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Thursday, February 26

See No Evil: Part 7a – Climax

“What have we got?” asked Hammer, standing next to Archive in the crowd in front of the Merriweather Center.

“There was some blue dust in the vacant store,” said Archive. “I think it was …”

“What?”

“From a corpse,” said Archive.

“What does ‘Wer ruft mich an’ mean?”

Archive looked at Hammer curiously. “It means: Who calls me? The German said that?”

“No, the German was in the taxi. I heard it from within the room. I think it’s what set Colm off.”

“Someone speaking German?” asked Archive.

“A dead man speaking German,” added Hammer. He put one finger to his ear to turn on his comm. “Hot Pants? What you got?”

“There was a file labeled Sundries,” said Caprice. “It was encrypted using a fairly simple code that used a book, the Jeeves Omnibus. “

“And?”

“Oh you know, paranoid ranting. Talks a lot about Them and Others. Mentions he’s talking to somebody who supports his screwball theories. Then at some point he has suspicions that They are reading his file. From there it’s all flowers and light. The guy’s a nutjob.”

“But no hint as to where he might show up?”

“Nothing. Maybe if we had those letters …”

Hammer swore. “Then we go with the backup plan. Colm’s going to show up here.”

“What makes you say that?” asked Jim-Bean over the comm. He was dressed as one of the security guards holding the crowd back.

“It’s a public place,” said Hammer. “If Colm’s going to show up with evidence of his crazy theories, this is the place to do it.”

A roar went up from the crowd. Opposition activists and a band of protesters were gathering outside the conference building. Many of them were young, all of them rowdy, and what security was available was having some difficulty keeping them in line.

“They’re here,” reported Jim-Bean, somewhere in the crowd. [MORE]

Labels: d20 modern

posted by Mike Tresca at 6:22 AM

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