IC-Chapter 1-Big Brother(Bill/John/Jerome/Tony/Remy/Markus)

[Philulhu]

"Thank you, ma'am," replied Bill quietly, returning her smile. He moved around to the card catalog and started sorting, looking for any references to works by Professor Anderson.

OOC,Spot Hidden: [url=http://invisiblecastle.com/roller/view/3052812/]I spy with my little eye... ... (Spot Hidden in the Library) (1d100=35)[/url] - Fail. Library Use: [url=http://invisiblecastle.com/roller/view/3052840/]Card sharp! (Library Use in the umm... Library) (1d100=16)[/url] - Success.

[Mr. Handy]

Bill did indeed find from the card catalog that the library had a number of Dr. Gregory Anderson's published works, including his thesis, titled "An Analysis of Human Volition in Differing States of Consciousness." However, when he went to look for them in the stacks, he found that they weren't there. Most of these materials weren't for circulation. Either they had been removed somehow, or someone was looking at them currently in the library. He walked along the tables where people were studying, looking at the titles of books and papers that they were reviewing. He finally found them in a pile on a table being used by two familiar faces. One of them was Bernard Braithwaite, the young British man he had seen twice the night before, first at Lenny's Bar and later at police headquarters, visiting the imprisoned Brian Anderson. The woman with him was about forty years old, and he had seen her at the bar as well. She had been in the company of that revolutionary girl with the fiery red hair, though her companion was nowhere to be seen at the moment. And there was something else familiar about her, something that eluded him. What were the two of them doing researching Dr. Gregory Anderson?

OOC,[b]Bill[/b], please roll Idea to see if you can recall why the woman is familiar.

[Philulhu]

OOC,[url=http://invisiblecastle.com/roller/view/3063930/]Bill gets his thinking cap on... (1d100=53)[/url] Yup, got it. PS. Sorry for the lack of posts - job hunting again.

[Mr. Handy]

OOC,That's okay. I hope you can find a good job. We can proceed at your pace.

Bill recalled why this woman seemed familiar. She had been one of the participants in the experiment, and so had her redheaded friend. He didn't remember anything about them from when he had met them forty years before - from his perspective, though his younger self would meet them tomorrow night. All he remembered was that they had been there.

[Philulhu]

OOC,Have they seen Bill?

[Mr. Handy]

OOC,Good question!

Bernard almost looked right at Bill, but was too engrossed in his reading for his presence to register. The woman with him, however, did notice him.

[Philulhu]

"Shit!" thought Bill, as he saw the woman glance at him. He nodded a greeting then turned to study the books in front of him.

OOC,how are the book shelves laid out? If Bill moves around to the other side can he eavesdrop without being seen?

[Mr. Handy]

OOC,There are some shelves not too far away that you could duck behind, but they're far enough away that you would need to make a Listen roll to overhear anything.

[Philulhu]

OOC,Is that the stack Bill's currently stood next to or does it mean crossing in front of them again?

[Mr. Handy]

OOC,It's near enough that you don't have to cross in front of them.

[Philulhu]

OOC,OK.

Bill walked casually to the end of the stack and moved out of sight. He stepped quickly through the stacks and circled around to the stack behind where the young couple sat. He carefully moved a couple of the books to make it easier to hear anything said and stood there, book in hand as if reading, trying to catch anything they might say.

[Mr. Handy]

OOC,[b]Bill[/b], please roll Listen. Also, while the man is young, the woman is about forty years old. A good deal younger than you, yes, but about fifteen years older than the man.

[Philulhu]

OOC,[url=http://invisiblecastle.com/roller/view/3095273/]Bill's sneaking 'round the library. (1d100=13)[/url] Sorry for the delay - had a few problems with Invisible Castle :(

[Mr. Handy]

OOC,That's okay. If Invisible Castle is ever down, you can always use another dice roller or real dice instead.

From his position behind the stacks, Bill was able to hear the two of them talking quietly as they finished their research.

"That was the old man we saw last night at Lenny's Bar," said the woman. "What do you suppose he's doing here?"

"I dunno," said Bernard. "Some light reading, maybe?"

"There's got to be some connection. It can't be a coincidence. He's in this up to his eyeballs."

"Do you think he's following us?"

"I don't know." She paused. "All of this stuff is just too weird. I know this Professor Anderson is up to something shady. What we've found out points in that direction, but we can't prove anything. And even if we could, he's bound to have connections."

"Do you still want to go through with the experiment?"

"Yes. It's the only way to get to the bottom of this."

"Well, let's put all this stuff back and get going. Where's your friend Kathy?"

"Beats me. She's probably off doing whatever she feels like. She's a free spirit. I'd have thought she'd be here by now, but she might have flaked out. Maybe she'll be waiting for us back at her place."

The two of them got up and headed back to the shelves to replace the books and articles that Bill had come here to find.

[Philulhu]

Bill gave a low whistle under his breath. He wasn't the only one who had suspicions about Anderson! He thought about confronting the pair but decided to check with Yeagar first - if they had been at the bar last night there was a chance that they had been questioned and the police already knew who they were.

He watched them go then quickly walked over to the shelves and retrieved the books and articles by Anderson. He made his way over to the front desk and attracted the attention of the librarian who had earlier been so helpful. "I know this is probably against all your regulations," Bill said quietly, showing her his badge, "But is there any way I could borrow these? They could be evidence in a really important case that's about to go down."

[Mr. Handy]

"Yes, it is against the rules," said the librarian. "Many of those materials aren't allowed to be circulated at all, and even for the ones that are, they can only be checked out by students. Are you saying that these particular copies of the books and papers themselves are evidence, or just the information within them? We do have a copying machine available for a fee, but that would be quite expensive if you wanted to copy entire books. The best thing for you to do would be to read them here, and then to copy any pages that are especially relevant to your case."

[Philulhu]

"It's really just the information they contain," replied Bill. He glanced at his watch then looked around the room for an empty table where he could sit. "I'll read them and get back to you on the copying," he said and headed over to the nearest empty table to begin.

OOC,Bill will start with the journals as that should give him a quick flavour of the work that Anderson's been doing. He'll concentrate in particular on anything to do with the sleep experiments that the doctor is planning to carry out this evening.

[Mr. Handy]

Bill was able to find a good deal of information on Dr. Gregory Anderson. By the time he was done, it was past 4:00 PM.

The man had been born on July 4, 1921 in Washington, D.C. to Brian and Charlotte Anderson. His father had been a respected brain surgeon, and Dr. Anderson had followed in his father's footsteps. After graduating from Johns Hopkins in 1942 with a bachelor's degree in biology, he interrupted his studies and volunteered in the Army in World War II, where he served as a medic in North Africa, and later Italy, France, the Low Countries, and Germany. At some point in 1943 he was recruited by the fledgling OSS, the precursor to the CIA. His military record was one of distinction, and he received two Bronze Stars and a Silver Star for bravery under fire. After the war he was stationed in West Berlin. He returned to America in 1948 after receiving an honorable discharge, and he attended medical school at Johns Hopkins, earning his M.D. in 1952. After that he took a teaching position at George Washington University, where he remained on the faculty until 1968, at which point he took a job offer from the University of Pennsylvania, where he currently taught. He had a wife, Susan, who he married in 1948. They had a son named Brian (after his grandfather, apparently), who was born in 1949.

Dr. Anderson had published numerous papers throughout his academic career. His thesis subject was "An Analysis of Human Volition in Differing States of Consciousness." Bill was able to find a copy of the thesis in the library, but the subject matter was way beyond him. There were also copies of some of Dr. Anderson's other published works in the library, but again he did not know enough about biology and medicine to get a deep understanding of them. From what Bill could gather, they were heavily focused on sleep and dreaming, and about measuring and influencing neural activity in differing stages of sleep. One paper dealt with neural activity and REM sleep in patients in prolonged comas.

OOC,[b]Bill[/b], you may attempt a Medicine roll to see if you learned anything more from [b]Anderson[/b]'s papers.

[Philulhu]

OOC,Nope! [url=http://invisiblecastle.com/roller/view/3108957/]Is there a doctor in the house? Bill tries to read and understand Anderson's thesis. (1d100=91)[/url]

Bill scratched his head. He taught at university so he'd always thought of himself as pretty intelligent but this was beyond him. Carrying the thesis across to the main desk, he said quiety to the librarian, "I err, don't suppose you have Zerox machine by any chance?"

[Mr. Handy]

"Of course," said the librarian. "Copies are five cents per page."

It cost a good deal, as the thesis was fairly thick, but Bill was able to copy it easily along with any other pages he might feel would be relevant. He recalled that Lieutenant Yeager had said that he could call in to headquarters to get a ride back when he was done, and there was a payphone readily available.