Post

The Orson Empire wrote:

Garm said nothing in reply, done interacting with an obvious enemy agent. Annie would be handcuffed and a bag placed over her head. Two of the agents would begin dragging her out of the apartment; she was to be deported from KSH to Australia, where a public execution awaited her. Meanwhile, Garm confiscated Annie's passports and her keys, and turned off all of the lights in the apartment before locking the doors behind her.

Annie Riqueti lived alone and was not heard from for some time. She kept in regular contact with her editor, and was active in Kinshasa's expat community, but was also known to drop off the grid if a worthy lead came to her attention. Often times, keeping strict radio silence was the only way to ensure the Inquisition wouldn't beat her to a valuable informant. As such, it was with relatively little fanfare that Annie Riqueti missed her first filing deadline three days after her abduction by the Orsonian Inquisition.

Her editor in Accra only began to worry after a second deadline passed five days after she had last responded to any calls. Annie was an efficient reporter, and it was unusual for her to drop off the radar for so long, especially with no prior notice. Her editor knew to look for certain code phrases - "expecting some rain" or "working late tonight" - which indicated a coming break, but none were present in Annie's most recent messages.

Though it was late in the evening, Annie's editor called a friend working for Pan-American Public Radio (PPR) in the Free City. Kinshasa's Wagain expats were few and far between, but they nonetheless maintained a strong connection and could be expected to support each other in a pinch. The PPR contact soon confirmed that Annie's apartment was locked and seemingly abandoned - her car was still parked on the street, and mail had been collecting by the door for at least a few days.

It was at this point that the Accra office alerted the Tribune's Santa Catalina headquarters of a potential abduction, using internal channels so as not to encourage her kidnappers and potentially seal her fate. There was not yet enough evidence to alert the police, but the Accra office nonetheless contacted an informant in the KSH Territorial Forces, who was known to be sympathetic to their cause. As quietly as possible, instructions were issued for the inside man to find out as much as he could, while the Accra office readied itself for a ransom note.