2947/Unwarranted requests

Unwarranted requests
Date of Scene:	24 October 2017
Location:	Unknown
Synopsis:	Something fishy may be going on with Poseidon Shipping, a subsidiary of Cranston Multinational. Alice Gulliver was sent by the Asian Crime Task Force to ask for permission to search the place, but failed to be sufficiently diplomatic to Natasha Cranston. On the other hand, now The Shadow Knows of something rotten in her company, and will likely investigate...
Cast of Characters:	Shadow, Wu

---

Shadow has posed:
    A lot of detective work involves chasing down leads and seeing what turns up. Of course, you're not always lucky enough to find a lead that's sufficiently convincing to a judge to obtain a search warrant. In that case, the best you can hope for is politely asking whoever owns the place if you can take a look around -- and hope that they're either foolish enough to say yes, or flustered enough to say something you can use as a new lead or an actual warrant.

    This is one of those times. One of the task force's less reliable informants tentatively fingered Poseidon Freight, a small shipping company that's a wholly owned sbsidiary of Cranston Multinational, as possibly involved with smuggling illegal wares either out of or to Hong Kong, but without anything better than tentative circumstantial evidence no judge will sign a warrant, and if the company itself is involved the task force doesn't want to show its hand by talking to the owners. Which means seeing if the CEO of CMS feels amenable to a request, a task that will likely require a great deal of tact, diplomacy, and skill at talking to those with wealth and power.

    ... So why exactly her superiors sent Alice to do the talking instead is a mystery.

Wu has posed:
    "Detective Alice Gulliver, HKP, GCPD," Alice announces herself to the receptionist at the ground floor of Cranston's business empire's local projection.
    "Do you have a...?"
    "No, I don't have an appointment. Please just call her and tell her I'm here, OK..." She leans across to read the name tag. "...Pierre?"
    People like being addressed by name. That's what her book on diplomatic communications says anyway.
    "I'll wait over there."
    It's harder to tell someone to FOAD if they're not actually there in front of you. At least that's what Alice's experience with people notes. She walks over to the foyer to sit down in the overstuffed chairs that are actually mostly there for show, not use. She pulls out her notebook and goes over past cases, gleaning from them anything she can that might bear on current investigations.

Shadow has posed:
    "Pierre" looks like he's about to argue, but without Alice right there to argue against that's trickier, and he doesn't want to be the one who escalates this into asking Security -- probably in the form of the slightly overweight but still very fit looking chap with the tasteful yet obvious uniform whose nametag reads 'Fred' who is looking Alice over in the universal "you are potential trouble, so I've got my eye on you, behave and we'll get along just fine" glare that all good security guards learn on the job -- to escort a police officer off the premises, regardless of how far away from her juridictions she is. Interestingly to Alice, he does know to turn away to face the wall and make it impossible to read his lips or overhear what he's saying.

    In an office several dozen floors higher up, Natasha looks up from her desk terminal as the intercom chimes. "Miss Cranston?" comes her secretary's voice. "Pierre at the reception desk is reporting there's an officer from the GCPD that wants to talk to you." A sniff of disapproval. "Apparently he was so surprised by the request he forgot to ask why."

    Natasha raises an eyebrow, internally racking her brain as to why someone from the GCPD would possibly want to talk to her, and coming up empty. "Did this detective at least leave a name? ... Hmm. I see. Thank you. Have Pierre send her up via the /slow/ elevator, and see how much information you can put together on this Detective 'Gulliver' and who she works for while she enjoys the view..."

    After a great deal of fidgeting, "Pierre" startles, then listens to the answer. Judging by his body language, he didn't expect the answer he received, but then he nods, puts the phone down and turns to look at Alice. "Ma'am? Miss Cranston will see you now. If you'll come here a moment we'll get you set up with a visitor ID, then take a left to the outer elevator, fortieth floor. Her secretary will be waiting to take you further."

Wu has posed:
    The same style books say that people like smiles. Alice grants Pierre a smile that almost, but not quite, fails to look like a shark sizing up prey. "Thank you, Pierre," she says as her near-black eyes rake over him appraisingly. Two punches, her inner monologue says. Tops.
    Fred gets an appraising rake as well as she goes past after the ID is set up. Then another, eyes narrowed a bit. That one would take more. Well-disguised competence. Might need to cheat.
    Left to the outer elevator, but then the hick cop from the hick city of Hong Kong "accidentally" gets in the wrong elevator and compounds the error by getting off on the wrong floor.
    Nothing like a bit of wandering around "accidentally" to see things you weren't meant to see...

Shadow has posed:
    One of the problems with floors that aren't meant to be seen by visitors is the general lack of floor maps or indexes beyond office numbers - clearly, if you don't know where you're going, you're not supposed to be on this floor. Alice's "clueless lost wandering" act gets quite a few stares from people who are going from one place to another with files or electronic tablets under their arms, and it doesn't take at all long for a - perfectly courteous, but firm - security officer, this one labeled 'David', to show up and ask her what her business is...

    Meanwhile, Natasha keeps one eye on the security feed following the RFID chip in Alice's badge, and the other on what information her secretary manages to dig up on the detective and the task force she works for. Interesting. They wouldn't be coming here if they didn't suspect something or other; but showing up unannounced and asking to see her rather than with a warrant implies they don't have anything solid. Still, even if she isn't about to let the GCPD investigate her company on a hunch, knowing what that hunch is about might be useful for the Shadow to look into later tonight...

    She leans back in her chair and turns her attention to the security feed, wondering how long Alice intends to play dumb...

Wu has posed:
    "Oh, sorry... uh..." Alice makes a big show of looking at the name tag. "...David." An accent not usually there slips into her voice as she speaks. Her normal slightly British accent is supplanted by a bit of a thick Cantonese sing-song. "I'm not used to buildings this big. I got lost." She does a pantomime shrug as David leads her the right way, eyes still watching like a hawk for anything she can later potentially use. Her hand twitches toward the sheaf of papers in her pocket, but ... no, this isn't the time to magick things. Too many chances for surveillance. Best just meet the head lady.
    On the 40th, finally -- from the 14th; plausible deniability is everything! -- Alice meets the secretary who guides her into Natasha's office.
    "Oh, Ms. Clanston, solly fo being late. I misheard the flooah."

Shadow has posed:
    Natasha's office is... Surprisingly subdued, compared to some of the offices of the rich and powerful Alice has seen so far. Oh, there's no mistaking the ostentatious style that says "The owner of this office has more money than you're ever likely to see in your entire life", but it's relatively low-key, almost tasteful. The desk itself is larger than regular, but not so much that the person sitting behind it would have to do something so crass as lean over in order to reach anything placed on the edge. There are also somewhat fewer artworks on the walls and around the room than she's accustomed to, although the full-size window behind Natasha's back looking out over the choicest real estate in New York from impossibly high makes a statement of wealth all its own...

    Natasha suppresses a contemptuous snort at the obvious acting attempt even if she hadn't been alerted by security -- no one with Alice's credentials would have that poor an accent -- and instead incorporates it into 'Miss Cranston' 's condescending smile. "That's quite all right, the words are tricky to tell apart if you're not a native speaker. Not that there's anything wrong with that, that's a lovely accent in its way. Now, what can Cranston Multinational Shipping do for the GCPD, Detective?"

Wu has posed:
    Alice's accent slips away after a moment's observation.
    "It was worth a try," she says with an attempt at a disarming grin. "You'd be surprised at how many people fall for the "hick from China" routine; unaware that we're in many ways more advanced than the USA."
    There's still an accent, but it is now subdued and, indeed, almost cultivated for maximum effect: English for trust, with a hint of the exotic for distraction. If this accent is accidental, it's a very fortunate one.
    "I'm Detective Alice Gulliver, Ma'am, and I'm only on attachment with the GCPD. My home turf is the Hong Kong Police. I'm part of an international task force on ... well, let's just say we're concerned about gang problems that span the Pacific and leave it at that."
    Her eyes take in the room with an approving nod, but no comment.
    "You undoubtedly know your company's past relationship with certain breeds of smuggler. And you can rest assured that I know of your very laudable clean-ups and purges within your company. It is clear that our respective organizations view these criminal elements with the same disdain."
    Alice leans a little. She's trying for the "friendly getting-closer" from her books but unfortunately it's coming across as an attempt at a threatening loom. A bad attempt.
    "So here's the thing. We have some information about one of your subsidiaries. It's ... not solid. But it's ... at least gelatinous? Is that a metaphor that works? At any rate, we don't have enough for a warrant, but for reasons I can't get into in great detail--we have time limits. And gathering enough for a warrant in that time limit will be impossible."
    Alice paces a little. Her voice goes rigid as if she's unused to be standing with a hat out. "So we were wondering if it would be possible to persuade you to grant us permission for a lightning search of the facility in question before our time runs out?"

Shadow has posed:
    ... Interesting. And much more in line with the picture the detective's publicly available files painted of her than that ridiculous hick accent. And she does appear to have some lead... But Natasha has dibs on these, if they're what Alice claims they are. "That's... An interesting assertion, Detective. May I ask which subsidiary of mine you're intending to turn upside down on a whim in the hope something interesting comes falling out?"

Wu has posed:
    "Poseidon Freight," Alice says. Her voice gets an edge to it as her diplomacy, thin as it already was, falls away. "And I'm not in the habit, Ms. Cranston, of doing things on a whim."
    Beat.
    "Even accidentally getting off on the wrong floor."
    She leans on the desk, this time in full looming mode. When she's trying she's actually pretty good at it.
    "There is dirt flowing through Poseidon Freight. The fact that a judge isn't willing to put his ass on the line at election time doesn't make the information any less actionable. Normally this isn't a problem. Dealing with recalcitrant judges is a normal part of my job, but this time I can't afford the delay. WE can't afford the delay. Without your assistance we put Poseidon and related enterprises under extreme surveillance in a way that will interfere with operations. In the meantime criminals keep working through other channels."

Shadow has posed:
    Overall, professionally speaking, Natasha would rate the intimidation attempt quite a good one. Excellent loom, decent glower, clear if unspoken implication that if she stonewalls too explicitly she'd be considered in collusion, damaging the reputation she's trying to build... Clearly, this detective has experience at making perps sweat and reconsider their choices. Of course, there's a difference between that and a CEO... Let alone her.

    "I can see you care a great deal about your work," she replies, her voice cool enough that the ambient temperature appears to drop. "As long as we're being polite and forthright about this, I'll promise to overlook the intimidation as well as the trespassing you just admitted to. That said, I'm afraid I'm going to decline your... 'request'. And be so kind to inform your superiors that if you or any of your colleagues are found sniffing around any of my subsidiaries, they had better have their warrants in perfect order."

    Of course, if there's anything to be found at Poseidon they'll be able to obtain that warrant eventually. But in the meantime, the Shadow can investigate in peace...

Wu has posed:
    There is a long, dangerous pause. Alice's hand, in her left vest pocket, almost convulsively tears out, a slip of paper in her hand. Her eyes track down to it, narrowing in annoyance. Shaking her head she crumples it in frustration and tosses it into the wastepaper basket.
    Two deep breaths.
    "Honestly," she finally says, her voice calm, but that eerie "eye of the hurricane" calm. "I have no idea why they sent me here to do this. I'm the one you send when you want blood. I apologize for wasting your time. I think it better I get someone else's blood over this. You're doing what's best for you and yours obviously."

Shadow has posed:
    ... Very interesting. Natasha doesn't look at what almost certainly isn't "just" a wad of crumpled up paper for longer than it takes Alice to throw it away, then turns back to the Detective. "Quite so, Detective" she replies, pressing a button on her intercom. "Saskia will see you to the elevator, to ensure you don't 'accidentally' get lost a second time. I'm sure you can find your own way out from the ground floor?"

     Once the Detective has been led out of the office, she leans back in her chair, regarding the waste bin for a moment before hitting the intercom again. "I want all files on Poseidon Shipping in my inbox by this afternoon... Oh, and send for the janitor."