Nathaniel McGuire
Lets go for a swim, kids!
Nathaniel McGuire
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Summary:
Water everywhere....
For some reason Nathaniel always reminds me of this scene.
<ring>
<ring>
<ring>
<click>
“Hello?”
“Hey, its me.”
“Who?”
“Oh come on, Samantha, don't recognize my voice?”
“Nathaniel? This isn't your number. Why are you calling me from this number?”
“Hehe… just calling to let you know my number has changed and I'm fine.”
“Nathaniel. Don't avoid the question. Why did you change your number?”
“Ah… well, see, my old phone… kinda got eaten by a shark?”
“What.”
“It was an accident!”
“How does that even… never mind, I don't want to know.”
“Well, I was on a boat and - “
“I said I didn't want to know.”
“You sure?”
“Yes.”
“But its a really cool story!”
“Nathaniel. I don't want to hear it.”
“But - “
“You're an idiot.”
“Fine then.”
“So why did you actually call me? You could have just texted if you just needed to tell me your new number.”
“Well, I'll be in town soonish, so I figured we could hang out or something.”
“Oh! Sure, I'll set up the guest room. How soon will you be in?”
“Pretty soon, actually, my plane leaves tomorrow morning, so I should be in tomorrow night.”
“Ugh…planes. I don't know how you can stand to be in those things.”
“Well, I didn't have the same unlucky first experience you did, what with the plane crashing and all.”
“You were there. Of course you had the same experience.”
“Yeah, but that wasn't my first flight, not by a long shot. Besides, I'm a lot better at the whole 'survival' thing. If I'm ever stuck in the ocean for a month again, I might even enjoy it this time around.”
“Please… don't even joke about that.”
“Oh, right. Sorry.”
“Its alright, I know you don't mean anything by it. So what time will your plane come in?”
“I'll give you a call when we land, you can start driving then. Damn baggage train always takes forever… probably won't even be ready by the time you show up.”
“They take that long? Jeez. Why do you like flying again?”
“Heh, even with all the crap I have to go through, flying is still the fastest way to get around. Specially considering where I like going, and where I need to go for my clients.”
“You're good enough to get called that far?”
“Yep. Rich people need all sorts of stuff. I mean, one time I was called in to find some woman's watch that had been dropped in the bottom of a lake. Took me hours to find the thing.”
“I have a hard time believing that. You got your phone eaten by a shark, after all.”
“Well yeah, but in my defense, I was on a boat at the time, not in the water.”
“If you say so. See you tomorrow?”
“Til tomorrow!”
<click>
Okay, so, hanging out at Samantha's house. Always fun, she's a good friend, we get on well and all. But yeah, knock at the door. I, being the courteous man I try to be, answer the door. Some chick who said she had a job for me. I'm used to out of the blue calls for stuff like that, but this one was… weird, to say the least. She invites me into a limo, I chat with some other chick, have a mind blowing dream of some sort, and I wake up drooling on the ground outside of a hotel. What? Did I miss something? Pretty sure I didn't eat or drink anything in the car, but still, I can't tell if she did anything to me while I was out.
So I have a note that tells me to go to a room, and I'm honestly wondering what the hell is going on here, so why not? I'll play along with this. Went to the room, no one there. Probably not a prank then, since usually the prankster wants to be there before the target. Of course, as people file in, I become less and less sure. There's a damn Texan in the group, a stinky hobo, and some frat boy – no derogatory name required. And shortly after that, two other people who have all sorts of weird ideas on who they are, one called herself a knight of the round table. Crazy people, all of them.
Apparently we're supposed to help with some experiment with a time machine or something. Contain the effects of the experiment… really vague, but I guess this is the experiment we were supposed to deal with? I still hadn't shaken the prank vibe off of this one, but everyone else seemed to be taking things so seriously… bah. Just keep on with it, I guess.
So, long story short, they turned it on, we found random people who were transported through time to make our days a little complicated, and we put them in a room together and sent them back. I think I kept it together well enough, what with all the weird crap that kept happening. Ancient Chinese explorers, Mermaids, working time travel, apparent reality jumping… yeah. Weird things. And from what I gather, this isn't that unusual for this sort of a job. The hell have I gotten myself into?
<ring>
<click>
“Hello?”
“Nathaniel, where are you?”
“Oh, sorry about that, I got a sudden job offer.”
“Yeah, your note said as much. Honestly, a note?”
“Well, you weren't around, and it was sudden…”
“And you couldn't call?”
“Actually, I couldn't. Reception went out.”
“Oh, one of those jobs way out in the boonies, then?”
“Something like that, yeah. Finished it up pretty fast though, so I'm on my way back now.”
“Really? Its only been a day, and you already got it done?”
“Yeah, it was all sorts of weird.”
“You keep saying that. Are you going to tell me anything?”
“Eh, not much to tell, really. Weird people, weird location, travel required, and so on.”
“That…tells me pretty much nothing.”
“Yeah, but that's pretty much all of it.”
“Okay…”
“Yeah, I'm as confused as you.”
“Anyways, how long will you stay around?”
“Maybe a few more days, then I'm going back out and traveling some more.”
“Where are you planning on?”
“Australia, actually. Haven't gone swimming in the reefs before.”
“Australia? Really?”
“Yes. Why?”
“You do know that Australia is home to I don't even know how many deadly animals, right?”
“Yeah, I know. I'll be in the water most of the time though.”
“That's where about half of them live.”
“Eh, if it comes up, I'll deal with it. I'm not too worried.”
“Don't get yourself killed, you idiot.”
“I'll be fine. See you soon.”
“See you soon.”
<click>
Okay, had an awkward wake up, to say the least. I had just finished packing my gear and went to sleep. Woke up with a beautiful woman that I had never seen before in my life. I don't do drugs, don't drink alcohol… so where the hell did she come from?
Short bit of conversation later, and she let slip that she was here with another of those exotic jobs. Interesting. I picked up a lot of tricks from the last one, all sorts of useful stuff to know. Might get even more interesting things along those lines.
So she lead me out into a limousine to get where we needed – really short drive, but then, my last trip was unusual too. At least this time I didn't wake up drooling on the ground…
When I got out, I met another group of odd people. Seems to be a signature of this sort of thing. At least I already knew Farnsworth, so I wasn't working with a completely new group like last time. Chad and the doctor both seemed rather capable though.
Our task this time was a bit more direct. We met with a man by name of Karl von Hapsburg, whose son had been murdered. We were to retrieve the head of the person who had done the deed. He sent us on our way with the name of a contact in the Turkish embassy, which he noted would probably know something or someone that could help us complete our task.
We followed through on that. By which I mean Chad and Farnsworth went in to talk, while the doctor and I stayed put in the car and had a talk. The doctor…well, he's creepy in that weird intimidating sort of way, but he seemed to be inclined to do me a favor. Or at least something he considered a favor. He gave me a warning about the missions, told me to at the very least attempt to not be in the way, because with the people on these tasks, people who are in the way get run over. More than a bit intimidating, coming from someone like him.
Our talk was interrupted by a suspicious man who walked by our car and started making a phone call. I followed him in the car, while Freeman pursued on foot. He was rather effective, he managed to incapacitate the man without difficulty, and we quickly loaded him into the car.
We went back to get the others, who had finished talking with the guy in the embassy. We had tickets to Turkey. We also had about 6 hours to wake up and question the man we'd captured. I don't exactly have much experience with interrogation, but that seems a bit… tight.
Of course, the Doctor showed off a few weird tricks that only confirmed the creepy vibe I got off of him. Never let that man get me under the knife. Even a matter of life or death might not be worth that. But he did manage to get a bit of useful info from the guy – not much though. Someone shot him right before he was ready to spill.
That killed off that lead, quite literally. We dealt with the body quickly, and got ourselves onto a plane to Turkey. We were going to meet with someone down there, and get some more info from him, hopefully.
We managed to get some good info from him, enough to put together a plan of action. The group we were sure was fronting the assassin that killed von Hapsburg's son seemed to be masquerading as a circus. The directors were almost certainly in on things, so we needed to 'talk' with one of them. Freeman even had enough interesting tricks and chemicals to make it unlikely for him to remember us.
The resulting chat made me even less willing to be left alone with Freeman – ever. Melting flesh, cutting vocal cords with his finger… terrifying man. But useful, if he's on your side. I'll just try to keep him there as long as I can…
We found out the name and location of the man who had made the kill. Jamaal. He was going to be at an after party for the circus that they fronted their organization with. That was as good a place as any to try to take him down. Chad and Freeman tried to set up a little trap for him at his car, and we waited until he showed up.
The resulting fight was brutal. We kept hitting Jamaal with everything we had, and he kept shrugging it off. And with each hit, he glowed brighter and brighter. He broke Chad's ankles, but didn't do too much else before he exploded. And that's where I blacked out.
I woke up. I looked around the room, alcohol, women…hell of a party last night. Except… wasn't I doing something…else? I don't think I was having a party…I went to check the window. There was a bloodstain in the parking lot.
And, with a flash, it came back to me. Freeman, Chad, Danforth, the Seljuk, the fight that knocked me out… something happened. No question about it. I started to walk out to the bloodstain, to see what I could. But as I walked out, I checked a mirror, and stared into the face of Malik Mohammed Sai'duq.
I was in someone else' body.
That was incredibly weird. Me, but not just me. I might have screamed, but I didn't want to wake anyone up, I didn't want to talk to anyone, I just needed to get back to my body. Maybe Malik won't remember what happened, if I get back in there. Maybe.
So armed with the knowledge that I needed to find my body, I began. The first step was to see what I could figure out from the scene. Maybe I could track them down, I'm pretty damn good at that.
I walked down to the parking lot. I didn't bother to clear out the apartment room or anything, which might have made problems for Malik, but I could pay him back for that later, if we survived. When I got to the scene of the fight, I was reminded of the fight with great clarity. It played itself out in my mind, up until the point I lost consciousness. Good, everything here fit my memory.
Looking at the bloodstains, I could see where someone had dragged Chad away. I could see several other bloodstains, that seemed to have come from the building off to the other side of the parking lot. I could see enough to guess at what happened after the fight: With myself and Chad knocked out, Farnsworth and Freeman finished off our target. Then some people from across the way tried to interfere, and kill or capture them… I can only guess that Freeman killed those four, the blood splatter didn't support gunfire, and Farnsworth doesn't get up close in fights.
So, the others got away. Good. I can call someone. Chad's out, he was dragged away same as me. Freeman's out too, he's a creepy son of a bitch, and I'd rather not have anything to do with him. So Farnsworth it was.
I called him, and he set up a meeting point in a seedy little coffee shop in Poland.
I have to admit, I have a great deal of respect for Farnsworth's paranoid approach to things. He hired thugs to protect him in case I got rowdy, or wasn't who I said I was. He grilled me of every bit of information he could pertaining to our common experiences, he had my body on hand in case I proved to actually be who I said I was.
I walked up to my body. Truly, this is the most terrifying moment in my life, even that long month at sea couldn't compare. What if I was wrong? What if I couldn't get back into my body? What if I was stuck like this, for however long I lived? With Farnsworth at my back, that might not be too long if I didn't wake up as Nathaniel again. With more than a little concern, I placed my hand on my own head.
………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………
I woke up. Still in the same room Farnsworth had lead me to, but from the perspective of the man on the bed, and with the dead body of Malik lying in the room. It worked! I was me again!
The last thing to deal with was the former body of Malik. The poor man… he had nothing to do with any of this. Farnsworth had a good bit of cash and some useful contacts, so he deposited the body at a bar in Malik's home town. As far as anyone can tell, hopefully, he had a heart attack while drunk, and didn't look for help when he needed it.
I thanked Farnsworth. Words couldn't express my gratitude, of course, and money couldn't possibly pay him back for something of this magnitude… I will have to see what I can do in the future. But for now? Now I'm going to go visit Samantha. I need to be around friends and family right now.
<ring>
<ring>
<ring>
<click>
“Nathaniel? Are you there? Are you alright?”
“You've reached Nathaniel McGuire, leave a message and I'll call you back.”
“Dammit Nathaniel, you haven't called me back in ages! You'd better be in a damn hospital in some sort of horrible condition or a coma or something or I'm going to slap you so hard next time I see you!”
A brief pause.
“Please… Nathaniel… call me. I'm worried.”
<click>
<ring>
<ring>
<click>
“Nathaniel! Are you alright?”
“Hey Samantha. I'm… well… fine, I guess.”
“You have a lot of explaining to do!”
“Yeah… can we… not talk about it? I've had a rough few weeks…”
“Nathaniel? Are you sure you're alright?”
“Yeah. I'll be fine, just need to hole up somewhere for a few days and rest, I guess.”
“What happened?”
“Um…”
“Oh… right, sorry. You don't want to talk about it.”
“Well… I'll say this much… job went a bit badly. Can't say much – really can't, think I'm under some sort of non-disclosure agreement for these – but yeah. I've had better months.”
“What sort of jobs are you doing?”
“Non-Disclosure. Sorry, I really shouldn't say more.”
“Oh…well you can come and relax here. I know it hasn't been long since your last visit but…”
“That'd be great, Samantha. I'll see you soon.”
“Yeah, see you soon. Stay safe – I mean it!”
<click>
I was eating lunch with Samantha when I got the next call for a Game. I paid for lunch, made my excuses to Samantha, and got moving. There's never a lot of time for these things.
What I'd gotten for the call was a beeper. It gave me a time and an airport gate. Course, when I got there, the plane was filled up. Little bit concerning, but luckily, it seemed that my ticket was on reserve. So I grabbed my ticket and hopped on the plane to New Mexico.
When I got to New Mexico, I met up with some others who were apparently out on the same shindig I was. Farnsworth was there, of course – owe that man quite a bit, need to see about repaying him the favor he did me. But there were two new guys, some oddball guy in a weird military getup of some sort, called himself Miles, and another guy – thankfully more normally dressed, who went by Girard.
Unlike the rest of us, Miles had also been given a key. It was… well, it was sparkly, and girly as all hell. So was the car, when we found it. Apparently, our sponsor had a sense of humor. Four tough guys driving in a sparkly pink girly car? It'd be freaking hilarious if I weren't part of the punchline.
So anyways, we checked the car out. Biggest thing we found were some extremely accurate false IDs. Apparently I've been promoted to Major McGuire. Meh. We also found a black box, which I gathered from the others was the likely deposit point for whatever we were supposed to grab. Then we turned on the GPS. It gave us directions and, well, directions. And it updated us on the changes regularly! Every mile we drove, it repeated the exact directions, minus one mile. Worst part of it was, we couldn't even set it on mute, for fear of missing some vital clue.
Well, we followed the directions. Led us out to the middle of nowhere, it seemed. So of course that means there's an underground facility housing some obscure, dangerous, and potentially immoral bit of research. I mean, why not? Seems to be the cool thing to do. Our ID badges were good though, we got into the facility without much issue. Hell, they were even almost good enough to get us past the next layer of security without issue, but not quite. Luckily, some fast talking by Girard and Farnsworth took care of that.
And of course, there were more complications just when things seemed like they were going well. Apparently someone else was here with the same fake ID names as us. Quite reasonably, the guards assigned to escort us decided to escort us to a holding area until the issue was dealt with. Equally as reasonably, we knew we couldn't wait that long, so we waited until the other two headed out and knocked out the third. Fun times.
There were other guards, of course, but we dealt with them in much the same way. Of course, they were all really well trained and hard to knock out, but that was better than the alternative of killing otherwise good and innocent men. I should probably look into knockout gadgets, come to think of it, but I don't think I could carry too much more than I already do.
Eventually, we found someone who wasn't a guard, but a scientist. Useful. More useful once we chased him down and convinced him we weren't going to hurt his computer program girlfriend. Weirdly enough, she was actually his girlfriend before she got cancer and he uploaded her into a computer. Creepy as hell, but I can understand why he tried. Poor guy.
The way out was actually in some ways easier and in other ways harder than the way in. We didn't have to worry about stealth, whoever had busted in after us was making a big ruckus, but we did need to worry about them killing us – part of that ruckus was gunfire, and the other part was explosions and screaming. So… yeah. Incentive to not run into them. We got a bit too close for comfort when we made a visit to the security rooms to destroy the tapes, but we did manage to avoid them entirely. Climbing up that damn ventilation shaft was one of the more tiring things I've had to do in my life to date, particularly since the poor science guy was so badly injured he couldn't do it alone. So I had to help him up.
And we got out not a moment too soon. I guess someone hit the emergency big red button in the base, because the whole thing blew up and sunk into the ground. None of us got hurt, but I doubt very much anyone survived in the base, poor guards. Probably didn't do anything to deserve that.
But yeah, out of the base, but still quite a distance away from the nearest town and in the middle of the desert. Luckily, I am an expert at survival situations, and my expert survival skills said that our best way out was, astoundingly enough, to follow the road back to town. Who would have guessed?
<ring>
<ring>
<click>
“Hey Nathaniel, why are you calling so late?”
“Busy week, first time I've been able to actually find time to make a call out.”
“What are you doing that's keeping you so busy?”
“Physical training, actually.”
“More? Is that really necessary? You're already a pretty good swimmer…”
“There's always room for improvement! Besides, I'm practicing other stuff too. Think I'm going to try my hand at a Triathalon.”
“Ah, I see. So what else is new?”
“Eh, not much on my end really. Training's about it. You?”
“I'm fine, certainly don't have the eventful life that you do. Do you feel like talking about what happened the other week yet?”
“Ah, that's a no. Sorry.”
“Still not feeling good about it?”
“Well, that and the fact that I'm pretty sure that I'm not supposed to talk about those jobs.”
“Ah, right, that. Safe to guess that you won't talk about the one you just finished? The one that had you rushing out on lunch?”
“Yeah, can't talk about that one either. Sorry.”
“Well, at least it seems to have gone better than the last one, you sound more like yourself this time around.”
“Yeah, it went much better than last time. Can't-”
“Say much, yes, I know. Just wanted to make sure you were alright.”
“Always looking out for me, eh Samantha?”
“<yawn> You know it.”
“Ah, sounds like you've had a late night, I'll let you go.”
“Yeah… you and your whole not really needing to sleep thing…”
“Night, Samantha.”
“Good night.”
<click>
Got a call from Cephas this time around. Apparently he had been given a job to do and was calling out for assistance. He arranged a private flight for me, so I'd be able to get on the scene quickly.
Our task, at least as he knew it, was to follow a woman and see if she was having an affair. Seemed extremely dull, and it was, for the most part. Until Gregor saw her murdered in cold blood at a rest stop, and Cephas was captured or killed. Gregor himself had a nasty run-in with some crooked cops that got called in when he tried to call the police down on the murderers.
We pretty much had no real leads at that point. I mean, we checked out her trail again to see if there was anything useful to learn from there, nothing. We tried working with her husband on things – particularly once we figured out there was enough nasty cult stuff going on that his help would be welcome. Thankfully, Gregor has some trick of his that lets him get a feel for a person, so we knew we could actually work with him.
We kept finding the clues we needed too late to be useful. We didn't manage to save the second sacrifice, who was burned in a fire. Her death was the clue that led us to even more information we learned too late. Searching her apartment gave us the information to learn that the cult was performing some sort of ritual, one that needed three sacrifices. According to what we learned, one needed to be by knife, one by fire, and the last one needed to be by water. The first one had been by that rest stop, when the woman we were following was killed by one of the cultists. The second was probably the one who had been burned.
The third? We had no idea who it would be, but we had an idea for where. The same rest stop that had been used to kill the first one would probably be where they went for the third. Really, it was the only lead we had. So we tried for it.
We were right, actually. That was where the cult was performing their ritual, but unfortunately, we weren't able to stop it. I don't know what did happen, but I do know it was something big and nasty, nasty enough to turn the sky black for a few moments. I didn't look back, I don't know much, but I know enough to understand that seeing things can cause some… problems.
At least this time I don't have to spend a few weeks tracking my body down…
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