Bug-out briefcase¶
The bug-out briefcase is an escape kit hidden in a heat vent under Dick "The Biz" Baxter's bed, holding cash, Swiss francs, a cheap revolver, a change of clothes and a Swiss passport in the name of "Noah Mueller."
| Type | Item (escape kit) |
| Aliases | Noah Mueller passport; Swiss francs; the bug-out bag |
| Holder | Dick "The Biz" Baxter; found by the team in his apartment |
| First appearance | Radford Horrors 01 |
Description¶
Kurtis Larson finds the case with a successful Investigate a Mystery roll (11), after searching for false bottoms, loose bricks, floorboards, wallpaper and vents. The heat vent under the Biz's bed had stripped screws. Inside are (Radford Horrors 01):
- a few hundred US dollars,
- a much larger sum in Swiss francs,
- a cheap revolver,
- a change of clothes,
- a Swiss passport with the Biz's photo under the name Noah Mueller.
The name Noah Mueller is of uncertain spelling.
Properties¶
The kit is not supernatural. It serves as a clue to the Biz's intentions and as a "secret identity" trope: it shows he had a Swiss alias and money ready to disappear.
History¶
- Discovery. In the early part of the Radford Horrors, Andrew Howard and Huell, joined by Kurt, search the Biz's neglected apartment after he vanishes. The place has dust, cobwebs, a taped-up leather recliner, a heater running, a TV on Animal Planet, rotten fridge meat, and shelves of war memoirs, technical manuals, hard-boiled novels and Russian books. Under a loose floorboard the team finds his share of the gold, about $8,000 to $9,000 in Ziplocs, and cocaine. The Biz had also requested six months of personal leave for a "family emergency," a discount Playboy subscription began days before he vanished, and a Moby-Dick with its first pages torn out hides a cipher (see Moby-Dick book cipher) (Radford Horrors 01).
- Kurt's reading. Dante (as Kurt) remarks, "Well, I'm guessing this is his bug-out bag. Totally normal thing to own." Kurt concludes that the Biz had other plans, meant to return, was in touch with a third party and was intercepted, since the Swiss francs were left behind. Asked whether the Biz is a double agent, Kurt answers that "there are degrees of double agent."
- Aftermath. The Biz had in fact been taken to Russia, where he is held at the Hotel Metropol and brought before Boris Yeltsin (see Radford Horrors 01; Hotel Metropol). Kurt reads the kit as intended for Switzerland, but the episodes never confirm where the Biz meant to go.
What remains unknown¶
- Why the Biz needed an identity as a Swiss citizen, and who he was corresponding with via classified ads in the Washington City Paper, the Washington Informer and the Georgetown Current.
- Whether the Biz ever recovers the kit.