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 Posted: Tue May 08, 2018 8:12 pm
“It’s not a glitch,” Nick confirmed, and offered Lori an iPad. The video had been saved to it. “It’s a security camera, so the quality is terrible,” he grumbled. “We had to enhance it to catch this.”
“It’s a shame they don’t record audio,” he added. It would have made his job so much easier.
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Posted: Wed May 09, 2018 8:50 am
Lori flipped the print between his fingers as he took the iPad and watched the video. It was terrible quality, and without his own equipment he couldn't be 100% certain himself that it wasn't a matrixing issue at this quality. People were going missing, however. A 90% invisible humanoid shape was pretty believable.
"Yeah, story of my life," he mused. He watched the video a second time and nodded. "We'll have to set up an investigation. This is Agent Aikley, I think you've met. He'll be our field agent for this case, directly connected to myself and Maia Aikley." He gestured to the selkie. "She's fae as well, so at the beginning we'll want to keep her and myself from the scene, just in case it is fae. We don't want to scare them off."
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Posted: Wed May 09, 2018 8:59 am
“Hello,” Nick gave a nod and smile at Toby. They’d met before, but he couldn’t recall whether they’d worked together directly. Probably a sign of old age. Aikley? Oh! He glanced between the selkie and werewolf for a moment before giving Maia a smile as well. “It’s nice to meet you,” he said. “I wish it was on better circumstances.”
Right, right. He nodded in agreement. “Whatever it is, it’s consistently given our agents the slip. Be careful, and don’t disappear, Aikley. I’d hate for that to be on my record.”
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Posted: Wed May 09, 2018 9:05 am
Toby smirked. "I'm sure our boss would agree. Don't worry. I know some ill-tempered fae." Feeling that Lori and this elf were close, he thought it was alright to reach out and pinch Lori. Lori turned and glared.
"Hey." That was all Lori said.
"Alright, we'll need to set up camp somewhere. Is there more to this team, Agent Ithin?"
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Posted: Wed May 09, 2018 10:36 am
“Same,” Nick said, and gave Lori a smile. “Be careful, Agent Y,” he said. “We haven’t tried Fae agents yet, I don’t know if they’ll lead them away.” Who knew what they’d do? The things could turn invisible, apart from texturally.
“Will you be staying here, until Aikley has more information?” He asked.
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Posted: Wed May 09, 2018 11:53 am
Lori gave a look that was dripping with sarcastic venom, but at Nick's question he nodded. "Yeah. We usually consider two agents a team, and Maia is our ambassador. I don't get to do this kind of work often." He smiled and offered back the print and the iPad.
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Posted: Wed May 09, 2018 12:12 pm
"Thanks," he accepted the ipad and print out.
Nick had kept it cool during the meeting, but he'd quickly gone on to pace the floor of the meeting room. "I didn't know what else there was to try," he said, and rubbed his face with his hands. So many people suddenly missing, without a trace.
"We should start here, Aikley," he offered Toby his iphone. It had a map indicating one building in particular. "Six people have gone missing from here, and we think we've seen a pattern."
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Posted: Wed May 09, 2018 12:16 pm
"What do you mean, you think?" Toby asked, glancing to Nick as if he'd smelled something awful. This would have been a moment for Dari to rattle off the profile they'd been given, but Toby couldn't remember it word-for-word. Twenties to thirties, unhappy in their job, missing from breaktime in the past month or so. God, he missed his partner. He'd forgotten how hard it was to work with someone random all the time. That was how most agents had to do it, though there were some unofficial partnerships and good teams out there.
"When did the first person go missing, and how long until the most recent?"
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Posted: Wed May 09, 2018 12:22 pm
Nick hesitated. He studied Toby for a moment, before saying, "I mean in the places they disappeared from, it's always one place, and then someone disappears from this building. We think this is their home base for business."
"Last month--on the fourth?" He checked his notes in the file and nodded. "The fourth. More people have gone missing by the day, though. The most recent disappearance was two days ago."
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Posted: Wed May 09, 2018 12:30 pm
"Wait... people disappear from one place, say Place A, and then someone disappears from Place B? Then Place C, then Place B again? I don't understand. Do you have the original report writeup?"
Then Toby nodded. That was a lot of people to go missing from a city in Ireland in a month.
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Posted: Wed May 09, 2018 12:39 pm
"Yes," Nick said, and offered Toby the folder. He should have given that to him before when he'd been debriefing. He was never so absent minded. "Sorry, this case really has me shaken," he said. It'd been a lot of work keeping up with the disappearances and getting hold of security cameras.
"We don't know why they keep coming back here, but people keep vanishing."
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Posted: Wed May 09, 2018 12:46 pm
"No, no, it's fine. It's hard when people could be in danger. Unseelie can be difficult to deal with, and then there's so many types of entities under the genus of 'fae' that you can't really know what you're up against." He began to flip through the file, nodding.
"Alright, this is strange. We probably shouldn't camp out in the building itself, but we can have the camera routed through us and run through the programs automatically."
"I've got you there," Lori said with a nod.
"You and I should probably pose as new employees, or transfers. Do we have our fingers in this company?"
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Posted: Wed May 09, 2018 3:24 pm
The techs were sent out to wire the cameras, and then Toby and Nick were in. In the car, that was. It was a nice enough car, with tinted windows; a kia sportage. One of the back lights had been broken and taped, indicating at one time something had hit it.
"So, I guess we're competing for the same job," Nick said, as he settled into the driver's seat. He gave Toby a grin and startled the car. "Don't worry, it's not my kind of work."
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Posted: Mon May 14, 2018 12:23 pm
"Not much of a competition," Toby teased, puffing his chest out. He slipped into the car and shook his head. "No, no, you have to be happy about it or they're going to go for you first. You look much more gullible. Why can't I drive? Doesn't the grunt always drive?"
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Posted: Mon May 14, 2018 12:29 pm
Did he? Nick considered Toby's observation before grinning at him. "This face comes in handy for these situations," he said. He'd never acted the intern part, though, that was going to be a struggle.
"You can drive on the way back," he teased. "I have to make up for having to do grunt work somehow." Happily, even. How difficult. "Getting into your character?" he asked, putting the car into reverse. He checked both mirrors and slowly backed up.
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