Mid-West Campaign
Session Ninety-Three

Thursday, 30 August 2001

McPike, Smith, Steiger and Malkin discuss at length how best to get the truth from the Joneses. Malkin suggests 'arresting' Alice and taking her to a secluded spot. He seems convinced that he will be able to elicit a confession from her. His confidence is rather disquieting to the other agents.

Malkin argues that their hand has been forced: they have to do something. Elise suggests that getting in touch with Kurt Wallace but McPike isn't prepared to admit how badly (and how quickly) the team screwed up. They return to the guest house. It is noted that the red SUV that was in the car park when they left is no longer present. The agents fear that the Joneses have fled the scene.

This fear proves groundless, when the agents enter and see Amy Jones sitting at the reception desk. McPike and Malkin walk up to Amy. Malkin demands to speak to the manager, declaring he has a problem with the service in the hotel. The pair are shown into Alice Jones's office. McPike reveals himself as an FBI agent and tells Alice about the listening devices. She denies any knowledge of them, and McPike believes her.

The pair ask Alice questions about the staff. All the other people working at the guest house are members of Alice's family: Alice's brother Robert and his children Robert Jnr (the chef) and Chuck (the bellhop and handiman); and Alice's daughter Amy who works on reception. Alice herself is a widower. Robert Jnr headed into town about ten minutes ago to get some fillets. Alice says that the hotel doesn't have any regular guests to speak of, but there are a number of people from Dynamicorp in at the moment.

As McPike questions Alice, Malkin sidles into the reception and fires the same questions at Amy. Alice is not pleased about this and a row erupts. She think that her family is being harassed and she is not minded to particularly cooperative with the FBI. She doesn't like what McPike is accusing her of, and determines to summon her lawyer to sort things out.

Malkin fears that the Joneses are going to make a run for it, and heads out in to the car park at the front of the building. He tries to block the gateway with the car, but cannot drive very well and reverses into a telegraph pole. The pole falls down blocking the gateway and demolishing much of the boundary wall. McPike is incensed, and Alice isn't best pleased either. When the Jones's lawyer arrives he cannot get his car onto the premises. McPike phones for a crane, and leaves a message for Artemis with Fit Harlow.

While this pantomime is taking place, Oliver and Elise gather the remaining listening devices from the building. Elise tries to phone Georgeson to find out about the Dynamicorp visitors, but he is still incommunicado. While he isn't dealing with Malkin's disasters, McPike talks to the other members of the Jones family but gets the impression that none of them know about the bugs. He eventually smooths things over with Alice.

The four agents meet up. Oliver Smith says that the bugs are quite modern and sophisticated. They cannot tell where the signal is being sent - it is the same problem they faced at the Wichita HQ. McPike suspects the Joneses might be possessed by brain bugs, which is why they seem to be so trustworthy at present. The consensus is that the team needs to make the bad guys come to them. They will return some of the bugs, talk loudly in their proxity of their plans to venture somewhere isolated and vulnerable and then head out into the wilderness. It's the old 'hang around long enough and wait for them to attack us' plan. It never fails.

Quickly the plan is put into operation, and they invent a white-water rafting trip. McPike, Elise and Oliver Smith head out into the woods. Malkin is left behind to repair the boundary wall that he destroyed. Malkin complains that he is far from a competent bricklayer, but McPike has made his mind up.

The three agents head off and, to their deep surprise do actually go rafting. They attach an outboard motor to their boat and head upstream. They then spend three hours hiking back to their car. Exhausted they camp for the night, while keeping watch in case they are ambushed. However, no one attacks them in the night. Perhaps the bad guys are just being coy.

Monday, 3 September 2001

The bad guys continue being coy for the next four days. While Malkin continues to hone his skills as a brickee, the rest of he agents go hunting again and again and again. They have been reasonably successful, and killed at least one duck. However, no one ambushes them all this time, it seems their plan of pretending to go on a hunting trip is quickly turning into a real hunting trip. This pleases Elise no end. However, the agents are awoken just past midnight by the sound of voices.

Tuesday, 4 September 2001

In the early hours of the morning, the group encounters an outward bound course, who are setting up camp nearby. There are five people present, all of which have come form Alice's Boarding House. Cory Ginder and Herman Fromm are friends. The other three (Maurie Ditmer, Vernor Finkle and Clive Coogan) are from Dynamicorp. Those three have travelled to the camping site in their red SUV - the one that was missing from the boarding house the previous Thursday.

Ginder and Fromm are reading newspapers and not up for much talking. McPike engages the three from Dynamicorp in conversation. They are slightly suspicious that McPike has heard of Dynamicorp, but they let it pass. While McPike is making small talk, Oliver Smith devises a tracking device that he attaches a transmitter to the red SUV. The agents plan to follow the group in the morning.

After dawn, the agents follow the red SUV into the Potakawa national reservation. The three suspects get out with shot guns. The agents follow with their own guns: all hunters together. When the agents catch up, they nod and smile at the Dynamicorp emplyees and then cunningly take a different route to allay suspicion. Unfortunately, the agents then get completely lost in the wilderness for seven hours and only manage to make it back to camp by dusk.

Over dinner, McPike tries to talk to the other hunters again, but they don't say much to him. They are evasive. This makes McPike all the more suspicious.

Wednesday, 5 September 2001

The following day McPike, Steiger and Smith follow the hunters again. This time they go north. Unfortunately, they completely lose the signal when Smith discovers most of the tagged wildlife is using the same frequency. After hours of aimless wandering the agents they reach a ski lodge overlooking Lake Winipisuki. They recognise one of the cars that is parked outside it.

The agents creep over and search the vehicle. This is Cory Ginder's car! They find some unpaid parking tickets, but nothing more suspicious than that. They dust the car for fingerprints and run the licence plate.

The agents soon realise that there is activity inside the ski lodge. McPike thought he saw a large horned and hairy head moving past an upstairs window. Remembering that this could be a k'tai heavy area, the senior agent advises the loading of armour-piercing rounds. Ugly Joe creeps over to get a closer look, but he was not built for stealth. He is heard.

Freezing McPike hears a familiar voice behind the heavily curtained window. "Herman, did you hear something?" says Cory Ginder. Forunately Herman didn't hear anything, but dammit they have to get in there! McPike sends Smith into the crawlspace beneath the lodge to see if he can hear anything and to plant listening devices. Once he returns, Elise takes a crowbar to the shop door. Smith and McPike slip in as quietly as they can.

The pair enter the main ski lodge and witness a terrible sight. They see fourteen people wearing horned masks and dancing in a circle. There is an altar covered in a silk cloth. McPike thinks quickly. He returns to the kitchens and turns on all the gas hobs. They flee the building and chuck a match it. It is at this point, when there is no turning back that they hear:

"And that concludes the fifth annual New Hampshire Bison Lodge meeting. Now, beer and food…." BOOM!

Smith and McPike pretend they didn't hear anything, and certainly don't communicate anything to Elise. They all quickly flee the scene and go bear hunting. They even manage to bag a bear. McPike hopes it will go some way to giving them an alibi.

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