<div class="floatright">(http://i1133.photobucket.com/albums/m592/MistressofPen/Steph01.jpg)</div><strong>Character:</strong>Stephanie Kane<br/><strong>Location/Time:</strong>Penthouse, 63 Wall Street, New York/0940<br/><strong>Attire:</strong>Sweater, jeans, boots, leather jacket<br/><strong>Tagged:</strong>Oscar, All, Danika<br/><hr/><br/>Stephanie gave Oscar her hand and a quick shake.  She looked at him and wondered why she felt like she needed to move her bag to her other side.  But, she settled onto her seat, listening to the video and watching the reactions of those in the room.  Did anyone else feel like they were on a 70's TV show?  She could feel herself frown and the stubborn, mule-headed side of her started to raise up as the man talked about them performing miracles that very night.  What the fuck?  No self-respecting researcher was going to have his research in only one or even two locations; hell, she had three thumb drives, an external hard drive and the computer's hard drive just for her writing.  AND, when she was finished, she sent another drive via USPS to her own P.O. Box.  What about the other guys, the buyers?  If the buy was expected to go down tonight why not take down the buyers, too?  If it happened quietly enough, they could run the same scenario again and reel in a few more bad guys before word got out...<br/><br/>Making an effort to compose her expression, she slid her phone from her pocket and started to enter the target's name.  As the man on the screen wound down to the end where he gave his warnings about not getting caught and the nonexistence of the Odyssey Initiative, her eyes went to the screen, then moved from face to face.  Agents, hunh?  We're like the A-Team on a bad day, she thought.<br/><br/>She read about the professor on her phone as the man, David Ostreicher (wasn't that a small appliance company?) got to his feet and began doling out tasks.  She was smiling at her lap, where her phone revealed that the professor had had numerous jobs.  He'd published and won a few awards; those schools lasted as his employer a little longer.  And, then the duration got shorter.  He got braver, she mused, and pushed the limits.  A shame no one prosecuted him...  Ahhh.  A brief marriage...<br/><br/>Stephanie shifted as David continued speaking.... Alpha, Bravo, Charlie...  She glanced at David.  Ahh.  Military proper, she mused before looking down at her phone once more.  He worked through the group and came to her.  Help him with procurement?  Wait...did he just stick a target on her back?  She pressed her lips together, but nodded, and tapped in a new search.  She grinned as her search fell into what Mr. Ostreicher was asking of her.  She pulled up a bunch of nonsense about Odysseus and then tried the old trick of adding "THE..." and the search narrowed.<br/><br/>Stephanie reached in her bag and pulled out a small notebook and a pen and was writing down some names when Det. Temple stood and let David have it.  Stephanie could only watch in awe as the woman let loose.  And, then the man beside her, Valdez, spoke, attempting to calm the woman and point out that there was more than being a tour guide involved with the task at hand.  Yeah, like procurement assistant, she thought.<br/><br/>And, then the elegant woman spoke, voicing some of Stephanie's own thoughts.  Ironically, as Ms. Rose spoke, Stephanie started to come up with reasons to follow the instructions.<br/><br/>She sighed and finished a list of names, names she knew.  Names that didn't belong to real people.<br/><br/>"I totally agree with you, Ms. Rose.  Why not get the buyers, too?  And, maybe keep the professor, 'Alpha,' around a bit to lure others in.  More bang for the buck, as it were.  But, this initiative...it's deep.  Admittedly I've only done a cursory search, but there is a corporation that owns something called The Odyssey Initiative, Inc. and the members of that corporation are Carlos Manosso, C. Auguste Dupin, Nicholas Charles, and Albert Campion.  All literary characters.  All some sort of law enforcement."  She looked at the spinning infinity symbol on her phone and set it on the table.  She had a bad feeling that she might have turned her phone into a bit of masonry.  "Maybe someone could backtrack the money.  If we find out where the money was transferred from...  They always say to follow the money," she said, looking at the young woman who, from what David had said, she gathered was a computer specialist...black or white hat....who cared as long as she could get them a clue.  Stephanie hated secrets, too.<br/><br/>"And, to play Devli's advocate; Suppose this job is a test?  Suppose we go off the rails and run our own op and it works perfect, or not.  We didn't follow the protocols Mr. X delivered.  Will getting more baddies off the street be enough?  Do you think they would hesitate to end us?"  She shrugged and watched her home screen return to normal, with an added icon in the bottom right corner that looked suspiciously like a bug.  "Oh, fu---uudge," she said, rising to walk around the table, behaving as if there had not been any outbursts, to Ms. Quinn.  She slid the phone in front of the young woman.  "That just appeared," she said, indicating the "bug."  "Have you ever seen anything like that?"<br/><br/>