Papers and Prognostication
COMMENTARY
-Note that Harry has wards around the whole boardinghouse.
That these guys approached without setting them off makes them vanilla humans.
-They're at least superficially legit.
No obvious credential errors, and Clippy can find documentation for all three agents, which would be pretty hard, though not impossible to fake.
-This is a Friday.
Getting a Federal district judge to issue a warrant without too much scrutiny probably goes easier just before the weekend, when everyone wants to go home.
-Telling Dresden these are NatSec Feebs and not Criminal Division trumps secrecy, sadly.
-Identifying Molly's interrogation at Splattercon reveals access to Chicago Police Department interrogation records, because there is no national database for interrogation records.But their not recognizing her on sight suggests they are either lying, which is possible but would be hard to hide from Molly especially across all three agents, or they didnt actually read the files.
Which would mean there's someone listening in who has realtime access to CPD records, and is feeding them information.
Which implies at least four people involved here.
Whether that person is listening in magically or with technology is unknown.
-Being aware of the techbane effect on cameras means they know that
- Dresden is a strong wizard; weaker talents dont have a techbane
- Recording Dresden on surveillance video is likely to be sketchy, at best. So allegedly clear video of Dresden committing a crime is automatically suspect.
So they would know that allegedly electronic survillance evidence at range to be clear is suspect.
Their still claiming video as evidence for murder is at best, bad faith.
-Splattercon was only a couple weeks ago.
At least four people were murdered over the course of three attacks, five if you count Glau, and more were injured.
That particular investigation is still ongoing, and probably will be for months.
Noting Mouse repositioning himself. Which suggests he doesnt trust them either.
The fact that the entire team missed Dogasaurus Rex entering the room speaks as much to Mouse's being just that good as to their lack of supernatural awareness.
So, I think we can pretty safely state that this is somehow connected to the nazi investigation:
1) OOC we know that this didn't happen in canon
2) These guys are aware of the supernatural
3) These guys are from the national security branch of the FBI
4) The warrants at least appear legit
5) Despite seeing our phone working, they are not afraid / vary of us, and keep treating us as a mortal teenager. This tells us that they are not THAT knowledgeable about supernatural, because "working electronics in the presence of a wizard means fae / demon / other non-human strong enough to contest techbane" is not very deep lore.
6) There is some inconsistency - they know our age, but didn't know our face. And Molly has a very distinct appearance. Unless I am mistaken (please correct me), her interrogation file should have a photo. So, either the first guy to ask our name was lying about not knowing us, or they are also being fed intel in real time.
So, we can probably assume that this isn't an outright hit. We don't know if these guys were outright bought by the evil guys, or if they are dupes. This is likely a stalling attempt, meaning that there's something time sensitive / the conspiracy is trying to cover their tracks.
No current evidence this has anything to do with the Nazis. If anything, it might be a Splattercon thing.
You only have a file with a photo if you are being arrested.
She wasnt arrested for Splattercon, and was also underage, which is why Greene got in trouble for interrogating a minor without presence of a parent or guardian.
However, she does have a misdemeanor drug arrest record as a juvenile, which would have her picture and prints.
But thats for juveniles, and the fact that they mentioned Splattercon betrays where their focus is.
Maybe there's something to this, either as crossover elements or just DF canon factions that are more active and relevant.
This whole thing looks sketchy, but suppose for a moment you work for the feds and know something about what things like what a sorcerer can do. Would you be particularly enthused about the idea of unprepared cops serving no knock warrants on them? Even Harry's comparatively weak wards would hold off their standard tactics, and he uses positively friendly ones by the standards of more established wizards.
Maybe what's going on here is that if the government knows you're involved in the supernatural to a certain degree and a severe enough warrant enters the system they send guys to take over the situation. We only see the three face men, but that doesn't mean they don't have more waiting in the wings.
All these guys have to do is get him out of the house to shift the balance of power their way.
Think we should be concerned about them having some way to tell if we put a demon in their phones?
We should probably also use the crown to learn more about what's going on here, but I'm not sure what would be best to ask.
Could be crossover elements. No Technocracy, because we wouldnt have a Vampire War if they were a thing.
However, all 56x FBI Field Offices have a SWAT team, with various enhanced response teams available nationally, as well as the elite HRT. And thats without calling on other law enforcement.
Chicago is the third largest city in the US. Damn right they have a FBI SWAT team. They arent short on armed response.
If they were actually worried about unintentionally triggering an armed confrontation, wanted to avoid it and still remain lowprofile, they'd wait outside till he went out for a morning run or groceries or to go to work, then arrest him on the sidewalk. Or make a call to his office as a client and arrest him there.
Or ask someone at the CPD, where Dresden sometimes works as a consultant, to ask him to come in to take a look at something and arrest him there.
These guys came to his home.
This either betrays ignorance of the potential defenses and capabilities of a wizard in their home, or an assurance that Dresden is not the sort of person to murder them all and vanish the bodies by tossing them into the NeverNever.
And the fact that they walked into his home instead of grabbing him in the morning says its time sensitive.
They're on the clock here.
Dresden Files does have government stuff to deal with more minor stuff. Thankfully nothing like the Techncracy, they would have killed Dresden long ago. And Pentex is more akin to a full blown outsider invasion force.
Special Collections Division of the Library of Congress is the only federal agency thats canonically has official contacts withnthe supernatural. Places like CPD Special Investigations exist, but are usually used as dumping grounds where careers go to die.
You are thinking as a human. We don't want them to think Molly is human. Right now we know the following:
1) They are legit FBI agents
2) They have a legit warrant
3) They are somewhat aware of the supernatural, but not enough to make the "phone works = user non-human" connection.
We actually want them to make the last leap of logic. This removes Molly from their jurisdiction, as it was, and raises the stakes of poking her.
Also, please consider what we should answer if they ask "how do you know what branch we are from?". The last part of my vote was conditional on them asking. How would you answer in this situation?
We live in Chicago. We go to school in Chicago. We have been arrested by the police in Chicago. We have served community service for misdemeanor drug possession in Chicago.
There is a seventeen year old data trail of Molly's existence as a Chicago resident.
We WANT them to think of Molly as human. The alternatives are much worse.
Ignore any questions.
We are under no obligations to answer any personal questions even if we were under arrest, and our personal experience with the police does not incline Molly towards volunteering information.
