Interrogation - Kolis-Tane

General Summary

The Wardens, having begun their investigation into the break-in at the Fortis Lab find themselves deep in the investigation. But ask they ponder the scene of the crime Myra is hit by a number of pieces of what appears to once have been an enchanted note. Piecing it together Myra indicates that she believes Yamil is in trouble indicating that the note came from him.
Adama sighs, "I can reach out to him quickly but it will mean less fireballs."
Myra gives him a look that is simultaneously pleading and 'don't you dare prioritize a fireball over a person I care about'. "Please Adama. It would help to know what is coming. Or when. Or who. But mostly, please fid out if he is okay. I'm concerned about the blood."
"Yeah yeah." Adama traces some sigils in the air, "Uh-Hey Yamil, we got your letter. Are you okay bud? Let me know if you're okay. Also who's coming?"
Adama feels the message connect but it's a good thirty seconds before there is any response. Just as Adama is about to suggest Yamil might be unconscious or unable to respond, "Danger." There's heavy panting, "They know." Another pause as Yamil gulps. "The Vulture."
Adama relays all the information but the group is thoroughly stumped. There are any number of people who could be after them and Yamil didn't give them a lot to go on in terms of where. They ask a very confused Mr. Fortis if he knows of a Vulture but he says he doesn't. Myra stares out the window into the city and suggests going to look for him but the group reminds her that they wouldn't have any place to start. Myra sighs acknowledging the group is right and returns to investigating.
Myra grabs some of the green blood as well as some of the goo from the broken tank, putting them in separate vials for her to look later, carefully making sure not to touch the goo in the take herself. As she looks around the lab for the first time, Mentros complains loudly asking why he's even here and wishes to go home. Adama and Raijun question him about the altercation and him being thrown out. Mentros blames Salis who blushes and look ashamed saying that she didn't mean to cause a kerfuffle.
Adama mentally suggests that they separate all the suspects and do more intense interrogations. Myra mentally voices her support but says she'd like to take a longer look around the room. She also asks Raijun if he might be able to get the note she saw Em'mt snag as he cleaned up the desk. Raijun says he's on it and moves to the office as Adama and Hagen drag Mentros off to be questioned first.
Raijun enters Em'mt's office asking how he's doing commenting that this must be a lot. As Raijun keeps Em'mt's eyes on him he splits off Peng Yu and has him come in from behind gently slipping the note from Em'mt's pocket. Em'mt confesses that everything with the lab is making him question a lot of things. "I feel invaded. It's made me question the efficacy of working in this lab." Raijun says he hears him and then quickly leaves having obtained his prize.
He hands the note over to Myra before asking where Adama went off to. Myra explains that he's of interrogating Mentros and Raijun heads that way to observe. The note read:

You do not know me but I am a friend. [I have] reason to believe some very [XXXXXXX] people are after an [XXXXXXXXXXXXX] -sion. I can kee - [XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX] safe. Please m-[eet? XXXXXXXXXX] -y after [XX]-xt at [XXXXXXXXXXXXXX] - n in the Shadow [XXXXXXXXXXXX] work. [XXXXX] -e w[indo]ws is [XXXX] [da]ngerous ZFT

As Adama and Hagen take Mentros into another room, Sarya uses this as an opportunity to investigate his office. On top of his desk she finds a bunch of half-assed notes and doodles. She finds a couple locked drawers but his no problem picking them and opening them up. In the first she finds a half drunk bottle of liquor and a note. The notes appear to have been correspondence between Mentros and Salis discussing her ongoing work. The notes imply that Mentros thinks he's above Salis but also indicating that some of the projects that he was credited on might be more due to her work. She notes several breakthroughs and asks repeatedly for an opportunity to discuss future goals and opportunities. Mentros responds by putting her down saying that her work isn't as good as she believes and they can discuss opportunities but he's not sure she's ready for them.
Sarya relays that over the bond and digs into the second drawer. In the second drawer she finds a pin with a daffodil, a letter from Zap labs indicating that Mentros would be swapping labs shortly and was planning on quitting, and a blank book that looked well used. She relays the information over the bond and Myra suggests that he was probably into gambling with people he was in over his head with. She asks if later she could take a look at the book and Sarya says sure but she's going to Salis's office next.
In the main lab, Myra is trying to keep track of the mental information coming in as Salis starts talking her ear off. Myra asks questions about their ongoing work and Salis seems to be well informed and know what she's talking about in regards to her projects. She seems interested in Myra's level of understanding but is very excited about the prospect of working with Myra. She inquires if Myra has been able to secure lab space for her company and Myra says that she's still evaluating options noting the obvious security risks. Myra notes that Salis seems to quickly pick up Myra's speech patterns and nuances and match them herself similar to what Persistent does. Salis says she's a quick learner cause she's not from the city.
Myra asks Salis to explain her side of the story of the altercation with Mentros and Salis blushes a little. Salis recounts that she had been asking for feedback and Mentros had finally agreed to give it to her over lunch. With some prodding she admits that she had been doing more than her share of work and that Mentros had been taking credit for it for a while. She looked at Myra hopefully and explained that she just wanted to make more progress to have more opportunities to work on the challenging problems. Salis confides that the lunch didn't go her way with Mentros putting her down repeatedly while drinking heavily. She left the lunch early and came back to work but when Mentros returned he continued berating her. She looked embarrassed saying she snapped and threw an ice cube at him, Myra trying to keep her laughter in. Em'mt stepped in at that point and asked Mentros to leave.
Myra nods and asks if the ice cubes was what Orto had to clean up later. Salis looks embarrassed again and says that was from her water bottle exploding. She admits that Orto sometimes lets her in off hours to use the gym as she had been training for the marathon. Her water bottle was old and had exploded that day leaving a large puddle. Orto was nice enough to clean it up but she felt so bad about it. Myra smiles and says it happens recounting an incident from her own past saying that everyone has those kind of days.
Myra is mentally relaying the information over the bond and Sarya confirms with Orto that Salis does indeed usually use the gym off hours, Orto blushing slightly at allowing the non-standard practice saying that she's not from the city. Orto is able to bring Sarya to Salis's office where she immediately finds a medal from the Kolis-tane marathon she had mentioned and a well used gym bag in the corner. The bottom of the bag still seems to be wet and here seems to be no water bottle inside. On her desk she finds some notes from the Ay and notes on one of the projects she was clearly working on. It notes that the Sword and Armor of bonding seem to be very strong bonding even through the ties of death.
As Sarya goes to open the desk she hears a 'click' and while the drawer stays locked she starts to see smoke come out fo the drawer as whatever was inside seems to be going up in flames. Sarya mentions the snag to Myra over the bond who excuses herself quickly and is able to get the drawer open with both of them quenching the flames before anything further could happen. Unfortunately, whatever was in the desk was completely destroyed.

Interrogations

Mentros

The camera pans into another room, someone has turned off most of the lights so there's only one shining down in the center of the table. Adama sits at the table while Hagren leans casually against the back wall. Across from Adama sits Mentros who vacillates between bored and nervous, "Don't you have anything better to do than hang out with the princess?" Mentros questions.
Adama laughs, "I wouldn't let her hear you call her that and you're right," he cracks his knuckles, "I didn't get to have fun last night so I'm a little itchy."
Mentros gulps, proclaiming his innocence but asking what they want to know. Adama instructs him to start with the incident. Mentros pulls himself up, regaining some of his air of aloofness, "I benevolently took Salis out to lunch. I informed her of the areas she needed to improve on." Adama asks if he was drinking and Mentros admits he may have had a glass or two but are they really going to judge him for that?
Adama pivots to asking more about the lab. Mentros says that it's mostly just him and Salis. "Em'mt is hardly ever there. He's always locked in his office. So it's up to me to mentor our research assistant and do all the leg work."
Adama notes that Orto said that Mentros seemed to have dealings with some unsavory people. Mentros says that they are his friends and that's personal business and not relevant. Adama asks why he came back to the lab after he had been thrown out for the day. Mentros insists he had just forgotten something but Orto wouldn't let him back in commenting that it was only because Orto clearly had a crush on Salis.
Adama pulls out the log and asks about the entrance after Ortho wouldn't let him back in. Mentros insists that he has no idea as he didn't come back. Hagren chimes in asking about the key cards and how he has access. Mentros pats his pocket explaining that there's one tied to each of them, but begins to pale when the pocket doesn't seem to contain the card. He frantically begins patting all of his pockets, "I swear I had it."
Adama smiles menacingly, "Problem?"
Mentros is now actively sweating looking around wildly, "I can't - I can't find my key card. Please it wasn't me. I'll tell you anything you want."
Adama asks what was in the center tank, if he worked on it. "I didn't have anything to do with that project."
Adama takes what the group had guessed earlier and asks how they even managed to find a baby void fish. Mentros turns sheet white, insisting he had nothing to do with that. That we weren't supposed to know that we couldn't tell anyone, that he said nothing.
Hagren changes the subject asking about the dents in the floor. Mentros seems to gain some composure saying that he's not sure. The floors are reinforced so it would have taken a large impact to do that kind of damage. He mentions a project that Em'mt and Salis worked on a few months ago that allowed a user to modify the density of an object. One of the dents looked like when that was in use and somethign accidentally fell off the table.
At the mention of Salis Adama circles back pushing on Mentros. Mentros cracks admitting that he told her she should slow down and said that she seemed to need extra work so he just gave her some of his. She could get extra experience and he could look good.
Adama asks if Mentros has an alibi for the friends he was out drinking with and Mentros looks embarrassed admitting that he actually doesn't know what happened after he left. He was drinking, maybe more than he should have and woke up in the garbage next to the building. Adama laughs and says it would be so easy to pin this on him without an alibi and with the missing key card.
Mentros pales begging them not to let him go to prison, "They'll kill me if I'm in prison." Adama counters that maybe 'they' is why he stole stuff. Got in too deep with his debts stole the item in order to pay them off. Mentros cracks, "I am not stupid enough to cross the Drum Val. I'm just a mid-level bookie. I owe some very rich people a lot of money but they wouldn't have taken the device."
Adama looks at a broken Mentros and says they might need him later but for now he can go outside, though he is not to leave the building. Hagren offers to escort him out to the waiting room as he wanted to check in with his team. As Hagren brings Mentros out he see's Raijun bringing Salis in yelling, "This is your fault" at her as they pass. Sarya offers to babysit Mentros in the lobby of the lab ensuring he doesn't go anywhere.
Hagren connects with Persistent and Meko, persistent noting that Salis seemed nervous as Myra took in the lab before. They shrug saying they were not sure if that was just Myra's presence in this town. Meko seems a little out of his depth but says that this is a good hunt and that he is around should Hagren need him.

Salis

Raijun brings Salis into the interrogation room where, as she sits across from Adama she already looks like she's ready to cry. Raijun tries to break the ice playing good cop instead asking her about working with Myra. Salis lights up a little saying that she's very excited and that Myra seemed nice. With prompting Sails explains that some of the team from the lab would be transferred to her company after it's finalization and that she was hoping to be part of that transfer group. Raijun says he could put in a good word with her after this, you know being her best friend, and Salis's eyes widen.
Adama starts off soft asking about the density modulator. Sails looks a little confused saying that she did work on it but that was months ago and the finalized product was returned to the person who commissioned it.
Raijun trades in asking for a more detailed explanation of the ids. Salis explains a number of the security measures of the building including:

• There's anti-invisibility measures in the main lobby
• Each individual has restricted access based on their key card
• Each key card is logged on entrance and exit
• Each key card has to be activated precisely or cannot be used

Adama ask her if the logging was why she needed to steal Mentros's id. Salis looks confused asking what he was talking about. She indicates that her id, which she has, would get her all of the same access as Mentros.
Raijun leans in, "Ms. Salis your position with Myra's new company is of course contingent on your honesty."
"I didn't do anything," she insists. "He probably got it swiped when he was passed out in the trash."
Raijun asks when she saw that and she supplies that as she left she saw him in the alley.
Adama pivots asking what her area of expertise is.
"I study the manipulation of matter in respect to time," Salis provides.
"So could you say, reverse damage that occurred to a document in say a fire," Adama hypothesizes.
"Uh maybe it would depend on a number of factors," Salis stumbles.
Adama uses this time to have Mentros come back in with the documents from Salis's desk. Mended, though the words are still illegible. He races into the room saying "You did it and you set me up!"
Sails seems less interested in Mentros though as Raijun pulls the rabbit out of his pouch, having squirreled it away earlier and asks them both to tell him about it. As he places it on the table it repeats, "Get him back. Get him back," in abyssal. Raijun looks at it and questions who it should be getting back. Mentros looks generally confused by the rabbit as Salis looks at it with concern as if she can understand it.
"I see all and report all. Are you my master?" The rabbit asks. Raijun pets it and suggests he can be and asks it to tell him it's secrets, all of this happening in abyssal. "The little one knows too much. Chop them up." The rabbit supplies to the horror of Salis sitting across the table.

Report Date

09 Jul 2022

Primary Location

Kolis-Tane

Related Characters

• Mentros Val'natesin
• Salis Tydric