Hawkins-chapter 2

[Snapper]

Jalapeno shrugged. "We're out of town-ers, never met the chief till today. We're just here to help with the missing kid. Burger, chips and a beer works for me, thank you."

[Mr. Handy]

"That's fine by me too," says Alicia. "You know what this place needs? A Ms. Pac-Man machine!"

[Mephistophilis]

'Uhm,' stammers Rose, placing a hand over her belly. 'Yes, of course, burger and chips is fine.'

[kabukiman]

She doesn't say anything and leaves you in direction of the counter where she starts preparing the food, watching the tv at the same time.

[Snapper]

"Burger, chips, and a beer. Somehow, the diet of my life. Fingers crossed no salmonella."

"Well, we wouldn't be here if this was just a missing kid. And now there's a power company that doesn't add up. I don't think the DOE do local county power. And I don't think they have security like that."

"County like this, you might expect a local coal fired plant, out to make a buck, probably breaching twenty EPA restrictions nobody gives a damn about. No offence, Bradshaw."

"Or else at a state level, something nuclear that would be huge, would be on every map and we would all know about. And would also be breaching twenty EPA restrictions."

[Mr. Handy]

"I don't mind, I was raised on this stuff!" says Alicia. "Well, except the beer. I had milkshakes instead. This place should have milkshakes. We should also talk to the other kids. They showed up at that place. They must know something about what's going on."

[Mephistophilis]

'Uh, sure, no offence taken,' says Rose. 'I could ring the office tomorrow and see what permits they filed for the plant, see what it's supposed to be anyway.' She tries to think if she did notice any obvious EPA violations, anything that would allow her to get access to the facility. 'I do think those kids might be able to tell us something but we'd need to approach them in the right way.'

70%d%

[Mr. Handy]

"I'm good at that," says Alicia. "I'm basically still a kid at heart. It wasn't that long ago that I was one for real."

[kabukiman]

You start smelling ... burned hamburger? The waitress is distracted watching tv.

[Mephistophilis]

'Um, excuse me...uh, the burgers...' Rose trails off. 'Never mind,' she mutters to herself.

[Mr. Handy]

"I think the food's ready!" calls Alicia. "Good thing I like it well done."

[Snapper]

Jalapeno looked resigned. "Well, cremating the burgers might kill the salmonella. Looks like it's chips, BBQ sauce and a beer after all."

"Yeah, I'm happy for us to go talk to the kids tomorrow. One of you two better do the actual talking. I'll just scare the little bastards."

[kabukiman]

The waitress makes a curse, and returns quickly to the food. After a while, she brings several "crispy" hamburgers (all burned in one side and almost raw in the other). The chips... could be worst. She brings 3 beers.


Rose has noticed the following: the area of the plant is much bigger than a regular plant would need,

[Mr. Handy]

"I'll do it," says Alicia. She eats the edible part of her food, grateful that she has beer with which to wash it down.

[Snapper]

Jalapeno sighed. "Well, it wouldn't be a trip to the boondocks if local PD didn't send us to the worst diner in the county. I could probably eat less meat I guess." He raised his beer in toast to the waitress. "Better than 'Nam."

With surgical intensity, Jalapeno pulled the charred remains out of his burger, replaced it/them with chips between the bun-halves, and munched away between swigs of beer.

"We have to remember too, we wouldn't be here if this was likely just regular nickel and dime stuff. Suspect everyone. Our grade has a pretty high mortality rate."

With condensation from his beer bottle, Jalapeno traced a "J" with his finger for the other two, before wiping it away.

[Mephistophilis]

Pushing the remains of the burger to the edge of her plate, Rose nibbles on her fries. 'That power plant. It's a bit big isn't it?' She waits for a moment to see if anyone else picks up on what she's said. 'I mean, for a power plant of whatever kind. The footprint. It's very large. It doesn't seem necessary. Like maybe there's something else on the site?'

[Mr. Handy]

"You're right," says Alicia. "Something strange is going on there."

[Snapper]

"Good. We're all agreed the power plant needs a follow up. Ideally with a warrant, which we will get the Chief to help out getting."

"And we want to talk to the missing brat's friends, maybe we do that first? Two good leads then. And if all that doesn't pan out, we haven't spoken to the rest of his family yet but that can wait."

[Mr. Handy]

"Yeah, that makes sense," says Alicia. "They've already had plenty of time to get rid of the evidence, and if we talk to the kids first, we'll at least have an idea what we're supposed to be looking for."

[Snapper]

OOC:   Happy to move on to the next day if we're done for the evening.