Mid-West Campaign
Session One Hundred and Eight

Saturday, 20 October 2007 [continued]

On the way back to the gift house, Dawson receives a call from Chuck Winchester in Alaska. A rather unwilling Dawson is called back to active duty with the north-west team, leaving Ecks to return to the gift house alone and report on what Zhing had told him.

Dominic reflects that they will simply have to give something up. Damming the dragon lines at another point and saving the gift house gets them one artefact, staffing the gift house gets them another. There are six more objects and six agents: everyone gives up something, although Dominic admits he cannot force any agent into such a decision.

For his part, he will give up his sword cane to which he has a great sentimental attachment. Ecks will give up (and he can hardly believe he is saying) this Star Trek episode with the giant space amoeba - or The Immunity Syndrome as it is rightly called. Todd grits his teeth, he has nothing but his signed first edition of Victim Schmictim - the book he always holds close to his heart. Nathan says that he will give up his sports car. This is very upsetting for him, as it is his last material link to his past life. Since being resurrected he has got rid of his pornography collection and Bobby no longer recognises him, this was the last thing to remind him of the pre-Evidence Response Harlow. He wants something really good in return for that! Jack Burchill and Bruce Campbell-Robson can't seem to decide. Nothing really appeals to Bruce.

Dominic decides to leave Ecks, Bruce, Nathan and Burchill in the gift house overnight. He and Todd will return to the hotel. In the morning (which is only a few hours away), the pair will go to the San Francisco public library and speak to Colin Wilson - the librarian that gave Jane and Ecks the original map of the city's dragon lines back in December [see session 34]. He thinks he should be able to pinpoint where to build the necessary obstacle. Then he will take photographs of these eight objects back to Zhing to see if he can recognise any of them.

With the boss gone, Nathan decides to play with the eight artefacts and see if he can deduce their magical properties. He touches the wardrobe (or armoire to use its proper appellation). It is smooth and lustrous without any imperfection in its surface. Burchill climbs in and tells Nathan to lock the door behind him. Nathan shrugs and complies. Inside, Burchill sees little more than a very well made wardrobe. However, although he can hear what is happening outside, no one can hear him regardless of how loudly he shouts. There's also no phone signal in here, which is odd. He climbs out.

Meanwhile, Nathan is off touching as many things as possible. He gets no particular vibe from the clay soldier, the rooster or the red silk dress (although it is nice!). The walking stick has a vial of clear liquid concealed in the top of it, but there is no way to identify what it might be. He takes the chime and rings it. Everyone is overcome with a feeling of profound meditative calm, and sits down peacefully for five minutes. Bruce is completely unaffected.

Nathan then tickles the Buddha's tummy. The Buddha utters a jolly "Ho! Ho! Ho!" and the little finger on Nathan's right hand turns gold. Nathan quickly explains that his finger is gold-coloured and hasn't turned to gold, before the rest of the part hack it off with a knife and try to sell it. Burchill holds a handful of coins against the tummy of the Buddha but nothing happens to them. Nathan touches the Buddha again but nothing happens. As an experiment, he rubs his own tummy and involuntarily intones a festive "Ho! Ho! Ho!" into the room. Everyone takes a moment to tickle Nathan's tummy, which he finds rather demeaning. He wanted to be known as Goldfinger, but now everyone sees himself as a Tickle-me-Harlow.

Nathan supposes he now has to keep the Buddha. "You break it, you've bought it," says Burchill. Burchill now takes hold of the statue of the clay soldier. He can hear the sound of marching feet getting louder and louder. The statue begins to get warm to the touch, as if the statue was coming to life. The ground starts to shake and the burglar alarm goes off. At the behest of his screaming colleagues, he releases the clay soldier and things slowly return to normal.

Ecks looks around the objects. The only think that really appeals to him is the wardrobe, he thinks that it'll look good in his apartment. The evening begins to stretch out before them. Nathan and Bruce try to get some sleep by the shrine. Ecks is suggesting that the team start up their D&D group again, when Burchill decides to investigate the armoire in more detail. He wants to see what happens if he tries to use the clay soldier while inside the wardrobe.

Ecks pulls rank and forbids this experiment. Burchill shrugs and tells Ecks to lock him in the armoire for two minutes. Once inside Burchill draws his desert eagle picks and point and fires. The bullet rebounds and ricochets around inside the wardrobe, almost hitting him. He examines he armoire with his torch. The bullet made no impression on the wood at all. He looks around and finds the flattened bullet lying on the floor of the wardrobe. Interesting. The team seems to be on the verge of acquiring an indestructible wardrobe. But does it burn?

Burchill takes out a flare from his pocket and sets it off. Immediately the interior of the armoire is choked with unbeatable fumes, and the flare itself quickly begins to eat up the remaining oxygen. Burchill feels dizzy and weak, and there seems to be no sign of Ecks opening the door. He pulls off his body armour, and throws it over the flare in a desperate attempt to smother it. The body armour catches fire, and more noxious smoke billows into Burchill's face. With the last of his strength he pulls his gun. Maybe he can shoot the fire out! He fires twice. The heavy calibre bullets ricochet around the armoire like squash balls. One hits him in the back and he collapses to the floor.

Thinking that Burchill has learned his lesson, Ecks opens the wardrobe door. Smoke erupts into the room and the badly burned, bleeding and unconscious body of Jack Burchill falls onto the floor. Ecks screams. Nathan and Bruce wake up. All of them rally around to examine Burchill's inexplicable wounds. All attempt first aid, but none can revive him. Nathan telephones Dominic.

Dominic sits up in bed and listens to the whole sorry story. He can't understand how Burchill could be wounded like this. He tells Ecks to bundle Burchill into a car and drive him to the nearest hospital, he and Todd will join Ecks there. Bruce and Nathan are to remain behind in the gift house.

At the hospital, Burchill is put in a private room. After a couple of hours, Dominic and Todd interview him. When it becomes clear that all the wounds were caused solely by his own incompetence, Dominic says that he will have to refer Burchill for further psyche evaluation on account of his cretinous lapse in judgement.

After collecting an A1 laminated map of the city's dragon lines, a weary Dominic and Todd go to see Zhing. Dominic speaks of the two services that they intend to do, and asks about the rules for staffing it. Zhing says that the rules are simple, and that staff do not need to be members of the Brothers of the Four Winds. The simple rules are: don't take money for anything, always make a person take something of equal value to them, and make sure the gift doesn't harm the possessors.

Now Dominic shows Zhing the pictures taken of the eight artefacts. Zhing is able to provide some useful information about them.

The armoire is an "Armoire of Invincibility". It is completely indestructible and impregnable. What use is it? Zhing things that someone with a thick French accent once made a bargain for Armour of Invincibility and the got royally screwed. Zhing finds this hilarious. He says that the wardrobe was brought in by a short guy with red hair who left with a couple of swords.

The vial in the walking stick contains a single dragon's tear. This has great utility as a component in various magical spells, or it can be drunk to make the imbiber more powerful. It was brought into the gift house about three months before it closed by a little old later (in her 80s or 90s) called Melissa Livingstone. Her daughter brought her in.

The laughing Buddha was dropped off the day the gift house closed by a wandering Buddhist monk called Xishi. He was nice, but confused. Rubbing the Buddha's tummy brings luck. This luck lasts until it is needed.

Of the metal fireguard, Zhing knows very little. It was brought it by a woman called Jackie Ho back in 1998. She worked as a seamstress in a Chinese laundry somewhere in San Francisco. So that narrows it down.

The red silk dress belonged to the Plum Blossom. It was brought in about three months before the gift house closed (about September 2000) by Mao Sei Ben. He swapped it for the Jade Pendant of Talent. The dress provides a material link to Plum Blossom and could feasibly used to trap her.

The clay soldier was picked up by Zhing and Ao in the mid-nineties before they came to American from China. It is an original from the Terracotta Army, the guardians of the dead. They didn't want to leave it where it was because of the power it had over the other statues, sot hey removed it (Zhing doesn't like the term "stole"). The statue doesn't animate, but it does summon about twenty spirits to animate nearby statutory. If no statues are present the spirits will animate the ground itself (like elementals).

The rooster was brought into the gift house in 1999 by Clarence Winterjoy, a black man in his early twenties. The rooster belonged to his grandfather, Jonno Winterjoy, and Clarence didn't know what to do with it after the old man died. Dominic remembers Jonno Winterjoy as a respected huogan from Baton Rouge. The loa treated him with respect.

Finally, the chime. It was brought into the gift house seven months before it closed by Feng Chi-Jui, who swapped it for Jennifer Summers's laptop computer. He was very respectful. Sounding the chime puts everyone in the area in a meditative trance. It is impossible to resist. Only those who are totally at peace with themselves, or who have utterly blank and violated souls are unaffected. Dominic wonders what that says about Bruce.

After making a call so that Zhing can leave the country (the patriot act would have stopped that), Dominic examines the dragon lines. He quickly determines where they need to be build something - a statue, a fountain or something of equal size - to disrupt the dragon lines. It is on a roundabout in the middle of an intersection.

Assuming they successfully build it the dragonlines will be diverted from the gift house. The Fengs would then try to get hold of the land in one of two locations to continue their plan: a supermarket, or a local Catholic church. The team should try and acquire these areas as well.

Rocaan phones Artemis and tells him the plan. Getting these things built in the city is really his department. Artemis listens intently, and is glad that the team has got its hands on some objects of power. He doesn't see a problem with a big statue or monument on the roundabout (in fact, he thinks he knows exactly what that statue should be of). As to the other locations, he can slap a preservation order on the Church, but will require more information on the supermarket. He lets Dominic thrash out some more details on his behalf.

Returning to his team, Dominic and the others discuss what happens next. There is still the matter of the agents choosing what they want to take from the gift house, and what Bruce and Burchill are willing to give up.

The armoire and the clay soldier will go to evidence response in general for the services of saving the gift house from the Fengs and then reopening it. Dominic will take the rooster (and leave his cane), Ecks will take the walking stick (and leave the Star Trek episode), Nathan will take the Buddha (and leave his sportscar), Todd will take the chime to ward off crying babies (and leave his copy of Victim Schmictim). Bruce says that he will leave his claymore-primed jacket. He'll take the fireguard as the only other thing left is the dress. Burchill will get the dress, when he gives up something. Lying in his hospital bed, he considers giving up his hand cannon.

However, none of this can happen yet. The gift house and everything within it is the property of the Fengs until the back rent is paid. However, when that happens the Fengs can force the charity to move the gift house, and but their dragon line plan into operation. The team must be very careful as to what order they do things in.

After much discussion they come up with a plan. The first step should be to get the statue built. Once that is done the Fengs will have no reason to want possession of the Gift House. Then the back rent can be paid, and the gift house reverts to Zhing. An ally of the team, who cannot be an FBI agent, must be appointed as a trustee of the charity to allow Zhing to leave. However, this cannot be done until the debt is paid so Zhing must wait in San Francisco a little longer before going to China. Once paid the team will have possession of the gift house. Only at this point can they remove the artefacts. It might still be prudent to move the gift house to another location so that the Fengs have no influence over it. Then there is the matter of finding staff. Nathan postulates that FBI agents could man the gift house instead of leave (Artemis having cancelled all leave until after the brain bug invasion).

So, a long term plan. The team wonders who they can get to be a trustee. Dominic says that it needs to be a civilian who already knows about the activities of evidence response. They shouldn't drag in someone on the periphery. Various names are bandied around, including Sebastian Malkin, Eisenstein and Michael Levin, but no decision is reached.

Sunday, 21 October 2001

The team scout potential venues for a new gift house. Rocaan speaks to Zhing and puts across their plan for the gift house, asking him to remain behind in San Francisco for a little while longer. Dominic sends details of the supermarket to Artemis Black, in the hope that he puts the wheels in motion to barricade the city's dragon lines.

Tuesday, 23 October 2001

Artemis Black contacts the team. Agents Ecks and Burchill are returned to Wichita to rendezvous with McPike's mid-west team that is currently perilously low on agents.

Wednesday, 24 October 2001

Dominic sends Classic Nathan Harlow and Todd O'Connell back to Wichita. He and Bruce remain in San Francisco to keep an eye on the gift house and the Feng Corporation.

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