The Sydney Games 2066 Session 8

Princess Guard - The New Era 2015/02/12 	 Lorelei Titan Caleb 8

Home Run
Caleb looks up the address' coordinates on his GPS and opens a remote viewing portal to there, to see what's up and memorize a reasonably well-concealed port location.

Lorelei says, "Can you 'port us there, Caleb? I'm always nervous traveling by Hypersite. Even if it's supposed to be safe now."

Titan tilts his head back and forth, cracking his neck. "We just about set to go?"

Lorelei says, "It comes from having second sight. A TransMat portal is a pretty thing. But Hypersite - well, you really don't know quite how they are twisting up reality. Even if it seems to work all right."

The address you have supplied by Ghost is a rented business office on the seventh floor of a high rise block. The name of Morlock's company is Security Services Ltd. Currently it's night in Colombia and the office, a standard lobby and inner office setup, is deserted.

Caleb nods. "Yeah, I think so. Give me a sec." If there's a plausible landing spot inside the office, he ports the team there.

This is a multistage operation that's tedious to describe, but the final step of it ports the team all at once. Caleb is still working out how to establish gates.

Titan blinks and looks around inside the office. "Hmm. Looks empty. Ish."

Lorelei says, "It is night, after all. I think."

Lorelei pulls out her very intricate clockwork watch, with many dials and many more hands, and looks at it. "I really ought to get a few Earth time zones added to this."

Lorelei says, "It would be more useful than Gloaming time. I mean, who ever really needs to know the time there?"

Caleb shrugs. "I usually take the sun's word for it. Yeah, it's night."

It might be that Titan will remember Ghost saying that she couldn't get much information on Morlock because his online security was excellent. It seems his mania for security extends to his rented office accommodation. As the team arrive a small red light in the inner office starts blinking. As the lobby and office are dark the blinking light can be seen through the frosted glass of the door to the inner office.

Caleb says, "Oops."

Lorelei says, "Oops. Um. Anyone know how to take care of that?"

Caleb scans and attempts to subvert the security system, though he suspects it's too late.

Titan chuckles, "Well...I guess we should be quick about this, then. I feel like I might have been the wrong person for this. The shadow Fae folks get assassins who can turn invisible. Why not your side?" He heads over to the door ot the inner office, and opens the door. He wraps his hand around the bottom of his shirt to make sure no finger prints are left.

Lorelei says, "I could try casting a glamour of the alarm, to make it seem like it's not going off. I have absolutely no idea if that would help, though. I don't even know if the effects would be local only."

Lorelei says, "There's not been much research done into the interactions of glamour and electronics. At least, nothing I'm aware of."

With the connecting door open the blinking light can be seen more clearly. Caleb's scan reveals a semi-concealed motion detector covering the lobby, and another can be seen in the inner office. It depends how the alarm system is setup. The alarm might be isolated... but more likely either connected to the police, an alarm monitoring service, or it's alerted Morlock.

The inner office has a desk, a pair of chairs, the chair behind the desk built up for a person of short height, and a couple of filing cabinets. A rumpled rug on the floor almost but doesn't quite cover the door of a floor safe.

Caleb reports the results. "I'm guessing Morlock won't be involving the police, if he's what we think he is. I can disconnect the alarm, but I don't see the point... we're not being terribly stealthy here. I say we go with the Titan strategy: let him challenge us, then punch him really hard."

Caleb may have picked up the "Bad Guys" script this morning by accident.

Titan grins and looks around the inner office. "Be ready to get us out of here if it IS the police, though. I'd rather not end up in a dust-up with them." He takes a look at a filing cabinet, intending to open it even if it's locked.

Again, he uses his shirt to cover up any fingerprints. Just in case.

Lorelei smiles. "Dealing with *people* isn't usually a problem for me."

Nexus looks over Titan's shoulder remotely. "Will do. Incidentally, have you considered gloves?"

Titan raises a brow, "I have. Got any on you? I hadn't realized I'd be burglaring before I left the house this morning."

Lorelei passes Titan some gloves. "THey're glamour, so they'll only last till sunrise. But that should do."

Nexus reaches into a hole in space and pulls out a pair of gloves -- too slow! He puts them back and closes the portal.

Titan smiles. "Thanks." He puts the glamour gloves on and goes back to opening the filing cabinet.

The filing cabinet is locked.. but that's not going to stop Titan from opening it if he really wants to. Inside the cabinet are folders and paper files. A quick scan through shows most are pretty standard correspondence related to what are probably legal security services. With a few documents that while being opaque in their language refer to sums of money that seem excessive for legitimate business.

Titan breaks the lock and pulls the drawer open. He quickly flips through the documents...finding the ones with the large amounts of money. He pulls out his PDA and takes a couple of photos to get names of those involved in the transactions.

Nexus pokes around in the files desultorily, though really unless there's a file labeled ILLEGAL SLAVERY STUFF he doesn't expect to notice anything in particular. "So, what are we looking for?"

In the quiet of the night in a business district of the city the sound of a car pulling out and stopping outside the high rise block is not hard to hear.

Nexus looks up from the file and remotely views the area where the car sound came from. "We have company, I think."

Lorelei looks out the window at the car.

Titan opens the next drawer, "Any idea who it is? Any lights on the car?"

Lorelei says, "What I *could* do, if it comes to it, is disguise us. Well, you, anyway. But are we really worried about Morlock seeing who we are?"

The car doors open and a man and woman step out. They look alert and scan their surroundings quickly. Morlock also emerges from the car, while a driver stays behind the wheel and keeps the engine running. Morlock speaks to the man and woman, who look quite remarkably like you would expect Catlin and Marko (the kid clones) to grow up like, and it seem likely he is giving them instructions. They draw weapons, the same style of stunner pistols the kids used at the hotel shootout, and start making their way into the building. Morlock stays outside by the car.

Lorelei says, "Ok. Morlock and genetically engineered bodyguards.... I suppose we could go and talk to him while they're coming to look for us...."

Nexus starts to describe all of that, then stops when he realizes the others are looking out the window like normal people. He looks a little sheepish. "Sounds good to me. Port or dramatic crash through the window?"

Lorelei says, "Port. Crash might bring the bodyguards back."

Titan mutters, "You could make me look like David Bane. It would serve him right." He looks through the second draw quickly...not really having enough time to do so thoroughly. "I'd say...porting would be best. Catch the man by surprise. And the clones will be in the building. It'll take them time to get outside."

Titan shrugs, "Then again, we could easily fight our way through the two clones. I doubt they could hurt me."

Nexus nods and waits for the clones to get out of sight, then ports the group near the car.

Perhaps foolishly, Nexus ports them to a fairly exposed spot not _too_ close to the car, under the theory that they're planning on talking.

Morlock senses the change in his surroundings and looks in the team's direction. An expression of shock flows over his face followed by horrified recognition. "YOU!" he says to Lorelei, visibly blanching. And then glancing at Caleb and Titan as well you see the resistance go out of him. His look back at the inviting open door of a possible get-away car is automatic. But he's smart enough to realize he'll never make it out. "So...?"

The clones are making their way up to the seventh floor, not using the elevator to remain quiet. And by porting out the team neatly avoids them.

Lorelei just smiles and goes up to Morlock. "Long time no see. Sorry about the time - I hope we didn't get you out of bed. We were hoping to have a word."

Nexus turns to Lorelei, figuring the Princess should do the talking. Once it's clear that this won't be a fight in the short term, he turns most of his attention to remote-viewing the clones so they don't do anything surprising.

The clones are making fairly good time but being sneaky and quiet slow them down. They haven't even reached to seventh floor yet.

Morlock sighs, "You could have phoned or texted. Like normal people do." he says, but his heart isn't in it. He already looks defeated.

Nexus chuckles.

Titan smiles and walks around to flank Morlock, over by the front of the car. "I'm afraid someone broke something in your office. It was dark. I couldn't see who it was."

Lorelei says, "The thing is, we ran into an interesting pair of children, who told us, of all things, that they aren't real people. That they were genetically engineered by someone they know just as the Doctor, and then sold, of all things. And interestingly, your name came up, too. And it occurred to me that if anyone might know where this Doctor is, it would surely be you."

Lorelei does her best to avoid direct accusations of slave-dealing. The object here, after all, is to get to the source. If Morlock would have to incriminate himself to answer it would be counter-productive.

Morlock isn't sure which of his many activities brings the team here until Lorelei speaks. Then he nods slowly. "If... I could find out where Hans.. where this doctor you spoke of was... would you need to have any further business with me?" he asks hopefully.

Nexus bursts out laughing, entirely genuinely, then looks apologetically at Lorelei and subsides.

Lorelei smiles. "Not at this time, at least."

Morlock nods. "Lets go up to my office." he says. Then quickly adds, "I'll call off my bodyguards. They wouldn't have much of a chance against you anyway would they. They're not Wolfguard. Unless you count very early prototypes."

Titan remains quiet, since Lorelei seems to have everything in hand.

Nexus considers suggesting they could meet him there, but decides that would be unnecessarily obnoxious. He continues tracking the guards, just in case, but is pretty casual about it. One might even say sloppy.

Lorelei says, "Yes, I know. After all, all it took was a call to the Baron to ascertain that."

Lorelei makes the most of the name-dropping, to remind Morlock that he's not the only one with contacts, should things become less cordial.

Morlock pulls out his PDA to call the bodyguards and stand them down. Looking at Lorelei he sighs, "You know the Baron? Just great! I thought you'd moved to the Fae worlds. What demon of unluck made our pathes cross again?"

Morlock starts to lead you all back to his office.

Lorelei says, "Undermoon has interests on Earth, you know. And I still have good friends here."

Nexus waits for Lorelei, then follows.

Titan follows after the group, keeping an eye out around them just in case someone else shows up.

The bodyguards are waiting in the office but with instructions from Morlock they aren't hostile. Morlock pulls aside the rug and opens the floor safe. He tries to shield sight of the contents with his short body and after drawing out a file folder hurriedly closes the safe again. "This is the Dr Hans Lehmann file." Morlock says holding out the folder.

Lorelei says, "Thank you."

Lorelei opens the folder just to make sure it actually contains useful information!

More out of idle curiosity than anything else, Nexus remote-views the safe contents while the door is open. Also afterwards, if the safe has a convenient refrigerator light installed.

The folder has all Morlock's dealings with Hans Lehmann. A quick glance through indicates that clone pairs have been sold about every three or four years for the last twenty years. Dr Hans Lehmann's address is given, the Joseph Levebridge orphanage, Brazil.

Caleb sees a half dozen folders in the safe. Like the Hans Lehmann folder, none have any labels on them. Once the safe door is closed the interior is pitch black.

Titan just quietly waits. He watches the bodyguards closely, but otherwise he just keeps out of the way.

Lorelei nods. "Thank you. A pleasure doing business with you. I do trust you won't tell Dr Lehmann we plan to visit? We rather hope to surprise him."

"I can stash these guys on the moon or something until we're done, if you want?" Nexus offers. "With air, of course," he adds to Morlock. "Just to make sure they stay quiet."

Lorelei says, "Oh, I'm *sure* that won't be necessary."

Morlock nods. "You may be sure of that. And if I can ask a favor for my co-operation could you not reveal where your information came from? My reputation would be ruined if it was known I had broken confidentiality.

Lorelei says, "But of course."

Nexus nods. He considers placing a couple of gallons of ice cream in the safe, just to be a jerk, but he refrains.

Morlock sits in his built up chair behind the desk and holds his head in his hands.

Lorelei turns to Nexus. "Well, shall we?"

Titan has never met this Morlock guy before, but figures there's some history involved. He walks over to where the other two heroes are.

Nexus looks up the orphanage address' coordinates and checks out the site remotely.

Lorelei says, "What does it look like?"

The orphanage is a self-contained facility about the size of a small town school with boarding dorms. It's night so there's no obvious activity going on. A estimate is maybe twenty to thirty kids. Two pairs bear a marked similarity to the clone kids you've seen. One pair aged about nine and a younger pair aged of four years.

Nexus describes what he sees. "We're gonna want to be careful with the normal kids."

Lorelei says, "How do we tell the normal kids from the metas?"

Looking under the surface buildings Caleb finds a cloning lab setup beneath the administration offices of the orphanage. There are two artificial womb tanks, both switched on and holding fetuses.

Nexus nods. "Maybe safest to stay away from the dorms altogether. "

Nexus scans the living quarters, trying to locate Lehmann.

Interestingly, maybe, although there's a Gym and outdoor shooting range, there doesn't seem to any hidden secret training areas.

Scanning the living quarters Caleb can locate Dr Hans Lehmann. And a pair of adult clones. These are quite aged, looking to be in their sixties.

Nexus reports his findings.

"If y'all can provide a distraction," Nexus suggests tentatively, "I might be able to snatch the doc out of there before the guards see me. Or, more likely," he admits, "they just pound the crap out of me."

Lorelei says, "Any sign of any clones beside the familiar pairs? I had the impression from what the kids told me that there were people cloned for, um, sexual purposes too."

Titan shakes his head. "Just take us all in. The clones aren't going to be a threat if we're all there."

Nexus says, "Not that I saw. Unless the doc has some _really_ unusual tastes."

Lorelei says, "That's something. I hope I was wrong about that..."

Nexus prepares to take the team in. He plans the route such that if all goes properly, they will all arrive at once out of sight of the doc and his bodyguards, on the other side of a door or around a corner or something similar.

Nexus shuttles the team to a safe spot a kilometer away, takes a breather, then ports the team all at once to the hallway outside the doc's room.

Lorelei looks about to get her bearings.

Titan looks around as well, not saying anything. He's not sure which direction to go.

Nexus whispers: "Go in hard or soft?"

Lorelei whispers. "I'm not sure. Wish we knew more of the situation here...."

Titan sighs, and whispers, "You think about this too hard." He guesses at which door is the right one and he opens it, stepping inside.

Nexus chuckles and prepares to back Titan up.

He's pretty sure nobody has ever accused him of that before.

The doctor's bedroom is unexceptional. Asleep in a bed is a person matching the description the kids gave you on Dr Lehmann.

Titan isn't really a stealthy type. But he does his best to be relatively quiet. He walks further into the room and looks around.

Lorelei does her best to sneak in too, but hanging back a bit. She too looks round - not least because she might see things human eyes might miss.

Nexus _is_ a stealthy type, though he isn't trying especially hard. He looks around the room, then gestures to the sleeping doctor and looks to Lorelei questioningly.

The bedroom is rather spartan. There doesn't seem to be any personal items on view. Nothing that revealed by second sight either. What you get is what you see. Except for the sleeping doctor. In second sight he seems somehow to give a almost 'hollow' impression.

Lorelei tilts her head, trying to make sense of what she sees of the doctor.

Lorelei isn't sure if this is the real doctor or some sort of clone or copy, but he seems real enough. She nods to Nexus.

Nexus, having been asking a different unspoken question, approaches the sleeping doctor and wakes him up with a hand over his mouth. (The doctor's, that is.) "Morning, doc. Don't go making a scene and tell us what we want to know, and nobody gets hurt. Sound good?"

The doctor awakes with a start. He makes a muffled attempt to speak but his face shows resignation more than any other emotion. After a moment he tries to nod to indicate he's understood what Nexus has said.

Nexus nods and releases the doc, then defers to Lorelei.

The doctor sits up and looks at the trio invading his bedroom. Recognition lits in his eyes as he sees Lorelei and Titan. Nexus gets a puzzled 'who are you' look.

Nexus is used to it.

Titan looks to Lorelei, "You at least have a way with guys, right?" He also defers to her.

Lorelei regards the doctor. "It has been brought to our attention, Dr Lehmann (it *is* Dr Lehmann?) that you have been engaged in the cloning of metas, and selling them into slavery, both of which are very serous crimes. Would you say that this is the case?"

The doctor nods. "That's true." he says simply enough.

Titan raises a brow. That was an awfully quick confession.

Lorelei is mildly taken aback, having expected a denial of at least some of that. "May I ask why?"

The doctor shrugs, "I don't have any choice. But at least if I run this place profitably I'm allowed some degree of control and can make sure the grandchildren of the wolf have as good a childhood as I can give them."

Lorelei frowns. "Why don't you have a choice?"

Titan sighs. Of course this isn't simple.

Nexus pats Titan reassuringly on the shoulder.

The doctor says, "I need the medication only the real Dr Lehmann can provide. He built in an intentional genetic flaw when he cloned me.. him.. whatever. Without the medication I will die slowly and in terrible pain."

Lorelei says, "Ah. I had wondered. You didn't seem to me to look quite yourself. Or himself. And where, pray tell, is the real Dr Lehmann?"

The doctor shakes his head. "I don't know. I get my instructions through the TOR-2 darknet." He says. Then after a moment, "What will happen to the children?"

"That depends on how helpful you are in putting us in touch with your... with the original doctor," Nexus interjects ominously.

Lorelei was going to say something quite different, but perhaps Nexus' approach has something to be said for it.

For the first time the doctor shows a spark of emotion. "Don't punish the children for my inability to help!" he says hotly to Nexus. Then more dispirited, "If I could help I would. What kind of monster am I.. is he... to use clones of himself in such fashion as he's used me?"

Lorelei says, "A good question. Has he used other clones the same way then?"

Lorelei thinks. o O (He could have cells doing this all over the world....)

The doctor nods uncertainly, "I'm sure of it. I was not the only clone when I was growing up. But we're not in contact with each other."

Titan takes a deep breath. "Perhaps we can trace where the messages are coming from? Ghost might be able to track them."

Lorelei says, "We'll have to. The only way to rescue the children - and even the Lehmann clones - is to track down the real Lehmann, it seems."

Lorelei thinks. o O (If he's still alive. Or who is top clone now if not.)

Nexus feels like a schmuck, but doesn't let it show. "Yeah, maybe. I might be able to take a stab at it myself, also. Lead the way to your terminal, doc."

The doctor nods and gets out of his bed. He leads to team through to his office as orphanage administrator and shows Nexus the terminal. "I'll help however I can."

Titan says, "And perhaps we can come up with some other way for you to get the money to survive, doctor? Something that doesn't require to you clone other folks?"

Lorelei says, "It's a matter of medication, not money, isn't it?"

The doctor shakes his head, "It's not money. It's never been money." he says. "Does it look like I live in luxury? It's the medication. Only the real Dr Lehmann can provide it and without it I'll die."

Lorelei says, "Why can't you duplicate it? I imagine you must have considerable skills in those areas."

Lorelei thinks. o O (As does Dad. Maybe he can help.....)

Titan nods, "I meant money to get the medication you need. But if you don't know what it is exactly...that's another issue.

The doctor says, "I've tried. But I don't have the equipment I need to do that and don't have the funds to buy it. My expenditure is monitored. If I started buying equipment to work on duplicating the medication... how long do you think it would be before I had a visit from killers?"

Nexus pokes around on the doctor's communications console, hoping that messages from the other doctor hold some clue as to his location.

(editor's note: Caleb is unsuccessful in determining the location of the real Dr Lehmann. Lorelei's father is able to duplicate the medication needed, and with the threat of a slow painful death lifted off his shoulders the cloned Dr Lehmann promises to cease creating clones and to devote his life to helping the children of the orphanage.)

Dr Lehmann is truly grateful he can continue to look after the orphans. Talking to the clones you discover the 'training' is little more than pistol shooting practice. Nothing like the harsh Wolfguard regime. The cloned kids don't even know martial arts. They have the early wolfguard strength and reflexes but are more like super-agents than full blown metas.