Operation: Mad Men - Guilty Secrets
Jun. 6th, 2018 01:39 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
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xp_logsWhile looking through Kevin's files, Gabe and Nina uncover an odd bit of information.
While people liked to joke about Kevin's grousing about new technology, it was apparent as soon as they opened his computer that the man at least took it seriously when he used it. His files were meticulously organized and updated, using a tagging protocol that Domino had written a few years ago to quickly correlate information between sources. The rest of the computer was still in default settings and his personal folders were empty. Only a Hearts program that had logged a significant number of games was an obvious sign of any personal use.
"I don't know whether to be proud or disappointed," Dom said as they were greeted by the pristine desktop - the default wallpaper hadn't even been replaced with something less soulless. "I guess it'll make our job easier, at least."
"Yeah," Gabriel agreed. "To be honest, I wasn't even sure he knew how to use this thing, so, there you go." He scratched his nose. "Are there paper files too, you think? Or have you fully converted him to the digital era?"
"Oh, no way. Old habits die hard - he's bound to have hard copies of some stuff around here. Probably in those old metal filing cabinets you could hide from a nuclear blast in. You look for that, I'll get to work here."
"Great." Gabriel let out the smallest of sighs. He started to walk away then turned to look at her. "This is weird, right? I mean, it feels weird. Digging into his shit? Like, I know it's the same as any other job, but it's also not."
Dom gave a shrug, screwing her face up in agreement. "Yeah, it's weird. I guess you're always told you might have to look into anyone, even your team, but it's weird to actually be doing it. At least he hasn't gone rogue or anything - we're trying to help him, not take him down."
"Mmmm. Yeah." Gabriel just nodded. "True." He stood there, silent for a second, then shrugged and smiled. "Okay. Filing cabinets. I'll get to it." He pulled out his phone and tapped a few screens. "Might take me a while, even with my unique set of skills. Never had the patience to pay attention to filing systems or any of that shit."
"Just make sure you put things back as you find them. When he's back on his feet the last thing we need is him popping a vein because we misfiled something essential."
When he was back on his feet. Not if. If didn't even bear thinking about.
***
"Hokay, wow. D'you want to start, or should I?"
"You go." Gabriel plopped a sheaf of papers (some tucked neatly in folders, others spilling out from them precariously) onto the desk next to Sydney's laptop. "I'm a little peaked. One sec." He disappeared ever so briefly, then returned three seconds later with two mugs of coffee. He extended one to Dom. "Here."
"Thanks." She took a sip, furrowing her brow as she looked at the computer in front of her. "So there really isn't a lot on the Sapiens League here - less than I expected, at least. And there's some stuff on HELIOS but it's old, nothing remotely recent. Most of the recent stuff is about the SL leader, but there's no identity attached, just a bunch of stuff about their exploits, stuff getting more violent, spreading collateral damage. Basically a change in their MO but no underlying reason why or who's responsible."
"Yeah, the dead-tree files are the same." Gabriel shrugged before slumping down into a seat. He squeezed his cup tighter, as if to leech some warmth from it. "Seems like they're getting as extreme as everyone else these days, you know? Like they don't really care about who's in their way. Very goal-oriented."
He took a sip. "Wish we knew who was behind it, though." He put his mug on the table. "I don't think he knew either, but..." He perked up a bit. "There was this one thing, though." It was the kind of detail he thought Sydney would have been proud that he'd spotted. "Kinda curious — this satellite thing... hold on." He picked up a stack of papers and started rifling through it.
"Satellite thing?" Dom turned her seat towards Gabe, craning her head to watch him thumbing through the sheaf of papers. She'd found some satellite surveillance stuff while going through his folders but had quickly dismissed it as irrelevant. Had he managed to find something to prove her wrong?
"Yeah, it's weird, hold on, hold on." Gabriel put his powers to use so he could, effectively, speed-sort and speed-read. A few seconds later, he handed a folder to Dom. "Sorry, okay, look, at this. There's — it's not a regular thing, but he's got this weird recon thing every now and then in Maryland. I don't know what's going on there. And then the pictures are weird too."
Gabriel grabbed the folder back from Dom without really asking. He pulled out a few photos and spread them out on the table. In one, a small girl was sitting on a swing, a small paperback in hand. In another, she was lounging in a yard. His eyes fell to a third, where she appeared to be relaxing on the edge of a dock, her feet in the water. "Like," he looked up at her, eyebrows raised, "what do these have to do with HELIOS?"
"I have no friggin' clue. You said it was in Maryland?" At Gabriel's nod she turned back to the computer, fingers flying over the keyboard as she started a search of the files she had already been paging through. "Okay, right, I've got records for the surveillance footage, looks like it started last year and it's concentrated just on this area. Wait, not even area - just on this house. What the fuck."
She repeated the phrase under her breath a couple times and pulled up a new search, this one for housing deeds in the Chesapeake Bay area. It wasn't quite speedy enough for Gabriel, but it didn't take her long to find what she was looking for. "Huh. Looks like it's owned by a Christopher Sydney - and guess who had it before him?"
"No shit?" Gabriel peeked over her shoulder. "Huh." He blinked a few times. "I mean..." He crossed his arms and looked at her. "What the fuck?"
"I mean, we knew he had to have family," Dom replied, though she didn't sound overly convinced of this fact herself. "It's not like he's from space."
"I mean, I don't know," Gabriel shrugged. "I don't really think of him as having a family." He scratched the back of his neck. "He's like, a hundred years old, for one thing, and..." He wasn't sure how to finish that sentence, but he couldn't help but think about the conversation he and Sydney had on Valentine's Day. About grief and identity and family. "I dunno," he finally said again as he looked at the photos. "I kind of assumed he didn't really have anyone. Other than you, I guess."
Gabriel grabbed his mug off the table and looked up at her. "I don't know what this has to do with the Sapiens League, though."
"Yeah, I dunno. I've never really looked into his background - it's his own business, you know, not mine. But if there's some sort of link, or something we can find out that might help him now..." Dom trailed off, still uncomfortable with the idea of poking around Kevin's family tree. If he had kept it from her it must've been for a good reason, even if that reason was 'it's none of your business'. "I'll do some digging and let you know what I find. Who knows what's relevant at this point. The more information we're armed with the better."
"Yeah." Gabriel nodded. "And I guess I can go back through these," he nodded toward the stacks of papers he'd collected, "a bit more carefully. Less speed-reading." He gave her a grin. "See what I did there?"
"Yeah, you're hilarious," she replied dryly. "I'll email you anything I find out." She and Kevin would've already split the work according to their strengths and contacts and gotten to it - it was strange re-establishing those practices with someone else. Not for the first time she covered a wave of sadness with annoyance that he had gotten himself shot. "Now clear out, I need some time to think."
While people liked to joke about Kevin's grousing about new technology, it was apparent as soon as they opened his computer that the man at least took it seriously when he used it. His files were meticulously organized and updated, using a tagging protocol that Domino had written a few years ago to quickly correlate information between sources. The rest of the computer was still in default settings and his personal folders were empty. Only a Hearts program that had logged a significant number of games was an obvious sign of any personal use.
"I don't know whether to be proud or disappointed," Dom said as they were greeted by the pristine desktop - the default wallpaper hadn't even been replaced with something less soulless. "I guess it'll make our job easier, at least."
"Yeah," Gabriel agreed. "To be honest, I wasn't even sure he knew how to use this thing, so, there you go." He scratched his nose. "Are there paper files too, you think? Or have you fully converted him to the digital era?"
"Oh, no way. Old habits die hard - he's bound to have hard copies of some stuff around here. Probably in those old metal filing cabinets you could hide from a nuclear blast in. You look for that, I'll get to work here."
"Great." Gabriel let out the smallest of sighs. He started to walk away then turned to look at her. "This is weird, right? I mean, it feels weird. Digging into his shit? Like, I know it's the same as any other job, but it's also not."
Dom gave a shrug, screwing her face up in agreement. "Yeah, it's weird. I guess you're always told you might have to look into anyone, even your team, but it's weird to actually be doing it. At least he hasn't gone rogue or anything - we're trying to help him, not take him down."
"Mmmm. Yeah." Gabriel just nodded. "True." He stood there, silent for a second, then shrugged and smiled. "Okay. Filing cabinets. I'll get to it." He pulled out his phone and tapped a few screens. "Might take me a while, even with my unique set of skills. Never had the patience to pay attention to filing systems or any of that shit."
"Just make sure you put things back as you find them. When he's back on his feet the last thing we need is him popping a vein because we misfiled something essential."
When he was back on his feet. Not if. If didn't even bear thinking about.
***
"Hokay, wow. D'you want to start, or should I?"
"You go." Gabriel plopped a sheaf of papers (some tucked neatly in folders, others spilling out from them precariously) onto the desk next to Sydney's laptop. "I'm a little peaked. One sec." He disappeared ever so briefly, then returned three seconds later with two mugs of coffee. He extended one to Dom. "Here."
"Thanks." She took a sip, furrowing her brow as she looked at the computer in front of her. "So there really isn't a lot on the Sapiens League here - less than I expected, at least. And there's some stuff on HELIOS but it's old, nothing remotely recent. Most of the recent stuff is about the SL leader, but there's no identity attached, just a bunch of stuff about their exploits, stuff getting more violent, spreading collateral damage. Basically a change in their MO but no underlying reason why or who's responsible."
"Yeah, the dead-tree files are the same." Gabriel shrugged before slumping down into a seat. He squeezed his cup tighter, as if to leech some warmth from it. "Seems like they're getting as extreme as everyone else these days, you know? Like they don't really care about who's in their way. Very goal-oriented."
He took a sip. "Wish we knew who was behind it, though." He put his mug on the table. "I don't think he knew either, but..." He perked up a bit. "There was this one thing, though." It was the kind of detail he thought Sydney would have been proud that he'd spotted. "Kinda curious — this satellite thing... hold on." He picked up a stack of papers and started rifling through it.
"Satellite thing?" Dom turned her seat towards Gabe, craning her head to watch him thumbing through the sheaf of papers. She'd found some satellite surveillance stuff while going through his folders but had quickly dismissed it as irrelevant. Had he managed to find something to prove her wrong?
"Yeah, it's weird, hold on, hold on." Gabriel put his powers to use so he could, effectively, speed-sort and speed-read. A few seconds later, he handed a folder to Dom. "Sorry, okay, look, at this. There's — it's not a regular thing, but he's got this weird recon thing every now and then in Maryland. I don't know what's going on there. And then the pictures are weird too."
Gabriel grabbed the folder back from Dom without really asking. He pulled out a few photos and spread them out on the table. In one, a small girl was sitting on a swing, a small paperback in hand. In another, she was lounging in a yard. His eyes fell to a third, where she appeared to be relaxing on the edge of a dock, her feet in the water. "Like," he looked up at her, eyebrows raised, "what do these have to do with HELIOS?"
"I have no friggin' clue. You said it was in Maryland?" At Gabriel's nod she turned back to the computer, fingers flying over the keyboard as she started a search of the files she had already been paging through. "Okay, right, I've got records for the surveillance footage, looks like it started last year and it's concentrated just on this area. Wait, not even area - just on this house. What the fuck."
She repeated the phrase under her breath a couple times and pulled up a new search, this one for housing deeds in the Chesapeake Bay area. It wasn't quite speedy enough for Gabriel, but it didn't take her long to find what she was looking for. "Huh. Looks like it's owned by a Christopher Sydney - and guess who had it before him?"
"No shit?" Gabriel peeked over her shoulder. "Huh." He blinked a few times. "I mean..." He crossed his arms and looked at her. "What the fuck?"
"I mean, we knew he had to have family," Dom replied, though she didn't sound overly convinced of this fact herself. "It's not like he's from space."
"I mean, I don't know," Gabriel shrugged. "I don't really think of him as having a family." He scratched the back of his neck. "He's like, a hundred years old, for one thing, and..." He wasn't sure how to finish that sentence, but he couldn't help but think about the conversation he and Sydney had on Valentine's Day. About grief and identity and family. "I dunno," he finally said again as he looked at the photos. "I kind of assumed he didn't really have anyone. Other than you, I guess."
Gabriel grabbed his mug off the table and looked up at her. "I don't know what this has to do with the Sapiens League, though."
"Yeah, I dunno. I've never really looked into his background - it's his own business, you know, not mine. But if there's some sort of link, or something we can find out that might help him now..." Dom trailed off, still uncomfortable with the idea of poking around Kevin's family tree. If he had kept it from her it must've been for a good reason, even if that reason was 'it's none of your business'. "I'll do some digging and let you know what I find. Who knows what's relevant at this point. The more information we're armed with the better."
"Yeah." Gabriel nodded. "And I guess I can go back through these," he nodded toward the stacks of papers he'd collected, "a bit more carefully. Less speed-reading." He gave her a grin. "See what I did there?"
"Yeah, you're hilarious," she replied dryly. "I'll email you anything I find out." She and Kevin would've already split the work according to their strengths and contacts and gotten to it - it was strange re-establishing those practices with someone else. Not for the first time she covered a wave of sadness with annoyance that he had gotten himself shot. "Now clear out, I need some time to think."
