Interrogating Xanten
Michael
Following Charley's leads, Sophie did some research on Xanten and found out he's a classically-trained musician who while at university studying music got into musique concrète and the rapidly developing field of German electronic music. Xanten (pronounced "ksan-ten") has been involved in helping produce the recent wave of German psychedelic music since graduating from the conservatory, adding flourishes and background electronic effects to these bands' music. Sophie has a request in to her Interpol connections to see if he, like Keiner, has any leftist connections.
(I should remind everyone that if a translator is needed, Sophie fits the bill and then some.)
Brant
Remind me what the plan was for Saturday, day of the festival? Charley’s going to disrupt the Mansa performance with her Weird Tech but what else?
Michael
I think most if not all of the team was planning to attend in some capacity, especially if the crowd becomes whiter if the meme takes off. We've definitely done a lot to mitigate retrocreation at this point. Moore's still around and so is Mansa, of course.
Brant
Hm.
Michael
But it would be good to have multiple SANDMAN eyes on the event, I think.
Brant
Well, we should interrogate Xanten before Saturday, just in case he knows something we need to know about the concert that’d change our plans. Marshall can handle that but would want to consult with Charley beforehand to see what she knows about him.
Assuming everyone is back by 1 am and it takes them an hour to debrief, Marshall would head off to the Barn at like 3 am to handle the interrogation. He’d suggest going alone because everyone else will need to get some sleep prior to Saturday.
Michael
Sounds good. Jo is, if I remember correctly, on another modafinil so she won't need to sleep for a while.
And given the situation with Xanten, you're going to need an interpreter.
I'm going to assume Roger and Archie want to get some sleep to be fresh for tomorrow. Charley can definitely give Marshall all she knows about Xanten just from her following electronic music.
Brant
Oh shit, didn’t think of that. And Sophie’s our only German speaker?
Michael
Sophie is.
She'll probably pop a modafinil too.
Brant
I’m not sure if interrogation will work via an interpreter, unless Sophie has interrogation training?
Michael
(I'm not sure if Sophie's drunk and pilled like this since Tel Aviv.)
She does.
Brant
What’s her Interrogation skill?
Michael
I mean, it's a 12, she's not at Marshall's level. But if Marshall asks her in-character, she'll say she had to do both field and secure interrogations during her time before coming to URIEL.
She has other skills that might come in handy with this guy.
"I lived in and did missions in continental Europe. I can relate to his mentality, especially if he's on the left."
Brant
Yes, now I’m rethinking this. He might set up a scenario like he did with Jo. So he will take Sophie with him.
Michael
… do you want to bring Charley?
Rationales: 1) she has some knowledge of the musical milieu he operates in, 2) she also has knowledge of computer technology and psychotronics, if this guy is somehow involved in either
Brant
If she seems interested he wouldn’t say no. Won’t explicitly bring it up with Archie around.
Michael
(I'm also kind of intrigued at what kind of improvements she could make at the Barn.)
Brant
How secure of a site is the Barn? Like can we leave someone there unattended without someone finding him, random hikers stumbling upon him, neighbors getting suspicious, etc?
Michael
I would imagine we have motion detectors set around the perimeter, but I would also imagine SANDMAN/URIEL purchased it because it's especially (if informally) protected from peepers/property surveyors/bored teens looking for a place to smoke up.
Like, the property is regularly checked out by a landowner out in the valley on the payroll, nothing suspicious or uniformed.
In a small ranching town like Dublin, informal connections and patronage are probably more suitable forms of protection than Blackwater mercs patrolling in black Jeeps (1973 equivalent)
But I would say past missions we've left brainwashing victims/troublesome witnesses there for extended periods of time feeling secure about it.
(We've sort of informally narratively given the facility all kinds of features that I'm more than happy to just spitball.)
(A 15 Patron buys you a LOT of GUMSHOE-style Preparedness, honestly.)
Brant
Yeah I was just curious in term of like, leaving Xanten alone on Friday if need be.
Michael
We could do that with a lot of confidence. Local law enforcement's definitely not going to be a problem, nor are nosy neighbors.
I mean, the Anunnaki/Stasi/KGB? Who knows.
Brant
OK, for now my plan for Marshall is to take Sophie and Charley if Charley asks / expresses interest, then go interrogate Xanten.
Mel
I believe Charley was not staying at the Ransoms this night anyway. I’m wondering how tired she might be? Hopefully the nap earlier helped. But yes, she would want to go! She’s interested in Xanten.
Michael
So let me describe the features that our black site has. We set up an interrogation area with a two-way mirror and plenty of electronic surveillance in the observation booth (we can also throw in audio and video recording capability), along with short-range radios connected to a hearing aid-style earpiece so that the interrogators can stay in contact with the people in the booth. For the detainee(s), I would assume we would have had constructed for us a pair of cells with bed, toilet, etc. The site also has all kinds of old mechanical odds and ends (in both the barn and the warehouse) if we need them for any reason at all.
Xanten will come 'round at around 5 am, but he can of course be woken up prior to that via post-hypnotic suggestion. So @Inverarity, how are we going to structure the interrogation?
Brant
Marshall will do what they did with Keiner, but using Sophie instead of Jocasta: basically, send her in to do the interrogation with Marshall listening in from the other room.
Michael
So you're going to give Sophie free rein to interrogate without asking for anything to be translated for Marshall's benefit?
Brant
Correct. He'll tell her that if she wants advice on how to proceed at any point, to come see him, but he's operating in a strictly advisory / observatory role.
Michael
Challenging that I get to essentially talk to myself here. But I like it. I may go ahead and translate the conversation into German to give you a taste of it.
Brant
The thinking is that it will look extremely odd and un-intimidating to have Marshall lead the interrogation with assistance from a translator. It is better to have your lead questioner be someone who can understand the suspect.
Michael
I dig it.
Before heading to the Barn, Sophie goes into the closet at URIEL, grabs a change of clothes in a garment bag, heads to the ladies' room to change, and meets Marshall and Charley at the car. She's dressed less like an eccentric librarian now and more formally, in a tailor-cut women's jacket and dress, very sharp, very chic, very European, and swapped out her chunky eyeglasses for a slimmer, more fashionable pair.
Sophie to Marshall (and Charley) on the way to the site: "My attitude here is that I find out which way he's leaning before I come out politically to him. It's possible he'll be amenable to an approach where we pose as NATO intelligence. If he's involved intimately with Keiner, he may be a true believer but from what Charley has told me and the little research I've done, he's an artist and hasn't been involved too much in politics back in Germany."
"I have my contacts at Interpol looking into him, though, and I've forwarded my return calls to the Barn, so if you get a call from Saint-Cloud, probably an English gentleman named Harry? Take the call and tell him you're my teammate, and get the intel and pipe it to me."
"If I run into anything I can't handle, either interrogation-wise or on the technical side of the discussion, I'll head back into the control room and discuss it with you two. But I don't want to break the session too frequently."
Brant
Marshall, who is driving, will nod and smile as Sophie explains her MO. "As you see fit."
Michael
X: Wer bist du und wo bin ich?
S: Sie haben mit einigen sehr gefährlichen Menschen zu tun, Herr Xanten. Ich rate Ihnen, Ihre bisherige Zeit in den Vereinigten Staaten wahrheitsgemäß und ausführlich zu erfassen, da sonst die Gefahr zunimmt.
X: Wer bist du? CIA?
S [laughing]: Dominoe Records. Wie bist du dazu gekommen, für sie zu arbeiten?
X: Sie haben von meinem Ruf gehört. Sie wollten, dass ich an dem Mansa-Album arbeite.
S: Ein winziges, obskures Black-Plattenlabel in Oakland, Kalifornien, hat von Ihren Kompositionen im WDR gehört und beschlossen, Ihre Reise und Ihr Visum zu bezahlen? Bitte. Tun Sie uns beiden einen Gefallen und seien Sie offener.
X: Es ist wahr! Ich weiß nicht, ob es jemand bei Warner war, der von mir gehört hat ...
S: Sie haben also mit Mansa an dieser Platte gearbeitet. Warum steht dein Name nicht als Produzent auf der endgültigen Plattenhülle?
X: Ich ... ich wusste nicht, dass es nicht so war.
S: Es ist Ed, der in den Liner Notes "Producer" heißt.
X: Das sind Neuigkeiten für mich.
S: Haben Sie sich mit anderen Deutschen unterhalten, während Sie hier waren?
(Marshall sees Xanten startle at this question, clearly.)
X: Nein.
S: Das war eine Lüge, Herr Xanten. Sie haben seit vier Monaten nicht mehr so viel Deutsch gesprochen? Und Sie haben nicht genug Englisch gelernt, um mit den Leuten im Studio zu sprechen?
(The following in English:) X: I have... some English. Enough to be understand in the studio.
S [herself speaking in heavily accented English]: So... with whom else have you been speaking German, Mr. Xanten?
X: Du bist keine CIA. Du bist Bundesnachrichtendienst. Warum bist du hier?
S: Warum sind Sie hier, Herr Xanten? Welche Arbeit hast du bei Dominoe und für Mansas Album gemacht?
Rob
(two sides of an interrogation, in German — this is some pretty bravura GMing)
(to be clear: I'm digging it)
Michael
(Every good spy thriller has an untranslated scene in a foreign language in it.)
X: Elektronische Effekte. Elektronisches Sprudeln auf der Schallplatte im Hintergrund.
S: Sie haben am WDR über elektronischen Klang und Neurobiologie geforscht. Ich habe die von Ihnen veröffentlichten Artikel gelesen. Als Student. Beeindruckend.
(Xanten sits up straight in his chair, his cuffed hands before him.) X: Hast du eine Zigarette? S: Ich hole uns ein paar.
(Sophie stands up and makes her way to the control room.)
"I need to make this quick, he thinks I'm getting us cigarettes," she says as she rummages through her purse. "He's cagey about what he's doing here, but he very much doesn't want to talk about other Germans he might have spoken to while here. He thinks I'm either CIA or West German intelligence, so he's clearly feeling guilty. I asked him about what he did for Mansa's album and he said 'electronic effects in the background.' But I can tell he wants to talk about his work. He's immensely proud. The cigarette tells me he wants to banter, unburden himself."
Brant
"How do you propose to proceed?"
Michael
"Steer the conversation to the technical aspects of his work and its relation to neurobiology. He's published papers—as an undergraduate, no less—about the phenomenon. I think he's the man who put the hypnotics onto Ikenga and I want to know why."
Brant
Marshall will nod and let her get back to it.
Mel
“Wouldn’t hypnotizing him be much faster?”
Michael
(I like that Charley sees it that way.)
Sophie looks to Marshall. "He was ikoter'd six or so hours ago … we could probably hit him again and get him to 'remember' how he got into this situation. At the very least we'll need to figure out what to do with him after this, memory-wise."
"I'm heading back in."
X: Du hast meine wissenschaftlichen Arbeiten gelesen?
[S lights both their cigarettes and puts one in X's cuffed hands.]
S: Ich habe. Ihre Arbeit interessiert mich sehr.
X: Musik versetzt Berge. Die Harmonischen unter der Musik ... diese können den Geist bewegen.
S: Ist es das, was deine Plattenproduktion macht? Es bewegt den Geist?
X: Mansa ist unglaublich talentiert. Moore ist ein musikalisches Genie. Er verstand, was ich mit meinen elektronischen Effekten zu tun versuchte. Wir wollten das Publikum auf einem Klangfluss mitnehmen. Wir wollten ihn beruhigen.
S: Mansa scheint keine Rockband zu sein, die Menschen beruhigen will. Ich denke, sie möchten die Leute wecken, nein?
X: Ihre Leute, ja. Aber Moore versucht, sein Volk in eine neue Welt zu tragen.
S: Der auf den Gemälden von Keiner?
(Xanten drops his cigarette. Sophie helps it back into his mouth. Body Language roll for Marshall.)
Brant
>> SUCCESS by 8
To Charley: “As a general matter, we try to hold back on those sort of strong-handed techniques. Not every problem needs to be solved with a sledgehammer.”
Michael
X: Ich ... ich mag die Bilder von Keiner. Sie sind evokativ.
S: Evokativ, ja. Wussten Sie, dass er Rote Armee Fraktion ist?
X: Was? Nein, nein, das ist albern. Er ist ein guter Sozialist, aber er würde niemals Militanten helfen.
S: Sie sind Gast der Regierung der Vereinigten Staaten, Herr Xanten. Was würde passieren, wenn ich ihnen sagen würde, dass Sie einem bekannten kommunistischen Terroristen helfen?
X: Du bist absurd. Keiner ist kein Terrorist, er ist ein Künstler. Außerdem kenne ich ihn kaum.
S: Kennen Sie ihn gut genug, um zu wissen, dass er seinen Studentinnen nachjagt? Wusstest du das?
X: [hesitates for five seconds] Was meinst du?
S: Er gibt ihnen Drogen und führt sie in seine "Kiste", und dort zeigt er ihnen seine "andere Welt".
X: Nein. Das ist eine Lüge. Er ist ein guter Sozialist.
S: Viele gute Sozialisten missbrauchen Frauen, Herr Xanten. Etwas sagt mir, dass du das niemals tun würdest. Vielleicht zu schüchtern?
X: Du solltest mich freigeben. Dies kann nicht legal sein.
S: Herr Xanten, Sebastian Keiner wird gerade in einer sicheren Einrichtung der US-Armee festgehalten, und es laufen Verhandlungen, um ihn in die Demokratische Republik zu repatriieren.
X: Aber er ist kein Ostdeutscher!
S: Spion für Spion, Herr Xanten. Ich wette, Ihre Experimente mit elektronischer Musik würden in Ostberlin nicht viel Akzeptanz finden.
X: Das kannst du mir unmöglich antun. Meine Regierung würde protestieren!
S: Ihre Regierung wird tun, was wir sagen, besonders wenn wir sagen, dass Sie Rote Armee Fraktion sind und Keiner, einem bekannten Agenten, helfen, Unruhen in den schwarzen Ghettos von Amerika zu schüren. Überlegen Sie sich Ihre Antwort auf diese nächste Frage sehr genau. Ich hole dir sogar ein Glas Wasser, damit du nicht deine Stimme verlierst. Was wollte Keiner von dir mit dem Mansa-Album?
And with that, Sophie makes her way back to the control room.
Brant
Marshall lights a cigarette and takes a seat. “A little flirting in there, I see. Do you think he’s queer?”
Michael
"No. I think he's a virgin," Sophie says, going over to the sink in the bathroom attached to the control booth, and running some water into a glass. "I tried to needle him by saying that Keiner harasses his female students. He's jealous of Keiner. Of his confidence, of his power, of his dedication to the cause. Xanten's not dedicated. But he got the job with Mansa thanks to Keiner, I'm pretty sure of that. Keiner's his handler, and I think Keiner recruited him because of Xanten's expertise with subliminals. Xanten is also scared of being tarred a Red and being sent to East Berlin with Keiner."
Brant
“Did he know Keiner was Stasi?”
Michael
"He called him 'a good socialist.' So he definitely knows he's political, and approves. But Xanten said twice that Keiner is not a 'militant.'"
Brant
“But to be clear — Xanten, he’s not Stasi? At least wittingly?”
Michael
"He's just not that good. He has no mettle. I'm rusty at this, Marshall, granted, but I'm sure he's cracking. He's in over his head."
Brant
Based on what I’ve observed, is it possible to make a Psych roll to see how accurate Sophie’s assessment is re: his cracking?
Like is he playing her?
Michael
Oh, absolutely. Straight up Psychology.
Brant
>> SUCCESS by 6
Michael
Marshall thinks Xanten has secrets he hasn't divulged yet. But he has to agree with Sophie: he's a young kid, he's in a strange place, the looks of fear he's had when Sophie mentioned Keiner's name and when she threatened to send him to East Germany... they all feel authentic, real, and spontaneous.
Brant
Alright, Marshall will nod, say nothing, write down a few notes and then let Sophie do what she’s gonna do next.
Michael
"I told him I was coming in here to get him a glass of water so we could discuss what he did for the Mansa album. So we'll see where this goes."
(I may do the next bit in English because it's a long Xanten monologue. Sophie can memorize it and translate it for you afterwards.)
"Keiner approached me in Cologne when I was working on an album. Obviously, I was impressed that such a famous artist—and one with a foot in the door in the American music scene—had heard of my work. He asked me if it was true what I'd written in my research papers, about electronic tones being able to change and even create emotional responses. I said I'd had the most success in inducing meditative, theta states—and he asked if I'd ever put those kind of electronic tones into a commercial recording. I said no, the ethics of such a thing would be absolutely rotten. And then he asked me, what if such a thing served a higher cause, like giving confidence and power and will to an oppressed people? This sounded wild and bizarre, but I said, if enough people listened to such a subliminal, then it could have an effect on some percentage of the listening audience. It would be therapeutic."
Xanten takes a long pause, a couple more drags on the stub of his cigarette, then continues.
"Keiner said he was traveling to the USA to do work on an album cover and for a residency at a museum in San Francisco. Would I want to come along and work on the album, maybe slip some of those ‘therapeutic’ tones into the recording? I had never heard of Mansa before but Keiner got me their albums … very different stuff from what I'd been making, you understand, so I looked upon the possibility of doing production on Ikenga as a challenge. And then when we were pretty much through the mastering and mixing process, Keiner asked me, almost as if the idea had just occurred to him, if I could make a recording that wouldn't calm people and make them more susceptible to the messages in the music … could I make a recording that would summon up people's righteous anger?
"I said absolutely not, not that I could not do it, mind you, but that I would not, such a thing would be unspeakable. Keiner then gripped me by the shoulders and stared in my eyes, hard."
"He said, 'Unspeakable? You mean 'unspeakable' like these ghettos you've been commuting to every day for three months? You mean 'unspeakable' like the fascist police beating Black people's heads in?' He had a way with words, you understand — very rare for a visual artist. I stared at him. These people, Keiner said, have been waiting 300 years for someone to wake them up to their oppression. Mansa's imagination of a better world was fine, but something needed to happen, a trigger, a tripwire, to actually get the revolution started here. You asked me if he was a militant. After months looking at this terrible poverty and oppression … such a thing didn't seem so militant to me. So I made the recording. Keiner said I should keep it and give it to Ed on the day of the concert. There'd be police there that day, Keiner said..." And Xanten starts crying. Sophie leaves him the pack of cigarettes and a lighter and goes back to the control room, translating verbatim what he said.
Brant
“So, he’s a patsy.”
“A talented one, of course.”
Michael
"He's a patsy who's stumbled upon a terrifically powerful way to elicit emotions subliminally, yes."
Brant
“He could be useful to the Project.”
Michael
"That recording, the one he was set to give Mansa's engineer … we need to analyze that back at Livermore."
Brant
“He does not have Keiner’s ideological baggage — at least not at much, not so much the Project couldn’t fix, in exchange for being spared from the gulag. Or whatever.”
Mel
“Can we get him to change the tone in the recording?”
Michael
(Mel, give me an Electronics Operation-Psychotronics roll)
Sophie: "I would want to find out more about what drives him — to see if he could be seduced by something like material success and fame or whether he just wants to have somewhere to do his research in peace... but the Project could certainly make either dream come true."
Mel
>> SUCCESS by 2
Michael
Given enough time to analyze the recording, Charley might be able to come up with a way to put a new set of psychotronic tones into a recording. At the very least, Charley/URIEL could replace the "rage" copy of the Ikenga LP in Xanten's bag with a "soothe/prime for hypnotism" copy, like the retail version that's going out to stores on Tuesday.
Brant
“Clever, Charley. Very clever. I think it would be wisest to simply swap the records — if you think you can modify the original that might help us sneak it under Moore’s nose, assuming he’s aware of what he’s doing to some degree — what to be looking for, that is, maybe Keiner mentioned a gold record specifically. What was I saying? Oh, yeah, I don’t trust this dude to make the changes himself. I think Sophie has a handle on him — good job with that — but we can’t trust him not to insert something into it that we aren’t prepared for.”
Mel
“Will I get to talk to him? I’d like to tell him, how much I enjoyed the work he did with Amon Duul! Phallus Dei, was an amazing album!!”
Brant
Marshall looks at Sophie.
Michael
Sophie actually smiles, "Charley, we've got to make sure we can trust him first. He shouldn't see any more of URIEL until we have a plan in place for that."
Mel
“Oh alright.” Charley says with disappointment.
Brant
“Is there more you need to do with him now, Sophie?”
Michael
Sophie looks to Marshall, "I had another thought. I think Keiner needs to be interviewed again. And one of us needs to do it. We need to know what Granite Peak has done to him, of course, but I feel like he's the linchpin of this … entire thing. Now that we have handled the tapestry, the record that was going to be played at the show, and are on our way to diluting Mansa's appeal to the Black community … I want to know how all this came together. How Keiner found Mansa, how he knew that this moment would lead to retrocreation. I feel like we're missing some crucial piece of information, and I think we need it in the next 24 hours."
Brant
Marshall gives her an odd look. “That’s interesting. Why so urgent? Why don’t you think we can just stop this, uh, event and then check in on our friend at Granite Peak?”
Michael
"I don't know, Marshall … I just want to make sure all our bases are covered. I know we're likely going to have mitigated everything as much as we can by tomorrow at noon, but I just feel like we had so little information when you and Jocasta did the first interview with him."
"As for Xanten, I think he's just going to need to be kept here until we decide whether to send him to Granite Peak for brain hacking or to try and turn him. I don't have any strong feelings one way or the other. Like I said, we need more information. Maybe that's where one of us could use hypnosis."
"No, there's nothing I need to do with him. Is there anything more you'd like me to try and get out of him?"
Brant
“No, I don’t think so. I think he was a useful catspaw or tool for Keiner. I think he can be turned; it doesn’t need to be by us. Granite Peak can do that.”
I want to do a memetics roll to see if something is up with Sophie. I’m thrown by this whole, “we suddenly need to interview Keiner again” thing because I’m not seeing any reason to do that ASAP.
Like he MIGHT know something time sensitive that’d be helpful to us but it seems pretty remote, we have all his tools at this point.
Michael
Hmm. Let me look up the rules for detecting memetic infection, one sec.
Brant
Like obviously everything she’s saying should be done re: Keiner, but I don’t see why it can’t wait.
Michael
I think it's more likely to be Psychology to detect memetic infection in an individual, and then Expert Skill (Memetics) to analyze it if it's found. I'll roll your Psych vs. Sophie's Will.
(And I think the way we'll model it is that you'll just occasionally poke at her desire to have someone interview Keiner over the drive back to Livermore.)
So Marshall spends the half-hour drive sort of going over with Sophie the events of the last 24 hours, with a few judicious nods towards the Keiner re-interview idea. She's obviously not given up on the idea by the time the three URIEL team members get to Livermore, but she's also not actively pursuing it and more importantly, it doesn't seem to be part of any kind of memetic infection. She's not monomaniacal about it at all. It's just something she feels would add context and perhaps further information to keep the team safe tomorrow at the show.
Brant
OK. Well, then the next step would be to debrief the team which is something that prob can’t happen until later on Fri once people have gotten some sleep, etc.
Michael
Yeah, I'm thinking I'll move to the meme deployment at this point; nothing we discovered at the Barn is going to change that.
So if there are no objections, I'm going to have Granite Peak commandos come to the Barn to pick up Xanten and with Dr. Stanton's backing we should be able to have, say, a SANDMAN specialist in non-brain-hacking methods of turning agents work on him. My idea is to offer Xanten a lucrative career with a major record label as a producer and creator of music. I'm picturing him becoming a German-American Eno.