Play@YSDC

"That sounds fine to me," says William. "I'd want to come down anyway because of Mr. Livingstone. It's going to take some time to get there, of course."

”Thank you,” replied Sheriff DuPont “That will be a big help to us.”

“Now, I expect that it will take you a couple of days to travel down here by train, so how soon do you think you might arrive? We’ll pay for your travel and put you up in a local hotel, naturally,” he said.

"You're welcome, and thank you," says William. "I may be bringing one or more friends too, one of whom was with me at the time. I was thinking of driving down rather than taking the train, though. I'm thinking of starting my trip tomorrow morning. It would probably take a few days." He is none too fond of trains any more.

Listening to William‘a side of the telephone conversation, Ivy arches an eyebrow at the mention of driving down to Louisiana. Surely the railroad is considerably more efficient?

”Are you sure, Mr Preston? That’s going to take you about four days to drive down here,” said the Sheriff. “That’s over fifteen hundred miles!”

Alex would strongly prefer taking a train as well, but decides to wait to voice this complaint until William's conversation is over.

"Look, William, we should just take the chance and travel by rail. We can't give the cult time to prepare; with that article about Georgie out, they know we may come back." Lawrence protests, although he is clearly apprehensive about traveling by rail, himself. He'd nearly died on that train, and Howard did die, but Lawrence knew that he needed to wrap this all up as soon as possible. How could he carry on with life, completely aware that he had left loose ends behind to snag other people?

William nods. "All right," he says reluctantly. "We'll take the train. We can leave tomorrow morning."

Ivy will pack a valise with some changes of clothes and toiletries. After a minute’s consideration, she also puts in her nightstick and pops her newly-purchased pistol - an .22 short - into her handbag.

Looking at my skills I'll stick with my hand gun, I'd rather get a near confirmed hit. Though if allowed I'll buy some extra ammo for it.

After hearing William's information, Alex ponders things for a moment."Hopefully the sheriff is telling the truth, but it does concern me he already knows of this Nyatanga. The man has already essentially blackmailed one sheriff into working for him; we can't be sure he's not pulled the same trick again. I would advise being a bit cautious.

"For starters, given Ivy and myself are not known as being associated with you and Lawrence, I suggest we book a separate compartment on the train and interact with you both as little as possible. We should also have a cover story; perhaps a couple in town for a vacation. This will allow us to conduct investigations of our own while also preventing the cult from identifying us as working together right away. That may be our biggest advantage right now, and I'd like to keep it for as long as possible."

"Yes, I agree," says William. "I deliberately left it vague who I was bringing with me for that reason."

I'll be bringing my pistol, shotgun, and ammo for them both.

OOC, Clothes and all that mundane travel stuff, naturally. As for weapons, he'll bring along Jerry's pistol and a .30-06 rifle (an M1903 Springfield, or something like that), and spare ammunition for both. Anything else can probably wait until we get a better idea of what we may be dealing with.

"God, Reynolds, I wish he'd had you on the first trip! If we have to meet anyone, we should do it somewhere real crowded; that way, they can't just throw bags over our heads and kidnap us, or shoot us dead on the spot." Lawrence suggests. "You and the 'wife' could stay nearby in case something does happen, maybe reading newspapers or something like that."

Feeling her face flush with anger, embarrassment or excitement - she can't be sure - Ivy glares at Lawrence, not daring to catch Alex's eye.

"We, uh, would make, um, quite a mismatched couple," she stammers, mentally slapping herself.

"There's a good ten years between us and I resigned myself to the role of spinster many years ago."

She juts out her jaw defiantly.

"Of course, I'm sure I could play the role of the 'little woman' if required..."

Only now does she steel herself to look at her 'intended'.

"If you think it'd work of course."