James Kerlan, a CIA officer looks at data, on his computer as its a late night. He sighs deeply, eyes tired from looking at screens all day, as he turns to a picture... of him, and his wife. He smiles at the picture deeply, but with grief. She went missing 4 months ago... it hit him hard. As a man already making progress, climbing the ladder of the CIA. He worked hard... involved himself directly in her case best he could. Closest he got was a gang. The Al Carbenera Gang of LA. A small gang, focused on money, and jobs for clients. They do too many kidnappings... he sighs deeply. Rubs his head. He knows she is alive... uninjured... its how many of the kidnappings going around go, for the few that are found at least. It confuses him, as he looks at various cases of disappearances. He sees several, kids, kidnaped by gang, adult, kidnaped by gang. Its... weird. He rubs his head. As his instincts tingle... why is there so many kidnappings?
He opens some programs, and writes some code. As he cobbles together a statistical tracker for kidnappings by month. As he clicks run... it sits for a while, as it makes a spreadsheet, and soon he opens it. As he sets things up, he frowns at the data... high... but stable. Rather stable. 8 people a month, across the entire state of California, he looks, and frowns. Seeing he accidently filtered the data by only gang kidnappings that were never solved. He frowns deeper. Countless... small time gangs. He frowns deeper, and deeper. "Someone... is doing something." He looks at the data, expanding the data set, moving the data around. He comes to one conclusion... "Someone has been hiring small gangs for kidnappings... and at a stable rate... for a long time." As he sees the pattern going back 9 years at least.
Its the next day, as he sits in a meeting with a few others. He says "So... as you can see the pattern is very suspicious." The collages nod, with Ann saying "Yes... i see. But i suppose we need more proof. I would recommend we start with speaking to the smaller gangs that have connections to this. Some have been arrested for suspicions before." He nods. As soon, a week later he sits in front of a young white man with tattoos. "Yo. What you want?" He says "Information, if you help on this case it could lower your sentence." The man frowns. "What information." He says "Regarding kidnappings. We know your gang is involved in kidnappings, who hired for them." The man frowns deeply, as his hands begin to shake. "I-I have no idea dude." James sighs "Its ok. This is a safe place to speak." The man shakes his head. "Look, i have no clue. Just... not the type of... thing talked about c-casually." James says "That's fine, we have time. What do you know about Elan Tanler?" He asks the name of one of there kidnaping victims. The man shakes his head "No clue." In another interview. "- know about kidnappings?" The black man finches. "No... idea. None. Sorry, i will be no help here." In another interview, "kidnappings?" The man shakes his head, and nervously tweaks out "No fucking clue man! None. None." 3 weeks in, he sits across from a older man. As he says "You are a informant of the Black Dog gang. I want to know what you know regarding there kidnappings. In exchange... less time on your sentence." The old man shakes his head, as his hands slowly shake. He is quite for too long. "You should not touch such things." The next day, James hands shake, as he reads a headline... that old man died today, in the early morning. He frowns, and throws the paper in anger at the wall. He sighs, siting in a chair.
Soon, James sits in a meeting. "All i am requesting is the help of witness protections. As in this case the last man simply died the next day. All our evidence thus far shows that someone is behind all this." His boss sits in front of him, reading the documents. As he sighs deeply. Rubs his head. "J-James... i will be frank... don't follow this case." There is a quite in the room. James says "What do you mea-" The man interrupts "Stop. This... there is some lines we can't cross... without the harm being too big on us. There is a reason this case is so hard, i will not support you following it... i-i... i can't risk it." James... soon sits at home. Drinking alcohol, as he looks at the photo of his wife. He is quite. "What... is this?" He is quite. "I... love you." He looks up at the sky... "Why... why do they even need kidnappings? What would they need them for? Why such diversity?" There is a quite. He shakes his head, looks at the photo "8... people a month... 96 a year... across 9 years or more." He is quite. "Children... Men, Wives..." He shakes his head "I need to do this."
The cases is ended, as James sits on his computer at work, he notes the case he was assigned too. He frowns, shakes his head. Ignoring it. As he looks at his data, and the interview lo-... he frowns. His interview logs are gone. He freezes in place. Quite for too long. 'They are in the computers!' He thinks, as his hands move back, looking at his computer with distrust. Three days pass, as James sits in a small room in his house, with a personal computer, as he writes down details on documents, looking up various gangs. As soon... he arrives at a hacker channel online. As he speaks to someone in private on discord. "I have a job for you. I need information on these kidnappings." As he posts the documents, and the hacker responds "10k." He eventually sends 5k, and waits for results.