"Wait a second," Block interjects, "Reggie is supposed to be here hunting ghouls. If I have made that connection, then maybe he has, also. You said the Warriors drove off a few goons that were firing into her flat? I wonder if Reggie was one of them, or if he was hired to finish the job under cover of the hunt? That would explain why he was a half hour away from the zone."
Block checks his sizeable medkit - and notes with assurance that it's there, ready, and able to help him overcome any medical emergencies that may present themselves. Sort of a talisman of comfort, is Block's medikit, and it satisfies him that he is, indeed, ready for just about anything. To the right of the handle is a familiar slight bulge, a strange device to find in a kit devoted to healing. Yet it, too, gives a feeling of relief. Better to have it and not need it...
"...or something." Leeson finishes, a look of pain creasing his appearance. "It's like she became a different person, and now she actively masks," a reference that Block takes for Astral Masking, and Ace makes no connection to at all. "She's changed suddenly, and I think those mobsters might have had something to do with it!" Leeson snaps his fingers, standing.
Ace sits bolt upright at the mention of the Mob, going wide eyed in apprehension. "The Mob?" he splutters, "Are you sure it's the Mob that sent the two goons? What makes you think it's the Mob?" Ace finihses in a harsh whispered rush. He takes a quick panicked scan of the sky, the rooftops, the windows around, & then tries to suck his head down between his shoulders like a turtle. Muttering darkly, he says, "Just great. The Mob. Just, Freakin, Great. Just what we need. The bloody MOB in the mix... Damn!" Shaking his head like a dog shedding water, Ace looks back up & exhales a long, slow, "getting ahold of myself" breath.
As Ace calms down and gets a grip - Leeson, calming down just as quickly, adds, "But I got less than nuthin' to go on, no actual evidence or anything." He returns to his seat. "A man can get a lot of exercise, jumping to conclusions." He smiles apologetically. "Well, now you know more than you did before. I haven't actually *seen* her in three or four weeks, but I hear her door open and close occasionally, so I know she's still ghosting around. I just want to know how she is, and if there's anything we can do to help - whatever she's dealing with she shouldn't have to face it alone."
Leeson's off-side grin is absolutely infectious. "Trendwise, the nieghborhood becomes sort of a family." he explains, "even with Boomer and Choppy, and the rest of those Warriors sometimes making it tough, they're like badly-behaved second-cousins. But we've all become kin, after a fashion. After a while." The dwarf looks introspective again. "And something is most definitely wrong, here. So naturally we become defensive." He looks again between Ace and Block. "Turns out you're on our side, at least this time."
Block refocuses on Leeson. "Can you get word to the Warriors that there may be a duck inbound to try another hit on her, again?" He pauses for a second, then adds, "Our angel is a troll, and I'm betting he will show up just after Reggie gets here, so maybe mention there is a dwarf, human, and troll that are friendlies? Do you think the Warriors would mind" he adds, "If we went and knocked on her door? Or maybe hung out and watched her place until Reggie shows up?"
"What he said." adds Ace, "If Reggie is here to hunt ghouls and Miss Garcia might be one, then it stands to reason the two events aren't entirely coincidental. If Reggie is here to hunt *her* then I'm all for turning the hunter into prey." Excitedly, he explains, "If you can get word to Choppy that Reggie is out hunting Garcia..."
Block clears his throat and interrupts him, saying, "...MAY be hunting... we're guessing, here."
Ace continues with a glare at his companion, "...MAY be hunting, whatever. Then maybe they can scour the nooks & crannies for both Reggie & Garcia. The more eyes on the ground searching for sign, ears to the street listening for whispers, & noses to the wind sniffing for scent, the better the chance the quarry will get found. If you can get the Warriors to canvas their turf for those two & get word back to you when & where we can find them too, then we can try & end this in a manner with as little bloodshed as possible."
Block idly scratches his nose. "The problem is that Reggie is in heavy stealth gear - I'm not going to see him coming until after he puts a hole in my head. How good are your eyes and ears around Ms. Garcias's place? Would you be able to see him coming, and maybe give us a heads up?"
"Speaking of the devil," Ace chimes in, "the hunter is inbound right now. Silver-Gray NightSky. Possibly wounded. Armed for bear and p4ed as hell. Heads up folks, s4s about to hit the fan." He nods, and with that he turns around & goes up to one knee, the better to see out over the parapet. Scanning the sky overhead, the surrounding roof tops, those windows that might hide a sniper, & then looking down to scope the street, Ace uses his decoy ComLink to capture the trideo of the same scan & pipe it to his internal one for storage & later revisiting. He begins scrolling across the bands, listening/looking for more information.
With a tight grin Leeson says, "You'd have better luck finding her in the park this evening, gents. Whether she comes home tonight or not is rather problematic." He gestures over the edge of the roof, toward the park area. I have no idea what she does in there, but she left about an hour before you guys showed up, ghosting the place. Hasn't been back since." He turns to Block, directly. "Addressing your latest query, I have eyes and ears all around this place. It's my home, too, you know." He gestures, a single finger pointing up, at his chest level. Behind him a shadowy form "shimmers" into being, a ghost-image of a human-like form, you can't see enough definition to place its/his (?) outfit. "Jonas, here," he continues, "handles a lot of my light work and message carrying, and does a little housekeeping on the side. And there are more, but we've hardly just met. Don't want to let too many secrets out at once, now do I?" His grin is almost jovial.
Down at the curb at the far end of the block you see a familiar form wnadering away from the bus stop, the MTA bus seeming mostly ghostly white in the night below is already purring quietly off into the distance. Leeson breaks the reverie by pointing out "That's your little brother, but not the hunter. According to my sources," he points over his shoulder to the now disappearing Jonas, "Our hunter is going to be a bit later getting 'into the zone', due to a mishap in traffic." You can see that the dwarf is really enjoying himself. He nods his approval, "I used to have a mate, and she was a Snake shaman. She taught me so many things about gathering information, learning secrets." he drops off, his voice taking on a wistful note. He inhales, collecting himself. "That matters not." he exhales sharply. "We have a job to do tonight." He stands again, and turns toward the end of the block where a largely unobtrusive fellow meanders, the form seems like it *could* be somebody you know... |
