The Path to Love: A Sonny Carisi Love Story

25: Forced Help

Sonny and Finn get the 2 perps with an easy sting. We get the line-up set up within the same day and I walk Sarah into the room. "Now, all you have to do is look at the men and see if they are in there. That's it. If you see them, tell us their number." I explain before walking her to the window. She nods telling me she understands and we step closer, opening the blinds. "Okay, Sarah, do you recognize anybody?"

It takes her less then 7 seconds before she says "yeah, number three. He groped me."

I nod my head and say "okay, next window. Anyone here?"

Again, taking her only a few second she says "yeah, that slope-browed son of a bitch, number 2."

"Great." I put my hand on her back moving her out of the room. "Have fun with that, counselor." I smirk back at the smug man lucky enough to defend these two scumbags. "Great job, Sarah. We're gonna be able to charge them, and the D. A. will be in touch." I explain.

"Oh, but we'll be able to keep it quiet, right? It's this big launch on Tuesday, and if anything interferes with that, Raina will, like, kill me." She asks, worried about her boss and the game about to be released.

"Okay." I say simply, not really sure why she's so worried about the game after being assaulted. It took less then 24 hours before the arrest went viral. The team sits around the TV screen, reading the different outlets. "This is what Sarah was afraid of. These comments, they're some pretty vicious stuff." I shake my head looking at them.

"Nice work, Gary and Zack, taking one for the team. Hope they gave it to her real good" Sonny reads one out loud. "They're treating the guys like heroes."

"They're not." Finn says,

"Look at this video." I point to the one underneath the post Sonny read "this guy's got a ton of hits."

The voice is altered but a single individual male stands in front of the camera. "Gary and Zack are sacrificial lambs crucified on the altar of political correctness. That slut Sarah got off easily. Do not go where you're not wanted, bitches."

"I hope we didn't just give the haters a recruiting tool." Sonny shakes his head after the video is done.

"Guys, unless there's a specific threat, there's nothing we can do about it." Benson says, leaving the four of us and going back to her office.

I let a deep breathe out and tell them "well, I'm going home to get some sleep. Night everyone!" I say to them with a wave. I get a call from Sonny a little after 10 "what is it?" I ask him, wondering if we've got a new case.

"Raina just got SWATted, you should get back here." He explains.

"Alright. Should I head over to her place?" I ask him, already up and and working on getting my shoes on.

He replies "Finn and Rollins got that, I'll catch you up when you get here." He hangs up and I take a taxi to the precinct to cut on time. Once inside, Sonny shows me the video that was live streaming of her getting SWATted. "Pretty intense for the viewers." He pauses it once it's over.

I shake my head "and for her. What are the forums saying?" I ask him, wanting to see if what the internet scum had to say about this. We caught the gropers this way, maybe other like minded slime will try to brag online as well. Sonny pulls up the forum and we begin to scroll through the comments, reading post after post about Raina and her terrible game. "This isn't good." I mumble as I read another.

We begin flagging on our screen the threats most credible and worth looking into. Rollins and Finn return with Raina and her fiance, filling us in on everything they learned while at her apartment. Rollins steps away to grab Benson and when we return Sonny introduces her "Sarge, this is Raina Punjabi and her fiancé and business partner, Steven Kaplan."

Benson shakes their hands. "Okay. Thank you for coming in."

"I didn't exactly have a choice." Raina returns, not happy to be here.

Benson nods "I understand some serious threats have been made. They hacked your company's website?" She asks.

"We're back online." Raina clarifies.

"Anything specific?" She follows up with another question.

"Yeah." I answer, pulling their attention to the screen "they're threatening violence against Raina and her female employees."

Benson reads it off the screen "Fair warning. If Raina Punjabi dares to go through with the launch tomorrow, we'll make sure that her raped and mutilated corpse is on the front page of every feminist blog by next week."

Sonny adds "that's a specific threat, not protected by free speech."

"And here's another one of his threats," I pull up the video and hit play"that slut, Raina, deserves all the pain that's coming to her. Her game is derivative, mind numbing garbage. She's a whore. She used sex to get where she is, and if she and her social justice warriors don't leave gaming now, we will make them." "And there are dozens of others like this. Threatening rape. Threatening attacks during the launch at the Birch Pavilion." I tell her.

"And we can't trace where these are coming from?" Benson asks.

"They upload it through the dark net just like the doxxing, so no." Finn tells her.

"Okay. And the launch is scheduled for tomorrow?" She asks Raina.

Her fiance answers "at noon."

"So would you consider postponing?" Benson questions.

Raina's eyes show how hurtful of a question that is to her. "This isn't a little lecture I invited my friends to. It is the launch event of an international game rollout. It's being live streamed in 18 countries." She continues explaining the importance of her game. "Every major gaming site is sending a rep."

"Yeah, I understand that, but these are public death threats." Benson reminds her the severity of the situation.

"All the more reason why we can't postpone." She goes on, "wver since the SWATing went viral, I'm being called the face of women in gaming. Tomorrow I'm doing an interview on CNBC. Then I'm ringing the opening NASDAQ bell."

Finn tries "I mean, you can do all that, but the launch itself, can't you tape it and stream it later."

Raina's eyes go wide and she respond "if we do that, they've won. I'm showing the world that I'm intimidated by cyber terrorists. I won't make the same mistake Sony did." She looks between all of us. "It's better to be called a bitch than a coward."

Her fiance ties to calm her "Raina."

She exhales out and says "look, I came down here, I'm cooperating, and I appreciate that you have a job to do. So just so we're clear, you have officially warned me. I accept all liability. But I absolutely do not want a visible police presence. No E. S. U. , no bomb sniffing dogs. Please." She pauses for a deep breathe then dismisses herself. "I have to go home and get some sleep." And she walks out of the precinct.

Her fiance thanks us, before following her out "thank you, Detectives."

When we can no longer here her footsteps through the halls, Benson talks "she's serious about her work, I get it. She doesn't want to be compromised. How many people are going to this thing tomorrow?"

"At least 500." I inform.

"Raina may not be worried about herself, but all the people in the audience?" Benson says out loud, something we all already considered.

Sonny comes up with an idea "yeah, we can't let this thing happen. I've got some friends at FDNY, I'm sure they could find some violations, shut the Birch Pavilion down."

Rollins disagree's with him, agreeing with Raina "Raina's right, we do that, the cyber terrorists win." Sonny purses his lips together a bit, knowing Rollins is right.

"Guys, we have the resources to keep a low key presence. Call the Birch Pavilion and coordinate it." Benson directs us and heads back to her office.

"I'm on it." Finn says moving to his desk.