Room 317, Tuesday after classes

[notmyownage]

Other than a break for class -- and one to move to another room to make sure she didn't keep Quinn awake -- Claudia had spent all her time since seeing Stan off discovering just what, exactly, Stan had accidentally given her the password for at the Warehouse.

It wasn't much -- pretty much just surface level access to the database -- but it was a door, and once through it, Claudia managed to work her way in deeper, snagging current locations of "agents" (two, apparently, other than Artie, who apparently stuck pretty much to base-camp) and schematics for what proved to be an absolutely enormous electrical grid. The weird bit was, she couldn't track down the source for all that power. The Warehouse had a big enough drain to need its own private nuclear power plant, but it seemed to be almost entirely self-contained.

IRS paperwork warehouse, her ass.

A plan forming, she put out a few phone calls.

She was getting so close to getting her brother back, she could practically taste it.

[ooc: mostly establishy, but the room (and the phone) are totally open.]

Comments

[need-no-moon.livejournal.com]

"You have the strangest hobbies," Jake informed her as he knocked on the door frame.

[notmyownage]

"Gotta keep myself busy somehow. Or I might end up dismantling stoves like my apparent future kid."

[need-no-moon.livejournal.com]

"You had a kid show up?" Jake grinned, for an instant sidetracked from the whole kidnapping thing. What? A small version of Claudia would be adorable. Somehow he was imagining a girl, though. "Did she blow anything up?"

[notmyownage]

"Nah, he and Scully's kid managed to stop working on the stove before that happened."

[need-no-moon.livejournal.com]

"Dangerous combination," he teased and moved over to where she was sitting. "How did you like motherhood?"

[notmyownage]

"Mostly I'm just relieved to find out I apparently was not the worst mother ever for the kid."

[need-no-moon.livejournal.com]

Jake shook his head. "I don't see why you'd think that. I don't think you're inclined to abuse for starters."

Except that she'd called him to kidnap someone.

[notmyownage]

It wasn't kidnapping, they were just tracking a man down, finding him, and then convincing him to go with Claudia to get her brother back. Possibly using some small amount of force.

Okay, so maybe technically it was kidnapping.

"Yeah, I've also managed to underwater a cactus."

[need-no-moon.livejournal.com]

"I think the difference is that a cactus can't protest when you do something wrong," Jake pointed out as he sat down on the ground. "So, what's up?"

[notmyownage]

"Right. I've tracked down Artie. I know where he is, and I've got access to his security network so we can get in."

[need-no-moon.livejournal.com]

Jake raised an eyebrow and almost asked how she did that when he realised he'd probably not get the answer anyway. "You're sure he won't help if you just ask?"

[notmyownage]

"Right, 'cause the dude hiding in the middle of nowhere South Dakota, who lied to me and Joshua about who he was and what he was there for, and who basically talked Joshua into doing an experiment that would get him killed is going to just be all 'oh hey, I remember you, sure, let's go mess with stuff that I was probably there to steal.'"

Claudia couldn't quite make up her mind sometimes if she liked Artie or not. He'd been very nice to her, when she was ten, but he'd also been there, in suspicious circumstances, on the worst day of her life.

[need-no-moon.livejournal.com]

Jake held up his hands. "Okay. Stupid question," he sighed and leaned his head back. "Still, we're going to have to make him cooperate in one way or another."

[showmetheproof.livejournal.com]

"So what's all this about South Dakota now?" Scully asked as she walked in. "And how do you know how to get to that guy?"

[notmyownage]

"Believe it or not, Stan knew the password. The facility's in the badlands of South Dakota. I've got GPS coordinates. It looks like Artie usually sticks close to it, sending other agents out into the field."

[showmetheproof.livejournal.com]

"I can completely believe it. Especially after the oven," Scully said, taking a chair and scooting over to see what Claudia had. "South Dakota? Seriously? That's... unexpected. There's nothing near there. Even the Rapid City offices are only satellite offices for other federal facilities."

[notmyownage]

"Closest town is called Univille. Apparenlty, the facility's registered officially as IRS paperwork storage."

[showmetheproof.livejournal.com]

"Okaaaay," Scully said, dubious about that. "Not impossible, I guess. How did Stan know how to get into it, did he say? And who else is going with us?"

[notmyownage]

"No idea. He clammed up right after he used the password, something about messing with timelines and a Mr. Carter or something. He wouldn't even tell me who his dad is. As for who's going. Jake's already on board --" She held up a hand "-- and has already lectured me on being careful, thank you, and I called Peter, since he seemed to be interested in helping out, too."

[showmetheproof.livejournal.com]

Scully cocked an eyebrow. "Melinda said he was worried about Mr. Carter too. But didn't know anything else about him." She shook her head. "I won't repeat the lecture, but you know I agree with him. Hopefully four of us should be enough, if his other agents aren't around." She scowled at the computer, thinking. "This is the kind of thing Mulder does, that usually has one of us winding up in the hospital. Secret government facilities in the dark of night."

[notmyownage]

"No hospitalizations," Claudia declared. "This is a mission of mercy!"

[showmetheproof.livejournal.com]

"This is a mission to convince someone with far too many secrets and government authority to part with them," Scully felt compelled to point out, despite Claudia's emphatic declarations. "If he won't cooperate, you may have to go over his head, somehow."

If she'd known that 'over his head' was Claudia's scary social worker, she might have been far more anxious about that.

[notmyownage]

"He'll do it." Claudia had her serious face on and everything. "I have to get Joshua back."

[showmetheproof.livejournal.com]

"I know." She'd do the same thing for her family, or Mulder. And Joshua was all of Claudia's family, so... well. She and Jake and probably Peter would be along to keep it from getting out of hand, so. "Anything I should have with me when we go? Aside from my gun?" Hey, you never knew.

[notmyownage]

"I guess what you'd usually take if you were going with Mulder. It's not like I've done this before."