This session saw the team that will become the Esoteric Investigations Office of the FBI meet each other and start to learn about their respective strengths and weaknesses.

The entire team was subjected to a battery of tests, physical and psychological, with no apparent real order or reason, over a series of 10 days or so, even as they were trained in some of the basics of law enforcement and FBI protocol.

Walter Kapsar was subjected to series of discipline and combat readiness tests, including time spent on the shooting range and performing calisthenics. He spent his evenings listening to jazz records and blues radio. At one point, the ever-present and always-courteous Agent Colson began to get on his nerves, and Walter tried to provoke him to ‘drop the nice guy act’, but to no avail.

Dr. Randall Worth commandeered the facility’s library for his research, and mostly ignored or did not cooperate with the tests he was given, but was involved enough in them to realize they were essentially ALL psychological in nature, designed to provoke responses to stimuli that could be studied, and set out, with limited results, to turn the tests back on the testers. His attempts to bully Eileen into being his secretary met with failure, and his immediate dislike for Lianna was apparent to all.

Eileen Amsel settled in and studiously performed the tests largely without complaint. She warily oversaw Billie’s progress, offering advice on money management, and acquiescing to Billie’s request for help in finding out something about her background, going so far as to abscond with a folder of her test results after Billie created a diversion with a false fire alarm. She didn’t manage to get much information; only a single folder of test results. But the results were disturbing enough to give her a start: on the ‘playing card guessing’ test,Billie scored a perfect 25 of 25, or at least, that’s what the test indicated…

Lianna Lane managed to pack along enough liquor to make it through the week, the ‘screen tests’ and simple language comprehension drills she was given proving to be much like a shoot at an institutional location. She teased Walter a bit, enraged the Doctor with her casual name-dropping of Dr. von Braun, and failed to appeal to Agent Colson despite her best efforts. She seemed to take a liking to young Billie, offering her some cosmetic and fashion advice

Billie Karlsen approached the whole affair with a paradoxical mix of haughty bravado and naive curiosity. She tested the facility and found the security robust but mostly unobtrusive, and quickly took to hanging around Walter when he listened to music in the evenings. The tests were opaque, instructions issued without any reason given for them, structure to the day, in a lot of ways it reminded her of both the farm and juvie. When ti became clear the testing was going to end and the team leave the facility, she concocted a plan to try and get ahold of some of her records. Somewhat to her amazement, Eileen and Walter both agreed to help, and as she created a diversion with a false fire alarm, Eileen managed to get ahold of some of her test results, reporting that on the ‘card-guessing’ test that Billie had casually blown through, naming cards at random, she had scored a perfect 25 of 25.

With that information, and some training in basic FBI protocol, Agent Colson told the team they were ready, and that they would be based out of Lianna’s mansion in Westchester.

The team all arrive at Lianna’s mansion and begin the process of moving in and getting acclimated.

Dr. Worth’s secretary Penelope Grant is already waiting in a car at the mansion when they arrive. She immediately sets to helping him, and he takes over the garage as his laboratory, spending the next several days setting up equipment and restarting the experiments he had been working on.

Over the next few days, the team settles in and Walter goes down to New York City, allowing Billie to accompany him to some clubs, where he gets in a couple of fights and has to keep his friends away from her. His girlfriend Annie McKay come up to visit, and doesn’t seem to like Billie very much, though some of his pals clearly do.

The week culminates with an evening when Walter is in bed sleeping off a night of drinking and fighting when the Billie and Eileen hear screaming from Lianna’s room. They arrive to discover Lianna having a fight, shouting in what sounds like French, as she thrashes about and enacts some sort of violent confrontation. They manage to get her awake, but not after panicking them badly, and though Eileen manages to get her calmed down and back to bed, they are unable to get anything from her about the nature of the dream, other than that they are recurring, they seem tied to the house, and Lianna’s drinking helps keep them under control.

The next morning, Agent Colson arrives, telling them that they have their first mission: investigating the disappearance of the son of a wealthy industrialist, Otis Logan, founder and CEO of the Logan National Watch Company.