House of Wind - Enlisting the Locals

[x-jetstream.livejournal.com]

Haroun stops by to visit Inspector Cardoso to enlist the aid of Rio's finest in locating Nathan.



"... limits to what I can do, unfortunately," Joao Cardoso said as he sat back down at his desk, setting the stack of files down. The police captain had been obviously startled to see Haroun show up this morning, but perfectly cordial afterwards. He clearly still remembered the help the X_Men had given the previous August in the hostage situation at St. Isabel's school, and considered it something of an unpaid debt, to judge by how quickly he had set the rest of the business of his day aside to do what he could to help Haroun. "Unfortunately, our city has a number of private airfields. We've always found it difficult to track flights coming in, particularly private planes."

Haroun nodded. "I'm not unsympathetic to your problems, but are you familiar with the concept of the broken arrow? In the United States of America, it is how their military refers to a nuclear device that is outside their control. Well, Senhor Cardoso, the man we are trying to find is our own broken arrow." he said. "I am not trying to alarm you unduly, merely to give you an idea of the magnitude of the problem." As he spoke he couldn't stop playing with his very new and very shiny wedding band on his ring finger.

Cardoso smiled faintly. "I said there was limits to what I could do," he pointed out, "not that I was unwilling to explore them. I have two of my officers already making calls," he said, inclining his head towards the door of his office and the squad room. "I could perhaps do more if you and your friends would register an official complaint. Kidnapping is a very serious offense."

Haroun stepped back and triggered his team comm. ~Jetstream to Command.~ he subvocalized. ~Local agent is suggesting that we should register an official complaint about Nate being kidnapped. Might expedite things. Orders?~

Haroun stepped back forwards and spread his hands in a very apologetic gesture. "Unfortunately, we cannot register an official complaint at this time. To do so would unduly tip our hand and might spook our quarry into that broken_arrow scenario I mentioned. We have our own people canvassing the city looking for leads." he offered. "We know that the statue of your Savior..." and he couldn't keep himself from frowning just a bit as he spoke
"... features into the kidnapping. We're concentrating our search in that area for now."

"Features into the kidnapping?" Cardoso grimaced a little, more from helplessness than anything else. "This sounds like a very complicated situation, my friend. The one who's been kidnapped... is this a member of your team from last August?"

Haroun nodded. "The tall one with grey hair." he said. "A telepath and telekinetic. Strong one."

Cardoso shook his head a little, rising from his chair again. "This city owes your people a debt for what you did that night, whether or not it's be publicly acknowledged. I'll set some more officers on the problem _ I can't do that long_term without an official complaint, but I have a certain amount of flexibility in the short term."

Haroun shook the man's hand, then glanced at his chrono. "Do you happen to have a small space that I could borrow for the next ten minutes or so?" he asked.

Cardoso raised an eyebrow. "There's an empty office down the hall, third door to the right. Feel free. And please don't leave until you give me a way to contact you in case my people turn up something." He smiled faintly. "We may need to talk again about making this official if direct action is required."

"I will be back shortly." he said, and walked off to that empty office. He closed the door behind him, kicked off his boots, and knelt to pray to Mecca. A short set of prayers this time _ Allah would understand _ and when he was done he put his boots back on, laced them up, then retreated from the office to head back to Cardoso's desk.

"Have a seat," the captain offered when Haroun returned. "Would you like some coffee?"

"Yes, please." he said with a pleased smile. He borrowed the captain's pen and one of his business cards to jot a number down on the back. "If you stumble across anything that you think might help, contact us at that number." he said, pushing the card across the desk and replacing the pen.

"And if you come across anything," Cardoso said, taking the card, "I trust you'll let me know." Debts were debts, but this was his city.

"Of course. We have a good working relationship here and we have no intention of jeopardizing it." he said mollifyingly. "We want this resolved just as quickly and thoroughly as you do."

"Mmm," Cardoso said, pouring a cup of coffee and handing it to him, while securely tucking the card into the inside pocket of his suit. "Well, we began well enough, your people and mine. We'll simply have to ensure we continue as successfully as we started."

Haroun nodded and then sipped from his coffee. In Brazil, even the crappy office coffee was delicious. Must be nice, living in a country that produced the stuff.