Captured…

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 have discovered a hidden facility containing enhanced buried deep beneath the Institute. The team are planning a further investigation in the depths under the facility. 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

That night we headed to the workshop, Alfie dropped myself and Madeline off and then headed back to catch up with Sven. Madeline and I slipped into the workshop in shadow form and started work on the devices that would allow us to bypass the magnetic sealed doors within the hidden facility. By the time that the sun is rising on Monday morning I have managed to put together another two devices giving us three in total and with Madeline tidying everything away we leave the workshop cleaner than when we arrived. We slipped out and met up with Alfie before heading back to the boat to get some rest.

An hour and a half before dawn on the Tuesday morning we slip onto the Montauk Institute as shadows while Sven keeps watch from the air in the form of a raven and Alfie remains in the car ready for a quick getaway if needed. Actually, he sits in the car reading comics and eating sandwiches, oblivious of the world around him. Madeline and I slip down the deep elevator shaft and attach the first of our devices to the doors at the bottom of the shaft that lead into the sub-basement level. There is a click and a hiss and the magnetic lock disengages and we slip under the door and into the first corridor unchallenged. We move forwards and attach the second of our devices to the first door of the 'air-lock' and once again are greeted with the hiss of air as the magnetic locked disengages. We slide inside and up into the small void between the ceiling tiles and the concrete roof, positioning ourselves so that Madeline can watch one of the keypads and I can keep an eye on the other. And then we wait.

Just after six o'clock in the morning Sven watches the morning shift enter the building, as regular as clockwork, and a few moments later the door to the'air-lock' opens and closes as people enter. Madeline then sees the arm of someone in military fatigues reach for the keypad and punch in the number 8336. The 'air-lock' cycles and Madeline watches six people enter the hidden facility, but she cannot make out any real details. We agree to wait the day out and watch the comings and goings to ascertain any pattern. Just after nine in the morning another couple of people in white laboratory coats enter the secure area, using the same code. And around midday a number of people leave the secure area, we surmise that they are going for lunch, and I push out with my senses and confirm that no enhanced leave the building.

An hour or so later the group return and Madeline picks up snatches of conversation. One of the scientists is referred to as Edith, and she seems to have an English accent and the scientist who calls her by her name has a strong German accent. Just after six in the evening the 'air-lock' cycles once again and a number of people leave the secure facility and as the clock ticks past midnight Madeline and I agree to infiltrate further.

Madeline punches the four digit code into the keypad and with a hiss of air it opens. She peeks in and can see that there is a guard on the opposite side of the room looking expectantly at the doorway. Madeline slips as a shadow around the edge of the door and straight into the tiny void of the false ceiling. I attempt to follow, but am not as stealthy as the Living Shadow and the guard shouts;

ALERT! ALERT! Anomaly sighted!

Madeline watches from above as the guard rushes to the keypad beside the 'air-lock' door and punches in the code 5893. Instantly red lights begin to strobe and all of the doors slam shut and their magnetic locks engage. I attempt to use my last device to open the outer door but it does not work and I find myself trapped within the 'air-lock' room.

Watching from a tree with a good view of the transmitter building, Sven sees the alarm lights start to flash and soon after a truck pulls up and six soldiers and a pair of officers leap down from it's rear and rush into the building with weapons drawn. Moments later Sven hears the elevator mechanism whirr and can tell that it has travelled to the sub-basement. He takes to the air and flies back to the car and Alfie. When he arrives he tells Alfie that he believes that we have been captured, Alfie looks concerned for a moment and then offers Sven a sandwich and a beer.

As the guard is peering through a small spy hole in the door Madeline slips down from the ceiling and slips in under the guards clothing and onto him, hiding from sight. She is just in time as another guard appears from around the corner and asks the first guard what has happened. The first guard tells him that he saw the shadow of a women on the wall and the second guard responds;

Shit! You know what that means don't you. Fucking lockdown!

The guards then head off down the corridor and Madeline hears them locking themselves into cells. I push out with my senses and discover that there is an eighth enhanced, and it is in the same area as the six that we believe are in cells. I quickly realise that this must be Madeline. The lone enhanced is on the move, and I track them with my gift as they move towards the enhanced that I believe to be Madeline. Unknown to me, Madeline then hears an intercom crackle to life, and a distorted voice asks what the soldier witnessed. The guard relays what he saw and the disembodied voice questions him further, during the questioning Madeline can tell that the questioner has an American accent, but the static of the intercom makes it difficult to tell if it is fake or not. The intercom voice tells the guard that he will have to remain under lockdown until the tests can be run.

I track the lone enhanced as it wanders up and down near what I believe to be the incarcerated enhanced and while I am tracking them I decide to push them once again, but again I am unable to penetrate their mental shields. I switch to the other enhanced that I could not discover the power of and this time I am successful and find that their strongest power is that they are invisible to machines. It was then that I heard the sound of gas and could smell a sweet smell in the air, I slipped quickly into the ceiling void. Within the cell, Madeline had the same idea and slipped off of the soldier and onto the underside of the small bed within the cell.

Leaving Alfie in the car Sven heads back to see what is happening at the transmitter building. When he arrives he finds that there are extra guards and a heightened state of security. This is confirmed when at six in the morning the scientists that arrive for their work shift are turned away at the door and sent back to their lodgings. Reluctantly, Sven heads back to Alfie and tells him what he has discovered and says that he holds little hope of being able to rescue us. It is then that they realise that they don't have a contact number for Mr Shannon, and so they agree to head for the Norwegian Embassy to try and contact the British Secret Service.

Unbeknown to me, as I was unconscious at the time, my borrowed shadow form ability wore off and as I turned from a shadow into my solid body I crashed through the ceiling tiles of the 'air-lock' and landed in an unmoving heap on the floor, much to the surprise of the stationed guards.

Some time later I regained consciousness and found myself lying on a hospital bed within a cell. The door was locked and I was dressed in only a hospital gown. I lay still and closed my eyes as I pushed out with my senses and discovered, based on the location of the other enhanced, that I was in what must be a cell block. The lone enhanced was once again further away and moving freely. I sat up and discovered that there was a tray of food on the floor, and having had the lesson that you should eat whenever you can if imprisoned, I lay waste to the food. I also pushed out with my senses and borrowed heroic strength from one of the imprisoned enhanced. I instantly feel slightly stronger, but it was not the strength of the comics that Alfie was fond of reading. This was just a small boost to my physical prowess.

I was startled by the burst of static from a hidden intercom, and a distorted voice asked:

Who are you? Where have you come from?

I responded that I am Amiliene Beaux and that I am searching for a missing friend. The distorted voice asks me who I am looking for and I respond:

Dr Henry Jackal.

Silence fills the cell as the intercom goes dead. I wait for a while but when I hear nothing else I push out again with my senses and borrow enhanced timesense from another of the trapped enhanced. Instantly my speed of thought quadruples and I start to process information at an astounding rate. I stand up to get a drink of water, but as soon as I touch the metal tap I snatch my hand away as a sharp pain spikes through it and my whole body starts to shake. I slump upon the bed, but once again my hand brushes against the metal bed frame and again pain shoots through my system. I then smelt gas again and my vision clouded over as I once again slipped into unconsciousness.

Sven and Alfie are admitted into the Norwegian Embassy and are given rooms while they await the arrival of the Ambassador. Once the Ambassador arrives Sven quickly learns from him the Philby is soon to be on his way to the airport, with his wife, and so Sven quickly grabs Alfie and they make a dash to Idlewild. Alfie drives like a demon and they arrive before Philby and are waiting for him when he arrives. Sven steps up to help Philby with his luggage and says quietly to him:

I need to speak to you urgently!
Philby agrees and shows Sven into a quiet room within the airport. Sven quickly explains what has happened and is not that shocked when Philby's response is:

I'm not your handler, and I can not tell you what to do. I don’t mind telling you that I was against the formation of the EIS, and there is nothing directly that I could do to aid you. And I’m not sure that even if I could I would. If you attempt a rescue and are caught you will be disavowed.

With that Philby leaves and Sven seriously considers hitting him. But he controls his temper and storms off to find Alfie. After a long discussion they agree to try and avoid bloodshed and not to go into the facility. Then in his unique way Alfie announces that the Americans must have stolen the technology to create enhanced from the British and therefore they are in breach of the terms of their agreement. They agree to try and put a call into Sawdon.

After being gassed for a second time Madeline regains consciousness and finds herself in a dark and empty cell. She is hungry and realises that she hasn't eaten for more than a day. She slides across the floor and pushes on the cell door, it is unlocked and opens slightly. She slips out into a brightly lit corridor and can see a guard at the end of the corridor as he stands to attention as a number of scientists push a gurney around the corner. Madeline quickly darts back into the empty cell and listens as they open one of the other cells and she can hear them check for life signs. Madeline then listens as they move a body onto the gurney and wheel it back along the corridor. She sees a female body with huge bat like wings laying upon the gurney as four scientists wheel it past her hiding place. As the guard watches the scientists go Madeline dashes towards him in the hope of slipping onto him. But he turns his head and catches sight of her.

Madeline manages to get onto the soldier and summons forth a shadow creature to help her attack him. But as the shadow starts to drain away the guards strength he regains his composure and lurches from a large red button beside the door. Madeline transforms into her solid form in an attempt to knock him off balance and away from the button, but the guard's fingertips just connect and the alarms begin to sound once more and all of the closed doors magnetically seal. The guard then throws Madeline off of him and reaches for his rifle, as he does so Madeline transforms back into a shadow and darts away. The summoned shadow continues to drain the guards strength and before he can get a shot off he collapses to the floor. Madeline leaves the shadow on him for a couple of seconds to make sure that he is unconscious and then she dismisses the dark creature.

Hearing the alarms start to ring again, I push out with my senses and can see that there is an enhanced moving along the cell corridor. I reach out to the cell that I know contains Zoe Meadows and borrow her resurrection ability, as I do I notice two things. First there is no resistance, meaning that Zoe must be unconscious, and secondly that I have lost some of my manual dexterity and my fingers and toes have become numb. As she is unconscious I push deeper with my power and discover that she is gifted with winged flight, animal empathy, and mindlink. As soon as I get to the mindlink ability I borrow it and instantly get the burning urge to lie.

Madeline drags the body of the guard into the open cell and then wanders along the corridor looking into the first cell she comes to. She sees a bald man in his sixties with bulbous eyes and skin that looks vaguely green and moist. She moves along the corridor and looks through the door where the guard was stationed and can see a large room beyond. It was then that she started to hear a vague hissing of escaping gas. Knowing that she didn't have long Madeline rushed back down the corridor and looked into the next cell along and could see a winged individual who was more bat than human. Madeline started to succumb to the gas and so she switched to her solid form before falling unconscious.

I had also fallen unconscious and was awoken by the sound of screaming within my head, but no sooner was I aware of it when it ceased. I pushed out with my senses and tracked the lone enhanced moving towards my cell. When they arrived the intercom buzzed and once again I was asked who I was. With the burning desire to lie I answered:

I'm Harry S. Truman and I'm lost! You have no idea who I am do you Henry?

My response was once again greeted by silence. Unknown to me the lone enhanced had moved onto Madeline's cell and asked the same questions. Madeline refused to answer and so the intercom went dead. Not long afterwards, we were gassed into unconsciousness again.

Sven tried several times to get a connection to Sawdon, but was unsuccessful and so he and Alfie decided that it was time to act and so they headed for the Montauk Institute. Using the plan that we had put in place as a 'just in case' scenario, Alfie and Sven sneaked onto the base and made their way quietly through the woods to near the transmitter building. It was two o'clock in the morning on Thursday October 20th 1949 and Sven had watched for thirty minutes to work out the pattern of the guard patrol within the transmitter building. Sven transformed into the image of the scientist that he had previously followed back to his lodgings, and with Alfie walking beside him, they approached the main doors of the transmitter building.

In the guise of the scientist, Sven waves at the guard behind the counter and is buzzed into the building. He approaches the guard saying:

I'm so sorry, but we have to check on one of our experiments. It's quite embarrassing, but could you accompany us down.

The guard looks quizzically at him and responds that he should know that he can't leave his post. While he was talking, Sven had formed his silenced pistol into his hand and when the guard said that he couldn't escort them Sven raised the pistol and tells the guard to get his hands up. Alfie then grabs him and tries to force him to the floor, but the soldier fights back and throws Alfie off of him. Sven not wishing to take any chances with the alarm being raised fires three times, shooting the guard with his silenced pistol in the chest. The guard slumps to the floor, dead. Sven studies the guard for a few moments and then transforms into his image, while Alfie shoves the body beneath the counter.

Alfie slips out of the building and grabs his kit bag before hiding in the toilet waiting for the other guard to return from his patrol. As the guard passes the toilet Alfie slips out behind him. Sven, looking like the dead soldier, steps out from behind the counter and greets the other guard. As he does so he fast draws his pistol and aims it at the second guard. The second guard drops into a combat stance and reaches for the rifle on his back. Sven pulls the trigger three more times and the guard drops like a stone. They quickly move the bodies to the toilets and Alfie finds a mop and bucket and starts to clean the blood splattered white tiles.