The quantum entanglement...

In pursuit of their estranged former teammate Doctor Jackal, the EIS team of enhanced individuals Have discovered that renowned physicist Albert Einstein has not only met with Doctor Jackal, but is also an enhanced. The EIS team consists of Alfie Baldrick, the one man rifle section; Mimi Dubois, maîtresse of skills; Madeline Forsyth, the living shadow; and Sven Hyse, the Norwegian shapeshifter.

New York, United States of America, October 1949

We head back to New York and the Bentley Hotel with the intention of contacting Major Sawdon and informing him of our discovery. We rise late, and Madeline spends the morning writing up a report of our actions in America to date. Surprisingly, she asks me to double check it and I spend a short time making sure that it covers all of the salient points. I then ring the number that we had been given for the Taxi Company and get put through to who I assume is now our designated handler, Mr Shannon. We arrange for the report to be collected, and I request an update on the ships manifest and an accurate time for when the ship docked. Mr Shannon puts me on hold for a few minutes and when he comes back on the line he confirms that the ship docked only a few hours early and that the full manifest will be dropped off when the report is collected.

Once the exchange has taken place, Madeline and I spend the morning working though the long list of names, cross referencing each one to the departure list that we had already obtained. Just after lunch we come to the conclusion that we cannot reliably evidence that Doctor Shuck boarded the ship in Liverpool. Once we have come to that conclusion we again contact Mr Shannon and put in a request to check flight manifests between the date that we know that Doctor Jackal was still in London and the date that the ship docked in New York. We agree that we will need to move our base of operations to Princeton and so we check out of the Bentley Hotel and catch the train to Princeton Junction. We find a good motel and book rooms for the night. As the rest of us are settling in, Sven transforms into a bird and flies over to Einstein's house, when he finds it in darkness he returns and we head out for seafood.

The following morning we hire a car from a local dealer and head back towards the Institute for Advanced Studies. On route we stop outside Einstein's residence and I borrow Madeline's enhanced ability to transform into shadow and we both transform and slide onto Alfie's body. Alfie gets out of the car and posts a slip of paper through Einstein's front door, when he is on the stoop Madeline and I slide off of his body and slip in under the front door. alfie returns to the car and drives it around the corner and parks up out of sight of the house. Sven transforms back into a bird once more and flies on to the Institute, when he arrives he discovers that Einstein's office is unoccupied and so he flies back to Alfie and they head for a local diner to await us.

Having discovered that Einstein's house is empty, Madeline and I start a slow and methodical search. Madeline points out that a number of the text books that Einstein has been focusing on are all relatively new. When I have a look at them, using my borrowed physics skill, I can tell that he is clearly focusing his mind on quantum entanglement. When I mention this to Madeline she gives me a look that says she doesn't understand and I hypothesize aloud;

I think that Doctor Jackal is either trying to split himself from Mr Hades, or he is trying to allow them to exist at the same time.

Madeline checks through the books, paying particular attention to the dates of publication and the dates stamped in those borrowed from the university library and identifies that Einstein's focus on this pathway started about a year ago. While I am reading through the books looking for any more clues as to what is happening Madeline discovers a concealed safe, it is a work of seconds for her to crack the safe and she discovers inside a number of documents including deeds and legal paperwork. She also discovers some personal correspondence and starts to read through the letters. We continue our search, taking meticulous effort to leave everything that we touch back in exactly the same order and location that we found it. Just before seven in the evening we hear the sound of a car pulling up outside and so we quickly put back the items that we were looking at and while I slip out of the closed window as a shadow, Madeline slips in her shadow form behind a bookcase.

Einstein follows his standard routine and when he heads for bed just before midnight Madeline slips out quietly and joins us back in the car. Alfie drives to the Institute for Advanced studies and once again Madeline and I slip up the outside wall and underneath the closed window into Einstein's office. We agree to find his secretaries office first and locate it on the second floor of the building. After a thorough search we find her work diary and discover an entry for the talk that Einstein gave and also the day before the appointment to met Doctor Jackal. Flicking back through the diary I find a note of a telephone call from Doctor Jackal two days earlier, but there is no note of what it pertained to. As I continue to search back through the diary, Madeline heads back to Einstein's office to search it.

Within his office, Madeline discovers an introductory letter from Doctor Einstein dated February 21st 1948 as well as a couple more letters and several papers covered in formulae that Madeline can't decypher in his locked drawers. Knowing that time is now running tight, Madeline takes photographs of everything that she thinks may be relevant before putting it all back and relocking the drawers. My search proves fruitless as I find nothing more in Einstein secretaries diary and so I join Madeline and we slip out of the window and back down the wall to join the others just before dawn.

After some breakfast, Madeline and I head for some well earned rest tasking Alfie and Sven with finding the nearest location that Madeline can develop the photos that she has taken in privacy. They quickly find that there is a place just down the road from the motel and so decide to make the most of the day and head back into New York to take in the sights. They visit the Empire State Building as well as Staten Island and on their way back to the train station they spot that Randolph Scott's new movie is on at the cinema and so they head in and give it a watch. They arrive back at the motel in Princeton just as Madeline and myself are heading down looking for dinner and so we head into the nearest restaurant.

We have just finished our dinner when the waiter comes over to our table and informs us that our taxi has arrived. We all look around at each other first confused, and then concerned. None of us had ordered a taxi. Fully expecting a trap we head out and climb into the waiting cab, it pulls away from the curb and as it does so the driver turns around and says in a heavy New York accent;

Hi! I'm Mr Shannon.

As soon as he opens his mouth, Madeline can discern that he is putting on the accent, and that underneath it lays an English accent well hidden. Shannon tells us that his team have discovered that a Doctor Luison arrived on a flight into Idlewild airport seven days before Einstein gave his talk. Mr Shannon believes that this was Doctor Jackal as a Luison is also the name of a monstrous creature from Guaraní mythology. Being one of the seven cursed children of Tau and Kerana, the Luison is one of the primary figures of legend in Guaraní-speaking cultures such as Paraguay.

After that piece of information, Shannon carries out a standard debrief while he drives smoothly around the streets of Princeton. Smoothly that is until Madeline tells him that we have discovered that Einstein is an enhanced, at that point the cool Mr Shannon swerves and hits a pot hole before regaining his composure. We inform him that we are going to attempt to gain an interview with Einstein and he agrees that is possibly the best way forwards. As he drops us off outside our motel he informs us that he will visit us once again in two days time.

That night, Madeline slips into the photographic shop and develops her film. By midnight she is finished and using the images of the documents we start to piece together a timeline for Doctor Jackal.

November 1942 - Doctor Jackal disappears after an explosion at Hanslope Park.

1946 - Doctor Shuck takes rooms in Ravens Row and starts to work at London Hospital.

1946 - Doctor Barghest befriends a gang in the Blind Beggar public house and starts to work with them.

May 1947 - Doctor Barghest makes contact with Leopold Schwob to learn about horology.

October 1947 - Doctor Barghest starts his 'toy making' project. It culminates in ten toys of astounding properties being built.

February 1948 - Doctor Jackal contacts Albert Einstein to discuss quantum entanglement.

July 1948 - a second letter from Doctor Jackal is sent to Albert Einstein, the return address is Ravens Row.

April 1949 - Schwob's journal details starting Doctor Barghest's 'great work'.
April 1949 - A final letter to Albert Einstein detailing that he would be visiting America.
September 1949 - Doctor Barghest paid his last official visit to Schwob's horology shop.

September 1949 - Doctor Shuck books passage on the RMS Caronia from Liverpool to New York, a ship he never catches.

September 1949 - Doctor Luison lands at Idlewild airport.

September 1949 - Doctor Jackal makes contact with Albert Einstein by telephone.

September 1949 - Doctor Jackal meets with Albert Einstein.

We sit back and look at our work. We are still none the wiser.