Cthulhu in Anchorage Alaska 

Agent Samantha’s Journal—Part 3

The trip to Riga was mostly uneventful, even though the theme song from Gilligan’s Island was playing in my head for most of the trip.  The Captain was an entertaining fellow, and gave me a lesson in the basics of nautical navigation.  It wasn’t too different from aviation.

DocM (Agent Megumi) discovered a plot against us.  The first mate told her that the “captain isn’t what he seems,” and that two men in suits boarded and were asking questions about us.  Further investigation (and a monetary donation) on her part revealed that we were going to be attacked once we landed at the port.  I decided that no action on my part was required until we were a couple of hours away from Riga.  I rested.

The Doc decided that she would practice her art on the rest of us.  Boom-Boom Barbie (Agent Siss) apparently felt the need to talk about it, or at least humored the Doc, who also spent a great deal of time with Curtis, Timothy’s associate whose hobbies include heroin addiction.  She offered her services to FattyB (Agent Frederick), who declined, and me.  I’m afraid I was a bit impolite, but I had to tell her that psych stuff required introspection, and the middle of a mission was really not a proper time for that.  To her credit, she told me that keeping stuff bottled up inside wasn’t healthy.  Sometimes, though, when you let the genie out of the bottle, it’s not too willing to crawl back inside. Sharing some of the insights that I’ve had recently, about the creepy crawlies, and also about what we did on the oil rig were not something that the Doc wants to know about.  I don’t think she realizes yet that pushing the button doomed the surviving crewman, and the pickled people.  I also had to wonder if the dark stuff that was being drilled for was really oil.

Anyway, a couple hours out, I went and talked to the Captain.  I’ve rarely found that honesty as a tactic is beneficial, but this time it worked.  He has an impressive temper, and summoned his minion to the cabin, where he proceeded to give him a thorough beating, professionally rendered.  He returned the money that his mate pinched off of the Doc, and told me about his plan to let us off the ship.    I was wary, but since he gave us an alternate route in case of an attack, and offered to accompany us, I decided to trust him.  It worked out in the end.  I think that maybe we found the elusive “honest man” that Diogenes was searching for.

About the mate…I grabbed FattyB, and summoned the Doc from Curtis’ heroin soaked side.  I then beat the rest of the crap out of him while FattyB held him.  Pressure points are an amazing thing.  I actually had to do something, because in the event that whoever was following us was using traditional detective means, they’d find an eager subject who would get revenge on us for taking back our coin.  Basically I gave him a false set of destinations that were actually pretty close to the real ones, and let him overhear what the “real” ones were –another faked set.  Then I paid him.  Oh, and told him that if he sold me out and I survived, that what I just did to him could be considered foreplay.  Then I left him alone.  I told the Doc, then, that she was right.  Keeping emotions bottled up was unhealthy.  It sounds mean, and I know that.  However, right now it’s better that she think I’m an unmitigated bitch than keep picking at my “feelings. “

We disembarked from the ship, and made a pit stop in Riga at the house of the unfortunate Alexi Bucayev, who wrote the UN Secretary of human rights (twice!) decrying the labor camp in the Himalayan mountains (now that I have a camera, FattyB is sending you copies of everything we’ve got).  I say unfortunate, because Alexi was tortured and murdered in his kitchen.  Professionally done, too, I might add.   We searched the house, and found nothing of note.  Well, everyone else found nothing.  I’ve seen and experienced more strange things in the last year than I care to remember, but this is not something that I can readily give words to.  Instead, I’ll just describe what happened.  Alexi had a computer, and FattyB was trying to harvest more information from it.  He found the letter that is attached to this document.  What he did NOT find was how Uri communicated with him.  I am the one that found that information.  There was a picture of Alexi and Uri on the mantle.  When I entered the room to read the letter, I glanced at the photograph.  The image of Uri’s face somehow changed, and became a mask of unspeakable horror, and anguish.  Those are the only words that I have to describe it. Then, for a minute, I was in darkness, and heard the machine, and he thought to me, “Save us.”  I tried to communicate, to find out how to save them, and what desert was involved.  But I couldn’t communicate that, and I passed out.

I’ve had a headache ever since, and I’ve heard Uri’s voice too. It sounds insane, I know.  I’ll get that checked out too, if and when I return, but in the meantime I must use the tactics that have served me well in the past, and act as if this is part of the case, and that there is an answer to it somewhere.  It occurs to me that if there really is a machine, guiding that asteroid, and that there are psychics manipulating it, at this stage of events, that machine and those psychics must reverse what they have done, or all is lost anyway.  I have to understand how to do that, and my greatest fear is that I will have to travel further into madness to find the answer, not avoid it.

(Administrator’s Note:  Need to move Agent Samantha to the top of the queue for evaluation after this is over.)

We found a small electronics boutique a block away from the train station.  FattyB got a power adapter for the laptop (hopefully we will be able to further communicate) and I purchased two cameras.  I don’t know what equipment Eckloff arranged for, but nothing we are carrying has a zoom.  One of the cameras has a good lens for that.  I also bought a video camera that has night vision enhancement.  Funny thing, even with the world ending, the shine of gold can still persuade people.  DocM would probably say that it means “hope” still exists.  I personally don’t equate greed with hope, but I’ll settle for the cameras. I can “hope” that they will be useful.

We made it to the train depot with an hour to spare.  FattyB checked for us—none of the trains were running on time, except the train to Moscow—and it was always on time.  I found that suspicious.

When we were boarding the train, I spotted the Needle Man from Tokyo (Administrator’s Note: This is Kage. See Stillness parts 1 and 2).  I’m beginning to think that this year’s unplanned field trip to Europe is old home week for villains.  He had two thugs with him.  Fortunately, he travels in first class, which unfortunately was in the car just ahead of us.  I’ve already changed my hair color and style, but frankly, if the Needle Man saw me, I don’t expect that there would be any mistaking me, considering the events that transpired in California.  Still, I set off in search of some basic disguise tools.  I found some, but there is really only so much you can do on the fly with FattyB.  I shaved his head, and altered his appearance as well as I was able.  DocM, though, did a very artistic job on Boom-Boom Barbie.

It wasn’t enough.  One of the thugs went through the dining car, and spotted Boom-Boom Barbie.  DocM said that she saw the glint of recognition in his little thuggy eye, and that was enough to convince me.  I wasn’t convinced that doing anything on the train was a good idea, and in fact thought that it was a terrible idea.  DocM insisted, however.  I could have stopped her, but in truth her plan was viable.  I have learned to trust my instincts, and while my companions don’t have the benefit of training of any sort, I felt that in this place and time, it was important to trust hers.

The plan, in a nutshell, was for her to meet him on his way back up the car in the space that is between cars.  She’d loaded a syringe with a 3x normal dose of morphine, and was hoping that would be enough to put him down.  I’m not altogether sure that these guys were totally human, considering their employer, but in the eventuality that they weren’t, well, that’s why firearms were invented.  I suggested that DocM show him the breasts before she got serious about the shot.  Hell, if they WERE human, it was certain to buy her a little time. The Doc DOES have charisma.  If they weren’t, I was pretty damn sure that a woman showing off her girls between the cars would give them pause.  The plan worked.  She gave him the shot, took a couple of punches to the face, and the guy went down just as I was entering the area.  I shot him 3 times (thank god-pick one- thugs carry weapons with excellent silencers) behind the ear, and tossed him overboard.  Tossed his phone and ID as well.  I should have kept the weapon, but I handed that prize back to DocM.

An hour or so later, the second thug came looking for the first.  He passed us by and proceeded to the back of the train.  So, DocM decided that the plan worked well enough the first time to repeat it.  This time, when I opened the door, she was getting her ass kicked.  Thugs study martial arts too.  I shot him, he went down.  More due to the morphine, I think, than the gunshots.  Repeated the treatment, dumped my gun that had been fired over the side, and kept his.  Nice silencer, and praise the heavens, a laser sight.

(Administrator’s Note: Is Agent Samantha getting religion?)

We moved to cars more to the rear of the train, and slightly before the cargo cars.  Did I mention that there was a very new, high-tech looking TemCo car attached?  Well, there was.  I figured that must be why this train ran on time.  Villains are picky about train schedules, or so I’ve heard.

The Needle man finally did come looking for his missing thugs.  FattyB and I—I figured we were the two most notable, hid in the bathroom.  Needle man did not see us, though I don’t assume that he didn’t know we were there.  A little while later, all hell broke loose.  There was a thud on the roof of the car, and tentacles were reaching in, grabbing random unlucky passengers.  DocM got soundly thumped and knocked unconscious. Apparently there is an upper limit to the number of blows to the head people can take in a short time frame.

They say that Russians throw the best parties.  Guess who came to this one?  It looked like the thing that fought Needleman from Tokyo back in California.  It was quite destructive.  I managed to get the little device that the old guy gave to us back on the docks, and fired it at the thing.  He didn’t lie.  It actually disintegrated a great deal of the monster.  The rest of it kind of disappeared after that.  So did the device.  I can only fervently hope there isn’t another one of these things looking for us.  The gunfire that Boom-Boom Barbie and FattyB threw up didn’t seem to do anything to it. It was all over in less than a minute.

The passengers that were alive were not too coherent, so we moved up a couple of cars for the rest of the trip.  I figured that the ruined passenger car and the hysterical passengers would provide a good distraction when we arrived in Moscow.  DocM regained consciousness, but was very woozy.  I consider this to be a valid medical assessment, because I didn’t have to knock her unconscious to keep her from treating the wounded.

Upon arrival, the Needleman from California left the station rather hurriedly and was lost in the crowd. After leaving the train, we were discussing what to do next, and we decided to try and find a place of hole up and rest until the next train ride. I noticed a strange old man following us. Fortunately, it turned out to be Eckloff in disguise.

And the rest?  Well, I hope to be able to fill you in again soon.