Aberrant: Stargate Universe - Chasing Ghosts

[Mr Fox]

The old woman didn't seem to care about the chiefs son so long as it didn't effect her. "I believe his birthday was April 3rd. But I don't rightly remember what year he was born."

((Kyria: You don't get anything more specific, her memory is going off on a tangent about some of the rude things he did over the years. And she's praying for strength to forgive him.))

[z028 Riley]

Kyria disengaged herself from the older woman's mind and sent a thought to Caine, *We've got what we're going to get here, I think. She certainly does hate the boy, but her memory is starting to fade. Is there anything else you want to do here, or should we wrap this up?*

The thought actually carried a thrum of compassion for the old woman; Kyria'd learned enough about her rifling through her thoughts to know she'd had a life of rough ups and downs. This world still amazed her at times with it's cruelties and odd patches of small miracles.

[Courier]

Steve said warmly, "Thank you and God bless. April 3rd is a huge help. And my friend is right, this is very good tea."

[Adrian Moss]

Caine finds a way to stretch out the conversation for a minute or so before begging Mrs. Flannigan's pardon. They were on the tax payers dollar and had to be on the trail of this case. Silently he wished there was something more he could do, but nothing remained in his capacity that wouldn't be construed as charity.

Once they were in the hallway, heading toward the car, Damien asked Steve,

"How long before we have a good idea were this bastard is? We are on our way to Bloomington. I'll arrange the flights. It will give me something to do. If it turns out, Kyria, that you want to make a formal case of this, we can come back for the remains."

[z028 Riley]

The telepathy shrugged. "And what are you going to tell a court? The daughter of his doppleganger in another timeline wants to pursue a decades old case? That's just not practical. I want to know what happened, why this was covered up as it was and what really happened to this man that shares my father's....I don't know. Body? Soul? Lineage?"

She crawled into the car and fiddled with the ends of her hair. "I guess part of it is suspicion, too. My father was the most cunning and manipulative person on my world, with the possible exception of my other father. It just seems odd for him, in any timeline, to have died so.... unremarkably. Getting to the son should let us know what happened, or at least where to look next." She glanced up at both of them, "Thanks again, I know I'm taking up a lot of your time. It's really kind of both of you to indulge me like this."

[Courier]

Steve answered back, "Name, Birthday, approximate age, birth town, and likely current town? If he's still in the country and not on the run we're twenty minutes away from an address. Hold up on those tickets, he might have moved."

Steve took the computer and started checking data bases. This one wasn't as easy as before, Steve guessed wrong on the man's birth-year twice...

Click to reveal..

Mental Pro: Investigation is still active with 4 succ from previous roll. http://invisiblecastle.com/roller/view/2114206/

Int + Computer + Sux from Prodigy (mega first)

13d10.hits(7) [2,1,3,4,6,6,2,4,9,9,1,3,7] = (3) Suc

http://invisiblecastle.com/roller/view/2138738/

[Mr Fox]

((There are records for the man in Bloomington for a period of 10 years, but then they stop abruptly in 1987. Further investigation from Steve will be necessary. Please roll again.))

[Courier]

Steve frowned and said, "OK, problem. He's seriously easy to track up to 1987. Trail ends then... let me check some things." *I wonder if he's dead? Let's just take the Bloomington records, use those to get into the Social Security administration, and check the 'diseased' flag. Or alternatively I wonder if Max popped out from whatever rock he's hiding under?*

Firing on all cylinders Steve bore down.

Click to reveal..

Mental Pro: Investigation is still active with 4 succ from previous roll. http://invisiblecastle.com/roller/view/2114206/

Int + Computer + Sux from Prodigy (mega first)

13d10.hits(7) [8,8,4,2,2,8,2,8,10,9,9,8,3] = 9 Sux

http://invisiblecastle.com/roller/view/2138904/

[Courier]

Steve made several pleased sounds then frowned and made an annoyed grunt. He said, "Oh. Good. Grief."

There was a pause and then he said, "Shoot. He's gone underground. As of 1987 he's on the run from the IRS and has hooked up with a hate group. The White Knights of Vidor, located in Vidor, Texas. If you remember those idiots who tied a chain to a black guy, James Byrd, and dragged him to death? That's them. Real nasty pieces of work."

"No evidence he's actually dead. Ah." Steve sounded pleased, like he'd pulled off a very nice hack, "I think he's alive. Other people have contacted the Knights looking for him and they've had a hostile reception. No need for that if he were dead. Also there's the occasional slip in here."

"I think he changed his name in '87. OK, it's decision time. It'd be really hard to find him, but with the right approach I think I could have him find us... but it wouldn't be all that legal."

[Adrian Moss]

"Courier," Caine said in his military tone, " we need the last DMV picture of this guy."

"Are either of you good at infiltration, stealth, and evasion? I can get into this compound. I'll find a way. Kyria, if you come with me, the interrogation will be much easier. Steve, we don't know what systems we will come across and a third gun is always handy."

[z028 Riley]

"I can be silent enough, when there's need." She picked up what she needed to know from their minds about these 'hate' groups and frowned in thought. "Why sneak in, though? As long as you could get me close to a member of the group, I could manipulate their memory into thinking that they've been recruiting us. Much simpler to get in a get access to the son. All I need is to be in the general vicinity long enough to locate his mind and read his memories of what happened."

Her matter-of-factness about the proposed scenario could be rather chilling, depending on how much one cared about the mental integrity of while supremacists.

[Adrian Moss]

Caine nodded.

"Good plan. You sure you can twist enough minds? These guys are going to be paranoid. Being armed can work in our favor. We won't have to worry about bringing any with us. I'm up for the Front Door approach."

[z028 Riley]

She bit her lip, "I can really only do that to one mind at a time, but if I can get to the first guy and give him some memory-reason as to introduce us to others one at a time or why he hasn't talked to them about us, then it should work."

[Adrian Moss]

Damien chuckles,

"I've always wanted to grapple with a man with an automatic weapon aimed at me. Really, its one of my life long ambitions."

More seriously he adds,

"We take out the first guy at the gate. He takes us to the compound leader who could be tougher. We have him summon the bastard to the building and we deal with him then. How does that sound."

[Courier]

Steve loudly sighs and says, "Chill. Seriously you two. Chill. Not every problem needs to be solved with powers and just because we're military doesn't mean we have to make things hard on ourselves. What I had in mind was something much easier and lower key."

"We don't know where he is, we don't know how to find him... so we'll get him to find us. Very simple, very easy, no violence. I'll call them up and tell them I'm a bank official. I'll look up the names of the local bank and that sort of thing to seem legit."

"Then I tell him that I have a strong box registered to the name of John Smith which hasn't been accessed in 50 years and the lease just ran out. We tried to track down John Smith but it appears there is no such person. As according to bank policy, we opened it and tried to see who the contents should go to."

"Low and behold, the box has his dad's passport, so we're assuming it belonged to his father. Obviously since his father is dead, it should go to him. The contents of the box are 3000 dollars in cash, serious money 50 years ago but not now, and 511 ounces of gold... which is worth something like 250 thousand dollars."

"Where did his Dad get 32 pounds of gold? We have no idea, and we don't want to know. We know it's no ours and being the anal bank officials we are we just started calling around."

[Adrian Moss]

Caine looks at Steve as if he's considering the proposal then his brow knits.

"One, why would a bank in Texas have an account for a sheriff in Mississippi?"

"Two, how did the Bank find Bubba when the FBI can't?"

"Three, what's to stop them from sending out someone besides Bubba for this pick up. It isn't like Bubba is keeping his old ID, so they will have to forge some form of ID for the pick up. They can use anyone."

"Four, this requires us to be a reactionary force, not the active one. Your plan relies on them fucking up. That's never a healthy assumption."

"We aren't relying on power for power's sake. We are using power to replace things like an dedicated false background. We have to use telepathy on Bubba no matter what the outcome to know what he knows."

"Its' a good idea, but not against a bunch of parnoid gun freaks. I don't see them buying it, at least not in a way that helps us."

"What we could do is learn some of the names of some of the people in the compound and use your bank scam on one of the locals to lure a few of them out of the compound, thinning their numbers if something does go wrong. We also would need to get the name of the local bank president, but that only requires a walk-in."

[Courier]

Steve says, "One, I meant local here. Say... fifty miles away from our sheriff's old stomping ground. Far enough to think that this is a very old emergency stash."

"Two, the FBI isn't looking for him, they probably should be but that's a different problem. The IRS and some collection agencies are looking for him. That's how I know where to find him by the way. If they ask us, and they may not, we'll say this was the last known place that the agency I found tried... which is even true."

"Three, they have no idea what proof we're going to ask for to collect it. If he's around and handy, they should send him. If he's not around and handy, then raiding the camp will fail anyway."

"Fourth, it's not like I'm going to give them our real names, appearances, and addresses. We'll set up a meeting, Kyria will mind probe them from afar, I don't see any reason why we even need to show up. Even if they send the wrong guy, hopefully they'll know why he's not coming and where he is. That will put us up right there."

"Fifth, this plan can fail and fail badly without us losing anything. It's a lot lower risk than a frontal assault on a bunch of paranoid gun freaks. If our boy comes, then we win. If he doesn't come and sends someone else, then we probably still win. The heck with thinning their ranks, all we need to know is what it would take to get him out."

"And yeah, if they don't send anyone, then we lose out." From Steve's tone of voice he doesn't consider that very likely.

[Adrian Moss]

"Okay. We can't take too many days on this, so give him three days before we have to turn this box over to the bank and report it to the SEC. The Bank obviously doesn't want the problem reporting the gold."

"He has to show up with a picture ID, a birth certificate, and/or social security card. He should be able to arrange that."

"Now, what do we do about him contacting the bank? That could be a problem if he's overly cautious. Can you intercept calls from his compound from here?"

"We can get his timetable for going into the bank by saying we need to have armed guards on sight when they take it back out of the vault for insurance reasons. If he can give them a two hour window, the bank will hand him his goods."

"Those adjustments sound fine?"

[Courier]

Steve thought a moment then said, "I think I can do better than intercept the calls. I'll find an extension number the bank isn't using and program it to go to my phone. Oh, I'll even put it into their database so the operator can 'help' him if he asks for it."

Steve thought that through and added, "Of course in theory he could ask to speak to a live person and no one will have heard of me. No, that won't matter, in a large organization you don't expect to know everyone, you just look up the name and then forward the call."

Steve said, "OK, so I need a name. Something unique enough that it won't be in their database... let's try Heinrich, 'Rick' Schliemann. Now all we need is a bank 50 miles away from here that's owned by a large company, and then I need to make some telephone alterations."

[Mr Fox]

((Steve, I need a computer roll from you to hack the bank's phone system.))

Looking up those details turned out to be quite easy. Wells Fargo had a location in a small town about the right distance away. More importantly there was a motel about a block away that would allow a good view of the bank entrance enough that will a good pair of binocs or enhanced vision it would be easy to spot whoever showed up to collect the gold.

[Courier]

Steve found the bank's web site and in he went...

Click to reveal..

Int + Computer for hacking the Bank. First is mega. Fade is on so it can't remember me even if I screw up.

9d10.hits(7) [8,8,7,1,6,1,5,5,8] = 5 sux

http://invisiblecastle.com/roller/view/2145981/

[Mr Fox]

Hacking the banks phones actually turned out to be fairly easy. They were three security patches behind current on their systems and that made them vulnerable to a simple attack and since Steve wasn't trying to go deeper and connect to other systems it was a piece of cake to simply input a new phone extension that would be forwarded to his cellphone.

Now it was just a matter of making the phone call and seeing if the fish would bite at the bait.

((Caine or Steve should make the phone call. Need a subterfuge roll from whoever it will be please.))

[Courier]

Steve started to speak and Kyria and Damien noted that his voice changed, somehow projecting the image of an overweight 50 year old paper shuffling bureaucrat. No imagination, ground down somewhat by his 30 years doing little than making sure forms were filled out correctly.

Steve waited till the phone was answered and said, "Yes, this is Rick Schliemann, I'm with Wells Fargo bank. I'm trying to contact any descendants of Antony Green, at one point a sheriff. Mr. Green left a security box in our care some 51 years ago, and since the fund paying maintenance on that box ran out last year we opened it. I understand that a..." Steve flipped through the yellow pages to generate the sound of paper shuffling "... Mark Green is his last descendant? Do you know where I could find him or any children he might have sired? The contents of that box are now lawfully his, and since it contains more than a little money it'd be a good thing if I could get this off my desk."

(Activate Trickster)

Click to reveal..

Steve's Trickster roll. First die is mega. He'll spend willpower too.

9d10.hits(7) [3,7,1,9,1,6,5,3,5] = (2) + 1 Will + 3 auto

Total = 6 Sux

http://invisiblecastle.com/roller/view/2149732/

Steve will continue to lead them into the con if they display the slightest bit of interest.

[Mr Fox]

The phone call went as expected. No one confirming or denying anything but Steve could tell that the fish had definitely taken the bait. There was a certain tone of voice and inflection that he'd long ago learned to recognize when pulling a con. Even if Mark Green wasn't alive someone would be coming to claim that box. Even without the mention of gold the young man on the other end of the phone was seeing dollar signs.

"Listen, someone will be around to talk with you in the morning. What time do you open? Eight? Good." The phone went dead.

There was no doubt in Steve's mind that they would have a target arriving a few minutes before 8. It probably wouldn't be Mark Green, but it would be someone from their compound.

[Courier]

Steve smiled in honest pleasure, nothing in life was as good as getting other people to help you take their money do what you wanted. He hung up with a chuckle, and said, "The gold was over-kill, which is fine. I'd much rather deal with blind greed here. They'll be hovering outside the door five minutes before eight. They'll be armed of course, it wouldn't take all that much to get them arrested."

Steve hesitated and said, "Kyria? There's a good chance he's dead."

[z028 Riley]

An irritated looked flashed over her features, and then she shrugged. "If he is, then I'll find another way to find out what happened. Hopefully he'll show, or the person that does will be able to lead us back to him." She glanced around where they were camped out.

"So, what do we do until tomorrow morning?"

[Courier]

Steve looked at the super-humanly beautiful woman who had just given a "James Bond" like question and swallowed the first two answers that came to mind. Instead Steve said, "We have a stake out room... so nothing comes to mind. Feel like hitting a bar?"

[z028 Riley]

"Mmmnnn. Not really. The last time that happened, most of the specialists forgot they could bench press cars and put a group of baselines in the hospital. And since alcohol is really only sour tasting fruit juice to me, I'd rather pass." She looked thoughtful for a moment, "Do either of you need to sleep? Perhaps we should find a hotel for the evening."

[Courier]

Steve said, "I will need to sleep..." *...but I don't see a problem with taking advantage of our night out.*

Steve looked at Caine and made a silent appeal to 'reason'.

[Mr Fox]

There turned out not to be all that much to do in a small town like this. The hotel was comfortable however, and had a pair of beds and a couch in the room. The night was long though with the anticipation of the morning's coming events?

Sure enough, at about 8 minutes to opening a car pulled up to the curb outside the bank. It looked like two people were in the car, a woman and a man, both of them too young by far to have been the target of the operation. They looked impatiently at the doors of the bank, and the man checked his watch at least twice a minute and drummed his fingers on the dashboard in between taking puffs on a cigarette. He burned through two of the cancer sticks before the clock hit the top of the hour.

((Kyria, please roll your telepathy.))

[z028 Riley]

Click to reveal.. (Telepathy)

1d10=9, 1d10=2, 1d10=7, 1d10=7, 1d10=8
Woo! 5 suxx (first die is Mega Per)

[Mr Fox]

((Bonny and Clyde out there on the sidewalk are planning to first try and convince the banker to turn the box over to them as heirs of your target. They have forged birth certificates as Henry and Ellen Green son and daughter of Harold Green. The of course look nothing alike but you can tell from their minds that the paperwork looks authentic and even has the appropriate notarization from city hall in Vidor. They are not brother and sister and definitely not son and daughter of Harold Green. If the bank turns over the box they plan to make themselves disappear and not tell anyone at the compound. If the trick doesn't work, which of course it won't because there is no gold, they will reluctantly go back to the compound and fetch Harold who is living under the name Tom Reichmann. You also get a good impression of Harold and how he currently looks. From that alone you should be able to touch his mind even from here.))

[z028 Riley]

Kyria reached out further, past the two would-be thieves and towards the mind of the man who might have been the murderer of the man that would have been one of her fathers in this world.

Click to reveal.. (telepathy roll)

1d10=3, 1d10=2, 1d10=8, 1d10=7, 1d10=4

two suxx

[Mr Fox]

You've got a vague feeling of the man off to the south west somewhere, but weren't able to really connect with his mind.

[z028 Riley]

After nearly a moment too long, Kyria let go of the elusive Mr. Green and turned her attention back to Bonny and Clyde. First she focused on the young man, grabbing hold of his mind and his memories and twisting them to her own ends. She showed him how he'd met with a middle-aged and fading banker who'd looked their papers over and then told them in a rasping voice that spoke of too many years smoking cheap cigarettes that that was all well and fine but unless they had a notarized death certificate, a lawyer that could produce Mr. Green's will, and a copy of the obituary, there was nothing he could do for the two of them. If, however, their father was still alive, then he was more than encouraged to come pick up his inheritance himself.

She implanted the same basic story in their girl's mind, but like many women that had a reason to distrust the world, her resistance to the telepath's manipulations were just a bit stronger. Kyria wasn't actually used to quite this application of her abilities, so in the end she had to hope it would be enough, and be like enough between the two of them.

Click to reveal.. (Telepathy roll for modifying memories)

1d10=10, 1d10=8, 1d10=8, 1d10=10, 1d10=2

Yeesh, six suxx on the guy.

1d10=8, 1d10=1, 1d10=6, 1d10=10, 1d10=6

3 suxx on the girl.

[Courier]

Steve watched the two and mentally sighed. These two were perfect. In the real world he'd meet them in the bank... maybe walk from it to them right about now... and then he'd tell them how they needed to "invest" in something (bribes? something else?) in order to receive their "inheritance". It was all a matter of getting them to help themselves.

Steve realized he was watching the wrong subject changed his focus to Kyria, those two were child's play, she was not.

[Mr Fox]

The two got back in their car grumbling and slammed their doors. They were already thinking about and talking about producing a death certificate, but bitching about how much that would cost them. Apparently their friend at City hall charged handsomely for document forging her services. One thing was sure, they weren't going to blab to Harold that a banker with 250k was looking for them.

After it was all over Kyria was able to sit back and relax. There was an address and all the info needed to accomplish what she wanted. Getting closer to her target would help if he continued to elude her, but given a few tries, she'd get him even from Colorado if necessary.

[z028 Riley]

Kyria watched the couple leave with a look of disgust. "C'mon, let's go get lunch and get out of here. I'll keep trying for Green; now that I've got a feel for him I'll be able to look even from the mountain."

In the car on the way back to the hotel, she zoned out, seeming to fall asleep.

Click to reveal..

1d10=10, 1d10=10, 1d10=7, 1d10=3, 1d10=9

Woot! 6 suxx.