Lanevill, WV ... Two Days Later
"We're being reassigned, guys ... "
To:
gjgilmore@hoffmanninst.org
CC:
From:
trjohnson@hoffmanninst.org
Attc: clipping.jpg
SUBJECT: Reassignment
Gang,
I'm going to have to pull you out of West Virginia. We seem to have
some sort of situation in Raleigh, NC and you're the closest team we've got.
Nothing serious, but by your last report, things there in Laneville are pretty
much over but for the clean-up. You probably don't need the whole team
there for that, so some of you take the van and get over to Chapel Hill, NC.
It's a suburb of Raleigh, look up the map on Yahoo or something, it shouldn't
be too hard to find. I think Jameson is from that area.
We've only got one contact in Raleigh ... we don't have a strong
presence in the state yet, other than some friendlies at Weygandt-Ellis U.
Our contact in Chapel Hill is a guy calling himself 'TheTruthIsOutThere'. He
communicates with the home office only through Email. He's pretty good
about hiding his tracks, not that we've ever tried very hard to locate him
before. This guy's usually punctual with reports (nominally, he's a "paid
informant" ... his own term) but he's missed the last drop time and isn't
responding to emails on the account we have. Of course this, on its own,
wouldn't warrant sending anyone, but we're getting some local news reports
in from Raleigh about a really odd spate of car malfunctions. Keyless-Entry
units, to be exact. I'll cc: you a scan of one of the reports.
We're not sure if there's any connection, and there probably isn't, but it
won't hurt to have a few people nose around just in case. From the data
we're compiling, it seems that there's a slightly higher percentage of Toyota
models affected than other manufacturers. Again, it may not matter, but it
wouldn't hurt to stop by the Chapel Hill Toyota dealer. After you've pounded
out who's going and who's staying, I'll get you set up with some rooms and
covers ... Insurance inspectors. Nobody much questions insurance inspectors
and it'll give you an excuse to bring cameras and snoop around inside some
of the cars.
Our only real lead on the contact is the P.O. Drop for his payments. He
only asked for a couple hundred dollars a month, in small bills, and is having
them sent to a Mailboxes'n'Stuff store in Chapel Hill. Paying informants isn't
SOP, but it's chump change and his reports are usually anal-retentively
exacting ... not that much of particular interest to the Institute has been
happening around there until now. Stop by the Mailboxes'n'Stuff and bend
some ears, maybe somebody has noticed something. Chapel Hill isn't all that
big of a community, chances are people will know people and be willing to
gossip, especially if any bodies have turned up recently.
Watch your asses. I'm not usually one to talk out of turn, but there's a
rumor floating around the office that there's been some activity elsewhere in
the state. Too much **** coming together to be 'random cooincidence', if
you know what I mean.
--Ted
"Here's the headline Ted sent us." Georgi read.
Mysterious Malfunctions in Chapel Hill
Over two hundred people in the Chapel Hill area awoke Monday morning to find the keyless entry systems in their cars were no longer working ...
"Very weird." Olie said. He zipped up the last bag of gear and stowed it in the back of the van.
"That's why they send us." Georgi said, sitting crosslegged on a bench nearby with the laptop. "Haunted mines and disappearances? Broken key fobs and disappearances? Who you gonna call?"
"The police?" Sam grimaced and took the small sat-uplink dish off the top of the van. "I can't believe they sent us all the way out here for a couple of meth dealers playing dress up. Turn-of-the-century ghost stories aren't even my speciality."
"They did not know what it would be." Dr. Kyong Park walked out of the Laneville, WV police station. "Much like an episode of Scooby Doo. We uncovered the truth, and this time the truth was far from paranormal."
"'Cept this time 'those meddling kids' happened to have a shotgun." Ollie interjected. He smiled to himself. Gunplay.
"Who's Scooby Doo?" Georgi looked up and pushed her hair back.
"Who's Scooby ...? You're telling me you've never heard of ... how OLD are you?" Olie blinked.
"Twenty. My parents were a bit weird, though. Never watched alot of TV." Georgi said. She shrugged and started shutting the laptop down.
"But you just dropped a Ghostbu..."
"Let it go, Ollie." Kyong said. She brushed past and put her medical bag in the van.
"Aren't you from Chapel Hill, Sam?" Georgi asked. She slung her postman's bag over her shoulder and headed for the van.
"Yes." Sam shrugged. "My parents were professors at UNC. It's been a long while since I was home, however."
"Very weird." Olie said. He closed the back doors. "Too much **** coming together to be coincidental ineed, you ask me."
"There's no such thing as coincidence, Olie, you should know that." Kyong said.
-----------------------------------------
((Authorial Aside: Georgi's player is my fiance. The bit about Scooby was direct from the table. Yes, her parents WERE odd. The only reason she knows Ghostbusters is I showed her the movie last summer when my "there is only Zuul." jokes were lost on her.
I had planned the adventure to be in Chapel Hill weeks ago and recieved Sam's backstory at the table. Imagine my surprise when I find he's from Chapel Hill. The player had never been there and chose the area because it's part of the "Research Triangle" and his character is an academic.))