Yummers back up August 19 2018

Yummer's Pizza and Burgers.

   The room is cold, sterile, he thought at least there would be a one way mirror; but no; its just him, the old bald man sitting across from him and a tape recorder that looks much older than what they should be using.

   "So you want to explain why you risked breaking your cover like this?" asks the old bald man, "why a federal agent had to be bailed out of a small town jail cell for; how did the sheriff put it; tackling an animatronic clown at a kid's off brand Chuck E' Cheese's?"

   The man eyes the tape recorder and looks up at the bald man, "This official?" he throws his thumb the way of the tape recorder.

   The bald man eyes him, "yes, this is on the record. From what the sheriff told us I wasn't expecting you to be coherent enough to want to be professional."

   "Sheriff's cousin runs the place." says the man, "Yeah, I went a little crazy back there, but it got me out of there, away from them, and I knew you'd have to bail me out. Without breaking my cover, so the Sheriff and his cousin think my cover has an out of town uncle then?"

   "The only reason we didn't break your cover to the Sheriff is because of the on-going investigation. But don't think for a moment you're off the hook for anything; if anything your ass on the line right now for this stunt. You were supposed to investigate a missing IRS auditor and any criminal activities tied to this off brand...pizza...burgers...clown nonsense kiddies cafeteria nonesense or whatever its supposed to be. Care to explain then why you felt the need to make an ass of yourself to get thrown in a jailcell and get hauled away to a safe house for questioning by us?"

   "Gladly," says the man, "So this is my official report"

   ******

   "For the official record; my name is Officer Charles Jones of the F.B.I, for the last four months I have been going under the alias Chuck Smith in the town of Barkland, Idaho. My file will have all the other cover story info, including using my F.B.I contact under the alias Richard Smith as my emergency contact for this operation. I was to investigate the dissapperance of one Harvey Stein, an auditor for the I.RS. investigating himself suspicious financial records for one local tourist trap called Yummer's Pizza and Burgers.

   My preliminary findings were supporting Mr. Stein's findings; that this supposedly small town local business was secretly part of a chain; consisting of only twelve locations, but an interconnected financial organization none the less breaking a few tax laws right there; not my department, his file will have all that information for the record. On the surface the twelve sites don't seem that similar other than some rather common aesthetics, using some similar names though like Yum Nommer, Nom Yum's Silly Snacks, and so on in that fashion; a bank trail connects them. However I was able to find out through questioning and some phone calls that each location has some rather odd similarities; for one they all pride themselves on having a creative menu beside their regular menus; weird things like gummiworm burgers and popcorn pizza, that sort of thing. But that could just be coincidence you might be thinking; well each location oddly enough also has a set of six mascot characters at any given time; they switch them out during various holidays for six others. No two locations have the same characters."

  He pauses before continuing, "With one exception, every location's training video's make mention of three characters that were their original mascots; that are the same characters at every one of the twelve locations; even though each location claims to be the first. In fact it gets weird right there. Every location has claimed to be nearly as old as the small town they are located in, even the locals claim they were other resturaunts that changed their names or added colorful characters and gimmics to bring in kids. All things that arn't too strange, also a good way to cover their financial tracks I'd say; an under the table aggreement with local businesses. Funny thing is, none of the locations have these three mascots in storage; and yeah, they keep all their mascots on site in a basement or back room; in locked cages."

   "You checked all twelve locations while under cover in one town?" interrupts the bald man.

  "No," says the man, "preliminary work, collaberating Mr. Stein's findings and checking for any exterior motivations or signs he'd gone in person to check on these other sites, or made contact with them. A few odd things like that stood out to me. None of them claimed any connection to the others, however a few slipped up, they said the mascots were from a failed business partner from the 20's who brought them along when coming to their town; in some cases contradicting the local account of their location's origin. Its no wander Mr. Stein thought something fishy was going on. Poor bastard had no idea."

   "cryptic," says the bald man, "So you want to get on the track that lead to you tackling one of these mascots, because so far, it sounds like an open and shut case of a secret trust operating behind local businesses with some brand loyalty to their founder giving them away to a watchful enough eye. But being only twelve locations spread across the country probably thought no one would notice."

   The bald man smiles, "the boys at the I.R.S. have been doing some follow ups despite the dissapperance, got themselves a little scheme going there, two of the places are even adult night clubs, and some are much smaller operations than others. Pretty easy to not make a connection, especially with the generic layouts. Looks like this business plan and operation guidelines are the sort of thing they'd never think anyone would notice with so many others just like them out there. According to Stein's report, they even kept off the main roads, highways, and interstates. You'd have to drive through a small back road town, or some out of the way down town in middle America to come across them; like a local off brand treat, immitation Chuck E' Cheeses. Honestly surprised Stein only found these 12 are tied together out the large list he investigated of similar resturaunts."

   The bald man stops, "but that still doesn't explain why we're here right now having this conversation. We can go back and forth over all these things in Stein's report. But at the end of the day you arn't supposed to be investigating their trust violation, you're supposed to be investigating what happend to Stein. So want to connect the dots for me, after all this preliminary stuff you went to investigate where Stein might have dissappeared to, and five months later I'm hauling you in here for tackling a robot jester?"

   The man cracks his knuckles and has a strange almost fearful expression as though remembering someting, "Alright. Sir. Fearing foul play, possible Mafia connections, but not which Mafia, we decided to send in an agent, myself, undercover. Assuming the alias Chuck Smith, I was set up in a rental apartment on the outskirts of Barkland Idaho. Due to the connection between the manager of Yummer's and the local law enforcement we decided to leave them in the dark to our presence; and go with an attempt at applying for a job there. We had back up plans if that failed; however it didn't. Given the nature of the case we decided it best not to draw too much attention to myself by asking questions, the concern mainly being that if Mr. Stein was indeed abducted or murdered that the perpetrator would go to ground if a federal agents was going around asking questions. By applying as a night watchmen I would gain access to any security tapes and the facility when no one was around to investigate."

  The man stops and leans back in his chair, "Right here sir is where things get weird. Tell me something sir have you seen Yummer's Pizza and Burders in person?"

   The bald man furrows his brow and answers with a simple, "No,"

   "Well after everything I said sir, what do you picture in your head?"

   The bald man crosses his arms, "Some cheap knock off of a Chuck E' Cheeses mixed with a McDonald's. Kids in a ball pit, an arcade, some poor kid in a sweaty costume and a bunch of animatronics singing kid songs on a stage."

   "Something big in other words," says the man, "something expensive, impressive. Sir, this place aint any bigger than your average small town off the interstate Burger King or Taco Bell. They have like four kids at any given time working the back room; there is a drive thru, the arcade amounts to a claw machine, a pinball game, and two arcade cabinets consisting of Donkey Kong and somehow the first Street Fighter. There is no kid play land, but there is a stage for their six animatronics to sing on taking up a good chunk of space, and the only two doors to the rest of the building behind that stage. For all the space used for food, they dedicated the majority of their space to a backroom where they keep 36 animatronics. Six for the spring and summer, six for valentine's day, six for halloween, six for christmas, six for St. Patrick's day, and six more for Easter. That they switch out for around those holidays and seasons. So let's figure this out, tiny kitchen; if it even qualifies to be called that, a drive thru, a lobby that seats maybe twenty tables, and I only ever saw a handful of people in there at any given time; out of the way so they loose most of their traveler business to the big name chains by the interstate; and yet they keep and maintaine 36 animatronic characters seperated in cages in a pretty descent sized warehouse connected to the back of the building."

   "That, is odd." says the bald man leaning forward, "and goes a ways to the curious finances Mr. Stein was investigating, which...for the life me right now given what you just said sounds like any mafia or trust would be bleeding money and showing far too much money behind a clearly small business in a small town."

   "One would think," says the man, "one would think. But that's just the surface; there is something else going on there sir, something sinister. I have no doubt they abducted Mr. Stein, and not just him."

   "Are you implying human trafficking? Or something else? Care to elaborate?" asks the bald man.

   "Yes, sir, might want a cup of coffee this is going to take a while."

   The man pauses putting his thoughts together before continuing, "So answering their add for a night watchmen, no word on what happend to the old one. The first thing to cross my mind was; why would a place like this want a night watchmen? Its not a mall, its not some huge business. Usually places like this get some late night crew, and the rest of the night is janitors. I was expecting to apply for a late shift or janitor position. Something trickier to find information with but ask around and find out about anything odd going on. A lone night watchman job was too good to be true, and didn't make much sense. If this had been one of the locations listed by Mr. Stein as being large like the adult night club in Florida or the larger arcade style one in California sure, but this little thing? Didn't get a clue as to why until orientation, after a typical history of the place video; and yes they had me lumped in with five just out of high school kids, a cook, and a two janitors they were all hiring for the increase of business from summer tourists who like to explore small towns and take in local tourist traps; they showed us where the break room was located, in the back behind the stage and down past the very securly locked cages for the animatronics. They easily have hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of equipment back there, and I saw doors in the back of some of the cages and a few more that didn't make any sense where they could go unless they just open to bricked up wall to the outside."

   The coffee arrives and he continues after a drink and the man who brought it in leaves, "One thing stood out to me, during the orientation tour there was one boy who got excited looking into one of the cages, inside was a jester girl; the kid said something like he remembered this one and thought he only imagined it as none of his friends remembered it. He always liked it and it inspired his drawing hobby and love of characters like Harley Quinn from the Batman comics and cartoons. The manager commented that this character, Jesse Jester had been retired as part of the stage set due to complaints years ago from some parents about her apperance not fitting a child focused eating establishment; his voice cracked while he was talking about that and quickly ushered everyone back to the break room. But I saw something, Jesse Jester moved, the white  mask like face split open on the edges of the lips, just a slit, but looking like a smile on its modestly painted face."

   He pauses, "Did you hear about the kid that went missing a few weeks ago from this town?"

  The bald man stops and thinks, "No,"

  "Not surprised," says the man, "It wasn't an uncommon type of story, boy fresh out of highschool, decides to go hiking in the woods, goes off the trail in a national park and goes missing. Last thing anyone found of him was his car in the national park's parking area, some camping gear that looks like some animals got to it, and a facebook post the night before suggesting he was meeting someone special he'd introduce his friends and family to when they got back. All very suspicious circumstances for a sudden dissapperance, but the local police wrote it off as he ran away fearing his family wouldn't approve of whom he was seeing. Lots or rumors around that, nothing substantional so not worth repeating."

  "Things like that happen," says the bald man.

   "Its the same kid as the orientation," says the man, "not only that I had in five months had to on two occassions caught him trying to break into Yummer's at night but he had excuses like forgetting something in his locker like his phone so I escorted him, and a third time kick him out; I don't even, no I know now, but at the time I had no idea how he got in. He was fired after that."

  The man takes a deep breath, "I'll start from the beginning,"

  "and," interrupts the bald man, "this ties back both to our missing IRS agent and you tackling this jester animatronic which given what you've said is giving us an odd number of animatronics if its never being used contradicting what you said earlier, and you felt the need to tackle, which means it is being used."

   "Precisely," says the man, "It wasn't at the time, there were by my count 38 animatronics back there. Counted them my first night as watchman. The Jesse Jester was one they had before but got shipped to them prior to them getting ready to ship one out. Which is another connection between the different locations Mr. Stein discovered. Somehow when a new location opened one of the small town ones would ship them one or more new animatronics, like they have a workshop on site or in town; but they were aways replaced. Apparently this Jesse Jester had been retired and replaced by a Betty Ballorina Bunny that was much more kid friendly, meaning its a Care Bear in a tutu and a bow on its head and some eyelashes, like kids don't know what breasts are; but I digress. They didn't have a new location to send Jesse Jester to, so it stayed in storage. Until now. A new location is opening up. Following the money trail you'll find its in Japan, this is bigger than we think, possibly an over seas syndicate running the show; was able to gather evidence to possible connection in China, Brazil, and a theme park in Germany, all of which with alot more mascots running around; this...this is bigger than we thought."

   "What is bigger than we thought?" asks the bald man, "sounds like a case for the anti-trust lawyers and some illegal money laundering going on, possibly also avoiding shipping, tarriffs, export taxes. Yeah, but you sound like you think there is more to it, with this kid and...again..was that just a stunt, you could have just come in or called us?"

   "I wanted them to be on edge and be afraid to move," says the man, "I don't know if there is still time, but we need to watch any trucks going to or from there, we can't let them ship out the three animatronics."

   "Three?" asks the bald man.

   "This needs context," says the man, "Shortly after I started as watch man I did some basic looking around, at first aside from the back room and all those animatronics you wouldn't suspect Yummer's of anything but being an over priced tourist trap using its out of the way location in a mostly empty lot as a way to make tourists think they found something special. Some local flavor. You'd think the only reason they'd hire a night watchman is because the place closes pretty early at night, is in a mostly empty area as the local supermarket had moved closer to the interstate and all the mom and pop shops shut down or moved to the down town square, along with having a ridicilous amount of valuable equipment in that back area. Noticed a few odd things; the first being the instruction to turn on a television in the back room at night. I was told the noise coming from the back room would disuade any would be thieves as they'd know someone was there. I was given a ghost story as well, told not to be afraid if I heard movement in the backroom or whispering sounds, that it was just their ghost. Right there that sounded suspicious to me given the extra doors that even as a night watchman I had no keys for."

   He pauses, "This brings us back to the missing kid, Harvey Clark. First incident he was trying to come in through the front doors, caught him, told me he forgot his phone. Was none to happy when I escorted him to the break room. He did retrieve a phone, although he looked surprised to find it actually there; tried to stop by Jesse Jester's cage on the way out but I told him I had a long night be can weird during his own shift; yeah I'd already heard he liked to spend his lunch breaks taking pictures of the animatronics, selfies and taking out a drawing pad to draw Jesse Jester. I suspected he'd have dropped it there, or was checking to see if there really was a night watchman. I guess there hadn't been for over a year before I took the job.