Control/Freaks session 2

(A writeup of the Control/Freaks game)

While the agents were still crammed in the confessional booth in Sad Mary's, along with District Supervisor Wormold, the remaining agents of the cell found their way to the bar and, once pointed in the direction of the booth normally reserved for Control, introduced themselves to their colleagues. Wormold took the opportunity to explain the mission again -- a thorough investigation of the source of some strange email, sent from an organisation referring to itelf as "Crysanthemum Front", which Wormold had identified as a potential memetic weapon design to undermine the sanity of anyone reading it (portions had been blacked-out to spare the agents, though) -- as well as discussing finances and possible living arrangements (the leasing agency Property on the Edge was recommended), before providing sample containers for routine urine tests; most of the agents protested that they weren't able to provide samples immediately, so Wormold offered to collect the samples the following morning.

Christine did some research using Anthony's laptop and the wireless hotspot in the bar, and determined that the domain crysanthemumfront.com had been registered almost three months ago by someone called Anglioplasties B. Inert, although the technical contact listed was Christian Vibbard, an employee of Al Amarja On-Line (AAOL). A quick phone call to AAOL revealed that Vibbard works in tech-support and that he was scheduled to work the night shift that night. Some further investigation turned up a photograph of Vibbrad, as well as revealing that he is a keen table tennis player and the president of the local Thundercats fan club. Wormold made his excuses and left while the agents formulated a plan of action.

Harry and xxxx set off to the AAOL offices in the Golden Barrio while the other agents waited at Sad Mary's, watching the quarter final of the local amputee kikcboxing championship. The stakeout went uneventfully until the cleaners arrived; question of one of the cleaners revealed that out-of-hours tech support was handled by the sysadmins at the co-location facility in the Science Barrio and that the cleaners could be bribed into letting the PCs into the main office to steal the computers for a very reasonable fee. This has been filed away as a potential future fund-raising exercise.

The field team returned to join the others at the bar, where they hit upon a new plan: after obtaining a pizza from the bar, eating it and then buying another one, one of the agents called AAOL tech support and told them that they had a prepaid order of pizza and beer to deliver but had misplaced the address. The tech on duty was only too keep to give the address and the group made their way there immediately.

Harry was chosen to be the delivery boy, looking most like the part at seventeen, and managed to get himself buzzed into the building. Once inside, he confirmed that Vibbard was present, delivered the pizza and left.

At this point the plan faltered somewhat, only to be revived slightly when one of the cars parked outside was found to be sporting a bumper-sticker reading, "Honk if you love Thundercats". After letting all the air out of the car's tyres and debating the wisdom of stealing the wheels on one side of the car and leaving it on blocks, Dan broke into the car. A search revealed some tapes (Weird Al, They Might Be Giants and the OST of the Transformers movie) and some registration documents that showed Vibbard's home address.