You’ve barely got off the plane at Yardistan when two men stroll up either side of you. “Ah, our great Scavenger,” one says, flashing a SHINE badge. “We’ve been expecting you.”
They escort you to a black van, and you get driven for an hour or so. You make a few attempts at conversation, but they make it clear they’re not authorised to explain much to you. They answer you civilly, then fall silent. They obviously aren’t interested in speaking to you more than necessary.
The van pulls to a sudden stop outside what looks to be an abandoned warehouse. The gate is opened by a very old janitor, and you drive slowly through, before he shuts it behind you. It’s pitch black inside, and the car drives for about fifty metres without its lights on. Then you feel it going up a ramp, and it pulls into the warehouse proper. You get out, and are ... not as surprised as you should be. You’ve watched too many spy films.
The inside of the warehouse is, of course, chock full of snazzy technology. You recognise satellite dishes, computer arrays, several other dark vans, and, off to one side, an armoury of handguns. Your escorts merely walk you straight up to an office which has been walled off from the rest of warehouse. They take you inside and show you to a seat, then move to stand behind you. There’s another man already sitting in the room, dressed in black.
“Welcome to SHINE,” he says.
“Thankyou,” you say, slightly nervously.
“Oh, no need to be nervous,” he says. “We’d like you to think of us as your friends. And as a friend, we’d like your help.”
“Of course, for Kaiseress and country!” you say, patriotically.
“Err ... yes,” he says, putting on a false smile. “Anyway, we knew you wouldn’t take long to work out the GHOST message and find us. The Kaiser spoke quite highly of your role in the Atterock Incident. He requested you specially for this mission.”
“Kaiser Mors is dead ...” you say. “We’ve had several Kaisers since him.”
“Mmm, yes, of course,” he says, noncommittally. “Anyway, your work in the Atterock Incident was excellent. And it so happens that we have our own ... incident ... which would be best resolved by a non-SHINE hand. Someone who can investigate. Someone like you, in fact. As you’ve probably guessed, the incident is the JASO Auction, and the role that a certain ‘mysterious stranger’ has played in it. You should have worked out the stranger’s identity by now. We need you to confront him and get him to tell you what he’s been doing in Shireroth.”
“But what if he won’t talk to me?” you ask, worried that will be the case.
“Oh, he’ll talk if you show him this,” the SHINE agent says, reaching under his desk. He pulls out what looks like an ordinary black briefcase, and places it on the desk, facing you. Then he undoes the clasps and flips it open. At first, you stare at the top part, which looks like a normal briefcase, but has a few pages stuck to the top of it, which seem to be copies of emails from some company. But then you look to the part of the briefcase that’s resting on the desk, and gasp.
The briefcase bottom seems to go right through the desk, and extend below, so far down you can’t see the bottom of it. You look at the desk, and tentatively touch the briefcase. It feels solid. “To save further investigation, we’ve checked,” the agent says, picking it up and tapping the outside, which sounds as solid as a normal briefcase. “We can’t tell how far down it goes, but we let down a fifty metre rope, and it didn’t touch bottom,” he tells you. “We have no idea what it had inside before, but it’s empty now. It’s obviously a magical artifact, but well beyond Shirithian ken.”
“Where did you find it?” you ask, amazed at such a wonder.
“About five hundred metres behind you, in the JASO labs,” he says. “Oh, don’t turn around, you can’t see it from in here,” he adds, slightly annoyed. You turn back, feeling chastened. “You may not have noticed on your trip over, but this facility is set up right outside JASO. And JASO is the second part of our mystery.” He closes the briefcase, and puts it back on the floor, then looks you in the eye. “You may have heard of the memo to the Duke which was circulated regarding a break-in at JASO. It is widely believed to have been triggered by the Count of Monty Crisco securing the facilities. It wasn’t. It actually dates from several days prior to the Count’s arrival, but only reached the Duke after the Count took his action. It dates, in fact, to the day after the Auction was announced. Coincidence? We don’t think so either.”
“Who or what was it?” you ask.
“It is the GHOST program,” the agent informs you, “and they are still inside. That’s what annoys us so much. They entered and began doing ... something, we don’t know what. Soon after, the ‘mysterious stranger’ arrived. He left again before the day was out, before we could get a warrant to nab him. He must have left the briefcase behind. Soon after, the Count’s forces arrived, rather suddenly, and we think GHOST agents went into hiding, though knowing them half of them would have donned on Monty Criscoan uniforms and continued to go about their business.” You look slightly incredulous. “Well, that’s what we did!” he tells you, thumping the desk. “That was how we found the briefcase. But before we could find out more on GHOST, the Duke of Yardistan requested the Monty Criscoan forces leave. The GHOST agents who entered are still inside.”
“Still inside? Why don’t you take them out?” you ask.
“Our ... jurisdiction does not extend that far yet,” the agent says, sounding like he is angry at the thought, but controlling himself. “Which is where you come in. Our hands are tied. We know the mysterious stranger did something shifty, but we don’t know what, and we need that evidence before we can push for permission to take him and the GHOST program down. Until then, or until GHOST makes their move, we’re stuck waiting out here. But you can take the briefcase and talk to this mysterious stranger. You’re not a SHINE agent, so no one will suspect you.” He picks up the briefcase, and hands it to you.
“I still have one question,” you say, taking the briefcase. “What’s so bad about this GHOST program?”
The agents eyes narrow. “They are a rogue organisation. They used to be part of SHINE but they rebelled against us long ago. They were shut down, or so we thought. But here we find them again. They’re dangerous. Don’t believe their lies.”
“Of course not,” you say, and stand up.
“Thankyou for this,” the agent says, standing too and shaking your hand.
“Glad to be of service,” you say, trying to smile.
“We’ll be in contact,” he promises, as he leads you out. “Now, the boys will just take you back to the airport, so you can be on your way. Confront that stranger and find out what he knows. SHINE is depending on you!”
The original intention was for you to confront the person with the briefcase, and then I would tell you the next clue. But since I'll be on LOA soon, here is the second half of the URL, the first half given when you need to confront that person. Put them together ...
52793.html
Original Post wrote:Realised I hadn't congratulated Gman on his ascension to Duke yet. Congratulations.
