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James Bond      The Watch debrief with General Leonid Pushkin has come and gone. Le Chiffre has escaped, the mysterious Rene Mathis is dead. The only person to have come out seemingly on top is the winner of the poker game, a Mr. Bond, and his fiance Ms. Vesper Lynd. Despite this, the general was understanding and reasonable. Leaving the teleconference, there is the sense that he is not the sort to be discouraged by setbacks--that already he and his people are working on the next step.

     He has provided the rest of the information on this world's geopolitical state and the players in its intelligence community, as promised.

     Watch business in Royale-les-Eaux is concluded, and as a gesture of goodwill, Pushkin has paid them up for one more day. They could choose to spend it relaxing--even in winter when all the tourism is dead, it's still a pretty town. They could also choose to spend it chasing leads. The action has moved on, but there might still be information to be found here.

     Who was the mysterious assassin standing in their way at crucial points? Were they one of Le Chiffre's, or a piece for another, unseen player? Who is the 'G' mentioned in the ledger Nova saved from the wreck of the Ellipsis?

     The crowd that the game drew has mostly dissipated by now, off to whatever other part of the world they came from. You have free reign, and it is currently the early afternoon. What will you do?
Deelel Things could have gone better but General Leoind Puskin seemed to work out in the end when all was said and done. Deelel might spend part of the remaining day relaxing, but she's going to first see what she can dig up about everything that had since occurred there. She wanted to see what sort of answers she could get. She'd also some time to recover at least a little bit, though she intended to go find if she can dig up anything about what happened.

Deelel has got it into her head to go looking for the late Rene Mathis' trial and she'll try to snoop about his room if she's able to. She'll also be keeping in contact with the rest of the watch operation still on sight in the event they find something. She grumbles about the lack of digital equipment in this world. She'll just have to deal and run with it.
Big Boss Things had gone to crap, in Big Boss's eyes, but there was a silver lining. He had already had the call made - the fact it was made in general means things would be looking up. The Octopus Group...he'd have to find any information about them possible.

At the top of the hotel, Stalker Bloodhound, formerly a player in the game under an alias, looks through a pair of high-tech binoculars. He's not looking for anything in particular - this is partly reconaissance so he can be busy, and partly a hobby. He sweeps everywhere in town he can see from here, glancing in the direction of the casino and the docks particularly. They were both important these past few weeks, after all.

His 'partner' for the mission was still here, as well. Silent Jackal was in the hotel room, watching the news, and if Stalker found something, Jackal would be the one to go investigate. He was more of a combat guy, after all.
Nova Terra     Nova doesn't like failing a mission, even if the one who they were assisting doesn't seem to mind all that much. So she's not going to spend this extra day relaxing. No, she's going to work. To try and at least come up with something to shed a little more light on the events that occurred.

    Which is why she's currently down at the town's docks. On the very same pier that she had been not too long ago. The pier where the Ellipsis had been docked, before it had a hole blown in it and it sunk. Where she had been interrupted in her search. Well she's back to finish it.

    Nova sits on the edge of the pier, finger tapping while she waits, looking at the water's surface expectantly. Below the waves, a pair of SCVs busy themselves around the sunken wreck of the Ellipsis, attaching undeployed flotation devices and reinforcing the damaged structure with patchwork repairs so the yacht won't break on rising.

    Finally Nova tilts her head a little as she receives a signal from the workers, responding, "Good. Bring it up."

    The two SCVs move to either side of the yacht, their large mechanical clamps gripping down on it. They then apply full burn to their thrusters. At the same time, the flotation devices deploy, large balloons beginning to fill with gas to assist in raising the wreck.
Amelris Belthrone Some say that criminals returns to the scene of the crimes, most time other than not.

It's not accurate, nor this is /really/ a crime scene but in this case, when things have been taken care of and calmed down, the Red Mage decides to return to the bottling plant one last time to get a full on check up on the whole place. The fight was something of an unfortunate failure but the entire thing was not completely one.

     Thus, he makes his way back to the bottling plant. It's probably closed due to the shootout that happened to get another look at the whole place, to comb it all up.

% And maybe get a vision or two.
James Bond      Deelel gets the idea to look through Mathis' room. There is one problem--he never said where he was staying. Presumably, he'd have been staying at the Splendide, as many of the other guests at the casino were. It's a big hotel, though. Big, and old. It's old enough, in fact, that the sight of a blocky late-eighties computer stands out jarringly. It's set up at the front desk, and the receptionist seems to be absent. It's nothing for her to break into it, access the records, and... there he is. It looks like his room hasn't been cleaned yet--so all she needs to do is grab the key and head over.

     Bloodhound sees something interesting, but nothing worth calling Jackal over. Near the harbor, Vesper and Bond are taking an afternoon stroll. Bond looks like he's enjoying himself, but that doesn't mean anything. The man's skill at bluffing is formidable, if his performance in the game was any indication. They're on the opposite side from Nova, and seem fairly occupied with each other.

     They're too far off to notice the Ellipsis dramatically rise from beneath the waves. Better yet, no one else seems overly concerned with it. With only a week past since the sinking, there's some seaweed, silt and such still clinging to it, and the interior is a disorganized, damp mess. The good news is, it's all hers--no assassins or bodyguards this time.

     Jackal, flipping through the channels in the hotel, does see something interesting on the news. "<...widely respected figure in the party. As yet, there are no leads on the murder of Le Chiffre...>" The anchor, reporting in the field, appears to be several hours' drive from Royale. Someone got to him, then. Perhaps the Octopus group? The broadcast cuts to a commercial for an upcoming orchestra performance featuring a star cellist.

     Amelris returns to the bottling plant. It is closed--but as before, with only the barest minimum effort, as if a beleagured owner couldn't be bothered to put any more into an endeavor which has barely turned a profit. The moment he touches the gate to vault over as he did last time, he gets what he's looking for.

     There's a vision, in other words. A man in an immaculate suit, with a blue tie and short brown hair. He looks perhaps a few years older than Bond, entering into middle age. His brow is creased thoughtfully as he observes a squad of those paramilitary-looking women cleaning the place up.

     "Mr. White," says one of the mercenaries. "We're almost done." One of her fellows marches by carrying a heavy box. In the shadowed contents, something is sparking. "G called and said to tell you that the Number is dead, like you asked. He also wanted to ask about the money."

     Mr. White smiles. "Money is not so important to our organization as knowing who to trust," he says simply. The moonlight catches his ring--a silver thing, with an engraved, stylized black octopus. The vision ends.
Deelel Deelel makes sure to not make a mess, as she only seeks out the records she needs, and then reboots the computer once she' out. With the information in hand, she'll find the key belonging to the dead man's room. Then she will be on her way to snoop about, hopefully, she can find something. She will move swiftly as she can to get the room op it open and if she can find it will pop on one of those cleaning service working signs on the door handle before she'll start to search the room. She'll check personal effects, trash and the like for anything that might be of note.
Nova Terra     After the yacht has reached the surface, Nova stands. She leaps over to the boat, her boots splashing down against the remnants of the ocean still caught on the deck. Nova is continuously glad for her hostile environment suit, in this case helping to at least keep her from getting soaked. No doubt it's going to be wet. Especially further in as the water has more difficulty draining out.

    Nova makes her way into the interior, moving carefully in case there's any unexpected damage to the structure. As she does so, her radio barks out, "What are you expecting to find, ma'am?"

    Nova moves from room to room, searching as she responds to the SCV pilot, "No idea! Something useful, hopefully. This thing is pretty water damaged on the inside. But boats like this often have waterproof compartments. Places to stash things. Especially those boats that belong to paranoid people. People who have things to hide." Nova checks the obvious compartments as she moves around the interior. But she also tries to look for that which is less obvious. Tapping along the walls at intervals to listen for changes in the sound. Checking the floors, beneath mats, seats.

    There's got to be something more here. Something that couldn't have been seen during the chaos of the event that led to the ship's scuttling.
Amelris Belthrone      Amelris Belthrone have the headache he usually do when seeing visions. The Echo is very useful but it does get in the way sometimes. It's not without a price. Still, this is some very useful information he just got, information that he relays off. He's pretty sure most of the things left in there have been combed off but it wont take long to get a look for himself.

     Afterwards, well, he'll just get to go to enjoy a bit of tourism, he thinks/
James Bond      Deelel's forethought pays off. As she makes for the stairwell to leave the lobby, the receptionist is just striding in from a door off to the side of his grand desk. She's out of sight before the receptionist can spot her. It's easy to get a sign for the door--there's a little handful of them on a cart parked outside one of the rooms.

     With the privacy afforded to her by the sign, Deelel can search undisturbed. Mathis' room is not the sort of room one will find clues simply by virtue of looking. Boss' men suspect he was French intelligence, after all. Obvious spots don't turn anything up. Nothing turns up, in fact, until it begins to get frustrating.

     When she bothers looking in the closet, a jacket that's too heavy. Nothing's in the pockets--but she can pinpoint the weight to the bottom. Something is sewn into it. A tiny plastic bag--two, actually, one inside the other. Inside the second there is a small amount of very finely ground white powder. He didn't seem the type to use drugs. It's been labeled, but the marker has smudged into illegibility.

     Back at the harbor, James and Vesper split up, from what Bloodhound can see. Vesper seems to be heading back into town. She won't recognize Amelris, but they'll definitely cross paths. Vesper is another missing piece--she tried to have Bond poisoned, and no one can seem to figure why.

     She seems to be heading back to the hotel--and Amelris and Bloodhound both can see that she doesn't look happy about it. If anything, she looks anxious. Perhaps... sad?
James Bond      Nova finds the waterproof container easily enough. Le Chiffre was smart, but not with his money. Set into the wall of the cabin is a tall, proud safe. It is state-of-the-art for this world. Given what she knows about security systems, it is fairly impressive, in a 'working with the limitations of the time' kind of way. In fact, the design is probably familiar to her. This is a distant ancestor to a type of lock which is very common in crew quarters aboard Terran ships from years ago. They were phased out due to a design flaw. She might be able to replicate that, but it'd take time. The ship's been soaked for long enough that she might even be able to yank it out, if she's not in the mood to fuss with temperamental locks.
Deelel Deelel makes use of the cleaning sign and is very glad she did reboot the computer before she left. With that handled she'll start to search. There's no doubt Mathis' was a pro so while she doesn't expect much in the obvious places? She keeps looking and checks them as she finally gets to the closet that's where she will end up discovering something interesting, she finds the bags is very careful with it.

Drugs of the non-medical drugs are still a bit alien to her. Even after all her time in userspace, still, she will put it in one of her pockets carefully it should be looked at later by Big Boss' people hopefully one of them can figure it. She will continue checking the room under the sinks, heck she'll even check the water reservoir for the toilet if there is one, as that be a place to hide things too.
Amelris Belthrone Amelris missed much of the actual card game tournament that happened here, so he mostly recognise the woman from second hand information. The Miqo'te keeps an eye on her as he enter back into the hotel. At this point she IS a loose point. Coordinating with Bloodhound, he keeps an eye on her and supporting the operative on keeping up tabs on the woman.

Bloodhound is a LOT better at infiltration and stealthing around than he is, around, without arousing too much suspicion.
Nova Terra     Nova actually whistles as she finds what she's looking for. She vaguely recalls the design. She's not that surprised that there's versions of it being used this far back compared to her own history. Safes tend to be designed for longevity.

    Nova also recalls the flaw with this particular model. Applying enough significant pressure to certain points of the inner frame at the same time can cause the structure to warp to the point the bolts no longer keep the door locked. Of course getting to those specific points is extremely difficult. Applying enough pressure to them even more so. In the past it would have required some specialized, bulky and expensive equipment. Which is why it took so long for the design to be phased out.

    Of course, back then psychics were practically unheard of, let alone strong enough telekinetically and skilled enough in its use to do what Nova is about to attempt.

    Nova takes in a deep breath as she closes her eyes and places her hand against the safe. It's not going to be easy. And it's going to leave her with a headache. But she can probably crack it open here.
James Bond      Deelel checks the tank in the toilet--that's one of the classics. Whatever else one might say about him, Mathis was a man with a love for the Game. Glinting in the darkness below the rubber stopper that controls the level of water in the tank, there is another plastic bag, taped to the side. This one is much larger, barely able to fit into its hiding spot. It's the very latest of this world's technology. Still big and blocky, but new--Mathis took very good care of it. It's a radio frequency monitoring device, keyed up to a transmitter in another part of town. The distance between the device and the transmitter is displayed on a screen as a visual readout. Or, it would be, if she turns the device on. Something like this would be ruinously expensive--but there's no branding anywhere on it.

     Amelris tails Vesper and keeps an eye on her. She's heading back to her room, it looks like. There are only two exits in the hotel--it's actually kind of dangerous, should a fire break out. Both of them are on the ground floor. One is the front entrance, the other is the staff entrance. Vesper won't be able to leave without him seeing it.

     The safe is stubborn. In a way, it's like Nova is battling Le Chiffre in absentia. But with enough pressure, anything can crack. Though it takes some toil to do, some accounting for an earlier design, she manages to crack it open, as she predicted. The door slowly swings open in a most satisfying way, once she manages to nudge the last bolt out of position. In the safe, protected from harm, there are a few things.

     The first is a dossier. It's a collection of information on Vesper Lynd, and someone else. A pilot who was shot down on a stealth mission over Afghanistan. He's being held at something called the Crater, and the information seems to imply that he's being used as leverage to force Lynd's compliance. The other object of note is a pair of tickets to what looks like a concert. They're in Cyrilic, but in small print the word BRATISLAVA is visible.
Deelel Deelel pauses for a moment at what she finds this gets an eyebrow raise out of the program at what she's found. She takes a moment to get a good look at it and she let out a low whistle. This is serious hardware fo this world and the lack of brand means its likely from the military/spy end of things. She will power it up to take a look at it. She makes a mental note that once she leaves she should check out the transmitter, she does turn it off for now however as she finishes up and will make ready to slip out of the room, meet up with her comrades and then enjoy the rest of the day in town relaxing. So long as something doesn't go wrong.
Nova Terra     Nova finally breathes freely as she is able to get the safe open. She can already feel the effects of her telekinesis, moving a gloved finger to rub her temple while she begins to look through the contents of the safe.

    The dossier is useful. That Vesper Lynd was a bit of an unknown. Nova will have to get it scanned into a computer later. As for this other person... Somehow he's being used in order to control Vesper. Lover, sibling, long lost tennis partner. Who knows at this stage, but it makes Lynd a liability. Perhaps she needs to be dealt with...

    Nova considers how to proceed as she exits the yacht, continuing to look over the information.

    As she passes by her SCVs, she offhandedly orders them, "Push the thing out to sea and let it sink once more. Preferably where no on will find it." It'll be better if people think the information went down with the ship.
James Bond      There is something. It doesn't go wrong, per se--but it'd definitely catch Deelel's attention as she hovers her finger over the off switch. Perhaps a second or two after she makes the connection about its origins, there is motion on the screen. Whoever it's keyed up to watch is coming. They're assuredly inside the hotel...

     Amelris is following someone inside the hotel--Vesper. She's gone up a floor, the same floor as Mathis' room. She did try to have Bond killed. Would she try to do the same thing to Deelel? Does she know that Deelel's on that floor?

     In the harbor, Nova shoves off the Ellipsis. The ship silently, peacefully sails out to sea. It drifts into the ocean bereft of any captain, carried along by SCVs. It's one less concern for Nova, and so far out that it's doubtful anyone in town would think to look for it. As far as anyone in Royale-les-Eaux knows, the boat is gone, without a trace.

     On the other end of the harbor, James Bond has a quiet conversation in a public call box. "I got your card." He frowns thoughtfully at the response from the other end. "It's not every day you meet a legend. What do you want?" This isn't James Bond, son of a Jamaican plantocrat, engaged to an heiress from a landed family. This is James Bond, professional assassin. "I'm listening." It's devoid of warmth. Transactional. "Alright. I'll pass that along. Anything else?" Apparently not--because he hangs up the phone. With a thoughtful glance towards the direction of the hotel, he makes another call.

     He waits. It rings. "Balance inquiry." He waits. His brow furrows, his grip on the phone tightening. "By who?" His jaw clenches, his eyes wild with hurt and sudden anger. He slams the receiver back onto the hook and instinct overtakes him. In a flash he's out of the call box, sprinting towards a motorcyclist just coming to a stop. A swift elbow knocks the rider onto his back. Bond climbs astride the bike--an expensive looking performance machine--and takes off, peeling out and cutting an agressive beeline for the hotel.