Adventure! RPG: Heroes of Our Time - episode 5: Walking in the Valley

[Count Janos Rakozi]

'Well, none of us are screaming, or bleeding, so we must be okay', Janos thinks. He moves around behind Jameson and approaches the man over the box. Keeping out of the line of fire, Janos prods the wounded man with his sword.

"No false moves, Mein Herr," he purrs. "Crawl away from the device and please tell us just what you and your associates are doing here."

[Blaine]

Blaine finishes the pat down and pockets the piece and the blade then pats Luqmani on the head like a good boy.

"Yeah life's just all kind of rough for you ain't it? I mean if you can't trust a bunch of mercs planning to kill everyone on a train and give you time to get off, who can you trust?

"Come on Luqy! Who do you take me for? You're way smarter than that! You're an Oxford man! I mean even a two bit punk on the street knows better than that. You gotta know something about these guys. Where are they from? What kind of cigs do they smoke? What about their accent? Are you tryin' to tell me and expect me to believe that someone as smart as you doesn't know anything about these guys? That you didn't even check up on them at all?"

Blaine leans hard on his back, his palm pushing directly over the spot where Luqmani should be wounded and whispers in his ear. "You might think I'm stupid you son of a bitch...but you better not treat me like I'm stupid! We got miles to go before any real police or doctors show up. Get me?" he squeezes again for extra emphasis. "Tell me something real freakin' quick or I'm gonna get real freakin' grumpy."

[Winston Holmes]

"S'alright, Cowboy," Winston says slowly while scanning the platform, "It's better you went first. You're good at hitting little things; I only figured out how to clear entire rooms at once."

Dropping down to the platform, Winston moves a bit forward to limit his broad firing arc to not include Jameson, Janos, or Radha, "I don't think anyone else wants to get hurt, right?"

[Dr. Mystery]

John flashes Luqmani a smile of mock concern, issuing out in a friendly voice,

"You know, I'd pay attention to him if I were you, I've not known Mr. Macallister here to joke around about torturing someone, or at least beating the tar out of them, which I suspect is quite uncomfortable."

[Surya Lanadhra]

Radha smiles sweetly as she adjusts her scarf.

"Sirs, I am a doctor. I know how to hurt you. You have aided in the injury and potential murder of innocent people. Speak now before I am forced to hand your karma to you personally."

She looks to the men. "I have drugs that are able to aid in interrogation. I need someone to get my valise from my room so we need not use violence."

[Andrew Murphy]

"I'll go, between you, Janos, and the Professor I'm sure you can handle these guys. Maybe I'll run into Blaine and Doc find out what happened with the Arab. "

Jameson begins to walk back toward their passenger car, reloading the spent chambers of his pistols as he goes.

[Alex Craft]

Luqmani tells Blaine less than he wants to hear, some strain evident in his voice despite his attempts to keep it even under Blaine's ministrations:

"Here, now. If someone pays me for anonymity, I'll give them anonymity. Bad business to do otherwise."

Unconvinced, Blaine reapplies pressure and, with a slight gasp, Luqmani amends:

"Ah! Damn ... so maybe it's just bad business to let anyone know that that anonymity isn't perfect, alright? But - and I'm telling you the truth here - I didn't really get much on them."

"They were very well covered, so either they're nobodies who've been given a bigger job than usual, or they're backed up by someone heavy, or both. I'm pretty sure they operate locally, though ... I had someone track them a little bit after meeting them the first time."

He falls silent, but in response to a little additional arm twisting adds:

"Look, [something in Arabic, possibly insulting from context]. That's it. I wouldn't even have taken a job from someone like that if it weren't for that bedamned Zorbo going and getting himself killed. I have an insurrectionist movement to fund, and those aren't cheap."

"Maybe you should be paying more attention to dealing with the others? I saw their equipment in some detail ... I think they assumed I wouldn't understand any of it, but this kind of thing starts to get familiar after the seventh or eighth mad scientist you work with."

"It looked like chemical weapons, which suggests a gas attack, and I'm a little short on gas masks ... how about you? I'd say they've either planted bombs along the whole length of the train, or they have something up at the front, so the gas washes over the length as the train runs."

"It'd have to be damned strong stuff for that to work, but they didn't really have all that much equipment, and with these types you never know."

* * *

Further up the train, in the stewards' car, Jameson meets Locky and Kate, waiting there. The two captured surveyors are, of course, still tied up, though Jameson notices that the one who is still conscious only appears mildly perturbed by his situation - it really doesn't look as if he is worried by his capture and likely incarceration.

* * *

After a long pause (during which the man moves slightly, to uncertain purpose), the surveyor laying crumpled over the box rolls off of it and edges away until Janos tells him to stop. The other two do nothing special - the one whom Jameson shot just lays there, and the one whose gun exploded cooperatively spreads his hands over his head.

The box is steel and just about the size of a shoe box, with a lid and two keyholes set into the top of the lid. It looks reasonably sturdy, but not terribly so, and no key is in evidence to either keyhole.

[Count Janos Rakozi]

Janos prods the closest one with the tip of his blade.

"What does this do?" he orders."

Without taking his eyes off of the prisoner, he adds.

"Dr. I believe we need some answers ... sooner, rather than later."

His voice is like cold steel.

[Andrew Murphy]

"Hey kid, are these two co-operating ok? The Doc wanted her bag o' tricks, I think she said something about getting information out of them without getting messy. Maybe she'll fit in ok after all."

Jameson ducks into the small compartment that Kate and Rhada share and locates the later's bag. Coming out of the compartment he sees the conscious man looking only mildly inconvenienced.

"Kid, do me a favor and bring this up to the front of the train to the doc, I think I want to talk to this guy back here for a moment or two but I'd like to not keep everybody waiting on my account."

[Winston Holmes]

Winston has little trouble covering the rest of the platform, keeping Adia's wide barrel ready for anything while taking a beat to study the engine. Still watching the new prisoners, he arches an eyebrow while nodding at the boiler, "Shouldn't someone look into slowing down the train? I think we're going a little faster than we should."

[Blaine]

Blaine leans in close, close enough that Luqmani can't help but smell the reek of Blaine's breath, feel the rasp of his perpetual 5 o'clock shadow against his cheek.

"You givin' me advice now Luqy, is that it? Huh? You all concerned about our well being?" he presses again on his wound. "Well tell you what. I'm gonna take care of some other business, we'll leave you here, nice and snug." he pulls out a pair of handcuffs making sure Luqmani can hear them clink and jingle. "But I'm afraid I'm a little short of gas masks Luqy. So you better hope I succeed huh? I doubt you can hold your breath that long right?" Blaine drags him over to a pole and props him against it with his hands behind him and cuffs his wrists good and tight. Once that's done he pulls out his gun and checks the magazine before slamming it back home.

"Doc, if you wanna babysit him knock yourself out, the slippery bastard might be able to get out again. Otherwise we better catch up with the others."

[Dr. Mystery]

John sneers down at Luqmani, before looking up to face Blaine.

"I think I would be of more use with you, Mr. MacAllister."

John swings the handpiece of his cane into the side of Luqmani's head. (hopefully knocking him unconscious)

"Besides, he can probably look after himself. Let's go."

[April Rice]

John's parting shot leaves Luqmani slumped against restraints, though John can't really tell if the man is faking it, or not. An exploratory tap to the ribs suggests either the later, or that he's doing a damn fine job on the former.

The detective and the magician leave the mercenary behind, heading down the line of cars. The train is vibrating enough to make walking a little unsteady - at the current speeds, every slight bump in the rail line makes the cars jerk and tremble as they pass it by.

* * *

Now that the guns look a little less liable to go off, the train line's personnel get off their bellies and set about regaining control of the engine. It is simply done, and the train begins to slow back to its original speed, though the mechanic suggests that they might want to stop altogether until the situation has been resolved.

The man with the metal box does not answer Janos, fixing his gaze on a point somewhere off behind Janos' shoulder and acting as if he has not heard the question.

[Count Janos Rakozi]

The stare fills Janos with unease. He doesn't like the connotations of these people's actions. They smack of fanaticism and madness ... directed at himself and his companions.

Still keeping his eyes on the trouble-makers, Janos commands the rail personnel,

"Slow this train down NOW!"

Then,

"MacKenzie, would you please find out how to open this contraption so that you and Ms. Schafer can decipher its meaning."

Janos stands ready to kill any of the 'bad guys' if they interfere in any way. If he was acting in less civilized company, he knows he would kill one just to set an example.

[Winston Holmes]

"I'm thinking stopping the train is a good idea," Winston agrees with the mechanic, "But at least we're back under control." Hearing Janos yell, Winston looks at the silent man over the box, and takes a beat to follow the man's line of vision to be sure there's nothing hiding behind all of them.

[Surya Lanadhra]

Radha shoots a glance at the mechanic. "I would advise just stopping the train now, honoured sahib - there could be a terrible bomb waiting to be started by the train's motion. Please, stop it."

[Alex Craft]

The surveyor's stare is less of madness or fanaticism, and more of simple resolution. It seems that he's set himself to refuse to answer the team's questions, regardless of the consequences - which is odd, since he doesn't really look like someone who would hold up well under torture or other forms of concentrated interrogation. He may be a surprise, though.

The engineer nods and the crew stops the train, doing so rather more slowly and easily than they did last time. The passengers must be getting confused, curious, scared, or two or three of the above, considering all of this erratic movement.

The engineer wipes his hands, then turns to the team - wavering for a moment before settling on Janos.

"I want to thank you for stopping these gents, but I have to ask what's going on. Who are you folks?"

[Count Janos Rakozi]

"I want to thank you for stopping these gents, but I have to ask what's going on. Who are you folks?"

"Concerned citizens, sir," Janos responds resolutely. "A Texan on board noticed these men moving about and thought it was suspicious. We decided to aid him. I don't know what is going on, but I mean to find out. There was a mention of an explosive device and possible sabotage, but I don't know about this firsthand. Were is the closest representative of the law?"

[Alex Craft]

He looks a shade dubious at the 'concerned citizens' bit, but only answers:

"There's a sheriff and a few deputies in the next town, I know. Otherwise, we're pretty much in the middle of nowhere at this exact moment."

He's about to nudge the box on the floor with his foot, but seems to think better of it, adding:

"If you think this might be a bomb, I figure we'd better move it out into the desert where it can't do anybody any harm. Unless you know a bit about this too?"

[Andrew Murphy]

Jameson leans in real close to the "prospector", grabbing the man by the front of his shirt with one hand.

"Listen to me you piece of scum. I strongly advise that you tell me exactly what is going on right now, you'll likely get the best treatment if you co-operate with me as compared to any of my compatriots, some of them have a nasty disposition and a penchant for getting answers no matter the means.

"I, on the other hand, would prefer to take the more moral high ground and simply ask questions and get answers without having to break bones, slice flesh, or otherwise persuade you to answer under duress.

"Now, what are you and your partners doing on this train?"

Jameson will give the man a full five-count to begin answering before he pulls out the Beginning and places the man's left index finger between the floor boards and the end of the barrel.

[Blaine]

Blaine moves steadily up the train, shoving anyone out of the way as he heads for the front.

Along the way he eyes anyone that looks suspicious; foreign, nervous, strange bulges here and there, plus anyone that he may have seen in his years on the job. They needed to hurry or everyone on the train was going to die.

"Come on Doc, step on it! We gotta find the others!" Blaine calls back as he breaks into a run.

[Dr. Mystery]

John follows hot on Blaine's trail, as he tucks his cane into his pocket.

"I am right behind you, Mr. MacAllister."

John also gazes around the train as he passes though it, looking for anything out of place.

[Winston Holmes]

Not getting anything from the prospector's line of sight, Winston looks back at the box, "I could take a look at it. I've got a few tools in my pack and I've tinkered around more than a few exotic devices."

[Count Janos Rakozi]

Janos arcs an eyebrow toward Winston.

"If you think you are up to it."

After a moment's pause, he adds with a grin,

"But let's just get this straight. You volunteered for this, and I would like you to give me a monosyballic sound for we are all about to die, so I can at least start to run away."

[Alex Craft]

The man Jameson's standing over seems to believe what the cowboy has to say. Unfortunately, it doesn't pan out as well as it might - he stares back at Jameson, his mouth working for a moment, and before Jameson figures out what he's up to, his jaw clenches as he bites down on something.

The man goes slack.

* * *

Blaine and Doc Mystery make their way down the train - they aren't too far from the front now, so this only requires them to make their way through most of first class. To their surprise, they pick up Jozsef on the way ... the older man looks a bit scuffed up, but otherwise unharmed, and he doesn't go into what happened to put him this far back.

They catch up to Jameson and Kate in the steward's car (just behind the coal car and the engine), finding him trying to wake an unfamiliar man dressed in a bland, off-the-rack suit and a little bit of blood. The surveyor didn't commit suicide, but he is out cold, and nothing physical seems likely to wake him (though Radha might have a chemical means).

The stewards have long since fled into the passenger compartments, and the other surveyor is still unconscious (though he's no longer smoking).

[Assuming that Jameson goes along with Blaine and Dr. Mystery.]

* * *

Two cars ahead, in the engine, Winston kneels over the box while Janos stands over the wounded surveyors. Winston doesn't really know what to do with the two keyholes - since he doesn't know what they do it probably wouldn't be a great idea to try and pick them ... might find one to be a 'detonate' switch, or something.

Instead, he experiments with the lid, sliding the tip of a knife around under the edge until he finds a catch. It doesn't seem as if it was intended to be opened, once closed, but he works around that - finding a length of wire in his pack and running it up and into the mechanism, fiddling with it until the catch pops.

He gingerly lifts the lid - there are hidden hinges on the side opposite the catch - and finds a mess of strange fare on the inside. The keyholes seem to connect into a block of electronics, from which a rats nest of wires emerge, connected to a device in the bottom of the box.

It looks something like a stripped-down cathode ray tube - a trumpet-shaped glass bulb with wires feeding into the narrow end. Winston can see the wires inside the bulb, ending in a ball of wax or rubber fixed to the end of another glass tube (this one less than half an inch wide and only a couple inches long).

This smaller tube is cushioned by foam blocks which keep it suspended in the center of the bulb. It is filled with something liquid - a pale green fluid Winston can't immediately identify. Might be chlorine. The larger bulb is carefully cushioned as well, with the entire thing fixed into a nest of foam.

And, no, he has no idea what all of that is. It might be a bomb.

Jameson, Blaine, Doc Mystery, Jozsef, and Kate all arrive together at about this point - Jameson handing over Radha's medical bag to the Indian doctor.

[Andrew Murphy]

Jameson is slapping th surveyor around as Blaine and Dr. Mystery enter the car. "Sonuvavbitch knocked himself out in the middle of our little Q&A session," he says in reply to their questioning looks. "Gimme a hand tying him up we can bring him up front with us, maybe the doc can get wake him."

[Surya Lanadhra]

Radha rummages in her bag and pulls out two vials and a syringe. "It may not be necessary, Sahib Jameson - I have a drug that will wake him, and another that will make him tractable."

She fills the syringe and jabs it into the neck of the unconscious man with professional swiftness.

"See? Less mess and fuss all around."

[Winston Holmes]

Letting out a long breath, Winston attempts to gingerly lower the lid of the box without triggering the... whatever it is. "Don't rock the engine too much, Cowboy," he says, keeping a careful eye on the box, "This thing is way out of my league and I haven't a clue of what it'll do. I think I recognize most of the elements but the whole definitely looks unfamiliar."

He nods to the unconscious man just as the Doctor sticks the needle into him, "Hopefully this man will be able to give us a better idea of what's going on."

[Alex Craft]

Kate peeks over Winston's shoulder before he tries to shut the box, but she is unable to add much to the conversation:

"That is definitely unusual. The bulb could contain something that's supposed to react with the inner vial, if they both broke. Maybe it explodes, or maybe it releases a gas. Either way, I'm not sure why they'd have used all of the glass ... it could be that one, or both, of the reactants are corrosive. That could imply that they are very effective, whatever they are, since the builder chose them over more conventional reactants."

Winston set the lid back down without incident - it doesn't close entirely, since he pushes a bit of wire into the catch to prevent it from locking.

[Count Janos Rakozi]

Janos steps back, but keeps an eye on the wounded men.

"Well, at least we didn't all die. Now, let's get rid of that thing and get this train moving again. We should move this gentlemen back to the dining car and away from any mischief."

[Dr. Mystery]

Peeking over the shoulders of the others, John frowns, staring at the strange machine.

"I suppose, friends, the question is what it will take to get rid of this device. Also, at some point we should collect Luqmani from further back in the train."

[Winston Holmes]

"Getting rid of it might not be the right option yet," Winston shakes his head, "There might be another purpose to the device other than explosions or poisonous gas. But I agree we need to be extremely careful with it."

Looking up at Kate, he shrugs gestures off-handedly while tipping his head at the unconscious man, "Maybe Ms. Schafer could help me find a better way to sort this thing while the others find out what it is... though we might need Jameson's hands if this is as delicate on the inside as it looks."

[Andrew Murphy]

Jameson wiggles his fingers in the air, "That's one reason why I've been told I have magic fingers ..." He trails off with a wink and a smile.

[Blaine]

Blaine surveys the damage and the scene.

"We had a little chat with Luqy, he was acting as a distraction for these guys. He said they were planning on takin' out the train with everyone on it. I don't think it's a bomb though, maybe gas or something. We need to get King'a big brains on this. Where is she?"

[Alex Craft]

The engineer interrupts:

"Alright, look. We're on a schedule, so I'm starting this train up again. If you'll help get these men out of my engine and back into the stewards' car, I don't rightly care what you do with them, so long as they're in condition to be turned over to the sheriff at the next stop."

He brooks no argument on this - the train is already quite a bit behind schedule, and he wants the surveyors to be taken off his hands as soon as possible. Assuming that the group doesn't resist, the engineer retrieves a couple of huskier stewards, and those two and the fireman begin clearing the compartment of unconscious and wounded surveyors.

The train starts up again soon after, and everyone (the K.I.S. group included) is barred from the engine compartment. Kate stays to persuade the engineer to let her look at the device, which'll take some doing - the engineer is understandably concerned about it blowing up if someone decides to tinker with it.

After the team has relocated to the stewards' car, it takes Radha a second and a third try to wake the unconscious man - whatever he has in his system is completely unfamiliar to her (and it's not as if she has a sample to examine). She wouldn't even bother, except that the other surveyors are all fairly badly wounded, and the pain might cause her drugs to create an undesirable delirium in the subjects.

As the man begins to wake up, she starts working on the second procedure. There isn't a great deal of time, and the four drugs already in his system might react oddly with some of her tools of interrogation, so her choices are limited.

After some consideration, she administers a combination of scopolamine and morphine. She happens to know of, and have, a few mild hallucinogens, which are unlikely to interact with anything already in his system, but which have profound effects when applied to a subject in twilight sleep - the state that the morphine and scopolamine are putting him into.

One more injection, and the subject is fully prepared - Radha checks his pupil dilation, breathing, and heartbeat and is reasonably confident that she got the cocktail right.

He is very heavily tranquilized at the moment, so he is unlikely to feel much urgency in responding. However, he should also be almost incapable of differentiating between what he should and should not say, and the cocktail should encourage him to be cooperative.

While Radha is at it, Kate arrives triumphantly, very carefully bearing the surveyors' device.

[Andrew Murphy]

"I think it's safe to say that if we're going to ... question this man, we should be organized about it, too many people asking questions at once is likely to confuse the situation. I'd say that the doc and Blaine are best bets to get the information we need." Jameson pauses looking around the room at everybody, "Perhaps the rest of us can split up. Doc Mystery and Janos and retrieve our friend the Arab and Kate, the professor and myself can move to the rear of the train to poke around into the mystery boxes.

"How does that sound to everybody? The engineers intend to hand these men to the local sheriff so we only have some much time to find out what is going on here..."

[Surya Lanadhra]

"We should not scare him too much," Radha warns softly. "I am skilled at asking questions and a woman is less threatening. I will do it."

With those words, she turns to the drugged man and asks softly but clearly, "Who are you and why are you here?"

[Count Janos Rakozi]

Janos nods to Jameson's suggestion.

"Shall we go, Freed-rick? I want to see how our old companion is doing. Blaine, won't you come along as well? Locky can help with the investigating with those mysterious boxes."

[Dr. Mystery]

"Oh, Count Rakozi, I would be delighted to check up on our guest with you. I'm so clumsy though, I may very well drop my cane on his face a couple of times when we get there."

A light shines in Johns eyes that could only be seen as menacingly giddy as he awaits Blaine's response to Janos' invitation.

[Blaine]

Blaine nods. "I can go either way Count, I can stay here with the Doc" he nods to Radha "and help her out. Or I can hlep you with Luqy. Luqy didn't hold back too much when I talked to him, but you might have other questions. Me and him..." he cracks his knuckles. "We got an understanding."