IC: Maksim, Thomas, Andrei & Caroline Drive to Harlem.

[Raiko]

This thread currently for Maksim, Thomas, Andrei & Caroline only, it will contain spoilers for all other player, so please keep out.

If you're meant to be here scroll down....

Timour’s Car – Central Park West, Heading North
1:45pm – Friday 16th January, 1925

The four investigators, armed with their pistols, [OOC: Caroline armed?] pile into Timour's car and head north towards Harlem.

There don't seem to be any tails this time...

The traffic is relatively quiet and the drive will take about twenty or thirty minutes.

[OOC: I'll let you all post at least once before you reach Harlem]

[Decrepit]

(OOC: Caroline has no weapons skills beyond the basics except with Rifle. I think she'll pass; she's more likely to shoot herself or others.)

Caroline broods as she sits in the car, clutching her bag. How did I let them talk me into this? she wonders, then remembers she volunteered, more or less. She tries not to show her worry, but it's likely written all over her face.

[Maksim Rukov]

Maksim kept quiet as he focused on the road but his mind did wonder just how long it would take to sort this mess out. He knew he'd made a mistake in bringing up the risk of civilian casualties. It was a crime to think about it, much less talk about it, better to go in with guns blazing and look shocked when it happened. He was a fool to think that the risk to other people's lives would mean much to these sorts of people. After all, what could the paupers do in retaliation? The police would side with the rich victors, they always did.

He wondered how long he'd have to continue working with these people and he wondered what he should do afterwards. If he made enough money, he could perhaps try and start up a book store. He did so love books. Or perhaps he could try and make money on the radio... He did have a voice for radio.

The question was how to make enough money that he wouldn't need to do a job like this again. He had a few ideas on that subject but nothing concrete. Given time, however...

[warhammer]

In addition to his gun, Thomas packed a baseball bat in the trunk.

Not willing to needlessly worry before they even get there, Thomas simply sits back and relaxes for now.

[Raiko]

Lenox Avenue, 50 yards South of 137th Street – Harlem, New York
2:10pm – Friday 16th January 1925

Maksim finds a good place to park on Lenox Avenue, just south of West 137th Street. Lenox Avenue is always quite busy, and with a fair number of flashy cars, so hopefully the big touring car won’t stand out too much.

The alleyway that he followed the thugs the previous night is about a hundred yards along 137th Street itself, to the north of the street. Presumably that is where they will find Ju-Ju House.

[warhammer]

"Unless they have photograps, they might not ALL know what we look like exactly. Thus, for now, we might just be harmless customers." says Thomas "So everybody be cool... and keep your weapons handy."

Thomas steps out of the car, smokes a cigarette, then is ready to go. His gun is in the inside pocket of his coat. He decides to leave the bat in the trunk for now.

[Maksim Rukov]

Maksim checks himself in the rear-view mirror and methodically smooths his hair back, wipes a few beads of sweat off his upper lip with a handkerchief and straightens his tie. As he does the last thing, he notices a small red stain on his shirt's cuff and tucks it back a little behind his jacket.

Then he leaves the car, his face settling into a jovial smile, his shoulders slouched forward ever so slightly, belly pushed out in an effort to give a mild paunch to his slender frame, hands thrust deep into his pockets, the very epitome of an upper class dilletante gone slumming. His eyes go somewhat dull, the sharpness gone to his features as he slackens the muscles. No tension, no bother, no worry, no thought.

He moves over to Caroline and offers her an elbow to hold and for a moment the mechanical disinterest is visible, enough to show her this was business, not a game, but then he gave her a sleazy smile for the benefit of the passersby.

[Decrepit]

Caroline takes Maksim's arm and pulls herself from the car. She'd almost rather stay behind in the vehicle, but she realizes that it's probably more dangerous to be alone than to venture forth with a well-armed and -prepared group.

Seeing that Maksim is acting for the sake of onlookers, Caroline tries her best to look diffident, as if where they were headed was of no moment to her, as if she had every right in the world to be wherever she wanted to be. Beth could pull off such an entilted, imperious look better than Caroline herself could, she was sure, but she would have to do her best. Maybe she could do some good after all; how many cult members would think a raiding party would bring a woman like her to a fight?

[Maksim Rukov]

"Honey bun, I've heard of the most adorable little shops near here," Maksim murmurs in her ear, leaning down to do so. "A good place to spend a little money, get a few ornaments of your own, maybe get a drink afterwards... This Harlem's got some very fun jazz clubs, I'm sure they'd be incredible fun. You'd like to dance, wouldn't you, toots?" He keeps her close, trying to bring her very purposefully into the middle, hoping to keep Thomas to her right and Andrei to her back. "Of course you would. We know all the hot spots to fox trot."

He goes on at length for as long as Caroline will allow it, babbling superficial inanities into her ear as he casually looked around, acting all the world like a rather more talkative version of those that passed them by. However, he kept his voice fairly low, hoping that the constant chatter might provide a cover for any important phrases he decided to speak.

The type of talk isn't particularly unusual but no doubt reminds Caroline of the sort of obnoxiously smug behaviour that convinced her not to date. Every word Maksim speaks is that of someone who sees her as a pretty face with a pair of long legs. He drops no hints that he thinks otherwise about her and dismisses her attempts to converse back with him as though she were quite dull, attempting to turn the conversation over to the other two.

It's not hard to drone him out, however, as his voice is pitched at the sort of level that drifts off into the background with ease, and it neither obscures much of what can be heard around them nor is loud enough to grab any attention.

[Decrepit]

Caroline tries to keep up the patter but finds herself talked over by Maksim. Apparently, he doesn't think I understand what he's doing, she muses. And "toots"? "Toots" was carrying things just a bit far, even when one was playing a role, she thinks, and if they made it out of here alive, she tells herself, she would have a word with the oaf.

Still, she could see that he seemed to be trying to shield her a bit physically, and she supposed that, in his own way, he meant well. And he didn't seem to be quite the blunt instrument his brother was.

[coffee demon]

Andrei follows the other three, wearing a hat low over his head, and slouching as much as possible to conceal his massive frame. He's carrying his leather satchelbag, with his pistol concealed in the bottom.

He tries to keep his eyes on the ground to hide his face, but whever he looks up, Andrei is taking note of the surroundings.

[OC: especially the following:
-Location of Alleys. He would especially like to see if there's an alley behind the JuJu House.
-Location of Vacant buildings or other places where the JuJu house could be watched in safety (for future reference).
-Stairwells and fire escapes leading up the JuJu house building.
-Other businesses above and below the JuJu business.

Andrei will very strongly argue against entering the JuJu house. He thinks they should try not to be recognized by anyone in the JuJu house as well.]

[Raiko]

[OOC: To speed things up, and to allow Andrei to conduct his recon, I’m posting that you walk around the block.]


Walking around the corner onto West 137th Street the four can now clearly see the alleyway that leads to ‘Ransom Court’ and Ju-Ju House. It is still nearly a hundred yards away, but the others can already see that as Maksim indicated it is very narrow, barely wide enough for a single automobile to enter.

The buildings adjacent to the alleyway are crumbling tenement buildings, as are the buildings directly across 137th Street, the entrance to the alleyway, and the alley itself are overlooked by many tenement windows.

The four investigators stroll casually along the street on the opposite side from the alley, glancing discretely down it as they pass. Unfortunately the litter strewn alley is narrow enough and long enough to make it impossible to spot Ju-Ju house without walking down there. The alley does however undoubtedly open into a small ‘court,’ no doubt Ransom Court, confirming that the address of Ju-Ju House and the alley the thugs used are one and the same.

Walking once around the block reveals that there aren’t any other alleys close enough to contain back entrances to ‘Ju-Ju House;’ however there is an abandoned pawn shop on 138th Street, that may well back onto the same court.

[OOC: I’ve included a very poor map, the car is parked on Lenox Avenue at the location of the green dot. The red building is the abandoned pawn shop]

[warhammer]

"I've said it before and I'll say it again, we won't ever get what we want without actually entering the JuJu House." says Thomas, looking at the others in the eyes, most notably Andrei who seemed the most opposed to entering. "But you're probably thinking what I'm thinking, this abandoned pawnshop could allow us to get a peek at the court beforehand."

"I also reckon we could go and ask a few of the neighbours if they ever noticed anything wrong with the place. Surely, all these folks ain't bad people."

[Maksim Rukov]

Maksim meets Thomas' eye and gives a little shrug, indicating that he's willing to follow their lead. He's sure he could come up with a hundred lies to cover their trail while talking to the folk who live near here but was pretty certain he'd either screw up or get scolded, no matter which tactic he chose, so he turned to face Andrei, who was the one paying his wage, still holding Caroline close to him.

"Sir?" Maksim asks, waiting for instructions and indicating through body language that he expected Andrei to lead the group, all the while trying to let Thomas know through a brief nod and catch of the eye that he appreciated Thomas' intelligence but the boss was the boss. He figured neither of them would understand. Language was such a finicky tool... In Russia, maybe they would have understood.

But then, back in Russia, maybe he was just arrogant enough to assume they knew.

[coffee demon]

Andrei pauses for a minute. He's been following and watching, and Mak's indication for him to lead puts him off-balance. He was barely even listening to Thomas, being too caught up in his own thoughts.

"Lets keep walking around the block," Andrei mumbles, not wanting to be singled out for loitering on a corner.

Keeping his voice just as low, he continues, "That pawn shop looks like a great place, I agree. Why don't we wait until later tonight, after the party, and get in there? When it's less conspicuous. Now that we know the layout, we can make a better plan."

"Go ahead and as questions if you want, but I think I should wait in the car. People may recognize me from the society photos."

Andrei is aware of his snobbish comment, and wishes he didn't say it. These things just slip out of his mouth sometimes, especially when he's feeling less secure - he blames it on his noble upbringing.

If Maks will give Andrei the car keys, he'll return and wait in the car. He hopes that the others won't take too long, or try anything too dangerous, with one less gun backing them.

[Maksim Rukov]

Maksim passes the boss the keys and carefully keeps all threat of disrespect out of his eyes. Andrei was one of those who had gotten them into this mess, he was more then keen on dragging them all out here and now he was going to go wait in the car? Perfect officer material, unwilling to accept any risk or responsibility. The only thing Andrei was apparently willing to do was scold other people for speaking out of line. Yet obviously he deserved far more respect and kindness then either of the Rukovs could ever expect.

Society pages... Yes, because it was far more likely that some dilletante wandering around Ju-Ju house would recognise him from those pages then some gangster with a gun who had doubtless memorised all of their faces from surveillance photographs or a pair of binoculars.

He looked at Thomas and Caroline, half expecting admiration for a 'good fellow' in the eyes of one and mild infatuation over the 'right stuff' in the eyes of the other.[/b]

[Decrepit]

Caroline crinkles her nose. "Fellows, let's make a decision without much more walking. I can't imagine anyone keeping even a, what, 'look-out' would fail to notice us circling the block more than once."

She clears her throat, her arm still in Maksim's. "I agree that more things are likely to happen tonight than in the daylight, but wouldn't it be prudent to have someone surveil the JuJu House in the meantime? Maybe someone could skip the party? Doesn't seem like we all need to go."

[warhammer]

"I'm warning you..." says Thomas when Andrei considers getting back to the car already. "I'm going to enter the JuJu House, not later tonight, but now. If it's too much for all of you to handle, then that's okay with me, get back in the car and leave me here. I'll get back with a cab if needed. My associate could still be alive in there, but the more I wait, the less likely it will be."

Thomas's opinion on this will not change, no matter what the others tell him. He is indeed ready to go in alone if needed.

"The folks living around here are poor, that's no secret. Once we find someone in a nearby building who seems willing to help a little, we can probably offer them a few bucks to watch over the court for us and call for help in given circumstances."

[Decrepit]

Seeing Thomas's resolve, and withdrawing her arm from Maks's, Caroline says gamely, "I'll go in with you. If we can find your friend, perhaps I can help." It seemed like a great risk, but these days breathing seemed like about an equal risk to her. Her duty as a physician to help those in need further prompted her to overcome her general aversion to risk taking. Looking around at her companions, she resolves that someone had to take the next step. Andrei seemed well meaning but prone to vascillation, moodiness, and perhaps even cowardice. Maksim was no coward, but he'd been acting more and more like a whipped puppy, passive aggressively subordinating himself to Andrei, perhaps to absolve himself of responsibility for anything.

In any case, action was required, and just standing around or ridiculously trotting around the block as if they were all out for a stroll seemed--at least at the moment--worse than taking the chance that Thomas seemed bent on.

[Maksim Rukov]

"No offence, sir, but I doubt any local here has access to a telephone," says Maksim. "They'll have to run for a street telephone and if they do that, there's a good chance that someone loyal to these gangsters may note down who they are. Asking questions won't endanger anyone but making anyone more active..."

Maksim tenses up, expecting to be berated for what is 'obviously' a redundant point. "Sir, if you wanted to search Ju-Ju House, why didn't you wake up Timour? He is far more then equipped with the skills required to perform a forced search." He sighs, realising that this actually was a redundant point, and starts heading for Ju-Ju House.

Oh well, they did say death comes in threes... At least they had the numbers right.