(no subject)

[un_fallen]

It took a jolt to get Raguel to leave Southdown. The need to find out what happened had been growing for a while, but it was a half-heard conversation between Aziraphael and Gabriel Tam that finally got him to do it. There are still more questions he didn't want to ask the angel, and the longer he stayed, the harder it became to ask them. He needs some face time with the Senator.

He's planted himself in the crowd watching Tam's latest speech to calm the paranoia over yet another Reaver attack on a settlement, but he isn't really watching it. He's thinking, talking to himself - and if we are completely honest - justifying his absence from Persephone.

In his opinion, tracking is a pleasant change from moping and doing nothing at the abbey. That was necessary, but now it's time for action, if action is possible. Someone planned this. Someone pulled the trigger. Gabriel is another step toward getting there.

And once he's found the one behind it, maybe then he'll allow himself to go back.

Comments

[gabriel_tam]

"Somebody knew, yes," he says, carefully. "Otherwise it doesn't seem likely that he would have been shot."

Gabriel takes a breath and says,

"What I meant, though, was -- would you happen to know if this was a result of any, er, official displeasure? From --"

He still can't bring himself to say 'Lucifer.'

"-- Rosse, for example?"

[un_fallen]

Raguel stops moving.

"I would hope," he says carefully, his face darkening, "that he knows better."

He's silent for a while, thinking or listening or parading the possibility in front of whatever advisers he trusts in the mess of voices in his head.

"If he's behind it, he wouldn't tell me first. But he knows I'll find out."

[gabriel_tam]

"You'd certainly be better suited to inquire in that arena than I would," he agrees, with the dryness to his tone somehow pointing out the understatement.

[un_fallen]

"I'll find out," he repeats. "Probably would've gone after Aziraphael first, though. Rosse likes to mess with Crowley. They have a strange relationship," he confides in a whisper.

His demeanor changes abruptly; now it's an open, pally politician type. The kind you assume is lying.

"But who doesn't?" he asks, laughing heartily. "Crowley has lots of enemies. Some of them are even human."

[gabriel_tam]

"I know."

The quick shifts in Raguel's demeanor are extremely unsettling. It's all he can do to keep from taking a step back.

"And that's where I plan to start looking."

A breath.

"I'm afraid I don't have much longer before Mark comes looking for me..."

[un_fallen]

Raguel looks sharply behind Gabriel, as though Mark might be coming up the hall and would shortly be a pile of ash. Mercifully, though, no one appears. He turns back to the Senator.

"Lots of things to ask you, still. Coordinates, weapons, enemies. And there was something special on that ship. Those Reavers had just come from a feast, and Crowley doesn't run. From Reavers," he amends after a pause.

[gabriel_tam]

It's true; there's a lot they need to discuss, evidently, and very little time.

A thought strikes him, and without letting himself consider it too much Gabriel reaches into an inner pocket and comes out with a coded link, which he offers to Raguel.

"Here. It's encrypted, and preset to reach one that I have. Textwaves are easier on the power cell, but it'll support audio and video link too."

[un_fallen]

He takes it carefully, running one gentle finger down the side.

"Thank you," he says, and it migrates unseen into some inner pocket. "Audio links are better. Text might not say what I mean." He shrugs and turns to go; there are audible footsteps now and it will be easier if he isn't seen here.

"I'll be in touch. And, er." He glances back. "Borrowed a skimmer. You should see about getting better security for those government ports."

A conspiratorial wink, and he's gone.