IC: A Trip to Chinatown

[Timour Rukov]

Timour waits, (he wasn't actually that good at jumping out of moving cars) but displays his displeasure with a Russian snarl, <<"Were the lights on?!">>

[Maksim Rukov]

Maksim keeps an eye out for phone boxes but as soon as he rounds the corner, he does a U-turn and parks on the side of the road behind another car, hoping to stay somewhat out of the enemy's sight while being capable of seeing if Elizabeth or the others come out the door.

"Flashlights only. They were being sneaky but not sneaky enough. If they wanted to trap us, wouldn't they leave the lights on? The only way they'd keep it looking dark was if they either wanted us to think Andrei and the others are asleep - which is unlikely considering how little time has lapsed - or they don't want to startle the others when they got home. Think about it. If one half of the team had just come inside, why would you make it look like no one was home? Why not make it look comforting? Unless..."

Maksim's eyes widen. "The others didn't make it back. Think about it, they might have gotten a tail too, but they wouldn't know how to shake it. That taxi they called... No, I'm getting too paranoid. Please, brother, I'll help you do what you need to do but we need to think on this. Thomas went home on his own. The others probably aren't here. If we race in there and get ourselves shot up, who's going to help them."


He grips Timour's arm. <<Please, brother, don't let me lose you too.>>

"If we call the cops, they'd rush over in force, it's a toff's building. Ten minutes, tops, for them to get here, we can watch and wait and if they leave, we follow them. We follow them back to their den. You want to be aggressive? Let's find where they take us. Go back to the nest. Make it go up in flames if we have to."

[thewhatchamacallit]

At this point Timour is sulking but listening to Maksim's advice.

[Raiko]

There is a pay phone further down the street that Maksim has parked on. It's out of sight of Andrei's apartment and the 'cultist' car parked outside.

[OOC: Please give Grafster chance to post before leaving the car]

[Grafster]

[OOC: Sorry. Still sleeping a lot right now.]

Johnny says, "Lets leave the ones in the car for now and go upstairs through the side enterance."
"The men in the car won't be terribly interesting, but the searchers may have, or know, something."

"Calling to give them warning seems like a poor idea. I'd rather take them by surprise."

[Maksim Rukov]

"I wasn't about to ask them who they were," says Maksim. "I thought someone with less of an accent..." At this point, he looks at Timour. "...could pretend to be someone else. Just in case they answer or get one of those we know to answer. This may be a little late to get a phone call but it's not exceptionally so."

"If you make a disturbance up there, however, you might well find the ones downstairs coming after you, anyway, at which point you'll have two sets of enemies bearing down on you, not to mention who else might be lurking on this street."

"Of course, the most blood-thirsty and easiest option is to drive by slowly and shoot them in the car with the BAR before rushing inside via both front and side stairs." He snickered. "They wouldn't be expecting that. But then, all we'd be doing is killing more henchmen. Still, now that I've said my piece, I'm willing to let you two decide."

"I think I should stay in the car, though. Tail them if they leave. If we risk splitting up, we need to know another place we can meet."

[Grafster]

[OOC: Wasn't the BAR in the apartment? Did we really re-wrap the darn thing and then carry it down the house]

Johnny says "The goal is to avoid gunplay. If we start a fight down in the street the people up in the apartment may notice as well. If they have guns we'd be in a bad position. We seem to agree that the men in the car are probably not imporant."

"If we deal with the men upstairs quietly and quickly then the men in the car may not notice us. If they do? They will probably wait. Their job is to sit in the car and keep it ready. If they come up they come up but they'll have to run up several flights of stairs. The situation upstairs should be resolved by that time anyway."

Johnny is fairly adimant about not engaging the men in the car, especially not with guns.

[OOC: And, since we haven't gone to Chinatown yet, we only have Johnny's pistol (and maybe the BAR).

[Timour Rukov]

<<"Sneaking! The Goddamn work of cowards!>>" roars Timour in Russian. "The enemy is there, I am armed, let us slaughter them all and eat their hearts! I tire of all this slinking about if they are too Goddamn stupid to leave us be then they deserve what they get."

Snapping the breech closed on his weapon Timour motions to his brother, <<"we waste time while our allies die. Take us back, I'm ending this.">>

((Timour is just frustrated at this point, he wants to help but feels panted into a corner. Oh and G, Timour's BAR is attached to his arm as long as he has no pistol ))

[Maksim Rukov]

"I really don't think they're there," says Maksim. "If they were, why all the pretense about no one being home? If they were nabbed, they may have been nabbed en route. If we go and kill them we'll never find our friends."

<<I feel your anxiety, brother, but let's not waste time with worker ants when we can take out the queen.>>

"Let's wait and follow them home. If we wait long enough, we will have our answer if we see our friends come out, though I doubt they are there. If they intended on killing our friends, they likely have already, and if they had, then why not turn on the light switch to lure us inside? A house light is less suspicious than torches."

<<If they all come out, and you really intend on killing them, then they will be ideally placed on the side of the street.>>

[Grafster]

OOC: This post has been edited to properly reflect what Maksim actually said.

The situation: We’re in a car, near Andrei’s apparetment, where we’ve sighted
1. Car out front, black guys, waiting
2. Flashlights upstairs in Andrei’s apparentment; assumed to be searchers

The opinions
Timour: Our guys are in danger, lets get in there and help them. Start with the closest foes and work our way in. Happy to use BAR and or methods that could attract attention.
Maksim: Doubts anyone is in danger. Would prefer to wait it out and follow the followers.
Johnny: Sneak in the building from a side entrance; deal with what’s in the apartment first. Would prefer to avoid attracting attention.

Since we’re all fairly set in our opinions I see two basic possibilities
1. Persuasian roll to see whose idea we go with.
2. We do some sort of gestalt. Johnny slips in the side enterance, gets up stairs. If Andrei and the others are up there and in trouble he fires his gun, and Maksim and Timour BAR the guys outside (and we probably try to flee the country). Johnny goes upstairs and doesn’t see Andrei or anyone then Maksim and Timour wait downstairs in the car. If the baddies leave before Andrei and them get here then we follow the baddies. Otherwise we provide support.

[Raiko]

All OOC Stuff:

I'd prefer it if you could sort this out without making skill rolls against each other, but I'll leave that up to you.

If you decide to use skill rolls, it would be fast talk rather than persuade skill.

What said all along that Timour was fetching the BAR, and so he does indeed have it with him. I'll assume that it is always 'in the car' or 'in the house' with Timour unless another character specifically objects.

Of course everyone (except Timour) knows that actually using the damn thing in the middle of New York is a terrible idea.

[Grafster]

OOC Good morning Raiko!

I have to admit that I like my gestalt idea. I allows Johnny to do a bit of sneaking, Timour the 'possibilty of using the BAR' but most likely will lead to us following them when they leave the apartment.

And thus not actually doing anything dramatic (and suicidal).

Johnny thinks about how feasible it would be to get into the Andrei's building through the back door.

[thewhatchamacallit]

OOC- Yeah, Timour wants to start blasting but if Maks says it's a bad idea he's inclined to listen, he'll just grumble about it.

He's one of those controllable, combat monsters

[Raiko]

[OOC: Are you all going with Grafster's 'sneaky' plan?]

He's one of those controllable, combat monsters

An excellent resource for any party. 8)

[thewhatchamacallit]

Sure, though Maksim may be away until later this week

[Maksim Rukov]

Maksim is very much here now! Maksim will try and stall for time. He'll want to know the answers to four questions first before even thinking of agreeing...

"I say that if Elizabeth, Andrei and Caroline were up there, the gangsters wouldn't risk appearing so suspicious that they would walk around with flashlights. Better to just have a light on. Does anyone have any reasons to suspect that our friends aren't as observant as we are, didn't notice the light, and didn't just keep on driving?"

"If they aren't up there, what benefit will we have separating so you can creep around upstairs on your own, or with Timour, leaving me unarmed, rather than simply tailing the others to their home when they leave?"

"If we do separate, and these two are summoned away elsewhere, we would either have to separate even more so I can follow them, or let them leave, potentially losing our one chance to rescue our friends, were they captured en route. Does anyone have a better idea of what we should do were that to happen?"

"If they notice you, just how are you going to survive for long enough that Timour can reach you? Chances are, he'd take too long. We'd need a back-up plan."

"And finally, if you go up there and get yourself killed, not only will we have your funeral to go to, but any chance of tailing somewhat unwary gangsters will be gone."

[Grafster]

Maksim is very much here now! Maksim will try and stall for time. He'll want to know the answers to four questions first before even thinking of agreeing...

[OOC: Either choice is equally good from a story point of view IMHO.

"I say that if Elizabeth, Andrei and Caroline were up there, the gangsters wouldn't risk appearing so suspicious that they would walk around with flashlights. Better to just have a light on. Does anyone have any reasons to suspect that our friends aren't as observant as we are, didn't notice the light, and didn't just keep on driving?"

Johnny stops. Leans back. Pulls out his tobacco pouch. Puts it away.
"All of that is possible. I don't think it's likely that they noticed, per se, but if they did it's entirely possible that they would have gone off somewhere else." he says finally.

"If they aren't up there, what benefit will we have separating so you can creep around upstairs on your own, or with Timour, leaving me unarmed, rather than simply tailing the others to their home when they leave?"

"I'm saying that Timour stays in the car with you."
Johnny points at the BAR.
"If that's your idea of unarmed.... I don't know that I want to know what you think armed is..."
"It is not necessarily true that these fellows are not going to stay here for some time. If they think they're being watched then, in my opinion, and I have been doing this for some time,... In my opinion they are signficantly more likely to leave that to hang around anyhow."

"If we do separate, and these two are summoned away elsewhere, we would either have to separate even more so I can follow them, or let them leave, potentially losing our one chance to rescue our friends, were they captured en route. Does anyone have a better idea of what we should do were that to happen?"

"Look," Johnny says "I am not disagreeing that you're suggestion is the most probable. You're a bright fellow and you've probably got the right of it. But we're behind the eightball here. And to get out of it we got to oursevles some more information. Right now somebody's doing something that I didn't expect. That's been happening a lot. I'd like to get a bit closer and see just who that somebody is and what they're up to."
"How are they gonna get summoned? You think they got a phone in that car? They're gonna sit there until the searchers are done."
"And yeah, maybe something happens and the two of you and your machinegun, go for a bit of a trip without me. But that means I'll be here when Miss D and the rest swing by."

"If they notice you, just how are you going to survive for long enough that Timour can reach you? Chances are, he'd take too long. We'd need a back-up plan."

Johnny smiles tightly. "Don't take this the wrong way. But I wasn't asking you or your brother to come rescue me. It's to far and your only weapon's a bit large.
The plan is for you and Timour to sit tight.

"And finally, if you go up there and get yourself killed, not only will we have your funeral to go to, but any chance of tailing somewhat unwary gangsters will be gone."[/quote]
"I can take care of myself just fine. -If- they see me." Johnny does his best to stress the first word in the second sentence.

"With all the events of the today I can understand you being a bit jumpy. It's possible that somebody is just rolling your rich buddy's apartment for money. I'm not saying that it's not something else, but there are a lot of possibilities. The negro fellows may not have anything to do with the flash lights upstairs and they may or may not have anything to do with this whole voodoo nonsense."

[Maksim Rukov]

Maksim gives Johnny a real look of respect, twisting in his seat to do it. "Okay, you sound like you know your stuff and you've reasoned it all out. I figure you for the kinda man who won't rush in doing anything potentially stupid. However, the same can't be said for us. If we hear fighting up there, we're likely to come for you, and then we'll likely all die."

"And sure, you wouldn't think those in the car could get summoned, but if the others were captured en route, how do we know they won't pass on a signal? For all we know there's one of them waiting in a phone booth or that if they see a particular car drive by, they're going to rush off, leaving those upstairs lying in wait. More spy-related behaviour than gangster..."
He shakes his head to clear himself of the tangent. "Okay, so how'll you get in?"

[Grafster]

Johnnyfishes a out his tobaco pouch; but he just pulls out a toothpick and starts chewing on it.

"Look, you don't need to come rushing in. For starters, I can take care of myself. For seconds I'm not planning on getting into much trouble. And since they haven't got the lights on they probably aren't either. For thirds I've got the pistol if it comes to that."

"People die from time to time but it's not happening tonight. What happened to Elias was a shame. But that sort of thing just doesn't happen regular like."

"And I do agree that it's peculiar that Miss D., Andrei and the Doc aren't here yet. But don't think that anybody picked them up off the street."
Johnny frowns.
"At any rate since they aren't here what's most likely is that they stopped in for a drink somewhere. The second most likely is that they saw the lights in the window, or the fellows out front, got a bit rattled and headed to grand central to get the last train out west."

"As for getting in, I'll slip in the side door, easily if it's not locked, taking some time if it is. Then it's upstairs to see how many of them there are and what they're doning. If it's a lot of fellows in masks then obviously it's a serious situtation. If it's just a couple of fellows who heard some russian aristocrat lives here and are looking for family jewels then it's not so serious.
If it isn't either?
Then maybe this whole Carlyle criminal-conspiracy thing has legs."

"If the car leaves you stick with it as best you can. Remember, following a fellow.... it's like it's like..."
Johnny removes the destroyed toothpick from his mouth and absentmindely replaces it with another.
"It's like fishing. You can have great worms, and a good poll and bet a great angler.... some days you just aren't gonna get any fish."

"What I'm saying is that sometimes you get made and the important thing is not to let it bother you. If you can't follow them then don't"

"I'll probably be back down within 20 minutes. If you follow them then lets meet back at the Downing's Mansion in the morning."

{OOC I don't know if this means we split the thread again. Johnny gets out of the car (out of sight of the main enterance) and works his way into the building. He'll use the stairs and move up assuming that there will be someone in the stairway watching out for trouble.

[Maksim Rukov]

"No," says Maksim just before Johnny gets out. "At Davenport Park, dawn. Best we meet up soon as possible. The mansion may well be being monitored."

OOC: Davenport Park can be that park Maksim was first seen at at the start of the campaign.