Nomadic:Sessions:20180324

At 1:15pm the group is driving from Bridgeport to Mammoth Lake. Vincente has Marcus pull into the tourist center, where Vincente asks a bubbly young woman, "Anything strange happening around here?" "Well... it's rumored that Collin Media is bringing ghosts here from Bodie." She presses a sheaf of travel brochures into Vincente's hands before he leaves.

Marcus points out, "That Chevy Impala has passed us three times." He performs some driving maneuvers that verify the Chevy is following us. At Vincente's prompting, Rick vocalizes about energy readings, particularly "at a few isolated spots at hotels." Valerie suggests sending up a camera drone to search for Collin Media vans; her search for production studios for rent indicates several along Commercial Drive.

Vincente and Marcus check out a motel where Rick indicates a signal from the second floor. Carmella reports to Valerie that the room in question is not occupied. Marcus easily picks the lock. Vincente opens a suitcase which contains male clothing. Marcus opens the combination lock on a briefcase belonging to Scott Velasquez, a reality show producer for Collin Media. Inside is a "rack" holding two "filaments" with slots for three more; Vincente apports the rack out. Beneath is a manila file folder containing diagrams and specifications for the tiki torches; the "filaments" are elements of the torches. Rick says the rack is the source of the signal he's getting.

At another hotel, Rick says there's a very faint signal from the rear quarter of the third floor. Vincente tells Carmella to take a look. Carmella in turn asks Valerie, who exclaims, "Carmella, I don't think for you!" Nothing noteworthy is found in any of the five rooms.

At a fourth hotel, Rick says there's a weak signal from Room 136. Vincente casts Glass Wall and sees the room is unoccupied, but there are men's clothes strewn over the twin beds.

Valerie reports that a Collin Media van is parked alongside two sedans in front of a studio with a Commercial Drive address. Vincente notices the Impala pulling out from a gas station a quarter-mile behind the Navigator.

At the studio, Valerie positions herself on the hypercycle so she can see the front of the building, and Marcus sets up where he can look through the windows from a distance. Vincente casts Illusion Disguise to make himself look like Wade Miller, then crits on Missile Shield. Through a window he can see a man working at a laptop computer. Vincente walks in the front door. Glen Aguirre, the young man at the receptionist's desk, obviously recognizes "Wade" but does not greet him. Vincente: "Is Scott here?" "No, he's offsite at a meeting. However, Mr McCray is here filling in for him. What does this pertain to?" "Tiki torches."

Aguirre leads "Wade" back to the office. "Who shall I say is calling?" Vincente: "You know who I am." Aguirre taps at the door and says, "Mr Miller's here to see you."

McCray: "Have a seat." Vincente: "I've been sitting too long; I'll stand. Have you spoken to Diane lately?" McCray: "No, she was taken away by another task." Vincente: "I know you've been using tiki torches to summon ghosts. Why?" McCray: "It will be a ratings bonanza in a ghost town if we play it right." Vincente: "What were you doing with the capstone?" MacCray: "What are you talking about?" Vincente: "I took it. I have it. Do you want it back?" MacCray: "I'm busy. I don't have time. You're more dangerous than you look." Vincente: "We all are. Like the guy you put in the ground, with the bullets and runes." MacCray: "So you do work for Threepoint. Threepoint knows what those are. You're too much of a straight arrow to be part of the Collective. Why are you looking at bullets?" Vincente: "My one point is that I'm pointing this at you," meaning Diane's gun equipped with a silencer.

McCray makes aimless gestures with his right hand to try to cover for his left hand reaching beneath his desk. Marcus takes careful aim. Vincente: "These bullets have runes on them, too." MacCray: "I thought that was Diane's gun." Vincente: "I don't know what these bullets will do, but I'll bet you do." MacCray brings both hands up and out; something thumps onto the carpet. Vincente has him look out the window; McCray recognizes Marcus, who winks at him. Vincente: "Open the window." MacCray taps at a particular point on the windowframe, explaining that he is disabling an alarm. Vincente: "Now, go out the window." Vincente subvocalizes, "Valerie, we'll have a pickup shortly."

Once outside, Vincente tries to cast Sleep on MacCray but the spell does not work. Marcus zipties MacCray's hands, pats him down (removing a wallet, keycase, and zip drive), then knocks him unconscious and blindfolds him with his own necktie. Valerie comes and picks up MacCray and takes him to the Navigator; she and Rick load MacCray into the back. From the desk Vincente collects the laptop and a cell phone, learning incidentally that the desk is Lori Griffith's. He picks up the .22 automatic which had fallen on the carpet; its grip has a rune engraved on it.

Valerie returns to her lookout and sees that three people now occupy one of the sedans and are having an animated discussion. The man sitting in the front passenger seat is fiddling with the glove compartment. He exits the car gingerly holding what looks like a ring box between his thumb and forefinger and enters the building.

Marcus drives. Vincente searches the laptop (after Rick has removed a tracer) and finds data on Wade Miller, Maya Cobb, Tyler Investigations, a note about the missing capstone, photos of Vincente and Marcus, and brief notes such as Empowerment Collective? Threepoint? Powerful Mage.. Veritas Inception is bookmarked in his browser. There's also one encrypted, passworded folder. McCray had only arrived in town this morning.

Vincente finds Lori Griffith's number in McCray's phone and dials it. A female voice exclaims, "Jeremy! What do you need?" Vincente: "This isn't Jeremy. I'm your executive assistant." "Is he still alive? Your voice sounds familiar." "We've never met. Call me 'Don Johnson'. He's not worth a ransom, but he knew some things. He assumed I was with Threepoint. What are you doing with the souls?" "I am absolutely not going to tell you." "Am I going to have to come get you?" "You're playing 'hide and seek and kill'?" "There's no hiding. You're in a car. ... What does the rune on Jeremy McCray's gun mean?" "He's a good shot, but he likes accuracy, and he has dealt with the Collective quite a bit." "You consider the Collective nasty?" "I consider Threepoint nasty. I've read the list." "I'm not who you think I am." "You left a mess last night. You took the explosives but left the corpses. Tell Jeremy I said 'hi'." She hangs up.

According to Rick's descriptions, Lori Griffith is not in one of the three vehicles. Vincente tells Valerie to blow up the van. No alarms go off.

We have stopped at an isolated, deserted baseball field. Marcus and Vincente haul Jeremy McCray into the concession stand and tie him to a chair. Marcus slaps McCray awake, then announces, "You have a short window of time to prove your value to me." McCray seems about to speak; Marcus shoots him in the knee. McCray emits an ear-splitting scream; Marcus yanks open his mouth still further and with a pair of pliers extracts a false tooth. "That was a close one!" he says, tossing it to the ground and stepping on it. "Now's your chance." McCray babbles: "Threepoint Foundation... goody two-shoes... standing in our way for years... cell in L.A. ... Miller works for them... they're worldwide, like we are... Collective stands in our way... territory argument, both want the whole planet... gets messy... they might be in the area... they have a few mages... we thought you were Collective...." "Which one are you?" "We work for Veritas. Collin Media is a front."

"Have you heard of the List?" McCray doesn't answer. Marcus pulls out a pair of tin snips; "I learned this in Japan. I know you know what I'm talking about. Did she tell you about the List?" Abruptly, Marcus snips off McCray's index finger. McCray screams again, then stammers, "I don't know about a List!"

"Okay, let's start over," Marcus says. "Lori says 'hi'." McCray's eyes roll back and he goes into convulsions. Marcus punches him hard in the center of his chest and the convulsions stop. "Jeremy, you there? You guys are real crafty."

Vincente phones Lori Griffith. "That was very cruel of you. He almost had a heart attack." "He doesn't know about the List. But I could be lying. If you can Detect Truth over the phone, you should take over the world." "If you find my family, go ahead and kill them. If he doesn't know about the List, and you won't tell me what you're doing with the souls, then I'll talk to you tomorrow." "I want the capstone. It would make things simpler."

Marcus resumes interrogating McCray. "Why the runes? What are they supposed to kill?" "Spiritual constructs. Magnets to different spiritual energies. Jess Brendon Rogers made them. The capstone, I'm not sure... it's to focus spiritual energy to do something, I'm not cleared to know what. Gwendolyn Finch made it. ... The runes kill 'minders' and 'magickers'. Keeps them from dodging bullets. They take a long time to make. The Collective somehow finds more powerful minders and magickers than we do. High-level mages, bullets just don't hit them. I killed a mage once; he didn't move. ... I don't know why the spirits are being drawn in. Lori won't tell me what the energy is for. ... I can tell you where to find Collin Media's financials, their passwords..." (Rick: "They've probably already been changed.") "I'll give you $200,000 cash right now to let me go." Marcus flashes his own wad; "Not interested in your bribe." "Lori had me book tickets back to L.A. for tomorrow morning, but I didn't have a chance to do it. She was staying at Rockway Inn Wildwood. ... Milo Monteroi is an executive producer; Lori and Scott are producers. They met with two big shots from Veritas this afternoon."

Marcus: "If we let you go, what would Veritas do to you?" McCray: "Kill me, or make me dump everything you said. ... they'd use minders, equipment, and certain drugs..." Marcus: "If only they knew it only took a pistol, pliers, and snips." Vincente: "We can't take him in for medical treatment; that would put the hospital in danger. These people are out of control."

Marcus says solemnly, "Jeremy, I hope you know there's no hard feelings." "I understand," McCray says, closing his eyes. Marcus kills him with a shot to the head.