Wagons, ho?

[xp_daytripper]

So, none of the normal stuff has turned up Doug's mate - he's not in any of the hospitals, the police haven't picked him up, the search party hasn't found hide or hair of him. Is it worth looking at making an appearance?

Comments

[x-tarot.livejournal.com]

What bothers me is that I tried to call the two churches that I could find listed for Adenville and neither answered their phones for well over an hour. Even small churches usually have a voicemail or answering machine and yet, I got neither.

[x-cypher.livejournal.com]

Hm. Here's something odd. The entire town of Adenville seems to be drawing no power from the local grid, and hasn't for about three weeks now.

[x-tarot.livejournal.com]

Well, that would explain why no one is answering their phones.

Maybe they fell into a giant pit like at the end of Buffy. Except that would have made the news.

[xp_daytripper]

Maybe they didn't pay their bills?

Okay, serious here... do we even know if there's people still living in this place at all?

[xp_daytripper]

Wanda's on her way back from Columbia from some meeting or other, but she called to get me to ask someone to look a bit closer into some factory called Bantem Works? Something about outdated tool parts and the factory closing down?

[x-gambit.livejournal.com]

Bantem Works. Manufacturers of high quality compound operation and progressive dies and parts. Closed down in the fall of 2005. According to this article in Manufacturers Digest, Bantem Works was the last producer of these kinds of dies in the country. Most of them were replaced by automated systems by the mid-ninties.

Here's the weird part. According to their filed revenue reports, in six weeks, Bantem Works lost 94% of their clients. No cases of failures or scandal. It's like they all suddenly realized they were buying or maintaining outdated equipment and stopped.

Only time you get a drop like that is because you're caught putting poison in the product, or someone is using the factory to wash a lot of money through it. Maybe Doug's friend was on to some kind of kickback scheme by a group of manufacturers? Push cheaper non-union parts through Bantem Works as the cover, and unpack the real materials once they've arrived, marked as outdated tech?

If the power's been cut as well, there's something happening that's worth checking out down there. Doug's friend might have been looking at something larger. I say we ask him.

Pete's got Sarah working on a side project for him, and I don't think that a smuggling scheme really needs the big guns. Amanda, book us a commerical flight and a couple of rental cars. Sofia, if you're bored, we could use some insight about the law enforcement side on this. What I know about smuggling is mostly how to do it extremely well.

[xp_daytripper]

Okay, flight leaves at five, and there's rental cars waiting at the airport at the other end. We get into Alburquerque around 10 at night, but at least it's direct.