Policenauts Part #8 - Meet Victor Jurgens

Part 8: Meet Victor Jurgens

07 - Meet Victor Jurgens

When we last saw Jonathan Ingram...

Move; Forensics

Victor, Ed. My name's Victor! When is he ever going to listen?
Don't waste your time. It's in one ear, out the other with him.
Oh? Who's that you've got with you?
Lemme introduce you, Jonathan. This is Dr. Victor Jurgens, head of BCP's Forensic Services Division.

I'm a private eye from OLA.
You mean you're the one and only Astronaut Ingram. I was on the edge of my seat when you guys landed on Mars. I get it. Come back to your real home, have you? Hahaha. Great to meet you.

Awesome, we've got a fan! ...Uh...

Look; Victor's Clothes

There's blood on your clothes.

I should think so. I've had this gown since my first autopsy. It's seen the blood of every single body I've looked at over the years. Guess you could say part of their souls too.

Alright! Good!

Move; Back Out Slowly

Well, we can't do that and apparently Jonathan, Ed, and I guess everyone working at BCP are just fine with this creepshow, so we'll just pretend it never happened.

Ask About; Him

Are you a Terrestrial? You'd have to be at your age, wouldn't you?

I was born in Moscow. Back when socialists ran the country. That picture back there was taken around the time I was born. After the collapse of the Soviet Union, I went to America to study forensic medicine and later became a medical examiner. I've done autopsies on over 30,000 bodies throughout my career. In my forties I became interested in studying bodies in space and came here. You should see the bodies you get in zero gravity. The decomposition stages are freaky stuff.

Why'd you become a forensic pathologist?

Doctors deal with the living. There's always the possibility they'll screw up and kill the guy. You can't kill someone if they're already dead, can you? Forensic medicine is less stressful than regular medicine, wouldn't you say?

Ask About; His Job

My area of expertise is medical examinations, but with my AID I can perform most other analyses too. AP has its own Science Unit, so we're on a shoestring budget here. It's just me and Gorby. The further computer analyses progress, the less use there is for people like me. Frankly, AP gets most of the real work.

Just before we ask about him, Gordy is basically Policenauts' stand-in for Snatcher's Jordan (or Gaudy).

Ask About; AID

What's that AID thingy you were talking about?

"AID" is short for "Auto-analysis Identification Device". It's an AI gadget for doing analyses. It's got a number of sensors, like a spectrograph, a gas chromatograph and a geotechnical sounder.

You make it yourself?

Ha! Are you kidding? I wouldn't even know where to start. AID and its analysis programs were created by somebody on Home. He's a big help around here. He's a wiz when it comes to analyses. Doesn't make for much company, though. This is AID next to me.

Let's get on with the show.

Show; Capsules (or the leaf, either way)

Would you be able to take a look at these things for me?
What have we got here....
There's more, actually.
Let's see everything.

Can you do it?

I could never turn down a request from one of the Policenauts, could I?

Don't tell anyone about them, okay, doctor?

Give me a little time. It shouldn't take too long.

Ask About; Hojo's Disappearance.

I'm actually here looking for a missing person. Supposing he's already dead, how possible would it be to transport his body outside the colony?

You could never take a body outside Beyond single-handed. They've got a pretty tight security system in place. It would be easier to transport them out while they're still alive and kill them somewhere else.

What about getting rid of a body inside the colony? Say the person had been dead for several weeks.

Hmm....Burning it would attract too much attention. Dumping it underwater wouldn't work either. They'd detect the gases released during decomposition. Well, it's kind of crude, but burying it might be the best way. The colony has several meters of soil in its surface areas to help protect against cosmic rays. You wouldn't smell it if you buried it at least 20 to 30 centimeters down.

Well, one last thing. I'm sorry if the highlighting seems obnoxious, but when Marc told me about this Easter Egg, I had no idea what he was talking about. See the bottle on Victor's desk? If not, I think it's because the perspective's a little confusing.

Is this... what I think it is?

What's up?

No, never mind.

That's sunscreen.

Sunscreen?

Yeah, for ultraviolet rays. Well, something like that won't keep out the cosmic rays, though. It's for research purposes. It's not like I use it on myself.

I've seen this logo somewhere before.

That wouldn't surprise me. I got it sent here from Home.

If you don't get the reference, Snatchers are suspectible to ultraviolet rays (a flaw in their artificial skin) and wear sunscreen to counteract the effect. You can buy it in Plato's Cavern/Joy Divison - the logo for the store is in the lower-right.

It's the Konami logo turned diagonally.

At any rate, Victor needs time to examine the capsules and leaf, so we need to complete the following actions: Talk to Gates, talk to Redwood, visit the Shooting Trainer. Since we already did all of that... let's go to Vice.

Get a load of that Home accent.
Nice, isn't it? Beyonds' speech is pretty stilted compared to ours.

And immediately leave and go back to Forensics.

Gorby delivered again.
Already? That was quick.
What do you expect! Gorby!

Gorby actually did have a telop that said "Auto-analysis Identification Device," but we removed it because:

I mean, come on.

You like video? Here's Gorby's analysis in video form Search on "****" to skip the screens of it.

First up we have the capsules.

Sorry, Jonathan, but I think you're wasting your time with this. All four capsules are new products from Tokugawa Pharmaceuticals.

This is a non-steroidal anti-inflammatory indole derivative.

This is a benzodiazepine derivative tranquilizer.

At this point in the Let's Play, I would like to take a moment to thank my two good friends, Copy and Paste.

This is a vitamin B complex.

This is a semi-synthetic centrally-acting antitussive.
An NSAID, a tranquilizer, vitamins and cough medicine.
Nothing illegal about them.
Nope. Just a bunch of pills. Already on the market too.
Then why did Hojo hang onto these?
Maybe there's some kinda trick to them? He does work for a drug company.
No microfilm inside them or anything, huh?
Well, take a look at this.

all match the data on file with the government.

but all legit pharmaceuticals have a symbol called a drug identification code on the drug itself or its packaging.

while the numbers next to it stand for the drug's name. The codes and contents of the capsules all match in accordance with that regulation.

There's nothing special about them, nor do they seem to share any commonality. That said...
What?
There is one thing that bothers me. See this?

You can see the mark is in fact a Tokugawa Pharmaceuticals identification code. But look. Part of the Tokugawa crest is missing.

You're right, it is missing.
And the missing sections form pairs.

Strange, don't you think?

Maybe these are somebody else's knockoffs?
One other thing. These are two-part capsules instead of your standard gelcaps. Two-part capsules haven't been used in decades.
What was Hojo doing with these? Why are they such a big deal? Lorraine died getting them to me.
We do know Tokugawa Pharmaceuticals is somehow connected. One of their employees is missing, and now these capsules.
What about the leaf?

Normally, plants that grow on Home always contain air pollutants like sulfur dioxide and nitrogen oxides.

So... what, this didn't grow on Home?
He also found a viroid in it.
A viroid?

And this is viroid S, which was found all over Beyond, and only Beyond, 5 years ago.

Meaning somebody is growing black poppies somewhere here?
No smuggling necessary.
Why's there only half a leaf?

Some kinda sign from a Narc deal?
Maybe it has something to do with those drug codes?

Narc's gotta be related to Hojo's disappearance. And at the center of it all sits Tokugawa Pharmaceuticals.
This keeps getting better and better. It's been rumored that Tokugawa's involved with drugs, but no one's been able to prove anything. The chief carried out a big-ass investigation through AP several years back, but it blew up in his face.
That's what has Gates so spooked, is it?
We can't touch the guy without the goods. This is way less cut and dried than I thought. Who knows who else could be a target.
I say we pay a visit to Tokugawa Pharmaceuticals. It's where Hojo works. I'm sure we'll learn something.
That's fine, but we need to watch how we handle this.
Now I can thank them in person. They got rid of my SAS.

*****

Well, that was ... sorta fruitful. Let's head outta here. See you later, Doc.

` It's Victor!

Apart from its size, it ain't that different from stations on Home.
A little too shipshape for Home.

If you haven't figured it out yet, Ed Brown is basically standing in for Snatcher's Metal Gear. I kinda like the "buddy-cop" scenario for adventure games since it makes more sense for two people to discuss an object than just having the protagonist monologue about it.

Move; Exit

So... ready to head out?

So, no we don't get to fly mechs. We drive in a squad car.

This is our latest model. All vehicles on Beyond are required to be non-polluting. It's 100% zero emissions, six-parts electric, four-parts solar.
So no gas stations here?
Not unless you count charge stations. They even recover all battery heavy metals after use too.

Video to end the update!!!

Get in.

I'm surprised they let you behind the wheel.

Relax, these ain't the sports cars you get on Home. They're more the pussy variety. They're smart cars loaded with a computer support system.

That's a slight relief.