Run Synopsis
StarPort is beyond Pluto.
The Party meets in Spy School. Training consists of vehicle simulations, armament usage, and surveillance techniques. The class is divided into working groups; it is not clear whether there is a talent-matching algorithm at work or sheer randomness. The group to which Chantal is assigned consists of:
Their front is Special Events, Catering. Their immediate superior is Samuel Clemens, a Lithuanian from pre-USSR.
First Assignment:
A known courier agent of APS was hospitalized on Mars; immediately thereafter an ad for a courier was put in the Martian local paper. It is known which flight to StarPort the new courier is arriving on. Which passenger is the courier? What is s/he carrying? StarCorp has on local agent on Mars.
Passenger list acquired by burgling Travel Agency computer (Lyle, Robert) while Chantal distracts agent by shopping for a trip. Boris plays her bodyguard.
Mars agent determines which set bought one-way tickets: female engineer "Linda", Chinese lady, slick Italian "Emilio Paretti" w/cheap suit, and a business man "Sr. Juarez"
Delay each suspect through Customs, monitoring impatience. Then tail 'em. Italian runs and escapes Boris & Chantal. There're a couple of asides: a short Chinese woman comedy; the female engineer is a new widow. An empty suitcase is picked up from janitor with instructions inside.
Deduce that the Italian picked up his pay but forgot to make delivery of goods. Track bank account, hotel. Found disk of weapon-quality lithium in bank vault. Monitor "personals", as Italian sent message thereby. Set up surveillance in hotel. Italian murder in hotel before we ever got there. Found "Dejah Thoris" matchbook.
Second Assignment:
Find out why lithium came from Mars not Earth.
Ship-board. Boris has random miner roomie; Robert & Lyle room together; Chantal books first-class and takes Teresa as invalid friend. Bookstore w/old Martian maps. Robert refuses to go out in public during normal hours.
Third Assignment:
Is the ship-board murder tied in with "our" affair? If it is, determine what's going on; if it isn't, report evidence gathered to the ship captain (a friend of Samuel's).
The Murder: a smuggler-boss, neck broken in or before his fall from the 1st class balcony over the mezzanine. Non-descript Asian male is apparent perp (Max). Coffee shop waitress says smuggler smelled of onions every morning. Teresa makes date with 2nd Lt. who shows off ship's hydroponics including an unauthorized dirt garden (for crew recreation). Lyle & Robert explore ship storage for onion clues; find wedged door to storage room. Smuggler's room reveals small cryogenic capsule. Hypothesize terra-forming anaerobic bacteria being grown in onions. Hypothesis 2: Capsule to be used for short-term transport of bacteria. Also in room is a small amount of bacteria food.
During "crossover" (re-orienting sip so that it falls towards Mars instead of falling away from Jupiter), Robert uses MedLab to manufacture appropriate bacterial food which will be necessary once we find onion-incubator. Lab shows signs of having been used shortly before. Chantal helps to distract medical staff by applying for space-sickness medication. Is inadvertently aided by an elderly man with a cane who proceeds her and rails for a long time over trusting nothing.
Murder 2: female passenger. Neck broken in or before fall into hydroponics sometime around "crossover." Lyle & Robert determine onions missing from dirt garden in two separate batches. Find footprints of presumed murderer (Max2). Determine that female ("Smith") had associate (Dr. Jones). Chantal works to develop acquaintance with Jones via chess club. Search for hiding place of stolen onion plants without success. Lyle & Robert burgle Jones' room during chess game although Jones is alerted by his computer security. They discover petri dish and escape before he discovers them. Petri dish confirms working hypothesis that conditions are not present for successful preservation of bacteria outside growing onion.
Establish that Jones' most challenging chess partner - the elderly man with a cane - is actually a different man in disguise. Neither the man w/cane nor Jones are "known agents" but it seems incredibly likely that the "Smith" onions (as opposed to the "Max" onions) must be in the man w/the cane's 1st class cabin. Unable to come up with plan to determine more and, given that it is clear that both sides now have the onions, Boris decrees that the current status is sufficient. Man with can "falls sick" before planet-fall; is transported via ambulance to Mars hospital in NAF dome.
Return to 2nd Assignment:
Contact made with Mars StarCorp agent in Sanctuary
EPs: ?
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