Law Enforcement: Conference Room

[DaniDiNardo]

The conference room is large, and magically adjustable for situations where there is need to fit the entire department. This is where meetings will be held, demonstrations, parties, gatherings, trainings, and other such happenings. All divisions are permitted to use the conference room but the times must be booked, so there is no interference with other divisions.

To book the room for your division, please PM DaniDiNardo.

[Holmesian Feline]

The new year was already starting out with a bang…or was that a plop. Thankfully Simon had no such issues like Fletcher had had before his meeting, but that didn’t mean things were alright. He had already had to duck away from a kamikaze owl on his way up and the cleaning up of the atrium didn’t seem to be the only issue. But for now, he was escaping that chaos for whatever lay at the latest department powwow.

Simon noticed the presence at the door to the conference, catching Angelo’s question as he approached. “That’s an affirmative,” the security man remarked as he paused with the doorway blocked though it wasn’t directed at him. It was just something he knew the answer for. After all, how good would security be if they didn’t make sure their own department was secure.

“Morning…” he added in polite greeting, leaving the condition of said morning up in the air.

[sweetpinkpixie]

Despite already having a mini conference with Alexa just yesterday as they prepped for this meeting, Charles already had new development to share with his wilting department head. Yes, he had noticed that things appeared all the more taxing on the woman and he of course had enough tact not to point this out to her. His entire team had been feeling the strain, though the source of the strain was shrouded in uncertainty. He was considering getting himself a dog again and not entirely for companionship purposes. Just the other night some of his defensive enchantments around his home had been set off as well and not by any stray creature scampering by.

Coffee with a bit of a kicker in hand, the Minister entered the conference room with his own file of paperwork and greeted the room with a slightly grim smile compared to his typical jovial one. "Gentlemen," he nodded, though Simon also received a fatherly pat on the shoulder as he walked by. Angelo received an appreciative smile, he was certain that it was because of his diligence paired with that of Evangeline that the circumstances regarding January had come to a halt. Though the lack of culprit in custody there left him unsettled in light of ... all this.

He offered Alexa a bit of a look and beckoned her closer to him so he could show her something on the topmost piece of parchment. Something else to tack on to her opening remarks. Just a simple note regarding investigations into the functionality of the lifts and preemptive measure to be put in place.

[Shanners]

Eliora had added another cup of coffee to her work day hourly rotation. Today was a tough one. When she finally got home from work she was going to sit down with Ruth and have an important talk. Now that the kids were older, they didn’t need a nanny, but Eliora adored the woman that had helped raise her children with her more than she could put into words. It wasn’t ideal, but Eliora was happy to pay Ruth’s usual wage, cut down her hours at the house and have her as a part time housekeeper so there was still someone at the house when either she or James wasn’t. Even if Ruth didn’t take the change of position, she’d still be family. But Eliora didn’t want to just let her go.

See the predicament?

Typically, Eliora had one cup in hand and then others trailing along behind her with magic. But her coffees kept falling and she had given up. Perhaps it was stress about Ruth. Perhaps it was upset about Rusty. Perhaps she missed seeing James at work. Or perhaps it was because she was happy in her relationship. Either way, she said nothing as she slipped into the conference room behind a small trolley with her cups of coffee on. She was trying something NEW okay? SOMETHING NEW. IT WAS OKAY. SHE WAS OKAY.

[lazykitty]

Noticing the presence of not only his own department head but also the A&C head plus the minister upon his entry into the conference room, Ronan had a pretty good idea of what this meeting would be about. "So...you guys think the failing charms everywhere are intentional? Some sort of sabotage?" Logical conclusion, if he did say so himself.

Placing his own cup of coffee (one from a nearby cafe; he still mostly avoided any food from the ministry itself based on experience and tales) on the table before pulling out a chair, he sat and looked between the three heads expectantly.

[DaniDiNardo]

"What he said." Alexa nodded mildly towards Simon who'd walked up behind Angelo. The place had been swept and she'd swept it again herself. "There's nothing." But the unsettled feeling wouldn't budge. There HAD to be something. She hadn't imagined the last year. She hadn't imagined the half a footprint on the carpet of her apartment when she'd picked Emm up from Dora's. The idiot who'd blown a hole through their work area hadn't vanished into smoke and suddenly fell out of existence.

Lex pushed away from the desk and moved over to the Minister, having caught the look and the beckoning. More to set her team to? Other complaints? New information?

Eliora received a nod before the department head looked to the parchment. A scowl formed soon after. "More?" Now it was the lifts. Was nothing going to be working right within the ministry anymore. "We'll be shutting down at this rate." Wasn't this Eliora's job? Charms maintenance and all? The woman was by the coffee helping herself while the ministry fell apart.

"Let's get this thing started." Quite a few people had made their way in by now and Law Enforcement didn't have all this free time to be wasting.

"Most important thing to discuss, ministry security. Somehow, someone got in while we had interns. Stole a few files. Closed cases mostly." People who'd already been tried and sent off to Azkaban. "They got into my office, too. Ransacked the place. Dodderidge will have to speak more on the charms but they aren't working. They're clashing. They're falling apart. That means we'll have to be extra vigilant. I'm not gonna rule out Carter's suggestion of sabotage." She already was and that vigilance was starting to make her nerves bad.

"I'll need people looking into the missing files. Any takers? Simon, I'll need you with me, we're going to have to take a look at those lifts." As much as it pained her to say. SHE wanted to go chase the bad guy, not walk the ministry making sure it still functioned.

[Bazinga]

It's not that she meant to be late, no, Victoria was someone who always prided herself to be on time, but she was late to this meeting and seeming a bit flustered as she arrived, "Sorry" was the only quiet greeting she gave as she entered the room and found a spot near the door. Her eyes automatically going through the room to see who was here and who wasn't. Landing on Charles for a moment she quickly moved them to Alexa.

Her mind wasn't in the room yet, it was on her task of getting here. How many things forced her to be late, the dropped coffee, the owl dropping on her head, the lift not working, and that feeling, that horrible feeling that she wasn't alone even when she was. It had increased since she started seeing Charles, but she felt she was just being paranoid over nothing, so she hadn't said much about it.

As she longed to have a coffee in front of her the Games and Sports department head started to listen as Alexa started about files missing. Had she missed any information before this, she really hoped not.

[TeafortheSoul]

Maybe he would mention in private the possibility of using other types of magic to check things out, but for the meantime, Angelo kept his mouth shut and listened and observed. It wasn't that he doubted Simon, it was just that Alexa's paranoia was palpable, which was why he had asked the question.

Angelo nodded an acknowledgement at the minister as the old man joined them. That was out of the ordinary. And the other Department Heads....

He glanced at Ronan when the younger man spoke up, not giving anything away in his expression save that he was actively listening. If there was some kind of premeditated sabotage situation then having a majority of the political and operational leaders of the Wizarding World in the one room like this was somewhat, as his Uncle Copernicus Kettleburn would say, ill-advised.

He also kept his mouth shut on the files. He had active cases on the go that didn't leave much time for volunteering for things like that, but he would make time if asked.

[Holmesian Feline]

So, there was agreement that the room had been searched, clearing the conference room at least though Simon supposed it was the least vital room of the department. Probably more than once. About to slip past Angelo, the addition of the familiar voice of the minister made him stop once more, especially as the hand briefly clamped on his shoulder. “Minister,” the security head returned the greeting with a bob of his head, finally following the man inside. Best not dally, especially when the A+C department head also made an appearance.

Guess Level 2 was to play host to this multi-level gathering.

Ronan marked more law enforcement, the younger man speaking of sabotage. “Well we’re not locked out this time…” Simon mused quietly, remembering THAT experience vividly and he’d only been part of security not head that time around. Still could be just as bad, he just felt it more given his responsibility over matters.

Then Alexa’s shutting down comment plus the distinct call on security made him have to fight the urge to cringe. His eyes flicking to Ronan before he caught himself before looking back at boss as she laid out the full details that had been gathered. Lovely what the trusting of interns had apparently got them. “You’ve got me,” he remarked at Alexa’s request. Whatever was needed of him, plus more, was what they were going to get out of him. The security man wasn’t happy about trouble getting by him and his team.

[Krel Ansell]

Conley was late. He wasn’t that late, but he was still late. Why was he late? Because as he was leaving his office, an entire parliament of owls decided to descend upon his lobby armed with enough correspondence to keep Walter and his staff busy for a half an hour. He had managed to slip out of the oncoming parliament by ducking and weaving and forcing his way past a few of the birds and he hadn’t had time to make sure his hair didn’t have feathers it in (which it did). Nor had he had time to check that his robes hadn’t been messed (they had). He also might have dropped one or two of his notes in the commotion.

He was only a little out of breath as he entered the room and quickly grabbed a seat next to Victoria. He hadn’t bothered to take a lift since two of his ambassadors had gotten stuck in one last spring. He was going to ask Victoria what he missed, but noticed that she looked as preoccupied as he himself felt. So he didn’t say anything as he tried to tune into the room around him. Something about missing files…

”Have we gotten anywhere with the missing passports and identifications?” he asked reaching into his jacket pocket for a pen so he could take notes. He had reported the odd string of identity thefts to Alexa a while ago, but the rash of international wizarding discourse that had been flooding his office had overshadowed the relatively minor problem with visas and passports.

[hermionesclone]

Running late was not in her penchant for a meeting like this. In fact, she would’ve hardly accepted such an instance if she happened to be in charge of such a meeting herself. But desperate times called for desperate measures and there was hardly anything she could do about the situation at hand. A situation that was inundated with owls and faeces.

Without uttering a word, Zhuó Xiá quietly seated herself on a spare seat along the table. A short nod of acknowledgement was given but otherwise, she didn’t utter a single word. She didn’t bother making herself known or greeting anyone sitting closest to her, not when there was something much more important at stake here. Something that garnered much of her attention and was the precise reason why she opted to come in the first place.

At Alexa’s request, she didn’t pipe up. While she didn’t particularly mind looking into the missing files, she wasn’t part of the security team. So unless there was a creatures case to deal with, it made little sense for her to get involved. But it was at that moment that Conley gave his verdict, causing the Creatures Head to turn to him with a furrowed look on her face. "Cases of identity theft?" Strange. "Is there a link between the missing passports and the missing files?"

[lazykitty]

So not only had they destroyed the wall in the evidence room and stolen the files, they had ransacked the boss' office too? And apparently something was now up with the lifts too. On top of all this already going on with the charms. Oi. They all had their work cut out for them. "I'll check into the files." It was the least he could do, since he did feel partially responsible for the evidence/file room fiasco. After all, if he'd been paying closer attention, whoever it was couldn't have snuck in.

Then they were joined by three other department heads, which had him curious. Well, the G&S and Creatures heads did, anyway. The IC head just left him exasperated. "We?" he asked, with a raised brow. A) He didn't remember hearing about such things and b) it wasn't really 'we' if he was expecting MLE to be the ones dealing with it, was it? "'Missing' as in misplaced or 'missing' as in also stolen?" The distinction was important, since it marked the difference between whether it was an actual crime or something the department head's own team should be dealing with. Either or, he wasn't much inclined to help with that, seeing as there were bigger problems right now.

[DaniDiNardo]

Alexa watched as other department heads came into the conference room, hoping they'd caught most of what she'd said as repeating was tedious work and she didn't have the presence of mind to go it all over again.

Thankfully, they were jumping in. They'd heard. Good. Lex nodded at Simon then Carter in turn, both for their cooperation with the things she'd stated. "Not sure if both have a link." The files and the passports. "What I do know is, I haven't gotten anything about the missing passports so I don't understand your question, Phora. MLE is many things, but we're not mind readers." If he had sent the files, she'd never gotten them.

Another thing to add to the missing pile? It was starting to look so.

"I thought you'd buried yourself deep inside your feelings after you left my office that day. When the files didn't come, I assumed it must not have been that important afterall." Was he telling her that in fact, he had gone ahead and passed them on?

"Whatever the case, we've got a serious security breach. Each level will need its own sweep. I'll need reports at the end." If everyone was looking, surely someone would turn up something.

"What are we doing about the charms breakdown?" Eliora?

[Shanners]

Alexa had barely began speaking the first time when Eliora finished her first cup of coffee and swapped it for one of those on her trolley. She was just here to be up to date and to make sure they knew that her department were doing all they could be right now even though it didn't seem it. Couldn't they see that she was working every second of every day? That there was an unusual wrinkle in her forehead that had grown deeper over the past year. Her fingernails were bitten down almost further than the tips of her fingers and some days she was too drained to even match her socks.

If she was wearing them, that was.

Taking a deep breath as the meeting turned her way, Eliora offered an apologetic smile. "We're trying. We put things back into place and then... we're back to square one with something else or sometimes the same thing. I've got people everywhere doing a thousand things. Any suggestions, and you know where my office is." Because there wasn't anything she hadn't tried right now. And she wasn't ready for the quips or the comments or the digs. She just wanted to be able to do her job and say she was doing it well. Right now? She didn't feel like that.

[sweetpinkpixie]

Charles, uncharacteristically, remained quiet and tight lipped during the proceedings. Despite his hyper attentiveness, his eyes went in and out of focus as his brain began mapping out all sorts of possibilities until there was a tangled web of thoughts plaguing the already growing concern inside his head. He nearly missed Victoria's arrival, though his slightly faded eyes did greet hers and not entirely wasted the opportunity. He may need to cancel their plans for the weekend - something was not sitting right with his own personal security and he had owled for his son to come over and check them personally.

"Not yet, Simon," he warned cautiously at the head of security's attempt at some dry humor. Many of the pieces seemed to be falling into place for that very thing to happen. Thankfully the warning signs had not been ignored in their early stages and measures were being taken, but it was none the less unsettling.

And then there was a discrepancy between Conley and Alexa, it seemed. How his head of Magical Law Enforcement had not heard about this plight was a little beyond him in the moment considering the length of time this had been a growing issue. Charles merely sent the two of them stern looks to sort themselves out and an additional warning look, and clearing of the throat, to not speak to a colleague in that manner in front of other employees. He would have a private word with her about that later - now, especially, was not the time to cast doubt on one another. It was counterproductive and beyond unprofessional. "See to it that you both are abreast on the matter," he merely offered while casting a glance to Conley specifically. "I'd like a joint report by the end of the week."

One on the sweeps as well, but that went without saying. Such reports were second nature to Alexa by now.

The Minister rubbed his face as Eliora, showing his age for the briefest of moments before pulling himself together once again. "If you feel the additional support from Mysteries could benefit, Flamsteed is willing to lend a few Unspeakables." For developing, investigating, or whatever Eliora and her department had unearthed.

What unsettled him most was that, perhaps, whoever was behind all this seemed to have taken advantage of them opening their doors to summer interns. Charles would need to discuss with Janurary about canceling those for the coming summer. The Ministry was in no state to offer such luxuries.

[Krel Ansell]

Buried inside his feelings? Well, if memory served him, Conley hadn’t been the one cursing and kicking and striking at an office door the day he had attempted to talk to Alexa about the missing documents. He didn’t acknowledge her slight beyond a raised eyebrow as he said, ”It appears that the reports I sent you on the incidents must have gotten lost in the mail.” He had sent a several follow reports as well. Those must have been lost in the Ministry’s memo problems as well. This wasn't the place or the time to point out the problems that everyone in the room already knew about.

”My agents have not been able to determine that,” Conley said turning to Ronan. Which was why he had brought it to Alexa’s attention. ”There were odd discrepancies between what the victims reported in interviews and from what was filed in the official reports.” How Alexa had come to believe that the incidents weren’t important, well, why would he have come to talk to her about it personally if it wasn’t important? However, he wasn’t rude enough to ask her that question in front of her staff and, more importantly, the Minister.

Who at that moment spoke up. ”I will have the reports manually brought up this afternoon.” He glanced over at Alexa. "Provided you have time to discuss them."

[Bazinga]

Victoria had stayed very quiet during this meeting and just sat listening for the most part. Her own department was having some struggles, but nothing like this. Things going wrong and missing wasn't typically an unusual thing when you were dealing with the public and professional sports, but it was unnerving that things were being faulty inside the ministry and now interns were being brought up.

"I'd hope that it wasn't any of the interns. I can't speak for them all, but the ones on level seven were very reliable throughout the entire time they were here. Plus, background checks were done on them, weren't they?" Maybe it was her motherly instinct kicking in to protect the interns a bit, but she thought they had gone through all the protocols and many of those interns were her own daughter's friends.

Making a mental note to maybe ask about a few of them to Elisa see if she knew what they were up to these days. Nothing big and alarming just a mother asking about her daughter's school friends and if she knew the schools and what they were doing that would be enough to ease Victoria's mind on her judgment. She did glance up and a smile crossed her lips as Charles talked, there was something about the way he presented himself in these meetings, any meetings that gave her a bit of a nervous twitch, he was so calm and in control. It was something she had always found herself gawking at.

[lazykitty]

So, officially there was no crime there yet, as fishy as it may have seemed to the department head. So, nothing MLE could do.

"Unless someone was using Polyjuice, then it probably wasn't an intern." Besides, he was also pretty certain they had been background checked and they had all obviously passed or they wouldn't have even been allowed in the building. "Though it is possible that someone used the opportunity to slip in unnoticed, maybe using an invisibility cloak or even a disillusionment charm..."

[Holmesian Feline]

Major security breach was putting it mildly and it was annoying Simon to no end that he didn’t have much of anything. Familiar as he was to the Ministry’s environs from top to bottom, as well as the running of things, something should be sticking out to him but there wasn’t other than to final outcomes like the memos and tech. Add to that he caught the tone given to him by the Minister, making him wish he’d kept that comment to himself. He needed to focus since Merlin knew how this was going to play out and whether or not his division was going to get the brunt of the blame if it went sideways a million ways from Sunday.

Simon simply nodded as Alexa mentioned separate sweeps, adding it to the list of addition tasks he set for himself and those under him. As well as detailed and hopefully somewhat helpful reports to be handed off to the department head when all was said and done. The theft of the passports appeared to be handed off so thankfully that was not on their head. And maybe the other departments actually had something on the charms breakdown, the next question posed by the younger woman. The security head listening attentively to the Level Three department head.

His attention turned to Victoria as his friend voiced one of the troubling thoughts that had come to his own mind. New folks, especially young unexperienced folks, could cause trouble. Though Simon’s past experiences with teaching and training tried to get him to think positively on the ideas of interns. The mention of Polyjuice however…

That was a twist. But not an all-together impossible answer to their troubles. Better than the cloak and disillusionment. "Polyjuice...maybe. But even with a cloak or disillusionment, there would be a decent chance of being noticed using the various ways to get in. " The floos, booths, and toilets don't work without imput.