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Greg looked to Liz and lifted an eyebrow, "Boyfriend / girlfriend vibe?" He chuckled. "Your place or mine, good looking?"

"Sorry, not this time," says Liz with a laugh. "Let's just keep things professional. I'm your research assistant, remember?"

The Student Union bar is an entirely familiar environment to Liz, a long bar already propped up by a couple of students clearly topping up after the night before, a low stage for bands (this weekend, "Lazy Lucy's Lovechild" tickets on the door £5) and comfy chairs scattered around occupied by the studious the sleepy and the talkative. The bar is clearly a social hub for the University.

Greg stepped in, not as familiar with the territory as Liz... but he knew who he was looking for. He glanced around for any familiar faces.

Liz feels comfortable here, at home. She scans the room. "This chap, what's he look like?" she asks.

Greg saunters up to the bar and lifts a couple fingers and smiles with a curt nod to the bar tender as he describes John's basic appearance to Liz. When he finishes, he says "He might not be here for another hour or so, might as well get comfortable. Would you like a booth?"

"Yes," says Liz, following Greg to the booth. "Cheers!"

Nothing so upmarket as a booth here, just worn but comfy chairs, wich are rapidly filling up with students as there is clearly some kind of mid morning gap in classes.

Liz quickly seeks out a pair of chairs next to each other to snag them before they're all gone.

Greg felt silly for not noticing there were no booths earlier, but was quick on Liz' heels to acquire an empty pair of chairs before they were all taken. "Cheers," he replied. "So Liz, we never really got much time to know much about each other. I mean, sure you know I'm a surgeon, and I know you're a wiz with computers... but what is your job?"

"Well, I'm a full time student," says Liz, "but I do work part time as a computer lab attendant at uni. It's a pretty good job. When I'm not helping someone, I have plenty of time to get my coursework done - or goof off on the Internet."

Liz and Greg manage to grab a pair of chairs just before they are snaffled up by a large gaggle of history and or archeology students clearly caught up in some piece of hot gossip.

The BU,To get a better impression of Brichester Student Union (name of the bar, as well as the organisation). Imagine a large multi purpose hall, its worn to the point of comfy, slightly smoky (surreptitious drug pot smoking), fairly dark [windows covered in posters for gigs, rooms for rent, books for sale], its very much low rent - it is however very popular with the students due to the low costs.

Liz sprawls out on her chair. "Well, that was lucky," she says.

Greg chuckled, "Full time student... 8 years of med school makes you realize the full extent of being a 'full-time student'. I can't tell you how strange it is to finally be done with internship." He smirks, "At the risk of sounding like a pansy, I imagine it's not much different than what a butterfly feels like after emerging from its cocoon."

"I just completed my freshman year," says Liz, "so I've got a ways to go. I'm going to enjoy my cocoon while I'm in it."

Liz and Greg's conversation is momentarily drowned out by the exaggerated gasps of the students sitting next to them scandalised by some salacious rumour or other. What is clear is the topic of conversation is the late Professor Gossham's death.

OOC:,Just waiting on Royya before we move forward.

Liz tries to overhear the gossip, hoping to pick up some new information.

Its not hard to hear what the students are talking about there seem to be two conversations going on at the same time. The first is about how horrible and unexpected the professor's death was, the second is about whether he was having an affair with his student assistant.

Greg lifted an eyebrow as he looked to Liz and also listened in to the conversations around them. He tried to get a first or last name to associate with the accusations of affair.

Liz also pays close attention to the conversation about the alleged affair, intrigued. Even if there was no affair, the student assistant could be a vital source of information.

The rumour seems generalised the sort of thing where the evidence is based on "she's pretty, he's middle aged and single, so naturally he must have chased after her, and doesn't she look just like the sort of person who would do it for the grades"

Greg smiled at Liz and said, "If I were your professor, you might be able to sway my gradebook." He added a wink. The alcohol was starting to go to his head.

It takes little effort to listen in on the conversation and over the next hour Greg and Liz gather the following info.

Its clear most of these students are profoundly saddened by his death, clearly he was genuinely liked by the student body. It seems he'd started a new research project about eighteen months ago, and a number of students have been involved in assisting him with minor research tasks on a casual basis (small cash payments).

Clearly some of his views were considered strange, however apparently he was rigorous in his research and always required the same diligence in his students, he was always willing to give up his own time for his students. Apparently Gosshamm was receiving funding for his research, but nobody mentions from whom. There are a number of outlandish rumors about his “mysterious benefactor” - MI6, an American treasure hunting company.

"I can earn good grades without doing that," replies Liz with a smirk. "I wonder where the prof really was getting his funding. There's all sorts of government grants out there, but if that were the case, wouldn't everyone know about it?"

"If we can get in his office, grab a look at some of his more personal effects, we might be able to figure it out," Greg stated. "Problem is, if the police think it's not some random violence, they would have all of that locked up as evidence probably."

He rubbed his chin and asked Liz, "Do they have a hot-spot here? Maybe we can find out for certain if there is an investigation underway."

There is a wifi hotspot "BUPBarwifi" pw "password". The local newspaper seems to think that the police are currently looking at the crime as some kind of random violence, although clearly investigations are ongoing to see whether there was anything in the profs background which might provide some rationale for the attack

Liz boots up her laptop and logs into the wifi network, finding the information online and telling it to Greg. "Maybe we should share what we suspect with the police," she says. "We could make it an anonymous tip. They prolly have a phone number for that. I doubt the police would share what they know with us." She checks the article to see if there's a number to call or an email address for tips.

The article gives both a free phone hotline for "anyone with information" as well as the name of the police officer leading the investigation Detective Sergeant Christopher Moss.

"We really should pass the information on to DS Moss," says Liz quietly. "We can use a public phone to make the tip if you don't want it being traced back to us."

"I don't know if that's really such a hot idea, Liz," Greg argued. "Last time we got involved directly, people ended up..." he fell silent for a moment and took a deep breath. "I just don't know if helping put the police in a direct path with where we might end up is wise."

"Let's discuss it with the others before we make a decision," says Liz.

Greg nodded, "Agreed. In the meanwhile, maybe we should spark up a conversation with some of these students and see if we can't find out the girl's name?"

"Yeah, that's a good idea," says Liz.

OOC,Is the group of students talking about the assistant close enough for us to converse with without giving up our seats? Can we drag the seats over if they're not?

Liz leans over the back of her chair and speaks to the group of students gossiping about the assistant. "What was her name again?" she asks casually, acting as though she is one of them.

Greg takes a long pull on his drink while listening to their response.

"Shauna Wilcox, she's a second year, English lit I think"*

*If true this does rather burst the bubble on sexual favours for grades, the prof not actually teaching any English Lit classes.

"Cheers," says Liz. "Anyone here actually know her?"

Its clear from the non comital answers that although some people know her by face, no one is really friends with her.

Liz turns back to Greg and returns to the browser on her laptop. "Let's see if she's got a webpage," she says, fingers flying across the keyboard as she searches for Shauna WIlcox. "Maybe she's on Facebook too."

Shauna has a facebook page and a flikr account, the facebook page however is fairly locked down.

Liz learns what she can from the Facebook page, then looks through the flikr account for anything of interest. "She's smart not to put too much out in public on Facebook," she comments. "Not that that does us much good."

The Flickr account is pretty innocent Shauna is in the college netball team and there are some photos from a couple of training sessions and games and from what looks like a recent holiday/college trip which includes a bunch of students and what Liz assumes are proffessors the pics are titled "Bugaa's in Malta "

"Malta, huh?" says Liz. "Maybe that trip had something to do with the Maltese Fragments." She searches online for information about the Bugaa's in Malta, starting with Wikipedia.

Greg is enjoying the pint, not really indulging in alcohol too often. He has moved his seat closer to Liz so he can watch as she does her thing and smiles. "Bet you could find anything on that thing," he commented rhetorically admiring from the side. Then he glances about to see if John has shown up yet and gives a quick glance at his watch.

After a few minutes of "googling" Liz realises 'Buggas' is probably a pun on the abbreviation of the "Brichester University's Geography and Archaeology Society" and the word buggers. The society does indeed have a project going on in Malta (now in its third year), although it doesn't seem to be directly related to the Maltese fragments (i.e. they are not working at known writing people/fragment sites etc)

At this point Greg and Liz are joined by the young Irishman John Kneesdown, who armed with a pint of lager plonks himself down on the table in front of Liz and Greg.

"Hello Greg frankly I wasn't expecting to see you again."

"Hullo," says Liz, smiling as she looks up from her laptop to focus on John. "I'm Liz, Dr, Hammer's research assistant."

Greg smiled as John joined them. He was too slow with the introduction, but he did manage to squeeze in for the return intros... "Liz, this is John Wheelsdown. He helped me the last time I was in town with some particularly strange tattoo research I was doing at the time."

Looking back to John, Greg said, "I would like to thank you for joining us, and we couldn't help but overhear about the terrible tragedy that befell Professor Gosshamm." He shook his head and fell silent a moment. "Can you tell us what happened?"

Greg shook his head and frowned. "Do you think it was a random mugging, or maybe a racially motivated act of violence?" Greg leaned in and said, "We've heard he may have been having a fling with one of his students. Perhaps they were relatives?"

Greg's eyes darted over to Liz a moment, then back to John. "Well... yes, sorry. It's just that my research and his were on parallel paths on occasion it seems. I'm concerned those people might come after me next." He leaned back and shrugged, "But then again, I've got nothing to do with Malta, and maybe it was all about the fragments." He gauged John to see if the man had any reaction to that statement. "As for the tattoos, have you learned anything about their symbolism?"

"Is there a particular Albanian subgroup that the tattoos are from?" asks Liz.

"Well as to Symbolism the tattoos are ethnic Albanian, probably Verbti, but I can't really tell you much about symbolism, I don't think the Verbti go into ritual tattooing like say the Polynesians or Maori. I'm afraid tattoos isn't really my thing."

John looks at Greg a bit strangely as though he's only just registered what Greg said "What makes you think the Professor's death had anything to do with Malta? If you know anything you should go and talk with the police, especially after all problems with the archeology department"

"We haven't found any direct connection," says Liz. "We did discover that the murderers are Albanian, Verbti to be precise, and bear tattoos much like the ones you've seen. The only link to Malta is that the tattoo designs look oddly similar to the Maltese Fragments."

"Like I said, you need to take any information you have to the police, I'm not sure they've got any real leads at the moment..." He pauses in thought. "I know the Prof's current paper was drawing in some of his more outlandish theories, about the Maltese fragments, but I can't see it as being any reason to kill him"

Greg asked, "What sort of other problems have there been in the archeological department?" He nodded to the man about the suggestion of going to the police, and nodded again in turn to Liz' response about having no real leads. "Maybe we might be able to take some time looking through his information on the fragments to see if there is anything definite we could take to the police? I'd love to help them bring the criminals to justice." No... it wasn't a direct lie. He just didn't think it was a realistic end to the situation.

Jacob sends SMS to Greg and Liz

############################
We found somthing, The Professor found thought similarities between the tattoos and the designs on the Maltese fragments. He believed ancient Verbti is the originator of the Maltese fragments and the source of the Ur language.
Where are you? We are coming
############################

Greg looked at his cell phone that went off the same time Liz' did. He exchanged glances with her real quick then checked the message.

"John, we have friends who are helping us with this investi... er, research. Would you mind if they joined us?" Greg asked the man across the table.

"Yes, the BUGGAS," says Liz to John. "I've heard of them. There were students there as well as faculty. Maybe they'll be more willing to talk."

"No no problem mate. (at Liz) Look I'm effectively faculty here while I do my PHD, so if your going around poking your nose in, then I don't want to know about it." Says John a bit uneasily.

"Right," says Liz, saying no more on the subject, though she knows she has an in. She knows Shauna WIlcox was in Malta and is sure she can talk to her as one student to another.

John gets ready to stand "look unless you have something else for me I have an seminar to give in 10 minutes, but I'll be around in two hours and you can buy me a beer and ask me some questions if you have them"

Liz looks to Greg to see if he has anything more to say at this time.

Clay walks into the bar spots Liz, Greg and John; gives them a nod and then strolls over to the bar.

Jacob follows Clay into the place and takes a sit next to Greg and Liz. he nods to John and waits for the man to leave before he says to Greg and Liz what he found.
Hi... so we found something. I managed to talk his assistant over there, Shauna something...
He hands them the copy of the paper he found
The Professor thought he found similarities between the tattoos and the designs on the Maltese fragments. Ancient Verbti could be the originator of the Maltese fragments and the source of this language called Ur. There is a reference to a future paper but I failed to find a draft of this paper. The later paper would explain the connection of the the three but now that the professor is dead, I guess no one is going to finish it.

ooc,Is the professor is the only author of the unfinished paper and the paper Jacob found or are there any other co-authors ?

Greg glanced at the information presented to them, then looked up at John and said, "All right, John. You've been a great help. Have a good seminar and perhaps we'll be around in a couple hours. Hard to say just yet. But before you go... I must warn you. If the professor hasn't already told you, these people, the Verbti... they're a very dangerous lot. They deal in human trafficking, and god knows what else. So you're better off distancing yourself from the whole subject. I don't want anything bad to happen to you too."

Greg glances at a huge sheaf of printed paper, which Jacob shows him he can't exactly take much in apart from its an academic paper of some kind.

Authors:,The only name on the paper you have in your hands in the profs. Its not the sort of, it'll take best part of 20 minutes to scan for details.

And they have no compunctions about murdering someone in the high street in broad daylight... thinks Liz, though she doesn't state the obvious. "Thank you," she says to John. "I'll see you then." "Shauna Wilcox?" she asks Jacob after John has left. "She was Professor Gossham's assistant. I'd like to talk to her. She doubtless knows a lot that can help us, and she's been to Malta, so she may know something of the troubles there." She fills Jacob and Clay in on what they discussed as she scans the paper.

If Liz scans the paper she realises that it isn't really much more than she's already discovered online, which is the professor's theory that the Maltese fragments and Verbti iconography are clearly related. There is a vague suggestion that the Verbti may be the descendants of the Ur Language writers and this will be the focus of another paper.

Greg watched as John walked away before turning his attention to Jacob. He says to Jacob a bit quietly so as not to be overheard by any of the nearby tables, "Nice job. I think we can find out more if we were to investigate the late professor's office or home... but it will require a little B & E. We won't get permission to do it the legal way." He nodded to Liz with her idea as well, "And the girl... definitely a lead, and possibly in danger. But before we trust her completely, we should make sure she doesn't have ties with the Verbti herself."

Yes.
Jacob replies to Liz after she tells him what she and Greg found out.
I think the Shauna you are refering too is the one I met in the professor office. An affair ... I doubt it.
With the new information you found out I guess you can ask her more but since she saw me, I doubt she will we polite to me again. she was quite nervous when I was in the professor's office.

"I don't believe there was an affair going on, either," says Liz. "He's not even teaching any of her classes. She's an English lit student. I think I'll have better luck talking to her, as one female student to another. Before we think about any physical entry, I should try to access his computer. That I should be able to do without even going near it." She pats her laptop. "But first I should talk to her. It may give us a better idea of what to look for."

"Well, we're going to have to find her first, and maybe we should look up some of his other students that took this last trip to Malta." Greg says. He finishes his pint and looks around, "Maybe I'll go to the library here on campus and see if there is anything on this professor that wasn't accessible via the internet."

"I can ask Shauna about the other students who were in Malta with her," Liz says. "There are pictures of them on her Flickr account."

Jacob decides to join Greg and help him in his library. He will call for his friend, the PI and ask for the Professor's home address. They will eventualy visit the place

Clay doesn't reckon he'd have any problem getting into this place in his opinion schools and what not have rubbish security. However, the girl looked busy and he has no doubt she'll be working all day. (remember its only around midday at the moment)

OOC: Clay,Lockpicking ...clay really isn't that type of criminal :) ...or at least he isn't since he's been an NPC.

Liz and Clay go here

Greg and Jacob go here

Greg and Jacob go here.