Chapter #73Placing Agents by: Seuzz   Joe's promises of billions of dollars don't stir you. It's when he repeats that this "Fane" corporation does lots of research that you decide he's got the right idea about infiltrating them. You don't need to take them over. You just want to creep inside them, carve out your own little fortress where no one can find you, and lay your hands on everything they know.
And then, well, maybe in a few years, after you've figured what you want to do, then you'd be in a good position to take over them, or whatever corner of the world has caught your fancy.
Besides, by the gleam in his eye, you suspect Joe might be tempted to strike out on his own into Fane if you don't go along.
Still, you equivocate a little. "We should talk to Frank first."
"You just have to say 'yes' and he's outvoted," Jonathan points out.
And that puts an end to the discussion.
"Good," Jonathan says. "Now let's get ready for this Kim guy."
* * * * *
At his suggestion, you give him Curt Straussler's imago to go with Jonathan's, and you put Jonathan's imago onto the Curt-golem, so that he and it can switch places if need be. You hustle hard, for you have no idea how soon your next victim will be arriving. As it turns out, you have a forty-minute wait before he does.
It's a shock when he waddles in. "Eric Kim" turns out to be someone you already knew: the pudgy Korean-American owner of King Kong Komics.
He recognizes you, too. "Oh, hey, I know you," he says with an expansive smile. "You hang around with Christian and them sometimes, right?"
That would be Christian Knouse, one of the RPG enthusiasts at Westside, and no, you don't hang around with him all that much. It's a relief when, at a word from Jonathan, Liu grabs Eric so you can wrestle a mask onto him.
"Hate to tell you, Pop, but Eric was telling the truth," Joe says afterward, when he is wearing Eric Kim's face and using Eric Kim's essentia—a fourth installation—to control the confused golem of the comic book store owner. Joe has had to take off all his clothes, and you're doing your best not to look at him from the neck down, for he has the shape and heft of a sumo wrestler who is trying to bulk up. Maybe Joe's trying not to notice it too, for he's huddled up and peering near-sightedly at the ceiling.
"Eric doesn't know anything about Liu," he continues. "He's not even that interested in the Strausslers or in Proteus. They sometimes give him little devices to share with Curt, to keep him interested, but—"
"Who's 'they'?" you ask.
"Fane. Except it's one of the secret parts. Eric's whole comic book store is being subsidized by something called 'Diana' and his job is to pick up information about a project out at Fort Suffolk." He blinks and makes a face. "What a mess."
"What's out at Fort Suffolk?"
"Another Fane project. Would you believe these guys' shit? One part of Fane spying on another, but then every one of them spies on all the other. Anyway, the thing at Fort Suffolk is called 'Titan', and it has something to do with making super soldiers, and Diana wants to keep tabs on it."
"So he's not spying on the Strausslers? But Liu said—"
"I told you it's a mess. If Liu's working for Spartan Techadyne, it's another part of Fane spying on the Strausslers. Maybe you better give me Liu's face too, so I can put all the parts together for us."
So, before all is said and done, Joe has five faces he can switch between, in case he has to go undercover: the faces of Joe Durras, Jonathan Straussler, Curt Straussler, Eric Kim, and Huojin Liu. With some rapid shuttling back and forth, and some doodling on a sheet of paper, you write down everything he tells you. Or, at least as much of it as the principals know.
Eric Kim is employed off the books by a research group called Diana—where they fit into the Fane organization even he doesn't know—and has been told to keep Curt Straussler interested in a Fane tie-up even as his main job is to spy on "Project Titan" at Fort Suffolk. That project, in turn, is officially being managed by a company called Alcidex Pharmagen that is either being secretly controlled by Fane or which has been penetrated by agents of Fane for another secret Fane group called "Nerio," which is the Fane division that is running Project Titan. (Eric doesn't know who at Fort Suffolk is a Nerio agent, but his handlers know that they are there.)
As for Liu: He is technically employed by a Fane subsidiary called Esty, which provides security services to corporations and the point zero-zero-zero-one percent, like Curt Straussler. But, like Eric, he is also employed by a secret Fane division—a black ops group called "Spartacus" that provides off-the-books security services for Fane's secret operations. When he was approached by Spartan Techadyne, yet another part of the Fane empire, and asked to provide intelligence on Straussler and Proteus, his superiors at Spartacus told him to accept. (What's the relationship between Spartacus and Spartan Techadyne? He doesn't know. Maybe there isn't one)
It's all a muddle. But before you go any further you will want to get Frank's input. He's probably going crazy being left out.
* * * * *
"How did you get in?" Will Prescott bluntly asks when he meets you at the landing on the stairs.
"I told your mom I have homework for you," you reply, and turn him around to push him back upstairs.
"You don't go to my—"
"Quiet!" you growl. "You're not usually this dense, Frank."
"Oh, right," he sighs. "I used to be Frank Durras, didn't I?"
That's when you remember that this mopey kid in the droopy cargo shorts and the floppy t-shirt has your body and your anima, but has lost contact with the part of him that used to be a Stellae.
"Don't you ever switch faces?" you ask him once you've got him in your old bedroom, which with its tangled bed sheets and tottering stacks of books and old dishes looks like it hasn't been cleaned since you yourself were last in it. "You could get Frank back any time you wanted."
He shrugs. "Just seems safest to keep things like this." He slumps onto the bed. "So how are Joe and Will?" He will be asking that because you gave yourself a copy of Jonathan Straussler's imago before coming over, and are wearing it now.
"Joe's fine. So am I. Take your clothes off," you continue as you haul a mask out of the book bag you're carrying, "and get into that."
He perks up. "What's going on. Is that you, uh, Will?"
"Yeah, it's me, and this is a rescue mission. I'll take over for you here for the evening," you say as you start unbuttoning your shirt and peeling off your shoes. "You go back to the Strausslers. Joe will tell you what's been going on and will get you a new face, and he'll also fix you up so you and Frank stay on speaking terms no matter who you're looking like. Then you'll send a golem back here to cover for you—well, me—so you can move back in with us."
"It's about time you guys got moving," he grumbles, but his eyes are bright as he peels off the last of his clothes and pulls the mask toward him.
"We haven't been wasting time," you tell him with a grin, then switch into your old and start putting on your old clothes.
* * * * *
You were worried you might get nostalgic during your brief return home. You needn't have. Your dad is still steamed at you over the fight that got you suspended, and because you didn't pick up any memories from Frank of the last few days you make a fool of yourself after dinner when you don't know enough to bring your homework in for him to check. By the time Jonathan Straussler shows up again around eight, you're ready to shake the dust of Saratoga Falls from your shoes for good.
Of course it's not Jonathan who is bringing you "extra homework" up. It's what's left of Huojin Liu, but running Jonathan's mind and face. After you get clothes switched around, you flip yourself back to Jonathan's imago and switch Liu to the "Will Prescott" form that Joe copied onto the erstwhile Fane agent. "Have fun with the rest of your life," you tell him as you pull on Jonathan's shoes.
"Oh Christ," he moans, and he looks genuinely pained. "We were having fun, weren't we, man? Before those guys showed up?"
You stop short, for this rebuke, though mild, has stung you hard.
The "Will Prescott" standing in front of you carries the memories that Frank picked up while playing "Will Prescott," and those were the memories of the golem that you created and sent to suffer for you at Westside while you were playing at Blackwell's. Though he's just a ghostly imago being carried around by a stitched-together Frankenstein's monster, he looks and acts and, most important of all, remembers being the "you" that was your first partner when all this started.
The "you" who had all your secrets, who loyally and doggedly helped you out.
You're moved to grab him in a brotherly hug. "We'll get you out," you tell him, and you mean it as you say it. "We'll figure out a way. It might take awhile. Fuck, it might take months. But I promise you, we won't forget you!"
He shrugs—it looks like embarrassment—but at least he doesn't call you a liar. Still, his evident doubt makes you more determined to keep that promise.
* * * * *
"We got a lot of ways of getting into Fane," Frank says later that evening. His eye is flinty. "Through Kim, through Liu, through Fort Suffolk."
"Don't forget Hal," says Joe.
"Who's he?" you ask.
"Hal Swann. Stellae. Specializes in fucking up Fane every way he can."  indicates the next chapter needs to be written. |
| Members who added to this interactive story also contributed to these: |
View Portfolio
Visit Notebook
Send Gift Points
Awards
Badges
Send Email
Community Newsfeed
General Discussion
Sponsored Items
Book of Trinkets
Static Items
Books
Groups
Interactive Stories
Audio
Campfire Creatives
Community Notes
Crossword Puzzles
Documents
Folders
Images
In & Outs
Madlibs
Photo Albums
Polls
Product Reviews
Quizzes
Survey Forms
Web Pages
Word Searches
More by this author