The Briefing
The heart of the facility was a high–tech briefing room where Mr J undertook the
remainder of the briefing. In outline the situation was much as we had already been
told but further details were now provided. Most notably we were shown a series of
security camera photos taken at one city’s parking lots late on the 12th of January which
showed the final moments of Agent Baines. Apparently Baines had been trailing Lux
when the cult leader turned and confronted him – the images provided no firm
evidence of an attack, only showing Lux gesturing towards the agent, who then fell to
earth, clutching his chest. The moment of death was apparently accompanied by a
burst of unidentified radiation, which badly affected the cameras and remains
unexplained. An autopsy revealed that Baines had died of a massive Myocardial
Infarction – in laymen’s terms from a devastating heart attack. There were no wounds
apparent on the body.
Lux was a mystery man, he had no records of any description, no clue to his true
identity. During their observation of him Scott and Baines determined that he
possessed a considerable knowledge of surveillance and counter surveillance techniques
and probably had an intelligence background. He only appeared in his present guise a
few months ago, as the founder of the Church of the Inner Light. Did he come here to
subvert GCHQ operatives? Or, as seems more likely, to make contact with the scientists
at the Gilman Foundation. We could only speculate.
The rest of the briefing gave us details about West and his social contacts, featuring
most prominently his current girlfriend, a legal secretary called Sally Nichols who also
lived in the city and was also a member of the Church of the Inner Light.
Patrick Harper and Agent Fox asked Mr J. a number of questions concerning our ‘rules
of operation’ and our security clearance. It was no great surprise to discover that this
mission was being run on a ‘need to know’ basis and we plainly didn’t need to know.
The first alarm bells began to ring at this point – in such situations that which you don’t
know can well kill you if you’re not very careful.
Our mission objectives were outlined to us and Mr J. made it clear that on no account
were we to interfere with West – he was not expendable, we were. He’d probably have
been wise not to point that out, professional intelligence operatives might be willing to
put their lives on the line for Queen and Country but historians, journalist and psychics
have a different take on the matter.
At the end of the briefing Mr J. provided us with dossiers on the central players in this
little ‘drama’ and departed, leaving a number if we needed to get in contact with him.