Doors opened. People got out of the cars, stretched, breathed in the sea-drenched scent of the land breeze. Dagmar wandered about in a daze.
A boat engine throbbed somewhere in the darkness. The lead car flashed its headlights. Dagmar stared hopefully out to sea, and then she saw it, a blue and white boat with a tall mast and an extravagantly raked stem in the local fashion. The engine cut out, and the boat made a gentle curve and came up broadside to the jetty. Two crew members threw out rope mats to cushion any impact with the pier, then cast lines to lasso bollards with practiced efficiency. Dagmar saw that jerricans of fuel were lashed to the pilot house. A man in a baseball cap peered out of the pilot house and called over.
“Is Dagmar here?”
She wanted to jump in the air, whoop, wave her arms.
“I’m here,” she said, and then realized her voice was pitched too low. “I’m here!” she repeated, louder this time.
“Good! Come on the boat!”
Dagmar took the time to embrace Putri, the girl who had been willing to draw a knife to protect her. She hugged Abu Bakar as well, much to his surprise. And then she let Widjihartani in his baseball cap help her onto the boat. Lines were cast off, and Dagmar’s last view of Indonesia was of her rescuers lined up on the pier, silhouetted against the car lights, waving as she set off on her return to the Western Paradise.
I never got to meet Billy the Kid, she thought.
Maybe next time.
The dawn rose over the moving ocean, throwing the schooner’s long, dark shadow before it over the sea. Red sun twinkled from the wave caps, long rollers driven by the dry monsoon. Java was well out of sight, but there were islands off the starboard bow. Dagmar stared out over the stern and smelled breakfast cooking.
Suddenly “Harlem Nocturne” rang out over the throb of the engine. Dagmar saw “Charlies Friend” on the display, laughed, and answered.
“Hello, darling,” said Tomer Zan. “How are you?”
“I’m in a boat,” Dagmar said, “heading for Singapore.”
There was a moment’s silence.
“Good,” Zan said finally. “The helicopter was crap anyway.”
“Well,” said Dagmar, “I’m sure you tried your best.”
No points to you, she thought.
No world domination, no donut.
ACT 2
CHAPTER TEN This Is Not the End
FROM: LadyDayFan
It has been pointed out to me that this image has appeared briefly on flat-screen billboards in major cities.
The image is a sem@code, a type of bar code that leads to Web content and, once decoded with the proper software, leads us to this Web page, where we find still photographs of a young woman in what appears to be an ordinary motel room. We also have an inventory of her possessions.
Looks like a rabbit hole to me.
I have started the usual series of topics under the name Motel Room Blues, which will serve until something better comes along. This announcement will be copied to the Introduction.
Anyone want to play?
FROM: Corporal Carrot
I’m in!
FROM: HexenHase
Me too. And hey, the lady is armed and dangerous. I think that pistol is a Firestar, probably the 9mm M-43 variation.
The Firestar is a Spanish pistol. I wonder if it is a clue to her place of origin.
FROM: Desi
Her driver’s license is from California and gives her name as Briana Hall. But she’s checked into the motel under the name of Iris Fitzgerald.
FROM: Hippolyte
Hey, cool! I’m in!
FROM: Chatsworth Osborne Jr.
If you download the picture of the driver’s license and enlarge it, you find tiny numbers inserted just below the photo: 01100011011101010110110001101100011001010110111000100111011100110010000001100100011001010110000101100100 (if I have that transcribed correctly).
Which is binary, and which converted to decimal is 6518124.
FROM: Corporal Carrot
6518124? Is that a phone number?
FROM: Hippolyte
But which area code?
FROM: Corporal Carrot
I’ll call them all!
FROM: Chatsworth Osborne Jr.
I’ll have to get on my other computer before I’m able to convert the binary to roman numerals. That could be important, too.
FROM: Hippolyte
File the 6518124 until later. I’m sure we’ll need it.
FROM: Chatsworth Osborne Jr.
File along with the fact that 216 plus 6518124 is 6518340, which could be a whole = other = phone number. I = never = think numbers are coincidence.
FROM: LadyDayFan
I’ve just converted that binary string into ASCII, and it says “cullen’s dead.” Which is probably the clue that you’re really after.
FROM: Chatsworth Osborne Jr.
‹glyph of slapping forehead›
FROM: Consuelo
Hey, guys! Among the contents of Briana’s bag is an invitation to Planet Nine, which is an online RPG. They’re offering free membership for the next eight weeks, which suggests the length of the ARG.
FROM: Corporal Carrot
Hi, Consuelo! Have we met?
FROM: Consuelo
I’ve just subscribed to this forum, though I’ve been lurking for a while. I was waiting for an ARG to start at a convenient time for me, and this is it.
FROM: Corporal Carrot
You’re not a puppetmaster, are you?
FROM: Consuelo
A lady never tells. But notice that the Planet Nine invitation has a
serial number on it.
FROM: Desi
Has anyone noticed that there’s a DVD sitting atop the TV set? I bet
we can get a video if we solve the right puzzle.
Of course we have to find the puzzle first.
FROM: Consuelo
6518124 doesn’t get much when typed into the YouTube search
engine.
FROM: Desi
But the binary string works when you look on Video Us!
Here’s the URL.
FROM: Corporal Carrot
Binary after all! PSYCH!
FROM: LadyDayFan
Nice work, Desi.
BTW, I observe a high gloss to this production that suggests the
house style of Great Big Idea. Not to mention the woman-in-the
hotel motif that might be viewed as autobiographical in view of the
recent history of a certain friend of this bulletin board.
So hi there, Dagmar, if it’s you! We’re on Briana’s trail!
Dagmar stood in the lobby of Burger Angeleno and watched the hostess chat on the phone. The hostess was very young, maybe just out of high school, and was talking about somebody named Vincent, who was involved in some soap opera issues with another person named Janis. As she talked, the hostess stood behind the cash register and watched Dagmar with an indifference that was perfectly without affect. It was as if Dagmar wasn’t there at all.
Dagmar wondered if she should just grab a menu and seat herself. She peered around the divider between the dining room and the lobby to see if Austin was waiting for her, but she didn’t see him.
She decided she could wait.
After several minutes the hostess wound up her phone call. She hung up the phone and looked at Dagmar for a long moment, again with that affectless expression, as if she saw nothing worthy of interest.
Dagmar looked back at her. Two could play at this game.
Eventually the hostess was stirred to action. She looked up and to the left, as if she were trying to remember something.