To: Lucian Leadership
From: Arkady Protopopov, Transportation Coordinator
Subject: Transportation Report on Grace Cahill/Request for Funds
May 7, 1983
Our operatives have been trailing Grace Cahill constantly for the past two years. In April '81 we spotted her small plane on our radar screens as she left Madagascar from a secret airstrip on the central plateau. We traced her to Tunisia, where she ditched the plane and crossed the Sahara on a camel. She resurfaced on a speedboat in the Adriatic Sea, landing in Split and heading from there by train through Eastern Europe to Leningrad. After several days of chasing Russian taxis over the canals of that city, we picked her up again in Moscow, where she boarded the Trans-Siberian Railroad headed east. She was next spotted crossing the Siberian steppes on a snowmobile. She took a helicopter over the Bering Strait to Alaska, headed south by dogsled to Kodiak, where she boarded a tanker bound for Hawaii. As of this morning, she is surfing off Oahu. I wouldn't be surprised if she took the Space Shuttle to Venus next. The woman changes modes of transportation more often than she changes clothes.
The Lucian Supply Office should be aware that in order to continue tracking Grace Cahill at this rate, our agents will need access to the following vehicles:
Light aircraft
Gliders
Helicopters
Jeeps
Snowmobiles
Horses
Camels
Dogsleds (and dogs)
Hot air balloons
Amphibious vehicles
Speedboats and water skis
Motorized surfboards
Downhill skis (and appropriate skiwear)
We are also requesting additional funding to cover unexpected expenses, such as camel food. Grace Cahill can't outlast us forever—we're Lucians, after all—but an infusion of cash would be a big help. It's all very well for the Leadership to lunch on caviar every day, but your agents in the field are suffering for want of necessities like sunscreen, boating shoes, and fashionable driving gloves. Thank you.
Wednesday, December 15, 2010
Tuesday, December 14, 2010
Harry Houdini
Early Life
Erik Weisz—who would later rename himself Harry Houdini—was born in Budapest, Hungary, in 1874. When he was 4 years old, his family moved to America, and his name was written as “Ehrich Weiss” on the immigration papers.
Erik Weisz—who would later rename himself Harry Houdini—was born in Budapest, Hungary, in 1874. When he was 4 years old, his family moved to America, and his name was written as “Ehrich Weiss” on the immigration papers.
Ehrich, called “Ehrie” or “Harry” by his friends, made his show business debut at 10, performing a trapeze act as “Ehrich, the Prince of the Air.” He later began performing magic tricks in New York’s Coney Island as Houdini. He chose the name in honor of his idol, the great French magician Robert-Houdin. Houdini found greater success performing escape acts, mainly from handcuffs and straitjackets. In Coney Island, he met his wife, Bess, who acted as his stage assistant for the rest of his career.
No one’s sure exactly why Houdini switched from magic acts to escape acts. Most people assume that it was for the money. Escape acts were much more popular than the tamer illusions. Some psychologists have suggested a subconscious urge to constantly “escape.” Others note that Houdini’s main talent was picking locks and argue that he was training to break in somewhere secret. What are you talking about?
Escapes
In 1900, Houdini toured Europe. In Moscow, he escaped from a prison van en route to Siberia. Houdini was particularly interested in learning how to break out of Russian custody. Some of his friends joked that he must have been looking for some long-lost Russian treasure! Where did you get this information? It’s true!
When he wasn’t busy fooling foreign authorities, Houdini perfected tricks like his famous milk can escape. A circular milk can was filled with water. Houdini got in, and the lid was chained down. This act evolved into Houdini’s most famous trick, the Chinese Water Torture Cell. The cell was basically a water-filled phone booth, and after being bound and handcuffed, Houdini was hung in it upside down. He always escaped and performed the trick from 1912 until his death in 1926.
Other Interests
One of the earliest pilots, Houdini was the first person to fly over Australia and land without crashing. Though he said he would be flying his plane from city to city for his next tour, he never got into it again. There has been some speculation that Houdini was looking for something on the Australian outback, which he must have found. Why he never flew again is a mystery that died with Houdini.
Death
Houdini died of a ruptured appendix on October 31, 1926. It was said that he could withstand any blow, and a Canadian university student punched him repeatedly in the stomach with no warning. Houdini’s death was no accident. That thug was paid to beat him up! No way. Why would anyone want to kill a harmless magician? He was too good at escaping. He could break in and out of anywhere. No secret was safe from him.
Houdini refused medical treatment and continued to travel, in considerable pain. He died of acute appendicitis in Detroit at age 52, though his appendix would have likely burst without the blows anyway. Yeah, right. He was buried in Machpelah Cemetery in Queens, New York.
Janus Archives: Top Janus in Hollywood.
To: Janus Leadership
From: Ruben Harvey
Re: Janus in Hollywood
Janus Annual Review
The following report should be used as a guideline when deciding which Janus to send on Clue-hunting missions.
Name: Tobey Maguire
Pros: Learned how to scale walls while filming Spider-Man
Cons: Wife is expecting their second child. Maguire will probably want to stay home. Recommendation: Place on nonactive duty
Name: Miley Cyrus
Pros: Great code-breaking skills
Cons: Lucians can pose as paparazzi and follow her everywhere.
Recommendation: Place on nonactive duty
Name: The Jonas Brothers
Pros: Work well as a team
Cons: Tight jeans make it difficult for them to move quickly.
Recommendation: Consider for mission
Name: Johnny Depp
Pros: Incredibly smart
Cons: Generally does the opposite of what we tell him. Sometimes forgets which branch he belongs to.
Recommendation: Place on nonactive duty
From: Ruben Harvey
Re: Janus in Hollywood
Janus Annual Review
The following report should be used as a guideline when deciding which Janus to send on Clue-hunting missions.
Name: Tobey Maguire
Pros: Learned how to scale walls while filming Spider-Man
Cons: Wife is expecting their second child. Maguire will probably want to stay home. Recommendation: Place on nonactive duty
Name: Miley Cyrus
Pros: Great code-breaking skills
Cons: Lucians can pose as paparazzi and follow her everywhere.
Recommendation: Place on nonactive duty
Name: The Jonas Brothers
Pros: Work well as a team
Cons: Tight jeans make it difficult for them to move quickly.
Recommendation: Consider for mission
Name: Johnny Depp
Pros: Incredibly smart
Cons: Generally does the opposite of what we tell him. Sometimes forgets which branch he belongs to.
Recommendation: Place on nonactive duty
Tomas Archives: Surveillance Photos of Alistair Oh
Up: Alistair in Istanbul
Down: Alistair in Ankara.
Sunday, November 14, 2010
Eiffel tower and Holts
The Eiffel Tower
The Eiffel Tower is a three-story iron tower in Paris, France. Engineer Gustave Eiffel designed it for the International Exhibition of Paris of 1889 in honor of the 100th anniversary of the French Revolution.
The tower is 1,063 feet high and weighs 10,000 tons! At the very top of the tower is a 79-foot antenna which, since the beginning of the 20th century, has been used for sending radio signals. The tower was almost torn down in 1909 but was saved because its antenna was used for telegraphy.
More than 200 million people have visited the tower to enjoy the spectacular view of Paris from the top.
American Family Arrested in Paris
Members of a Milwaukee family, the Holts, were arrested in Paris last week when they attempted to climb the outside of the Eiffel Tower. Dressed in identical purple tracksuits with matching berets, Eisenhower and Mary-Todd Holt and their three children used the “urban climbing” technique to scale the tower. They were seized by security guards shortly before they reached the top.
Tourist Marcia Euclid witnessed the odd spectacle: “I wasn’t sure why they wanted to climb up the tower rather than taking the stairs. I don’t think it was just for fun, because they were hauling a ton of equipment with them—metal detectors, binoculars, and a tool box!”
The Holts were released the next day and escorted out of the country. In response to the incident and other strange occurrences around the tower, the French government has heightened security and installed new surveillance cameras near the site. Security Director Jean-Luc Mollet explains: “There has been a surge in attempts to climb the tower. It may be a new fad or an initiation ritual of some kind. We are investigating the matter.”
(something's fishy about it. Could there be a clue up there?)
Lucian Archives (Heinrich Heirichson's Capture)
The most dangerous Tomas agent, Heinrich Heinrichson, has been apprehended in Sydney. He has outwitted our Lucian agents for years. But we knew it was only a matter of time. No one can escape us forever.
We sent one of our top agents, Irina Spasky, to trail Heinrichson for a few weeks. We wanted to gather as much information as possible before removing him. However, Spaksy lost track of Heinrich in Nepal. It seems he was headed up to one of the Everest basecamps, but a severe storm moved in. Spasky could not follow him up the mountain but tracked him down a few weeks later in Sydney.
Heinrich spent a few days scouting the area around the Sydney Opera House. He was also observed examining blueprints of the building. He seemed to be preparing for a nighttime break-in, because he purchased night vision goggles and rappelling equipment from a survival store in Sydney. Spasky called for backup and plans were made to capture Heinrich as he scaled up the wall of the Opera House.
The mission ended up much easier than expected. Heinrichson got himself arrested on his own. The morning of his planned break-in, he got into an argument with a tourist who was wearing a T-shirt with a picture of a boxing kangaroo. Heinrichson walked up to the man and launched into a fifteen-minute lecture on why the kangaroo was poorly poised for actual boxing, claiming that his foot stance was all wrong. When the tourist tried to defend the kangaroo on his shirt, things got ugly.
Irina Spasky sensed that Heinrichson would be at this for some time (he was following the uninterested tourist around to divert his explanation into other animal martial art forms), so she anonymously phoned the police about a giant near the Opera House who was assaulting passing tourists. It took three officers to subdue Heinrichson and get him into a car. After another phone call, Heinrichson was transferred from police custody to Lucian custody. It’s a good thing we’ve paid off the chiefs of almost every metropolitan police bureau in the world.
We sent one of our top agents, Irina Spasky, to trail Heinrichson for a few weeks. We wanted to gather as much information as possible before removing him. However, Spaksy lost track of Heinrich in Nepal. It seems he was headed up to one of the Everest basecamps, but a severe storm moved in. Spasky could not follow him up the mountain but tracked him down a few weeks later in Sydney.
Heinrich spent a few days scouting the area around the Sydney Opera House. He was also observed examining blueprints of the building. He seemed to be preparing for a nighttime break-in, because he purchased night vision goggles and rappelling equipment from a survival store in Sydney. Spasky called for backup and plans were made to capture Heinrich as he scaled up the wall of the Opera House.
The mission ended up much easier than expected. Heinrichson got himself arrested on his own. The morning of his planned break-in, he got into an argument with a tourist who was wearing a T-shirt with a picture of a boxing kangaroo. Heinrichson walked up to the man and launched into a fifteen-minute lecture on why the kangaroo was poorly poised for actual boxing, claiming that his foot stance was all wrong. When the tourist tried to defend the kangaroo on his shirt, things got ugly.
Irina Spasky sensed that Heinrichson would be at this for some time (he was following the uninterested tourist around to divert his explanation into other animal martial art forms), so she anonymously phoned the police about a giant near the Opera House who was assaulting passing tourists. It took three officers to subdue Heinrichson and get him into a car. After another phone call, Heinrichson was transferred from police custody to Lucian custody. It’s a good thing we’ve paid off the chiefs of almost every metropolitan police bureau in the world.
Saturday, November 13, 2010
Welcome Cahill
Wellcome, reader.
If you are reading this, it means you are a cahill, the most powerful family to have ever lived.
basically, the clue hunt is about finding the clues which is scattered all around the world. the family consists of 5 branches. the Tomas (strong and adventurest), the Ekaterina (smart and inventive), The Lucians (sneaky and strategic), the Janus (clever and artistic) and Madrigals (secretive). i wish you luck in your hunt.
-tfm
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)