Elsworth Memo - Episode 13

TO: Team Leader Susan Buvier, CC to Special Agent Jean Qualls
FROM: Agent Elsworth Lloyd, M.D.
SUBJECT: Human Food Processing, Tikara Encroachment on Terra Sol, Baby-Farming at a Geisha House, KBI Involvement in Wrapping Up These Problems...

Special Agent Jean Qualls suggested we contact ROPCIA Operative Kepler Reece regarding certain leads he may have in relation to the mysterious disappearances in the Vidrickson Starport Area. We traveled to Rayburn, to the main headquarters of the ROPCIA for a meeting with Kepler Reece. He informed us that one of his important contacts in the Yakuza had told him that he had a lead on the recent disappearances. He stated that this contact in the Yakuza was named Ori Anjo and gave us the grid box number for Mr. Anjo. Reece asked that we protect his contact and make sure things go as smoothly as possible, for this contact has been a very important on in the past.

We called the grid box of Ori Anjo and made an appointment with his assistant Katsumata. We were to go to Mr. Anjo's home in Yamaguchi City at 1600 hrs. that day.

I called one of my contacts in the Metro P.D. to see if we could get additional information about the Vidrickson disappearances. Deputy Commissioner Shamus MacDonahoe was very cooperative and provided us with all the raw investigative data from the cases. The publicized number of 13 disappearances was somewhat deceptive, as the Metro P.D. records revealed 27 disappearances that were suspected to be connected. The victims were almost all out-of-towners, with a few being from off-planet. They were all single businessmen ranging from 34 to 176 years old. No patterns could be determined based on race, type-of-business, level of education, hotel, rental sky-car company, or even locations where they had spent their money. They were all upper-middle-class or lower-upper-class businessmen...and all had disappeared sometime during the late evening or nighttime hours.

Only one pattern was found. All the victims, every single one, had downloaded 200 -300 credits to their cred-sticks within 36 hours of disappearing. But even this pattern revealed limited information...for there was no pattern as to the electronic banks this was downloaded from or in spending records. We began to suspect a tie between the victims in the area of untracked spending. Perhaps an illegal category of gambling, prostitution, or drug purchases. Only time would tell.

I contacted a friend of mine that bartends in the Vidrickson district. David Simon informed us that business was down due to fear about the disappearances. He had not known of any of the victims, and could not provide any useful leads. Whatever had been happening, it had not been the subject of substantive rumors yet.

We made our way to the appointment with Ori Anjo in Yamaguchi City. My knowledge of Earth-originating Eastern cultures is very limited, so my knowledge of the Yakuza is limited to some vid-essays I have seen on traditional tattooing on the Grid's Discovery Band and some cheesy action 3-D's involving the "Japanese Mafia" as the bad-guy in the Vid. Ori Anjo's address was a walled compound with a small force of (probably) armed guards manning the gates and walls. They wore Western-style suits and sunglasses. We were welcomed inside by Mr. Anjo's assistant Katsumata and led through the compound to a central garden. The buildings of the compound were built of wood and rice paper and were sparsely furnished. It was very peaceful. There was a pool in the central garden that was stocked with practically priceless Earth-originating large goldfish. There was a rock and pebble garden for peaceful raking and contemplation, beautiful shrubbery, and stone benches. It was there that we were introduced to the ancient head of the Yamaguchi Yakuza...Ori Anjo.

Mr. Anjo was polite, but somewhat mysterious. He informed us that the Tikara...the ancient enemies of the Yakuza, and mankind in general...had come to Terra Sol. The Tikara hail from Laos (on Earth), they are short and squat, and they are pure evil. Though they are completely different than normal men, they walk among men unknown to them. The are extremely dangerous and delight in torture and combat. They even file their teeth to sharp points to provide themselves with an additional weapon. Mr. Anjo stated without qualification that the Tikara were behind the disappearances in the Vidrickson district. He informed us that if we met with Katsumata at a coffee shop the next morning, we would be shown to a location that would allow us to "crack" the case.

We began questioning Mr. Anjo why we were being brought in to fight the Tikara for the Yakuza. It seemed strange to us that the Yakuza, an honorable and brave group of individuals (all would admit this whatever their view of the legality of the Yakuza's business interests), would bring in an outside group to fight their ancient enemies. Mr. Anjo informed us that the Tikara have powers and that even were the Yakuza to win...they would lose. He hinted that the Tikara had mental powers that would allow them to destroy the Yakuza once they had faced them...whether the Yakuza won or lost the physical battle. Perhaps this is a Western interpretation of what they said, but I got the distinct feeling that the Yakuza's very souls would be lost were they to face the Tikara. Mr. Anjo suggested that the soul of a white "barbarian" would be in less danger.

Though it did not seem important at the time...ceremonial items were laid out in the corner of the central garden. A bowl of water and a sword, among other items were of importance only later when we heard that Ori Anjo had committed suicide later that night. These items are used in a Yakuza ceremony of honorable death through suicide. Often a "second" person is present who chops off the head of the person committing suicide, just seconds after the "victim" drives the sword into his own torso. This is done to prevent the honor-suicide from being marred by the "victim" screaming with pain. Regardless the details of the ceremony...Kepler Reece's contact killed himself hours after asking us...outsiders...for help. We could only assume that the principles of Eastern honor prevented Ori Anjo from continuing to live after asking white "barbarians" for help. In addition, he may have bringing about his honorable end before the Tikara could find him and jeopardize his very soul.

We contacted a Shinto priest at a temple in Yamaguchi City. He told us that the Tikara were an ancient legend, sometimes told to children to keep them in line or to scare them. A Japanese "Boogey-Man" of sorts. The legend described them as being flesh and blood, but having dangerous powers over men. Tikara were said to be evil and to seek dominion over mankind. He further added that the term, "they walk unseen among men, " referred to the fact that though they are "different" than men, they walk among us and pass for men.

The next morning we met Katsumata at a coffee shop in the Vidrickson District. We mentioned his employer Ori Anjo, and I was able to read Katsumata's surface thoughts. "They can't trace him now...." Katsumata was not one for long conversation, but mysteriously led us to The Sacred Wok, a restaurant that serves food based on the traditional cuisine of Laos. It was a little after 8:00am, and the restaurant did not open until 11:00am. Checking computer records, the restaurant was registered as belonging to a human female originating in Laos. It had been open 15 months. There was a front door and lots of front windows as well as a back door. The second and third floors were strangely devoid of windows. In the back alley an old-fashioned fire escape led down from the roof with landings at the second and third floors...but the windows that had led to these landings appeared "filled."

While in the back alley, I smelled the familiar smell of decaying meat, or flesh. Upon checking the garbage cans directly to the rear of the restaurant, Billy Eagleclaw located packages of meat wrapped in protective restaurant-grade freezer paper. I scanned this partially rotten meat and discovered that it was human meat. Based on the fact that we had located human meat wrapped like food in the trashcan of a restaurant we had been led to by a confidential informant, we felt we had probable cause for a search warrant for the premises. Based on the fact that 27 people had disappeared, and that human meat was found in the trash can, we felt that one of these victims may still be alive in the building. Furthermore, we felt that our very presence at the back of the building may cause the suspects involved to kill whatever victims may still be alive. Every minute we waited, another life could be lost inside. For this reason Agent Mason began application for an emergency search warrant, while we checked the building for a way in, so that we could search and secure the building. Our reasons for the immediate entry fall within the exceptions allowed by law for police entry based on preventing the destruction of evidence or to preserve human life. In this case, both exceptions came into play. We called for a Metro P.D. Tactical Team for back up and moved in...

The rear door was unlocked. We entered the kitchen of the restaurant, and found more human meat in the kitchen's freezer. The actual seating area of the restaurant was furnished but empty of either suspects or victims. No entry to the upper floors was located. We followed a set of stairs to the basement...and there located a huge meat locker that took up half the area of the entire building's layout. Before we could look in the locker, the Tikara attacked. They were short but very strong, and all of them were male. They had sharp teeth and a hunger for our flesh. They had dark hair, and bad bowl-cuts. A bloody battle ensued, and in the end every member of our KBI team was able to walk out of that building. None of the Tikara did. The Metro P.D. Tactical Team showed up in time to help us process the scene. (See Metro P.D. report #2502290390388 for details). We located 58 bodies in the large meat locker (56 men and 2 women). Further analysis of the "cuts of meat" revealed (through genetic scans) evidence of 11 additional human bodies that had been butchered at the restaurant site. The second floor was a large meat processing plant, and the third floor an odd sort of living quarters. It goes without saying that we were given a retroactive search warrant giving us permission for our emergency entry and all evidence collections resulting from this action.

Katsumata greeted us with a single question: "Did you get the Queen?" We told him we had not, and he led us to a two-story Geisha House in the Vidrickson District. We acquired a search warrant for the building and once again requested that the Metro P.D. Tactical Team back us up. Inside we found what appeared to be an active Geisha House, set up to accommodate the entertainment and sexual needs of its customers. It became clear to us where the subjects who had disappeared had spent their cred-stick money - the only pattern we had discovered among the victims.

The walls were of paper and wood...much like the construction of Ori Anjo's home. We began a room to room search for possible victims, but all we found were "Geisha girls." These Geishas had mental powers, and while it is unnecessary to go into detail on this topic, they were able to take control of the minds of several entry team members.

The members who had resisted mind-control attempts discovered "the Queen" in a hidden central chamber of the building. She was gigantic...possibly 10 meters in rough diameter. Her human sized head was dwarfed by her gigantic naked proportions...and she was suckling a human (?) baby upon her bare breast. Tiny cribs surrounded her in a semi circle and male Tikaras stood guard around her. Once again a battle ensued, but in truth our initial KBI entry team never stood a chance. Powerful mental blasts from the Queen as well as well aimed baby-projectiles took down those of us that had not been taken out of the battle by the Geishas' mental influences. In the end it was the bravery of the Metro P.D. Tactical Team that saved us...and ended what I believe was truly a serious threat to mankind. The Tac Team made entry from the rear door, and though half of them lost their lives and those that survived were severely "affected" by their encounter with the Queen, we must never forget their sacrifice. The Queen was killed, her guards and Geishas destroyed.

I request at least a month of sick-leave for my KBI team so that we can recover from our wounds, both physical and otherwise. Kepler Reece and Dep. Comm. Shamus O'Donahoe were personally briefed as to the details of the case. Officially, the Metro P.D. was told the bare minimum of what it needed to be told. I have written a fairly vague but glowing report regarding the Metro P.D. Tactical Team in order to make sure that they receive the honors, and the help, that they deserve.

Afternote: Just prior to e-submitting this report, I have learned that Katsumata has taken his own life in a most honorable way. Perhaps he sought to protect his precious Yakuza from falling prey to the revenge of the dead Tikara. I only hope that we white "barbarians" are safe from their evil reach. A confidential source assured me that Katsumata died bravely without uttering even a whimper of pain...

...Respectfully Submitted, Dr. Elsworth T. Lloyd

GM: Michael Cross (e-mail)

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