A Long Distance Call
A phone call from Colorado, USA.
Michael
While the others are up at the castle having their second dip into the simulation, a very earnest young British Army officer, a Lieutenant, knocks briskly on the door of the Ransoms’ guest house.
"Sir, there’s been a long-distance call for you from the United States, from Colorado. They said it’s urgent.”
They’ll likely only be able to patch the call through at the radio shack, so if Archie wants to head over there, Marshall and Mitch can lay out what’s going on in Colorado.
Rob
Archie will certainly take the call. He assures Melanie it’s nothing to worry about, gives Charley a look that hopefully conveys, “I’ll fill you in later,” and hurries over to the radio shack.
Brant
Marshall sound a bit riled up. "Hey there, Archie? You can hear me fine? OK. So. Look, I'm not going to pussy foot around this thing. I'm here with Mitch -- we're in my suite, I think this line is secure on our end -- and we've run into a bit of a thing. We've got a, uh, active irruptor situation here. A Taurus. It confronted us last night and forced us into a conversation out in the garden ... "
“It, erm, it was like that thing we handled in Oakland. You know, with the musician? But older. It said it's been here a long time, since the '20s. Whatever. Anyway. It warned us -- OK, this is going to sound nuts, but just bear with me -- that Harry Houdini, the magician? He warned us that Houdini somehow stole a forbidden or heretical ... I don't know, technique, I guess? A technique for transposing himself through solid matter. And also, living forever as a sort of ..." He mutters to himself, "Jesus Christ," before continuing: "A sort of distributed consciousness -- a ghost, I guess you could say? -- who is bound to 53 geographic points around the globe where he performed his, uh, tricks?"
“So this Taurus, he says we, Mitch and I, we need to summon or evoke Houdini here at the hotel -- I guess this is one of the 53 points -- so that he, the [codename for kusarikku], can destroy it. He says if this doesn't happen Houdini's transgression will, uh, trigger some kind of esmological event that is bad for everyone: him, us, everyone."
“Mitch and I have given this a lot of thought and we're going to do it. Hold on, hold on! I know what you're going to say. I don't think we're corrupted. I know of course we'd say that. We'll sort that out later. But pursuant to protocol, I'm contacting you to let you know about this, ah, event. So that you can figure out how to handle it with the higher-ups."
“In the meantime, though, we need to talk to Roger and Charley, I think. Just to get their advice on how best to go about doing this thing, since we only brought the one wizard with us and he says he's never done something like this before."
Jeff
"I don't think it was being truthful about the part where the world will be destroyed if we don't do this. That was laying it on kind of thick. And who knows what it thinks destroying the world even looks like, I mean, from its perspective us all living happy carefree lives is some kind of fundamental ontological sin right, I mean... ugh."
"But, you know, we're here." Mitch shrugs, despite this being a purely aural connection.
Brant
"Yeah. I mean, maybe he wants us to do this thing because it will trigger a History B event and he's just straight lying about the rest of it. But he presumably knows we'd think he's lying, so maybe he told us about it so that we would think he's lying and won't do it, and by not doing it we'll trigger some esomological crisis. Or maybe he knows we know that he knows he's lying so we will do it, and that's what he wants ... but it seems like a flimsy basket to hang your world-ending plans on, just two guys at a hotel in Colorado who happened to have drinks with a couple of retirees, so presumably it isn't a double or triple blind, and he just needs it done ..." Marshall trails off. He sounds tired and hoarse.
Rob
Archie sighs, pinches the bridge of his nose. “Hold on, fellas. Slow down. Goodness gracious.” Does Marshall sound coked up or drunk or anything?
“Listen to what you’re saying. You’ve been in contact with an active irruptor. You recognize that you may have been exposed to memetic contamination. And now you want to perform some kind of occult rigamarole, that you don’t understand, at the behest of the opposition? That sounds like a terrible idea.”
But Archie will get Roger, or send for him, if he’s available, since this does sound like Roger’s wheelhouse; but also he hopes he can get Roger, who is sensible, to talk them out of whatever they are proposing. If Roger’s in the simulation right now, he’ll ask/tell Marshall and Mitch to sit tight and not do anything crazy until Roger can call them back.
Michael
“Does Marshall sound coked up or drunk or anything?”
Rob, come on, it’s noon on a Friday, of course he does.
And yeah, given Archie’s security clearance, he too would likely know that Houdini and Wilkie are some of the pre-war predecessors to SANDMAN.
Roger is indeed in the simulation and should be done around 9, 10 p.m. GMT. OOC, I can tell you there’s no way the boys in Colorado can do anything until midnight Mountain Time at the earliest, given that the theater Houdini seems to be 1/53rd haunting is occupied by the conference throughout the day, so we have plenty of time to consult with the Colorado team before they do anything hasty.
Brant
Marshall definitely has no plans to "do anything" until they talk to Roger, if only because he doesn't know how to "do anything" until then, anyway.
He'll also say: "Arch, I get it. You know me; I get it. But look, this thing is here -- it manifested in front of us, like physically. It can project its ... thoughts into our heads and bend space and, Jesus, dilate time or something. You think I didn't try to get away? I totally tried to get away but it just ... appeared! Appeared in front of me! And what can we do? Report this to Granite Peak? They won't be able to get anyone here for at least 12 hours if even that."
"What I'm saying is I get the distinct impression Mitch and I, we don't have a ton of options. We do this thing or we don't, and if we don't, I'm not ... " Marshall trails off, "I'm not sure he -- it, whatever -- he's just going to, you know, let us get on the next chartered flight back to San Francisco."
Jeff
“If it wanted to just murder us and do a lot of damage to the timeline, it wouldn't be trying to talk to us first. As near as we can tell it doesn't even know who we are, it just saw us at the con and picked us out of the crowd. You know how that goes. With me. Anyway. This whole thing reeks of setup, we're all on the same page there, but I dunno how to deal with it beyond looking alive and trying to suss through.”
Brant
Marshall scribbles on a piece of hotel stationary: "I'm trying to get A's buy-in!"
Rob
When it sounds like Marshall and Mitch might be in actual danger, Archie’s attitude changes from, “what kind of nonsense has Mitch pulled Marshall into now?” to, “how can I help them?”
“Are you in danger now? Do you need a team from Granite Peak? Some kind of specialist? It may take some time, but I can call them, or Dr. Stanton.” And he will, if it’s needed.
If it sounds like they’re not in immediate danger, Archie tells them, “Roger is inside Wolf’s prediction machine right now. It’s hard to explain. But he’ll be out in a couple of hours. Can you sit tight until then?”
Archie is a little reassured to hear that both Marshall and Mitch are alert to the possibility of being fooled or set up. “You know that Houdini was one of us? He worked with John Wilkie in the old SAO. So I wouldn’t be inclined to take the opposition’s word against his – good gravy, listen to what I’m saying, the man’s been dead forty years.”
Brant
"Well like Mitch said, we're not actively in danger -- if he was going to kill us or whatever he'd have done it. But I don't think telling him 'no' is a viable path." Here, Marshall winks at Mitch. "We can wait until Roger gets out of the, uh, whatever it is you just said. We have some groundwork to do in the meantime."
Rob
I wonder if Archie can hear/suspect that wink over a trans-Atlantic phone call. Nevertheless, that’s probably how they leave it. He tells them to stay safe, not to do anything hasty. When Archie gets off the call, he arranges for someone to let him know as soon as Roger and Company are out of the simulation. And when he’s back at the guest house, if/when there’s a discreet moment, he gives Charley a very brief rundown of what the call was about.
Brant
Once they're off the phone, Marshall lights a cigarette and goes to stand by the window, then says. "That thing with Archie, you gotta understand, he did some time in Korea. I don't know the details, and you're probably too young to remember. It was a bad scene for him. He did some things I'm sure he didn't want to do. Anyway, you can usually get him on board with something if he thinks there's a possibility for, uh, pain or violence, or whatever."
“I say all that just so you know. Future reference. I agree with you that this thing isn't planning on, I dunno, turning us into a fine mist right now."