Champions Game

Fri 27/12/90

16.34 - Just back from KGB Headquarters. That was a very frightening experience.
We got picked up by the police again, but this time they took us to a really scary looking grey concrete building with lots of guards on the gates instead of to the police station.
I was wondering if we'd ever get out of it again.
The agent we spoke to actually seemed quite nice, and Bob said he was being truthful with us. He was interested in the Bogdashkovich case as well, apparently because it's being used to destabilise the new government in Russia.

He is sure that General Korpeno (head of 12 GUMO, the nuclear warfare section of the army) is behind a lot of this and is in league with the Skopets and Pravasudia, but is not sure who he can trust beyond the Internal Directorate. He wants us to continue our investigation, but he's bought the worldwide rights to the story (at the normal rate and in dollars), so he can stop it being publicised and stop it destabilising the country even more. Korpeno has links to the Spetznatz (Russian Special Forces) so we'll need to watch out for them as well as for insane eunuch cultists and a man in charge of a nuclear arsenal.

Bizarrely the KGB people seem to be able to do the same sort of stuff that Bob and Charles can do. I thought they were unique, but it appears not.
Anyway, they've somehow given us the ability to speak Russian (although it will wear off in a couple of months), cured the others' injuries from the graveyard, and taught me some new jujitsu moves which might be useful, although I really hope we don't get into any situations where we might need them. It's all very well for Drongo since he heals so quickly...

It occurred to Charles that Pravasudia wanted the media present for a show trial, and also that they'd need people to play the part of witnesses at the trial.
The KGB agent did some checking and found out that quite a lot of older character actors have been hired recently in the area of Leningrad.
So, we're going to pretend to be Sky TV reporters with a videocamera (Jane will operate it and Charles will do sound).
Bob and I will be doing the presenter job jointly. One tiny bright spot of this whole situation is that at least when reporting a show trial relating to Nazi attrocities I can't possibly get shunted into covering the cute puppies and quirky human nature aspects of the story.
Not that anyone will ever see the report, but still, it's a start.
KGB have given us a tracer to be set off when we arrive, camera equipment, passes to the areas we need to visit, a list of contacts and drop boxes in Leningrad and Murmansk, cold weather survival gear, maps and so on. We'll hire a car when we arrive in Leningrad.
The trial is set for January 5th, so we'll need to hurry.
Jane was not keen to go North in the depths of winter. She says that the people there drink melted lard out of thermoses because they need the calories to keep warm in the extreme cold up there.
The site of the big battle where the Skopets were first overthrown is in the South, but we really don't have time to go there first.

Sun 29/12/90

13.55 - We've arrived in Leningrad. It is so cold that I can hardly breathe. My lungs feel like they're burning whenever we go outside.
Drongo seems entirely immune to the cold. He's spent over an hour down in the garage fiddling around with the hire car. He says he's just checking it over and that it seems to work fine. He seemed impressed that it was well looked after.

20.13 - Bingo. Looks like our plan to get kidnapped by the Skopets has worked.
We were approached in the hotel by someone who refused to give his name but who said he was 'interested in The Weight Of Justice'... 'Weight of Justice' is the same word as 'Pravasudia'. I interviewed him and Jane took a few pictures.
Anyhow, he says they're looking for a video crew to be witnesses at the trial of Jermija Bogdashkovich for involvement in the massacre at Babi Yar. They will collect us from the hotel the day after tomorrow.
It's rather frightening how easy that was. They could easily have found out who we are and that we're investigating them, and yet they still want us there. It can't be for any good reason.
Bob took the film to the drop point for the KGB and asked them to identify the man for us if they could. I wrote up the interview and filed that too.

Tues 31/12/90

8.45 - It's terribly dark here as well as cold. There's something quite unsettling about having breakfast under electric light while the world outside is still dark.
The photos are back, but the KGB can't identify the man.

11.23 - Bob got a copy of my report and the photos and dropped them at the British Embassy. He says he'll let the KGB know that he's done that, and that if we don't return safely in two weeks then the information will go out to the news agency and then to the world. A little insurance for our safety, he said.
Charles has been in the local libraries looking for journals and books on the science stuff the KGB did on us. It's a long shot, so he wasn't surprised not to find anything.

21.08 - Not sure how Drongo does it, but he's ended up going out to a party somewhere tonight. The rest of us are meeting in Jane's room (it is where all the alcohol is, after all) in an hour to celebrate Hogmanay quietly.
There's a certain air of gloom as we contemplate the fact that a bunch of crazy murderers will be collecting us tomorrow and taking us off into the unknown. The KGB's tracking device should help them find us once we arrive, but how long will it take them?

Wed 1/1/91

2. 55 - Haappy New yEar.... I maay justbe a lttle drunk..

11.04 - Ow, my head. Have taken some asprin (they don't seem to do paracetamol here) and ordered coffee. Charles is staggering around and talking about mathematics but the others haven't woken up yet.
I think Charles is talking about making some sort of multi-tool for Drongo, a multi-dimensional Swiss army knife perhaps... but it's difficult enough to figure out what he's saying when I don't have a hangover...
Bob says Charles makes his head hurt when he talks like that, and I know what he means.

16.31 - Well, we're on our way, in a car heading North out of Leningrad.

23.19 - We're in a hotel in the middle of nowhere with lots of cameras, security guards and wire fences.
The car drove out to an area of farm land and then we got into a helicopter. Flew for hours. We don't seem to be near the coast, so I guess we must be South or East of Leningrad now. The only landmark we saw was a graveyard about an hour before the end of the flight. Bob reckons that makes it about 60km away from the hotel. Wonder if it was the graveyard in that weird nightmare we all shared.
Okay, I know it wasn't really a nightmare. It happened. Bob, Charles and Jane have the scars to prove it. But somehow it's easier to call it a nightmare than to write the stuff Bob says about extra dimensions and reality fracturing.
We've asked for an interview on the background of the case, and they've said we'll get one tomorrow. Have also asked to see poor Krylov (Bogdashkovich, as they call him) but they're hedging.
Charles says there are no power lines in to this place, obviously since it's in the middle of nowhere, so there must be a generator in the compound somewhere. He seems to have some sort of plan about that.

Thurs 2/1/91

10.48 - How can it be barely light at this time of the morning? The gloom is really not helping.
We went out for a stroll after breakfast to look around the compound and Charles dropped the tracer. Here's hoping they find us in time.
There's basically just the hotel, with one wing we're not allowed access to and a wire fence around it. I guess in this cold you don't want to have outbuildings if you can avoid it at all. Presumably the generator must be in the hotel itself.

15.37 - Damn and blast it. The camcorder broke down during the interview and Jane's only just noticed. I've got my own notes on it, which I'll expand now, but it's not the same as a taped interview.
And we're not allowed to see Krylov/Bogdashkovich 'until after the verdict', which is a definite blow. Poor, poor man. He must be so scared.

22.09 - I'm amazed we're still alive.
Both Charles and Jane went off scouting around the hotel this evening. I knew Jane had gone and apparently Charles had told Bob he was going.

Charles got into the restricted wing, apparently by zapping security cameras with electricity and then doing some odd sonic mind control things to convince the guards he had permission to be there. Unfortunately he set off an alarm somehow and the Spetznatz came after him. Somehow he managed to control one of them, who persuaded the others that he hadn't seen anything important and that it would be a bad for them if 'The Boss' found out there'd been a breach in security, so they settled for beating him up a bit and dragging him back to his room.
Bob had gone out when the alarms started to try and find someone to either distract or surrender to, as seemed appropriate, and luckily he found the Spetznatz and Charles on their way back here.
I've cleaned Charles's wounds with Jane's vodka and made some hot chocolate for him, but there's not much else to be done just now.

Jane climbed over the outside of the building and she says she saw a room set up for a black magic ritual, with that book that we found in it through a skylight.
When the alarms went off she looked through a window and saw a Spetznatz who shot at her through the wall. Luckily the bullet only caught her foot, since she can move so fast when climbing and he obviously didn't expect that. I've cleaned her up with vodka, bandaged her foot and, yes, given her hot chocolate. She complained that there wasn't any whiskey in it.
Luckily it seems to be snowing again, so hopefully any bloodstains she might have left on the outside of the building will be washed away before morning. With a bit of luck the Spetznatz won't mention his hallucination of Spiderwoman to anyone. It is a bit far fetched after all.

And we're still alive. So far. Here's hoping the cavalry arrive to save us soon.

Fri 3/1/91

8.46 - Oops. It appears that the Spetznatz did report our little escapades to higher authority last night.
General Korpeno himself appeared at breakfast this morning along with ten heavily armed guards to tell us that he knew our game, the gloves were off and that we were basically being kept alive only because he needed our expertise with video equipment to record the trial.
Trying to escape right now seems like a bad idea as we will freeze to death before we can reach anywhere remotely like civilisation - this place is so incredibly remote from anything at all. We've seen helicopters, but no trucks or cars here, and, while Drongo is keen to try to fly a helicopter, it doesn't seem entirely wise to try it unless it's a last resort.
We currently plan to try finding Krylov/Bogdashkovich and then a vehicle (there must be some, somewhere) after the day's testimony.

19.14 - I never want to have to go through another day like this one. I know that all the witnesses were actors, but the story they were telling was true, and it was horrible beyond belief. I feel sick and can barely stop shaking even now.

According to Bob the witnesses knew they were acting. Krylov was surprisingly calm and felt he was doing the right thing by being there. A deeper look into his mind showed him thinking of his training with the GRU during the war, so he's possibly a KGB sleeper planted in the US in the 1940s, not a random innocent man. We should probably still try to get him out anyway, since he doesn't seem to be in league with either the Skoptsi or Korpeno.

Jane spotted some creepy guys behind a smoked glass screen at the back of the courtroom, almost certainly Skoptsi since they had that awful, uncomfortable feeling that we all seem to get in the presence of... well... magic... It's Bob's word for what's going on, and it seems to be true. So, yes, magic.

It still doesn't make sense what's going on. Granted that both the Skopets and Korpeno have an interest in destabilising the current government, so that might be a reason to cooperate specifically, but their end objectives are very different. Korpeno wants a coup and the Skoptsi want either their rituals back or some other agenda which we haven't yet figured out. Returning the Soviet Union to Communism doesn't seem like the sort of thing that a religious cult would be keen to achieve, though.

We're in Jane's room and there's a guard in the corridor as well as cameras. We're using Drongos dreadful pirate music CDs to cover the sound of our conversations.

22.26 - Bob and I have spent the last hour explaining the Skopets to each other in loud voices in the hopes that it's the Spetznatz who are monitoring us. We have repeatedly emphasised that they have a very different agenda to Korpeno and that they are very untrustworthy allies.
Tried to get the guard to take us to the General, but he refused.

Jane and Charles went to Charles's room and left the light out there while Charles used his electrical device to break the external searchlights so that Jane could climb over the building to retrieve the Skoptsi book. The rest of us kept talking and pacing up and down at Jane's window to hopefully distract the guards outside from Charles's room.

23.08 - They're going to kill us soon anyway if we stay here, so we're going to try and break out. Will also try to leave the book in Korpeno's office in the hopes that it causes a rift with the Skopets and rescue Krylov if we can find him.

Susan Phillips - former fashion and beauty journalist, currently trying to move in to hard news stories (and not just as a way of annoying her ex-boyfriend).
Blonde, 6'2" tall in her stiletto heels and with a tendency to find herself in the wrong place at the wrong time.

Bob Fudge - cynical serious news reporter, unpopular with some important political figures. Interested in the occult.

Drongo, or, as he is known on more formal occasions, "The Accused", spends his time drinking; modifying, repairing and occasionally riding motorbikes; listening to loud rock music and getting in to fights. He's employed as a technician and bouncer by the news agency and various Fringe shows.
His mother calls him James Bell.

Jane Stuart - paparrazzi photographer, unpopular with many celebrities, has an alcohol problem.

John Huang (deceased) - reporter, known for his integrity, but also, unfortunately, for his belief in UFOs

Charles Reynauld - former reporter of international criminal affairs. Taking a break from chasing Columbian arms dealers in favour of a more peaceful life dealing with Glasgow gang wars.

Martin Farmer - industry and industrial relations journalist.

John Cassidy - anthropoligist, reporter and Renaissance man... Has travelled extensively in the Third World (mainly to avoid university funding authorities and his ex-wife).