Play@YSDC

The Victoria Hotel's address leads you to a busy street not far from the city center. It's late morning and Mexico City is bustling with activity, cars honking and people yelling. A trio of roving musicians plays out a jovial tune for passersby, a few of whom hand coins to the lead singer. At the end of the song, people clap and smile, encouraging the mariachis to start anew. You can feel the energy of the city, and it puts you in a good mood. Despite the real possibility of a violent encounter with a dangerous thug from the cult in the near future, you find yourself smiling.

The tension rises again as you finally reach the hotel, but again it's quickly dispelled by the scene in front of your eyes.. The Victoria Hotel it's an old three-storey building, with a chipped facade and a worn out appearance. An old man sits on a chair in front of the main entrance, his head lowered on the chest, snoring noisily.

Cameron

The sight of the hotel brings Cameron back down to earth. How to deal with this Felipe? He realizes that without the local language, they may not get very far.

“In his letter Felipe said that he would be waiting at the hotel until Ricardo contacted him. Now we have no idea what Felipe looks like, and without the language it’s going to be difficult to walk into that hotel and ask to see him. He’s probably paid the staff to be on the lookout for anyone strange anyway.”

He rubs his shoulder as he thinks. “If we could lure him out, we could grab him. If we pretend that Ricardo is here and wants to see him, he might take the bait.”

Ian Morin

Ian stares at the hotel while talking to his friends. "Yeah, that could work. Another option could be to distract the receptionist while someone tries to take a peek at the book and find our friend Felipe."

OOC:   Would Filch work for something like that?

Cameron replies to Ian.

“That will only tell us which room he’s in, although we’d know if he’s still there. Maybe you’re thinking about accosting him in his room? It could work but it still doesn’t solve the language problem. He’s waiting there to be contacted by Ricardo. How long he’s going to wait? Ricardo won’t be coming, but someone else might. One option could be to identify him, and then follow him to see where he goes, although that might take a long time.”

Ian Morin

"Well, maybe he does speak English. According to his letter to Ricardo, they're having some trouble with someone named Brooks, who apparently lost control of things here. I bet he's talking about Jonathan Brooks, Echavarria's friend. He must be the Mexico connection. If Felipe can deal with Brooks, he can talk to us. What do you think?"

Cameron

“Yes, that might be true. I suspect that he’ll pretend not to be able to though, so I’ll have to get tough. I still want to lure him out and grab him though. That way we can control the situation better, and we can prevent him from warning his friends afterwards. Are you two okay with that plan?”

Ian Morin

Ian hears Cam's plan, and after a few seconds pondering looks at Clarence nodding in approval.

"Sure."

Clarence nods, puffs out some smoke from his cigarette and says: "Fine by me. Do you want to take him for a ride somewhere quiet? I can get the car close and be ready to pick you up".

Cameron

"Yes, we'll need to have somewhere to keep him. We should do that now. A quiet place where we won't be disturbed. And something to restrain him."

Cameron's voice is flat and cold. He hopes that Felipe won't make things difficult for himself.

Clarence nods and says: "I'll buy some rope and get the car ready. Give me fifteen minutes, then you can go get him".

OOC:   So, how do you want to proceed? The man at the front door is still sleeping, so you can easily sneak inside. A Stealth roll from one of you would be enough to check the register unnoticed and find Felipe's room. Or you could wake up the man and ask him.

Cameron

"Hold on, we can't interrogate him in the car. We need to take him somewhere quiet."

OOC:   We need to have somewhere to take him first. We probably won't be able to let him go immediately as he may try to warn the others. That might take the rest of the day to arrange.

"Well, if we just head outside town, there will be plenty of space to interrogate him. There's a desert out there. I'm not sure we can easily find a place to hold him, though, we're strangers here", Clarence says.

Cameron

"But what do we do when we've finished talking to him? He'll go straight to his friends. If you leave him in the desert, he may not make it out. I don't see what choice we have".

Ian Morin

""Hmmm... In this case can't we just make sure he's alone, break into his room for a chat and let him there, restrained?

Cameron

“Sure, but restrained for how long? We don’t know what he will tell us and how it will affect our subsequent actions. Plus, someone might see or hear us. No. We grab him, and take him to a room where we can keep him prisoner. He’ll feel more helpless and vulnerable. If the room is secure enough, we can leave him there until it’s time for us to get out of here.”

Clarence looks uncertain: "How do you propose we proceed? It won't be easy to find a safe place like that. We would need some local contact. And probably be ready to pay a lot of money".

Cameron

"You’re right, it won’t be easy. But it’s safer to do it this way.”

He pauses for a moment.

“I just thought of something. What about using the plane? We’ll have to ask the pilot to cooperate, or to take a break. But it’s private, and shouldn’t take much organizing.”

Clarence nods, smiling: "Nice idea! As the plane should be stored inside an hangar, once we get the car in, we should have all the privacy we need. Let's make a quick call to Frank, but I'm sure he'll have no problem with our plan".

Cameron

"Good. Then we can get the other things we need."

OOC,We'll need something to restrain him, preferably handcuffs, and something to hood him with. Anything else?

Ian Morin

Ian nods at his friends. The plane seems to be their best shot. "I think that'll do it. Handcuffs can be tricky to find with our limited communication, but few meters of rope would do just as well. Shouldn't be hard to find a hardware store of some kind around here. Let's go."

It's not hard to find some rope to buy, along with an empty sack to put over the man's face. After that, a short phone call it's enough to enlist Franck's help - a man of few words, he'll help you with anything as long as you're doing Mrs. Winston-Rogers's job. Once you get to the airport, he'll be ready to open the hangar and let you in.

Then, all that's left it's actually kidnapping the man.

Cameron lays out his plan.

“We’ll need to lure him out, then get him into the car and restrain him. I suggest the easiest way will be for one of us to go to the hotel and tell him Ricardo is waiting for him, and then drive him to the airport. He won’t know us, so he might be suspicious and will have to be forced, so maybe I should be the one. I’ll tell him I work for Ricardo up in LA. One of you should be in the car too just in case he changes his mind and doesn’t want to come. What do you think?”

"All right", says Clarence. "I'll be in the car, and I think it's best Ian waits with me. He might be recognized, we can't take that risk".

Cameron

"We need to pick a spot which we can easily get out of. Watch it for a while too. We don't want to get surprised by the cops. Once I'm satisfied, I'll go get Felipe".

You double check the hotel and the surrounding area. The hotel has a back door, that seems to be locked, but not particularly robust. In case of need, it could be easily slammed open with a shoulder charge.
The area is little trafficked, both by people and vehicles. Getting away in a hurry in case of trouble should not be a problem.

The man sleeping near the front door is now awake and cleaning the main hall with slow, unenthusiastic sweeps of an old broom.

Cameron

The car and the restraints ready, the snatch point located; Cameron feels ready. He checks his pistol and strides into the hotel.

Seeing the man sweeping, Cameron addresses him using the little Spanish he picked up in prison.

"Buenas Dias señor. Señor Felipe, por favor." He holds out an American five dollar bill.

Ian Morin

Ian sees Cam approaching the man and lights a cigarette. "Ok, we are on. Let's hope for the best."

The man smiles as the bill disappears inside a pocket, then says: "Cuarto numero once". As Cam looks at him questioningly, he writes down an "11" on a piece of paper and gestures him in. Less than a minute later, Cam is in front of the door to the room number eleven. The interior of the hotel is not dirty, but looks neglected, with paintings left hanging crooked, and tapestry that should have been changed years ago. The noises of the city disappear inside, and there's a general atmosphere of sleepiness. No one seems to be around, and no sound comes from inside the room.

Making sure that his gun can be drawn quickly, Cameron knocks on the door.

There's no answer from inside the room.

Cameron puts his hand on his gun, and slowly turns the door handle.

The handle turns without a sound and Cam slowly pushes the door open, just enough to slip inside. Luckily, considering the state the hotel is in, the door opens without creaking. Soon, though, it becomes clear that being cautious was unnecessary. There's only a body inside the room, laying on the bed on his back, shirt drenched in blood. The mouth has been horribly mutilated with a knife or some similar tool, and it's unsettling just to keep watching the mess. The dead man seems to be mexican.

OOC:   Roll against a Stability loss.

The mutated face of the dead man turns Cameron's stomach, and he has to walk away. He wasn't expecting such a sight. Trying to pull himself together, he begins to search the room.

OOC,Cameron will spend 2 points to offset any loss. [url=http://orokos.com/roll/559965]Stability Loss[/url]: [u]1d6[/u] [b]6[/b]

OOC:   How long can he estimate that the man has been dead for?

Cam steels himself and begins to examine the body, relying on his past experience as military medic. The man was definitely killed within the last few hours, the cause of death are multiple stab wounds inflicted with a long knife. The same knife appears to have been used on his mouth. All the teeth are still there, so the wounds were not inflicted to remove any of them. It simply appears as if someone enjoyed disfiguring the man's face after his death.

The man has a gun on him, behind his back, but it doesn't look like he had the time to use it. On the left pocket of his trousers there's a wallet with a few dollars and an ID identifying him as Felipe Morales. Nothing much of interest can be found on his body or in the room.

1-point Evidence Collection spend,There's a small note hidden very carefully inside one of his bags. It says: "PO1629 check if anyone picks up the mail. Report on local activities and situation at Luz Records. T. wants answers".

Cameron takes the gun and the note and leaves the room, wiping any surfaces he has touched. He heads back to meet the others.

It's dark by the time you reach the Luz Records offices. The small street is empty and dark, and there seems to be no one around.

It all looks pretty calm to Cameron. He breathes a sigh of relief.

"They must have gone back to the hotel. Let's get back there" he tells the others.