Friday, November 29, 2013

The continuing adventures of J P Nussbaum 15

Someone shot at Mike this week. He’s fine, before anyone worries. He was driving home from work and traffic was awful. Most people had started going home early for the holiday and he was trying to move forward on a near parking lot paced highway. He got an opening and swerved into the lane on his left in order to take advantage of a faster pace. As soon as he turned the wheel three shots went through his windshield. If he hadn’t been changing lanes, he’d have been killed.

He managed to get off the side of the road. After a few minutes he calmed down and was able to finish the trip home. Right now we figure that whoever shot at him was caught in traffic and unable to get back and finish the job.

We’ve all decide to stay in a hotel while we figure out what to do next. Though we have decided to arm ourselves. We’ll need to get in contact with a friend of mine who owns a significant arsenal. Until then, I’m just not sure.


To Stephen Mayne,

Of all the things I expected to deal with this may have been the last thing on the list. We’ve finally managed to get out of town escaping the men who have harried us for the past few days. On the way out they did get one last attack on us.

It was fast, brutal, and coordinated. These men are extremely well trained, and now we know why. As we were loading the van and preparing to leave, they appeared at the head of the alley and opened fire on us. Some men closed from the sides with tazers. We already had most of our equipment in the van when they struck and decided to abandon the rest.

As we made our way to the van, returning fire the whole way, Christine managed to grab one of the men. As we drug him into the van all of the others suddenly turned their attention on killing that one man. The sheer number of bullets was amazing. They tore him to pieces.

We managed to get out of the alley, Jones ran over one of the gunmen as we departed. As we drove away he tossed an explosive device out the side of the car to hinder pursuit. We moved onto the local expressway and blend into traffic. We managed to escape.

When we got a significant distance from the city, we took time to search the body of the man we captured. While he had no identification, he did have a few tattoos. He had no finger prints, they seemed to have been removed by some sort of acid bath. Even his teeth had been capped making dental recognition a very slim chance.

We were able to take some photos of his tattoos and his face and send them to some of Jones associates. It took less than five minutes to let us know what we were dealing with. Nazi’s. I can honestly say, I never expected Nazi’s.

He belongs to a group called the White Sons Rising. I’m really not even a little sure what to make of this. We did learn that their leadership is believed to be in Spain at this point, so we’ve decided to make our way there.

Maybe we can get ahead of these men and deal with the problem that way.

Until next time.

Your Friend
J.P. Nussbaum

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Monday, November 25, 2013

The continuing adventures of J P Nussbaum 14

It’s been a scary week for us here in Ohio, Mike’s computer was targeted by a series of coordinated viral attacks that eventually fried his mainframe. While he’s attempting to rebuild, we feel it has become necessary for all of us to disconnect our computers from the internet. Hopefully, this is just us being over cautious, but I’m uploading this from Epic Loot, a game store near my home. We won’t know how massive the damage to Mike’s system was until he manages to get his computer up and running again. He said it could take a couple of days, maybe even a week.

When you add that to what happened to Keith, it gets a little dicey for us all; Keith was run off the road two days ago. He was on his way home from work when a silver sedan started to follow him. When he got to a place where the road widened the car passed him and swerved over clipping the front of his car and forcing him into the ditch. Luckily Keith is an experienced Ohio driver and was able to keep control of his car once it started to skid. He still ended up in a ditch though.

Fortunately for Keith, the entire incident happened maybe fifty feet from a patrol car looking for speeders. The officers chased after the sedan but lost sight of it, whoever it was is apparently a very skilled driver. Keith is fine, a little shook up, but no injuries. We have no idea who was in the car or how it might be connected to us and what’s been going on. For all we know it could have been a random accident, it just feels like more. We just can’t help but feel that it’s all connected.

Add to this the events in JP’s latest letter and I just feel like I may need to look into getting some firearms.


To Stephen Mayne,

I fear we may have angered a great power. I’m sending this from, honestly I don’t know where we are. Two dozen men attacked our hotel, they were well armed, very well trained, and extremely deadly. If Jones hadn’t been returning to his room from a local bar we might not have survived at all. Jones spotted the men arriving on our floor from the lobby. The three story hotel has a large balcony on each floor that overlooks the spacious lobby with it‘s antique fountain.

Jones having spotted the men quickly called our suite and managed to wake us. Christine was the first called and she responded by firing a shotgun through the room door launching two men over the small safety wall and to the lobby below. We told Jones to get the car and bring it around to the back of the hotel. Beth grabbed some climbing gear from her kit and while she got it ready, Christine and I held the door.

I don’t know how many we had managed to kill; maybe six. We were surprised and completely unprepared. When Beth got the rigging set up we prepared to make our escape but not before leaving behind one of Jones devices to cover our retreat. The blast was a lot larger than we anticipated, and Christine’s harness broke when she was still fifteen feet in the air. She landed hard; it doesn’t look like she broke anything, but she’s not doing well.

After escaping we climbed into the car and Jones drove us to safety. At least we thought so, we’ve been harried by these men for the past two days. Everywhere we go they show up and find us. We’ve managed to avoid them for the most part, but I can’t say what will happen if they ever catch us unaware.

We have begun hiding in random locations, we did manage to get Christine to a doctor, it looks promising. Anywhere we can find solace for a few hours. We’ve managed to reach out to Christine’s contacts and should have a way out of the city before to long. Right now, we just don’t know. I’m so exhausted from all the running, we all are. I hope we can find somewhere safe soon.

Your Friend
J.P. Nussbaum

Let me know what you think, I'm always interested in the opinions of the reader, good or bad. You can either leave a comment below or on facebook. You can also follow me on twitter.

Friday, November 15, 2013

The continuing adventures of J P Nussbaum 13

Well, my friends and I have discussed what to do next. We’ve decided to continue posting the letters. We’re not sure if any of the things that have happened to us this year have been a part of this experience, but we will continue.

As for the things we’ve experienced there have been some developments. Mike has made headway on the viruses found on our computers, he’s tracked them to a server farm in Budapest. While we still don’t know who was responsible for the attack, he’s getting closer to their identity. Each of us has noticed the presence of an odd white van parked down the street from our homes. We can’t tell if it’s the same van, several vans, or just a coincidence. However, the fact that we’ve each seen one leads us to believe it’s something. We’ve given up on mailing or copying the letterhead as it has become obvious that there is some sort of security measure in place to prevent it.

I’m waiting to hear from J.P. again. I’m curious who our mutual friend is and how my grandfather is connected to all of this. It seems like our families are connected. I’ve asked some of my relatives and none of them have heard of the Nussbaum’s. Which I found disappointing because that means in addition to everything else, none of them are reading my blog. Keith is doing some research into my grandfather and the Nussbaum family and looking for any connections, hopefully we’ll learn something eventually.



To Stephen Mayne,

I have much to report. As I said in my last correspondence we have rescued Maria. She is unaware of why they took her, other than they kept asking where her father was, a question on all of our minds. We have moved her to a safe house for her own protection, I’ll not say where since I’m not sure who is reading these off of the internet.

We were able to go through Schuler’s computer network and discover some interesting information. There are files on several scientists, many of them have disappeared over the last eighteen months. We have a friend of my cousin Christine looking for any connection between them and Dr. Cavallaro. We’ve also been able to trace Schuler’s finances through several international banking institutions. We’re not sure where it will lead, but we hope it is a clue to who may be behind this.

On a personal note, I reached out to my sibling through secure channels and was able to make contact with my two brother and my sister. We are as fine as can be expected under the circumstances. Each of us is currently working on a different case and we are unsure if any of these are connected to what happened to mother. Once we learn, I may have to leave what I am doing here to deal with that problem. If I do have to abandon my current line of inquiry I will attempt to inform you if possible. Until then.

Your friend,
J.P. Nussbaum

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Friday, November 8, 2013

The continuing adventures of J P Nussbaum 12

I received two letters this week, the usual one from J.P. Nussbaum and a second letter that sheds some light on some of my questions. I post them both to you while my friends and I try to make sense of this and decide what to do next.

Stephen,

I had hoped that contacting you directly would be unnecessary. However, after your visit to Wold Newton I became aware of circumstances that were unknown to me. Had I realized that you had no knowledge of the Nussbaum family, I would have found a different outlet for these letters. Unfortunately, since you have posted the letters to the internet as factual instead of pretending they were fiction as the procedure calls for, you have unwittingly entered yourself into a world you are not prepared for. I can not explain everything now, what I can tell you will seem insignificant in the grand scheme of the events unraveling around us.

Your friend Keith has hit on a truth that many would have rather left buried. He discovered a link to the past with what he referred to as the Nussbaum Histories; most of his information was accurate. However he did make one mistake. The Nussbaum histories were not the fantastical product of a single man, but the efforts of a single family to chronicle the history of the Nussbaum family. The Nussbaum’s have always worked to make the world a better place, but to ensure the lessons of the past not be forgotten they needed someone to record their exploits so people would remember the appropriate heroes and learn the useful lessons.

The chroniclers of the Nussbaum family go as far back as Ulysses and continue through great historians such as John the Baptist, Allen-A-Dale, and your grandfather. During World War II your grandfather and Jacob Nussbaum worked alongside General Patton.

After finding out about your blog and reading it I discovered that your grandfather had died suddenly and I now believe without sharing your families legacy. I should have known this, I should have checked. Your life has been endangered by my actions, and for that I am sorry.

I am working to find you protection, something I can do to make sure you are safe. I owe Bill that much. I hope to one day sit down and talk to you about exactly what is happening to you and what should have been done about it. Until then, if you wish to be removed from this situation I can give you only this as an option, and to be fair it may not work. If you want out, simply stop posting the letters. As I said it may not work, but then again it may.

Good luck.
A friend.


To Stephen Mayne,

We have never met, but my name is J.P. Nussbaum. I have recently been introduced to your blog, and would like to first thank you for the kind words about my mother. Having said that, I do not know what kind of man you are, though I can guess. I have read your blog, seen your poetry, your short stories, and your description of events surrounding my letters. For any hardship you have been placed under, I am sorry.

With that out of the way, I must inform you my family has a very strict policy on how we handle correspondence. To wit, I must write someone and let them know what is happening to me and my team, should we fail at any point and need to be replaced, my siblings will be able to step in for us. I will continue to write, though I will be addressing my letters to you instead of my mother. If you wish to ask me anything, I will continue to read your blog when able, and respond to inquiries if possible.

Now, you should know that we raided Schuler’s home in Cairo. Franco and Jones had managed to get a complete layout of the structure before turning our prisoner over to the authorities. We each of us was armed with a firearm of their own choosing, I had a Walther. I know it’s not an ideal weapon for this type of incursion, my eldest brother used to mock me by calling it a lady’s gun. I also prefer it as I’m capable of firing it one handed, I was sick as a child and it has added a bit of a hurdle for me to overcome.

We started just after dusk, we wanted to take advantage of the lower visibility and the shift change of the guards. We knew there would be three teams of two walking crisscrossing paths around the house. We moved up slowly keeping to the many topiaries that Schuler has sprinkled around his land. We found and dispatched the first team with little noise. Christina was able to stop one man and silence him quickly with a thrown knife, she lived for six months in a Russian Circus where she picked up such skills. Jones stopped the second by grabbing him from behind and snapping his neck. We secreted their bodies inside the some of the bushes and continued to the house. It took a half hour of careful movement to reach the building, we were able to dispatch both remaining teams on the way.

The home had a security system and a series of electronic locks. The code to these was randomly generated at the start of each guards shift. Because of this we knew there was no way to retrieve the codes before hand. Jones had brought a bundle that we could use to enter the house. However, Beth examined the lock first and determined it was a Devlin and Rogers mark 5. She was apparently very familiar with this type of system and managed to open it in under a minute.

We knew the house would have eight men in addition to Schuler. We entered through a side door that led to the kitchen. Everyone moved silently inside with Christina and Beth in front, Jones and Franco in the back, and I was in the middle. It was decided I would be best served there as my cane might make the scout and rear guard positions difficult. We entered slowly and moved from room to room making sure to keep our sightlines clear.

The first guard we came to went down quickly, Beth used a taser to bring him down. Unfortunately, when he fell his convulsions fired his weapon and alerted the rest of the house to our presence.  At this point we had reached the living room and were quickly pinned down by guards firing from the doorways and a balcony that wrapped around the second floor.

Jones and Franco flipped a couch over and we dropped behind it for cover. However the bullets easily punched through the flimsy materials. We fired as quickly as we could, Christina managed to drop one of the men holding a doorway that led to the second floor stairs, but there was another one behind him.

Franco took a hit to the arm, and I had been shot three times in the vest. We were beginning to worry about our ability to survive, when Jones began doing something with his toolkit. After a few seconds he said, “cover your heads and count to three.” He then fired his assault rifle at the second floor balcony one handed while hurling his kit with the other. I ducked down as he instructed, and didn’t come up again until the entire house shook from a terrible explosion. Chunks of mortar and concrete rained about the living room, the fact that none of us were killed is a miracle.

Taking advantage of the sudden chaos Franco and Christina leapt up and started firing at the still stunned men around the room. Beth stood and drug me to my feet to helped me move towards the side of the room. Most of the balcony was gone now, and the house was on fire. As we moved from the center of the room the large crystal chandelier gave way and crashed down on the place we just left.

We dispatched three more of the guards, and I was would have been hard pressed to say how many were still up and moving after the explosion. We managed to reach a side hallway that led to a set of basement stairs. We had learned any hostages Schuler had would be kept there. We staggered through the building as gunfire occasionally sounded behind us. Franco and Jones did a good job of keeping would be pursuers at a distance.

When we arrived at the bottom of the stairs there was a solid steel door with an ancient lock. It took Beth less time to open it then I took to write these words.

We burst into a basement complex filled with empty cells. Schuler stood in the center of the room behind an over turned table with Lucia next to him. Lucia yelled out for us to save her and we scattered as Schuler opened fire on the door. Franco took a round to the temple and died there.

Christina was moving across the room in a serpentine pattern, moving back and forth with no rhyme or reason. She would occasionally come to a piece of furniture that she would either leap over or slide under. Every so often she would pause long enough to fire a shot from her pistol and then start running again.

As she neared him Schuler’s aim grew more deadly, at first he missed by wide margins but the more shots he took, the closer they came to striking my cousin. As Christina ran straight towards him firing her pistol Schuler aimed steadily at her approaching body. At the last second she started to slid under a stainless steel table only to shove her foot up into its underside and launch it over and use it as a shield. Schuler cursed, stood and began to move forward to engage her when a shot from behind him launched him forward over the table.

Jones stepped forward from the side of the room where he had circled around while Schuler was distracted. He stepped forward to help Lucia up from the ground. While this had been going on Beth had circled back to one of the cells and managed to free Maria, whose mouth had been covered. With her gag removed Maria shouted out, “Don’t trust her. She’s with Schuler.”

At that moment Lucia lunged at Jones with a hidden knife and stabbed at him. Fortunately, the blade glanced of his body armor and Jones was able to move backwards to safety. Lucia stood drawing a pistol and a shot rang out. Lucia stopped for just a second and then started moving again. She slumped forward an expanding spot of red oozing out from her chest. Christina stood behind her with a smoking gun.

We rescued Maria, returned to our safe house at which point I read your blog. Some things have happened since then. First, I was indisposed for a couple of days. Second, we spoke with Maria about what she could tell us about Schuler and his plans. Third, a friend of Beth’s went through the computer files from Schuler’s home and we believe we know where to go next.

We are now headed out of country.

When I have a clearer head and more time, I will let you know what is coming next. Until then.

Your friend
J.P. Nussbaum

Let me know what you think, I'm always interested in the opinions of the reader, good or bad. You can either leave a comment below or on facebook. You can also follow me on twitter

Saturday, November 2, 2013

The continuing adventures of J P Nussbaum 11

It’s been an odd week. My friend Mike found a virus on his computer. While this isn’t to odd in this day and age, especially with the near Bond-villain level of security Mike has on his computer. (We joke that the NSA sends him letters asking him to knock it off.) It was only really interesting because Mike found the exact same virus on my, Keith, and Marks computers. This isn’t odd either since we all e-mail one another and any one of us could have picked it up from somewhere and sent it along to the others.

What makes it odd is that when Mike started following the virus to see what it did and if it transmitted anything anywhere, it deleted itself from all of our computers. Mike had made some progress with it though. He discovered the virus was transmitting some information to an outside server. What was unusual about this was that it wasn’t looking at passwords or personal information, it was entirely focused on word documents and blog entries.

Further, he was able to track the virus’ route. He’s been able to do this before, I’ll have to find my photo’s of our road trip to Fort Wayne to “talk” to the fellow who stole his mother-in-laws banking information. Typically, when someone sets up a series of information relays they only use three or four. There’s the occasional jump to seven for the really paranoid. Mike followed this path through fifteen relays before he was discovered and the system shut down.

As for the letter I received this week, I’m interested to see what happens next. Interested is the wrong word.

If what happens next is what I think happens next…

I’m very sorry. I don’t know how to tell you about any of this. At this point, I’m not certain what to say that might help. I wish there had been a better way for you to find out. This is never the way to learn.



Dearest Mother,

We have had a breakthrough, a sad an unfortunate breakthrough. Earlier this week were able to capture one of Schuler’s men. We noticed that one of his people would go out every day and make a pickup. We watched the route they would take and then when we felt our time was right we would grab him.

It happened earlier today. We were able to grab the fellow and take him back to our safe house. We were going to wait another day or so before putting our plan into action, but something occurred when Christina and I went to see her contact.

He is a boisterous man named Omar, called the Opal Hippo. I asked him why he was called that and he laughed and slapped me on the back. Our meeting was interesting, even Christina was a bit worried about it. When we arrived he told Christina he knew as soon as he’d read the she was coming to Egypt that he would be receiving her call.

He regaled us with stories of what had happened to us for the last few months. He spoke of Doctor Cavallaro and Maria. He knew about Giorgio, Franco, and Schuler. He talked about our fleeing Italy. He knew everything. When pushed for details he spoke of a website that has been posting everything. Some young man named Main is posting our information. I’m not sure what to make of this.

He showed us the website, some sort of blog. We haven’t had time to check the entire site, but we’ve decide to move forward and find out later.

As always, my love.
Your youngest son
J. P. Nussbaum

Let me know what you think, I'm always interested in the opinions of the reader, good or bad. You can either leave a comment below or on facebook. You can also follow me on twitter