Missions of the Retrieval Team - Kiltmen Down

[davedove]

Scene 10


Casual Dining Room, Great Hall of X Marks the Scot


Mike continued his story. “You know how David has a fondness for grand schemes. Well, one day we find out he’s trying to develop a force field for the mountain.”

I had to interrupt. “Wait a minute. Are you telling me that David managed to put a force field over the mountain?”

“Not exactly, but I’ll get to that. Anyway, when we asked why he was trying to develop such a thing, he just replied, “Well, why do you think? You never know when someone will try to attack us with missiles, or bombs, or directed energy weapons,” like we were complete idiots for even asking the question.

“Uh, directed energy weapons?”

“His words, not mine. We all wisely decided to let him go about his business. After all, the research wasn’t costing us any more than his usual projects. We all figured he would never make it happen anyway.”

“But he did?”

“Again, not exactly. One day, all the wireless devices in the Hall suddenly stopped working, cell phones, radios, and wireless Internet cards, all of it. At the same time, workers on the grounds say the sky went ‘blurry’ temporarily.”

“He had activated the field?”

“Right, only it didn’t do what he had expected. When we examined the devices that were affected, we found that they did still work, but no signal was getting to them.”

Ms. Swan broke in. “An interference field?”

“Exactly, David was disappointed at first that the force field didn’t work, but was delighted when he discovered what had happened. Actually, we all quickly realized how useful this field could be.”

“How so, Mike?” I asked him.

“Well, you know that the League has worked to protect the location of the Great Hall since it’s founding. That has become much more difficult in recent years with all the technological advancements. After all, what good is blindfolding a visitor when he can just look at his GPS as soon as he steps out of the car?”

“So that’s why the GPS wasn’t getting a signal. The field was blocking it.”

“Right,” he continued. “David had stumbled across a method of defeating satellite signals. Of course, it’s a bit inconvenient having to rely on landlines for our communications, but we believe the benefits outweigh that. And before you ask, David also managed to develop a smaller version of the field that is placed in all our vehicles. That’s why your tracking of your trip stopped at the airport, when you got into the car.”

There was something I had to ask. “You know, Mike, some of the things David is working on could prove very beneficial to my team.”

Mike smiled broadly. “Yes, I imagine they would. And, I really wouldn’t mind if you wanted to select a few. But you see, David is away and the door to his lab is locked and has a very sophisticated security system, so you can’t get in.”

We all noticed Ms. Raven perk up at that statement.

Mike let out a little laugh. “Ms. Raven, I can see that look on your eyes. You think you can open any lock, bypass any system. Well, I’m not going to tell you that you can’t try, but I’m not giving you permission either. David’s idea of security can get a bit lethal. If you do try, I’m not responsible for what may happen.”

“I’ll keep that in mind, sir.” She replied. We could all see the calculating look in her eyes. She was already planning the job.

We realized that we had finished dinner and Mike stood up. “Well, I imagine you are all eager to get started on your mission, and so are we. Again, all the facilities of the Hall are at your disposal and we Moderators will be available if you need us. I bid you all good night.”

As Moderators left the room, my associates and I made our way to the library to plan our mission.

[davedove]

Scene 11


Great Hall of X Marks the Scot


My associates and I briefly discussed the options of how to approach the mission before deciding to turn in for the night. Ms. Starling and I did wait for Ms. Stork’s arrival. After we got her settled in her room we all turned in.

When I awoke the next morning, I dressed casually and decided to wander the Great Hall to refamiliarize my self with its layout. In the course of my wandering, I came across Ms. Raven and Ms. Swan outside what could only be the entrance to David’s office. Ms. Raven had her toolkit laid out beside her and was examining the door. Ms. Swan had set up her laptop and there were wires running to different spots around the door frame.

I had to chuckle a bit. “I see you couldn’t resist the temptation. Having any luck?”

Ms. Raven answered without stopping her examination. “Well, I haven’t opened it yet, obviously. So far I have found at least three levels of security, and it’s quite likely there are more.”

“So, are you saying you can’t get in?”

That seemed to irritate her a bit. “No, what it means is that he has booby-trapped the booby-trap on his booby-trap. I never said I couldn’t get in. This man has to be devious. He is using electronic security, old fashioned locks, and I’ve even found a trip wire. There is one real interesting thing.”

“What’s that?”

“Look at the wall on the other side of the hall, hidden among the carving there.”

I stepped over to examine the wall. A small bench was set into the wall. Above it, the wall was carved to look like a window opening onto a heavy forest. Looking closely, I found several small holes hidden among the carved leaves. “What are these?”

“Those are the barrels of firing devices, set to shoot at anyone who doesn’t open the door properly. Darts most likely, and probably poison ones at that. I’ve only ever seen something like that in movies.”

Ms. Swan spoke up. “I’m running a special program that analyzes the various electronic safeguards on the door. There is an electronic lock that utilizes a sophisticated combination sequence of twelve numbers. With ten different digits possible for each position of the sequence, that's one TRILLION possible combinations. Additionally, there are alarms if anything is opened improperly. Oh, and if any of the other locks aren’t opened right, the electronic combination changes randomly.”

That confused me a bit. “But if the combination changes, how will he know what the new combination is?”

Ms. Raven answered. “That’s what I thought. Which means that David has to have some way to bypass all this. He’s probably got something on the inside that allows him to reset the combination so he knows the numbers. I did find a small opening here,” she pointed to a small hole on the door, “that seems to fit some sort of key device. Unfortunately, It’s not standard in any way. I can say that whatever is used, it allows the user to bypass all the security without setting it off or deactivating it. If I could just figure out what he uses.”

I walked back over to join them by the door. Something seemed to catch Ms. Raven’s eye and she began staring at my groin. Now, I wouldn’t object to her taking an interest in that part of my anatomy, but she probably had something else in mind.

“Is that the sporran that David gave you?” she asked.

When I answered that it was, she asked to see it. I unbuckled the strap and handed the sporran to her.

She closely examined the sporran, sometimes looking back to the small hole on the door. Finally, her eyes lit up as if she had suddenly gained the answer. She took hold of the small knob at the end of one of the securing straps and gave it a little twist. Amazingly, the knob separated and she pulled out a small thin device. It did indeed look like it would fit the hole.

“Do you think that’s it?” I asked her.

“Only one way to find out.” We cleared all the tools and gear away from the door, then she motioned for us to stand back. She slid the device into the hole and we all heard a light click.

“Cross your fingers,” she said as she grasped the handle to the door. Pressing the latch and pushing, the door swung inward, without any of us dying.

“I don’t understand,” I told her. “Why would David give me a key?”

“I don’t think that was the intention. I believe he wanted to have spare keys available where he could find them, so he built them into the sporrans he designed. I imagine he believed that no one would ever discover them.”

“In other words, I had a spare key and didn’t know it. Ms. Swan, why don’t you go get the rest of the team and bring them back here.”

[12stones]

Extremely entertaining. Thanks!