Eyes on Geller
Michael
Uri's flight touches down at 9:30 pm Pacific time. The SRI/SCANATE records show that Uri is traveling with a cohort of four people: Uri himself, Andrija Puharich, occultist and Uri's "hype man" among the Aquarian contingent, Uri's manager Shipi Shtrang, and Shtrang's sister and Uri's current significant other if the gossip is to be believed, Hannah Shtrang. All four are flying first class.
Bill
Given Roger didn’t have much to do while Archie and Charley were doing analysis, I’d like to say he renched Modern Hebrew at some level, just in case of needing it to monitor. Probably overkill, but you never know.
Michael
Given Roger didn’t have much to do while Archie and Charley were doing analysis, I’d like to say he renched Modern Hebrew at some level, just in case of needing it to monitor. Probably overkill, but you never know.
So since Renching can provide you with up to 4 points worth of skills, and I do like the idea of instantaneous language download (even though Ken doesn't technically include it in the Renshaw Method's description), basically Sandmen have a choice of language spreads when using the tachistoscope: Spoken at Accented (4 points) Written at Literate (4 points) Spoken at Broken (2 points) plus Written at Semi-Literate (2 points) So I'm assuming Roger wants the Spoken (Accented) 4 point option?
And for Jeff and Bill both: let me know how you two are gonna be positioned at the airport. (Mitch: eyes on Uri at his arrival gate/Roger: wheelman outside?) Luckily Uri and entourage are flying in from New York City so there's no international customs/immigration for them to worry about and Mitch can just be hanging outside the gate hiding behind a copy of the Chronicle. Apparently Uri, Hannah, and Shipi were staying with Puharich in his estate in Ossining, New York for a day or two before coming out to California.
Bill
Again, given the lack of crazy airport security of our times, I’m guessing Roger can idle in an unmarked van from the pool outside Arrivals, maybe not right at the curb to the doors, but a lane or two over. He’ll have radio contact with Mitch and be ready to act.
Michael
And yeah, given the recent spate of hijackings, air travelers in 1973 are up in arms about a simple metal detector between them and boarding their planes. Otherwise, yeah, just wander around the airport as you please.
So as Uri and company de-plane, Mitch, you can give me just one series of Detect (History B) rolls and just one series of Aura Reading rolls and I'll give you data for the whole party.
Mel
That’s smart!
Jeff
Detect first
>> ACTIVATE … SUCCESS by 5
>> DETECT … SUCCESS by 0
>> ANALYZE … SUCCESS by 0
Juuuuust a success
Then aura
>> ACTIVATE … SUCCESS by 2
>> DETECT … SUCCESS by 4
>> ANALYZE … SUCCESS by 0
Again, just a success
Michael
Not difficult to spot Uri Geller coming off the plane first. He's stylish, speaking English in a heavy accent very loudly to Hannah and Shipi. Puharich follows alongside the three young Israelis doggedly. None of the four of them display any signs of History B taint, nor does anyone or anything else in the gate area.
"This, uh, Silicon Valley is … it is very very boring," Uri says to his companions. "We will go into San Francisco on tomorrow night and we will have some real culture and real food, yes?" Uri smiles at Hannah, looking then around the terminal hoping by the look of his body language like, I dunno, like there will be some paparazzi to photograph him coming off the plane. None are in evidence.
So for the Aura Reading … this set of rolls will give you the basic information as well as the "full scan" Emotion Sense/x-ray info, right?
Jeff
Yeah, the whole shebang, at least in theory.
Michael
Hannah and Shipi: Both their auras betray a real exhaustion: jet lag, most likely: it's a late night assuming they were only in the Eastern time zone for a little while and now have hopped another three hours west. But they're in good health, both of them are in their twenties, their auras emotionally are in generally good spirits. By the looks of things, Hannah's probably in love with Uri and yeah, maybe Shipi is a little bit in his own way as well: both their auras reach out like heliotropes to Uri's.
Puharich: Puharich is in his own little mental world and Mitch can surmise this state is situation normal for him. He has a dreamy aura—not marked by psi power or potential, but the kind of aura Mitch might have seen at Westercon or among the New Age seekers at Mount Shasta: receptive to the fantastic and supernatural but incapable of wielding its power. Obviously he's much older than the Israeli Three, in his mid-fifties, and his energy levels are accordingly lower. Mitch sees a hint of a heart problem in Puharich; nothing imminent, but much like Pat Price, he's lived a life probably full of scotches and steak dinners and his heart is in according shape. Very pointedly his aura does not reach out to Uri's emotionally, at least not the same way Hannah and Shipi's do.
Uri: Uri's aura is, as mentioned above, magnetic. He's not actively using NLP at the moment but Mitch sees in his naturally golden aura a great innate charisma, a personal energy that even mundanes must be able to sense. He turns heads. And he is authentically excited to be here in California; when he talked about Silicon Valley paling in comparison to San Francisco (and by extension, Los Angeles later next week), the color of his aura clearly showed that he meant it. Life is a great adventure for Uri, it seems, and his body and soul show a "rude health," as the British say. He also has a foreign implant in his head. Not at the third eye like Charley, but in his jaw. In a tooth, maybe, in a right lower molar? It's not a cavity filling, made with amalgam or a conductive metal like gold. It's a hair-thin antenna receiver that appears in Mitch's aura sight to be integrated into the nerves of Uri's jaw and gums. The tooth appears real and his own, but this micro-antenna is definitely a foreign body.
Jeff
Is that the only dental filling he has?
Michael
Yeah, the rest of his teeth are sans any fillings
And again, Mitch figures if anyone did a cursory exam of his teeth they'd never see this thing
Jeff
Anything History-B?
Michael
Nope.
Jeff
Tell me a little more about this implant. Is there anything electronic in the interface between the microantenna and Uri's nervous system?
My first thought was that it's a simple receiver and there's a miniscule speaker that vibrates his jawbone just enough for his auditory system to pick it up as a sound only he can hear, but upon review that doesn't seem to be what you're describing
I am strongly tempted to try to cook the implant and disable it, the way I suggested disabling Charley's chip. I figure one second's worth of pyrokinesis would be enough to break something fragile, and while it might feel uncomfortable for the person with the implant it wouldn't be life-threatening in the sense of dealing them any direct HP damage at least. However I don't want to send Uri to the hospital and force him to bail on Carson.
Also, thank heavens Uri isn't Illuminated.
But anyway if it's straight-up a gold wire soldered into Uri's nerves, cooking it feels less viable
Michael
So I guess a roll would be good here, given Mitch actually has Electronics Operation (Surveillance)-14 and that seems directly applicable here.
Not going to penalize it because the Aura Reading gives you a complete mental picture of the implant.
Jeff
Can I take an extra couple of seconds, really pore over it, and get a +1 or +2 to the roll? It'll no doubt take Uri dozens of seconds to cross Mitch's field of vision
Michael
Sure! That'll basically take the time it takes for Uri and company to leave the immediate gate area and go to pick up their bags at baggage claim. Mitch could also Shadow them through the terminal if necessary but of course that would require a Shadowing roll.
Let's call it Electronics Operation (Surveillance)-16.
Jeff
>> CRITICAL SUCCESS
Michael
Crit.
I think the most important thing to convey with a critical is that this is Advanced Tech. Kind of like Charley's hard drive chip and sensory interface, but not as far as 30-40 years ahead like Charley's chip. More like 10-20. But still beyond the capability of any mundane intelligence agency or scientist in 1973. As far as Mitch can tell, there is some kind of micronized transducer that can convert received radio signals to sound impulses felt through the nerves and the jaw. The other TL8/TL7+1 element to the antenna is that the power source for the receiver seems to be Uri's own central nervous system. The antenna could also receive simple dot-dash Morse code type signals as well without transduction or amplification. Most likely this receiver is on a specific frequency and Mitch's supposition is that it's designed to receive signals in the microwave range: this could explain how Uri was able to perform in a shielded area that was nevertheless connected to the metal ducts and wires of a building like, say, SRI's Physics building.
Jeff
Can I pinpoint this transducer and disable it with heat or is that not workable?
Michael
I'm sure Mitch could disable the transducer but collateral damage is the real concern. My feeling is that with a sizable penalty Mitch could exert the kind of precise control necessary to fry the transducer in the tooth and not set Uri's mouth on fire in the bargain. Uri would definitely feel something happening—being attached to his nerves means pain and/or awareness of something happening would be unavoidable —
As I'm looking at the standard GURPS hit location penalties, "Eye" is -9. But Aura Reading would give Mitch an obvious assist in targeting, +3 feels right here. So I feel like Pyrokinesis-16 minus 6 or Pyrokinesis-10 would ensure just hitting the transducer and nothing else. Any roll between a 11 and 16 would also fry the transducer but likely cause some damage (2 HP with Pyrokinesis 1) to Uri's mouth and jaw.
Taking Extra Time would also allow Mitch to be more precise here. Now if Mitch follows the Geller party out to the baggage claim area (I'd roll Shadowing-15 here, since Mitch would need to concentrate on Uri the whole time), figure they have to wait about 10 minutes for the bags, which would allow Mitch to max out at 30x Extra Time at +5. So if Mitch goes to the baggage claim, glares at Uri for 5 minutes or so, the roll would be Pyrokinesis-15 for a successful transducer destruction.
With Aura Reading up still, Mitch feels like he's blending into the crowd at baggage claim pretty well; none of the four Geller party seem to be throwing glances at him.
Jeff
Ok.
>> SUCCESS by 2
"Roger. I've seen Geller and his people. No obvious History-B on any of them. They're waiting for their bags now."
Bill
“Roger that. Do you need assist, pickup? If you want to shadow them in the car, I’ll need you to follow and ID their transport.”
Jeff
"Sounds good. Listen. Our boy's got an implant. Not as sophisticated as Charley's but maybe from the same team. Maybe not. Either way, it looks like a receiver for transmitted audio. I think I can break it from here without hurting him, but best-case scenario he feels it happen. I'm a little concerned I might just be champing at the bit for a chance to hurt him. Might not get another clear shot like this, though. Please advise."
Bill
“Shit, same team? Thinking … We maybe want to find out more about them, see if there’s a lead back and up from Geller. I don’t think we get that if you burn it now. And just knowing it’s there, man, that’s an ace any time you want to screw with him later. Did we get next destination off his itinerary? If so, come back in from the cold and we’ll call it in. Otherwise we may need to try to follow.”
Michael
(They're staying at the airport Hilton, the very same one that Mary-Lynn sings at)
Bill
“I think we can get you another shot.”
Jeff
"Okay."
Michael
Figure the four of them will take a cab to the Airport Hilton after they get their bags. Roger and Mitch can trail them there easily.
Jeff
"I dunno it's the same team," Mitch says, eventually. Once they're in the car, probably. "I dunno it's the same source. It's not nearly as sophisticated, but it's an implant that's connected directly to his nervous system and it's the same … it's the same kind of technology, it's not weird space lasers or anything. I guess it's more likely than not that there's more than two groups looking into putting tech inside people's heads."
Bill
“Well, amigo, it’s certainly a hell of a big step for a magician or huckster to take. Somebody big has to be bankrolling him, and if so, why?”
Michael
The cab pulls into the Hilton's drop-off/pick-up area near the front door and the three Israelis engage a bellman to pile up their bags on a trolley while Puharich pays the cab driver.
Jeff
Mitch ticks possibilities off on his fingers. "Deranged millionaire, retrocreated plot, Israeli intelligence, thing the CIA is doing at SRI that nobody's told me about yet, one of those Iron Curtain secret projects chock full of Red King agents … " He shrugs. "I said I thought it might have been the same team as equipped Charley. History-B technology is all lasers, right, and History-A stuff is all magnets." Mitch says this as if it's a truism. "Geller's thing looks like magnets to me."
Bill
"That's..." Roger runs out of words for a beat. "Man, you know, as much as I'm sick of mysterious elites doing shit they shouldn't, we can't fight everyone at once. Yeah, my training says we should follow the thread, but madre de dios, there's a lot of threads. Whole fucking loom of fate worth. I say we just do minimum due diligence here, then hand it off to the higher ups to decide. Get the hotel room, get a drink in the lobby, call it in, and take you back over to SRI in time to meet him there."
"If your gut still tells you to blow up Geller, well, let Archie decide. That kind of cleanup is way above my paygrade."
Roger pulls the van into the parking lot. "Help me set up a bug. I'll get it in the room and we can toss back a cold one."
Jeff
"Sure, man." Mitch nods. "So, hey, how do you feel about Geller? You see him and just want to punch him in his stupid face, or is that just me?"
Bill
"Oh, I want to punch him, sure. Damn sure. But if I punched every rich white honky that irritated me, I'd get dressed down, dismissed, and probably killed faster than you can say 'potter's field'. If there's a line forming to punch him, I'd rather hang back, let some white dudes go first. I'd be fine watching him get punched by someone else."
"Let's just say that if Archie says we should take the tooth receiver out for study, I'd be happy to practice some dentistry."
Roger's eyes narrow and he looks a little more grim. "But who I'd really like my hands on is whoever gave a con man equipment we don't even have to go around fooling good people. But I'd settle for fucking a bit with their face man."
Jeff
"Heh, yeah. I hadn't really thought about that angle."
Michael
(I am sure if anyone in URIEL demanded a dental implant radio from the boffins at Granite Peak they would be happy to improvise )
Bill
Roger controls himself, puts the anger away. "But let's do the job first. This bug will help us keep options open, allow for those kind of openings."
(Who says the boffins didn't already, with Uri?)
Jeff
Mitch nods again, then pulls out … oh, something like a surveillance kit with a microphone/transmitter and receiver/recorder, I expect
Michael
Oh yeah, you've got your standard kit with laser mic, in-situ bugs and receivers, etc. etc. I guess the question is given that it's late at night and the four of the Geller party will likely be going right to bed, do you want to do the bug installation tomorrow while they're out or slip in there tonight using glyphs et al.
Bill
Oh, I didn't realize it was so late. So, slight change of plans: Roger take the bug prepped by Mitch now, so he's got it, but placing it will likely have to wait until they go out tomorrow.
Michael
They'll be staying at the Hilton until Sunday when they take off for LA.
So, still likely to get juicy intel over Friday and Saturday.
Jeff
I do have the glyph if you want to slip in now. Though I'm not sure how it'd get you into the room from the hall through the closed/locked door, now that I think about it
Bill
Locked door isn't likely the issue: more like, if they're in the room, we get back to the whole "can Geller see through glyphs" quandary. It can wait a little.
Michael
At the very least one of you can gather room numbers tonight by getting behind the front desk. Ah, shades of four weeks ago at the St. Francis.
Bill
So, they took a cab? I wonder if they're expecting a car service, or if Puharich has a limo. If he doesn't, there's an opening there to insert a bugged car, or even a driver.
Michael
That I can help you with. I am guessing that given how much Uri will be working with SRI this stay, that he would have let Hal and Russ know that he'd engage a car service over the weekend from Friday to Sunday. There are plans for dinner in San Francisco on Friday night and then maybe some informal psi/Weird activities over the weekend (Uri and Andrija have gone UFO-spotting with the SRI crew before, as well as doing remote viewing work in the Bay Area). So yes, we can say that Kit/Marshall had/has the details on that car service company if URIEL wants to do a switcheroo.
Bill
Well, Roger will let the brass decide, but he'll suggest putting himself in as the driver (also with bugs in the car). Monitoring Mitch at SRI is something Marshall can arrange if we still even need to, so Roger's free to be Driving Miss Uri. It's right there, and it'd give cover for being back at the hotel for bug check-ins, etc. (edited)
Marshall could even probably do the switch overtly as a "comp" or celebrity back-scratching.
Michael
Upgrade!
Bill
OK, so I guess we get the room numbers, get a beer, and call in.
Michael
Whoever wants to use to get behind the front desk needs to take a point of Corruption.
(And I was just thinking about Marshall taking the SCANATE team + Uri's group to dinner in SF and one of Jocasta's cover identities being Marshall's "date" )
Using Psychometry on these folks would be, something.
Jeff
I can do it, what's one more point?
Michael
All right. The register shows the Geller party has four rooms. No one in this group is doubling up. Uri is staying under a pseudonym, rock star style, but Puharich and the Shtrangs are staying under their own names. Also? Uri gets a suite. No one else does.
Bill
Slight twist on the Driving Miss Uri plan: they'll first need a car for their trip into SRI, but Roger can't be driving it if he's the one planting bugs in the hotel while they're gone. Plan A: we'll need another member of the field team to do it. Plan B: we let them take their own original car to SRI, then have Marshall refuse to let them keep paying for the service "when he finds out", and have him "call in" Roger for when they head out. I like Plan B because it gives us more time to set up a vehicle for ideal recording.
Michael
I like Plan B too. Anything that lets Marshall act like a BSD.
Brant
Plan B.