Mid-West Campaign
Session Thirty-Seven

Saturday, 16 December 2000 (continued)

Ecks receives a telephone call from Eisenstein. He is sending two agents to bolster the team: McKraken is returning from New England and he is accompanied by Special Agent Mathew St. John Wainwright. Wainwright is a new recruit just transferred to evidence response. He has not yet had his psyche test.

Meanwhile in Casper, Artemis Black receives a visit from Republican Senator Kelly of Iowa. Kelly's constituency includes Winterset. Kelly has come to the hospital to offer Artemis a career in politics as his running mate in the 2005 presidential elections! Artemis says that he is very busy but would relish the chance to help shape the destiny of America.

Wainwright and McKraken arrive at the headquarters and meet the team and Schult. Soon Jane returns and agrees to brief the pair on everything she can over dinner. However, Jane's appetite is cut short as news of Artemis's new political affiliation is broadcast on the evening news. After dinner the team determine to put time travel and Harlow's death behind them and concentrate on catching Mao Sei Ben. Jane books tickets for San Francisco for the following day.

Sunday, 17 December 2000

In the morning Ecks and Burchill go to Church and Ecks books himself a baptism for when he returns to LA. Jane chases up progress on the death of agent Owen Sawell. Very little more is known and Jane becomes convinced that is the work of the Joker and not connected with the Mao Sei Ben case. Todd tells Jane about Vitrano and Lavin's link to the NSA (remember he had not yet told her in this timeline). Schult places nanites in the body of all the agents except Jane. The agents depart for San Francisco.

While agents McKraken, Wainwright and Ecks wait in a van (clad in body armour and wielding assault rifles), Burchill, Jane and Todd go into Madame Zenbuki's geisha house and arrange to see her. Madame Zenbuki is an old Japanese woman who wears a white kimono. When it becomes apparent why the agents are here, she gestures that they meet her in the garden where they can talk in private.

She guesses that Cummings and the others are dead and that the agents have come seeking the same answers they did. She knows what Mao Sei Ben is planning because of a group of Shintao priests told her (those priests are now dead). Mao Sei Ben is trying to "awaken the dragon". This is not a metaphorical dragon, but a spiritual being. She doesn't know the purpose behind this. Zenbuki know where to find Mao Sei Ben (the Golden Jade Palace restaurant) but not how to stop him. However, she can put Jane in touch with a group of equally questionable people who might know: the Yakuza. Jane agrees to meet the Yakuza alone.

The agents return to the van to discover much of the electrics destroyed by Wainwright's attempts to fix the air conditioning without leaving the vehicle. Jane, Burchill and Todd head back to the hotel by taxi while the others follow in the van. The brakes fail on a precipitous incline, McKraken valiantly brings the vehicle under control spins it to a halt and then calmly reverses it into the bay. Fortunately the agents manage to swim to safety and eventually make it back to the hotel.

At 9:30pm Jane receives a call telling her to be at the Lucky Dragon Casino in two hours. She is to come alone and unarmed. Jane tells this to Ecks and informs him of her intention to go alone. Ecks says that he, McKraken and Wainwright will go to a bear-by restaurant in case they need any help. Jane leaves. Before Ecks and the others can follow, the power goes out and music begins to play. The Joker has returned!

While Ecks commands Wainwright, Burchill and Todd to run for the stairs McKraken is cornered by the Joker in his room, as he runs for the window. The Joker speaks to McKraken. "Someone is playing me. What has she done?" it says and demands McKraken tell him. McKraken is one of the few members of the group who does not know who Lillian Winter is and cannot tell the Joker anything. He promises to find out more information for the Joker. The Joker agrees, "When you bleed I will listen to your words," it says.

Jane is on the phone to Ecks as the lights come back up. She discovers what happened and feels guilty when it is pointed out that the Joker always seems to appear when one member of the team is off on their own. They don't tell McKraken what the Joker needs to know, but toy with the idea of putting Lillian Winter and the Joker up against one another. They suspect the Joker will have to give McKraken an answer before he is next wounded. This dismays the Scotsman.

At the casino Jane is met by three men in white suits and shades. Two stand guard as one sits next to her. He introduces himself as Kai, and tells Jane that Dr Summers of the West Coast team also came to her for information. He said that she had honour but was not twisted, while Cummings was twisted but without honour. Kai says that being honourable and "twisted" is the key to defeating Mao Sei Ben, although the Yakuza will not act openly against him. He knows of the pendants - calling them "gilded pebbles". Frankly, Jane finds Kai to be unnecessarily enigmatic and feels she could have got more useful information by cracking open a fortune cookie. He speaks in riddles as if he will not (or cannot) speak plainly in regard to Mao Sei Ben. He says that she must speak to Hu, and to follow the seven fold path. After a frustrating interview, Jane leaves.

Meanwhile the remaining agents are still at the hotel. Bored they go out to buy some cards and Burchill catches sight of Lillian Winter in her Ferrari. Burchill gives chase through the late night traffic but eventually loses her (and the rear passenger door of his hire car). They do get her licence player number: LW 666.

Jane resorts to the phone to try and make something out of Kai's statements. She phones Artemis who hasn't got a clue (or perhaps he is too busy thinking about being Vice President Black) so she phones Dominic Rocaan, disturbing him from a late night bath.

Dominic says that the seven fold path is part of eastern philosophy. It is a way of self-perfection, a way of ascending. It is the same principle written in the Book of Entrance, although they care completely different things. Hu, on the other hand, is a celestial bureaucrat. A being reputed to govern the laws of nature. As for being "twisted" Dominic believes that Kai was talking about "face". There is a difference between who you say, what you think and what others think about you. If any of those three are out of kilter then you are twisted. By this definition, Jane is indeed twisted but it doesn't make her feel any better, nor is she any nearer finding a way to stop Mao Sei Ben.

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