Log:Wasp Venom, Scene 12

Wasp Venom 2013/09/16 	 Interface Regan Malcolm Chandrika

12

"So, about the whole... putting the new armor through its paces..." says Interface in her new, sleeker, less bulky looking suit. She gestures towards the back room... and one can almost -see- the raised brow behind the faceplate, despite the fact that they -can't- see it.

Regan returns from her errand bearing a paper cup with a straw and some pale liquid inside that smells of vanilla. On re-entering the gym she moves gracefully around the counter to take up her accustomed post, setting the cup on the countertop.

Arriving not long after Regan's return to the gym, Malcolm steps into the gym in fatigues and carrying a duffel bag over one shoulder. Looking around, Malcolm bobs his head and offers a cheery smile. "How's it going?"

Malcolm

About 6'6" tall and looking to be about 175 pounds, this is one rakishly good looking black guy. His hair is cropped short, fading still shorter as it nears his ears, while his eyebrows are strikingly thick without being embarassing or distracting, and he even has a short, neatly trimmed Van Dyke encircling his mouth. Of course, his most striking features are his steely gray eyes.

''Below the very handsome face, he's made of a whole lot of muscle. Much of the time he wears a gray or black shirt that showcases his impressively muscular build. Still further down, he wears comfortable blue jeans of a generic, workman's style. As for his feet, they're typically clad in leather work boots.''

Functional, inexplicably stylish, and quite comfortable to be sure, but it also doesn't give much hint to who he is or what he does.

Regan nods and picks up her drink to suck again at the straw. "Sure. Let's see what you can do." She smiles and leads the way across the gymnasium starts to head toward the workout room. "Hello Malcolm, Interface was just about to show me what her new suit can do. Care to tag along?"

"Not so much show you as... test some new designs and make sure they're functional and up to par." says Interface with a shrug. "Micronization and a new gravitic field inducer along with the limits of the stealth field." She glances to Malcolm and gives a nod. "Okay, if you want to help me test it all, you're more than welcome."

"New sui-" Malcolm cuts himself off as Interface speaks up. He waves and offers another smile, "Oh, nice. I'm always up for helping put some new tech through its paces." The tall man rolls his shoulders and grins, "Especially since I was looking for a good workout."

As Interface moves into the Workout Room. Regan turns to regard Malcolm. "Actually, while she's training I wanted to talk to you about this Zu, HIVE thing."

"Zu & HIVE?" inquires Malcolm, quirking an eyebrow. He pauses almost mid-step, pivoting on the balls of his feet to regard Regan seriously. That eyebrow remains arched as he considers Regan and her choice in words, "I guess I missed another memo? Or is this just starting to brew?"

Regan says, "This has been brewing a while." She moves back to the counter and brings up a graphic. "This is Hive's executive assistant manager in Johannesburg, Kagisa Admini, she's sort of like Bee is for colonial Bay."

Malcolm follows along, leaning against the counter to study the graphic. "Gotcha so far," he intones softly, glancing toward Regan to, presumably, assure he's on the same page.

"HIVE thought she was behaving in a more than slightly maverick fashion and posted her to Johannesburg where they though she could do no harm. When her behaviour became more erratic they tasked a new Exacutive Manager, Miss Katsumi Sato to Johannesburg. Miss Sato has failed to communicate with her superiors for some weeks now. Last known communication was a telepathic image of someone called the Creeper gaining access to her residence. Miss Adamini has cut off communications to HIVE offices in Tokyo but apparently continues to operate."

Regan stands at the counter showing Malcolm some holographic images. "It turns out that HIVE employees have access to repositories of memories. Miss Adamini's thoughts and memories are no longer available but she, being an accomplished mentalist, can access the thought and memories of her colleagues and superiors."

Leaning against the opposite side of the counter from Regan, Malcolm is studying the images thoughtfully. He's got a dufflebag slung over one shoulder and seems terribly engrossed in the briefing. "I can see where that'd be a big problem," remarks Malcolm, "At several levels of meaning for 'big problem', no less."

Chandrika makes her way inside and waves to Regan. "Happy Sunday!" She says cheerfully, reaching into a bag and tossing Regan something. "Apple?"

"I have been asked by HIVE to locate Miss Sato, free her from whatever unpleasant circumstances she finds herself in. A secondary objective is to determine exactly what Miss Adamini is doing and stop it." As Chandrika enters Regan turns to greet her with a bright smile, her hands lift to smoothly track the object through the air, completing the catch close to her body, giving her time to determine if it's something she actually wants to catch.

Shifting his weight, Malcolm looks over his shoulder at Chandrika. He offers a cheerful smile and a wave, calling, "Evening," before looking back to Regan. Listening, the tall man nods his head a bit. "Sounds pretty straight forward, all things considered."

The apple lands comfortably in Regan's hand. "Good evening! She raises an eyebrow. "What's pretty straightforward?"

Regan polishes the apple against the shoulder of her tunic, turning it over in her hands. "You would think so. Especially since Miss Sato's physiological requirements make it necessary for her to reside in a sealed environment inside a vault like container." A schematic of the HIVE head quarters come up with the corresponding vault area clearly marked. "But this is not the only such vault in Zu. A few weeks ago the Zu Defence Force Academy in Saldanha took receipt of a similar vault whose current location is now unknown. The question is: where is the second vault and is she in that one or the original one."

Chandrika blinks. "They have multiple creepy mind vaults? Why, oh why did I become this woman's attorney? I should have refused. Oh, god, but it's too late now."

"Detective-work," replies Malcolm to Chandrika. He offers a grin over his shoulder before looking back at the specs as they pop up in the space in front of him. Nodding thoughtfully, Malcolm adds, "Or if there's another vault area in Zu that we don't know about."

"Further complicating the issue is the fact that Miss Adamini has assembled a unit of meta-humans here in Colonial Bay. This team has made it clear that any attack on Miss Adamini's interests in Zu will provoke an immediate retaliation against soft targets in Colonial Bay." She brings up a picture of a dark-skinned man in a cowboy hat. "This is Penetrator, Barita Bezuidenhuit according to the passport he had on him when he came here to threaten Chandrika. Similar threats were made against HIVE personnel, Porter was actually attacked by Miss Adamini and one of her associates."

Chandrika facepalms. "I think his entire secret identity must be based on the fact that no one can say Barita Bezuidenhuit five times fast."

"Penetrator," repeats Malcolm. He raises his eyebrow a bit, staring at the picture for several long moments. "Sometimes I wonder if people don't try too hard to come up with original code names."

Penetrator has at least one confederate in Colonial Bay, someone called Rewind who doesn't show up in records. In Johannesburg Adamini had access to the services of someone called the Creep who can pass through walls. the Penetrator is adept at moving though security unobserved and undetected to administer threats and occasionally kill people. I think he might teleport but hard to tell. He didn't get to do a lot." Regan continues.

Malcolm nods thoughtfully, listening quite intently as he tries to absorb as much information as possible. The tall man folds his arms on the counter, stooping a bit lower in the process. Quietly he studies the profiles as they float in the air in front of his eyes, intermittently nodding at some detail. "So where do I come in, exactly?"

So this brings points of interest up to three." Regan starts counting them off. "Where is Sato? What is Adamini up to with the Zu military? And where is the unit in Colonial Bay? My immediate response is that we should form two units. One for Colonial Bay and one for Zu. Unit one identifies and neutralises the retaliatory team, Unit two locates Sato. I would suggest tracking the vault Zu nation took delivery of, following it to its destination and confirming that Sato is there using either telepathy, hacking their computers, supreme stealth or a combination of all three. If she isn't then we go to the Jo'burg and apply the same tactics. If she's not in either location then we have to hope that the unit in Colonial Bay has more information or we can come across something in our investigation. The Zu unit has a mentalits and a technopath. But they will need muscle before the end. My mind turned to you. I can't go, neither can Porter, our opponent knows both of us and may well be watching."

Chandrika thinks. "Why don't you just break into the headquarters of one of these HIVE facilities and dope the master brain up with a tracking signal?"

Chandrika says, "It tells you where she is. She's still linked to it."

"Sure. I can tag along and keep the heat off of the operators," replies Malcolm, grinning cheerily. Rolling his shoulders absently, the tall man glances over at Chandrika and replies, "I thought both of them had their brains masked by means unknown?"

Chandrika shrugs. "Their brains, sure. But remember, you're not thinking like this...unified creature. The biological monitors still have to be active."

Chandrika says, "Otherwise you can't know the condition of the other parts of the hive."

Chandrika says, "We have no idea how this technology really works, which is the problem."

Chandrika says, "But if everything is running smoothly, her lifesigns should still be able to be tracked through the device, or it actually...can't work without some form of major override."

"Well, for starters if I need HIVE to give me any information I'm going to ask them for it. Ultimately it's their problem, they don't want to give me the information I need, I can just walk away. But I don't need to antagonize them." She nods to Malcolm. "In Sato's case the means is not unknown. The available evidence suggests that she is in one of these." A wave of her hand brings up a graphic of a psionic suppression unit of the type used on mentalists in Stronghold. "her thoughts can no longer be received, if there is biological feedback I see no reason why HIVE would choose to withhold that information from me when they have entrusted me with far more delicate intelligence."

Chandrika says, "The reason is obvious."

Chandrika says, "They can't tell you because knowing that gives you the means to locate all of their operatives and destroy them whenever you want."

Chandrika says, "Plus, breaking in and doing it is better. There won't be any warning because it will look like an outside attack that won't trigger any of Sato's defenses until she realizes that's what you're after. If your team is already on the ground in Zu, and they have fast movement, they can be on her as soon as the information is discovered."

Chandrika says, "You can't treat this as anything other than what it is, which is a rogue agent of an alien invasion."

Chandrika says, "Why should humans sit here and allow this thing to take over the minds of everyone on Earth? Hive is dangerous. They need to be neutralized."

Regan nods. "If they know the location they could give that information without revealing how they know. I am uninclined to destroy HIVE at this point, Bee seems extremely well intentioned and the organization that gave us access to her abilities is probably not in need of immediate extinction." She blinks.. "This is a conversation for another time and venue."

Chandrika nods back. "I'm very worried about this group of aliens, honey. This is very scary."

Malcolm shrugs a little bit, though doesn't seem prepared to offer any input on the discussion. Instead he studies the holographic panes of information again, musing thoughtfully about something or another.

Regan nods. "And I can see how that might be, and you know me, I always prepare for the worst eventuality. But, I will not attack a person or organization that has not yet done anyone I know of any palpable harm. I have killed people, I am fully capable of doing it again. My history and my capabilities that I am too dangerous to allow to live. Some people would consider that justified. And after all, I'm not human, I'm a vat grown genetically modified atrocity, so it would not be like anyone was really being hurt. I think it would be bad if someone made that decision about me on a distorted understand g of who and what I am. I'm not about to do the same to someone else."

Chandrika sighs. "Honey, you're not an atrocity. Don't go down that road." She sighs. "My problem comes from the fact that this company sells a substance that rewrites peoples brains, which is effectively dealing drugs. These drugs then rewire their brains into capacitors and collect that information and mind in a giant alien psycho-jar at the end of their lifespan. I deal with this stuff every day. This is a supervillain plot. We don't have to deal with it right now. But at some point, we will have to."

Regan's eyes widen as she looks from Chandrika to Malcolm and then back again and tilts her head. "Information obtained under the promise of privilege is exactly that, privileged. The dissemination of privileged information constitutes an ethical and in some instances criminal violation."

Chandrika nods. "Yes. I'm aware of that. But I'm also forced to act in the best interest of my client, who is Bee, and not Hive. The Hive doesn't understand human law, and they're not obliged to. But what's more criminal? Letting everyone on Earth become alien mind slaves, or using that information to our advantage to save those people who are already alien mind slaves? The problem is that you guys have to stop everyone from becoming alien mind slaves right now, but the looming threat is still there regardless of what happens."

"The way I figure it," intones Malcolm, "Is that a legally endorsed company's asked for help in finding an employee that's been kidnapped by another employee, whose behavior has grown increasingly erratic."

Malcolm turns, leaning his hip against the counter as he regards both Chandrika and Regan for several moments. There's a brief pause in his words before Malcolm continues, tone thoughtful, "And whatever the company's endgame may actually be, it's almost certainly not the same as Adamini's endgame. She's off the playbook, she's made terroristic threats, and she's got freelance goons on her payroll. It sounds, to me, like compelling enough a collection of reasons to take the case as offered."

Chandrika nods. "Oh, there's no denying that Adamini is the more immediate threat. The problem is what the Hive mind learns from her inevitable defeat and adds to it's playbook."

"You're operating under an assumption of guilt, Chandri. Slavery is a serious crime, but just because you accuse someone of something serious does not mean that they have any less right to the presumption of innocence. Also, unless you can demonstrate Bee is non compos mentis you have to consider that she is the best judge of her best interests. The HIVE mind will learn very little because I'm deliberately not sharing information with them because they have been compromised." Regan blinks again. "I'm not going to give them any information or any access, the flow of information has entirely been one way and so far they have acted in entirely good faith."

"Thing is, in my experience, that's a two-way street," comments Malcolm, "We're learning just as much, if not more, from the investigation and defeat of Adamini." He absently folds his arms behind his back, tipping his head slightly to one side as he looks at Regan. "See?"

Chandrika nods and looks into her briefcase. "Looks like I do have something useful to add. Baruti Bazuidenhuit, Kagiso Adamani, Justin Case, and Sigmund Frost arrived by Transmat from Zu. I've...pulled some strings. They won't be leaving that way. Case is an American Citizen studying in Zu. These are probably all fake names, which leads me to believe that Case is your Rewind Guy. Fortunately, transmat requires your DNA, so they'll be locked out for a bit, or at least, detained if they try to leave." She shrugs. "I've got a friend who's going to shake some doors for us."

Chandrika thinks. o O (No one stays anywhere in America for free. Money had to change hands. Follow it, find them, kayo them, make them talk.)

Chandrika snaps her fingers. "Wait a minute. Could a military transmat move the life support unit?"

Chandrika says, "They all came in via New York on August 15th."

"Justin Case is a patently awful pun," comments Malcolm, "So that's almost certainly one of our boys. Or a victim of parents that truly hated their kid."

Chandrika says, "Adamini might not be in Zu. Adamini might be here. These guys are waiting for something. It's been a month."

Regan blinks. "Justin Case? She repeats. "Does no one consider how these names sound when spoken out loud?" Her brows lift. 'I don't know. That would make so much more sense." She declares firmly. "I know right?" She asides to Malcolm. "Have we got photos?"

Chandrika shrugs. "We can get them from Starguard easily enough."

Chandrika digs into her briefcase and hands them over. "Fortunately, I already did that. And yes, I got paper copies." Each picture contains a large photoshopped stamp across the top that says "Warning! Suspected Terrorist!"

"I dunno. I'd have to look into it, but I imagine anything that's military grade would be built to much higher specs than the civilian version," replies Malcolm, rubbing his chin with a metal tendril that seems to have emerged from his shoulder when no one was looking at him.

Chandrika nods. "Military Grade means drop a receiver, send life support unit to signal location. I think she's here. She wants whatever is in that research facility."

Chandrika shrugs. "Well, I should take my honey home. I've got a lot of catching up to do."