Change of Politics

Michael Monroe
I went ahead to prepare for the Henricksons manor furniture "home-coming". My secretary Marna had piled the mail on my desk. Did not realize I've been that long away. So I just sat down and started to go through the letters, when Marna came in with a cup of hot coffee and a quite-a-large packet in brown paper cover.

"This came in a moment ago, sir" Marna said and put the packet on my desk "and I thought you might enjoy cup of coffee while you go through you mail"

The coffee was just what I wanted. I sipped a taste and pulled the packet closer. Eventhough it seemed mundane, did not tick and was not that heavy, I agreed with Brock and decided to play it safe and called to Jacob.

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Jacob Erez
So much for the day off then. Not that I was not curious about the packet. Everyone were hanging about the Complex bored anyways, so when we got the call from Mike we were all-ready to jump in.

The packet seemed just like every other packet you see. Did not get any malicious vibes about it, all I could see was some delivery-guy to drop his sandwich on it.

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Leah Maddoc
Jacob felt the packet was safe, it did not have a bomb inside it then. I trust if the person packing it had any bad intentions, Jacob would have sensed it.

So we agreed it was safe to open. -----------------------------------------------------------------------------

Michael Monroe
Brock insisted opening the packet himself and told me to stand behind him. He really takes guarding to his heart. I remember the first time I met him and took him under my wing after he refused to comply to a fixed match. That boy has some character. It was not many hours later he saved me from a bunch of robbers and I realized what a good bodyguard he would make. He is a good friend and closer to me than any of my own flesh and blood.

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Jacob Erez
It was a black leather attache case! On it was an envelope attached to it. Brock detached the envelope and handed it to Mike. After that he pursuit to open the briefcase: it was empty!

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Leah Maddoc
Michael opened the envelope and after a brief view on it he passed it to me. "It's an invitation" Mike said "to all of us"

I read outloud:

"Dear Mr. Monroe. It has come to my attention that you lost your luggage during your visit to Mexico. Please accept this little gift as my condolence on the matter, and as a peace-offering.
I would also love to show my collection of Objects to you and your friends. Please join me on May 4th at 20-hundred hours.

Yours Nathan Michaelsson
P.S. I know it is not a suitcase, but the mailing costs are quite expensive these days!"

"-So, are we going??!" Jimmy asked concearn in his voice "It sounds like a trap to me."

"Trap or no trap" Michael replied "we could get some answers if we went"

"I agree with Jimmy" Jacob threw in "He seems very well informed about the suitcase. What if he is the one who put the bug on it?"

Brock was silent while the others argued about whether to go or not to go, and seemed to think deep thoughts.

"What do you think about all this, Brock?" Mike finally asked.

"- I do not care whether we go or not, it's few weeks until the set date, so I think we should use this time to search for more intel.
I would like to be prepared for whatever it is he is planning for us."

I thought that sounded reasonable, and I also wanted to follow the lead about Marcus Lanneker. We also had the Chest of Drawers to experiment on, so Jacob was put back to work.

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Jacob Erez
Back to the Complex then. We had agreed the Chest of Drawers was safe enough to keep outside the Room.
We did not want it to "reset" as I had sensed there was an ongoing effect about it.

After a few tries I figured out the missing knobs indeed had everything to do with the power: the dresser seemed to storage emotions, memories. And if you removed the knob, the memento was unaccessible.

"So, there are three memories locked inside the dresser?" Leah asked me. I told her I did not know, as it was possible more than one memento per drawer could be storaged in.

"How about the ID-card?" Leah continued, "any progress about that?" I had nothing more to tell about it. The woman, who had written the letter had spoiled all other events for me to read.
All we knew about it was it's power: if you had it on you, it showed whatever identity you wanted it to show. And if you hold it towards someone else, it showed their true identity.

"That's really handy when you want to discover a spy's identity" Mike pondered "and if you want to go undercover yourself"

"Sure" Jimmy blunted sarcasticly "If you lived in 1960 that is."

I did agree with Jimmy about that, as the card never transforms, only the image and the text. Today most driver's licences and ID cards are plastic.

Leah seemed dissappointed about the fact we knew so little about Marcus Lanneker. All we knew was he had died in 1986.
All I could do was to imagine about all the one-thousand other things I would have wanted to tell her! But I kept it to myself. The cockroach-guy can never understand the world of Objects. In time, Leah will see there is no future with a guy you need to keep secrets from. All I need to do is wait. -----------------------------------------------------------------------------
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Jimmy Spencer
It was about the time for some action! Mike's people were finally able to clear the smudged address on the envelope. Long story short, Lanniker had moved few times. We followed his steps until we came to a small ranch, once owned by Lanniker, now habited by his cousing Hannah, a talented artist (or so Leah says).

Leah begun her routine of making friends in 5 minutes, and was able to convince Hannah we were Marcus's fans. Hannah lead us to the basement, where Marcus used to have his working space. She had few friends staying in, for meditation lessons, so we were to keep it silent.

The ladies were quite limber for their age, but watching them do yoga really was not that exciting.
Bored.

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Leah Maddoc
Lanneker had a small niche for his bed, desk and armory. We went through everything twice, but found nothing. I asked Hannah if she had more things that belong to Marcus, as we were looking for the manuscript of the "Modern Power Artifacts". She said she had sold most of his things on a flea-market, years ago, when she needed cash to buy art supply. And that the manuscript was not worth a dime, so she made it into a compost.

She did keep few boxes of the poorly-selling book and said we could take them, as she could then move things around and make more room for her Yoga class downstairs. She had no heart to dispose those, for they were wrapped in plastic and she would have preferred more environment-friendly way to get rid of them, than burning.

Hannah showed us the 12 boxes she had storaged in the attic. Only one of them had been opened.

Brock took a deep breath in and commented "looks like we get to get a little exercise today afterall."

"-I would have preferred a good chase" Jimmy replied. -----------------------------------------------------------------------------

Michael Monroe
After the team had moved the boxes in Ziggurat, we got time to look inside the opened box. There were few books missing, but when we took the books out a small piece of paper flew down from in-between one of the top books and twirled a moment in the air prior landing on the floor.

"It's a safety-deposit-box receipt" Leach picked the note up "for Gallup Bank"

Everyone just gaped a moment, then Jacob took the note from Leah for reading.

"For Heaven's sake Leah" Jacob snapped "now all vibes I get are from your touch!"
"-And how was I supposed to pick it up without touching?" Leah sounded annoyed "For what I know the dropping out from the book could have been the major event in the receipt's history."

Jacob was reasonable enough to agree and apologized. I wonder what is going on with these two.

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Jimmy Spencer
We had to wait until the next day to go back to the bank. Everyone already knew who we were... I mean they already knew who -Mike- was, and welcomed him wholeheartedly. Mike told the cashier he had found the receipt inside one of the furniture drawers he had bought and wondered if the safety-deposit-box was still in use and to whom it belonged to.

The cashier told us it was against the bank's policy to give details to strangers, but as Mike was such an old gentleman and had brought good money in the bank just last week, she agreed to check if the box was still in use.

A few moments later she returned and told us the box had not been touched in two decades, and that the box's rent was paid in advance for 50 years. She told us she could not tell us the name. For that she would need the permission from her superwisor, the bank owner, Mr. Hamilton.

"Unfortunately he has stated he is busy with the party banquet today in the back garden" the cashier continued "the elections are coming you know. But I am sure Mr. Hamilton would not mind a rogue donator joining in."

"-Looks like we are going to a garden party" Mike said. -----------------------------------------------------------------------------

Leah Maddoc
The garden party was just perfect with all the balloons, big band and all the party food you could eat. Jacob seemed to enjoy the good food and I noticed Jimmy to take scrapings in a doggy-bag. I thought going dancing would allow me a better view on the crowd, so I accepted the invitation one of the locals offered me.

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Brock Storm
And the team scattered about again. I stayed with Mike. In no-time one of the lackeys came at us and asked if he was talking to Mr. Monroe. He had heard Mike was a huge investor and asked if we wanted to be introduced to Mr. Hamilton, the candidate for the town committee.

Mike agreed, although I thought the lackey was sleezy and pep-talking salesman, big buck-signs in his eyes. But we were here to meet Mr. Hamilton, so...

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Michael Monroe
That is what I thought. Mr. Hamilton was a hard-boiled businessman and willing to sell the information for a donation to his campaign. He told the lackey to tell the cashier to tell us all information we needed about the safety-deposit-box and to register my donation. He seemed well-mannered enough, so I though I could comply, for what is few dollars compared to information anyone else can not obtain. Who else could go this far, than us? -----------------------------------------------------------------------------

Brock Storm
The lackey accompanied us back inside the bank and told the cashier everything. The cashier went to fetch the book-keeps and I took the advantage to pull Mike aside and asked if he knew what he was doing, that this was a Constitution-party fund-raising campaign and if he was willing to let everyone know he was a benefactor.

"It's all covered" Mike assured me "wait and see"

The cashier returned with the book and asked if Mike and Mr. Hamilton had agreed on the sum. Mike nodded and took out his check-book. I watched the cashier's eyes go wide and her cheeks blush as she marked the sum down. She then complied as ordered and told us the box belong to the Lanneker estate.

We went back to the party to collect the team and I could not stand any longer from asking Mike how much he had donated.

"-Fifty bucks" he replied with a grin

Case report no 10 by Cattrina