Who: Alicia Spinnet & Pamela Knight What: Establishing the parameters of the Chicago Problem When: January 2018, a few days after their arrival in the Chicago field office Where: Their office / around town Warnings: Warnings for racist talk (Chicago is full of jerks)
“So, Auror Farro just challenged me to a duel over access to files.” Alicia had been here a few months and still did not understand most Americans. She had thought that New York City aurors were … an eclectic bunch, Chicago was different. And not quite in good ways. “This was after his partner, Reynolds, implied I should go back to China.”
Alicia tossed the files on the desk between them. The office wasn’t big. The pair of them hardly needed anything grand. In fact, this was perfect, and well away from the bullpen. “I probably shouldn’t have pretended to curse them in restaurant Korean, but I feel sorted in my choices.” She still wanted to fight him. Both of them really at this point. Or at least hex that look off his face.
"Served them right," Pamela opined. "New York has a rep for being flakes but Chicago has a rep for being assholes. There's a grain of truth to all of it. More than a grain about the Chicago team." She started to add some inside gossip on that point she'd heard from Daniel, but that wasn't something she wanted to think about or get into more than she had to. She was convinced Brigid Playfer might have connections in the Auror Office here, or the Owl might have a spy, and even with Alicia, she was careful of what she had to say inside the office. "So how hard did you put Farro into the--" she looked down at the floor and guessed "--linoleum?"
“Sadly, Director Battle interrupted. But not after I got him to agree to Hong Kong rules.” And truly she was just toying with the sad little white man at that point. “So, we’ll be having something of a dueling demonstration slash training tomorrow morning, for everyone to see.” Alicia grinned at the thought. There would be a much bigger crowd this way. Not that it was likely to make her work here any easier, but at least then they would witness her skill.
“And flakes, hmm? I might have gone with egos, although I’ve never met anyone besides McMullen so loudly from the West office. Where do you see yourself in that?” It was perhaps a little gossipy, but really a chance to get to know her partner a bit better.
"I flake the way undercover operatives flake," Pamela admitted with a wry smile. "I love New York, don't get me wrong, but it's a different kind of thing. I don't know how it works in Britain, obviously, but here the aurors in a regional office, like New York or Chicago, all get pretty tight." She found herself thinking about Daniel again and forced herself not to, continuing: "There's always hazing of new people, but mostly it's good-natured, and then people integrate. But undercover operatives are always a little separate from the rest of the group.
"I mean for someone like me, who goes into a job and is gone for three or four weeks and completely out of touch, well, you can imagine how that affects things in the office. I've been in New York forever, so most of them are used to me, but when I first came in, straight out of training, it was hard."
“I’d say you’ve learned to make do. But that’s the challenge, innit? When you have a specific talent you get sent where you’re needed rather than where you might like to stay.” Alicia wasn’t a metamorphmagus, but she did have a particular skill and agility in the field.
“Britain is … definitely a lot smaller.” That was basic, wasn’t it? In the UK they operated out of one office, here there were five apparently all with their own personality. “But then, most of the aurors and hit wizards of my age fought together as students in the last wizarding war. And now we’re ushering in the next gen while I’m being sent around the world to trying to finish the job we started.”
"Yeah, we didn't have any of that." Pamela didn't really know what to say about the war business. She never did, with Brits, probably because there was no right thing to say about having your school taken over by anti-no-Maj terrorists. Pamela would've been the right age to fight in that war, too; she was a bit younger than Alicia. "They'd've sent me to--what's the name of the old jail, the one with the Dementors? No offense, but it always really creeped me out that a government would use them at all. I'm glad that when you overthrew the Death Eaters, the new government stopped that."
There was a pause and then Pamela added, "You know about Wilkes and Ariel, right?"
Alicia nodded. She wasn’t exactly sad to see Azkaban -- or really the Dementors -- go. The Death Eaters were scum, but they didn’t deserve that kind of torture. “Aye. Wilkes was Ariel’s step dad. Certainly no love loss there. My biological father was a death eater. Family might complicate things, but it doesn’t define you.” Although, from what she could tell Ariel made some critical mistakes over the years. If she were a bigger person, Alicia might have wondered if it was her place to judge. But she really wasn’t.
"I didn't know that. Sorry if I'm bringing up troubles you don't want to talk about. But with this thing with Ariel, there's a--professional context. I don't know how many of the details you know, but Ariel's obsessed with the case and she's--" Pamela found herself sweating the difference between being critical of and betraying her friend, and picking her words very carefully "--let's just say it's hard--" impossible "--for her to be objective and professional about it. I knew that because of what happened with--with Miles--" and here Pamela looked to be sure Alicia understood what had happened or had any idea what Pamela was talking about "--but I saw it personally in Salem. Ariel's my friend and I want her to be happy but I don't think anything I do here is going to make her happy, whether Wilkes slips through our fingers or we get him.
"But in case there's any confusion or concern, I know it's going to piss Ariel off, but good if we nail Wilkes or Chicago does. As a friend, I understand that, but I'm an Auror first. Getting murderous Dark wizards off the street is what I do. And even if my friend can't separate that from what Wilkes did to her mother, I can." On this point, Pamela could be firm.
Alicia kept her face carefully neutral as she watched Pamela navigate the disclosure. Of course she had been briefed on this. She had selected her team back in NYC with intent and made sure friendships weren’t going to get in the way of business.
“Singleton lost her chance.” Alicia shrugged. “And I plan to piss her and Chicago off.” Sure, she could separate the personal and the professional, but Alicia Spinnet wanted to finally rid the world of the last death eaters. “And I appreciate the honesty, but I never doubted you were to the mission, Knight. There’s a reason we’re here together.”
Pamela relaxed a little at that, because she wanted it clear. It had become obvious to her after Salem that things weren't clear to Ariel any more if they ever had been. Playfer's escape had been shocking, but what had really gotten to Pamela was the fight she and Ariel had had under the influence of the ergot-laden beer, when Ariel had almost gone after another civilian thinking he was Wilkes. Pamela had wondered immediately afterwards if she should have let Ariel go after him, if it really was Wilkes. After Ariel had killed an innocent person under the Imperius, though, Pamela knew she'd done the right thing. Even if it had been Wilkes, which was unlikely, Pamela had prevented something terrible.
After all, if Playfer was working with Wilkes, she might well decide to get rid of him. And she had a bad habit of using her enemies to do her dirty work.
"Good," was what she said, and nodded, a little not-particularly-happy smile settling on her face, because after all, it wasn't a happy subject. "It's hard not to take some of these cases personally, which ... I guess you know that. But we have to try."
Alicia shrugged. “To some extent the job has to be personal, something to motivate you, but end of the day, when it’s on the line? You have to be a professional. You have to be able to make that line in the sand and not let emotion or empathy cloud your judgement, less you’re looking to end up dead.” And Alicia was not looking to get herself killed anytime soon.
“But I reckon you know that, with the sort of work you do. I won’t even pretend the deep undercover is the same as what I do, but there are certainly moments where I need to stop being little Ally and become someone else, someone able to finish the job, not hesitate.” There was also a very good reason why she didn’t go into details about what she did with her mother. “Of course that also has its toll. So really, complicated line of work we find ourselves in.”
Complicated was an understatement. Long-term undercover cases were hard on an Auror's life. And she was only in for the shorter of those assignments: a few weeks here, a few weeks there. There were Aurors who went under and lived it for years, like Daniel, and never got back to themselves. Her usefulness as a metamorphagus meant they'd never do that to her, but then again, her gift came with its own set of headshrinking problems. Which brought her back round to, since Alicia had arrived well after everything in Salem had started, Daniel.
"Yeah, you're right about that. You're right that it's all personal on some level, though. For me, in addition to my own gift, which made me a recruitment target, my whole family is cops. No-Maj police, sort of similar to the Hits or Patrol. So this was a natural fit for me, and even if I take it personally, I've had models for how not to all my life. I guess that's even more complicated for you, given what you said about your biological dad." The difference between biological dad and dad was clear from the way Alicia had said it. It sounded like the way some of her no-Maj friends talked about the 'sperm donor'.
“Following in your family’s footsteps, but also doing it in your own way. Learning from their mistakes.” Even if her biological father wasn’t actively involved in her life, Alicia did sometimes wonder if because of him she was so good at what she did. Even if that was true, at least she was using her powers for good. She hoped. “Lest we be doomed to repeat them.” Alicia smiled, wearily. It almost felt like this conversation was getting a bit too personal, and she wasn’t sure if that was a good thing or bad thing.
“Okay, how about we tackle these files and head out to get something to eat?”
"Sounds like a plan," Pamela said, and dove into them.
Pamela had spent enough time in Chicago to have a good idea of where the cops ate and where they didn't. She picked one of the latter food joints for lunch, because the more she thought about it, the more she thought Alicia needed to know about Liam Daniels/Daniel Williams, even if she wasn't technically cleared for that information.
Pamela couldn't entirely trust the Chicago team. She didn't believe any of them had passed on information about Daniel to Bridget Playfer, but it was just possible that one of them was on the take and had sold Daniel (Daniels) out to the Owl or one of his associates. The information could have reached her through a back channel. It wasn't like Bridget couldn't compel her allies to do something if she wanted to. Bridget had a record of doing it to her enemies.
She waited until they were in a corner booth in the pizza place with their food (ugh, Chicago pizza, the sacrifices Pamela made for this job) to bring it up. They'd been talking about various cases, mostly on this side of the Atlantic, for all that Pamela was interested in British auroring, and Pamela let it slide into the topic of undercover work. "I guess it's a lot different when you all know each other because you all went to school together. How do they even do that? Turn into someone else with polyjuice and hold the identity for as long as possible?"
“Undercover in the UK is an art. People usually get recruited through different channels. But wizarding UK is at best a small city, you essentially know everyone.” It also made dating far too complicated, and certainly no wonder why so many of the pureblood families were all related. “Luckily, my skill set doesn’t require much in terms of undercover.” Her targets often weren’t alive long enough after she finally met up with them. And those that did get survive, didn’t have much of a free life.
“Which is a whole other strange and fascinating part of my life. I don’t really hesitate when given a kill order or to bring someone in by any means necessary, but if asked to do what you do? Slip from one role into another, I’m not sure I could.”
"I'm not sure I could handle an outright kill order, but that's not something we generally do here in the States," Pamela admitted. "Certainly I've never been asked for one. But we're also generally not dealing with people like Wilkes or even Playfer. They're the exception," she hastened to add, because she realized she sounded kind of judgey and she didn't mean it that way. "I do a lot of illegal substance cases, or cases where people are endangering secrecy. It's a very different kind of job. I've got colleagues who've done long-term embeds and that seems a lot harder to me than slipping in, acting a role for a few weeks, and then shaking it off and going home and getting to be yourself again."
Pamela wondered idly whether she'd be an option for a trade abroad in exchange for Alicia when they finished this case. Could she fake a Brit? Probably not, but she could definitely handle an American wizard if they needed one.
"That was what my colleague, the one who was killed in Salem, was doing. Long-term embed." While Pamela assumed Alicia knew that much, having read up on the case, she had no idea what Alicia's clearance was and how much of the backstory she was aware of.
“Aye, long term embed who likely got burned, which I’m sure we are both smart enough to put two and two together.” Sure, Alicia was here for Wilkes, but there was a leak in the department and it already resulted in one dead auror, as well as some grievous injuries.
Pamela nodded, because she'd wondered about that even before things had fallen out so badly in Salem.
“It wasn’t exactly an accident that of everyone from Salem, that you were put on this case with me, Knight. Not just because of clearance, but people who could be trusted.”
"I'm not above screwing up but I'm not too full of myself to admit it." That was about all Pamela could manage to say about her own conduct in Salem without getting into cursing about what a screwup she'd been. But not as much of a screwup as some of her colleagues even if people had ended up dead on her watch. Just not from her wand.
But that did bring back round what Pamela had been thinking about all day: whether Alicia knew about Daniel's (Daniels') dual identity. Carefully picking up her slice of tomato soup, Pamela asked, "How much do you know about Daniel's background? Did you see his file?"
“Not the whole file. Don’t have the sort of clearance and it hasn’t seemed relevant to ask for more.” Alicia wasn’t a detective, she wasn’t here to put the pieces together, although she would if they splayed out in front of her. That wasn’t her training and why she tended to be partnered with those good at the task. “I know he was in deep, working an angle in Salem. Now that we’re in Chicago, can’t help but think there are ties back here, but nothings been said officially.”
She leaned back, casually, carefully. Alicia pulled out a small button from her pocket. Nothing fancy to look at, but with some pretty fancy spell work to ensure privacy around them. “Although something tells me you might have theories and things to share. And if so, I’m all ears.”
Pamela looked down at the device, nodded, and smiled at Alicia. Now they were talking.
"I do have access to the whole file, or at least a lot more of it, because I needed it as background for the job in Salem. There's a lot of stuff about his undercover work in it. The things he'd been involved with, 'selling' Auror toys to the Chicago syndicate and so on. He wormed his way into the Owl's trust and ultimately found out about a substance--which we're pretty sure is ergot--that was going to cross the Statute line and cause mass panic on both sides. And Playfer was clearly up to her ass in it, at least the ergot piece. I don't know that this means the Ellwoods are involved with Wilkes except to the extent that Wilkes is connected to Playfer and that the ergot distribution is linked to Playfer and back to the Owl and the rest of the syndicate.
"This all might also tie back to a case a number of years ago where Miles and I helped bring down a section of the syndicate in New York. We arrested the head of the Brunetti clan and put him away in the Tombs for twenty-five to life. New York distribution collapsed for a while after that and then Chicago and Boston tried to muscle in before New York could build back up. It's still pretty wild in parts of Manhattan but the turf lines are shaking out.
"The key thing for us, though, is the throughline between ergot and Playfer and Wilkes, because we can expect to see Playfer come back to haunt us if she really is up to something with Wilkes. And the use of the fancy-schmancy Imperius variant suggests she's been toying with a lot of Unforgivables. I've heard that's a Death Eater trick--what do you think?"
Alicia listened. Although there no was immediate spark, no obvious solution or course of action. In fact, the more she heard, the more it made sense why she would be brought in. She didn’t have any ties here, wasn’t dirty by any stretch of the mind, and had strong motivation. Which actually was a fair point. “I’d reckon that if they brought me in, they might think that Wilkes is a key pin in the crime scene in Chicago and soon to be Northeast. I mean they could have brought any number of assets in, but they wanted a blade with sharp focus to find the last of the death eaters.”
“And you’re not wrong. Imperius was certainly a favorite of many death eaters, get others to do your bidding and try to keep your hands cleaner. That was more the smarter ones.” She paused. There was an unkind thought she didn’t like, but now she needed to say it. “Can’t help but wonder if this is all part of a bigger game. The panic on both sides would cause mistrust in the government, things are already a bit wonky after Salem. If I was playing the long game, I might want to use this chaos to trigger a revolt, but who then stands the most to gain if the Ministry - or rather Congress starts to crumble?”
Pamela shook her head. "I'm the wrong person to ask. My family is no-Maj. I know Ben's mother is a big wheel and I've met a lot of people like her that I know are important, but I don't have the context to put it together. Now if you were going to ask me about breaking secrecy and what that was likely to do to the no-Maj and magical communities in the tri-state area, I could give you some useful ideas. Which might not be a bad question, either, if someone is trying to screw MACUSA over." She pronounced it the American way, mack-koo-sa. "I don't know what the tensions are like in Britain now, but there's always been a lot of trouble here."
Okay, so neither of them were politicians. They didn’t need to be. They were assigned this because of their particular skill sets. “Alright, so we don’t know all the facts, and are probably interfacing with a larger play. I’ve been in worse situations.” Although it was said lightly, it held a bit of darker truth to it.
“But let’s focus on what we do know. I’m here to take care of Wilkes, you’re here because you’re a top undercover asset and you know those players. There’s a good chance there is a mole in the NYC office, but what about Chicago? Are there any aurors, undercover or otherwise, in Chicago that you would trust?”
Pamela had to stop and give that a good think, going through what she knew about the office, what she knew from the Daniels file, and what she'd observed in the last few days on the job. "Honestly, no. I should have talked to Grant; he'd have a better idea. He was working out of Chicago for a while and I did a couple of jobs with him. But honestly it's probably better that I didn't talk to him, because now nobody can say that I was nosing around for that kind of information. Also, he's good at his job, but given who he is--he's the sort of person who'd be a target of an influence op. He's not in a great position to observe from the bottom anywhere."
“And yet Grant is also one of the American royalty in the I get to make wicked elementals without my wand.” It wasn’t jealousy as much as it might be better described as academic interest. Wandless magic was always some of an interest to Alicia - mastering it was a whole other realm of possibility that was out of reach. For better or worse, she needed her eleven inch aspen with dragon heartstring core to make things happen.
“Alright, so it’s just you and me against the all else. Let’s show them how it’s done.”