|1| Whatever It Takes || Code 8: Connor Reed

11. Discuss

"Hey, I think that Davis is here." Griff called out and Victoria was whistling for everybody, who were quickly heading downstairs to the basement in a wave.

Connor and Victoria were swiftly just meeting up with Davis in the entry hall, while Jordan and Griff were waiting in a sort of dining room with Pav.

Victoria quickly smacked the back of Garrett's head on the way past him and Garrett glared at her, but she was already walking quickly into the meeting room. Victoria sat down on an older oak desk in the corner, while the others were sitting on the chairs.

"Catch." Jordan tossed the metal bracelet through the air and Victoria caught it, before she quickly spun it on her finger and tossed it back to Jordan quickly.

"Hey, can we please focus here?" Davis asked and Jordan caught the bracelet, before she looked over at him and put the bracelet onto her wrist again.

"What can we do? He's really well-protected and he has got a whole lot of favors built up from climbing the ladder so quickly." Victoria remarked and Davis nodded.

"I don't care about me." Connor bluntly was interrupting, what was beginning to turn into a staring contest between Victoria and Davis. "I'll testify, do whatever time I have to, as long as King goes away and Pav gets the protection that she needs." Victoria stared at Connor, about the mention of "doing time" and she was lucky that the kids weren't in the room at the words.

"I can't guarantee that." Davis replied and Connor turned to stare at him.

"Why not?" Connor asked.

"Because Connor, this isn't the first time that somebody has attempted to take down a ridiculously corrupt King." Griff said from the corner of the room and Connor looked over at him, his eyebrows lifting in surprise. Griff moved his shirt to the side and there was a very clear scar from a needle, as Connor raised his eyebrows and Pav let out a choked noise at the sight of the familiar scar. "I was trying to help Park and one of those dogs, it very nearly killed me. Park, he got it off of me, told me to run and after that, I never saw him again." Griff silently moved his shirt back into place. "When I went back the next day, both of them were gone."

"When was this?" Victoria asked after the story was over and Griff sighed, looking over at her with a shake of his head.

"Not too long after Connor went to prison." Griff admitted and Victoria sighed quietly, before she pinched the bridge of her nose between forefinger and thumb and nodded.

"Griff is right." Davis said and everyone turned back to Davis, as he was speaking up. "We are not the first person to try and take down this guy. But he has the chief of police, and the mayor, all backing his run at the union." He shook his head. "As long as King is a PR Asset, nobody is going to go against him. My former partner, he learned that the hard way."

"Then how do we make him not be an asset anymore?" Connor asked and Victoria was looking over at him, before she was messing with a bunch of water that she had taken out of a bottle on her side.

"Isn't that the million-dollar question?" Victoria asked sarcastically and everyone was staring at her. "I'm just being a realist, people. Unless we can somehow force King to tell the truth about the dogs and what he did to Tarak, Mina and even Park, he isn't going to speak up and nothing is going to get done." Victoria pointed out.

"You're right, again." Davis pointed out and Victoria nodded, before she was quickly now letting the water flow back into the bottle at her side.

"We will have to show people what he did." Pav interrupted quickly and then Victoria was turning to look at the youngest in the room, who was leaning forward in her chair. "It all has to come out. What he did to Tarak, what he did to Mina, what his dogs did to you." She pointed at Griff, who shrugged awkwardly. "It all has to come out."

"Yeah, that could work. But, how in the hell could we actually pull it off then?" Victoria asked and Pav was clearly back to thinking hard, shaking her head as she was thinking about it and Victoria sighed.

"Hey. What about those dogs?" Garrett asked loudly, surprising everybody when he actually spoke up for a change.

"What about them?" Davis asked in clear confusion as Victoria's mind was already catching onto what Garrett's idea was.

"Pav, do the dogs learn?" Victoria asked and Pav was looking over at her with lifted eyebrows with questions in her eyes. "The dogs, I mean. Do they learn, do they use what scenarios they've been introduced to already, in order to learn?"

"Yeah, I could feel it when the dog came at me." Pav replied. "They keep it in a backup drive, they store it and they learn from the scenarios, just like Victoria said."

"Could we steal one from the precinct?" Garrett wondered.

"You wouldn't get within a mile of it." Davis replied realistically and Victoria looked around at the people in the room, suddenly realizing that the atmosphere was changing in the place and it was more than likely, because they were getting closer and closer to their goal. "But King does keep his personal unit at his house."

"Why don't we just kill him? And take the dog." Garrett said and Victoria sighed, swiftly shaking her head at Garrett's words.

"Then the cops will never stop hunting us." Victoria snapped at her brother, before she winced at the way that the words had come out. "Uh, no offense, Davis."

"None taken, kid." Davis replied as he was shaking his head. "Anyways, I am just going to pretend that I didn't hear that. If you think that you have a lot of heat on your backs now, what do you think is going to happen if you take out a cop? Your sister is right, the others won't stop hunting you. Ever." Davis said.

"Look, even if we could get one." Connor interrupted again, trying to bring the topic back to where it needed to be. "How do we get whatever's on it, well, off of it?" Connor questioned.

"Pav can do it." Garrett replied, since he knew the answer to that question and Victoria was nodding in acknowledgement of the words, much to Connor's disgust.

"No." Connor said at once.

"Connor, do you have a better idea?" Victoria asked and after a reluctant few seconds, Connor was shaking his head. "Exactly." Victoria said as she was looking over at Pav, who was nodding at the words.

"I can do this. Just get me something to transfer it to." Pav said and Victoria nodded.

"I've got the equipment at the Towers." Garrett spoke up again. "We can do it there." He explained and Victoria was narrowing her eyes at him, before she was reluctantly nodding at the words. "You know, I have always liked that jacket." Garrett said to Davis, who looked at him like he was insane.

"All right, we have a plan." Victoria said and silently, she was just holding out her hand towards Davis, who shook it quickly and she was walking out of the room.