Questions and codes

Victor sat upon one of the many seats within the library of Oakland, nearby to the Caldecott tunnel, yet far away enough where he could no longer feel the strong grip of the others. He was expecting Athena to join in, he had given her the address the day before at the festivals, so she could appear, or she could not. At his present moment, Athena was not the main item on his train of thought, a sequence of code was that he had managed to pick up through the use of a police scanner and a laptop, although the code was seeming to be harder than it was. A double coding, he suspected. It was laid out in front of him, written on a paper while he looked it over, time and time again attempting to solve it but nothing made sense! He had even gone through his deciding systems via phone, but they couldn't handle the complexity to this code.

20 1 12 22 1 102 01 - 222 21 10 020 210 - 01 20 11 12 - 10 221 10 100 10 102 - 11 20 221 221 10 11 120 - 02 1 11 12 1 110 10 - 1 120 - 122 21 01 102 21 110 010 120 - 01 21 210 02 102 210 10 - 02 1 000 221 20 1 01 - 02 1 120 120 10 020 102 - 1 22 02 010 1

A series of 0,1, and 2 that formed a particular pattern, each dash being the equivalent to a space and separating the words from one another. First word: 7 letters Second word: 4 Third: 4 Fourth: 6 Fifth: 6 Sixth: 7 Seventh: 2 Eighth: 8 Ninth: 9 Tenth: 7 Eleventh: 7 Twelfth: 5

With a sigh he flipped the paper so he couldn't see what was written and pressed his fingers together, tapping them against his lips in thought. It was a local code, obviously or he wouldn't have been able to pick it up via scanner. The scanner itself had a 20 mile ranger, and from the location where he picked it up...the possible places it could be originated from would be:

Piedmont
Alameda
Berkeley
Albany
Orinda
Moraga
San Francisco
San Leandro
Richmond
Tiburon
Lafayette
Ashland
San Pablo
San Larenzo
El Sobrante.

Now, seeing that this was obviously a sophisticated gang code, or large criminal group that would easily cross off some of the names on the board. Factoring in the time recorded, the signal strength and the unique complexity, which obviously would be hard to send unless there was special equipment in both ends...victor narrowed the list down to a few large cities.

Piedmont
Berkeley
Oakland
Richmond
San Francisco.

Factoring in gang terf and such, victor knew it could have a high probability of being by the docks of Oakland, one of the worlds largest cargo docks, but also in one of the biggest criminal areas of the large Californian bay. The code itself wasn't enough though that victor was involved in this, no he had a deeper connection to these seemingly random numbers, and not one he would let off about. He was dressed casually enough: Deep blue jeans, not his usual trousers with a white shirt, covered by a black button up shirt, but it wasn't buttoned, acting more like a jacket than a shirt as he passed his hands through his blonde hair continuing to work when he noticed a change and turned, seeing Athena. "Hello, I see you've found the library alright?"

Athena stared up at the grand entrance of the library, admiring the white brick covered with stains of all sorts of colors and the tall grass hiding crushed beer bottles and cigarettes. It was beautiful, if you didn't look to closely. Well, to be perfectly honest, to most people it would be the ugliest thing they'd ever seen, but to Athena, it was it's absolute absurd imperfect looks that made it so marvelous. Okay, that, or the fact that it was the first library she'd actually experienced in, like, two years.

She took an anxious look at the paper she had written the address on. She wouldn't be surprised, had she gotten lost. Her sense of direction was the equivalent of that of a goldfish. She had, remarkably, made it on only her...third try! Wow!

She skipped up the steps, her leather skirt flouncing with her as her legs moved. She hadn't attempted to dress up too much. She had accented the skirt with a faded gray Hogwarts Alumni cropped sweatshirt. Her converses slapped against the pavement as her pearl necklace bounced against her neck.

As she opened the door, she was taken aback with the familiar smell. No matter where you went, all libraries seemed to smell like...well, libraries. Freshly printed pages, old worn paper, leather and air freshener all seemed to mix to create something along the lines of perfection. Athena took a deep breath in, before stepping onto the stained burgundy carpet and closing the door behind her with a soft thud.

She wandered around for a while, telling herself she was looking for Victor. In all honesty, though, she was stepping through the shelves like a lunatic, brushing her fingers against the spines as she passed, scanning under the names of her favorite authors.

After a while, she managed to stumble across a familiar face. It took her a few seconds to realize that it was Victor, the person she was--ahem--looking for.

"Oh," She said, not having to try hard to twist her lips into an easy smile. "Hey. Yeah, I guess I did," She responded, shrugging a bit towards the end.

Victor chuckled and sniffed before turning to face her "as I thought. For a moment the alcohol smell on you I associated with the festival where we met but I can see now you do drink on the side: beer I'm guessing, as its easy for someone like you to get your hands on. Also, your clothing....it smells of smoke, cigarettes, not cigars and if you do smoke you use the cheaper brands, camel, Marlboro....hmmm Marlboro perhaps, it's more wide spread. Also that would explain the bulge in one pocket, a lighter I'm suggesting. The other one is...phone? Some electronic." He grinned and pulled the seat besides him out "a Harry potter fan, obvious by your sweatshirt....and nice leather. I won't comment on that now, it wouldn't be right" he grinned and looked back at his paper.

"I'm guessing you had a good time coming down here? It's not hard to find the library, and the people are certainly helpful, more than some of the other cities in the bay" he sighed, hating the gangs and arson and all the crime but at the same time he enjoyed to solve these mysteries....he had a large one on his mind right now, but he would save that until he knew she was ready to accompany him.

"I'm trying to decode this at the moment, a radio broadcast I intercepted. I have the location narrowed down, and I think I know some places to search, but this code is at least a double binary one...hard to crack. Not impossible"

Athena bit her tongue, holding back her attitude for the moment. "Depends on what you mean by good time," She stated, smiling and sitting in one of the chairs beside him. "If you mean enjoying the sites, it was nice. I have a terrible sense of direction, so I ended up on a tour of the city. Now, if you mean to imply that I've been drinking or whatever, then no. In fact, I've been clean for over six months. And its not easy, considering I've done a lot heavier smokes a few cigarettes," She said, not letting her smile disappear through her whole statement, though in her head she was reciting through different smart-aleck comments. Couldn't smell that on me, hm?

She let his comments slide as he mentioned the code. "Binary, huh? Probably won't be able to help you out with that. I'm afraid I'm better with hands-on action. Always been that way, actually. Someone else has always been the brains, and I, naturally, have been the beauty." She reflected with a large amount of curiosity as to why that was. It wasn't that she wasn't smart. I mean, she probably wasn't the smartest person alive, but she did enjoy considering herself slightly above-average.

Maybe it was just that her communication and persuasion skills were far superior than most people's, and she'd been told by many that her looks were quite distracting. Not that she noticed, of course. According to her, she looked like every other teen latina girl out there.

"So, any idea what it could be related to? The code, I mean," She asked, snapping back into the conversation after realizing she'd been staring into space.

Victor chuckled at her, shaking his head slowly as the code popped into his head and he deciphered it within seconds. "Yes. Oakland piers, dock....eleven. Midnight. A package is being picked up" He told her, as if ignoring her remarks and replies to his statements, although he wasn't: they just weren't important at the moment. Looking to his list of cities he circled Oakland, and crossed out all but Richmond. "My guess from this is gang work, but pier eleven is for international...." He paused and a lightbulb went off in his head. A cracked lightbulb. With broken glass.

"I think I've got the start if the solution of a mystery I've been wondering about for a long time..." He smirked and looked at her. "If you claim to be the beauty of a pair...I won't argue about your looks, you surely do look pretty, but by the definition we both mean I could use your help...,how's your driving skills?" He chuckled and then tapped a paper he had gotten from one of his sources and folded it, but not before allowing her to see her own mugshot. "I did some research on you to be honest, I have been ever since the festival and you've interested me. If you want, you can come with me to the piers, I may in fact need your assistance if my hunch is right...." He smiled slightly and switched his laptop screen to a giant pegboard software, with everything from illegal nuclear testing to Girl Scouts were included inside his web of conspiracy.

Athena glared at her younger self in the mugshot. Gods, she hated that picture. Her face had still been covered in the remnants of ash, interrupted only by tear streaks. Cuts lay on the portion of her arms, and her gaze was more towards the floor than at the camera. The oddest thing, though, was the fact that she'd spent about three hours running her fingers through her hair before that picture. As a result, the black mass that should have been matted tangles was smooth, though slightly frizzy, and slowing down her shoulders. Athena had always felt that there was some hidden metaphor in all of this, but she hadn't really spent enough time thinking about it figure it out.

Athena pulled the lighter out of her pocket and began twirling it as she debated her next words. She met the eyes of a librarian, who, at the site of the lighter, began her stride over. She stopped, however, when she saw the young latina begin a very convincing act of tipping mints out of the container. The librarian, who was certainly as blind as a bat, gave her an apologetic smile and returned to the desk.

"Well, you need my assistance. Fine. However, I do have some conditions. Nothing personal. Its just that, as you can probably tell, I've been cheated before," She stated, tilting her head slightly towards the now-folded mugshot. "If I agree, we work as equals. That means that everything you know about the situation, I know. And vice-versa. Secondly, if you ever find me to be drunk, or high, or whatever the hell I could be, you will leave me alone. I mean, its not likely, but I'm not taking any chances," She stated, making sure to keep eye contact whenever possible. That might be one of the few good things she got from her days with the Boys. She learned how to hold control, power, and attention. "Finally, I reserve the right to back out at any time if I see fit. I'm not going to do it without a good reason, but I learned a while ago to always have a way out."

She quirked up on eyebrow, placing a hand out in front of her. "So, do we have a deal?" She asked, sliding the lighter back into her pocket.

Victor chuckled and looked her over, and not in some sort of perverted way, in a way to learn from her body language what she was truly thinking. With both the visual language of her body and the auditory knowledge of her words he began to consider the hundreds of possible scenarios that could branch off from this one event. After a moment of tapping his chin he looked her directly in the eyes with his blue ones.

"One thing on my side. Once you start a case, you'll continue it. I've had a fair share of people who have done everything before the case, getting tickets and info, but once the violence comes they back out. And I'll tell you all that goes along to the current case. If you earn my complete trust we can go deeper into my subconscious and maybe you can learn my other secrets about how all of this connects to each other" he chuckled and set his hand out too "deal?" He asked as his eyes met hers evenly, showing barely anything other than truth in his expression.

Athena couldn't help smirking as she reached out and took his hand. "I do believe we have a deal," she stated as she let go. "So, where to next?" She asked as she pushed back from the table. In the process, she managed to make eye contract with the librarian again She smiled kindly at the lady, who smiled back as if she had just gained hope in this generation.

"I mean, we still have to meet Gracie at the mall, and you know how she gets when we keep her waiting. Besides, I hear there's this whole two hour sale going on, and it started, like, two minutes ago." She semi-whidpered as she realized the old coot was now intently focussed on their conversation. To be honest, Athena didn't blame her. Must be pretty boring, sitting around behind a desk all day

Still, Athena couldn't imagine Victor would want to talk under the close surveillience of a seventy year old blind lady. So, she smiled, smacked her lips, and.played the part, as usual

Ooc: on my phone ATM but i used Swype so it shouldn't be too bad.

Victor smiled, noticing the play instantly. It was a good move, but needed backing. "I know, your BFF does have her issues" he smiled and linked his arm in hers, playing the part as a romantic couple. "I have the directions to the golden gate observation too" he told her, gesturing to cover up the true uses of his many map books he had been looking through. "So after you and Gracie shop we can go on that date" he grinned, and walked her pass the old woman, keeping his laptop under his arm and the piece of paper he disposed of in the trash-not like any normal person would be able to learn anything from the random words and numbers.

He walked with her outside of the library and looked around "taxi or car?" He asked simply as he kept his arm linked with hers, they drew less looks that way, to remain within the crowd as if they were normal, and not crazy Romans.

OOC: it's fine! Love this rp!

"A taxi would be nice," She stated, before pulling her arm away for a second and waved as one passed, nearly jumping in its path doing so. The cab screeched to the side of the road, and the driver, a young hispanic lad who looked extremely annoyed (Until he saw the shortness of Athena's mini-skirt, that is), stepped out and opened the door for them, giving the girl a smile as he did so.

"Gracias," She said, giving the driver a small peck on the cheek before slipping into the back. The poor guy looked slightly confused,  but he just closed the door and slid back into his seat. Athena removed her wallet from her pocket and handed it over to Victor. To be honest, she didn't want to be bothered with having to pay.

As soon as the driver inquired where they were going, Athena turned towards the window and let the conversation go on without her. As they passed through the streets, she noticed people slipping money and packets of white powder into each other's hands, kids smoking joints on the edges of brick walls, and teens drinking out of brown bottles. All of these were happening in broad daylight, and no one really seemed to care.

Athena leaned back in the seat and reached for her pack of cigarettes, which she kept in the side of her shoe. At the sight of having only one left, she multiplied it quickly and pulled out one of the resulting two rolls. She saw the driver's awkward-ish glare in the rearview window and looked away, twirling the thin stick of death between her fingers.

"Its not lit," She stated, not needing her eyes to communicate her glare. She could sense his eyes diverting back to the road, and looked back up.

Victor watched her, and everything that was going on as he let out a disappointing sigh. This reminded him too much of his home of St. Louis, all this crime, corruption...at least he had a 'friend' on his side. He had directed the taxi driver to the Oakland piers and they arrived a quarter before ten, but the shipment was at midnight. That meant they had two hours and fifteen minutes before the moment arrived: plenty of time for scouting and talking over a plan. He heard the taxi stop and looked up from his hands, which were currently in his new....partners wallet. He paid the cash to him and told him to high tail it out of the docks, leaving athena and victor alone in the dark shipyard.

"Right." Victor stated and looked around, tapping his belt buckle which his his special disguise equipment, but he couldn't risk showing her yet, he couldn't trust her completely. Yet. "We have roughly two hours until the supposed meeting happens. That means we can talk, smoke, scout, whatever. Your an equal, you have a fair right to say what we should do" he told her, although didn't look at her as he was walking around, checking around barrels and crates, carefully looking at what he could possibly find. This was also a silent test for her, to see just what she was like in this scenario, if she could possibly make it as far as he wants her too.

Athena lit the cigarette as soon as she was out of the vehicle, holding it between her teeth as she let her muscles submit to some of her previous habits, mainly those having to do with scouting-out surveillance cameras and areas to hide.

She was standing on a few rotten barrels, searching the walls for cameras, when she noticed that one of the barrels was slightly opened. She stepped down as silently as possible, and slowly removed the lid.

Inside were three guns; A Colt .45, a Tech-9, and a 20mm pistol. Really? A pistol? Do gangs even use that crap anymore? Obviously, some small rebels or whatever had found a good place to hide their cargo. Which meant, seeing how the guns weren't currently loaded, that the ammo was somewhere nearby.

She flipped the tops off the other barrels, and, after finding nothing, stood with her hands on her hips. Where could it be? After a few more minutes, she noticed a loose brick on the side of the wall, and hastily bent down, removing it and placing it to the side.

Jackpot. Inside the wall was a hollowed-out area, filled with about three rounds of ammo. She removed the ammo and the guns (leaving the pistol, of course), and went back around to find Victor.

"Looks like someone doesn't know how to hide their weapons. You know how to shoot?" She asked, offering him the Colt as she slid the Tech-9 into the waistband of her skirt.

Victor accepted the colt and checked the magazine before sliding it into the weapon and cocking it with a satisfying click "I can shoot that cigarette from your lips. Of course I can" he slipped the gun into his pocket and looked around, noticing the ropes along the docks of the eleventh platform. Obviously sloppily done, someone did them in a hurry to either get in quick or out quick, more than likely both if its illegal activity.

"You find any cameras?" He asked as he knelt in front of a power box, opening the case and withdrawing his knife from his pocket, slipping it into the wires and cutting a few, plunging the area into total darkness. Now that it was dark, he needed to get her away from him at midnight so he could do his thing...unfortunately it may prove harder than he knew "I'll monitor the cargo over there, you work here?"

"All the cameras have already been busted out by someone else," She answered, scowling as she spit out the cigarette and stamped it out.

"Aren't trying to get rid of me already, are you?" She asked, loading her gun and taking up a steady position leaning against the wall. "You know, you could be more specific with instructions. Athena, guard me while I go over here. Athena, make sure no one blows me up while I'm decoding things. Athena, stay here and try not to screw anything up. Any of those would do," She stated, her voice heavy with sarcasm. She knew that she wasn't going to get brushed off and dragged around, and she definitely wasn't going to take orders without a bit of resistance.

She motioned for him to go ahead and go, that she'd stay there and take care of it. She checked her watch quickly. 11:27. Well, might as well do something useful.

Rule number one: Never wear a skirt when doing a job. Now, somewhere around here, there was bound to be a change of clothes. Most of the time, kids would hide something to quickly change into in case they were ever being chased, and, based on the guns, this was a good place for hiding things.

After scouting out a pair of cargo pants and a white, wrinkly tee, she changed with much alacrity, before hastily shocing her old clothes into the tiny torn-up duffle bag she'd found the clothes in.

Around her was what looked like a vast sea of boxes. Well, more like just boxes. There weren't necessarily that many. Anyway, Athena, being the insanely ADD person she is, decided to take a few minutes to look through them.

Victor smirked "we can settle our differences later" he smirked and went off into the direction he said he would, but once he was out of sight he squeezed his belt buckle and pulled out a ball of a latex like fabric. Pressing it over his face he had the appearance of not having any facial features, similar to slenderman. After the latex substance was applied he pressed a switch within the buckle compartment and a special gas fumed out, bonding the mask to his face, and because of chemicals within his clothing and shampoo, his hair became a dark brown instead of his natural blond, and his clothing shade darkened. He was...the question. Placing a fedora over his head he crept back towards Athena, but by now a large oriental container vessel was pulling into the dock.

He climbed up one of the nearby cargo cranes and swung onto the ship, hiding behind a crate as the large vessel stopped and three men climbed off of it, waiting. When the clock struck midnight, a large gang came up from the city side and the two groups began talking. Thing was, victor could tell that the ones from the boat...we're monsters.

Athena's head snapped up at the sound of footsteps, and the sight of a large vessel creeping into the docks. Without many logically good places to hide and aim, she hid behind a thin stack of boxes against the wall, before cocking her gun and leaning past the corner. Long strings of Spanish curses flew from her mouth, along with a bit of French and English, though she doubted it could be heard by whoever the hell this was.

to Athena's right, a small group of semi-sophisticated thugs strided towards the boat, where a group of...wait, were those monsters?...were unloading. She quickly ducked closer to the wall, hoping to escape their view, and kept her gun aimed on them. After all, the bullets wouldn't be able to do any damage to the monsters.

Then there was that silhouette of someone swinging onto the ship. From what she'd seen, it'd come from where Victor had just been standing, but it couldn't've been him. For one second, there had been a small ray of light shining onto the figure, and...well, it had been startling, to say the least.

Well, crap. Now what was she supposed to do? The thugs passed her without seeming to notice, and she began processing the situation.

Victor could see her position easily from his hiding spot and knew she could have a rash tendency and make a bad move. Cursing slightly he reversed the gas process, his clothing and hair returning to normal as he balled up the mask and tucked it back to his compartment. Once done, he made a wide loop to come up behind her, to lower her suspicions.

"Athena!" He whispered as he kneeled besides her "it's ancient roman artifacts. Museum pieces, the gang is giving them to the monsters for some reason. We need to get on the ship, but not blow our cover" he told her, looking her the barrels they were behind to see the disguised beasts handing a briefcase to the gang, who in return handed them golden laurels...a very rare artifact of Rome.

"We can both sneak along one flank, the anchor lines are large enough where we can climb up and into the hold. From there we can investigate and report this to reyna" he of course had no reason to report to reyna. She wouldn't believe him because of his crazy conspiracy theory's.

At the sound of a voice behind her, she turned on her toes and aimed, ready to shoot. When she realized it was Victor, though, she leveled the gun back down towards her side. "Oh, gods! I swear, if you ever do that again, I won't hesitate to shoot you," She stated in a hushed tone, before checking on either side of them.

"Lead the way, then. We might want to hurry, though. Looks like they're finishing up the deal, and we want to get on and off before they leave," She replied, motioning for him to go ahead of her.

Gods, she would seriously kill for a beer right now.

She followed him past the boxes and crates, taking a moment to aim whenever she caught the movement of a shadow along the edges of her vision.

"So what exactly is the plan once we get on there? Just wait around and pray we don't get spotted? We can get the information, but there's no way we'll be able to do this without some fighting."

Victor sighed as he led her through the darkened docks and climbed up the heavy anchor chain, climbing into the cargo hold with all the containers. He looked at her and leaned agains a container "look. Violence is no answer, if needed yes, but right now it's peace. They don't know we are here and we can easily get to the bridge an...." He frowned and heard a clicking sound, the anchor being risen. Glancing around he noticed a rocking motion as well as propulsion and looked at her "we are going to sea" he instantly turned and shot the lock off the nearest container, the shell dropping to the floor.

"New plan. Make ourselves comfortable. It's a two day trip to Hawaii....if we even go to Hawaii. It's the nearest port so It should be on route." He looked around and found some newly made beds in the container, dozens of fresh mattresses. "These will work for sleep, the containers we can hide in...I have lock picks in my coat, so those will come in useful, as well as some other things. What do you have? Besides a loaded gun and a body that would be able to manipulate most men?

"Wait, what? We're stuck on here? We're stuck on a ship filled with monsters on our way to Hawaii?" She replied, almost forgetting to whisper in her frustation. "Oh , estoy jodido . Estamos jodidos . Nos vamos a morir y nadie sabrá nunca y ..." She muttered as she massaged her temples and paced, trying to find some way to control her temper at the moment. "Okay. I'm calm. It doesn't make any sense for me to be calm at the moment, but I am."

She quickly tied her hair back and began to go through the many pockets of the cargo pants. "Okay. A lighter, some extra ammo, and...holy crap," She stated as she removed twenty or so folded hundreds from one of the pockets, along with a bag of some powdered plant. Not trusting herself with the bag, she quickly tossed it towards Victor, before stashing the cash in her own wallet.

"Besides that, I've got a multi-blade, a scythe and a whip. Oh, yeah. And an impressive collection of fake IDs." She stated, quickly rubbing her ankle and hand, checking the make sure that her concealed weapons were still there.

She was just finishing up with sorting through her pockets when she found a single crushed packet of saltine crackers. She multipled it and offered Victor the identical bag.

Victor accepted what she gave him and went through it. "Toss me the collection of identification. I'm gonna work on a better cover than what you have" he chuckled and sat on one of the mattresses, looking through the things. Setting his laptop down he started it up, hacked the ships wifi and tried to get into their computer systems. As he sat there clicking the keys he couldn't help but feel her gaze on him. "While we are here and waiting for Hawaii..." He opened a new tab where he brought up her record, as well as all video surveillance video she would have been in and began to pan through it, searching for a pattern, personality, features in her walk and her expressions.

"We might as well get to know each others life. We are partners after all, and partners need a sense of trust" he explained and set his gun beside him. "After what happened a few moments ago....possibly half an hour, was not a good start to this case. Though I commend you on your quick thinking in the library"

Athena tossed him her wallet and fell back on one of the mattresses, sighing and placing her forehead in her hands. "I don't really have much to say that you don't already know," She stated, the scowl obvious in her voice. In all honesty, though, she was too tired to carry on and just gave in.

"I was born in Argentina to a poor father. He put me up for adoption when I was nine months old. Three months later, I was adopted by two Americans, both young and newly married. I grew up learning English, Spanish, and French, in hopes to keep me connected to as many cultures as possible. I was raised in Chicago, Illinois, and was constantly surrounded by crime. In 7th grade, I was pretty much the nerdiest girl in school. I had the glasses, the braces, and the pigtails, and kids saw me as a bloody piece of meat for each of them to pick on. I got bruises, cuts, hell, one time a kid actually pulled a knife on me. Then, I met the guys, and it all stopped.

"It felt like I'd finally found people who accepted me. Sure, they did drugs and smoked and other things, but they didn't seem to hate me as much as the other kids.

On my thirteenth birthday, we were hanging out outside a gas station, getting drunk and doing stupid things. One of the guys suggested we start a small fire, just to kind of freak everyone out. I objected, but everyone else was all for it. So we lit a small fire using my lighter. The fire grew quickly, though, and the boys ran when they heard police sirens. I stayed behind, helping make sure everyone got out safely. When the police arrived, I was the only one left at the scene. I was shipped off the the Illinois Correctional Facility for Juveniles. After four months, I ran, and I eventually found Lupa when I was fifteen.

"So, yeah, that's my screwed up life. What about yours?" She said, though she was certain it was no way as bad as hers. Probably some spoiled rich kid who was ungrateful for what he had.

Victor stopped tapping on his computer an pressed his fingers to his chin. "Chicago. I was born there, lived there for a few years. Father apparently died in a gang war: I suspect he was an actual member. My mother was said to have died in childbirth, but obviously now I know the difference" he glanced straight ahead, not looking at her or really anything. "I had bad times in Chicago, same as you but I was adopted by my step dad, moved to St. Louis. Lost my adopted sister in Iraq, found lupa, now I'm here. I guess in some ways we are the same..." He looked back at his computer and brought up his own file. Sure enough, he had a larger criminal record than her.

"Do you still go out reguarly into the world? Or are you always in camp, always protected?" He asked, looking at her, curious about her as an actual person besides his partner.

Athena's temper was already on the edge, and this game of 20 questions was pushing her over. "If you're implying that I'm scared, then I'm not. I have no reason to be. If the cops come, I'll just run again. Leave the state and go wherever I need to go. Beat some people up, then move on," She stated, though she knew she was lying through her teeth. She was scared to death of getting caught. She was scared of facing her past. She was scared of being such a constant disappointment.

"We aren't the same, you and I. We're worlds apart, and the only reason I ever agreed to this was for the sake of distraction," She said, her voice defeated and tired. She laid down on the bed and turned over, signaling the end of the conversation.

"I'm going to get some sleep. We're going to need our energy if we're ever going to get back."

Victor sighed and allowed her to sleep. It did allow him a reason to don his disguise and go to investigate, which he did. Making sure she was fast asleep he snuck away to place his mask on, add the bonding has and off he went, stepping out in the middle of the paths and halls as if he owned the place, tightening his coat over his shoulders.

Hours searching brought no results however and he sighed at the hint of defeat but refused too, making sure to check the captains quarters and finally the fruits of his labor actually paid off when he grabbed the agenda, but also two more coded messages which he quickly grabbed and rushed back towards the cargo hold where she was asleep. Changing back his identity to victor he set to work on altering the IDs, as we'll as beginning to crack the codes.