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 Forum index » Archive » Archive: Deus City » DC: Deus City
Chapter 11: Sniffer [solved]
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TGI Fridays
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Joined: 12 Jun 2007
Posts: 123

 		Chapter 11: Sniffer [solved]
Mercer Towers in Red District
Outside Sam's, the rain madly beats the dark street. I burst in, soaking wet and frantic. The cafe is very closed but Bishop still sits at our usual table working hard. By "working hard" I of course mean that he is screaming at his datapad about some virtual work-order form paradox that more than likely has nothing to do with anything. I assume he's talking with somebody, but in reality he's yelling at the paperwork.
"C'mon, pack up your toys, I need you!" I say. "We have some trespassing to do and Senator Mercer is about to go home.

He looks up, not hearing me. "Good morning sunshine. Sleep in your clothes aga… We?! What do you mean WE?!" He's panicking, that means he's in.

From behind the bar Sam gives me a cautious look, a warning. I nod in silent acknowledgement to her as Bishop scrambles to fit everything into his slim black briefcase.

She knows me better than I know myself sometimes. I don't know why I always forget that.



* * *



The glass elevator creeps up the side of the tallest red glass Mercer Tower towards the penthouse. It moves up as sheets of rain go down and great bolts of lightning crisscross in the dark and cloudy pre-dawn sky. Bishop and I stand in the rising elevator, the waterlogged city falling away from us. Bishop is fidgeting and twitching with nervous jitters and talking to himself. He carries a ridiculous amount of computer equipment along with his slim briefcase. I stand with my hands planted in my pockets, my face stoic with firm determination.

"This is insane! This is crazy! This is nuts! We'll never get away with this! Why are we doing this? We aren't getting paid! And even when we were getting paid we at least had a license-!" The elevator reaches the top floor and dings. The glass doors swish open. "-oh crap!"

I look at Bishop and shake my head, then charge into the dark Mercer penthouse. In the reflection of the dark glass I see Bishop standing paralyzed as the elevator door begins to close. He then lets out a YIP and dives into the room as the doors close behind him, and barely juggles the things in his arms, somehow managing not to drop anything.

The room is just as it was the last time I was here, except that the only light source comes from a shoulder high security pole with a glowing red tip. It pulses brighter and dimmer as it stands erect in the center of the living room casting an eerie red throbbing light into the room. Even the white carpet and trim have become a part of the pulsating red heartbeat. The rainwater flows down the three glass walls of the main room. It is like standing inside of a steadily creeping waterfall of blood. Undulating light patterns can be seen in it from the surrounding city lights and towers below.

I turn left on his heel and heads straight for the door to the back rooms. "Come on," I say. "Bring the sniffer." He's tiptoeing nervously at the edge of the room eyeing the glowing security device in its center like some kind of venomous snake.

"Uh.. you do know that's an electronic police line over there don't you Sawyer?... Sawyer?"

I go into the back rooms. Bishop's eyes widen and he scuttles after me. The dark hallway is long and skinny with numerous red doors. Expensive Red ridged wallpaper covers the wall on the right and nothing but floor to ceiling glass windows are on the left, and at the far end of the narrow hallway, continuing the outside perimeter from the main room, not to mention the decor. Here too the windows flow with water and reflected city light, causing the wall and red carpet to appear as though they are flowing down and out over the edge of the tall building. At the end of the hallway is a large exotic potted jungle plant with a huge red leafy bulb.

I pass from door to door, quickly opening each one, looking in, then immediately closing the door again. Bishop - all the while mumbling something about how he's "going to regret this" - follows. He reaches into his pocket and ritualistically withdraws a pair of latex gloves, putting them on with no small amount of difficulty while I continue yanking open doors, checking rooms, and slamming them closed in frustration.

"So let me get this straight?" He asks, somewhere between casual conversation and defeated abandon. "You found another dead chipless person bringing the grand total to, uh, five... that we know of, and they all have a connection to Mercer. Mind telling me what we are looking for exactly?"

"If my guess is right, then you don't want to know." I say. "Where's that damn sniffer?" We're in a huge padded bedroom now, probably Mrs. Mercer's. The windowless internal space is extremely dark. The shadowy outline of furniture and a four post bed are nothing more than outlines against the murky blackness of the room. The fact that she apparently slept alone in the luxurious four poster both surprises and bothers me, but I can't quite make it fit.

"Oh... Uh, good," he says. "Glad I asked."

He snaps open his briefcase while still holding it, causing numerous items and papers to cascade onto the floor and dropping a few of the small electronic devices he's also been carrying. Then, with no small amount of swearing, he kneels, collecting his things and mumbles in an irritated babble of nonsense words.

I continue my increasingly frantic room search. I pass a round hole in the wall and jump to see a grizzled and tired scruffy old man grim with determination - his steely eyes blazing with fire and ice before realizing that the damn little mirror is just doing its job.

Bishop doesn't notice. He's stacking his equipment in the corner then delicately scoops the small, metallic, thumb sized sniffer up into his right hand and gingerly clicking it on. It emits a soft greenish-white glow in a wide thin ray which he proceeds to scan the walls with. As he passes the beam over the doors the sniffer device emits a low tone. I stop and watch him work, remembering why it is I pay him.

"This is crazy Sawyer, this is like somebody's idea of a sick… Whoa! "As Bishop passes the beam over a section of the wall The beeping sniffer in his hand changes to a higher more excited pitch and tempo and the color shifts from green to red. He gapes at the spot where the light beam is cast, holding the beam as steady as his shaking hand will allow.

"Wait! Hold it there!" I say, cracking the first genuine smile I can remember for a long time.

Bish rolls his eyes. "Geez why didn't I think of that?"I start tapping and rubbing on the illuminated wall, passing my hands over the rough red wallpaper. Finding nothing, I stand up, thoughtfully looking first one way then the other. About two feet behind the wall where Bishop is standing there is a closet. I yank open the closet door and step into it, leaving him standing there nervously holding his toy.

I'm in Tara's ridiculously large walk-in closet. Row upon row of clothes and high fashion shoes hang here like so many personalities in the dark. A monument to Culturecorp and the Mercer Image, and a collective pricetag that would probably take an army of accountants to tabulate. I smash row after row of them aside with haphazard carelessness, with nothing but my gut to guide my recklessness towards one of the back walls, squinting to take in what little I can see.

And then it's there.

I pop my head and hand back into the bedroom startling Bishop just as lightning flashes, lighting up a door shaped trapezoid within the room like the hallway beyond and my own mad excitement. Bishop lets out a little girlish "yip" as I drag him bodily into the little room.

"You coming or what?"

He closes his eyes tightly and sighs then shuffles further into the closet behind me. The open series of doors cast almost no ambient light, but my eyes are adjusting and it's an easy few steps back to the cherry paneling on the closest perpendicular wall to the other side of where the sniffer device had reacted in the bedroom beyond.

Suddenly the wooden wall panel slides back with a whoosh revealing a pitch dark passage, blacker than the night ever got in the big city. A moment later a row dim fluorescents flicker to life, illuminating a narrow staircase leading down inside of the wall to the floor below.

"Aw Hell!" I hear bishop state plainly.

13.0.0.0.0 at 11:11




I'm having some trouble with this one - the date refers to the end of the winter solstice in 2012, which is the end of the Mayan Long Count Calander. Lots of crazy predictions on this date and time and I've tried most of them as answers with no luck. Any ideas?

PostPosted: Fri Nov 16, 2007 11:10 pm
Last edited by TGI Fridays on Tue Nov 20, 2007 1:07 pm; edited 1 time in total
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VQ.Wavecrest
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Joined: 07 May 2007
Posts: 124
Location: Philadelphia, PA

 		Okay, the answer is NOT:

-------->The Multiuniverse
-------->Mayan Calendar/Winter Solistice 2012
-------->Doomsday
-------->Armageddon
-------->The Wake-Up Call for Lightworkers
-------->The Guradian Angels
-------->Numerological Significance
-------->Synchronicity
-------->11:11 Make a wish
-------->Omega Point
-------->Nothing

So I'll be working on this during the weekend, I suppose. Anyone have any other ideas on what 13.0.0.0.0 at 11:11 can be answered with?

PostPosted: Sat Nov 17, 2007 12:06 am
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TGI Fridays
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Joined: 12 Jun 2007
Posts: 123

 		Also not:

armageddon
Age of Aquarius
doomsday
December 21, 2012
december 21, 2012 AD
eschaton
el Quinto Sol
end of The Mayan Calendar
end of History
end of time
end
galactic Alignment
jerusalem Moon Rise
judgment
judgment Day
omega
omega point
polar Shift
revelation
solar Eclipse
the Fifth Sun
the Long Count
the End of Time
the End of History
the end
the Cosmic Coordinate
the 11th Hour
The eleventh hour
timewave zero
winter Solstice
zero
zero day
0

PostPosted: Sat Nov 17, 2007 12:38 am
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Silent|away
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 		try "new age"? Or '6th age'? '7th age'? Something to that effect?

PostPosted: Sat Nov 17, 2007 1:05 pm
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VQ.Wavecrest
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Joined: 07 May 2007
Posts: 124
Location: Philadelphia, PA

 		-> end of the world
-> new age
-> 5th/Fifth (I put it in 2 separate times)
->6th/Sixth (same as above)
->7th/Seventh (same as above)
->end of the age
->zero point merge
->zero point (took a long time to load for this one too!)
->year zero (made me wonder if they play that ARG...)
->Digital Time Code
->Ouroboros
->Sacred Tree
->death
->Age of Pisces
->4 Ahau 3 Kankin

That's all I've tried for today. But it makes me wonder: are you an attempted murderer if the one you're trying to kill doesn't exist? If not, Sawyer's going down! What the heck is a noir detective doing with all this religious information anyway?

PostPosted: Sat Nov 17, 2007 2:11 pm
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Lazy Hook
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 		Wasnt 11:11 when the interface went up or whatnot? Is that relevant?

PostPosted: Sun Nov 18, 2007 8:09 pm
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Misroi
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Posts: 133

 		Perhaps "End of Days" or "End Times"?

Or also, "The End is Nigh," since Sawyer mentions that in his meeting with Chris Brown.

PostPosted: Mon Nov 19, 2007 6:47 pm
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taureanfreak
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 		what about the corporate buyout wars or WW3?

PostPosted: Mon Nov 19, 2007 8:09 pm
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TGI Fridays
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Joined: 12 Jun 2007
Posts: 123
taureanfreak wrote:
what about the corporate buyout wars or WW3?


Tried WWIII, think i tried WW3 too...corporate buyout wars happen before december. tried the end is nigh too. grumble. this puzzle is a beeotch...i like it. Smile

PostPosted: Mon Nov 19, 2007 9:22 pm
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taureanfreak
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 		I'd think it'd be one of them... did you try world war III?

and are you a masochist then TGIF??? you never struck me as the type Wink

PostPosted: Mon Nov 19, 2007 9:41 pm
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RedHatty
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 		Re: Chapter 11: Sniffer
Mercer Towers in Red District
TGI Fridays wrote:


13.0.0.0.0 at 11:11

I'm having some trouble with this one - the date refers to the end of the winter solstice in 2012, which is the end of the Mayan Long Count Calander. Lots of crazy predictions on this date and time and I've tried most of them as answers with no luck. Any ideas?


This number also refers to the beginning of the long count and here are possible date conversions:

Quote:
The authorities disagree on what 13.0.0.0.0 corresponds to in our calendar. I have come across three possible equivalences:

13.0.0.0.0 = 8 Sep 3114 BC (Julian) = 13 Aug 3114 BC (Gregorian)
13.0.0.0.0 = 6 Sep 3114 BC (Julian) = 11 Aug 3114 BC (Gregorian)
13.0.0.0.0 = 11 Nov 3374 BC (Julian) = 15 Oct 3374 BC (Gregorian)


from here

Interestingly, there is an 11 Nov (11:11) Julian date? How to use this... I have no kl00
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PostPosted: Mon Nov 19, 2007 10:18 pm
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taureanfreak
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 		Anybody try the obvious answers like Christmas or Yule? Or even Winter Solstice? could it be that it's right beneath our noses?

PostPosted: Mon Nov 19, 2007 10:57 pm
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TGI Fridays
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Joined: 12 Jun 2007
Posts: 123
taureanfreak wrote:
Anybody try the obvious answers like Christmas or Yule? Or even Winter Solstice? could it be that it's right beneath our noses?


Yule and Winter Solstice don't work.

On the plus side, I get to end the game with white karma. Smile

As for being a masochist - sometimes you give a little and sometimes you get a little...balance is everything.

PostPosted: Tue Nov 20, 2007 11:49 am
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Transtar
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 		SONOFA

JUST GOT IT

Spoiler (Rollover to View):

December 21, 2012 11:11 GMT


PostPosted: Tue Nov 20, 2007 12:19 pm
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TGI Fridays
Veteran


Joined: 12 Jun 2007
Posts: 123
Transtar wrote:
SONOFA

JUST GOT IT

Spoiler (Rollover to View):

December 21, 2012 11:11 GMT


Grumble. A correct answer turned me back to yellow. Darn you bizarro world!!!

PostPosted: Tue Nov 20, 2007 1:00 pm
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