Contact...

On the trail of Doctor Jackal the EIS team have turned their attention to virologist and medical researcher Jonas Salk, who hard to make contact with in his home town of San Diego. 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.

San Diego, California, United States of America, November 1949

While they sit on the roof of the Institute of Biological Studies watching the guard movements for some kind of pattern that they can exploit the frustrations of the EIS Team that have been slowly bubbling to the fore over the last few weeks finally break the surface and in the most unusual of locations they begin to discuss what it is that they consider their goal. Madeline voices her concerns that they will only be free while they are doing what is asked of them by the British Secret Service, and once their usefulness is done they will be caged in Hanslope Park. Assuming that they can be found and caught. She also asks what it is that they plan to do if they actually managed to find a way around the blockages and dead ends and locate Doctor Henry Jackal. Mimi turns and says quietly that she just wants to see Henry and make sure that he is well in body and mind. The team agree, and agree that they mean no harm to Jackal.

With a gentle sigh, the shadows of ten Mimi's slide together and reform into a single shadow which then slides off of the buildings roof and heads for the car. With a glance at Sven, Madeline follows. If a small blackbird could shrug, it did, and then Sven took to the air and joined his two teammates in returning to the car. Mimi tells Alfie to find them an office block, which he does after a short drive, and then Madeline slips inside and unlocks the door so that they can sit and talk. Mimi duplicates a second Mimi and that one wanders off to find a typewriter and some stationery before sitting down and typing out a letter to Salk.

While one Mimi is typing, the other sits quietly with her teammates while Madeline tries to get to the bottom of what the group actually wish to do. She suggests trying to contact Sawdon, but Alfie points out that their boss doesn't seem to like talking on the telephone and always ends up pointing us at the local agents. Madeline agrees, and views Alfie slightly differently after this unexpected insight, that is until the British soldier starts to pick his nose and usual service is resumed. Sven looks over at Mimi and asks what the other Mimi is doing and she tells him that she is typing a letter to Salk and she proceeds to read it aloud:

Dear Mr Salk,

We mean you no harm and do not wish to interfere with your research. We are seeking our friend Doctor Henry Jackal and believe that you have had recent contact with him. We would very much like to just talk to you about Henry.

Please contact us on the telephone number below when you have read this letter.

Faithfully yours,

Friends of Henry Jackal

When she has finished reading aloud the others look about and nod their agreement to it's words before they make their way back out to the car and head for the motel to get some rest. The following day they wake with a renewed purpose and spend the day locating a safe house with a telephone to work from. At Sven's suggestion he and Madeline visit a property agent pretending to be a married couple and ask to view a vacant property for rental. The agent drives them out to Bird Rock and are shown an apartment on the second floor of a residential building on Sea Ridge Drive, the agent tells them that a number of people are interested in the property, but Madeline doesn't believe him and tells him that they need time to consider their options.

Later in the afternoon they head back to the property with Sven shapeshifted into the image of the property agent, it is a matter of moments for Madeline to pick the lock and they have regained entry. While Sven makes sure that one of the windows is left slightly ajar so that he and the others can gain entry from the roof without being seen, Madeline checks the telephone and finds that it is not currently connected and makes a note to get that sorted she also makes not of the fact that the apartment on the ground floor of the building is also vacant. Outside of the apartment Alfie and Mimi spend time driving numerous routes out of the area, making sure that Alfie has committed them to what ever passes as his memory. Mimi also identifies a pair of rendezvous points, both in large open green spaces with very little lighting, and having returned to pick up the others they make sure that both Madeline and Sven are aware of them and they designate one of them RP1 and the second RP2. Just like they did during the war.

That night Mimi duplicates out a second Mimi using the borrowed power from Alfie, the original Mimi joins Madeline and Sven sneaking into the vacant second floor apartment while Alfie and the second Mimi drive in the direction of Jonas Salk's house. Madeline slides out of the apartment and locates the telephone junction box on the corner of Sea Ridge Drive and Bandera Street, she picks the lock and reconnects the telephone in the apartment. Once she is done she heads back to the apartment and lets Mimi know what the telephone number is, Mimi transfers the information to the second Mimi with Alfie who by this time were parked up a couple of blocks away from the Salk residence. Mimi added the telephone number by hand to the letter and then having transformed into a shadow headed for Salk's house.

Once Mimi is within range of the house she pushes out whit her senses and receives a single return from the direction of Salk's home. She slides up to and under the rear large garage door and continues through the garage and slips under the doorway that leads out of the garage. She finds herself in the properties kitchen and she quickly pushes through and into the living room where she leaves the letter on the dining table. As she is doing so she hears the sound of footsteps on the stairs and so she rushes away in the direction that she entered. As she is leaving the kitchen she can see a strobing light proceeding the footsteps, she doesn't stick around and pushes on as quickly as possible but who she assumes is Salk continues to follow. That is until Mimi manages to make it outside and slips up and over a garden wall of a house at the rear.

No sooner than the Mimi outside of Salk's house has let the Mimi at the apartment know that the letter has been delivered, the telephone within the second floor apartment rings. Madeline reaches forwards and lifts up the receiver and can hear Salk's voice:

Who is this?

Madeline calmly responds:

We do not wish to cause you any distress Mr Salk.

Salk angrily responds:

Then stop breaking into my house! And just make a damn appointment with my secretary!

Madeline takes a deep breath and answers:

I agree that would be the normal thing to do, but we wish to discuss Doctor Henry Jackal and as you are very well aware, the dealings of Henry Jackal are far from normal!

Madeline is greeted by silence on the other end of the line and so she pushes on:

We know that you have received enhancements from Henry Jackal, and we need him to contact us. Can you do that for us?

Jonas Salk, who seems to have regained some measure of control, replies:

I don’t have a contact number for Doctor Jackal, all I know is that he was going on a journey.

Madeline tells Salk that she is going to pass the phone to one of her colleagues who will question him about what he knows about Doctor Jackal's research, she then hands the telephone to Mimi who first discusses some of the physics theories with Salk, but it isn't really Salk's field of expertise and so she switches tack and starts to question him on his understanding of enhanced biology. Through this line of questioning Salk relays that he and Jackal corresponded and discussed a vaccine for polio. Happy that Salk was not party to what Doctor Jackal was doing, and in fact as before it was Jackal that was learning from Salk, Mimi hands the telephone back to Madeline.

Madeline discusses the psychology of peoples inner desires being manifested when they become enhanced, and Salk is very interested in that line of academic discussion, but like a masterful conductor Madeline leads the conversation back towards Doctor Henry Jackal and his journey and Salk thoughtfully says:

Doctor Jackal was going on a journey, but whether it was more a mental one than a physical one, I could not say.