From: owner-deltagreen-digest@nocturne.org (deltagreen-digest) To: deltagreen-digest@nocturne.org Subject: deltagreen-digest V2 #21 Reply-To: Delta Green List Sender: owner-deltagreen-digest@nocturne.org Errors-To: owner-deltagreen-digest@nocturne.org Precedence: bulk deltagreen-digest Wednesday, August 4 1999 Volume 02 : Number 021 ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Wed, 4 Aug 1999 09:16:59 -0400 From: graemep@immagene.mcg.edu (Graeme Price) Subject: Re: DG: Just plain mad! >Just to chip in on the Hemp issue, why is it necessary to smoke it? >Much more fun and you get a lot higher if you make space cakes. Now >thats a way to take care of security guards. Make up a batch of >space cakes get guards high which gets them sacked for drug abuse at >the next "random" check and have your own replacements ready to apply >for the jobs. Makes breaking and entering a piece of cake. (good pun >punmeister Graeme?) Not bad, Rob. On a related note, I was reading an article (I guess in New Scientist a couple of weeks back) on random drug testing in the workplace (a hot issue in the US) which noted that eating poppy seeds (not illegal, or narcotic by any means - you would have to eat approaching a ton of them to even think about narcotic effects) on, say a cake or bread, can cause false positive reactions for opiates on some of the less sophisticated tests. For some jobs this can be an offence resulting in instant dismissal. Article also said that there was an antibiotic which causes a false positive reaction on LSD tests. Note that the better forensic labs (state and FBI crime labs for example) use more accurate tests, which directly identify traces of a range of compounds. Cheaper labs (the private ones, which may or may not be accredited - the regulations are often very lax as to who can set up such a lab) or companies which buy in cheaper test kits (which tend to be immunologically based) are the ones which suffer these problems. Paradoxically, the state labs are more likely to find genuine positives (samples from real drug abusers) than the smaller labs, which will pick up a lot of false reactions. Wrongful dismissal suit anyone? Later Graeme graemep@immag.mcg.edu ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 4 Aug 1999 09:56:11 EDT From: USFORREC1@aol.com Subject: DG: New Campaign Idea An idea crossed my mind today that i think I might incorporate into my campaign and figured I'd throw it out to the List. Imagine that MJ and Nyarlahotep have become fierce enemies. Nyarlahotep, acting through one of his avatar incarnations is actively waging a covert war against MJ. His motive would be this: if MJ is brought down and full disclosure made to the public, the people would lose complete faith in their government. When it becomes apparent that a sanctioned government agency has been dealing with the aliens and has sold out its constitution and people, the people will be up in arms. As the tendrils of MJ run through quite a bit of the government and industry, no one in that government would be above suspicion. Add into the upheavals that follow the disclosure, Karotechia and COT agents pushing as agent provacateurs in various segments of the populations. Every conspiracy theory that further divides the population would be espoused (such as the MJ members were targeting the Black Population for abductions and the like). The US would balkanize and without the world's "Policeman" able to at least try and keep a lid on things, the world begins its slide towards the Endtimes. Now, as this scenario unfolds, it is still early in this assault on MJ. groups like SaucerWatch are starting to recieve a better and mire reliable class of information for their projects. DG picks up a silent patron, also providing aid and intel. This might be a front of the COT or some other Nyarlahotep-group. They begin bashing MJ and getting giddy on the ease of these operations. As they get closer to really bringing out the big guns to finish off MJ they stumble across the truth. Suddenly they have to work against a suspicious and hostile MJ to save to organization from their former patrons (or if they don't find out the truth, deal with the aftermath and realize to late what tools they were :) ). I'd throw Alzis in the middle, playing both sides with information for favors. MJ would not be dealing with Alzis directly, unaware of the Fate proper, but instead through informants and the like. DG would answer vague offers of info for favors,just enough info to push ahead some but eager for more and still being the tool of Nyarlahotep. Add in a couple of Nyarlahotep-controlled agents within MJ that keep the fires burning there and the situation becomes quite "interesting." DG agents are torn between choosing from all their worst enemies and have to tread a thin line to keep the Endtimes from beginning. Anyway, I thought it might be interesting and useful.... - -Dave K ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 4 Aug 1999 10:16:14 -0400 From: BRUCE BALLON Subject: DG: Re: Drugs in Cthulhu Scenarios / Revisionism -Reply Howdy, speaking of Liao and scenarios, I have written one that Chaosium should be publishing sometime after the Miskatonic University Campaign in the fall. I won't go into details of the plot, but I wrote as much as I could find on Liao based on _The Hounds of Tindalos_ and _Gateway to Forever_ and others. I linked it to Ketamine, and there is a designer drug in the scenario called 'Pare-Kete', a combo Liao-Ketamine combo that does wicked things. Poor ravers... Although not specifically written for DG, I made enough openings for the DEA to get involved (actually, the whole thing can be convereted to a DG scenario, and I wrote a brief paragraph or two on how to do it for the scenario anyway). Bruce >>> "David Farnell" 08/04/99 05:43am >>> From: Jacob Busby Bsc.: > The recent list discussion on drugs brought to mind a few published scenarii > > S > P > O > I > L > E > R > S > 1) Is the Laio Drug illegal or can it be brought into the country legally? If > not, can it be brought into the country by backdoor means - such as a > chemical compound for NWI or a pharmaceutical concoction for certain rare > diseases, subject to government controls? For the first question, I would say while the compound itself isn't illegal (not having been classified), the components are. A quick skim of the scenario didn't reveal the composition of the drug, but it did indicate that users develop a high tolerance to morphine, which means there must be an opiate involved. Which only makes sense. For the second question, hell yeah. Not even a great amount of government oversight, really, judging from the recent news story in which a prof ODed on medical-grade cocaine after ordering it from the government for research purposes. Big businesses could easily import reasonable quantities for research--larger quantities (enough to start a distribution network) would require more care. But as NWI has its own fleet of jets, its own ships, etc, they probably move tons of illegal materials around all the time. Buying off the watchdogs isn't so hard either. And imagine the rep: Old-time inspector to new guy, "Listen, son, you don't want to be looking into their boxes. Last guy who did that...well, nobody really knows what happened to him, but there's stories. Just stamp the manifest and wave 'em through." > 2) DG has agents and Friendlies in the DEA. If they discover traces of the Laio > drug what do they do after they've confiscated it? What happens to users of > Laio? Who's been supplying it? If The Fate have been supplying it, does DG > risk a confrontation with them? I actually covered this in a scenario--it was a relative of Liao, made from ground-up mutant centipedes that had eaten the effluvium of Formless Spawns, mixed in with the other Liao components (whatever they are). Eventually it led them to a village in Mexico. One girl who had become addicted (and who had gotten a centipede spinal implantation, the only way to survive after addiction) was taken into DG custody (the players were all Friendlies in that campaign). They never heard from her again. Since the mutant centipede in her spine was supplying her with a constant supply of pure Liao-like chemical compound, she was constantly mind-travelling through time and other dimensions. DG now uses her as a sort of "mad prophet." Results are unpredictable--she no longer speaks very coherently, and eventually she'll probably run across a Hound of Tindalos and that'll be that. Should be an interesting surprise for the agents who are attending her at the time, though. Shane Ivey had an interesting campaign in which a drug called Aklo (IIRC) played a part. Care to share, Shane? AND, once again splicing things together, From: : > Sorry as Ph.D student in history who has studied how scholars _do_ history, you are flat out > wrong. Revisionist history is not merely history "with a spin," or with a bias, but is > historical writing that contradicts and strongly challenges established historical beliefs. Y'know, I should have caught that. Didn't see this one until after I'd sent the other post, though. Anyway, you're right--it's a misuse of the term. On the other hand, B's points about the plasticity of history are definitely something to keep in mind. It also brings to mind the plasticity of word meanings. You've clearly explained the meaning from the perspective of historians, but in society at large, "revisionist history" has a negative connotation, because it means "history that says the stuff you were taught in school wasn't quite right." And that's scary--brings into question the whole basis of our society, all the myths (true and not so true) which together define who we are (and I'm talking about every nation, not just the USA). Threaten that, and you threaten people's identities (most people, anyway). Also, it disillusions people in another way--they start to think that "the new version" of events is just as unreal as the old version they learned in school. > Revisionism is not inherently good or bad. It is however a technical term in scholarship, and > should be used accurately. Yes. Orwell pointed out the dangers of too much plasticity in word-meaning. OTOH, there's no stopping the changes in meaning--all you can do is point it out and hope for the best. > Those who try to claim that drug use in the U.S. is a modern phenomenon, and that it has not > been a normal part of our lives for over two centuries are clearly dishonest. Now that's a bit strong--remember that the average person is exposed to very little of that history, and most of it is unclear and hard to judge. That's why I've been calling for confirmation of such points, because I don't want to perpetuate what might be rumors. I know that sounds strange from a conspiracy-theory spinner like me, but if I can't keep straight what's RW and what's a tool for a game, I'll be getting fitted for a straight jacket, and the ones in Japan are too damn small! >Hemp fabric was > worn and made into sails, hemp paper was written on, cannabis was used as a pain reliever, and I > suspect that it had other uses too. See? You SUSPECT! Come one, mon, did they toke it up or not? > Drug warriors seldom if ever honestly argue from a > standpoint of the facts when discussing the industrial or therapeutic value of hemp and > cannabis (let along other drugs). Well, B wasn't addressing the industrial / therapeutic values--just the "getting high" part. You can't really fault him for focusing his argument. Dave ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 4 Aug 1999 10:38:24 -0400 From: becole@juno.com Subject: Re: DG: Revisionism On Wed, 4 Aug 1999 18:43:29 +0900 "David Farnell" writes: > from Musbias.numbers.letters.etc >Revisionist history is not merely history "with a spin," or >with a bias, but is historical writing that contradicts and strongly challenges >established historical beliefs. Here I have to ask for closure. I am not a historian, nor am I condemning the volumnous works of thousands of professionals who have tried to show us exactly what has transpired in the course of human events. What I should have demarcated in my email was the fact that I wasn't trying to group the apparently now popularized term "revisionist history" into all matters historical, rather, I was attempting to indicate that if Subjects A and B both see the same event, and are later queried about it, the odds are extremely good (regardless of education, blood toxicity, whatever) that their versions WILL be different. I am not talking about wild differences, but there will be variations. These variances, as I think we all agree, come about due to individuality, especially as it relates to perception. Of course, this all falls into the bucket of how do you fairly indicate what is of importance in history? This seems like a good question. I might find the details concerning a particular invention's creator to be important, someone else might be more interested in the exact design of the invention. There was a professor in college (Western Civ., not the highest of the History classes) who told my class, one bright sunny day, that all history written after the fact is fiction. He was, by far, among the most cynical people I have ever met. But I can't help thinking that this axiom is a basic truth. If Revisionist History is now a recognized field, then my apologies go to Marco for unfairly using that term. However, I still stand by the argument that it is improbable that anyone can fairly and completely catalog an event without being present for said event, and even then, that person can only catalog what they observe. This creates the paradox of no matter how many people watch an event, no matter how keenly observant they may be, and no matter how many times they go over it, there is still a chance that something will be left out. I propose that it is just as bad to rely on what other people have written for the past, because of the preceeding argument. I think this will become less and less a concern with the advent of our almost omnipotent technological resources, but as regards our path to this point in time, I think we will always be deficient. What I draw from History, Revisionist, Western, Eastern, Elder (whoops), is the general nature of events, their impact on the populace and the world, any technological/sociological/cultural ramifications, and the responsible parties (not necessarily the protagonists or antagonists, mind you). Although I think that, again, what someone gets out of "history" is greatly shaped by the individual perception. Okay. So now hopefully everyone knows why it is so important to keep those NRO assassins you caught separated until you finish interrogating them! Also, all Delta Green operatives should keep their AARs (After-Action-Reports) to a high level of detail, if it appears to be something trivial, ask a policeman how much paperwork follows a single discharge of his service weapon. So when you ask your players for a debriefing, don't slouch. If they can't explain what they did to their Cell leader, then they may have a very hard time explaining it to that Congressional Oversight Committee. This whole revisionist thread has gotten me thinking of links to the EH project. Is it possible someone would try to forestall the plans of Stephan by creating duplicate books? Is Stephan trying to re-write the Mythos history to suit his own ends? If he did redo the works of the Necronomicon, the Pnakotic Manuscripts, etcetera, would it change the Mythos universe as we know it? Yet another idea involves a radical transliteration of the ideas presented in "The Bible Code" by .....damn, can't think of the author. Basically, he enlists a mathmetician's aid to create a algorithim that goes through the Hebrew bible and not only confirms past events, but predicts future ones (although don't be fooled, they aren't going to tell you anything juicy). So, let's say that PC in your group, who is a mathmetician, is getting tired of balancing the team's budget and fudging the books so that slush money looks like it never existed in that offshore account, let him get a computer, maybe an online copy of Ye Book of Ye Liveliest Awfulness, and go to town. Would someone have thought to put a code into one of those damned tomes? Is so, what could it possibly say? Formulae, magic spells, ingrediants for "drugs" or potions? Maybe map coordinates for all kinds of "fun" locations? Inquiring minds want to know. -B By the way, McFadden, you need help that not even money could buy! :-) ___________________________________________________________________ Get the Internet just the way you want it. Free software, free e-mail, and free Internet access for a month! Try Juno Web: http://dl.www.juno.com/dynoget/tagj. ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 4 Aug 1999 11:35:50 EDT From: ScottSaylo@aol.com Subject: Re: DG: Revisionism In a message dated 8/4/99 9:45:52 AM EST, becole@juno.com writes: << This whole revisionist thread has gotten me thinking of links to the EH project. Is it possible someone would try to forestall the plans of Stephan by creating duplicate books? Is Stephan trying to re-write the Mythos history to suit his own ends? If he did redo the works of the Necronomicon, the Pnakotic Manuscripts, etcetera, would it change the Mythos universe as we know it? >> Revision is something historians must live with. Historians rely upon documents - original documents are best - they are hopefully not the only documents. We know a lot about the Continental Congress from the minutes and the Declaration of Independence However, there is so much we would NOT know if we didnot have access to so many letters written by the participants of the events. John Adams letters to his wife, Jefferson's correspondences, Franklin's Journals and so much more. Weeding through multiple and oftimes conflicting documents is part of the detective work of history. How would we know that they all signed the Declaration on the SECOND of July which allowed time to duplicate and post the declaration (and get everybody's bullseye painted butt out of town)? ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 4 Aug 1999 10:33:36 -0500 From: "Shane Ivey" Subject: RE: DG: Just plain mad! I did a few months' time in a Methadone Clinic (I was a counselor, not a patient--honest), and the "But I just ate some poppy seed cakes!!" argument came up about twice a month. We were told said you would have to eat something like a hundred poppyseed cakes at a sitting to get a false positive for opiates. Can anyone with genuine pharmacological training verify or refute that? SHANE IVEY This week at www.zealot.com: Filming The Lord of the Rings! Zealot: Sci-Fi and Fantasy Fun - -----Original Message----- From: owner-deltagreen@nocturne.org [mailto:owner-deltagreen@nocturne.org]On Behalf Of Graeme Price Sent: Wednesday, August 04, 1999 8:17 AM To: Delta Green List Subject: Re: DG: Just plain mad! >Just to chip in on the Hemp issue, why is it necessary to smoke it? >Much more fun and you get a lot higher if you make space cakes. Now >thats a way to take care of security guards. Make up a batch of >space cakes get guards high which gets them sacked for drug abuse at >the next "random" check and have your own replacements ready to apply >for the jobs. Makes breaking and entering a piece of cake. (good pun >punmeister Graeme?) Not bad, Rob. On a related note, I was reading an article (I guess in New Scientist a couple of weeks back) on random drug testing in the workplace (a hot issue in the US) which noted that eating poppy seeds (not illegal, or narcotic by any means - you would have to eat approaching a ton of them to even think about narcotic effects) on, say a cake or bread, can cause false positive reactions for opiates on some of the less sophisticated tests. For some jobs this can be an offence resulting in instant dismissal. Article also said that there was an antibiotic which causes a false positive reaction on LSD tests. Note that the better forensic labs (state and FBI crime labs for example) use more accurate tests, which directly identify traces of a range of compounds. Cheaper labs (the private ones, which may or may not be accredited - the regulations are often very lax as to who can set up such a lab) or companies which buy in cheaper test kits (which tend to be immunologically based) are the ones which suffer these problems. Paradoxically, the state labs are more likely to find genuine positives (samples from real drug abusers) than the smaller labs, which will pick up a lot of false reactions. Wrongful dismissal suit anyone? Later Graeme graemep@immag.mcg.edu ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 4 Aug 1999 10:30:04 -0500 From: "Shane Ivey" Subject: DG: RE: Re: Drugs in Cthulhu Scenarios / Revisionism I had a brief reference to Aklo in "Blacker Than Black," the short story, and certain other herbs made appearances there and in "lesserdark." I wrote notes about the KIY-related drugs around 1993 or 1994; I honestly don't remember if it was before or after I read some similar ideas by that Tynes fellow in TUO #1 (when they put it on AOL and an FTP site for easy download, just pre-WWW; remember those days?) and/or "Broadalbin." The Aklo mentioned there was the language, though, not a drug. My ongoing campaign, OPERATION SANDMAN, is entirely based on a newfangled Mythos drug--but the investigators have been too pussy-footed to try it first-hand, darn them. Yeah, they're all bad and shit when they're killin' the hell out of punk cultists, but give them a straight shot at the Truth and watch them scatter... [insert wicked laughter here] I loved the idea of a scenario involving NWI and the DEA and the Liao drug--it could be a great follow-up to "The Gates of Delirium," and a great excuse to hit your victims--er, players--with reality-warping hallucinations, Hounds of Tindalos, and/or an Outer God or two. SHANE IVEY This week at www.zealot.com: Filming The Lord of the Rings! Zealot: Sci-Fi and Fantasy Fun - -----Original Message----- From: owner-deltagreen@nocturne.org [mailto:owner-deltagreen@nocturne.org]On Behalf Of David Farnell Shane Ivey had an interesting campaign in which a drug called Aklo (IIRC) played a part. Care to share, Shane? ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 4 Aug 1999 13:14:40 -0400 From: becole@juno.com Subject: Re: DG: Revisionism > Yet another idea involves a radical transliteration of the >ideas presented in "The Bible Code" by .....damn, can't think of the >author. Hindsight at 20/20. The author is Michael Drosnin. A section in the book near the back indicates the nature of the algorithim and exactly how it searched the Hebrew text. -B ___________________________________________________________________ Get the Internet just the way you want it. Free software, free e-mail, and free Internet access for a month! Try Juno Web: http://dl.www.juno.com/dynoget/tagj. ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 4 Aug 1999 13:52:50 -0400 From: graemep@immagene.mcg.edu (Graeme Price) Subject: RE: DG: Just plain mad! >I did a few months' time in a Methadone Clinic (I was a counselor, not a >patient--honest), and the "But I just ate some poppy seed cakes!!" argument >came up about twice a month. We were told said you would have to eat >something like a hundred poppyseed cakes at a sitting to get a false >positive for opiates. Can anyone with genuine pharmacological training >verify or refute that? The article I got this from is available on-line at: http://www.newscientist.com/ns/19990724/itnstory199907247.html Don't know about the numbers of poppy seed cakes you would have to eat, but whilst on the face of it it seems unlikely that they could cause a false positive for morphine, you have to bear in mind that a lot of the tests which use antibody technology can be exquisitely sensitive. For example some tests can detect femtogram quantities (thats 10 to the power of minus 15, or 1/1,000,000,000,000,000th of a gram) of a protein. Not sure about the sensitivity of drug tests (it's not widely advertised), but I wouldn't be surprised if poppy seed cakes could cause a false positive reaction. Personally, if I ran a testing lab using a test that sensitive, I would confirm positive reactions with a different test (probably mass spectrometry) - which makes it a lot more specific. Later Graeme graemep@immag.mcg.edu ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 4 Aug 1999 10:42:31 -0700 From: Phil A Posehn Subject: Re: DG: Just plain mad! Very true. Ephedrine HCl, a common asthma medication will often cause false positives for Speed. Vics inhalors will also test positive because they contain speed! The active ingrediant is 50mg of l-desoxyephedrine which is one of the chemical names for methamphetamine, (a brand name). Phil On Wed, 4 Aug 1999 09:16:59 -0400 graemep@immagene.mcg.edu (Graeme Price) writes: >>Just to chip in on the Hemp issue, why is it necessary to smoke it? >>Much more fun and you get a lot higher if you make space cakes. Now >>thats a way to take care of security guards. Make up a batch of >>space cakes get guards high which gets them sacked for drug abuse at >>the next "random" check and have your own replacements ready to apply >>for the jobs. Makes breaking and entering a piece of cake. (good pun >>punmeister Graeme?) > >Not bad, Rob. On a related note, I was reading an article (I guess in >New >Scientist a couple of weeks back) on random drug testing in the >workplace >(a hot issue in the US) which noted that eating poppy seeds (not >illegal, >or narcotic by any means - you would have to eat approaching a ton of >them >to even think about narcotic effects) on, say a cake or bread, can >cause >false positive reactions for opiates on some of the less sophisticated >tests. For some jobs this can be an offence resulting in instant >dismissal. >Article also said that there was an antibiotic which causes a false >positive reaction on LSD tests. > >Note that the better forensic labs (state and FBI crime labs for >example) >use more accurate tests, which directly identify traces of a range of >compounds. Cheaper labs (the private ones, which may or may not be >accredited - the regulations are often very lax as to who can set up >such a >lab) or companies which buy in cheaper test kits (which tend to be >immunologically based) are the ones which suffer these problems. >Paradoxically, the state labs are more likely to find genuine >positives >(samples from real drug abusers) than the smaller labs, which will >pick up >a lot of false reactions. Wrongful dismissal suit anyone? > >Later > >Graeme > >graemep@immag.mcg.edu > > ___________________________________________________________________ Get the Internet just the way you want it. Free software, free e-mail, and free Internet access for a month! Try Juno Web: http://dl.www.juno.com/dynoget/tagj. ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 4 Aug 1999 11:01:52 -0700 From: Phil A Posehn Subject: Re: DG: Reefer Madness! -Reply -Reply On the topic of false positives, I am not sure about the whole poppy seed thing either. I would not be surprised though if someone who ate salads almost exclusively as a weight loss measure received a false positive since lettuse hearts contain a chemical similar to opiates. The problem with the whole compulsory drug testing thing , (besides the entrance of the government into our urinary tracts) is that contracts tend to go to the low bidder insuring that the cheapest, least reliable test will be used by your prospective employer. Robert Anton Wilson called the compulsory urine test the holy communion of the church of the war on drugs. Phil Posehn ___________________________________________________________________ Get the Internet just the way you want it. Free software, free e-mail, and free Internet access for a month! Try Juno Web: http://dl.www.juno.com/dynoget/tagj. ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 04 Aug 1999 19:43:21 +0200 From: Davide Mana Subject: Re: DG: Re: DGML Knowledge Pool Greetings. About my future stint as a pawn of St Jerome, Scott persuasively wrote.... >Interesting project! Lots of DG tie ins! Your infor )after the fact of >course) about how these events get handled as well as the chance to actually >see the Shroud and the security will be information that interests us all. I >do hope you will share within the limitations of your contractual bounds - of >course! If you don't share just remember, people who have friends who have >green triangle on their dossiers have other friends who do NOT have green >triangles on their dossiers. Someone might accidently let fall the name and >city of a certain Italian involved in the Shroud security in exchange for a >tape of the "debriefing". The opportunity to take a look at the inner workings of such a circus was indeed one of the main attractions of the job - which is _unpaid_ btw. The only form of payment I'll get will be a professional course of French, courtesy of the local Jesuit school. I hope you'll appreciate the irony. That, and the opportunity to print "Worked for the Bishop's Office" on my CV. [and I might even get a chance at a pardon for my old jokes on cardinal Ratzinger] Anyway, some preliminary observations that might be of interest.... The whole Jubilee celebrations will be handled by unpaid _volunteers_ all over Italy. The bulk of the personnel is (supposedly) supplied by Church-connected organizations - from the Knights of Malta down to the Boy Scouts, through uncounted "popular movements". The events are hovewer still sorely understaffed, and the various Bishop Secretaries are looking for volunteers everywhere - and finding precious few. Considering how easily a well known agnostic like yours truly slipped in the ranks, looks like the fringes (at least) of the structure are open to just _any kind_ of potentially hostile penetration. Or are made to look like that. Considering the kind of troubles that are expected in Jerusalem for the Y2K celebrations, I can only guess at the number of things we could espect going wrong in Italy, with Rome and Turin the main targets. Anyway, just some ideas. Be seeing you. Davide Mana ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 04 Aug 1999 21:19:14 +0200 From: Davide Mana Subject: DG: [fiction] Chasing the Bride (part 1) Chasing the Bride - pt 1 The first fat drops of rain were hitting the sidewalk as I climbed in the passenger seat of the old VW, sliding it back to accomodate my legs. A thunder rolled somewhere over us. - - Lousy weather. Val was not overly expansive. We left the curb behind and headed west, the rain splashing on the windshield. There was a cigarette stubbed out in the overcrowded ashtray and the tang of second-hand smoke forced me to open the window, letting in a gust of cold, clean air. - - Is it that bad? - I asked her. She was supposedly out of her cig thing. - - It's as bad as usual. We passed an old maroon Simca with a Tim Curry clone at the wheel, almost rammed a silly-looking coupé out of the way and turned towards the labyrinth of the Limited Traffic Zone. I was waiting for her opening, and she knew. We had been sleeping together long enough for either of us overstepping the reciprocal confidence. - - I better fill you in, - she finally said as we stopped for a red light. I nodded once, keeping my eyes on the traffic. I felt at least one of us was supposed to. - - Kid. Sixteen. Female. I knew there was a file on the backseat, but it was faster this way, more focused. - - Single mother, a yuppie kind of critter.... - We were going again, pointing towards the Hill. - Sharp, busy, aggressive, dont-fuck-with-me attitude, that kind of profile, if you get me. I sighed. About fifteen years ago, you see, with a different name, another hair colour and tons of attitude, Valerie was a singer in a band, and she still retains her rock'n'roll outlook of old, together with part of the wardrobe. - - I do get you all right - I said. - - Fine. So, saturday night, girl gets out with her school mates. We're talking 'bout two nights ago. I nodded and grunted. She changed gear and shot a look to the mirror. - - For bite, possibly a movie, having some fun, - she continued. - The usual stuff teenagers do. We skirted the old cathedral and started climbing with a low growl from the engine behind us. - - Somehow they end up at a concert at the Printz. - - Where? - - The Printz Eugenz, - she made a vague gesture - you know... the anarch-punk squat palce by the Royal Gardens. I nodded again. I knew we had been keeping an eye on the squatted-over old building for six weeks, without any result. So this was all about that in the end. Maybe a lead. - - Ok. So she and her pals get there and have a ball or two, and a few drinks, and then some, to make the most of the night. She ignored a red light and turned left. - - So she comes home as high as the proverbial kite, courtesy of a nice nasty multicoloured cocktail of chemicals, has a canonical big-time row with her tight-assed mom and goes to sleep, all giggly and happy for all we know. She clenched her jaw. This was not about that, then. - - And that's it, - I anticipated her. It was not the first time. Val nodded. - That's it. She's been sleeping like a log these last 48 hours or so. We left the main road. - - The mother can't get her to rise, - Val continued - Gets scared and calls her doc. Nothing doing. Slow pulse, regular breathing. He makes a few calls to a few specialists. We get the news through the grapevine. I throw you out of bed. She sniggered - We're needed. - Blood samples? A nod, direction light blinking - Underway, but the background noise of all the stuff the kid did the previous night'ss messing things up royally. We stopped in front of a small one storey house. A stupid-looking mid-sized dog eyed us with suspicion through the bars of the gate, as we left the car behind and went for the bell. The electric lock of the gate buzzed as the dog started barking like a psycho, and we had to go round, keeping about a yard's distance, to reach the three steps that led to the door. The mother of the subject was framed by the open door, a thirtysomething woman with no-nonsense auburn hair wearing jeans and a green sweather. We exchanged greetings, feeling hawkward. - - I was expecting you, - she said, still not letting us in. We were probably a weird duo standing in the drizzle, me with my old trench coat and the hat, and Val with her black jeans and red leather jacket. Finally she stepped aside and we stepped in. Whoever had pushed us on her had done his job. The subject was fast asleep. I kneeled down by the bed and felt her pulse, touched her brow, checked her breathing - soft and slow, oppiate-like. Nothing was there that I did not know or espect already. She was pale, very short hair, a brace of silver studs in the exposed ear. She had a small dolphin tattoo at the base of the left thumb and nails colored an unlikely shade of green. In a few hours, the docs would probably start feeding her a glucose solution through a mainline. - - Full R.E.M. - said Val at my back, softly. I nodded. Obviously. We went through the usual questions with the mother. Anything out of the ordinary in the last few days? Weeks? Was her daughter a regular user? Did she suffer from nightmares? She answered as in a trance, not even offended by the implications of some of the items, and we moved on before she could ask us some questions of her own. The subject's room was straddling the thin borderline between childhood and something else, something rougher. I left Val by the bedside and took a look around. Not really useful, but you never know. There was a chair in front of a desk/make-up table, with a mirror over it. A denim jacket lay abandoned on the chair's back, a thick-soled pair of trench boots with bright red strings discarded nearby. A few photographs were stuck in the mirror's frame. A class shot with autographs, a slightly off-centre pic of a grinning, beefy boy wearing a leering Marylin Manson t-shirt, a shot of the singer of the Cranberries, evidently cut away from a magazine and used as a model. A few postcards - Prague, London, Florence. On the desk were scattered the private remains of a youngster's experimentations with cosmetics and growing up, the discarded spoils of a number of candies, a box regurgitating a quantity of cheap paste and wire jewelry, a pair of Blues Brothers sunglasses, half a packet of Silk Cut with a cheap ziggy lighter tucked in and a round floral-pattern tin box on the lid of which a Smurf jazz combo was frozen mid-gig, like an old Chick Corea record cover the girl probably never saw. Books on a few shelves. Paperbacks by Agatha Christie. The usual Freud that's almost mandatory with girls of that age. The usual sampling of thick seaside bestsellers - King, Koonts, Harris. A pair of ultracheap Shakespeare - "Romeo and Juliet", the movie tie-in, a copy of "Othello" that was clearly far from being finished anytime soon, some paperback Irvine Welsh, probably second-hand and unread as well. Her mother was watching me from the door, Val by her side now. She probably thought I was a meddler and that it was a weird way to go for a Sleep Troubles Expert, but she was too worried to react now. Fine. It was going to be over fast. I turned and stepped away. Nothing unusual. Or maybe yes. I was leaving the room when it twinkled in the half-light and caught my eye. I picked t up, and signalled to Val. A pin on the jacket's lapel. Small. Pewter. I showed her. She made a face, looked me in the eye. - - That's a triskell, - said the mother, coming over. - It's some kind of Irish folk thing.... - A vague gesture. She was beginning to wonder what all that meant, I was beginning to see what it was all about. We were out of there in a pair of minutes, leaving behind the usual reasurances and the usual unanswered doubts. The dog barked at our heels as we left the small garden and climbed on the car again. As the seat creaked under my weight, I sighed. I took a breath as she started the engine. - - Oh, tell me have you seen it? But Val was taking all this personally, and was in no mood for literary quotes. - - I saw the fucking Yellow Sign all right! She was grim, as we thundered back towards the city on the water-slick hillside road. - What now? As if she did not know already. there was people covering the thing from this side. I checked the chronometers. It was a quarter past six. - - We'll have to go to sleep on this one, honey. By seven thirty I was ready to go to sleep. I had set all the alarm clocks in my room - not that it's any use, but I like this little ritual. Despite her tough stance, Val is rumoured to sleep with an age-old teddy, so I guess we all have our little Linus blankets to hold on tight to when we go in. Seven thirty. Val was already home, and probably a goner in a few minutes. I took another pair of deep breaths and laid down. [end of part 1] - ------------------------------------------------------------ So here it is, kids. Part two coming real soon. Pardon spelling errors and grammar fluctuations - I've been working at this one late at night. Later! Davide Mana Torino, Italy doctor.dee@iol.it ------------------------------ End of deltagreen-digest V2 #21 *******************************