Earl Stafford strolled through Central Park on what turned out to be an ideal summer day. The sun was out, the air was fresh, and the temperature sat at the median that separated Manhattan's freezing winters from its boiling summers. He had visited the park countless times in his life, and none of these times were ever for leisure or recreation.
It was decided back in the Golden Years of Hoover that, given its size and public appeal, Central Park would be a natural stomping ground for federal agents and government spooks. Heckscher was the largest of the park's many playgrounds; and given the close proximity of Columbus Circle, it was considered the Mecca of stake-outs and shady dealings.
Earl spotted his mark exactly where he said he'd be -- sitting at a picnic table beside a sandpit. The mark looked to be an able-bodied man, with strong arms and heavy shoulders. He wasn't musclebound or fat, but something that revealed a toughness without looking like a steroid freak.
"My name's George Lincoln," Earl said, and sat himself across from the mark.
"Congratulations," the mark replied, merely acknowledging Earl with a brief sideways stare. "You've got two presidents covered." The mark found a private humor with pseudonyms and nicknames. His name was Jack.
Earl watched as Jack returned his attention to the playground, where children romped and horsed around. The two men couldn't ever remember being that young.
"I'm sure you've heard of the FBI's Carnivore System," Earl said.
Jack turned and looked at Earl. He remembered writing a paper on wiretapping for police college. "You're referring to network sniffing, aren't you?"
Earl nodded. "For years, the U.S. government has been snooping in on e-mail traffic flowing over various worldwide networks. A system that scans mail ports can easily be expanded to monitor file transfers, Internet chat sessions, and other online traffic."
"So you can snoop on everyone," Jack said. "That's hardly news to any of the conspiracy theorists out there. Where do I come into this picture?"
Earl unbuckled his attaché case and pulled out two manilla folders from within. He handed the folders to Jack, who tried his best to inconspicuously look at the contents in the folders. The first folder contained several surveillance photos of Jack walking down a posh corridor with the acting chair of the Protectorate, the human-alien hybrid known throughout the world as Zodiac. Placed with the photos was NASA reports, clearly indicating the discovery of temporal anamolies in the States and in western Europe.
The second folder contained e-mail transcripts from the United Nations private server. For the most part, the information was gibberish, a mere print-out of messages coming in and out of the New York City headquarters. But one page had a colored section, highlighting an anomynous e-mail dated March 14, 2001.
Jack placed the contents back into the two folders, then handed them back to Earl.
"You've got my attention," Jack said. Outwardly his posture hardly changed, but there was now a sense to the man of being ready for split-second action.
"Let's just say I've got a hunch that all this information is either directly or indirectly tied to you," Earl said. "The pictures of you with Zodiac behind the scenes at the Palace of Westminister, the anamolies NASA picked up on scanners, the peculiar e-mail to the Protectorate's executive office -- all of it. So, let's take an easier route, and you tell me how you fit in this picture."
"I see." Jack smiled, the gesture not reaching his eyes. "Well, you obviously want my help with something, or I'd be locked up by now. I can't believe you'd go to all this trouble just for a hot stock tip."
Jack shifted his weight slightly, bringing his hand closer to where his plasma pistol was hidden, as he sized up the agent. This so-called "George Lincoln" looked in his late middle-ages, with weathered features and a strong, hefty build. He was most likely well experienced in his line of work, and tough as nails to boot. But experience amounted to nothing if you were dead. And all dead men were the same size when lying on their backs.
"I must've been pretty close on that AT&T prediction, eh?" Mentally, Jack kicked himself for not using a more secure means of communication to get the Protectorate's attention. You just couldn't trust anyone these days.
Earl could tell that Jack wouldn't say much more about his involvement with the Protectorate. The man gave the sense of being used to much worse sorts of interrogations than this.
"I don't know who you are," Earl said gruffly. "It's possible that you're some sort of modern-day Nostradomus, with uncontrollable flashes of precognition, but I think there's more to you than that. For now, my guess is that you're a special agent for the U.N., as that would explain your apparent connection to the Protectorate as well as your appearance at an international council meeting with the world's most renowned superheroes."
"So, what's the bottom line here?" Jack asked with a huff.
"It all depends on where this conversation leads," replied Earl.
Jack shook his head. "Not exactly the answer I was looking for."
Earl gave Jack a half-smile, but it vanished faster than it surfaced. "As I'm sure it's no surprise to you, I'll tell you that I work United States government. What you may or may not know is that I'm involved with an agency that has for years campaigned to protect the interests and well-being of each and every American."
Jack nodded. "That's a worthy goal." For a change, Jack seemed serious. "I'm assuming you have a situation where you think I could help."
Earl leaned forward slightly. "Exactly. The recent Royal Elite affair has me worried. This time around it was Ireland that was occupied, but the next time it might be Texas. Autocrat alone would be bad enough, but by controlling Avatar he made himself an even tougher nut to crack. As long as we have possible threats like this with no contingencies, the American people are at risk."
Jack considered playing dumb, but he could see where this was going. He agreed with the idea in principle, but was he willing to actively help with it?
"You want to develop a contingency against another case of Avatar going bad."
Earl nodded, holding his breath slightly. If Jack were loyal to the Protectorate, Earl's cause was finished before it had begun. Jack looked off into the distance, obviously thinking.
"I agree with you," Jack finally said. "If you'd had such a contingency before the Royal Elite affair, Autocrat would have been easier to defeat."
"Funny you should say just that. I mean, with NASA's recent findings of the anamolies, I had this crazy idea you might be able to travel in time." Earl forced a smile. The expression on his face helped hide the uncomfort he felt for blurting his outrageous notion out. "I mean, it would definitely explain how you predicted those stock prices six weeks before hand, and it somewhat helps clarify why Zodiac had you help coordinate tactics for the fight against Autocrat and his toadies..."
Earl forced another smile. He held onto this one.
Jack laughed. "I see, you want more than a contingency for dealing with Avatar the next time he turns rogue, you want to prevent him from ever becoming Avatar in the first place."
Earl noticed Jack shake his head slightly.
"Surely you've read the same stories I have," Jack said. "You know, you step on a butterfly in the past and all of a sudden the Nazis win World War II. Even if you could travel back, how could you know that removing Avatar from history wouldn't do more harm than good?"
"A fair point. But this still doesn't take away from why I've tracked you down," Earl said, trying to sway this conversation in his favor.
Jack stifled his retorts for now. Instead, he just sat and allowed his contact to explain himself.
Earl stabbed his index finger in the air, pointing it at Jack. "I know you're involved with the Protectorate somehow." He paused, studied Jack for a brief moment. The guy was like a hard-covered book with its pages glued together -- just too damn difficult to read. But whatever his story was, Earl knew he was connected to the Protectorate, and he would gamble that he wasn't exactly tied to loyalties. Earl nodded, moreso to himself, then added, "My guess is you have your own hidden agenda in dealing with Zodiac and his long underwear brigade too."
Jack returned Earl's look, his face impassive.
"So you think I might be an ally in your plan to develop an Avatar contingency." Jack smiled slightly, this smile reaching his eyes. "I can sympathize with you, and I'd even go so far as to say that, in your position, I would be the one trying to come up with a contingency. But you have the resources of the United States government at your beck and call what is it you think I can do for you?"
Earl shook his head. "Unfortunately I in fact don't have such resources. It seems my government considers politics and patrioticism one and the same, but we all know what kind of shelf life political ideals have."
Jack merely nodded his head.
"The powers that be are too busy flag-waver and celebrating their recent success in Ireland to even consider funding my cause," Earl added. "So, you see, I'm on the look out for a few good men, so to speak."
Jack nodded. He could sympathize with the man, dedicated to his ideals and trying to do what he felt was right regardless of support from his superiors.
"I know absolutely nothing about you," Earl admitted. "Yet, based on your somewhat checkered association with the Protectorate, I felt compelled to approach you." He then looked at Jack with steely eyes. "Desperate times call for desperate measures. Have I come to the right person?"
Jack looked off at the children playing. There had been children playing in Ireland, no doubt, the day that the Royal Elite took over. Would helping this man be a violation of history? The problem with history, Jack thought, is that all too often the really interesting parts of it are not recorded. Who's to say that the events recorded in Jack's recall bracelet about Avatar's eventual downfall weren't caused by this man?
Jack sighed, and returned his gaze to the other man.
"I won't burn any bridges for you," Jack said. "I need to maintain cordial relations with the Protectorate, but my flashes of precognition are at your disposal."
"Very good," Earl said. "And I too wouldn't want you to jeopaedize your relations with the Protectorate, as I'm hoping your ties to the team can in fact help us bypass certain security parameters."
"Hmm," Jack continued, smiling. "I also can probably recruit someone else into the plan pretty easily. And bypassing security just happens to be his specialty." Jack nodded to himself. This was the type of operation Conduit would love. "What exactly do you plan on doing?"
Earl paused for just a moment. Jack wasn't sure whether this was for effect or if the man before him was strongly reconsidering his tactics in carrying out his scheme. Jack merely waited for the man's answer.
"I want to break into the Monolith," Earl finally replied.
Home NPC Roster Gaming Guidelines PCRoster