Missions of the Retrieval Team - Kiltmen Down

[davedove]

Scene 8


Great Hall of X marks the Scot


As Dee led us through the hallways to our rooms, I began the preparations for the mission.

“Ms. Swan, first thing we need to do is contact Ms. Stork. If we are indeed dealing with some sort of secret conspiracy, we will need her help. Have her fly here ASAP. Dee, would you make arrangements to pick her up at the airport?”

“No problem, just let me know when the flight is expected.”

“Great. Ms. Hawk, Ms. Raven, come up with a list of equipment we may need. I know we don’t know the full situation yet, but list whatever we need to start and to deal with the most likely contingencies. Does anyone else have anything right now?”

Ms. Thrush quickly spoke up. “Well, we need to change out of our public clothes. I don’t think we need to fool anyone here. Mike seems to be perfectly aware of our capabilities.”

“Good point, everyone change, freshen up, and we’ll continue this over dinner.”

Ms. Swan stopped me before I turned towards my room. “I just tried to dial up Ms. Stork on my cell phone, but again I can’t get any signal.”

Dee, hearing her predicament, answered for me. “I’m afraid you’ll have to use a land line for that. There’s a phone in each room. You won’t be able to use your cell phones anywhere on the mountain.”

This intrigued me. “Why is that, Dee?”

“It’s something David worked up. If you want to know the details, you’ll have to ask Mike.”

“I just may do that. Okay everyone, let’s do what we need to do and I’ll see you all at dinner.” With that, we each stepped into the individual rooms that Dee showed us to get ready for dinner.

[Howard Clark]

Oh I am sure Grant would love to meet Ms Velvethand, she's 'very' smooth and persuasive when it comes to uncovering information. Oh wait, Grant hasn't been captured yet...Sorry

[davedove]

Scene 9


Casual Dining Room, Great Hall of X Marks the Scot


Although I did freshen up from the flight, I decided my attire would be more than adequate for an informal dinner. I made my to the dining area where Dee had told us to meet, where I found him directing the servants in placing the dinner settings.

“Mr. Dove,” he said upon seeing me. “You’re just a bit early. Please, just grab a seat and one of the servants will bring you something to drink.”

I settled into a chair and accepted the white wine the servant brought. Patiently, I waited for the others to arrive.

Always the prompt one, Ms. Starling soon came into the room, along with Ms. Falcon. They took seats on either side of me.

Shortly, the Moderators Colin and Nelson joined us, along with the rest of my associates, with the exception of Ms. Thrush. Quickly, I introduced my associates to the Moderators and we all enjoyed the wine while awaiting the arrival of Mike and Ms. Thrush.

Nelson spoke to us all. “I am dreadfully sorry we have no music tonight. It seems that all of my musicians have decided to take a trip.”**

We continued with small talk on current events until Mike came into the room, with a giggling Ms. Thrush on his arm. He was obviously enjoying her company. I doubted that Ms. Thrush was actually trying to “work” the executive officer, but instead was just practicing.

Mike addressed us all. “I’m so sorry I’m late, but Ms. Thrush was just telling me about how you retrieved that rare sporran from Mr. Grant. It’s a delightful tale.”

“Yes,” she responded, “The poor dear was so obviously interested in me. If the mission hadn’t ended so soon, I might have actually given him a quick kilt check so he could have a cheap thrill.” This caused us all to laugh.

Mike moved to the head of the table and offered the seat next to him to Ms. Thrush. Before sitting, he spoke to us all, “I assume you have all made your introductions here. Ms. Thrush, I’d like to introduce you to two of our Moderators, Colin and Nelson.”

Both of the Moderators rose to shake her hand. She flashed a delightful smile to each of them. “Charmed, gentlemen.” It was obvious, she was having the same effect on them as she had on Mike. The lady was good.

When everyone was seated and had their drinks, Dee excused himself from the room. “Ladies and gentlemen, I’m afraid I can’t join you as I must make the trip to the airport to pick up Ms. Stork. Her flight will be arriving in a few hours.”

“Quite all right,” Mike answered. “The servants know what to do. Ms. Stork needs to rejoin her team as quickly as she can, so make all haste to get her back here.”

“Of course, good evening everyone.” Dee turned and left the room.

I decided now was as good a time as any. “Mike, there is an issue that has come up. Dee told us that we won’t be able to get any cell phone connections here, and we noticed earlier that our GPS couldn’t pick up any signal either. Something like that could impact how we proceed with the mission.”

“Yes, I can see that. However, there is nothing to be done about it. You’ll have to make do the best you can.”

“But what’s causing the problem? Dee said it was something that David came up with.”

“Yes, it is. Perhaps I should tell you about it.”


** For the story of the missing musicians, read 'Panache and the Great Hunt for the Acryli-Beast'

[davedove]

Commercial Break


Outside a large manor house, sitting in a forest


A statuesque redhead, clad in a tight-fitting jumpsuit, covered with several pouches, is fighting with four men dressed as ninjas. The woman proceeds to disable the men quickly, using a variety of martial arts moves.

The woman picks up a small sculpture, and carries it towards the audience. A tall, bearded man, wearing a camouflage kilt steps into the screen and accepts the sculpture when the woman hands it to him.

“Good work,” he tells her. “Our client will be glad to get this back.” He hands her a small can and walks off screen.

The woman opens the pop top on the can and takes a long drink of its contents. She then looks towards the audience as if just seeing them.

“Oh hi! I’m Ms. Hawk from the retrieval team. You know, our missions take us all over the world and we see lots of action. Sometimes we don’t know when we can rest, so we have to prepare for anything.”

She hold up the can with the label facing the audience. The label is bright red and says ‘X Juice.’

“That’s why we drink X Juice, the new energy drink from the good folks of X Marks the Scot. Its special formula combines a number of active ingredients to keep you going as long as you need.”

She takes another long drink from the can and, with a satisfied smile, again faces the audience, holding up the can.

“So, whether you’re scaling a cliff, swimming across a river,” she briefly looks back over her shoulder, then again faces the audience, “or fighting off ninjas, choose X Juice, the energy drink of the Retrieval Team.”

[davedove]

Scene 10


Casual Dining Room, Great Hall of X Marks the Scot


Mike continued his story. “You know how David has a fondness for grand schemes. Well, one day we find out he’s trying to develop a force field for the mountain.”

I had to interrupt. “Wait a minute. Are you telling me that David managed to put a force field over the mountain?”

“Not exactly, but I’ll get to that. Anyway, when we asked why he was trying to develop such a thing, he just replied, “Well, why do you think? You never know when someone will try to attack us with missiles, or bombs, or directed energy weapons,” like we were complete idiots for even asking the question.

“Uh, directed energy weapons?”

“His words, not mine. We all wisely decided to let him go about his business. After all, the research wasn’t costing us any more than his usual projects. We all figured he would never make it happen anyway.”

“But he did?”

“Again, not exactly. One day, all the wireless devices in the Hall suddenly stopped working, cell phones, radios, and wireless Internet cards, all of it. At the same time, workers on the grounds say the sky went ‘blurry’ temporarily.”

“He had activated the field?”

“Right, only it didn’t do what he had expected. When we examined the devices that were affected, we found that they did still work, but no signal was getting to them.”

Ms. Swan broke in. “An interference field?”

“Exactly, David was disappointed at first that the force field didn’t work, but was delighted when he discovered what had happened. Actually, we all quickly realized how useful this field could be.”

“How so, Mike?” I asked him.

“Well, you know that the League has worked to protect the location of the Great Hall since it’s founding. That has become much more difficult in recent years with all the technological advancements. After all, what good is blindfolding a visitor when he can just look at his GPS as soon as he steps out of the car?”

“So that’s why the GPS wasn’t getting a signal. The field was blocking it.”

“Right,” he continued. “David had stumbled across a method of defeating satellite signals. Of course, it’s a bit inconvenient having to rely on landlines for our communications, but we believe the benefits outweigh that. And before you ask, David also managed to develop a smaller version of the field that is placed in all our vehicles. That’s why your tracking of your trip stopped at the airport, when you got into the car.”

There was something I had to ask. “You know, Mike, some of the things David is working on could prove very beneficial to my team.”

Mike smiled broadly. “Yes, I imagine they would. And, I really wouldn’t mind if you wanted to select a few. But you see, David is away and the door to his lab is locked and has a very sophisticated security system, so you can’t get in.”

We all noticed Ms. Raven perk up at that statement.

Mike let out a little laugh. “Ms. Raven, I can see that look on your eyes. You think you can open any lock, bypass any system. Well, I’m not going to tell you that you can’t try, but I’m not giving you permission either. David’s idea of security can get a bit lethal. If you do try, I’m not responsible for what may happen.”

“I’ll keep that in mind, sir.” She replied. We could all see the calculating look in her eyes. She was already planning the job.

We realized that we had finished dinner and Mike stood up. “Well, I imagine you are all eager to get started on your mission, and so are we. Again, all the facilities of the Hall are at your disposal and we Moderators will be available if you need us. I bid you all good night.”

As Moderators left the room, my associates and I made our way to the library to plan our mission.

[davedove]

Scene 11


Great Hall of X Marks the Scot


My associates and I briefly discussed the options of how to approach the mission before deciding to turn in for the night. Ms. Starling and I did wait for Ms. Stork’s arrival. After we got her settled in her room we all turned in.

When I awoke the next morning, I dressed casually and decided to wander the Great Hall to refamiliarize my self with its layout. In the course of my wandering, I came across Ms. Raven and Ms. Swan outside what could only be the entrance to David’s office. Ms. Raven had her toolkit laid out beside her and was examining the door. Ms. Swan had set up her laptop and there were wires running to different spots around the door frame.

I had to chuckle a bit. “I see you couldn’t resist the temptation. Having any luck?”

Ms. Raven answered without stopping her examination. “Well, I haven’t opened it yet, obviously. So far I have found at least three levels of security, and it’s quite likely there are more.”

“So, are you saying you can’t get in?”

That seemed to irritate her a bit. “No, what it means is that he has booby-trapped the booby-trap on his booby-trap. I never said I couldn’t get in. This man has to be devious. He is using electronic security, old fashioned locks, and I’ve even found a trip wire. There is one real interesting thing.”

“What’s that?”

“Look at the wall on the other side of the hall, hidden among the carving there.”

I stepped over to examine the wall. A small bench was set into the wall. Above it, the wall was carved to look like a window opening onto a heavy forest. Looking closely, I found several small holes hidden among the carved leaves. “What are these?”

“Those are the barrels of firing devices, set to shoot at anyone who doesn’t open the door properly. Darts most likely, and probably poison ones at that. I’ve only ever seen something like that in movies.”

Ms. Swan spoke up. “I’m running a special program that analyzes the various electronic safeguards on the door. There is an electronic lock that utilizes a sophisticated combination sequence of twelve numbers. With ten different digits possible for each position of the sequence, that's one TRILLION possible combinations. Additionally, there are alarms if anything is opened improperly. Oh, and if any of the other locks aren’t opened right, the electronic combination changes randomly.”

That confused me a bit. “But if the combination changes, how will he know what the new combination is?”

Ms. Raven answered. “That’s what I thought. Which means that David has to have some way to bypass all this. He’s probably got something on the inside that allows him to reset the combination so he knows the numbers. I did find a small opening here,” she pointed to a small hole on the door, “that seems to fit some sort of key device. Unfortunately, It’s not standard in any way. I can say that whatever is used, it allows the user to bypass all the security without setting it off or deactivating it. If I could just figure out what he uses.”

I walked back over to join them by the door. Something seemed to catch Ms. Raven’s eye and she began staring at my groin. Now, I wouldn’t object to her taking an interest in that part of my anatomy, but she probably had something else in mind.

“Is that the sporran that David gave you?” she asked.

When I answered that it was, she asked to see it. I unbuckled the strap and handed the sporran to her.

She closely examined the sporran, sometimes looking back to the small hole on the door. Finally, her eyes lit up as if she had suddenly gained the answer. She took hold of the small knob at the end of one of the securing straps and gave it a little twist. Amazingly, the knob separated and she pulled out a small thin device. It did indeed look like it would fit the hole.

“Do you think that’s it?” I asked her.

“Only one way to find out.” We cleared all the tools and gear away from the door, then she motioned for us to stand back. She slid the device into the hole and we all heard a light click.

“Cross your fingers,” she said as she grasped the handle to the door. Pressing the latch and pushing, the door swung inward, without any of us dying.

“I don’t understand,” I told her. “Why would David give me a key?”

“I don’t think that was the intention. I believe he wanted to have spare keys available where he could find them, so he built them into the sporrans he designed. I imagine he believed that no one would ever discover them.”

“In other words, I had a spare key and didn’t know it. Ms. Swan, why don’t you go get the rest of the team and bring them back here.”

[12stones]

Extremely entertaining. Thanks!

[starbkjrus]

I can't wait to see the look on David's face when he gets back and finds his lab has been burgled.

[davedove]

Scene 12


David’s Office, Great Hall of X Marks the Scot


When the rest of the team arrived, we moved through the door into the office. Inside it looked much like one would imagine a university professor’s office. In one corner was a large walnut desk, with piles of paper all over it. Next to the desk was a small table with a desktop computer. Along the wall were many shelves containing several books and a number of DVD’s. On the far wall was a window looking out over the surrounding mountains.

The room was small enough that the eight of us were a tight fit.

This obviously troubled Ms. Raven. “Why would anyone go to all that trouble on the door for just this? It doesn’t make sense.”

I answered. “Well, maybe he just really likes his privacy, but I agree with you. Everyone look around.”

The books were a selection of works mainly dealing with the lives of the many conquerors in earth’s history. Looking through the DVD’s, we found that they were mainly movies dealing with world shaking villains – Bond movies, the Austin Powers series, others like Derek Flint and Matt Helm, The Wild Wild West, even copies of the Pinky and the Brain episodes.

Nothing, however, was found to explain the level of security in place on the door.

Looking at Ms. Starling, I could tell her mind was working something out. She stood there looking out the window.

“What is it?” I asked.

“Well, I was just thinking. Based on the location of this room and its size, it shouldn’t have an exterior wall.”

Ms. Raven quickly moved to the window and began examining it. After just a few moments, she had it figured out. “It’s remarkable definition, but it’s a display screen.” Running her hands around the ‘windowsill’ she found a switch under the screen and pressed it. The screen and a portion of the wall pivoted away, revealing a small alcove with an elevator on the far wall.

“Well,” I said. “I guess we should see where that goes.”

Walking to the elevator, I pressed the call button and the doors opened. Inside was revealed a standard elevator car. We all stepped into the car. Looking at the panel inside, it had only one button. I pressed the button; the doors closed; and the elevator began to descend.

[davedove]

Commercial Break


Outside a large warehouse building, looking at the main door


The door bursts open and a young woman comes running out. She has dark blond hair tied back in a ponytail. She is wearing a t-shirt, tight jeans, cowboy boots, and sunglasses. In her right hand she is carrying a satchel.

Words flash onto the screen reading, “Ms. Falcon, Transport Specialist for the Retrieval Team.”

A few seconds later, several men come running out the door in pursuit.

The woman reaches a red sports car, throws open the driver’s door and jumps inside.

As her pursuers are nearing the car, the narrator speaks, “Improved ignition for faster starts.”

The rear wheels spin as the car starts moving, throwing loose gravel back at the pursuers.

Two large trucks move to block the exit in front of the car.

Again the narrator speaks, “Enhanced maneuvering.”

The car weaves between the trucks and passes them.

The car rushes towards a gate, which begins to slide closed.

Inside the car, we see the woman flip open a panel between the front seats.

Narrator: “Easy access compartments for personal items.”

The women reaches into the compartment and pulls out a large automatic handgun.

Narrator: “Better suspension for a smooth ride.”

The woman transfers the gun to her left hand, holds it out the window and takes careful aim before firing it.

We see the bullet strike an electrical panel beside the gate, causing the gate to stop moving.

The car speeds through the opening with just inches to spare.

Down the road we see two trucks with large guns on the back. Men are aiming the guns back towards the car.

Inside the car the woman quickly closes the window.

Narrator: “Newly formulated protective coating for harsh environments.”

The men fire the guns, which shoot out huge blasts of flame, engulfing the car. A moment later, the car bursts out of the flame, apparently unharmed.

Several speeding motorcycles zoom past the trucks in pursuit of the car.

The car and motorcycles speed along the road, which comes up along a moving train.

Narrator: “More horsepower for extra speed.”

The car increases its speed, pulling away from the motorcycles. After the car gets ahead of the train, it turns to cross the tracks, passing in front of the train with only seconds to spare, cutting off the pursuing motorcycles.

The car speeds off into the distance.


A beachfront house


We see a tall, kilted man leaning against a railing.

The same red car turns a corner and speeds towards the man.

Narrator: “New braking system for faster stops.”

The car brakes, coming to a stop just in front of the man.

The man walks to the driver’s side of the car. The window comes down and we see the same woman. She smiles and takes off the sunglasses, revealing sparkling green eyes. She reaches over, grabs the satchel, and passes it through the window to the man.

The man reaches inside the satchel and pulls out an old book. He smiles and places the book back into the satchel. He opens the car door and helps the woman out. Closing the door, he puts his arm around the woman and they walk into the house together.

The scene narrows to focus on the car.

Narrator: “The Moderator from X Marks. It makes driving an adventure.”