ic Following the Thread[IC]

[Ari]

GM

 

May 14th, Monday, 2013, 5.00PM

Martel Enterprises(American Branch Main Office), Wading Way, Freedom City

 

Eve Martel had been paying a brief, albeit incisive, visit to her family's local holdings in the city, catching up on the sometimes quick, sometimes slow but always continuing advancement of human knowledge that Martel Enterprises assisted. In the main lobby she and the three research leads were making their final polite goodbyes as the day shift began making way for the night, when a noise of somebody frantically running downstairs interrupted them, the four turning to see Dr. Florence Bridges practically leap the last staircase and come racing up to them, eyes wide, graying brown hair nearly shaken out of its bun.

 

Nearly colliding with the quartet, she caught herself a few feet from them and stood for a few seconds, gulping in air before she managed to gasp out "M-Miss Martel! It's Garamond, h-he's vanished! I was in the r-r-room with him, talking about that new species of bact-anyway, I looked away for a second to get a book from his shelf, and when I looked back he had just...just disappeared!"

 

The research leads glanced at each other, one of them deftly slipping the radio from her belt and calling security sotto voce, one of the others moving to calm Dr. Bridges while the third turned quickly to Eve "It might be best to evacuate the building, with your leave I'll start sending word to the employees"

 

Meanwhile, the dignified-looking man attempting to lead Dr. Bridges to a chair suddenly asked sharply "Doctor, where's your radio?" Florence looked dazedly at the empty spot on her belt, then stiffened. "I...I had it when I went to his office, maybe I dropped it...no. It was gone when I turned around too!"

 

 

 

 

 

Edited June 4, 2013 by Arichamus

[April]

Eve rarely involved herself with Martel Enterprises operations as she was often far too busy with school, her relationship with Etain Maher and her secret life as the heroine La Renarde Bleue. Besides which, the young college student had no official capacity at the corporation, but the researchers didn't mind overmuch; as long as Eve didn't press the issue on security sensitive matters they were more than delighted to talk shop with the Martel heiress.

Still, even though she had no official capacity, they were her people. She nodded, "Right, evacuate the building, let's give the security teams a chance to sweep the complex. Also contact the Crypt," Eve added after a heartbeat referring to Martel Enterprises' Integrated Research Center situated near the Lonely Point Naval Yard, the most advanced biosafety facility in the western hemisphere, "Headcount and security checks there as well."

[Ari]

GM

 

With a quick nod, the team leaders quickly started evacuation protocols, and soon the building was being scoured by security teams not busy making sure everyone was accounted for. Twenty minutes after the doctor had staggered up to them, the Enterprises security chief contacted the team leaders still with Eve. "Rogers here. All the teams have checked in." came the crisp, businesslike voice over the radios "All the scientists coming in and departing were accounted for, but not Mr. Garamond, we can't find any trace of him. The security tapes show him going into his office on the fifth floor at 3.57PM, then five minutes later Mrs. Bridges goes in. We can hear 'em talking for about two minutes, then nothing until 5.00PM when she shouted something, then ran out the door and down the hall. We have no idea what happened yet."

 

There was a brief, awkward silence before the man went on grimly "Sent a couple of men to check the window and doors around there, the window was sealed shut and couldn't have been forced without leavin' some kind of mark. Nothing on the doors either. A search of his files and desk revealed that a whole lotta paper was recently taken. Nothing else has been reported missing and I doubt there will be. Looks like a pretty focused kidnapping and theft here, Blake" he added, referring to the older of the two research leaders "My men are still making sure everything else is in place, but...you know. We'll lock the whole building down by 7, call the police and hand over any evidence or leads we have. Sorry, but I don't think we'll be able to do anything more. On the other hand," the voice brightened "the Crypt's clean! Nothing out of the ordinary and nobody missing there, though I've doubled our usual manpower there, just in case they're next. Work should go on as usual tomorrow unless something comes up."

 

Glancing at the rest Blake pressed the reply button and said "Blake here. Got it Rogers, good work, let us know immediately if anything happens. Good night."

Turning to Eve the man shrugged "Sorry this happened, miss. With any luck we'll be back in operation within the week. Thanks again for stopping by. Still..." a deep unease came over his narrow and clean-shaven face "...I'm worried about Steve-that's Dr. Garamond Ms. Martel-and what's happened to him. I can't even imagine somebody so kind and gentle having enemies, or someone so consistently forthright wanting to sell out company secrets. Not to mention that apparently he was taken by ghosts!" the aging Russian laughed nervously.

 

It didn't take long for people to trickle back home, and begin the wait. Everyone had heard that Steve Garamond had been kidnapped, and the same question thrummed through their minds

 

'Am I next?'

Edited June 12, 2013 by Arichamus

[Ari]

GM

 

The Next Day

 

The call from the police department came late next morning, the detective's voice on the other end tinged with unease. It was a brief call, the man asking what had happened as far as the young heiress knew, if she had noticed anything unusual during her visit, if she was aware of any villains with super-speed who had threatened the family company in the past, capped off with a polite request to let them know if she recalled anything pertinent to the case, have a nice day miss we'll rescue that man as soon as possible. *clik*

 

From the questions and tone it was obvious they hadn't found anything worth going on. That wasn't so unusual, even with Freedom's Finest sometimes it took days or weeks for clues to be properly deciphered or found. What was unusual was the news he'd dropped offhand that there wasn't any outward sign anything had happened at all, no muss or mess for what had to have been incredibly fast work. The vanished files(relating to some cybernetics work) were simply gone from the office without the data registry knowing a thing about it or the other pages so much as rustled, the only entry and exit points were the ones that couldn't possibly have been opened without being noticed by security. From the sounds of it, the force was already steeling themselves for the grim news they would have to bring.

 

 

 

[April]

"Wonderful," the white haired girl said with a sigh.

Eve pinched the bridge of her nose as she leaned back in her chair, tossing her phone on the desk, and willed her headache to go away. She hadn't slept well the night before, even her girlfriend's presence had been scant comfort. She was burdened by what she knew to be an irrational thought; that just because she was on the grounds when it happened, she failed someone in her family's employ.

Green eyes flicked at her watch, gaging how much time was left before nightfall. She would slip onto the property after hours, she decided, as La Renarde Bleue. She quietly admitted to herself she wouldn't know what to look for; investigation was more Trevor's strength, though she picked up a thing or two from him.

[Ari]

GM

 

That evening...

 

The police presence was nothing less than formidable. For a full block around the American office of Martel Enterprises the FCPD had established a network of spotters, plainclothesmen, discrete cars, and all the other strands of a great web intended to catch anyone trying to sneak into the building. It said a lot about them that it was almost took an effort to slip unseen through the front doors, past the yellow tape and barricades, around the huddled knots of Freedom's Finest debating the baffling crime, up the stairs past the patrols and into the quiet office.

 

It was, as had been advertised, eerily pristine. Nothing looked like it had been moved at all, everything from the barred and locked(both mechanisms only on the inside) window to the locked filing cabinets to the bookshelf with a surprising emphasis on fly-fishing to the chestnut desk with its glossy office supplies seemed exactly in its place. At least so far as you overlooked the evidence of multiple precision combs through the room. The deep purple carpet was criss-crossed with footprints and marred with dust and grit at the doorway.

 

 

[Ari]

GM

 

A few minutes later

 

The thing blocking the fishing books had turned out to be an oblong piece of black plastic suspiciously similar to a TV remote, a small switch at one end turned to the universal power sign. Flicking the switch(after a quick mental search of the interior) had caused the air to suddenly rush around the young psychic and a neat circular piece to drop from the ceiling in a shower of plaster dust.

 

It was the work of a moment to leap up through the hole. After a short exploration Blue Fox discovered that, along with the usual rafters and other supports a ceiling needs, narrow foam pads had been laid along the several yards between Garamond's office and an unusually large vent near the fire escape. A hole big enough for one large person(or two small ones) had been cut into the wall, leading right onto one the stairs' first landing. It had fallen inwards, apparently it too had been somehow under the control of the small mechanism.

 

At first this had seemed like the end of the trail, as from the fire escape the kidnapper could have had a vehicle waiting and not left another trace, vanishing into the psychic morass of Freedom City.

 

That was at least until Blue Fox noticed the insignia. Two jagged lines like wavey water were carved into the controller, and opposite the fire escape was an identical mark in gold paint, writ larger amid a splatter of mostly badly done graffiti. Eve was no astrology aficionado, but her time at Parkhurst had at least tucked a few things into her memory. The sign was for 'Aquarius', the water bearer, evidently co-opted by someone to lend a certain something to their crimes.