(no subject)

[baals]

Hiding on Earth turned out to be quite the productive endeavor for Ba'al. He fit in absurdly easily in the world of business. While expanding into the business world he likewise expanded into the criminal world.

In the business world he's known as Hannibal Hadad. His holdings, which started in an areo-space company, expanded into real-estate, construction and string of electronics retailers.

In the criminal world he's known as simply The Boss. His criminal network, stretches into the usual suspects of guns, drugs and smuggling.

Spread across both the business and the criminal side are oddities. On their own, they just seem strange. Together, something big is being built. Something high tech. It could be anything from missiles to fighter jets. Whatever it is he's taking great pains that the government and the larger criminal underworld don't know what he's doing.

Seeing as he's making an effort to hid it. He shouldn't let the recently hired undercover FBI agent anywhere near himself or anything important. He could just feed him false leads down the chain. But... quite frankly, he's bored.

After a couple months, he calls him to his office. Enough time passed to not be suspicious and give Mike time to make a reasonable impression.

Ba'al's office is a modern minimalist style. All clean lines and simple shapes. No unnecessary furniture. As for himself, he's always wearing some designer suit or another. He's standing and looking over some papers on his desk when Mike enters. The papers are Mike's personnel file.

"Ah, yes. It's good to finally meet you. Michael, is it? Or Mike?" He holds out a hand to shake, which he won't last too long or too briefly. "You've been doing excellent work under Johnathan."

Comments

[501s]

The pattern may have been practically invisible to anyone else. The pieces were in no way connected, at least as far as the usual checks went. Mike had come across them in his bus investigation. Spreading his net as wide as possible, trying to find something, anything to chase. He knew the buses were tied to something so much bigger. After that investigation literally blew up in his face, he turned his attention elsewhere. Trying to find what he'd missed. And that's when he started putting the pieces together.

It was like finding out he'd been picking at the corner of a massive spiderweb. Why keep picking at one thread when he could bring it all down? When he posed as a new employee, he may not have had full and proper backing, but he didn't care. He needed to prove he was right, even if no one else saw it. And then it all stalled out once he got in. Or at least that's how they saw it in Washington. No progress meant nothing was happening.

Mike, however, saw the sudden roadblocks as progress. If there were obstacles, there was something worth finding. He was making progress, slowly. Then he got what he'd been waiting for. An invitation to meet the man in charge. That would be the foot in the door he needed to blow this thing wide open.

He'd been playing the role of Mike Collins. An eager and successful, if rather young, business man, looking to make a name for himself. So when he walked into the office it was with all the vigor and charm he'd need. He took the hand of the spider himself, maintaining that bright smile.

"Whichever you prefer, sir!" He said, playing the role of an expert ass-kisser, as Briggs had called it. "Thank you, it's been...interesting working with Jonathan." His angle was to cast doubt on the man and take over his role. Gain access to higher clearances and gain Hannibal's trust.