Posted by Civilian Alston ‘Fox’ Mace (Colonial Intelligence Agency Asset) in Governement Tower - Lt Governors Office - Chasing a lead (TMODJ)

Posted by Civilian Cort Belanger (Executive Assistant to Lt. Gov.) in Governement Tower - Lt Governors Office - Chasing a lead (TMODJ)

Posted by Civilian Alston ‘Fox’ Mace (Colonial Intelligence Agency Asset) in Governement Tower - Lt Governors Office - Chasing a lead (TMODJ)
Posted by… suppressed (4) by the Post Ghost! 👻

(snip)

Alston just watched Cort and Dorma as he was talking. “I will be stopping by the CCDA later today. The bug in question was handed over to us by the Police, in an attempt to see if we could better track down what information may or may not have been transmitted. Add in the Vren visiting, and there are some concerns about the external security of colony. Hence while I’m here, while the analysts work their magic on the bug itself.

“I was hoping you could tell me a bit more about what kind of items are typically in these deliveries, and how that process would normally work?”

• Mace

Dorma’s comm chirped with an incoming call and she would note it was prefaced by one of the new codes they were testing out. This one indicated it was from Eela Dasca and that it was marked as highly confidential and necessitated Fen take it in private.

~Eela Dasca, Lt. Gov.

Fen stood and said “If you will excuse me, I must take this call. Please, do continue. I will catch up when I return.”

Dorma Fen, Governor’s Aid

Mace nodded towards Dorma as he made a mental note. With everything a a stand still for the moment, he wondered what exactly would be pulling her away.

Cort watched Dorma leave and then focused on Mace again, shrugging. “I’m not involved with any of that unless she specifically asks me to order anything for her, but generally anything going to her home is personal. Everything related to her job comes here, with a few exceptions if what she requested was for her home office, but that’s not been the case lately. I do know that she has been ordering quite a few things in advance of the Batarael festivities. It’s an important Haliian holiday that is coming up in a couple weeks and her and her visiting daughter are hosting a large dinner on the first day. The last oder she placed I wasn’t involved in, but she had mentioned it related to some of the private rituals. Unless she offers information or invites questions, I tend to respect her privacy in these matters.”

~Cort Belanger

“I understand, but let me rephrase my question. It is my understanding that items headed for her home are grouped together to clear customs, and to make a single delivery. Instead of being delivered individually, is this correct?”

• Mace

Cort shrugged. “Not necessarily. It depends on what it is. In this case, there were several items all arriving within a couple days of each other and since none of them were needed urgently, so someone, probably her, suggested that they wait till they were all there and send it as one given most items were useless without the others.”

He frowned slightly. “How serious is this bug issue, Director? Given other events currently going on it does seem… rather coincidental, does it not?” Were the bug and Jones’ death connected? It didn’t seem like it, but something about it all just struck Cort oddly.

From the other side of the table, Lieutenant Watts. “But who would even bother trying? Like, sure, she’s still new around here, but after the incident with her ex, security around Captain Dasca is pretty tight. You either have to be pretty confident about your odds or incredibly stupid to attempt it.”

Cort Belanger, Executive Assistant to Lt. Gov.

“Bugging of the Lieutenant Governor’s personnel residence is always a serious issue. Add in the other current events, well that is why I’m the one here asking the questions right now. While I can’t rule out it all being a coincidence, history has shown me that chances are very low.

“As for the security around the Captain, apparently there is still at least one hole in it. That’s what I’m trying to find right now, hence the questions.”

Alston leaned forward in his chair and placed his arms on the table. “I’m trying to figure out how between one controlled area, customs, and another controlled area, her personnel residence, that someone was able to get close enough to plant a bug on the container. Because while it was a bug today, it might not be a bug that’s planted next time.”

Cort didn’t need to be told this. Not only had this already occurred to him, he had been present when a similar situation had occurred back in his relief days. He was careful not to let this disturbing memory grace his face though.

He paused for a second before sitting back in his chair. “So, are you able to help me figure it out? Right now I’m trying to figure out where the items were gathered, and how they were transported to her house.”

• Mace

“I mean, everything is screened again when it reaches her building. Nothing goes upstairs that isn’t cleared. Obviously there will be more thorough checks now that her details knows where the weak points in the system are. But I don’t think the delivery point is where you need to be looking. If anything, in this particular case, you should be looking at who packaged everything together, or who laid hands on it between customs and her building. While there are many goods that come through Oed customs, hers would be priority marked and removed from the general process, yes?” Cort leaned back frowning. “Where exactly was the bug hidden? “

Cort Belanger, Executive Assistant to Lt. Gov.

“And that is why I started here. I figured that you would be the best person to start with in trying to gather that information, being the most familiar with the procedures around the Lieutenant Governor.” Now that it seemed Alston had finally gotten through to the right track, a bit of flattery never hurt to help keep the person in a helpful mood.

Cort did not react though and simply listened.

“The bug was adhered to the outside of the container. I’m guessing that the suspect knew the bug was going to be discovered, so instead of spending more time in trying to hide the bug, but increasing their chances of getting caught in the act, that they went for the faster placement to lower their risks. It could also have been a test of how the Governor’s security, but we are operating under the idea that they were trying to gather some sort of intelligence.

“Who was charged with packaging it together? Was it an outside contractor? And who is charged with transporting the materials to her residence? And did this particular shipment go via transporter, or was it moved via, say a slider?”

• Mace

Belanger held up a finger and turned back to his workstation and began to pull up records. He skimmed a few things before pulling up others. “Okay, as best I can tell the items all arrived through customs from Halii on three different dates. They were held in customs for initial inspection and cleared, but held in secure storage until the last shipment came in. Then they were packaged together in the crate by someone at Customs and then given to a delivery service the government uses.” He looked up at Mace. “They’re vetted as far as I know. Then the crate was delivered to her building where it was screened by the security officer on duty and sent up to her.” Cort shrugged. “Pretty standard procedure and there are multiple screening points.”

Cort Belanger, Executive Assistant to Lt. Gov.