Aberrant: Triangle Nova Investigations, Book One, Chapter 6: Running in Place
Game Date: 11 May 2014
Present: Tabby, Sara, Paul, and Maer
Canon Date: US 15 Mar 2010/India 16 Mar 2014
Sunday, 16 Mar 2010
Calcutta, India
0300hrs, local time
Irina gets the word to bug out and she does. She grabs her bug out bag with the important papers and necessities (which includes her gun and extra clips) and leaves the hotel. She doesn't check out but exits to the street by a discreet route and gets a cab to the airport. Once there, she buys two First Class airline tickets in her and Javier's names on the next available flight out. She's not going to use them. They're just a smoke screen, a false trail for the adversary to follow. Instead, she exchanges a good amount of money from the company card into hard currency. From this point on, she and Javier will use cash.
She buys several burner phones next and rents a car, paying cash for both, and hits the streets of Calcutta. She decides that if they're to continue their investigation in Calcutta on the down-low, they're going to need a mobile base of operations. As she drives, she keeps her eyes peeled for a local van, one that has the minimum of windows and will blend into the landscape. When she finds it, she plans to offer the owner cash and buy it outright.
Meanwhile, Team Tomorrow has arrived on the scene of the bar/street fight and Javier is being questioned by a Team member named Ceebo. Javier learns a few things in the back and forth that follows: There's been Anti-Nova activity, most coming out of Ethiopia. The Nova with the blaster ability is called "Hearts Blast" and his real name is Melvin. Ceebo doesn't have any information on the Nova with the Stoneskin ability. Javier asks if these two were regular troublemakers. No, not really. Javier thanks Ceebo and gives the man his cell number, with the request to let him know whatever they find so as to contain classified info. Ceebo tells Javier he's free to go.
Javier calls Irina next, asking where she is. She answers the call, telling him she's en route to him. They arrange a pick-up point.
Saturday, 15 Mar 2010
RTP, NC
1430 hrs, local time
Gemma's exiting her classes for the day.
Chad is hacking a couple of corporate accounts and fails. He tries to social engineer his way in. Chad goes for Starbuck's network, gives them a call.
"This is Starbucks Customer Service…."
Chad tries talking past the call agent, stating he's trying to find something. He's given info to a website to make contact with his target. Chad hangs up and starts searching for a free app that he can use to disguise his voice. Maybe he should have thought of that before he made that call …
Meanwhile, Charlie calls Gemma, telling her of trouble in India. Please contact Irina or Javier. When Gemma asks if she should port to Calcutta, Charlie tells her no, just coordinate with them.
Gemma calls Irina. Irina answers and keeps the call short: Nothing to report at the moment. Will call back when able. Watch your back. Warn the Boy. Call me back on this number (gives burner cell number).
Click. Irina ends the call and drives.
Gemma calls Chad and warns him of possible trouble. When he asks if she needs him with her, she declines. Okay, he says, will do.
No sooner than she hangs up but she hears tires squealing up to her dorm building. She takes a cautious look out the window. A black van spits out 3 men in black who rush into her building. Gemma dashes off a quick note to her roommate ("Gotta go do something") and ports to TNI. Once inside, she tells Sara, the office AI, everything that's happened and Sara puts the office in immediate lockdown.
All the armored doors shut and the locks clunk into place. The windows go dark.
Meanwhile, Chad starts packing up after Gemma's call. He disconnects everything and warps to a high point—a roof to check his backtrail. No one seems to be following him. He waits 5 minutes and when the coast remains clear, he warps to TNI's front door. It's locked when he tries to enter. Sara won't let him in. They're in lockdown, she says. She'll have to clear it with her superior.
Sara calls Irina. Should she let Mr. Wiggins in? She gets the greenlight to do so and thanks Irina. Chad goes in, Sara locks everything down again. The younger members of TNI are safe.
No telling how long that will last.
Chad asks Gemma what's going on. She tells him of Charlie's call and the men in black storming her dorm building. Chad tries hacking the security feeds on her building to find out what those men are doing. He's not successful, however. He asks Gemma if she's asked Utopia Campus for an update on the situation. Sara tells them both that she's got a story on Duke University and puts it on the monitors.
There has been terrorist activity on Duke's campus.
Chad sends a text message to Irina's regular phone, telling her what's happened. Then he and Gemma wait, hoping to ride out the LEO/DHS shit storm that's brewing outside.
Sunday, 16 Mar 2010
Calcutta, India
0400 hrs, local time
Irina hangs up with Sara, permission given, and drives for Javier's pick up point. A few minutes later she finds an unattended van. She pulls over to investigate. It has no keys but it's in good condition. Sneaking inside, she inspects the interior and finds a stash of what she believes is drugs: vials of glowing blue viscous liquid.
Shit.
Not using this van, no. She gets out but someone sees her before she can drive away. She's called out by two men who corner her against the van. She tries bluffing her way out, then screams bombs and terrorists—not that the ploy works here in Calcutta, dammit.
She fights her way out, pulling her gun. It gives her the opening to get away. She runs and once out of earshot, she calls in the van and the contents to the local police. She doesn't know what that blue stuff was, but figures it's not Dawn dishwashing liquid.
Irina makes her way to Javier's pick-up point on foot. She's still got burner phones and well as her regular phone. Of course, once she's hung up with Sarah, she's turned off the GPS/Location tracker on it and she's taken the batteries out besides. As a result, she doesn't get Chad's text.
Once she arrives at the pick-point, she hangs back from the street and surveys the area first. She doesn’t see anything alarming but waits a moment, just in case. For his part, Javier sees her first and also sees the watchers she's missed. He leaves the pick-up spot and starts walking away, knowing she'll see him. Irina sees him leave and when he turns down a side street, she pulls a burner phone and calls him, asking for a location to meet him.
He tells her a spot he knows that's three streets up and one block down. She confirms the meet and hangs up. She breaks the phone into two pieces, pulls the card from it, and tosses the pieces in two different directions. She doubles around to meet Javier as agreed, making sure she's not followed.
Once they're together again, she fills him in on what's she's encountered and he does the same. They discuss their options. The investigation has changed from finding the missing UFiber biomass for Occidental Industries and getting eyes for Zero Cool … to something else. This attack on the bar reunion doesn't seem like an attack of opportunity—not with the "Hail Mal"/TerraGen rhetoric. They suspect that Novas are being targeted. Why else would Elim Garrick hire Anna to build that bomb but to allow Garrick to fake his death? Or at least, the bomb would allow Garrick to slip away and cover his tracks. Or destroy evidence he had of … something.
They need to find Anna and get her to a safe house, and pump her for what she knows ask about Garrick and the possible motives for making the bomb.
They call Gemma on one of the burners, giving her a description of Anna, the speedster, and ask Gemma to locate her. Gemma uses her Preter-Cognition abilities to track down Anna by the description given and does a Clairvoyant search. She gets a glimpse of Anna getting blown through a wall, a gaping hole in her chest. It's a plaster wall, it's outdoors, and the air smells fishy. Preter-Cognition can show Gemma events in the past as well as the future or the present. It feels like it's fairly close to the present time. That is all she's able to get. She relays it to Irina via the burner number Irina gave her.
While she's doing that, Chad hacks into the street camera feeds surrounding TNI, so as to get advance notice of anyone moving in on their position.
Meanwhile, back in India, Irina gets the information on Anna from Gemma and relays it to Javier. She hangs up at the end of the call. They briefly discuss what they're going to do next about finding the guy who can get Zero Cool his eyes. It's going to take bribes on top of bribes on top of bribes, now that Elim Garrick and his son aren't to be found. As for the UFiber biomass … should they drop the case? Keep pursuing it? Javier opines that decision is up to Charlie. It's galling to Irina's professional pride but if they have to drop the case, they have to drop the case.
No matter what they end up doing with the case, right now Irina and Javier have to find a place to hole up. They can't stay out on the street all night. Irina wants to get the hell outta dodge. She doesn't want to leave, because she thinks they're on to something big here—but she's got two kids back home that she doesn't want to leave on their own, high and dry. (She doesn't yet know about the trouble/man hunt going on at home. Gemma didn't mention it.)
0700 hrs, local time
Irina and Javier take a rickshaw to the riverfront fish markets, thinking that it would be the likeliest source of the fishy odor in Gemma's vision. It's morning at this point and the market is hopping with people getting their catch out and shoppers are out buying their victuals for the day. When Irina and Javier arrive, it's 0700 hours on the morning of the 16th. They buy some food and coffee and walk the stalls, looking for Anna. Javier stops at a stall and says he's looking for someone, giving Anna's description. Has he seen her, he asks. No, sorry.
There is a green flash in the distance and Irina and Javier hear a boom. They judge it's four miles away. Javier manages to Quantum Leap to the site of the boom and finds a crater with Anna at the bottom of it, a hole in her chest just as seen in Gemma's vision.
She's gone.
Javier searches her body for ID for an address or any other clues that might help in the investigation. Before he can get far in this he sees two Team Tomorrow Novas arrive. Halt! they say. Friendly, says Javier. Down on the ground, they order.
Javier complies.
One of the Team is Ceebo, from the bar earlier in the day. They arrest Javier and Irina arrives just in time to be arrested too. They go quietly and are taken to the Team Tomorrow Station.
Saturday, 15 Mar 2010
TNI, RTP
1800 hrs, local time
Sara tells Gemma and Chad that Javier was arrested in connection to a Nova incident in Calcutta. Also, there is an arrest warrant out on Gemma for terrorist activities with Terra Gen.
Great.
Go to Triangle Nova Investigations | Characters | Timeline | Traveler's Guide to TNI
