IC-Chapter 1-Never Get Old(Rawlings/Yeager/Bill Johns/Jim)

[Philulhu]

"Not much else," said Bill. "I reckon we need to find Marianna - she seems to have set the ball rolling when she asked Jimmy to get her a sample of Morpheus. The guard at the lab might be a help as well, although I'm not sure he can tell us much more than Terry was hanging around. If we can pick Terry up himself, that would be useful - see what else he knows that he didn't write down in his journal."

Bill looked at Yeager. "Did I miss anything?"

[Mr. Handy]

"No, that's about the size of it," said Yeager. "We should put the journal back where you found it. That way, we can 'find' it when we come back with a warrant. If we can convince Homicide to name Terry as a suspect, that'll be enough to get one from a friendly judge. That would also let us get an APB out on him, so that every cop in the city is looking for him. Finding the security guard and asking him some questions might help. You never know what he might have seen. But, yeah, we need to find Terry himself. So, what do you think the next step should be?"

[Philulhu]

"We should get back to the station," said Bill. "We can get the word out about Terry and Marianna and you can speak to your tame judge." Bill smiled to himself wryly - he'd have been horrified if he thought of a modern-day cop breaking into a property then using a 'tame' judge to secure a warrant but here things were done very differently.

ooc,Happy new year!

[Mr. Handy]

After replacing the journal, Bill and John Yeager returned to police headquarters.


Police Headquarters, Franklin Square - Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
9:30 AM - Friday, July 18, 1969

Bill and John went upstairs to Homicide first, where they found Detective Brooks. "Looks like our boy Terry Williams has gone to ground," said Yeager. "He wasn't at home, but the word is that he had an axe to grind with Jimmy Salvatore over a job that went sour a couple of nights ago. If I were you, I'd consider him the prime suspect in the murder."

"With all due respect, sir," said Detective Brooks, "please don't tell me how to do my job. I'll decide who the suspects are in my own case."

Yeager frowned. This would obviously be more difficult than he had thought.

OOC,[b]Bill[/b], if you want to try to convince [b]Detective Brooks[/b] to name [b]Terry[/b] as a suspect, please roll Persuade.

[Philulhu]

OOC,[url=http://invisiblecastle.com/roller/view/3847784/]Can Bill persuade Brooks that Terry's his man? (Persuade = 75) (1d100=10)[/url]

Bill held up his hands to placate Detective Brooks. "No-one's trying to tell you how to do your job detective, we're just sharing some intel, that's all. We're all on the same team, aren't we?"

[Mr. Handy]

"All right, I'm sorry," said Brooks. He lowered his voice. "It's just...Lt. Little can really get under your skin. You guys don't like him much, but I have to work for him every day. Okay, Williams looks good for this murder. We've got his mugshot, so I can get it and an APB out on him right away. It's a shame we don't have description on this Marianna, but maybe when we find Williams he can lead us to her. I'll also be able to get a search warrant for his place."

"Good thinking," said Yeager. "By the way, do you know anyone who can translate Russian?"

"Yeah, I do. There's old Federov over in the Sixth District. I used to work with him before I earned my gold shield. He must be getting ready to retire soon. He was born here, but his old man came over from Russia, fleeing the revolution, and he taught his son Russian."

"Thanks, Detective." Yeager looked over to Bill. "The Sixth District building is only a few blocks away. Shall we head over there now, or is there something else you'd like to do here first?"

[Philulhu]

Bill shook his head. "Nothing that springs to mind," he replied. "Let's go find Federov."

[Mr. Handy]

Sixth District, 11th and Vine Sts. - Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
9:45 AM - Friday, July 18, 1969

Bill and Yeager had a quick trip up Eighth Street to Vine, where they turned left. A few blocks later, they were at the Sixth District building at the intersection with 11th Street. After Yeager asked the sergeant in the Operations Room where they could find Federov, he pointed them to a desk in the back. A chubby man close to Bill's age sat there, doing paperwork.

"Officer Federov?" asked John.

"Yes, sir?" said the man, turning. He had no accent, which he wouldn't considering he was born here.

"I'm Lieutenant John Yeager and this is Sergeant Bill Johns. We're working on a case, and a phrase in Russian came up. We were hoping you could translate it for us." He took out his notebook and showed it to Federov.

Federov squinted at the Cyrillic characters and replied instantly. "Remote viewing."

"Okay, what's that mean?"

Federov shrugged. "Beats me, sir. I only know what it says, not what it means. Maybe if I saw the phrase in context."

OOC,[b]Bill[/b], please roll Occult.

[Philulhu]

OOC,[url=http://invisiblecastle.com/roller/view/3855116/]Is there anybody out there? Bill's occult roll... (1d100=81)[/url] Nah... :(

[Mr. Handy]

Bill had no idea what "remote viewing" meant.

"I've never heard of remote viewing before," said Yeager. "Maybe we'll run across someone who knows what it is. Well, thanks for your time and help."

"Glad I could be of at least some assistance, sir," said Federov.

"Back to HQ?" Yeager asked Bill. "Or have you got a better idea?"

[Philulhu]

"No," replied Bill. "I've got a feeling we're missing something but I'll be damned if I know what it is!" He scratched his head to underline his lack of ideas.

[Mr. Handy]

"Someone somewhere has to know what this remote viewing is," said Yeager. "That egghead Anderson sure does, but we might not want to ask him. I dunno, maybe there's something about it in a book."

[Philulhu]

"We could try the university library, perhaps there are some journals there that might help us understand," suggested Bill, although how good the cataloguing of such journals would be was anyone's guess. In his own time, he'd have typed the term into a search engine and he'd have had the answer in moments - here it could take a good deal longer.

[Mr. Handy]

"Could be," said Yeager. "I'll spin you down there. Let me just call in to HQ first and fill in Sergeant Rawlings about what we found out." He borrowed the phone on Federov's desk and quickly summarized the morning's events to Charlie, then went with Bill out to the parking lot where they had left the Mustang.

Van Pelt Library, University of Pennsylvania - Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
10:20 AM - Friday, July 18, 1969

John Yeager and Bill Johns arrived on Penn's campus and parked outside the main Van Pelt Library. "This is a good place to start," said Yeager, "considering we don't know what remote viewing is. If we find any information that leads to one of the more specialized libraries, we can try there." The two of them went inside to begin their search.

OOC,[b]Bill[/b], please roll Library Use.

[Philulhu]

OOC,[url=http://invisiblecastle.com/roller/view/3861946/]Bill takes on the Dewey Decimal System... (1d100=62)[/url] Success!

Bill lead the way into the library, heading towards the scientific journals where he had a hunch that he would find what they were looking for. He found the summary of journals, sat down at a nearby desk and started to read.

[Mr. Handy]

It took quite a bit of searching, plus a pause to grab some lunch. Eventually, in the early afternoon, Bill hit paydirt. He found a reference to remote viewing in a parapsychology journal of all things. It was lucky that the library even had such things there. Once he made the initial breakthrough, it was a simple matter to find more details on the subject. Remote viewing was a form of extrasensory perception, or ESP, that was used to envision what was happening in another place, or to see a distant person or object, at the current time. Research into psychic phenomena such as ESP began in the nineteenth century by various scientists, including Michael Faraday, though the scientific establishment was highly skeptical of claims of success. As of 1969, interest in parapsychology was enjoying a renaissance due to the counterculture and New Age movements' growing influence. Having read the accounts of the dreams that participants in Anderson's first experiment had given, Bill realized that Morpheus was in fact most likely intended to use dreams for the purpose of remote viewing.

[Philulhu]

Bill yawned and stretched. He'd forgotten how long research used to take before everything was available at the touch of a button.

He turned to Yeager and said, "According to this, 'remote viewing' is using extra sensory perception' to see things in other places. It seems that Morpheus is being used to unlock this ability - and it looks like they're using it to spy on the Russians! Seems like they've got the same idea though - hence the Russian phrase for 'remote viewing' that one of the test subjects saw."

Bill shook his head. "I'd heard the CIA had been playing around with this stuff but I never thought it actually worked." He looked at Yeager. "That would explain the 'government' involvement, but who's Marianna? a spy for the Russians?"

[Mr. Handy]

Yeager whistles. "Yeah, that sounds likely," he says. "She must have hired Jimmy to steal the Morpheus, then iced him to make sure he never talked. I don't know if it really works, but people are willing to kill for it. We're using it to spy on the Russkies, they want to use it to spy on us...we're getting in over our heads here. Now that we've got this information, what do we do with it?"

[Mr. Handy]

OOC,[b]Bill[/b], please roll Spot Hidden.

[Philulhu]

OOC,Success: [url=http://invisiblecastle.com/roller/view/3876961/]Bill's 'spot hidden' roll. (1d100=17)[/url]