GARGOYLES: Re-Awakening

Reconnaissance: 1

The Sunrise Diner had been a staple of the neighborhood for more than forty years. It was a classic, silver railcar structure with all the requisite neon signs. It looked odd next to the surrounding buildings which were the standard, pre-war buildings so typical of downtown New York City. The streets were buzzing with people returning home from work. A light rain was starting, making the streets just slightly more aglow than usual.

Everly was still sitting in her car. She'd been thinking about the city and her place in it. She had moved there after college, nearly twenty-five years ago. She reflected on how, even after all that time, the city still invigorated her, still filled her every morning with a desire to do great things, to have an impact—to be somebody. That was the magic of New York. It drove you to want to more.

She opened the car door, grabbed her purse off the passenger seat and headed into the diner. Reed was in the booth farthest from the entrance. Sitting with her back to Everly was a dark haired woman, who would be detective Maza. Everly squeezed her purse, then walked over to the two of them. Reed slid over and let her sit down.

"Everly Levi, this is detective Elisa Maza," Reed said.

Elisa smiled. Everly smiled sheepishly, looked down at her purse, then at Reed. He sensed her unease.

"I know this is a bit of a leap. I appreciate you being here. Let me start off by telling you that I'm no big fan of the NYPD, but I have a pretty decent sense of people. I think detective Maza is somebody we can trust. If I didn't, we wouldn't be sitting here. You know that."

Everly nodded. Elisa could tell when a person was scared out of their wits, and she was worried Everly might just jump up and run out of the diner any second, so she spoke up immediately.

"Everly, Mr. Reed tells me that you've helped him have an eye on Xanatos Enterprises. I get the sense from him that's because you want to do right. No matter what we decide tonight, whether you want to help me or not, I want to thank you for being that kind of person."

A little thick, Elisa thought to herself, cringing just a bit inside. But Everly's hands relaxed just a little on her purse, and she seemed finally ready to speak.

"I do," Everly said. She gave Reed one more look, then put her elbows on the table and spoke confidently. The transformation was a surprise to Elisa. She thought Everly was going to be timid, requiring lots of coaxing and reassuring. Instead, she seemed to take control. For Everly's part, she had been hesitant because she was unsure who she'd be meeting and what they might try to squeeze from her. Now that they were face to face, she felt reassured. Her decision was therefore made, and once it was, she had no more reservations about it.

"You wanted to know if Xanatos has made any big shifts in resources over the last six to twelve months. He has. There is a small plant just over the river in New Jersey that makes steel ball bearings for semi-trucks. Over the past twelve months, Xanatos Enterprises has upped cash flow to the plant by seven percent."

"That doesn't seem like that much," Elisa said. "And ball bearings is not exactly earth shattering."

"That's just the thing," Everly responded. "This factory is one of the kind of acquisitions that Xanatos Enterprises normally makes and never even thinks about. It's a small company making an uninteresting product. We acquired them about two years ago. Now normally, something like this is part of some larger strategy. Maybe we want the real-estate, or maybe it's bundled into some larger merger. There's nothing like that here. That wouldn't have caught my attention normally—I would have figured they were waiting to make a move or there was some kind of log-jam in the deal. But to have the acquisition and then boost their production without any connection to some other, larger picture design. That's odd."

"Ok," Elisa said. "So it's not the kind of company that Xanatos would normally buy and then run, just as another part of the business?"

"No," Everly said. "It's too small, the parts are too uninteresting, the location is unimpressive, there's just nothing about it that fits the usual business profile of X.E."

Elisa looked at Reed, then Everly.

"Well," she said. "If you say it's unusual that's helpful, but it's hardly nefarious."

Everly reached into her purse and pulled out a disk. She slid it across the table to Elisa.

"This contains copies of money transactions and raw materials flow," Everly said. "There are two pertinent facts. First, the money is being moved in small amounts from disparate parts of the company. Second, I did a little digging. There is also steel being moved from various parts of the company and into this factory. I presume I don't need to tell a New York City detective what this all looks like."

Elisa lifted her eyes from the disk. "They are manufacturing something extra, and they don't want anyone to know what it is," she said.

Everly nodded.

— —

Elisa and Reed were alone outside the diner. Everly had pulled away five minutes prior. Elisa had thanked her again, taken the disk and said that she hoped she would not need to call on her again. Everly told her that she would prefer it that way but that, if she had to, she would be willing to help again. Elisa found that courageous, and her faith in people was just a little higher than it had been at the beginning of the evening.

"So," Reed said. "What are you going to do now? That's certainly not enough for a warrant."

Elisa looked at him with a defiant expression. "I'm going to do what any good detective would do, Reed" she said. "I'm gonna go have a look."

Elisa got in her car and drove away. Reed smirked to himself and walked to his car. He didn't notice that one of the patrons sitting inside the diner at a window booth was watching him. Once he drove away, the man reached into his pocket and pulled out a cell phone.