Mid-West Campaign
Session One Hundred and Seven

Wednesday, 19 October 2001

Mid-west agents Dominic Rocaan, Classic Nathan Harlow, Bradley Ecks, Jack Burchill, Todd O'Connell and Bruce Campbell-Robson depart Wichita for Los Angeles. It has been six weeks since Nathan stumbled across the artificially intelligent entity Memphisto, and the team discovered the truth behind the I-Ching book. [It happened in session 91].

After dealing with a number of more pressing cases, Dominic is finally in a position to make good on the promise he made to Arles and Memphisto. He wants to discover their origins: who was the "Person of Sky" who gave the contents to the book to that ancient order of monks in the first place? And what of the gift house in Los Angeles? If it is chock full of magical artefacts then surely it must be plundered.

Well, Dominic isn't too sure about that. He believes that it is important to protect the integrity of the gift house. If they take something away, then they must leave something of value in its place. He suspects that if they do not do that, then all manner of hell could be visited upon them. Whatever the case, this matter cannot be ignored. So Dominic has designated the investigation as casefile 0033-GCF, and bundled his agents onto a plane.

Nathan is on his laptop investigating the current state of the gift house. The original owners lost the house because they didn't pay rent. It is currently owned by the Feng Corporation - a conglomeration of senior Chinese businessmen who have banded together to revitalise China Town. They own the entire block.

Nathan suggests more remote research before descending on the gift house. Dominic agree and telephones Alan Cummings at the west coast headquarters to ask to use their facilities. There is no reply, so Dominic decides to go any way. Upon landing the team hires three cars. It takes Dominic a little while to distribute the team so that Ecks and O'Connell, and O'Connell and Campbell-Robson don't share the same car: they bring out the worst in each other. Dominic comments that it is like being the teacher of a bunch of unruly school children.

The three cars depart: Dominic and Bruce, Bradley and Jack, Nathan and Todd. However, the drivers still race madly across Los Angeles to the headquarters. Bruce arrives first. At the gates to the compound, the agents see that the rebuilding of the west coast headquarters is continuing apace. The ground floor has been constructed, and scaffolding and a tarpaulin mark where work on the upper stories have begun. Hopefully, it will not be too long before the teams have access to Schult again.

They ring on the bell and are let into the portacabins by Senior Special Agent Hank Dawson. Dawson (a tax lawyer) is a member of the north-west evidence response team. For the last two weeks he has been assigned to this site, to watch the team's assets and make sure nothing untoward happens. Cummings and his team have been out of touch for a fortnight. It has been boring work (as the large quantity of empty pizza boxes attests), but preferable to working with the rest of the north-west team. He pontificates at length on the insanities of Chuck Winchester and Dirk Brunswick.

Dominic fills Dawson in on the reason they are here, and the team conducts more research on Dawson's computer. The Feng Corporation is run by three main business-men: Hu Li, Simon Pao and Richard Zhang. The monks who used to run the gift house were from an order known as the Brothers of the Four Skies. The order had registered as a religion in the United States for tax purposes, and used the gift house as a their registered mailing address. When the gift house closed down, two monks were 'working' there: Chris Ao and Laurence Xing.

Now they have names, the agents have a place to start, but getting warrants to check postal records, bank details, social security details - and to get the right to search the gift house will take time. Dominic judges this is a good case to wave the Patriot Act at. All the obstacles mysteriously vanish, and the agents have the information they need as well as the warm feeling that a thick wodge of paperwork is winging its way to Artemis's desk.

Of the two monks, Chris Ao has left the United States and returned to China. Laurence Zhing is still in the county, living at 1412 East Fifth Street. The agents (including Dawson) leave immediately for the address, which appears to be an old Chinese laundry. Bruce, Ecks and Nathan are sent around the back, which the other agents head in through the front doors. They discover Zhing actually keeps an apartment above the laundry. Leaving Todd to watch the front (and speak to the staff about the best way to shift baby-related stains) Dominic, Hank and Burchill head up to Zhing's apartment.

They discover a middle-aged, bald oriental gentleman wearing blue robes and sitting in the lotus position the middle of a sparse apartment. Dawson is convinced the man was floating several inches above the ground. "I have been expecting you," says Zhing. He smiles at Dawson particularly: "You are more than you seem," he adds.

Zhing is extremely polite and talkative and happy to cooperate with the agents. "Everything is aligning," he says, "The lines are almost complete, the spirits are returning. It is a time of change. We live in interesting times." The agents can certainly agree with that, but what is Zhing specifically talking about.

The heads of the Feng Corporation are all geomancers. They are not aligned with Mao Sei Ben, and were probably glad when Mao Sei Ben was taken out of the picture. They are using feng shui on a city-wide scale to redirect the dragon lines of Los Angeles. When they have succeeded, one of them will be made immortal. Zhing doesn't know which one.

However, in order to do this they have to demolish the gift house, and despite the fact they own it, this is not as easy a task as it seems. They cannot go to the gift house without honouring its rules. If they take something they need to replace it. It is the karmic cycle, and if they do not follow it then back luck will befall them.

Dominic is pleased that his view of things was vindicated. He continues to question Zhing. The monk is of the opinion that Mao Sei Ben is well and truly dead. The combination of all those attacks were more than he could stand. Geomancers aren't big on resurrection, they prefer not to get killed in the first place. He has no information regarding the errant Plum Blossom and finds it worrying that she is at large in Los Angeles. All the more reason for him to return to China.

Thinking about the origins of the I-Ching book, Dominic asks about the "Person of Sky" who started Zhing's order. Zhing is very proud of his religion and calls Dominic's voodooism a child-faith in comparison. He speaks of the Person of Sky in wildly spiritual terms, but accepts the fact that he may have been an alien. Zhing argues that it doesn't make any difference whether the Person of Sky was spirit, alien or talking bowl of guacamole - the important thing was the wisdom he imparted.

The Brothers of the Four Skies embodies the virtues of Compassion, Wisdom, Knowledge and Judgement. Zhing himself is Wisdom, and his companion Ao is Compassion. Zhing and Ao ran the gift house together. In hindsight, it might have been useful if Judgement or Knowledge had been there because then they might have known to pay the rent on time. Or at all. Sadly, Knowledge is currently in Tibet.

Zhing lifts up a loose floor board and gives a set of keys and the alarm code (2345) to Dominic. He says that he will offer what help he can. If they take items from the shop then he is happy to look and them and give the agents a potted history of the item - but he doesn't know that the item actually "does". He advises them to leave something that has great personal value to the agents themselves. However, he can only help until Tuesday as he tickets on a plane for China. Dominic tells Zhing to remind him of this nearer the time. The investigations the agents have already made using the Patriot Act mean that if Zhing goes anywhere near an airport, the ensuing rectal probe will be the least of his worries.

Without further ado the agents head to the gift house. There is a car parked opposite the building that has obviously been there for some time (rubbish has collected underneath it). Also the curtains of two windows in the apartment overlooking the gift house are open, as if someone is watching the scene. The agents are expecting trouble form the Fengs and are cautious. Harlow makes a note of the registration of the car.

Dominic goes to the door of the gift house. The windows have been recently cleaned - evidently the Fengs are maintaining the outward appearance of the place. The door opens easily, and the code deactivates the alarm. Inside, is a large open plan room without a counter, but with a shrine at one end. All the contents are covered in numerous dust sheets. There is no power, and the agents have to search by dint of torch light and night-vision goggles.

When asked for advice on what to take from the shop, Zhing had simply replied "you will know it when you see it". Dawson begins to remove the sheets and comes across a stuffed black rooster that mysterious appeals to him. Dominic looks at it and can hear drumbeats. He suspected a voodoo connection. Dominic then closes his eyes and lets fate take him to an item of importance: he finds a red silk dress on a Victorian dummy.

Now all the sheets are removed, and the agents begin to inventory the place at Dominic's behest. Another six items of profound interest are discovered: a four foot clay soldier (by Nathan), a gnarled walking stick that seems to have been made from the branch of a monkey-puzzle tree, a golden chime, a statue of a smiling Buddha (by Todd) and a wardrobe (by Dawson). Burchill finds an old penny, and replaces it with a new penny, and also picks up a fireguard with the steel struts designed to look like feathers. Bruce doesn't find anything particularly appealing - perhaps this has something to do with him being a Yig construct.

The wardrobe is massive, about eight feet tall. Dawson steps into it. Nathan tells Hank that he can activate its powers by spinning around eight times and then stepping out. Hank does so and falls flat on his back. Everyone laughs at him except Dominic who is yet to develop a sense of humour.

There is a knock at the door, and the agents are visited by two policemen (officers Smith and Jones). The two cops don't cause any problems after they have seen the agents' IDs and warrant. They say they were called in after a tip from Simon Pao of the Feng Corporation - he apparently thought they were looters. This confirms the agents' suspicions that they were being observed. Nathan asked the officers to run the plates of the can across the way through their computer. It is registered to a one Charley Fong - a private detective registered in LA County. He has a list of petty misdemeanours against his name.

Thursday, 20 October 2001

By now it has gone midnight. Bidding the police officers farewell, the agents sit down and try to work out what they can leave behind in order to take these eight apparently useful items (the wardrobe, the dress, the fire-guard, the Buddha, the clay soldier, the walking stick, the chime and the stuffed rooster). Dominic proposes that rather than leave something behind they could do a service for the gift house. Perhaps they could save the gift house from the Feng Corporation.

If they somehow disrupted the dragon lines elsewhere in the city, then the Feng Corporation would no longer need to bulldoze this building. Bruce thinks this is a great idea until Dominic says he proposes constructing something on a dragon line, and not blowing up buildings that are already there. Perhaps they could build a Artemis Black Foundation outreach centre for the those suffering from full rectal collapse.

Another idea is to just move the gift house. If they rebuilt the gift house on a plot of land that interrupted a dragon line, then they would have taken the contents of the shop out of the control of the Feng Corporation and stopped one of them from becoming immortal at the same time? Would that be worth all eight items?

Nathan hopes so. The only thing he really has to give up is his sports car, and he doesn't want to do that. He prays at the shrine in the back of the shop for guidance, but oddly enough doesn't receive any.

Dominic sends Dawson and Ecks out to buy a map of LA, and then head to see Zhing. They want Zhing to draw the location of the dragon lines on it. When the agents arrive, Zhing says that he hasn't got a clue where the dragon lines are (he's a monk, not a geomancer dammit!) Jane's team already did a lot of research tracing the dragon lines during case 0008-GCF, but most of it was destroyed when the west coast HQ was hit by missile fire.

Zhing is slightly more helpful when it comes to the matter of the gifts themselves. Rebuilding the gift house and staffing it with individuals who faithfully abide by its precepts would allow the agents to take two items. However, if they want all eight then they would need to leave a further six tokens. There is much thinking to be done.

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