"First off, it seems like your leak is high enough up to know who and where I am. I've been contacted by a female who knew that I was the foreign agent who was hired. Also, she claims that Steranko is behind it. Moments later, Zigesfield appears and we have fun playing cat and mouse on the roads for a while. He was armed, and the car was registered as Augustus Steranko. I have a theory that Steranko all along has been killing off major competitors, which is the reason why he's at the top now. Still, something's fishy about this. I'm going to head to some inner-city contacts I have. I'll report back soon."
I then hang up the phone and pull in to the nearest hotel.
When I arrive there, I approach the front desk and ask to speak with a manager before anything. I'll ask him how much it is for a room, and if they allow pets.
"Pets, monsieur? The cat, the lap dog, the caged bird--certainly these, although you will be billed for damages. Large dogs that are not for handicap assistance we must insist stay in the kennel, and other creatures--well, let us say that we try to exercise discretion while accommodating our guests as well as we are able." He smiles. You tell him it's a cat and he offers to provide a litter pan for the bathroom.
He gives you the room rate in Francs and in Euros. He can accept American money but has to bill in European currency and do the conversion when you make your payment. The price is about $40 per night single occupancy, an extra couple bucks for the pet.
Since you recorded your message rather than asking to speak to a specific individual, you get no immediate answer.
The phone fits in a charger cradle in the car but travels as a cell phone. Are you carrying it with you or leaving it in the car?
--M. J. Young
I take the cell phone with me into the room.
Before I go in, I ask the manager what he can tell me about the Riviera.
Once inside the room, I lock the door, pet my cat, and get undressed (into boxers). I keep the gun underneath the pillow, and I'll try to get some shut-eye before the cell phone rings, which I assume it will soon.
"Oh, Monsieur, what can I tell you about the Riviera? It is overpriced, it is, and a good place to lose all of your money at the Casinos. Why not spend your vacation here in Paris?" which he pronounces pah-REE, of course. "We have exquisite museums, le Tower Eiffel, wonderful historic sites. The great artistes, they all painted here and showed their works here. Even our women are better--more sophisticated and less, qu'est c'on dit, snobbish," (with the accent on the second syllable). "This I can tell you about the Riviera. What else is there to know?"
The phone call does indeed come.
"Wright? Bright here. I think there must be a problem with our recording. It sounds like you're saying that Steranko is the killer; we've got it figured that Steranko is the next target. What makes you think otherwise?"
He says it's not impossible that Zigesfeld waited near the compound and watched for your car to emerge--after all, various security organizations do have to integrate their activities, so some of Steranko's people know where the safe holes are. You'll find that your onboard computer has locations of various CIA, Interpol, British Intel, and similar sites. They're not easy to access directly, but if you tell the car to find you a safe haven it will retrieve such things from its database. As to the girl, he thinks maybe you should find out who she is. She might be a threat, and Zigesfeld might have been tailing her and thought you were with her.
--M. J. Young
That'll be all for the conversation with the manager.
To Mr. Bright, "Right, my thoughts exactly. Still, I'm just reporting new developements. Do you have any information on enemy female agents (which fit the description that I give them, inserted here)? Either way, I don't think I'm on Zigesfield's good side now. I'll contact you again with further information, after I've investigated more about the woman. Something's still fishy about this."
I hang up. Things are just too suspicious. One possibility is indeed that Zigesfield and my fight was a coincidence. I had attacked him first; however, what the girl said is still troubling. Perhaps Steranko has been killing off competitors in the global market. Blade was after all caught while observing Steranko's doings.
I head back to the car with Harry, and see where the CIA haven is, then start heading out in that direction.
The car's computer pulls up as the nearest haven the one in downtown Paris where you started. It's listed as MI-5 British.
Others noted are the American and British Embassies and the Paris Interpol offices. The car figures you are in Paris and if you need an emergency location, the British MI-5 location is your best bet.
As mentioned, the system is not set up for you to be able to locate such places by affiliation, but rather by geography--if you say you are headed in a particular direction and need such a place, it will give you the first one in that direction, or if that is a significant distance it will include locations that are closer but not directly on your current course. Asking for a "CIA" location is not a valid inquiry. Asking for the nearest location in the direction of the Riviera (or any other direction), or the nearest one to a specific address (such as the casino hotel on the Riviera at which Steranko was said to be staying) will give you whatever location is there, and tell you who officially runs it.
Or did you have some idea for a means of locating the CIA haven directly?
--M. J. Young
Okay, in that case... First, I lock the door to the car.
Then, I head back in the hotel with the cat, and go back to my room. Once there, I put the 9mm pistol I pulled off of Zig's car and try to get some sleep for the night.
I'm not exactly clear where you meant you were putting the pistol.
You sleep fine.
At seven in the morning your phone rings.
"Pardonez-moi, monsieur, there is a man here asking for you. He says he has an appointment. You left no instructions that I can find, so I thought I should ask you before giving him your room number."
--M. J. Young
"Go ahead and give him the room number."
I do some simple calculations-him, meaning Male. If the individual were here to kill me, he could've found out the room number a different way, rather than showing his face at the hotel front desk. Still, perhaps he is here for that reason; therefore, I shouldn't hold backa any precautions.
I take the gun that I slept with and put it in the back of my jeans. Then, I wait by the door, taking into account how the door might swing if it were to be kicked open. I want to be out of the way of any flying doors while I wait, just in case.
It takes a few minutes for the visitor to reach your room, but soon there is a knock on the door. Since it is a hotel, the door locks automatically when you close it, and if the visitor does not have a key (or other means of forcing it) you'll have to open it for him.
--M. J. Young
I stay in my ambush spot for a few more moments, but I attempt to take a quick peek through the peep hole and return to my position, at the ready.
You look through the peep hole, but there is no one within the field of view it provides. Whoever it is might have left, or might be standing to either side of the door, or crouched below the angle of view.
--M. J. Young
"I think we may have had a misunderstanding earlier. Want to talk about this like civilized men?"
I move slowly, after talking, to the other side of the door (where the hinges are).
There is no sound from the other side of the door.
It remains silent for five minutes.
It remains silent for another five minutes.
--M. J. Young
I decide that this inertia gets a little too irritating, so I head over and hit the lights for the room. Immediately, I return to my spot with the gun.
If nothing happens for another five minutes, I sneak over to the phone and dial for the front desk (as quietly as I can), while I keep an eye on the crack under the door (for the light outside in the hall to be covered by a shadow).
"Front desk, may I help you?"
--M. J. Young
"Yes, I'd like your best breakfast item to be sent to the man outside my door, the price to be added to my bill. Thank you."
Then, I hang up and go back to the door, hand on the doorknob and ready to open it. At that point, I just wait for noise.
About twenty minutes later your phone rings.
The man on the other end addresses you in French, but when it is clear you do not understand he shifts to very broken English.
"Pardon, monsieur. This breakfast, for a man in the hall outside your room? There is no one in ze hall. To whom would you like it delivered?"
--M. J. Young
"Harry, come on."
I pat my leg and gesture for the cat to follow me. Then, I gather up the things in the room and head out, pistol in my pocket, but hidden by my shirt. I open the door in a swift movement, to catch anyone there off guard. If Zig's there, then I slam the door shut and attempt to lock it back.
No one in the hall.
Are you headed for the car? The hotel would expect you to check out at the desk.
Does Harry usually follow you when you call him? (That's unusual in a cat, but not unknown.)
--M. J. Young
Yes, Harry does usually follow me around the house wherever I go, and find a place nearby to lay down while I do whatever. He also comes to me on command, even if it's just me looking at him and patting my leg twice.
I'll head as quiet as possible down the hall, and pay attention to Harry to see if he acts strange as we go along. If nothing happens, then I go all the way to the front desk to check out, cautiously looking around in case Zig is still there.
The desk clerk asks whether everything was all right, and gives you your bill to sign.
You do not see Zig until you, your gear, and Harry are all back in your car and pulling out of the drive. He is following you, apparently, at a discreet distance.
Where are you going?
--M. J. Young
"Oh, just an unexpected visitor half scared me to death. Other than that, everything was great." I sign the bill, and head on my way.
When I notice Zig following me, I check the general GPS for a long stretch of road somewere, preferably in the countryside. Then, I'll head for it. If Zig continues to follow, I pull over and wait for him to catch up. I remain in the car the entire time.
You get back on the highway on which you were playing tag yesterday, and head toward the Riviera. Ziggy is still behind you. Soon traffic thins, and you are zipping past villages.
You pull over.
Ziggy pulls over about fifty yards behind you.
--M. J. Young
Does the car have any intercom device on it, that I could talk to Ziggy with?
I'm not certain what sort of device you mean. I take the word "intercom" to refer to a unit in a collection of short range, usually but not necessarily hard-wired, communication stations usually connecting multiple rooms of the same building or similar structure. I don't see how you could have such a device connecting to Ziggy's car, but by virtue of that I'm guessing you mean something else by the word. You do have an onboard cell phone tied into the onboard computer, but you don't know whether he has one and that means you don't have the number. Whether you have anything else will depend on exactly what it is you are hoping to find (e.g., loudspeaker system, C.B. radio, narrowbeam laser audio sound transmitter) and what I roll on a general effects roll--but I can't really roll until I know what you mean.
Thanks.
--M. J. Young
Sorry, I knew that was the wrong word when I used it.
I just thought of the word I was going for.
I'm talking about a megaphone-like thing.
There is a CB radio built into the console, the sort with a keyable mike and a switch that says "PA" under it. A flip of two switches turns the system on in PA mode. There is a volume control.
--M. J. Young
I'll speak into the PA system, to test it. I turn it up to how loud I believe it needs to be for him to hear it from his current distance.
"Excuse me, Mr. Zigesfield, but I'd like to ask you why exactly you attacked me the other day. If you'd like to talk about this civilly, then so would I. You know that you're outmatched. Come out of your car, and we can talk about this, if you'd like to explain yourself."
There's a pause of about half a minute. Then Zigesfeld pulls off the shoulder into the traffic lane and speeds past you.
--M. J. Young
I smirk a little, believing fully that I might have intimidated him.
I keep the PA system on and follow behind him. "Stop immediately. I'm more equipped, higher trained, and know everything I need to know about you. You're at too much of a disadvantage. Stop, or I'll let the bullets do the talking for me."
Ziggy accelerates rapidly--obviously attempting to lose you. You hit the gas to follow.
He attempts to get around a truck on the road, and you attempt to follow him--but he does not manage to get into the gap, and when you do, you get bumped by the truck. You lose control of the car, and roll off the road. An oncoming stationwagon swerves to miss you, and sideswipes a van on its left which gets hit on the right front corner, and traffic starts screeching to a halt while you tumble off the shoulder into a ditch alongside the road, landing upright but rather stuck for the moment.
Zigesfeld speeds away.
--M. J. Young
I call in for help again with the car phone, and ask for assistance.
I'll be completely honest about the situation: Zigesfield has been following me and I suspect trying to kill me. I've stolen his weapons; however, he recently outmaneuvered me in a car. I tell them my precise location, using the GPS.
I understand how risky this is, but I'm willing to take that risk. At the moment, I can't help but wander why I'm even given into this spy-like adventure-I could be somewhere reading a book, getting paid minimum wage, and taking a martial arts class right now-perhaps something more suitable to my level of experience in versing.
The first question they have is whether you are injured. You are a bit shaken, but as far as you can tell uninjured. Then they ask about the car, which is running a diagnostic but has thus far found no indication of serious damage, and landed upright when it stopped rolling. In theory, you could put it in gear and go.
They suggest that you leave the scene immediately, assuring you that they will have a team to those coordinates as soon as possible and will deal with any problems with the local authorities. If you think you want to be examined, the GPS can give you the nearest hospital; otherwise, you're good to go.
They have every confidence in you.
--M. J. Young
I get a boost of hope when they say that.
Immediately, I attempt to put pressure on the gas, and get out of here. I try to get safely on the road, and I call up the car's computer, looking for all information on Zigesfield that I can get, including known safe havens that he might go to.
I'm going to have to ask you to tell me about your computer use skills. I'm assuming since you're on the forum that you have those basic user-friendly computer use skills--use Windows, stuff like that. I need to know how good you are at using a computer in those simple ways, and also whether you have any programming or hacking skills, skills in computer repair, modification, or design, or any other skills in the computer field.
Thanks.
--M. J. Young
I'm good at using Windows well enough, and I'd say that I'm better than most at typing.
However, I don't have exceptional computer use, no. Heck, I have difficulty using a restore disk, lol. I had to call Best Buy to ask exactly what to do. I have no computer using skills other than simple use of windows and internet use.
Your computer stutters--the screen fizzes, blanks, returns.
The voice, in a somewhat hesitant uncertainty, announces that your weapon systems are armed; the blast shield behind the back window rises, and the firing console comes up with status on your various combat functions.
--M. J. Young
"Well, now I know how to do that, I guess..."
I then attempt to turn the weapons system off.
If I succeed in turning the weapons system off for the time being, I try then to find Zigesfield once more. At least I found a way NOT to find him, lol.
You manage to shut down the weapons systems. You then manage to get the computer searching for Zigesfeld, but it is not coming up with anything.
--M. J. Young