Going To Bahrain

April 14, 2015:

Jericho wants May to go to Bahrain…. the response is …. interesting

Gotham and New York

Characters

NPCs: None.

Mentions:

Mood Music: None.


Fade In…

Jericho has been digging for a while. It's kind of what he does when people aren't shooting at him. Of course, it's also half the reason people do shoot at him. Either way he's hit a pair of interesting dead ends and now he needs to update people. And ask for help. It used to be the hacker didn't trust anyone enough for this. And… that's mostly still true. But only mostly. These days there are a few people. A few people who have had his back often enough that reaching out doesn't feel like waiting for a knife to come arcing out of the darkness.

There's May. Trent dials her number still a bit amazed, and amused, that the woman who interrogated a snarky punk back a year ago became the only person in SHIELD he implicitly trusts. Now add a dash of a woman in a wheelchair. The Oracle. She found him out on the net and didn't turn him in. Good thing too. This'll take some hacking expertise.

"Come on… pick up."


The phone picks up on the second ring. "May."

Agent May is at least in the same time zone today, though of course there's no real way to tell that with a phone call. She is actually at home for a change, though if the lack of caller ID is any indication, she won't be here for very long at all.


In the Clocktower in Gotham, the wheelchair bound redhead see's the communique from Jericho. She'd try to trace the signal but Jericho's probably bounced it around the world, he'll tell her where he is if she really needs to know. "Jericho, this Oracle." a little more wordy than Agent Mays answer, but not much.


Jericho ties the two lines in. "May, Oracle, it's Trent." That's more for May's benefit. "I've got some news." Which is at least better than 'I have a problem' which is the other real common refrain for the ex soldier. "I've been working on leads generated by SHIELD's biogenic tracking and trying to work through the source of the attacks on SHIELD facilities a couple of months ago. And I've hit a couple of… rather interesting dead ends. I'm going to need some help cracking them. The data lead to a server cluster in southeast Asia. Indonesia specifically, which is not ordinarily a place known for being super high tech. It's very well guarded. Well enough that I don't think I could smash though before they locked down and wiped a lot of the data. I've already spoken to Cypher of X-Red about a cooperative hack and I'd love your help Oracle. But just hacking isn't going to be quite enough. While I was snooping around the connections I got a flag for a big chunk of data offloaded to a site that HYDYA uses for converting to hardcopy and sanitization. In other words, while I think we can get a lot of useful information off the server cluster, they already took something big off the net. Which is usually a sign that they're getting ready to move and don't wnat to leave any traces."

He pauses to let that sink in. "Fortunately, I know where that particular set of data went. Unfortunately, it may well be out of my reach… without some help. It's in the Presidential Palace in Bahrain…"


Melinda May was nodding faintly to herself as Trent was relating the information right up until he said the word Bahrain. Then she goes completely still for several before offering in an even flatter tone than usual, "I'll get you in touch with Romanoff." And she reaching to hang up her phone.


"You know, Jericho, that it's nearly impossible to completely erase data." Oracle smiles a little "Certainly hitting the repository is a good backup but with Cyphers assistance, or vice versa, we may be able to recover that data." Mays response has her blinking a little "May, I don't know Romanoff like I know you…. you will be liaison won't you?"


"No good." Jericho sighs. He doesn't know what happened in Bahrain. Hell he's not even aware that something did happen in Bahrain. That was a classified SHIELD op. What he does know is that he needs someone he can trust when they go there and that isn't Romanoff. "If there were another way of getting this data I'd have already tried it. It's got to be physically grabbed." Beat. "May, what's wrong?" Is it bad that he can tell that something is?


Melinda May doesn't hang up when Oracle and then Trent both ask her questions. She does take far longer than is normal to reply to either of them. THey can faintly hear over the line the sound of a door opening and closing, and then the sound of faintly running water accompanied by the occasional swish and sploosh of something… fish-like.

"Fine." She's still in full Vulcan lockdown mode. "Coulson comes along." That's not a request.


Oracle has at least spoken with Coulson and the fact that May included him on a conversation suffices. "Fine Jericho…" the redhead is more concerned for May at this point "May… of course take Coulson…. but speak to me, us, what's up?"


Jericho is in his safehouse right now so neither of them can see him - though they can hear him - go out to his terrace with a glass of Vodka. "May I'm asking you to do this because I don't know how deep this runs and you are the ONLY person in SHIELD I will never believe is compromised. Data could have only been shipped to the Presidential Palace with people on the inside. Who? I've got nothing. Could be a few guards. Could be the President himself. If there's something wrong…" May is his friend. Even if he's perhaps, never said that.


"Classified," is May's automatic response to Oracle's question, even though it's as obvious as daylight that something is amiss. She looks at the now-lively koi in the pond in the back yard of this modest little house is more her housesitter's home than her own, watching the colorful carp jostle each other to get close enough to hopefully receive some food from her. So easily trusting. She could pluck one of them out of the water without even really trying. "I swore to never set foot in Bahrain again."


It's a good thing neither of them can see Jericho frown. Classified he could almost buy, but it's not like May to swear something like that off. It does, however, give him a clue. Because he feels the same way about a lot of coutries that end in -stan. He still goes there though. "Sorry May." He says quietly. "I wouldn't ask if I didn't think it was important." There's a pause and a sigh. "How soon can we move?" As in, when can you round up Coulson?


Melinda May glances at the clock on her phone before heading back inside to pack a fresh go bag. "A few hours, including requisitioning a Quinjet." Normally, getting a quinjet would take longer, but she's going to take it straight to Fury and note that it's for an op with Trent, and that usually manages to push things through faster.


Oracle sighs, not through the communicator, and watches her screens as she directs her teams on the ground. "May… if there's anything I can do, let me know… please." Her 'no-go' areas are slightly different. "Where's Cypher, Jericho, so we can coordinate?"


Jericho nods. "Good. Call me when you're ready." Not all business. He's concerned, but he's done this dance enough to know when pushing doesn't help. And if it doesn't perhaps work will. "Cypher is probably in the DaCosta Building. We won't need him for this part though we will need him soon. Get in touch with him, if you can. There's one or two others I'd like to pull in but we'll have to move on this relatively quickly."


Melinda May has the bag packed quickly and efficiently, a second bag joining the first for 'accessories'. "If you need someone there quickly, I can probably help with that." Just don't say the name Bahrain and she can mostly deal. She's still in lockdown mode, though. She shoulders one bag and carries the other, shutting down the house and heading out to the koi pond again. It IS the closest ley line and even at this time of night it'll be faster than dealing with traffic.


"Let me know who the others are, Jericho. I can co-ordinate if you like." Oracle may even have spoken with them before. "I'll get in touch with Cypher and we'll be ready. " If need be, one Bobby Drake will be contacted as well. "Be well, May. I'm here, whenever you need me." The redhead is concerned for her friend, but now… is not the time to deal with that. Oracle knows all about compartmentalising.


"There's time to wrangle Coulson if you think that's wise." How she gets him there is up to her. Though Jericho would like to see his face on learning May can teleport. Or, if it's better, he can swing by and give the two a lift on the Hensen express. Which is a different kind of unsettling. Or the Starfire express which is just abrupt. Which is kind of appropos really. "Oracle, I may ask you to run Overwatch for this if you're comfortable with that. If you're available in a few hours when this goes down."


Melinda May stops next to the koi pond again, this time ignoring the fish who again start clamoring for attention. "I'll be in touch soon." She ends the call and tucks the phone in a pocket before brandishing her pendulum and disappearing.

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