The Dulcet Sound of My Voice: Research... So much research

[x-trance.livejournal.com]

Doug and Cara work to figure out under which identity Scanner and Garrulous are operating.

The two white boards that dominated one wall were mostly empty. The only things on there were two A5 sized photo's with the names and code names of Garrulous and Scanner next to it. And a list with all the Delegates and Senators of the Virginia General Assembly hung next it. The large table they were seated around had a couple of laptops on it, otherwise it was also mostly empty.

“Okay.”  Doug cracked his knuckles and flexed his fingers like a concert pianist preparing to take the stage.  “Let’s get this party started.”  He began probing at the statehouse’s firewall.  “This probably won’t take too long,” he said with the confidence of someone who had been an accomplished hacker even before he’d gained mutant powers.

“If you say so,” Cara said with a grin. While she wasn’t completely inept when it came to computers, she wasn’t anywhere near as experienced as Doug.

A statehouse couldn’t muster much resistance to a guy who had hacked a meat computer from the inside out, and within minutes, Doug had Senator Burton’s computer open and bare.  He tapped a few keys and brought up the Outlook calendar of meetings and appointments.  “You know the players better than me, so sing out if you spot something,” he told Cara as he scrolled along.

“‘K,’ Cara said, eyes fixed on the screen as Doug scrolled through the calendar. She took note of all the names and organizations as they went past, analyzing them in her head as she read them.

“Wait, hold up a second,” she said, reaching out to tap Doug on the shoulder. “That one right there, the Tanner Society for Children.”

“Hnh.  Not familiar with that name.”  Granted, there were many small anonymous-sounding political organizations like it, especially at the state level, but…  “Hang on.”  He cross-checked the date of the meeting against the Senator’s press conference announcing the bill…  “I think we might have a winner,” he said, pointing at the gap of only two days.

***

CJ and Hope discuss who the most likely targets are.

The two young women had dragged of their chairs to a quiet corner away from the other. "You knew him longer then I did, CJ." Hope stated. "I mean, I remember Gabe convincing the staff what he wanted, but I never quite got the measure of how effective his hypersuasion is."

"It's...um," CJ blushed very slightly, "it should work."  With a sigh, CJ gave Hope the slightest of smiles, "Thank you for coming, by the way."

"You're welcome. And with this, I could not stay away." Hope returned the small smile. "Have you ever seen him succeeding on someone who really didn't want to do something? Because if that is something he cannot manage... we might have a weakness we could use."

"It's hard to tell," CJ bit her lower lip and leaned back on her chair.  "I mean, how can you tell in this business if someone <i>really</i> wants something or not."

"True, true..."Hope let out a frustrated sigh. "I just want some way to sort through those 140 politicians... I mean... we can obviously eliminate those who are leaning towards anti-mutant laws. But who would be the most efficient to target then?"

"No one who has come out as a staunch supporter of the measure," CJ waved her hand.  "The public won't believe the turn, and no one is going to listen to anyone whose already said they're voting against it."

"So they would be going for those in the middle... Depending on what their goal is, they can be turned either way. Then those are the politicians we need to be looking at first."

"I wonder if..." CJ looked straight forward, thinking- an old habit, blocking out any distractions by cutting them out of her worldview.  "I wonder if I can get a read on if someone has been swayed."  

“Let’s put it on the list for ideas. Might be useful a little later.”

***

Hope and Darcy search for likely candidates in the media

"Nothing." Hope folded a copy of of the Richmond Time Dispatch and tossed it in the box below the table, before picking up the next copy. "Except for a brief mention of the bills actually being in committee, there is hardly any news around mutants in Virginia politics. You finding anything in these blogs?"

“Not much, but.. wait, here,” Darcy said as she moved the laptop so Hope could see the active tab. “These titles show a shifting in thought, and it’s fairly abrupt. Not what I’d expect for an opinion changing over time.”

Dropping the paper on the table, Hope stood behind Darcy as she scanned the titles on the screen. “That much of a difference in only three weeks? That sounds off. Is he in any way involved with the bills from what you can find?”

Darcy thought about it for a minute, before slowly replying “I think he’s on the appropriate committee that this would’ve been referred to, but maybe not the subcommittee? So he’d be reading it early, if nothing else?”

Hope pulled out a marker and moved over to one of the white boards. “What is his name? And on which committee does he serve?”

“McPhan and… looks like he’s on General Laws and Tech… so we also need to look at Lockett, Voight, Baker, Black, Gant, and Sorrell? They’re all on the same sub-committee.”

“All right. That is a start.” Hope started writing, first title of the sub-committee, then listing it’s members below it.

***

Darcy and CJ check backgrounds to see who might make a viable target.

One of the white boards had been divided into three columns. The first were the delegates and senators who looked like they were definitely against the bills, the second definitely for the bills, but it was the third that held the most important people: the ones who looked like they could be persuaded on way or another.

“Vaughn’s pretty stridently anti-mutant, assuming he hasn’t had a major attitude adjustment since I was still working in DC. And if he has, then he’s probably a pod person and needs to be checked out as sketch,” Darcy said as she pointed at the whiteboard with a red vine.

CJ stood at the board with a freshly uncapped dry erase marker and circled the Represetative’s name, “I’ve had lunch with some of his interns, so we may be able to find out what we need from them.”  She turned to her partner, and raised an eyebrow as she saw the redvine pointer, “Are you sure you’re treating this as seriously as your should be?”

“Yep, totally,” Darcy responded as she took a bite out of her snack. “This happens to make a great pointer, if not a little floppy at times. Sorrell will go where the money is for most issues. The ‘mutant issue’ isn’t one of her pet issues, so if she’s not getting money thrown at her then she’ll probably vote with the majority.”

Quirked lips responded to Darcy’s astute observation.  It took CJ a moment to collect herself, “If they have the backing of the Foundation...but no, that was destroyed….”  She turned back to the board, “Do records indicate anything...untoward?” she asked, trying not to let her fluster show.

“Not that I’ve noticed yet. But if they’re smart the money’s gonna get bundled under something that looks fairly normal for the candidate… so something that donates a lot, but maybe a new ‘small’ version of the org, so it looks like small offshoots of the parent group or something? It’s what I would do in that position,” Darcy mused. “If we can figure out what fund it is, though…”

“As the reporters say,” CJ pulled the white board another inch-or-two away from the wall, before flipping it over to a blank side.  “We follow the money.”

***

Doug and Hope hack a phone and get information that way.

“Okay, so.  The Tanner Society for Children.”  Doug pursed his lips.  “Such an innocuous name.  I definitely don’t trust that.”  He supposed that said something about his level of cynicism.  “However, most nonprofits these days use similar voice-over-IP setups for their phone system.”  He grinned wolfishly at Hope.  “Which means that we can take an existing number that we know is theirs, and use it to backend the system and find all the numbers that -they- called.”

“So we can figure out whom they have been in touch with. That would be extremly helpful. I mean, we can do all the mapping we want on whom they might have been in touch with, but we need to know for sure. Now we can cross-reference it.” Hope commented as she took her seat next to Doug.

“And see what patterns arise.  Precisely.”  Doug grinned.  “Are you ready to do your very best ‘bored call center drone’ impression?” he asked Hope as the first of the numbers started showing up from the data dump he had triggered in the Tanner Society phone system.

“Of course I am.” Hope lifted her phone and dialed the first number. “Sir, this is the IRM Research Group. We do an inquiry into charitable giving. Would be willing to awnser some questions for us?” A long reply erupted from the other site of the line. “Then I am very sorry for interrupting your evening, sir. May I note your name so I can add you to our list of people not to be called again… Yes, this would also be for other inquiries.” Hope scribbled down a name as she winked at Doug.

Doug smirked.  His very own baby grifter, spreading her wings.  He silently queued up more numbers for her to begin calling.

Hope finished her call and returned the smile. “One down, more then twenty more to go.” She commented as she dialed the next number.

***

Doug hacks the appointment books of the possible politicans to see who has been in contact with Scanner and Garrulous.

Writing in black, blue and green covered the whiteboards as CJ stood before one of them, a red marker in her hand.  She struck another name off the list, before moving the butt of the marker to her mouth- the end was already very chewed.  "What about Senator Dubois?  He's been very supportive of the measure."

Doug typed a few commands into his laptop, hopscotching between appointment books of various delegates and senators, seeing who had taken meetings with the Tanner Society and might have been affected.  “Nope,” he finally said after parsing through some data.  “Looks like he’s just your garden variety conservative bigot.”

“I’m not sure if I should be relieved or not,” she struck the Senator’s name from the list, before returning the marker to her mouth and thinking.  After a few moments of silence she sighed and turned to her partner, “I don’t suppose you know an easier way than playing battleship with this data.”

“Hm.  Give me a couple minutes,” Doug replied, analyzing and considering the best way to proceed in his head.  “I think I have something that might do the trick,” he said, bringing up a text editor full of code fragments.  He edited a few lines, pasted in some other items, then compiled and hit a button to send it on its way.  “This will take a little bit, but it should return any mention on the server of the Tanner Society.  Obviously some of it will be just people chattering, but we can weed out the chaff from there instead of going through appointment calendars one at a time.”

CJ stepped forward and looked at the screen in skeptical silence.  “That’s...brilliant,” her gaze shifted to Doug, no longer incredulous, rather filled with new found respect.  A slightly blush crept to her cheeks and she moved back to the white board, fully aware that this man could read her like a book.  “Let me know when it is ready and...I’ll start crossing names off.”

Doug’s eyebrow quirked very minutely, wondering what the blush exactly portended, but he was too polite to push the issue.  Perhaps it was just slight embarrassment at having underestimated him.  Either way, water under the bridge.  “Here we go,” he told CJ, bringing up the first page of results from the query.

***

Hope discusses accessing her own resources with Cara.

"I know it sounds like a bit of a long shot, but now that we know they are actually targeting staff as well... we need to know who they have been talking two. Any chance you could out put out some feelers around any friends you have in Richmond in the political scene? I have asked CJ to do the same..." Hope asked thoughtfully as she tapped a marker against her chin."

“I’ll get right on it, I know a few people off the top of my head who I can ask right away,” Cara replied. Through experience she knew with who she could approach on such matters straight away and who she had to take a more indirect approach.

“It’ll likely take a day or so for me to get all the responses in, but I can keep you posted whenever I get any replies if that helps.”

“It would help a lot. I worry about people whispering in other people’s ears with this… You work in for a mutant thinktank... How many willing ears do you think they could find?” Hope tapped a marker against her chin.

“With enough time and planting enough seeds?” Cara thought for a second, looking skyward and tilting her head a little before returning her gaze to Hope with a half smile. “All of ‘em, roughly.”

She whipped out her phone and started tapping away. “I’ll get on it now, just call me Johnny Appleseed.” Cara paused typing to reconsider that. “Or would it be Jane Appleseed. Janey? Huh.”

“Let’s hope these seeds grow into tasty apples.” Hope murmured. “Because as Hope checked the board, the list of potential names, both politicians, but also lower level staff continued to get longer and longer.

***

Darcy and Cara prepare for some footwork.

The webpage of the tourism board of Richmond and a map of the city were the not most obvious tools in their search, but in this case they came in quite handy as Cara put down a dot in red pencil.

“Alright, I think I’ve highlighted most of the spots here for you,” Cara said, placing the pencil down. She’d written the names of the bars and taverns down on a notepad after checking them out online, and she now nudged that notepad over to Darcy.

“I’ve tried to put them in order of importance as well, though depending on the night and the specials at each place, well, it’s not an exact science, I suppose.”

“Yeah, sometimes it depends on what’s happening at work too. Place X may have better specials, but if you have to be back at work in 5 hours you’re probably going to go wherever is closest to the office or your apartment.” She looked down at the list, unfamiliar with most of the places. “Ooh, and this place has killer grilled cheese and tomato soup on Tuesdays, if I remember right,” she added, tapping on one of the names.

“Ohmygosh you eat there too?!” Cara said, eyes widened. “You’re right, they make it <i>so good</i>, it’s to die for.” She bit her lip, thinking about the deliciousness. “Ok, maybe I should go with you when you go to that spot, yeah. Just to be safe.” Her stomach rumbled as if on cue.

“But seriously, this should do it for you I think. And, grilled cheese deliciousness aside, let me know if you want any company in visiting any of the rest too.”

Darcy grinned. “It’s amazing. Company’s always good, and then there’s two of us if something were to happen. And less likely to be hassled by randos, too.”

“Well that settles it then, it’s a date,” Cara exclaimed with a nod. “Just pick a time and I’ll be there.” She was nothing if not dedicated to the job.

***

Doug teaches Darcy to connect phones.

A third white board had been added, a row of about ten pictures at the top. Below the pictured were names and their positions neatly printed in black marker. But if there were anymore... that was question...

“Ever watch Person of Interest?” Doug asked Darcy.  “The whole force-pairing of phones that they do, to be able to listen in on calls?  Actually based in reality, unlike most Hollywood hacking.  Though these days most phones require user confirmation before any kind of Bluetooth connection is enabled.”  He chuckled.  “But really, that just means it’s a little more challenging to someone like me.”

“I can’t say that I have. I’ve seen some of Leverage though, and don’t they use similar tech occasionally in their heists?” Darcy asked with a wry grin.. “Most of my tech knowledge relates to websites and social media, or radio station equipment. What can this force pairing do?”

“Now there’s a crossover I want to write,” Doug murmured.  “Maybe with a little bit of Global Frequency mixed in for good measure.”  He shook his head, getting back on track.  “Anyway, it’s a lot like syncing up with a Bluetooth earpiece, so you have to be pretty close.  But once it’s done, we can piggyback in, listen to conversations, read text messages, yadda yadda.”

“That sounds easy enough to do,” Darcy said with a nod. “Get close, look to be fiddling with my phone while it’s attaching?”

“Yep.  It’s designed to be pretty easy to deploy, so you don’t have to do a lot that might make you look suspicious.”  Somehow it didn’t surprise Doug that Darcy was taking right to things.  He made a shooing motion.  “Go forth.  Hack the Gibson.”