<> <> <> (Is it still good?) <> <> (DRONE NOT EAT) * Zeke's drones perform a less than subtle B&E before moving in and around the apartment, staying on the walls so that people can enjoy the floors. (I'm assuming there's no super high-tech security or something that's standard for apartments?) (Are we waiting outside the building or in the hangar or what?) <> * Tomas looks up at Zeke from his position crouched in the bushes, "Anybody home?" (I guess I'm going with, or I'll be the odd man out this whole thing!) (This won't take too long, probably, but feel free.) (Zeke didn't go along. The drones did!) (There's csi SCIENCE! to be done.) (Zeke is back with Ama and Tia on the ship.) (Oh good, now I know where I am. :D) (Although if Ama goes, then he's alone with Tia.) (so I wait here until a drone comes back and tells me it's clear?) (Nah, I'll hang out with you weirdos.) * Lexi walks on into the room and shrugs. "So... what are we looking for?" (Word.) * Zeke comms, ~There is nothing of risk in the room,~ to Tomas. Lookin' for clues. Kinda like CSI Red Atlanta. Only with less murder and about as convoluted as a plot. * Tomas looks around and notices the others have disappeared and heads into the building himself, ~Roger, Roger~ (Tomas is a star wars droid.) (This is srs spy bsns.) * Tomas finds the room and enters, scanning the takeout boxes, "This looks to be the right place." * Kyle looks around. "Looks like." * Lexi follows Tomas and looks around the room. "Dude needs to get a life." <> <> * Tomas approaches the TVNet screen and turns it on, noting the station it was on, then starts browsing the favorites and other stored bits of interest. * Kyle walks over to the window and looks at the floor, running his fingers through the carpeting. "Hmm... a tripod was sitting here for a while. A really, really long while. Like months." <> * Kyle looks out the window to where it was looking over. <> Probably a video feed straight at who we were recieving, and when. Oh, and when we were coming and going. * Tomas's eyes go wide, "That's a bit excessive." ~I hear surveillance without comprehensivenss is bad surveillance.~ ("also lexi what are you wearing") * Tomas glances around the room again and notices the most recent takeout order sitting by the door, "Looks like our little ruse tipped them off, Kyle." <> * Tomas heads up to the loft (He was going to anyway, smarty pants.). <> (IRONY) (I'd be delicious!) (It's how he'd have wanted to go.) <> * Tomas crouches down and picks up a couple papers examining them! * Kyle looks at Tomas. "Probably, and they know we're onto them most likely." * Kyle searches the room for bugs. (With all these take out boxes there has to be a roach or two million.) <> (The OTHER kind of bugs.) (Silverfish?) (Or rather, the other other kind of bugs. You know.) (They squeeg me out.) (*points to Zeke* shhhh...) (oh god. Resurgence in a loft down the street from the Hitching Post! Damn you Don Goatee!) <> * Lexi looks over the papers and shakes her head. "I will repeat myself. This guy needs a life." <<"Germany's feuds with Italy might bear fruit if subjected to analysis, possible investment necessary...", etc.>> * Tomas gathers up what papers he can for analysis in the lab then hrmphs and begins checking under the bed and the mattress for more clues. <> * Kyle continues to sweep through the apartment, checking various surfaces like the windows for fingerprints or impressions from equipment. <> Man, postcognition would be awesome to have right now. (No comment.) * Tomas rolls the box around in his hand looking for more clue, ~Looks like our spy had at least one visitor.~ * Lexi looks over at Tomas and the box and shrugs. "Yeah and not a very smart one if she just left them here. Unless she is staying here with him." * Kyle chimes over the frequency. ~I didn't find any bugs, so either they're still looking here and we can't find it, or they've cut their ties with this place.~ What'd you guys find? Just some birth control pills and a pile of pages from a history book. (AFK one sec, sorry) Huh. * Kyle takes a look at the pills and pages. <> * Kyle blinks. He scratches his head. Hold on a sec. Half of this stuff never happened. It's fake? ~Another interpretation of the data would then become likely.~ Yeah. Like... there was never a trade agreement there in East Asia. And I know for a fact that that country didn't *exist* until the late 20th century, well after this was supposed to happen. * Kyle points at a couple articles. * Lexi shakes her head. "Well that doesn't make sense. Why would he change stuff." Your guess is as good as mine. Maybe he's an alternate history buff? (Ladies and gentlemen the greatest minds in Red Boston) (HE IS PLAYING RISK) (God, you're suspicious.) Hey, Deus. Is there any history of someone with some sort of time travel or time altering 24? (That sound you hear is the fourth wall collapsing into tiny little shards.) (Ha ha.) (HELLO, LITTLE KURIBOH. WHEN'S THE NEXT EPISODE? AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHAHAHAHAHA) Huh. Hey, you look at that Lexi, isn't that paragraph kinda describing... * Zeke communicates, ~That seems as if it would be a significant deviation from the purpose of this loft.~ * Lexi looks down at the paragraph. "Hm?" <> (Is it still from the mid-20th century?) That's... pretty creppy. (creepy) * Lexi raises her eyebrows. "That is weird. So he's using these articles to hide records of him spying on us?" Yeah. Or that's how he's getting information from other sources about us. Put out something bogus, nobody's gonna look for it except people who know. <> * Lexi shakes her head. "So the question is who, other than him, knows what to look for? And why are they so interested in us?" <> I don't think it's just us. The other two ships are probably involved too. (...Have we just been made into the ATC version of Hetalia?) (... Quite possibly.) (I didn't know that existed but yeah.) (Clearly we're Europe.) What would anyone have to gain from this kind of spying? (Tell me Zeke is Russia. Zeke HAS to be Russia.) (... you guys can pick.) * Zeke communicates, ~Keeping track of us. And possibly the other groups. It leads back to the uncertanties of why we were hired by these organizations.~ (I... am Luxembourg.) I can't fathom what anyone would gain by knowing I went to a Nordic Ska Metal concert. (Amadeus is China, prob. Unless he's actually willing to use Singapore.) * Lexi looks over at Tomas. "I dunno Mas. I think that's worth knowing. I mean... that's really weird. Nordic Ska Metal was so last year." <> (afk a sec, wander back to the hangar when you're ready) * Tomas scoffs, "I suppose you're into J-Country Western?" * Tomas shakes his head pityingly as he heads for the door and the hangar. <> * Lexi shakes her head and shrugs, heading back to the hangar. "Nah. I've been listening to a lot of the Twilight City Neo-Grunge scene lately." (Ahahaha. Ahaha. Ahem. Aha. Mental images.) * Zeke's drones head back, with eyes on them. He comms, ~I think Hestia will be able to check if those cameras are still in use before I destroy them.~ ~That'd be good. And if she could, maybe she could backdoor into the feed?~ ~Maybe see if they've been hooked into from somewhere else. A new base of operations.~ <> (Aww. Not 'thousands of miles away'? :( ) <<..... okay fine THOUSANDS OF MILES AWAY, everyone rejoins inside the ship.>> (Wait what? WHere's the ship?) <> (Wasn't that just down the street?) (Joke, Tomas. It was a joke.) (*hands Josh a cookie*) (oh. I get jokes.) (If you give a Josh a cooke it is going to want you to perform a soft-shoe routine.) <> * Amadeus is in the ship! Looking at a datapad and trying to ignore the crowds outside. * Hestia waves her own datapad at the group as they come in, smiling amusedly. "Hello, Kaiser. Negotiate any treaties lately?" (Am I the Kaiser? Tell me I'm the Kaiser.) (No! You are the Rye.) (I'm Ergot-tastic!) (WHO THE HELL DO YOU THINK I AM?!) I...what? No. * Zeke is there! As if he were not just a voice. "It is odd that such a... plaintext way to hide information was used." Easy to overlook simple solutions. Think of it this way. If you were a cryptographer and noticed he kept notes with a really difficult cipher you'd work like hell to crack it. Change the names to countries? You get stuff like Lexi thinking it was time travel. ... perhaps. It was extremely unlikely. * Hestia looks down at her pad, tapping at it. "Anyhow, I think someone's diverting those camera feeds at the source, but I can't trace that from here. We'd have to look at the physical camera." I can localize mine. (Doesn't parse.) (The camera looking outside his apartment.) (Dronees can find.) (That's not what 'localize' means!) <> (I fixed it.) (Is this a visual we are being fed or is only Zeke seeing that?) (It'd be Zeke only.) * Zeke tilts his head suddenly and goes back over to the TVNet screen to give everyone a look at it before he destroys it. "Interesting technology choice." (WAIT WHAT) <> (Does he actually destroy it in front of everyone?) (Is the spiderweb holding the camera up or is it just there?) (I didn't destroy any yet.) <> < (Yeah, I've been bad at this all night. Distracted.) (So yeah, you can see the stuffs!) * Hestia gets up and looks at the monitor. "Huh. How accessible is that spot?" Thinkin' of hackin'? <> (Let me throw you up there. For great justice.) * Hestia turns around. "No way to know who else is watching without figuring out what's up with that signal." She turns back to the TV. "There's a... something. In the line, near the signal's point of origin at the camera. I mean, I don't KNOW it's someone jacking the feed, but what else could it be?" <> * Lexi turns to Tia and shrugs. "Want me to give you a lift, T?" (Actually, this is a silly thing, but: one of the feeds is watching the ship, right?) It is not particularly accessible. If we could identify when it was placed, that might be helpful. I doubt there were many legitimate reasons to access that area. * Hestia glances at Lexi. "If you can actually do that, then yes, absolutely." Shouldn't be too hard. <> (And they observably showed these guys coming back, right? Like, it's obvious the feeds aren't being piped false visual data.) <> (*nod*) * Hestia goes to set her pad down on the counter, then turns back. "Let's do it." * Amadeus looks up from his datapad. "Wait, what are we doing?" * Lexi shrugs and walks out so she gets a more idrect line of sight to the area. "No problem." and starts to float Tia up in the air. "Hang on tight." <> (I shoot them to maintain secrecy.) * Kyle walks out and keeps a sight out on the crowd for anyone, well... doing something that would be contrary to Hestia's survival. <> * Hestia gives the drone a look that says, in no uncertain terms, I Would Disassemble You For Fun If I Could Get Away With It, before looking at the camera and frowning. Connections? Wireless, presumably? More stuff? The spiderweb? info plz * Zeke's drone doesn't speak 'look', and so doesn't respond. (I take that as assent! Give me a screwdriver.) <> (It look like we can pull the web itself off the girder?) <> <> ...now that's interesting. * Hestia grabs the camera too, for the hell of it. "Alright, we're done here." <> (The camera's an afterthought. The web's important.) (What's that, chocolate caramel popcorn with pecans? You're going to induce a feeling of cosmic wellbeing when I eat you? Then let's do this thing.) * Zeke's drone comes back, although other drones are identifying the other cameras' posiitons. ~A... wireless observation device for wireless observation devices.~ < spectrum.>> * Hestia is sitting in the lab, staring at the web as it lies on a work table. "That is some damn fine microtooling, or a 24 power at work." <> * Zeke adds, "And also difficult to place in an unnoticable way." (...again, parse failure) (He was saying earlier that it was hard to place that camera without being noticed.) * Kyle looks. "Woah, that's... that's some sick work. Like, crazy precise." (The web is similarly difficult to place without being noticed.) (Something we could look into.) I don't know... I mean, if Lexi were our spy, she could have placed it with no problem. * Lexi nods. "She's right. It wouldn't have been hard." (What's the probable range on the transmit from the web?) <> (So where could it be transmitting to? @_@) <> (That was my question, indeed.) * Hestia frowns. "There's no way this could be transmitting long-distance. So where the hell is it going?" (Piggybacking?) (Like... reading the information, and then throwing it back at the camera to broadcast out with/over its stream?) * Hestia tilts her head a little, like she's listening to something in the distance. It's on the roof. * Zeke SENDS IN THE DRONE. <> * Zeke takes the toaster and hands it to Hestia, rather than give Hestia the chance to break the drone 'accidentally'. (its day will come.) * Hestia sets the thing down on the table. Then she stares at it for a long time. What the hell is THIS. <> The most... likely answer is that it is a longer range transmitter that could not be attached to that area. (Why is everyone so quiet, you just discovered a rogue toaster. :C ) * Zeke tilts his head. "But it does not seem... functional. What would the holes be for?" Bread. It's a toaster. (I sleep.) (Don't do that.) * Tomas gives the toaster a closer examination, utilizing his vast culinary knowledge. <> (No EM emissions, etc., yes?) (Nope.) Were there any hobos living on the roof? Maybe it's one of theirs. I suppose we could just disassemble it. There might be a storage device in there somewhere. Though truthfully this is too nice a model for your regular, run-of-the-mill hobo. We're talking a higher class of hobo here. <> * Hestia holds up said transmitter. "Well, now... that's got a range better than 10 feet, and then some." (I deliver oratory of such inspiring beauty that you are awed into silence.) (I'm still working out my Unified Hobo Theory.) * Zeke nods in agreement, then comments, "Is it possible to track it in a useful manner as well?" (Probably by next session,. yes. But I think people are tired? I guess? I don't know, suddenly half the group went silent) (so tired) (HOW CAN YOU BE TIRED IT IS MYSTERY TOASTER) (I'm here! I'm just not so involved in techie stuff?) (I just... it's like, I've noticed this before? That when Tia opens her mouth everyone shuts up and stops doing things, so I guess it's me? I don't know. I'd like to know what I've done wrong or am doing wrong, if that's the case.) (I know I talk kind of fast, so am I crowding out you guys responding?) (Hold on a sec.) <>