savetheearth | (no subject)

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Who: Nick Burkhardt and Detective Sherman
Where: Central police station.
When: The day of Ray's arrest.
What: Sherman thinks he may have found someone worth filling in on the real situation in Locke City. It's all classified information that will be very new to Nick, obviously.

Sherman had asked Nick Burkhardt to come to his office (well, it wasn't his office, it was the sheriff's, but it was an office whose desk he was seated behind, which made it feel like his office). He'd be settled there when Nick came in, hands folded neatly on the desk, coat folded neatly over the back of the chair behind him, waiting patiently.

"Officer Burkhardt. Please -- sit down. And close the door behind you."

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Nick's - actually not nervous here, or at least not more than would be usual for a detective being called in to talk with someone in the sheriff's office after making an arrest. Even if that someone wasn't the sheriff himself. It's not exactly usual for a homicide detective to make an arrest on a potential drug charge, which is giving Nick a vague sense of uncertainty, but it's not really unheard of, either. Especially with how much they've been pushing this new drug thing.

It's just a talk. As long as Nick doesn't do anything stupid to give himself away, he shouldn't be in any real danger, here.

He hopes, anyway.

But for the moment, it's easy enough to act the way he would have before finding out about the network, dutifully closing the door behind him and sliding into an empty chair. "Did you need me for something?"

"Actually, I was wondering if you had any questions for me," Sherman says. Though his manner is casual, if Nick's perceptive he'll feel like he's being appraised, judged.

Sherman makes no move to lead the conversation. He wants to know what's on Nick's mind, now that he's worked with the special K-9 unit and made an arrest.

Nick takes a moment to consider that. Mostly because as just a detective, with no knowledge of the network or what's going on other than what he's assumed, he would have to take a minute to decide if he wanted to ask or not.

"Usually I'd say not really, because hey, I just helped out, it's not my case and you don't have to share if you don't feel like it. But things have been a little more hectic than usual, haven't they? I don't know if we're looking for eco-terrorists or drug rings or something worse, but whoever it is, they're causing a lot of problems. They have no respect for the police, and I don't like it."

He gives a shrug. "This guy says he hasn't done anything, but they all say that, we both know you can't trust them. So yeah, I guess I do want to know what they're involved in. And how I can help stop it."

It's easy to slip back into the mentality, the one that believed a police officer over anything else, that would do pretty much anything just on the word of the sheriff. Maybe because part of him hadn't really stopped, despite the pulses he's gotten.

That's exactly what Sherman was hoping to hear, if the glint of approval in his eyes is any indication.

"Are you a skeptic, Burkhardt?" Sherman asks, leaning back in the chair that isn't his. "I've always found that there's a balance that needs to be struck between 'gullible' and 'close-minded,' and 'skeptic' is the happy medium. If you saw something you knew was impossible, what would you do?"

"I've seen a lot of things that I would've thought impossible on this job, but somehow I doubt that's what you're talking about."

He leans forward a little, partially out curiosity, and partially for appearance, moving closer to listen intently to what Sherman has to say. "I like to let the evidence speak for itself. If that means I'm a skeptic, I don't know, but if there was enough evidence for something I knew was impossible - well, I guess it wouldn't be impossible anymore."

"Good, good. I just might be able to use you."

Sherman taps his fingers on the desk, considering where to begin.

"There's big change headed our way, Burkhardt. Very big. When it comes, you can bet we'll be ready for it. We can even come out of this on top, if we play it right. Thing is, there's a group of people out there who know that something's happening but don't have a clue what it is, and they are doing a lot of stupid shit. So, we're bringing them in before they sabotage our operation any further."

Nick shakes his head slightly. "I don't like showing ignorance, but I'm not going to pretend I really know what you're talking about, because I don't. All I know is a lot of shit's been happening, and some if it's damn weird. But I'm good at bringing in people who do stupid shit and make things difficult for the police, and if there's some kind of operation going on-"

Here he meets Sherman's eyes levelly, because at least in this, he's confident. "I know where my loyalties lie."

"That's exactly what I need from my officers right now," Sherman says, nodding. "Now, listen. I don't expect you to take my word for any of this, but I'm not going to tell you anything I don't honestly think I can't prove to you later on, so hear me out. Burkhardt, we're dealing with two things here: superhuman abilities and extraterrestrials. E.T.'s on our side. The superhumans are targets."

Edited 2013-11-23 05:19 (UTC)

Nick's brows furrow at Sherman's words, and he opens his mouth like he's going to say something, before closing it again as if he thought better of it. It'd be a lot to take in for someone who didn't already know about the superhuman abilities bit, and even he's a little hesitant over the 'aliens' part.

Finally, he says, "I can honestly say that's really not the explanation I was expecting to hear. But if you say you can provide proof, I believe you."

It's a diplomatic answer for 'I'm extremely skeptical about all of that, but you're a detective and you say you can prove it, so I'm giving you the benefit of the doubt.'

"If it's true... superhuman abilities would explain a lot, and it'd be extremely dangerous just to have them running around the city. But why are the extraterrestrials helping us?"

"We scratch its back, it scratches ours. That kind of thing." Sherman steeples its fingers. "More important, though, is the vigilante element in the city. They've sabotaged our operations before, and you saw what they did to Tuning Towers. We need to know who they are, what they can do, and if they can't be brought around to the side of the law, they need to be neutralized."

He sighs, looking away. "Of course, we're bending a lot of rules to do this, but let's face it: if we took this to anyone outside of the city, who'd believe us? We're working outside of the law here, Burkhardt. We've got to do what's necessary."

Then, Sherman's eyes flick back up to meet Nick's. "If you don't have the stomach for it, the door is over there."

"Sounds like a lot of the inter-department relationships I know of, so fair enough."

Then he stays quiet, just listening while Sherman talks about what the vigilantes are doing and what needs to be done to stop them. At the offer of the door, Nick stays right where he is, holding Sherman's gaze.

"I've always done what's necessary for the good of the city, and the good of the police; it's one of the reasons why I'm a supervisor. There's nothing good about vigilantes even in the normal sense, and ones with superhuman abilities? If it's true, it'll be chaos, and you're right. They'll need to be stopped."

He pauses for a moment, then pushes a hand through his hair. "I'll be honest with you, this is pretty hard to believe, but I'm taking your word for it. And - I don't expect you to tell me everything, because I think we're both risking a lot here, but I wouldn't be a very good detective if I didn't pick up on the 'us scratching its back' part, and wonder what that entailed."

"Our job," Sherman says, slow and deliberate, "is to grease the rails. There's only one alien now, but I've seen it do things you wouldn't believe. The technology they have is like Isaac Asimov's wet dreams. Even if we got the whole damn force together, we wouldn't be able to take E.T. Luckily, E.T. isn't here for us. They want to find something underground, some kind of dormant living creature, and kill it. Thunder Corp's taking care of that end of things. All we've got to do is make sure no one gets in Thunder Corp's way."

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