GARGOYLES: Re-Awakening

Subterfuge: 2

Captain Chavez slammed the tabloid onto her desk. The headline read: COPS COVER-UP TERRORIST INCIDENT—AGAIN. Bastard, Elisa thought to herself. That reporter had run off just in time to get his smear campaign into the evening edition. Elisa and Bluestone were standing in Chavez's office. They'd both gotten calls to get back to the precinct immediately because the Captain was on the warpath. On the way, Matt was practically out of his mind over what had happened. Helicopters, laser fire, explosions, being knocked unconscious to wake up back in his car like some blacked out drunk who'd been removed from a pretentious party—it was beyond belief. He wanted to call in backup right then and there to raid the Xanatos building, but Elisa had stopped him. She knew how Xanatos worked. They had entered under false pretenses, without a warrant. If they pushed it even further, he'd have an army of lawyers suing the two of them, the department, the city—probably right down to Elisa's cat. It would be two years of fighting Xanatos, and even if they came out ok in the end, their careers would be as good as over. Bluestone knew what he had seen, and he was outraged, but he didn't intend to spend the next thirty years behind a desk so he went along with Elisa, for now.

Elisa, for her part, was certainly spot on about her argument, but there was more to it for her than that. She still didn't understand what she'd seen, nor what had happened to her. She should be dead. The idea seemed strange to her, like an out of body experience. But more disturbing than the concept was the reason that she wasn't. Something had happened. Something had grabbed her. She wanted to tell herself that it was some kind of machine, like the one that had stepped out from Xanatos' office after the explosion. (She had no doubt Xanatos had been under the steel mask.) But the thing that had caught her was warm and felt like flesh. No matter how much she wished she could shake it, she felt that it was something alive. She wanted to tell Matt, but she still couldn't quite process it. She didn't know what she would say.

Now though, her thoughts were elsewhere. Namely, on the reaming she was taking from her boss.

"So let me get this straight," Chavez said. "The two of you detained a journalist, threatened him with physical violence, then with arrest, and now he's out there smearing the department all over the evening edition!"

"I wouldn't call him a journalist," Matt said dryly. Chavez looked at him and was about to lose it when Elisa stepped in.

"Cap, nobody threatened him, not with arrest and certainly not physically," Elisa said. It was a stretch of the truth, but she knew that in spite of Matt's talk, there was never any real intent behind it. "He's a tabloid trash talker. No one will buy..."

"It's already been bought," Chavez interrupted. "The Mayor is furious. You two are lucky as hell that I'm too stand up of a Captain to throw you under the bus, 'cause God knows it was tempting. But I convinced him that no two of my detectives would ever hold a journalist, or threaten one in any way, which you better believe saved your asses."

Elisa and Matt looked at the ground, then muttered some version of a 'we appreciate it'.

"Oh you'll make it worth my while," Chavez said. "The two of you are gonna be pulling overtime, unpaid, until I decide you've cleared enough cases that I can justify sticking my neck out to the Mayor for you."

"We will Captain, you can count on it," Bluestone said.

"I just said I am counting on it. Now get out!" Chavez said.

Bluestone turned almost instantly. This was a dressing down he was ready to run away from, but just as he was reaching for the door, Elisa spoke.

"Captain, what's happening to the case?"

Chavez and Bluestone both looked at her incredulously. "The case?" Chavez said, indicating her utter astonishment that the question had been posed. "It's been assigned to the anti-terrorism task force, a damn good thing for you since that should keep the hyenas in the press from fileting us alive on the front page every day!"

To Bluestone and Chavez's astonishment, Elisa spoke again. "Captain, you've gotta let us pursue this case." If Bluestone had been holding a glass, he'd have dropped it. Chavez put both hands on her desk and leaned in.

"Excuse me," she said.

"Captain, I know what you've done for us, but this is about much more than us."

Chavez glared, unflinchingly for several seconds. Then she raised her right hand and rubbed above her eyes. "I know I'm going to regret this, but what are you talking about?"

"Captain," Elisa started. "This wasn't a terrorist incident. Did you see the crime scene photos?"

"Of course I saw them." Chavez replied.

"Then you know as well as I do that none of this adds up for terrorism. It's too novel a target, too smooth a job, and too obviously set up to lead us by our noses toward terrorism." Elisa said.

"I don't give a rat's ass if the perp was Santa Claus," Chavez replied. "I don't know if you fell on your head or what but you know transferring this case as far away from the two of you as possible is the other half of the reason you're not both fired."

"Maria, let's cut the crap," Elisa said. Bluestone hadn't moved since this whole exchange had started. Hearing that come out of his partner's mouth just about knocked him over. Elisa continued. "This is exactly the kind of thing that an opportunistic player would use to set something serious into motion. Cyberbiotics doesn't deal in exotic house plants. Whoever went into that van wanted something very specific, and they wanted it bad enough to set up a serious heist and to create a cover story that they knew would send this city into a frenzy."

"Maybe you didn't hear me," Chavez said. "I don't care what you think is going on with this. The case is moved so that I don't have to pull you two out of the fire every day from now until every last one of my hairs falls out."

"And what about our communities?" Elisa asked. She knew this question, and what she was about to say, were checkmate in this conversation. Chavez and Elisa were both New Yorkers who had grown up in mostly Hispanic neighborhoods. They had never known each other growing up, but their neighborhoods had bordered. It was why Chavez and Elisa were close, in spite of their separation by rank. They had a shared experience that ran deep. Elisa also knew she was risking a lot, because if she failed to accomplish what she wanted to be allowed to do, it would probably destroy the working relationship that the two of them had. It would put a permanent end to their trust. Chavez sighed, sat down, folded her hands and raised an eyebrow. Elisa continued.

"We both know where this is going to go, now that the press is running with it. The gloves are going to come off and it's going to be open season not just on Muslims, but on every immigrant or person of color, citizen or not, in this city. The Mayor's been waiting for an excuse like this, and you and I both know it's not just political. He gets off on bullying." Elisa put her hands on Chavez's desk, leaned forward, and went for the kill. "It will spiral out of control and God know's where it will end. The city isn't going to stop it, the force isn't going to stop it, this whole damn country isn't going to stop it. We can't let it happen," she said.

Chavez sat still. She stared deep into Elisa's eyes and saw no hesitation. The conviction was solid, she knew, because Elisa was right. She hated her for it in the moment, but loved her for it in life. "I'll look the other way," she said. "But you better keep it under the radar and make it quick, because if this turns into a scandal, then I will throw you under the bus and I won't lose a wink of sleep over it."

Elisa nodded, turned, and walked out, pulling Bluestone by the arm as she walked by. When they got out and the door was closed, he wrenched his arm away. "What was that?!" He cried. "You want to work your own execution and you want to hang me with you?"

"You were gonna back me up and you know it," Elisa replied with a half smile. She was right.

"Ok fine, you're probably right. But still, what the hell?"

"Still having trouble following along Detective Bluestone?" Elisa said with a teasing grin. "I told you, that heist was Xanatos, I know it. And ten minutes ago you were mad enough to bust down his door with a S.W.A.T. team right this second, even if it threw you in the fire. You wanna get him for damn near blowing us both off the face of the earth? Well, this is how we do it."

Bluestone knew she was right. She was always right.

"And besides," Elisa continued. "I meant what I said in there. This is not happening. Not in my town."