For those who came in late…

The group has received its first assignment – a package has been delivered to the home of one of the group. It contains information relating to Angela Foxbury – a retired CIA operative and Ace known as Mimic whose special ability allows her to assume the physical form of another person. Several photographs depict her is different guises except for a tell-tale broach. The instructions were to locate her at a local Harlem High School and ensure that she arrives at a meeting in Central Park near the Wonderland Statue no later than midnight Saturday in three day’s time…

Watcher’s Notes – 4 May 2014

With time against them, the team splits off in order to cover more ground.  Adam Patriks contacts Harlem Academy High School Principal, Steven Harper directly on the pretence of donating money towards the development of a community gymnasium. This would allow him to address the pupils and faculty directly.

John Hughes struggles to balance his work as a legal representative and experiences firsthand the difference between ethics and law. He investigates whether or not Angela Foxbury maintained a residence in New York and discovers the address of an apartment. When he arrives at the apartment he notes her name on the mailbox outside and takes the internal elevator up to her flight – all the while a general sense of growing unease gnaws at him. When he alights on her floor, this sense has become a general scream in his head and he begins to suffer vertigo. Realising there are other forces at work here, he attempts to clear his mind as he slowly walks along the corridor towards Foxbury’s apartment. Just in time he pulls back from the edge as his vision clears and he sees he was in fact walking along the top of the scaffolding around a crane that is in the process of demolishing the remnants of the old brownstone as part of the re-gentrification programme. Another step and he would have fallen to his doom. The last remnants of the false image of the apartment complex is that of the recurring pattern of the broach replicated in the carpet, wallpaper and other parts of the building.

Wilson Washington goes undercover to scope out the school and discovers an unusual dichotomy between its public face and that of the actual teaching environment. One gives the impression of a school struggling under the weight of class culture, limited funding and socio-economic factors; the other a pleasant, calm teaching environment that is strangely seductive. Thomas LeRoy checks out the Civic Library at the bequest of his employer and finds the full newspaper clipping of Angela Foxbury showing her married to a Panamanian President in the 60s, but to have been assassinated. In a startling coincidence, he is visiting New York as part of a state-sanctioned anti-drug initiative. Finally, Grace O’Reilly returns to assist Patrick only to find herself part of a trip to the Wonderland statue in Central Park.

They are begrudgingly driven there by Thomas, who upon arrival, parks up near a large black Ford van with blacked-out windows. Grace and Adam walk into the park and immediately notice an increase in security measures – there are installed cameras and at least one patrolman makes a regular circuit around the area where the statue is located. At one point they are forced to pretend to be lovers canoodling on a bench until he passes. When they finally arrive at the statue, they discover a false lid in the top of the character of the Mad Hatter. Meanwhile, Wilson has slipped into the Park unnoticed and upon detecting one of the cameras, decides to use his abilities to slip down the wiring only to arrive at an underground monitoring station maintained by CIA operatives. Their elaborate system of wiring and monitors shows aspects from all around the park.