The Last Equation

[HoneyDog]

Firearms,Firearms 71:[url=http://orokos.com/roll/688284]Firearms[/url]: [u]1d100[/u] [b]49[/b] Damage 9mm 1d10:[url=http://orokos.com/roll/688289]Firearms damage[/url]: [u]1d10[/u] [b]1[/b]

Nik doesn’t hesitate and fires.

[Mr. Handy]

Vanessa also fires, wounding Tia.

OOC,Firearms roll (71% skill) shooting at [b]Tia[/b]: [dice]0[/dice] Damage to [b]Tia[/b] from 9mm bullet: [dice]1[/dice]

[Silver Priest]

Nik's bullet barely grazes Tia's arm, but Vanessa manages to score a decent hit against the woman's shoulder. But neither blow seems to bother Tia all that much. Continuing to scream a series of numbers, she attempts to plunge the knife into Nik.

knife attack 30%,[dice]0[/dice] [dice]1[/dice] damage

The blow just misses,as Vanessa's bullet throws off Tia's aim. Good thing too; Nik estimates it would have been a nasty one.

OOC:   Theirs your Christmas present HoneyDog.

OOC:   Edit: Actually that's a fumble. So let's make this a bit nastier.

Her erratic movements lead the knife to goes flying out of Tia's hand. It winds up sliding under the bed, though she seems not to notice or care. The venom in her eyes is unabated.

[HoneyDog]

Seeing Markell disarmed, Nik tries to knock the fight out of her with the butt of his gun.

Unarmed Combat,Unarmed combat 61: [url=http://orokos.com/roll/688403]Unarmed combat[/url]: [u]1d100[/u] [b]7[/b]

[Mr. Handy]

Vanessa wrestles with Tia, barely managing to pin her down and restrain her.

OOC,Unarmed Combat roll (60% skill) to restrain [b]Tia[/b]: [dice]0[/dice]

[Silver Priest]

OOC:   Nik's attack can do 1d4, I'll say. I'll roll for you this once.

[dice]0[/dice]

Nik hits Tia with the butt of his gun. It's a solid blow, and for just a moment Tia stops screaming and sways on her feet. But only for a moment, and then she's back to screaming again, now with blood pouring from her temple.

Taking advantage of the opportunity, Vanessa wrestles her to the ground and attempts to restrain her. Tia fights back with ferocity.

str*5 45,[dice]1[/dice]

But despite her wild strength, her injuries are catching up to her and she's unable to get free. She is still screaming, spittle flying freely from her mouth, and it is likely that either that or the gunshots will soon attract attention.

[Mr. Handy]

"Cuff her arms behind her back while she's held," Vanessa tells Nik. "Then we need to call this in to McRay. He needs to know. Fortunately, we have jurisdiction. She assaulted a federal agent - you, which makes this a federal matter."

[HoneyDog]

Nik handcuffs Markell and gets on his phone to call McRay.

[Silver Priest]

Nik manages to handcuff Tia with little trouble, though the girl continues to scream the same series of numbers again and again. Both agents recognize it as the solution to the Laqueus Equation. Unless they stuff something in her mouth she continues to scream.

McRay gets on the line, listens to Nik give his status report, and responds. "She's become a vector for prenatural phenomenon. Neutralize her." His words and tone makes it very clear what he's implying.

[HoneyDog]

Steeling himself, Nik hangs up.

”Quickly Marchand” he says. ”Get her face up on the bed”.

He moves the computer to the floor and helps Vanessa.

[Mr. Handy]

Vanessa does as instructed, not having heard the other end of the conversation - though even if she had, she would still have done it. She is beyond caring at this point.

[HoneyDog]

Holding up Markell with one hand Nik tells Vanessa to leave and go to the front door, to make sure no-one is coming. Taking out his pistol, he shoots Markell in the heart at point-blank range, and goes to remove his handcuffs.

OOC,I hope I’m not taking too many liberties here.

[Silver Priest]

OOC:   Vanessa can go ahead and make a luck roll.

Nik coldly performs the action and executes Tia Markell. It may in fact be the first person he's killed. But with all the horrors he's seen, he gets the feeling this murder would have bothered him far more a year ago. Now, he just feels little.

ooc,Killing an enemy in cold blood is a 0/1d6 san roll. Since Nik is hardened to violence he does not even need to make the roll and takes min san loss.

After he removes his handcuffs from the now dead woman, thoughts turn to their next move. He and Vanessa were clearly in the right here; they were attacked, and evidence would quickly prove Tia had murdered her boyfriend. But reporting this and being interviewed would take hours, and they may not have hours to spare on something so mundane when this infection could still be spreading. In addition, they'd need to find a way to link Tia to Wei or somehow explain why they were here, or even more questions would be raised.

Fleeing may be the safer option, but that neighbor across the hall had gotten a good look at Nik, and he had identified himself as being with the FBI. If she decided to talk, they might have problems.

While he's thinking about what to do, Nik spares a brief glance at Markell's laptop. She had been writing an email to a John Howard, at a New York University email address. In the email she has written out the Laqueus Equation and provided a step by step walkthrough on how to solve it, along with the answer; the same series of numbers Wei had left at his crime scene. Thankfully the email had yet to be sent, but was near complete; apparently, they had stopped her just in time.

[Mr. Handy]

Fortunately, Vanessa is able to keep watch undisturbed while Nik does what needs to be done.

OOC,Luck roll (75% stat) at the door: [dice]0[/dice] We can always use part of the truth and say that [b]Wei[/b] knew [b]Tia[/b] from the online board she ran and that we went to interview her because they had been in communication. We might even fabricate an affair between the two of them, in addition to [b]Dinah Ridgeway[/b], spinning the theory that the two of them decided together to kill their previous lovers and run off together. We'll have to drop the "working alone" angle, but I can't see that being credible after this. Nobody has seen me, apparently, so I could possibly slip out while [b]Nik[/b] goes through all the interviews and paperwork, pretending I was never there, as long as there are no cameras that might have seen me. Did we notice any when we entered the building?

[Silver Priest]

ooc,That sounds like a good plan. Feel free to bring it up in character, even if just by saying Vanessa tells Nik her plan. And given your luck roll I'm going to say there are no cameras and no one saw Vanessa that she knows of. So you could leave Nik to call for backup while you go plant the forged evidence, if that's what you're thinking. I'll wait to see HoneyDog's intentions before responding ic.

[HoneyDog]

OOC,Sounds like a good plan. Running away isn't practical - they'll have left too much forensic evidence. Vanessa will have to take the computer though. The identity of the person who sent the package to Wei must be the priority, I think.

[Mr. Handy]

"Nobody's seen me here," Vanessa tells Nik, "and there were no cameras. As far as anyone knows, you came here alone. I can slip out with the laptop and keep working on the investigation while you deal with the aftermath and the paperwork. One of the bullets is from my gun, not yours, but if you claim they're all yours I doubt anyone will check. Just say you had a bullet in the chamber to account for the number remaining. Unless you did actually have one in the chamber, in which case you'll need to remove one from your magazine and give it to me. I'll check the laptop to see if she's sent the solution to anyone else. We'll have to delete all traces of it from the hard drive, but that will require someone with more computer skills than me. Maybe I should take care of the physical evidence if our friendly is available for a distraction. She was spouting the same number, so it has to be altered soon before it has a chance to spread. I could also try to discover who sent the package, though it may have to wait until morning if the right people are not available."

OOC,We probably won't be able to find out who sent the package until the morning, but yes, that's the most important thing. In the meantime, I could try to take care of the physical evidence without [b]Nik[/b]'s help. Since that number is the solution to the Laqueus Equation, the sooner we alter it, the better.

[HoneyDog]

“Okay Marchand” Nik says quietly. “Good plan. You’d better get out of here. I’ll call it in and try to get McRay to deal with it, rather than NYPD”.

He looks at the body on the bed. “I wanted to capture her. I thought that she might be able to tell us something. We’d better stop this thing spreading. It’s like a computer virus that infects people.”

He takes put his phone to call McRay.

[Silver Priest]

Vanessa takes the laptop and manages to slip out of the building undetected. Nik meanwhile calls his boss, who listens to him before responding.

OOC:   I assume Nik is telling him their whole plan.

"Good thinking tying Tia to Wei. We want to be careful that too much scrutiny does not fall on the math list. Two individuals living in the same city can have some sort of twisted love pack, but if any more of the members snap and someone finds out, we're in for a lot of attention. I've put in calls though, and the rest of the vectors should be taken care of soon. The Americans, anyway.

"The NYPD will probably get there before FBI reinforcements, but stick to the story you told me and you should be fine. You'll probably get a few calls from Canor and his boys. I doubt they'll be able you pursued this lead without telling them, but they can't do much other than grumble. And if we can minimize further outbreaks of the equation, this should work in our interests to close the case. Good work." Nik gets the feeling he wants to say something more, but he instead terminates the call. It's not long after that the cops show up, and Nik gets to work explaining what happened. Or what he wants them to know happened.

Vanessa meanwhile a few brief edits to the letter Nik had constructed to forge a connection between Wei and Ridgeway, and then calls their friendly. Luckily he's available to meet, and so she heads to the Alliance PD station, pretending to drop off some evidence that was found at the Ridgeway crime scene. While Blanet distracts the cop in the evidence lockup, Vanessa carefully changes or removes any traces she can find of the Laqueus Equation in evidence. Once she's satisfied she's found everything, she slips out, having dropped off mundane evidence to explain her reason for being at the scene. She's fairly certain she gets away with it, but this gives their team even more reason to close the case as soon as possible.

This task done, she heads back to New York and gives a brief glimpse over Tia's laptop, looking for anything suspicious.

OOC:   Please make a computer use check, with a +20 bonus.

Nik spends the next several hours being questioned, but the officers seem to harbor little suspicion to him or his story. Nik thinks it's probably fortunate that his requests to his FBI buddy to hack into Wei's account and then take down a website did not raise suspicion of him earlier, or making his case now may have proven a good deal more difficult. By 11:30 he is free to leave, though the cops do say they expect to need to follow up interview him at some point, and he knows the FBI will be reviewing the circumstances of the shooting. But he does not expect trouble from either.

ooc for both,If Nik wants he can go join Vanessa and help her look through the computer, making the same roll with a+20. It will probably be the last thing either of them do tonight however. Any actions after that will start to bring in exhaustion penalties. Just a question of curiosity here; where are Nik and Vanessa planning to sleep? They could go back to their homes, of course. Failing that, they could find a couch in FBI headquarters and crash their for the night. Or they could rent a hotel room.

[HoneyDog]

After the days events Nik is exhausted and too tired to make any sense of Markell’s computer. After trying to unsuccessfully puzzle it out with Vanessa, Nik decides to crash at the office.

Computer Science,Computer Science 32 +20: [url=http://orokos.com/roll/689113]Computer Science[/url]: [u]1d100[/u] [b]90[/b]