| Chasing Shadows |
| Summary: | Tasked by Tillman, Sawyer and Cora start their own investigation regarding skinjobs. |
| Date: | 26 Jun 2041 AE |
| Related Logs: | The Tenth Sparrow & Fly. |
| Players: |
  |
| Secured Office |
|---|
| This is a secured office some where in the maze of the ship. |
| Post-Holocaust Day: #120 |
Sawyer was able to set up a time to meet with Cora, and gave the woman directions to the office that Tillman has temporarily set up for this purpose. It's one he was using in the interim while waiting for the XO's quarters to be cleared out of the destruction that was Sarkis' grand suicide/homicide combo. Now the Reporter waits outside the hatch, the key card to this particular room strung with her PRESS credentials around her neck.
Cora arrives at the time they'd agreed upon, glancing casually over her shoulder as she makes her way down the corridor to meet Sawyer, smiling in a fashion somewhere between friendly and just polite, "Evening," she greets the reporter, "Shall we?"
"There's no time like the present. Hope you brought some coffee, this is long boring work…" Sawyer turns from the hallway to focus on the door, sliding the keycard in without removing it from around her neck (even if that means she needs to bend down a bit to do it.) "Mostly it's a whole lot of wading through bullshit and hoping for something to stand out. Reads like stereo instructions…" She swings open the door and reaches inside to flip on a light. Blissfully inside, it's not just a room full of boxes, but there's a desk and a pair of chairs along with a television set with a digital recording player hooked up beneath.
"I didn't, but I'm sure we can get some," Cora replies, watching Sawyer unlock the door and heading in after her, making sure the hatch shuts behind them. "That's a lot of what Intel is," she confirms with a nod, "Wading through reports trying to pluck bits out and then figure out how they tie together, if they do." She circles the room, looking around, but then turns back to the reporter, "So, I wasn't quite sure after talking to the major whether you'd already done some work on this stuff or not. Maybe we could start by you filling me in on that?"
"Truth be told? I'm not entirely certain /what/ we're working on. But when the Major says 'Hey Sawyer, how would you like unrestricted access to everything the military never wants to see the light of day?'…you don't say no." Sawyer helps herself to the chair behind the desk, yanking open one of the drawers and pulling out a stack of octagonal folders stuffed with papers. "He dropped this gift in my lap right before we left for Leonis. The only thing I had been working on since was staying alive. So no, I really haven't made any progress on…whatever it is we're doing here. Witch hunt?" She divides the stack in half and pushes one portion in the direction of Cora.
"It does seem like quite a deal for you," Cora agrees, peeking in a different drawer as Sawyer pulls out the contents of another. She turns back as the pile is divided and draws up a chair, leaning over to look at the top folder. "I suppose you could call it a witch hunt," she shrugs, "I'm sure you would if you were writing about it for the paper. I'd think the major'd prefer we avoid giving people reason to call it that if we can help it. How do you know Tillman, anyway, if you don't mind my asking?"
Sawyer glances up at Cora without really raising her head, effectively looking at the counterintelligence officer from the tops of her eyes. There's a bit of a smirk at the question, and a pause long enough for Cora to fill in the blanks as she likes before Sawyer confirms or denies those suspicions. "We befriended each other a short time after I came aboard the Cerberus. Nothing unprofessional, however, I assure you. It was just mutually beneficial to be on each other's good sides." Sawyer looks back down to her folder and mutters, "Witch Hunt would make an excellent title though…"
"Oh, I know you're not sleeping with him," Cora replies with a little smirk of her own, flashed at the reporter in a quick sideways glance. Then she turns her attention back to that folder, opening it up and eyeing the first sheet, offering, "It would be an excellent title if you'd like our work to cause deaths rather than prevent them. But as an eye-grabber alone, sure." She flips through a couple pages and then stops, sitting back a little and saying, "Maybe before we dive into this we ought to try to come up with a plan of attack."
"You mean beyond 'divide and conquer'? We're looking or suspicious activity that might have some common thread between it. Early on, the Cerberus was subject to some systems malfunctions that were due to using the lowest bidder. So we have to rule those /out/. There was a woman named Tuata though, who died suspiciously in custody of the military police. I'd like to start there…and that…." Sawyer's voice gets distracted as she starts to dig. "…is viewer friendly." She waggles a disc and indicates the television.
OOC Note: What they are watching is found in http://battlestarcerberus.wikidot.com/the-tenth-sparrow
"Yes, beyond that," Cora replies with a nod, and another as to their general, over-arching plan. The specifics draw her interest more, and then she looks over at the waggled disc and nods, "Alright, let's start there, then." She lets Sawyer set the video up, turning her chair towards the screen.
Sawyer pops the disc in the player then steps back and perches on the edge of the desk to watch the grainy surveillance footage from the brig. Partway through, Sawyer's pulling at her bottom lip with a pluck of her fingers and by the time the video ends she's downright uncomfortable in her own skin. Her face is a mix of puzzlement and perplexity like something is nagging at her but she can't quite put her finger on it. "That was….unsettling."
Cora doesn't look quite as discomfited as Sawyer, but she is frowning, and she nods, "Yes." She's quiet for another long moment, brow wrinkled, and then she asks, "Do you take notes, generally? Or are we trying to keep all of this in our heads? I'm inclined to, for instance, write down that dream and their interpretations, because that seemed key, but you'd know better than I at this point if we think that might be too great a security risk."
Sawyer hmmms? It's as if the reporter was distracted with her own thoughts and her brain has to rush to catch up with the conversation. "Oh. Take all the notes you want, but we'll keep them in here under lock and key. At least they'll be here to refer back to. Did you…did you catch that bit about serpents and snakes? It sounds…familiar. Hmm." Sawyer shakes her head and moves to retrieve the disc. "And did she say gods' or god's? Damn. What about the dream?"
Cora nods, and then replies, "Something about the tenth sparrow being the father, the tenth of ten, the seventh of seven, that escapes to beget new progeny and then becomes the serpent and devours the rest… or something," she shakes her head a little, "I mean, I heard it. I can't say I understood it. Who was this woman, exactly? I mean— obviously that's what we're trying to find out — who did we believe her to be at the time? Why was she in custody?"
"Suspicious behavior and accessing restricted areas. This was right about the time we had a series of suspicious fires and then she was caught trying to make changes to some code for one of the central control systems…and defaced some…property…" Sawyer moves around the desk and flips open a folder, flicking through a few pages until she pulls out a report. "Here."
"A sparrow, again, and… before the fractures appeared? Well, I suppose that could be easily be coincidence," Cora says, "More likely that than that she somehow caused the fractures or sensed them or something. I don't suppose that paint she used got tested? To make sure it didn't contain any sort of agent that might have led to the fracturing?"
Sawyer looks down to the other sheets of paper in the same folder, licking her thumb to page through them looking for the information Cora just requested as she's not familiar with the file yet herself. "I don't see anything in here about testing the paint. An interesting theory…maybe it's in the with the AARs from Engineering." Sawyer shrugs and flops down in a chair.
"That might be," Cora nods, "If it isn't I imagine it's too late to test now." She glances at the television and rakes a hand over her hair, considering. "Do we have the medical reports on her death?" she asks, "Autopsy?"
Sawyer kicks her feet up on the desk, "Have a look for yourself. That file's in your stack." Sawyer leans back, laces her fingers together and lays them over her eyes. "Serpents…serpents…serpents…." The reporter mutters over and over, as if one of these times the utterance of that single word will make something stick in her brain.
"Genetic heart defect? That's convenient," Cora says skeptically, "That I might call too much of a coincidence, or it's tempting to, at least. I suppose it certainly could be." She frowns at the page, and then shakes her head, looking up, "The myth is ringing a bell, I take it? Theology was never my subject, I'm afraid."
"No, I wish it was. I may have to take it to the the priestess. See if she can give us any input. Have you met Greje yet?" As always, Sawyer bulldozes right past a question that the answer doesn't seem to be of any consequence to her. "You saw the tape, the COD is consistent at least. Though, I'm sure there are things that could reproduce that effect. Drugged? Or it /could/ be just be heart failure. Sometimes when you want to find a ghost, you're going to end up chasing shadows. Alright. That's enough for tonight." Their conversing plus watching the video has chewed up the better part of the evening.
"No, I haven't met the priestess," Cora replies, redirecting back to that question when Sawyer's otherwise finished, "Was she interviewed, after this? Has anyone asked her about that encounter since?"
"I know as much as you do about the Tuata incident, so far. We'll have to dig deeper into the files to find out all these answers. I'm sure they were both interviewed extensively. If not, that would be a major failing of the military police. But like I said, that's enough for tonight. I can only keep you away from your actual job long enough before people start to question." Sawyer drags her feet off the table and shoves some of the files back into the drawer, tidying up before she gets ready to leave with Cora.
Cora nods, once and then again, "We will, and yes, definitely." She eyes the files for another moment, and then nods once more and flips it closed, smiling crookedly, "Yes, I do have a whole another job to be settling into as well. But we'll have to talk about this again soon, I'd like to try to get up to speed on what's already here so that when new things start coming in we can have a better idea of the context and how they might connect. If anything here connects," she says, gesturing around the room with a crooked smile. She rises and nods, and then helps with the tidying before heading out.