Mid-West Campaign
Session Fifty-Three

Monday, 23 April 2001

After a week's downtime Benedict, Alex and Jane return ready to tackle a new case. They telephone Chuck to determine his whereabouts but cannot hear him over the rhythmic thumping of whatever pole-dancing dive he is currently frequenting. Picking up their messages the agents discover that Artemis Black is currently on a tour of Europe and is unavailable for an extended period of time. This can only be considered a good thing.

Chuck's absence is a little frustrating as the agents begin their investigation into Dynamicorp (case TL348), and they could probably use his expertise. However the group begins to work through the disc stolen from the Mary Estate during case CS1473-IND. They don't discover any incriminating information, but they do pull out the design specs of "four-core processor". The device is very tough, could survive an electro-magnetic pulse and is made of a material that is a room temperature super-conductor. This technology is 8-10 years ahead of its time.

Benedict contacts Senior Special Agent Shahjahan Ahmad of Intellectual Property Crime for more information on the case. The team is faxed Dynamicorp's quarterly returns from 1997 to the present, as well as the company's lengthy prospectus. There is literally reams of paper and almost all of it the most tedious accounting minutiae on could imagine. Benedict cackles with obscene glee at the work ahead while Jane and Alex realise they have an extremely dull few days ahead.

While Benedict begins to sort the papers into neat piles, the group discuss their initial suspicions regarding Dynamicorp. Where is all this high technology coming from? Is it alien? Are the brain bugs involved? Is Dynamicorp one of the warring partners in the Great Game? Is Jane Dynamicorp's player? The green mineral that game Benedict his superhuman powers was posted from Dynamicorp in Pennsylvania. Who sent it? Given the events of the previous weeks, they are beginning to suspect it was sent by the mysterious Simon. But what is his stake in this?

Jane and Drake go to Juicy Lucy's to get take-out. They return to help Benedict but neither have any experience in this kind of work. Jane even falls asleep reading the papers. Only Benedict's enthusiasm remains undiminished as he takes more and more work on to himself.

Tuesday, 24 April 2005

Drake and Jane continue to add very little to Benedict's research. Benedict is beginning to invent things for them to do so they don't get in his way. The amount of coffee rings obscuring important facts on the notes he gave to Drake is more than an annoyance to him. However, he has managed to find some facts:

Dynamicorp is not a public trading company. They give shares to their employees, but they never seem to recruit employees. All their staff are headhunted from other companies. Their registered office is in Pennsylvania, they have a research centre in Tulsa and a small think-tank in Winterset.

The most suspicious thing that Benedict can find is that their predicted profits are woefully short of the money they are actually making by selling their patents. They are making fourteen times as much money as their nearest competitor. However, they are paying the right amount of tax (on what they really earn, not what they say they earn). Because Dynamicorp is not a publicly owned company and their shares have a static value this is not illegal.

Wednesday, 25 April 2001

Jane arrives at work in her sweat-pants and spends much of the day hitting the gym rather than helping with the accounts. This is largely because Benedict doesn't Jane's increasingly inaccurate help. Benedict is concentrating on the strange mineral that this four-core processor is made of. He wants it analysed.

Benedict's first thought is to send it to the east coast team where their physicist Doctor David Berkowicz can take a look at it. However, when they are unavailable he decides that the local Wichita State University will have to do. He makes an appointment to visit them tomorrow.

Thursday, 26 April 2001

The agents spend much of the morning going through the university's library. They discover that the element this processor is made of is not metallic in any sense. It is a fabricated mineral containing traces of fluorine, sulphur, boron and xenon. The combination of chemistry and electronics required for this puts it 25-30 years ahead of its time, and yet it was used to create computer tech 8-10 years ahead. Odd.

But the agents do not think that the Signai's science faction is behind this. They do not work through intermediaries. They are not controlling Dynamicorp, someone else is and the agents do not know who. Perhaps there is a trade-off, perhaps Dynamicorp are getting these tech advances for doing something. If this is the case then the answers are probably in their think-think in Iowa. The agents have got all they can from the information from the Mary Estate. Something or someone is feeding Dynamicorp ideas. And that is happening in Winterset.

Before they go to Winterset, the agents look into the people they know to be controlling Dynamicorp. The Chairman is Marc Georgeson, who seems to have come from nowhere to head the company. He is currently resident in Winterset, and the agents get his home address. Their Chief Financial Advisor is Mathew Jones, one of the best accountants in his field. He is (unsurprisingly) Winterset born and bred and was trained at Harvard before moving to Dynamicorp from Wilson and Watts Accountants. Thomas Blackburn is a career CEO, and is also from Winterset. He went to the same high school as Mathew Jones.

The chief technical officer is Bridget Seasons who (to Jane's mind) looks a bit like Todd. They do a bit of research on all these people on the internet. Jimxxor is pretty scathing of all of them, except Bridget (although that could have something to do with her being female). Jane decides phone Todd and see if Bridget is any relation.

Todd is pleased to here from Jane and tries to set up a meeting between them, but Jane is business-like. Todd does have a cousin called Bridget, who married a man called Henry seasons about five years ago. She moved to Tulsa, Oklahoma and did post-doc work at Dynamicorp. She wasn't born in Winterset though, she was born in Milwaukee. Jane thanks Todd and urges him not to get in touch with Bridget again (he hasn't spoken to her in six months) just yet. The team hasn't tipped their hand to Dynamicorp that they are being investigated yet, and Benedict wants to keep it that way.

Friday, 27 April 2001

The agents arrive in Winterset and all experience that wonderful reassuring sense of comfort that radiates from this place. Jane feels it for the first time, and any misgivings she once had about this place evaporate. She loves it here and wants to move in. The agents head to the guest house run by Martha Church to get room. She is extremely pleased to see Jane again (she is the only agent here who was also present for case WNT075).

Also staying at the guest house are Michael Levin from the Department of Agriculture and one Aloysius Montgomery (Monty). They have been in town for a fortnight, but they are currently out and will return at 4:00pm. Jane wants to wait for Levin as his presence might have something to do with their case. Benedict grudgingly agrees.

While they wait, Drake wanders across the road to a local car dealership and begins to salivate over a sports car designed and built from a kit by local mechanic, Lucy Nelson. Lucy persuades Drake to take the car for a test drive. Remarkably (and despite the paces he puts it through), Drake does not crash the car. Completely smitten he determines to buy it, even though it costs $175,000 and he will be paying for it for much of the rest of his life. Drake goes to make the arrangements and asks for the car to be sprayed blue.

While the other agents are admiring Drake's new wheels (and wondering how long they will stay connected to the car), Levin and Monty return to the guest house. Levin reveals he is on a working holiday, and is checking out damage to a near-by mine. This is damaged caused during the week the team cannot remember when they were collecting ingredients to restore Joshua to the flesh.

Levin invites Jane to accompany him to an opera at Carnegie hall next Friday (4 May). It will involve meeting with the new president and a collection of eastern-block ambassadors at the White House in the morning, and then going out in the evening to listen to the work of a famous Czechoslovakian composer. There will be dancing. Jane readily agrees.

She asks Levin about Dynamicorp and whether or not he thinks there could be any connection to the Brain Bugs. Levin absolutely rules it out. He says that the Signai are intent on inhibiting human development. They would never give humans access to higher levels of technology. He asks Jane not to destroy Dynamicorp in the course of their investigations as he has a stake in their future (he doesn't say what).

It is not until after Levin and Monty have departed that Benedict points out to Jane that she has just agreed to go on a date with him. This had simply never occurred to her and suddenly she is unaccountably nervous. She hasn't been on a date in more than nine years. What shall she do? What shall she wear? She telephones her sister.

But Danielle Munroe isn't really in the mood to talk about this. She is suffering from being seven months pregnant and had her own concerns. She still has no intention of reconciling with her father, and instead she wants to come to Wichita and live with Jane. When Jane shows she isn't immediately bowled over by the idea, the two strike up a blazing row. Danielle is offended and slams the phone down. Jane tries to phone back but her sister refuses to return her calls.

Jane decides to get some fresh air and takes up Drake's offer of a ride around the town. Benedict despairs that his agents don't seem to have any intention of doing work today and heads off to the public library to do his own research. He researches Mathew Jones and Thomas Blackburn (both were born here). He also looks up Todd's grandmother, Mary Dawson. She was also the grandmother of Bridget Seasons.

Drake does not crash the car and Jane returns to the guest house and telephones Todd to ask him to speak to Dani on her behalf. Todd says that Dani is having serious trouble paying her bills at the moment, and Jane feels even worse about arguing with her. She doesn't tell Todd about her date with Levin.

Returning to her room, Jane finds a big bunch of flowers and a bottle of wine in her room. They are from Levin. She shows them to Benedict who is happy for her, but slightly nervous at the bundle of nerves Jane has now become. Jane has less than a week before her date. She needs to find some new clothes, and shoes… and someone who can teach her how to dance.

Saturday, 28 April 2001

Benedict is determined that at least some work get done this weekend but seems to be fighting a losing battle. All Drake wants to do is drive his new car. He doesn't crash things in Winterset; he loves this place! He wants to settle down. Martha Church has pointed Jane in the direction of Vera, a local dance instructor, who Jane wants to seek out as soon as possible.

Soldiering on, Benedict says that Marc Georgeson (the Chairman of Dynamicorp) is the key to this investigation. There is something odd about him. They have his address, and that of the Think Tank - it is located in a large abandoned farmhouse, out of town.

Before they pursue these leads, however, they suggest getting the feel for the town, and following up some of the past leads. Jane goes to speak to the butcher, Adrian Midden, who is extremely happy to see her. He offers to second her name if she ever decides she wants to live in Winterset. Adrian's on (the psychic Richard) is not in town. He is apparently working with a woman called Valerie Hudson, but he is due back next Wednesday (3 May).

The agents next go to see how Doctor Luke Lewis and his daughter, Elayna are getting on.

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