NationStates Jolt Archive

[OOC: If you have any idea of any of the characters involved in the RP or have heard of/RPed with me before, feel free to jump in any way possible. Continuing the really long Odakale plotline first established during World Cup 37, extended in World Cup 41, kept alive by a Cafundelense soap opera, and now (hopefully) finished up.]

Offices of the Head of PERNAS, Ministry of Internal Security, Ajer

"Reports are still coming in from the jungles of central Yafor 2, several miles north of T'harisk Prison, the maximum security institution containing many of the Grand Democratic Duchy's most heinous criminals. It was the site of a successful breakout by former football/soccer star Idurv Odakale nearly five months ago. PERNAS and the Minister of Institutional Corrections Security Force have been chasing after him for nearly all that time, searching the entirety of the jungle for any remnant of Odakale, any clue as to where he has gone. It's been hard going - this is some of the worst terrain in the the greater Yaforite Empire area and the Odakale's escape routes were very difficult to find.

Their search is now over. In a small hut north of the prison, PERNAS agents have identified a body covered with burn marks, evidence that he was tortured. They say that it is the corpse of Idurv Odakale, charred from his torture, clearly by both electricity and other, blunter means. It was clear several months ago that Odakale had help in his escape attempt, but the central question around the case was always whether he had either had friends break him out or if he had been broken out by someone dangerous. From his remains, and the state that they are left in, it is almost certainly the latter.

PERNAS say that the reason he was broken out of T'harisk was because of information that he possessed. They would once again like to show pictures of notorious former mafia agent -" Head of PERNAS Rasadi Mehron muted the television, grinning somewhat expansively at the older gentleman who strode into the room, followed by a retinue of similarly-aged men. "Welcome to my office, Minister Vandarin." Alegor Vandarin was the Minister of Institutional Corrections. In more prosaic prose, Vandarin was prisonkeeper, the head of the Yaforite network of prisons, their guards, and their watchmen. He was the man who had, to many Yaforites, let Idurv Odakale go.

"Very funny, Rasadi." Vandarin's wrinkled face bore notice to his determination. "It's time we had a little talk about something that's bothering me." Rasadi Mehron, leaning back in his black leather chair grunted derisively. "Something you've been following very closely." Vandarin leaned forward until he was staring the Head of PERNAS straight in the face, confirmation that he had the other man's full attention. "This little affair regarding Idurv Odakale." The contrast in Rasadi Mehron's reaction to Alegor Vandarin's could have made a case study. Mehron immediately exploded into a variety of laughter, expressive, bountiful, and mocking. Mostly mocking, as it laughing at not only Alegor Vandarin's proposition, but at something deeper in the older man's demeanor.

"You want the case, don't you?" It would have been an insult to call the expression on Rasadi Mehron's face sardonic. There were whole overtones of plain insult that were written clearly on his physiognomy. "There's no way you could even make a mark on this little bit, Minister." Vandarin technically outranked Mehron (thus the derisive use of the older man's title), but in reality Mehron wielded both far more influence and far more power. "Of course. Appealing the decision won't do any good. IS in on my side on this one." Another wave of laughter from the bigger man leaning on his chair behind the desk. Raising his weightier frame upwards, Rasadi Mehron reduced his smile to an expression that was a little graver, though, at the same time, still mocking.

"I think you're forgetting just what the situation is like, Mr. Vandarin. May I remind you that Odakale escaped on your watch? Or that, if IS takes PERNAS off of the case, the legislature will just hand it back to me? IS isn't stupid; she knows that I'm the big hero from that Cafundelense-Han-terrorists thing around the time he escaped." Vandarin nodded slightly, as if mulling over the situation. "I can get you something better than this...occupation. What do you want, Rasadi?" The sardonic grin had returned to Rasadi Mehron's face and it was clear that he had intended on diverting the conversation towards these avenues. "You know what I want." His voice had grown deeper and more serious, though his face failed to reflect this. "She's aging. I want her job."

"There's no way you're getting IS! That job is always chosen from a local police force!" Vandarin's voice was much more energized, involved, and indignant. "You'd be much better in something like intelligence, or internal intelligence, or even -" He found himself interrupted by the suddenly-rising Rasadi Mehron. "Enough. You know that IATOR doesn't advance ambitious men. Now, if you would kindly leave, I have work to do...

...Sir." The silence was real as Alegor Vandarin, Minister of Institutional Corrections, left the room.

The Coast, South of Uharan, Yafor 2

"Circle around to the other side. Alpha Team, in position. Waiting for the call, sir!" The second team of soldiers circled around, moving to the other side of the abandoned warehouse. They were Coast Defense, the Yaforite task force most often engage to fight smuggling, and the boarded-up drab white building facing them was a smuggler's stronghold. That much was known, at least. Coastal Defense technically fell under the budget of the military, which probably explained why the military itself seemed so drastically underfunded - if there was one crime that plagued the Grand Democratic Duchy, it was smuggling. The relative isolationism, combined with the somewhat easy border enforcement and the lax refugee policies turned Yafor 2 into a perfect storm for smugglers and others wanting the evade the sometimes-rather-strong tariffs coming from other countries.

"Beta Team, in position. Watching the main doorway. Ready to move when you're in position, sir!" The third team of soldiers stood rather easily, their weapons trained on the center of the door of the building. Their lack of knowledge about the place had lead to large number of soldiers for what would normally be a simple raid on a smuggler's den. If anything, there was a certain amount of information that this was one of the few mafia strongholds, so the size of the massive warehouse and what seemed to be a certain internal complexity about the structure (there were a large number of wooden boxes piled up haphazardly in aisles, all of which combined to make a certain labyrinthine to the building). There was even a possibility that the boxes contained weapons or explosives, which would be especially dangerous to attack with few soldiers.

"All positions, move in! Move in!" The three massive doors of the warehouse thundered down as cars, their sirens blaring into the foggy mist, and Coastal Defense soldiers smashed into the area. "All clear to the right, sir!" echoed from the right side of the room. A similar shout came from the left. "Let's see what's in here, sir." One of the soldiers, a burly local man, maneuvered the butt of his weapon into the top of the box, causing it to splinter slightly. It wasn't explosives. It wasn't guns. It wasn't even regular goods. The captain stared down at small bags full of white powder. Hundreds of bags packed in each box.

"Enalla's eyes..." he whispered, staring upwards.

The Coast, South of Uharan, Yafor 2

Head of PERNAS Rasadi Mehron had been the second person to be called when news of the warehouse had spread through the halls of the government. The first had been the head of Major Crimes Enforcement, Aderia Tylar. It rankled him somewhat that a woman who was far younger than he was, who had yet to make her name nationally, who had risen through the ranks on the strength of her internal abilities and her own skills at seizing the opportunity at necessary times, had been the first person to be informed. There was no doubt that this was an MCE matter - narcotics and drugs always fell under the jurisdiction of the MCE - but the fact was that an investigation of this magnitude was always in conjunction with PERNAS.

He turned his head to the side, noting in the periphery her presence, moving towards him. She was talking, but Rasadi Mehron was scarcely paying any attention - before he realized that what she was saying wasn't total nonsense. "Huh? Could you possibly say that again?" This time, the Head of PERNAS was technically the superior officer, though, as with most Yaforite rankings, the actual amount of power wielded by each person was relative and perceptual. "I should have figured that you were not paying attention, sir." It came near to a forbidden level of rudeness, but their ranks were close enough together that it did not really matter and there was no way he could have gotten anything out of writing her up for it.

"As I was saying, the counting is progressing quickly, if that means anything." Naturally, the first task had been to break open all of the boxes and figure out just how much cocaine there actually was. That had proven to be somewhat of a titanic task. First assessments of the situation had proven to be correct - the thousands of massive stacked boxes all contained powdered cocaine. There had been no guns, no ammunition, no goods, no smuggling. From wall to wall, on the inside of every box, had been nothing but finely-granulated pure white powder, somewhat like flour to some, somewhat like sugar to others. It was nothing but drugs and, on one level Rasadi felt angered about it, while on another, he was merely glad that they had found the stash when they had.

"How much will it be?" he asked, more for the point of politeness than out of any interest in actually knowing how many drugs had been inside one warehouse in the Grand Democratic Duchy. "Once again, we're not nearly done," he rolled his eyes at the diplomatic prefix to her estimate. It was standard Yaforite-speak, but it irritated him nonetheless. "The answer is somewhere in the hundreds of billions, though. This is very pure stuff, and there is a lot of it - more underneath the warehouse, as well." Rasadi raised his eyebrows somewhat. "Yes, it's the biggest drug bust in our history. Lots and lots of money." He chuckled for a second, adding emphasis to the sheer volume of cash. "Maybe the government should sell it and pay for defense, no?" Her joke was mildly funny, but he laughed anyway.

"And all of that was going on the streets, hm?" The vast sum of money that they were handling intrigued him somewhat and, as a result, he continued the conversation, if only to get her to perhaps say something useful for an upcoming press-conference. Her head tilted, and she glanced askance at him, vaguely confused. "I thought you'd got the memo; it's most likely not in that direction.". She was referring to something which several Toxicology analysts had emailed out to a variety of those involved. It had been mostly nonsense and speculation. "That was bullshit and you know it. Unless you have something vaguely solid, I'm not buying that it wasn't actually going to be sold here." She glanced over at him again and he perceived for the second time that he had said something that she did not appreciate.

"Tox ran the scans. Signatures in the cocaine match nothing near what we've got on the street." His eyebrows raised again and she quickly continued, "Naturally, that itself has a million reasons, but combine it with the rest. MCE's never even seen cocaine anywhere near this. The market abroad, both in legalized and non-legalized countries is insane, and our market locally is nothing like that. It's on the coast - you know, it's easy enough to hire a mid-level smuggler to take something out of this country. It all adds up. These drugs were being imported from one country, stored here, then sold elsewhere. We've become a storage mart." It was plausible, but it was thin. It was very thin and Rasadi knew that many higher-up would not have bought that in a million years.

"If it's good enough for MCE, it's good enough for the press. I don't buy it, though, and neither will IS. Find me something solid." Taking his hands from inside of his pockets, he began to disembark towards the warehouse itself. "Tox are attempting to match the signatures. If they find a nation, is that solid enough for you?" Her voice floated down as he half-slid, half-cut down the hill. "Naturally." he shouted back, "Just remember, this is PERNAS' investigation first, MCE second!"

Back on the hill, Aderia Tylar ran her hands through her hair. "As if you'd ever let me forget." she muttered to herself.