Audrey O’Hanrahan

I also can't see Parmley Station being a interim destination or stop in a Houdini escape and lay a twisted trail routine. Why send your really important cargo (or several) via what is or has been essentially an out-of-the-way private and very iffy spot sometimes used by indepent slavers or lower-tier contract slaving interests.

That takes way too much control of the situation away from the Alignment as far as hiding the information or making sure that what information there is gets sunk in a mess of buracracy.

So far we have seen ONE location used as a trip stop for a Houdini group. It is one that makes sence if you are shipping slaves as it is to a tightly held distribution point where the Alignment can control the situation. Well, control it till the Torch Navy shows up but that was not expected and there was no reason -other than hunting slavers- for anybody else's warships to arrive.

How many stops will the average Houdini person make before they are shunted off the grid, as it were, and put on a ship going someplace like Darius or some enclave of Alighment cover where they will not be likely found. Since Houdini is essentialy an extraction scenario I would expect at least two such stops with the "cargo" either continuing on but looking as if (should anybody dig into it) it changed ships or they actually do change ships and identity (as far as anyone outside the chain knows) before being transfered to something that will take them into thin air.

You might as well have the Houdini groups transfered in cargo pods outfitted to carry small groups for up to two weeks and just have the individuals "dismbark" from their orignal ships and take either shuttle to another station or planet side or to another ship while the "cargo pod" is transshipped to another vessel to make connections to it's nominal final destination.

A bit of topic drift: O'Hanrahan to Houdini.

A lot of good posts in the thread; way, way too many for quoting--so some of this is repeating someone else. But O'Hanrahan is not in any danger of being outed.

A)She is from a Core World, of several generations. Manties don't have access to those records to dispute them. Besides, they are true.

B) She has had a journalistic career as a muckraker lasting decades. She is a well-established thorn in the side of OFS and the Mandarins, and credible to the public. Also, it is clear that she likes her job of exposing corruption.

C) Although it is true she broke the false story about New Tuscany, she said upfront she couldn't verify the source, just the codes in it; and WH commented that she had tried to restrain other journalists from their excesses--which serves to reinforce the idea she is actually a responsible journalist.

D) Why would she dislike Michelle? As a professional covert agent, she probably has no personal feelings about it one way or the other, and what Mike is doing will actually help the Alignment. It will either confirm that the insane allegations of the Manties are false (if the Gauls killed everyone who knew enough to hurt), or just confuse things further. Detweiler knew Mike would be showing up soon, and O'Hanrahan is smart enough to figure out how to use that. Smart enough that she didn't need explicit directions from anyone.

So, why was she called to Mesa, and her excuse for being there?
A) The GA is claiming Mesan involvement and conspiracy in, and responsibility for, the SL's very first real war. Conspiracy and muckraking are her stock in trade.

B) the "constitutional crisis" has not developed to the point of public awareness, yet. Beowulf's referendum is still a future event when she gets the word to go to Mesa. The public is still unaware of all of the events in the outer Protectorates and Verge Systems. O'Hanrahan can't rake the muck and stir up the public until it gets there.

C. Her job on Mesa was to expose the horrible corruption and the atrocities of the government, while reporting also on "bona-fide" Ballroom atrocities. She has already established herself in that role in the recent past.

D. Government excesses in attacking the slums are actually exactly what the MAlign wants her to report on; they aren't going to see her killed, as some suggested. Aside from her readers, no one would care. But her reportage of government heavy-handed atrocities, ALONG WITH A GOD-AWFUL SLAVE UPRISING, is just the thing to cover Houdini. The general Sollie public will suck up all the carnage, and lose sight of the Malign altogether--after all, the only people who believe it exists are the GA and the insane Beowulfers.

O'Hanrahan can help push the MAlign agenda just by being the person she has spent decades being. An honest journalist (sort of).

Her coverage will make the Anti-Slavery Renaissance Factor look attractive to those looking for stability; while the Ballroom, their Manti and Havenite supporters, and the official Mesan Government all take in in the chin during and after the bloodbath.

The news from Mesa will arrive in the Sol system about the same time as the news of events in the Verge, if the OFS governors Albrecht was congratulating himself over (when he officially activated the Factor) revolt on schedule.

Beowulf's scheduled referendum actually works for the Detweilers; they expedited both Houdini and the Verge insurrections (via Firebrand), and will hit the League with a military defeat/constitutional crisis, the incidents at Mesa, and the loss of the Verge--all at once.

In the middle of a major financial crisis the League government is unable to control.

Anyone think the typical Sollie is going to even CARE about a hypothetical Mesan Alignment figment of the paranoid imagination at that point?

Rob

Brigade XO wrote:I also can't see Parmley Station being a interim destination or stop in a Houdini escape and lay a twisted trail routine. Why send your really important cargo (or several) via what is or has been essentially an out-of-the-way private and very iffy spot sometimes used by indepent slavers or lower-tier contract slaving interests.

That takes way too much control of the situation away from the Alignment as far as hiding the information or making sure that what information there is gets sunk in a mess of buracracy.

So far we have seen ONE location used as a trip stop for a Houdini group. It is one that makes sence if you are shipping slaves as it is to a tightly held distribution point where the Alignment can control the situation. Well, control it till the Torch Navy shows up but that was not expected and there was no reason -other than hunting slavers- for anybody else's warships to arrive.

How many stops will the average Houdini person make before they are shunted off the grid, as it were, and put on a ship going someplace like Darius or some enclave of Alighment cover where they will not be likely found. Since Houdini is essentialy an extraction scenario I would expect at least two such stops with the "cargo" either continuing on but looking as if (should anybody dig into it) it changed ships or they actually do change ships and identity (as far as anyone outside the chain knows) before being transfered to something that will take them into thin air.

You might as well have the Houdini groups transfered in cargo pods outfitted to carry small groups for up to two weeks and just have the individuals "dismbark" from their orignal ships and take either shuttle to another station or planet side or to another ship while the "cargo pod" is transshipped to another vessel to make connections to it's nominal final destination.

There was also nothing in the text to indicate the RTN did --or will-- even recognize anything about the event relating to Houdini, of which they are totally unaware. It is a near miss, but so far, still a miss.

The purpose was to get Zack and Gail together.

Regards,

Rob