(no subject)

[gabriel_tam]

The Tam quarters on Londinium are just that -- quarters. They're fine and spacious, assuredly, but they're an apartment, they're not the estate, and they're certainly not a home.

This doesn't mean that they're not outfitted with the best in cryptography and call protection, of course. Andronicus Crowley would insist on it, even if Gabriel and Regan Tam did not. Multiple dedicated source boxes, multiple screens, mulitiple hubs, all protected to the standard that Crowley and Gabriel use themselves in their offices.

The Tam quarters are spacious, and they're not home, but the light in the rooms is close to that of the Tam estate: all soft yellow, near-ambient, illuminating every corner with only the barest and least threatening shadows. That's enough to make the Tam quarters livable.

Even now, days after the initial news, the blue light projected from every screen in every room is enough to tell anybody who might be watching, even assuming that they could with all of this protection:

Something is not right.

Gabriel stares at the screen in front of him, at the words that say in English and Chinese Transmission Ended, and he can't stop himself from focusing on the second word --

(this is the end)

-- before he forcibly snaps himself out of it, and stands.

No. There is a way. There has to be a way.

Comments

[aj_crawley]

" - behind it. Or - whoever he backed. I don't know. But he said..."

Crowley trails off for a moment; back to the room, it's not possible to discern his facial expression.

"He said," he resumes, voice only a little unsteady, "that he knows - everywhere I go. My - the people I know. It, he, it wouldn't be me he'd come after, angel. We're going to - "




"We're going to keep at this using normal channels, it's the only thing we can do. But I just, I need you - to be careful, alright? I need you to keep an eye out. And an eye on, on everyone, just see that they're okay..."

[regan_tam]

The dawning, sick horror in Regan's face matches Gabriel's.

"And they--"

Her hands tighten on his waist.

"Tiānna, Gabriel, the ship." She glances sharply at the datapad on the table, the one that has the schematics of the ship that took Simon and River. "High-ranked, Andronicus said, top-level security. Council-level security."

Regan's pale, spots of high color in her cheeks, and even she's not sure if it's terror or fury.

[gabriel_tam]

"It makes sense," he says tightly.

"We've already seen what they're capable of-- the entire system has seen it."

Thirty million on Miranda; thirty thousand Reavers; thirty worlds that had watched in horror of their own.

"I was a fool to think --"

That I was the only one at risk now, he doesn't say. That the Council wouldn't use everyone and everything that they could reach in order to keep control. Gabriel bites off his words instead and takes a deep breath.

"Now we know. Council or not, they're not going to be able to keep this secret. We'll find them. Once we do, there's going to be a way to get them back, Regan. There's going to be."

[aj_crawley]

" - scare them or anything, 'specially Donovan and Mekhi, they've just had their fourth, but. Yeah. Sstay safe. I - " He pauses, conscious, even now, of the fact that he is not the only one hearing this. "I won't be having with anything else."


He leans his forehead against the wall above the console.


"Come visit me soon, yeah?"




As the message ends with a quiet beep, Crowley straightens his sunglasses and turns around, leaning back against the wall.

"So."

[gabriel_tam]

"So."

He turns to face Crowley, sliding an arm around Regan's waist as he does and drawing her closer to him -- for both their sakes. She's tense and quiet at his side, but Gabriel knows from years of experience that Regan's agile mind is racing, searching for an answer.

He's praying she can find one somewhere -- one that he can't himself see.

"Working within these rules, then: what else can we do?"

[aj_crawley]

He seems calmer now, but smaller - drained down to awkward angles and pale skin. He rubs at a spot (always the same spot) just over his right eyebrow, and closes his eyes, thinking.

"I don't know yet. We've got everyone blocking us, and at every damn turn. We can't... we've got nothing."

He lets out a long, low breath.

"We need to contact Mal again anyway, let him know we're stuck for the moment, until we can find a way. He might have something that can help."

[gabriel_tam]

"'What matters now is what you do next,'" he mutters, almost to himself, then says more clearly, "It's a setback, but we'll get past it. There's a way, we just have to find it."

He refuses to admit any other possibility. Never, never again will Gabriel Tam give up on anything concerning his children.

He glances from Regan to Crowley and then draws himself up, starting toward the Cortex screen.

"I'll tell him."

[badinlatin]

Wash picked up the habit soon after xi zihuan de to simultaneously chime both Mal's bunk and Inara's shuttle for calls directed to the captain or the Companion.

Inara checks the commscreen behind the curtain when the beep is heard, noting the address and pulling Mal toward the screen, afterward leaving the shuttle to give Mal some privacy during the call.

Cough, then click Accept.

"Ni hao."

[gabriel_tam]

"Captain Reynolds. Nĭ hăo."

Gabriel looks somehow much older than he did the last time Mal saw him. There are new lines in his face, carved by worry; and although he's still standing straight, there's indication of some invisible weight on his shoulders.

It's not the look of a defeated man, simply because he will not let it be.

"We've run into some difficulties, I'm afraid."

[badinlatin]

Mal sits up far straighter, pushing some of his hair away from his face.

"What sort of difficulties?"

Did things get worse? How could things get worse?

[regan_tam]

The set look on Regan's face is reminiscent of both her children, though she doesn't realize it. In a few decades, River's grimness may look something like this.

She's visible only at the edge of the screen, and that only because it's set on wide-view. But she's listening, very closely indeed.

[aj_crawley]

Crowley's visible on the other side - more so, as he steps closer. A shared glance with the other two is all that's needed; some things should be left unsaid.

"Someone was on this before we were. No records. No information. Nobody will give us anything."

[badinlatin]

"Except for a certain crew member of a certain ship at a fuel station who's a mite too addicted to smokin' for his own good," Mal interjects.

"I've got proof."

[gabriel_tam]

Everything about him changes in a flash, as a sudden taut intensity races over him.

"Wait-- you have proof?"

He doesn't even notice that he's leaning toward the Cortex screen as though to encourage an answer by sheer proximity.

[badinlatin]

"Check your messages."

On cue, a chirrup behind the Tams on a large table.

"Already forwarded this to VFD, but here's everything I've got - records on Simon and River on the ship, security feeds on 'em, the works."

A cough. "I...didn't watch the feeds, proofed the rest though."

[aj_crawley]

Crowley's there by the second chirrup, hands nearly blurring as he skims through the details. His eyes, tired before, are starting to gleam anew, because - yes, and - perfect, and -

" - Kelowna?" he calls from offscreen, his voice oddly flat. "They were on the Kelowna?"

[badinlatin]

Somewhat bewildered: "Uh. Shi a, Kelowna. Interestin' sort o' type, with" and Mal gesticulates across his chest "Magicians...do somethin' or other."

"You know the ship? Or folk on it?"

Not that Mal particularly is surprised by anything or anyone Crowley knows.

[aj_crawley]

Magicians do it with mirrors.

He'd seen it on a market stall coming up to New Year's; it had been perfect.

"I might know the ship," he says, coming back into view, face unreadable. "I think we fitted some modifications for her once - I'd have to look it up."

[regan_tam]

Regan's eyes flicker to Crowley, and back.

Regan's work depends on reading people well and quickly. She's known Crowley long enough to guess that he's hiding something, but not long enough to have any idea what.

After that last wave from Ni-- from the devil, she's even less likely to press the matter than usual.

"All right," she says tightly. There's an energy in her that wasn't there a few minutes ago; it's clear in the way her eyes have narrowed in furious thought, in the way her hands tighten on the back of a chair, in the way she's leaning unconsciously forward, poised like a coiled spring. "All right. You start with that, Andronicus -- we can take the feeds and records. Bring it back to some of those people who were just saying they'd heard nothing. They can't argue with that. And liase with Verrou Faire Denoument -- see if we can't facilitate each other's efforts."

[gabriel_tam]

"Absolutely," Gabriel confirms. Hope is racing through him, and more than that-- this is something they can finally do, and it's something that they're very well suited for.

"Names and places, public information -- after all," and there's a sharp, thin smile that's not kind at all.

"I swore to serve the people and the laws of the Alliance. Justice can't be done in secret-- especially when the secret's already out."

[badinlatin]

Mal looks to Gabriel more than Regan or Crowley.

"Let me know...what you do next. And if I can be of any more help."

[aj_crawley]

A terse nod, from all three of them, regardless of which of them Mal is looking at - not unfriendly, just suddenly and intensely preoccupied with racing thoughts.

After Gabriel ends the connection, there's a moment of silence; they exchange glances.

Then:

"Regan - back to the bureaucrats, watch them try to deny what we've got now. Gabriel - VFD and the media, anyone and everyone you can think of; you're their favourite."

And then Andronicus Crowley, for the first time that evening, straightens his collar, pushes his sunglasses up on the bridge of his nose, and smiles like a snake.

"And I've got some waves of my own to send."