ICC- Episode 1 - The Fire in the Hole

[Snapper]

ICC - Conroy:

Conroy takes an involuntary step back from the car trunk, "Mother of god!" He looks with some horror at the pen he'd been using to poke the remains with.

First things first. Conroy pulls out his phone again and sends another audio message to the team. "The CSI with me has confirmed the first bag contains human child body parts. This has just become a major crime scene for a whole different reason."

"Massive explosion. Evidence of military grade weapons. Chopped up little kids. What the Hell have we trod in here? AUSA McKenna, can you please call me when you get this."

He also mentions the bit about the child body parts to his fed-team colleagues within earshot.

Turning to the CSI, he says, "We obviously need to try to secure this crime scene from the rescue shit going on next door." He looks around at the rest of the garage from where he's standing.

OOC:

Does Conroy know anything else about the bodies in the Hudson from his day job?

And how many vehicles are still in the garage that haven't been looked at by anyone?

[Snapper]

ICC - Gonzalez:

Gonzalez nods to Epps and Cooper in understanding. "I have some idea what you're talking about. I'm Miami Cuban and Catholic. Santeria, Voodoo, real things in Miami. Hell, I know special agents who won't leave their business cards lying around because they're concerned the card could become part of a ritual against them."

"So, you're saying this place was a sort of battleground between some African leaning church with maybe mystic leanings, and the Muslim equivalent of the same thing?"

"And the mystic Muslim sect were the last ones in that blown-to-Hell building? So I guess what I'm really interested in are some names, either of the Muslim sect itself or people in it. Or any other prayer centres or the like used by the same folks, same sect."

"And I guess the local Christians are equally suspects right now."

OOC:
As a matter of irrelevant interest, the business card thing is a RW direct quote from some Miami-based US special agents I was chatting to some years ago.

[Philulhu]

IIC - Harry Shibatu

Harry held up his hands to placate the old man. ”Relax. I can bring the photos, if it makes it any easier. The local PD might not care what happens to people here, but I do.”

”If you’d rather not, I understand, but if I lived here, I think I’d want to get to the bottom of what’s going on and deal with it, right?” He pulled out a business card and offered it to the old man. ”Think about it and give me a call, eh?”

Harry stepped back and made a conscious effort to relax. His shoulders were feeling tense. ”You mentioned something about kids hanging about. Can you see any of those kids around now?”

[Philulhu]

IIC - Jakob Kaminski

Kaminski plans to ask Conroy for help until he sees the agent’s response to whatever was in the boot of the Audi. Clearly there is something unusual there.

He turns and looks around the garage, spotting a compact vacuum cleaner with forensic team stencilling on it. Checking he is ok to borrow it, he pulls it back towards the cab then starts it, lowering the hose in carefully through the window so as to suck the dust from the air without, initially at least, disturbing the dust that is already lying on the surfaces of the interior.

[welsh]

OCC- Sorry folks, crazy busy first week of classes.

IC McKenna-

Morning traffic from Brooklyn to Manhattan had been, as usual, congested and slow, allowing McKenna to go consider the case unfolding behind her.

The Hole. She knew the FBI were still looking for bodies in those old fields. God knows that the place had escaped development. Not even city sewars were being built in that part of Brooklyn. No fucking sewars in Brooklyn? Nearby was a train depot that had gone out of commission and that was deep. She shook the idea out of her head.

Wade was quietly humming to herself, listening to the police band on the activity at the crime scene, and the activities of the team. The federal marshal continued to navigate the SUV through traffic towards the downtown office. Coney Island has passed to the left of them and they were passing the entry to the Verrazano Narrows Bridge and Fort Hamilton.

McKenna knew her job was to provide authority and support, to be the legal guns for when the team needed support and to help the team bring together a case if necessary. But at this point there really wasn’t a case. Then again, it wasn’t clear if this would stay with the local police or be turned over to federal authorities. At this point, she hoped this case would be left with Brooklyn PD and Brooklyn DA, but the case … stank.

“Wade,” She spoke. “Do me a favor and call in to see if we got office space up in Fort Hamilton we can use. Hopefully we wrap this business today and we won’t need the spot, but I think they still got some empty offices that DOD isn’t using.”

(occ- Fort Hamilton- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fort_Hamilton -)

Wade nods, “Will do.” Then calls in McKenna’s request.

McKenna listens for a few minutes, thinking about the bureaucratic paperwork that needs to get done, but again, hopefully this case will be in the closed file by tomorrow.
Barrett, the Chief of Staff at Department of Justice, meant the Attorney General, which meant POTUS. Saudi Arabia had been important to the President prior to the election, part of the Trump administrations “get tough on Iran” policies, that manifested in proxy war in Yemen and intervention in Syria.

She knew enough about the Iranian Quds force operations and assassination campaigns in the Middle East and the heat on Saudi Arabia after all the business about the Tiger Squads that would assassinate challengers to the Saudi regime. The proxy war included cloak and dagger, but ideally such activities were kept hidden. The Iranians had tried a hit on the Saudi Ambassador in DC a few years ago, so it is possible that both were engaged in some mischief on US soil. Iranian covert operations would risk a massive US response, give the US government an excuse for more drone hits on Iranian targets, maybe more. But Saudi mischief on US soil could compromise more. US military hardware for the proxy war, intelligence cooperation, reapproachment between Israel and its Arab neighbors, and billions in arms sales.

So what the fuck where the Saudi’s doing in The Hole?

One thing for sure, the Saudi Consulate in NY and the Saudi mission to the UN would need to be informed about the blast, that their property had blown up.
And they should be told before the press caught wind of it, and sooner or later, the press would likely catch the wind… Hard not to…. The stink of it was hard to ignore.
What the fuck was going on? What shit did the Saudi’s have on their hand and who was going to get stained with it?

“Wade,” Said McKenna, “I’d like you to keep an eye on how our investigation is unfolding. Stay in the loop and just observe for now, let’s see how this is placing out.”

“Yes Ma’m” Said Wade, “From what I am hearing, it sounds like the Saudi’s basically were doing little than supporting what they thought was a religious center to try to find some converts. But it sounds like there is more than a little Islam going on.”

“Maybe.” Said McKenna, “Or it is possible that the Saudi’s just wanted to distance themselves from whatever was going on there so that if the shit in the fan, they didn’t get coated with it.”

“Definitely a possibility.” Said Wade, “They get plausible deniability for not being directly involved with the religious center, which sounds like was moved out and taken over by some other group.”

McKenna nods. “Yep, The Saudi’s buy the property and set it up as a religious center, which is what it is for a few years, and then those folks move out and they assign the property to another party, and this assignee is now two steps removed from the Saudi government. Hell, Saudi’s could argue they didn’t know about the assignment between the religious center and these new folks, and have a story to prove it. Plausible deniability and some insulation if things go south.”

“Going to have to tell the local Saudi’s soon.” Says Wade.

“But before I do, we need to know what was going on. But for now, we can still say this was just a fire that got out of control. We’re letting them know as a courtesy.” Says McKenna, “But not if word gets out of any kind of human sacrifice, experimentation or whatever the fuck they were doing in that building.”

Stinks all the way to DC. Barrett smelled it which is why he brought a team into to investigate. Or to bury it.

Wade decides not to take the Battery Tunnel, that would lead to lower Manhattan and Wall Street, or the Brooklyn Bridge, but rather cuts through the Dumbo neighborhood of Brooklyn and over the Manhattan Bridge towards her office.

She looks at her watch, 10 am. Barrett will call before noon for a situation report on the status of the investigation. She’s going to have to call on the Ambassador, and how long till the news comes sniffing the wind?

She sees the message from Conroy, and calls back. “Mckenna here. What’s up Conroy?”
__
Conroy in the garage.
OCC- Well there are actually two garages adjacent to the house and both have come through the blast relatively well. In one you have the van with the big dent, and in the other you have the taxi and the audi, with the taxi knocked on its side as if picked up. As for the bodies in the river, it has been making news that body parts have been found in the Hudson river and washing up on the beaches in Brooklyn. Conroy also knows the parts have included those of children, but also adults. No identification has been made as far as he can recall.

ICC-

The forensic investigator looks over at where others are trying to dig down under the house. She shrugs. “That will be difficult, not with them trying to free up a live one.”

Conroy’s phone buzzes. McKenna responds- “Mckenna here. What’s up Conroy?”
__
Miranda at the container-

Miranda steps back and looks up at the truck, thinking about the force of the blast that knocked it over. One door is pinned against the ground but the other can be reached but someone will need to climb up.

Lapis speaks. “The VIN number is on the door, I’ll climb up…”

But before he can begin, Dowd speaks up. “Don’t bother. I got it. VIN number would tell you that the truck is 4 years old and run through a trucking company that does work for Red Wind, a company out of Saudi Arabia that ships globally. The driver drove this truck out here from JFK’s cargo terminal three nights ago, and dropped off the truck, and then took an Uber back, as was instructed by the cargo owner.”

Lapis looks at Dowd with a questioning look, Dowd shrugs. “Remember, we’re watching this one. GPS tracker on the truck is a courtesy to Interpol, and we tracked the credit card on the uber and uber drive. Anyway, that container came by plane only a few days ago, from Saudi Arabia, from a company that has shipped weapons to terrorists in the past.”

He then turns to Miranda, “VIN we got, but we don’t know what’s inside the container. Might be whatever inside got taken out before that building caught fire and blew up, but maybe it’s still inside.”

‘We’ve tried the lock but no success.” Says Lapis, with something of an apology.

If Miranda wants to try the lock, feel free to roll.
__
Shafto at the scene-

“Where is the drill?” Robinson is calling for a drill. “Where is that ambulance… we got a live one in here.” He calls.

One of the fireman is also looking at the masonry. “Haven’t seen something like that since Iraq.” He says. “A bomb shelter or something to contain the blast for sure. Whatever blasted the building must have been hugely powerful. Lifted the structure and brought it down again. But the structure didn’t shatter but mostly just cracked.”

Salvaggio looks to the man, “How long will it take to break through?”

“Hard to say. That’s hardened for sure and thick. And it looks like it held together pretty well. Might be there is some hole in the structure we haven’t found yet, a doorway in perhaps. Hell of a blast.”

Shafto notes that the masonry seems… reddish. As if some kind of brick colored substance was mixed in with the concrete.

Robinson looks at the fireman. “How does someone survive such a blast?”

Salvaggio shrugs. “Don’t really know. If this was some kind of construction to contain or capture a blast, with the idea to keep it contained, than anything inside this structure experienced that explosion trapped with it. We’ve already found body parts of those on the second floor… Think of the fire and the force of the blast… It would need to have been protected to survive. “

More fireman are closing in to help remove the remains of the building, revealing more of the reddish concrete cocoon.

Robinson looks to Salvaggio, “How long before we get to the body.”

Salvaggio shrugs. “Depends on the drill and how deep this live one is. Could be hours.”

Shafto looks at the reddish concrete and thinks about the reddish dust he’s seen elsewhere. Perhaps the reddish dust is all fine grains of the buildings construction materials.
Why contain a blast in the middle of Brooklyn? Could there be other buried explosives within.

“Going to need a jackhammer to get through that” says the fireman.

Robinson calls out, “Get a jackhammer down here pronto”

Shafto considers the other possibilities. Perhaps they can pull the heavier parts away from the basement. Find away around the thickest parts of the structure?

_
Gonzales with Epps and Cooper

OC- nice real life addition

IC- Epps nods. “Sort of, yes. But it’s a bit different. New faiths don’t always erase old ones. Old ones survive. Sometimes they hide in the new and are only memories until they are totally forgotten, but sometimes they assume new faces within the new faith. The new faith is a façade for the old, a mask for what’s real. Islam still kept a lot of the old faith with its talk of Saetans and djinnis and other pre-Islam monsters or demons. African churches might embrace the Christian myths, but could also use the new religion to celebrate the old, continue old practices or keep to old faiths.”

Cooper nods, “So faith is more like a salad at a buffet? You take a little of one faith, a bit of another and mix it up into something new?”

“You really need to eat better or get better metaphors.” Says Epps. “The Christians here are an African church, so they borrow African practices. As for the Muslims,” He shrugs. “I talked a bit with the Khan when he was running the religious center and he was pretty devout Muslim, just curious about other faiths. But he left and these new people… no body talks to them and they keep to themselves, best I can tell. I can’t tell you more about the churches, although I think you can talk to the pastor at the Christian churches nearby for more info. Used to be called Faith and Love Christian Center, now I think it’s the First Church of Africa Zion, or something. A Zionist, Messianic and Kimbanguist mix, with traditional faith tossed in. I don’t go there. Just take a good look at Christ on the Cross when you go in. Best I can tell, it’s the only one of them.”

“What about the shadow people and the meth?” Ask Cooper.

“The shadow people” nods Epps. “Yes not unusual with people who do methamphetamine. There’s a cook in the neighborhood, protected by some local hoods and selling to some of the street kids here about. The meth lab is behind one of the gates, in a trailer or one of the trucks. Not sure which as they moved about. But the kids have been buying it say they been seeing shadow people.”

“What does that have to do with this?”

“Shadow people are usually seen by people who are hallucinating, perhaps high on meth, who haven’t slept or sleep deprived, usually out of the corner of their eyes. So yes, it could be the meth talking.” Says Epps, “Or something else, people seeing something when they are high, or the reason they are getting high. Those kids regularly go to the church for meals, so no surprise if they are being indoctrinated into that faith.”

Harry and the old man

The old mean begins to turn to walk away, looking at Harry’s card. “I saw three maybe 4 kids, is all. None of them out here. I think maybe they got burnt with the fire, or got killed in the blast. Sure one got burnt for sure.”

He continues towalk towards his home, dog following him. “But I wouldn’t ID em either. It was dark, and my eyes ain’t good. But for sure 1 maybe 2 got burnt when they lit up the house. Too much pitch they use on the house. But maybe they got blown up with the blast. But they could be around here as well, hiding out and nursing wounds, like.”

Kaminski-
Borrows the vacuum and sucks out the air out of the back seat but its harder than it looks. IN fact, he notices that there is a lot of red dust everywhere.

Once gone he can see that the back seat of the tax seems to be like most back seats, the seats are a bit covered with duct tape, but is otherwise fairly normal if old and beaten up. A gypsy cab, perhaps, but nothing more. It is like the thousands of cabs in the city, easy to blend in and seem almost invisible. Kaminiski considers that a taxi would make an excellent surveillance vehicle or get away car because it would blend in so easily with the others.

[Snapper]

OOC: Team, did everyone see my post in the Welcome and Chat thread for this adventure?

[Philulhu]

IIC - Harry Shibatu

Harry gave the old man his card. ”If you remember anything else, please give me a call. Anytime of day or night, ok?”

He nodded good night and stepped away from the old man. He pulled out his radio and said, ”Shibatu here. A witness reported thre, maybe four, youngsters hanging around at the time of the explosion. He reckons that they might have been burned in the explosion. If you see anyone, give me a shout, ok? There’s a chance they went to hospital so can someone put calls into the local ERs, as well.”

[Philulhu]

OOC - Snapper,I saw it, I just haven’t found the time to read back through my posts and write it up.

[Mr. Handy]

OOC,Same here. I haven't even had time to read the last IC post, and I won't until this weekend, much less go back through all of them.

[Philulhu]

IIC - Jakob Kaminski

Kaminski stepped back and checked the vehicle’s licence plate. If it was a gypsy cab, what was it being used for? He’d ask HQ to check their records for a registered keeper and a check where the vehicle had been seen. He wanted to get into the front and check out the glove compartment to see if anything had been left in there but that would have to wait until the cab was back on four wheels.

He pulled out his phone and put in a call to the command unit, giving them the plate number and the description. As he spoke he remembered about the VIN number and he moved around the vehicle, trying to locate it...

OOC,Kaminski has yet to put in a call to the local ER to see if any victims showed up. Is there a way that law enforcement can identify themselves so that they can get info? Presumably anyone could call up and say they were from the FBI, so I presume there are checks in place?

[Mr. Handy]

"We need bomb squad standing by," Lee Shaftoe adds over the radio. "There could be more explosives in the shelter that haven't gone off yet. Looks like it's made of stone mixed with brick material. There's red dust mixed in with the concrete. Maybe it's from the building's construction materials. Maybe we can get in from above instead. The ceiling could to be easier to breach than this wall."

[Mr. Handy]

Miranda takes out some of her finer tools used for close manipulation of delicate mechanical parts and tries them on the lock. However, they're not designed for picking locks, and she has no success. "Are we allowed to brute force it?" she asks. "I bet we could drill right through this lock."

OOC,Craft(Mechanics) roll (30% skill) trying to pick the lock: [dice]0[/dice]

[Snapper]

ICC - Conroy:

Conroy on the phone to McKenna, sighs, "Ma'am, we have some kind of scene from Hannibal Lector here. The Audi trunk is full of bags of stuff. One bag's broken open and a CSI with me has confirmed it's full of little bits of decomposing human child. My gut feeling is all the other bags are going to have similar."

"I'm no expert but I think we're looking at multiple child homicides. Which could even be connected to the body parts that show up in the Hudson. Which obviously means the investigation could extend into Jersey."

"And for icing on the cake, there are military weapons crates in here with leftover rounds in them, various calibre."

"Finally, this whole crime scene is under threat from the rescue next door. And by the way, there are some fairly graphic photos I've sent everyone if you want to not eat breakfast."

[Snapper]

ICC - Gonzalez:

Gonzalez nods to Epps and Cooper. "Gentlemen, it's been a pleasure and an education. Sorry I've met you both on such a bad day. Hope I might contact you both later if I have any follow up."

"I think my next step is to go see the pastor at this church you mentioned. Actually, if you could point me in the right direction to where it is, I'd be obliged."

"Please call me if you hear or see anything else you think might be useful." He leaves the two men a business card each.

[welsh]

OCC- Gents, I need to post up, but sadly buried in work and probably will be for a few days yet.

You guys have broadly dispersed and are gathering evidence separately, but you are also developing leads. That's great but you may wish to come together to discuss how to proceed.

A couple of quick thoughts here. The residents of the house seemed to have built what is, essentially, a bomb shelter or a vault to contain a blast. The blast seems to have lifted it up and then dropped it, and thus you may conclude that many of those living on the top floor died from injuries sustained when the building collapsed- so the trauma caused by falling roofing and masonry, while those on the lower levels felt the direct impacts of the blast. The variation in injuries suggests that their physical bodies suffered different wounds largely due to were they were when the explosion happened. That said, the shell of that vault/shelter seems largely to have survived and is hardened- you will probably need to take some time to break through to whatever is below (including anyone who might be alive). Of course there might be more than a person down there. Perhaps the building was meant to contain an explosive that hasn't gone off quite yet. Then again, maybe there is something explosive in that nearby truck that three of you have been trying to open without success.

Getting the drill and getting down there might take some time, perhaps a few hours, and while it is encouraging to participate in the recovery efforts, you are kind of getting in the way of the engineers.

I would encourage you consider a few leads that are worth exploring:

(1) Gonzales identified something of a conflict happening between a local African Christian church and the blast site that goes back to when the site was an Islamic center.
(2) You have multiple accounts of local police involvement, and there is reason to think that the police have been paid to turn a blind eye. Perhaps there is a meth lab in the community that they've been asked to ignore, or not to look into the missing people?
(3) There is the pressing problem of Saudi government involvement in all of this, and that's a national security issue. While it is possible the place was first established as religious center, its new occupants are not doing much in the way of community outreach (at least not in the normal way).
(4) The truck that was tipped over has a container in the bed that is connected to a Saudi shipping company that has some connection to providing war materials to combat zones and to terrorist organizations. That container has yet to be opened. You have no idea what is inside of it.
(5) there is the mysterious red dust that was found not just in the vehicles but elsewhere near the blast site. Could be related to the building materials. Doesn't look local but perhaps some soil studies might reveal its origins.
(6) Yes, body parts are found, a child's at that, calling for a closer forensic examination and the police are telling you that other parts have been washing up on the beach or in the river. (Then again, this is NY, so perhaps its not that unusual).
(7) Meth seems to be popping up in this story. A number of young persons were scene lighting up the house and causing the fire. It is likely that if they are not at a local hospital, they are likely still in the neighborhood.
(8) missing persons from the local community are vanishing as if they are fading away or being "taken".
(9) Weapons crates and military ammunition found on site, as well as weapons at the blast site. If these are religious types, they sure are packing as if expecting a military strike.

So far you have not encountered any real threats. But that is not likely to last. You may want to buddy up and start consider you next moves. Remember, there is a diner nearby that could afford you a chance to catch up over a quick coffee before proceedings- (note coffee may have some surreal nexus- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ab-l6vhq5vc )

Phil- yes, I would think they could provide their badge or ID numbers and their IDs could be verified, if necessary. That said, I think you could task Wade to do this quick check, unless you want to go and speak to a few survivors- but remember, this is a group that is suspicious of law enforcement, so they might not be ready to give up too much info.

I will post up soon, but again, you may wish to concentrate your efforts and coordinate your next steps. You've all done well individually, but you may need to confront some of the next parts of this as a team.

[welsh]

OCC- Sorry for the delay folks, but the last three weeks have been hellish with on-line teaching and the start of the semester. Hopefully I have a bit more breathing space.

Gonzales-

Epps and Cooper look at the card given. Cooper, who remains on horseback, puts the card in a shirt pocket while Epps doesn’t seem sure about what he should do with it.

Epps shakes his head. “Well the church you are looking for is a little wooden church back from the road on Sutter Ave. The priest is called Reverend Milton Ingwenya. First Church of African Zion in what used to be the Faith and Love Christian Center. He has a place nearby.”

He pauses, shakes his head. “He might be there or on some other business. He’s got a few women volunteering, so it might be if he’s not there, they know where he is. I’d be surprised to find him there.”

Cooper pats his horse. “Well I got to get this one back to the stables. Up here on the horse I can often see over the fences, and if I were a betting man, I’d be checking some of the properties off Blake Ave, maybe 75th Street, as there are a couple mobile campers parked up I them parts and I’ve seen some dope slingers moving up and down the road.”

Epps looks at Cooper, “Well, I guess you would have seen more from that horse, but that sounds about right.”

He nods to Gonzales, “Good luck to you and be safe. The Hole aint’ all bad people, but best be careful. Cooper, you stay safe on that horse.”

Cooper nods. “Yep, you thinking of finishing up that degree?”

Epps shrugs and goes inside.

Cooper looks at Gonzales, “My guess is that Ingwenya isn’t going to give up much to you that he doesn’t want to. There are a few people in these parts that go to that church but mostly those are recent immigrants from Africa, and its usually women, and they are loyal to him. Honestly, might be good for the local community of the meth slingers went somewhere else and felt a bit of heat on em. But I’ll leave that to you. You want to reach out to me, I am still in the History Department at Colombia.”

He clicks his tongue and the horse begins to move away.

Harry Shibatu

A radio call comes in.

Wade speaks, “Marshal Wade here, just following up on your report of 3-4 youths some with potential burns. We got a report from Brookdale, reporting at least one young man, late teenager, probably 16 or 17, with severe burns came in, but he succumbed to the combination of the burns and blast. Apparently he had some pitch tar on his hands and arms that had caught fire, and the damage was extensive. The attending nurse said they had little hope of saving him and had him on serious painkillers before he died, but apparently they weren’t enough. The nurse treating him said he came in alone and without friends. The boy’s identity is still unknown given the damage to his hands and body, but it seems there were traces of past methamphetamine use. The man was calling out for Elijah, Razi and Naeem, as well as mentioning someone named Bhuda or BOO daa and Nez nas or something. I am guessing boys names, could be locals. No last names mentioned but we could try a trace. My guess is that you could find thousands of Elijahs, Razi's and Naeems too in Brooklyn as they are pretty common African American Names, the others could be nicknames. Judging by the wounds the doctors thought he had caught fire before he suffered the concussive damage from the blast. He was one of the closest to the blast that was still alive when they picked him up, and the one with the most extensive burns. Most of the others they brought in were damaged mostly from the blast and debris. "

Marshal Wade continues. "Look I am not there and not seeing what you are, but if I were to venture a guess, what you might have is a bunch of teenage knuckleheads who lit the building on fire, and in the process this one got too badly burned and got left by his friends and that's why he was close to the house when it exploded and probably lucky he survived. The others, even if they got burned, might not have gotten very far away. If some of them got injured, they might be reluctant to come into the hospital cause they know the cops would pick em up. So they probably went to some other source. But the Hole is enclosed on three sides, with major boulevards North and South, a strip mall acting like a dead end to the east and then their are the neighborhoods to the West. Maybe they took shelter in that old subway station nearby but chances are if they got hurt they haven't gotten too far and are going where they can find some medical help and pain killers for the burns."

Kaminski-

Getting the vin number isn’t easy, as the number is usually on the inside of the driver’s door, but using the registration and license number, Kaminski is able to call in the vehicle. For a few moments he’s on hold while they call gets rerouted until it goes right to the FBI command center in NYC.

The person identifies herself and says, “Got your call transferred here to do a background record. I’m running records on all cameras that are up and running for any videos on the vehicle with the VIN number reported. We can go back and run a quick scan over the past few days or back a week or two, but longer is going to be difficult and not all the cameras in the city are working. Let’s see… Seems like the car had gone to JFK yesterday and was found returning. Picture of a older man getting into the car. Hard to make out… looks Arabic… Grainy picture, real distortion, no clarity. Got a video from a traffic camera in your vicinity, positive idea but nothing at your location. No cameras? After that… nothing.. nothing… hmmm… Looks like we got the car parked near a grocery store. A woman, blondish, Caucasian, driver is a darker, Hispanic or Arabic perhaps… Grocery shopping… about 4 nights ago at JFK at one of the cargo terminals. Same driver and female passenger. A few days later we got them going back and forth over the Verrazano into Staten Island, Goethals into New Jersey leaving Staten Island…. And.... Looks like we got them at the Newark container port. Same woman and man.”

Shafto-

Salvaggio is watching the work, "Judging by the thickness of this, I'd say it will take a few hours to get down there." He mutters.

Robinson, nearby, hears Shafto’s idea. “Good idea. Might be more explosives down there that we might set off. Let’s be careful. Where is the damn bomb squad? Get the explosive unit back in here... Yeah, Get them out here and bring the dogs too, we need to sniff this place out again.”

“Got it boss” Calls back Ruffini, “We got bomb squad coming in a few. With dogs.”

Mooreland steps closer to Shafto, careful not to damage his suit, and taps his arm to get Shafto’s attention. “This is going to take awhile before they get whoever is down there out, explosives or not. But check this out.” He nods towards Detective Pacesee.

Detective Pacesee has left the blast site and is talking to a hooded young individual on the edge of the crowd in a manner that seems animated, gesturing to the younger man on some issue of urgency. Pacesee slips the man a bag of some kind of substance, the hooded man nods and steps away, slips through the various crowd of police and fireman and once clear, begins to run away from the blast site.

Pacesee watches the man move away for a few minutes, then talks to one of the fireman before turning his attention back towards the blast site, and so catch Mooreland and Shafto watching. He nods to Shafto and Mooreland.

Moreland mutters to Shafto, “My guess is that Pacesee had a CI working the neighborhood and paid the CI off with drugs to keep him hooked. Kind of normal for a local detective in need of a CI. This way he keeps an eye on the neighborhood without revealing his presence, and let’s be honest, not much police presence in the Hole.” He shakes his head with a dry laugh, “This whole neighborhood stinks of pig shit and I ain’t just talking about the smell.”


Miranda, Lapis and Dowd-

Lapis sees Miranda having the same success he did and grunts. “Damn… I was hoping we could do this the easy way. But the damn lock seems to be cursed.”

Dowd thinks about it, “would have been convenient to find it unlocked.”

“Yeah, but it isn’t.” adds Lapis.

Dowd is looking back at the scene of the blast site. “Well I don’t think we need a warrant. We know this container is connected to the house where the blast occurred. We know that the vehicle is in near proximity. We got evidence of an explosion, victims. From what I’ve been hearing, it seems they have found bodies and guns. So we got probable cause.”

Lapis nods, “Yeah that’s probably true, but we could also get a warrant from a sympathetic judge and cover our ass on this. My concern is that if we find anything without a warrant when its clear we had to go through a lock could get tossed out. Bad enough with got a Saudi connection to this and they’d raise all sorts of hell.”

“What if they got people inside?” Asks Dowd.

Lapis puts his ear against the container and knocks three times. Waits, then says “Don’t hear nothing.”

“Could be hurt or injured or unconscious if anyone is inside. Maybe they are smuggling people, or drugs or guns.”

“Sounds like a lot of maybes.” Says Lapis, “Again, what if we do find something and we have to toss it because the search is bad.”

Dowd sighs. “This is fucked.”

Lapis nods, “Yes, but we got a lawyer on call. Ms Waterhouse? Miranda? What do you think? Get a warrant? It might take an hour or two, but better to have one and not need one than to need one and not have one.”

Conroy

McKenna listens to Conroy’s case and then respond with the colorful speech she was famous for, “You are right, Conroy, looks like a cluster fuck unravelling down there. Sadly we got a shortage of agents available as so many have been deployed to crack down on protestors and other cases. So you got some sick fucks in Brooklyn, slicing and dicing children is it? Thing is that this is still a potential international incident that will draw media like flies to shit. If we take jurisdiction of this, you can be sure that every swinging dick New York’s Finest is going to take notice and you can be sure as shit that someone’s going to call the Post, the Daily News, the New York Times, Newsday and every other fucking newspaper in town, and then we got a cluster fuck of a media shitstorm to deal with before we take it to the Saudis. Soon of the Saudi’s hear the case, and they will in moments, you can bet that any chance we get to grab those camel humping pricks is going to be lost, and they’ll be in the wind, to Canada or on some private jet back to that pile of kitty litter they call a country."

She continues, "Need I remind you that we got national security issues on this pile? That the US is giving support to the Saudi monarchs as they bomb the crap out of Yemen and move on the Iranians? What you are suggesting with drive a stick up the ass of State Department and the Defense Department policies in the Persian Gulf and might jeopardize years of foreign policy and we still don’t know the Saudi involvement. And what if the Saudi’s are found not to be involved but this entire cluster fuck was just a bunch of terrorist dickheads or Wahabi nut scratchers getting off on fucking around with kids? My guess is that when the shit falls on you from the White House, you’ll be lucking not to be freezing your nuts off doing work for the EPA up in fucking Greenland and nothing but huskies to keep you entertained at night.”

Mckenna pauses. “Look Conroy, here’s the thing. Don’t get me wrong. If this was normal I’d say call in the feds and take jurisdiction of this case, no problem. But this is different. We got to keep a low profile on this as long as possible. We are dealing with the Saudis in what could be an international fucking incident. We can take jurisdiction on this but soon as we do, its going to suck in the air of local media and get us the kind of attention we don’t need. Can’t be help, its an international incident and the press will be on. Maybe the Saudi’s are directly linked, but maybe they are not. So far, all we got is that they owned the house and were letting some Saudi NGOs run it. The first group was probably just a muslim group trying to convert while the second was a bunch of shitheads. You remember when the Saudi’s got caught involved with 9/11 and it fucked foreign policy for years? We can’t afford that kind of a fuck up.”

“Wade tells me that local police got a potential survivor under the house and are digging the house up to get at ‘em. That might buy us some time before we have to take jurisdiction. But so far we’re still tasked with assisting the local PD on this while trying to figure out how deep in this shit are the Saudis. "

"Are the Saudi's caught up in this and how deep? Or is this just a bunch of local shitbirds who are into some cult bullshit and getting their rocks off fucking up kids? I get it, this is bad, but we still don't really know what the fuck this is about do we? We might get called in and Robinson has my number so far. He's got the cops he needs and I don't. I just got you guys to help figure out what the fuck is going on in that mess. You, Conroy, you and everyone else I called in this morning. You guys ARE the feds on this one. At the moment we can expect no back-up, no support, nada, zip. We're all we got. You got point so do the best you can and we're on the clock on this one."

Sorry Conroy, it ain't me making the calls. There's just a handful of us these days, so many went sick, and now we got this, and yes, it sucks. So yeah, I get it. Guns, ammo, explosion murder.. yeah, it’s a fucking mess alright. A ripe cluster fuck of shit.”

McKenna pauses and then adds “But hey, this is still New York, so really, what’s the fuss? Welcome to the Big Apple.”

The phone clicks off.

[Mr. Handy]

"Yeah, I think so too," Lee says to Moreland. "Let's go over and ask Pacesee what his CI told him. The guy might have seen something."

[Mr. Handy]

"I agree," says Miranda. "Best to keep it by the book and get the warrant."

[Snapper]

OOC:

Once again I've been a bit delayed by fallout from this damn virus! Back now though.

ICC - Gonzalez:

Gonzalez sends a group audio message to the rest of the team:

"Folks, this is Javier. Unless anyone is doing something life or death right now, I'd suggest we quickly regroup for a coffee and plan ahead. I have a place or two I'd like to visit but each is probably a two agent job. Guess we better sort out priorities before anyone puts wheel to road. Did I see a diner on the way here?"

[Snapper]

ICC - Conroy:

Conroy holds the phone slightly away from his ear and winces. He looks over at the CSI and raises his eyebrows.

Once the call is finished, he stashes the phone and pauses to think. "Right, well we need to know what we're dealing with for starters and it can't wait."

Conroy pulls a Leatherman multi-tool out of his pocket and folds out the knife. Trying to disturb the beds as little as possible, he cuts open each bag in the trunk just enough to see what's inside.