nick_garou | Phonecalls in the night. (Reply)

Phone call between Thomas and Nick

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Ring, ring, or cellphone equivalent. It's Thomas's number.

The phone picks up on the third ring. "Hello? Ah. Mr. Lee. How are you?" Nick inquires.

"Been better," Thomas replies. "Been worse. Ended up having to move faster on the raven killer than I would've liked, so now I got a situation I'm handling. Figured I'd ring you, let you know what's what, in case anything gets hairy."

Nicodemus replies, "Oh, that sounds... promising? I guess? Be careful, whatever you do. Have we figured out yet who's behind the shooting? One of Mr. Oogey Boogie's hired Russian goons?"

Thomas says slowly, "I don't think so..." There's something hesitant about how he says it, however. "See, him? He and his goons were using regular guns, regular bullets, and his goons didn't know anything supernatural was going on. This guy..." A beat. "You remember Eddy Jones, from the park? Short blond hair, ex spec ops, possible child murderer?"

The surpise in Nick's voice is obvious. "No way. Seriously?" Hesitation, then... "Did he spot Val? Shit."'.

Thomas pages: Dunno. It's worse than you're thinking, Dalton. This wasn't him being a bored shit taking potshots at birds. I followed him for a while. His pattern? Real methodical. Systematic grid pattern search throughout the city. He ain't saying a word about why yet, but I checked his gun magazines. He kept swapping them out at the end of the day, and keeping the pistol under his pillow with his hand on it. Expecting trouble. Feathers ever tell you about gold?"

Nicodemus mutters over the phone, "Yes. Fuck. This is not good. Not good at all." He makes a suggestion. "Hunter? Networked Spec Ops branch of the government? Or are you working off some other possibility?"

"Two gold bullets," Thomas confirms. "Don't know. This don't smell quite like that, but it's possible. Most folk don't know about the gold thing. Ravens keep it pretty quiet. What I'm thinking? Judging by the text messages on his phone and his general attitude, before and now, I'm thinking he wanted to get someone after him. I'm thinking the Wolves' paranoia was right, and he was trying to draw out any Ravens. He's working with someone, he ain't remotely intimidated, and he was dropping lots've hints that I had no idea what I was messing with and that he was gonna wait for the calvary. I'm thinking kinfolk. Could be he's a shifter himself, but he's had plenty've opportunity so far, and he ain't trying anything. Black Spiral Wolves, maybe, but..."

Nicodemus offers up another suggestion. "Or kin to the fallen. Or fallen kin." A beat. "Makes sense, actually. I think. Maybe he's been stalking Naomi. Keeping tabs on her to see who she associates with. Spreading the net to see what turns up. But I'm speculating here now. Wildly, I might add." He asks, "What've you got in mind? Memory wipe?"

Thomas pages: There's a moment of silence, and then, "Nah. Not yet, anyway. Gonna see if anyone does turn up, and if they do, I'm expecting fallen Wolves, yeah. Possibly one've the Corax they take, which'd explain the target of choice. Gonna see if I can't trick him into telling me anything more." A beat. "Confronted him with the murder. Even flat out called him a serial pedophile who could only get off with children. You throw something like that at someone who ain't strangled a little girl and is perfectly comfortable with it, he's at least going to try denial. So, got my answer at least. Which makes me think fallen kin even more, 'cause they tend to be tainted. Messed up in the head."

Nicodemus offers, "I could look the guy over. See what I could see. You know where he sleeps?" How does A relate to B here? And then he's off on another tangent. "I don't normally poke around in people's heads, but I think, in this instance, we're dealing with extraordinary circumstances. I might make an exception."

Thomas clears his throat. "Well, right now, he's with me, and he's probably having all sorts've weird dreams. Gonna warn you, Dalton, if you decide to poke, and our suspicions are right, you might actually want a memory wipe."

"There's a cough-like sound on the other end of the phone. "In for a penny, in for a pound. Tape the phone to his ear. Plug the other one so that sound is muffled. And what's the address you've got him at?"'.

Thomas rattles off the address--it's some boarded up old warehouse in the nastier parts of southern St. Claire that's been closed and unused for years. "...Be careful. I ain't got any way of knowing if his friends are nearby or not."

Nicodemus seems to reconsider whatever he's about to do. "Sorry. You know what? This is not something to go into half-cocked and unprepared. Give me some time. Maybe a day? And I'll see what I can come up with for this situation." He inquires, "How long are you planning on detaining him? Also? Be aware that if he doesn't check in, or if someone else is watching him and notices a break in a pattern, you might get some visitors questing about with stones in your neighborhood."

"You got it," Thomas replies. "And frankly, I ain't planning on letting him go, unless we need him for fishing out the others. Visitors are what I'm hoping and worried about. Got a plan. Might get messy."

Nicodemus replies with an oddly cold, "Good. Good. It's good to know you're too clever to be caught with your pants down, Mr. Lee. Take care, and I'll get to work on things at this end."

Thomas actually laughs. "Remind me to tell you when I had just that happen with a whole pack've pissed off vampires. Talk to you soon, Dalton. Be careful." Click.

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Eddy's as good as dead unless Thomas uses that mind-wipe trick he knows on the guy. I'm not even sure if that'd work. At this point, with Eddy kidnapped, we MUST know what he knows and who he's talking to. Now. I'm going to have to mindrape him to protect Thomas, Val, Naomi... the whole sept. It'd be easier to come by and do that in person, but holy hell, if Eddy has connections and they realize he's gotten captured, they'll probably be tracking him down with Questing Stone or Sense the Prey--or something else if it's not a Spiral or a Buzzard behind all this. There's no way I'm going near that place. Thomas seems to have it all under control, though.

Let me gather up some stuff--and myself--and I'll use some Correspondence magick to mindrape Eddy from afar. This is going to be full-on vulgar magick. I've never RIPPED thoughts from someone's mind before--it was all subtleties and gentleness. An inadvertent volunteering of thoughts. This is not going to be pleasant on a number of levels.

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Phone call between Brad and Nick

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Brad phones again, if this goes to voicemail again, asks for the phone contact of Terminus.

Nicodemus picks up on the second ring. "Hello?"

Against background noise of a television playing commercials, Brad says "Hello? This is Brad Killdeer. Am I talking to Nick Dalton? Hold on." There's the sound of steps, a door opening and closing, and the television sound abruptly reduces. "Hello?"

Nicodemus replies through the phone. "Yeah, this is Nick. Everything okay?"

"Yeah. Listen, you work with Terminus? Would you recommend them for their security systems? Can you give me their contact number? I spoke with Ms. Lopez about them, but I didn't get a number.

Nicodemus replies immediately with a number. He then repeats it. "Talk to Suzanne. Tell her you want the 'friends and family' discount. And if you need people to install it, tell her that, too." He adds, "Tell Val to keep her head down. Things are afoot. I can't give any details, though. I don't have them yet."

Brad says, "Okay, thanks. That was me earlier if you saw a missed call. Val's itchy about not going into the city. Hope this gets resolved soon.

Nicodemus responds with, "Tell her it's still being worked on and might be resolved soon. Depending on a few factors. Sorry, but I've got to let you go or I'm not going to get this work I have to do done. Talk to you later, and I'll call Val and you if we have good news soon. Bye." *Click!*

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It would appear that my paranoia alarm is not the only one going off. I decided to ask the magic 8-ball if I should interrogate Eddy now instead of later. WITHOUT A DOUBT. Oh, great. Ritual circle in glow-in-the-dark chalk on the floor. Time to call Thomas back.