Eavesdropper

( • • Correspondence, • • Forces) Hidden Lore 19

The Virtual Adepts have always been masters of the telephone system. Using this Effect, an Adept simply picks up a touch-tone telephone, punches in a mere 15 or 20 digits, and hears what's said within 10 feed or so of any other single working telephone of her choice, anywhere in the world. The targeted telephone need not be in use at the time, nor need the Adept know its location, just its number. (An Adept of Correspondence can project her senses to a known location without using Forces.)

In the Technocracy, the Syndicate and (especially) the New World Order execute this Effect coincidentally through expensive foci. Virtual Adepts simply exchange bootleg telephone access codes with feverish haste. A single code works for all desired locations, but the codes change once or twice daily.

[The number of successes indicates the audibility and clarity of the remote conversation. One success reaches telephones in the next room, five anywhere in a city, eight nationwide and 10 worldwide. The Adept must know a current access code. The Storyteller may simply assume the Adept knows the code, roleplay its acquisition or roll Intelligence + Computer {difficulty 8 Adept knows.]