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(10/07) A Dark and Restless Tide - (A D20 Dark*Matter Story Hour)
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<blockquote data-quote="HeapThaumaturgist" data-source="post: 1493315" data-attributes="member: 12332"><p><strong>Outside of the Toyota Dealer. Chapel Hill, NC.</strong></p><p></p><p>“Find anything?” Sam said as he opened the door. He crouch-stepped into the van.</p><p></p><p>“Yea. I’ve been comparing one of the body controllers from the affected cars to a new one.” Georgi said. She pointed at the circuit board in her lap. “See right here? Some fried circuits off the receiver, as I thought.”</p><p></p><p>“And?” Sam prompted.</p><p></p><p>”And ... the keyless entry works like a little radio. There’s a transmitter in the fob and a receiver in the car’s body controller, that's the “computer”. It transmits at a very specific frequency, carrying the unlock code in the modulation. Each of the models and cars affected have receivers tuned to frequencies quite close to one another.” She nodded. “To fry this circuit, the controller would have had to be receiving information on that frequency. A lot of information, with a lot of power behind it, probably all at once." She nodded again, happily. "I figure some sort of burst transmission. As to who or why or what? No clue.”</p><p></p><p>“Well I think I’m getting <em>where</em> pinpointed.” Sam said. He opened up a map of Chapel Hill they had bought at a gas station coming in. He’d spent the last two hours chatting with angry customers waiting in the service department at the Toyota dealer, figuring out where they lived and marking it on his map. “See a pattern?” He pointed at a very obvious cluster of about twenty red dots.</p><p></p><p>“Yea. Looks like a circle, which I would have expected.” Georgi said, she looked closer. “Wait ... no. It looks like a donut. There’s nothing in the middle.” </p><p></p><p>“Exactly. Olie was chatting with the mechanics. The cops have called a tow truck to pick up a burned and abandoned car off of 15 ... here.” Sam said. He tapped the map with his finger ... right in the center of his dots.</p><p></p><p>“Hrm.” Georgi wrinkled her nose. “I take it we’re going to check it out?”</p><p></p><p>”You, Olie, and Kyong. I’m going to stay here and see if I can turn anything else up.” Sam said, and got out of the van.</p><p></p><p>*</p><p>*</p><p>*</p><p>*</p><p>*</p><p>*</p><p>*</p><p></p><p>Georgi pulled her iPod earbuds off when van crunched to a stop along the gravel shoulder. She looked out the window. After the roadway ended, the ground sloped down gently and almost immediately became thick forest and underbrush. Across the way another road intersected the one they were on at a right angle. Directly across from the intersection, as though the driver had lost control and flew across the T, the remains of a car lay crushed up against a tree. The flatbed tow truck they had followed out was maneuvering to back down the slope, yellow lights blinking.</p><p></p><p>The car itself was very badly burned, mostly along the back end. All of the windows had shattered and all that was left of the tires was charred and curling black chunks. Georgi got out along with Kyong and Olie and made her way down the slope.</p><p></p><p>“Think anybody was inside?” Georgi asked.</p><p></p><p>“If there had been, this place would be set up as a crime scene. Guess the cops figure it was a car theft gone wrong and the perps torched the car when they crashed.” Olie replied. He started to circle the car.</p><p></p><p>“Weird.” He said, after a moment.</p><p></p><p>“What?” Kyong walked over. She looked around for what was catching Olie's attention. </p><p></p><p>”The broken glass. Or lack there-of. The windows are gone, but the glass isn’t here. You’d figure they would have blown out in the explosion.” He said.</p><p></p><p>“Or they did, but the explosion was not here.” Kyong said, looking around. She pointed back up the slope to where the intersecting street rose on a hill. “Perhaps the explosion occurred somewhere higher up, and the burning car merely continued down the hill by force of gravity.”</p><p></p><p>”Good thinking.” Olie said.</p><p></p><p>“You guys check around up there, I’m going to see what I can find on the car.” Georgi said.</p><p></p><p>Kyong and Olie started up the hill and Georgi started her own circuit of the ruined car. As she walked, she pulled out a pair of latex gloves and put them on. She stopped near the driver’s door. The door itself was hanging open, and she stuck her head inside to look around. The first thing she noticed was a bit of green plastic stuck on the neck of the rear-view-mirror, which had fallen into the foot well when the front windshield had shattered. Carefully, she brushed away the ash that had collected on it. It appeared to be a parking permit of some sort, only partially melted by the fire. A few letters could still be read along the top, spelling out a word. After a minute of concentration, she was able to pick out “NANOTECKNOWLED”. She stood up and scribbled this into her PDA, then pulled out her cell phone to call Sam.</p><p></p><p>”Sam?” </p><p></p><p>”Yea.”</p><p></p><p>”Georgi. Do me a favor, Google the word “N-a-n-o-t-e-c-k-n-o-w-l-e-d” for me. I think it’s part of the name for a company of some sort, I found it on a parking tag in the car. We’re poking around and it looks like the car might have caught fire further up a hill here, Kyong and Olie are checking it out. I’ll get back to you if I find anything else.”</p><p></p><p>*</p><p>*</p><p>*</p><p>*</p><p>*</p><p>*</p><p></p><p>Sure enough, near the top of the hill Kyong and Olie found square pieces of safety glass and some black scorch marks on the pavement.</p><p></p><p>”This looks like it.” Kyong said.</p><p></p><p>Olie nodded and looked around, then waved Kyong over. He crouched by the side of the road and pointed at a disturbance in the gravel, and a crescent-shaped gouge in the soft earth of the grassy bank.</p><p></p><p>”Looks like maybe somebody escaped.” He said. He pointed into the trees. "And they went that way, probably running scared." He started moving forward, slowly, looking for tracks or broken twigs; a trail. He and Kyong followed those he found into the underbrush. The tracks were pretty obvious, the result of panic or disorientation. The trail wasn’t too hard to follow ... and it lead them straight to a body.</p><p></p><p>*</p><p>*</p><p>*</p><p>*</p><p>*</p><p>*</p><p></p><p></p><p>Sam called back a few minutes later.</p><p></p><p>”Found it. There’s a ‘Nanotecknowledgies Inc.’ in Raleigh. Looks like some sort of small science research company. They specialize in, surprise, nanotech. Looks like the brainchild of a handful of researchers from the colleges around here. Not a whole lot of information here. We can see if we can get an employee list or poke around, find out if anybody didn’t show up for work the last two days.”</p><p></p><p>”Alright.” Georgi replied. “I’m looking this car over. It’s one of those new Toyota Prius, the hybrid. There’s some rather localized damage at the rear, looks like the gas tank blew AND the batteries, which is odd. I’m going to go under the hood, some of these new models have protected recording devices. Black boxes, for cars.”</p><p></p><p>*</p><p>*</p><p>*</p><p>*</p><p>*</p><p>*</p><p></p><p></p><p>“Looks like severe burning.” Kyong said. She was crouched near what was left of the body they'd found. Pieces of it were missing, black at the edges. An arm, part of one leg, one eye and the socket around it as well as the nose, tongue, and front teeth, part of the abdomen and chest. “A very high temperature fire, though I’m not finding any bubbling of the tissue around the destroyed areas.”</p><p></p><p>Olie was a few steps away, searching the area around the body. Kyong started to rifle through the pockets, carefully, and pulled the remains of a wallet from one. She opened it with one finger. The picture on a driver’s license stared at her from behind a plastic sheild. </p><p></p><p>“Says his name is Bauer ... Sam Bauer. I’m not sure about the area, but I think this address is near here.” She closed the wallet and placed it gently back in the ruined pocket. “There’s a pass-card on a zip line, here.” She said. She pulled the card out and flipped it over to look at the front. “Someplace called Nanotecknowledgies Inc. Sam Bauer is DOCTOR Sam Bauer, apparently.”</p><p></p><p>Olie walked over and crouched by the body’s one remaining foot, looking at the shoe.</p><p></p><p>”And there’s something else. The only prints I can find are ours, and his. As far as I can tell, the body walked itself out here." He said.</p><p></p><p>*</p><p>*</p><p>*</p><p>*</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="HeapThaumaturgist, post: 1493315, member: 12332"] [b]Outside of the Toyota Dealer. Chapel Hill, NC.[/b] “Find anything?” Sam said as he opened the door. He crouch-stepped into the van. “Yea. I’ve been comparing one of the body controllers from the affected cars to a new one.” Georgi said. She pointed at the circuit board in her lap. “See right here? Some fried circuits off the receiver, as I thought.” “And?” Sam prompted. ”And ... the keyless entry works like a little radio. There’s a transmitter in the fob and a receiver in the car’s body controller, that's the “computer”. It transmits at a very specific frequency, carrying the unlock code in the modulation. Each of the models and cars affected have receivers tuned to frequencies quite close to one another.” She nodded. “To fry this circuit, the controller would have had to be receiving information on that frequency. A lot of information, with a lot of power behind it, probably all at once." She nodded again, happily. "I figure some sort of burst transmission. As to who or why or what? No clue.” “Well I think I’m getting [i]where[/i] pinpointed.” Sam said. He opened up a map of Chapel Hill they had bought at a gas station coming in. He’d spent the last two hours chatting with angry customers waiting in the service department at the Toyota dealer, figuring out where they lived and marking it on his map. “See a pattern?” He pointed at a very obvious cluster of about twenty red dots. “Yea. Looks like a circle, which I would have expected.” Georgi said, she looked closer. “Wait ... no. It looks like a donut. There’s nothing in the middle.” “Exactly. Olie was chatting with the mechanics. The cops have called a tow truck to pick up a burned and abandoned car off of 15 ... here.” Sam said. He tapped the map with his finger ... right in the center of his dots. “Hrm.” Georgi wrinkled her nose. “I take it we’re going to check it out?” ”You, Olie, and Kyong. I’m going to stay here and see if I can turn anything else up.” Sam said, and got out of the van. * * * * * * * Georgi pulled her iPod earbuds off when van crunched to a stop along the gravel shoulder. She looked out the window. After the roadway ended, the ground sloped down gently and almost immediately became thick forest and underbrush. Across the way another road intersected the one they were on at a right angle. Directly across from the intersection, as though the driver had lost control and flew across the T, the remains of a car lay crushed up against a tree. The flatbed tow truck they had followed out was maneuvering to back down the slope, yellow lights blinking. The car itself was very badly burned, mostly along the back end. All of the windows had shattered and all that was left of the tires was charred and curling black chunks. Georgi got out along with Kyong and Olie and made her way down the slope. “Think anybody was inside?” Georgi asked. “If there had been, this place would be set up as a crime scene. Guess the cops figure it was a car theft gone wrong and the perps torched the car when they crashed.” Olie replied. He started to circle the car. “Weird.” He said, after a moment. “What?” Kyong walked over. She looked around for what was catching Olie's attention. ”The broken glass. Or lack there-of. The windows are gone, but the glass isn’t here. You’d figure they would have blown out in the explosion.” He said. “Or they did, but the explosion was not here.” Kyong said, looking around. She pointed back up the slope to where the intersecting street rose on a hill. “Perhaps the explosion occurred somewhere higher up, and the burning car merely continued down the hill by force of gravity.” ”Good thinking.” Olie said. “You guys check around up there, I’m going to see what I can find on the car.” Georgi said. Kyong and Olie started up the hill and Georgi started her own circuit of the ruined car. As she walked, she pulled out a pair of latex gloves and put them on. She stopped near the driver’s door. The door itself was hanging open, and she stuck her head inside to look around. The first thing she noticed was a bit of green plastic stuck on the neck of the rear-view-mirror, which had fallen into the foot well when the front windshield had shattered. Carefully, she brushed away the ash that had collected on it. It appeared to be a parking permit of some sort, only partially melted by the fire. A few letters could still be read along the top, spelling out a word. After a minute of concentration, she was able to pick out “NANOTECKNOWLED”. She stood up and scribbled this into her PDA, then pulled out her cell phone to call Sam. ”Sam?” ”Yea.” ”Georgi. Do me a favor, Google the word “N-a-n-o-t-e-c-k-n-o-w-l-e-d” for me. I think it’s part of the name for a company of some sort, I found it on a parking tag in the car. We’re poking around and it looks like the car might have caught fire further up a hill here, Kyong and Olie are checking it out. I’ll get back to you if I find anything else.” * * * * * * Sure enough, near the top of the hill Kyong and Olie found square pieces of safety glass and some black scorch marks on the pavement. ”This looks like it.” Kyong said. Olie nodded and looked around, then waved Kyong over. He crouched by the side of the road and pointed at a disturbance in the gravel, and a crescent-shaped gouge in the soft earth of the grassy bank. ”Looks like maybe somebody escaped.” He said. He pointed into the trees. "And they went that way, probably running scared." He started moving forward, slowly, looking for tracks or broken twigs; a trail. He and Kyong followed those he found into the underbrush. The tracks were pretty obvious, the result of panic or disorientation. The trail wasn’t too hard to follow ... and it lead them straight to a body. * * * * * * Sam called back a few minutes later. ”Found it. There’s a ‘Nanotecknowledgies Inc.’ in Raleigh. Looks like some sort of small science research company. They specialize in, surprise, nanotech. Looks like the brainchild of a handful of researchers from the colleges around here. Not a whole lot of information here. We can see if we can get an employee list or poke around, find out if anybody didn’t show up for work the last two days.” ”Alright.” Georgi replied. “I’m looking this car over. It’s one of those new Toyota Prius, the hybrid. There’s some rather localized damage at the rear, looks like the gas tank blew AND the batteries, which is odd. I’m going to go under the hood, some of these new models have protected recording devices. Black boxes, for cars.” * * * * * * “Looks like severe burning.” Kyong said. She was crouched near what was left of the body they'd found. Pieces of it were missing, black at the edges. An arm, part of one leg, one eye and the socket around it as well as the nose, tongue, and front teeth, part of the abdomen and chest. “A very high temperature fire, though I’m not finding any bubbling of the tissue around the destroyed areas.” Olie was a few steps away, searching the area around the body. Kyong started to rifle through the pockets, carefully, and pulled the remains of a wallet from one. She opened it with one finger. The picture on a driver’s license stared at her from behind a plastic sheild. “Says his name is Bauer ... Sam Bauer. I’m not sure about the area, but I think this address is near here.” She closed the wallet and placed it gently back in the ruined pocket. “There’s a pass-card on a zip line, here.” She said. She pulled the card out and flipped it over to look at the front. “Someplace called Nanotecknowledgies Inc. Sam Bauer is DOCTOR Sam Bauer, apparently.” Olie walked over and crouched by the body’s one remaining foot, looking at the shoe. ”And there’s something else. The only prints I can find are ours, and his. As far as I can tell, the body walked itself out here." He said. * * * * [/QUOTE]
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