TFV vs. Network Zero: AtTN Chris, Bristol, Mike & Donahue

After Chris flees the alley, he reaches the cyber cafe and uploads his picture of Mike in the alley. Unaware of Bristol's cyber surveillance, he sets out towards his safe house.

As the car is driven along the streets, as per her instructions, Laura remains quite focused on the laptop screen. Her fingers fly across the keyboard and she taps into this and that surveillance camera, in her bid to track down their current pesky annoyance. She mentally entertained herself with the thought of ramming the reporters camera up his ass when they caught up with him - that was still societally acceptable, wasn't it?

Spoiler:

Donahue watched the GPS as Bristol tracked the car through the streets. He didn't say much. There wasn't much to say - better to let Mike drive and Bristol work on her laptop. His mind drifted as his broken body ached. It wasn't fair, he thought, before he crushed that spark. Not fair? He was alive. He'd been luckier than his platoon through dint of his survival. He'd been luckier than a lot of good men and women who'd died in the sickly heat of the jungle. He'd been lucky it hadn't cost him his legs. He was lucky he could still move.

His bones ached, as though there was a thousand needles digging into each fraction of his body. He blinked slowly, keeping his teeth clenched as he thought about the hands and the slack, staring faces of soldiers he'd fought alongside, that he would have died for. He was lucky to be alive and he wasn't going to complain. He also wasn't going to let some jumped up idiot with a camera ruin it. He'd given up everything to serve his country, and he was going to explain that.

Patiently.

It might eventually involve a bat.

As Chris headed into Dearborn, he progressed onto a less populated road. Unknown to him, Bristol discovered that this road was less populated, the area was likely recieving less funding. A quick check revealed that there were not many cameras mounted on the road ahead of them[15:16:13] @ Seryna : As Chris headed into Dearborn, he progressed onto a less populated road. Unknown to him, Bristol discovered that this road was less populated, the area was likely recieving less funding. A quick check revealed that there were not many cameras mounted on the road ahead of them and that there would be less until they reached Dearborn.


"If we're going to take him out, now would be a damned good time to do it, guys. Area ahead is slim on the hardware. Fucking budgets," Laura growled.

Chris decides to keep his eyes on the road and focus. He thinks about calling Gary, but he was worried about wiretaps. The man shudders and checks his rear view mirror.

"Hunter, you heard the tech, cut him off." Donahue was already assembling his rifle in the confines of the back seat.



[15:30:57 29/01/11] Seratone : http://sheetgen.dalines.net/wiki/WikiDiceRoller?hash=2097a950

[15:31:11 29/01/11] Seratone : (3 successes handling 3 on my vehicle as well)

[15:32:18 29/01/11] AeonThePhoenix : [3] http://sheetgen.dalines.net/wiki/WikiDiceRoller?hash=f8262e4f

[Seratone, please make a perception roll. Any less than 3 suxx, you don't see the black sedan or the trail. Every one please continue with your actions. Seratone, it will take three more turns to make it to your ex wife's house (for the sake of expediency). After every one posts three times, Chris's former wife's home will come into sight and unless intercepted, he will pull up and deal with the domestic situation within.

Lets try and keep posting, keep our scene alive . ]

Chris looks in his rear view mirror but does not see anyone. Feeling a little relieved, he continues driving.

http://sheetgen.dalines.net/wiki/WikiDiceRoller?hash=cb9033a6 (1 success perception)

Donahue leant against the door of the car, watching as they slowly approached from behind. He knew he'd been right to put the kid at the wheel. He was sharp on the turns, carefully switching lanes and right on the ball. He grinned a bit.

"Alright Hunter, hit the sirens, let's give him the chance to do the right thing." He said, when they were close enough that a chase would be to their advantage, not Chris'.

Chris sees the flasher's in his rear view mirror, and more out of instinct then anything else, decides to pull over. "Damnit, was I speeding?" He mutters to himself. trying to resort to a mundane explanation to offset the day's extraordinary events..

Donahue pushed his sunglasses up his nose, and jerked out of the car, leaning heavily on the chassis as he did. "Out of the car, sparky." He gestured..

Laura set down her laptop, and stepped out of the car..

Chris freezes in place as sheer terror seizes his heart. He slowly gets out of the car and puts his hands slightly over his head. "I'm not looking for any trouble." He says, sounding startled..

"Oh, now you're caught you don't want any trouble," Laura snorted..

"That's alright. Neither are we." Donahue thumbed out a cigarette and lit up. "But you know, people get funny ideas when you take pictures of 'em and run.".

"IThat was a public area. I haven't broken any laws." Chris retors, putting his hands down. He seems to have regained a little bit of confidence..

"So?" Donahue said, dragging on a cigarette..

"What do you want with me?" Chris says, still sounding a little uneasy..

"I want you to understand something." Donahue said, pushing himself away from the car. "What exactly do you think you're going to accomplish by doing this?".

"I'm a journalist. I'm here to bear witness to the truth, whatever that may be. People have a right to know about what is going on out here.".

"Does that give you a right to sentence people to death?" Donahue said conversationally..

"What are you talking about?" Chris sounds genuinely confused. "I haven't done anything wrong.".

"You are aware, for example, of the reason pictures of key Detectives are not usually published?".

"Oh come on, I don't even know the guy's name and it was one damn picture. If you got a problem with that, sue me. Besides, when the hell did we start burning bodies? Your behavior was pretty sdamn suspicious the way I see it.".

Laura glanced sidelong at Donahue. "Come on, he doesn't give a shit. As long as he gets his five minutes of internet fame, what's one little picture for identification?".

Donahue pursed his lips. "Keeps 'em down, doesn't it? Now, we can play this fairly or you can continue to be an idiot. I'd also add that you're in a very precarious position at the moment and maybe it might be a good idea to can the smart mouth. You are putting agents of the USA at risk of identification by a persistant threat that they are fighting.".

"What's the threat, dead people? Until the government starts being honest with what is really going on, don't expect people like me to play nice." He gestures to his car. "If you came here for the cameras, all my stuff is in the car. I'm not here to fight.".

"Where did you upload the photos to?" Laura questioned calmly..

Donahue blew out smoke and rubbed his temple with gritted teeth. "No. That's not a threat. But if you don't care about the lives of your fellow countrymen, then I'm not going to play nice with you. Bristol?".

"Everything goes out through Network Zero. I'm sure you've heard of it." he replies honestly..

"Oh son of a bitch." Donahue grunted. "You're one of those fucking idiots who thinks it's a good idea to blow the lid on this whole monster deal and expose the country to mass panic. Yeah, between that and you not giving a shit about the people you put at risk? My sympathy's expended. Hands on the hood.".

Laura nodded simply at Donahue, and briefly moved back to the car to pull something out. "I'm ready if you are.".

Chris does as he is told. "Like I said before. People deserve to know the truth. Whatever it is.".

Donahue grabbed Chris' hands and held him still against the hood. "You couldn't imagine the truth, you son of a bitch."

Spoiler:

Laura stepped forward, the heavy gauge syringe of Munin Serum in hand as she approached the unwitting journalist from behind. "You ever watch Men in Black...?" she remarked, before depressing the needle as she jabbed it into him.

Spoiler:

Chris doesn't have time to respond with a smart ass comment because once the needle is crammed up into his spine, excruciating pain completely overwhelms the man, temporarily paralyzing him. If he could scream he would, but he couldn't even move his jaw. The man quickly blacks out.

http://sheetgen.dalines.net/wiki/WikiDiceRoller?hash=bf88d703 (Resist Munin 1 success)

http://sheetgen.dalines.net/wiki/WikiDiceRoller?hash=008e5470 (Munin Toxicity 2 successes)


OOC: Alright, it looks like the serum worked. So his memory is blanked out for 1 hour per dose administered. (Max 6 doses per syringe). Since his stamina is 2, if you wanted to erase more than 2 hours of memory, you would risk poisoning the guy.

Donahue sighed as the reporter hit the hood. "Much as I hate to do this, Bristol..." He paused. "Discredit this fuckwit, will you? Properly." At least the dumb bastard would get to keep his life, he thought sardonically, but only because when someone babbling with paranoia about conspiracies disappeared, some other moron always came out with 'It was all TRUE!' He limped back to the hood of the idling black sedan and leant on it to rest his aching legs.

After removing the syringe none too carefully, Laura walked back to the car and disposed of it carefully. "What did you have in mind? We'll need to discredit the photographs of course. But I get the feeling you were thinking of something a little darker than Photoshop."

"Oh, we'll start with Photoshop. Our buddy here's about to go public with the biggest hoax of his life." Donahue lit up a cigarette. "Maybe even get outed as an addict. Point is, you're going to leak his stuff nationwide. Make it as subtle as you can, but make sure experts'll be able to pick up on it. He's going to be very, very famous as the reporter who made up paranoid conspiracies." He spat, before taking a drag and exhaling smoke.

Anyone doing some internet research on Chris Williams would fnd that he had already been largely discredited in the main stream media. As it turns out, he wasn't even a real reporter anymore. Around three years ago, he was fired from his job at the city newspaper for allegedly making up facts in his stories. This may be why Chris had resorted to posting information anonymously on the internet instead of going to a newspaper or television.

(You could probably get all that with a simple researh roll)

Spoiler:

After obtaining the necessary information, Laura smirked to herself - clearly his antics in the past were only going to make this more easy for them. And it would, she hoped, make discrediting him in the eyes of Network Zero simpler too. She worked quickly and seamlessly at doctoring the photographs to make them appear to be the work of a clever fraud. She didn't want them to look too seamless, or no one would ever notice there was anything odd about them in the first place; which would defeat the point.

"What do you think?" she called across to Donahue, as she uploaded the edited photographs.