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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Shadowdancer" data-source="post: 1558635" data-attributes="member: 515">Chapter XXXIIIDate: 125-993Place: Kingan, King George's Land, Alief In the morning, Vasilii checks the auction and finds the bids stand at 24.25 KGLP for the first case and 14.45 KGLP for the second case. By noon, JoeBob35 has outbid Vasilii for the first case, and the current winning bid stands at 25.50 KGLP. "Hmm, so he wants to nudge it, eh?" Vasilii places a bid of 30 KGLP for the case. -----After lunch, Saro gives Ian and Swann a ride to the clinic for them to continue their surveillance. Swann talks to Ian on the ride over to the clinic. "Let’s find a different vantage point from which to observe today. I don't want anyone to pick up on a pattern, and maybe get suspicious. When we first get there, we should take some time, do some shopping, maybe pick up some souvenirs for the Captain, Martha, and the others. And look for a new place to observe the clinic from. "After it gets dark and the clinic closes, there are two things I want to try. First, get on the roof and look for a way in up there. Second, I’m tempted to tamper with that camera we saw behind the building, to see if we get an immediate response from the security company or the police. But I’m worried that even if that camera is only recording overnight, and the tapes won’t be looked at until later, we might still create some suspicion." Saro makes sure he knows when he needs to pick up Swann and Ian again. "Guys, I’d rather not use the comms if we don’t have to, but if you do, remember . . . " he looks around. "Mark Middleston," he whispers. "See you guys in a bit and good luck." Saro then drives back to the hotel and joins Vasilii. -----Vasilii monitors the auction closely the rest of the day. About an hour before the auction closes, he receives an email note from the seller, SingerBlack, saying that the case is sealed, so SingerBlack can’t verify the manufacturing date. But SingerBlack claims that he/she got the case from his/her mother (who hates King Sour), and she got it during the giveaway. The auction listing does have a picture, and the case box is one of the giveaway boxes. Vasilii’s close monitoring of the auction pays off, and he wins the auction at 37.25 KGLP. At 1437, Vasilii receives an email from SingerBlack inquiring about how he/she should ship the case. Surface shipping will be 15 KGLP. Air courier shipping will be 35 KGLP. -----Meanwhile, near the clinic, Swann and Ian continue their surveillance, but do vary their routine to include some shopping and picking up of souvenirs. Swann buys some tacky shirts for Marcus, Emile, and Martha. He also manages to find a small, very overstuffed, plush shierrhino with which to tease Darishun. The clinic appears to have eight staff members: three office types, three nurses, and two doctors. There is a moderate amount of traffic, but there aren’t scores of people waiting to get into the clinic. Around 1330 or so, Swann notices a couple of scruffy looking men in their late teens or early 20s trying to look casual while their heads dart about rather nervously. Swann’s experienced eye marks them as a couple of amateurs casing a place and points them out to Ian. Ian and Swann watch the pair as they seem to be casing the clinic. As Swann and Ian watch the pair, Swann says, "These frellin’ amateurs are gonna frell things up for the rest of us. I’m tempted to call the police myself and report them. Anonymously, of course." Swann will continue to watch the pair. The longer they stay around, the better the idea of calling the police sounds. He tells Ian, "If those two stick around once the clinic closes, I’m calling the police. We don’t need them frellin’ up our break–in by increasing the security presence. "I’d suggest we try scaring them away ourselves, but then they’d be able to identify us and might turn us in later. And there’s always the chance they might unwisely think they could take us, and put up a fight. That might attract even more attention." Ian replies. "Yeah, we could report ’em. Another option would be to let them do the initial break-in, and then we follow them in a minute later, incapacitate them, and get what we came for. Only problem with that plan is, they may not be as sophisticated with the security system as we would try to be, thus we wouldn’t have as much time to ‘shop.’ "Reporting them would be the better option, I think. Hey, ain’t we suppose to have coffee and donuts during a stake-out?" Swann laughs. "We are. You were supposed to buy them." -----Back at the hotel, Saro spends the day basically glued to the news vid channels and surfing the networks on his laptop. The military action in Wirral and Coventry is basically over. The plague, invasion, and collapse of any real order has allowed KGL to declare that Wirral and Coventry are now protected territories of KGL, and KGL is providing aid to its newest citizens who have welcomed the troops with open arms. The KGL Ministry of Health has declared that KGL researchers are very close to developing a vaccine for AHV, and they were aided by defecting researchers from Wirral who admitted that they participated in a black ops program to produce the virus in the first place, but had a change of heart. The ministry also declares that there have still been minimal cases of AHV in KGL due to the ministry’s efforts. He tells Vasilii: "KGL has their Ministry of Information working overtime. It seems they are blaming Wirral for this mess. I am starting to get the feeling that if a vaccine could be taken as evidence of KGL’s involvement, things could get really sticky for us." Vasilii returns SingerBlack’s email, telling him that he is in the same city and can pick up the case himself to save shipping. He asks if they can conclude the deal today, since his schedule for the next few days is very busy. He states that he’ll be at the street corner one block away from the clinic later in the afternoon, could they meet there? SingerBlack doesn’t check his email until 1700, so meeting in the afternoon is out. Vasilii and SingerBlack agree to meet around 1900 at a cafe a couple of blocks away from the clinic. Once the exchange is set, Vasilii calls Swann on their communicators. He tell Swann that he’s ‘done’ and would like his and Ian’s help on a small matter. They agree that Swann and Ian will wander over to the cafe around 1845 to cover the exchange. In the hotel parking lot, Vasilii will open up one of the cases of King Sour that the factory VP gave him carefully along a flap. Saro watches him. "Oh. Are you planning on placing the giveaway cans in this case or something along those lines?" "You got it," Vasilii replies. -----The clinic closes a little after 1700, and the pair of scruffy men is still hanging around. At 1730, Swann places a call to the Kingan Constabulary and reports two suspicious men hanging around the clinic. He doesn’t give his name, saying he fears possible retribution. He does say he works in a store across the street from the clinic and that he has noticed these two men watching the clinic all afternoon. The operator is a little peeved, but understanding that Swann doesn’t want to leave his name. After getting a detailed description of the two men and their behavior, she says that the Constabulary will be sending out a patrol right away. She thanks Swann for his report and adds that one of the other public clinics and several doctors’ offices have been broken into over the last few days. The Constabulary doesn’t have a set pattern or a set of suspects (until now), but they suspect that there are "enemies of the state out to see if our beloved country has a vaccine for the terrible plague." Alarms start going off in Swann’s head. He hangs up and returns to where Ian is still watching the clinic and the two young men. About three minutes later, two Constabulary hovercrafts roar down the road, and four constables leap out, thoroughly surprising the two scruffy men. As the hovercrafts come roaring up, Swann says to Ian in a low voice, "Damn, that was a fast response time. Too fast." The action is a bit hard to see from Swann’s and Ian’s vantage point, but there seems to be a bit of excitement when the constables find what looks like a blowtorch and a crowbar underneath the men’s long coats. Thirty minutes later, the Constabulary hovercrafts roar off with the two scruffy men inside. The security patrol apparently also was called, and the patrol car comes by at 1735, stays until the Constabulary goes away, and returns at 1835. As the rentacop drives away the second time, Swann slaps Ian on the back and says, "Too late for that coffee and donuts. He’s gonna get ’em all. Let’s go grab a bite with ‘Mr. Matahara’ and ‘Mark.’ " -----Swann and Ian wander over the cafe, get a table, and order something to eat while waiting for Vasilii and Saro to show up. Vasilii and Saro arrive at the café and briefly stop to tell Swann and Ian about the exchange. Then they wait for SingerBlack. SingerBlack ends up being a youngish man who rides up on a bicycle with the case in a front basket. Vasilii inspects the case, which does have the production date as earlier indicated, and the case is sealed. Vasilii pays SingerBlack who goes on his way. Swann says to Ian in a low voice, "I bet he spends the money on comic books and role-playing game supplements." The four return to the Amadel in the parking lot. Vasilii opens the trunk. He exchanges the cans of the giveaway King Sour with the ones the VP gave them, holding out two cans at random and putting regular cans in their place. He then tries to reseal the case so it appears not to have been tampered with. Next he unfolds one of the empty giveaway cases and loads it up with the other cans, remembering where he places the two giveaway sodas. Last, he takes the original giveaway case and disposes of it in a convenient dumpster. As Vasilii works, Swann tells him and Saro about the pair of young men who were also watching the clinic. "Damn, who knows if those guys were just after the vaccine themselves because of need," the doctor says. "This might be very risky, but I feel bad for them. Is there any way we can figure out who they were without exposing ourselves too much?" When Swann mentions what the Constabulary operator said about "enemies of the state," alarms start going off in Vasilii’s head. "At least it is good to be warned that the authorities suspect foreign interests like us are after the vaccine," Saro says. "If these cans have the vaccine we should think about leaving soon. Things are heating up a bit more." When finished with the soda can switch, Vasilii says, "Gentlemen, let the good Doctor test these while you let the excitement die down. If this pans out, we can load our gear and be out of this town by sunup. "Or if this does work out, do you still want to try the clinic? We could double our chance of satisfying our client, or risk losing it all." Swann says, "Yeah, I was thinking the same thing. If this soda contains what we need, then we can get out of here tomorrow. If not, it won’t hurt to leave the clinic alone for a night, let the situation settle down." -----The foursome returns to the hotel. Vasilii leaves the ‘giveaway’ case (containing two actual giveaway cans and eight regular cans of soda) in the trunk and takes the ‘regular’ case (containing eight giveaway cans and two regular cans of soda) up to the room as if they had been to the market. He then opens the case and gives Saro a can of the giveaway soda for testing. Saro sits with the molecular analyzer. He is looking primarily for signs of a virus, essentially a genetic sequence and maybe a protein or sphingolipid envelope, or a simpler protein antigen. An antibody would be less likely because of the rigors of the GI system and the impossibility of absorbing it in the gut, but he keeps an eye out for something in that vein anyway. "Gentlemen, if this works out I suggest we abort the clinic operation," Saro says. "It was a blind operation anyway and if we can get an active vaccine from this can we should be close to set." In order to get a good comparison Saro takes the molecular signature from a regular sample of King Sour and puts it side by side with the giveaway sample’s signature. He tries to identify, to the best of his abilities, anything that is different in the signatures. -----Ian, Swann, and Vasilii watch the vid channels and surf the local net while Saro works. The local news does report the capture of the two scruffy men. Initial police statements indicate that the men are implicated in a couple of the other break–ins, but not all. The newscasters want to claim that the men are part of some foreign or imperial conspiracy, but the police seem to think that the men might just be trying to find some narcotics. -----Around 2307, Ian takes a little stroll down to the lobby and around the grounds of the hotel. While he is walking across the lobby to the front doors, he spies a dark haired man in his 30s who seems to be waiting for someone. What strikes Ian as odd is that the man is facing the elevators, spots Ian, and then seems to be assiduously *not* looking in Ian’s direction as the ex–Marine crosses the lobby and heads out the front door. Outside, Ian doesn’t spot any obvious surveillance, though he finds the Sweet Crust Donuts truck parked off by itself to be a little incongruous in the business–class hotel parking lot, particularly when it has a clear line of sight to the Amadel and is about 30 m away. When Ian returns to the lobby, the dark haired man is still apparently waiting for someone. He glances up at Ian again, but this time, he goes back to reading a magazine of some sort. Ian dismisses his next thought as pure tired paranoia, but he still gets the feeling that the man is watching Ian enter the elevator out of the corner of his eye. -----After Ian returns to the room and reports his suspicions, Swann turns on the radio and TV, turns up the volume to a loud levels, calls the others together, and says in a soft voice, "It appears we are under observation. I don’t know if we have caught someone’s attention because of our actions, or if this is standard procedure for people from outside the country. We should also assume the room, and probably the car, are bugged. Be very careful what you say and where you say it from now on. If we are talking in the room, make sure the radio and TV are on with the volume turned way up. And get very close to the person to whom you are speaking, and speak softly, as I am now." -----Saro spends most of the night working. His testing and analysis quickly reveal that the contents of the first giveaway can is ever so slightly different in composition than the regular King Sour soda. There appears to be a small but significant concentration of large (on a molecular level) protein particles identical to the fragments that he found in the opened can that Vasilii purchased from the boy. The next several hours are very frustrating as Saro runs into the limitations of a field setup. He takes a quick nap at 0300 and gets back to work. Very close to the crack of dawn, a very tired Saro manages to make a key discovery. The protein particles appear to be a casing or envelope of some sort. Within the protein casing appears to be virus spores that are a very close cousin of AHV. It's hard to tell at this stage (and with such little analysis), but there seem to be a few key differences in the genetic sequence of this virus and AHV. Saro is too tired and limited to discover more, but he excitedly wakes up the rest of the group. Saro turns on the radio and TV. He looks tired but he is smiling. "Gentlemen, there are good indications that we have what we came here for. There are indeed signs of a vaccine in the giveaway cans. I think we should plan to return so that this can be confirmed and if it is, we can begin production as soon as possible. I need a bit of sleep but maybe you can all start thinking about how to get back since I'm a bit nervous about getting the cans over the border. Let me know what you think, but I need some sleep right now." Vasilii listens to the Doctor and smiles. "That's great." He then says in hushed tones, "I have some ideas about getting the item home, but I need some questions answered. The first ones are for the Doctor. How long can the vaccine survive once the contents of the can have been exposed to air? How long can it survive in a person before you can no longer extract a usable sample? If we drink the giveaway sodas, could you extract the vaccine from our bloodstreams once we crossed the border? If so, how long of a time window are we looking at before the vaccine could no longer be salvaged?" To Vasilii’s questions, Saro replies, "Frankly, I don’t know. Assuming that the vaccine virus has to be present in a body for some time before the body manufactures the appropriate antibodies (which probably eventually kill off the vaccine virus), it may be possible to harvest some of the virus from our blood if we drink the soda. On the other hand, we don’t know how many cans of soda constitute a dose of the vaccine. And, there is a chance that the virus disappears quickly from the blood. "I don’t know about how long the vaccine stays viable once exposed to the air. Obviously, a few months of exposure is too much, based on the opened can that you purchased, but beyond that, I can’t tell offhand." Glancing at Ian and Swann, Vasilii continues, "If we can’t hide the vaccine in our bodies, can you find a place to secret a couple of cans in the Amadel? I should think two would be enough," with a requesting glance to Saro, who nods. "With the Doctor using one can for testing and you hiding a couple, I’ll try another method with a couple and then we’ll risk the final ones going over the border ‘above board.’ Vasilii explains that his "other method" involves express shipping two cans via a parcel delivery service to Darishun back in Bromley. The hotel’s services guide states that package delivery services are available from the business center, but doesn’t have any more information. -----While Saro gets some sleep, Ian and Vasilii head down to the hotel restaurant to get breakfast and for a quick reconnaissance. Swann stays behind (ordering room service) in order to guard Saro. The dark haired man is gone, but an attractive, shorthaired blonde in her 20s is sitting near where he was. She appears to be reading a newspaper of some sort, but does glance up as Ian and Vasilii exit the elevator. After a quick breakfast, Ian and Vasilii take a short walk around the grounds. The Sweet Crust Donuts truck is still where it was last night. When Ian and Vasilii return to the lobby, the attractive blonde is still reading the paper. They return to the room to formulate a plan.</blockquote>

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