Mid-West Campaign
Session Twenty-Six

Thursday, 7 December 2000 (continued)

It is now 18:00. The agents pause for dinner (Dom cooks a bizarre hybrid of a chilli and a curry) before embarking on a long evening's work. Artemis telephones Joel Grey just to double-check what Bryce's verbal report to him was. Bryce said "the fourth pit support was showing signs of slippage".

While Benedict and Bruce go through the computer systems of people in the office (Bruce undertakes forensic computing) Dominic, Artemis and Brooks return to the mine to account for all the drills. The agents tell Brooks that the mine was worked between the 1950s and 1980s. Brooks is shocked. It means that all his maps are wrong because when they started mining in 1983 they used maps dating back to the 1920s. When asked Brooks says that Troy James and Randall Watson would have worked in the mine prior to 1982 with Bryce.

Brooks summarises the shafts in the mine for the agents. Only shafts 21, 37 and 43 are currently in use (this is where they are checking for drills). Shafts 12, 16, 25 and 34 have been worked and played out since 1982. Shafts 1 and 2 are used for storage. Shafts 40 and 27 have been fully explored. This leaves shafts 3-11, 13-15, 17-20, 22-24, 26, 28-33, 35-36, 38, 39, 41 and 42 unexplored since 1982. If there is extra work going on in the mine it is going to be in one of those shafts. It would take six days to check all those shafts.

Brooks and the agents account for all the drills, including the two that they know to be in a repair shop on the surface. The mine has two extra drills. Very suspicious. On the return trip Dominic theorises that Bryce and has companions were mining uranium and selling it on. It is possible that the unlawful mining of Bryce caused the cave-in in shaft 43. The reason Bryce was so anxious to have work halted there was because he realised his mining had compromised that shaft. They leave the mine at 20:30.

Benedict's research reveals that these extra two drills were never legitimately ordered through the company books. Finally calling it a night, the agents return to the hotel where they discover some parchments have been delivered to Black. Benedict bundles Bruce out of the way, while Dominic and Artemis read the parchments.

Follow this link for the text of the Book of Entrance.

The parchments are a mediaeval copy of a much older work. Both Artemis and Dominic spot the references to Middle Eastern mythology. The parchments were sent from England by Alan Hamblin III - the source of the other occult tome that Black is reading, the Celaeno Fragments. Both works are similar, but where the Celaeno Fragments describe a physical journey, this Book of Entrance describes a more spiritual one.

Friday, 8 December 2000

First thing in the morning, Eisenstein phones and informs the team that Air America flight FB104 crashed in flames on 4 December 2000. The only firm news he has is that Jane survived, but he does not know how badly injured she is. Black takes the opportunity to tell Eisenstein about the green rice and the parchment. Eisenstein is curious to learn that Black heard from Hamblin. Hamblin went to the British Museum two weeks ago and no-one has been able to contact him since. The postmark on the package the parchment was sent in was dated two weeks ago.

Black phones the main hospital in Fairbanks and asks after Jane. She is still unconscious, but is expected to recover soon. There is no word on Mike Hunt, although two other people did survive the crash. Black determines to phone back tomorrow when Jane is well.

Benedict begins work on the Rosses accounts today while Black traces Alex Long by his social security number. He gets an address. Black talks to Sergeant Miller of the San Francisco police department - he wants to see if anything suspicious has recently happened at Alex Long's address (#1447 Fox Row). Miller is a fan of Black's work. It is revealed that Alex Long is dead. His decomposing body was recovered from his house two days ago (at which point he had been dead for four days). Alex Long lived alone but his next of kin is listed as a "Mr J Grey" with an address in Chugwater, Wyoming. The mystery deepens.

Black speaks to Lt Remington in records (also a fan of Black's work) and is put through to Dr Elijah Hart who autopsied Long's body. Hart isn't a fan, although his daughter Lucy is). Hart says that Long died of a suspected stoke. There was nothing off in the toxicology except a high count of white blood-cells. Under his nails was an odd grey crime - thorium oxide. Hart agrees to send copies of all the information regarding the case to the them in Casper.

The agents realise that Elaine and Oscar Ross would have boarded their cruise ship in San Francisco at about the time that Long died. Is this a coincidence? Black faxes Sergeant Miller pictures of the Rosses so that the police can start asking around the Long's neighbours to see if either of them were recently in the vicinity.

According to the itinerary in the travel brochure, the ship the Rosses took should be passing Panama at the moment (assuming they are still on it). The group mulls over how to check if they are still on the boat and, moreover, how to get at them now they are outside the United States. The agents apply for a warrant to search the Ross's home. Leaving Benedict to his work, Artemis and Black head to the address in Chugwater that "J. Grey" is supposed to reside at.

En route the agents speak to Sheriff Lincoln regarding the accident in Chugwater yesterday. Calvin Powell is died in the night without regaining consciousness. His effects were pulled from the river - a wallet, digital organiser and a postcard from San Francisco. The card was dated 3 December (the day Alex Long died) and is from Oscar Ross. It says: "Weather fine Everything finished down here. Starting out cruise tomorrow."

There is evidently some conspiracy at work here. The Rosses, Powell, Bryce (and possibly Troy James and Randall Watson. Oscar worked on the payroll system at the mine; Elaine was an administrator in the finance department. It all seems to fit, but what were they doing?

The agents arrive in Chugwater and head to the house in question. It is home to a small embittered old lady called Ethel Skinner who is all for the extermination of gays and the return of slavery. However, five letters have recently arrived for Joel Grey that she hands to the agents. She has also received phone calls from the SFPD which she has studiously ignored.

Dominic phones Joel Grey to get permission to open his post. Grey tells them that he has never lived at an address in Chugwater. Opening the letters in post mark order, the first is from the SFPD. It is a notification of Long's death and is dated 7 December 2000. The second is from the San Francisco morgue, of the same date, and is a request for Mr Grey to identify and remove Long's body. The last three letters are all from a San Francisco law firm dealing with Long's estate. Each contains a blank cheque for $250,000 apparently at the request of the diseased.

Someone is obviously coming to pick up these cheques, so Dominic and Artemis begin a stakeout of the house. They are there all day but no-one turns up. During the day, Dominic finally gets through to Alexander Sanders and asks him why he thinks there was corruption involved in the accident at the mine. Sanders obviously doesn't know what he is talking about, and is only levelling charges of corruption because it causes trouble. This is a lead they can do without.

Dominic also talks to Peterson's secretary Elaine Cox. When the agents visited Peterson, he did not have a secretary so who is she? She claims to be resident at the Mary Estate but when Dominic talks to Peterson he has never heard of Elaine Cox. Dominic speaks to James Perry. He has heard of Elaine Cox, she is an attractive receptionist at Dynamicorp HQ in Tulsa. Perry hasn't seen the hologram receptionist, but quickly confirms that this is the exact image of Cox. Has Dynamicorp got an A.I. running in the Mary Estate. James Perry agrees to look into it for the team.

At 18:00 Oaxaca contacts the pair. He has gone through the Ross's accounts. There is no way they could have afforded this holiday. He starts work on Leroy Bryce's accounts and calls back at 21:00. A mysterious BACS payment for $10,000 appears periodically in Bryce's accounts. A few hours later - after looking at Troy James and Randall Watson's accounts - Benedict can say that Bryce was paying them each $500 when he received his $10,000.

Troy James and Randall Watson are obviously implicated. They must be apprehended immediately. It seems that these cheques were to be placed into the company account and then dripped out through anonymous BACS payments. But why three cheques. It becomes apparent that some members of the team will have to go to San Francisco to look into matters there.

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