Sightseeing on Long Island...

In pursuit of their estranged former teammate Doctor Jackal, the EIS team of enhanced individuals have discovered a connection to a colleague of Albert Einstein, one Immanuel Velikovsky. And so the team are moving in to search his house. 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.

Princeton, United States of America, October 1949

Madeline and I exit Velikovsky's house and rejoin Aflie and Sven back at the car. We head for a late lunch and discuss what we plan on doing next. I suggest that we should investigate the Montauk Institute, but Madeline and Sven are very keen on speaking directly to Vilikovsky face to face. So we agree to set out a web of three Baldrick lookouts, keeping a close eye on the entrance roads to the area of Velikovsky's residence. Charlie remains in the car parked up in the quiet parking spot to the rear of the house. Sven takes to the air and makes sure that the coast is clear before giving us the go signal.

Alfie grabs the car blanket and slips shadowlike through the trees and across the road to the railinged fence at the rear of Velikovsky's house. Madeline and I literally shadow him on his journey and slip under the railings into the rear garden while Alfie throws the blanket over the railing top and clambers over silently before slipping quietly into the shed. Madeline and I approach the rear door of the property and knock loudly, but after a minute of no response I listen closely at the door and can hear the loud tap tapping of a typewriter. We slip around to the front of the house and try again, this time knocking very loudly. The loud tap tapping of the typewriter stops and a few moments later Velikovsky appears at the door holding a green glowing brass sphere at arms length before him.

Who are you?

Madeline answers in fluent Russian, flashing him a broad smile;

Good evening Doctor. We have come to talk to you about your brass sphere.

After a moment of hesitation Velikovsky stands back and invites us into his home, his curiosity clearly winning in a battle against his paranoia. We follow him into his study and his first question is clearly his paranoia reasserting itself;

Who do you work for?

Madeline continues in Russian, calm and assured;

Let's not talk about that. We are interested in Doctor Henry Jackal. He gave you that sphere.

Velikovsky looks both concerned and a little bit scared, and Madeline continues to press him for information;

We want to know what you discussed with him, and where he is. You clearly know that the sphere glows when any enhanced are within range. What do you know of the enhanced?

Velikovsky swallows hard and then a look of something else battles its way to the front of his mind, his resolve hardens and he replies;

I do not know a great deal about the enhanced. I know that you are one of them, the only other person that the sphere has glowed near is Albert Einstein.

The hardened resolve continues to grow and Velikovsky steps to his telephone and picks up the handset;

You can't do anything to me here, I am protected by the Americans. Tell me who you are working for?

At that point I stepped in as good cop to Madeline's bad. I told him that we were not working for anyone,but that we were friends of Doctor Jackal during the war and that we were concerned for his well being and were looking for him. Velikovsky slowly replaced the handset of the telephone and sat down in his armchair before confirming that he had met with Doctor Jackal and that Henry had been full of praise for Velikovsky's manuscript Worlds in Collision, they had discussed Velikovsky's research and Jackal seemed interested in Velikovsky's background. Listening to Velikovsky talk it was difficult to pick up what Doctor Jackal may have been interested in, Jackal's interest lay in theoretical physics and because I had borrowed Velikovsky's knowledge I knew that Henry would not be interested in his theories.

Madeline picked up the questioning and asked Velikovsky if doctor Jackal had given any indication of where he was heading when he last spoke to Velikovsky. But the Russian doesn't seem to know anything and keeps turning the conversation back towards his own work and it becomes obvious that he is self centred and quite egotistical. Madeline continues to subtly push for more information and manages to get Velikovsky to admit that Doctor Jackal was interested in both Oppenheimer and the Montauk Institute, in fact Oppenheimer was at the Montauk Institute at the time that Doctor Jackal was meeting with Velikovsky. Madeline asks if Velikovsky joined the Montauk Institute, but he refuses to answer. After a few hours of questioning, most of which was spent trying to get Velikovsky to stop talking about himself, we make our excuses and leave. We slip away and gather the others before getting Alfie, or was it Charlie, to drive us back to New York.

The following morning we wake up in a hotel in Jamaica Hills and head out for breakfast to plan our next move. We agree to investigate the Montauk Institute, and having the address from the letter in Velikovsky's house we head out to Long Island. We arrive around midday and while we fill up with petrol, or gas as they call it in America, and purchase a tourist map of the area which is partly a state park. We head into the park, with Alfie driving slowly, under the guise of sightseers heading for the lighthouse at the far end of Long Island. As we drive along the Montauk Highway, past gorgeous scenery and sea views, we pass a pair of gated entrances and Madeline's sharp eyes spot discreet guards at each gate. We park up at the lighthouse with the intention of Sven flying over the area to get an idea of what we are facing, but with the sound of the waves crashing onto the rocks and the October sun shining hot, Sven dozes off and we just rest there for an hour or so.

We drive back past the gates and find somewhere quiet to park the car up by Oyster Pond and Sven transforms into a bird and flies in to scout out the area. Beyond the gates he sees several buildings and a reasonable amount of activity as well as a significant radar dish. Sven spots military personnel and Military Police moving about and is struck by the thought that it reminds him a lot of Hanslope Park. Sven returns back to the car and lets us know what he has discovered. With the layout of the site now known myself and Madeline transform into shadows and slip onto the site. We stick to the shadows and I push out with my senses several times to cover the majority of buildings but I get no returns and so we retreat back to the others and get Alfie to drive us to the nearest motel.

The following morning we put a call into Mr Shannon and around midday a taxi arrives. Mr Shannon carries out a debrief and Madeline informs Mr Shannon about Velikovsky, the brass sphere, and the Montauk Institute. Mr Shannon looks intreguagued at the mention of the Institute and Sven, spotting the look on Shannon's face in the rear view mirror, says;

You want to know what they are doing there don't you?

Mr Shannon smiles;

We know that they are doing something of significance in there, but we have no way of finding out what they are up to. If you can get in and out undetected and find out what they are up to, I would be interested yes.

We agree to investigate and tell Mr Shannon that we will require several pairs of powerful binoculars, some stun grenades, a large sailboat, and some fishing gear. Mr shannon seems unphased by our list of requirements and tells us that he can have it all ready by midday the following day. He drops us back at the motel and we all settle down to get some rest.

We head out late in the evening and get some food before heading back out to Montauk Point. We park up near the beach to the east of the Institute and walk back towards the sight quietly through the woods. As we near the outer perimeter Sven transforms into an owl and takes to the sky.