LogDead Drop Vienna-Jason-6

Game log for the 2020-09-13 session of Dead Drop: Vienna, as taken by Jason

The group decides that the path to compromising Michael Bugatti ought to be via paying his debts and telling him that if he doesn't provide us with intel, we'll make it look like it's the cops who paid them. We do some digging and find that he owes a lot of money to Anthony Garbibaldi, aka Tony Four Eyes, his bookie. Ditch and Winston will handle that, in a flashback.

They find Tony in a nice outdoor cafe, eating lunch with someone. It's a fairly open and busy area. Winston makes the approach and politely asks for Mr Garibaldi, and explains he's there on behalf of Michael Bugatti. Garbibaldi excuses his friend, Vincenzo, and offers his seat to Winston. Garibaldi agrees that Bugatti does owe him money, around a million lira. With permission, Winston calls Ditch over. Ditch appears, briefcase chained to his wrist, and opens it enough for the bookie to see that it's a briefcase full of cash. That gets his full attention, and he agrees that it's sufficient. Garibaldi then asks who they are again, and Winston says they're just business partners of Bugatti. Four Eyes then reaches into his satchel, pulls out his marker book, crosses off a debt, and hands it to Winston. They exchange courtesies, and Ditch unchains the case.

Additional flashback: Wilmer arranges to trade the precious metals for stolen cash, through the auspices of a dirty cop somewhere. If anyone tries to run down the money we gave Tony Four Eyes, it points to law enforcement.

Back in present tense, where Angel and Carla are in Bugatti's place, and her revised mission is to show him a copy of the paid marker chit, and tell him he's our asset now.

Angel starts by offering to make drinks, and when she serves them, she warns Carla that she made them real strong. Carla takes the bait and chugs hers to prove that she's hardcore. Fifteen minutes later, she's out cold. Angel comes close to him and tells her she has good news. He starts to take off his shirt. She tells him his debts are cleared, and the mood changes. He's not happy to hear that hebelongs to "us" now. He picks up the bar knife and threatens to cut Angel if she doesn't come clear. She tells him what we want and points out that this ought to be real simple for him. That just makes him angry. He presses her into the wall, arm barred across her throat, knife in hand, and knocks over some glasses as he does so.

Ditch, standing by outside, hears the commotion. He reminds Angel, via their radios, that he's standing by. Angel tells him to come on in. Ditch comes in, as she pulls her concealed pistol, and then Michael runs for it. Ditch goes full linebacker on him and slams him to the floor. When Bugatti collects his wits, he's staring into Ditch's shotgun. He stammers out, "who the fuck are you people?" Angel says, "It doesn't matter who we are. We've taken care of you, you need to take care of us. Why is this hard to understand?" The situation sinks in and Bugatti folds like a cheap tent. Angel tells him we'll be in touch to tell him exactly what to do.

One of the first things MB gives up is a banker's box headed to Paris. It's going to be handed off to an American policeman, and reads off, "Stanford University Department of Public Safety." He gives us the name of Kevin Stapleton to go with that label, the chief of the campus police. He's picking up a delivery in Paris.

So, we're in our hideout in Vienna, making our conspiracy wall, and we've got a couple leads. Mirabelle stakes out the airport to try to get a sense of the guy's routine. He's pure Southern California 70s America - tanned, sunglasses, cop mustache, walks with a swagger, is exactly what it says on the tin. She follows him to his hotel and finds that he's not doing any tourist stuff. He does hire a prostitute. Angel already knows Paul, the concierge at the hotel where Stapleton's staying, and Paul's happy to keep an eye out for Stapleton and tell her when he arrives and departs. He also tells her that Kev's in a top-floor room, and gives her the number. To top it all off, Paul gives her a spare key to Stapleton's room. Wilmer uses that key and intel to go into the room and plant some bugs while Stapleton's out. Recordings reveal that he speaks French and is talking to someone at Bartolo Vivendi Courier Service, who will bring the bank box right to the front desk. They'll call first, so that Stapleton's standing by in the lobby when it gets delivered. It's all happening tomorrow at 2pm. Ditch fabricates a duplicate case, and packs it full of marijuana. Winston poses as a school reporter and researches what Stapleton does on campus. Unfortunately they won't talk to him; he gets told to make an appointment when Stapleton's back.

We decide to have Angel seduce Stapleton, drug him, and let Ditch into the room. Ditch will keep ol' Kev from coming too for quite a while. One of us will pick up the real package and leave the fake.

Angel finds him at the bar, sidles up to him, and makes an approach. She starts to drug his drink, he almost sees her, but she quickly converts her gesture into playfully stirring his drink. They end up in his room, and he calls down for champagne. Thanks to Paul's good offices, Mirabelle turns up and delivers drugged champagne. Angel drinks it, to ensure that she doesn't arouse his suspicions, and before too long, they both pass out. Ditch lets himself in, strips them both and puts them in bed, and shoots Kevin up with some heroin. Angel comes to fairly soon, but Ditch keeps Stapleton down for the count. He sneaks out after the final dose.

Around 1:30pm the next day, the phone rings. Nobody picks up.

Ditch comes down to the lobby and reads the paper. Once the courier makes the dropoff, Wilmer comes over to the desk and asks for his mail, presenting fake ID saying he's Kevin Stapleton. The clerk hands over the package, and he leaves with it. Ditch goes to the desk a little later and leaves another package for Kevin Stapleton.

In the room, Stapleton begins to come out of it, making noises and complaining about his dry mouth. Angel plays like his racket woke her up. Kev checks the time and begins freaking out. She also freaks out, so they're both racing to get dressed and get the hell out of there. He does stop once and tell her he had a nice time. She's courteous, and then then vanishes into Paris.

At our next dead drop, Michael Bugatti thinks he's being followed. He wants out, which of course we're not going to allow, so instead he wants to redo all his dead drops.

The box turns out to be packed absolutely chock full of punch cards. It also contains a map of southern California. Every church is marked, and some are labelled "safe to feed." Winston recognizes the punch cards as built for the Arpanet. There was also a letter for a Dr Paul Baran, which contained a cipher.