NaNoWriMo Day 27

New Moon had been working with his sidekick Eclipse to find any leads on who was behind the protocol theft that The Select had intervened on. The boy, Thomas Robinson, had been working with New Moon for decades now, but because he started his life as a superhero at such an early age, he’s aged slowly and is only just now roughly 18 years olds. He met New Moon under the worst of circumstances.

Thomas grew up on the road. His father, Dean, was a basketball coach who, not wanting to miss out on time with his son, took his wife and boy on the road. Along the way, Thomas’ father was pressured and threatened by gamblers to get involved in points shaving. The mobsters behind the scandal believed Thomas to initial be on board due to strange error in communication.

The mob initially approached him with their scheme and, despite Dean’s firm assertion that he would not participate, they told him that if his team, one of the best in the league, came in under the spread against a team that had lost its first 12 games of the season, they would know he was in. In a fluke, Dean’s team not only failed to cover the spread of 17 points, they lost the game outright.

The mob presumed Dean was in on the deal and began sending him instructions about which games to shave points in. Dean still refused to participate. His teams sometimes beat the spread and sometimes lost. But at one point, they beat the spread five in a row, making the gamblers furious.

The next game was in Kane City, home of New Moon. The mobsters threatened Dean with his life if his team beat the spread. But Dean coached the same way he always did. Later that night, when Dean and his wife were on their way back from dinner, they were gunned down on the street while Thomas was back at the hotel.

Left an orphan, he was taken in by another Paul Miller, who had heard of the boy’s plight. But Paul didn’t hear of it through the news. He was investigating the case as New Moon when he first spoke to Thomas. And in that conversation, perhaps out of empathy, he shared his identity and background with Thomas. He also offered the boy a chance to catch those responsible.

Thomas would be adopted by Paul and immediately began a training regimen that was even more thorough than Paul’s. He developed his mind and body. Eventually they found the mobsters involved and handed them over to the police. Since then Thomas has continued to find by New Moon’s side in his role as Eclipse.

He’s as dedicated to fighting crime as his mentor but lacks the fanaticism of New Moon. Perhaps because he was able to find some closure in the capture of his parent’s attackers, while his teacher’s tragedy remains unsolved. He’s also not quite the detective that New Moon is, but coming in just behind the best in the world isn’t bad. And on this particular case, his help has been as vital as ever.

“I’ve been looking into purchases like you asked,” said Eclipse. “And I’ve found a few that fit what we’re looking for. I’ve looked at bulk purchases of ink and printing material, but I didn’t find anything suspicious there. Every company involved was legitimate, and the purchases weren’t out of the ordinary.”

“So that’s a dead end?” asked New Moon.

“Not quite.” said Eclipse. “I decided to look into smaller orders and see if they any of the companies matched up. Still no connection there, but I found many that appeared to be nothing more than shell corporations. If we can trace those back to a common entity, then we might have someone doing some bulk purchasing. That’s not necessarily proof of having stolen the protocols, but it might just be the best lead we would have so far.”

“Let’s hope that avenue turns up something.” said New Moon. “I’ve been looking into how the data could have gotten out. There’s no way they could have sent it out wirelessly because of the building’s shielding. But with enough power, they might have been able to relay it short distances until someone on the outside received it and stored it. But there was no evidence of any of the equipment necessary to pull that off on any of the criminals captured or at the scene.

“The other alternative is that it was transported manually. Once again, there was no evidence of that to be found. But I still can’t rule it out. We might have missed something in the battle. Perhaps a pre-programmed device that wouldn’t have need remote controlling. If the villains were able to get to the files they wanted before we got there then they might have been able to use storage small enough that we missed it in the chaos of the fight.”

“So,” said Eclipse. “We still need to assume those protocols are live and in the hands of someone.”

“Exactly.” New Moon affirmed. “With that in mind, I also think we need to assume that there’s more going on here than a simple counterfeiting scheme. The risk and costs of pulling off a stunt like this were much too high for something like that. Any printing to the level that would make it financially viable would easily go be discovered.

“So in trying to understand other motives, I’ve been looking into economics. You ever hear of the Wiemar Republic?” asked New Moon.

“Never.” said Elcipse. “You got a theory?”

“Not quite.” said New Moon. “I need to read some more and try yo understand it a little more myself before I can explain it. Keep looking into those printing materials purchases. But while you do that, I also want to know what organizations own the most helicopters, and any that may have purchased a lot of helicopters recently. Make sure you look for smaller purchases through shell companies just like you did with the printing materials.”

“I’ll let you know what I find.” said Eclipse.