MEANWHILE, BACK AT THE MANSE... (Issue #1, chapter vII)

[ludickid]

Inside his opulent mansion on Omnipolis’ swank north side, the Conductor calls in a favor with one of the local DMV’s computer operators (the guy is a fan of Vivaldi’s from way back, and Erich Mahler had arranged for him to get free tickets to the OSO’s premiere of The Four Seasons). After a lengthy search, his source reports that the van in which

Comments

[ludickid]

Besides an endless string of insults, profanities and threats to his mortal existence, here are the most interesting things to arise from the Insomniac's questioning of Pamela Federici:

- She wasn't working for Van Kingsley. Though the Hammer is her lover and often her patron, she does a fair share of freelance work, and he frequently doesn't know anything about it (presumably, this is just how he wants it, so he has an element of legal deniability). This was one of those freelance assignments: she was hired to run interference on a kidnapping, keeping any cops or pesky superheroes occupied while the abduction took place.

- She hasn't got any idea who planted the bomb in the hotel. She also doesn't know, or care, who kidnapped Obuchi and Miyazawa, or why. She doesn't have any knowledge of or interest in his work; she only had the bare bones of information to do the job. (She also doesn't know where they took either of them; she wasn't involved in the Obuchi job, and she wasn't supposed to follow the van when Miyazawa was taken. She suspects they're going to be hustled out of town pretty quickly, though, by some clues she gleaned from her contact.)

- Her employers aren't locals; she knows almost every dirty dealer in town, and she's positive they weren't Mafia, dirty cops, gangbangers, or members of Kingsley's mob. She was paid through a Swiss account and all her information was given by anonymous cell phone calls. They're well-trained, well-armed, and well-financed, but they definitely aren't from anywhere near here. One thing is for sure, though: almost everyone she dealt with, from the initial contact to the men who carried out the kidnapping, were Japanese, and they were all very professional -- not street thugs or hired goons.

Any further questions you want answered? The roll showed that Insomniac's truth serum worked fairly well, so she'll have to answer pretty much everything truthfully for a short while. Also, you might want to think about what to do with her; you could turn her over to the cops for assault, illegal weapons possession, and so forth, but everything you got out of her under the drug won't be admissible because it's considered coerced.

[memento_mori]

Some duct tape, a length of chain, a cinderblock...nobody is going to miss her, really.

Erol watches Ms. Federici loll helplessly in the chair. No, that was the old him...the guy that worked for the spooks. This is the new Erol Rote. The one that fights for justice.

Justice.

Erol picks up the phone and dials a contact at the local precinct. The Insomniac isn't too popular there but he thinks that something can be worked out. A drop-off point where Pamela can be delivered into the arms of Omnipolis' Finest.