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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Golden Bee" data-source="post: 9684818" data-attributes="member: 7041055"><h3>Upstate and down the stairs!</h3>“I’m so embarrassed, I have a zit on my nose!” The woman looked, but saw only Devi’s swirling eyes…The Ziegler Security Service team was used to working vacations, but this was ridiculous. They (mobbed-up magician Gia CM, hipster detective Zelda Saeki, gearhead/bad boy Professor Winston Callahan, and millionaire mystic Devika Velyapur) hadn't even arrived at Saratoga Springs when they heard about an attempted murder. Their friend Najah had allegedly tried to kill their other friend, her baby daddy Andy Lancaster.(This news was delivered by their daughter Anizah, who had hopped on the back of a milk truck to meet them in Schenectady!)The story: after a late night fight, Nadja had woken up early to throw her wheelchair-bound beau down the stairs. Of course, this didn't make sense. Nadja was an educated archaeologist, and knew her staffs’ schedule. If she was going to kill her wheelchair-bound husband, there is no way she would've been caught. The scene of the crime matched the description (Andy had been hurled down into the basement). There were only two other suspects: the housekeeper and the live-in manservant.The group hired Najah an expensive lawyer, who allowed them to question her privately. (Callahan, seeing a fellow academic chained up like an ax murderer, made sure to voice his opinion to the "lapdogs of capital" operating the sergeant's desk, and nearly got decked.)According to Najah, she and Andy had argued, but she had woken up late, same as her daughter… they had eaten a new dessert the night before, while Andy hadn't. Who made the dessert? The housekeeper!Mrs. Duval was prim and proper, which made her no match for four scurrilous investigators. After a go-nowhere conversation, Devi followed her to a health spa. During a massage, she kept repeating the same story about her morning… Almost as if it was rehearsed. A whiny matron was no match for the former goddess of the Red Jasmine Cult, and Devi blasted the hypnosis right out of the woman's head. Mrs. Duval confessed to pushing her employer nearly to his death! But who had given her such a suggestion and why?The other servant was quickly exonerated (and excoriated for his obvious crush on Najah). Gia suggested that she and Devika team up, putting  Mrs. Duval into a state of cryptomnesia. They had never done it before, but the mystic synergy was successful. In an unused hotel conference room, they sent the caretaker back into the past, back to the moment she was strapped into a dentist chair and hypnotized by a weird eyed man with a German accent!The spa’s hidden room had a secret tunnel, leading to the Yaddo artist’s colony! After a brief fracas with hypnotized gardeners, the group headed to the main house… Where they were dismayed to find a half dozen weirdos with walleyes, cross eyes, amblyopia, but not one with a German accent.Zelda gathered the cops, the witnesses, and all the suspects into the dining room. The artists found this ridiculous, but Gia warmed up the crowd with some Borscht belt humor, Devi explained the financials, and the Japanese PI pointed out the exact right person as she walked slowly around… pointing at a fake Italian! Devi taunted the man, who lunged across the table at her and was swarmed by dozens of adults. (The rest of the detectives were not that impressed by this buffoonery.) Still, Dr. Johann Kopfschmidt bragged that he would simply sneak away for any punishment. He was well connected…Outside, Devika asked the officers for a few minutes alone with the suspect. He was strong-willed, but the Red Jasmine Cult had schooled the Goddess on man’s fear. By the time she was done, the crook begged for a jail cell, anything to keep him away from those eyes! Devi herself turned away, almost sobbing from the power she had channeled. But dinner had cupcakes and you can’t be ruled by the past.At the hospital, Callahan was in a puckish mood.Although Andy was hurt, the family was reunited. Unfortunately, this attack wasn't random… It was all part of a larger puzzle, as the spa had been built by the group's nemesis, Aloria Midas. When they got to New York, it would be time for revenge.<h3>I don’t practice Santorini </h3>When the mob asks a favor, expect fireworks. And firefights.As Greece became a military dictatorship, criminals took notice. Gia CM was "asked" by the family to bail out a particularly talkative mob daughter from the island of Santorini. Luckily, the island had a great cover: an annual fireworks festival. It celebrated the volcanic founding of the island, and prevented any pesky air forces from coming around.Rafe Lancaster and Zelda Saeki were invited along, the former getting them onto the island in his racing sailboat, and getting the best transportation available: mopeds.The trio got there a half hour before the fireworks, but Zelda's excellent skills got them to the mountainside villa in no time flat. There was a misunderstanding at the door: their target, Agrippa Petrakis, was expecting extraction from the O'Rourke gang. Gia threw on an Irish accent and began warming up their target and her gorgeous bodyguard, Socrates. Rafe and Zelda lost focus, astounded by the Rembrandt in the hallway… Was this the original, or did Rafe have it? Before he could put his art history classes to use, the fireworks started… And the Japanese special forces came over the wall!Gia has one true magic trick: the ability to vanish herself and another person. So as the troops stormed the living room… they found only a very confused bodyguard! Before they could start their "formal interrogation” (the kind that involves cigarette burns), Zelda volunteered to help search for the missing person. Which was awkward, because she wasn't good at lying… and didn't want to catch Gia!Socrates, free to go, took the Rembrandt and fled into the night.Rafe slinked out of the house and took his moped to the biggest villa on the island. Just his luck: it was being rented by his fellow Century Club member, Mack Silver! Always ready to help a friend, he offered Rafe the keys to the loudest, smelliest, only truck on the island. In case he needed a distraction.Back at the villa, Gia struggled to find an escape opportunity. She got one when the police (or the “police”?) knocked on the door and started questioning the Japanese commandos. Gunfire!The fireworks stopped momentarily, long enough for Rafe to SCREAM down the hill, intentionally hitting trash cans, his horn blaring La Cucaracha. Gia and Agrippa, now well acquainted, were able to slink out in the chaos. Their escape was slowed down, however, by the fact neither of them were any good at driving.Zelda tried to escape, only to have an ancient vase explode next to her. Sniper! She dove for a fallen rifle, followed the line of fire, and squeezed off a shot toward a nearby basilica… Blowing up the scope of the assassin. She didn't have time to gloat though, as shards of glass from her own scope cut her face. Still, a sniper without a scope wasn't a threat, and she was able to meet the other three at the sailboat for extraction. Rafe had abandoned the car (sorry to Mack for all the tickets!). There was nothing to do but pop the ouzo and sail away.</blockquote>

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