Spy Camera and Microphone¶
The Spy Camera and Microphone are a covert recording microphone and a compact hidden film camera that Dick "The Biz" Baxter collected from a KGB dead drop and planted in room 111 of the Smith Hotel in Dahlonega, Georgia.
| Type | Item (surveillance gear) |
| Aliases | KGB camera; covert microphone and hidden camera; the Biz's spy camera |
| Holder | Dick "The Biz" Baxter |
| Origin | KGB dead drop |
| First appearance | Appalachia 01 |
Description¶
The gear arrived in a taped paper bag. Andre describes a "brand new covert recording microphone" and a small, compact film camera intended to be hidden in vents or behind drywall (Appalachia 01). When the Biz installs them, the camera turns out to be a nondescript black box with a small hole in it and a motion sensor. The microphone has a sticky backing (Appalachia 02).
Properties¶
- The camera is motion-activated and loaded with film, so its pictures cannot be seen until the film is developed (Appalachia 02).
- The Biz can rig it with a timer pin to shoot without him holding it (Appalachia 09).
History¶
Collection¶
In Appalachia 01 the Biz receives a sweepstakes invitation that he recognizes as a KGB front. He decodes the message using Moby Dick as a codebook. It promises information on the Massachusetts matter in return for a favor, tells him to collect equipment at his old drop spot before leaving for "George I A", and offers $10,000 (Appalachia 01).
The old drop is a loose paving stone under a park bench near his former home. Suspicious of it, he pays a homeless man about $50 to fetch the package. The man returns with the taped bag, unopened. Inside are the microphone, the camera and a sheet of thin paper, to be burned or eaten, with instructions: within two days, install the camera in room 111 of the Smith Hotel before midnight; retrieve it 24 hours later; and mail the undeveloped film to an address to be supplied the next day. The rest of the team is not told (Appalachia 01).
Planting in room 111¶
In Appalachia 02 the Biz enters room 111, where someone has left a basket of wine and chocolates. He tucks the camera in among the cables beside the VCR under the TV and angles it toward the bed. He sticks the microphone to the bedside drawer, which holds a Gideon Bible, a box of condoms and lubricant. He tells the table he suspects a setup, though not one aimed at himself. When the desk clerk describes the man who booked the room as sounding Midwestern, the Biz concludes "That is him" (Ezra, as Dick "The Biz" Baxter, Appalachia 02).
In Appalachia 06 Ezra asks whether the Biz ever retrieved "the thing", and Andre confirms he had not. That episode's cold open shows state police searching the hotel's grounds.
Photographing the crack¶
In Appalachia 09 Andrew's camera is smashed in the ape-man fight. A Preparedness roll establishes that the Biz carries a spy camera, mostly full of developed pictures with room for a few more. He rigs the timer pin and photographs the crack in the air deep in the mine, including a shot through it. His fingers feel electrified and freezing near the rift, but he gets the picture (Appalachia 09).
The Clinton photos¶
In Walkers 01, the epilogue to the arc, David Letterman tells the Biz that the Polaroids in the Clinton affair were taken with a Russian camera, which is news to the Biz. The Biz replies that Jan is Polish and the Poles were part of the USSR (Walkers 01). The episodes never state outright that this is the room 111 camera, but the KGB handed the Biz a camera for a job in that hotel; see the Clinton surveillance scandal.
Trivia¶
- It is never established whether the camera in the mine is the same unit as the room 111 camera, or whether the room 111 film was ever developed or mailed. Appalachia 09 calls it only the Biz's spy camera.