[IC] Act One: Los Angeles

As you look around the professor's room, something suddenly strikes you, and at roughly the same time - you both look at each other as you each remember something that Edgar Job mentioned off hand when asked to describe Avery / Ayers / whatever his name was:

"He was a professor at UCLA, when I was there. Don't know what he taught though. Not maths. Glasses, pencil moustache, middle aged, you know, professor type."

What does that tell you about what Job himself studied?

As they wait for Tichener he leans towards Lillian, speaking soflty. "Perhaps we could take a look at faculty schedules from around the time Edgar Job was here. Figure out what courses he took, to find who this Avery was... and, could Echavarria have lectured here too back then, I wonder? He did find a follower in Job, it seems... maybe he was recruiting impressionable students here at UCLA..."

"Absolutely. Perhaps there are other former students in play, too."

Gabriel then focuses his attention on the blackboards. He does not follow or understand the complex algebra on display, but he looks for some discernable words, or annotations, that might shed some light on what is being worked on.

Mrs. Blakey silenty hopes that she doesn't recognise Professor Tichener from the photographs.

Professor Tichener arrives pretty much as soon as you enter his room, a short, bald man (who doesn't seem to be in any of the photos, though to be fair, several only depict parts of the body, and finding out if they matched up with the professor would be most indecorous). He smiles broadly, and immediately asks to see the coded ledger - it seems that your patron has already been in touch with him - and upon receiving it, and being told what Lillian has accomplished so far, makes "mm" and "mm-hmm" noises softly as his eyes dart over the pages.

"You've made very good progress - have you considered a career in maths? Or perhaps even for the Bureau of Investigation? he asks Lillian, quickly turning pages and making more "mmhmm" sounds. It takes him about five minutes before he starts explaining the double code and how he has solved it and mentions how close Lillian was to cracking it, just a small error here and a transcription error there that she would have noticed as she took the next steps, etc.

Once the code has been explained, it's a fairly simply job to translate, so he leaves that to you to do yourself."Is there anything else I can help you with while you're here?"

Gabriel is impressed by the clever cypher, and more so by the Professor's ability to unravel its mysteries. Lillian came close, too: a clever woman.

"Ha. Your expertise makes it seem easy, Professor Tichener. Lillian had pushed it as far as her remarkable ingenuity could, but it was the right choice to ask an expert to crack the last hurdle... "

As Titchener offers further help, he takes the opportunity to ask, "Yes... perhaps you can point us in the right direction. How could we access University records to find out what courses a former student, from years ago, attended? Type of subjects, names of teachers... that type of thing. And possibly, where could we consult a list of former lecturers and teachers? I must admit, Academia and the intricacies of Campus bureaucracy are not my strong suit..."

The professor purses his lips and blows out as he thinks. "I'm not sure you'd be able to get access to a student's records, and former professors would be difficult. I'd suggest when you know what department, consulting someone that works there that would remember old hands. The current professors, of course, you can find in the campus guide. Do you know what departments they were in?" He rummages about a bit, and finds one that's in date and passes it to you. "You can keep that if you like, it's the end of the year now anyway, and we'll be getting new ones soon."

"Thank-you, Professor Titchener. You've been incredibly helpful."

Lillian takes the campus guide for a later peruse in the car.

"We'll leave you to your duties. Thanks again."

Once in the car, after thanking and parting ways with the Professor, Gabriel also focuses on the guide.

They start browsing it. "Let's start from the basics, you never know... Is there a Professor George Avery, or Ayers mentioned somewhere?"

"Let's look together," Lillian says, lowering a car window and flipping open the book.

"Maybe one.of us will see something the other doesn't. We should look out for Job and Echavarria also. Any of the names, really."

There are no Echevarrias, and no Jobs but you do spot a "George Ayers" who is apparently a Professor in the History department who specialises in archaeology of primitive religions. There's an office number too for him, on this campus.

"Here's our man! What do you think? Shall we try speak to him, since we're here? We could use my Psychiatry angle... Job is my patient, and we are looking into the possible causes of his trauma..."

Then he thinks of the incident in Savannah, when their opposition made itself known. " Or is it too dangerous, too direct an approach? "

"It is an idea, but this is where we could do with someone with us who is better at the rough stuff. I wonder what they consider to be primative religions, though I'm pretty sure what we are encountering isn't worthy of the name."

He nods. "True. Perhaps it is safer to try arrange to meet Ayers in a public place of his choice, away from the campus. They might feel less exposed, if the matters to discuss are sensitive... Let's try phoning him."

He will look for a public phone and try Ayers' number as listed in the UCLA guide.

Gabriel finds a switchboard number in the guide.
"Yes... Could you please connect me to Professor George Ayers? He's in office... 214, History Department?"

The woman on the other end of the phone asks Dr Walker to wait for one second while she puts him through on the switchboard, but then after a few seconds, returns to the line herself.

"I'm sorry, but we don't appear to have a line for Professor Ayers."

Upon hearing what was said, Lillian says, "Right, let's go see him. We don't know what he looks like, so that makes it harder for us to follow him off campus without laying ground work first. What pretext do we have for travelling all this way? Why would you care about Job so much in particular?