Ivy and Chrome PbP Forums

"Nice, huh? Present from my girlfriend." Dane keeps his tone casual. He has no intention of explaining where the tablet really came from, and sidetracking Mosley seems a lot easier than lying badly. "I need a break anyway. Why don't we head back into the office? Sounds like Dad's getting a little concerned about my health again when I get focused like this."

He puts the tablet to sleep and slides it back into its place in the satchel before heading for the door.

Once he's settled, with coffee and something to eat in front of him, Dane gives everyone a rundown of what he found. He ends with, "My suspicion is this Chrome gang has people or operations here, and one of your cases overlapped with something they didn't want looked at. They probably wiped your database to cover whatever that was before you could connect it."

He takes a bite of his snack, then a sip of coffee before continuing.

"I'd go back over your cases from the last few months. Especially around when Burger started here and when he left. Look for anything new, any evidence that came in recently, any case where your people started getting closer to something important." Another bite, another sip. "And especially anything in the last week that might've made a gang element nervous enough to burn their wireless access point just to keep you from digging too deep into whatever they're hiding."

He pauses, thinking it through as he chews.

"I'd also track down Dustin and find out whether anybody put him up to causing problems. Maybe show him a couple of the pictures I pulled and watch his reaction. If he knows the vehicle, or Burger, or anybody tied to either gang, maybe he can give you more info about their local activity."

"Nice, huh? Present from my girlfriend." Dane keeps his tone casual. He has no intention of explaining where the tablet really came from, and sidetracking Mosley seems a lot easier than lying badly. "I need a break anyway. Why don't we head back into the office? Sounds like Dad's getting a little concerned about my health again when I get focused like this." He puts the tablet to sleep and slides it back into its place in the satchel before heading for the door.

"We have the best donuts in town. Follow me!" Mosley seems like a kid who just made a new friend. "You'll have to find out where she got it. I have to have one!"

Once he's settled, with coffee and a stack of donuts, Dane gives Mosley, the sheriff, his dad and Jan Lane, the police chief, a rundown of what he found. He ends with, "My suspicion is this Chrome gang has people or operations here, and one of your cases overlapped with something they didn't want looked at. They probably wiped your database to cover whatever that was before you could connect it." He takes a bite of a very mouth watering, pink glazed doughnut, then a sip of coffee before continuing, "I'd go back over your cases from the last few months. Especially around when Burger started here and when he left. Look for anything new, any evidence that came in recently, any case where your people started getting closer to something important." Another bite, another sip. "And especially anything in the last week that might've made a gang element nervous enough to burn their wireless access point just to keep you from digging too deep into whatever they're hiding." He pauses, thinking it through as he chews, "I'd also track down Dustin and find out whether anybody put him up to causing problems. Maybe show him a couple of the pictures I pulled and watch his reaction. If he knows the vehicle, or Burger, or anybody tied to either gang, maybe he can give you more info about their local activity."

The chief's stoic gaze seems unsettling to Dane, unable to tell what the man is thinking. He's a large balding man, standing nearly six and a half feet tall with thick jowls and gorilla-like hands. Finally, Chief Lane turns to the sheriff, "Joe, since we can't recover the data from the server anymore. Do you still have the hard-copies for the past six to seven months that we have transported to your office each month?"

The sheriff perks, "Ah shit! I forgot about that! Yes, we do!"

"Get those files back here pronto, in the meantime, have the wiz kid keep digging. He's found out more in the past two hours than all of my force in the past nine!" He pauses, "And does that contraption of his scan paper files back into documents?" he points at Dane's tablet. "If so, then that's half the job done."

George shoots Dane a questioning look, which screams, "Can it?" Dane is pretty sure that he can.

At the same time, Joe grabs his keys and heads for the door, "Give me about an hour. I'll be back with those files. Don't go anywhere!" His boots can be heard jogging through the hallways for the back door.

The chief thinks for a moment, then loudly clears his throat, "Well... you two geniuses carry on. Find out where Burger, Dustin and these Chrome are at. I want answers!" then promptly exits the break room.

"Damn... I thought he'd be more happy." Mosley frowns, "You think Burger went back to Hope?"

Dane involuntarily pauses at the mention of Hope. He quickly thinks back, trying to remember if Burger and Hope were ever mentioned before. He doesn't have an identic memory, but his memory is still very good, and he can't remember any mention of that town. With his suspicions up, and with the possibility that Mosley knows more than he's saying, Dane decides to play along for now.

"Yeah, that's probably likely. Go back to somewhere familiar if he doesn't have any reason to think anybody's looking for him." He quickly tries to think of a next move that won't tip Mosley off that he's wondering why Hope suddenly factors into the equation. Could just be a coincidence. Dane pivots to the more likely explanation that it just came up now, but he still can't shake the nagging suspicion. "Can you pull up his personnel file and see if he listed any next of kin or emergency contacts?"

While Mosley is distracted with that task, he whispers to his dad, "Nobody ever mentioned Hope. Might be nothing, but it could be something."

Dane involuntarily pauses at the mention of Hope. He quickly thinks back, trying to remember if Burger and Hope were ever mentioned before. He doesn't have an identic memory, but his memory is still very good, and he can't remember any mention of that town. With his suspicions up, and with the possibility that Mosley knows more than he's saying, Dane decides to play along, but then he remembers that Mosley was rubbernecking his research on Mosley when Hope Barony was associated with Burger, or Stan.

"Yeah, that's probably likely. Go back to somewhere familiar if he doesn't have any reason to think anybody's looking for him." Dane pivots to the more likely explanation that it just came up now, but he still can't shake the nagging suspicion. "Can you pull up his personnel file and see if he listed any next of kin or emergency contacts?"

"Yeah, I need the chief to get it, so give me a few!" Mosley, doughnut and coffee in hand, brisk walks away.

"What was that about?" his dad asks.

"You're a bit edgy," the sheriff smirks, "This stuff getting to you, kid? You should see what we run into..."

"Hey let's not mess with him. I need him thinking straight."

"Doh, I keep forgetting that he's your kid. How'd he become so good at this?"

George laughs, "I used to be huge into video games as a kid. Then I got involved in law enforcement so I didn't really need the games when I'm pretty much in the real situations now. I suppose he picked up where I left off and decided that he had to know how it worked. I don't actually know."

OOC: With noticing that he was shoulder surfing Dane, do you still want to alert Dane's dad of the suspicion?

OOC: Only when Mosley is out of earshot.

Dane whispers to his dad, "Nobody ever mentioned Hope. Might be nothing, but it could be something."

"Really," he leans back and looks at Joe.

"Alright, we got this," Joe confidently nods.

Moments later, Mosley returns with a folder full of papers. Mainly background checks and Burger's application. Dane sees nothing mentioning Hope, and most of the information is false or would have a vague lead at best. Prior work experience is tied to establishments that went out of business within the past few years. Three references are listed. His home address as well as a note stating that he checks the job boards daily.

Joe smirks, sliding a fresh cup of coffee to Mosley, "How well did you get to know this Burger fella?"

"Only his first few days. After that he worked when I didn't. Seemed nice enough though. I would have never guessed that he was a criminal."

"Have you ever been to Hope?" Joe continues interrogating.

"Not since I was a kid. Why?" Mosley frowns, "You guys don't think I had something to do with this, do you?"

"We know you didn't do anything, but it's just covering our asses. You understand." George doesn't even look up as Dane notices him flash a palmed note at Joe, reading, "Truth." to each question asked. Never once flashing false, which is written on the opposite side. Is his dad one of those human lie detectors?

Dane blinks at the note in his father's hand, momentarily thrown off. .oO Since when can he do that? Oo. He looks between the sheriff and his dad. Judging by the sheriff's reaction, this is apparently not new.

"I guess I learned because I was more interested in the how of things and not just the end result. After a while, games started losing their appeal and I started really learning. That's why I spent so much time at the library," he says after a moment, his tone flat but steady. "Most people use machines until something breaks, then they treat the broken part like magic. I just... never could." He glances down at his coffee. "Sometimes it's like I can tell when something in a system doesn't fit before I can explain why. Then I work backwards from there."

"As for the interrogation," Dane says to Mosley, "that was my fault. I didn't realize you'd seen the Barony of Hope reference over my shoulder, and for a second I thought you'd let slip that you knew Burger was from there. I'm confident now that you had nothing to do with it, so let's get back to next steps."

Dane looks back at his father, still bothered by the note. "And apparently we should probably have a different conversation later."

Then, because the case is easier ground, he turns back to Mosley. "Mind if I take a closer look at those files?" He scans them again before asking, "What's this note about him checking the job boards daily? Were those electronic job boards or something physical? Do you know which boards he was checking, and where he was checking them from? Was he using one of these dumb terminals, or do you have another computer here somewhere he was using?"

Dane blinks at the note in his father's hand, momentarily thrown off. oO(Since when can he do that?)Oo He looks between the sheriff and his dad. Judging by the sheriff's reaction, this is apparently not new.

"I guess I learned because I was more interested in the how of things and not just the end result. After a while, games started losing their appeal and I started really learning. That's why I spent so much time at the library," he says after a moment, his tone flat but steady. "Most people use machines until something breaks, then they treat the broken part like magic. I just... never could." He glances down at his coffee. "Sometimes it's like I can tell when something in a system doesn't fit before I can explain why. Then I work backwards from there."

"Oh..." Joe says, the usual deer in headlights expression.

"As for the interrogation," Dane says to Mosley, "that was my fault. I didn't realize you'd seen the Barony of Hope reference over my shoulder, and for a second I thought you'd let slip that you knew Burger was from there. I'm confident now that you had nothing to do with it, so let's get back to next steps."

"Umm, alright..." Mosley replies, unsure what to think.

Dane looks back at his father, still bothered by the note. "And apparently we should probably have a different conversation later."

George raises a brow, grinning, "Oh yeah? Your old man still has some tricks up his sleeve."

Then, because the case is easier ground, he turns back to Mosley. "Mind if I take a closer look at those files?" He scans them again before asking, "What's this note about him checking the job boards daily? Were those electronic job boards or something physical? Do you know which boards he was checking, and where he was checking them from? Was he using one of these dumb terminals, or do you have another computer here somewhere he was using?" The files have nothing useful that he doesn't already know.

"One question at a time." Mosley grins, "As for the note, he'd told us that because we wanted to know how to get ahold of him during the interview process. He checked the job board at the local job service, but he may have been checking some of the job boards at some of the edge pubs. They usually post up work that no one really wants to do or temporary work." He then points to the dumb terminal in the break room, "Those are it. If he needed to get to the main server, then he had to get permission from the chief... like the rest of us."

"Dane, you hitting a road block?" the sheriff inquires, "Here." He pats two large file boxes, "You can start on scanning these in after we take a look at them, looking for this Dustin fella. How about that?"

"I was hoping he meant an electronic job board. Something concrete, at least," Dane says, thinking it through. "Maybe a place to pass instructions back and forth. Encrypted messages, dead drops, something like that. Guess not."

He pauses, then nods toward the file boxes. "While you go through those, I want to take another crack at the server. There might be something I missed." Once he's back in the server room, Dane logs on again. This time, instead of trying to recover what was erased, he looks for anything new that doesn't belong. Files, folders, hidden directories, anything created or modified during the hacker's access window. If that turns up nothing, he'll widen the search and start going back through timeframes, all the way to when Burger started, if he has to.

"I was hoping he meant an electronic job board. Something concrete, at least," Dane says, thinking it through. "Maybe a place to pass instructions back and forth. Encrypted messages, dead drops, something like that. Guess not." He pauses, then nods toward the file boxes. "While you go through those, I want to take another crack at the server. There might be something I missed."

Dane and Mosley head back for the server room, Dane logs on again. This time, instead of trying to recover what was erased, he looks for anything new that doesn't belong. Files, folders, hidden directories, anything created or modified during the hacker's access window. After extensive searching, he finds nothing out of the ordinary.

He widens the search and starts going back through time-frames, all the way to when Burger started. Yet, once again, he finds nothing. Mosley sighs, "Well, it was worth a t..." There's a knock on the server door.

Upon opening it, Dane's dad has an odd look on his face, "You're never going to believe this..." he holds up the file on Dustin. It shows a picture of the old man, Dusty. The same one who disappeared with Vi and Megana. "Too good to be a coincidence."