Transian Public Library - Log 2
Aug. 17th, 2023 11:18 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
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xp_logsKane meets with MA, Amanda, and Wanda about the library, their plan to steal it and what they need to make that happen.
“You know, I was one hundred percent expecting more cool spy stuff, eh? Like cool holograms of the globe with all kinds of writing and points projecting on them and shifting, or a wall of monitors with those ‘Matrix’ like scrolls of secret data or something. I mean, no offense, but this looks like a slightly less shabby version of our conference room at the Field Office.” Kane said, taking his first trip to the new offices in District-X. He nodded to Wanda and Amanda as MA walked him in and took a seat at the table. “So, what’s the big news?
"There's a library of magic texts. We're going to steal it," was Amanda's arch reply as she looked up from her tablet where she was scrolling through various documents. "Exciting, yeah?"
"Is it like an Ocean's Eleven thing? I need to get my tux pressed in that case." Kane said. "Or am I a Jethro?"
"Our coffee is better." Marie-Ange waved towards the break room. "I think you are the FBI agents in Twelve and Thirteen. Certainly not the insurance inspector from Eight." She sat down at the table, away from her usual space, and dropped her tablet into a docking port. "We do have the big wall of monitors in another office. But here it is just the big projection screen." Her tablet computer beeped, she tapped it, and then the screen in front of her replicated onto the far wall. "Is this your first theft? I think we get a toaster for that, yes, for recruiting the police into our criminal ways?"
"Nah, I've been involved in shady stuff. Uncomfortably. It usually involves the Red Queen. Who still texts me. She is very interested in eggplants. That's weird, eh?" Kane said, accepting a coffee. "So, what am I here to help steal or something?"
“Well, the lack of a toaster is a shame. But Amanda was not kidding when she said a library of magical texts,” Wanda responded. “Fortunately -“ Though it almost sounded like she was disappointed. “- there will be no stealing of an actual library. The books in question are being moved, so that will be the theft.” She glanced over at Amanda. “You’ve been doing the research. I can tie up the loose ends when you’re done.”
Amanda nodded. "As you all know, I've been researching Garrison's... chaos aura thing and I kept coming back to one thing, Chthon." She gave Wanda an apologetic look for the mention of the name. "From there I turned up a bloke from the turn of the century, part of a group called the Knights of Wundagore."
Wanda had waved Amanda’s concern away but her eyes and mouth pinched slightly. “That gentleman she found was known as Sir Delphi. From what we can tell, his writings on Chthon were incredibly extensive. Probably the largest, single collection from one author on Chthon, as far as we’ve come upon.
She tapped on her own tablet for a moment, sending information to Marie-Angie’s and the image on the wall changed. A castle appeared. “The collection was entrusted to the Knights for decades until it was transferred to the University of East Transia.” She sighed and pinched the bridge of her nose, muttered something about tenure and budgets before collecting herself. “However, academia does what academia does. The University was short on funding and turned to collections in their care that weren’t in every day use. They auctioned Sir Delphi’s entire collection and the bidding war was intense. But the individual who won the auction was Doctor Faustus. Not his real name.”
"And guess who shows up in some of the intel that Brand sent us from SWORD?" Marie-Ange swiped the screen of her tablet, splitting the projection screen into Wanda's castle on one half, and a picture of Doctor Faustus on the other. "No points for anyone, since I spoiled it. He has been collecting everything from carved quartz skulls to, of all things, and I did mine the worst item from the list, a book with an animated human tongue bound to the front cover. This is not anyone's idea of an audiobook, all it does is scream." She made a disgusted face, and pulled up a photo of the carved skull. "The book we got from the Hellfire Club last year? He is on record as inquiring about it. He hires himself out as a magical consultant, and then spends the money buying up magic items and books."
"What, so we're looking at a guy basically named Doctor Evil about his magical library."
"His real name is Johann Fennhoff."
"Oh, German Doctor Evil guy. That makes it all so much clearer." Kane said, peering at the picture of the man. "I mean, he's curled his mustache into horns for fuck's sake! He looks like the kind of cartoon villain who crosses eight lanes of traffic just to pop a kid's balloon. This is the guy who we're going to steal from? One look and you know it's a victimless crime."
Amanda snickered a little, then nodded. "Yeah, that's him. He's taking possession of the library soon and will be transporting it from Transia to his compound in Symkaria via truck. I figure if we ambush the truck, we can take the lot. 'Dr Faustus' here is definitely not the sort you want having access to this sort of thing."
“One thing he has bizarre amount of influence and favor in Smykaria.” The picture of the University switched to details on the European country. Wanda waved a hand at the map portion. “Which, of course, is exactly where Faustus’ compound is. The collection will be transported from the University to his compound via an armed compound.”
She glanced over at Kane and smiled wryly. “Ridiculous mustache or no, he at least understands more than the University about the real value of those books.”
"OK, so we want to steal Doctor Evil's books. How does that work? I'm assuming we don't just cosh him on his way out of KFC, eh?"
"We could, if he had a Kentucky Fried Habit." Marie-Ange offered. "None of our research suggests he does, but it would not be the first time we have just exploited a target's terrible fast food preferences. In this case, we know his future movements. We know where he starts, we know where his journey ends, and we know where he is most vulnerable. As Amanda said, we take the truck. That is the easy part. The hard part is getting away. Fenhoff has enough influence that while we could get into the country, getting back out would be almost impossible. The library is too big to just ask Blink to help teleport it, so we need an exit strategy." She smiled over at Garrison with the same oddly mischievous expression that usually said "I am stealing the last piece of garlic bread" or "I ate your Coffee Crisp."
"So what you're saying is we need a stealth plane. The stealth plane that Jean might be convinced to pilot for me. The plane specially piloted by Jean. Jean's stealth plane. That plane?" Kane said, leaning back in his chair.
"That plane," Amanda agreed. "We need you to butter up the doc and see if the leather brigade will lend us their fancy spy plane for a quickie heist."
“We have very good bribes we can bring to the table,” Wanda chimed in. “It’s no toaster, but if she needs some bribing, I know what her favorite expensive wine is.”
"Let me talk to Doc Grey. Things have been a bit rocky after the whole 'Hell-lord and death' thing. Least I can do is be upfront with her." Kane said, face casting serious for a moment.
"We need a stealth plane, a pilot, and transportation once we are there." Marie-Ange noted. "If you cannot convince Jean, I can convince Scott. We had a bonding moment over eyes, we have the same plastic surgeon, and he gave me a recommendation for the cosmetic prosthetics." She added, wryly. "Ground transportation in Symkaria is another matter entirely. I think we have a contact who works there, but I have to do some ground work, get Kevin to make an introduction for me."
"And hopefully no zombies this time," was Amanda's parting shot.
“You know, I was one hundred percent expecting more cool spy stuff, eh? Like cool holograms of the globe with all kinds of writing and points projecting on them and shifting, or a wall of monitors with those ‘Matrix’ like scrolls of secret data or something. I mean, no offense, but this looks like a slightly less shabby version of our conference room at the Field Office.” Kane said, taking his first trip to the new offices in District-X. He nodded to Wanda and Amanda as MA walked him in and took a seat at the table. “So, what’s the big news?
"There's a library of magic texts. We're going to steal it," was Amanda's arch reply as she looked up from her tablet where she was scrolling through various documents. "Exciting, yeah?"
"Is it like an Ocean's Eleven thing? I need to get my tux pressed in that case." Kane said. "Or am I a Jethro?"
"Our coffee is better." Marie-Ange waved towards the break room. "I think you are the FBI agents in Twelve and Thirteen. Certainly not the insurance inspector from Eight." She sat down at the table, away from her usual space, and dropped her tablet into a docking port. "We do have the big wall of monitors in another office. But here it is just the big projection screen." Her tablet computer beeped, she tapped it, and then the screen in front of her replicated onto the far wall. "Is this your first theft? I think we get a toaster for that, yes, for recruiting the police into our criminal ways?"
"Nah, I've been involved in shady stuff. Uncomfortably. It usually involves the Red Queen. Who still texts me. She is very interested in eggplants. That's weird, eh?" Kane said, accepting a coffee. "So, what am I here to help steal or something?"
“Well, the lack of a toaster is a shame. But Amanda was not kidding when she said a library of magical texts,” Wanda responded. “Fortunately -“ Though it almost sounded like she was disappointed. “- there will be no stealing of an actual library. The books in question are being moved, so that will be the theft.” She glanced over at Amanda. “You’ve been doing the research. I can tie up the loose ends when you’re done.”
Amanda nodded. "As you all know, I've been researching Garrison's... chaos aura thing and I kept coming back to one thing, Chthon." She gave Wanda an apologetic look for the mention of the name. "From there I turned up a bloke from the turn of the century, part of a group called the Knights of Wundagore."
Wanda had waved Amanda’s concern away but her eyes and mouth pinched slightly. “That gentleman she found was known as Sir Delphi. From what we can tell, his writings on Chthon were incredibly extensive. Probably the largest, single collection from one author on Chthon, as far as we’ve come upon.
She tapped on her own tablet for a moment, sending information to Marie-Angie’s and the image on the wall changed. A castle appeared. “The collection was entrusted to the Knights for decades until it was transferred to the University of East Transia.” She sighed and pinched the bridge of her nose, muttered something about tenure and budgets before collecting herself. “However, academia does what academia does. The University was short on funding and turned to collections in their care that weren’t in every day use. They auctioned Sir Delphi’s entire collection and the bidding war was intense. But the individual who won the auction was Doctor Faustus. Not his real name.”
"And guess who shows up in some of the intel that Brand sent us from SWORD?" Marie-Ange swiped the screen of her tablet, splitting the projection screen into Wanda's castle on one half, and a picture of Doctor Faustus on the other. "No points for anyone, since I spoiled it. He has been collecting everything from carved quartz skulls to, of all things, and I did mine the worst item from the list, a book with an animated human tongue bound to the front cover. This is not anyone's idea of an audiobook, all it does is scream." She made a disgusted face, and pulled up a photo of the carved skull. "The book we got from the Hellfire Club last year? He is on record as inquiring about it. He hires himself out as a magical consultant, and then spends the money buying up magic items and books."
"What, so we're looking at a guy basically named Doctor Evil about his magical library."
"His real name is Johann Fennhoff."
"Oh, German Doctor Evil guy. That makes it all so much clearer." Kane said, peering at the picture of the man. "I mean, he's curled his mustache into horns for fuck's sake! He looks like the kind of cartoon villain who crosses eight lanes of traffic just to pop a kid's balloon. This is the guy who we're going to steal from? One look and you know it's a victimless crime."
Amanda snickered a little, then nodded. "Yeah, that's him. He's taking possession of the library soon and will be transporting it from Transia to his compound in Symkaria via truck. I figure if we ambush the truck, we can take the lot. 'Dr Faustus' here is definitely not the sort you want having access to this sort of thing."
“One thing he has bizarre amount of influence and favor in Smykaria.” The picture of the University switched to details on the European country. Wanda waved a hand at the map portion. “Which, of course, is exactly where Faustus’ compound is. The collection will be transported from the University to his compound via an armed compound.”
She glanced over at Kane and smiled wryly. “Ridiculous mustache or no, he at least understands more than the University about the real value of those books.”
"OK, so we want to steal Doctor Evil's books. How does that work? I'm assuming we don't just cosh him on his way out of KFC, eh?"
"We could, if he had a Kentucky Fried Habit." Marie-Ange offered. "None of our research suggests he does, but it would not be the first time we have just exploited a target's terrible fast food preferences. In this case, we know his future movements. We know where he starts, we know where his journey ends, and we know where he is most vulnerable. As Amanda said, we take the truck. That is the easy part. The hard part is getting away. Fenhoff has enough influence that while we could get into the country, getting back out would be almost impossible. The library is too big to just ask Blink to help teleport it, so we need an exit strategy." She smiled over at Garrison with the same oddly mischievous expression that usually said "I am stealing the last piece of garlic bread" or "I ate your Coffee Crisp."
"So what you're saying is we need a stealth plane. The stealth plane that Jean might be convinced to pilot for me. The plane specially piloted by Jean. Jean's stealth plane. That plane?" Kane said, leaning back in his chair.
"That plane," Amanda agreed. "We need you to butter up the doc and see if the leather brigade will lend us their fancy spy plane for a quickie heist."
“We have very good bribes we can bring to the table,” Wanda chimed in. “It’s no toaster, but if she needs some bribing, I know what her favorite expensive wine is.”
"Let me talk to Doc Grey. Things have been a bit rocky after the whole 'Hell-lord and death' thing. Least I can do is be upfront with her." Kane said, face casting serious for a moment.
"We need a stealth plane, a pilot, and transportation once we are there." Marie-Ange noted. "If you cannot convince Jean, I can convince Scott. We had a bonding moment over eyes, we have the same plastic surgeon, and he gave me a recommendation for the cosmetic prosthetics." She added, wryly. "Ground transportation in Symkaria is another matter entirely. I think we have a contact who works there, but I have to do some ground work, get Kevin to make an introduction for me."
"And hopefully no zombies this time," was Amanda's parting shot.
