[IC]Prologue 0.1: The Beginning - Lima, March 1921

[Silver Priest]

"Have to agree," Marcus adds. "De Mendoza is a dangerous man,the more publicity you give your assistant's deaths, the more likely his friends are to retaliate. Still, with the gunshot and assault outside, my guess is someone's going to be calling the guard."

"Probably the safest thing you can do is say you scared an unhinged man off who was assaulting someone, but you didn't get a good look at him. Leave Trinidad out of it." he advises.

[jp1885]

Cynthia Vallier.jpg (18.47 KiB) Viewed 637 times

"Hello, miss. Are you okay?" John asked.

Cynthia groans and tries to sit up, but winces in pain as it all comes back to her - the guy with the mad staring eyes... his wicked grin... the knife....
"Son of a bitch stabbed me!"
Her blurry vision clears and she focuses on John, vaguely recognising him as one of the men who helped her and carried her to wherever she is.
"Sorry, I'm a little sore... I guess you saved my life huh? I owe you one..." She pauses, the effort of talking tiring her out. "I'm Cynthia, Cynthia Vallier. Who may I ask are you? Where the hell am I and more importantly, did they get the nutjob that shanked me?"

[HelplessBystander]

"I'm John. John Smith. Pleasure to meet you." John said, shaking her head, "I don't know what happened next, I ran off the moment there's any sign of conflict."

[Raiko]

Museum - Ground Floor.

Sánchez is visibly upset by Atauchi and Marcus' suggestions, but reluctantly agrees, "Okay, help me move his body then."

He points a little further along the corridor, "We can put him into that cleaning store, the cleaners won't come until Monday morning.

"My brother has a truck that we can use to move the body out of the city after dark. I am not happy to do the same with Trinidad, but yes you are right, we must do what is necessary to stop de Mendoza's friends without anyone knowing the truth."

[Raiko]

Museum - Basement

"I'm afraid you're not crazy at all Amy, although you might wish that you were - it's the world that seems to be going crazy. De Mendoza is a kharisiri, he killed Trinidad, stabbed a girl outside and then tried to kill Professor Sánchez."

Jackson spends the next few minutes bringing Amy up to date with recent events.

[Mr. Handy]

Amy wraps her arms around Jackson, crying into his shoulder before collecting herself. "At least he's no more," she says. "How can such things exist in the world? The girl he stabbed, maybe I can help her."

[jp1885]

"I'm John. John Smith. Pleasure to meet you." John said, shaking her hand, "I don't know what happened next, I ran off the moment there's any sign of conflict."

"Well I don't blame you John - if I'd have seen that creep coming before he got the jump on me, I'd have probably done the same." Cynthia smirks. "If I hadn't left my revolver in my dorm he'd be sorry though."
She shifts, sitting up as much as she can without pulling her stitches in order to take in the hotel room. "Say, this is one swanky hospital, I definitely owe you one." She pauses, her memory of the recent events becoming clearer. "There was another guy too wasn't there? I think I recognised him - Ellis? Elias? A friend of Professor Sanchez anyway." Suddenly, she slaps her forehead. "Sanchez! Damn! I promised Trinidad I'd help her dig out some artefacts in the basement today - that where I was headed when that maniac got me! I can't be late else she'll be cussing me - I gotta get outta here." She tries to climb out of bed, feebly battling with the sheets before woozily dropping back in a wave of nausea. "Or maybe not..."

[Raiko]

The Museum - Basement

Jackson embraces Amy, and holds tenderly her until she has finished crying. Once she has stopped, he finds two tarpaulins on the storage shelves. He covers Trinidad's body as delicately as possible with the first, and uses the second to wrap-up the mysterious band of gold, "I'll carry this if you like? It's pretty heavy, you take care good care of Trinidad's notepad.

"I no more idea than you how such creatures can exist outside of folk-tales Amy, and I'll never be allowed to put any of this into a book, but I'm going to stop everyone responsible for hurting these girls.

"Let's get back upstairs and see if we can help the injured girl."

[Zero]

Atauchi nodded curtly in agreement with Professor Sánchez. He performed a quick search of de Mendoza's body and garments for any personal effects that may contain a clue to his true nature or the whereabouts of any of the other cultists. The tracker then assisted the professor in moving the corpse to the storage closet that had been indicated.

[Mr. Handy]

"Thank you, Jackson," says Amy, letting him take the artifact and holding his arm. "Yes, let's go." She heads back upstairs with him.

[kabukiman]

Michael returns to the hotel after a loooong walk; suddenly he sees a lot of people entering and leaving (more than usual) and starts wandering if he missed something...

[Raiko]

The Museum - Ground Floor

By the time Amy and Jackson get back to the others, de Mendoza's body has been moved into the cleaning cupboard, the blood cleaned up, and Marcus also knows that John was last seen heading in the direction of the Hotel Maury carrying Sánchez's injured student.

Atauchi's search of de Mendoza's pockets revealed nothing, the man - if you can call him that - was carrying absolutely nothing except for the large knife.

As soon as Professor Sánchez sees Amy and Jackson he says, "At last! Now you must all go quickly before the Guard arrive.

"Take the items with you, I shall meet you at your hotel as soon as I've dealt with the authorities. It should not take long, they will care little for a 'missing student.' Please do what you can for Cynthia, we will be the worst university in all of South America if two of our best students are murdered in a single day! I shall try to be there soon."

[Raiko]

At the Hotel Maury, Lima, Peru

The "best doctor in all of Lima" arrives and is directed to Cynthia, he quickly sets to work on her injuries, which are not as bad as they first appeared, although she has lost rather a lot of blood. He compliments John's excellent first aid, which has almost certainly saved Cynthia's life. She needs to take it easy for the next couple of days, but she should recover fine.

Asking what's going on, Michael is told that "that young man in a nice hat" returned to the hotel carrying a wounded girl. He quickly learns the room number that John and Cynthia are in, and arrives just in time to see the doctor leaving.

OOC:   If everyone is happy to leave Sánchez to deal with the Republican Guard, then the rest of your investigators can arrive back at the Hotel Maury now as well.

[jp1885]

Cynthia breathes a sigh of relief when she learns that she's not so badly hurt after all. She thanks the doctor for patching her up as he packs his medical bag. Feeling a little less nauseous, she sits up straighter and turns to John as the doctor leaves the room.
"The doc's right, you did a great job - I owe you and Elias a drink when I'm on my feet again." Suddenly a thought occurs to her: she's dressed in very little and lying on the bed in what is presumably John's hotel room. "Oh, er, just a drink though okay?"
Suddenly, the door to the room opens. Cynthia grips the bedclothes, frantically looking around for a bedside lamp or something else she can grab hold of as a weapon.
"If it's that creep again, he's toast!"

[Raiko]

OOC:   The person opening the door can be any of the other investigators, as the others arrive back at roughly the same time as Michael. So no need to wait for kabikiman to post a reply.

[kabukiman]

"Hi! I was just informed that Cynthia is wounded, how did that happened?"
Anderson is very worried and feels guilty for not being there when he was needed.

[Silver Priest]

Marcus returns to the hotel, the adrenaline from the chase and shooting De Mendoza starting to wear off. He enters John's room and is relieved to see his client is safe.

"Glad you made it, Sir. And from the looks of things you saved the young lady as well; the professor will be glad to hear that."

He pauses for a well deserved smoke; heavens knows he really needs one. "De Mendoza is dead. But until we can tell how many of his fellows lurk in the city, none of us are safe."

[jp1885]

Cynthia's frantically grasping hand finds an ashtray as Anderson, closely followed by Marcus, walk into the room. Seeing no sign of alarm from John, she relaxes.
"Friends of yours John? Well thanks for your concern fellas - my knight in a fancy hat has been looking after me real peachy." She carefully climbs out of bed, wrapping herself in a bedsheet to cover the remains of her dress. "Do me a favour guys? Can you send up for some clothes while I powder my nose? We can save the intrductions for when I'm properly dressed."
"Oh, and De Mendoza? Is he the guy who shanked me? If he's dead, then I shall sleep a lot easier...

[Mr. Handy]

Amy raps lightly on the open door and pokes her head around it. "Hi, I'm Amy Lawrence," she says to the girl. "I've got some spare clothes I could lend you, but they might be a bit big on you. It's good to see you're doing better."

[jp1885]

Cynthia grins. "Hey, thanks!"