Snooping Around

Posted on Mon Oct 10th, 2011 @ 2:42pm by James Wilson LLB PI [P: Ratchford] & Ensign Erich Wynn & Captain Alexander Gunning

Mission: The Pak'Leth Problem
Location: Mira Trading Outpost
Timeline: MD06 1005hrs

[ON]

Somehow, Wilson managed to stroll about the Ferengi trading outpost in the Mira system in plain sight, and yet unnoticed by practically everybody there. It wasn't even as if he was trying to blend in; he strolled about the place like he owned it. Hands thrust deep into his pockets. His stroll ambling and at a mediocre pace. He knew better than to grab any of the items without attempting to pay for them - at least, with the exception of the odd piece of bright red fruit with purple spots that he grabbed from the open cargo crate who's Ferengi owner had made the mistake of turning his back to it, and taking a bit as he strolled.

This was where he and that damned annoying cadet had managed to track the Ritorian agent down to. It had taken them a good number of days, including travel time, to follow the agent's path. There had been traces of a mid-route rendezvous which diverted them from the agent's original destination as logged in the station's flight plan register (it had taken Wilson merely half a day to discover which ship the agent had left upon before he had asked for the runabout, and they'd had to backtrack upon finding and talking to the transport captain to find the exact coordinates at which the rendezvous occurred). They had then followed the trail to Bellatrix, followed by Myar, before finally coming to Mira; the last place that the Ritorian agent had disembarked.

Wilson had sent the cadet off on some menial errand - instructing him to dress so that he couldn't be mistaken for Starfleet in a million parsecs of wise-lobed Ferengi (not that any of that sort could be found around here), and had stalked off to follow the lead he had got on their target. He hadn't told the boy that he was going to completely ignore the meeting arrangements that he had given him as instruction. He could only hope that the lad got terribly lost before he had to leave this planet. He'd done nothing but try to talk throughout every journey they made.

The private detective ducked into an empty side street so quickly that any passer-by would question whether anyone had been walking along where he had been, and moved much more skulkingly along now that he was drawing near. It wasn't long before he could hear the faint sound of voices.

Cadet Wynn had been searching desperately for the PI for an hour or two now. He knew that he had tried to give him the bodyswerve and would be damned if he would let him. He caught a glimpse of him out of the corner of his eye and tried his best to make a quiet approach, as little as he cared.

"Oi! Don't try to give me a wide berth again, all right? You're not half as brilliant as you think you are, you know that?"

"SHHH!" Wilson hushed, clamping his hand over the cadet's mouth. He paused to listen. The voices didn't stop. They hadn't heard the cadet. He began to move down the alleyways again, moving closer towards the source of the voices.

There were three of them. Two Ritorians and one Ferengi. The first Ritorian Wilson easily identified as their target. He stopped to listen to the conversation, now that they were close enough.

"The Pak'Leth shouldn't be used anymore," the agent was saying. "They're too stupid, typical of the sort these Ferengi employ. That last crew was stupid enough to not only dock with the retched Starfleet station, but by the time I got off the station, they'd been quarantined! Starfleet has no doubt already done a thorough search of their ship and impounded it. I wouldn't be surprised if they'd have traced it back here."

"Were you traced?" The Ferengi sneered. Obviously eager to divert attention away from the failings of his own accomplices.

"Impossible," the agent snapped. "I've been doing this for more time than it would take to clean those filthy damn ears of yours. Nobody can trace me once I disappear."

"We shall have to step up the shipments," the other Ritorian said, blanking out the bickering. "You will have to send the shipments through neutral space. We have a station along that route which your freighters can use the next time you find someone too stupid to keep their engine core within its confinement fields. I want our forces on Thane armed and ready for our fleet's arrival within the month."

The two Ritorians activated a device on their wrists, and were beamed away. The Ferengi simply began grumbling and turned to amble slowly towards one of the other side streets.

Wynn tried to say something through the hand of the Investigator but it just came out in a muffled whimper. He watched as the Ferengi was out of sight and then shot a glance to Wilson that he hoped would be threatening. In reality, it probably wasn't.

Wilson glanced around at the muffled speech from who he had come to see as his Starfleet chaperone, but only after the Ferengi was out of sight. He gave an exasperated look as he removed his hand, as if the Cadet was the one to blame for it. "I believe we should expedite ourselves back towards the Starbase, do you not agree, Cadet?" The detective said, looking down the alleyway that the Ferengi had gone down. "I am certain the commodore would very much like to hear of what we have learnt; that is of course if your ears have been functioning as intended, Wynn."

"I agree." Wynn said, sufficiently kowtowed by the Detective. "Should we send a subspace message ahead of us?"

"And if it is intercepted?" the detective countered. All communications could be intercepted in some way or another; even verbal, face-to-face, though any listener in on that conversation would likely have very little chance to alter the outcome of the events unfolding. "No, if we did that, then our discoveries to date would become meaningless; the Ritorians would simply alter their plans. We must give the information in person, my dear young cadet." With that, he turned and started heading back the way they had came, towards their shuttle.

[OFF]

James Wilson P.I.

&

Cadet Erich Wynn