Kylah does as Graham suggests and feels around for the switch. She does not want to give him any reason to remonstrate with her; after her behavior last night she isn't certain she can handle disappointing anyone with yet another failure on her part.
Kylah finds the switch and the lights come on. There is a much larger entrance foyer here than in the other house. An equally spacious living room lies beyond; Graham and she see that the furniture is all sleek and modern. There is apparently no one there.
Collins's scan confirms that the hair and skin particles in the bedroom are from Wilson and two other Humans. There are several very faint semen stains on the sheets; DNA profiling indicates it is Wilson's. Her tricorder does not have records with which to identify the DNA traces of the other two people.
Rangin's visual check and tricorder scan in the kitchen reveal no sign of any meal being recently prepared there. The refrigerator has juice, ice water, milk, vodka, eggs, pasta sauce, gurel sauce, cheese and Kaferian apple jelly. Two of the eggs are going bad. There are several dozen typical food staples in various drawers and storage compartments in the kitchen.
Last edited by Elendil's Heir; 19 Feb 2014 at 10:15 PM.
Kylah walks further away from the door and says, still keeping her voice low in order to avoid being heard by Thuvas: "You have probably guessed the real reason for my wishing to search these empty houses--if Wilson was having an affair, he and his partner had to meet somewhere. Her being seen in his rooms would be explicable, but risky if done too often. One of these cottages might have been better suited for their... purposes."
She refrains from using Mrs. Hsu's name, just in case Thuvas has unusually good hearing. "And there's the fact that Wilson was found in the park nearby. Perhaps they had plans--it certainly sounded as if she wished to see him soon. But the empty houses are not the only places they could have used. Frankly I also have suspicions about the ar--"
Suddenly she cuts herself off and turns back to Graham, her face warm. "I am sorry," she says. "I talk too much when I am overtired. Even more than I usually do," Kylah adds ruefully. "Please tell me your thoughts. And did you hear any useful information from those guards?"
Last edited by choie; 19 Feb 2014 at 11:06 PM.
Graham lowers his arm but keeps his phaser in hand. "Room is clear," he says quietly and almost by rote. He furrows his brow and shakes his head. "There's nothing you've said you need to apologize for," he replies. "You're on the right track. Rumor in resort security is that Wilson was having an--another--affair with a guest and was in trouble with WR&R."
He rubs his chin. "Maybe that rumor was based on him messing with..." He lowers his voice. "Mrs...ah, you know who...but I don't know--if you're that kind of man..." He can't help but feel a wave of contempt. Cheating on Jane was something he never contemplated, but now, after losing her, the thought of treating marriage so casually fills him with disgust and anger. "Well, if you're that type of guy, why wouldn't you take advantage of whatever came your way?"
He shrugs. "Anyway, we should take tricorder readings. Uh--what did you have suspicions about?"
Kylah puts her phaser away and again slips on the plastic gloves she used earlier, but keeps her widened eyes on Graham the whole time. "An affair with a guest," she says, almost excited. "Did they say what guest? Because... that actually relates to my suspicions. The argument with Fastolfe. She mentioned it on one of her messages. What if the yellow house Fastolfe so desired, and which Wilson was so adamant about not switching, is where they spent their time together?"
She speaks more quickly while pulling out her tricorder and looking at the screen. "There are two yellow houses that are occupied right now, #8 and #12. I believe only one is occupied by a female, as Wilson claimed--no matter what Lt. Delaney remembers or does not, I am certain Wilson referred to a woman. The first house is occupied by Prolun Jaxo, some official from a planet I have never heard of--Hwuen, do you know it? And the other is an actress, Sylvia Aubrey. Presumably from Earth; I do not know. What if either one of these is a false name, a cover for them to make sure the house is available? Or you could be right and he is seeing two women. In which case that adds yet a third suspect; aside from--her spouse, imagine if either woman found out about the other... or if Wilson was ending the affairs..."
Shaking her head, Kylah waves the words away as if dispelling them. "But I am getting ahead of myself." She looks hopefully up at Graham. "Does this make any sense?"
Last edited by choie; 20 Feb 2014 at 01:36 AM.
"Well nothing here, no traces of anything being prepared last night at least.", says Rangin to Mr Hsu. "Let's see if he did any work last night in his office after he got in."
"Sir," Rangin calls out to Collins, "we're just going to check the office, to see if Mr Wilson did anything extra last night."
He heads in to looks through any drawers, check papers and wastebins, and access any computers if there are any to see when it was last used and if it was used to tamper with the security feed. Rangin wonders, that if Mr Wilson had done it, whether the computer would still be on. Only one way to find.
In the land of the blind, the one-arm man is king.
Since she cannot ID the DNA, yet she thinks, she concentrates on the hairs that are not Wilson's, specifically their color, and tries to recall the hair on the guests they'd met yesterday morning and that of Mrs. Hsu.
"I'll be with you in a minute" she calls back to Rangin. She turns her attention back to the bed and scans the semen stains. Perhaps Wilson swung both ways she muses.
Last edited by anyrose; 20 Feb 2014 at 08:25 AM.
T'Var takes a sip of tea. Not as good as what she enjoys from the ship's replicator, but adequate to her hydration needs at the moment.
"I will confer with my fellow officers, of course. Perhaps they have had more success regarding Mr. Wilson's murder."
Graham nods. "Sense enough. I think Wilson liked to, uh, make the most of the resort's attractions," he says. It occurs to him that Kylah seemed to have the same agenda herself last night--but hopes he didn't inadvertently open that can of worms. He adds quickly, "Ending an--or 'one of'--the affairs, or somebody deciding three's a crowd--tried-and-true motives." He shrugs slightly. "Especially for a stabbing." He taps his chest over his heart. "Up close and personal."
He glances around the room. "I agree checking on what houses he might have been using, and who figuring out who he was bang--ah, messing around with--is important."
Ens. Graham has heard of the Hwuen, and has even met one before; they're an insectoid race, generally friendly with but not members of the Federation. He doesn't know much about their naming conventions, but vaguely recalls that "Jaxo" is a government title.
Lt. JG Collins sees that several of the hairs she gathers and then bags and tags are red. Mrs. Hsu, she remembers, is red-haired - almost surely dyed, given her apparently Chinese heritage. Collins does not recall meeting any other redheads since arriving on OC3.
Wilson's home office has a large desk with a standard-issue WR&R computer terminal with three screens, side by side. Ens. Rangin sees that the swivel chair behind the desk is very well-worn and its upholstery is coming loose at the edges. The computer is on but the screens are blank; a prompt blinks: WR&R Management Systems. Password: __________. The desk is somewhat cluttered with paper printouts of financial spreadsheets, interoffice memos, correspondence with corporate HQ and guests, etc. The wastebin under the desk also has various boring discarded papers, some of which have been irregularly torn. There are various office supplies and odds and ends in the drawers and storage cabinet, and five datapads.
Dr. Halsey sips his tea, coughs and asks Dr. T'Var, "Do you think this... tragedy might affect Wrigley Resorts & Recreation's bid to keep the OC3 franchise?"
Last edited by Elendil's Heir; 20 Feb 2014 at 01:26 PM.
"I guess some people never stop working", comments Rangin. "Excuse me, you wouldn't be able to override Mr Wilson's password would you", he asks Mr Hsu, and possibly those of the datapads as well, if they are locked.
Rangin picks the datapads up to see if they can be accessed. He also picks up the guest correspondence for the last few days to see if there were any trouble. The comments from yesterday about Lord Falstofe wanting to changes houses are foremost in his mind. There may be details of it in the notes.
In the land of the blind, the one-arm man is king.
Mr. Hsu uses his security override to gain access to the computer and the datapads. The guest correspondence doesn't mention the problems with Lord Fastolfe; Rangin notices that the most recent letter there is from more than three weeks ago.
Rangin puts the correspondence aside with a shrug, "Nothing in there I can find. Let's see what these hold."
Pausing for a moment, Rangin comments, "It might be better to get someone more appropriate for this like Lt. Delaney for a more in depth look, but let's see if there is anything obvious." He moves to sit in front of the computer to begin accessing it to see what has been running
Rangin hoped that Mr Wilson had not decided to keep his love life neatly diarised in his WR&R computer, otherwise Mr Hsu was likely in for a shock, if he knew nothing about his wife's possible infidelity.
In the land of the blind, the one-arm man is king.
Hsu says, "Whatever you think best, Ensign."
On the computer desktop immediately appear a daily planner, music player, personal file folder, and several dozen resort-related folders including Housekeeping, Buildings and Grounds, Recreation, Spa, Hotel, Restaurants, Entertainment, Correspondence, Interoffice, Corporate, Scheduling, Resupply, Starfleet, Personnel, Forms, Payroll, Medical, Budget, Starlines, and so on.
Last edited by Elendil's Heir; 20 Feb 2014 at 05:11 PM.
An odd sense of relief slightly relaxes Kylah's tense muscles. Until now she has not realized how desperately she's needed to have her... her instincts... validated. After so many mistakes in judgment during everything that's happened with Ferguson, Collins, Velir and Jan, Kylah's self-doubt has tightened its grip around her throat until now it's nearly strangling her. Even if she is wrong about her speculation regarding the murder, at least Graham, someone with years of expertise, has not dismissed her ideas. She nearly thanks him just for listening.
When Graham explains what he knows of the Hwuen, Kylah nods and looks down at the list again. "I would like to meet him--or her, I should say. For some reason the name seemed masculine, but that was a silly... oh!" She rubs her bleary eyes with her wrist. "I am sorry, I see I misread the guest information. Ms. Aubrey is from Cochrane V, not Earth. But most likely human, at any rate." Kylah returns her gaze to Graham. "I suppose we should begin. Since I have the gloves, perhaps I should do the physical search, and you might scan for whatever fingerprints or evidence you can find? You must be better at that than I. And once we are done, Ms. Aubrey might be our next stop--" Kylah suddenly casts an almost teasing look at Graham. "Although you are probably anxious to interview Lord Fastolfe."
Last edited by choie; 20 Feb 2014 at 05:44 PM.
Graham chuckles. "Yeah, well, for all we know Fastolfe was jealous he wasn't Wilson's main squeeze, I mean, obviously you know..." Shit, speaking of can of worms, shut up Booker, he thinks. "Ah, you know it's a possibility." He clears his throat, stows his phaser, and takes out his tricorder. "Anyway, I'm sure he misses me too. But I'm fine with checking out this Aubrey first." He shrugs. "Any information we can gather before we talk to him that will equip us to give Fastolfe a hard time is a plus. I hate it when people like him use their position to act like bullies and get away with it."
He starts to scan.
Kylah gives Graham a sidelong glance, although she remains silent. But Graham's comment about using power and bullying others makes her wonder if he does not see any of that in himself, and in Collins's tacit approval of his actions. Does he feel remorse for attempting to intimidate Wilson yesterday with that knife--a knife identical to the one that, in only hours, would cause Wilson's death?
She shudders at the thought that the poor man was confronted three times with a knife in a single day, once fatally. How horrible. Her sympathy toward Wilson is not altered by the fact that he was apparently disloyal to his wife; she does not believe infidelity should be a capital offense.
With a sigh, she starts to search, looking in dressers, cabinets, closets, under the bed... hoping to find anything that might have been left behind, and might indicate that someone was in here after the guests checked out.
Graham's tricorder scan locates dozens of fingerprints on many surfaces. None of them appear to be Wilson's. There is a full kitchen, large dining room and entertainment room on the first floor. There are three bedrooms and three bathrooms upstairs, as well as a sitting room. Everything is very modern and chic. The sheets and towels are all new and clean, and have no DNA residue or hairs. Kylah finds no personal effects anywhere in the house, in or under anything.
Carefully slipping off her gloves, Kylah straightens after looking in the lowest drawer of the final bedroom dresser. She starts downstairs and calls out to Graham, "I found nothing up here either. I suppose we are ready to interview Sylvia Aub-- wait, no!" Her eyes widen and she nearly stumbles on the final step. "I am wrong! I completely forgot that there is another empty house left." With a quick, irritated shake of her head, she whispers angrily to herself: "Wake up, you fool, focus!"
She rubs her eyes again and continues into the main room, where she walks to the open doorway for a deep breath of the cool morning air. Perhaps it will revive the brain cells that are apparently catching up on the sleep she missed last night. "You are a better judge of the correct procedure, Mr. Graham," Kylah says weakly. "Should we finish the empty house sweep or interview Ms. Aubrey?"
"I'll pass on the the WR&R folders, it's probably business orientated and I won't understand a word of it, other than perhaps Buildings and Grounds. If I was going to amend the security tapes, details for it would probably be in there." Rangin mutters to himself and Mr Hsu looking at the screen.
"Actually, what we really want to know is when he last used this computer. Let's see if we can find when any files were last updated or programs run. Failing that, we can see if he had any planned meetings for last night he wasn't mentioning. If none of those come up, we would be better off asking Lt. Delaney to see what he can find. He's far better at technical matters than I could hope to be."
In the land of the blind, the one-arm man is king.
Not entirely satisfied that her scans of the semen stains showed nothing new, Collins slowly does another scan of the room with her tricorder, paying close attention for any blips on the screen.
Collins finds nothing else of note in her scan of the bedroom.
Hsu helps Rangin check Wilson's daily planner. For yesterday, it shows a staff meeting, office hours, and then meeting the Yorktown's landing party at the Starfleet research station. From the unit history, Wilson apparently last used this computer at 0743 yesterday, several hours before the starship took up orbit.
Collins finds the office and joins Rangin and Hsu. "How's it going in here? Anything I can do?" she asks sincerely.
"Nothing obvious here Sir, we might as well check the datapads before calling in the expert." Rangin sighs, he was hoping there would something, but is not surprised that there isn't. If something was going on, you wouldn't hide it in plain sight.
"The only thing it tells us is that he didn't use his terminal last night. Let's see if the datapads are the same and otherwise, we are moving onto some of the other rooms to see what we can find, because so far as I can see he got in, and then left." Rangin picks up a datapad at random to look at the data held on it.
Last edited by CatInASuit; 21 Feb 2014 at 10:34 AM. Reason: extra Sir for Collins
In the land of the blind, the one-arm man is king.
"I didn't find anything either," he replies, shaking his head. "Let's finish the empties first--it's always best to keep reducing the degrees of freedom, checking off a full line of inquiry if you can before moving on to another."
He starts to turn around toward the door but stops - he doesn't need to be a psychologist or an empath to pick up on Kylah's mood.
"Ah - look, Ensign, if you are interested in some my ancient wisdom, you don't need to beat yourself up over every little slip--real or perceived." He smiles and gestures over his shoulder as if someone was there. "That's what senior officers are for." He pauses a moment.
"If you're having a problem with..." He trails off. "Well, forget it, I'm sure you don't want me trying to act like your mother. Plus it'd be like a monkey trying to do brain surgery." His voice is a littler firmer and more professional. "Just, ah, believe me, I've seen a lot of washouts but when you stay focused on the job, not other...distractions, as far as I can tell, you're going to do just fine."
"Mmhm" Collins mumbles, indicating she agrees with Rangin "Mr. Hsu? Would you mind excusing us for a brief moment?"
Rangin gets up from the seat by the computer and gestures Mr Hsu into it and puts the datapad back down on the table.
"Excuse us", Rangin says to Mr Hsu before heading across to Lt Collins. "Sir?"
In the land of the blind, the one-arm man is king.
Collins shows Rangin the red hairs. "From the bed" she quietly tells Rangin, "and I don't recall any redheads other than Mrs. Hsu. How about you?"
Rangin thinks for a moment and then looks back at Collins. Collins with that sweet face surrounded by red hair and for one moment all Rangin can see in his mind's eye is...
Rangin breaks his brief gaze from her hair before answering quietly, "I believe your correct Sir, no others I remember in the resort."
In the land of the blind, the one-arm man is king.
Kylah listens to Graham's decision about checking the other empty house first and nods without either enthusiasm or disappointment. When he starts to reassure her, she feels a bit of warmth--until he mentions one word. It's all she hears.
She spins around, wounded as if he struck her. Her exhaustion and mortification combine to unleash a barrage of words. "Mother," she repeats, her face burning. "She told you, didn't she? Collins? Yes, she must have had a wonderful time recounting to her fellow security officer--the one person she treats like a true team member--how spoiled and insecure I am, how she reduced me to nothing yesterday with her vicious words just before I was to head off to my interview. Well, I do not know what warped account of our argument she gave you. I do not know why she went for the jugular and turned a few friendly discussions with T'Var into some warped psychological defect. Mocking me as a child taken from her mother too soon..." Kylah's eyes sting with tears and she blinks them away, too angry to cry. "T'Var is a friend--as much as someone who thinks me unstable can be--not a mother figure. I have not had one of those since I was twelve--even before she died, really."
Kylah lifts a hand and shakes her head. "No, I will not recount my family history only for Collins to learn and throw it back in my face at some later date. Perhaps I would not be so insecure if my commanding officer had encouraged me instead of tearing me down so utterly right before I went on my first solo assignment. Perhaps I would not have let my guard down. Perhaps I would not have been so vulnerable, and would have been better able to prevent some stranger--"
She chokes to a horrified stop and presses her fingers against her lips, wishing she could cram the words back inside. With a ragged inhale she leaves the house and mutters to Thuvas that they are heading to the final empty cottage.
Last edited by choie; 21 Feb 2014 at 03:17 PM.
Thuvas looks taken aback by Kylah's appearance and asks, "Are you all right, miss?"
Rangin and Collins check each of the five datapads. One has a report from Dr. Halsey on resupplying the Infirmary, one a long letter from WR&R Corporate as to keeping the OC3 franchise, and three are empty. None has been accessed more recently than four days ago.
Kylah nods and brushes a hand across her eyes. "An--an allergic reaction," she says as calmly as possible. "I do not know what caused it. Cleaning fluid, some material, some dust... I do not know," she repeats.
Graham stands with his mouth open, as if to speak, but not able to come up with anything to say as Kylah storms out.
Way to go, Booker, he thinks. What the hell is it with you? He briefly imagines Elizabeth getting the letter he finally sent the other day, and something he said in it prompting her to phaser whatever photos of him she might have left into molten slag. Why don't you buttonhole Kylah about how her mom died? It wasn't so long ago that it couldn't have somehow been your fault...remember back when the shit-hit-the-fan-on-Starbase-whatever? Yep, that was Kylah's mom!
He rubs his forehead. He's not sure what to make of what he's learned: he assumed T'Var was...Well, Faisal and I are friends and we don't go around holding each other's hands, but whatever, it's probably a woman thing, he thinks. He has a hard time picturing Collins, who, if anything, has been too lax rather than too harsh, dressing down a subordinate in what sounds like such a devastating way...
Well maybe there's some kind of a woman thing going on there, too, he thinks.
Something does stick in his mind, though. "Prevent some stranger from..." doing what? I didn't get a bad vibe from Jan, at the nightclub, he thinks. Was I wrong? And how much trouble would I get in with Collins and Palver if I dangled him out of any upper story window while I asked him to clarify exactly what happened last night?
He frowns and wonders what he should say, or whether he should just keep his big mouth shut while they search the next house as he steps outside.
"So," Collins says to Rangin, "how do you suggest we proceed?" as she bags and tags the two datapads with something on them. Knowing what's in that letter may come in handy later when the subject of the contract comes up, but it's not likely to have anything to do with the murder.
It is still early yet and Kylah supposes most guests are probably sleeping or just getting up now. She moves ahead of Thuvas to the final empty house, first walking quickly, then breaking into a jog that she barely manages to keep from turning into a run. She wants to escape, to put as much distance between her and Graham as possible, but running like a child from an schoolyard bully will do her no good.
Besides, in her heart she knows it's possible his words meant nothing. He might only have been trying to help, and she blasted him with a phaser-like stream of--well, it was all the truth, but still they were truths that she should never have expressed. And the sad fact is that even if he is Collins's cohort in cruelty, purposely needling her about her mother, all she did was prove everyone's worst beliefs about her true. Even T'Var was right. There is a job to do, a vital job, and she cannot perform it by having hysterical confrontations with half the crew.
Sucking in lungfuls of bracing air, Kylah closes her eyes at the memory of what she nearly revealed. How is it that I could not even keep this secret for 24 hours? she berates herself. I have kept so many secrets, why is this different?
She opens her eyes just in time to find herself nearing House #1 and the small border of hedges that surrounds it. Trying to stop before she slams into the plants, she finds the high heel of her boot caught on some irregularity in the path. With a gasp she tumbles forward, and while her hands stretch outward to protect her head from injury, her left knee scrapes painfully when it hits the ground.
After a few stunned seconds, she rolls onto her side to sit and stare at the torn stocking, bruised knee, and hands now covered in dirt. She isn't sure whether to laugh or cry, and at last the sound emitting from her throat is a combination of both.
Kylah of the House of the Silver Weeping Tree has disgraced herself again.
Last edited by choie; 21 Feb 2014 at 11:55 PM.
"Well sir, there are a couple more rooms to check out, but it is beginning to look more and more like Mr. Wilson did not spend any time in this area after he stopped for the night."
Rangin thinks a little further. "The only other thing we might want to look for is any sign of a safe or other secret compartment in here. Once we have checked those we have the spore plants to check and the transporter to see if there were any unexpected trips. That should be our two hours before the next debrief and a chance to get another coffee. "
In the land of the blind, the one-arm man is king.
"Sounds good" Collins says as she starts feeling around the underside of the desk for something that feels like a trigger of some sort. She also checks inside and under each drawer.
Last edited by anyrose; 22 Feb 2014 at 08:15 AM.
Thuvas runs up to Kylah to help her to her feet; Graham is not far behind. "Careful, miss," the Andorian says. "Let me help."
Collins and Rangin find no safe or hidden compartment in Wilson's suite with their visual and fingertip search.
"Hmmmm" Collins says, and adjusts her tricorder to find discrepancies in wall density. She then scans the walls for a hidden compartment.
Rangin looks across at what Collins does with her tricorder and smiles. "Great minds think alike, sir. I was about to do the same. I'll check the other rooms for any sign that Mr. Wilson used them last night instead. We don't both need to search the same way."
In the land of the blind, the one-arm man is king.
Graham sees Kylah break into a trot--away from him? And then things move in slow motion as she stumbles and falls...
Lizzy was 15, on a rare occasion Graham was assigned to Earth and she was staying with him rather than Jane's parents. And so soon after they lost her. Rather than go out with her friends she'd stayed in and made a real hand-cooked meal, no replicators involved. Which was now cold, because he was late, because he was working, and because...because I can't face my own home and my own daughter without stopping to have a drink, Graham thought. Drink...s.
Things hadn't gone well from the first few words. Then she said "I don't want to talk to you when you're like this," turned, and as she ran toward her room her foot caught the edge of a rug and she fell, he heard her head hit the edge of the coffee table and there was blood. He moved--staggered--toward her to help.
"Leave me alone," she said, holding one hand over the cut on her forehead and stumbling to her room. "It was better when you weren't here!"
No. No no no no no no no no no no no no no no...
He can hear Rangin saying "I'd hate to be your daughter" just yesterday on these very grounds.
Graham feels as if he himself is moving in slow motion and is grateful Thuvas is there to help Kylah up as he tries to get hold of himself.
As Kylah shakes with almost hysterical laughter and tears, she realizes the WR&R security officer has rushed to her side and leaning down to help her. And Graham is there as well, lingering behind.
She lets Thuvas take hold of her arm and help her up, although as soon as she's on her feet she shrugs him off. "Thank you," she manages, rubbing her knee and keeping her face hidden due to her morification. "It is nothing. These stupid heels..." Her voice sounds nothing like herself and she does not dare say more. The laughter-sobbing is still bubbling near the surface.
She starts toward the house in order to prove she is all right and, more importantly, avoid the men hovering over her. Her gait is awkward as she favors her right leg with a limp. But she knows her left knee is just badly scratched and sore. Like every other foolish mistake she's made, the real pain is internal.
Wiping her hands on her uniform, which is grass-stained now anyway, Kylah stands before the house's entrance, not looking at either man beside her. She doesn't trust her voice so she just nods at the door.
Graham snaps himself back into focus and hurries toward the door. "Uh, hold on," he says, his voice cracking a little. He clears his throat. Although he realizes he ought to ask Kylah how she is, instead he tries to avoid having to look at her directly. "Ah, if we're going to do this right, we might as really well do it by the numbers." He takes out his tricorder and scans or life signs as well as standard security scans for hazards or explosives inside the house before giving Thuvas the thumbs up to open the door.
When she notices Graham using his tricorder, Kylah curses her forgetfulness. She closes her eyes and attempts to focus on the house to see if she senses anything. Her heart leaps when she feels some powerful emotion nearby but, concentrating more closely to locate the source, she suddenly realizes it is coming from Graham. Regret and discomfort so intense that Kylah cannot even get anything from the Andorian standing closer to her. She suspects she has no chance of filtering such feelings out to sense whatever is beyond the door, and quickly blinks and opens her still-blurry eyes in an effort to break off the connection with Graham.
Belatedly she reaches for her phaser. Her hand is also scraped, she realizes as the weapon touches her sore palm. She ignores the pain and tightens her grip, waiting for Graham to give the go-ahead and for Thuvas to open the door.
Last edited by choie; 22 Feb 2014 at 01:50 PM.
"Would you like to wash up, miss?" Thuvas asks. "There's a public bathroom not far away, or you could return to your ship, if you'd rather."
As Hsu looks on, Collins and Rangin scan the entire suite. They eventually find a concealed compartment, a cube almost half a meter on a side, behind an Impressionist print in the bedroom. Even after removing the picture from its hook, the outline of the compartment cannot be seen with the naked eye. There is no obvious means of opening it.
Kylah shakes her head. She will need to ask permission from Collins to go back to the ship, and she would rather get stunned than do so. But an idea occurs to her. She says tightly: "Thank you, Mr. Thuvas. After we go through this house, I will return to the lab station to clean and change."
"I don't see a switch," Collins says to Rangin, as she starts to feel around what the tricorder showed as the outline.
Rangin wonders about how lucky the Lt. Collins is in finding the safe, he was sure he had scanned across the wall, but she had found it. He maybe be good at coming up with the ideas but Collins was certainly better at carrying things out. He smiles as he realises how much he is enjoying this. However, safe searching and safe cracking are obviously a Security thing because he didn't have a clue how to open it.
Rangin calls across to Collins. "Sir, if that is a feature of the room, well Mr Wilson has full plans for the hotel on his computer so, it should say not only if the room has a safe, but also what type of safe it is, which will help in trying to open it."
Rangin then leans back against the wall and turns his attention to Mr Hsu. "Mr Hsu, do you know anything about this safe and how to open it. If you don't, it makes me wonder what secrets Mr Wilson was keeping private even from his Chief of Security. Of course, if you do I'm going to be disappointed you didn't mention anything about it earlier."
If Mr Hsu answers in the negative, Rangin will go to check on the hotel files on Mr Wilson's computer. If he answers in the positive, he will wait for him to open the safe.
In the land of the blind, the one-arm man is king.
Hsu's eyes widen and he says, "No, I didn't know about the safe. I'm just as a surprised as you that there's one here. I don't know how to open it."
Rangin finds no reference to the safe in the WR&R architectural or builders' plans for the staff quarters. Some of the hotel rooms and guest houses have safes, he sees, but none of them are concealed like this.
Delaney enters the suite. He reports to Collins, "We now have an evidence safe in the CP, ma'am, and I've put all that stuff in it. Both the safe and the room are secured. Need any help here?"
Rangin looks across at Delaney with Cheshire Cat smile. "Sir, you have excellent timing. We have a safe buried in that wall over there, where the Lieutenant is.", he nods across at where Collins is checking the wall. "It looks to be Mr Wilson's private, private safe which no-one else is apparently aware of and is not on any of the records."
He grins evilly, "Sir, would you like a challenge?"
In the land of the blind, the one-arm man is king.
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