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[CoffeeJedi]

[SPEC][QUESTION] McKaskill, James James, Herzog connection

[weephun]

Nobody's black. James is driving the "black taxi" AKA a taxi that drives "offline" AKA can move from city to city w/out logging the ID of who he is driving where.

With his Spartan 1.0 advanced reflexes he's able to do this. Apparently this is not a common trait, my guess is that traffic moves so quickly now with everything automated that normal people would just kill themselves driving "offline".

Probably just his job, either just random coincidence that he ends up getting the "job" to drive McKaskill ... though I'm sure there's probably more than just coincidence involved here.

[Nova]

It's an interesting question. We can assume from the context of the black_taxi and flu clips, Jan's responses in particular, that JJ does this quite often.

He provides a 'black taxi' service, that is driving without computerised driving aids in order to stay under the radar as it were. The point of that is, obviously, that it allows one to move around without being tracked. This would seem to me to be a useful service to a great many people in the Haloverse. As such, it's likely that JJ has many connections across the spook/underground community.

I don't think it's unreasonable to suggest that perhaps McKaskill doesn't know JJ at all - but he's been told that if you want to vanish when you're being looked for, JJ is the man to talk to. Or whatever alias JJ operates his little taxi business under.

[Nova]

[weephun]

OK, yah, hey, truly from all we know they could all be purple. Just was trying to say that the clip didn't specifically say that anybody was black.

[CoffeeJedi]

[Nova]

[johnny5]

Well, McKaskill certainly doesn't sound like a "weedy" white guy to my ear.
It did catch me off guard, as I was expecting a guy along the lines of "Mouse" from the Matrix.
In any case, I agree that McKaskill didn't know JJ, but either knew of him or asked the right people in order to find him.

One thing that seemed odd, it didn't sound like anybody got paid for the service. Is JJ doing this for free.

Also, did it sound to anyone else like JJ has a limp?

[Anton P. Nym]

Here's my working theory; J2's working for Herzog. Probably not directly, and through some cutouts or dead drops, but I think Herzog is paying J2's bills. Let's look at my reasons.

• J2 already has a security clearance, and has worked with ONI before.
  
• Any intelligence service would find a "black taxi" very useful for their skullduggery on Earth. Moving goods or people untraceably would come in handy for lots of intelligence operations.
  
• Herzog is actively researching what happened aboard the Apocalypso.
  
• Assuming that Herzog was the old man that McKaskill spoke with on the Apocalypso, Herzog has a vital interest in protecting him until he can be debriefed; this is best done clandestinely, especially since Captain Greene had her "accident".
  
• Moving McKaskill to a "safe house" (untraceable location) using a "black taxi" (untraceable transport) makes a LOT of sense for Herzog under those circumstances.
  
• J2 and Herzog both have expressed reservations about ONI excesses.
  
• J2 doesn't strike me as the kind to operate as a criminal, yet he does operate in an illegal manner. That suggests intelligence work to me, though that may be a bias of mine.
  
• Herzog has demonstrated a willingness to recruit operatives on Earth. (Rani, for one.)
  
• Both J2 and Herzog know more about ONI operations than they should, were they citizens or normal ONI staff.
  

There's probably some more stuff, but I've got to get back to work. I'll stop here, but please feel free to build on this.

-- Steve thinks that Herzog may be the unifying link among the clips, too, but it's too early to make that assumption yet.

[Nova]

[CoffeeJedi]

[johnny5]

I too think this is a very solid speculation.

I don't think Herzog has a high ranking, but I do think he has power through connections. Perhaps his official position is vastly different than his functional position. It would seem Standish is the one with the high ranking, but Herzog seems to be able to get around him rather easily.

Does anyone know the different "sections" of ONI and what they represent?

[Anton P. Nym]

Re: [SPEC][QUESTION] McKaskill, James James, Herzog connecti

[Anton P. Nym]

[skybruin]

According to the Assasin wave on the recipe 3 page Herzog is a Colonel which would support the spec about not being high command but having good connections.