Log:Guilt Complex, Scene 22

Guilt Complex 2013/10/29 	 Bee Regan Silver Spider

22

Champions Mush - Tuesday, October 29, 2013, 10:59 PM

OOC Note: Events in this scene take place after Log:Army of Darkness, Scene 2

Regan is in the workout room carefully sweeping it with a hand-held device with an antenna. Bug-sweeping. A new hobby she now dedicates two hours a day to.

Silver Spider comes in, wearing several new bandages. "Hey!" She waves cheerily. "I got a lead! I'm so excited. And all I had to do was beat Swift to a pulp and take her pile of cheating toys!" She drops a heap of stuff onto the conference table. "I don't know where she keeps all this."

Bee enters the workout room. Regarding Regan thoughtfully, she says, "I should probably start doing that. It is a good habit. Hello Spider. How goes your surveillance of Professor Belinda Charles?"

Silver Spider shrugs.

Silver Spider tilts her head. "So far, nothing. But I have eighteen more locations to search before I actually zero in on a suspect. She just fit the profile."

Bee says, "What, exactly, are you looking for?"

Silver Spider nods. "A temple. Cultists. The usual sort of stuff DEMON does. These guys need a lot of housing. First, you have to be willing to chant for a long time. Second, you have to be willing to give up your former life at any time and inhabit the cult temple. Third, you have to be pretty stupid to join an organization that eats your soul and turns you into a vessel of evil. Their leaders are cunning. Fortunately, their minions are dumb."

Bee says, "Ah," a triffle smugly. "I'm looking for something else. I'll leave you too it then.""

Regan deactivates the bug sweeper and casts a glance at the collection of weaponry. "Metal." She shakes her head. "I understand the pros go for ceramics and polymers nowadays, with memory plastics you can make a knife out of a toothbrush."

Regan says, "So, someone said something about a lead?"

Silver Spider shrugs. "I also need to find a mage. See, the kids are willing to talk with us to renounce their power. When they do, said mage traces the energy. Needless to say, Professor Heath is going to want to collect it. When he does...we will grab him."

Silver Spider says, "Now, granted, Dark Powers have a funny way of punishing failure, so Heath might be blasted to ash if he can't control it, but we will at least have saved the kids, sort of, and brought an end to his murder spree.""

Bee says, "Why would the energy go to Professor Heath? Was it ever his in the first place?"

Silver Spider shakes her head. "It's my hope that it doesn't, that it will return to where ever the initiators of the ritual are, and we'll be able to track that. Either way, this is valuable because it forces Heath to come to us. Knowing that we have the power to stop him makes him vulnerable. He won't flee to set up again. He's come too far and made deals with dark powers. He will attack."

Bee says, "Silver. The initiators of the ritual are dead. I thought you knew that."

Silver Spider shakes her head. "You're missing it. If we do this right, they might not be."

Silver Spider says, "That's the problem with magic."

Bee says, "What is?"

Silver Spider snaps her fingers. "It doesn't obey the rules of physics!" The Clean Room! All that power has to go somewhere! What if it goes to that stupid secret room behind the Vice-Chancellor's office? We need to get a mage in there!"

"The problem." Regan says with heavy emphasis on the first word. "There are lots of problems with magic. But Mostly, it's difficult to comprehend and predict unless you're very familiar with it, which none of us really are."

Silver Spider adds. "So yeah, getting a mage to trace the energy when it leaves the kids is our best bet at this point. Eighteen locations still to go in the meantime."

Bee pulls a map out of her pouch and unfolds it on a flat surface. The murder locations are clearly marked on it along with the lines forming the pentagram and a few other marks. "Mind showing me where so I don't get in your way?"

Silver Spider circles the remaining locations. "The problem with detective work is that it's mostly process of elimination. If it doesn't show up at any of these, this guy is moving around..."

Silver Spider thinks. o O (Come on, Spider. Think. Think. What moves around in that exact pattern around that pentagram, or could, every day? He's internet savvy, there are traffic cameras everywhere, save that possibility for last. His vehicle would have to be huge.)

Bee points to a circle that is near one of the Xs on her map. "Mind doing that one last? So we stay out of each other's way?"

Silver Spider nods. "Depends on what it is and how it fits the profile. Part of the thing about these guys is that they don't THINK they like to advertise. But really, their colossal egoes let clues slip."

Silver Spider looks at the nearby residence. "Miles Sylvestri. Corporate transport executive." Her eyes flick over the word. "Hang on."

Silver Spider blinks. "Evil Smile Tryls." She rearranges the words. "The Y becomes an Ia. It's him."

Bee gapes. "Seriously!?"

Silver Spider says, "All you have to do is rearrange the letters. I'd wager seventy percent chance."

Silver Spider says, "If it wasn't exactly what they are doing, I would be shocked. Besides. What is shaped like an evil smile?"

Bee says, "You solve crimes by playing..." she sputters a bit "Scrabble?""

Silver Spider says, "That would be a scythe, right? That's what it looks like. Go back and look at Harlequin's vision."

Silver Spider winks. "No. Lots of bad guys like to hide this way. Doctor Jackal and Mr. Hide hid like this for five months. Serious."

Silver Spider says, "Summoning a big reaper demon and an army of creatures and things from history? That's right up their alley."

Silver Spider says, "And it fits with the archaeology professor, too."

Bee says, "I was *there* when Harlequin had his vision."

Silver Spider nods. "Well, that sounds like you found the bad guys. I just put the nail in. Congratulations. I'll buy you dinner."

Bee says, "How does scrabble qualify as evidence?"

Silver Spider shakes her head. "It's not scrabble. Lots of villains like to hide by rearranging the letters of their names. It's a common trick. You have nothing to lose by trying it every time a bad guy shows up."

Silver Spider says, "If it doesn't work, you know the guy's smart. If it does, you know who it is and look him up in the internet."

Bee says, "So you are saying that this person, prior to any actual investigation, is the Reaper because Evil Smile Tryls can be spelled from his name?"

Silver Spider shrugs. "It fits the facts, it fits the profile, it just makes him next on the list of places to search. You have to understand that I'm not certain. I just think the chances are really, really high. I really think you've got this one."

Silver Spider says, "That's how process of elimination works. You take the best chance, and go for it. Then you take the next, and the next."

Regan nods. "Well, yes, many villains do, undeniably." She agrees. "But..." She shakes her head. "Is that really... " She falls silent, blinking at the map.

Bee says, "Soooo, because I asked you to not contaminate my investigation and investigating this person last, you are investigating him first?"

Silver Spider shakes her head. "It's not about contamination. This guy is on a timer. If you want to go in alone, go right ahead. But I wouldn't. I would buddy up at this point. I'm pretty sure he knows we're after him."

Regan nos. "Ok, so he's worth at least a look since he's a point of overlap. Bee, what is the significance of your mark?"

Bee says, "These are the locations where the patients were likely held during the ritual. The location doesn't need to be a building, as long as the bed or whatever they used can be wheeled out there. So it is entirely possible this person's only crime is being the *victim* of trespassers in his back yard."

Silver Spider blinks. "A guy like Miles Sylvestri doesn't just let DEMON into his backyard. He pays good money for security."

Silver Spider says, "This guy is going to have state of the art security systems, possibly even lethal weaponry, and people who know how to use them. Really rich guys like this sometimes have combat robots now."

Regan nods. "By that theory there ought to have been a patient at all five of these points?"

Bee nods. "One each."

Silver Spider nods. "That's what made me think Sylvestri was such a good one. He owns a transportation company. No one's going to pay attention to a bunch of trucks that people have seen for years. Plus, it gives him the ability to smuggle drones into the country, acquire train schedules, and virtually every single other thing he needs to do to make this plan work.

Silver Spider says, "And all he has to do is send some secretary downtown."

Silver Spider says, "Add that to the fact that Sylvestri with the Y is an Eastern European name, and we know how he got into the syndicate to get that far. He was already there."