Firearm Foulup (IC)

[angrydurf]

Ace strolled into the club and after a couple cursorry greetings to friends found a comfortable overstuffed chair and ordered a scotch on the rocks from the comely waitress as well as a copy of the Ledger. He had selected a spot with good visibility of the main entryway in case his tail was so bold as to inquire as to his identity there and began making a few calls to friends in the telecom buisness the was a number he needed to get unrestricted.

[quotemyname]

A few minutes and a few drinks later, the paperwork all went through. It turns out that the number was actually a cell phone. It would take some more time to get a trace on it, however. The party did look very attractive, and he did have his cover to worry about...

Whatever was the righteous defender of justice going to do? There was always tomorrow, the third of July, to wrap up any stray details...

[angrydurf]

Opting to keep the police in the loop as it seemed they had time before the deal itself went down Ace waited till the next moring to further pursue his leads. By then the trace on the phone had gone off and it was a relitively simple matter to track the general vicinity of his tail from the day previous.

Wrokign with the police to ensure they got the guy Ace was mostly on hand in case he was something more than his previous investigations had indicated and to question him about his mysterious employers when the time came.

[quotemyname]

Ace was waiting for the man from yesterday to 'keep in touch' with him, as Ace was not supposed to know the man's phone number.

Ace spent some of the morning in the passenger seat of a police cruiser pouring over the papers that were a result of yesterday's trace of the cell phone. They consisted of a list of times and coordinates. The coordinates had been cross referenced with a map, and there were little circles indicating where the phone had spent the bulk of yesterday.

[angrydurf]

The location of the phone just didn't add up, something here was out of place and waiting was never one of Aces favorite pastimes. He alerted the Police he was gonna make the call and they should workthe trace as fast as they could on its current location.

That done Ace picked up his phone and dialed the number waiting for his supposed tail to pick up.

[quotemyname]

What echoed over the earpiece next was probably one of the most depressing sounds Ace had ever heard. And what's worse he knew very well what that sound was. It was the sound of an investigation coming to a grinding, screeching halt. And it sounded like the words, "This number is no longer in service. If you would like to make a call..."

[angrydurf]

'Of course its never that easy is it.' Ace asked himself as he asked for the cops to dig a bit further into the phone records, it'd probably not turn up anything but any lead would help at this point.

Then with the locations the phone was used from in hand he hit the pavement to see if he could stir up something on his own.

[quotemyname]

You come to the first location. It is one of the ones on the outside of the 'territory'. A 7-11 store on a street corner seems like a pretty innocuous place to run an arms business from, but you do see a man nearby looking at a cellphone while talking into a pay phone. He seems frustrated at the cell phone, like there is something wrong with it.

[angrydurf]

Taking a quick look around to make sure he was unobserved Ace hid himself from the eyes and ears of men and moved into position to listen in on the mans conversation. Hopefully this was probative and not just an angry customer.

[quotemyname]

"I'm telling ya, man!" The irate man yelled into the payphone. "The @#$%ing thing is bork'd! I can't even dial you! You have got to stop it with these prepaid phones. I know they are untraceable and everything, but they make life miserable!"

The conversation went on for a few minutes about the man's displeasure with his phone. Soon enough he managed a disgruntled goodbye, and hung up the phone. He then began to walk away down the street...

[angrydurf]

Ace hesitated a moment as the man started down the block. On the one hand he might be able to find out something useful redialing the phone but in the end following the man seemed the better course chances seemed good he was involved in the situation. Maintaining his invisibility he followed a couple yards behind the man to see where this clue would lead.

[quotemyname]

The man meanders through the streets in the fens. It seems that he is trying to make sure that he isn't followed. Every now and then he even throws a glance over his shoulder. Sometimes he even looks right through you.

You follow the man around for a while. When he's going on 45 minutes of walking, he finally begins to steer towards one of the other buildings that has been highlighted on your little map. Once he gets to the loft, he heads to the front door.

This building is the type of cheap housing that uses a service elevator to ferry people to their floor. It's a four story tall brown stone building. This type of structure is all over The Fens. It's great that nothing really sticks out about this building or else it could be viewed as a suspicious hideout of some sort. These guys certainly were sharp.

The man stands at the door and rings the buzzer for the 4th floor. "Hey, Mac, let me up." The buzzer rings, and he walks through the front door. Which begins to close automatically behind him!

[angrydurf]

Ace hurridly slipped through the closing door though it paused for a brief moment as it caught on him ever so briefly. Ace cursed silently to himself and hoped it went unoticed.

[quotemyname]

The man stood waiting for the service elevator as the door hits you. Luckily for Ace, the man is quite distracted by the elevator's pinging sounds. He takes no notice of anything strange going on.

The elevator eventually reaches the ground floor and the man steps in. He hesitates for a second before closing the gate. He pauses long enough to light up a cigarette. Then once the bead is glowing brightly he takes a few puffs and begins to shut the gate. But is it enough time for Ace to slip through the cracks?

[angrydurf]

As his quarry pauses Ace takes quick advantage to slip out of the elevator taking care not to leave any signs of his passing this time. Hopefully this wasn't another dead end time was running out on the deal and given what he suspected was up for grabs the city could ill afford for such firepower to find its way into the wrong hands.

[quotemyname]

The service elevator opened on the fourth floor, and the two riders stepped out into the studio apartment. "Alright, Mac, you're up." Said the man with the cigarette. He pulled an envelope out of his jacket and handed it over to the other man. "Deliver this package to the next drop point. Make sure you're not followed."

As the brown envelope exchanges hands, you watch the whole thing go down. None of these men seem familiar. How many do they have involved in this? If they can afford to have package boys cart a package half way around down a few times a day just to make sure they are not followed, this ring must be huge.

"Oh yea, and watch out for this guy." The man with the cigarette pulls a picture out of his jacket and hands it to his associate. Moving to an angle where you can see the snapshot, you are very upset to see your own picture displayed upon it. You notice it was taken from a telephoto lens, while you were on the phone. Likely it was a snapshot from yesterday when you were in the middle of the city. "We are not sure whether he is good or bad yet. He's sort of a wild card at this point. A possible buyer, but also a possible fed. Boss owes him a call at the end of the day, but we're not sure if its going to happen or not. Unless something changes and we get new info on the guy, it'll come down to a judgment call at the end of the day."

"Alright, thanks, Jeeves." The second man remarks. None of these names seem to be real you notice. 'Mac', 'Flowers', 'Jeeves'. These guys are careful. Mac continues: "I'll be on the lookout for our friend. I'm now heading to drop point number two." With that he heads off towards the elevator, while Jeeves sinks into a fat leather chair.

Indecision strikes you as you debate which one to stick with. Interrogate the one who obviously has SOME information about the situation, or follow the package?

[angrydurf]

The descision was almost made for him as the mesenger headed off towards the elevator again. Ace quickly snapped a shot on his cells camera and called one of his police contacts passing the photo along as a description of the man along with a hurried update of where he was leaving from and his destination. Hopefully the Police could get ahold of him but the fellow rigth here seemed to be a more direct route to the information Ace needed.

He waited until the mans back was turned to drop his sense clouding effect and Spoke to catch the mans attention, "I think you and I have alot to talk about Jeeves." His voice was dripping with meanace Ace Danger was not feeling particularly polite at the moment.

[quotemyname]

At this point the man had been filling up a glass at his kitchen counter. It shattered when it dropped from his fingertips to the floor. "@#$% it's you!" His hands obviously shaking, he quickly reaches behind his back and whips out a pistol. He Fires it at you, though the shock you had given him clearly affected his aim causing him to miss.

[angrydurf]

As the man pulled the gun Ace vaulted off the couch and charged across the room. He closed quickly and decisively with the man grabing the gun and twisting it easily from the startled mans grasp. He quickly ejected the clip and cleared the chamber of the weapon before casually tossing it aside with distain.

"You used up your chance to do this the nice way Jeeves, you're going to spill everything you know about your employers and I just might not make sure they know exactly how I found them." Ace said looming over the man, gunshots meant word would travel that something had gone down the clock was officially ticking and Ace was out of patience.

[quotemyname]

"Ahh! Ahh! Ahh!" The man yelped clutching his wrist, "Leggo! Come on! That hurts!"

Then the next threat came out of Ace's mouth. The man quieted down, though still nursing the wrist that Ace had in a vice grip. "Alright, I'll talk, just don't tell them who it was! They'd kill me!"