08-13-2015, 09:29 PM
Captain Aleksandrov stood in the basement offices of the Domovoi task force, specifically a briefing room. Seated around the table were a half-dozen detectives and other Domovoi officers. Monitors around the room displayed case relevant information, which was painfully little at the moment.
The self-proclaimed ringleader was Theo Andlain. The boy was cocky; plastered his name and face all over the internet. An easy thing to do in the social network age. The man had quite the ionized following; haters were nearly as outspoken as his supporters, and conspiracy nuts had a new banner to rally to. Of course, for once they were right; there was a global conspiracy in place to hide the truth. Certainly not a unified one, but an unspoken sort of agreement between many world powers that didn't wish to have to deal with the fallout of public realization before they were ready.
One such preparation for that inevitable day was the Domovoi task force. People needed to know their governments had in place a means to protect them. More importantly was a desire to find a means to rehabilitate, not simply imprison or execute. Not exactly an entirely mutual desire of course, but Drayson had collected not only the ones who had best weathered the storm of knowing things truly did go bump in the night without going insane, but had gleaned from that pool the best he could find.
Theo Andlain, it turned out, had no family to speak of, and none that could be called friends. Detectives had already canvased old classmates and the like to learn what they could, but the picture that was assembled was less then comforting. An outsider. A powerful social outcast, as it turned out.
Theo's bank accounts were frozen, no Wallet to speak of to be tracked. Little of interest found through his social media and online footprint.
The other though. The cop-killer. That one had proven a far more fruitful avenue of investigation. The young man hadn't even worn a mask when he was stopped by the police officers that had stopped him. Pankratiy Volkov. Easily found thanks to a pre-existing criminal record; part of why the officers had pulled the man over to begin with. An outstanding warrant on unpaid speeding tickets of all things.
Pankratiy had a family, had associates. His bank accounts were frozen of course. His Wallet was tracked for a time, before it went offline. A pattern of life was established.
Notes were compared; there had been no luck finding witnesses of the attack on the airport or the Golden Ring. That came as no surprise; who notices a person that may well have been standing in a crowd doing...nothing? And then remembers it after a tornado of flame tears through dozens of cars?
"Detectives Köhl, Favager. You are to focus all your efforts on finding Mr Volkov. He is the weak link here, so to speak. The man is arrogant, and will slip up. Follow the trail of breadcrumbs and he should lead us to Andlain."
The two detectives nodded in unison; they would be spearheading the hunt, and both were entirely comfortable with the idea, although for very different reasons.
"Officers Konstantinov, Sokolov. Whatever the Detectives need. Zinoviya, make sure our SWAT armoury is stocked. Volkov will not hesitate to kill, so we must be ready to incapacitate him before he can react."
The pair of beat cops both nodded in near unison; they were used to being employed as muscle, although they were expecting the Detectives to use them for less interesting tasks. Kira was already plotting out in her mind what few things were still needed to stock the armoury she was in charge of.
Finer points were discussed and in short order the team quit the room to follow up on their tasks, leaving Aleksandrov to return to his office and resume slugging through the red tape that Domovoi would need to cut through to get their job done. They could always turn to the Chief Inspector, but Aleksandrov wasn't about to run off to daddy for the easy way out at every turn. He would see the task done through the proper channels first.
The self-proclaimed ringleader was Theo Andlain. The boy was cocky; plastered his name and face all over the internet. An easy thing to do in the social network age. The man had quite the ionized following; haters were nearly as outspoken as his supporters, and conspiracy nuts had a new banner to rally to. Of course, for once they were right; there was a global conspiracy in place to hide the truth. Certainly not a unified one, but an unspoken sort of agreement between many world powers that didn't wish to have to deal with the fallout of public realization before they were ready.
One such preparation for that inevitable day was the Domovoi task force. People needed to know their governments had in place a means to protect them. More importantly was a desire to find a means to rehabilitate, not simply imprison or execute. Not exactly an entirely mutual desire of course, but Drayson had collected not only the ones who had best weathered the storm of knowing things truly did go bump in the night without going insane, but had gleaned from that pool the best he could find.
Theo Andlain, it turned out, had no family to speak of, and none that could be called friends. Detectives had already canvased old classmates and the like to learn what they could, but the picture that was assembled was less then comforting. An outsider. A powerful social outcast, as it turned out.
Theo's bank accounts were frozen, no Wallet to speak of to be tracked. Little of interest found through his social media and online footprint.
The other though. The cop-killer. That one had proven a far more fruitful avenue of investigation. The young man hadn't even worn a mask when he was stopped by the police officers that had stopped him. Pankratiy Volkov. Easily found thanks to a pre-existing criminal record; part of why the officers had pulled the man over to begin with. An outstanding warrant on unpaid speeding tickets of all things.
Pankratiy had a family, had associates. His bank accounts were frozen of course. His Wallet was tracked for a time, before it went offline. A pattern of life was established.
Notes were compared; there had been no luck finding witnesses of the attack on the airport or the Golden Ring. That came as no surprise; who notices a person that may well have been standing in a crowd doing...nothing? And then remembers it after a tornado of flame tears through dozens of cars?
"Detectives Köhl, Favager. You are to focus all your efforts on finding Mr Volkov. He is the weak link here, so to speak. The man is arrogant, and will slip up. Follow the trail of breadcrumbs and he should lead us to Andlain."
The two detectives nodded in unison; they would be spearheading the hunt, and both were entirely comfortable with the idea, although for very different reasons.
"Officers Konstantinov, Sokolov. Whatever the Detectives need. Zinoviya, make sure our SWAT armoury is stocked. Volkov will not hesitate to kill, so we must be ready to incapacitate him before he can react."
The pair of beat cops both nodded in near unison; they were used to being employed as muscle, although they were expecting the Detectives to use them for less interesting tasks. Kira was already plotting out in her mind what few things were still needed to stock the armoury she was in charge of.
Finer points were discussed and in short order the team quit the room to follow up on their tasks, leaving Aleksandrov to return to his office and resume slugging through the red tape that Domovoi would need to cut through to get their job done. They could always turn to the Chief Inspector, but Aleksandrov wasn't about to run off to daddy for the easy way out at every turn. He would see the task done through the proper channels first.