Where is Jade, Scene 4

Tex and Mark's Spacecraft Servicing Yard
Total Babe says as we approach, "Thanks for coming.... where we're headed is a shipyard where the spaceship Ghost and her organisation are using was fixed up from scrap. The hope is if we can find them we can find Jade. Unfortunately," she takes a breath, "Marcus seemed to assume that they were criminal, or at least shady, and so took the wrong approach with them, and they threatened to lawyer up. My hope is, being honest, they'll still be willing to talk if dealing with bona fide heroes.... I imagine you'll be know, Spirit, even in Texas!"

Total Babe says with a slightly twisted smile, "And there was a poster of me in costume on the door. I didn't even know there *were* posters of me. So maybe my presence will help."

Pleiades blinks, "Oh. Um, well, we certainly don't need to summon law arbiters."

Dorian says, "Huh. Perhaps if they're criminals, they'll be less likely to talk due to my presence, rather than moreso."

Dorian says, "But I suppose we'll see. Best to just play it straight."

Total Babe says, "No, my point is they're honest - or I think so, anyway. Which is where Marcus went wrong."

Dorian shakes his head, "I'm sometimes surprised at how he deals with people."

Pleiades shrugs helplessly, "I think I may only have met him once, so I couldn't, um, say?"

The space port has changed little in the two days since the previous visit. The same sub-orbital is still out on the runway. There are power leads running in through the hatch of the vehicle from the closest building. A battered old jeep is parked outside that building, and the sound of a radio can be heard coming from the windows there.

Okami's been working in one of the labs at Starguard, going over a laser rifle that he recovered with Star Girl during a museum robbery a few nights back. The serial numbers were all filed off but he's been treating the filed sections with chemicals, scanning with various equipment, firing the gun into blocks of acrylic to get the collimation patterns for comparisons, and generally doing things that involve a montage and sound track. With the return to the Texas facility he's volunteered to come along once more in case there's something requiring his enhanced senses.

Total Babe says, "Last time there was someone in the office who just referred Marcus to two people working on the sub-orbital."

Dorian motions to the sub-orbital. "There's some static from inside. I think there's probably a mechanic working in there now."

Total Babe says, "Hm. Should we go to the office first, just as a matter of form, or go straight there?"

It seems very likely that Dorian is right, as good hearing can pick up the sound of a power tool in use along with off-key whistling.

Okami gives a short grunt. "Bard set the secretary on edge and your going to want to look through her files, so I'd start with her."

Pleiades hmmms, "Maybe I can go chat with the mechanics? I'm, um, good at being clueless and asking questions."

Dorian considers, "Let's follow what would be standard protocol...ignoring that Bard was here. Let's talk to the secretary."

Total Babe nods. "I agree."

There's nobody visible in the reception area of the building. Although the sound of running water can be heard coming from behind a door marked 'Restroom.' Up on a wall in the corner of the reception room a red light flashes on a motion detector as the first person enters.

Pleiades nods and skates in after the others

A male voice calls out from the restroom, "Hi. Be with you in a minute. Grab a seat and put your CV on the desk."

Total Babe thinks. o O (CV?)

Okami stands back behind TB and Dorian. Not being exactly a people person (nor as well known) he lets them do the talking. He does glance at the blinking red dot, looking annoyed for some reason.

Dorian furrows his brow a bit at the motion detector, but waits patiently. "Hmm."

One of the two men seen on the previous occasion comes out of the restroom still drying his hands with a paper towel. "Hi... oh." He laughs, "I guess you're not here about the job offer, right?"

"Curriculum vitae" Okami grunts as people look confused. "A document of a person's life experiences."

Dorian smiles. "That's correct. We're just following up on an investigation that started back in Colonial Bay, Virginia. We were hoping to ask a few questions."

Pleiades waves cautiously.

The man nods, "Let me guess. It's about the Hawkwing, isn't it? I wish we'd never taken on that job."

Total Babe gives a friendly smile, hoping that might smooth any ruffled feathers. "Why, was there some problem with it?"

The man shrugs, "Not as such. But a couple of days ago some real as... uh, shady types came around asking questions. The main guy claimed to be working for the owning company but when I tried to contact them I couldn't get hold of anyone. Anyways, I'm Tex. Let me get some coffee and I'll tell you everything I can remember. Might want to get Mark in here too. He might remember stuff I've forgotten."

Dorian nods. "That would be quite helpful, thank you. And anything you can tell us about these...'shady types' might be important, too."

As TB and Dorian talk with Tex for a moment Okami glances about, looking slightly distracted for a moment as he scents the air.

Total Babe nods. "Thanks!"

Total Babe thinks. o O (Not much reaction from him - maybe the poster was the other guy's.)

Tex picks up a walkie-talkie and calls Mark to come to the office. "Sorry we're a bit disorganised but our secretary quit after those shady folks came here."

Okami frowns slightly. "She quit in person or over the phone?" he asks.

Tex busies himself with coffe, for everyone who wants a cup. Mark enters, and does a double-take on seeing the visitors. His eyes go almost immediately to Total Babe, "Wow! It's really you?" he asks her.

Total Babe grins and replies with a bit of a giggle, "Yes, I'm really me."

Dorian smiles slightly.

Tex tells Okami, "Very much in person. Had a row with us over putting her in possible trouble from the law and stormed out right after the shady folks had left.

Mark beams, "Say, can I get a photo, of you and me?" he asks Total Babe.

Total Babe says, "Uh, sure! I don't see why not....."

Pleiades raises her hand, "Um, would it be possible to get your secretary's name and address? We'd like to followup with her and make sure she's ok?"

Total Babe thinks. o O (She quit because of Marcus?!)

Mark whips out his PDA and hands it to the neastest hero who isn't TB. "Can you take the picture?" he asks, and goes over to stand close beside her.

Okami gives another short grunt. "You should tell her they were bluffing," he says. "We know about them."

Tex nods to Pleiades, "Sure. I mean, usually I wouldn't hand out her name and address. But you're heroes. So no problem."

Dorian takes the PDA from Mark, and takes the photo, making sure to frame the two of them nicely. He then hands it back to Mark. "Here you go."

Mark checks the image and grins, "Thanks a million. So what brings you out here. It's about the Hawkwing job we did, isn't it?"

Total Babe says, "Yeah - don't worry though, we just want to know about the people you did the work for!"

Dorian nods. "It is. The ship itself is secondary, honestly. But there's a missing persons case that we're dealing with. The pilot of that ship was one of the last people seen with our missing person. So, we'd like to know more about that job. Anything you can tell us."

Tex nods, "There were four of them, at least we saw four at one time or another. The guy doing the talking for them was Richard Harding."

Dorian nods slowly, and pulls out his PDA to make some notes.

Mark interjects, "Yeah. He did the talking. But, I'll tell you, I sure got the impression he wasn't the boss. I'm sure he was taking his orders from the kid hanging around with them."

Total Babe says, "The kid? How old?"

Tex nods, "Yeah. You know, little things like if there was a decision to be made he'd look at the kid and she'd nod or shake her head a fraction."

Mark says, "Oh, about twelve, something like that. But kind of stand-offish. A bit bossy too sometimes."

Pleiades hmmms, "Um, do you happen to have a security scyrer? Could we get images of them from it?"

Dorian smiles slightly, "Meaning...do you have any security footage from the cameras around here?"

Tex nods, "Sure. We don't have anything so fancy, just a couple of motion detectors. But we had photo IDs made up for field access, so we have their images on the computer. Give me a minute."

Dorian nods. "Thank you."

"Got anything they might have left behind?" Okami asks before Tex can withdraw. "Hat or jacket or something like that?"

Tex turns confidently to the computer keyboard, but his smile fades as he works, "I don't get it. I can't find the images."

Dorian nods. "Hmm. Well, computers can be notoriously finicky. How about you just try to describe all four of them?"

Mark answers Okami as Tex is working on the computer, "Nothing they brought, sorry. They didn't even leave anything in the pockets of the overalls they wore while helping with the work.

Okami :nods. "The kid," he says, "she wear a pair of overalls?"

Tex nods, "Sure. Richard was a great guy. Pretty sure he was a meta. One time I'm pretty certain he moved one of the engines into place, and they weigh a couple of tones. The kid was about twelve, as Mark said. She was thin faced, kind of pale, and her eyes were slanted, like a Jap, you know..."

Dorian raises a brow. . o O (Right...I'm in Texas. Keep my mouth shut.)

Mark nods, "Yes. Had to pin them up for her. Tell you what, kid or not she knew a hell of a lot about the systems on board that shuttle.

Pleiades says, "Maybe she was a human from another world?"

Okami nods again. "Even pinning'em up they must have been the smallest ones you got. Any chance they haven't seen any use since then?" he asks.

Tex continues after Mark's comment, "Grace, she was a black girl. Moved like silk. She sure got named right. I could have watched her for hours. Helped out like the others but obviously didn't know any of the tech stuff..."

Mark nods to Okami, "I doubt they've been used. But like I said, there was nothing left in the pockets. You're welcome to check for yourself."

Dorian nods. "So, that's three of the four." He makes a couple more notes.

Okami nods. "Appreciate that," he says to Mark.

Tex finishes, "... and Susan. Blond girl, big framed and top-heavy, know what I mean."

Mark comments, "What about the kid's eyes?"

Total Babe says, "What about the kid's eyes?"

Tex nods, "Oh, yeah. The kid's eyes. You got a feeling on seeing them that she wasn't to be messed with. I've known a couple of pretty hard men. She had eyes like that.

Total Babe says, "huh."

Tex mmms.. for a moment, and then says, "Look, I know you said the shuttle wasn't important. But I got to tell you, there was something pretty damn unusual about what happen during our refit.

Total Babe says, "How do you mean?"

Dorian nods slowly as he listens.

Tex says, "Most of the jobs we do, the owners want it done cheap, right? We do good work but it's basic stuff. But that bunch wanted top line stuff. And whenever some parts were wanted, they were delivered. And not the usual secondhand parts either. New and top of the line. The engines were like nothing I've seen before, way bigger than usual. Heck, they had the best ship-computer that money can buy as a backup. So what did they have as their main system?

Dorian nods. "Did you get any indication where they were coming from? Or where they were going?"

Mark nods, "Yeah. A lot of the systems they installed on their own, I haven't got a clue what they were."

Total Babe says, "Hm. I guess customers don't often want to instal their own stuff?"

Tex nods, "Yes. I mean we kind of worried. Didn't want to get in trouble if this stuff was being lifted. So we checked the records and invoices pretty thoroughly, and even phoned a couple of the supplying companies to check it was all straight and up-front. Thing was, a lot of those invoices didn't have prices. They were marked as payment for services rendered."

Total Babe says, "Huh."

Pleiades says, "Hmmm. Um, what companies were the items purchased from?"

"How'd they pay you guys?" Okami asks.

Mark tells Total Babe., "Actually it's not uncommon. Not the owners, but the crew. If you're going to risk your neck on a refit, good idea to be there when it's done, right? And helping out keeps the cost down."

Tex grins, "By certified money transfer. No delays, not trying to weasle out. Full payment on the dot."

Okami nods. "Got records on those?" he asks.

Tex nods, turns to the computer, and after a few minutes he frowns, "It should be in here. Damn, we really need a secretary. This was her job. The bank should be able to tell you anyway. I know the payment went through without a hitch. So it's got to be our records that are screwed up."

Okami nods and turns to Mark. "You take any pictures of them on your PDA?" he asks. "Maybe a snapshot of the blond or something?"

Mark says out of the blue, "Delivery..."

Total Babe says, "Or anything at all in hardcopy?"

Pleiades says, "Delivery?"

Then Mark grins, "Oh, yeah. I should have rememberd." He pulls out his PDA and goes to a folder, "... huh. Nothing here." Heading across the reception he opens a drawer and pulls out a printout, "Yeah, this is still here."

Total Babe thinks. o O (Yeah, they definitely got into the computers.)

Mark hands Okami a photo of a tall well built blond girl. "Yeah, delivery. Just before they lifted off there was a delivery of supplies. A load of stuff, all the usual. food, etc, and a bunch of stuff for setting up a off-world base, the kind asteroid miners take."

Total Babe nods. "Figures." She looks over at the photo.

Okami nods, taking the photo and glancing at it for a moment before passing it over to Dorian. "Anything about the ship that might help us track it?" he asks. "Got any engine diagnostics still?"

Tex looks thoughtful..

"You know," Tex says, "I never thought about it until you started asking questions, but with what was spent on the refit plus the base cost of the parts we knew about, they could have bought a new model shuttle outright and had change. So why refit an old junker?"

Dorian takes a look at the photo. "Hmm."

Dorian takes a picture of the photo with his PDA.

Mark nods, "Yeah, you're right. And that's just the stuff we knew. There was a lot of extra equipment fitted that neither of us had ever seen before.

Total Babe says, "Disguise? Or..... they had custom stuff to fit that wouldn't go on a standard one?"

Total Babe thinks. o O (Like military weapons....)

"Because they needed to customize it," he says. "Easier to explain all the work on a junker than bringing you a new ship."

Tex and Mark nod, "Could be. Could be."

Dorian hands the photo back to Mark.

Tex looks at Dorian, "Can you tell us what we've become involved in? Is there any danger likely to come our way?"

Okami asks Mark, "You show me where the kid's overall's are?"

Dorian shakes his head. "I don't think any danger's coming your way. And anything we know about that ship is basically speculation at this point. Mainly because they seem to clean up records after themselves. I think that's why their photos weren't in your system."

Mark nods, "Yes, of course. He opens a locker and Okami sees a number of overalls hanging inside it. "The one that's still pinned up. Never been used since."

Okami takes the overalls and looks them over carefully. "Get me a couple of pieces of paper and an envelope?" he asks Mark.

Dorian says, "As I mentioned, there's a missing person we're looking for. We suspect she might be on that ship. Seeing as she disappeared after the ship was here, we were just trying to gather information on the ship and its crew."

Tex says, "You wanted to know about those visitors we had. There were three or four. Only one guy did any talking. He was a real charmer on the surface, but I think he was a nasty piece of work underneath. Made a bunch of threats about calling in the police and getting a court order to take our gear."

Pleiades ums, "Er, the equiment they brought on? Was their something like a life statis tube or something?"

Mark answers, "If there was it wasn't one we recognised. They did have a medical facility but that was one of the areas where they did the work and installed a lot of stuff we didn't know anything about."

Total Babe tries to avoid showing the embarrassment she feels at the mention of Bard's handling of things.

Dorian nods. "Hmm. Well...seems like someone else is looking for the ship then. Curious."

Tex suddenly says, "The rattlesnake... I forgot about that. Uh, it's orobably not important. Forget it."

Okami very carefully unrolls the cuffs and ankles of the pinned up overalls, taking pains that even the smallest bits of detritus fall onto the paper. He carefully brushes out the fabric to dislodge any small bits that might be clinging to the cloth before setting the overalls aside and transferring the content of the paper to the envelope (Criminology). With that done, yes, he picks up the coverall and sniffs it, trying to pick up on the faint traces of its wearer to see if he can determine species and possibly diet.

Total Babe says, "No, tell us - you never know!"

Okami seems slightly surprised by the results he finds from the overalls. Returning to the main group he says, "She's a hybrid. Can't recognize the alien species. Seems like a Japanese style of diet. Lots of rice, some fish, little bit of red meat."

Tex says, "We have a fence around the property but animals burrow under it. One day a rattlesnake came onto the runway. The kid had some kind of toy bb gun or something stuck to the back of her hand.. the left hand as I recall. Anyway she pops the rattler in the head from about thirty yards with a single shot."

Total Babe whistles.

Tex adds, "It wasn't like anything special for her, either.. She didn't seem to bother taking aim. Her hand just lifted and waved across where the rattler was and - 'pop' - it coiled up and flopped around without a head."

Dorian nods to Okami at the results of the analysis. "Hmm." He listens to the description of the rattlesnake encounter with a similar level of attentiveness. And he makes some more notes.

Total Babe says, "Hm... we're still no closer to finding out where they are...."

Tex searches through a filing cabinet, and comes up with a half dozen invoices in hardcopy, "These are the suppliers for the major parts, engines, backup computer, etc. You can make copies if it will help you."

Tex adds, ""You can see, no prices. Just 'payment for services rendered'."

Okami says, "Sure we are," he says. "Sounds like they're hanging around out in space with all those supplies. Got some idea where they might have come from as well. You should check records for Japan. See if you can find anything connected to the kid."

Dorian shakes his head. "There's no guarantee they're still in orbit here or something. We can check with the space ports in Japan, but there's a good chance they've also gone elsewhere in the meantime." He takes a look at the invoices, and takes a few pictures, getting some names to check with. Especially if any of the corporations are Japanese.

Total Babe has a thought and asks Dorian in a lpow voice, "Could this office be bugged, or would you be able to tell?"

Dorian glances around, looking for any kind of bug that might be transmitting. His eyes glow for a second as he looks around.

Pleiades looks over the companies, recognizing none of them of course, "Um. Do any of these companies, um, have reputations for, er, less than honest dealing? Like being involved in covert actions?"

Dorian looks to Total Babe, saying quietly, "Assuming it was technological, I'd likely be able to detect it. And...no, I'm pretty sure that there isn't one here.

Total Babe nods. "Just a thought."

Tex tells Pleiades, "I wouldn't have a clue. That kind of stuff is way over my head. Sorry."

Pleiades smiles weakly, "Mine too."

Dorian checks his PDA to make sure the photos are all still there, along with his notes.

Dorian says, "Well, we have at least one Japanese corporation on the list that could be checked out."