5604/Looking for answers in Shadowed places

Looking for answers in Shadowed places
Date of Scene:	16 March 2021
Location:	Historic Clocktower - Penthouse
Synopsis:	Oracle learns a great deal about Natasha, and decides she needs to meet this woman.
Cast of Characters:	Barbara Gordon, Natasha Cranston

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Barbara Gordon has posed:
"Yes, this is Barbara Gordon from Gothams Security Solutions. I've been trying to get in contact with your head of security about scheduling a meeting where I can present a proposal for future contracts..." Babs was on her cellphone, the one she uses for mundane calls anyways, rolling from the kitchen to the couch where she'd left her more advanced, Prometheus phone. "I put in an official request several weeks ago and never heard back from anyone, was hoping..."

Gotham Security was a real company owned by Barbara Gordon. A largely tech based security firm that specialized in online systems, but included several advancements in overall protective profile for major businesses net access.

"Yes, I'll wait."

In reality, all Babs wants is to be transported to a secure line where she can switch to her cloned phone and attempt to install a backdoor program on through the lines to get mobile access to their archieved files. Nothing TOOOOOO illegal...

Natasha Cranston has posed:
    The secretary sounds professionally polite and helpful but also professionally dubious. "As far as I'm aware we're not currently looking into changing our security contractor, but if you're willing to hold I'll check if our security director is available..."

    It's a pretty standard corporate spiel that Babs has heard more than once by now. In all likelyhood they'll be using that time to verify whether 'Gotham Security Solutions' actually exists and whether Babs is actually authorized to speak on their behalf, due diligence and all that, which means someone from there will be browsing to the GSS website right about... now.

Barbara Gordon has posed:
Babs mhms into the phone while eating a spoonful of ice cream, watching the Prometheus screen for the e- and there it is. She mutes her cellphone and sets it aside on speaker in favor of the heavier, modified hacking tool. Bowl resting her lap as she plugs her thumbs over the screen to follow the ping from the companies IP, "This is why you should let me update your systems." A small virus delivery system for a backdoor code programmed into the page. All it needs is an IP address to trace...

Babs sucks a peanut from her teeth and gives it one. Then lets the program do its job, leaning back in her chair with her phone returned to her shoulder to enjoy her ice cream while listening to the onhold music.

Natasha Cranston has posed:
    It looks like CMS does not skimp on its infosec budget; whoever set up their network and keeps everything secure is skilled and thorough... But they're not Oracle. It takes a bit more work than average, but eventually she's in.

    The network is kept pretty strictly compartmentalized for obvious reasons, but theres only so much you can do without physically air-gapping all your hardware - and outside of M-I R&D most people don't budget that much into their information security. It doesn't take all that long before all of CMS' data is at Babs' fingertips...

    ... But while it's extensive indeed and probably contains enough data to make a few hundred million daytrading after analysis, there's not all that much about Natasha herself, aside from the occasional impromptu use of the company jet to travel what look more like thinly disguised leisure trips than actual business, and--

    ... Oh, hey. That's odd. There's a tiny little data spider over there keeping a very low profile indeed patiently scouring through the exact same information patterns as Babs is -- in fact, the only reason she spotted it in the first place was because it was trying to access the same file she was...

    The only other possible fact of note is that the donations CMS makes publicly are only about half of its total -- a not inconsiderable number of smaller donations to various charities and gofundmes go under the public radar. There doesn't seem to be much of pattern in them, aside from the fact that Natasha's authorization is underneath every single one of them -- but then, her signature is on most of the 'official' ones as well. They're not filed for tax rebates like the 'proper' charitable donations either...

Barbara Gordon has posed:
"Huh." Babs adjusts her glasses and twists the Prometheus around in her hands, cutting through codelines and security routines with the tap of her thumbs until the wealth of information spills across her screen for quick reading. Most of which she'd not have enough time to go through, but there's plenty of time to do some correlation. "Jeez, what is it with wealthy single business people in Gotham having clandestine spending habits?" She wonders outl oud with a little frown.

The spider is interesting... or intrusive... But she's not in a position to do anything about it.. At least not yet. She has an idea for that too. That will cover any intrusion tracks as well, not that she's specifically worried about that.

Right now she's worried about comparing those leisure trips. She doesn't have the time to go over every detail, nor does she feel comfortable downloading all that information.. That said, she does take a record of that particular budget for a suspicion right along her comparison to Bruce. "Alright mister spider..." If getting in was a silent affair, once she's finished? She's making a mess of it. Setting off every trip she can and leaving a data trail right back to that intrusive little data miner.

Natasha Cranston has posed:
    Well, that promises to make some poor sysadmin's day extremely exciting. But right now, Babs has more important things to worry about...

    Some of those trips definitely were the thinly disguised vacations they looked like -- a 'business meeting' in Aspen, at the height of skiing season? Sure, possible, ski resorts need a lot of stuff delivered on a regular basis, but one that lasts an entire week? -- but even those set off Babs' suspicious nature - why would Natasha deliberately misuse her company's resources when she's independently wealthy already? The obvious answer of "rich people are greedy and corrupt and prefer to spend someone else's money" doesn't seem to match the rest of her profile.

    Discarding those as a smokescreen and pattern-matching the rest to local news and other sources at the destinations, however, does yield an interesting pattern...

* Police responding to reports of gunfire at a warehouse in Boston Harbor found several unconscious, injured and dead people, quite a few heavy weapons, and about two million dollars' worth of cocaine in shipping crates, interrupted in the process of being loaded onto a few trucks. The shipping company that owned the warehouse had been negotiating with CMS for a possible partnership or takeover a few weeks prior before Natasha had personally torpedoed the negotiations for no particular reason.

* A human trafficking ring in Florida was rolled up after a similar incident, and a series of confessions implicated a particular DA in keeping things covered up. Babs recognizes the name because he was on the guest list of a recent charity gala -- one that Natasha also attended...

    The list goes on for quite a bit longer, but the pattern seems clear...

Barbara Gordon has posed:
Babs didn't choose the Thug life, the thug life chose her

Looking over the irrelevant smokescreen of travel expenditures, she pays far closr attention to those linked to incidents that.. not unsurprisingly... seem tied in with CMS. Which is, alos unsurpringly, a great deal like a certain Billionare she knows.

She leans back in her wheelchair with the spoon turned upside down on her tongue, flicking her finger across the screen to look and more... and more... of similar incidents starting to line up. "Well that's just coincidental." She muses, out right teasing because it totally isn't.

"Alright, I need to meet this woman because I'm pretty sure she's just Bruce with a wig on..." pause, head cocked to the side, ".. And do something about her infosys." Wiggling her phone, she yawns into her elbow and glances to see if she's still on hold or been hung up on.

Natasha Cranston has posed:
    Apparently at some point during her activity the secretary had come back on the line to regretfully inform her that the security director is, for some reason, exceptionally busy right now and isn't available to take her call, but if she'd care to leave a number they may call her back at some point in the near future...

Barbara Gordon has posed:
"Sure, yeah.. hope everything's okay." Babs gives her number to the secretary and exchanges pleasantries before disconnecting the call and settling back in her wheelchair. "Hmmm... Well she's sure a busy little bee. Transportation company, highly connected, secretive activities loosely disguised as wealthy filandering.." It's a page right out of the handbook for Gotham. "I've got to meet this woman."

Natasha Cranston has posed:
    Of course, getting hold of an eccentric and elusive billionaire can be tricky, especially when they have no idea why they might want to talk to you. Fortunately, Babs knows someone who can probably arrange a meeting...