capeandcowllogs | Rain in the air

Entry tags:

Rain in the air

WHO: Geddoe and Boyd (

plays_with_dolls)
WHERE: GPS/Rossum Headquarters
WHEN: today! (Friday) afternoonish
WARNINGS: not likely
SUMMARY: Geddoe's handpicked GPS spies in Germany have found out things about Vulcanus. Time to report in to the boss.
FORMAT: para setup but whatever afterwards IDC

It was a little touchy sitting tight in the City, waiting for calls on the new, prepaid temporary phone meant solely for the mole to contact him. But Geddoe was no longer allowed on the soil of the countries where Rossum Corp's assets used to have satellite offices, so he had to be content with the modern style of commanding his forces from afar, by text and phone rather than face to face. He had selected the GPS forces himself, some he knew personally from working with them on the ground and others he had good intelligence on via personnel. They stayed in Germany, feigning to have quit when Boyd announced his boycott and staying behind for their own personal reasons so they could investigate the Vulcanus claims on their own. They were to report to Geddoe directly through hard-to-trace means, so he could in turn deliver that information to his employer. And, depending on the value of the information, to others investigating the ImBargo Act as well.

By Thursday morning he had received enough contact from his moles on the ground to justify going to Boyd. It was all pretty big news, more than he realized. He set up a meeting in person at Rossum on Friday, not trusting technology at all and preferring to discuss this directly anyway. Fortunately, he had been coming and going from the offices often enough in the past few months that they didn't even bat an eye at his armor and blade anymore. Ironically, showing up in full armor only helped to bolster his Dolvanian disguise - the only surviving eyewitnesses to his presence in the raid would have remembered a man with a disfiguring scar, ponytail, and modern sweaters covering a bulletproof vest, not a shaggy warrior in medieval leather armor. Geddoe strode into Boyd's office when called in, looking all-business by the scowl on his face.

"I have news, Mr. Langton," he reported simply.

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Boyd looked up at Geddoe and nodded. From the man's attitude he doubted it was good news. "Let's hear it."

"I finally heard from our men in Germany," Geddoe stated. "It seems the threat is legitimate. The rumored scanners really do exist." There were a lot of consequences to finding that out to be true. How they worked, he still didn't know, but the fact of the matter was, they existed. Someone had invented a way to identify Imports.

He let that sink in a moment before continuing. "However, it seems that the prevalence of these things has been a little over-exaggerated. Whether that's for our benefit or that of the countries where this technology is in use, I couldn't say."

"Good. That's excellent news. I'd have preferred if Vulcanus was bluffing about the whole thing, but knowing there's gaps in the net opens a lot of options." Sabotage for example to widen those gaps. "I've also gotten word from some people of my own I sent out. It seems in Germany and England that there is still opposition to this policy. They also said this started seriously proposed in March. I know it's not a lot, but we might be able to use that date to start tracking some of Vulcanus' movements don't you think?"

"Also are your agents still active? If they are I want to know if it's possible for them to get us some locations of these devices, map them out. Look into the possibility of a native team securing one for transport back here."

"Is that so?" Geddoe mulled it over. "So, it is a case of the governments acting against the will of their citizens. How strong is the opposition, I wonder, and how much can public opinion matter?" He was mainly thinking aloud, and shook his head to get back on topic. "Mm. March. Yes, it bears going back through records of activity, not only in those countries but also here in the City, and among the community of Imports. See if any connections can be drawn."

He breathed a quiet sigh. "I do have someone still undercover, there. The one who has gotten me the best information is doing his best not to rouse suspicion. I will pass along the suggestion." Geddoe had committed most of the information from the reports to memory, to reduce any chance of a trail. He closed his good eye as he recalled it. "He has witnessed cases of scanners being hand-held, much like our communicator devices, but also apparently installed on streets for surveillance. And planes. But there aren't nearly as many as they would like us to believe. Getting his hands on one of the portable ones sounds like the best bet, but if they are that rare, one going missing might be noticed."

"Keep him observing then. If he's that well placed I don't want to lose him as an asset. If he can get us a reliable location for one of these devices though, a hand held preferably, we can send in another team to retrieve it." More likely he would send in the team with a set of portable Imprinting devices to imprint whoever had the device so they'd just turn it over and then to wipe them so no one would ever know who was behind it.

"And I'm not sure how much the public objects, but it has to be enough to motivate the MPs who are opposed to this. If we can give them support, help them plead our case they turn public opinion enough that the Prime Minister and Chancellor will have to do something."

Geddoe nodded once to say, order received. "So far, so good. But the more information he can pass us, the better. I will send across those orders, for now, and inform you if he can locate one worth nabbing."

The politics of it was far too Harmonian for his tastes. He was not the sort of man who could work the angles, feed the propaganda, and so forth. He could see the strategies from without, but was not the man to take point in a battle of publicity. "Public opinion," Geddoe mused. "Is it important to turn it pro-Import, or simply anti-Vulcanus? I would be content to see them exposed for what they are and allow nature to take its course. If they cannot find a comfortable home for their antics among any countries, it will be harder for them to operate."

Boyd leaned back in his chair and thought for a minute before he finally looked back up at Geddoe and replied. "Anti-Vulcanus right now would be best. They're framing this as a Native versus Import issue. We need to undercut that completely, cast this as good people versus Vulcanus. The public needs to see Vulcanus as a danger to them as well as us, that we're all part of a world community Vulcanus is against. That means every horrible thing they do to a Native we need to make sure it gets out. We need to show it more than the abuses against Imports, as frustrating as that is, it's how we will convince people to listen to us."

It was a cold calculation yes, but Vulcanus was playing the game just as ruthlessly and they had a head start. If things kept going this way they'd win, so the best thing Boyd could do was change the game. New game, new rules. His rules. "I know it's a tall order, but I'm sure we can find that evidence. The sort Vulcanus employees might try to be careful, but they are going to be too prone to try silence people for there not to be a trail somewhere."

Geddoe breathed another quiet sigh. He was still interested in making war against Vulcanus, but less obviously, more behind-the-scenes. And in this case, it wasn't any one single company's duty to handle everything. "I hate to say this, but I must be honest," he offered. "This is already getting to be bigger than any one corporation or team's interest. This affects all Imports, and anyone who works and lives alongside us. That means tapping our fellow so-called heroes." He shook his shaggy head slowly. "Here it is, more than a year after the M.A.J.E.S.T.Y. fiasco, and we still have not located exactly where Vulcanus operates from. Someone is harboring them, beyond the countries that have barred Imports. I don't know if anyone else has been trying; I haven't. But it's time someone did."

He rubbed his face with one gloved hand while he thought. "I can have our mole check to see whether it's actual Vulcanus personnel operating these scanners, or if they merely gave or sold it to the nations in the Act. If they have civilian personnel on the ground in these locations, it may be worth it to attempt to get to one. If not..." He scowled as yet another thought occurred to him. "I saw their advertisements. They are recruiting. If I were investigating, I would want to know who is taking them up on the offer, what is being offered, and if any of it flies directly in the face of what they are telling these governments about the threat Imports pose and how they - Vulcanus - are different or better."

There was so much to think abut, much more than Geddoe would ever be able to follow up on himself. Despite his occasional frustrations with the Import community and certain members, he knew they would be better at sniffing out all these trails and following them to their end.

Standing up Boyd walked over to the floor to ceiling window at the back of his office and stared down at the street below. "You're right. This is bigger than us and we do need the help of the others, but that's not going to be easy. I honestly had expected the Mayor to do something like that now, but maybe it will have to be that puts out the call."

It wasn't an idea he was comfortable with. Being the head of Rossum publicly, yes. Being a community leader, yes. Unifying the whole Import community to fight Vulcanus, now there was a problem. It wasn't the end goal that bothered him. He simply preferred being in the background, letting others take the spotlight for such things. It made it much easier to maneuver and get what he wanted that way. What Geddoe was asking, it was something Echo would have been ideal for. Before her imprint of Caroline anyway.

With one last glance down he turned back around.

"You're also right that if we follow their recruiters we should be able to find at least an important facility, if not their central one. At the very least we'll get a better idea of their numbers and movements. And because they're recruiting even right here in the city they can't use that act to stop us. You're going to need a team to do this, Imports, but I imagine that's what you wanted permission to do anyway. More than a team though. We'll recruit everyone we can who wants to fight Vulcanus. This is bigger than this company, but we can use it to shelter them, supply them, to transport them wherever they need to go to hurt Vulcanus."

Boyd's mind was analyzing the problem now. Already thinking of how, while this might not be his usual method of operation, that it could play out entirely to his advantage. "One of the reasons Vulcanus has been beating us is they have a unified command. They're coordinated. Even when we fight back it's individual teams with little communication. We're going to change that. This is a war, correct? Then we'll start acting like it. A central command for anti-Vulcanus activities."

"Do you think this is possible, or am I reaching too far?"

Edited 2012-08-19 21:03 (UTC)

Despite whatever generic mistrust he had for certain men in certain positions of power - and his growing uncertainty about things he had found in the personnel files while building his mole team - Geddoe found himself rather impressed with Boyd at the moment. Saying things he had been thinking all along, speaking like a leader or strategist...

He folded his arms over his chest and faced his boss directly. "You have a keen grasp of the situation. Yes, it's about time we started seeing the war for what it is. Though, if things remain as they have every other time a threat has reared its head, unifying Imports as a single army - even a secret one - is something I have doubts about achieving." His scowl said it all. He had no faith in the scattered forces joining together and working as one. They had yet to prove by their actions that they were capable of such a thing. But he wanted it, and put his pride aside for a moment. "But. If ever there was a time when it had to happen, that time is now. While I have experience leading forces into battle, I prefer a less high-profile position. Surely there is someone else capable of true leadership in this case. Though, I also enjoy having strategists at my elbow, doing much of the thinking and coordinating so that those who need to act can do so with every advantage in their belts. We need more of those."

He regarded Boyd with an authoritative air. "The only permission I ask is to share this information with the community. Perhaps not so openly nor all at once, but to use it as a means to determine whether unity can even happen, and who might be able to make it to happen. The sooner, the better. We are losing ground by the day and cannot afford to sit on our hands for weeks. If I am unable to bring others together into a team, I will find someone who can. Above all," he warned, "this must be kept quiet. Vulcanus can not know if we've managed to put together an organized resistance. We must find those who are not so eager to show their hand on public networks."

"You have my permission and I think your suggested course of action is the best. If we're going to do this we need to the others capable of being leaders working with us. They'll bring the others with them eventually. For now we need to get everyone in the same room, a meeting to get this started." Boyd paused for a moment as he thought about presenting something tempting that would guarantee a meeting. "You can also tell them I might have a way that we can infiltrate Vulcanus territories even if the area is covered in detectors. That should get them to the table."

Admitting that was a risk, one of the worst he'd taken in this place, but we needed this coalition to happen and to happen now. It wasn't as if all of the others were ignorant of the tech's existence so as long as he spun it in the right way he'd escape most of their suspicion and even if he didn't, hopefully the potential to defeat Vulcanus would be too tempting for them to act against him.

"Also to help keep things secure inform them I can help with that as well. We'll use the Rossum/GPS satellite network and the Mainframe to provide secure communications and data transfer. And make sure the emergency command bunker is up and running. We're going to need it and I know Vulcanus doesn't know about it. Since it already has secure connections to our networks it should provide a suitable HQ for now."

Geddoe nodded, but after a moment, his good eye narrowed. Not out of suspicion, it was merely a lot of information to take on at once. "...I'm going to have to write some of that down," he said wryly.

He moved to the desk to find something, even a memo pad, on which to jot down notes. He would have to figure out how to formulate the message to the community later, for now he needed the actual words, the dangling bait for other powers to grab onto. "Is this true, then?" he wondered as idly as he could. "You have something that may counteract the scanners, already?"

Boyd pulled a notepad out of one his draws along with a pen and slide it over to Geddoe. "I might, it would require testing to be sure though. Also for maximum effectiveness we would have to capture Vulcanus members. I only haven't mentioned it before because I was concerned with using it at all. It's a technology that unfortunately has been horribly abused by the likes of the Major before. A shame because a lot of good can be done with it."

Without sitting down, Geddoe took the offered pad and started jotting in his own native writing system, a runic-looking lettering of angles and lines. He was much faster with it in hand than using the local writing system. He frowned darkly even as he wrote. "That man has corrupted nearly everything he touched," he grumbled. "I'm not sorry that he has yet to return - perhaps this time, death was the final nail after all." Confident that he had made note of everything Boyd was offering, as well as his statement about the time frame of the anti-Import laws in other countries, he straightened up. "Capturing someone from Vulcanus may prove difficult, but at this rate, we need to start taking risks. Else, we may indeed be herded into a prison or a deserted island somewhere against our will, all of a sudden, with no room to protest that we didn't see it coming."

"He did and it's only because things might get as extreme as all of us being imprisoned that I'm considering its use. Which reminds me General, make sure GPS orders extra arms. Nothing too extreme, but the upper limit of any contracts we have. If this does go forward we're going to be arming a lot more people and I want to have a sufficient supply before it becomes an issue. There's also the fact it's always a possibility laws might be passed preventing ourselves, or our companies from making such purchases." Of course with recent delivery of Xanato's particle weapons he at least had one Import source he could count on.

"Mm. Very well." Geddoe shrugged very slightly. "At least someone will be making a tidy profit off of this fiasco. Of note, I will be needing a new armored vest - the kind that stop bullets. I had one, but it may be damaged beyond repair." No need to let on where and how it got damaged. "It will be on the requisition form."

He breathed another one of those tired, sagacious sighs. This particular foe tended to wear him out just thinking. "I suppose we ought to consider ourselves lucky that of all places in this world to be teleported into, we find ourselves headquartered in a country that believes so fiercely in freedom. Otherwise, those laws and far worse could already be on the books."

"I'll make sure you get it. I'll also make sure it has rifle plates in it, a full set. Most people think they're a bit heavy, but with the sort of armor you're used to they'll seem pretty light. Actually we should order more of those too. Not all of us are immune to bullets and again it's a restricted item I want to make sure we have a supply of." Logistics, it was a key point in business and war. If supplies couldn't get where they needed to be then the whole effort was pointless.

"Understood." Geddoe paused a moment, and then added, "Have you waged war before, Mr. Langton? You have a knack for it."

"Not exactly. I had to fight for company once back home. It fell into the hands of some dangerous people and I had to take some big risks to get it back under control." It wasn't a complete lie. The rest of the board had no idea that he'd left and gone to work for the Dollhouse, or about Echo as something unique.

"In some senses, companies like this are nations unto themselves," Geddoe mused. "The same tactics apply in defending them, though I would imagine, with a lot less hand-to-hand combat usually."

He nodded to show that he had gotten all the information and had it under control. "I will carry out the preparations, and send new orders to our people still on the ground in Germany. Perhaps they can bring us even more information, if not a captive or two. The more, the better it is for all of us."

"Usually." But not always. You also didn't usually get shot in corporate warfare, but he'd had that happen to him too. The tech tended to make things be much higher stakes than they would be normally. "Keep me updated General and I think for now doing it in person might be best. So when you have news some here and regardless of who I'm seeing you'll be shown in."

"A wise choice," Geddoe agreed. "I don't trust the security of the network. I will report when I have something."

He nodded, tucked his notes on strategy and communication beneath his leather armor, and turned to leave without any further formalities. "If there's nothing else...?"

"Nothing else for now General, and I don't want to take up anymore of your time. You have a lot to do. We both do."

Nodding silently, Geddoe strode on out of the office as boldly as he had come in. He had a lot of work to do before the day's end, now. He would surely be earning his paycheck this week, that was for sure.

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Rain in the air

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