A Rustling, But More Than Bushes (MT/PMT)

Rould complies and goes with K'Rina and the telepath.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

"Thank you," a voice says over the radio connection.

The search parties cross exactly where they were supposed to, and at precisely the time they were supposed to. Assuming they meet up with the people who are to accompany them without a problem, they fan out and begin to search the border areas.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Here, the Swiss may end their search. They are greeted by government troops and led into the government compound. Almost immediately, the High Priest Argon comes in to speak with them.


"How may I be of service?"

"We simply request information that you may have on the attacks on our cities."

Hopefully the group gets to the Consulate without a problem. They do avoid any areas that are being searched with the telepath's help.

*************************

The A&A military don't present any problems. They're fine with the search. They seem a little resentful though that they're not believed about no one having crossed the border.

****************************

The Chameleon crosses the border at a place that is unguarded. He heads through to the location where the data is being kept. He keeps his guard up as well as a personal shield turned on. The shield will stop detection through heat signals and his ability will keep himself from being seen. He is, for all intents and purposes, invisible.

Well, the army groups fanned out very quickly. However, they're not difficult to slip through. The troops are exceedingly vigilant, so it isn't their fault individually. It's almost like they were deployed in such a way that an African elephant could slip through the spaces between squads. Someone higher up is either a dimwit, or has an agenda that has yet to be disclosed.

Rould, K'Rina, and the Rutian reach their destination safely.

The Bismouthi troops do not respond to any resentment, if any is shown. They are courteous. If General D'Arc asks or feels snubbed, he will be assured that the security breach was the sole fault of the Bismouthi.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Well, there aren't really any places that are left unguarded. Unlike the troops searching for Rould, the troops here are deployed in such a way that sneaking by would be almost impossible. Like the troops searching for Rould, they are all commendably vigilant. Unlike the troops searching for Rould, they are up against something that's invisible, and apparently undetectable by obvious means. Like the troops searching for Rould, their quarry is able to slip through them undetected.

That was an annoying paragraph to type. I hope it isn't so annoying to read!

Anyway, the Chameleon does succeed in reaching the terminal to upload the data he needs to pilfer.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

High Priest Argon frowns at this question. "I was told that the Swiss were already spoken to about our situation," he begins carefully. "A terrorist cell with far more power than we thought which has expertly sown anarchy, yes? I'm sure you have heard and are familiar with the facts."

He seems cautious, but it is certainly a reasonable response.

"We decided to investigate further, as we received information from Alanda and Alexia that says otherwise. Investigation on our part corroborates what the government of Alanda and Alexia has shared with us. If you have nothing new to say, well, Mr. Sandman told us to erode somebody else's farm."

D'Arc doesn't feel snubbed really. The resentment the soldiers feel is more that they have to go help hunt down someone who the Bismouthi couldn't keep in their own land.

The Rutian Consulate will provide a safe room for K'Rina and Rould. They seem to treat K'Rina as if she were one of them rather than from A&A.

*********************

Once the Chameleon is at the terminal, he doesn't touch it. Instead, he uses his own datapad in an attempt to access the terminal. Wireless. Only problem with accessing from a distance is that this particular hacking program needs to be about one hundred yards from the terminal that's attempting to be hacked.

Rould waits patiently at the consulate for the Chameleon to return.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Well, the terminals in the databank are not networked except to each other. It may be possible to hack into one if connected to another, but not completely from the outside. In other words, it is necessary to hook into the system before hacking into a specific piece of data.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

The High Priest Argon blinks in bewilderment.

"Mr. Sandman? To whom are you referring?"

He does not seem surprised that the soldiers mentioned A&A. In fact, he seems intent on pretending not to have heard it.

"And what exactly has your investigation found? You prefer to believe a few country ruffians over the High Priesthood?"

She ignores his bafflement over the Sandman comment. "Well, there was the fact that none of them shot at us, even though they want us converted or dead, according to the violent orthodox claim. There's also the fact that none of those we met were dressed in the orthodox garments depicted in the video and were perfectly willing engage in negotiations with our government. Those facts point against the violent orthodox theory and towards what the government of Alanda and Alexia has told us." She starts pacing. "What's also slightly suspicious is that you never attempted to warn us about the impending attacks. There was vastly increased military activity at your borders and yet you never shared anything with us. Even with your communications systems tampered with, it would have only taken sending one of your officers to a local Checkmate office in one of the border cities to warn us. We are prepared to deal with such things. After all, we handle meta-humans who throw cars around like rag dolls on a regular basis." She stops and looks at High Priest Argon, waiting on his response.

The Chameleon silently sighs and pulls out a cord from his pocket and connects his datapad to the system. He downloads a hacking program and runs it to find the information and download it to his datapad. The cord, once he's touched it, has been hidden. He does stay aware of any surveillance in the area. He keeps everything on the datapad, careful not to disrupt the actual terminal.

Well, surveillance doesn't seem to be picking him up. And no giant alarms went off when the Chameleon hooked into the system or hacked in, so that's a good sign.

In any case, the datapad is now registering a large compressed file on its hard drive. It requires a decompress code, but that's definitely the data that Rould was calling for.

Hope he has that code.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

"You tried to negotiate with them?!" Argon exclaims. Quickly regaining his composure, he continues. "Well it is good that they didn't try to kill you, but this doesn't really prove anything. After all, they may be wackos, but they're not stupid wackos. They don't want the Swiss Army coming down on their heads. Yes, it all makes perfect sense."

He pauses.

"Also, we had no warning ourselves. Our last moments were dedicated to trying to keep the army loyal to us," Argon says. For some reason, the inflection seemed wrong there. Like he meant MY last moments, as opposed to OUR. "There was no time to try to send a messenger. And even if we did, we could not have been sure of the loyalties of whoever we sent. We did the best we could under the circumstances." Interesting how he doesn't seem to refer solely to himself when he uses WE.

"Yes, and that is always an option we try before war. Given your statement that they are not stupid, what did they think attacking our cities would do? Furthermore, you had plenty of time to warn us of this group. High Priest Xenon told the Chancellor your government has been tracking them for two and a half years. All this time and you never informed Checkmate."

The Chameleon just downloads the file and gets out of there. He'll slip through the border and head to the Consulate, all the while his hacking program is working on accessing the file. However, if it appears the program is about to set off something that might damage the file, it stops running. Once he's at the Consulate, he'll turn visible. But not until that time.

The file remains undamaged by the decoding attempts, but that's all the good news there is. Oh, that and the Chameleon seems to have gotten away clean. But that file remains stubbornly encrypted. One can only hope that Rould either knows the code or can figure it out. It's anywhere between 9 and 17 digits, and who knows what characters are and aren't allowed. That is a LOT of possible permutations.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

The High Priest's features sour when the Swiss mentions the information that Xenon had revealed to them. He responds tonelessly however. "Attacking your cities was a good show of strength," the High Priest asserts, "since this situation is so difficult to diffuse. There is no real appropriate response. They've got us all in a pickle. Also, I am unaware of any setup that would allow for intelligence sharing between the B-"

There is a knock at the door. The High Priest Argon's face completely smooths to show no emotion whatsoever, and he stops speaking. The door opens revealing the High Priest Neon. The second High Priest's eyebrows shoot up when he sees the Swiss.

"I was uninformed we had visitors," he says.

"It does not concern you."

"In that case," the High Priest Neon says, and begins to close the door again.

"You may remain if you'd like," High Priest Argon says before Neon finishes closing the door. The door stops and reverses. High Priest Neon has decided to stay, and while there is nothing physical or even implied to suggest it, the general level of tension in the room seems to increase. The High Priest Argon's features remain expressionless.

So the Chameleon gets back, drops his hiding and tosses the datapad down on a table. "Good news and bad news. Got in, found the data. Bad news? It's encrypted. I have a program running on it, but it could take a very long time. So, unless you know the code..." He looks at Rould.

K'Rina doesn't look surprised at the news that he got in and out, but she frowns at the news that it's encrypted.

"A show of strength that would potentially bring an army down on them? That makes no sense. As for you not contacting us, a simple call from our embassy to our government requesting Taleb Khalid would have sufficed in that time."

Rould looks pensive. "Mind if I take a look at it?"

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

"The chances of being invaded by a Swiss army for a non-governmentally-sponsored, terrorist attack seems null to me," High Priest Argon responds dryly.

"What he means is," High Priest Neon says, "is that the radicals are likely aware of your nation's noble principles. As such, they believe that you were unlikely to respond with crippling force. And even if you did, it would be us, the real government, who would bear the brunt of the invasion, not them."

"So in response to your logic, I posit that it is we who would lose the most in a Swiss invasion. Why would we risk it?" Argon finishes.

"I cannot comment on why you were or were not contacted," The High Priest Neon says. Argon looks like he's about to say that he can, but High Priest Neon continues smoothly, overriding the possibility. After all, High Priest Xenon is in charge of communications. "And neither can Brother Argon. Would you like to speak to the High Priest who can rightfully answer you in this matter?"

"True, our response would not be a full invasion, but merely sending in Special Forces to help hunt down those responsible. There are those who would scream for an invasion but we know better than to send in a regular army to fight a guerrilla war. It is still not very smart to provoke us into using Special Forces." When offered to speak to a proper High Priest, she responds, "That would be appreciated."

The Chameleon just waves at the datapad. "Have at it. I've got a hacking program running on it, but it won't stop any manual entries from being run. The program will stop when either it's found the right entry or someone else has entered it."

Rould enters a random combination.
"PraiseBeCarbin"

A response appears on the screen. Rould is making no attempt to cover the datapad, so it's in full view of all.

"Password incorrect. Have you forgotten your password?" Rould clicks the 'forgotten your password' text. The screen dissolves, revealing more text.

"Carbon is good, and
Xenon is noble,
Boron is glued, and
Radium is trouble.
But out of the 6,
One is you."

"The six...the six," Rould repeats pensively. Six. "Six noble gases," he continues.

"Xenon"
Rould types.

"Please enter your password," the datapad replies.

"Argon"

The file decrypts, revealing a series of executive commands issued by a High Priest. They seem to be to bomb manufacturers.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Now, all of the High Priests are 'proper,' it's just that they are specialized. If you wanted to know about logistics in the army, you'd have to talk to Neon. It's just that you happen to be outside his specialty.

"One moment please," the High Priest Neon says and pulls out what looks like a walkie-talkie. He speaks into it.

"I shall take my leave," High Priest Argon says, standing stiffly and leaving the room.

(OOC: I meant to write "the proper high priest.")

They wait.

All of them just look at the datapad. The Chameleon just raises a brow, then looks for the name of the high priest that gave the orders. He also studies the information to find out what kind of manufacturers are being targeted.

K'Rina just stares blankly at it, then looks at the Chameleon. She's deferring to him right now.

"See, this is weird," Rould says. "Xenon should have been the answer to that riddle. It's the last, or sixth, in alphabetical order of the noble gases. There's no reason that the answer should have been Argon. Also, I don't think that all of these things were visible to all of the High Pri-there!" He interrupts himself.

There on the screen is a break in the command log for these. Someone hid them from being accessed without a personal combination. It's the personal password of the High Priest Argon.

"So the government isn't at fault as a whole," Rould muses. "Just the one man."

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

"You called," High Priest Xenon asks as he enters the room.

"Yes," High Priest Neon says. "These good people have some questions for you."

The Chameleon raises a brow. "So this whole thing is the work of just one? Interesting. And I'll bet everyone is in chaos now. We need to talk to the rest of them, without this one. Preferably here. Neutral ground, so to speak. This definitely isn't information I'd trust to the communication system here."

K'Rina seems to consider this for a moment. "Not a bad idea, really."

They both look to Rould.

"During our investigation, we came across several irregularities between your government's reports, the reports from Alanda and Alexia, and our own findings." She goes to tell him about the lack of orthodox clothing among those they talked to, the oddity of Checkmate not being informed of this group, and what Alanda and Alexia told them.

"Well, he's likely the only high level official involved," Rould replies. "Though he likely has lower level lackeys. Some of them might not even know why they're being ordered to do certain things though."

And when they both look at him, Rould raises his arms defensively. "Don't you go looking at me. How on Earth do you expect me to arrange THAT? Maybe scramble your jets and send messages demanding to see High Priest Radon. That'll get their attention."

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

"That is all very interesting," High Priest Xenon says in a tone that implies the absolute opposite. "But it doesn't seem to prove anything."

He pauses.

"Now, as far as communication goes, I have been investigating the issue since the first bombings. Multiple government failures resulted in your not being informed. I'll have a full report sent to your government as soon as it is completed. The summary goes like this: our intelligence didn't put the entire puzzle together until hours before it actually happened, I wasn't informed personally until minutes before it actually happened, and I was told to trust no one until the separatists made their move. By the time anyone had resolved to do anything, it was too late. Our comm systems went offline as well as our data systems a few minutes before it occurred as well for reasons we still cannot explain."