16806/Tracking Down Mr Boom

Tracking Down Mr Boom
Date of Scene:	06 January 2024
Location:	Cafe in Soho
Synopsis:	Frank hires Vermillion to look for details on his Fetch and offers to have her coordinate with Detective Chimp.
Cast of Characters:	Frank Noble, Jane Roe

---

Frank Noble has posed:
Frank Noble has been trying to find out what the hell happened in the two years of his absence. He's been going to weir dplaces on the internet, and in one forum whre he posted his curious experience anonymously, he found someone reached out to him directly that asked more questions. He was willing to share some details over the phone, but since his enocunter with the Foot Clan, he was worried Mr Boom had been doing illegal things. All things told, when dealing with military grade chemicals and hte kinds of truly destructive weaponry that Frank's tech could create, he is cautious and thus insisted on a face to face meeting but also a willingness to pay. As such, right now they're in a quaint, out of the way coffee bar in Soho and Fank is wearing a Ten Gallon hat, which his brother got him once as a joke but in this case allows him to stand out to a stranger trying to find him. He has a briefcase with him.

Jane Roe has posed:
"You dropped a message that you need someone to look up stuff. That you pay well." Comes a voice from the side whoile he sits, a young woman wearing a sports team shirt in oversize and almost a buzzcut speaking to him. Without even introducing herself, she settles on the chair opposite of him, pulling her messanger bag to her side as she leans onto the table, eying him caregully with those dark eyes. "Fred Noble. PhDs in Applied Chemistry, Organic Chemistry, Inorganic Chemistry and Biochemistry. Owner of TGAW Industries, a chemical company incorporated in New York. However, the number of patents indicates that's mostly a think-Tank, less a manufacturer on mass scale, though there's a couple other labs... What do you need the services of a freelance data analyst for, Mister Noble?"

She's rather nonchalent as she rattles down that she hadinquired about who she was dealing with. Though, in some way, he had all the history among the two, the young woman being legally nonexistant because no database believed she did - and her own memory only reaching back about a year ago.

Frank Noble has posed:
Frank Noble says, "Very thorough. Fred is actuallya board member but runs a hardware store on the upper east side...I'm Frank....The rest is right, though the patents are all mine. You'll notice in my history that for the last two years, someone who looks like me, talks like me and even seems to have a lot of knowledge of who I am has been signing checks running my company....and I have strong evidence that they weren't me. I've been trying to track them, and I think they were involved in some scurrilous activies with my tech...I have a single hand copied ledger with some numbers, and need someone to hack it, along with ome other bread crumbs to see what they were up to."

Frank Noble has posed:
Frank Noble says, "Nice to meet you by the way miss...." he leves off on the end, unsure how to properly address the hacker in question."

Jane Roe has posed:
There's a smirk as he tries to go with the normal, formal greetings, but the young woman shakes the head. "No Miss, no Misses, no Sir. Just Vermilion. Like the bird. The driver's license photo of your sibling is closer to your age than yours, so pardon the mixup."

"So you allege that the last two years you were not wthere to sign anything, and yet you did. That's interesting, but how do you think I could hack a paper ledger? The best I can do is try and make sense of it, maybe compare it to numbers in the systems or something, but that sounds like you need a forensic accountant, not a security expert."

Frank Noble has posed:
Frank Noble says, "I am aware. There are three reasons I want this done by you and am willing to pay for your help finding the latter two....I believe that the person who looked like me, but wasnt me, a certain Mr Boom, might have been engaged in selling some of my more destructiv eresearch for nefarious purposes. Plus, I have....issues that I dont want law enforcement involved in. I suspect, but do not know that the Mr. Boom had rules that he couldnt break, tried to get around and succeeded....the thing is, I need someone who isnt me but who can get inside 'my' or 'his' head...yes, a paper ledger is not the perview of a hacker, but tight algoryhtm with the numbers I do have scattered anymously across several databases and different accounts covers the trail better thn if I did it myself at the public library"

Jane Roe has posed:
"I understand your preference to not get police involved, but but what do you believe I can do with a paper ledger? I'd need to turn it into a file first anyway before I can do anything, and then I need to know what you actually wote down in it and have the real numbers that belong to it so I can figure out discrepancies.

Frank Noble has posed:
Frank Noble hands the ledger over, "I dont mind you digitizing the images. Thats why I brought it. Just wipe any trace you leave behind." If she takes the ledger and looks through it, she will see bank accounts, geocordinates and serial numbers, though the numbers themselves are not obvious with several odd markings that dont look like any of the others; almost latin but not quite.

Jane Roe has posed:
Pickung up the ledger and flipping through it, Vermilion stops at the altered and annotated numbers, putting a finger on them as she shows it to Noble. "What's with those? The numbers here are... a shipping label, that looks like a banking ID and that here might be a VIN or serial. But the annotations don't quite read." she remarks.

Frank Noble has posed:
Frank Noble looks at the symbols and something flares in his mind but it doesnt quite connect. "I think they may be occult, but I dont know. The detective I hired for the case might know but since I randomly got called away during our initial interview I ahvent gotten a status update

Frank Noble has posed:
Frank Noble says, "I can provide you with his contact information if you wish"

Jane Roe has posed:
"And what should I do with that? Dig through his personal files while he's away? Or is there something about the ledger you forgot to mention here, Mister Noble?" The young woman eyes him over the table, a finger still on the strange notes. "Maybe start where you got this thing, under hwich circumstances and what you actually want to find. This doppelganger or your money?"

Frank Noble has posed:
Frank Noble says, "As I explained to the detective who...did not take m concerns in one area too seriously, I can allow you access to any facilities I have but my office, I can desribe what happened there but not allow you there. My first memory after a two year gap is looking at Email and then hearing a scream in my voice and finding an empty set of my clothng. I believe Mr Boom is the former Mr Boom; I want to get any clues you can from this ledger about his activities."

Jane Roe has posed:
"So you're saying you were 2 years in limbo, you returned to your office and found what's left of Mister Boom, and this is all you have about him." There's a slow nod. "I don't need access to your office, if I can get access to the PC that person used, and all the security camera footage you still have. People leave a lot of stuff in badly deleted files, and camera footage might tell patterns."

Frank Noble has posed:
Frank Noble says, "Thats the long and short of it, yes. I want to know what he was up to, who he was talking to and what he might have been doing looking and talking like me."

Jane Roe has posed:
"Add the phone logs and any cellphones you found. Get yourself new, sanitized machines. And maybe swap the whole infrastructure, if you are concerned. If I should assist with sanitizing or a swap, we might need to negotiate a fee on that, but this... I will see if the items make sense. Financial data might help." Flipping through the ledger more, her eyes look for credit card numbers and other banking information, just as much as indicators for flights. "Is your company's system all connected with an intranet? That might make work nmuch easier. Set up a server that holds all files."

Frank Noble has posed:
Frank Noble says, "It wasnt...I have made some discoeries that are...best not made public. However, Mr Boom changed all of that. Only part of my office that is restricted is not wired and that is a total faraday cage. As far as the infrastructure itself...well....yes, we should likely harden it now though first I want to do this." He sips a hot choclate and looks out teh window, silently frurated but patiently working on it one step at a time"

Jane Roe has posed:
"Intranet. Internal network. Not Internet. Ok, I got a suggestion. You mothball your old PC, pack it up neatly and I take a look at it later. Until then, you use a fresh machine. To make sure you don't wipe things. I might need some time to get sense into this, but it will not be cheap. You got the cash?"

Frank Noble has posed:
Frank Noble puts a pen to his lip for a moment in thought, reviewing if The Forbidden Item is one it....its not, "Yes, I will be happy to do that. Give me an address and I'll have it shipped or you can pick it up" he smiles

Jane Roe has posed:
Jane Roe pulls a pen from the pocket, then writes down a number. A post office box. "Ship it there with the payment. I dissect it as soon as possible and get back at you. You get it back once I'm done with it."

Frank Noble has posed:
Frank Noble nods, "It shall be done M...." he almost says Miss and nods, "COnsider it done." He slides over the briefcase. All in cash just as arranged. "I appreciate it