Harrington, Haltoria
Morning, Wednesday 5 June 2024
Written in collaboration with Haltoria
Mount Tremblant, Haltoria, is known as the spy capital of the east by Hartizsák and Furby Island company executives, as the city has the highest concentration of United Cities spies anywhere in the world outside the United Cities itself. That is, spies working for private companies, not the government. Many of these agents come in on innocent work visas, working for a department labeled “security” or “marketing research” on public statements, with many companies now moving more and more operations to foreign countries in order to escape the prying eyes of the Secret Service. These agents performed the same operations they do within Hartizsák and Furby Island, mainly spying on their competitors to watch their actions, spy on events in the world to prepare for major changes in the markets, or in the case of two companies, assassinate a rival CEO, and figure out who the assassins are.
Ronald Lipman is a security officer working for Rosegate Investments Haltoria. Based in Mount Tremblant, his job mostly involves traveling various properties owned by subsidiaries of the Hartizsák and Furby Island based Rosegate Investments, helping to protect them as needed, or investigating incidents which occurred inside them. However today he had a different mission, one he needed to perform undercover. He put on civilian clothes, and underneath he had recording equipment and a concealed handgun, and an earpiece. After preparing, he boarded a bus to the town of Harrington.
The mission Lipman was on started less than a week earlier, when Rosegate CEO Floris Hutters was nearly assassinated via a sabotage on a plane he was to fly home on. A mechanical failure was found on a routine preflight safety inspection, unknowingly foiling the plot, but this fact was not known until the Secret Service revealed that it was an assassination attempt the next day. Hutters also knew that one flight attendant did not show up to the plane, giving a lead into the investigation. At the same time the planners of the assassination wanted to capture the flight attendant so Hutters will not know who they are, and the Hartizsák and Furby Island Secret Service cooperated with the planners because they too did not want Hutters to know who the planners were, in order to avoid a war of assassinations that could risk internal stability and attractiveness for foreign investors.
The race was on, for now playing on in basem*nt meeting rooms and at the offices of the Haltorian Commonwealth Transportation Safety Commission. To Haltorian authorities investigating this sabotage, they were more confused than anything as arguments broke out. Representatives from the airline, WilhelmAir, refused to share information or even let authorities board the plane, while representatives from Furbish government were the loudest in demanding to board the plane or get information. Soon airline officials finally gave some information to the Haltorians, under the condition that their own police not hear any of it.
Meanwhile Rosegate’s operatives had one advantage: as an employee of a subsidiary of Rosegate, they not only know the identity of the flight attendant, they have information about his phone, and could use it to track his whereabouts. They found the flight attendant immediately fled to the town of Harrington, and began chasing him down, with Lipman taking a bus and a small team trailing behind him, three sitting in a surveillance van and one more driving a second van.
Lipman remembered that meeting where he was briefed on the mission well. After operatives found the flight attendant’s phone’s location, they needed another team of five operatives to be sent to the ground. A team of eight which included Lipman was selected then were explained the mission by a superior officer. Two volunteered to drive the vans and the team’s leader, Michael Pratt, volunteered to stay in one. The superior then said “We need one more in the surveillance van and one to talk to the flight attendant.”.
Count me out of this one thought Lipman.
Marie Barlas suddenly said “I also can be on the surveillance van.”.
Lipman thought for a moment and suddenly said “I can talk to that flight attendant.”.
The rest turned to him and wished him luck, all while Lipman was thinking Maybe I can get a chance to talk to Marie while I’m there or after the mission is done.
The bus stopped in Harrington and Lipman took some time to walk around, awaiting further orders. Soon, he heard Pratt in his earpiece, who simply said “Barry’s Pub.”.
Lipman looked it up the location on his phone, then took a walk there. Sure enough the evening crowd were already there, many having drinks. Lipman scanned the area, thinking he may have to ask around, but he eyed one man he realized may be the one he is looking for. He looked exactly what one may expect from someone on the run, hardly kept together, and sat alone at one stool and holding a briefcase. He also matched the description of that flight attendant.
“Good evening sir, how are you?” said Lipman as he approached the man.
“Doing fine, doing fine.” the man replied softly. If his look did not give him away as a foreigner, his accent did.
“I am Robert Smithson, what is your name?” said Lipman. That phrase is a code, and the operatives in the nearby parked van knew Lipman found who he thought the flight attendant is.
“Roald Anderson.” said the man.
“Well it is nice to meet you.” said Lipman. Per his orders, he struck up a conversation with Anderson, asking the exact types of questions someone would ask a person they just met while staying away from questions that would make him nervous, like his occupation and where he was from, at least initially. Eventually, Lipman asked “So, what do you do here?”.
Anderson stood silent, looked around, and said “Well I moved here recently and I’m trying to get set up.”.
“Ah, I understand how difficult it is. I can probably help, I work at a large company and we are hiring for many positions.” said Lipman.
“I would appreciate it.” said Anderson. His tone did not sound convincing though. He then looked at his watch and said “I have to step outside for a moment, I feel a little sick.”.
He walked while Lipman followed him out. “What is it?” said Lipman. Anderson did not answer, just looked outside the street, then looked both ways. Lipman meanwhile looked where his team’s vans where, and found both parked across the street from each other several blocks away. The sun had set by now, and the street was lit up by lamps. A few people were walking outside but not many.
“Give him a ride now before he walks too far.” said Barlas’ voice on Lipman’s earpiece. Though there was little risk of anyone listening in on the encrypted connection, they still spoke in coded phrases. This one meant capture Anderson before he runs away, because he looks like he might. Lipman walked over to him and said “Mr. Anderson, I know people are chasing after you over what happened in the plane.”. The description was enough for Anderson to realize what the man was talking about but vague enough that had he not been the flight attendant he would not have known anything.
Anderson turned around and started to walk faster. “No, don’t run. I am trying to save you!” said Lipman.
This made Anderson stop and turn his head around again, facing Lipman. “What do you mean? How do you know everything and who the f*ck are you with?” he said, much softer this time.
Lipman said “Not important. Look, the people who ordered you to do what you did with the plane want you dead so you do not expose them. I am trying to save you, just follow me, because they will find you the same way I found you here.”.
Anderson looked around, and realizing he had no choice, he slowly walked towards Lipman. Lipman lead him towards the vans. “Left.” said Barlas’ voice in Lipman’s earpiece, and Lipman walked to the van facing his left. He opened the back door, led Anderson inside, then he went inside and took a seat. There was lots of room on the van, in two long seats that stretched to the length of the vehicle on either side, however Anderson chose to sat next to the door, and Lipman across from him next to the door as well.
“Mr. Anderson” began Lipman, “As I said you are in grave danger. People are trying to chase you down for sabotaging the WilhelmAir flight. We can help you escape Haltoria, we will provide everything you need to start a new life in any country of your choosing but only if you cooperate with us fully.”.
“Who are you with? The police or someone else?” said Anderson.
“Not important but I am not a law enforcement officer.” said Lipman, “We will give you a hotel room until more arrangements can be made. But I will explain everything later. For now, tell us everything you know about the plane sabotage.”.
The van already started to move with Lipman’s words, driving down the street them to a highway back to Mount Tremblant.
Anderson began “Well I was approached by a strange man. He talked, I talked about how depressing my life was, then he offered me two million Haltorian dollars if I sabotage a specific plane. He gave me a small device to destroy a switch controlling wing flaps then gave me a fake switch to put on it once I destroy it. When the crew boarded the plane I got into the co*ckpit while everyone else was gone, quietly destroyed it, then said I left something at the airport and ran away. He gave me this briefcase then told me how to run away because people will probably be looking for me. I want off to Harrington but now I am way too paranoid I will get caught, and I guess I was. I’m almost glad that plane didn’t go down, but this is still blood money I am holding inside here.”.
“How many times did you talk, and do you remember the dates and times of each meetings?”.
“Well, I believe…” began Anderson, as he started listing them.
The vans arrived at Mount Tremblant later that evening, where Anderson was escorted through a secret entrance to a tenth story hotel room and ordered to not leave while arrangements for his escape were taking place.
Rosegate Investments Headquarters Haltoria
Mount Tremblant, Haltoria
Evening, Thursday 6 June 2024
While an investigation into a plane sabotage was ending its second week, a small group of people met in a room underneath the Rosegate Investments Haltoria headquarters.
One woman who sat at the head of the table began, “We’ve combed through CCTV footage at George Martell Airport tracked the man who gave a briefcase to that flight attendant. He traveled by public transportation and there were no more leads we could look into, for now at least, but he did buy a coffee by debit card. Specifically one issued by Ragan Bank, owned by the Wellington Group.”.
“Wellington. I was expecting it to be them who ordered the assassination.” said a man who sat to her right, “Is there anything else we can do to track the agent down?”.
“The Haltorians are getting a warrant so they can obtain the card number from the coffee shop and the owner of the card from the bank, but I imagine the agent will be transferred out of there as soon as Raglan Bank gets the request, just before they tell us who he is.” replied the woman.
“Well we still have the identity of another Wellington Group agent, we could use that information.” said another man.
“That is true, that can go to Home Office.” said the man next to thee head of the table, “What are the Haltorian investigators saying about this?”.
The woman who was the first to speak said “The Transportation Safety Commission seem more confused than anything. I told them about the flight attendant and to go through security camera footage. The Furbish constable asked if I knew any more details, I said no, he got mad and said I clearly knew more, meanwhile the Haltorian constable screamed ‘what the actual f*ck is wrong with both of you’, and they also said…”.
Commonwealth Transportation Safety Commission Building
Mount Tremblant, Haltoria
Afternoon, Thursday 6 June 2024
The group of Furbish officials are led into an office room on the third floor of the CTSC Building. A large window along one side of the room gives everyone in the room a view of the buildings grounds. Sitting at the large U-shaped desk in the room are several Haltorians, including Edvard Moser, wearing a CTSC badge on his brown suit, as well as several other CTSC investigators, and two senior members of the Commonwealth Constabulary.
Edvard Moser gets up to greet the Furbish officials as they enter the room, “Good afternoon to you all, if you may please be seated, we will begin shortly.”.
“Good afternoon.” said John Rather, WilhelmAir’s executive vice president of safety. Next to him was Lucia Harrison, the senior vice president of the southeast for Rosegate Security, which provided security as both companies were the parent company.
“Hello again” said Albert Kistler, an investigator from Hartizsák and Furby Island’s own air safety board. Next to him was Hans Bauer, a superintendent in the United Cities constabulary. They sat opposite from the Rosegate representatives, and both groups glared at each other, having had near constant arguments in this room in the last few days.
“There is one lead I believe we may have, one I wish we shared earlier.” began Harrison, “Are we able to look through security camera footage for George Martell Airport?”.
“What makes you think any new information will be found there?” said Bauer.
“This was nothing more than an idea I just had.” said Harrison.
“Anything to do with the flight attendant who you refused to tell us anything about until we were able to get a warrant from a judge? And all the other information you’ve hid from us?” said Bauer.
“This investigation is taking place in Haltoria, and involves company property. We are well in our right to allow entry to whomever we please.” said Rather.
“This is insane, this investigation would go smoother if we were given access to everything we need without these childish arguments.” said Kistler.
“Is everything alright here?” Moser asked the bickering officials.
“Like I said, if Rosegate were more cooperative we could figure this out sooner, we’ve spent the last week in this room doing nothing but arguing.” said Kistler.
“I believe we should see CCTV footage at the airport, if there is any suspicious behavior from that flight attendant.” said Harrison.
“We know his name, Roald Anderson.” said Bauer.
“Colonel Floyd?” asked Moser.
“We’ve been reviewing the CCTV footage as well, although we haven’t found anything yet. We can let you look through it to see if you can find anything, although I doubt it.” the Constabulary officer replied.
“Can you make a note of any person Mr. Anderson interacts with, particularly after leaves the plane he was supposed to work on?” said Harrison.
“Of course. In fact, if you wish to watch the CCTV footage now, I can bring you to the computer room to review it.” replied Colonel Floyd.
The group were lead to the room, where they sat down and looked. They fast forwarded until they saw a flight attendant leaving the plane. They tracked him through passport control, then he sat down at a bar, next to a man who wore a suit and had a briefcase next to him. He talked some time with the flight attendant, then got up and did not take the briefcase. Anderson however picked it up and walked away.
“There we go, that man must have paid off the flight attendant to do something with the plane.” said Harrison.
Rather did not say anything, meanwhile Bauer said “You seemed to know exactly what you were looking for. What other information do you have?”.
“Nothing, I had that idea. Can we track the briefcase man and see if we can tell anything about him?” said Harrison, ignoring Bauer.
“This is bloody ridiculous, there is clearly more we don’t know that you do. And we can’t give up the search for the flight attendant yet.” said Bauer.
“We can search for both you know.” said Rather.
“Can we track the briefcase man, see where he went before and after that conversation.” said Harrison.
“We can search for both.” Colonel Floyd replied.
The feed was played to the end, with Bauer tracking the flight attendant and Harrison tracking the man who gave him the briefcase. Both of them left by public transportation. The feed then played in reverse, with them all tracking the man who gave the briefcase to the flight attendant.
“Stop, pause right here.” said Harrison. She looked closely at one screen, then to her phone where she scrolled through several images and said “The man paid with a debit card issued by Raglan Bank, owned by the Wellington Group.”.
“There is plenty of information you are clearly hiding from us.” said Bauer.
“I am not. We need to go to that coffee shop and get information about the card, make Raglan Bank tell us who the owner is.” said Harrison.
“And just ignore that flight attendant?” said Bauer.
Edvard Moser looked visibly annoyed at the constant arguing between Bauer and Harrison. Anyone who looked at him could tell that he had been dealing with this for multiple days.
“ALRIGHT!” He suddenly snaps, rising from his seat and angrily pointing at both of the Furbishmen.
“What the actual f*ck is wrong with both you? We have an investigation about a plot that could killed several hundred people, and here you are arguing like school children over security camera footage! You will both compose yourselves and act like mature adults or I will have you both removed from this building!”.
Harrison and Bauer looked at each other, giving each other the same message, that it was not over.
“What would be the procedure for obtaining information about that transaction in that coffee shop, then getting the card holder’s name from Raglan Bank?” said Rather.
“We would have to obtain a warrant to request the transaction data from the credit agency and the shop.” Colonel Floyd replied.
“And how is the search for Anderson going?” said Bauer.
Harrison stayed quiet this time. She had already found him, but no one else needed to know that. He was only a pawn to be sacrificed for a greater goal in a game played between several powerful sides, a game Colonel Floyd or Moser knew nothing about. Bauer too was aware of it, and so was Rather, though Kistler who seemed just as confused as the Haltorians may also know little.
“Colonel?” said Moser.
“I have constables searching for him as we speak. We’ll have him in custody before the end of the week.” Colonel Floyd said.
No you won't- eh you probably will thought Harrison.
Bauer nodded though he was more anxious. A plan he needed to follow involved Furbish Secret Service agents finding Anderson first, then killing him while making it look like a suicide, hoping Haltorian authorities will find nothing suspicious in the sudden suicide of a fugitive wanted for three hundred counts of attempted murder. “Colonel, let us know if you find any more leads.” he said.
“Of course, Mr. Bauer. I have men working on this case ‘round-the-clock.” Colonel Floyd replied.
“Why are you two acting so strange?” said Kistler, “Almost as if both of you want to capture Anderson before Haltorian authorities do.”.
“I have no idea what the hell you're talking about, I’m only assisting in trying to find someone who tried killing hundreds of Furbish citizens.” said Bauer.
“We’re only doing our job, I mean the word security is in both of our titles.” said Rather.
…
Ronald Lipman entered the Wilhelm Hotel through a secret entrance he walked through many times before, reachable through a door that looks like it belongs to a storage closet or employee lounge, or by elevator with a combination. The hotel is part of a well known budget hotel chain owned by Rosegate Investments, and in the middle of rooms being rented out to ordinary people a few house those who the various Rosegate subsidiaries want hidden from authorities, such as compromised spies or informants police are looking for.
One such room contained Roald Anderson, formerly a flight attendant at WilhelmAir, also owned by Rosegate, until he was paid to sabotage a plane and run. After being found by a team of agents including Lipman, Anderson was brought to the hotel room with a promise of asylum in an unspecified country in exchange for revealing details about the plot. Ah poor f*ck thought Lipman, knowing the plan from the beginning was to “eliminate” Anderson when he was no longer useful, which he had not been for a day after he revealed everything he knew. The only thing Lipman waited for was a kill order to make its way through Rosegate bureaucracy.
After being found one day earlier and brought to the hotel, Anderson gave information about what time he met the person who paid him off, and the next day information about that person was found on airport security camera footage in another tense meeting at the Haltorian Commonwealth Transportation Safety Commission. That evening all information was given to the Rosegate Security leadership in Mount Tremblant, then forwarded to the Rosegate headquarters, or Home Office, in Hartizsák and Furby Island, and from there given to CEO Floris Hutters, along with plans on what to do with the flight attendant.
Hutters was given three viable options of what to do, first is to allow Anderson to flee someplace with a large sum of money as long as he does not contact anyone from Hartizsák and Furby Island or on behalf of any company from the city, the second to throw him from a window and make his death look like a suicide, and the third is to discretely kill him and dispose of his body so that he is never found. After being explained the benefits and risks of all options, Hutters chose the second as the least risky one, giving a kill order which he has been reluctant to give all week. It was sent from the Home Office to Mount Tremblant, down the chain of command to Lipman, all within the Thursday night after the tense meeting at CTSB, less than a day after Anderson was kidnapped.
Lipman too was unsure of the ethics of his order, but reminded himself that Anderson attempted to kill three hundred people because Hutters was on the plane, for a sum of money. Repeating that to himself, Lipman knocked on Lipman’s door which stood on the tenth floor of the hotel. Anderson opened the door.
“Good evening sir, may I come in?” said Lipman.
“Of course.” said Anderson nervously. He looked far worse than he did the day before, which did not surprise Lipman considering he did not leave the room for nearly a full day.
After the door closed, Lipman began, “So, I have something to say-”, then stopped. He looked at a painting. “Look at this, it’s beautiful, isn’t it?” he said.
“What makes you say so?” said Anderson. He looked at the painting, as Lipman stood beside him but took a step back.
“Well, I’m not sure.” said Lipman, “Just, the trees here, I think they are really well done, and, umm, yeah, the trees-”.
Suddenly Anderson was hit in the head with a baton and he fell forwards, knocked out cold. Lipman held the baton in his right hand, after nervously trying to pull it out while distracting his victim. Lipman then opened the curtains and pounded at the window with his baton until it shattered. Putting the baton away, he grabbed Anderson’s unconscious body, slowly dragging him across the room, them propping him up against the wall. Lipman took another deep breath, then crouched down, picked up Anderson by his legs, then stood up slowly as he tried to push Anderson out of the window.
People were going to begin to call emergency services quickly, fulfilling the Haltorian constable’s belief that Anderson would be found by the end of the week, but no evidence would be left from what happened. Broken bones from a fall would conceal the hit Lipman made to the side of Anderson’s head, and gloves which Lipman wore ensured his fingerprints would not be left anywhere, and the pair of gloves was going to be burned anyway. Hotel records were even changed to say Anderson bought a hotel room and checked in the entire time. The briefcase of two million Haltorian dollars, while tempting to take, Lipman had to leave behind. If on the off chance the Haltorians did not think Anderson committed suicide and Lipman was suspected, plans existed to pin the attack on Lipman only then fly him out of the country covertly.
Meanwhile, a code word on Lipman’s earpiece will that the coast is clear, and Lipman can safely walk out of the room, into an elevator, and enter a combination that will make it go straight down to the building’s secret entrance. That painting was nothing more than a sh*tty ugly cheaply mass-produced hotel decoration thought Lipman as he continued to stand up, maybe I should ask Marie out for coffee tonight or tomorrow. Now standing, he had Anderson against the window. Lipman took one deep breath and pushed out the former flight attendant to his death then quietly exited the hotel.
