Continues from LESP Offices

Senor Garcia addresses Bellissima’s very prudent concerns. “Bellissima, I understand your concerns regarding all of the unknowns, but that is the reason behind doing this recon, to determine what the unknowns are.”

"I have no intent on making this recon an assault."





Senor Garcia looks at Winter Herald, JUSTICAR, and then the others in case any of them wanted to join the recon team.  “I’d prefer to go tonight, and make our ingress onto the island around zero one or zero two in the morning.” He then added, speaking directly to JUSTICAR “Is it safe to assume that like Winter Herald you will defer to my judgment in the field?”

Lilibeth listened as Bellissima spoke. She had grown uncomfortable as Hikari and Winter's argument continued and grew more heated. She was still new to the team though and wasn't sure if it was her place to try and cool things down. There were interpersonal dynamics in play that she knew nothing about. Runa, predictably, had been silent, a combination of disinterest and boredom with the exchange.

She nodded her head at the super model, "OK so to be clear on what it is I will be doing," she glances at Detective Broyko and then back to Bellissima, "I'm going to the convention in costume, staying near the VIPs but as soon as you get the word, we are all going to go to the fake island to rescue Miss Holly?"

"Correct. We are merely picking up additional information so that we can bring exact force to the island, bypass the obstacles necessary, perform the extractions we need to, and have the Coast Guard finish the job. We should provide an alert when the role we will be executing is finished."

Winter Herald noted the fact that what he noted everyone getting wasn't a group text, and hoped the consensus he had just drawn was premature and incorrect. "The convention isn't for some time, but scouting the area out on an exterior level might not be a bad idea. You might even meet some early attendees - the types who check out a room in advance knowing what is coming up. Keep a low profile. Do not let them know we are coming... at least, not in a professional capacity."

"I will meet with the Lieutenant."

OOC: Question for SSOGM ~
Did Hikari locate a point of origin for the Isle?
How long did it take to get here?
How long has it been here off the coast of Center City?

Justicar replies, "The island vehicle is approximately 24 miles off the US Continental Coast in International Waters."



Justicar responds, "My drones are composed of composites to cut down on their weight, their armored chassis is made of high impact composite resins.  They use the same super-solar power system the Justicar does, but my underwater drones have a fuel-cell system that electrolysisizes the water for fuel ~ they have a Much longer power duration than my aerial drones. But I have not planned to be employing any aerial drones, my underwater drones are amphibious and can, if I see the need for any first hand visuals of the island surface deploy their tread units to survey the surface... but I have no intention of them breaking surface .. my entire recon can be done from underwater."

OOC: There is NO 'Stealth' available in the current HU2e rules for ANY Super-Vehicle, Robot or Drone as an available tech option.  Back when these rules were written by Palladium Books 'Stealth' technology was not a publically known tech as it is today and Palladium Books has not seen the need to update the available tech rules for High-Tech Origin characters.  I brought this fact up over a year ago with SSOGM before the San Sebastian Isle Recon mission and proposed Hikari develop a 'stealth' technology option for high-tech super vehicles and Robots but Hikari has not had the time to do the research or build this technology.  The game system does have super powers that somewhat mimic 'stealth' namely the Major Powers Chameleon {p.255} and Cloaking {p.256} in the main HU2e rules.  Hikari's proposed 'stealth' tech was based upon those in-game existing mechanics, even those are not very representative of actual real-world stealth tech.



Justicar nods in approval, "I am in agreement with this plan. We make arrangements for travel and accept the offer of help from Lt. Smokh and help him out in return. Lt. Smokh will deliver the team aboard the Gemini to within 20 miles distance of the Island Vehicle, then at 01:30 or 02:00 Senor Garcia, Winter Herald and I will begin our Recon mission. Senor Garcia, and Winter Herald will approach in an inflatable and Justicar, 70 meters down underwater hugging the sea floor.  I will slow my approach to not draw attention or leave the surface inflatable behind so we all arrive at the same time.  I should be completely undetectable unless they have US military grade penetrating sonar in which case a stealthy approach was never possible.  We ascertain the nature of the vehicle, identify ingress points, and return.  Then as a team we plan our assault and then we stage our rescue of Miss Cook with the understanding she may be hostile now after being subjected to whatever mind bending abilities Provider may have subjected her to."

He elaborates, "Honestly I do not need to set foot on the island at all.  My recon objectives can be achieved from the sea floor.  I have only three objectives ~ 1) determine the propulsion mode the island vehicle uses for possible disabling, if necessary, and attachment of a tracer to an innocuous portion of the drive system, 2) Identify any secondary or escape vehicles docked with the Island Vehicle and attach an innocuous tracer to each such craft! I have learned my lesson from San Sebastian Isle, 'Never pass up the opportunity to place a tracer on any escape vehicle encountered ~ First!' That failure in the Rocket Plane hangar still stings. I'll not make that mistake again! And 3) Identify and locate all points of ingress to the vehicle for breaching.  All these objectives I can do 70 meters away from the ocean floor via my drones, I could do it from further away but I want an actual visual of the island underside for analysis in our rescue mission planning.  This was always my Recon plan.. just like I planned it on the San Sebastian Recon mission that was successful."



Justicar nods, "I understand Belle, but I have technology unavailable to the public ~ well... at least... not for a few months now; until my Project: Hoplite gets into full production.  I have neural man-machine interface technology that does scan to such precision an clarity.  The telemental helmet in the Justicar scans my brain and translates my mental commands to the suit to control it.  I not only can command but also receive input feedback from the telemental helmet.  Not to bore you with too many details ~ I have mapped the neurological impulses in the brain and my telemental helmet can translate that information directly from the brain into electronic commands.  It is the gateway to VR... but I have not developed it that way. I fear mankind is not ready for such technology.  Someone will develop it, eventually, but it will not be me. Project: Hoplite is a medical technology an ultralight exoskeleton for the paraplegic to give them full mobility, and some dulled haptic sensation in their limbs... it is operated by a telemental 'crown' that translates their mental commands to bodily movement and send/return dulled sensation back to them.  It is powered by my super solar technology, but the real tech is in the manufacturing. I designed it so each suit can be run off on a 3D printer with cheap materials to cut the production prices so low that not only the rich can afford it but everyone who needs it. Johnson & Johnson are tooling up to manufacture them. My telemental technology should be able to pick up some very interesting readings from your brain on a quantum level when your powers are in use ~ no guarantees though. Part of research is having some clue what your trying to discover... I may get readings but it may take months to translate and correlate something of practical import from the data.  However..."

Looking at Lt. Smokh's text message...

"..it DOES seems our time is of the essence. Perhaps sometime after we have completed this rescue operation?"
This message was last edited by the player at 04:49, Mon 07 Nov 2022.

Bellissima replied to Lt Smohk, "I will be there."

She turned to Runa and smiled at the woman, "We are leaving today for the island.  Hopefully we will be finished by the end of the day tomorrow, then we can start thinking about the convention."

She turned toward the others, "That is not the plan.  You are still not planning to use our resources properly." She shook her head.  "Justicar will send in his drones first, amphibious drones are good," she nodded at Justicar.  "Checking out the possible propulsion system is a good idea as well.  Then we will look over the data that Justicar has gathered and decide then on how to approach the island. Any plans made without studying the data that Justicar's drones discover first is reckless.  Nothing and no one should go onto the island until we have studied the gathered data."

"This is the smart way to operate, gather data, study it and come to decisions.  Use the next least risky means of gathering data, study it and make decisions. Move on to slightly more risky gathering data, study it and make decisions. And so on."  Bellissima glared at everyone trying to rush headlong to prove something which she didn't care to ferret out.

She looked over at Garcia, "I am sure you have dozens of stories of people getting killed because data was ignored, wasn't properly gathered, or was given to the people on the ground too late," she stated/asked the experienced operative.

"Just so people can be thinking ahead, I am the next source of information gathering.  My ability to read psychic impressions from objects will be very useful.  Hell, there is a possibility that I will be able to get an entire schematic of the place before we penetrate into the interior with me just touching the ship-island."  She looked over at Winter and Garcia with an arched eyebrow, "That would be useful to gain before going in, right?"

"We can talk more about our plans on the ship," Bellissima started to head out of the LESP headquarters. "Lets go everyone."
This message was last edited by the player at 07:41, Mon 07 Nov 2022.

Please note that Lt. Smohk was going to be ready to go in almost no time.

Justicar nods. His expression cannot be seen behind his vizored helmet, but he does not hesitate to move in support of Bellissima's direction.

As they make their way to the the LESP Motorpool to travel to the Docks and meet up with Lt Smohk. Justicar will answer the questions his data analysis can to Bellissima...

"The island has been off the coast at its current location for about a week.  Its progress in the Satellite footage indicates a speed of approximately 24 knots.  It is hard to ascertain how long it has been in transit the satellite footage is inconclusive as to it's point of origin."

"I will meet you all at the dock, I must gather some additional gear from the Sea Sentinel before meeting you at the Gemini. I'll not be long."

With that, instead of putting the burden of his heavy Exoskeletal suit on the LESP van the team is using, Justicar spreads his mechanical wings as its Fan thrusters whir to life and his takes flight arching out over the city toward the marina and the Sea Sentinel.

"I agree with the idea of drone findings being necessary. Justicar, I trust the drone findings will be assembled by nightfall. This is not sarcasm, and is an expression of competence and faith. Bellissima, if you would like to go with us to the island itself for your readings, to acquire your data, I personally see no issue if Garcia does not. If you can acquire them remotely, all the better - please have your findings by nightfall if possible. What is not acquired will be learned on site."

Winter Herald started to leave, and paused. "Further discussion on this subject will cause me to wonder if there is some failure to understand 'reconnaissance' as meaning something other than 'preliminary surveying or research.'"

His consensus realized he had failed to utilize all resources available, and he approached these two if they were still present. "Runa, Chimp Man Z - do you feel you can create an event on short notice over the seas to get their attention without alerting them, or add something to the success of this operation? I admit to not understanding the limits of either of your abilities, and how far you are willing to expend yourselves in the name of success. But if you can get sensors pointed away from us without causing personal fear to the subject, that would be vastly appreciated. In fact, if either of you believe you can get us in more efficiently than standard physics as we understand them would provide, let me know."

"I deserve criticism for neglecting the two of you."

In reply to Lt. Smohk (msg # 2):

"I will be ready.  You can count on me."

In reply to Winter Herald (msg # 10):

Before parting Justicar will reply negatively. "No. I have no intention of starting my drone recon until we are all on station aboard the Gemini, 20 miles away from the target.  The reason I must go to the island on the sea floor is a tertiary precaution. My drones do not have the sensor suite the Justicar has and a major objective is to determine what if any active or passive surveillance systems the target has access to and is deplying. The Justicar's wide array of sensors can detect and hopefully locate the source of such eletronic detectors. Once they have been identified 'Karl' and I should be able to perform countermeasures with my ECM systems to obfuscate their sensor array temporarily to hide our approach when we stage our assault. Unfortunatly I must get close to utilize such sensor detection an analysis. Once I deem it safe to avoid triggering their alerts I'll launch my drones for a closer look."

"I also do not wish to risk the conceit that i cannot be detected on my approach no matter how safe I may try to be. So if my approach does trigger an alert I want the team on-standby just in case worse case we have to go immediately."

----

On arival at the Sea Sentinel, he will go to the Justicar-Paladin launch cradle and swap out drone-ceti & delta for the Paladin's drone-epsilon & lambda underwater drones.

Also, pondering the things Bellissima kept reporting in her visons of Holly Cook's surroundings, Hikari loaded into his and his drones chemical sprayers a Potent Agent Orange-type Chemical Defoliant incase the 'alien plant life' was not sessile and hostile.  Thinking further, he called up the autofac to load a series of chemical-load rounds of the same defoiliant into rifle rounds of the calibur Senor Garcia used in his specific firearms Hikari had observed ~ preparing two magazine for each firearm.

{OOC: Basically they are dum-dum/hollow-point rounds but instead of them being empty hollow points the hollow is filled with the defoliant agent and covered with a lite plastic/wax cap. They DO suffer some range penalty likely around -30% normal range but they do exactly what a dum-dum round does damage-wise with the added benefit they have a defoliant carrier toxin. Evergreen would be quite angry at Hikari for his ... creative cleverness.}

He also added to his stores medical alergy supplies like used to treat extreme allergic reactions to plant toxins like poison ivy. Thinking ahead he also added specific antidotes to potent sea-life poison like jellyfish stinger venom considering this opperation was to be out in open sea... best to be prepared.

He spent a few more moments adjusting the location of his stores then added suffficient underwater proof tracking tracers to the drone's stores to make sure they had a suitable amount to deploy with their mechanical arms.

One last precaution he also added an obfuscating ink cloud load to his chemical sprayers and drones incase such visual camoflage might also be disirable.

He could think of nothing else so Justicar launched into the sky heading for the meet up at the docks with the team.
This message was last edited by the player at 17:31, Mon 07 Nov 2022.

Lilibeth's eyes widened when Winter began speaking at her. She managed to keep her usual smile in place but his sudden switch from heated conversation with Hikari to speaking to her, had surprised the young woman. "Oh...it's OK," she said, waving a hand between them like she was brushing aside an unseen cobweb. "I've been the new girl before, even without being...well whatever it is I am now, it can be rough for a while. Not just on me but you guys too; new girl," "Ahem" Runa coughs in her mind, "well two new girls show up, boss didn't give you any warning about them and you don't know anything about me really."

"I think you all know I was an Army combat medic, did a couple tours, one in Iraq and another in Afghanistan. I guess you don't care much about that though, its my powers you need to know about right? Well I'm a little fuzzy on it myself but thanks to Ishtar or Inanna, depending if you go with the Sumerian or Babylonian version, chose me to be the...soul companion? Host? of one of her warrior priestesses from back in the day. That's Runa. She is the one that has most of the power, which by the way, she insist is divine, not 'common magic'". Lilibeth brings her fingers up and makes air quotes at the words 'common magic'.

"The goddess lets me use the...healing and empowering I guess is the right way to describe it, aspect of her divinity. I can heal people and restore things with a touch, just like Runa can. Like how I put back together that man hole cover that Bellissima used during the fight with the brontobear. I can also make people faster, jump further and make their bodies tougher too. Runa gets all that plus she can channel that divine energy into her body to hit things, like really hard."

She pauses, her eyes looking up for a moment, "Yah I think that's about it. Oh and Runa is way tougher than I am. Pretty sure she could jump on a grenade and survive no problem. She'd heal super fast too."

I am a ploice officer who is also a paramedic and firefighter, and a former circus performer, who is super strong, and can shrug off smart bombs, missiles, and artillery shells, Jacob advises.  I also recently found out that I seem to have some kind of control over a small troop of spider monkeys.

Again... pondering the flow of events... Justicar makes a course alteration and stops over at the marina dock for the Shadowhawk.

Landing he greets the Security monitoring the the LESP pier and passes through to board the Shadowhawk.  He walks the decks of the ship searching the entire ship... making sure the boat is empty of any LESP agents asking any he finds to exit the craft temporarily if there are any there.

Then he returns to the bridge and speaks to ... no one obvious, "Professor Franz Undorf, if you are here I could find you with radar scans... but I've made no attempt to do so. I just want to talk.. you need not reveal yourself.  I know you are greatly interested in the Dimensional technology that was used to abduct Holly Cook, and I made sure I mentioned I'd be making use of the Shadowhawk to go investigate the discovered island where the dimensional quantum-entangled signature was tracked.  Detective Broyko thinks your ego might make you do something irreverent.  But I know differently.  Your zeal, dedication and obsession to scientific discovery would demand you follow through with investigating this phenomenon to the end.  I conjecture you likely never left the LESP HQ waiting to hear more of my discoveries and your next most likely location would be this vessel so we could take you to the isle unknowingly.  I promised I would.. and I am ~ sharing the readings I recorded from my Q-PP Detector.  But I ask you not follow us to the isle Professor, its dangerous and there are members of my team that ... might not take kindly to your presence in an active combat zone."

Justicar then opened a storage compartment and set down a flash-drive on the bridge console.

"Stay out of trouble Professor, the world needs your genius ~ there are socially acceptable ways to gain what you seek without resorting to criminal activity. Thank you for your assistance."

With that Justicar turns to leave the boat...
This message was last edited by the player at 01:53, Tue 08 Nov 2022.

"Let's move and talk at the same time. Mae Ha Rga, please lead the way to the docks." Winter Herald was simply assuming the large man would be part of the scouting team based on his profile, but if not, that was his choice. "I have been less than congenial to you, Miss Lilibeth, and it is because I did not trust myself and there was the implication that there were infiltrators here. If you actually are one, I cannot detect it, and your disguise is without flaw to my senses. The benefit of the doubt must be granted."

"You can seal necessary breaches behind us, making our egress harder to detect. That is merely the first use of your abilities I can think of. You are far from useless in this operation, and you might be needed to get Holly Cook in a state where she can move."

He was weighing information. "Depending on how disciplined and intelligent your monkeys are, Z, this could be extremely useful. They could expand our intelligence net significantly. This operation will not be a long one, and anything to speed it up matters greatly. Come sunrise, recon is over, whether we are ready or not, and we must give a report and launch the attack. We might not get another window like this."

The whole deciding things by committee only to have some members abruptly decide to do thing the opposite way as previously decided way was getting tiresome for Sensor Garcia.

What this team lacked was a defined leader for field operations and team members who could follow orders. Both were apparently non-existent...

Looking at his phone he toyed with it a bit before going back to the locker room up again in his Stealth Infiltration Suit.


He hadn’t had enough time to look over all of the details of the suit JUSTICAR had provided him. So, he didn’t don it, as it was better to work with familiar equipment. But also, if he were to be captured or killed the Stealth Infiltration Suit would not give away who he was working for since several nations had copied the three-decade old design.

For weapons Senor Garcia took his pistol and bullpup rifle, both equipped with suppressors. He retained his usual ammo loadout but accepted a single magazine for each weapon with Hikari’s defoliant rounds.

As they were going to be operating in the water, he prepped his Dräger LAR 8000 rebreather, and the accompanying Dräger Panorama Nova full face dive mask, which allowed him to wear his multi-optic goggles, and utilize a radio. The rebreather and face mask could also double as an independent breathing system against harmful gases and toxins.

A pair of flashbang grenades, and a pair of full-size polycarbonate K-Bar’s rounded out Senor Garcia's loadout.

Justicar arrives shortly at the dock for the the meet up with the team and Lt Smohk.  He walks about seemingly looking to survey the preparations for the mission ... but in fact his is doing a subtle surface radar sweep of the entire area looking for invisible objects.

04:59, Today: JUSTICAR rolled 33 using 1d100.  Hikari - Read Sensory Instruments 'look for Invisible objects' [77%]. – [roll=1668070788.72104.355584]

Then he will join up with the Team.

Switching to a direct communication on the secure LESP channel...
This message was last edited by the player at 09:05, Thu 10 Nov 2022.

Justicar waited for Bellissima to give him the 'all-clear' sign before ending his own scans for security purposes. He sought out first Senor Garcia...

"Senor, I have something that may be of use to you.  I know you are a firearms expert and I completely understand any trepidation about using ammo you did not prepare but hear me out.  In all of Bellissima's visions of Holly Cook she has reported the presence of unknown alien plant-life.  We have been unable to identify any of the plants from her descriptions and from what we know about the ... incidents of the dimensional interlopers the Fantastic can become quite dangerously real!  So I felt it... prudent to prepare a potential counter-measure."

He will present him with a collection of ammo magazines in the caliber of his usual load-out of firearms two magazines for each weapon.

"I ran off on my autofac some defoliant rounds from dum-dum hollow-point ammo the defoliant capped with simple plastic-resin caps.  I do not know if terrestrial defoliant from earth will be effective on alien plant-life... but form Belissima's description the plant-life seems to be thriving in out environment so whatever its chemistry it is gaining sustenance from sunlight and that means some form of chlorophyll and THAT is subject to defoliants!  It is unknown if the alien plants are even a threat but I'd rather NOT find out they are neither sessile nor non-hostile the hard way.  I'm loaded chemical defoliant in my chemical sprayers on my suit and drones as well.  Sorry I have no grenades prepared... I did not have time to aerosolize the agent and do not keep such chemical ordinance in stock.  Plus such agents are harmful to us and I rather not use such unpredictable ordinance near my teammates.
I don't know if they will help but I made these for you, and hope you don't need them."

Justicar will acknowledge that Senor only accepts one clip for each weapon with a nod, then points to his right hip... "See this small depression in the armor here? Press it in and release... it opens a storage compartment. I will store the rest of the Defoliant magazines here... if you need to retrieve some more and I am unable to split my attention or am incapacitated. I normally lock all these compartments but I'll leave this one unlocked for you to access if needed. Belissima can also Telekinetically retrieve ammo for you if you make her aware of the location of the compartment."

Then Justicar will seek out Chimpman Z and Lilibeth/Runa...
"Hey CMZ, Lilibeth I wanted to inform you of some supplemental resources I'm carrying that you would be uniquely able to make use of with your specific training.  You both have had combat medic training.  I am carrying Plant Anti-toxins and Allergy Neutralizing serums for fungal and plant-toxin irritants.  Bellissima mentioned that alien plants were in close proximity to Holly Cook and I felt it prudent to carry some medicinal stores if they prove to be toxic or poisonous.  I know they are alien and our terestrial remedies may be of limited if any effect... but Belle mentioned the alien plants seem to be thriving here so something in our environment must be conducive to their growth so some of our remedies may be effective upon them as well. Better safe than sorry.  Also, I am carrying a broad array of neuro-toxins antidotes for sea-based poisons like jelly-fish stings and puffer fish poison considering we are out in the open sea it might be prudent should something out here present itself and someone befall an accidental poisoning or sting ~ just trying to be prepared for the unexpected but potentially present threat."

He points to his left hip, "See this small depression in the armor here? Press it in and release... it opens a storage compartment. I will store these medical supplies here ~ I did not want to burden you both with gear you may not have any need of.  I know CMZ is very strong and his harness can be loaded with more pouches but Lilibeth's/Runa's costume is not really designed to carry such supplies. I normally lock all these compartments but I'll leave this one unlocked for you to access if needed. Belissima can also Telekinetically retrieve medical supplies for you if you make her aware of the location of the compartment."

Preparations made Justicar ushers the team to meet up to discuss the next move.

"So what's the plan?  Do I go on ahead and do my forward Recon?  I think we definitely want to know what type of sensor warning system they have before was attempt any close inspection we do not want to spook them into running.  The Justicar has a full sensor suite I can ascertain what sensors they are using without getting close enough to warn them first ~ detect radar pulses and sonar pings with enough warning to avoid detection.  I'm not planning to actually launch any drones until I have identified the sensitivity of their sensor array. Once I can analyze what they are using I may be able to emit a countermeasure to fool or spoof their sensors before closing to do my Drone Recon.  Unless ~ someone has a better plan?"

Location: LESP Offices

Bellissima nodded at Garcia's comment addressing her concerns.  "Using our resources correctly will save time," she responded.

---

Location: USS Gemini

Bellissima arrived at the docks and moved over to the USS Gemini directly, as she reached the gangplank, she called out to the ship, "Permission to come aboard?"

Sending over the LESP radio to Justicar,  As she was given permission to board, she started using her telepathy to make sure all the sailors on the ship had organic minds, making sure to avoid picking up any thoughts from the sailors.  As much as she could at least, she was always picking up random, disconnected thoughts from people around her.  She was also looking for the invisible, mainly looking for invisible people, there wasn't much space for someone to hide, besides deep inside the ship and she would wait for permission to check.

Being lead over to Lt Smohk, Bellissima nodded at the officer, "Hello Lt Smohk, thanks for the offer of help.  We have discovered an unknown island off the coast that moves on its own.  We have not been able to determine its point of origin yet, but it arrived off the coast about a week ago.  I have reason to believe a kidnapped individual is being held on the island as well."  She briefed the Lieutenant on the situation in front of her.  "There are indications it might be from another dimension, but we have no idea how or when it got here.   So we want to approach it stealthily as possible.  We suspect that it is under the control of a Russian gang called the Refuseniks and lead by Vitaly who I am pretty sure has psychic powers similar to mine, but more focused on telepathy."

Pausing for a moment as she considered a thought, she asked hesitantly, "I know this ship has a lot of secrets on it.  But if I promise to forget everything I learn, could I do a psychic read of the ship to see what I can learn about a complex system.  I want to use it on the Island, but need to know how well I can read a complex object with many parts.  I will also answer any questions about what I discover," she requested of Lt Smohk.

After Events With The Refuseniks

Roughly 24 hours ago -

Alison sat in a conference room with four people she knew and two she did not know. The two she did not know were looking at a manila jacket, which she assumed was her own file. The other four were seated between them were looking at her and politely waiting for the two on their wings to catch up. She drummed her fingers loudly. Finally the woman on the far left spoke, "Senior Supervisory Deputy Marshal Alison Myers, you hold a triune citizenship, explain, please." The please was added as an afterthought.

Alison explained that her Father had been a British Diplomat to Hong Kong. Her mother had been an American Journalist covering the Far East. She had been born in Hong Kong. Her parents wanted her to have a well rounded experience so she took Kung Fu, went shopping and eating outside the British districts, and volunteered in various shelters.

The man on the far right took off his glasses and asked, "What is Xia Xong Biomedical?"

Alison explained that she had been diagnosed with Cystic Fibrosis at age two. Xia Xong was owned by a friend of her dad, which had been working on a cure for this very condition. She joined the human trials. All of the participants had some level of reversal of symptoms, and all but Alison relapsed within five years. It was theorized that some biochemical abnormality aided her body and she did not have a reversal of symptoms but was entirely cured. When the British left Hong Kong Xia Xong relocated it's headquarters and such to the US.

These questions seemed geared toward her connection to China. "I never visited the mainland. When the British left, we left and returned to the US. My dad joined the board of directors of Xia Xong, and eventually retired. I have no connections to the Communists."

The woman questioned her again, "Your actual age is Fifty. I don't think anyone here would have believed that without overwhelming proof. Can you explain how you seem to be half your age?"

Alison could not explain it. She gave her theory, good genes, clean living, and the love of the Universe. At this point the two people on the wings seemed to be placated. Her supervisor looked around their side of the table and they all nodded. Upon confirmation he spoke to her. "You have been selected for a special assignment. LESP has asked for our assistance avoiding more jurisdictional complications. You know some of the members personally, one in particular, Jacob Davidovich." She nodded, smiling brightly, and he continued. "We would like you to join them as a Liaison. This will be a permanent assignment and you will have a wide latitude."

Currently -

Even though she had not completely moved in to her new apartment, she decided to show her face at LESP offices so that she could get to know her new spandex clad playmates. She wore khaki cargo pants, a dark navy short sleeved shirt, running shoes, with her pistol on her hip and her badge hanging from a chain around her neck. She took it out of the inside of her shirt and held it up so that the Desk Sargent could see it. "Senior Supervisory Marshal Alison Myers, I believe you are expecting me?"