Emma Henderson - Pattern Recognition

[farothel]

Emma Henderson, FBI agent

 

Emma drove up to the box and pressed the button. When someone answered she gave Veo's name (or shadow name) to be let in. Having some patrol vehicles was interesting, as it clearly indicated there were more Arrows in the NYPD.

 

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[Anthr4xus]

A voice never responded to Emma's press, but after just a moment or two of waiting, the gate rolled aside on it's own. It closed again behind her as she pulled into the lot. By the time she parked, Veo had emerged from a door roughly half way down the length of the warehouse. He waved her over. As she approached he said, "Hey. Glad to have your input. Having someone on the inside of these things always makes things easier."

[farothel]

Emma Henderson, FBI agent

 

"I'm not sure you're going to say that when I tell you why I'm here," Emma said as she closed her car by pointing the keys over her shoulder, "but lead the way and lets get this show on the road."

 

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[Anthr4xus]

Veo leads Emma inside. The interior of the warehouse was obviously divided up between several tenants, massive chain link fences separating large segments. Many appeared to be completely devoid of people, yet massive overhead lights are even spread across the warehouse. The section that Veo leads Emma through appears to be primary a vehicle storage pool for the NYPD. There were more cruisers in various states of repair, as well as a collection of rather high-end looking vehicles ranging from trucks to sports cars. The far end was a fully functional garage, with lifts and massive toolboxes. Emma picked up that the next section over was connected to this one somewhere over there. That section held a huge number of vehicle parts of various types. Half a dozen mechanics in greasy and dirty overalls were working on nearly as many vehicles.

Veo lead Emma to a relatively small freestanding office near the middle of the section, halfway between the parking area and the working zone. The building was only twenty feet on a side, leaving only fifteen feet on either side of it to the chain link. A metal staircase on this side of the building provided access to a second floor. Veo ignored the staircase and took Emma to one side and through and open door. The first floor of the building was a single large utility room. A couple of long, white, folding tables and a dozen folding chairs took up much of the space, although a couple of desks with a plastic covered keyboards and ancient looking monitors sat in opposite corners. A closed door on the other side of the room must lead out of the building, and the walls of the office were whiteboards from roughly waist level to the soundproofing panel ceiling. There were no windows and some kind of muffling yellowed panels lined the walls behind the whiteboards and down the floor. The roof felt stuffy and quiet.

Three other people were in the room and two of them looked up from the obvious grimoires and arcane tomes to look at Emma and Veo. When Veo closes the door, the sounds of the outside world vanish and the third person, seated at the farthest computer with her back to the door, glanced up long enough to look over her shoulder before returning to whatever she was working on. She had a shaved head and wore layers of ripped t-shirts and black bell bottom pants festooned with more zippers and silver chains than could possibly be practical. From the glance that Emma got of her face, she had an equally impressive number of facial and ear peircings and wore an shade of purple lipstick so deep and rich, Emma wondered if she didn't have some kind of minor glamour in place to enhance it.

Of the other two, Emma had to pause for half a second due to how much like Garrison one of them looked. The haircut and mid-priced suit was the same, as was the squarish headshape and ruddy complexion. His mustache was more salt-and-pepper than Garrison's, as was his hair. Their blue-green eyes were nearly the same shade, and they had to be within less than an inch in height as well. Emma was shocked that someone like that could be active in the magical community of New York and she not know of them. That is when she noticed an open folder on the table containing a spread of photos, Garrison's on the top. When Emma glanced back up, Garrison stood there, the will-working having finalized and the illusion put in place. The other figure, a grey haired older man wearing a NYPD Inspector's uniform and badge. His badge bore the name "Hendrix" and he held himself with the same posture that Emma recognized from other high-ranking administrative officers in other law enforcement contexts as well. His steely-grey eyes and solid frame implied control and precision, as did the parade sharp crispness of his uniform. Emma hadn't seen him in his Sleeping capacity, but had seen him out of uniform in the Consilium and under the title of Herald Hederon of Queens. He had been giving Garrison a close look over, but as Veo and Emma entered the room, he raises a single eyebrow and asks, "Aurora?" Garrison smiles at Emma, an expression that undercuts the illusion as Emma knows the only time Garrison smiles like that is when he has someone in cuffs and on the way to the car.

Edited November 21, 2023 by Anthr4xus (see edit history)

[farothel]

Emma Henderson, FBI agent

 

"You're good," Emma said to the face Garrison, "but you need a little more work on the mannerisms. And yes, I am. And before this goes any further, are you really planning on breaking into an FBI evidence locker to steal some artifact. Because that will be a bad idea, I think."

 

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[Anthr4xus]

Garrison adopted a look of surprised concern that Emma wasn't sure she had ever seen on his face before. "What's off? We're still pulling data and samples." he asked in a distinctly non-Garrison voice. It was quite unsettling to hear the voice of someone who must be from Jersey coming out of Garrison's mouth.

Inspector Hendrix squared up, looking at Emma. She immediately got the same feeling as when she questioned a directive from SSA Douglass. Something inherent to senior officers, no doubt. "No one is working under the idea that this is the ideal means to secure these artifacts. Unfortunately, this is a ticking clock situation that requires rapid response. If you have other approaches, or suggestions on how you can help minimize risk all around, please throw it out there. If things had gone as they should have," this he adds with a glare at Veo, "the actual artifacts would have never wound up in your lockup in the first place. We've been in cleanup mode since then."

[farothel]

Emma Henderson, FBI agent

 

"If you do that, there will be a lot of investigation," Emma explained, "especially since those people have loads of lawyers to keep the investigations up. Why don't we just put a tracker in them somewhere and then get them when the people who got them have them back. That way we can avoid an investigation - or at least direct it somewhere else - and you can check out who those people are."

 

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[Anthr4xus]

The woman at the computer coughed lightly, obviously trying to pull attention and pointed at one of the folders on the table. The folder had a spread of pictures of the artifacts. Emma could tell these were copies of the lab photos that would have been taken as a first step in their indexing during intake. The door behind her opened for a moment and a short man with a long curly black beard entered, carrying what looked like the mirror-like helm that Emma had put on from the van. He drew up short at the sight of Emma, his eyes obviously cutting to Inspector Hendrix and Veo. "Oh, hello." he said, his voice surprisingly deep and smooth, reminiscent of Barry White.

The Inspector's eyes never left Emma's face. He said, "As you can see, we are taking steps to minimize exposure. While rare, this is not the first time we have had a breach like this."

[farothel]

Emma Henderson, FBI agent

 

"When are you going to do this," Emma asked, "I'm not sure how long we can keep the lawyers out. And where do you get that helmet? Is that another one, as there was one of those in the items we have in our evidence locker."

 

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[Anthr4xus]

The short bearded man smiled, beaming with pride. "Pretty good visual match, right? Of course the physical properties won't stand up to detailed analysis, but as long as nobody looks too close, if it's just sitting in a box on a shelf say, it should be an easy swap."

The Inspector nodded, once, and said, "The helmet has been carefully manipulated by our friend Veritum here. It's only notable property is that it is as close a visual and tactile match to the target artifact as possible. We expect to have the rest of the stand-ins ready by late morning. We are tentatively looking at tomorrow night to do the swap. Do you think you can hold off the lawyers for another 24 hours? We will be looking into them and Kingdom Requisitions once we have the artifacts out of sleeper hands."

[farothel]

Emma Henderson, FBI agent

 

"I'll do my best, but I can't make any promises," Emma asked, "and if you're going to swap them out, it's okay with me. I'll be out tomorrow night, so I'll have an ironclad alibi should they ever question this. And I have the distinct feeling those guys actually know what they have somehow. Even for old stuff, the prices they put on their list when the asked for those things back where quite high."

 

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[Anthr4xus]

"We've been keeping an eye on Kingdom Acquisitions for a while now. While I understand your drive to be as far away from this as possible, if you were willing to be a man on the inside, that might be even better to smooth things over and assure a smooth swap. Hell, given your access to the case, it might be easier for you to do that actual swap itself. Would you be open to that?" Inspector Hendrix asked. Emma noticed that the other mages in the room had grown still and quiet as everyone waited on her response.

[farothel]

Emma Henderson, FBI agent

 

"Well, not tomorrow night," Emma said, "I already have something else planned. Something personal. But if you come in tomorrow disguised as one of those lawyers, I can show you the items and you can do the swap at that moment. Then later when I release them to the real lawyers, they aren't the wiser. And even if they know the items are swapped, they can hardly say out loud."

She wasn't about to postpone her date for something illegal, no matter how much she agreed with it. But she was willing to offer a compromise.

 

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[Anthr4xus]

Inspector Hendrix looked to the bald woman at the computer. She tapped at the keyboard and after a moment said, "That's going to be difficult, although there might be something there. Yeah, we've got some native items in the mix. Ok. Aurora, right?" she said this with a glance at Emma before she continued, "Can you try to position yourself to be available when a visitor stops by tomorrow. Mysterio here," a head nod indicates Garrison, "or maybe Veo, will come by in the afternoon to do a cultural assessment. The request is already in the system, we'll just swap out the 'expert'. If you can run cover for them, we might be able to facilitate the swap then. Worse case, we get what we can and come back later for the rest. Sound workable?" The eyes of the rest of the team turn to Emma.

[farothel]

Emma Henderson, FBI agent

 

"That's no problem," Emma said, wondering how they were going to manage that.

"There's more than enough paperwork to keep me in the office, unless something develops of course. So best as quickly as possible."

 

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