>>> [BBS THREAD: Three teams, one VP: who's actually looking for Neil Oyelaran?]
[THREAD STARTED BY: /Dry_Run] 2075-05-17
/Dry_Run
I'm on one of the teams. I won't say which client. Don't ask.
Tuesday the 7th, a hotel conference room, a talent liaison with a lanyard and a fruit plate nobody touched. The pitch: Neil Oyelaran, VP of Regional Continuity at Tallis-Brandt, taken from a parking garage off Fulton the evening of Friday the 3rd. Car still running, driver's door open, a coffee cup on the roof. Brief was retrieve, do not harm, be discreet. The liaison said "discreet" four times.
I'd like to tell you we've been clever. Slow and steady wins the race. Instead, what we've been is late. His ex-wife in Beverly had already had two visits before we knocked, and she gave us the look you give a third salesman. Someone else is on this. Possibly two someones. I'd like to know who they are before we all trip over each other in a driveway.
/Ledger
Timeline, since the corporate version keeps changing.
Friday the 3rd, 1740, Oyelaran leaves the office. Garage camera has the car at 1752. Monday the 6th, an internal notice says "medical leave." Wednesday the 8th, it becomes "traveling on company business." That same Wednesday, Tallis-Brandt posted an opening for a Vice President of Regional Continuity.
They are paying three teams to find a man, and hiring his replacement, in the same week.
I also have a note that a piece of paper mail addressed to him arrived at their mailroom on Thursday the 9th. It was logged as "miscellaneous correspondence." I don't know the contents. I do know a mailroom logged it, which means a human being touched it.
/Dry_Run
That's a data point I'd have liked before Tuesday.
/RubyRose
WE WERE TEAM TWO. my team was the one that showed up at 5 a.m. and rang the bell for eleven minutes. i'd like it noted i was the one who said "maybe let's not," and i was outvoted by a man named Deke
she opened the door in a robe and looked at us like we were something the dog had brought in. then she made us take our boots off. i have never in my life been ordered to remove my boots by a woman holding a spatula. i complied. i don't know why
/Ledger
You got outvoted by one person, when you were a team of two? That doesn't track. Also, you have been on the record on this board as someone who has never taken orders from anyone.
/RubyRose
SHE HAD A SPATULA, LEDGER. BESIDES IT IS GOOD MANNERS TO TAKE OFF YOUR SHOES INDOORS
/Abuela_Diesel
Three teams have rented my birds to fly the same forty kilometers of highway south of the city. I've charged all three the full rate, and I'm a little ashamed of how well business is going.
Between you and me, all three sets of footage caught one vehicle on that road more than once: a farm truck, the kind with a hand-painted logo on the door, hauling flats of seedlings. .
/Cubicle_9
Just asking questions. Our building had a version of this. Tuesday my department's regional manager left for lunch and hasn't come back. HR sent an email: "If you see your manager, please do not approach. Please notify Security." Apparently that's now a sentence people write.
Ledger, thank you for the Tallis-Brandt job posting. I looked at it. I meet all the requirements. I'm afraid of what that says about me.
/Ledger
It says you've read a great many policy manuals.
/Cubicle_9
So I should apply.
/Ledger
I would not.
/Ghost_Lake
Two facts that don't fit the kidnapping story.
The car was left running with the door open and a coffee cup on the roof. People who are grabbed don't set down their coffee.
Second, everyone keeps asking who would want Oyelaran. Nobody's asked whether he wanted something. Maybe he wanted to disappear himself?
/Ledger
Speculation.
/Ghost_Lake
Speculation with a cup on a car roof.
/Dry_Run
Update. A bad one, and a stupid one.
The ex-wife, Denise, isn't hiding anything. She told each of us the same thing, in the same tired voice: "He sends me postcards. Last one said the tomatoes are up." That's the whole message.
My team spent most of Tuesday and Wednesday decoding it. Was "tomatoes" a drop site? A person? A brand of something? Deke thought it was a code for money. I ran it through everything I had. Hit nothing.
Also: our fixer got a look at the other invoices. Team three isn't on the same paycheck as us or Ruby's crew. Their header isn't Tallis-Brandt. It's the lender. And their brief doesn't say "retrieve." It says "secure."
/RubyRose
oh no. the TOMATOES STORY. WE SPENT SO FUCKING MUCH TIME DECODING IT
/Ledger
For the record, tomatoes do not come up outdoors in this region in early May. Seedlings do, under cover. He might be planting seeds on his own farm.
/RubyRose
WHAT THE FUCK LEDGER? THAT MAKES SENSE. WE SPENT TOO MANY HOURS TO DECODE THIS! HOW DO YOU KNOW ABOUT SEEDS?
/Small_Talk
Three teams. Nobody thought of thinking literally.
/Abuela_Diesel
Odd thing from a customer, a woman who drives loads for a produce co-op. She says there's a new hand at one of the farms she supplies, a soft-handed man, very polite, learning how to drive a tractor. He asked her not to tell anyone where the truck goes.
I'm not saying it's him. I'm saying she said "very polite," and that's the exact phrase Denise used.
/Dry_Run
Thanks for the information lads.. I feel like I owe you all something. The run is resolved. Let's say it was a good thing Ruby's and my team was on the same side.
p.s.: don't get on the bad side of Ruby. I don't know where she pulled the heavy guns, but she uses them better than the ork on our team.
/RubyRose
WASN'T I THE COOLEST!?
/Dry_Run
Seriously, how can you stand still with that much recoil?
/RubyRose
just be me.