Geartopia : The Case of the Assassination Plot

[meat_mooks]

||Attention, Attention. Would the following personnel please report to the Observation Deck. Please bring with you any weapons and tools you might need. Attention, Attention. would the following personnel please report to the Observation Deck

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Re: The Gathering of Clues

[zouichi]

Back at the rendezvous point, Zouichi took a brief moment now that they'd rescued the kid to see if the two town pieces of paper fit into the torn-out portions of the book. "I found the two papers implicating Nomalanga in a damp area, covered with dry soil, at a location that seemed like it received a lot of foot traffic," he said. "But in the context of what the kidnappers said, it seems doubtful that Nomalanga is the one cooperating with Snidely. I'd guess that it was hastily placed where someone could easily find it, to sow distrust."

"I found the rifle, jars, and book among a large stockpile of firearms. My guess would be that the rifles were left there by Snidely's confederates; they do no one on Nomalanga's side any good while hidden in secret."

"The book does concern me, though. If we assume its owner was someone working with Snidely, it suggests that Snidely's plan was already found out by a member of Nomalanga's team before we arrived. The 'false... scatter' might be referring to the scattering of false clues around the cavern."

He paused. "I suggest this explanation: One of Nomalanga's three was working with Snidely. When Allard uncovered the plot, a plan was set in motion to kidnap his child to buy his silence, and false clues were scattered in the caverns to confuse the issue."

Of course, what he really wanted to do was mix the red and blue powders together. Just, you know. To see what would happen.

[detectivederp]

"I think that the mayoress playing us could be ruled out almost by default. She has little to gain from calling us, total strangers, in just to trick us; it couldn't be to have us uncover a fake conspiracy to inspire trust: there is little love for outsiders here, such a plan would have been better executed by insiders. So it was more than likely an attempt to seed doubts."

Tim folded his arms over his chest, and nodded his agreement to Zouichi. "I think it's most plausible that we have more than one person to deal with here," he said. "And the evidence seems to pretty strongly point toward Allard being a victim, yes." That was an understatement.

So that left the question of who was playing Allard. And there were motivations to take into account as well. "The notes and pages seem to point most strongly towards Mekaisto, and several items-- including the oversized knife-- point toward Taworri. The problem, then, is also motivation."

[notadamndemon]

Sam shook his head. "Given the size of the creature that knife was in? It'd definitely have to be somebody big." Hell, Sam himself had had to climb up to get at it. "Even so, it's...all a little too pat. The information could lead to any of the three. And a kidnapped child would be a good motivation to betray someone."

Sam knew damned well how easily family could be used against someone, after all.

[zouichi]

Zouichi frowned a little. "I think it's clear that Taworri, or someone of his size, was here. And that he did attack the creature you encountered. But simply encountering a wild animal in these caverns doesn't really point to guilt -- the best we can say about him right now is that he stabbed an alien bear in the back and lied about it, no matter how suspicious his behavior may be. I'm also concerned about the locations of the clues that point to Taworri... the areas designated 2, 5, and 11 on this map, if I remember correctly. These locations are strewn out all over the map, too, as if someone was deliberately trying to ensure that we suspected him."

He crossed his arms in thought. "I'd say that if anything, our most solid piece of evidence is the words of the kidnappers themselves. It seems to be a given that Allard was cooperating with Snidely, partially or fully. The only question is whether the other two were involved as well."

Zouichi motioned to the items they'd collected. "Anyone have any other interpretations of the book's contents? The message Ellyn found? Anything that might give us a more definitive conclusion?" He just didn't like how so much of their evidence was circumstantial.

P.S. also he tasted the white powder.

[detectivederp]

He feels you Zouichi. None of this evidence was definitive.

"Right," Tim said to Sam. "I was worried at the initial mention, though the mayoress assured me that she trusted the bodyguards. Evidently that trust wasn't entirely justified-- but, from what we heard, the rest of the family may well still be safe, with just this child being used against Allard." So Allard was the only one who knew his child was in danger.

"The writing seems characteristic of Mekaisto, giving her records keeping tendencies, and her crisp, neat writing. It does make reference, however, to being found out, which would support your theory, Zouichi." He frowned, falling silent as he looked over what they had collected once more. He was focusing, instead of continuing to elaborate, for now.

[meat_mooks]

Oh good detective work with your mouth. Suddenly Zouichi experiences perfect blis--alright not really. All he experienced was the taste of refined sugar.

[zouichi]

"It's sugar," said Zouichi of the white powder he'd found with the rifles. Mekaisto again.

[detectivederp]

Tim rose an eyebrow at Zouichi. He'd certainly not have recommended tasting mysterious powders one finds in caverns during assassination plots (though Tim has been trained to identify that kind of thing).

"That makes sense, given the references to 'cane' and 'soil' in the book. So at least part of the contents of the book are innocuous."

[zouichi]

It's cool, Tim. Synthetic Humans are great with poisons and stuff. Ask him about that poison zombie sniper sometime.

He opened the bag with the candies Mekaisto had given him, took one... and licked it, for comparison.

[meat_mooks]

It tasted like a fruit that had been preserved in sugar. the fruit tasted like a cross between a kiwi, strawberry and an orange smoothie.

So basically exactly as she had said.

[notadamndemon]

Sam frowned. "Sugar?" Something in his mind. "Can I have the black vial?" he asked. "I'm not going to taste it. A whiff should tell me what I need to know."

[zouichi]

Curse you Pixle

"Sure." Zouichi handed him the vial. "It smells like gunpowder, if that's what you're thinking."

[notadamnangel]

Dean glanced over as his brother accepted the vial, "Sounds more like supplies then. Plus going by how they were tracking production, and this breeding program crap, makes it sound more like a factory. With Snidely as the big boss man. Not sure about Nomalanga now either." Using a kidnapped kid as leverage unfortunately didn't surprise him at all.

[meat_mooks]

So then, they had many clues, some probably false. Now the question was how they would present the evidence to get the maximum of answers out of all of them.

[zouichi]

"How about this?" Zouichi asked. "We can confront Nomalanga and her advisors in order of the strength of evidence we have against them. Because we have solid proof that Allard was involved, we go to him first, tell him that his child is safe, and try to get information out of him about the rest of Snidely's operation. It sounded like he stumbled upon it on his own, anyway. He may know who Snidely's confederate is."

"From then, we can separately press Taworri and Mekaisto with the pieces of incriminating evidence we have against them, bluffing if we have to to get as much information as we can out of them. We can then present what we have to Nomalanga. I believe isolating each of the possible suspects, combined with acting as if we're sure we know who the accomplice is, may act in our favor -- we'll essentially be exerting psychological pressure on those we interview just by getting them alone and away from the others, and those we haven't yet talked to will be wondering what we do know."

[detectivederp]

Tim nodded his agreement to Zouichi. That was the best way to handle a situation if you didn't have a perfectly clear solution in mind. And considering how much of this was circumstantial, without strong motive...

"Right. The saved child is a good play to make. What we've gathered and heard seems to implicate, fairly well, that Allard's hand was being forced. He will likely be the most free to talk, once we've proven his daughter is safe. He can provide his own testimony, of course, which may back what we have."

Tim made a thoughtful 'hm' before he continued. "Bluffing and playing the psychological angle will certainly be beneficial. There's a good team of us, of course, so we can split up to make sure those remaining don't try anything while we interrogate the others-- though any attempts to escape or otherwise will just back out case against them, regardless." He'd suggest a little intimidation, but he doubted that would work on the likes of, say, Taworri. "Mekaisto's hand seems to play into several angles, though any motivation she has is unclear."

Tim paused, and his expression shifted to one of frustration. Because he just realised something. "And we had an angle from the beginning. Allard dropped us a hint-- whether intentionally or otherwise-- while I was speaking with him. He said from the beginning that it was a kidnapping plot." Tim swore under his breath. Yes, he was angry about missing that. He probably just wrote it off as a slip at the time. "At least that means he'll likely give his cooperation."