"Fine!" I shout in anger at the terminal. Then, I put the car in drive and try to get back on the road, speeding in an attempt to catch up with Zigesfield, and hoping that he didn't pull off already.
You drive for half an hour and never get sight of him.
You realize that you are headed in the general direction of the casino where Steranko was said to be, although this would not be the best road to get there.
--M. J. Young
I plug the casino into the GPS and let it guide me on the most effective way to get there.
On that route, I go full speed that I can control to chase down Zig before he reaches the casino, hopefully.
Late in the afternoon, when your GPS tells you that you are about five miles from your destination, you spot Ziggy's car ahead of you on the road.
--M. J. Young
Are there any other cars around us? What kind of road are we on? Is it a city, or are we still out in the boonies?
You've got moderate traffic--it's moving around 80 to 90 KPH (roughly 50 to 60 mph), and you could weave your way through it with a bit of skill, but you're not yet all that skillful a driver so it would be a risky stunt.
Off the highway, this is the Riviera area--hotels, casinos, restaurants, many of them high rise, condominiums, but plenty of open areas, villas with large properties creating a feel of light suburban or heavy rural. There is a fair amount of tourist traffic both on and off the highway.
--M. J. Young
I'll fall to whatever speed Ziggy seems to be going, and just try to maintain sight of his vehicle for now, as I follow him. I pay attention to the GPS as well, to see if he continues to follow the course towards the casino and hotels.
In a few minutes Ziggy pulls into the parking lot of the casino hotel. He drives around back toward the delivery and service entrances.
Since it was necessary to slow down coming off the highway, you are about a minute behind him as you enter the lot. There is parking out front, and it is a very ritzy place with a uniformed doorman and parking attendants. The drive splits, the path Ziggy took heading around back.
--M. J. Young
I get an idea in my head and drive to the nearest gas station.
Assuming that I find one without trouble, I ask to use the restroom and use it to change into my tux that they gave me. I leave the guns in the car, and keep all of my money on me.
If all of that turns out okay, I'll go back to the casino (which I assume has a valet service) and use the valet, getting out of the car. I then approach the front entrance.
All of that runs quite smoothly. You are now entering the hotel dressed in your tux.
Just so that there are no questions about what you have with you, you have left the guns in the car, and the valet has the keys. What have you taken with you? (I recommend checking your equipment, and particularly what they gave you, as you might find things that are likely to be useful where you are going.)
--M. J. Young
I wear the wet suit under the tuxedo, if it can be successfully hidden. Also, I take the x-ray glasses with me, wearing them immediately.
I walk straight into the casino confidently and yes I let the valet have the keys, winking at him giving him a tip for taking the car.
When I get to whoever's at the door, I wait for them to open it for me before walking into the casino.
I don't think you can wear the wet suit inconspicuously beneath the tux. The air tanks alone make this extremely awkward, the the headgear won't hide under the jacket either. You could wear the rubber suit, without tanks, head gear, weight belt, gloves, or socks, if there's any reason for that, but it would be rather warm and sweaty.
Once you put on the glasses, everyone appears naked. The naked parking attendant stuffs your tip into nothing, and the naked doorman holds the door open for you. Naked people inside are milling about; there is a check-in desk for the hotel, but beyond it you are immediately part of the casino.
--M. J. Young
In that case, forget about the wet suit.
I'll head inside and begin to walk around the casino a bit. I'm looking for Steranko, Ziggy, the woman, or anyone else I saw on Steranko's known associates.
It occurs to me to ask whether you've actually seen a picture of Steranko.
You do see that girl who was chasing you, dressed in a slinky silvery evening gown, at a rather crowded table where a card game is being played.
--M. J. Young
"Pictures:
Augustus Steranko is mid-forties, European but dark coloring, very professional in appearance.
Areola Canasta is the twenty-something aspiring model who has been seen in his company over much of the past year or so, long dark hair and svelte.
Ilsa Grunt is a short forty-something woman who works as his personal assistant in some capacity, and usually travels with him.
Zigesfeld, listed as bodyguard, is also in his forties, stocky and muscular.
No other individuals are listed as associates, apart from his interactions with leading world officials."
I asked for pictures from them. This is on page 2 of this thread. If I knew how to quote, I would've quoted.
I will approach the woman slyly as I can, remembering all the James Bond flicks that I've watched. (Can I use that as an example to learn how to act cool?)
I walk up next to the woman non-chalauntly and observe the game myself, keeping an eye on her through my side-view.
By the way, is she attractive through the x-ray glasses? Is anyone in the room holding a gun?
Steranko is at this same table, with Areola Canasta at his side.
The mystery girl has a gun, a small concealed pistol. You see no other guns, but you cannot see through both the table and people's clothes. You can, however, see the face of a card through the back, sufficiently to know what cards are face down on the table and what is the next card in the shoe.
--M. J. Young
"Well, my dear. You do get around, don't you?" I say, attempting to play it as cool as 007 himself would.
While it's tempting to perhaps sit down and play, I'll take it slow for the time being, and keep it with talking to the mystery girl.
She speaks to you out of the corner of her mouth.
"I need to talk with you. Not here, not now. I only just got this close."
--M. J. Young
I smirk, and say, "Well, we do have a bad habbit of running into one another. I'm sure you'll find my room in about an hour."
I head to the front desk and see if there are any rooms open for me in the hotel part of this place.
"I don't n--I will come when I can."
You have no problem booking a room.
--M. J. Young
Have I really been staying alive via accidents and coincidences, lol?
I head up to my room, after leaving the building just to pick something up from my car. I request that I not use the valet service for this minor task. The item I pick up would be a gun, which I try to hide underneath my tux (if it's a spy tux, I assume there's somewhere to put a gun).
You retrieve your pistol from your car without complication. You have a "shoulder" holster that fits under the jacket of the tux easily enough.
Soon you are in your room.
Several hours pass with nothing happening, as far as you can ascertain.
--M. J. Young
I smile, knowing full well that whatever might happen will only cause pain-something I really need to get used to.
I keep the gun where it is, in my shoulder holster, and I put a comfortable chair in front of the door to my room, so that I can sit in it while watching it carefully. I'll pay attention to the bottom of the door, and turn off the lights, so that I can tell if any shadows come accross it.
Did my last world give me more endurance to pain, having died in volcanic activity, which I hear is very painful?
When you died, a flexibility check was made for you. I don't see a flexibility listed on your sheet, but I do see that you are listed as being at Stage 2, which means that you made the check successfully (it must have been low enough that any human would have made it). The effect you felt is that when you versed into this world, you were having one of those dreams that combine fantasy, memories, and fragments of the world around you, into nonsense which at first seems coherent. It also means yes, you are becoming accustomed to dying.
You suddenly shake yourself from a doze. Somewhere in the back of your mind, you feel like you heard a sound. Then, as it repeats, you realize what it is--a quiet knock on the door to your room.
--M. J. Young
I slap myself softly on the face to help wake myself up. (I've also had this skill, if it counts-I'm pretty good at rousing myself from sleep. Practice being from high school classes in the morning after late nights.)
Then I head to the door and look through the peep hole. If it's the woman, I let her in the room, putting the gun in my holster.
It is the "woman". She's about nineteen or twenty, slender, pretty in a European way. She speaks with an accent that is not quite British but not entirely anything in particular.
"He got away," she says. She seems mildly angered or frustrated by this.
As she takes a seat, she says, "So, you're the new agent, Kurt Wright? You must be pretty good, if you're still alive."
--M. J. Young
I give her a smirk, again trying to be all bond-esque. I think to myself--what would 007 do?--and I move in close, attempting to just walk her into a wall. "Tell me who you're working for. You've been on the move since the start, and I want to know everything that you know."
"Working for?" She blinks. "Oh, I get it. No, I'm working for myself. I'm Mariska. My father is--was--Blade, the agent you've replaced. Steranko killed him--or had him killed, more likely--because he was getting too close to the truth."
She pulls out something from her pocket. It appears to be a coin, in shape, made possibly of pewter or lead. It is imprinted on one side with an unfamiliar emblem of a New Roman Empire.
"Did you know that Steranko has been stockpiling all the gold holdings of all the EEC nations at his castle in Austria? I think he's planning to mint a new currency for his new nation. He's behind the executions of the finance ministers of member countries. Somehow he intends to destabilize all of Europe sufficiently that he can take control.
"But I can't prove that. I can't even prove that my father is dead, let alone murdered, let alone by him. He's been too careful, and too good and covering his tracks."
--M. J. Young
"You're absolutely right."
I then rush at her a little, but not in a violent manner, just an aggressive one. "You can't prove anything! I've been chased around due to bad intel, perhaps the same that's killed your father. The only thing I don't understand is how you've known who I am from the start. Tell me, where do you get your intel from, Miraska?" During my rant, I grab her shoulder for emphasis that I want the answer to what I've asked.
She shakes your hand off and steps away. Her back partly to you, she says, "That wasn't all that hard. Do you think I've never been with my father to most of the secure facilities in Europe? Do you think I don't know most of the agents on sight? I've been waiting for someone, and when London dispatched agents to the Paris airport I figured they would be picking up my father's replacement. They announced your name there--and if there were any doubt, you drove out of the secret garage in the latest version of their car, and I picked up your trail there. You lost me on the highway, but I knew who you were when you reached the casino.
"So," she says as she turns toward you, "do you believe me, or do you still think that Steranko is the next target? His man Ziggy nearly killed you yesterday, you know. Think that was an accident? Mistaken identity? Kurt Wright, figure out who your friends are before somone kills you."
She moves toward the door.
--M. J. Young
When I catch myself that I got angry, I start to feel bad. This spy stuff wasn't my cup of tea, but that wasn't any reason to lose my cool with her. From here on, I'd stop trying to act like something I wasn't-even in different worlds-I'd succeed in my own way.
I step toward her and give her a hug. "I'm sorry. Please, I don't want you to get hurt-I'll help you. Zigesfield...he was there to kill you, wasn't he? I have my suspicions about this as well, but we do need solid evidence-I'm willing to pursue it with you."
"If Zigesfeld was after me, he would have gotten me. He was after you. They don't care what I think I know, because they don't know who I am and I'm not connected to anyone or anything. They don't want you to pick up where Blade left off, because if you get to the truth, it will be their downfall."
--M. J. Young
"This can work... They don't know who you are, but they might know your face by now. We need to gather evidence against Steranko before anyone will act. I've already addressed the agency about my theories of Steranko being behind this, but they didn't believe me either. Either the agency is deeply infiltrated by someone of Steranko's or they truly believe that he's innocent. Do you know of any meetings that Steranko may have recently? Perhaps we could get information out of his assistant...
What are your thoughts, Mariska?"
She relaxes.
"I think it's good that someone is taking me seriously.
"I don't think that the EEC staff at the Vienna offices know anything about this; he probably couldn't trust them. It's his personal staff that would be involved, and they are all at the castle. There are three key people who are fairly close to him. That woman with him tonight at the Baccarat table, Areola Canasta, is probably closest to him, but no one knows what she does. His other inside confidant would be Ilsa Grunt, a short ugly woman who gives me the creeps, has some sort of military intelligence background. Zigesfeld works mostly for her; he would be third. Everyone else stays pretty much anonymous, doing their jobs in the safety of that fortress of his. But whatever there is to learn, that's where it will be.
"Also, he has a party scheduled. Three days from now he has invited all the major leaders of Europe and many of the minor ones to a housewarming at the castle. We will have to know what he is planning by then."
It occurs to me that I may have forgotten to mention something they would have given you back at the garage. Did I mention the chewing gum? In any event, you have a pack of eight slices, very like Wrigley's in design. If you remove a slice, unwrap it, chew it for a few seconds to soak it in saliva, then press it against the shiny side of the foil wrap, in about five to ten seconds it explodes--a minor explosion but strong enough to kill someone or put a hole in an ordinary wall, probably.
--M. J. Young
Uh...I just found something out real life... I am very good at learning things, even kinetic things-I learned a kata from someone after they showed me how to do it twice. I repeated it easily. I understand if you don't want to give me anything for this, because it's been a while, but I believe I've always had this skill.
I nod to Miraska. "We'll bust all of this open together. Well, I've got the means to accomplish all of this-what do you say to the two of us travelling to the castle together? Are you sure that you're capable of protecting yourself should we encounter a lot of resistance?"
The ability to learn something is not a skill but a function of the factors that support it--your best relevant attribute in the bias area, your bias, and the quality of the information on which you're basing your learning attempt (example, instruction, teacher). The best relevant attribute can mean you're particularly good in skills in a specific bias area--a person who is very strong, or very agile, or just very determined, will have a better chance of learning body skills. The bias means that you have a better understanding of techniques. Someone who hang glides (bod based flying with a prosthetic) has a better understanding of body balance and form, and so will find learning martial arts easier than someone whose physical background includes nothing more difficult than running and jumping.
Thus there is nothing really to give you.
The smile that comes on Mariska's face suggests that this was a foolish question.
She pulls a nine millimeter pistol from her purse so fast that you barely see it appear.
"I think I'm good. Did you forget who my father was?"
--M. J. Young
Okay, I was just putting it out there for you.
"How shall we proceed from here, then, Mariska?"
I'll let her take the lead-she's got way better training in this sort of thing than I ever have had in my lifetime(s).
"You're the professional. I'm just the daughter out for vengeance. I was hoping I could get Steranko alone and kill him, but that Canasta woman has been clinging to him like chewing gum in hair. I figured if he were killed and it was not immediately apparent that I had done it, the investigation into his death would uncover his secrets, and the search for his killer would fade in the investigation of his plot. Probably the coalition of secret service agencies would secretly take credit for having stopped him and let me slip away.
"Now, though, he's returned to his castle, where he'll have Canasta, Grunt, Ziggy, and his entire security force to protect him. Whatever he has planned in three days, we might have to let him do it, and wait for him to lower his guard again so we can get to him.
"I don't see us taking the castle by force--but perhaps you have another way to reach him?"
--M. J. Young
"I honestly have no idea how we could get into the castle, but it probably be best to do it before what he's planning. Did your father have any information on the castle when he investigated it?"
"He had a floorplan, and a map of the grounds, but I only saw it once. It's a big place, and there's a chain link fence with barbed wire surrounding the grounds. It's in the mountains, though, so there are ways to approach it that are less visible. The main road comes around the mountain and up from below, and if you leave it early enough you can probably find cover on the grounds around the castle from which to observe."
--M. J. Young