The apartment complex the driver indicated is run down. Most likely lower income housing. Judging by the windows and spacing between them, it looks to be four stories tall, each floor holding four apartments. It doesn't seem to be well maintained, with chipped paint common as well as an abundance of overgrowth along the building and snaking up through the walkway.
#FreedomFalls – February 17, 2014
Renala looks over it. "I thought the rooms at the Respite was bad," she mutters to herself before looking back at the human. "I take it you know which she lives in?"
The red panel beside the door indicates that it's locked. On the other side of the door is a large panel with different names displayed with a button for each, as well as a screen. The screen has a few cracks over it.
Mendez shakes his head. "Shouldn't be too hard to find out, though." he says as he stomps towards the door, "Hopefully she's willing to talk to us."
Mendez shrugs, "Probably." he says as he approaches the door. He leans in and puts his finger over the panel, running it down the list of names. "Ah. Here it is. Jonathan Perkins." he says, reading one of the nameplates out loud, "Apartment 3-A. Looks like he's on the third floor." He presses the small button beside the nameplate and leans a hand against the wall as he waits for the screen to turn on.
Mendez scratches at the back of his neck and glances around as a few moments pass. After nearly a minute, he leans in and presses the button a second time. "Hopefully she's home..." he mutters.
Renala frowns. "Yeah," she drawls out. "She's pretty much our only lead right now. Don't think the mining company would be happy if we didn't find them."
ElderlyWoman steps out as the front door slides open. She stops for a moment and looks towards the two armored figures standing outside of her apartment. She casts a suspicious glance on them.
Mendez gives the old woman a double-take and quickly leans in towards the screen, using his wide girth to block her view of the screen. "Yeah... Yeah, we'll be right up." he says, essentially talking to himself, "See ya in a minute." He spins on his heels and quickly passes the old woman and stands in the way of the sliding door before it can close. "Thanks." he nods towards the woman, as though she had held the door open for him.
Renala takes a step back as the door open, and aside to let her pass them. She's abiout to open her mouth, but defers to Mendez as he does so. Renala follows him inside wordlessly.
ElderlyWoman continues to watch the two with a scowl on her face. Once addressed by Mendez, however, she takes a step back and nods before going on her way. Whether she bought into his ruse or simply left out of fear is unclear.
The inside of the apartment complex is no better than the outside. The front door leads to a short hallway with four doors, two on each side, and a cramped elevator at the end. The brown carpeting is ripe with stains and tears. Once the door slides shut behind the pair, it would only take them a moment to notice the musty smell that permeates the air.
Mendez glances at Renala as if awaiting some kind of judgement from the asari for his deceitful attempt to gain entry.
Renala waits for a moment until she believes the old lady is out of sight. "Not bad," she says with a smirk, "but as Jason said, you're taken seriously even if you're not."
Mendez gives the asari what one would assume passes as a smile in his mind. "Third floor." he repeats out loud as he stomps down the hallway towards the elevator, "Hopefully that old bag doesn't get any ideas."
Renala shrugs, following him towards the elevator. "Doubt it," she says, "If it'd been an old asari, though..."
Mendez pokes at the call button on the elevator, and the doors immediately open. "Old asari? Is there such a thing as a young asari, princess?" he asks, leaving it unclear whether he's attempting a joke, or being serious. He steps into the small elevator and waits for Renala to enter before pressing the button indicating the third floor.
Renala snorts amused as she steps inside. "Well, depends what you mean by 'young'," she says, "but I'm talking about matriarchs. Some of them have considerable biotic skills."
Mendez presses a hand against the wall as the elevator begins to rise. The large man looks almost scared as the elevator begins to shake unnaturally. "I-... I bet they do." he says, attempting to mask his fear by speaking, "I don't think I've ever met an asari younger than triple-digits." he adds.
Renala places a hand against the wall as she notices the shaking. "Well, I'm not gonna change that," she says. "And fuck, who wants to live in a hole like this? When they risk plummeting to their deaths on their way to work."
Mendez seems to become more unsettled at the asari's mention of plummeting to their deaths. "This place is a death trap." he says. A quick Ding announces their arrival at the third floor. As soon as the door opens, Mendez steps out and marches down the hall, eager to get away from the elevator, "Let's make this quick..." he says, making a strange face as the musty smell returns, "I don't want to spend any more time here than we have to."
Renala grimaces as she exits the elevator, falling into step behind him. "Me neither," she says, "and I sure hope there's stairs somewhere for our way down."
The third floor is nearly identical to the first. The only difference being a window at the end of the hall way where the front door was on the first floor. The window is propped open with an empty soft drink bottle, but it does nothing to dampen the smell.
The first set of doors are directly opposite of each other. One has a large 'A' on it, with the one across from it having a large 'B'.
Mendez continues down the hallway until he comes to the first set of doors. He glances back between them and approaches the door with the 'A' on the door. "This should be her." he says. He raps his large, armored knuckles against the door and takes a step back from the door.
The panel on the side of the door, and every door on the floor for that matter, indicates that they're locked.
Renala glances at the door, waiting. "What's the plan if she doesn't get the door?" she asks in a lowered voice.
The door across the hall, door 'B', slides open and a skinny man in his mid thirties is standing in the doorway in a dirty white tank top and shorts. "What's going on out there?" he asks angrily, his eyes darting between Renala and Mendez. He looks over the armored figures and takes a step back.
Mendez goes to answer Renala as the door slides open. Upon hearing the man, he turns towards the door and takes a step towards him. "We're here to see our friend." he says, folding his arms across his chest in an attempt at posturing up.
Renala turns around, as well, but remains where she is. She nods at Mendez' words, but has nothing to add herself.
continues to look between the two, but remains within his home. "No you're not." he insists, shaking his head, "Everybody knows Jonny ain't been here in over a week. What-... What are you doing here?"
Mendez takes another step towards the man, "How about you mind your own fucking business before I show you what we're doing here?"
Renala shakes her head as the door goes shut, and enables her omni-tool. "I take it we're done waiting for any signs of life in there?" she bobs her head towards the apartment where Perkins live.
Mendez turns and shrugs at Renala indifferently. "Do it." he says, nodding towards the door to apartment A. He leans against the wall on the other side of the door and begins watching down the hall towards the other doors.
Renala steps towards the door and taps on her omni-tool. She watches her program try to connect to the door's systems, and if successful, tries bypassing the security measures in it.
The program successfully connects to the door's systems. After a few moments of Renala performing her digital wizardry, the panel goes blank. It flashes red a few times in rapid succession before going solid and turning green.
Renala looks at the door nervously before stepping back when the panel goes green. "Hate it when it does that," she mutters to herself.
Mendez gives one more look down the hall before reaching across and slapping a hand on the panel. "Not bad, princess." he says, "Not bad at all."
The door slides open revealing the small apartment's living room. A dirty old couch is unfolded into a pull-out bed in the middle of the room. A few pairs of mens dirty clothes sit beside the bed. A small screen hangs on the wall opposite of it. A small kitchen is connected to the living room, tucked into a corner with a small divider separating it.
Beside the couch-bed is a desk with a terminal and a picture frame on top of it. A single open door off to the side of the living room leads to a tiny bathroom that the pair would be able to see as soon as they stepped in. An odor like old gym socks would hit the pair as soon as the door opened.
Renala grimaces at the smell as she steps inside the room, glancing around for any signs of life. "This place's security is as maintained as that elevator," she says, "but yeah, thanks."
Mendez steps into the room behind Renala, nearly stepping back outside once the smell hits him. "Jeeze. That's... That's somethin' else." he says, waving a hand in front of his face.
Once inside the room, the two would be able to see a large banner with the words 'New York Giants' hanging above the couch. On each side of the banner is a large, framed picture of a football player wearing a New York Giants jersey.
Mendez glances at the banner and nearly cracks a smile. "See that?" he asks, pointing at the banner, "I knew he was a good guy. I need a picture for Jason." he continues, poking at his omni-tool to follow up on his statement.
Renala frowns, glancing around. "Yeah, probably didn't deserve whatever happened," she says, "but I don't think two people lived in here. I know my last bondmate would have killed me if it looked like that at home."
Mendez nods, agreeing with the asari. He kicks at the pile of dirty clothes beside the bed. "Not seeing any women's clothing, either."
Renala nods as she approaches the terminal. "That's true," she says. "I could check the terminal, but uh... it's not something I do if we have better options."
Mendez calls out from the bathroom, "I don't know what to tell ya, princess. Do what you gotta do. Doesn't seem to be much of importance in here." He comes back into the living room after a moment, "But a woman definitely wasn't staying here. No... Feminine products. Only one toothbrush as well."
The picture in the digital frame depicts two people, a man and a woman. The man is definitely the one from the picture shown by Jason of Jonathan Perkins. The woman looks to be about his age. The two are sitting on a couch and the large Giants banner can be seen on the wall behind them. They're smiling large, toothy smiles, and the woman is resting her head on the man's shoulder.
The frame itself has a Giants logo on the side of it, as well as a small notice recognizing it as official merchandise of the International Football League.
Mendez puts his hands on his hips and looks around. "Why would he live here?" he asks, "Hnipinn Minerals isn't a bad place to work... There's no way he couldn't afford better than this." He shakes his head and makes his way towards the kitchen.
The kitchen table has a single plate on it with remnants of food caked to it. Bugs are buzzing around the plate and a pungent odor cuts through the air around it.
Renala doesn't really recognize either the sport or the team's name. She glances over her shoulder. "Maybe he was saving his credits for something big," she suggests She taps on the terminal to start it, seeing if it has any sort of security.
The terminal lights up, displaying a simple background with the Giants logo as well as the team name, Giants, beneath it. A small input box pops up requesting a password.
Mendez grabs the plate and tosses it into the sink, making a disgusted face as he does, "Maybe. But what would be so important to save up for that you would subject yourself to this kind of life?" he asks as he turns on the water, hoping to wash some of the rotten food off of the plate.
Renala hums thoughtfully. "Whatever these Giants are," she mutters, "he seems almost obsessed with it." She enables her omni-tool and starts working on it to see if she can get past the login screen. "I don't know the guy, so it could be anything."
A brute force program would most likely work, but it would certainly take a bit of time to cycle through every password combination.
Mendez turns off the water and opens the fridge. "The New York Giants." he shouts from the kitchen, pushing a few things around in the fridge, "Football. It's a sport back on Earth. He must be a pretty big fan."
Mendez closes the fridge and returns to the living room, taking a position against the wall beside Renala. "I used to play back on Earth." he says, folding his arms across his chest, "When I was younger, I mean. Thought I was going to go all the way with it, too." He reaches down momentarily and pats his knee, "Took a pretty big hit and messed up my knee."
Renala uses something more sophisticated than brute force, trying to access the lower levels of the operative system without really logging in. "I'm sorry to hear that," she says. "I was never that big on sports myself, aside from watching it now and then."
Renala's digital wizardry is a success! Permitting her access to the terminal. There doesn't appear to be much on it aside from a program for sending and receiving mail, a few extranet bookmarks (Mainly football related. More specifically, Giants related), and some personal spreadsheets containing Giants information.
Renala tries to check the dates in the sent mail, as well as browsing history, hoping to get an indiciation of his last use of it.