Gone fishing...

In pursuit of their estranged former teammate Doctor Jackal, the EIS team of enhanced individuals have followed a trail of clues to the mysterious Montauk Institute on Long Island, and while investigating the site they have discovered what appears to be a hidden facility buried deep beneath the Institute that contains a number of 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.

Long Island, New York, United States of America, October 1949

Still somewhat surprised at the discovery of seven enhanced within the hidden facility, I push out with my senses once again this time focusing on the closest unknown enhanced. I force my way beyond their mental defenses and uncover that their most dominant power is the ability to shapeshift. Having confirmed in my mind that we were not dealing with the type of security animals that we had seen the Wolfenkorps use during the war I looked at Madeline and signaled that we should retreat back to the roof. Once we are out of the lift shaft Madeline leads the way to the second lift shaft that she had spotted previously.

Sven, having spotted the two shadows moving across the rooftop with his sharp eyesight, lands next to us and we quickly let him know what we have discovered at the bottom of the first lift shaft. We then slip into the second lift shaft and find that it only has access to the initial basement levels, and does not drop the further two hundred feet to the hidden sub basement. As we are searching the elevator starts to move and so Madeline quickly slides onto the top of the lift and listens carefully, she can only just make out the noises of conversation over the rattle of the machinery, but she can tell that there are both female and male voices. We both take more time to inspect the door seals but we cannot work out how they are forming an airtight seal. Madeline takes several photographs for reference so that we can review them at a later time.

We exit the building, and giving Sven the signal, we head back to the car and regroup with Alfie. As Alfie drives us back to the motel we fill him in on everything that we have discovered and agree that we will contact Mr Shannon first thing in the morning. Not long after breakfast a taxi pulls up outside the motel for us and we all climb in. It takes us for a drive around Long Island and while it does Madeline tells Mr Shannon exactly what we have found so far. Mr Shannon nods all the while and when she has finished detailing the teams scouting activities he says;

That's very interesting. Do you believe that you can get more information without getting caught?

Sven bristles a little and asks what will happen if we do get caught. Mr Shannon simply replies;

The British Government will disavow any knowledge of your actions.

Madeline laughs and shakes her head as if she has heard it all before. She then asks Mr Shannon if he has managed to get the details of the American Enhanced as requested. Mr Shannon nods and relays that the Americans originally wanted to create one enhanced for every state, but the British Government would not let them have any more than five. They ended up with Miss Liberty, by far the strongest and classified at level 7, based out of New York and with the ability to fly and control plasma amongst other things. Two animalistic enhanced in the shape of Moose and Sabretooth, Texas' Lonestar, and an enhanced by the name of Godhead. Mr Shannon told us that further details could be found in the briefing pack, which he handed to Madeline.

I asked Mr Shannon if there was a mechanical engineer, preferably specialising in elevators, in the area and he said that he would get us an address. He dropped us back at the motel and told us that he would be back in a few hours and we should be ready to move then. Twenty minutes after arriving back I receive a telephone message with an address for Turner Construction on Long Island. I got Alfie to drive me over and accompany me into their offices, I made some story up about looking to get some work done on a New York apartment building and in particular the elevators and asked to speak to their best engineer. The man who showed us into his office was overweight and dabbed at his brow with a handkerchief even though it was not that hot, I asked him if he was the elevator expert and he said that he was and so I reached out and shook his hand. As I clasped his sweaty palm I used my enhanced power to borrow his knowledge of elevator engineering.

After a brief conversation, during which we discuss very little and I flirt just enough to put the engineer at ease, Alfie and I leave and return back to the motel. On the journey back I contemplate the sealed elevator doors in the Montauk Institute, and with my borrowed knowledge I now believe that they are probably magnetically sealed. Relying upon the physics knowledge of Klaus Fuchs that I had borrowed previously I was able to theorise a simple device that would allow us to circumvent the magnetic seals. I got Alfie to detour to a hardware store and managed to pick up the items that we would need to build the device.

Just after midday Mr Shannon arrived and drove us in his taxi towards Montauk point, he continued on towards Star Island set in Lake Montauk and the marina there. He handed alfie a set of keys and pointed along the jetty to a sailboat moored at its end. The boat was named Long Day, and aboard we found the other items that we had requested be provided for our fact finding mission, including stun grenades and several pairs of powerful binoculars. Using the boats onboard engine I got us quickly underway and we slowly left the harbour and headed east around the headland. Once we were clear of the harbour I started shouting instructions to Alfie who helped me set the sails and we coasted past the Montauk lighthouse before turning southwest. We dropped anchor off the coast and set up the fishing gear so that it would look like Alfie was in for the long haul.

Once the sun had set, Sven transformed into a sea lion and towed the shadowy forms of Madeline and I across the sea to the beach. As soon as he hit the beach he transformed once again, this time into a spider crab and began scuttling up the beach towards the cliff. Pushing ahead of him were the dark silhouettes, who quickly slid up the cliff face and headed for the tree line. Once Sven reached the base of the cliff his form shifted shape again and a bird flapped up into the darkening sky and headed for the transmitter building.

With Sven keeping watch from above, Madeline and I continued with the plan to investigate the ground floor of the building to see if it was as well protected as the below ground levels. We discovered that the windows on the ground floor were also built as sealed units and so there was no way for us to slip in unnoticed, and so we slipped around to the entrance. Bright light flooded out from the glass fronted entrance, and within we could see a guard in military uniform stood watchfully behind a low counter to the left of the doorway. A second guard then walked into view, clearly patrolling the ground floor. Madeline and I backed away and slipped up an overlooking tree to work out how we might gain entry.

We agree that there is not enough cover for us to slip through the entrance door without being seen by the guard behind the counter, and there is enough light spilling out that we would run the risk of being seen even if we just tried to see if the entrance doorway was magnetically sealed. Just before midnight a military jeep approached down the road and pulled up outside the front of the transmitter building. A pair of guards climbed out of the jeep and exchanged places with the two on guard within. The shift change completed that two relieved guards drove off up the road back towards the barracks. But, watching the guards enter the building we were sure that the entrance door was not magnetically sealed.

Madeline and I slipped onto the roof of the building and I transformed back into my solid form and made a signal for Sven to join us. Once he had landed we told what we had discovered and that we were going to head down and see if we could gain entrance through the sub-basement doors. Madeline transformed back into her solid form and took a moment to screw a silencer onto her gun, following her lead I did the same before we both transformed back into shadows and headed into the lift shaft.

When we reach the base of the lift shaft I push out with my senses and confirm that there are still seven unknown enhanced on this level. Six of them are in almost identical positions, whilst the seventh, which was further away and isolated previously, was in a different location but still isolated. I attempted to push my senses into the lone enhanced but was unable to overcome its mental defenses, something that concerned me. I made Madeline aware, and we agreed that there was a good chance that it could well be Doctor Jackal. Agreeing to push onwards, I pulled out my jury-rigged device and connected it to the lift doors. There was a moment were nothing happened and then the sound of a hiss as air escaped and the pressure equalised. Madeline poked her shadow head through and could see a brightly lit, white tiled corridor beyond.

Madeline can also hear the gentle hum of electronic machinery somewhere in the vicinity, she quickly slides up onto the ceiling and discovers that there are a set of stairs heading upwards next to the elevator doors. She heads up them but discovers that it isn't far before she finds them sealed off by a magnetic sealed shutter. She inspects the only other exit from the corridor and finds that this is also sealed, she calls me across and I remove our device from the lift doors and use it to bypass the next door. As I break the seal Madeline believes that she hears the next door in close and seal with a gentle clunk. Beside each door is a keypad and Madeline believes that this is some kind of airlock. We look at each other, weighing up if we should progress into the unknown and potentially trapping ourselves within.