Roger Meets the Comte
Michael
Okay, Bill, if you want to give me a layout of what you're doing at the hotel and when, I would appreciate it. Not sure if you need to have an early-morning Renshing at Livermore or not beforehand for any skills. Obviously Stealth and Lockpicking cover the B&E part, but placing the surveillance rigs might require a different skill like Electronics Operation (Surveillance).
Bill
I admit to always being slightly annoyed that Electronics Operation (Security) doesn't cover surveillance (except "area-surveillance" which I guess is heat sensors and the like.). Roger did ask Mitch for help above doing the basic setup before placement, just for this reason. Rather than lose the Hebrew trying to Rench in a skill just to get rid of a -4 defaulting penalty, I'll use Wild Talent to get the same IQ base I'd have in EO (Security) anyway. Hopefully a 12 or less, plus Mitch help, plus equipment bonuses, plus taking more time, will give a good chance. It'd be the same difference to get in there and use Papa Legba to get his +4 to counter the -4. So, Wild Talent.
So, the plan is, get to the hotel very early in the usual white van, put on the usual overalls, pull out the usual clipboard with a fake work order on it, and wait. As soon as Uri and group leave, since they left early (to get to SRI from the airport by 10am, they must have), he'll go in then, so as get in before room cleaning starts in earnest after normal check-out time (11, guessing). He'll scope out the loading dock; if no one's there, he'll try a little Stealth to get in, if not, he'll try a little worker camaraderie on anyone taking a smoke break, a little Fast Talk to enter via the back, and work through back corridors using a little Spanish charm/Fast Talk on any cleaning ladies going by, if they even ask. He'll get to Uri's suite, check the door for hairs/button/tape on the edge, circumvent that, Pick the lock, put the Do Not Disturb/No Cleaning placard on the doorknob, and get to work. He'll scan for any devices someone might have set up to monitor the room, just in case. (Mossad has him a little spooked, see what I did there?). He will do a cursory Search of usual hiding places: under the mattress, etc, but not really tearing the place up; just opportunistic. Then he'll go with his gut plus Mitch's instructions, and take some careful time to plant bugs under the suite meeting table and somewhere near the bedside phone (not in it, unless Mitch's stuff requires that.) He should have quite a bit of time in the room with no one coming in probably until around 11. Then he's out, checking the hallway through the peephole until it's empty, resetting the knob placard, any hairs/button/tape stuff, and head out down the back staircase..
Michael
I love it. I'll put together a suite of rolls tonight when things calm down a bit for me.
Given you'll have your standard workman's disguise, I think we'll start with a Streetwise-16 (bonuses assessed for Extra Time) roll to get into the building: as you say, you can either find a way to chat your way in or find the weak spots in the workers' routines. Lockpicking, similarly, you'll take as much time as you can, so just roll it against Lockpicking-14 and I'll assess based on who might be passing by in the hallway. And then I will do a Search-11 roll secretly to see what you find on the door, in the rooms, etc. with Extra Time assessed by me. And finally yeah, Wild Talent, Electronics Operation (Surveillance)-12 with, again, Extra Time assessed after the roll by me depending if anything or anyone distracts you.
Summary of rolls: Streetwise-16, Lockpicking-14 (a failure is not necessarily a failure due to possible Extra Time) Electronics Operation (Surveillance)-12 (a failure is not necessarily a failure due to possible Extra Time)
Bill
Streetwise 16-
>>>> SUCCESS by 6
Lockpicking 14-
>>>> SUCCESS by 0
Electronics Surveillance 12-
>>>> SUCCESS by 2
Michael
Damn, not bad at all. The Extra Time gained from the successful Streetwise roll will allow Roger a sense of which floors and rooms are going to get made up first, the routines of the house staff, etc. And given all four rooms are on the same floor, this will be key for getting the extra time for a little bit more Searching on both the door, for other listening/surveillance devices, and among Uri and company's materials. The placement of the surveillance devices also goes swimmingly. One thing I can tell you: no tricky "hair laid across the doorframe" methods of black bag detection on any of the four rooms and a quick toss of Hannah's room shows nothing unusual. But here's what Roger finds in the rooms of the men.
Uri's room: Uri travels with a wardrobe. Both mainstream and edgy fashion designers, almost all European labels, he obviously takes a lot of pride in his appearance. In his baggage and in the room are no books or reading material that Roger can see, no obvious signs of booze, pills, or drugs, and no big stacks of money. Roger does notice of all the four suites, this is the only one with a safe, though. No surveillance devices, no electronics.
Andrija's room: About as different from Uri's room as can be. His luggage isn't hung up, and his suitcase is half-full of clothes, half-full of books and notebooks. Books on UFOs, channeling, new religious movements, Theosophy, ancient mysteries (von Däniken's corpus as of 1973 is well-represented), academic papers and yes, even some photocopied CIA reports from SCANATE and older psychic programs from the '60s located at Fort Detrick and at Langley. A portable typewriter, stationery, and, tucked into one of his suitcase's zipper compartments, a plastic baggie of what looks like 50 or 60 Seconal. No surveillance devices, no electronics.
Shipi's room: Shipi's clothes are neat and well-arranged in the closet like in Uri's room, but his wardrobe is much more functional and generally conservative. He has a couple of paperback novels—espionage thrillers—by his bedside and a full itinerary of Uri's stay in the States. It doesn't differ from what URIEL was able to gather but Roger commits it to memory anyway because it's got details on stuff Uri didn't tell anyone, like hanging out with celebrities and such in Los Angeles during the Carson visit. Hidden and disassembled among the zip compartments in Shipi's suitcase is what looks like a micro radio transmitter of some kind. Tiny microphone (state-of-the-art but NOT TL7+1) and earpiece as well as what looks like a simple telegraphy key. If Roger was a betting man, he'd guess this is the send-receive radio that is used with Uri's implanted radio tooth. It can pick up ambient sound as well as transmit Morse Code (like those card cheaters in the movie Casino) and fit inside a pocket or be sewn into clothing. Either Shipi is not packing it today on the trip to SRI or this is a spare.
If there's anything else Roger wants to spend a little more time on searching or analyzing in any of the rooms, feel free to let me know. And as Roger finishes up in Uri's room (we'll say he saved it for last) a note on hotel stationery is slipped under the door.
(and a reminder, we've booked a room on the floor below the suites to handle recording the bugs, so we have a base of operations here if we need it)
Leonard
Jocasta will quickly book over to the hotel. She’s not wearing formal clothes so hopefully it’s not that kind of dinner, but she’s dressed professionally in an office-worker kind of way. She’ll throw on a long tousled brunette wig and some differently styled makeup just in case Price catches a glimpse, and she’ll toss a small duffel in the car with some basic equipment — a black bag, some sodium pentathol, a pistol ikoter and her own piece, a small tape recorder, a knife, a first aid kit, standard interrogation stuff if needed.
Michael
Love it. Gonna wait to hear from Bill on any likely further steps and then I'll have him read the note.
Bill
Roger’s OK w/o checking out Uri’s room safe this trip. There could be other opportunities. It’d be great to know the frequency the transmitter uses, but there’s no time for analysis. But just knowing which of the crew has it is useful enough. Roger cleans back up what he moved as best he can.
When the note arrives, he listens until he’s sure the person is gone, as annoying as not knowing who it was, to be safe. Then he looks at the note.
Michael
When the note arrives, he listens until he’s sure the person is gone, as annoying as not knowing who it was, to be safe. Then he looks at the note.
Roger opens the note and finds the handwriting on the piece of Hilton stationery oddly familiar, in a way that puts him vaguely in mind of the Louisiana side of his family, the letters old-world in style; cultured, continentally rococo, full of swirling curlicues and cursive flourishes. It is written in a slightly archaic style of Parisian French, almost a français classique. It reads:
À notre cher M. Martínez: Si vous nous faisiez le plaisir et le privilège de nous rejoindre sur le toit de l'hôtel dans 15 minutes, nous avons un message pour vous—tant vous êtes doué pour faire passer des messages entre les mondes — pour notre compagnon commun « Monsieur Hort ».
Nous restons, votre humble et obéissant serviteur, M. le Comte.
Bill
Roger folds up the note, a look of worry on his face. He goes to the bedside phone, and quickly dials the answering service. “Message for Mitch Hort. Message should read: I’ve run into his friend, M. le Comte, and I’m going to meet him. If I’m late getting back, he should look me up with his friend here at the hotel. Try to call in soon.”
He wipes down the headset, grabs his stuff, and heads out into an empty hallway and up the stairs.
Michael
Up on the roof the late-morning late-July sun beats down intensely on the concrete. (Roger had to jimmy an access door to get up here.) The hotel's TV aerials loom overhead as Roger emerges from the bulkhead so reminiscent of the St. Francis a few weeks ago. But it's just San Jose out there. The sound of the airport—cabs beeping, planes taxiing—and the smell of the heat of the air hits Roger first but then he sees at a great distance on the other side of the roof two figures. One looks... ever-so-slightly hazy in the sunlight, like that hot-air-over-open-road ripple effect. He's standing tall at about 5'6" by the looks of it, wearing a sharp black suit with black shirt, dull black shoes, with dark sunglasses. His hair is closely-cropped to the skull, his face squat and wide. Standing next to him is [Will-19 roll for Roger.]
Bill
Will 19 hahaha right
>>>> SUCCESS by 8
Michael
Standing next to that hazy figure dressed all in black, Roger's subconscious mind sees the images of two overlapping figures in one. One of these overlapping images is a five-year-old boy wearing an old-fashioned suit—brown, lapels with black piping, workman's boots and a bolo tie. The boy's face bears multiple complex facial deformities: his cheeks are swelled, discolored, and lumpy, to the point where his eyes can barely be seen. The entire left side of his face and neck is covered in ropy pale burn scar tissue. The other overlapping figure is that of its true form behind the powerful field of a SANGUSH glyph: a squat, horribly-burned, nude kulullû. Roger can see the kulullû is holding the other man's hand. Fright Check, 13 or less to pass.
>>>> SUCCESS by 0
Right on.
The taller, hazy figure waves to Roger. The kulullû squats down, moving in an uncanny and uncomfortable fashion on land, stretching its legs and arms in a way a five-year-old boy never could without breaking all four limbs. Roger isn't sure if the frog-demon is praying or waving or communicating but the movements seem somehow concerted, careful. "Monsieur!" The hazy figure calls, "Here! Come here, we have so very little time!" in his archaic French.
Bill
Roger balks for a second. In his best French (which can never be as refined). “O, non non non. I don’t think so. If you have a message, I can hear you just fine from here.” He unclips the left shoulder strap of his overalls, giving himself access to his holster, but then keeps his right hand visible, but ready.
After a pause, he adds, “My good lord,” mostly for Granmere’s sake.
Michael
"Very well," the Comte shouts from across the roof. "We come because the upper world—the logos, you know—it has undergone a recent radical reconfiguration. And we would not bother to interrupt your little mission but this reconfiguration endangers the deal we have with Monsieur Hort to find his double, his sosie!" The Comte taps away at a little black rectangle in his hand; the glow emanating from the rectangle vaguely reminds Roger of his time in the GRAIL TABLE simulation of the future. "Casuality, it is all twisted and your timeline is thus tremendously unstable! Things were supposed to go a certain way and now they are not!"
The kulullû finds one awkward position to stand in, its tattered sinews and muscles quivering under the strain, and the figure of the Comte seems to suddenly grow more solid and less like a ghost image on a television set.
Bill
“I am listening, but if your boy there so much as steps forward, that stops, comprenez-vous tous?”
Michael
"I understand. The Old Man here, he is the channel, yes? These mudras focus me, allow me to be here, to be seen and heard. It would be better done on a mountain, you understand, but needs must."
"The path that would have led your circle to Mitchell's double required a single crucial element that will now not occur. A vital member of your circle has been... severed from the logos. But reconnected, like a telephone switchboard, non? The drugs these children take... they are dangerous. The Mormons were right. The vision beyond the left and right and up and soon..." The Comte pauses. "Much of this will not make sense to lower-dimensional beings."
"But yes. The reasons for this disconnection? They do not concern us. We do not pry. The results, though. Your team was due to travel soon, and those travel plans have now been changed. The place where you conceived your Bomb, yes? The saucers will need to be spotted elsewhere and elsewhen now. But you must repeat to Mitch, yes? To follow the saucers. They are like the wings of the šedu. A worm's tunnel through the apple. In the halls and chambers of the saucer, every man meets his nemesis."
He pronounces "nemesis" not as French or English but as Greek.
Bill
Roger says out loud, in English, “Follow the … saucers? Oh, saucers. Oh.”
Michael
(heh, not "sorciers" or even "sauciers")
Bill
“So, that is the message? Now what?” Roger’s right hand hovers over his left breast again, ready for the draw. “I can’t let that thing run free.”
Michael
"Come now. There is no need for us to resort to violence." The look on the Comte's face is almost like a disappointed father. "He'll soon complete his purpose." He places his palm upon the kulullû's fleshy, bulbous head as if bestowing a benediction, like a bishop blessing the young heir to a kingdom. "Maybe even he helps you with a problem coming your way, hein? His nam is interwoven with yours now, since the university fire, yes? You think They don't make mistakes? They will even admit them. History, it is fungible. We make mistakes, we erase them. The Children of the Atom, they give you problems, he can remove them. He made them. He is their father."
The kulullû grins like a lobotomized mental patient. His eyes, even at this distance, radiate plenty and joy and peace.
Bill
“Unless they or you are planning to erase what I take is your cheval in the next minute, I will have to. To try. C’est l’impasse, et je suis mexicain. Donc c’est une impasse mexicaine”
Michael
Monsieur le Comte very loudly and dramatically sighs. "Well, if you must. But the original message, he was going to leave for you. As a peace offering. He does not wish to harm you!" We assure you!" The kulullû squats down and pulls from behind him, wedged near the ledge of the building, a very similar-looking piece of Hilton-branded notepaper to the note from the Count. It was stuck under a rock near the ledge.
Bill
“Original? From whom? Aiy.” Roger’s face screws up in frustration. “Very well. D’accord. Step away from it, and we’ll test if I’m more French than Mexican in my stand-offs”
Michael
The kulullû releases his body from its contorted posture and the image of the Comte disappears mid-au revoir. The kulullû places the note under the rock, then in a single leap bounds over the rooftop ledge and off the roof.
Bill
Roger draws his gun and runs for the ledge, trying to keep it in his sights.
Michael
It dropped like a stone when it leapt off the roof and when Roger gets to the edge, he sees no sign of it, flattened or otherwise in the Hilton parking lot. Roger gets a feeling like someone walking over his grave.
Bill
“Aiy. Aiy yi yi.” Roger temporarily ignores the chill, notes the direction it took, then will pick up the note from under the stone.
Michael
The note reads as Dr. Red dictated in Uri and company arrive at SRI Fri Jul 27 1973:
Change of plans. JM meeting you there, will go with you to pick-up site. Don't forget my lighter.
Bill
Roger will put the note away just temporarily, and look around the roof in case the gitchee feeling was from anywhere or Anyone in specific.
Michael
(Making a secret Observation-13 roll)
Roger has a good look around the rooftop and doesn't see or feel anything off. He's alone up here.
Bill
With the only spirit in the air being the l’esprit de l’escalier, Roger says to the air, “Apologies, Granpere: I should have remembered I was Creole, given a yell, and opened fire. Damned Parisian.”
Roger burns the original note (not le Comte’s), and heads down to the hotel to find Jo.
Leonard
When the time is right, Roger will spot — no doubt baffled by her cunning disguise — Jocasta sitting in the lobby reading the latest issue of Cosmopolitan. She’ll give a friendly wave. “We’ve been requested at dinner with the spoon man. Anything happening here?”
Bill
Roger looks around at the lobby crowd, thinks about his overalls and light cover, shrugs, and says “Sure thing, ma’am. Let me finish my morning gig and get changed, then I’ll be happy to drive you all.” Roger heads back to the van to get out of his worker duds, and if the strange white woman follows a black man back to an unmarked van and gets in, well, that’s on her reputation.
Once back at the van, Roger quickly takes some notes on the encounter. He tries to get the words down exactly as he heard them, and tries to write a description of all three figures (or one and two halves?) while they're "fresh" in his mind. He almost doesn't believe it happened, physically, except he has two notes.
Michael
The good thing is, even if Roger doesn't have Eidetic Memory, someone using Hypnotism can always aid him in remembering precisely what was said.
Bill
Yeah, Roger's a little nervous about the efficacy of Hypnotism on him what with all the folks in there now, and that one time in Mission 4 with Charley …
Michael
Oh yeeeeah.
Bill
Probably nothing to worry about: he does memorize whole languages in a few hours. What's a little tête-à-tête with an old friend?
Leonard
Don’t mind Jocasta, she’s just trying to figure out what kind of man she attracts
Bill
Roger piles up the notes, thinks for a bit, then quickly makes out a new one: "Jo: have to make a quick call. If you see this before I get back, wait in the lobby just a little longer, and I'll find you again." He finishes changing, slips on his nice leather jacket, picks up all the notes except the one for Jo, and heads back to the hotel to make a private call.
After the phone call, Roger looks for Jo in the lobby again, and if not, at the van. Either way, once they meet up, he’s not going to be too forthcoming on his phone call or general defeated mood. He’s happy to be off away from the hotel and back to Livermore.
Leonard
Jocasta will be waiting in the van. Empathetic as she is (I can make a roll if needed), she won't quiz Roger too much about what happened at the hotel, and will just breezily offer an ear should he feel like talking and put some burbling lite pop from KZST on the radio. "Hey," she mentions, "Marshall wants us at dinner tonight with Uri Geller. I think he's planning on putting the screws to him, but I'm not sure why. You up for it?"
Bill
“Hmmm. I would have thought it was better to monitor him and his party instead of just nailing Uri. But I admit I was looking forward to driving them around and seeing a bit of the celebrity life.”
“Well, we should probably bug the Rolls anyway. There still might be good intel to get before we have to black bag him.” Roger sighs.
“Did Marshall say where he left the Rolls, or are the little people supposed to just deal with the details?”
“We’ll have to really motor if we have to get up to the Mission.”
“I wonder how fast the Rolls can go sustained?” Roger smiles.
Leonard
"The Rolls is back at the office. I'd race you there but the van can't beat my car." She winks. "Or can it?"
Michael
I'll make a roll for bugging the Rolls secretly against your Electronics Operation (Surveillance)-12, Bill. I figure in the 3 to 4 hours between now and going to pick them up at SRI you can give it Extra Time.
Jocasta will quickly book over to the hotel. She’s not wearing formal clothes so hopefully it’s not that kind of dinner, but she’s dressed professionally in an office-worker kind of way. She’ll throw on a long tousled brunette wig and some differently styled makeup just in case Price catches a glimpse, and she’ll toss a small duffel in the car with some basic equipment — a black bag, some sodium pentathol, a pistol ikoter and her own piece, a small tape recorder, a knife, a first aid kit, standard interrogation stuff if needed.
Leonard, which identity was this again?
Leonard
Oh, I think let's go with Sonia Reinertson. She can front as anything and her 'real' NSA credentials might be useful.