4095/Before the Hotel International

Before the Hotel International
Date of Scene:	11 November 2020
Location:	Interview Room: Triskelion
Synopsis:	After the Punisher helped at the attempted assassination of a diplomats son, he shares intel on who is behind it, as well as his approach to negotiating.
Cast of Characters:	Bobbi Morse, Frank Castle, Melinda May

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Bobbi Morse has posed:
Bobbi drives directly from the Hotel International back to the Triskelion. She rarely had an informant just walk right up and offer information like that in broad daylight at the scene of the action - let alone a notoriously hard to catch mercenary like Frank Castle. It's her lucky day. She texts ahead because walking in to the Trisk with The Punisher will be quite a shock for everyone and she doesn't want him being shot at.

The parking garage, they are met with one agent in armor but no helmet carrying only an ICER at his side (as far as can be seen). He salutes to Bobbi as she gets out and the trio take an elevator straight in to the security wing and to the nice interview room - not the ones they used for suspects.

Once in Bobbi asks, "Do you want any water? coffee? tea perhaps?," to Frank and then sends a signal through to May to let her know she's here with _that guy_. The one that Agent Carter had interacted with. She's going out of her way to make it as clear as possible that SHIELD isn't treating him, today, as the enemy.

"Take a seat," she says and sits herself, taking out her tablet and placing it on the table. "Thank you for coming forward and for the tips on site, as well as your aid in taking one of them down. Very charitable of you. I'd love to hear how you found your way there and who those men are.."

Frank Castle has posed:
Mercenary would imply that Frank Castle gets paid for his efforts as a profession. He does not. Notoriously hard to catch... that one is accurate, at least.

Once stopped, the Punisher steps out of the car and eyes the agent. Anyone with a practiced eye for military types can easily tell he's sizing up the agent at a glance, drinking in potential threats in both equipment and training, before he moves along to the elevator. Frank still has his field gear attached -he has steadfastly refused to be disarmed- but he has, thus far, not made any hostile moves.

Still, coming into the heart of SHIELD with a gear web of military grade equipment and an M16 slung on his back, along with the infamous trenchcoat and skull vest, is bound to ruffle some feathers.

Then again, this man would be well known to SHIELD. If he /wanted/ to escape, there are few in this building who could stop him. He's just /that good/ at what he does.

"A building full of spies and bleeding edge chems, and you think I'm gonna risk being dosed? Cute." The Punisher grates out as he moves along to take a seat. "Didn't have much of a choice. Shooting the assholes myself wouldn't have accomplished anything but making myself a target, and you would have hunted me instead of hunting the fakes." Then, he glances to Bobbi, that ice in his eyes accented by a slight frown, "My price for this interview is the specs on the bomb used. I need to know how it works and how to disarm it."

Melinda May has posed:
May arches her brow when the text from Morse comes through. 'On my way,' is the return text. She pockets her phone, picks up an icer and sticks in a holster under her arm, under her jacket, and makes her way to the interview room.

Thus, some minutes after Morse has gotten Castle settled, there's a sharp rap at the door. A beat. And then May opens it and walks in. She doesn't say anything. Just gives Bobbi a nod in greeting. And, of course, gives Castle the once over. She's heard his rep. Never met him personally. Her own expert eye concludes... he probably deserves that rep.

Fair enough. She can live with that.

The door closes behind her and she moves to stand off to one side.

Bobbi can make the intros.

Bobbi Morse has posed:
'Frank Castle is dead' is what he said to her out on the streets. She's not going to ruffle his feathers by referring to him as Frank in person any more. "Agent May, this is the Punisher. Punisher, Agent May." She walks over to the mini-fridge and takes out a bottle water, cracks the lid, and takes a sip. She doesn't offer it. He's right - this building has all kinds of 'chemicals' in it and she could just as easily be immune. He's paranoid -and- smart.

"G-167, a compound that went through R&D. Highly unstable. But it's apparently out there now so if you want to help defuse its use then I'm not going to say no to that. I just hope you get to keep all your fingers," she replies and glances over to May, then back to Frank. "So let's extend the olive branch back since you helped us out there."

A few touches on her tablet and she swivels it around and pushes it over to the Punisher. "You take what you can remember. G-167 is capable of burning at 17,611 degrees, burning in ozone at high pressure it can exceed this. It's temperature sensitive, it will self ignite if it's not kept cool enough. Research and Development were never able to stabalize it, so it was canned."

"The protocol for making it is not included in this deal - but as you can see defusing it can be done a number of ways. Once it's oxygenated it can't be stopped but it can be slowed to the point of being almost harmless, if you can get it down to -76 degrees. It'll feel like a camp fire at that temperature," Bobbi says. Dealing with SHIELD can be very straight forward sometimes.

Frank Castle has posed:
"I don't know about out there. The Black Market hasn't had any of those bombs until recently, and it appears the team I was tracking has the only one." Frank shrugs. "Could be wrong about that. I'd have to ask my contacts to be sure." He replies as he studies the tablet. Then, he puts it on the table and slides it back over to Bobbi, "Just erase what you don't want me to see and give it back. I know someone who can tell if you're bullshiting me later."

Then, he leans forward onto the table and clasps his hands in front of himself. "So. I tend to keep track of mercenary activity globally, but especially in the city. Most of that shit doesn't concern me, but I like to know if I might deal with bounty hunters, when bosses get stupid and think they can put money on my head and get away with it." He sighs, "So I get word about a new team being put together a little while ago. I don't know what they're doing, so I monitor their shit... and low and behold, three of them decide to infiltrate your ranks and plant a bomb. Both of which they screw up at."

Melinda May has posed:
Frank Castle. The Punisher. Whatever he's called, May's heard about him. Heard enough to know they don't want to screw this negotiation up. And to make sure there are precautions in place, just in case they do. She was a 'specialist' in the field long before she was a field leader. And that brings with it it's own notoriety and experience. Even as a SHIELD agent, rather than an independent actor of whatever stripe.

She nods her head in greeting to him when they're introduced. She doesn't bother asking for a bottle for herself. Only one of them needs her hands full at a time. But she does listen with some interest to the information Bobbi gives him. And what he tells her in return. That... suggests there was quite the cluster in progress before their civilized relocation.

The news of the bomb causes a brow to drift closer to her hairline in askance.

Bobbi Morse has posed:
Bobbi will have to fill May in on the mornings excitement later. It's still hot off the press and was only just starting to make it to local news outlets. She can see that look of curiosity on her face, but it'll have to wait.

"The black market hm. Until recently? Who sells expired SHIELD ids, SHIELD armor, and SHIELD icers in the black market? We'd like to have a long talk with them." And by long she means with them behind bars and his stock recovered.

"Who was doing the hiring for these mercs, how much were they being paid and how many did they hire?," she asks wondering if this was just a first wave. By now the diplomats son Abdut el-Lodi will be in protective custody, but in todays criminal climate sometimes that isn't enough.

"And you have no idea why they'd target Abdut el-Lodi?," she asks. She adjusts in her seat and takes a different tactic. "How about those anti-gravity gloves the three mercs were using. Have you ever seen that technology before?"

Frank Castle has posed:
"Cutting off black market supply is your thing, not mine. If you want that information, you'll have to offer something in exchange that's worth giving up those sorts of contacts." The Punisher retorts to Bobbi. "If I start selling out black marketeers at a whim, I'm shooting my own foot. I don't have a global supply network like you people; I get my ammo from suppliers who know to toe the line if they want my money."

He takes out a notepad from a utility pouch, rips off paper, and slides it over the table to Bobbi, "That's all I know about the team, including their employer. I haven't followed up on it. Feel free to. As for the glove, never seen them before. Seem useful."

Melinda May has posed:
Punisher's right about that. Cutting off a black market supply of SHIELD items is totally a SHIELD mess to clean up. But, yes. Bobbi is totally going to have to bring May up to speed on all of this.

Though, now her mind is going to something Carter said about possible HYDRA interference in SHIELD. And if that's the case, and if SHIELD tech is getting out onto the black market? Yeah, the Asian woman's eyes narrow just slightly as she considers the ramifications of *that*.

Bobbi Morse has posed:
Bobbi narrows her eyes ever so slightly and lifts her chin. She slowly nods her head and takes out a small usb thumb drive from beneath the desk and plugs it in to her tablet. It doesn't take her long to redact away the information she doesn't want shared. She copies the relevant information on G-167 to the tablet and then slides the thumb drive over to him.

She picks up the paper and takes a look at what's written there, Gavin Hedgecroft, 6-7 mercs hired for low side of the market rate. She raises an eyebrow and nods her head again. "I see. I get it, you want to take dangerous weapons off the street so long as it doesn't inconvenience your supply change."

She stares a moment at Frank but she couldn't really fault him. No one ever wrote 'heart of gold' down in a file about him. "Thank you Punisher. You've been very helpful today. A small button is pressed and the same agent that escorted them in enters the room, "Agent when our guest is ready, please drive him anywhere he wishes to go in the state of New York." He salutes and says, "Yes Ma'am."

Bobbi rises up and approaches, then holds out her hand, "I hope we can work together in the future. Unlike Agent Carter, I hope you don't try and blow me up though."

Frank Castle has posed:
"Agent, I /AM/ a dangerous weapon. I don't need black market toys to be a threat to you or anyone else, and if you knew half the shit floating around on the market, you'd know some thermal bomb that SHIELD shelved isn't even halfway up there on the 'dangerous stuff on the street'." He stands then, taking the hand for a handshake. "Contrary to what most agencies believe, I'm just cleaning up the trash, I've got no serious beef with SHIELD. Carter knows how to contact me. I have work to do."

With that, he heads for the door, giving a nod to Melinda, before looking at the agent, "Let's go."

Melinda May has posed:
May steps aside as Punisher rises and makes for the door. While she doesn't offer her hand, she at least offers him a nod in respect. She's got no reason to antagonize him, here. The exchange has been straightforward, after all. And fair enough.

But when he's gone, she glances to Bobbi. "Yeah," she says dryly. "You better bring me up to speed..."

Yep. Just another day at the office.