Jocasta will stake out a quiet table in the back, waving hello to Mama Maria in the kitchen. She'll make a few notes about her time in Oakland until the boys show up, and when they do, she'll invite them to sit and tell them to order whatever they like. "I think we probably need to discuss a few things," she says. "Livermore knows we're on the way back, but they don't know when we're going to get there. Let's keep it that way."
Roger grimaces, “I didn’t call in yet. I don’t know exactly what to say.”
"Start by telling Jo what you told me," Mitch says. "And maybe unpack it a little? Your problem sounds more immediate and severe than mine."
“I approached Moore, and ...” Roger is lost for words. He has kept the wraps on this particular loa of his for a long, long time. “My observations of him and his people lead me to believe he might be just a dupe. And that he might be turned off this course. His neighborhood loves him too much, and he them, to do ... what’s going to happen.” Roger visibly shutters. “So I went direct and I approached him. But I wasn’t alone. I called on an orisha to aid me.”
“Moore is a dupe. But not entirely to the German. There’s someone, something else influencing his music, and he can’t see it. He was hard to convince to turn away from it.”
“So this loa, He can See things. True things, of the future.” Roger is awkwardly omitting things and looking guilty doing it. “The loa looked forward to Moore’s future, and we Saw it. What happens at the concert.”
“Moore doesn’t play live on Saturday, that’s the weird thing. He has his DJ, or sound engineer, put on the record. They play it, and they unveil that terrible art. That banner ...”
(Mitch wants to check both their auras -- I don't know a reason not to go ahead and roll, so, Roger first, while he's talking.)
"Sorry, sorry, zoned out for a second there. The banner, you mean this tapestry we've heard about. You've seen it spark a riot that spreads?"
(That was like a literal ‘speak of the devil’ moment when you suddenly rolled 666.)
(I've just ran back and checked it because I coulda sworn Zeb told me, not in so many words, that the concert was gonna conjure forth an ugallu specifically, but there is no trace of that in the record so I must have interpolated it.)
“Yes ... and no, that wasn’t all. The big one, the Kusarikku, stepped out of the tapestry. It killed Moore ...” Roger looks pained. “... then the crowd, under its sway, it moved as one, like a flock of starlings, and it ... ripped its way through the police, through everything ....”
Roger is short of breath. “I should never have seen it. We tried to warn Moore, but he, we, He ... Moore is running towards it, like a martyr. He still thinks it is maybe the movement he wants. We couldn’t get him to see.”
“He’s OK dying for this. But he still doesn’t know what he’s doing.”
"Kusarikku," Mitch repeats. "The burning one."
"Shit. I ... shit. And he thinks, Moore thinks, it's a metaphorical cop-killing riot of fire and murder that'll turn Oakland into one big funeral pyre for the bad guys, when in fact it's just a straight-up monster that'll straight-up kill all the people. Shit."
"Like, I can imagine bringing some heavy ammo in and being more or less ready for it, but that's a game we lose just by deciding to play it."
"Shit."
“That tapestry. It can’t be there. It was a doorway— I saw it open. Moore can start all the race wars he wants as long as he doesn’t have that damned thing open behind him.”
Okay, so the idea of the kusarikku coming out of the tapestry in Roger's vision kind of bothers Jocasta. She just spent yesterday driving around being sure that the retrocreation had already happened; sure, maybe it was triggered by the concert, but as that excerpt from the Madness Dossier book says, Irruptors don't just walk out of friezes (or Surrealist album covers).
Maybe instead it's an entreaty for the bull-man to finally show himself. You all know that Irruptors respond to certain things: strong mass belief, blood (in the form of human sacrifice), the use of glyphs or other forms of History B sacred geometry or architecture. Our scenario right now has three of those elements: a tapestry (lousy with glyphs), an individual (in the form of Moore/Mansa) with lots of belief behind him, and the possibility of blood being shed (in the form of maybe some form of hypnotism turning the crowd violent). If one of these elements is removed, hey great, there's less of a chance of the kusarikku heeding the call, the summoning. Two of them are gone? Even better. All three, though... that's the only way to interrupt the retrocreation.
"Roger," she says after taking that all in, "I think you saw the right future with the wrong pathway. This thing, this kusarrikku, it's ... Christ. I hardly can wrap my head around this enough to explain it to myself, let alone correct your instincts, but that thing isn't waiting to come out. It's not in History B somewhere hoping someone opens the door. It's here, and it's been here, and now it's just looking for something that wants it to manifest. That's Moore, yeah, whatever his motivations, and I want to talk more about that, but it's also the music, and it's also the tapestry, and it's all of that together that's going to make that bloodbath your loa saw really happen."
"Christ, I ... I don't know why I didn't get this before, you laid it all out this morning. When the Oldtimer talked about him, it was about him revealing himself as having been present, which, yeah. The Oldtimer didn't even mention the tapestry, he was convinced Moore's music was going to do it. Maybe a little self-aggrandizement there, since he might have taught Moore when he was a boy ... Christ."
"Right. We can deal with each part of it, one by one, but it's like ... a puzzle. Each part is important. The tapestry has gotta go, for sure, and I say we get our hands on it this very night if we can. But if we think that piece is the only one that matters, we're going to miss something at a very high cost," she responds. "I think it's not a coincidence that Moore's playing the record instead of performing himself. He's not in control of this, I don't think--hell, I know he resisted turning twice before, but maybe the third time's the charm, and if he's as close to believing what you know as you said...shit, I dunno. Maybe it's worth a try. But my point is, I've seen your loas at work. I don't doubt their power. Whatever happens to Moore, whatever we do, this massacre will be the future he saw if we let all three of those puzzle pieces touch each other."
“Who is this Oldtimer? He taught Moore that music? I was trying to find the someone else... Is that your old man?”
“And I forgot something. I got the timing wrong there, first telling. I remember now— the crowd moved to the music first. It struck out and killed first ... then the bull thing appeared. “
"Yeah? Blood for blood, blood and fire?"
"The Oldtimer ... retrocreation, right? The bull's here and it's warping the world around itself, making the timeline into a timeline where there's a bull here."
"The Oldtimer is part of that. Like, there isn't a literal Other Side, where weird angel-demons are doing the same work we are, backwards and in heels, and sending agents here, but if there was, then ... No, that's not explaining it right. I don't know the theory. I think half the theories are wrong, anyway ... The Oldtimer wasn't real, until he was, until the timeline was ready to have an Oldtimer in it. He was there when Moore was a kid, he taught him hymns to the bull, gave him the seed of inspiration to develop. Now he's a broke-down old man whose part in the work was done eighteen years ago, just a bum in the park. Like one of your bucket-and-spade symbols, but a breathing, living, guitar-playing man."
“So an enemy agent, but too late to stop. Damage done, he doesn’t matter. The rest does.”
"Imagine the meticulous effort they must be putting into this. Picking away at a handful of souls over two decades, slowly steering the ship with the most microscopic turns, placing an idea here, a little notion here, all pointing towards bringing that thing out. It's incredible. All that work aimed at a massacre. I think the best way to save that old man is to keep him from ... becoming what they want him to be."
“Great. I am not going to be able to sleep tonight until we have that tapestry.”
Mitch is shaking his head, because he thinks that Jo is fundamentally misunderstanding the nature of the timeline the same way that Sophie did, but he doesn't have the vocabulary, wit, patience, or time to explain what exactly he thinks is wrong or why.
"Pretty much, yeah."
“So, what do we tell Dad?”
"Oof, I hadn't thought that far ahead," Jo says, looking nonplussed at her Super Burrito. "First, how are you feeling about Archie trying to ... uh ... deprogram you? I think we all think you're fine, and we'll have your back if he wants to force the issue."
"I've been ... deprogrammed ... enough for one lifetime," Mitch says.
"When I told Archie and Sophie about the Oldtimer, Archie couldn't wait to round him up and send him off to Granite Peak for vivisection. When I said I didn't like that, that he was just an old man, Archie accused me of, I don't even know what. Reminded me of Frank Senior. That never sat well with me, you know? There was ... I've avoided bringing certain people to SANDMAN's attention because I don't want to see them assassinated or abducted and tortured, because I don't believe there's anything useful to be gained, nothing that will help with saving the world anyhow, and I don't trust the higher-ups with it. Starting with Archie and Marshall and ending with Tricky Dick the goddamn criminal. I tried to explain that to Archie and he seemed to think it was evidence I've been brainwashed, like, only memetic programming by the Red King could possibly cause me to question his judgement."
“Well, there’s things I haven’t and won’t tell the higher ups either. But I learned in the Army not to tell them about what they‘d only freak out about. They hate a hold out, but they don’t really care if there’s results.”
“There’s no way we’re letting you get sent off for ‘treatment’, man. And I don’t think they can— not with this thing just waiting on the other side of time or whatever.”
"We're with you, Mitch," Jocasta echoes. "This has been hard for me, because ... well, Roger knows. We served together before, and we've, well, talked it over, how we feel about serving together now. But there's still a lot of things they ask that I won't give. I'm still not happy about Charley, that poor fucking kid. And Frank's old man, and your Zeb ... I still think the best way to keep him away from the guys with the pliers and batteries is to give them no reason to know who he is. He might not even know himself, and if we do our jobs right, no one else will either. But what we can't do is let him remember. Because no matter how much we don't wanna hurt him, the kusarrikku, it only wants to hurt. It'll erase him like he never was and that's just the start."
So what's our direction here? Jo was sent to collect you two and bring you back to HQ, then hang loose in Oaktown for a late-night burgle job on Dominoe to get the tapestry. But she's willing to fudge that mission. It may be too early to hit Dominoe -- a daylight raid would probably attract too much attention -- but we could hang out until it gets dark, then go back; it'll throw some scares into the brass but as Roger says, they won't quail much if we get results. Also, it might help Archie see the foolishness of trying to deprogram Mitch if Mitch returns with the tapestry. Alternately, we can just head back to Livermore, let Mitch and Archie do their dance (backing Mitch up as required), and then two or all of us can come back to Oakland. I think we're agreed that tapestry can't be allowed to stay out of our control, though.
"Honestly, we're probably going to have to go back to face the music so we can gear up properly. That 24/7 people-on-site thing makes the tapestry grab need all the advantages our Patron can give us."
"Yeah, I agree with Roger, but I think Mitch should have the final say." As far as the property goes, she'll pull out her small sketchbook and make a rough map. "Exposure should be pretty minimal; it's an industrial area, no cops or fire stations too nearby, and easy access to the freeway if we need to make a quick getaway. Single-story building, and they do a minimum of pressing, so the floor layout shouldn't be super-complex either, but if we can get a floor plan from the city or anything, that would help. Reception area in front, with an electric entrance buzzer. A few windows on the front and sides, doors on the front and rear, and a loading dock in the back, all barred or shuttered with good steel. CCTV at the front and at the dock, and almost certainly at least one and maybe two guards monitoring the cameras and controlling access. It's the latter that makes me think we'll have to use a little muscle. Best bet in terms of entrance might be the fire exit, on the side closest to the parking lot. Once we're in, I'm guessing the tapestry is probably kept in a safe or under some sort of lock and key as well, but probably not guarded unless they're more clued in to what's really happening than we think."
"Biggest question is, is there a safe? I'm guessing not-- the tapestry even rolled up is huge. They usually have records; I doubt they installed a huge bank vault for those (unless this happens to be an old bank building.) But that'd be the biggest need for specialty tools."
Yes. We'll need to return to Livermore to get ready, and there's no point in delaying that any further. Mitch feels reassured by Roger and Jo's support, and anyway he was defaulting to making his way back there if he hadn't run into them.
Given the size of the thing I'm having a hard time imagining a plan that doesn't boil down to incapacitating whatever security is on site and laboriously hauling the thing out through the loading dock. Doesn't seem to be much room for some kind of cool Mission Impossible thing where in the morning they throw open their tapestry storage cabinet and it's mysteriously vanished, replaced by a rolled up Jimi Hendrix poster.
If we were willing to just burn the building down in a way that would look like arson, of course, we can do that easily.
Sure -- there's also the possibility, if we don't wanna needlessly destroy property and put people out of work, of pulling some strings to get the place raided or shut down for "faulty wiring" by a paid-off city inspector, then just popping in and lifting the tapestry while the place is shut down, but then we have to seriously worry about time.
Let's call arson "plan F" – too much collateral damage. But if we have to, we have to. And yeah, I think we can forget ghosting. Duly noting Watergate, robbery? What would people want to steal from this place that they would also take the tapestry?
Getting the building evacuated through pulling bureaucratic strings is an idea that hadn't occurred to me, that's a good idea in general. My mental model for this kind of thing is like, Leverage or the A-Team, where they don't have governmental-type resources.
Yeah, if we're gonna go back to Livermore, might as well go. I don't know what Archie is planning in terms of a meme to sully Moore's reputation, nor am I super comfortable with that approach given that we all feel he's not History-B-tainted himself, but depending on what it is, and if we go for a straight heist, we might want to stage the break-in to make it look like Moore himself was responsible. Might be a lot of angles: an insurance scam, a contract dispute with the label, etc.
Yeah, plus I don't think you should assume La Imperial is entirely secure for discussing thing kind of thing. I can tell they're mostly bilingual and faking they don't know English.
I'm sure we could stage it to look like a KKK type hit. Spray paint WHITE POWER on the walls, that sort of thing. Less likely to reflect poorly on Moore, if we wanted to avoid that. We're already minimizing harm in that direction inasmuch as nobody has raised the possibility of murdering him, which would presumably cripple the bull's emergence. Mitch likes Moore, likes the idea of Moore, and if I recall correctly Mitch never examined Keiner's aura because his chance to do so came during the period of the mission where Mitch was dragging his feet and trying not to participate.
Yeah, but the neighborhood also needs to not riot. I'm not sure Beloved Record Store Attacked by KKK would prevent that.
My gut instinct is that given that the Red King's plan to spark riot is heavy-duty mind control, it'll take more than a single hate crime to get that going.
But you may be right.
Anyway Jo's right, we should get back to Livermore.
"Let me grab some churros for the road, then let's go!"