Emma silently shook her head at the men being men. "I could start at the gym he brought me to and the path through the streets and alleys he likes to be in. Those would be good starts at least."
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Emma silently shook her head at the men being men. "I could start at the gym he brought me to and the path through the streets and alleys he likes to be in. Those would be good starts at least."
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Michael listens to the conversation quietly up to the point where Zach goes on insisting on the boxing tournament and Swift tries to cow him into place. Apparently, successfully.
He interjects before Zach can answer. The doctor's voice is calm and quiet.
"No." - a simple, calculated response. - "Everything is interconnected, Zach. We cannot just allow each of our own to pursue their line of investigation hoping that if everyone shakes hard enough, Francesco will fall from the tree. If one Savage spooks him, he'll be gone and it will reflect badly on all of us. It's one thing to have him already out of the city when we start our investigation. It's another to have a family with the set of skills that we posess be unable to track one wayward member discretely."
Now speaking to Emma he continues:
"This talk about disguises got me thinking. How friendly was Zach with the Kine? What do you think the chances are, that as soon as we start asking around someone will alert him?"
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"He doesn't trust them, but he would use them." Emma simply answered him without a thought.
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OOC
Zach's train of thought aimed right at Jim came off the rails right when the Doctor says "Enough!" Jolted from his planning mode, he stares at the doctor for a moment. His lecture had made some good points. Zach made a mental bump upward for his reputation of the doctor. It took balls to yell in a room full of Gangrel. And it took a lot of balls to publicly embarrass a member of the Invictus. Then again, it seemed these cousins of Zach's didn't understand a lot of things about the Invictus. But that was a topic for another night.
"My apologies, Doctor. I only meant to convey disbelief at my cousin's......claim. And while I don't like to pass up an opportunity to do something in a new way, I am being honest when I say that I want to work with the rest of you to build the family reputation. I will set aside my covenant training to pursue harmony here. I can see that this is not the time for grand plans, but I ask in return that we at least consider thinking out of the box a little. Doing something simple and obvious will net us the same failure as controlling for too many variables."
"That being said, we need to come up with a list of what we know he can do and what he relies on in a pinch. If he does have a family of Kine protecting him, it will be very hard to take him by surprise, regardless of method. If he is only a hanger-on to a family, it might be very easy. They may even betray him for the right price. Has anyone learned where his resources came from or how he got around? Did he prefer to feed from certain kinds of Kine? We need to piece together his lifestyle."
Zach's mind, now focused on the problem at hand once more, was once again spinning out memories from several decades worth of Kindred hunts. He hopes he could come up with something that applied here, or he would be worse that useless.
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Finally, Emma's phone signals a text alert!
...
But upon investigating... it appears to be an automated return. Her own text spit back with a message that says it couldn't be delivered, as the number is not in service.
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"Crap." Emma says as she reads her text. Emma looks up at the others, "Anyone have connections with the cell company? It appears that Francesco's number is no longer in service." How inconvenient, this does not please Emma. He will get an extra hard rib punch for this.
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Jim looks over at Swift for a moment and raises the eyebrow that is on the opposite side of his face from the side that Zach can see when the Gangrel is talking about 'disbelief of his claim'. Did someone beat the sense of humour out of this dog? Fuck my life.
When Emma got the text, he looked over interestedly. When she said it wasn't his number, he shrugged. "Unless someone's got a great friend high up somewhere in the cell company, I wouldn't worry about it. You know how many of us use burners or pay as you go phones. A streetwise person is going to do exactly that, and the cell company will never track them." Smiling at Emma he said, "Shall we go tracking, then?"
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Swift lets out an expressive sigh - more so as it's sole purpose is expression. "Well, it was a long shot anyway." He nods to Jim. "Yes, I can be a nose on the ground if needed, and it looks like base detective work is our best bet. I was hoping we would have something else, but if wishes were fishes...."
He turns back to the rest of the room. "Of course, Mr. Griffith's, I don't want to discourage creative thinking. It's just that we're looking at a long shot anyway, and all eyes are on us. We have to be careful how we approach this. You are right that he will recognize Jim, Emma, and myself, as well as Whip Burns. He likely does not know you - or maybe you, Dr. Redfill? Perhaps we can use that to our advantage.
"While those of us that he knows work to flush out the fox, perhaps the two of you can try a different approach. If you think you have the resources and contacts to arrange to meet him 'accidentally' you might be able to act as snare for our hunting party. He has shown a desire for Kindred company and acceptance in the past and while I do not believe him to be truly stupid, he is naive, over-ambitious, and strangely optimistic about people. If you do find him, keep that in mind and we may yet apprehend him.
"Of course, it is more likely he has left town already. I do not know if he was capable of sleeping in the earth, but we must assume he was and therefore able to travel at will. In that case, our objective is to confirm his departure from Sacramento and, if possible, determine where he went."
Dr. Swift pauses for a moment before asking. "Any remaining questions?"
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Emma thought a moment, "I just want to add, he is used to be wandering the alleys and streets and wouldn't think anything of it. He also sees me as a loner. We may want to keep that in mind as we hunt for him."
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