Christian-Sinne, LLC

Private Investigators

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Buch-Larsen Case

Kidnapping

Case Summary

CS was contacted by client Michel Buch-Larsen regarding the kidnapping of his eight-year old daughter Per.  The girl was missing from her bedroom in the morning and Buch-Larsen had received a ransom note via e-mail.  The note demanded 350,000 cs in 36 hours, threatening to kill the girl if the demand was not met.  The amount was to be deposited into a blind account, and the note threatened retaliation on the girl if the account was traced or if the authorities were contacted.  Buch-Larsen contended that he did not have this amount and could not assemble it.  He offered the agency 10,000 cs to retrieve his daughter.  Because he seemed unusually detached as a father, making him a potential suspect, CS negotiated a higher fee though with payment options.  Buch-Larsen acceeded to the demand with anger.

CS personnel interviewed Culloden Inn employees and the Buch-Larsen family.  The investigation revealed that Mrs. Patrice Buch-Larsen nursed a pharium habit and had been falling behind in her payments.  Her supplier was Shere Khan, a Cat Hybrid believed to work for Gorchoff family interests.  The description seemed consistent with the information associate Doyle extracted through careful questioning of the older Buch-Larsen daughter Michèle, who remained traumatized after witnessing her sister's kidnapping by a "hairy, clawed monster."  Additional forensic examination of the victim's room revealed traces of a chemical on the bed, commonly found in tranq patches and likely used to sedate the girl.  A drug sample retrieved from Mrs. Buch-Larsen's bedroom was identified as pharium, of the "Russian Red" type, commonly sold in Gorkytown. 

Investigator Christian used his contacts and familiarity with the underworld to investigate pharium supply houses in Gorkytown, while the rest of the CS team took fallback positions allowing rapid response.  Christian picked up Shere Khan's track, leading to a club where she was known to do some business, the Revolution Lounge in The Heights.  Upon further investigation, the latter turned out to be favoured by highly influential people.  The situation was deemed to require additional caution. 

After dressing suitably for the location, with Silverback posing as bodyguard for Christian, and Bob visiting the cetacean pool (reportedly unimpressive from his perspective).  Investigator Christian tried to smuggle a weapon past the bouncers and failed.  Howevever, Investigator Sinne noticed that a few patrons did in fact have weapons, though whether through stealth or bribery is not known.  The stakeout did not take very long to pan out; after initial reconnaisance and a relatively short wait, the CS team saw a female Cat Hybrid make a showy entry and strut to the bar with visible aplomb.  She exchanged a few words with the bartender, but two bouncers started moving towards her.

Fearing that the quarry would be spooked, the CS team went in motion.  Bob left the pool to return to his CICADA and send in his remote.  Christian, Silverback and Sinne started moving inconspicuously towards the quarry, Khan.  But Khan rapidly dispatched the two bouncers with a submachine gun she had either been allowed to keep or had smuggled inside the club.  More bouncers started moving towards Khan.  Christian and Silverback hurried to the coat check to reclaim their weapons, while Sinne simply grabbed a wealthy Incorporate patron's own imperfectly hidden sidearm. 

Still unaware of the CS team's presence, Khan started firing at the bouncers and, probably to create a disruption, into the crowd, then started heading for the kitchen door.  Christian, who had managed to retrieve some of his personal arsenal, shot Khan in the leg, slowing her down.  Callista Doyle, who is not rated as a combat operative, took refuge behind an upended table.  A shot from Sinne brought Khan down and Sinne hurried over to the target to immobilize her, but Khan managed to get away.  Christian and Silverback ran into bouncers and were slowed down.  Sinne tailed Khan as she ran through the kitchen and out, hitting her again with at least one more shot.  Khan ran for a jumpbike  Bob, who had brought his remote around, started giving visuals and updates to the entire team.  Doyle was able to head out through cover of the general panic, and ran for her motorcycle, hoping to tail Khan.

Khan, heavily wounded, was unable to control her jumpbike and the vehicle went out of control, throwing the rider.  Sinne, who was closest, ran to check on the Hybrid and found her alive, but in critical condition.  Doyle, on her motorcycle, joined up with Sinne, soon followed by Christian and Silverback.  Khan did not have a bodycomp and her wallet gave no information regarding her address or any contacts.  Silverback hacked into the onboard comp of Khan's jumpbike, and retrieved useful location information, including one labelled "home".  Bob, who had already contacted Haven PD, gave them an update on the situation.  A group of bouncers and thugs approached from the Revolution Lounge, while the CS team left to investigate the new location.  Sinne caught a stray bullet and was seriously wounded.  Bob remained as an eye-in-the-sky and observed as the (presumed) Gorchoff thugs examined the unconscious Khan and finished her off with a bullet.  Bob continued to give Haven PD live feed of these events, leaving his remote on the scene as requested by the police.

The CS team headed for Khan's apartment complex in the Brighton Housing Projects, with Bob sending his combat remote from the office as support.  A quick recon revealed a fire exot which could only be opened from inside, so Christian walked in, bribed the night watchman into giving him Khan's apartment number, then sneaked to the fire exit and let the rest of the team in, except for Doyle who stayed as a lookout.  The team found Khan's flat, kicked in the door, and searched the place.  No child was kept there, but Khan's comp was found as well as a pheromone-locked safe box and a stash of pharium. 

Doyle spotted three thugs in business suits heading for the apartment complex, and warned the team.  Carrying the comp, Silverback headed for the elevator and was spotted by the suspects as they walked out of the second elevator car.  One went back down after him.  Meanwhile, Sinne ran down the stairs to go back him up, while Christian and Bob's combat remote went to confront the other two suspects, headed for Khan's apartment. Although they managed to ambush Christian, Bob rapidly shot one.  They negotiated a brief truce with the other suspect.  His employer (presumably the Gorchoff family, given his Russian accent) had been angry with Khan when word got out that she had gone into the kidnapping business.  Downstairs, Silverback was seriously wounded by a shot from the third mafiaman but Sinne managed to offer enough fire cover to allow him to escape.  Christian and Bob also left, and everyone abandoned the scene rapidly.

The team stopped in an alley to bandage Sinne and Silverback, administer painkillers, and break into Khan's safe box, which contained dataspikes and some money.  Silverback hacked into the comp and used black ICE from one of the dataspikes to call the one encrypted number he found.  Christian took the call and found on the other end not another mafia hit man, but the voice of the kidnapping victim herself, Per Buch-Larsen.  He reassured her as best he could, and questioned her while Silverback traced the call.  In the background, Christian hear water dripping; the girl said Khan had put her in a box, with the cell phone, and then thrown the box off a dock.  She sounded very faint and passed out during the conversation.

Silverback traced the call to a spot off the Gorkytown docks.  Concerned that the child had been administered a drug or poison and would need emergency treatment, Doyle called a contact of hers from the scientific community, to meet the CS team at the dock.  Sinne alerted Bob to come and be ready for a search in the harbor.  As soon as they reached the area, Bob and Sinne started a sonar search of the heavily polluted, murky waters.  Fortunately, the com signal had remained active after the victim had passed out, so Silverback was able to triangulate and narrow down the search area.  Bob located a crate, ascertained that it was slowly but steadily leaking air.  Echolocation revealed the crate to be three-quarters filled with water.  It was too heavy to lift, so Silverback used a dock crane to retrieve it.

The kidnapped child was in fact found inside, unconscious.  Doyle's contact arrived and examined Per Buch-Larsen; he suggested that she was probably ill from being immersed in harbor water for over a day.  The CS team called an ambulance, then contacted the authorities, and finally the Buch-Larsen family.  The girl, Silverback and Sinne were taken to Biogene Hospital for treatment.  The team was debriefed by the GEO Patrol.  The family of the victim was grateful.  Since Michel Buch-Larsen now seemed cleared of suspicion, Doyle convinced the rest of the team to give him an advantageous arrangement for the payment of the balance of his bill; the remaining four thousand scrips would be used as credit for the Culloden Inn.  He was relieved, and immediately offered an additional three days free if the team wanted to rest from their injuries.  They accepted and Sinne took the opportunity to discreetly inform the gardener, Samuel, that Per had been found alive and found likely be fine despite her traumatic experience.  A few days later, Doyle was able to retrieve the weapons left at the Revolution Lounge without being identified by the Gorchoff employees.

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Michel Buch-Larsen

White male, Colonial, arrived on Poseidon 2184.  Bought the Culloden Inn, a historical building.  Married, two daughters, one son.  Irritable and adversarial, but not looking notably anguished about his daughter's kidnapping.

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Michèle Buch-Larsen

Twelve-year old daughter of Michel Buch-Larsen.  Native (mother's side).  Frightened after witnessing her sister's abduction, retreated into partial temporary regression.

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Patrice Buch-Larsen

Native female, wife of Michel Buch-Larsen.  Worked as a prostitute prior to her marriage.  Hiding a pharium habit from her family, and dangerously behind on her payments.

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Per Buch-Larsen

Eight-year old daughter of Michel Buch-Larsen.  Kidnapped from her bedroom.  Native (mother's side), systemic osmoform.

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Peter Fuentes

Male.  Dark hair and complexion, with blue eyes that stand out against the rest of his face.  Nighttime desk clerk at the Culloden Inn.

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Shere Khan

Female colonial, Cat Hybrid.  Small-time pharium dealer, supplying Mrs. Patrice Buch-Larsen; working in Gorchoff Family territory.  Recently executed when she made an appearance at the Revolution Lounge.  Believed to have kidnapped Per Buch-Larsen to force her family to pay ransom and cover Patrice Buch-Larsen's mounting tab.

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Francie McConnel

White female, good-looking, early twenties, red-head.  Nighttime desk clerk at the Culloden Inn.

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Samuel

Native male, gardener at the Culloden Inn.  Graduate of botanical science at HIST.  Believed to be Mrs. Buch-Larsen's lover and the biological father of her daughter Per Buch-Larsen.

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Joanie Vaughan

Female.  Pale with mousy brown hair and a few extra pounds. Wears glasses that are a bit too big for her face and make her look owlish.  Daytime desk clerk at the Culloden Inn.

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Harriet Wong

Asian female, Colonial.  Chef at the Culloden Inn, purpose-hired from Italy in 2185 when Michel Buch-Larsen refurbished the inn.

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