Play@YSDC

Liz breezes into the truck stop, leading the group. She has taken the opportunity while at Albert's to shower and change into a pair of blue denim overalls and a red blouse that had been in her suitcase instead of the outfit she had been wearing for the past week. Not only did it smell, but the sweater had a stab hole in the back. She looks around for Andy to see if he's shown up yet.

Clay is a bit more cautiaus looking for cops and any camera's in the place.

Clay notices that not untypically the place if full of cameras, there is a pair of motorway cops chatting away as they buy food at the cafe.

Andy Wade

Arriving thirty minutes ahead of the arranged time Andy pulls into a parking space and waits a few minutes with the motor still running. Whilst waiting he makes a note of the vehicles that pull into the services and scribbles the make/model and licence plate of each and how many occupants there are*. Then putting the car into gear he pulls out of his space and parks near to the entrance a row back, making sure he has a good view of anyone coming or going.

Then he pulls out his Thermos** flask and pours a cup of steaming coffee, which he sips while pretending to read the paper.

OOC:   * If any do indeed arrive ... say up to 5 mins after he does. **Being a tightwad Andy plans to let the others arrive, wait a bit and see who else turns up... anyone looking a bit 'Albanian' for instance.

Some skill rolls (just in case - Keeper can allocate),[dice]0[/dice]

Andy spots Liz and Clay as they walk into the service station. He thought he'd recognise the jewish chap, but perhaps he's not come with them. There are lots of people who look as though they could be a 'bit' Albanian, but no one acting particularly suspiciously.

Clay doesn't like all the cameras' but it is what it is. He guides Liz away from the cops, just to make sure we aren't overheard by them. Not too worried about being spotted.
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"Don't see him here, are we early?" Clay says.

Liz checks her watch. "If we are, it's not by much," she says. "Maybe we should order some grub. Otherwise people might wonder what we're doing here."

"Agree, lets order and eat. If he hasn't shown by then something happened to him." Clay finds a booth for 4 and sits down at it. "Have a seat sis," figuring he might as well get into the role now, picks up a menu and looks for a special with a lot of food on it, when he thinks about how little they've eaten over the last week.

"Thanks, bro," says Liz, sliding into the seat opposite him. She looks through a menu too.

Andy Wade

Andy finishes reading a piece about the mammoth task that is due to get under way today - work officially starting on building the Olympic stadium. Satisfied that things seem in order and that no one has been followed, as far as he can tell, he finishes the last of his coffee and screws the cup onto the flask. Then shoving the paper onto the passenger seat he opens the car door and gets out. Locking the door he makes his way into the service station proper.

Making his way through the swing doors he slowly looks around walking towards the dining area. Spotting 'Liz' he moves over.

"Hi there, sorry I'm late." he says as he draws closer and sits down. "Ohh, I could murder a decent fry-up." he adds picking up the laminated menu.

Clay smiles when he sees Andy, "There you are mate, man you look like shit." then in a bit of a softer whisper, "anyone following you?"

Liz grins at Andy too. "It's good to see you're doing better," she says. "What's been going on lately?"

Andy Wade

Andy smiles wryly at Clay's comment, "Yeah, I've been better but the Consultant said I'm healing well..." lifting his hand to his head and patting the knitted cap lightly... "There will be scaring but thanks to you guys I got help before things got a lot worse. And anyway... you should see the other guy.." he chuckles but the smile doesn't reach his eyes. "Nah, no one followed, I got here earlier saw you arrive and waited for a bit. I'm no expert but there's no one I saw acting suspiciously.

"Thanks Liz and glad that you both look OK... no one was unscathed though... how is everyone? You had a nasty cut and poor Albert how's his leg?

"It healed well, though I'll have a bit of a scar too," says Liz. "Luckily it's not in a place that's usually visible. Albert's got a limp, but he can walk again. The others are doing all right too. I had a chance to poke about on my computer during our recent downtime and found out some interesting things."

Andy Wade

Andy nods as Liz talks, "All things being considered we were lucky to get out alive, still have nightmares about that house. You saved that girls life, last I checked she was stable but serious... better than her parents... what a mess!"

"I did some research too, I mentioned about the death of Prof Grundy to you. What I left out is that he was found with a kilo of heroin! My source said it was almost pure, not the stuff junkies get on the street. Seeing as the 'Albanians' are into drug-smuggling it's pretty certain that they set it up. What have you managed to work out so far?"

"I have nightmares too sometimes," says Liz, empathy in her eyes. "I hooked up the hard drive we salvaged from the computer to my laptop and looked through it. There were interesting emails on there, and attached to one of them was a more recent draft of Professor Gosshamm's thesis than the one we had seen before. He still didn't have enough evidence, but he had been planning a trip to the Northern Mountains in Albania, where he was going to meet his colleague Maria Demachi. He also thought there may be evidence in Malta, but the dig there was shut down. He believed that the Verbetoi, the same lot that killed him and the others, are descendants of a very ancient people who may have lived in Malta before migrating to Albania."

"Wow, so maybe a trip to Malta." Clay says between mouth fulls of food.

"Wow, so maybe a trip to Malta." Clay says between mouth fulls of food.

Liz nods. "That's what I was thinking," she says. "If we're going to look into the killings in London and Wales, it would make sense to do that first, but I don't know if we'll learn anything new there. The dig site's closed off in Malta, so it will be harder to get inside. After that, I have a feeling that it's going to come down to going to Albania before it's all over."

Andy Wade

Andy tucks into his 'fry-up' as Liz brings him up to speed.

"Maria Demachi I've come across that name in the research I carried out, she heads up the Albanian Archaeology Rescue team. If she's involved then whatever it is that they discovered could already be concreted over.. I wonder if there's a simple way to obtain a list of large building projects in Albania; that might help pin down what her involvement might be. Do you think this Demachi is a target too.. or perhaps she's involved with the Verbetoi in some other way? The police are pointing the finger at 'drugs' citing Gosshamm's frequent trips to Albania... all roads seem to lead to Tirana as they say.. " he smiles wryly.

"Professor Gosshamm had been to Tirana before, about a month ago," says Liz. "I saw a ticket stub from his flight when I was in his office talking to his aide Shauna Wilcox and helping her sort through his things. I think Maria Demachi could very well be in danger, and she's in the Verbetoi's home turf. As for construction projects in Albania, I can see what I can find online, and I can also do a search on her to see what else I can turn up."

Andy Wade

Andy ponders what Liz says "I agree, finding out more information on Ms Demachi would be a prudent thing to do, at the very least we should attempt to warm her. Mind you she's probably aware of the murders, unless she is in a remote location." Pausing to mop up some egg-yolk with a piece of fried slice before continuing "That is if she needs warning... if these Verbetoi wanted to 'silence' this group wouldn't you start on your home turf? There's the possibility that she is in cahoots with them..." he shrugs, indicating that there's not a lot they can do about any speculation.

Andy eats some more... casting his eye around the dining area.. "Are the others up to an overseas trip?"

Clay is trying to get all this straight in his head, "this is a lot to take in. But I'm thinking once we go to Albania we won't be going to Malta. Could be a clue there to all this we might need? I'm up for whatever you guys want, I just hate to miss something thats important." Then he goes back to finishing off his eggs.

"I think the others would like to get out of the country even more than we do," says Liz between bites of her syrup-drenched pancakes. "Albert had sent Maria Demachi an email warning her of the danger before we went to the house. From the emails between her and Gosshamm it sounds like they were close, so it's hard to imagine she'd have betrayed him, but I suppose we can't rule it out. And you're right, they may have already dealt with her, but I'm hoping she's all right. I think we should go to Malta first and see what we can find out. Once we go to Albania, there's no going back until it's all over."

Andy Wade

"Did Albert get any kind of response from her and would there be any way to track back to him form that message?"

OOC:   Is the consensus that we move on to Wales poke about there for a bit?

"I don't know if he did or not," says Liz, "We couldn't exactly get online where we were for the last week, at least not without risking being tracked. But he sent it before all this broke loose. I'm sure it could be traced back to him, especially since he wasn't trying to hide who he was at the time."

Andy Wade

"We should get Albert to check his emails pretty soon then. In the mean time we ought to make our travel arrangements; it's probably not worth going to Wales.. poking about will only draw attention to our selves.. instead I can ask my editor to get any information, that wouldn't raise too many eyebrows."

"Sounds good to me," says Liz. "We can book a flight to Malta and pack our things. The sooner we leave the better. I'm not worried about the authoriies near as much as I am about the Verbetoi."

I'll start a Going to Malta thread here.