1. Characters

1.1. PCs

	Angelina Hawthorne, a New York socialite and expert pilot. (Image of Jean Harlow; played by Karen Gilham.)
	Kohana (aka Lilian Roberts), a half-Lakota tracker using her gifts in the urban wilderness. (Image of Patricia Velasquez; played by Owen Smith.)
	James (Jack) Snabell, a native of Brooklyn who maintains strong connections with the shady side of life. (Image of Humphrey Bogart; played by Phil Masters.)
	Bruce Starling, a former cop from Australia who's now pursuing a new career in New York. (Image of Paul Hogan; played by Bug.)
	Togo Watanabe, a Japanese former cop from San Francisco who got fed up with always being assigned to cases in Chinatown. (Image of Toshiro Mifune; played by John Dallman.)

1.2. Significant NPCs

	Pietro Donati, a legitimate Italian businessman. (Image of Mike Mazurki.)
	Eileen Clancy (aka Mary Houlihan, aka Barbara O'Malley, aka Kathleen McCoy), a small-time con-woman and thief. (Image of Gene Tierney.)

2. Calendar

3. Moon phases for 1937

New Moon	First Quarter	Full Moon	Last Quarter
			Jan 4 14:22
Jan 12 16:46	Jan 19 20:01	Jan 26 17:14	Feb 3 12:05
Feb 11 07:34	Feb 18 03:49	Feb 25 07:42	Mar 5 09:18
Mar 12 19:31	Mar 19 11:45	Mar 26 23:11	Apr 4 03:53
Apr 11 05:10	Apr 17 20:33	Apr 25 15:23	May 3 18:37
May 10 13:18	May 17 06:49	May 25 07:37 n	Jun 2 05:23
Jun 8 20:43 T	Jun 15 19:02	Jun 23 23:00	Jul 1 13:02
Jul 8 04:13	Jul 15 09:36	Jul 23 12:46	Jul 30 18:47
Aug 6 12:37	Aug 14 02:28	Aug 22 00:48	Aug 28 23:55
Sep 4 22:53	Sep 12 20:56	Sep 20 11:33	Sep 27 05:44
Oct 4 11:57	Oct 12 15:46	Oct 19 21:48	Oct 26 13:27
Nov 3 04:15	Nov 11 09:33	Nov 18 08:10 p	Nov 25 00:05
Dec 2 23:11 A	Dec 11 01:12	Dec 17 18:52	Dec 24 14:21

4. Events

It's a cold and rainy morning in Manhattan; the Christmas spirit has worn off with a vengeance, and now is the time to keep hats pulled low and collars turned high. Lilian, Jack, Bruce and Togo arrive for their first day of work for Teal-Saunders Investigation, a small but expanding private detective and bodyguard agency. Their first case concerns Maria Passeri, a night-club singer, who seems to be being stalked by an over-enthusiastic fan.

The team rides the bus up to Little Italy, where Maria lives and currently works; Togo splits off to keep an eye on her apartment building from a coffee shop across the road, while the other three go to the apartment. The building is fairly run-down - the elevator clearly hasn't worked for a long time - but kept decently clean. Even at eleven in the morning, Maria is stunning, though how much of this is artifice cannot easily be guessed; she looks somewhat on edge, and explains that, starting just after Christmas, first flowers then notes have been being left in her apartment. On Friday, when she got up, she saw a face dimly in her bedroom window (on the fifth floor), though it whipped out of sight before she could get a good look. She's spoken to the police, but there's no sign of forced entry and they can't act. Bruce and Lilian examine the notes, and detect a faint smell of expensive cologne (not one that either of them recognises); Jack has a thorough look around the apartment, but doesn't find anything of note. The window where Maria saw the face has a very narrow ledge outside, and someone with little fear of heights could move between there and the fire escape.

Maria's been singing at Inferno for the last two months, but was planning to take up a new engagement at Fei Lung, a club that opened recently in Chinatown. On the other hand, if this goes on she's thinking of leaving town for a couple of months instead.

The team gets back together, and decides that Lilian and Bruce will visit Inferno that evening; meanwhile Jack and Togo will lurk in her apartment in the hope of catching anyone who comes in. Jack talks with the building's superintendent, who is helpful but doesn't know much. During the afternoon, he asks around his friends; Inferno's a fairly hot club (on the edge of Little Italy), which has a bit of a reputation for having famous names before they become famous. Fei Lung is down in Chinatown, and has only been open a couple of months; it's one of the few Chinese establishments that actively encourages non-Chinese business, and it's been quite fashionable of late. Maria hasn't been associated with anyone in particular, but she does have quite a few admirers; one in particular, who went out with her a few times but hasn't been seen with her since a few weeks before Christmas, is Pietro Donati, a legitimate businessman about whom very few people have anything bad to say.

Inferno is jumping; a combination of the bad weather and the acts performing tonight has brought in a serious crowd. Lilian and Bruce are discovered to be old customers, who had of course reserved a stock of liquor in the cellar before Prohibition was imposed (there's nothing illegal about consuming liquor, just making or selling it). A poster on the wall says "POLICE RAID: Thursday, 7.30". The pair of investigators scan the crowd while Maria sings (which she does very well), but while she has quite a few enthusiastic fans there doesn't seem to be anyone "creepy" enough to be worth following.

Meanwhile, shortly after Jack and Togo have settled in to wait, someone picks the lock of Maria's apartment and walks in, fairly stealthily. Togo confronts him (from behind), and he swears volubly in Italian. He admits that he was trying to scare Maria out of town, but explains that this was because he didn't want her to go and sing at Fei Lung. People disappear from that place...

Session: 1 December 2004

More specifically, since it opened last October, two singers who were working there have vanished: Christine Mason, early in November, and Joanna Forrest, early in December. (Specifically, November 12 and December 7.)

Jack and Togo talk with the man, and establish that he's a former boyfriend of Maria's, who reckons that trying to warn her off directly would have been futile - "have you ever tried to tell her to do something? Be ready to dodge." Togo suggests that he might like to hire Teal-Saunders to look into the disappearances, and he agrees that this might well be a good idea. It turns out that he is Pietro Donati, in person.

Meanwhile, at Inferno, Angelina joins Lilian and Bruce, having been delayed by financial investigations. Lilian notices Alexander Forrest (the leader of the five-piece band that's alternating sets with Maria) talking in a friendly way with a somewhat overweight man in his sixties. Both of them seem very pleased with themselves.

After Maria's second set, the three detectives escort her home, where Togo carefully explains the situation. Maria starts off by saying she's damned if she'll let anyone dictate her career to her, and gets angrier; when Lilian points out that Maria's determination is playing right into the hands of whoever's kidnapping girls, she has to dodge a thrown vase. Other crockery follows, less well-aimed, and the group leaves in some haste.

Togo and Angelina return to Inferno to see if it's still going strong (it is); Jack and Bruce trade shifts staking out the apartment; Lilian goes home and gets a good night's sleep.

Tuesday, 5 January 1937

She is unsurprisingly the first person into the office in the morning. When everyone has arrived, Lydia Teal explains that Maria Passeri has cancelled her contract with Teal-Saunders (but is prepared to pay for services rendered), and that she is rather surprised but does not in principle object to the group taking a job from a well-known businessman, son of the very successful coffee importer Tomaso Donati.

The group splits up and looks for information. While the two girls Pietro named do indeed seem not to have been seen lately, they haven't been missed enough for anyone to undertake a concerted search - it's a big city, and sometimes people want to drop out of sight for a bit. Unlike Maria, they haven't been seen out with Pietro.

Bruce and Lilian check out Chinatown, a fairly small area at this date. Bruce seems to favour approaching the management of Fei Lung and asking for their cooperation; Lilian reckons this is not a great idea.

Togo decides that if he's going to visit Fei Lung he needs a decent suit for that evening, and tracks down Zephaniah Golder, a tailor working in the Ghetto area. Zephaniah makes no remark at either his unusual build or the pistol under his shoulder; indeed, when he goes back to pick up the suit that afternoon, not only is it a masterpiece but the pistol hardly shows at all.

Togo, Lilian and Angelina go to Fei Lung to get a feel for the place; it's a bit awkward, as if a normal club and a Chinese establishment had collided (some of the Western ladies present are wearing Chinese dresses, though they don't really seem to carry them well), but it seems to be popular even so; The Hot Six are providing music at the moment, with Maria expected to start alternating sets with them on Thursday. The street in front of the club is cordoned off to provide a landing and takeoff area for autogyro taxis.

Bruce and Jack go back to Inferno to fish for information. Jack gets talking with Steve Hensie, the piano player in Forrest's group, and establishes that the group's just signed a deal with Imperial Records - it'll keep them out of circulation for a while, but it should make them a decent amount of money. It turns out that Joanna Forrest is Alexander's niece ("or something"); Steve thinks she's moved to New Jersey, and certainly hasn't seen her recently.

Session: 16 December 2004

Wednesday 6 January 1937

Lilian and Jack spend the afternoon and evening trolling the nightclubs and speakeasies in Jersey City in the hope of tracking down Joanna Forrest; nobody there's seen her or heard of her working in New Jersey at all.

Angelina works on the finances of Fei Lung, and discovers that most of the threads seem to lead back to one Lo Feng. Whether that's because he's taking a direct interest or simply because he's one of the main investors in Chinatown is less clear.

Thursday 7 January 1937

Jack and Bruce spend the evening at Fei Lung, keeping an eye on the crowd and secondarily on Maria, who doesn't notice them. All seems to go well.

Friday 8 January 1937

Togo wakes up with a note on his pillow: "She didn't get home this morning". As the investigators travel to work, they hear that a body's been fished out of the East River; it's been identified as that of Christine Mason. It's hard to be sure, but it looks as though she's been dead for about a week.

Togo, Angelina and Lilian go to Fei Lung; Lilian reads the footprints in last night's snow, and realises that Maria - or at least someone with her shoe size and stride length - walked out of the back door, round the side, and into the street. At that time of night, around 2.30am, she wouldn't have been able to rely on buses being available, and in those high heels she wouldn't have wanted to walk far in the snow, so there's a fair chance she got a taxi from the temporary rank in front of the club.

They proceed to Checker headquarters, where after a bit of persuasion they learn that none of their drivers picked up a lone woman passenger last night. The dispatcher says he'll ask his drivers about it as they come on duty; Checker has the taxi concession at Fei Lung, so someone ought to have seen something.

Meanwhile Togo, Angelina and Lilian take a gyro taxi up to Maria's apartment in Little Italy. The caretaker didn't hear her come in, and there's no answer at her door. They verify that nothing has landed on the roof, either - though as the caretaker says, it can only just support the weight of the snow.

Bruce, trading on his reputation as a good cop, goes and talks with the police about Christine Mason's body. They aren't giving out much information to the public, but to him they're willing to admit that the cause of death seems to have been a drug overdose of some sort - though not a drug they recognise instantly.

Jack has been visiting Imperial Records' studio, and talking with Alexander Forrest (particularly mentioning Christine Mason). He leaves Forrest rather more nervous than he found him, and preparing to ask around his relatives to see if anyone knows where Joanna is.

When everyone gathers back at the office, it's mid-afternoon; it occurs to Angelina and to Togo that all the girls who've vanished have done so a few days before the new moon. On the other hand, Christine lived through at least one new moon after her disappearance... maybe it's something that requires a zeppelin to come in undetected, though the way the skies have been recently that could happen at just about any time.

The Checker dispatcher calls in. He's spoken to quite a few of his drivers, who tend to have an eye for registration numbers (they're the best way to spot a friend while one's waiting for passengers). The Empire State registration 11479 was a Metroliner in Checker livery, but isn't one of their cabs.

At City Hall, Angelina bats her eyelids at a registration clerk, who reveals that ES11479 was written off in October - collision with the Park Avenue Bridge up in Harlem. It's registered to an Henri LeBlanc. Jack has heard of him; he's from Louisiana, he's been in town about six months, and he's something of a major figure in the African side of organised crime.

Angelina contacts her cousin in the Broadway Bombers, Raymond "Boxcars" Hawthorne, and asks about recent illegal aerial activity. There hasn't been much - most of the smugglers have switched to hiding their cargos among conventional freight, possibly because their notoriously poor maintenance has a way of coming back to bite them in this cold weather.

Togo and Lilian take a look at LeBlanc's place in Harlem. It definitely stands out as the best-maintained building around, and even has a rooftop hangar. They ask some salvage companies near the Park Avenue Bridge (just a few blocks from LeBlanc's) about the gyro crash, but are met with blank looks - they would certainly have been bidding if anything like that had happened...

Jack asks his contacts about respray work on gyros. It happens all the time - there are plenty of places that can disguise a vehicle's identity. Slightly oddly, they don't usually change the registration numbers - New York aerial cops carry thick books of current registrations and models, and while they may not always be perfectly up to date, a registration that's missing or doesn't match the model number will be cause for being pulled over at the very least. (They don't even bother to try to keep up to date with stolen vehicles...)

Togo, who's been feeding regular reports back to Pietro Donati via Pietro's father's coffee shop, goes there and talks briefly with Donati, who suggests that he might go "clubbing" that night.

Saturday 9 January 1937

The morning papers report a fire in Harlem, at LeBlanc's place. The photographs are very impressive - apparently it was the only building that burned, with the more ramshackle buildings on either side practically undamaged.

Donati's sent a note to Teal-Saunders' headquarters: "The gyro you're after fled to a warehouse near the West Washington Market". It gives an address.

Session: 12 January 2005

Togo goes to visit the warehouse, which appears to belong to Reynard Exports. It seems to be a fairly standard warehouse building, with a large rolling door at the front and an office section at the back with its own door.

The team members decide that they're definitely more scared of Mr Donati than of Mr LeBlanc, on the grounds that the former knows who they are and where they live. So it would definitely not be a good idea to leave it too long before taking a look inside...

They keep watch on the warehouse during the day, and see two figures, one of whom leaves for about an hour and returns with two large travelling bags. After dark, while Lilian keeps watch on the front, Togo forces the back door and goes in with Bruce and Jack. (Angelina stays at home, on the basis that she's not really well-equipped for violent situations.)

Inside the warehouse is the autogyro (still in checker colours) and a large dump of aviation fuel. In the office space is a manhole with a ladder leading down, from which some dim light is emerging - it looks as though it would normally be hidden under a rug. A quick search reveals a scrap of cloth which is likely to have come from a woman's dress.

Togo leads the descent, into a concrete tunnel. As soon as he leaves the immediate area of the ladder, he finds the tunnel is painted black, with various strange symbols - Jack reckons they might be voodoo or something of that nature.

The tunnel opens out into a larger room, which has been decorated with more symbols, some of them drawn with variously-coloured powders, and the naked body of a man who appears to have been ritually murdered. On the far side of the room is a doorway, which is the source of the light; there would normally be a curtain covering it, but this has been drawn back.

After the three investigators have made their way to that doorway, Togo takes a look in. He sees another man, the one who left earlier, taking bundles of money from the boxes that are stacked high in here and stuffing them into his bags. He attempts to sneak up on the man, but is heard; the man pulls a gun, and after a brief exchange of fire is mortally wounded, falling down in a flurry of banknotes. (Togo is rather glad of his protective vest, even if it is going to be uncomfortable when the weather warms up a bit.) The man's wallet identifies him as one Charles Dupre.

The tunnel continues from this room and ends in three cells, two of which contain the two missing girls, who appear to be in near-catatonic states. Each cell also contains a wardrobe, which turns out to be full of expensive women's clothing and accessories.

Togo searches the main room, mostly looking for the cell keys. There are several hundred thousand Empire State dollars, mostly in small bills, in the boxes (some of them now have bullet holes in them where Togo's shots overpenetrated; he recovers the bullets and takes a few bills as samples). There's also an assortment of powders, some of which were presumably used for drawing the symbols outside. At the bottom of one of the bags, partly concealed by bundles of cash, is a leather document case which contains several pages written in cipher.

Bruce manages to coax Maria and Joanna into a slightly responsive state, and everyone leaves. They collect Lilian (who hasn't overheard any of the gunfire), and arrange for Angelina to pick them up and take them to Lilian's apartment in Queen's; the girls are still barely responsive, having clearly been doped with something, and Lilian reckons that some of her herbal knowledge may help fix them up.

This turns out to be the case. While she's working on that, Togo gives the police an anonymous tip to look at Reynard Exports. He then gives Jack custody of the document case, and heads off to report to Pietro.

Pietro is happy. He remarks on what a pleasure it is to deal with professionals, and mentions that if he ever has any further need for discreet services he'll definitely turn to this team. Togo gives him one of the banknotes, and he remarks that it's a really excellent forgery job; none of the local forgers is producing good work in that sort of quantity, and he might have some jobs for this guy... but dumping that much currency into circulation at once would have been seriously bad for the economy.

Meanwhile at Lilian's, both Maria and Joanna have regained something like normal consciousness. They seem to be amnesiac; the last things they remember are leaving the club and getting into a taxi. Lilian and Angelina stay to keep an eye on them overnight, while the gentlemen depart.

Sunday 10 January 1937

Maria's going to stay with an aunt in upstate New York. Angelina visits Alexander Forrest, who's just getting back from church; he's almost pathetically grateful to hear that his niece is safe, and suggests that she could stay with his other brother, who keeps a small farm in rural New Jersey. Angelina suggests that he try to keep the news quiet, in case whoever snatched them wants to find out what anyone else knows; he says he'll keep it within the band.

Angelina borrows an autogyro and drops off the two girls, with Jack along in case of trouble.

The morning papers mention a gang fight at the Reynard warehouse, but don't go into much detail. (They certainly don't mention a massive amount of money found at the scene.)

4.2. Business in 'T'

Session: 9 February 2005

Wednesday 3 March 1937

After a couple of months of routine work - mostly divorce cases and general information-gathering - Miss Saunders introduces our heroes to their latest client. She says that his bona fides are good, then retires, to leave the investigators facing a boy of about 15, well-dressed but ill-at-ease in his clothes - giving the impression of someone just too old to be a numbers runner, feeling his way into major-league thughood. This is not in fact accurate; he introduces himself as Charley Astor, of those Astors, and a friend of his is missing.

This friend is Nikola Tesla, whom many of those present have heard of - thirty-odd years ago he was a pioneer in radio and electrical work, but he's rather faded from sight since then. Charley's reported it to the police, but apparently he's sometimes vanished before, so they're not taking it seriously; and when he claimed the lab was ransacked, they asked how he could tell. "You'd better come and see for yourselves."

After a short gyro flight to Long Island, Charley shows them a warehouse; it resembles most closely a wireless set that's been hit by a bullet that's bounced around inside for a while. There's a massive motor-driven van de Graaff generator at one end of the room, near the curtained-off area that apparently serves as a sleeping room when Tesla's working on something big.

Charley makes a list of what's missing, while explaining that he last saw Tesla on Sunday evening around 9pm. He came back to see him yesterday (Tuesday) morning, but found the lock forced (he produces it; it's been broken with a crowbar). It becomes apparent that he's been feeding quite a lot of his allowance towards Tesla's work, mostly by being in charge of going out and procuring food and equipment.

The list contains a number of standard items of equipment, but also has several high-density capacitors, a couple of flasks of mercury, and a "teleforce projector"; this is apparently one of Tesla's older projects that he's never managed to get working, though he goes back to it now and again. It's some sort of "death ray", apparently, and sucks up lots of power - they've been driving the generator off city current for tests.

"The flying machine has completely demoralized the world, so much that in some cities, as London and Paris, people are in mortal fear from aerial bombing. The new means I have perfected afford absolute protection against this and other forms of attack." (1934)

A sweep of sensible places for fingerprints - a full dusting would take weeks - shows two sets that aren't Tesla's or Charley's by the terminals of the van de Graaff generator, one of which is probably female.

Angelina looks at the noteboards, and sees that Tesla's recent work has mostly been on building smaller radio antennae for aircraft. Some of the other stuff is stranger, and more interesting...

Lilian checks outside for tracks; apart from those of their own gyro, and a police van, she finds sign of two Metroliners in the last few days. Bruce and Togo ask around, and find a night-shift worker in a nearby warehouse who's about to go home. He saw the gyros land on Monday night, and about half an hour later heard them take off again. They had a symbol which he describes roughly: a woman's hand, open, above an airship. Jack recognises this as the sign of the Yoyos, a sky pirate gang.

The investigators head to Tesla's hotel and long-term residence, the New Yorker, back on Manhattan; it's seen better days. He was last seen on Saturday; there don't seem to be any other clues here.

Jack talks to his contacts - the Yoyos are a medium-sized gang based in Columbia, the area surrounding the capital of the former USA. This state makes most of its foreign exchange from offering a neutral venue for diplomacy and a convenient transfer port. The Yoyos have been working more up into the Empire State recently; the supposition is that they're growing greedy. They do have an airship to support...

Angelina talks with her cousin Raymond, who can confirm this; they have a fair idea of where the Yoyos' base is, but can't attack it as Columbia won't allow foreign militias into its territory (and doesn't have sufficient resources to take action itself - its air assets are mostly used for border patrols, to make sure any incoming goods are properly taxed.)

Angelina, Jack and Lilian cram into a fast gyro and head over to Columbia - as tourists - to see if they can spot the Yoyos' base from the air and thus pinpoint it for a follow-up attack overland. This is easier than expected; the column of smoke from the burning zeppelin does rather give it away. The place has clearly been shot up from the air; there's no sign of life, but plenty of recently-dead bodies. They land, and Jack and Lilian look around the hangars and other buildings, most of which have been on fire but are now only smouldering.

In one of the buildings they find a man pinned under a roof-beam. He's clearly in very bad shape, but under Lilian's medical attentions and Jack' careful rigging to lever the beam off him, he manages to say a few words. The Yoyos had apparently kidnapped "the scientist guy" for a group of Unionists, who turned on them after they'd paid them, shot most of the Yoyos on the ground, then strafed the buildings - all of this on Tuesday night. The Unionists' base was "somewhere near Jenkins Landing".

An inspection of the aerial charts, on the way back, reveals that this is a small town in Columbia, with quite a few private airfields around it...

Session: 9 March 2005

The team arranges for floats to be added to a 6-seater autogyro, and retires for the night.

Thursday 4 March 1937

After Lilian has stocked up with food and medical supplies, just in case, the investigators fly (low and subtly) down to Jenkins' Landing. Lilian spots a decent place to land, and ties swamp foliage over the gyro to conceal it from search. The team spends much of the day checking the various landing fields: two, belonging to the Tea Party and the Sons of Hamilton, show signs of new construction. On closer observation of the latter, it seems to have rather more generating capacity than is standard for an airfield supplied with mains currency; there's also quite a bit of equipment being carried to one of the anti-aircraft gun pits, as well as a large power cable being laid from the generator house.

The investigators wait until sunset, then Angelina and Lilian lurk near the front gate while Bruce, Togo and Jack cut the wire fence and sneak in. As they're doing so, they are somewhat startled to see a bolt of lightning stretch from the gun-pit, pass over their heads, and vanish into the distance to the north-west. The chicken-wire fence drips sparks for a few seconds, and their hair stands on end. Clearly, the teleforce projector is working...

Bruce, Togo and Jack head for the generator house; Jack sneaks in and gets the drop on the man who's working on the generator, then invites the others in. The lights dim again, as they did before the last bolt; Jack takes the opportunity to throw the main breaker, then commit some minor sabotage in the few seconds before they dash out again.

Angelina and Lilian notice a small explosion from the gun-pit, just before all the lights go out. The others stay outside in the dark until they see what's going on (most of the people on the base head for the hangars; some go to the generator house and start to restore power, though the outside lights don't come back on), then head for the other lit building. This turns out to be half barracks and half laboratory, and a figure who looks very like Nikola Tesla is asleep on a cot in the latter.

Bruce, Togo and Jack ambush and shoot the guards, and unbolt the door to the lab. Tesla is somewhat surprised to see them, and explains that these nice gentlemen have been assisting his work, since they share his dream of cities safe from aerial bombardment. Bruce attempts to convince him of the invalidity of this opinion of Unionists; meanwhile, Togo and Jack start to exchange gunfire with the group of ten or so who are advancing on the barracks. Thanks to accurate shooting, including some careful sniping by Lilian from outside the base, they're persuaded to stop shooting and start talking; Togo convinces them that letting the investigators take Tesla away, then coming back and hiring him legitimately, is by far the best option all round.

Note: A critical Diplomacy check certainly didn't hurt.

With a certain amount of shuffling for position - on the basis that these guys are known to be scum, but they presumably don't want to hurt Tesla, so he makes a useful shield against potential violence - the inside team leaves, and they all make their way back to the gyro, with Tesla still protesting faintly. Although the gyro gets a Sons of Hamilton escort, the flight back to New York is otherwise uneventful.

As soon as the investigators land, they call Charley Astor to the airfield, in the hope that he can talk some sense into Tesla. Charley's very excited to hear that the teleforce projector has actually been made to work, and arranges for a private interview with President LaGuardia the next day: now that someone else has taken the major risk, the Empire State's government can almost certainly be persuaded to take on Tesla as a contractor.

Friday 5 March 1937

The papers describe the mysterious bolt of lightning that struck a landing cargo airship in Washington DC last night...

4.3. I Wonder What's Become of Joe

Session: 16 March 2005

Tuesday 16 March 1937

The team is asked to take three small packages to Frank Morgan, in room 902, Parsons Hotel, Clarksburg, Appalachia, and to expect possible further work from him when they get there. Those who don't already have their own aircraft are lent company Avengers; Angelina takes Lilian as a passenger, Bruce takes Togo, and Jack flies solo.

Bruce seems to be having trouble with the northern hemisphere: twice he turns north when he means to head south, and he catches a piece of boundary fence on his plane's landing gear on takeoff (but shakes it off over the Hudson River). The flight is generally uneventful, though Lilian spots unusually heavy patrols over the Empire State border with Appalachia; they're Black Swan members, which suggests that they're expecting trouble.

On landing at Clarksburg, the most obvious thing is the smell of distillery fumes. Appalachia is a wet state surrounded by states that either are dry or have heavy taxation on liquor; there's a big production and export business, legal and otherwise. As the investigators leave the airport, they see the bottom end of this market: "Best Hooch, $1/Bottle".

After a short taxi ride into town, the group goes to the Parsons Hotel, the second-biggest hotel in town. As they approach Morgan's room on the 9th floor, they hear a thump from behind the door. Togo kicks it down to see a body lying on the floor and hear the sound of footsteps descending the fire escape. Togo gives chase, followed by Bruce and Jack.

Togo heads down quickly, relying on his climbing ability to make rapid progress; he makes out a figure below, carrying a large briefcase. As this man sees Togo following, he turns and lets off a few shots with a silenced gun; his aim isn't great, but he gets in one good hit and slows Togo slightly. He hits bottom and starts to dive into a waiting car; Togo jumps down the last twenty feet, breaking the man's arm but rolling to avoid damage to himself; the man's friends pull him into the car, but the briefcase is dropped. As Togo takes a few shots at the departing car, someone inside it opens up with a tommy-gun, and he quickly rolls behind the fire escape. Jack and Bruce have also taken a few shots at the car, without immediately apparent effect.

In the room, Lilian checks the body: he's been shot through the heart at close range, and is very recently dead. His wallet claims that he's Frank Morgan. Angelina looks through the room: apart from the usual suitcases (with a surprising number of Appalachian dollars sewn into the linings) and clothes, there's an expensive-looking camera with a range of long lenses. The back's open, and the film canister is missing.

That would be, as Togo discovers, because the briefcase that was being taken away is full of film canisters, notebooks (in a personal cipher of some sort) and a few developed prints. While Jack is patching him up, the group looks at these: they show a group of men clustered round a scale model of part of a city, measuring with threads between various tall buildings and some sort of central square. Angelina thinks it looks a bit like the centre of Lexington, capital of Appalachia.

Clearly there's something strange going on here; opening one of the cases they were delivering (assisted by Angelina's new clockwork lock-picker) reveals a long .303 gun barrel. Jack re-locks it, and by quiet consensus the briefcase is put with the courier load before the police (called by Angelina) arrive.

The police take a while, and are surprisingly uninterested, or perhaps just uncommunicative. Thanks to Angelina's diplomacy, they are persuaded not to keep the packages the group was delivering (including the briefcase) as material evidence (something they showed every inclination of doing before). They ask the group not to leave town for a few days; one of them stays to keep an eye on the room while the others leave. It's hard to be sure, but Angelina thinks the one with the notebook is taking rather more interest in the group than in the room or the body.

The group retires across the road to the Anderson Hotel, and has lunch. (Jack rejoices at finding himself somewhere where alcohol is sold openly and legally again, and starts to work his way down the whiskey list.) They try to call Teal-Saunders, but the phone lines are down. ("Probably the ISA bombing them again. Or Dixie.") Instead, they send a letter, containing the same version of the story they gave the police.

Togo picks up a map of Lexington and some local newspapers. The only face that's in both the prints and the papers is that of Vernon Roberts, who seems to be the head hatchet-man of Jasper Stevens, the "moonshine king" who runs Clarksburg.

Combining the papers with Angelina's and Togo's knowledge of North American politics, it seems that President McCullough is holding Appalachia together through force of personality, popularity and high political skill, and has recently allied it with the Empire State; Jasper Stevens is his main rival and rather less popular, but might be able to get a coalition together in his absence. His foreign politics are unknown. And McCullough is due to make a public speech at Cheapside, in downtown Lexington, on Friday...

Session: 23 March 2005

Angelina and Lilian work on breaking the cipher in the notebooks, and get the names of the other people in the photographs, as well as an understanding that the sniper ("A") who shoots the president is himself set up to be shot by another sniper ("B") on the other side of the square. (Presumably neither of these was Morgan.)

The team decides to get back to New York and call in the experts. Their taxi is followed on the way to the airport, but a few swift corners throws off the tail, and they saddle up and start to fly homeward... at least until they get near the border, when they start to pick up radio traffic indicating that it's been closed. Angelina attempts to blandish the lead of the flight that intercepts them, but while he'd clearly like to let her through he has his orders - the border's been sealed for "national security reasons".

As the team turns away, the two Appalachian planes that had been behind them turn with them; the investigators decide to throw them off by navigating through mountain passes. Angelina takes an opportunity to drop back unseen and get a position of advantage on the Appalachian flight; one of them loops to mix it up with her, while the other follows Jack' and Bruce's planes as they extend away, taking advantage of their clean configuration for greater speed and turning ability.

Jack and Bruce coordinate their flight (under Jack' direction) to keep the attention of their attacker switching back and forth, and after he fires a rocket at Jack the latter returns fire with machine guns and hits an engine. Angelina's furball is cut short when she spots this, and ends in a head-to-head confrontation with a fuel tank hit on the attacker (thanks to Lilian) and cosmetic damage to cockpit glass and fuselage on Angelina's plane.

The investigators head directly to Lexington, since they're running out of other directions to go in, and returning to Clarksburg seems likely to be unhealthy; they book into the Hilton. Their current plan involves surprising both snipers with socks full of sand...

Angelina takes in some of the local high life, and picks up the prevalent rumour that the border closure is in response to warnings of an imminent invasion by the ISA - it's happened before with no long-term results, but it's still cause to worry. While most people support McCullough's policy of friendship with the Empire State, there's a strong undercurrent of "wouldn't it be better if we were friendly to, and slightly predatory on, everyone" with a soupcon of "and Jasper Stevens is the man to do it".

Bruce visits the local cops around shift change time. They've heard of him, and the evening becomes very convivial. Among other things, he learns that the Clarksburg force is widely regarded as being in Stevens' pocket, and that while the Lexington force seems mostly clean it's still a small-town police department at heart; it's not the sort of big-city force with groups of experts that New York has. The presidential security detail is their current favourite gripe.

Lilian hangs around with some of the reporters who've come to town to cover Friday's speech, some from as far away as Arixo and Pacifica. She spends most of the evening with a writer for the Chicago Herald-Examiner, who's very eager to impress her; but even he doesn't know just what McCullough's speech on Friday is going to be about.

Jack, having been shot at rather too much for his peace of mind, stays in the hotel room to guard the films, prints and notebooks, and takes advantage of the room-service bourbon.

Wednesday 17 March 1937

The next day, the team heads out to take a subtle look at the two sniping sites. Cheapside is clearly a recent ex-slum, with reconstruction due to start soon. The A site is on the fifth floor of an abandoned hotel, which looks as if it's been going to pot for some time - most of the windows on the lower floors are broken, but the roof is still intact. The B site is on the roof of a warehouse across the square. There's no solid structure where the president is expected to give his speech; presumably he'll have a car to duck into if the first shot misses.

Bruce reckons that the police cordon will go into place on Thursday evening, and that it would be easier to smuggle in a rifle beforehand and hide out during the searches than to try to sneak in once the cordon has been set up. Possibly the team will do the same.

Session: 20 April 2005

The plan continues to evolve: gunplay is to be avoided if at all possible. Given that the team members don't know Morgan's plan, but do at least outnumber the likely shooters, they decide that Togo, Bruce and Angelina will cover site A, while Jack and Lilian cover site B - thus giving each time some hand-to-hand capability, while if things go entirely wrong on site A Lilian can at least try to countersnipe.

Jack spends most of the day going over the area, looking for good hiding places for guns (the obvious ones are garbage cans, but while these clearly don't get emptied very often it seems plausible that they will be cleaned out before Friday). By chatting to some of the workers at the warehouse, he establishes that it belongs to the "Bluegrass Country" tobacco company; they've all been given the day off on Friday, but the boss has told them to come in on Saturday instead. They've been told to clear their loading dock, as no vehicles can be left on the streets during the event.

Jack also takes a look round the hotel; there's a fire escape at the back, but he wouldn't want to trust his weight to it except in a real emergency. There are plenty of windows in various states (intact, broken, boarded up) and it doesn't look as though it will be difficult to effect an entry - many other people have clearly done so.

Angelina continues to make acquaintances in what passes for a local upper crust, and by talking to various people and putting snippets of information together comes up with a fairly detailed description of the plan: it's to be a three-car procession to a folding podium, with the president and the mayor as the main speakers. Various local bigwigs and those who want to be seen with the mayor are going to be present on the platform, as is Jasper Stevens...

Bruce spends the day with the local police, getting to know some of the individual officers on the force. They don't think much of the Clarksburg and other forces who are sending people over to help with crowd control.

In the evening, Bruce is somewhat startled when a female voice squeals "David!" and he finds himself being hugged by a young woman. When he explains that he's actually Bruce, not David, she says "oh, right, of course, you're doing some sort of secret work... 'Bruce'. So am I!" She turns out to be Claudia Kemp, from the small town of Black Gnat a hundred or so miles southwest, and she's convinced that Bruce is a childhood friend; nothing he says dissuades her. She's apparently working as a secretary at police headquarters... which doesn't explain the two men in suits who are keeping an eye on her, and who make sure she leaves the party by midnight rather than going off anywhere (or with anyone) else.

Note: Mistaken Identity and Weirdness Magnet cutting in at the same time...

Lilian gets a decent night's sleep, in case she's camping out tomorrow. Togo is suffering from some sort of bad reaction to the local food, and attempts to sleep. Jack takes further advantage of the legal and affordable supply of alcohol, this time in Angelina's company; a few hours into the evening, she makes an improper suggestion, to which he replies explaining just what a very bad idea that would be. Prolonged negotiation ensues.

Some time in the small hours, Jack fails to be stealthy while moving back to his own bedroom, but nobody's awake to hear it.

Thursday 18 March 1937

Jack drinks coffee to try to catch up on lost sleep, then goes to hide guns in the places he spotted yesterday - including the rifle, in the warehouse, and himself, also in the warehouse. With hip-flask and thermos, he's prepared for a long night. He manages to avoid the police search, as does Bruce, who's hidden among the few remaining hoboes in the derelict hotel.

Friday 19 March 1937

The other three have no particular trouble in getting through the police lines - they're not armed, after all. Togo and Lilian recover the guns hidden yesterday; Lilian goes into the warehouse, picks up the rifle and makes contact with Jack. They scope out the layout of the place, and decide to lay an ambush near the ladder that leads to the roof.

Meanwhile, Bruce, Togo and Angelina check the rooms that they think shooter A might be planning to use. There's no sign of activity yet...

Session: 18 May 2005

Jack and Lilian get the first bite, around 9.30, as someone comes up the stairs and along the corridor to the roof access. Jack jumps out and grabs him, while Lilian covers him; in spite of this, their victim is inclined to struggle, until Jack forces him to his knees. He seems to be the man who shot at Togo in Clarksburg.

He attempts bribery and bluster, but eventually settles on threats. When even these don't work, he turns sullen, except for sarcastic comments when Jack repeatedly fails to tie him up. Jack recovers his rifle from the roof; Lilian keeps a lookout over the square from the window.

Meanwhile, Bruce, Togo and Angelina have been hiding in rooms in the old hotel. Around 11am, they hear footsteps coming along the corridor, and Bruce and Togo leap out to grab...

...Claudia Kemp, who's happy to see "Dav... Bruce" again. "I just knew you were going to be on the same secret mission as me!" The rifle-case on her back suggests that she's the shooter, and she gladly confirms this to her "old friend". She then remembers something, and comments "oh, right, I think I'm supposed to try to intimidate you now... but they didn't really cover this bit". Togo handcuffs her.

Her motivation is somewhat fuzzy, but it seems that some "big businessmen" from back home reckon a more neutral policy would be good for the export trade. She suggests that they let her go and complete the shot, then they can go off somewhere else and talk about things. Oddly, this doesn't meet with a positive reception.

When asked what she was planning to do next, she explains that there's meant to be a car waiting downstairs for her, after which she'll go home. "After all, I can type sixty words a minute and I'm a dead shot with a rifle. How much work is there for someone like that? Oh, and I know a lot about cows, but I don't want to work on a farm again..."

Various people watch and listen to the president's speech from high windows. The gist of it is not only a fuller alliance of Appalachia with the Empire State, but a massive programme of reconstruction and urban renewal backed by Empire State money. Several of the bigwigs who are due to speak after the president, including Jasper Stevens, seem caught remarkably short of prepared words... and Angelina and Lilian take note of just who they are.

There's a sound of footsteps on the stairs in the warehouse. Jack and Lilian leave their prisoner and bail out down the fire escape, hijacking the car that was waiting at the bottom. As they drive off (Jack trying to remember how these ground vehicles work), there's a minor hail of bullets from the top of the fire escape as those inside work out what happened. They drive round to the hotel, and Lilian heads up, meeting the others on the way down (who've decided to take Claudia with them, on the basis that turning her in to the police here is likely to be a death sentence).

They abandon their hotel rooms and head directly for the airfield, cuffing Claudia to the frame of Jack's plane to make sure she doesn't try anything silly. She keeps up a constant stream of trivial chatter all the way home, which Jack manages to grit his teeth and ignore.

The border has been reopened, and several cargo airships are coming through (presumably carefully staged to show off the bounty that comes with alliance). So are quite a lot of Empire State militia fighters, flying escort to the airships and patrolling Appalachia's borders. The border crossing itself is pretty easy; the only slightly sticky moment comes when the group lands back in New York, and Angelina's diplomacy and ready purse smooth over Claudia's lack of passport or other documentation.

The group returns to the Teal-Saunders office and explains what's been going on. Miss Teal and Miss Saunders don't give away much, though they mention that they'll pass the information on to "Mr Smith and Mr Smith", the original clients. As for Claudia, turning someone that naive loose in New York would be unreasonable cruelty; they'll try to arrange a new passport and to get her to the British Empire, where she'll at least be in someone else's hair, but for the moment Angelina will bring her into her household (at least until they find out what sort of investigation is being conducted in Appalachia, if any, and whether it would be desirable or safe for her to testify).

4.4. My Sweetie Went Away

Session: 1 June 2005

Friday 2 April 1937

The next interesting case comes from a client who asks for the group by name: it's Pietro Donati, looking pretty rough at eleven in the morning. He explains that he was with a girl last night who seems to have slipped him a mickey; when he woke up, his cash, some jewellery and his watch were all gone. He's not too worried about the jewellery, but the watch was a present from his father - just last week - and he wants it back. (Quite apart from personal preferences, it's engraved with his name, and it would be severely embarrassing if it were to turn up not in his possession.)

The girl, or someone who sounded like her, called this morning and told him to be on the midnight Imperial Airlines flight to Chicago with twenty big ones, and to look for a yellow carnation. He expressed reservations about his safety; she replied "Send your men if you like, but bring the money".

(It seems like a lot of money for a watch, even a nice gold one; on the other hand it's not very much money for getting a well-connected man annoyed with one.)

Of course, while Donati does have a number of associates, they don't tend to excel in subtlety; and just at the moment they're quite busy with a number of businesses that are suddenly changing hands. Which is where the group comes in...

Donati hands over a briefcase full of twenty thousand Empire State dollars. Ideally he'd like both this and the watch back, but if it comes down to it it's the watch that matters. He gives a description of both the watch and the girl (a real looker, red haired and green eyed), and says that she gave her name as Eileen Clancy.

Togo telegraphs for five tickets on the midnight flight. Angelina and Lilian, and Togo and Jack, will travel in pairs as master and servant, with Bruce in a cabin on his own. As midnight approaches, they arrive separately at the Empire State Building, take the express elevator to the docking platform, and walk up the gangway to the Cleopatra.

Saturday 3 April 1937

The airship slips her moorings exactly on time, with the next stop planned to be a brief one at Pittsburgh around 4am, and arrival in Chicago expected at 8 (7 local). While Lilian guards the money and Jack stays in his cabin as a servant should, Bruce, Togo and Angelina head into the lounge where most of the other passengers are gathered. They fairly quickly spot one red-haired, green-eyed figure wearing a yellow carnation; it's male, but that wasn't specified, so Angelina goes over and makes contact. He seems a fairly affable person, and explains that once his sister arrives they can get down to business.

Meanwhile, Jack hears a familiar double-thump from outside his cabin. There's nothing quite like the sound of someone being blackjacked, and he cautiously heads out to investigate. He sees a suited figure bent over another on the deck, apparently going through his pockets; the standing figure runs away when he sees Jack coming, and Jack's pause to make sure the one on the deck will be OK allows him to get away into one of the cabins on the deck above. The man who was attacked is a servant, and has a strong Irish accent. Jack reports all this to the purser.

Joe Clancy introduces his sister Eileen, and they agree with Angelina to meet on the upper promenade deck in half an hour with money and watch so as to conduct their transaction out of public view. Until then, they socialise, exchanging small talk without giving anything away.

While Bruce and Angelina are on their way up with the money, they hear a female scream of rage, quickly cut off. They find Joe and Eileen unconscious on the deck, having been sapped. As soon as Eileen is awoken by Bruce's first aid, she checks her pockets and says "the watch is gone". Both her and Joe's wallets have been emptied too.

Bruce and Angelina return the money to Angelina's cabin, then keep watch in the lounge. Jack and Togo talk to the purser again, who's clearly more interested in rumour control than in actually stopping what's going on, but who is prepared to tell them who's in the bank of cabins above Togo's - where the first attacker fled earlier. Three are empty, four are booked by regular passengers, and the other three might be of interest.

It turns out that the servant who was attacked works for Charley Astor, who's on the airship; Jack and Togo visit him, but while he's somewhat concerned by the whole business he doesn't have any particular information. Togo heads back to the lounge to talk with the Clancys (there are three of them, now openly together, the other one being Patrick), but doesn't manage to find out anything he didn't already know or suspect.

While he's in the lounge, though, he notices irregular flashes reflected off a nearby cloud. They're too brief, and the intervals between them too long, to be any normal form of signalling. After wandering around the ship for a while, including checking the promenade deck, he establishes that they're coming from one of the cabins in the suspect block; when he and Jack check the corridor, one of the cabins shows flashes of light under the door of the cabin belonging to Garrett Pierce and David Johnson.

They get the purser, who while he's clearly mystified isn't prepared to barge in on paying passengers. Through the door, they explain that they've heard rumours of muggings and are staying in their cabin with the door locked; as for the flashes, that's a company secret (of the Electric Brush Company).

Jack, who's spent a fair amount of time on airships, gets into the crawlspace above the cabins and listens in for a little while. The talk is mostly meaningless, along the lines of "This one's finished, pass me another" and "How much more to do? Three more rolls".

Togo wants to get a look into the cabin, and in the face of all persuasion from people who know more about airships straps on a parachute and a rope harness and gets Jack and Bruce to lower him down the outside of the gondola from a maintenance hatch. He has a scarf over his nose and mouth, to help him breathe in the hundred-knot slipstream, but no goggles; while his climbing ability stands him in good stead, he has great trouble making out just what's going on inside the cabin. Eventually he manages to get the right angle and timing of blinks, and sees a small but complex photographic apparatus; the two men are winding it and taking flash pictures of something inside it. When they get to the end of a section, it's revealed to be a roll of microfilm. Togo heads back with this information.

Quote: (Togo) Now I think we know what's going on.
(Jack) Up to a point...

The group's theory is that the watch had microfilms concealed in it, for reasons unknown, perhaps by Pietro's father without his knowledge. Somehow these men have found out about them, and are copying them with the intent of returning the watch later...

Session: 15 June 2005

Some discussion, up in the gas-bag gantries, ensues about what to do next. As the investigators head back into the public spaces, they hear a slap followed by loud invective along the lines of "what sort of girl do you think I am". Bruce goes ahead to be chivalrous if needed, and is brushed past by a man with a prominent red mark on his cheek; he looks quite like Pietro Donati, enough to be confused with him in poor light. Bruce finds Eileen, who is somewhat incensed and has run out of people to abuse since her victim took the hint and left...

A little later, a steward passes through the ship announcing "fifteen minutes to Pittsburgh". When he sees Angelina, he passes her a radiogram envelope; it's from Pietro, and reads VITAL ITEM BE RECOVERED INTACT REPEAT INTACT.

After some prodding from Lilian, Togo goes to talk to the Clancys to try to find out why they're asking so much for a watch which, while very good, isn't in that price range. They're polite, but their response comes down to "you have your lay and we have ours". They don't think they were pointed at Pietro by any third party.

The investigators take up positions near the cabin belonging to Pierce and Johnson, with Lilian in the lounge to observe anyone who leaves or comes aboard. Several people leave and more get on, but the cabin door remains closed.

Just as Lilian's commenting on how quiet it is, a burst of machine-gun fire is heard through the hull. The investigators head for a nearby porthole, where they see another airship with a prominent skull-and-crossbones as well as a playing card symbol (the Queen of Hearts, in black; Jack identifies them as the Black Hearts, a local group that usually takes valuables and sometimes kidnaps for ransom). Fixed-wing planes with the same insignia are busily finishing off the Blake Air Security escort fighters.

This precipitates action: Togo concentrates for a moment, then kicks the cabin door hard enough to send fragments flying across the room. The two men inside start to reach for guns; Togo charges in and takes the nearer one in an arm-lock, while the other exchanges fire with Bruce. Bruce takes a serious hit to the lower chest, and falls back while Angelina and Lilian return fire. Lilian gets a minor wound in, and Angelina takes one. Togo finishes the fight by throwing his enemy into the other one, which leaves the latter folded over a table gasping for breath and the former lying on the floor with Togo looming over him. There's also rather a lot of damage to the cabin from stray bullets.

With a bit of persuasion, one of the enemy reveals that he has the watch in his pocket, and indeed was about to try to return it. Togo takes it, checks that the microfilms are present, and passes it to Angelina; meanwhile Lilian searches the baggage and recovers what seem likely to be the filmed copies.

The enemy airship has now passed out of sight, and it seems likely that they're overhead and preparing to board. The investigators decide to bail out rather than risk losing what they've so painstakingly gained; they push past the stewards, who are trying to keep people calm, strap on emergency parachutes, and jump out. Jack tumbles a bit before his chute deploys and drifts off course a little way, losing his gun but retaining his grip on the money; the others try to spot their location, but between the darkness and the scattered clouds can't establish which side of the Empire State / ISA border they're on. As they drift down, they see figures rappelling down from the pirate ship to the Cleopatra.

On landing, Angelina twists her ankle and Bruce falls awkwardly, cracking some ribs that were already somewhat damaged. They're all in a large field, with a fence, ditch and road visible nearby. Togo goes to find Jack, then they all walk or hobble to the ditch to take cover and conduct bandaging and splinting operations. Lilian heads down the road to look for some sign of just where they are; after two miles she finds a fairly large farmhouse with outbuildings, but there's no national affiliation visible. She returns, and everyone gets a few hours' sleep until the sun comes up.

When they all go to the farm in the morning, a young man sitting on the fence runs inside with a cry of "Maw! Strangers!". They're greeted with closed doors and shotguns poking out through windows, until they make it plain that they're not "revenooers"... at which point they're invited inside and fed Country Breakfast without the option. It turns out that it's about ten miles to Steubenville, where they'll be happy to take the party in their truck, and seventy by bus from there across the border to Pittsburgh.

The border formalities go smoothly, with only a slight fee for "special entry permits", and by evening the investigators reach Pittsburgh again. The local paper reports the pirate attack, with a list of persons missing; they're on it, as well as Charley Astor, but not the Clancys or anybody named Donati...

Session: 29 June 2005

An exchange of telegrams with Teal-Saunders in New York reveals that a negotiator is on his way to try to get Charley released. On the other hand, if the team were to arrange this, no doubt the Astors would be very grateful. It's not an official assignment, but...

The first order of business is to make up three identical parcels, one of which contains the watch and the money, and deposit them with three different banks. Once that's taken care of, Jack and Lilian go out looking for someone who might be in a position to negotiate a ransom, with the hope of tracking him back to the pirates.

At the same time, Togo checks the local paper to find the names of prominent citizens of Pittsburgh who are being held for ransom. Philip Vale is the most obvious, but when Togo goes round to offer his services he's told that "arrangements are in hand".

Jack tracks down one "Henry Morgan", who asks him for a question to be asked of Charley Astor to prove that he's in the possession of Morgan's principals. He then says "come back in an hour", and waits for Jack to leave. Jack sends Lilian to get Angelina, since Morgan won't have seen her yet, and manages to trail Morgan down the block to a radio repair shop; some time later, Lilian and Angelina return. Angelina finds that she has some miniature direction-finding equipment about her person, and Jack gets a solid bearing to the other end of the conversation. (It's in Morse, quite fast, and seems also to be coded in some way.)

When Jack meets Morgan again, the latter produces what does sound like an answer that would come from Charley, and explains that the ransom's five million.

The group gets together again, and decides to fly along the bearing line to see what can be found. They rent a Metroliner (unarmed six-seater autogyro); Togo flies, Bruce navigates, and the others peer over the side. Nothing's visible out to the theoretical range limit of the radio; on the way back, though, Jack and Lilian both spot that some shadows haven't moved as they should have since they first flew over them. There's no sign of runways, and minimal road access, but this is certainly interesting enough to warrant a landing nearby in a small cliff-top clearing.

The team camouflages the gyro and heads back on foot. The odd shadows are dyed patterns on a huge sheet of material, presumably airship skin or something similar, which covers the closed end of a blind valley. At its top edge it's anchored against a hillside; at the bottom it's tied to the valley floor; but at the sides there's enough of a gap that an aircraft could be flown in or out, with some difficulty.

Togo sneaks down for a closer look. There are five log buildings, one of which is a hangar and another a generator house, and a small airstrip; there's even a mooring tower and enough space underneath the fabric to conceal a zeppelin, though there isn't one here at the moment. He watches people coming and going for a while, and reckons there are probably about twenty people moving around. He also notices a camouflaged blockhouse on the top of the hill, which supports a large radio aerial.

Quote: (Togo) There are two sensible strategies. Well, neither of them is that sensible really...

The team lays up nearby to get some rest, including catching up on the interrupted sleep of the previous night, and gets ready to sneak in during the early hours.

Sunday 4 April 1937

At around 2.30am, Lilian takes up a position where she can cover the hidden base with her rifle, with Bruce and Angelina backing her up, and Togo and Jack sneak in. The hangar appears deserted; the first small building is clearly host to a large and rowdy party. In the second, Jack overhears what seem to be two of the hostages talking: they're hoping the ransom's sorted soon, and one mentions that "at least they haven't been too bad to us, not like those other poor bastards". That building is padlocked.

The third small building holds what can only be described as loot: jewellery and fine clothes, food and drink, and various other things that weren't nailed down. Since there don't seem to be any guards around at all, Jack and Togo get hold of a mallet, cold chisel and crowbar, and Jack proceeds to knock the padlock off the middle building (muffling the noise with a Balenciaga original, but never mind). Togo calls quietly inside "Is anyone there?". The answer comes "Who are you?" "Teal-Saunders Investigations", replies Togo.

It turns out that there are thirteen prisoners, of whom three aren't in any state to walk - "two Irishmen and their sister". Togo tries to explain that they were in league with the pirates, but isn't believed. Once Charley Astor's woken up, he refuses to get an autogyro ride to freedom if it means leaving his man behind; the new plan is for him and his man to fly out, while Lilian takes the others ten miles overland to the nearest town. Togo breaks the lock, and the bid for freedom begins...

Session: 13 July 2005

The hostages are:

Charley Astor and his man Fergus Laughlin
Mary, Luke and Daniel Houlihan (aka Eileen, Patrick and Joe Clancy, who are barely conscious from the beatings they've taken)
Anthony Addison (an Empire State industrialist, in his early 40s) and his wife Betsy
Niccolo Cirone (the man who resembles Pietro Donati)
Suzanne Drake (ISA socialite)
Gerald King (Empire State socialite and militia pilot; Angelina's heard of him but not met him)
Douglas McKenzie (aero engineer from the ISA)
Lionel Webber (ISA industrialist)
Hector Wheeler (ISA journalist)

Togo heads for the hangar, with the thought of sabotaging the pirates' planes. The main door is padlocked; he goes to the side door and sneaks in. It's dark, and he can hear somebody breathing, though apparently not reacting to his presence. He sneaks out again.

Togo, Jack and their new charges head for the spot where Lilian and the others are waiting. Togo and Lilian decide they'll stay behind to discourage pursuit, while Bruce, Jack and Angelina lead the hostages to safety (probably, in practice, to the autogyro).

As Lilian watches through her rifle's telescopic sight, two pirates leave the party and head for the loot room. On their way back, one of them pushes open the door of the prison hut, and they both start to run. Lilian puts one round over their heads, mostly as a signal to the others that things have gone wrong and they'd better start moving quickly.

The pirates launch flares out from under the canopy, and generally improve visibility for everyone.

As the pirates run to the hangar and start bringing out their aircraft, Lilian decides that a good hit to the one in the lead might clog up the hangar door. The first plane out is an autogyro, armoured (if lightly) for combat, and the three shots she's able to take before fire starts to be returned don't seem to do much visible damage, though it is slightly slower in the taxi. She changes position, and as the three gyros take off she shoots another one, catching it on the bottom armour.

She's been spotted now, and the gyros turn to attack her. Rather than dive for cover, she holds position long enough to shoot again, this time getting a precise hit on the fuel lines; hot fuel sprays over the engine just as power is most needed, and the gyro goes down in flames. The other two shoot back, and she's caught by a machine-gun bullet; her almost supernatural vitality allows her to keep going for a while, though she knows she'll be losing consciousness soon.

Togo took cover slightly earlier, and wasn't shot at. Lilian makes her way to him, and as they see two Firebrands taking off and a dog team coming their way they decide to leave as much of a blood and scent trail as possible, to try to distract attention from the main party. They head deeper into the mountains, until after about five minutes Lilian loses consciousness; when the dog finds them, they surrender.

Meanwhile, the main party has been making moderate time; most of its members aren't accustomed to rough ground, it's dark except for the flares that the pirates are dropping, and there are three mostly-unconscious bodies to carry. When one of the Firebrands drops a small bomb around two hundred yards ahead of the group, they decide to split up.

Bruce takes Charley and Fergus, as well as the journalist Wheeler who looks as if he can handle himself in a fight, and they make for the road down into town.

Angelina stays with the three unconscious Clancys, planning to surrender immediately the pirates arrive; Suzanne Drake volunteers to stick with her.

Jack takes the remaining six hostages and they start to disperse into the woods.

One of the Firebrands fires a sonic rocket into the ground; Bruce and his party are out of range, Jack is deafened but manages to stay conscious, and Angelina catches the fringes of the effect. Another autogyro passes over, dropping off four parachutists.

One of them, a pirate who's festooned with knives although he's also carrying a rifle, takes the surrender of Angelina and her group. "I told you escape wasn't possible... hang on, who are you?"

Jack lies in wait with his brass knuckles in the hope of being able to knock out one of the pirates. Cirrone's lurking in the same bush, having produced a sap. Jack's still somewhat deafened by the rocket attack, and doesn't notice what's going on behind him until Cirrone slumps forward; Gerald King has sapped him, and explains that he was about to attack Jack. As the pirates round up the other members of Jack's group, he and King decide that the only way to help these people is to get away and fetch help. King knows there's a radio transmitter in the blockhouse on top of the mountain...

Bruce and his group manage to evade the searches, and eventually reach the road. They get to the town (Lockjaw) shortly after dawn. Bruce manages by some miracle of luck to get a live telephone connection all the way back to Teal-Saunders; they advise him to sit tight unless he can get worthwhile transport, while they try to get the local militias mobilised.

Climbing the mountain goes slowly and noisily, but Jack and King eventually make it to the top around dawn. Jack picks the locked blockhouse door, and sneaks up on the snoring pirate at the radio desk; the pirate's quite prepared to cooperate with a pistol pointed between his eyes. While King keeps an eye on him, Jack warms up the radio and contacts the nearest Empire State militia, giving them the location of the base and warning them that there are hostages. As he switches frequencies to alert the Appalachian militias too, he finds that another Empire State operator is already doing it. He and King bolt the door and settle in to wait. A few hours later, someone kicks at the door, but their prisoner (with a little persuasion) says "everything's fine".

In the prison hut, with the old locks replaced by heavy chain and padlocks, Togo, Lilian and Angelina wait with the remaining hostages. Cirrone's thrown in a few hours later, having been badly beaten.

Around noon, the sound of multiple zeppelin engines fills the valley. Massive loudspeakers call on the pirates to surrender, and with only a minor delay they do. One Firebrand is still missing, and the Black Hearts' airship wasn't anywhere nearby, but they've still been dealt a substantial blow.

Everyone's taken back to Pittsburgh, and Charley Astor, the investigators and the prisoners are taken back from there to New York. Pietro Donati's happy, and plans to employ the investigators again: he'll go to Pittsburgh to retrieve his watch and the microfilms, his money is intact, and with judicious friendly conversations with the police department he can get hold of the Clancys as well. It turns out that Cirrone is actually Enzo Donati, Pietro's younger brother... but that, as they say, is not the investigators' problem.

4.5. You're Driving Me Crazy

Session: 3 August 2005

Tuesday 13 April 1937

As soon as the wounded investigators are out of hospital, they have another job - Anthony and Betsy Addison, whom they rescued from the Black Hearts, were sufficiently impressed that they'd like to hire them for a new mission.

They were travelling to Chicago in order to employ a private investigator there, but given recent events they don't really fancy trying that trip again any time soon - and they don't want to wait. Their elder daughter Blanche (just under 21, studying at Vassar) has run off to join "some weird cult" that operates within the People's Collective. She hasn't answered their letters and they're very worried about her. They'd like her brought back ASAP.

They produce the one letter they have, which was sent from Poughkeepsie before she left. Apparently she met a missionary from the Church of the Living Word of God, and has decided to dedicate her life to the principles of the Church, going to live at their community in Pleasant Creek, Iowa, People's Collective. They also hand over photographs, and by request write both another letter to Blanche, imploring her to come home, and a public letter stating that the investigators are their authorised agents in the recovery of Blanche.

Some quick research in the newspaper archives on the Church of the Living Word of God (also known as Zephaniahns) suggests that they're a schismatic sect of the Plymouth Brethren who've taken on board many Pentecostal tendencies, of which snake-handling is only the most obvious, and who've gradually been migrating westwards across North America as they found themselves unwelcome. Mostly their newspaper appearances come from their missionaries, who have tended to get arrested for saying libellous things about major public figures.

The investigators travel by airship to Chicago, and there check the newspaper archives again and stock up on food and water.

Wednesday 14 April 1937

They spend the night there, then rent a Metroliner to take them the remaining two hundred miles to Savanna, Illinois, ISA; it's a major militia base, just across the Mississippi from Pleasant Creek. As they approach, they check out the other side of the river; Pleasant Creek looks like a small town of perhaps two or three hundred, dominated by a large church.

Clearly Savanna is a small town at heart, that's grown up to accommodate the needs of visiting pilots; the card the investigators are handed with fuel and servicing rates carries an advertisement for Madam Sadie's House of Iniquity on the back. They book into a more conventional hotel; Jack goes to scout out the bars, figuring that a town like this in a wet state just across a river from a dry state probably has quite a bit of smuggling activity, and makes contact with a few boatmen who aren't prone to ask questions. (Pleasant Creek isn't one of their markets, though; they tend to trade up or down river.)

Togo, meanwhile, admires the town, eventually finding a bar with a balcony that overlooks the river, and trains his binoculars on Pleasant Creek. It's an unexceptional-looking town, consisting mostly of small houses with a few larger structures (perhaps dormitories). It has a very large and impressive church in the centre, and an anti-aircraft gun that's unmanned but kept in good order out on the edge of town. There's no airstrip. There are people working in the fields nearby, perhaps 150 all told, both men and women.

Since the ground for the mile or so between Pleasant Creek and the river is mostly flat and marshy, the investigators reckon that lying up any closer to observe isn't likely to be practicable; Jack goes in, getting one of the boatmen to drop him off during the night, intending to present himself as a hobo in the morning. If he's not back by Friday, it'll be time to panic...

Session: 24 August 2005

Meanwhile, Angelina has flown over to Vassar to talk with Blanche's friends there. She gets in to see Dr Hopper, a thoroughly no-nonsense lady who is clearly unimpressed by Angelina's appearance and reputation, but who is willing to cooperate; Blanche was apparently slacking slightly in her studies, but generally a good student, and was pretty sociable, not lacking for company when she wanted it. Dr Hopper also gives a few names and descriptions of other people who know Blanche, though many of them are away for the short spring break. Angelina does track down a coffee-shop owner who knows Blanche, and comments that whatever naivete she'd had had been knocked off her by the time she got to Vassar - lots of rich kids have hangers-on and parasites, but Blanche didn't seem to have a problem of that sort. Blanche wasn't visibly religious, though it's quite unfashionable to be blatant about it and quite a few people conceal their affiliations.

Angelina also digs in library and newspaper archives for more about the Church of the Living Word of God. In addition to confirming the information previously gathered, she finds (reading between the lines) that the libellous statements of their missionaries have not been found to be false... the Church moved to the People's Collective about three years ago.

Thursday 15 April 1937

Jack turns up at Pleasant Creek shortly after dawn, and is directed to the Long House for breakfast. The server, doling out his porridge and coffee, advises him to talk to one of the elders once he's finished. There are about fifty people eating here, with no children visible.

While everyone is wearing what appear to be home-made clothes, the elders are noticeable for their darker-dyed outfits. The one whom Jack speaks to is happy to let him work in the fields in return for dinner; he does ask if Jack has been to this community before, since it's apparently a tenet of their faith that people only get one chance at salvation. Jack's welcome to stay as long as he likes, and they hope he'll decide to join them, but once he leaves he won't be welcome to come back.

The field-work is long and boring, as it tends to be. Jack gets a chance to chat briefly with Blanche, who's also out working; she tells the same story of how she met a missionary back in the Empire State and decided to come out here and find out more. The idea of telling the absolute truth at all times, which is one of the core principles of the Church, is something that appeals to her particularly. Jack is convinced, on the basis of gut instinct, that something is Not Right with her.

During the day the church bell is rung briefly; a few people run to the anti-aircraft gun, and others pick up rifles that they've kept to hand. A raid is coming over the river, and the people of Pleasant Creek account for one of the five planes before they pass on into the People's Collective. The man working next to Jack explains that, although they don't have an airstrip, they do their part in defending the Collective.

Before supper there's an hour of preaching, reasonably well-done. Supper itself is basic but nutritious, and Jack is shown to a bed in the men's dormitory.

Friday 16 April 1937

Further conversation over breakfast reveals that there's been an occasional bomb dropped on the town - mostly they don't have anything that people would want to steal. When there's a raid going on, they take shelter in the church.

At the evening meal, one of the men offers Jack a belt from his flask of home-distilled spirit - he's quite open about this, and nobody seems to object. By the standards of home distillation, it's not bad... the man explains that, since the limited amounts of liquor they produce are consumed entirely within the community, they don't fall foul of Prohibition.

Saturday 17 April 1937

Jack leaves in the morning, but thanks to a communications foul-up ends up sitting around all day (and doing some work for a farm just down the road, in return for lunch and a rather more amateurish sermon) before Lilian arranges for a boat to come and pick him up that evening.

Lilian describes her basic plan: grab the girl in the fields or when she's asleep, bundle her into an autogyro, and fly away. Jack and Togo point out the flaws (both the anti-aircraft gun and the prevalence of rifles). The fact that there are about thirty people sleeping in the women's dormitory also makes life harder...

Plan B is for Angelina to go in with a bottle of chloroform, knock out Blanche, and sneak her out to the others who'll cross back in a boat. Knocking out the power and phone lines should also help.

Sunday 18 April 1937

Since they don't want to get involved in Sunday's routine - it seems likely to be rather different from that of the other days - the investigators collect equipment to disguise Angelina as a successful female hobo (who are rare, but not un-heard-of). On Sunday night, the same smuggler carries her across.

Monday 19 April 1937

Angelina has no difficulty in being accepted as a visitor, and gets the chance for a longer talk with Blanche. The latter seems sincere: in particular she seems to value the idea of truth at all times, particularly as contrasted with the lying and not-quite-cheating to get the better of a deal that she's seen while growing up. She did send some letters back to New York, and doesn't seem to think her parents have any need to worry.

Angelina starts to think that, once Blanche has reached 21, they might offer her a return-kidnapping to get her back here if she still wants to come...

Tuesday 20 April 1937

This doesn't stop her from chloroforming Blanche at around three in the morning.

Session: 7 September 2005

Togo, Jack and Bruce sneak into the town to give assistance as needed, while Lilian waits in the boat (partly as a reserve, and partly to make sure the boatman doesn't get cold feet). A few dogs bark as they pass, but they don't have any serious trouble on the way in. Jack disables the anti-aircraft gun and cuts the phone line.

As they're heading back to meet Angelina, they make more noise. A dog gets out and seems to recognise Bruce as a friend; he makes something of a nuisance of himself. Once Angelina has made contact with her unconscious burden, Bruce manages to persuade the dog to go away.

On the way back across the flats to the boat, several more dogs start to bark, and a few more get out. Togo manages to block the attack of the one that comes after him, then flips it a fair distance away. Bruce, who seems to be the Friend of All Dogs tonight, manages to avoid the slobber of doom. As they continue, more dogs come out of town (as do a small number of people, though they're mostly casting about to see what's got the dogs excited rather than worrying about invaders), and Bruce eventually becomes the centre of a small pack.

As they approach the boat, Lilian decides that a mountain lion is something these dogs should recognise and be afraid of, and imitates the sound of one. Unfortunately, the twelve dogs surrounding Bruce decide that between them they're quite tough enough to take on something like that, and leap aboard the boat (which is designed for putting barrels and such like ashore, so doesn't present much difficulty to them). They then cast around, trying to find the lion.

The combined weight of seven people and twelve dogs jams the boat hard onto the gravel of the bank; Togo jumps out to push it off, gives a mighty heave and gets it loose. It promptly starts to take on water; he pulls it back and gets back in.

Bruce jumps off, and the dogs start follow him. Lilian attempts to persuade them to do it a bit faster. Once they've all left, Togo hauls in Bruce with a boathook and they finally depart. It's about a quarter to four when they get back to Savanna; they go straight to the airport, load into the gyro, strap parachutes onto everyone just in case and take off.

Night navigation is a bit of an arcane art, but they find their way to Chicago, then start to follow the air lane to Indianapolis (not really wanting to land at night if it's not absolutely necessary). On the way there, Blanche wakes up and is promptly very sick. When she's recovered a bit, she looks resigned. "Who are you, and how much do you want?"

The investigators explain that they were hired by Blanche's parents, and show her the letters. Blanche sighs and seems to go back to sleep; however, just as dawn is breaking, she makes a leap for the door and gets it open. Bruce, whom she's having to dive across to get out, manages to grab her; with help from Angelina, they get her back inside. The argument, which several investigators had been expecting to happen at some point and had been planning for, now takes place. Blanche eventually concedes that she has nothing to gain by further resistance - she's used up the element of surprise - and agrees to return with them to New York.

Since a gyro isn't particularly fast or long-ranged, and zeppelins are excessively large and public, the investigators decide that it's time to get hold of a fixed-wing aircraft that's a bit bigger than the fighters and light bombers that are most commonly available. They return to Chicago, and Angelina and Jack (the latter boggling slightly at the concept of buying an aircraft out of personal funds) head off to look at the used aircraft lots. The others remain in an airport hotel.

This search takes most of the day, since this sort of aircraft tends to be relegated to specialised use (smuggling being the major one). On several occasions Jack decides that he doesn't want to go near an aircraft that's up for sale, still less start the engines, and trying to take off is right out. As the sun's setting, they come across a Whittly and Douglas prototype transport that seems to fit: it's fairly beaten up and the engines sound very ragged, but Jack reckons he can fix that with some paint and spare parts. The salesman describes it as "a bit of a handful", though on her test flight Angelina manages to stay ahead (and manages to conceal her grin at the manoeuvreability).

They buy the aircraft and head back to the hotel; overnight, Jack works on it to bring it up to his standards. He hears someone trying to be sneaky around the outside of the hangar while he's doing this, but whoever it is doesn't come in.

Session: 21 September 2005

Wednesday 21 April 1937

The flight to Pittsburgh is uneventful; the team has prepared its story for dealing with the Empire State customs and immigration people, but they're rather more interested in looking over the aircraft (and searching it, thoroughly enough to impress even Jack). The weather's starting to close in, but Lilian reckons it's not going to be bad enough to make it worth the increased risks of delaying the trip further.

The team flies round the northern end of Appalachia, following the main air lane. The cloud gets low enough that they have to risk climbing through it rather than hugging the ground, but the Silver Angel handles this without complaint; indeed, its supercharged engines may well give it a higher ceiling than many other aircraft...

The trip back to Great Neck Landing goes without incident, and after securing the aircraft the investigators call the office and then catch a taxi back to Manhattan. To avoid possible questions, and since Blanche has been fairly calm about the whole business, they remove her cuffs before getting aboard.

Blanche's parents are waiting, and she runs to their arms. She tells them something of what's been going on recently - with emphasis on the investigators' rough tactics rather than simply talking with her - and while her parents are very glad to see her it's clear that they aren't happy with the methods employed. Togo attempts to smooth things over, suggesting that if Blanche had been brainwashed then showing her the letter would have meant putting the whole town on alert; the Addisons are unhappy, but grudgingly accepting.

Even so, Lydia Teal suggests that it would be a good idea for the team to get out of town for a few days. She has a courier job to Montreal in the Republique de Quebec, a briefcase full of legal documents; just hand it over to M. Mireault (when he supplies the recognition phrase), then hang around for a bit while she and Catherine Saunders smooth things over in the city.

4.6. Two Shadows

Thursday 22 April 1937

They head out bright and early, taking the Silver Angel on a "calibration flight". It goes smoothly until they're hailed by a pair of pirate Avengers over Plattburg, as they're approaching the Empire State's border with Quebec. Jack takes a close look at the insignia - while they do roughly match the "Plattburg Neighbourhood Protective Association", there are substantial mistakes, and this looks like something of a rush job.

Angelina pushes the aircraft into a hard left turn and dive, worrying the Avenger pilot who was next to them and causing the one on their tail to miss with his hasty shot. As she continues to throw the Silver Angel around the sky, the lead Avenger tries to follow the manoeuvres and is rewarded by his wings folding up and breaking off; he bails successfully. The other Avenger, after a few more bursts, breaks off as the fight approaches the Quebecois border.

In the violent manoeuvres, the briefcase has burst open, and the "legal documents" turn out to be rather a lot of Confederate dollars, in large bundles. Togo and Jack search the plane and reckon they've found all of them; Jack fixes the burst lock.

M. Mireault is waiting at the airfield for the Customs agents to finish their business. He looks quite nervous, though that can be explained if he knows the contents of the case; he gives the recognition phrase correctly, signs the receipt, and the investigators hand it over. As he drives away, another car turns up with another gentleman who introduces himself as Mireault, and has the recognition phrase...

Angelina and Jack restart the aircraft, as Mireault-2, Bruce, Togo and Lilian pile into a taxi (as Mireault-2 explains his car isn't powerful enough for a chase). The taxi gets into the air more quickly, but Jack spots the car first from the stable platform of the Silver Angel and calls in the others. The car heads for the docks, turning into narrower and narrower streets to try to throw off the taxi pilot (who follows, with a degree of unconcern that would do credit to a New York cabbie); Angelina is forced to stay a bit higher. Eventually, the car smashes through the door of a warehouse; the taxi lands, and its passengers pile out when they see Mireault-1 heading through a side door on foot (with the briefcase).

Lilian streaks out ahead, easily catching up with Mireault-1, and trips him with her rifle-butt. She threatens him until the others arrive. Mireault-1 seems to take things quite calmly until Mireault-2 turns up, at which point he starts to look a lot more nervous

The investigators are somewhat concerned to make sure they've got the right Mireault, and question both of them. Mireault-2 remains calm (but doesn't produce any identification); Mireault-1 breaks, shows his papers (which say his name is Ferrier), and begs the investigators to transport him somewhere else - anywhere else...

They don't. Lilian asks Mireault-2 for a hotel recommendation; he says that he rates the Dauphin, run by his cousin. Various party members experience a sudden urge not to hang around in Quebec for longer then they have to. "I've always had a hankering to visit the British Empire..."

Session: 5 October 2005

That evening, Jack spends some time working on the Silver Angel. Since there's already been some trouble, Togo and Angelina go out to the airfield to keep an eye on things, while Lilian and Bruce sample the delights of Quebecois cooking at the hotel - the Royal Quebec, not the Dauphin, just in case.

There's a noise of movement in the hangar, and Togo investigates. Someone saps Jack, though not with enough force to knock him out, and someone else sticks a gun in Angelina's ribs and tells her to keep quiet.

Jack, though somewhat groggy for a few seconds, turns round with a heavy wrench in hand and catches his assailant off-guard. Togo spots someone attempting to pick the Angel's lock, and breaks his leg with a carefully-placed kick. He curses in French. Jack's attacker starts to back off, only to be caught by Togo coming round the nose of the plane, and Angelina's manages to get away while the others are engaged.

The police are called, and seem to be familiar with the two burglars who've been caught (addressing them by name, though not politely). They take a statement; these people turn out to be a local family who turn their hands to most sorts of nefarious work.

Angelina and Jack head back to the hotel, where they are greeted by a waft of garlic from Bruce and Lilian; Togo sleeps in the plane, having set up a noise-maker inside the door.

Friday 23 April 1937

Togo wakes up on the concrete of the hangar floor. The plane is where it should be, but he was expecting to be inside it. The padlock on the hangar door has been cut off, and there are tyre treads leading out onto the grass and back.

He checks the plane; the Hobbs meters show that the right engine has been run for three hours, and the left engine for four. He wakes Angelina at the hotel, and continues to check. There are two bullet-holes in the right rudder/stabiliser, but otherwise the aircraft seems to be intact.

The rest of the investigators arrive at about the same time as the police. The night-watchman shrugs and doesn't admit that he was sleeping; the bullet-holes are measured, and prove to be .50-calibre; the police dust for prints, and find a few on the outside door handle, though there are no new ones inside (some smudges would indicate gloves). The tyres are clean, the radio's been tuned to a common traffic frequency, and there are some splinters in the cargo hold area which might indicate packing cases of some sort.

Lilian follows the tracks in the grass - fairly clearly, the aircraft was taxied to the runway, took off, and later landed and taxied back. Angelina heads back to the hotel, to catch up on the news - it's not in the papers yet, but the radio reports a "strange aircraft" being involved in a smuggling run to Albany last night.

Jack puts a temporary patch on the bullet-holes, but getting the rudder fixed properly will need access to the latest alloys and a machine-shop. After some discussion, the group decides to head for Toronto; they land at the Toronto Aerodrome, on the way in spotting Downsview Field and the testing grounds for de Havilland Canada. Jack, Angelina and Togo negotiate for some of the relevant alloys (getting more than they need, just in case this proves difficult later) and some workshop time, while Bruce and Lilian stay with the plane in case of further problems.

The papers when they arrive carry some rough gun-camera footage of the Silver Angel, noting that it had been stolen; the later editions note that it has since been recovered. Jack fabricates a new rudder component, being glad that only the skin (rather than the frame or control-runs) were damaged.

The investigators decide to remain overnight rather than fly over water after dark.

Saturday 24 April 1937

In the morning, Angelina takes the Angel up for a test flight, and has a little trouble with the new component; she recovers, though, and with a bit of control tuning it's fine. Togo does a familiarisation flight, in case he's called on to fly the Angel in an emergency.

As they're deciding where to go next, a telegram arrives from the Teal-Saunders office. It reads: CONTACT FORMER CLIENT PERSONAL MATTER, with a phone number.

Quote: (Lilian) How do they know where we are?
(Togo) They are a detective agency...

They fly to Pittsburgh so as to improve the chances of getting a connection. Togo calls, and reaches Pietro Donati. Pietro explains that the small packet trade in upstate New York is mostly run by a man named "Santiago", "who's not a friend of mine".

Angelina at least is out for revenge...

Session: 19 October 2005

The group returns to New York, arriving in the early evening. Angelina uses her connections with the Broadway Bombers to have the Silver Angel kept in their hangar; if it's not safe there, the Empire State has bigger problems than one plane.

The investigators split up, deciding to meet again on Sunday evening to pool what they've managed to learn about Albany and Santiago beyond the basics (that it's the state capital of New York, but since the centre of government has definitely moved to the city it's undergoing something of a depression).

Angelina checks recent newspapers and generally catches up with her social circle. Santiago's certainly in charge of smuggling operations in most of upstate New York, and he has a gimmick: nobody ever sees his face, because he always wears a mask. His men occasionally steal aircraft, but it's not a major activity for them. Most of his liquor comes in through Quebec and Canada rather than the Atlantic Coalition.

Angelina also talks with her cousin Raymond, who confirms that Santiago's men don't usually operate far enough south to come to the attention of the Broadway Bombers - the Albany Sky Hounds would be the relevant militia to talk to.

Jack makes contact with his disreputable friends, and buys drinks on "expenses" (i.e. Angelina will be getting the bill). He finds several people who deal with Santiago's men: Santiago has a reputation for fair dealing, which is somewhat unusual. Most of his underlings, particularly the more important ones, are of Irish extraction. He doesn't seem to have any problems with the police in Albany, but the local air militias are another matter. He's in fairly direct competition with Donati's mob, who bring in their own liquor down the coast, even though their areas of operation don't overlap - after all, there are only so many thirsty people in New York. There's even a suggestion that Donati might be expanding his operations northwards. Jack also gets names and descriptions of Santiago's three lieutenants.

Sunday 25 April 1937

Bruce gets some maps of the area, and chats with the New York cops. They don't think much of their counterparts in Albany - it's a hotbed of Unionist sentiment, where instead of being locked up for graffittiing the Stars and Strips you just get a $5 fine. They confirm that Santiago doesn't have problems with the cops, and they're pretty sure they know why - though this might just be jealousy that nobody can afford to buy off the entire New York force.

Togo checks the newspapers in the library, both for stories from Albany (several in the form "mobster gunned down by unknown parties", over the last few years) and for stories about the place. It looks as though there are three major bosses, separated by their activities rather than geography - Santiago runs smuggling, Boyle runs vice and drugs and MacNaboe runs protection.

After the library closes, Togo walks around thinking for a bit, ending up at a certain coffee shop. Pietro Donati's also there, and they talk briefly. Togo lays out his thoughts on the situation - it seems that several attempts have been made to get hold of the Silver Angel, but he thinks that Santiago may actually want the group to do some other job for him. Pietro's apparently as puzzled as Togo: "I would have thought he'd make an offer if he wanted you to work for him. He knows how the game is played."

The investigators meet again for dinner, and try further to work out what might be going on. They eventually decide that the most plausible explanation of the theft is that someone doing a regular cargo shipment suddenly needed an aircraft, and had to take the first one that was available (and Montreal's is quite a small airfield). They're still puzzled as to the problems surrounding the money shipment, though...

Monday 26 April 1937

First thing in the morning, they take Angelina's gyro to Albany, planning to stay in the airfield hotel rather than in town.

Session: 2 November 2005

There are one or two Sky Hounds planes at the airfield, and perhaps ten others of various sorts. Bruce, Togo and Angelina head into town to check out the newspaper archive; Jack joins them to find out more about local drinking establishments; Lilian guards the gyro.

Angelina is looking specifically for some big social event on Friday or later that would have required alcohol to be shipped in; there's no sign of such. The local papers do carry the story of the Silver Angel's flight, though written along the lines of "the militia claim they saw a smuggler". Recent papers also carry a speech from the mayor, Daniel Houlihan, along the lines of "making this country great again" - Angelina in particular spots this as code for Unionist sympathies.

Jack hits the bars, finding a few open even at ten in the morning. There's a lot more Unionist talk than he's used to in most places, where it usually leads to a swift beating or an arrest.

Lilian wanders around the airfield; it's clearly been built for far more traffic than it sees now. Several hangars and warehouses have been disused for some time; others are in regular use, though not at this moment. She has lunch in the field's cafe, and gets chatting with some of the pilots who are passing through; it seems that, since the state government more or less packed up and left, people just don't tend to stop here any more unless they're on long-haul routes and need a break in a hurry. It's only thirty or sixty minutes to New York, after all. The fuel's cheap, but that's about the only thing that recommends Albany.

Jack gets chatting with some of the staff and patrons of his preferred "private club". The prevailing attitude seems to be that the town pretty much died when being the state capital stopped being meaningful. Some people are in favour of the Union because "after all, you can't believe they could ever have made Prohibition stick across the entire country". Others just regret that apart from barge traffic up the Hudson nobody really has a reason to come to town any more. The mayor, on the other hand, does his best, and his heart's definitely in the right place. Once in a while the City (i.e. New York) sends agents up to deal with all this Unionist sentiment, but they're easy to spot - they all go to the same tailor, and they won't buy a drink.

Bruce stays in town while Angelina and Togo head north of town to visit the Sky Hounds' airfield. George Baxter, who's in charge of the unit, is working on his plane when they arrive, but straightens up when he sees Angelina. He remembers the "weird-looking plane", and how well it handled (as well as how easy it was to spot at night). The fighters flying escort for it were Temple's Raiders, most of whom had been shot down the previous night (including their cargo plane); he reckons they must have had a serious contract to fill or they wouldn't have been up at all. At this point they probably only have three or four planes left.

He knows, as "everybody" does, that Santiago's base is the old state capitol building, but no more detail than that. Temple's Raiders operate out of a variety of small fields, but he thinks that their main base is probably a small farm airstrip - there are lots of them around these parts, and not all that many Sky Hounds to run patrols. (They do patrol every night, and that's how they caught the run on Thursday night; they hadn't had a tipoff.) As for the local police, he doesn't want to say anything bad about such a "well-known body of men".

As he's saying this, Bruce finally manages to find the bar where Jack's hanging about; he enters on the heels of a fat man in police uniform, who takes off his hat and orders a drink. (Neither Bruce nor Jack can work out the details of the uniform, but he's clearly high-ranking, not just a beat cop.) Once Bruce and Jack have caught up on each other's doings, Bruce decides to see what he can find out, and starts to introduce himself to the cop... who recognises him as "Dave", and starts to shake. "Heard you'd got shot down or something. Well, you know how hard it is to get news out of Mexico. How can we help you?"

Bruce expresses an interest in the odd plane that was used in a smuggling run on Thursday night, and the cop - Frank Clancy - says "you'll need to talk to the boss about that. I can set up a meeting... would it be all right to meet back here at six?" Almost without waiting for a reply, he backs away and leaves, leaving his drink unfinished on the bar.

Quote: (Bruce) Thank God he didn't lick me.

The investigators all meet back at the airfield at four o'clock. Angelina phones Claudia Kemp to try to get some more back-story on "Dave"; the short version is that he breezed into town a few years back, broke her heart, and left again. But he's certainly the one who inspired her to become a really competent sharpshooter (and, it's implied, assassin).

Bruce takes Togo and Jack as "bodyguards" to go to the meeting; Angelina and Lilian will follow in a hired car, giving the others a lift to the bar first. There's quite a bit more traffic in the early evening; Angelina, driving, thinks she sees Enzo Donati in another car, but can't be certain.

Frank Clancy's been steadying his nerves all afternoon, and is now very steady indeed. He drives Bruce and the others to the old capitol building, taking informal advantage of the wide roads. Angelina and Lilian follow; Angelina parks the car so that she can see the front of the capitol, while Lilian lurks near the back. Quite a lot of other people seem to be arriving at the capitol building too.

Clancy takes the three into an office and introduces Bruce to Peter Adams, one of Santiago's lieutenants (that's one of the names that Jack was given in New York, and he matches the description), then leaves the room. Adams explains that Richard Temple reported having stolen the plane - and for some bizarre reason having returned it... He'll gladly take "Dave" to see Temple, but he'd prefer him to be left intact. This evening's meeting is for the handing out of new assignments - "nothing on your level of course". (Bruce is possibly wishing he'd brought some nerve-steadiers of his own...)

The three are lead to what seems to be the old state senate chamber, which is gradually filling up with pillars of the local underground community. Peter Adams points out Temple, then leaves, explaining that he has other arrangements to make before Santiago's speech. Jack walks over to talk to Temple, with Bruce clearly in the background (and not deigning to talk personally to this low-level functionary).

Richard Temple is quite open about his activities - he needed a cargo plane to make a delivery, and his own had been shot down. It was either "borrow" a plane in a hurry, or make excuses to Santiago. It was too distinctive to keep, though his cargo pilot liked it so much that he brought it back rather than just dumping it in a bog somewhere.

Bruce has mostly been keeping an eye and ear on this conversation, while Togo has been looking around more generally. As Santiago, in a full-head mask, enters and starts to wish the assembled mobsters a good evening, it's therefore Togo who spots a figure at the back of the hall who looks remarkably like Bruce. That figure shoots a burst from a tommygun at Santiago, who falls; Togo fast-draws and shoots back, getting a hit as the figure ducks behind a pillar.

Lots of guns get drawn. Some of them are pointed at Togo, but most of them are being waved around in a nervous manner. Someone near the back calls "he's getting away" and gives chase; most of the other people present are backing away slowly and attempting to look nonchalant while covering each other. There's a quiet gurgle over on the far side of the hall as a long-standing score is settled.

The figures clustered around Santiago call "He's dead! And he was the Mayor!" As Bruce, Togo and Jack leave, they hear Enzo Donati's voice saying "hold on, we've got a good thing going here, and it doesn't have to fall apart..."

When Angelina heard the shooting, she started the car. She sees someone looking like Bruce, in a different set of clothes and clearly recently shot, come out of the building and straight towards her; she's somewhat startled when he points his tommygun at her and orders her out of the car, but obeys anyway. He drives away at speed.

As the others arrive, they explain the situation and leave on foot, eventually picking up a taxi and heading for the airfield. Angelina's thirst for revenge seems to have been sated for the moment. They fly to the militia field to bring them up to date on what's going on, then return to New York.

[At which point the campaign goes on hold for a while.]

4.7. Will You Love Me in December (as you do in May)?

Session: 7 February 2007

Thursday 6 May 1937

Charley Astor comes to Teal-Saunders with a new job: Tesla's workshop has been broken into, and something is probably missing. The team heads to the workshop, and Lilian takes a look outside; there's evidence of a motorcycle and sidecar having departed in a hurry, probably with one person on board and a small load in the sidecar.

Tesla is somewhat distracted with a new idea, but talks briefly; what's gone is a generator, designed to produce electrical power from "cosmic radiation", though it isn't working yet. When asked if this could be considered by the uninitiated a form of perpetual motion machine, he grudgingly agrees that a fool could easily make such a mistake. Physically it's a wooden case, about the size of a large portable wireless, with a crank-hole on one side and two screw terminals on top. Tesla can't help with its power output: "In theory, as much as is wanted. In practice, usually nothing." But he's got the plans and is working on building another.

Lilian asks who else might have known about the generator, and Tesla explains that he'd only told Charley and the "government men" who provide his money; he isn't too clear on which bit of the government they are working for.

The two night guards supplied by the Empire State's government, a pair of off-duty New York cops, say they didn't see anything - they'd gone to investigate a sound of breaking glass at the back of the warehouse, but heard a screech of tyres, hurried back to the front, and found the broken padlock. Togo is unconvinced by their story, and leans on them a little, but they get somewhat huffy and depart.

Quote: (Cop #1) If you can't trust a New York policeman, who can you trust?

Jack and Lilian cast about for other evidence. Lilian thinks she sees faint footprints leading onto the roof, but gets nowhere trying to follow them; Jack looks at the warehouse across the street, and thinks it shows distinct signs of being used as a speakeasy. He and Togo take a closer look, and hear someone sweeping up inside; Togo knocks, and when the hatch in the door opens he offers money.

Inside is a basic bar arrangement made from trestle tables and packing cases.

Quote: (Jack) This is a better class of speakeasy than I'm used to.
(Togo) They're actually sweeping.

The man who's sweeping up is also the night barman, one Vincent Caffney. With a little monetary persuasion, he's happy to say that the two cops spent most of the night in the speakeasy, leaving only at about 6am when someone heard the sound of a motorcycle pulling away quickly. As for the fellow on the motorcycle, a powerfully-built man with short-cropped dark hair and wearing a long black coat, he was in for most of the night as well - arrived about ten or eleven, didn't drink a great deal, but seemed to be working up his nerve for something. He was muttering about "those damn Germans will get what's coming to them", which was weird because he had a kind of German-sounding accent himself... Caffney gives a receipt for "Miscellaneous"

Mo	Tu	We	Th	Fr	Sa	Su
January 1937:
				1	2	3
4	5	6	7	8	9	10
11	12	13	14	15	16	17
18	19	20	21	22	23	24
25	26	27	28	29	30	31
February 1937:
1	2	3	4	5	6	7
8	9	10	11	12	13	14
15	16	17	18	19	20	21
22	23	24	25	26	27	28
March 1937:
1	2	3	4	5	6	7
8	9	10	11	12	13	14
15	16	17	18	19	20	21
22	23	24	25	26	27	28
29	30	31
April 1937:
			1	2	3	4
5	6	7	8	9	10	11
12	13	14	15	16	17	18
19	20	21	22	23	24	25
26	27	28	29	30
May 1937:
					1	2
3	4	5	6	7	8	9
10	11	12	13	14	15	16
17	18	19	20	21	22	23
24	25	26	27	28	29	30
31
May 1937:
					1	2
3	4	5	6	7	8	9
10	11	12	13	14	15	16
17	18	19	20	21	22	23
24	25	26	27	28	29	30
31
June 1937:
	1	2	3	4	5	6
7	8	9	10	11	12	13
14	15	16	17	18	19	20
21	22	23	24	25	26	27
28	29	30

Crimson Skies: Take Me Back

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