L, known to most around the world as Power Woman. And she has spent weeks now, doing the best she can to function as if she were the woman whose body she is wearing, while somewhere out there, Sara Pezzini has been doing her best as Power Woman. Neither has been having a lot of fun with this.

Having touched the surface of one such case, it would seem Dane Whitman has been directed to this particular precinct house and there, further directed towards Detective Sara Pezzini. If the grapevine passes word fast enough, she might know he's coming. It is something involving radiation of some animals of late, the largest profile of this topic would be two gorilla's at the Central Park Zoo that escaped briefly but were captured, then sent to the animal facilities of the NYU Manhattan campus thanks to the assistance of Marvel Girl.

As he was there when they escaped and following the leads of their treatment curious how they came about, Dane Whitman has gotten to the point of suspicion of another involved willfully able to affect the animals and filled with a desire to bring them to justice but not having investigative expertise enough, has gone to the real experts with this.

Though, it is as himself, the Physicist, that Dane arrives to her desk, leather jacket, jeans and a t-shirt, zipped up lightly for the fall weather outside. He knocks (on a door if she has her own office, or a nearby column if she sits in an open room with other investigators), polite to get her attention as he’s directed to her, not wanting to disturb just the same.

The (formerly giant) gorillas are indeed one of the cases on Pezzini's desk. Kara can even - somewhat - remember details of the case, since it dealt with curious science, which she is far more conversant in than the woman whose life she is trying to lead. But it hasn't been a high priority, and the shouts from her detective sergeant have been about other cases so far.

When the tall blonde man arrives, Pezzini looks up, eyeing him carefully, a moment before he knocks. The real Sara would have noticed long before that; Kara in her own body would have known he was there before he reached the second floor. But she's doing the best she can, damnit. "Hello. I am Detective Sara Pezzini. Can I help you, Sir?" she questions, waiting for an explanation. The real Sara likely wouldn't have bothered to be quite that formal, but that's the least of the mistakes Kara has made. "If you're here to see me, why don't you have a seat. Easier on my neck."

Moving to take the seat, he returns, "Hello, yes, I'm Dane Whitman." Not that it means a lot in general, unless someone really love physics and applied hypothetical physics as they enter the quantum age. "I was pointed in your direction. I've been helping, or following, the irradiated gorillas." Moving to get comfortable, so her neck doesn't have to strain, he doesn't leave it to her to simply prod, being forthcoming with informatino.

"I know they were radiated, with no trace of the source. But its a medical condition most associated with human treatment for human cancers. Which made me curious who was doing such research in the New England area," meaning the broader picture, not limiting his curiousity to the city. "As a professor, I have colleagues at schools in the region. I have a list of names, but … and this is why I've come to you. I think there is some way to associated these potential with being near the zoo at the time of the indicent and this could lead to a potential suspect on this case?"

'Pezzini' nods at the introduction, offering her hand to Whitman, and listens without further interruption as he lays things out. She purses her lips momentarily here and there, but says nothing until he is finished. Yet while he continues to talk, she logs out of the case she was in on her computer, and brings up the one on the zoo incident, and then pulls out a folder from the rather neat stack on her desk, pulling out other papers. "Alright, Doctor Whitman. So, you have a list of those who might have the knowledge and experience with these kinds of radioactive elements, and their application to living organisms, to potentially be involved. And you would like to offer me that list, to see who I might be able to cross-check, who might have been in or around the zoo at the time of the incident?" 'Sara' restates the premise, to be sure that she understands. Then she holds out her hand for the materials. "I can certainly do my best, at least."

Nodding as he listens in return, Dane eventually moves to pull out his phone, swiping it to unlock it. "Exactly, I don't mean to pass the buck, as they say. You seem rather busy, but its well beyond my rights to ask the zoo directly for anything like surveillance, to match names and faces." All while he talks, he navigates his apps to pull up where he has the names stored. Turning the screen, there is some info, name, public contact (as professors and it being public knowledge), area of experience. "I can e-mail this to you, unless you want to plug it into a port and just download it." No other secure information on his phone as it is, "I'm rather curious about this, genetics is something of a hobby, but this radiation is a rather quick onset and output."

'Pezzini' quickly fishes out a business card from a stack of them in a holder on her desk and slides it over in front of Whitman, waiting for the email to arrive. "Hey, you're an honest citizen trying to help me with a case. Gift. Horse. Dental procedures. Got it." 'Sara' offers, with a wry grin. "I can pass this off to tech ops, and they'll pore through the surveillance tech. Since the Zoo is a public facility, no warrant needed. So they should be able to get started almost immediately, depending on their workload." Which most assuredly is 'heavy' to 'oh God, we'll never be done!' But 'Sara' has to obey the rules. Or appear to.

Privately, Kara is likely to use a computer somehwere /other/ than the NYPD to connect to systems and servers elsewhere, and process that surveillance data a bit less legally, but a heck of a lot more quickly. Her memory may not be nearly what it was, and her typing speed may suffer for a lack of Kryptonian reflexes. But she's still a woman with years of experience in programming, and she won't hesitate to use it.

"How goes the medical treatment for the animals? Have they caught cancer because of this?" the detective inquires.

The programming experience she has and the better systems, even if less than legal, will serve better in going after the culprit for certain. He quickly sends the e-mail, it being depending on the speed of the police system, his more up to date comencerate with being a professor. Dane then takes the card offered, noting the name and such before tucking it away. "They animals are recovering rather well once away from the radiation that triggered their change. The good news is that the relation to cancer is secondary. The radiation treatment used for human cancer means any cancer assocaited with the process doesn't translate into the animal systems. No traces of cancer or cancer cells found, only the radiation specific to human cancer cell treatment. No hint of an injection or serum used either, which makes this curious. I'm hoping those names might provide some answers." Just its a long list that could take time to beat, or ask individually.

'Sara' accepts the email when it arrives, glances at the list, and then sends it off with a request to tech ops, while BCCing to another account somewhere else. She can work on setting up her tech-savvy hunting later. "OK. So no sign of how it was administered, but it is disappearing normally, without inducing any cancers in the subjects, and with no sign of any human or animal cancers present for the delivery vector." Oops. That's not a cop word, for sure. Must be careful! "I've added that detail to the case file, in the hopes it may help us narrow something down." She's not holding her breath, though. Too bad Power Woman can't actually be the one solving this case.

"Exactly," grins Dane, not quite noticing the slip of non-cop words and more medical oriented ones. "No sign of a vector makes it perplexing. I mean, if it were simply airborne somehow, administered in a gas, they would espect more evidence in the lungs along. Its just seems to permeate their bodies evenly, triggering a rapid growth, with a matching density that keeps their bodies stable at that increased height and weight. Minor adujstments in the skeletal structure, as if accounting for evolution in the process. I suppose it would be like triggering the meta gene in a human that was dormant." From his understanding, not being meta to begin with and not familiar with the research in that realm.

'Sara' considers Dane's further exploration carefully, nodding as he goes along, again without interrupting. She's just absorbing everything, trying to put it all into place and perspective; not having her Kryptonian brain's speed sucks sometimes, as it takes so long to figure things out. The lesser memory hurts too. "Well, we'll see who we can pick out from this list, and then try to pursue some rudimentary understanding of what they've been doing, see if anyone has anything that might tie back to some new form of dispersion or application for a treatment like this." In short, see if anyone else is, in their available open research papers, pursuing a methodology that could lead to this. "If you don't mind leaving me your information, we can make sure to contact you for additional help making sense of the science, when we get to that point."

Reaching into his jacket, he pulls out his own card, it still has the University of London on it, but he's hand scratched his new number in the states on it. "Sorry, no letterhead printed yet," explains Dane at the lack of a new business card for the moment. "If that list of name helps, I'm glad I did my part Dectective Pezzini. If you happen upon any physics mysteries, you're welcome to call too. Taking I lack any formal forensics training into account." Then again, she's with the more 'weird' side of investigations so could be something there all in all. He moves to stand, offering over a hand to her just the same. "Sorry to take you from whatever you were working on," amiable in passing as he close to excusing himself but with that formal apology for simply walking in without much of a prior appointment.

'Sara' accepts the card and lays it down, clearly intending to file that information away promptly - after Dane is gone. "It's not a problem, Doctor Whitman. We appreciate honest citizens doing what they can to help us when we're tasked with a case. True, few of them dare to come down to the station like this. But we still appreciate it." The brunette detective stands, taking Dane's hand, and watches him depart. So much more to do. How does a normal human get it all done?

Good-byes exchanged fade …

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