17960/Disturbance in the Subnet

Disturbance in the Subnet
Date of Scene:	15 May 2024
Location:	Gotham City
Synopsis:	A booom draws the attention of the bats leading to the start of a mystery.
Cast of Characters:	Carrie Kelley, Damian Wayne, Caleb Dykstra

---

Carrie Kelley has posed:
Shoulders raised it's clear even from a distance that this guy is nervous. Shuffling feet, the tell tale signs of pacing traced in to the dirt. Once upon a time there was a river that ran through here. Back in the 40s this was part of Gotham's trading network - a port. The old warehouses barely stand now and what does still stay upright is covered in graffiti. Why here? it's a dead zone.

"You're late," the agitated man said to Brick Galaway, reporter for the Gotham Gazette.

"Sorry about that. No GPS. No Maps on my phone. I haven't been out here since I was in middle school."

"It had to be like that. It's the only way to be safe. What I have to show you is going to make your career."

Galaway laughed a moment, "My career is doing just fine. I care about the truth. So show me what you've got."

---

At the clocktower Carrie is watching the little dots of the Birds move around the city. It's a quiet night which always means trouble is brewing. Gotham was always a boiling pot waiting to burst and you never knew just where it was going to happen next. The Q-word was banned.

For the briefest moment the network traffic monitors lit up brightly. Terrabytes of data just tripped over Gotham's networks. "Whoa," she says sitting upright. Her fingers go in to code warrior mode. "One moment Robin, something else just came up. A big spike in internet traffic and then zip."


---

At the National Guard Depot, Gotham City

Two reservists are unloading surface to air missiles from their mobile artillery vehicle. One unlatches the payload and the other hoists it on to a mini-crane. It's not dangerous - you need specialised codes to activate the warheads. "One to go," says Private Peters.

"Oh good. May be we can get home in time to watch the match," replied Private Fergus.

Peters moved to the last of the twenty four slots. He pulls the latch and tries to shift the missile out of its holding. "Hm. This one's not moving."

"Give it a thump. Put your shoulder in to it."

Suddenly the missile's arming light activates. Peters steps back instinctively and just in time before the missile fires and shoots out of the missile launcher in to the night skies of Gotham.

Damian Wayne has posed:
Patrolling on his Redbird cycle, Robin is speeding through Gotham's streets. Technically it is illegal, but there is no GCPD officer dumb enough to try to catch one of the Bat Family. So the high-tech motorcycle races along with impunity. He, too, senses the banned-Q-word nature of the city tonight. And he, too, is on edge because of it.

<<Delphi, tell me /something/,>> Robin says over the comm channel. <<I'm about to lose my mind here.>>

That's when he sees the missile streaking through the night sky.

"Shit," Robin murmurs to himself. "That looked military." He turns down a main boulevard and really opens up the throttle driving at unsafe speeds in the direction the missile was heading. <<Tell me you saw that.>>

Caleb Dykstra has posed:
Located by the still-to-be end of the parabola described by that missile, Caleb is riding in his car, pondering the events from last night - events that came with a grim warning. While he's dividing his attention between the road and recollection of events, he's not noticing the big bright arrow coming right his way, until he looks slightly up and to his left once the shades of dark start to brighten.

"Holy...!!"

It's by instinct, but he floors it, and the modified engine kicks into turbo.

But will it be enough to escape the blast?

Carrie Kelley has posed:
"Alright-" the nervous man pulls out an envelope from his jacket. "Shit I could do with a smoke right about now."

Galaway steps forward to take the envelope. The smart watch on his wrist makes a small beep. "Why don't you?"

Instantly the informant's attention goes to the smart watch. "You didn't turn it off... I told you to turn everything off."

"I turned off my phone. I forgot about the watch."

"You idiot. You've killed us both."


--

The missile arcs across Gotham's sky like a mini-sun. It's fast and it's loud. This is a weapon of war and not one that was meant to be used on US Soil.

"I sure did!," Delphi responds as city-wide camera stills of the missile flash across her screen and a trajectory is mapped out. "It came from the National Guard depot. It's headed for the old bailey wharf. I don't think you can beat it there."

Not so prophetically the boom echos through the crisp chill air of Gotham's night time. The nearest to the blast is Caleb. The ruins of the old wharf are on fire and there isn't much out there that isn't rapidly joining that status. The missile was precise and did it job - just not the job it was intended for.

"I have no eyes out there - you'll be there before any of our drones Robin," Carrie states. Suddenly she feels the itch of action; yet she cannot abandon her post. Instead she directs one of the drones toward the National Guard outpost.

Damian Wayne has posed:
Outer remnants of the shockwave hit the Redbird. It wobbles a bit but Robin expertly gets it under control. He continues speeding toward the explosion. <<I doubt there's anything left wherever that thing hit.>>

There is a pair of headlights coming toward the speeding motorcycle. "The hell," Robin says. He taps something on the Redbird's ops screen. <<Delphi, I got some sort of electric, modified turbo vehicle heading at me away from the scene of that explosion.>>

There is a loud screeching sound as Robin applies the Redbird's brakes. The cycle spins sideways as it decelerates quickly from its previous speeds of well over 150 MPH. The smell of burning brakes fills the air. Robin steps off the motorcycle and tugs what appears to be a small rifle from the casing of the bike. "Alright, buddy, let's see what your deal is." He aims the gun -- an EMP rifle -- at the car and fires.

Caleb Dykstra has posed:
The car - a 1970 Dodge Challenger in black - is moving away, yes, but it's also coming to a halt as it circles around.

"Jesus..." He starts to come back and that's when he notices de biker he just passed by is one of Gotham's finest (no, not the cops), and he sees a gun being aimed at him...

"...The hell?"

And it's fired. Sure, why not - this seems like 'hit Caleb Dykstra' day, so Damian had to join in?

Luckily, since both him and his father are mechanics, Caleb even going for engineering, he knows about electromagnetism and their electronic-wrecking pulses. And prepared for it. Costly? Maybe. But if you get the right materials and know how...

The damage is less than intended, thankfully, and you can see the sparks caused by deflection of the pulse.

He approaches the bike, though not speeding up.

He lowers the window, "I dunno what happened, I floored it because I was at the end of its parabola, alright?"

Carrie Kelley has posed:
The flood lights at the National Guard are on. The place is a hive of activity. She turns on the parametric mic on the drone and focuses in on their chatter for a moment. "Hm. They were hacked. That's... disturbing. Who can hack a mobile artillery vehicle and fire a missile on command."

She glances back at the networking logs and stares at that large data transmission. "I think we just witnessed a hit by a hacker. They took control of the launcher and blew up that location. May be I can figure out who was out there."

A drone up in the sky finally catches up with Damian and Caleb as she brings that encounter up on a second screen. "Making friends? who EMP-proofs their car?" As he speaks the computer pops up a bio. "Whoa."

"That's one Caleb Dykstra. He works for Vittorelli. There's also a bounty on his head." She adjusts her glasses and ponders aloud, "You don't think he was the target do you? That's a hell of a hacker to hire for a mob hit." Her eyes glance over the data packets. It was too big to capture everything and even what she did capture seems to be nonsense.

Damian Wayne has posed:
Robin peers at Caleb as Delphi fills him in on the relevant details. He quirks a grin, speaking with the comm system on, his voice audible to Delphi and Caleb. "A bounty on his head, huh? I'll keep that in mind next time I'm low on cash."

He up-nods in Caleb's direction. "Mighty big coincidence that a hired mob muscle in a very rare, souped-up car is speeding away from the scene of what might be an assassination." Robin folds his arms over his chest. "Give me one good reason not to knock you into next week and leave you here for GCPD to pick up." Robin peers down at the chronometer set into his right gauntlet. "Oh, and you have 12 seconds to convince me."

Caleb Dykstra has posed:
"First, I dropped that life about a year ago, that's why I don't show up in Gotham around much, only on very special cases", Caleb starts his explanation. "Second, you got here just after the explosion, just as I was leaving before it happened. Conclusion: you were tracking what caused this, which came from /that/ way", he points towards the rough point of origin. "I was speeding away because I saw it coming, just seconds in advance." He adds, "I got a fast car, but it doesn't fly across the air. So I could never have done this."

He points towards the earpiece Damian's got on the ear, "But I'm betting whoever's on the other end of the line already told you that or at least part." He looks at his watch: 9,8 seconds.

"Oh, and you leave me for the GCPD, I'll be dead the next day. Mob payrolls and all that shit."

Looks at the watch again. "Eleven point eight seconds."

Carrie Kelley has posed:
Delphi tracks back through time on several of the roads leading to the old wharf. Eventually she spots a car driving toward it and checks the license plate. "Oh no-" she tries to track his phone and its cell tower pings also lead to the old wharf before it ends at the deadzone.

"Do you know a Brick Galaway? He's a reporter for the Gotham Gazette. He was at that wharf tonight." Carrie is listening to Caleb's explanation as she does her own exploration. Was Brick there to interview Caleb? if the mob is after Caleb then his concern about going to jail and dying there is justified.

"... there's a lot of unknowns here Robin. Could you put a tracker on his car and cut him loose? May be where he goes next will answer some questions. In the meanwhile I need to talk to Oracle about this data burst and hack. This is very concerning."

Damian Wayne has posed:
It should become clear pretty quickly by the expression forming on Robin's face that Caleb's answer impresses him. "Well look at former mob boy with two tenths of a second to spare," the young vigilante says. He begins to walk around Caleb's vehicle. "This is an impressive piece of technology," Robin remarks. And when he is on the far side of the car he sneaks a tracker on the vehicle. "You build it yourself?"

Once Robin finishes his visual inspection of Caleb's car, he mounts the Redbird. "Alright, Caleb Dykstra, former mob member, I'm going to cut you loose. Your story checks out. Next time your cell rings with an unidentified caller answer it. It might be me." He didn't even ask for Caleb's cell number. "You play your cards right you might become valuable to my family. That comes with /all/ sorts of perks."

With the push of a thumb button, Robin brings the Redbird's engine to life.

Caleb Dykstra has posed:
"Family heirloom", Caleb replies, "My dad and I rebuild it from scrap, I've added modifications since." He adds, "Bullet proof, insulated against EMPs because you never know when aliens or vigilantes pop up with fancy EMP generating gizmos..." He scratches his head, "And more modifications are gonna be on the way."

He makes light of Damian going around the car, and touching it - does he suspect something was placed? If so, he has a good poker face on it. "Personally, I'd aim for some good old-fashioned LED lighning. Man, I think UV'll kick ass." A hint?

"I guess we'll find out in the next few days, won't we?"

Carrie Kelley has posed:
"Somehow I think a rogue missile is going to be breaking news across the nation tomorrow. I just hope it was only Galaway that got hit. And whatever story he was working on didn't die with him." Carrie frowns a moment. Then again that was the point of an Oracle, or in her case Delphi - to make sure the story doesn't die with him.

"Thanks Robin. If you're still itching for action there's a car chase heading toward the West highway. If you put pedal to metal you can still make it."

For now though Delphi has hit a dead end. She needs to know more about hacking to understand what just took place and the best person to learn that from is Babs. Perhaps she'll have to poke about in Galaway's work computer and see if she can get a scent of the trail he was sniffing. For now though it's back to her duties as the eyes in the sky.