A Brief Introduction

[Kalanea McKay]

Throughout the appearance of the other late arrivals Truth settled in and began to review some of the files she'd brought. Only Jaunt's dramatic appearance caught her attention, the only indication of which was an amused tug at the corner of her lips as she continued to read.

Once the meeting officially started she directed her attention to those speaking, offering a faint nod of welcome to the newcomers. She too seemed interested in the new additions and what their recruitment might signify, but knew everything would be explained (or not) in time, so for now she waited attentively.

[Ante]

Originally Posted By: Michal Wesson

Giving one more glance around the room, Michal flicks his other hand in the air just long enough to draw Jake and Lee's attention. "So, what's up? I mean, it's always nice to meet new co-workers, but this seems like a lead-up to a field mission. And if it needs this many people, it's going to be a doozy."

Originally Posted By: Jaunt

(Lots of juvenile antics, followed by…)

…He thumbed in Michal's direction, "But yeah, I gotta agree with the Doc over there, aside from meeting the Eva chick, who's body I'd love to see on a poster I might add, all this leadership meet'n greet stuff is the sort of thing we get in our op-mail boxes. Along with 'Jaunt, stay out of my booze. Love, Lee'. All of us here, at the same time? Dude, c'mon... where'd the feces impact the oscillator this time? Hitler get his hands on Gugnir again or something?"

Director Stefokowski made ‘shushing’ motions with his hand as Bannon returned to his seat and said, “All right, all right. We’re getting there, agent Jaunt, just settle down for a second and let someone else talk, huh?”

Having said as much the Director reached under the podium and came up with a remote. He turned to Lee and asked, “Lee, you want to get the lights?” The Assistant Director obliged him amicably enough, walking over to a nearby wall and turning off roughly half of the room’s illumination, and the room was plunged into semi-darkness. The Director then punched a button on his remote, turning on the small projector that hung unobtrusively from the ceiling, and turned to the projected square of light that had now appeared on the back wall behind, above and to one side of him.

“This”, said the Director, pointing to the picture that was being projected for everyone to see, “is the first page of an ancient manuscript called the Siribhuvalaya – and no, I have no idea how that’s spelled, so don’t ask – just review the mission dossiers you’ll all be getting later if you want to know that.” The image on display was of a page from a book of some sort. Across the top of the page were what looked to be words of a sort, written in a language that no one present could read. Below that were, somewhat strangely, roman numerals written out in a series of rows or columns (it wasn’t immediately apparent what direction they were supposed to be ‘read’ from).

Stefokowski clicked his remote again and another image popped up on the wall showing another page from a book, only this time everything on the page was written in what looked to be the same language as what had appeared on the top of the previous page. Wesson, Grey, Parker and Shreveson realized immediately - while for the other agents in the room it took slightly longer (some longer than others) - that the new image was actually the same page as that shown previously, only this time all of the roman numerals had been replaced with their equivalents in some other language.

Samantha almost felt like she could read what she was seeing, but couldn’t quite make sense out of it – the fact that it was all numbers and no words wasn’t helping. Wesson was better with numbers, though, and while the numbers being written in another language was making it difficult for him, he could nonetheless see that there was a definite pattern to the numbers and that information – a lot of information – was encoded within them. What that information might be, exactly, was not a question he could answer just yet.

Indicating the image, the Director continued, “And this is the same page with all of the text displayed in the language in which it was originally written.” He stopped and peered closely at one of the pages on his podium, squinting through the gloom, “That language is… uh, Kannada. Old Kannada, actually. The modern version is still spoken in southwestern India today.”

Stefokowski left the latest image up on the screen and set his remote down for the time being, turning back to his podium so that he could more easily review the notes he had spread out on it. “The book you’re all looking at up there was found by members of the original Aeon Society back in 1928”, he said, “and there are a few things that make it interesting to us.

The first unusual thing about this book”, he went on, “is that it appears to be over twelve hundred years old. Now, I know that that, in and of itself, probably doesn’t sound that exciting to any of you – and why should it? There are plenty of old books out there and we don’t hold briefings over any of those. But this is hardly the strangest thing about this book, not by far, and when taken together with all of its other oddities you have something that Project Prometheus has decided is very interesting.”

He paused in his briefing while he shifted pages around and then continued. “The second unusual thing about the Siribhuvalaya is that the entire thing is written using only the Kannada numerals 1 through 64 and that, as I imagine some of you have already realized, these numbers are written in various sequences that form patterns, called charkas or bhandas, that have been found to represent alphabets. We’ve been able to decipher eighteen different alphabets so far, though it looks like there might be more buried in there that we haven’t found yet.”

The Director picked up the remote again and activated a laser-pointer built into it to highlight various points on the projected image as he spoke. “What we’ve found”, he said, “is that reading it from top to bottom yields information, written in verse form, in the Prakrit alphabet – which is even older than the Old Kannada script – but if we start reading from the second numeral down within one of these sequences, we get the same verse written in Sanskrit – which is even older.” Stefokowski moved the laser-point down the projected page several characters and said, “If we start from here instead, we get different informational content and all of it written in Telugu. And the list goes on.” He released the button for the laser-pointer and turned back to his podium.

“Now the third interesting thing about the Siribhuvalaya is that, while the book ‘only’ uses eighteen or so alphabetic scripts, those scripts have been used to write verses in over seven hundred distinct languages – that we’ve been able to find and decipher, anyway.

“The fourth unusual thing is the content of these verses. For starters, this one book has been found to contain all of the major religious works from Hinduism and quite a few from Buddhism.”

Here the Director paused and looked up from his notes to meet the eyes of his gathered agents before continuing. “But that’s not the half of it. Buried here and there throughout the text are essays on a whole range of topics, ranging from medicine to history to physics. Over the years, information extracted from the historical verses has led our agents”, by which he meant Aeon agents, presumably, “to a number of unique discoveries, which has led us to take the content of those verses – and the content of the medical and scientific verses – very seriously. Which is a little bit troubling, because the information found in some of those verses involve scientific principles that – so our Eleusinian experts assure me – modern science hasn’t yet caught up with.”

Stefokowski paused and his gaze shifted to Grav as he said, “Agent Gravinski, I know your memory on this is a bit sketchy, but I thought you might find it interesting to know that Section 2’s investigations into the events surrounding your eruption as a nova seem to confirm that the device you were investigating for Utopia’s S&T department - that was ultimately responsible for your eruption – was based on information taken from a single verse in the Siribhuvalaya that deals with certain principles of advanced physics.”

With those startling words Stefokowski dropped his gaze and returned it to the files and papers on the podium. “The fifth unusual thing about the Siribhuvalaya would be the following”, he said, “the original manuscript that the page you’ve been looking at was taken from is over 800 pages in length, spread out over twenty-six chapters, and containing around 600,000 verses found within just over 1,200 charkas. In 1939 our Aeon researchers realized that there was a deeper, cryptographic layer of information spread across the entirety of the twelve hundred charkas. When this information was finally decoded, it was realized that the Siribhuvalaya was actually comprised of nine separate volumes, of which we’d only discovered the first.”

He turned and pointed back to the projected image on the wall that had now been shining from the projector for several minutes and said, “It turns out this thing is actually just a syllabus that outlines topics covered in much more detail in the proceeding eight volumes, and that the information contained in the top-level verses we’d already translated amounted to little more than a series of starting-level introductions to those topics. Unfortunately, in the seven decades since that discovery, not one single trace of the missing eight volumes has been found, so this right here is all we’ve got.”

Stefokowski looked back to the gathered Argonauts and said, “Lastly, there’s its name: the title, ‘Siribhuvalaya’, translates more or less as ‘The Book of All Knowledge’, and considering how accurate the information contained within the introductory volume has been, we’re forced to take this title seriously.”

“For reasons that should be obvious by now”, he continued in a serious tone, “Project Prometheus has a decided interest in those missing eight volumes. But without any leads to go on and with the volume we do have yielding fewer and fewer secrets over the years, this particular case has been languishing in obscurity for a long time now.”

The Director paused again while he opened one of his manila case folders and then reached for his remote. Picking it up he said, “that all changed three days ago”, and pressed one of the remote’s buttons. Then he turned to look at the projection on the wall as the page from ‘The Book of All Knowledge’ vanished and was replaced with something new.

[Daniel Ingersoll]

It wasn't often that Daniel was surprised or impressed, at least in regular life, but within Prometheus, much to his delight, that often changed. In this particular case, he was more then impressed. Anywhere else, he wouldn't have believed a word of this, but Prometheus wasn't in the habit of lying to it's agents. In a low voice, just loud enough to be heard, he swore under his breath. "Damn, who the hell wrote the thing.. God?" He paused. "Not that I necessarily ascribe to the existence or non-existence of the divine."

[Jaunt]

"No," Jaunt said calmly as he folded his ludicrously huge sunglasses closed. Although he looked like an idiot at the moment, he was far from stupid. Jaunt had visited everywhere there was to visit and has probably the most extensive background in human cultures than anyone in the room. Sure, he wasn't a mega-brain or a Doctor, but obscure cultural knowledge was something he prided himself on. He actually used a polite tone, as to not speak over anyone, but directed his answer more to Daniel than anyone else. "A Jain Monk named Kumudendu Muni. He's believed to have lived over twelve hundred years ago, but some dispute that, saying it was more like the fifteen hundreds. Either way, the guy existed, wrote this book and simply died in obscurity."

This was Jaunt's meat and drink. Most would never have guessed, aside from his sudden burst of intellect, that the boy knew anything beyond mixed drinks and being obnoxious but the opportunity to unearth the secrets of the ancient world were something he took to with a fiery zeal. "Either way dude, listen and learn." He nodded for Daniel to keep his attention on the Director.

[z005]

Eva nodded her agreement to Jaunt's knowledge and advice. She was still seated on the table, but now she was sitting with crossed legs, a pencil and pad of paper snagged from the ones set out for people. Her eyes never left the slides, pictures committed to memory as soon as they were seen and notes jotted down on the paper for later perusal. Whatever this was, it was going to be out and fun. Her smirk faded away into genuine anticipatory smile.

This was what she'd been waiting for.

[Zaylee Zanne]

Atlanta's eagerness spiked as she listened to Stefokowski's account of the Siribhuvalaya, her cyan eyes intently studying the projected image. She didn't see the pattern in the numbers some of the others saw, nor did she have the slightest familiarity with the Kannada language. But the reference to cutting-edge medical and scientific principles had her considering a faint possibility, a vague link to the circumstances the led to her being found by Prometheus and that may have been responsible for the lost of her past.

At Jaunt's surprising revelation - not about the Jain Monk, the name meant nothing to her, rather, that Jaunt was able to add anything to the subject of the Siribhuvalaya - Atlanta straightened from her casual lounging against the way, looking at Jaunt in a new light, eyebrows raised in shock. Then her eyes went back the Director, body almost quivering with anticipation, hands tightening with keenness to get a hold of the mission dossier. Her lips curved up in a faint, fierce grin.

How many guys from centuries ago could write techie-sciencie stuff that's ahead of what we have now? If this Kunumendu guy was from the fifteen hundreds, he might have a connection to...

[Courier]

Steve said softly, "Interesting... a book written in code that's only decryptable by an advanced civilization, which contains information usable by the same."

Steve said intensely, "Now there's a puzzle where all the pieces don't match. Does the book ever refer to events which hadn't happened when it was written?"

[BlueNinja]

Michal's iPad comes out from under the table as the lights go down, quickly recording the entire conversation. Sure, his memory was photographic, but his assistant's wasn't, nor were most of the others, and an occasional reminder for himself came in handy as well. He was already loading some of the other pages (and their English translations, if he could find it) when the quiet conversation broke out. Like most of the others, his eyebrows shot up when Jaunt provided the name of the author, and the next thing to pop up on his screen was a post to his pet conspiracy theory website about the guy and what his deal was. (Contacts roll, I think here, though I expect it to take some time for a reply.) "What - ooh," his question subsides, pre-empted by the change in slide to their real mission, and he leans forward in his chair, eager to hear more.

[z-Carver]

Carver listened quietly to the presentation of their mission. Stefokowski hadn’t gotten to the meat of it yet, so she held her tongue as the others spoke. That sense of eager excitement had grown into a pulse of delight – from both women. Willow loved to learn things and solve mysterious; it was her secret passion. Jael, on the other hand, saw a chance to get out and perhaps a chance to use her skills and have some fun.

When the new slide clicked into place, that pulse reached a crescendo – and Jael wanted nothing more than to be let off her leash to play.

[Ante]

The image that replaced the ‘Book of All Knowledge’ was, at first glance, not all that impressive – not when compared to books that purported to contain ‘all knowledge’ anyway – but it was pleasing enough to the eye at least.

“This is the village of Kamru”, said the Director, “and I doubt even agent Jaunt knows where this little place is.”

The gathered Argonauts found themselves looking at what appeared to be an incredibly tiny and extremely quaint – and yet at the same time exotic – village that had been built up the side of a mountain. The place was so small it looked as though it could compete with the little Mexican village of Sul de San Juan, that was quietly going about its business a few stories over their heads, as to which was the smaller and more isolated. At the very apex of the town could be seen what appeared to be some larger structure, perhaps a town hall, although those more knowledgeable of the culture of northern India suspected it was more likely a temple.

“The reason none of you have ever heard of this place”, said the Director, “is because it sits at the back end of the state of Himachal Pradesh, which you all probably have heard of, and which you may know is the back end of India. Discounting Kashmir, of course. Hell, if it weren't for this case coming across my desk, I never would've heard of the place.”

Stefokowski turned away from the image of the tiny village of Kamru and, looking towards Lee, tossed her the remote control for the projector. “Alright, at this point I’m turning the briefing over to the Assistant Director”, he said as he moved to one side of the room while Lee moved towards the podium, “as this stuff is really more her area of expertise than it is mine.”

The ‘Machine Girl’ clicked the remote one more time and the village vanished, replaced by a rather stylized, even artsy, black and white image of what (one presumed) was a view from somewhere inside the village of Kamru. Those who had already noticed the large structure from the previous color image realized, after a moment, that the black and white image had been taken in front of it.

“This”, said Lee, “is the palace of the Kamakshi Devi”. She looked back at the image on the wall and shrugged, “sorry about the black and white; the Section 2 agent who tipped us off to all this was operating under cover as a professional photographer. Apparently, he takes his cover a little too bloody seriously.” Lee turned back towards the others with a smirk on her face that seemed to say ‘what can you do?’ and gave another little half-shrug.

“Anyway”, she continued, “while it would normally be true that this ‘palace’ would in reality be no more than a temple for the local Hindu god or goddess – and not even a very big one at that”, she added, tilting her head as she regarded the image, “in this case it’s the literal truth to call it a ‘palace’ because of the 'goddess' who lives inside of it.

“I know you’ve all heard of ‘India Syndrome’ before now, so I won’t waste your time going over it. I will tell you that this entire region of India – which – just to make this entire situation that much more fun for all of us – sits practically on the border with the autonomous region of Tibet – is so steeped in the Syndrome that they’re practically drowning in it. The only reason we had anyone from the Project all the way out there, is because of the insanely high concentration of novas versus baselines that can be found out there.”

The Assistant Director began to gesticulate as she spoke and her east-European accent – which was very pronounced to begin with – became steadily more noticeable as she went on. “They practically grow the things on trees out this way”, she said, “and it seems like you can find these ‘little gods’ anywhere there’s more than two or three wood huts gathered together! To make it worse, these bolvány* with nodes are all become buddy-buddy with the bolvány across border in Tibet. “They travel”, she went on, making little finger-walking motions with her cyborg hands, “back and forth, they travel, all the time – like the border isn’t there! And India and China, you know, they are not on the best of terms, they do not like this rasklád*, they-“

“Lee”, interrupted Director Stefokowski.

“Da!*”, she snapped back.

With a sarcastic smile on his face, the Director said, “You’re wandering off-topic and I think you forgot to take the English language with you. Get back to the purpose of the briefing, please.”

The Assistant Director angrily opened her mouth as if to say something, but then closed it again and simply glared at Stefokowski through narrowed eyelids. “Fine”, she said.

Turning back to the gathered Argonauts, Lee took a moment to center herself behind the podium, spread the metal fingers of her machine hands, and deliberately grab hold of the podium’s sides. She cleared her throat once and then began again, “As I was saying: there are a lot of novas in the state of Himachal Pradesh, and one of them makes her home in Kamru, claiming to be an incarnation of Kamakshi. Our intelligence indicates she is a local – possibly from the nearby village of Sangla – and that she is probably still in her teens. She has a reinforced personality, coupled with moderate control over meteorological phenomena, possibly with some direct control over water as well. We do not have an image of her currently, nor do we have any more background information than what I have already given you. Sorry.

“Three days ago”, she went on, “our agent was passing through the area, collecting intel on these ‘little gods’ and their activities and communications with their counterparts across the border in Tibet. When he came to the town of Kamru he found it in a state of uproar and, upon questioning the locals, was informed that the palace of the ‘Kamaksha Devi’ had been attacked during the previous night and that the attackers had managed to steal certain sacred scriptures during their raid. Upon offering to relay this news to the local administrative center in Reckong Peo, our agent was allowed an audience with the Devi* herself”, Lee could not quite refrain from rolling her gorgeous and extremely expressive eyes as she said this, “at which time he was informed of the following:

“The Devi”, continued Lee as she read from a file, “indicated that she had been forced to defend herself from as many as a dozen attackers, all of whom apparently possessed ‘supernatural powers’ of some kind – though she failed to elaborate on this, so that’s just hearsay at this point. She claimed to have killed two of them – which was not very Devi-like of her – and to have injured two or three more. And she claims that the ‘sacred scriptures’ that the attackers stole – and which she seemed to think were the ultimate targets of the attack – were actually two separate manuscripts which she consistently referred to with the name ‘Siribhuvalaya’.”

Lee took a moment to pause dramatically and give her agents a meaningful look. Then she raised a hand and inclined her head as if in apology, adding, “Now, before any of you go getting excited, know that as of right now these claims are unsubstantiated and might very well turn out to be nothing. The stolen manuscripts might turn out to be entirely unrelated to our Siribhuvalaya, or they could even be nothing more than copies of the one we already have. Also, as the ever-helpful Jaunt has already pointed out, the Siribhuvalaya was apparently written by a Jain monk, so how in the world the lost eight volumes of his work would end up in a Hindu temple, I have no idea.

“But”, she went on, after yet another dramatic pause, “the Devi Kamakshi’s descriptions of these manuscripts make us think otherwise. Additionally”, she added as she punched the remote’s button, “there are the bodies.”

Click to reveal..

Bolvány : Russian for ‘blockhead’.

Rasklád: Russian for ‘the situation’ or ‘the state of things’.

Da: Russian for ‘yes’.

Devi: Sanskrit for ‘goddess’.

[Ante]

The projected image on the room’s wall changed yet again, this time displaying a rather graphically close-up view of someone’s corpse laid out on a table. Age, ethnicity – even gender – were all impossible to tell from the image alone, due to how completely and utterly desiccated the body was.

“This is what’s left of one of the two attackers the Devi was able to kill”, explained Lee, “and it’s also why we think she may have some control over fluids or water: virtually all moisture seems to have been sucked right out of the body and this was almost certainly the cause of death. Disgusting, I know.”

The Assistant Director smirked at the image on the wall for a second or two and then said, “So yeah, there’s some dead guys for La Verdad* to obsess over once she gets over there. I’m sure it’ll be fascinating”, she added, along with another roll of her eyes. With a smart flick of her wrist, Lee hit the remote’s button again and the grotesque corpse’s image vanished. “And, moving along”, Lee remarked as the new image came to screen.

The corpse was replaced by an even more close-up image of two expensive-looking rings wrought in green jade, with silver dragon designs winding their way across the surface of each ring. “These”, said Lee, “are what first caught our attention and are also why we’re sending several of you out to investigate a case that would otherwise have been assigned to whichever wet-behind-the-ears Section 2 cháynik* Tanushree happens to like the least at the moment.”

Rather than use the laser-pointer as Stefokowski had done, Lee walked right up to the two larger-than-life rings, placing her body partially in the path of the projected image (which glinted and reflected prettily off of her metal shoulder), and tapped the wall-screen forcefully where the one of the silver-worked dragons stood out most clearly. “Look closely, kids”, she said with obvious enthusiasm in her voice, “You’re not likely to see too many more of these in your lifetime. These rings are only carried by initiates of the Ljang-khu Drukpas, and they are none too fond of letting outsiders see such things.”

Lee stepped away from the wall and out of the projector’s light with a pleased smirk on her face as she turned to face the Argonauts. The soft sound of metal grating against weathered metal could be heard as she crossed her arms in front of her with obvious satisfaction. “The Ljang-khu, for those of you who don’t know, are an old secret society, apparently formed from certain fringe elements of the indigenous Bonpo religion in Tibet, that we’ve been tracking since before ‘we’ included Project Prometheus. They’ve been in operation for over a century, they have connections to the even harder to track Qinglong, and we’ve found evidence of their involvement in many of the strangest incidents to take place in both the near and far East, since before the first Great War. What most interests us about them is number of pre-World War II accounts from eyewitnesses in which the initiates and monks of the Ljang-khu reportedly displayed supernormal or paranormal abilities. Beyond that, there is the simple fact that people have a tendency to die whenever these bastards show up.

“Funny-sounding names aside, these guys are for real; they’re ghosts and to give you an idea of how true that is, I’ll tell you that the last time any of these boys were positively identified was during the Trebitsch-Lincoln fiasco in 1939.”

The Machine Girl earned herself a nasty look and a deliberate throat-clearing from Director Stefokowski when she added, in off-handed fashion, the tantalizingly obscure comment, “I’d love to tell you all more about that little disaster, but no one here has the security clearance for it.”

Lee made a face at her boss and seemed about to continue with her briefing when something seemed to occur to her and her expression soured without warning. Turning back to the Argonauts, she frowned and declared, “And before any of you wasters brings it up – Jaunt!”, she positively scowled at the team’s youngest member, “- I don’t want to hear a goddammed thing about the ‘Society of the Green-fucking-Dragon’, got it? For one thing, those losers are Japanese and for another, they’re make-believe. Christ!”

Visibly gathering herself, Lee swept metallic fingers through her hair and tucked it behind her ears. “Whether or not this nova girl claiming to be Kamakshi is telling the truth when she claims that some of the lost Siribhuvalaya volumes were stolen from her ‘palace’ or not”, the Assistant Director said, “we nonetheless have every reason to believe that her claims to have been attacked are legitimate and that her attackers were in fact members of the Ljang-khu Drukpas and that alone is reason enough to look into this. The Director and I are unwilling to pass up a chance at catching these murderers in the act and the brass upstairs agree with us. The thought of these men escaping into the wilds of Ngari Prefecture – or worse – Nagqu Prefecture – with the lost volumes of the Siribhuvalaya in hand isn’t something that any of us wants to think about either.”

“And so”, declared Lee with a tone that let the gathered Argonauts know that she was finally nearing the end of the briefing – this portion of it anyway, “agents Bannon, Grey, Keller, Ingersoll, Grimson, and Montenegro are being assigned to this case, effective immediately. Bannon, you’re in charge. You know the area better than anyone – except me of course”, she added with a mischievous smirk, “and you know the culture. Consider this your warm up, now that you’re back.

“Grey, hate to do it to you, dorogaja*, but you’re gonna have to make due with a crash-course on the mission params and then get the hell out of here. You've got about seven hours before your plane to New Delhi leaves. Once there, you’ve got another connecting to catch that'll take you to the Bhuntar airport. You’re on point for this one; we’re hoping to Christ that every sodding one of these zkurvysyni* can’t teleport or something equally stupid”, she cast a sidelong, but sarcastic, glance at Jaunt along with this remark, “so we have to assume they’re hoofing it out of there the hard way, and it’s likely they’ll want to avoid the Kashmiri demilitarized zone. We want you in there tracking down the likeliest routes they’d use – or better yet – tracking them. A special treat for you if you manage that!

“Keller, you’re support for Bannon; we’ll need your particular ‘talents’ to… how should I say? ‘Break down any barriers to communication’, eh? Well, you know; just do your thing.

“La Verdad: you saw the bodies; go do your disgusting thing, mamacita *.

“Ingersoll, you’re with Bannon and Keller. Bannon, once your team has the scent, get Mr. I-know-it-all-before-it-happens on it and ride his ass till he leads you to the prize.

“Grimson! You’re security on this op. Keep my agents safe or I end you! Also, Bannon, if the trail does lead you or any of your team into Pakistani or Kashmiri territory, Carrot Top here has some good contacts in the area - or so I understand – so feel free to use ‘em.

“Jaunt, you’re not going with them, but you are on call until either your balls drop or you’re needed for emergency evac, risk management, or additional security along with Grimson. Whichever comes first. Now that I've seen that scrawny, hairless thing you call a chest, though, I know where my money's at.

“All right”, announced the Assistant Director, clearly wrapping things up, “that’s all I got. Those of you who haven’t been given assignments yet, you’re still on reserve for this op, in case your particular skills are needed, and in the meantime we’ve got other work for you to do – which we’ll be getting to in a few minutes – so don’t worry your pretty little heads.

“In the meantime: who’s got questions?”

Click to reveal..

La Verdad: Spanish for ‘the truth’. This is Lee’s oh-so-clever way of referring to Truth Montenegro without using her actual name.

Cháynik : Russian for ‘newbie’ or ‘beginner’.

Zkurvysyn: Czech for ‘motherfucker’.

Dorogaja: Russian for ‘dear’.

Mamacita: A Spanish word, using an endearing diminutive, literally meaning ‘little mama’.

[Mel Grimson]

"I hear you, ma'm." Grimson replied, not the least intimidated- or so he seemed- by Lee's threat.

"As for those corpses... pretty nasty stuff for a Mamacita. After all, this Devi is claiming to be an incarnation of an aspect of the ultimate universe mother goddess, by way of Pavarti, who is a rather light and gentle aspect herself. Another factor in her favor, someone like her might have to get serious stones all of a sudden to kill, even when attacked. Like to protect the 'Book of Knowledge'."

He shrugged. "Something to consider. Also, what kind of super shit do these Drukpas tend to have, especially when trying to axe somebody?"

[Courier]

Steve commented, "Questions? Lots... but all for the Devi." Steve looked at the team assigned to this puzzle with a trace of envy and said, "Take care everyone."

[Jaunt]

"Roger that." Jaunt said with an unuasul bit of seriousness to his tone. "These guys know it, if they need a bail out all they gotta do is call, I'll be there." It was true that Jaunt was late for everything, even these 'bail outs', but for the strangest of reasons he always got there precisely when he was needed the most.

"On a side note, I would like to say Assistant Director, that while my chest is currently bare, I endeavor everyday that it can one day be as hairy as yours." He placed his hands over his heart and looked upon her with mock sincerity. "You inspire me to greatness."

[BlueNinja]

Originally Posted By: Ante

“Look closely, kids”, she said with obvious enthusiasm in her voice, “You’re not likely to see too many more of these in your lifetime. These rings are only carried by initiates of the Ljang-khu Drukpas, and they are none too fond of letting outsiders see such things.”

Though he doesn't upload a picture, he does add a snippet about the rings and the Ljang-Khu Drukpas to the fury already erupting on his conspiracy theory site. Kind of like throwing a live chicken into a tank of already frothing pirahnas.

Quote:

“Funny-sounding names aside, these guys are for real; they’re ghosts and to give you an idea of how true that is, I’ll tell you that the last time any of these boys were positively identified was during the Trebitsch-Lincoln fiasco in 1939.”

Even though he expects it to come to nothing, he also adds a comment about this.

Once the briefing has ended, he turns to look over at Jake. "I know this will sound odd, but has anyone tried to translate this book into, ah, fictional languages? You know, something like Esperanto, written Cherokee, or hell, even Klingon. I'm just curious how complete this so-called 'Book of All Knowledge' is."

[Daniel Ingersoll]

Daniel felt as though this was the moment he'd been waiting for all week, a sense of a gathering storm of potentiality that had just broken... and suddenly anything was possible. Among the other clairvoyants he'd spoken with in pandora, between them, they sometimes called this kind of thing, a focal point, a moment when everything could change on a dime.

This was the kind of moment he lived for, a moment when he would have to push his abilities to the limit. Reaching out with his capabilities, touching upon his psychonavigation capabilities, he closed his eyes a moment and tried to see the path that the enemy would take.

"Get me on the ground, and I'll do my best to track them to the grave, and beyond if possible." He was fairly confident about this, it was his specialty after all.

Click to reveal..

Using Psychonavigation, as per the power system rules, to develop the 'Anticipation' effect, to try to predict the route the enemy will take, going for a fairly high precision rating, investing 1 psi point to keep this active as long as the chase goes on.

[Bannon]

He'd remained silent throughout the briefing out of professional habit as well as courtesy, at least at first. As Jake continued Bannon stiffened in his chair, eyes riveted to the screen as the Director told the tale. At first, he was fascinated, the spark of old curiousity and lust for discovery perking his ears up.

Then Lee took over, and from the first slide and it's accompanying words Bannon's posture froze as memories both vivid and terrible turned his blood to icewater. Though some might think he was tuned out, the Field Team Leader was horribly attentive to every phrase.

Quote:

...India Syndrome...Devi...'little gods'...

Flies buzzing over faces both friendly and strange together, those still with eyes staring dumbly at him as the kites gathered overhead

When he spoke, it was in response to Grimson's comment. But Bannon's voice strangely abstract and distant, even a little strained. As though he were trying to hold onto the abstract commentary as a lifeline.

"Of course the Devi killed. Despite the claims to godhood and the social razzle-dazzle, she's just a scared girl with too much power. It doesn't matter whose incarnation she's deluded herself into pretending to be." The air immediately around Bannon dropped a few degrees. "That's India Syndrome in a nutshell. Most of these 'gods' are just like her: ordinary peasants who lucked out genetically and are trying to make some sort of sense of their lives." Frost started to rime around the mug he was gripping in both hands but Bannon seemed not to notice, shrouded eyes still staring at the projector screen. "The rest of them..."

There was a *crack* as the mug, super-frozen to extreme temperatures, shattered in Bannon's grasp, pieces of ceramic and frozen coffee hitting the floor. Luckily, his hands encircling the cup stopped any fragments from hurting the others present, but the pain of the dozens of splinters piercing his palms and fingers broke him out of his trance.

"Shit!"

[z005]

Eva hopped off the table without blinking, kneeling down in front of her new boss and gently prying his hands open. If the cold bothered her, her serious and almost blank face betrayed no discomfort. She let the frozen coffee and largest chunks of the mug fall to the floor, then began methodically and gently removing the small shards of ceramic and ice from his hands.

Like Jaunt, her carefree attitude had completely dissolved into a professional detachment as they flipped through the slides and listened to the briefing. Bannon's injury pulled her out of detachment, but not out of professional competence. The people in this room were now her team, a tie to her as binding as marriage or blood.

"Dr. Carver, would you examine his hands please? There damage seems mostly superficial, but I am not a medical professional." She was still holding his hands, applying firm pressure to the larger cuts. Quietly she asked, "Are you alright, Dr. Bannon?"

[Bannon]

The pain had driven away whatever demons plagued the young-old man for now, and sharply focused eyes met Eva's gaze as Bannon nodded, his jaw taut with anger.

"I'm fine, just a bit embarrassed." he replied quietly, the words coming from reflex before he looked down at his hands and reassessed. This was immediately followed by an equally soft "Dammit." as Dr Carver briskly made her own way to his side.

As the Argonaut's premier medic knelt next to Eva and ran an expert eye over Bannon's injuries, he looked over at Jake and Lee, both watching with variable levels of visible concern. "I'm fine." he said so that they could hear. "Carry on, everyone."

[Ante]

Lee’s eyes narrowed at Jaunt’s joke and her nostrils did their flaring thing again, but all she said was, “That’s wonderful to hear, Jaunt. It’s important for little boys to have their dreams – and speaking of those”, she added after a pause, as though it were an afterthought, “I know that you’ve never seen a woman’s chest anywhere other than in your dreams so I think it’s flattering that you’ve chosen mine.” Lee placed a metal hand on the chest in question so that it rested gently between her breasts in a way that was suggestive without seeming deliberate and fixed Jaunt with a look of apparently sincere appreciation and concern as she said, “But this business of picturing women with hair on their chests and admitting your desire to emulate them? If I were you, I’d keep that sort of thing to yourself. I don’t think it gives people the impression you’re going for, sweety.” The Assistant Director kept a straight face throughout this, but she couldn’t quite keep the mischievous glint out of her eyes.

It looked as though either one of them could have said more, but the team’s resident super-genius interrupted the banter with a question for the Director.

"I know this will sound odd, but has anyone tried to translate this book into, ah, fictional languages? You know, something like Esperanto, written Cherokee, or hell, even Klingon. I'm just curious how complete this so-called 'Book of All Knowledge' is."

Director Stefokowski looked momentarily at a loss as to how to answer Wesson’s question, but finally said, “uh… No, not to my knowledge, son.” That seemed to be all the Director had to say about that, but then he suddenly seemed to remember something and moved quickly to the podium, forcing Lee to move out of his way or be collided with. She gave him a sour look that he completely failed to notice.

“Ah, here we go”, Stefokowski said as he pulled a sheet of paper from out of his stack and held it up so that he could read from it, “I was going to show you this later on, as it happens, but I might as well mention it now I suppose.

“About two years ago, one of our Section 2 nova-class geniuses was assigned to review the Siribhuvalaya project and afterwards he made some pretty startling claims”, said the Director, tapping the paper before him for emphasis, “Turns out this kid thought he’d found evidence of some kind of… well, I’m not going to pretend I know what all this means, though I suppose you might. Anyway, he mentions finding some sort of ‘base 64 positional numeral system’ and cites the possibility that it was being used with some sort of encryption algorithm to generate a, uh…”, the Director stopped as though bracing himself in preparation for reading something he wasn’t entirely sure he knew how to read and then said, “an ‘informationally-real, stacked Bethe lattice structure where Graham’s number acts as both the, uh, coordinate number and as the number of stacks within the structure and having potential parallel processing abilities comparable to a Matrioshka brain’-“

Stefokowski stopped reading and shook his head as though trying to shake something loose. “Does any of that make sense to you?”, he asked. “Well, regardless, all of this will be attached in your copy of the case notes, Wesson, so you can go over it at your leisure. I think I’ve curdled my own brain enough for today.”

At that point Grimson spoke up concerning the Devi Kamakshi, drawing the attention of both the Directors. Stefokowski began to respond, “That’s an interesting point, Grimson, but-“

And then Bannon interjected, his voice distant and strange. Stefokowski stopped mid-sentence and then he and Lee shared a look. The Director looked back to Bannon and his expression grew more troubled as the younger (looking) man’s voice faded away to nothing. “Jay?”, he started to say, but then the super-cooled mug of coffee in Bannon’s hands burst, causing Stefokowski to jerk backwards.

“Christ!”, he exclaimed. Then, as the recently-transferred Ms. Parker stepped forward with calm swiftness and began to clean her new boss’s wounds, Jake asked his old friend, “Jay? You alright?”

Click to reveal..

Michal Wesson: Wesson’s conspiracy website isn’t turning up much about Kumudendu Muni so far. The guy’s a virtual non-entity, it seems. The Ljang-khu, on the other hand, are getting hits even if most of it reeks of the all same old conspiracy clichés that are the bread and butter of most such websites. What’s coming up are references to a group called the ‘Society of Green Men’ that supposedly aided Hitler using black magic and mystical spiritual powers during WWII, as well as a ton of references to the ‘Order of the Green Dragon’ that Lee warned you about.

Daniel Ingersoll: Your roll failed. I suggest trying again after Daniel has actually been to the area of the world he’s attempting to sense in and/or has had a chance to become familiar with something belonging to one of the dead Ljang-khu – whom he otherwise is about as unfamiliar with as a person can be. That way I don’t have to add on such a ridiculously high Difficulty modifier to the roll due to Daniel’s complete and utter unfamiliarity with both the Ljang-khu and the Kinnaur region of Himachal Pradesh, which would give him a much better chance at succeeding.

[Grav]

Anna nodded. Considering most everything said meant little to her it was best she wasn't going on the mission. The lure of all Knowledge was enticing, but The cipher was enough that she felt her skills in the area would be woefully defficient.

She looked around noting those who weren't going initially, and nodded. Somehow, she knew things wouldn't be boring.

[z-Carver]

Pakistan. Kashmir. Carver's enthusiasm for the mission had faded as Stefokowski and Lee had talked. There was a part of the world that she both hated and loved. As always, she couldn't have a simple reaction to it. Instead, Willow had to hate it, while Jael loved it. Paul may have died there, but it was the place where Jael had been freed. Again, Carver was a house divided.

The loud shattering of cold ceramic jarred her out of her reverie. Carver blinked, trying to sort out the image of Eva kneeling before Bannon, holding his hands. It took a moment for her to realize what had happened. She was already standing when Eva called her name and by Bannon's side as he assured the room he was fine.

Willow gave Bannon an arch look at the statement, then glanced at Stefokowski. “He’ll be fine,” she told the Director, speaking with utter confidence. “Or at least,” she amended as she glanced at the melting shards of frozen coffee around Bannon's feet, “his hands will be fine.” She was starting to have doubts about his sanity.

That was not her concern, not at the moment. She knelt next to Eva. "Stop that, please," she ordered Eva gently. As the red-head ceased plucking the pieces of mug out of his hand, Carver murmured, "In the future, don't remove something from a wound unless I'm there to do this." The blood welling in the cuts stopped as she spoke, without Willow having to touch him. She smiled at Eva and added, "Removing shrapnel or debris from a wound can aggravate bleeding. Just keep that in mind in the field." She wasn't angry at the other woman; Eva had been trying to help and just didn't know.

Realizing that they were still the focus of the room, Willow said firmly, “He’ll be alright, Director, in just a couple of moments. You can continue.” Again, her expression was calm, almost serene. She was in her element and in control of the situation.

As attention turned from them, Willow gazed up at Bannon, her smile fading. She looked almost angry as she looked at him, trying to communicate something without saying it in front of the room. It might have gone a little something like, You dumbass.

Dropping her eyes, Willow helped Eva remove the shards of ceramic, her fingers gentle despite her irritation with him. Suddenly, Carver looked up at him, her expression hardening as her hands faltered. Her eyes narrowed and Bannon saw confusion mix with the anger. He saw a question form on her lips; then it was gone and the woman looked at him with mere confusion. Still frowning, she dropped her eyes to her work, focusing on removing the bits of mug.

[SalmonMax]

As fascinating as the revelation of the "book of all knowledge" was to Max Keller, it was still second tier compared to his interest in the reactions the others had to that revelation. The emotions in the room fluctuated wildly, from person to person...sometimes even within a single person. Every single one of them jousted and butted, looking for social advancement within the group. Bannon put on a grim, stoic face and then proceeded to betray it with his powers and hands...the sort of tactic that Keller had seen most often in teenagers when they wanted help, but were too proud, or obsessed with their image and standing, just to ask.

And through it all, he wondered if anyone was asking themselves the question that occurred to him almost immediately, as the mystery of the Book deepened.

Why?

Why would someone write a book of knowledge...and then proceed to hide it under layers of encryption and coding that human society wouldn't be able to solve for thousands of years?

As for the monk who had been credited with the work, Keller instantly doubted that. It was too convenient. A lowly monk with a common name for his age and location, whom no one could pin down and who died without any mention, turned out these books?

Unlikely. An individual with the power to do that would stand out. Against their will, they would. The monk was most likely a figurehead...quite possibly a convenient fiction entirely, told and retold until any other story faded and vanished.

But there it was again...why?

The most likely explanation he could speculate on now, in the profound lack of real evidence, was that the books had never been intended for human use at all.

And THAT was just plain neat.

[Bannon]

"Sorry." Bannon muttered again, embarrassment once more rising as the cold shock of pain started to fade and Dr Carver's sharp gaze stung him harder. He looked away from her and Eva as they continued to work on his hands and met Jake's eyes.

"Was somewhere else for a moment." he said softly without elaboration, his gaze level and steady. Jake nodded, understanding, and turned back to the podium to continue the meeting. Bannon looked back at his hands, morbidly curious as to how the repair work was going, and caught Willow's double-take and the moment of sudden confusion in her eyes. Outwardly calm, Bannon waited to see if... but whatever it was passed and she dropped her head once more, focusing on his injuries.

[Zaylee Zanne]

Atlanta anticipatory tension eased with a tinge of regret when she found out she wasn't going on the mission to track down possible additional volumes of the Book of All Knowledge. On the other hand, there was always the possibility she'd be called in to cover their asses. Besides, Lee said they had something else for the rest of them and the cyber-limbed Assistant Director rarely disappointed.

When the new Team Leader managed to sliver his hand with shattered ceramic, AJ maintained her casually taut lounging against the wall, studying him with heavy-lidded eyes. She wasn't a doctor, nor pretended to be, and besides, Dr. Carver was there with her medical capabilities. She was more concerned with how he reacted to the pain... and how he had shattered the mug in the first place. She wanted a sense of what to expect from him, in case she was ever in the field with him. She might have been inured to temperature extremes, but she did notice the curl of condensation coming off the frozen ceramic. Hmm...

[Jaunt]

Jaunt cracked a smile and Lee. It was all good and he appreciated someone who could dish it out as well as take it. When the mug shattered Jaunt looked over and watched the drama unfold.

"Well, dude," Jaunt stood up and stretched a bit in the midst of all the new chaos. "These are my friends in here bruh... try to make sure you're not 'somewhere else for a moment' when you're out there and focus on keeping them alive, will ya?"

He looked up to Stefonkowski and Lee, and he didn't look pleased. With a cock of his head in Bannon's direction as if to say 'are you serious?' he shrugged his shoulders slightly. "Well, it's been real peeps, and new boss... you look like you have your hands full," He quipped. "So if you all will excuse me, I'm gonna pop out for a sec, seriously, I need to piss something fierce. The J-train is in the station."

With a 'thump' the boy slipped away into nothingness...

[S.J. Grey]

Things were moving quickly now, and the pen in Samantha's hand flew across the paper as she raced to keep up with the flow of information; there was no way of knowing what would be useful and what wouldn't, and she would have plenty of time to review it all in transit. The flow of ink over the page paused briefly at the sound of the mug shattering, and the muffled curses uttered.

Concern flooded Sam's eyes, but those close to Bannon moved swiftly; once Dr. Carver stepped in, she relaxed, and her pen resumed its furious journey as pages flipped and rough shorthand filled the lines.

Excitement and anticipation threatened to overwhelm the Titian-haired journalist, and the restless tension coiling within her rendered the sprawling, angular script pouring out of her pen almost indecipherable. It was difficult to focus on just getting the information on the page without allowing herself to think about it or consider what they were after, what they were going to be doing. The Book of All Knowledge?! It was almost too fantastic to be true, and only sheer willpower kept her from leaping out of her seat.

No. Save the giddy schoolgirl act for when we actually have them, she admonished herself with an abrupt shake of the head. You've got less than seven hours to get ready and get on a plane.

As Jaunt vanished, she jabbed the point of the pen into the notepad triumphantly and looked around the room, wondering if they could see how thrilled she was, if it showed in her eyes or in the expectant half-smile on her lips. Exhaling slowly, she rose from her chair and, clipping the pen to the notepad before tucking it under one arm, strode purposefully over to Lee.

"If there are any other details necessary for my role in the retrieval, I assume they're already in order? I'm eager to get started, and I want to use what little time I have to prepare..." Her voice trailed off briefly as she glanced back at the small cluster of people around Bannon. When she turned back to the Assistant Director, there was an implied question in the slight tilt of her head and the arch of her brow, but she said nothing else.

[Ante]

Realizing that they were still the focus of the room, Willow said firmly, “He’ll be alright, Director, in just a couple of moments. You can continue.” Again, her expression was calm, almost serene. She was in her element and in control of the situation.

"Sorry." Bannon muttered again, embarrassment once more rising as the cold shock of pain started to fade and Dr Carver's sharp gaze stung him harder. He looked away from her and Eva as they continued to work on his hands and met Jake's eyes.

"Was somewhere else for a moment." he said softly without elaboration, his gaze level and steady. Jake nodded, understanding, and turned back to the podium to continue the meeting.

“Well, ah”, muttered the Director, looking concerned, “That’s fine, then, I suppose.” He moved back away from Bannon to give the doctor the room she needed (not that he actually had any idea how much room that might be) and then said, “Alright folks; those of you who’ve been given your assignments, you can proceed to staging room 1B. I’ll be there momentarily and we can go over your flight plans, transportation arrangements and all of that.

“The rest of you”, he said, looking to those agents who hadn’t been assigned directly to the case in Himachal Pradesh, “just sit tight. The Assistant Director will brief you all on the other projects that boys upstairs have sent our way and give you your assignments. Everyone, you’ll find the briefing notes on the Sirbhuvalaya and the Ljang-khu in your inboxes. Take some time this evening, or during your upcoming plane flights to review the information you’ll find there.”

Stefokowski nodded once to his agents as a combined ‘goodbye’, for those who would be staying behind, and ‘I’ll see you there’, for those he would be meeting in 1B. He moved out from around the podium and stopped next to his two ranking agents. “Dr. Carver”, he said quietly, “would you please take Dr. Bannon to the infirmary for a more thorough check-up? I’ll stop in on my way to the staging room to pick up Bannon, here.” He gave them both a significant look, though he was careful not to let any of the other agents see, and it was clear he had more in mind than a simple check-up that Bannon probably didn’t need in the first place. “Don’t worry, Carver”, he continued quietly, “you don’t need to be here for the next portion of this briefing and I’ll be sure to get you back to Lee before she gets to the part you are needed for.”

He smiled tightly at them both and then stood and started towards the room’s exit. And then ‘the Kid’ got up and stopped him short.

"Well, dude," Jaunt stood up and stretched a bit in the midst of all the new chaos. "These are my friends in here bruh... try to make sure you're not 'somewhere else for a moment' when you're out there and focus on keeping them alive, will ya?"

He looked up to Stefonkowski and Lee, and he didn't look pleased. With a cock of his head in Bannon's direction as if to say 'are you serious?' he shrugged his shoulders slightly. "Well, it's been real peeps, and new boss... you look like you have your hands full," He quipped. "So if you all will excuse me, I'm gonna pop out for a sec, seriously, I need to piss something fierce. The J-train is in the station."

The Director was glaring right back at the nova youth and he didn’t look too happy either, but when Jaunt indicated that he was leaving the Director’s eyes widened and he started to reach out towards Jaunt. “Wait, what’re you-? No. Jaunt, wait! You’re-”

With a 'thump' the boy slipped away into nothingness...

“Blast it all!”, Stefokowski cursed under his breath, “That boy…!”. He turned and shared a look with his Assistant Director, who was just standing by the podium, hands on her hips as she shook her head. Stefokowski made a pained expression and then said to her, “I’ll track him down and get him back in here. You just get on with the briefing.” Lee rolled her eyes and nodded at him once and the Director and walked promptly out of the room.

“Okay, people”, she groused at the Argonauts still sitting hovering around the briefing room, “if you’re going to India then get out of my briefing room! If you’re not going to India then just sit tight and I’ll tell you where you are going.” With that, Lee took a position behind the podium and waited while the Argonauts going to India left the room and those not going – and who weren’t already seated – found somewhere to settle in.

[samantha] rose from her chair and, clipping the pen to the notepad before tucking it under one arm, strode purposefully over to Lee.

"If there are any other details necessary for my role in the retrieval, I assume they're already in order? I'm eager to get started, and I want to use what little time I have to prepare..." Her voice trailed off briefly as she glanced back at the small cluster of people around Bannon. When she turned back to the Assistant Director, there was an implied question in the slight tilt of her head and the arch of her brow, but she said nothing else.

The Assistant Director met the experienced field agent’s eyes and gave her the slightest of nods. “It’s fine”, she said, “you should stop by 1B and get your travel agenda from the Director before you go, and I think he has a few details to go over with you, also.” It wasn’t clear if she was answering the question Samantha had actually asked or the one she hadn’t.

Lee gave the younger woman the sort of small-but-genuine-smile that the less-experienced agents on the team rarely got to see from their Assistant Director and said, “Get going, Sam.”

The Machine Girl stepped back to the podium and picked up her remote again. Depressing one of its buttons, another image flashed onto the screen, this time a satellite image showing some small city or town. “Who here has heard of the Naica mines?”, she asked.

Click to reveal..

OOC: Feel free to put up any other responses/reactions you guys wanted to get in as you’re agents are leaving, or settling in to listen (as the case may be). I’ll be getting the actual briefing for the next mission up ASAP - as well as getting the India-mission thread up and running as well – but I wanted to give you guys a chance to say anything you might have left to say before we moved on from this portion of the briefing.

Re: ‘Staging room 1B’: I hope this hasn’t confused any of you, as I realize there isn’t a map up of the Arognauts HQ for you guys to look at or anything. The ‘staging rooms’ aren’t as exciting as they maybe sound (although they can be the scene of lots of suspense and excitement during those rare emergency deployments of Argonaut agents); they’re simply rooms where agents are provided with mission-specific supplies they’re going to need, as well as a place where their team leads can go over all the really boring information that they need to know. Like when their plane leaves, hotel reservations, all of that. Like I said: the boring stuff. Stefokowski will go over that stuff with you guys off-screen, so that the other agents who aren’t even going with you guys don’t have to sit through stuff that they don’t need to know.

Re: Mission notes in your ‘inboxes’: You guys can all assume that, as Argonauts, you have things like laptop computers and very decent cell phones with OpNet access and that you also have been given highly secure, encrypted OpMail accounts as well. The notes that Stefokowski and Lee were using to give the briefing will be attached to an opmail message sent to each of your accunts. There’s not really much more there that wasn’t already discussed in the briefing, mostly just lots of rather dry language and technical terminology, but it’s worth mentioning, as it’s something you guys can reference for your own purposes later on the game.

Re: Carver and Bannon and a Trip to the Infirmary: I’m just planning to do a short scene there with you two, so if you would please oblige me, I’d greatly appreciate it.

Re: Jaunt’s sudden exodus: Jaunt, you can assume that the Director finds your character (or calls him, maybe), gives him a brief ‘talking to’, and then sends him back to the briefing. This can happen off-screen, unless it’s really, really important to you that it happen on-screen, I guess. Anyway, it’s fairly certain that Lee will have yet more caustic remarks for her favorite Argonaut when he arrives.

[BlueNinja]

Michal snaps his fingers, and twirls his iPad around. "That's the place with the giant crystals the size of cars, right?" On the screen is a shot of a miner standing next to a crystal easily twice the size of him.

[z-Carver]

Heading to the Infirmary

[The Director] moved out from around the podium and stopped next to his two ranking agents. “Dr. Carver”, he said quietly, “would you please take Dr. Bannon to the infirmary for a more thorough check-up? I’ll stop in on my way to the staging room to pick up Bannon, here.” He gave them both a significant look, though he was careful not to let any of the other agents see, and it was clear he had more in mind than a simple check-up that Bannon probably didn’t need in the first place. “Don’t worry, Carver”, he continued quietly, “you don’t need to be here for the next portion of this briefing and I’ll be sure to get you back to Lee before she gets to the part you are needed for.”

“Not a problem, sir. Well, Dr. Bannon,” Carver said, rising to her feet gracefully, “you heard the man. Let’s go.”

“You gonna…?” Bannon held up his hands. Though they weren’t bleeding, they were still criss-crossed with wounds.

“Nope,” Carver said, her mouth curling up in a slight smile. “Let’s get to the infirmary first.” She hooked a hand around his arm and tugged up until he rose to his feet and followed her. They wove out through the chairs and into the hallway, suddenly alone after the bustle of the room.

Ask him about the déjà vu, Jael demanded.

Willow blinked as she stared at the floor, startled that Jael was getting so worked up about it. So little upset her darker half that this was a little surprising. No.

What? Why not?

Later, after the mission. Willow wondered if she’d have to fight with her over maintaining professionalism, but Jael was a professional too.

You’re right, she grudgingly admitted. Though I’m sure you’ll forget.

You won’t, Willow said with confidence.

That’s the fuckin’ truth.

Willow let it go another couple of steps, then added, Sometimes, I get that around him too.

It was Jael’s turn to be surprised. What? Why haven’t you said anything to me?

Willow paused at the door of the infirmary and held it open for Bannon. Because I knew you’d throw a fit about it.

And you don’t think that’s justified?

Willow waved Bannon to the exam room as she paused to grab her diagnostic laptop from her office. No. There are reasons for a feeling of déjà vu, and I’m not going to corner the man and interrogate him about it.

Why not? Willow didn’t answer, because the second she admitted it to herself, Jael snapped, Oh holy fuck, you’re scared he’ll figure out about me. He’s got our file. He fuckin’ knows, Wills.

Willow swallowed and walked into exam room, trying to hide the stress of the argument. Knowing and knowing are different. He might know, but he doesn’t know. She was calling up his medical file; though she’d seen it once, she took a moment to review it again.

Coward.

Bitch.

Hey, at least I’m honest about it.

“Dr. Bannon, please hold out your hands,” Willow ordered, ignoring Jael. She set down the laptop and took his hands in hers, her palms molding around the back of his hands. Willow peered at the cuts, then looked up at him. “That’s a hell of a way to instill confidence in your team, Bannon.” Her voice was hard and her eyes more gray than blue as she locked gazes with his green ones. “What the hell was that all about?”

[Zaylee Zanne]

Atlanta turned from watching the other agents leave for briefing room 1B (presumably) to the satellite image. To her pleasant surprise, she actually recognized it. She had taken a look at some photos of the area while bored out of her skull, sitting in her tiny IGU office in Nuevo San Juan.

She was raising her hand, mouth opening when Michal snapped his fingers, and twirled his iPad around. "That's the place with the giant crystals the size of cars, right?" On the screen was a shot of a miner standing next to a crystal easily twice the size of him. Atlanta scowled, her penetrating, cyan eyes narrowing in annoyance.

She gave him a small snort, then added primly, "Yes. It's found in Naica, of the Saucillo municipality of the state of Chihuahua, in Mexico. Two or three hundred meters below the surface, you can find the Cave of Crystals, which has some of the largest natural crystals in the world. There's also the Cave of Swords, which has crystal formations only two meters in length." She paused, glancing at the image on Michal's iPad. "It's pretty neat looking."

[Jaunt]

With the a give away 'thump' Jaunt appeared once again in the briefing room. He'd swapped out his massive wool vest for a black t-shirt and was fiddling with the fly on his leather pants. It was like he shook, tucked, and teleported and decided to zip mid-transit.

"Sorry bout' that, everything cool in here?" He plopped back down in his seat and looked about. "We lose Cool Hands Chuke already? He gonna be aight?"

[BlueNinja]

Originally Posted By: Atlanta Johnson

She gave him a small snort, then added primly, "Yes. It's found in Naica, of the Saucillo municipality of the state of Chihuahua, in Mexico. Two or three hundred meters below the surface, you can find the Cave of Crystals, which has some of the largest natural crystals in the world. There's also the Cave of Swords, which has crystal formations only a meter in length." She paused, glancing at the image on Michal's iPad. "It's pretty neat looking."

He smiles, and flips his computer back around. "Yeah, I remember my professor mentioning it in chemistry class." He pauses, then looks up at Lee, who would be glaring at him if not for the ever-so-timely intervention of Jaunt. Taking advantage of her momentary distraction, he looks back at Atlanta. "Ever since I got here, I've been meaning to take a vacation day or three and tour them. Maybe bring back one as a souveneir."

[Ante]

A Not-So-Routine Examination

“That’s what I want to know”, demanded the Director.

He hadn’t exactly burst through the door into the infirmary, but he certainly hadn’t knocked or announced his presence beforehand either.

He looked from Carver back to Bannon, “And yes”, he said, “I do want to have this conversation with her present. Just as you’re now Lee’s second-in-command, the Doctor here is yours. The two of you are going to be working together very closely from here on out and you’re going to have to be able to trust each other if that’s going to work. In fact, she’d be booked on the same flight as you going to India, if we didn’t need her for a minor emergency we’ve got brewing on the horizon.”

The Director paused and placed a hand gently on Carver’s shoulder; in a soft aside he said, “Sorry, Doctor, I know this is the first you’ve heard about that and I didn’t mean to spring it on you. Lee will have more information for you once you get back.”

He lifted his hand away from the Doctor’s shoulder so that he could cross his arms and then looked back at Bannon. “So what was that all about, Jay? Was it Alwar?”

Click to reveal..

OOC: Jake is referring to the ruined city of Bhangarh, in the Alwar district of Rajasthan, India. Look it up.

[Bannon]

Bannon remained silent for a long moment, his eyes on Willow's plainly assessing the doctor. Then he nodded, slowly, his voice soft as he answered.

"Yes."

"'Yes', is all the man says." Jake blew out a sigh and moved so he could peer at his friend's hands, then stared searchingly at Bannon's face. "How're you feeling now?"

"Embarrassed." Bannon gave a light shrug as though the embarrassment was of little consequence, one way or the other. "But I'm good. Just didn't expect my first return job to be this much like the last job, Jake." There was no trace of accusation in the tone or in the level gaze Bannon fixed on the Director. Stefakowski nodded, a fin of sympathy flashing beneath the 'boss face'.

"I know, Jay. None of us did. I swear, I had no idea this would turn up right away or I wouldn't have asked you back when I did." His lips quirked. "I'm not that stone-hearted. But even so, you know you're the best man to head up the team on this one, right?" Bannon tried to look away, to glance at Willow and what she was doing, but Jake caught his eye. "Jay? You know it, right?"

What if I'm not? Bannon thought to himself, his eyes dropping unseeing to his hands. What if I say "Sorry, Jake. No fucking way am I chasing little gods around the bloody Indian hinterlands. Besides, the team are convinced I'm a basket case now; not that any of them are great prizes in the Mr Normality awards."? He felt a surge of anger, at himself for thinking these things, at his team for seeing him this way, at Jake and Lee for pressuring him back into this damn job. He didn't have 'the hunger' anymore. The spark that had started to kindle when Jake had started the briefing had snuffed out. He should get fixed up, shake his friend's hand, say thanks but no thanks, and go back to his home and his gardens. The Impatiens psittacina would be flowering now, and he had plans to harvest some of the pollen for a new compound...

But then he thought of Truth, of Willow, of the others. Argonauts. Legend-chasers. How would they fare without him? Probably well: none of them were rookies. But what if something happened? What if they didn't come home, ended up with the kites gathering over their blankly staring eyes. If he'd not come back when he did, it wouldn't be his responsibility. If he didn't know about it- But he did. And if he turned his back now, and history repeated itself...

"Yes." Bannon looked up, meeting Jake's gaze once more. "Yes, I'm the right man for the job. But get one thing straight, Director. My first focus in every situation is going to be the team. I don't give a rat's ass about the Book of All Knowledge. Once, I might have gone skipping after it with a butterfly net. Not now. I don't care about the Ljang-khu Drukpas or their shadowy masters. If I, or anyone on my team, conclude that this Devi is playing us false, that it's a snipe hunt to lure us into a trap, I'm calling no joy, putting the 'little goddess' on ice the hard way, and bringing them all home."

[Daniel Ingersoll]

Almost, it seemed like he could almost grasp what he was trying to see, but then it slipped though.. well the terminology wasn't the best, but it seemed like it slide though his fingers like a fish sliding out of one's hands in a river... slippery was the only thing he could think of to describe the feeling to himself.

He would have to make another try later, once he found out more about these groups. In the meantime, he began to make use of his computer uplink device to investigate and find out everything he could about Ljang-khu, The Book of All Knowledge and Kinnaur region of Himachal Pradesh. Sense that was where they would be going shortly, the more he knew the better.

[Ante]

Lee grinned at her agents as they displayed their knowledge of the Naica mines. “My, aren’t we all the experienced world-travelers?”, she asked sarcastically. “And it looks like you’re in luck, Wesson, because now you get to take a tour of the place and get paid while you’re at it. How’s that for a job-related perk, eh?” Despite the sarcasm, it was obvious that Lee was pleased that they did already know about the place.

“And speaking of world travelers…”, she remarked as Jaunt ‘thumped’ his way back into the room. Her smile turned into a slight scowl as she glared at the youth, but all she said was, “I’ll talk to you later.”

She looked back at the wall-screen and clicked the remote again, bringing up yet another picture, this time showing the interior of the mine and some of the crystals that Atlanta and Wesson had been discussing, with people attempting to climb over and around them providing a sense of scale.

“This”, said Lee, “is the Cueva de los Cristales. The Cave of Crystals, that Atlanta mentioned, also sometimes called ‘the Cathedral’. It’s located slightly less than 300 meters below the earth in what are generally called the Naica Mines – which is not the actual name by the way – and the Cave of Swords”, she said and turned to look back at Atlanta, “are located just about 120 meters below the surface.”

The Assistant Director clicked her remote again and this time the wall showed an image that looked to be a screencap of a typical business’ webpage. “Industrias Peñoles, or Peñoles Mining for those of who haven’t learned to speak Mexican* yet”, Lee explained, “are the owners and operators of the so-called Naica Mines, and have been since before the start of the 20th Century.” As though to prove her point, Lee clicked the remote again and brought up a grainy old black and white photograph of what appeared to be how the mine had looked in the bygone days of its early beginnings. “The Peñoles mining encampment, approximately 1929”, Lee said by way of explanation and then hit the remote yet again. “This image”, she said as the image appeared on the wall, “was taken even earlier, sometime around 1910, in a cavern located beyond and below Atlanta’s ‘Cave of Swords’. This is the only known image of this part of the caves."

Lee turned away from the image to look back at the Argonauts and said, "The cavern was shut down shortly after this image was taken, due to a series of unfortunate events involving the Mexican Revolution. When it was opened up again in 1927 this room was sealed behind a steel door more secure than many bank vaults were at that time, and no mention of this portion of the cave was ever made again. We eventually managed to confirm during the 1960's - when Peñoles finally became a publicaly traded company upon which Aeon could gain some influence over - that this mysterious cavern's entrance had been demolished and covered over entirely sometime afterwards."

Lee clicked the remote again and the image of the 'Cave of Crystals' came back up on screen. "This was discovered in 2000", Lee said, "and hey - I admit - it's neat. I guess. But what we're interested in is whatever those miners found beyond this place in 2002."

The Assistant Director depressed her thumb and the image on the wall changed yet again. "This", said Lee, "was taken by one of the miners whose loyalties to Peñoles turned out to be worth exactly $15,000 dollars, US. The guy had about three days to spend that cash before whoever it was dumped his body in the man-made lake just outside the town of Naica got to him."

Lee stared hard at no one in the room in particular and let her breath out through her nostrils. Then she cocked her to one side in a gesture that was sort of like a shrug, but with no shoulders involved. "But hey!", she sounded like she was trying to cheer herself up as she said it, "We got the picture and we got the miner's story before anyone could get to him, so at least it wasn't a complete loss..."

The Assistant Director suddenly seemed to realize that she was in danger of rambling. She collected herself and stood up a bit straighter, yanking a sheet out from within the stack on the podium and glanced down at its contents.

"So, all collateral damage aside", she said with forced callousness, "here's what we know: in 2002 the Peñoles miners discovered some new marvel at a depth of 320 meters - that's just about ten stories further down than the Cueva de los Cristales - I say 'marvel', but in all honesty we're not sure what they found precisely. We just have our suspicions. What we do know is that it sent the company into a brief uproar during which someone in their PR department prematurely issued a brief statement to the general press which indicated that they'd found something down there of 'unprecedented significance'. And after that?" Lee looked around at the remaining Argonauts with upraised eyebrows as though genuinely looking to see if any of them knew what came next in the story. Satisfied that none of them did, she finally answered the question.

"Nothing. Not one word has been said about this discovery of 'unprecedented significance' in the eight years since." She smirked at her own melodrama and then said, "But we've got that photo behind me and we have the recorded statement of the poor miner who took it. So - as usual - Section 2 knows more about this story than the rest of the world does - though not by much."

Lee smacked the paper she'd been referencing down on the podium, clearly finished with it. "There are caverns down there", she said, "big ones, containing crystals and other structures that our dead miner assured us were unlike anything else seen in the Naica mines, and those caverns just keep right on going down, or so says our miner-friend."

The Assistant Director stopped then, her gaze becoming unfocused and her lips pursing as she seemed to become lost in thought. After only a second or two of this, however, she looked back towards the Argonauts. "Wesson", she said suddenly, "you're taking lead on this operation. And no, it isn't because we all got ourselves confused and mixed you up with a world-class spelunker." She cocked an eyebrow at the team's super-genius sarcastically, then said, "You're technically in charge, so it's your job to make any snap decisions that need making while you and your team are there, but your primary responsibility there is to 'mine' their computer networks for every erg of data you can find. Something's happening in that hole in the ground and our bosses want to know what."

Lee glanced in the direction of the unassuming Argonaut in the rumpled tie who'd been sitting almost unnoticed at the back of the room up until then. "Shreveson, you're going to. You'll be taking point. Those caverns are supposed to be incredibly hot, making it virtually impossible for most people - including most of Section 2 - to endure them for more than about a half an hour at a time, but it should be no problem for you. We need you to get down there, past the 300 meter mark, and make an assessment of what you find - and not get caught while you're at, ok?"

"Gravinski", Lee continued, looking towards the team's quiet, Ph.D-holding 'Big Gun', "You're going in primarily as security on this op. See to it these two jokers make it back in one piece, got it?"

Lee jerked her thumb back towards the picture behind her - the one that had cost a man his life - and said with a slightly chagrined expression, "We don't actually have any idea what's down that hole. Those of you being assigned to this op deserve to know that, at least as far as I'm concerned. This case could be one big bust, truth be told."

She stopped and did her head-shrug thing again and then said, "But just getting that image did cost an innocent man his life. And, moreover, we can say with much more certainty that some very powerful groups are working very hard to keep whatever's down there out of the public's eye, and that makes it Argonaut business. Industrias Peñoles is owned by Grupo Bal, and those guys are in for a pound with a lot of the very worst this world has to offer in terms of international corporations."

Lee dropped the weathered steel of her elbows to the surface of the podium and leaned in towards her attentive agents. "So that's it, you three. Get in there, find out what's being hidden - and who's hiding it - and get out again, without making a scene or getting killed. Should be a cakewalk, no?"

The Assistant Director waited a beat and then wrapped it up,"So before I kick you three out of here and send you off to 1B to get your cover-IDs and other details of this case: any questions?"

Click to reveal..

Re: Lee calling it ‘Mexican: Yes guys, she knows it’s really ‘Spanish’.

Re: The Mission: In case any of you were picking up on it, I'll go ahead and say that, yes, Lee really is of the opinion that this operation isn't going to turn out to be much. But what she doesn't know is that I'm using this case for one of the three initial mission-threads and I wouldn't go to the trouble if there wasn't something interesting to do there.

[z-Carver]

In the Infirmary

As Jake touched her shoulder, Willow smiled at him. She didn’t react to the apology – it was par for the course on this job. She didn’t get much warning if any, but it didn’t bother her. Still, it was nice that the Director acknowledged that it was a pain in the ass.

Releasing Bannon’s hand, she walked to a cabinet and fished out a magnifying glass with a clamp. As the two men talked, she hooked it to the edge of the table. Next she selected a pair of tweezers out a drawer of them and returned to the table. Taking Bannon’s left hand, she turned it palm-up again and began to scrutinize the cuts through the magnifying glass. “At least you didn’t have a flesh and blood colored mug,” she muttered to herself as she started to work.

She could heal the flesh without doing this, but Bannon wouldn’t thank her for it. If she healed them without this step, the flesh would heal over the shards. So Willow bent over her task, her brow furrowed as she concentrated on picking the shards out of Bannon’s hands. She also listened, over the irregular tink of ceramic dropping into the stainless steel bowl.

She had finished the left and moved to the right as Bannon gave his impassioned condition to taking the mission. Jael suddenly intruded into her thoughts. Ok, I still don’t trust him, but I kinda like him now. He has It.

It was about the highest praise that the sociopath offered anyone. Willow wasn’t even sure what Jael meant by it; when she’d asked, Jael had told her if she had it, she’d know what Jael intended. That’s cute that you have a crush, Willow said, her mental voice rife with amusement. Next thing you know, you’ll be blushing around him and forgetting your name.

Jael hissed with irritation. This was the kind of teasing she didn’t handle well – though she dished it with a vengeance. He’s our damned boss, she snarled, but Willow just laughed silently. It was like Jael to only quote what was proper when she was on the spot.

She’d love to tease Jael more, but she shut the other woman out to focus on what was happening in the room. Willow wanted to see Jake’s reply, before she added her own thoughts to the matter.

[Courier]

Steve asked quietly, "They're keeping it out of view, are they still developing the site? Maybe bringing loads of waste there?"

Not gold or diamond, they'd announce that. Survival gear is obvious, the heat in those areas is absurd, enough that oxygen is an issue. And let's just ignore that you're investigating what might be an illegal toxic waste dump instead of the book of all knowledge.

[BlueNinja]

Michal evaluates the pictures for about five seconds, then begins typing as he talks. "Do we have floorplans of their buildings? Maps of the explored, non-tourist sections of the caves? By 'hot', do you mean temperature, radiation, toxicity, or some combination of the above? Do we know of any other employees whose loyalty comes with a neatly labeled price tag?" As he finished each question, Lee's op-phone gave the little chirp of an incoming text message. "I don't need answers to all of those right now, but I would like them before we leave." He turns to look at Steve and Grav. "Any kind of equipment you two think you'll need, beside the standard spelunking stuff? Oooh, and," he types out another one to Lee, "how many American employees do they have at this place? I want to make sure I can blend in."