IC: The Penhew Foundation - Andrei, Caroline & Timour

[Raiko]

Stunned by the gun fire Helen turns to Caroline, a look of desperation in her eyes as she asks, "What's... what's happening? Why?"

"FREEZE!" Timour yelled with a booming voice, extracting all the breath he could from his lungs. There was no time for anything else...

Time seems to stand still for Timour, he thinks he sees the maid halt, but the guard has only one thing on his mind, he hardly even notices the second Russian as he drives his knife towards Andrei. The knife is a filleting knife, steak knife or some other sharp pointed kitchen impement, Timour has no time to observe such details, even while time stands still.

His pistol is almost on target, his aim steady as ever, but the knife will get there first.

OOC,I'll wait overnight for Coffee Demon to post. If he's not posted by my lunchtime tomorrow then I'll roll for him. I've messaged him on Facebook, where he's normally quite prolific, but he's not been on there either for a couple of days. I hope those oil companies haven't come after you Coffee!

[Decrepit]

Caroline is almost as dumbstruck as Helen despite knowing better than she the potential for violence in the Russians and Andrei's instability.

"Freeze!"

Caroline momentarily halts as if the command had been meant for her before realizing its true aim. "Stay here!" she shouts to Helen as she seeks a way past the men to track down the fleeing woman--not that she really knows what she'll do if she catches up to her and heedless of the fact that she may be making herself a target or a distraction.

[coffee demon]

Andrei manages to backpedal and lunge away before the guard can get close enough to swing the knife at him.

The first chance he gets, Andrei will spin and fire his pistol straight at the knife-wielding guards' chest.

"TIMOUR! He's not a guard!"

In the heat of the moment, Andrei shouts out in Russian, and what he does say doesn't make a lot of sense anyways, except maybe to himself.

OC,[url=http://invisiblecastle.com/roller/view/3345058/]Rolled a 14 to dodge![/url] For the next while, Raiko, please feel free to make rolls for me. I don't mind if you roll, and it will move things along more quickly because I can't check email quite as often. Would it be possible for you to describe our exact positions? Am I on the same side of the hallway as Timour now, or are they between us? Where exactly did Timour come from?

[Raiko]

As soon as Andrei is out of his line of fire Timour shoots the crazed guard in the chest, the target barely has time to react to the impact before Andrei pistol fires again, his bullet also finding it's mark.

The guard's lifeless body falls at Timour's feet, his knife clattering noisily onto the floor tiles.

At the end of the corridor the cleaner screams hyterically as Caroline rushes over to calm her.

Meanwhile Helen peers cautiously around the door of the archive to see what is happening.

OOC,Sorry the floorplan never got posted. :oops: Here's a plan of the area of the fight. The guard was opening the storage room door for Andrei. Timour came out of the archive. Andrei was in between, with his back to Timour, a "safe" distance from the guard. If the combat hadn't ended I'd place 'tokens' on the plan. The unlabelled room between the archive and the stairs is a staffroom, sorry about that. [img]http://img814.imageshack.us/img814/1337/penhew.png[/img] I'll add links to the dice rolls to this post later.

[coffee demon]

"He... the guard tried to kill me!" Andrei looks wildly from Helen to the cleaner. He looks at his gun distastefully and puts it back into his satchel.

He glances at the storage door (OC: which I believe the guard unlocked), looks back at everyone, then steps quickly to the storage room and opens the door fully to look inside.

[Raiko]

Helen is utterly horrified, transfixed by the guard's bloody corpse, "What have you done? I thought you were outside!"

When Andrei storms through the storeroom door she asks, "What are you looking for, it's just junk in there?"

She turns to Timour, as if he'll have all the answers for this madness.

Inside the store room it is dark, and Andrei needs to use his flashlight (the room's light bulb doesn't work if he checks).

In the torch-light Andrei sees boxes and crates piled high against the far wall, blocking the windows. Other boxes are scattered around the floor together with old and broken office furniture. In the very centre of the room is a badly damaged stone sarcophagus, evidently not in good enough condition to display upstairs.

Meanwhile out in the corridor Caroline finds the cleaning lady sobbing behind the reception desk.

[SuAside]

"You have a lot of explaining to do." Timour growls at Andrei as he tops off his 1911 pistol while suspiciously eyeing the dead guard and his knife "But not now. You check the storage & the basement. We don't know how much time we have."

"Bring the cleaner here, tell her we mean her no harm and shot only in self-defense. Once you brought her here check Gavigan's office." Timour says to Caroline as he searches the guard's body after kicking away the knife "Remember, no names from now on."

Timour then pushes Helen back into the Archive Room as he retrieves his "package".
"This is not what I had in mind... Apologies." he says to her, out of sight and hopefully out of earshot "If you wish, we can pretend you are our hostage."

"I still intend to make good on what I told you, if you can tell me where Paul's desk is."

[coffee demon]

"You have a lot of explaining to do." Timour growls at Andrei as he tops off his 1911 pistol while suspiciously eyeing the dead guard and his knife "But not now. You check the storage & the basement. We don't know how much time we have."

When Andrei storms through the storeroom door she asks, "What are you looking for, it's just junk in there?"

...

Andrei gives Timour and Helen a confused and frightened look, then rushes into the storage room.

The vision of the guard collapsing under his gunfire runs through his mind, but he pushes it out.

Andrei scans around the storage room, then puts the flashlight on the ground and rushes to the sarcophagus and tries to shove it aside.

Timour's accusation pops into his head. Explaining to do? What did I do? He tried to kill me! What did I do wrong? Am I a bad person?

If the Sarcophagus doesn't move, Andrei adjusts the flashlight on the floor, grabs the lid of the sarcophagus, and heaves at it to either push it off or lift it open.

OC,This will be my last post until Decrepit posts again.

[Raiko]

Timour then pushes Helen back into the Archive Room as he retrieves his "package".
"This is not what I had in mind... Apologies." he says to her, out of sight and hopefully out of earshot "If you wish, we can pretend you are our hostage."

"I still intend to make good on what I told you, if you can tell me where Paul's desk is."

"It's... it's okay, I'll be okay. Thank you"

Helen heads back into the corridor, "I show you where Paul's desk is."

OOC,No worries Coffee, I'll give Decrepit a nudge. It's my fault for the slow down. If Decrepit can't post I'll make an NPC post for Caroline when I reply to your last post

[Decrepit]

On edge herself, Caroline attempts to coax the cleaning woman as calmly as she can. "Oh, my dear, are you all right? What a horrible thing just happened! For no reason at all, that man pulled a weapon on one of my colleagues. I'm sure you're awfully frightened, but I need you to come back with me and help me identify the attacker for ... the investigation." She hedges a bit, hoping that the woman will draw the inference that she and the Russians are somehow affiliated with the police.

[Raiko]

If the Sarcophagus doesn't move, Andrei adjusts the flashlight on the floor, grabs the lid of the sarcophagus, and heaves at it to either push it off or lift it open.

Try as he might, Andrei cannot move the sarcophagus, but he is definitely on the right track - when he adjusts the flashlight beam he sees that the dust on the floor has been wiped away in a circular pattern where the sarcophagus sits, and there are also feint scuffs on the floor. Clearly there is some way to rotate the whole sarcophagus in place, but he can't see what it might be!

In frustration he returns to his plan and tries to move the sarcophagus lid, but it won't budge as it is not a separate piece, the sarcophagus is fake!

"...I'm sure you're awfully frightened, but I need you to come back with me and help me identify the attacker for ... the investigation."

The cleaner nods and gets nervously to her feet, then accompanies Caroline without saying a word. She is clearly terrified and her distress gets worse with each step along the corridor towards the uniformed corpse laying in a pool of blood

[Decrepit]

If it looks like the woman is headed in the right direction, Caroline has a go at Gavigan's office.

[coffee demon]

Andrei is releasing too much adrenaline to think that there might be a clever way to slide the sarcophagus. He feels certain that every moment is precious. There is no time to waste. The police will be here any minute. This is the reason why they came to London; this is why they broke into the Foundation; this is why a man just got shot (he refuses to tell himself he shot the man). If they didn't get into the basement and find evidence that would condemn Gavigan, then it was all for naught.

He leans his shoulder against it again and heaves again with all his might. When that fails, he calls out in Russian,

"TIMOUR! Come quickly! I found it! Help me open this!"

He waits precisely one second, then roars out, "TIMOUR!! QUICKLY!"

[SuAside]

"Hold that thought." Timour says to Helen "Try to get the cleaner to relax & not run off on us, but be on your guard."

He then runs towards Andrei.

[Raiko]

Timour arrives in the storage room and immediately sees Andrei struggling to push the sarcophagus. He immediately notices the same wear marks on the floor as Andrei spotted earlier, obviously the sarcophagus has recently been rotated on the floor.

[coffee demon]

In Russian:

"Quick! Help me move this! The hidden cellar is right underneath this room!"

Andrei moves over slightly to let Timour get next to him and help shove the sarcophagus. He is obviously not calm.

[SuAside]

"There has to be a trick to it." Timour observes as he sees Andrei's exertion. He joins in to push, but looks around to try and find a way to toggle or unlock it through cunning rather than force.

[coffee demon]

"Maybe you're right!" Andrei grunts in Russian as he heaves at the sarcophagus, and is also looking around at the same time. If they give it a heave and it doesn't budge, he picks up the flashlight and starts poking at the sarcophagus and looking over the walls of the room for a secret switch. He shines the flashlight towards wherever Timour is looking whenever he other Russian asks.

He shouts out while searching, "CAROLINE! Is everything satisfactory out there?"

[Raiko]

Gavigan's Office - The Penhew Foundation
7:50pm - Thursday 29th January, 1925

The first door that Caroline opens leads into a waiting room rather than Edward Gavigan's office itself. The room is divided in half, to Caroline's left is a secretary's desk with an expensive typewriter, a couple of filing cabinets and a large potted plant; to her right is a waiting area with some cozy leather armchairs arranged around a polished coffee table. A magazine rack sits against the wall holding scientific and natural history periodicals. There is a large skylight in the ceiling, but no other windows; a painting of the Giza Pyramids hangs on the wall in the waiting area. Outside it has begun to rain, the raindrops patter down onto the glass of the skylight.

Directly opposite Caroline is a second door, it's unlabeled, but presumably leads into Gavigan's office proper, as she opens this door she hears Andrei shouting from the store room.

He shouts out while searching, "CAROLINE! Is everything satisfactory out there?"

As Andrei is shouting his voice is drowned out by a low rumbling sound of stone scraping on stone.

Then out in the corridor, Helen screams.

The Storage Room - The Penhew Foundation
7:50pm - Thursday 29th January, 1925

Andrei and Timour try in vain to push the sarcophogus, they feel it shift a little, but even between them they lack enough strength to move the whole thing, nor can they spot any switches that might operate the mechanism. Then while they prod and push at the top of the sarcophogus Timour's fingers find a small section that can be pushed in. He pushes harder and with a low rumble the sarcophogus rotates on the spot revealing a steep staircase in the floor.

Then out in the corridor, Helen screams.

[Decrepit]

Caroline abandons the office search to see what's happening with Helen.