8145/Sentinels: Understanding

Sentinels: Understanding
Date of Scene:	02 July 2019
Location:	Unknown
Synopsis:	Phil Coulson gets a briefing about Sebastion from Frank Quaid.
Cast of Characters:	Frank Quaid, Phil Coulson
Tinyplot:	Sentinels

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Frank Quaid has posed:
The NYPD Counterterrorism Bureau building at One Police Plaza is still under high alert. Every door has tactical response officers on guard. Identification is being double-checked before employees are even allowed to scan-in at access doors. A tactical response van is parked across the entrance into the underground parking.

Phil is expected. The officers at the door check his identification against a list of scheduled guests and allow him in. His identification is checked again by the reception staff behind the bulletproof glass in the lobby. He asked to wait while the receptionist calls up to Quaid's office.

A side door opens and a tall woman in her middle 40's walks into the room. She is conservatively dressed in a dark pant suit and her hair is kept up. The receptionist points out Phil and she strides over to offer a hand. "Detective-Sergeant Elaina Bever," she introduces herself with a smile that almost reaches her eyes. She is wary. "Special Crimes Unit Major Investigations. It's a pleasure to meet you, sir. Captain Quaid is upstairs."

She talks vaguely about how busy things are with their special guest as they ride the elevator up to the Special Crimes Unit floor. The floor is mostly open with some offices and boardrooms in a ring around the center. There is a sea of five foot high cubicles and the room buzzes with people talking, shouting, laughing and just getting on with their day. A few people nod to Elaina as she walks down the row offices, but give the stranger only carefully neutral looks.

Elaina knocks at Frank's office and lets herself in, holding the door for Phil.

"Frank, Agent Coulson is here," she says.

The office is spacious. There is a big desk for Frank by one wall on the left. The door is set in a wall of floor to ceiling windows with blinds that are drawn for now. There is a side table with a coffee maker, and small table with four chairs. One wall is covered in signed pictures of Frank posing with various superheroes over the years. Another is covered with service pictures of officers who died while serving under him.

Frank, middle-aged, in a dark blue suit with a bandage across his nose and two yellowing black eyes, gets up from his desk. He walks over with the help of a cheap-looking cane.

"Frank Quaid," he greets Phil and offers his hand. "Thanks for coming all the way down here. Coffee?"

Phil Coulson has posed:
The first thing to become obvious when Phil arrives is how the man looks like he's near retirement age... and yet he shows no signs of slowing down.

The second thing that comes to mind as he converses with the various people as he gets through the heightened security is just how gosh darned 'likeable' he is. He has a fatherly charisma to him that shows as his smile reaches his crows feet.

By the time Elaina has opened the door for him to Quaids office, Agent Coulson gives her a polite nod and a smile as he steps in... and his eyes are immediately glancing over the wall of poses, and of the fallen. He stops, his ID card being replaced in his black tie suit pocket briefly as he examines them for a few seconds, before he steps over to Frank as he makes his way over... and shakes it firmly, but gently. "Phil Coulson. A pleasure." He looks to the coffee, and waves it off with a casually dismissive wave, "I don't partake while I'm on the job, but thank you."

Frank Quaid has posed:
"Hope you don't mind if I do," Frank says. He gestures to one of the chairs at the table, fetches his mug from his desk and takes a seat back at the table.

"Sir, I wish I could stay, but we've got a few things on the go," Elaina apologizes to Phil. She nods to both of the men and then closes the door after she leaves.

"Hands down, the best I've served with," Frank says of Elaina. He takes a sip of his coffee. "What can I do for you, Agent Coulson? I was surprised to hear you were coming by."

Phil Coulson has posed:
"I've been given a mandate by my superiors to take a look at what you have here, Captain. We at SHIELD have only recently become aware of the Sebastian entity, and I was hoping you'd be so kind as to allow me to talk to you about the matter." Phil moves to sit, his arms crossing casually as he watches Frank, "from the little I've read, it already sounds like the situation is extremely delicate to me."

He smirks, "As you can imagine, the word 'cyborg' is not something that we see used often, even with that LexCorp disaster recently."

Frank Quaid has posed:
"No. We've seen a couple before, but nothing like this," Frank replies. "What we've got is something called Project One from a Trask Industries site in Russia. It was created by a Dr. Octavius, though it dealt mostly with a Dr. Wendy Walker. It claims it does not know why it was built, has no memories from before it woke up in the Russian facility and does not know if there others like it."

"Apparently there were problems with scans or results in Russia and Project One was transferred to the US. The Avengers intercepted it and had it at a facility of theirs. I'm not clear on the details, but Project One was seriously damaged escaping from the Avengers. It surfaced for a meet with an Avenger trying to trade information about The Vision, who sounds like he might be injured, for parts he needed. He claimed he can control Sentinels and that the recent incidents were his fault, some of his Sentinels got out of control."

"By the time I met him, he had already scavenged body parts from a corpse he says a Sentinel killed. He also used a Sentinel to shoot Trask as a warning to stop chasing him. I put him in a safehouse and alerted the Avengers and SHIELD."

"Nobody moved on him for three days and I wasn't going to risk Project One getting ideas of its own. I sent a tactical team and we brought him here."

Phil Coulson has posed:
"Doctor Octavius... I vaguely remember that name. He's a scientist of some specialty I believe. I'll have to look up the report later." Phil purses his lips as he thinks, "Sounds like a rather large mess... but given he hasn't tried to leave here, there might be some sort of cooperation that could come of this."

Phil brings up a tablet from inside his suit jacket, before his eyes go back to Frank. "What's your read on him? Do you think he's human at his core? Have you managed to do any scans of your own?"

Frank Quaid has posed:
"We're a police department, we don't have the kind of technology for handling cyborgs. When we took in a few last year and a month ago, we had to call in outside help. I wasn't bringing anyone else in on this though. Trask hacking and controlling military tech against US interests is not a local counter-terror op."

Frank shifts in his chair and drinks from his mug. "I don't think he's human. I think he might have been, but he said the Avengers discovered he isn't. But Trask's people expected he was like a human; Dr. Walker was a psychologist apparently," Frank says and thinks a minute.

"He is not a normal interview subject. He responds badly to disrespect or being rude. He shows anger. He is not happy about his situation, knows he is dying and wants to live. Appeals to morals were not effective, but shows remorse about salvaging human body parts. He hides doing inhuman things like data transfers to thumbdrives. Do not suggest or act like he is less than human unless you are trying to provoke him. He is stoic, focused. But, and this is a big but, completely commited to his cause. One hundred percent. He senses evil and is determined to 'protect' humans from it. He can bide his time and be tactical, but his commitment to cause is complete. It feels like you are making progress in interview, but anything other than letting him get out and do his mission is a brick wall. He will answer questions, though. Direct questions. He doesn't infer meaning or respond to leading questions," Frank lays out, one veteran interviewer to another.

Phil Coulson has posed:
"If he's mentally controlling Sentinels, there's either a computer interface connected in the brain, or we're dealing with an actual Sentinel of highly advanced design. Both implications are not pretty." Phil muses... before he brings up the tablet and swipes... then types for a moment...

"What does he consider 'evil'? If he's given you the impression morality is not applicable in his worldview... his motives sound like they're 'based' on human philosophy, but he twists them into his own narrative. Sound about right?" He looks back to Quaid, "I just put in a note for the case to have a scanner brought into the complex, with your permission. I'd like to see what we're dealing with before we do any transfers. Transferring him to a facility with more complex technology could be his endgoal."

Frank Quaid has posed:
"Whatever you need, Agent Coulson. We just want him gone at this point. Careful with him though," Frank cautions. "Even though he's damaged he's strong, and he mentioned weapons in his arms. And now that you mention it, he did say he was /like/ a Sentinel, but not one. For what it's worth."

Frank waits while Phil makes some notes. "It isn't that he doesn't have morals, it's that appeals to morals don't work. He can't be moved off his track with appeals to morals. As for evil, it's mutants. From what we've put together correlating what he said and the behaviour from his Sentinels, he means x-gene mutants specifically. Metahumans are not a problem for him, apparently. He will have no compunction about killing mutants, though. When he says evil, he really means it. To him, it's like fighting real-life demons."

Phil Coulson has posed:
"People with naturally occurring superhuman abilities are growing exponentially. Metahuman populations aren't even remotely holding a candle to their growth rate." Phil reasons out, "so it stands to reason that these Sentinels are someones means of curbing that growth."

There's a moment of pause as Phil frowns, visibly thinking, "None of this makes sense unless Trask has a grudge against mutants. Something to look into." Phil concludes, before he nods to Frank, "I apologize for rushing this meeting, but it's clear that we need to examine Sebastian in more detail so we can be certain where we should bring him."

Phil stands, then, and gives a nod to Frank, "do you think it'd be easier for all involved if I come into his room with you? Or should I go in alone?"

Frank Quaid has posed:
"No apologies needed, we've all got a lot to do," Frank says. He rises when Phil does.

"I think it would be better if I came with you. He's been compliant, but he's worried you're going to take him apart like a lab animal. Hopefully we can smooth that transition. My two cents on the transfer though? Just don't give him any open air for transmissions. He talked about bringing Sentinels here and I had to threaten him with the National Guard and getting shot. Never know when he'll turn."

Frank holds out a hand to Phil. "I think you and I can get things done."