capeandcowllogs | 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.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

"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.

Rain in the air

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