The Meet - Laurel Nichols - SARA

[Dave Syrinx]

Being the prequel to what will be happening in the safe house.
Golden Star Café
3916 Main St
Bridgeport

7 October 2013
11:05



Driving up to Bridgeport, the first snow had started to fall. Not really cold enough to let it cover the streets, the light snow clung to the trees in a desperate attempt to bring winter to the area. Feeling the chill eat at her bones, Laurel exits her vehicle.

Sitting at a corner table, is the person you assume to be Darren Griffiths. He wears a black down jacket and has short black hair. He´s in his mid forties. On the table in front of him are a cup of coffee and a baseball cap with the Bridgeport Bluefish logo.
Working at Golden Star is Jimmy B, who´s behind the counter.
From the kitchen is a ruckus telling that there are more staff working this late morning. Only two other guests are at the tables. An elderly gentleman with heavy boots and hunting greens on. He´s having eggs and bacon along his coffee. The second patron is a young man standing, chatting with Jimmy B. He wears a sailor wind breaker in a green nuance. He has long blonde hair and glasses.

[Mr. Handy]

Laurel Nichols reached the café after the relatively short drive from Boston. She walked up to the front door and entered, remembering as always to duck down to avoid hitting her head on the lintel. She could instantly feel all the eyes in the place upon her. It was the same everywhere she went. People couldn't help but stare. Had she been two feet shorter, she probably wouldn't have even gotten a second glance. Still, her enormous build had its advantages.

[Dave Syrinx]

Darren Griffith

Darren puts his left hand under the cap and leaves it there as Laurel walks in. At every step she picks up a tic, tac from a wall clock behind the counter. Time kept on ticking as sure as glances were being thrown her way. Jimmy B. pastes a grin to his face and says, "Mornin officer!" The place smells of half decent coffee. At least it isn´t burnt.
As Laurel gets halfway down the aisle, Darren pats his breast pocket and gets out a pen from behind a pair of sunglasses. He has already put some change on a receipt on the table.
The hunter stomps his feet and staggers to a stand, leaning on the bolted seat for support. He lifts a bag from a nearby seat and it rattles from metal on metal. Five cars of mixed makes had been standing outside the café where she had found a spot.

[Mr. Handy]

"Good morning, sir," says Laurel to Jimmy B with a nod. She heads over to the corner table where Darren sits. "Do you mind if I sit here, sir?"

[Dave Syrinx]

Darren slightly shakes his head at the question. He writes something on a napkin, still keeping his left hand hidden beneath the cap on the table.
When he has finished writing, he says, "Laurel, welcome. This is quite uncommon to meet like this. But necessary. The email contacts will be vanishing as we speak. You do have an interest in the obscure elements of investigations, correct? This note is yours to read when I´ve left. Make it disappear after reading it. We don´t want any traces left." He pushes the note towards Laurel when she has taken a seat opposite from him. He puts the pen on the table and it rolls in a semi circle towards her, stopping at the note´s edge, pushing it almost off of the table. Darren gives all the people inside the cafe a cursory look, then checks through the windows. Meeting Laurel´s eyes, he smiles nervously.

The note:

Spoiler:

"I´m working for a fringe department of authority. We look for aid in various places. Able people. We seek the truth. Deception is ever present. So for starters. We never met and there is no fringe department. We have asked you to aid us on a mission. Let´s call it a test run. In a trash can behind the cafe is a Herald Tribune from last Monday. Within, is an address to a safe house. This is your base of operations. You will have equipment there provided by the department. We have filed you under the name SARA. You are assigned a group affiliation DG-S2. There might be two more members assigned to your group as time passes. Your contact at the department will be an agent TATE. Agent TATE will be pre-programmed on your equipment.
All this is if you should agree to work for the department. There will be no paper or digital trail of your working for us. A deniability fail safe.
Should you agree to aid us, we will pull all strings to free OT and leave time from the U.S. Marshal Office."

[Mr. Handy]

He's going to hurt his neck if he keeps looking up at me, thinks Laurel. She folds herself into the chair across from him, with barely enough room for her long legs under the table, though she still towers over him - just not as much. She returns his smile and picks up the napkin, pretending that she's doing so to wipe her face and looking at the message in the process. She nods and surreptitiously crumples and palms it, acting as though she's dropping it on the table. Then she puts her hand in her pocket and deposits the note there. I'll burn it later. "Not a problem," she says quietly. "Yes, I'm interested. I'll check it out after I get something to eat." She hopes he'll realize that it wouldn't do for the two of them to be seen leaving together.

[Dave Syrinx]

"Good, you can have this table." Darren says. He stands up and takes the cap.
Underneath the cap lie a photograph and a cell phone.
The phone is a slim ZTE-S 7.0.

The photo is from a crime scene. This is from the upper edge of the shot.
Not showing here is the bodies of ten children aged 3-6 and three women in their thirties.

[Mr. Handy]

"Thank you," says Laurel, eyeing the photograph. The sight of the murder victims really tugs at her heartstrings. This cannot go unanswered, she thinks. If this is what it's all about, I have to get involved. Whoever did this is going down! If Darren leaves without the photo and the phone, she slides them across the table and makes them disappear into her pocket.

[Dave Syrinx]

Darren walks away and out the front door. Outside, he gets into a black town jeep. He drives off to the west.
When she has watched the quiet street for a couple of seconds, she is brought back to the cafe by Jimmy who stands beside the table.
"You want a refill or anything to eat?" He taps a pencil stub on a small pad.
The hunter exits the cafe. Leaves in a red pick up. That leaves three cars plus Laurel´s ride.

[Mr. Handy]

"Thank you, sir," says Laurel. "I'd like some coffee and a dozen eggs, over easy, please." With her metabolism, she has to consume thousands of calories per day. Food can get expensive, but luckily she likes to eat.

[Dave Syrinx]

Jimmy almost repeats the order but decides against it. "Yup, coming right up." He comes with the coffee and starts working on the eggs. They are served before Laurel finishes her first cup. She gets a set of sauces with the eggs. On the side are three toasts and sliced tomatoes.
The eggs ate seasoned with smoked salt and mixed pepper.
"Here you go, officer."

[Mr. Handy]

"Thanks," says Laurel, tucking into her large meal with gusto and proceeding to systematically devour every bite. When she finishes, she wipes her mouth with a napkin, pays for the meal, and leaves a good tip before exiting the diner. She then circles around behind the building to find the trash can with the newspaper.

[Dave Syrinx]

Laurel easily finds the Herald and the address in it. Layout
It´s on Prospect Street, four miles south of the café.

[Mr. Handy]

Laurel folds up the newspaper and tucks it under her arm, then goes back to her car to drive to the address on Propsect Street, keeping an eye out for anyone watching or following her.

[Dave Syrinx]

The safe house

Bridgeport CT
290 Prospect Street
11:40

Driving past the house and making a u-turn only to park on the opposite side of the street gets a perfect vantage point over way she came. There´s no sign off any surveillance or trailing cars. Not what she can see anyway.
As Laurel stops the car two kids run away from the porch in a hurry. The two girls pick the left side of the house to round, heading for the backyard.

[Mr. Handy]

Laurel parks the car, gets out, and walks up to the house's front door, trying it to see if it is locked.

[Dave Syrinx]

Getting over to the porch she sees some almost dead cigarettes. Checking the door reveals it is unlocked. Opening it slowly not to trip any wires or alarms she soon is inside. Directly to the left is a lounge with a group of easy chairs covered with white sheets, The four chairs all face a single small table. Ahead is a corridor with closets and a stair leading up. There are no pictures on the walls and the place seems abandoned.

[Mr. Handy]

Laurel closes and locks the door behind her, then makes her way past the stairway towards the dining room and kitchen, wanting to make sure that the ground floor is clear before heading upstairs.

[Dave Syrinx]

When Laurel gets to the kitchen counter, after having checked the laundry room and all the closets on the ground floor, she sees a military green lock box with a wire handle and two latch locks in the front. It´s The blinds are down on the window above the sink. It´s 50 cm square and 10 cm high.

[Mr. Handy]

Laurel inspects the outside of the box. Once satisfied that it is safe, she unlocks it and looks inside.