After checking around the house, Aurora opens the bag next to the door and starts rummaging through it, hoping that it will be filled with crucial evidence, rather than age-old unwashed gym clothes.
Jim shrugged. "I wouldn't mind taking a look at that gun..." He said, eyeing Remington for signs of cooperation.
After hesitating, Remington hands the gun over to Jim.
While waiting, Nurai had paced and pinged a bit around the house while looking for anything magical or of other interest or concern that the late King might have left that might help them now.
On hearing the door, Nurai put her sunglasses back on and rejoined the group while she quickly texted Valda to let her know her man had arrived - Nurai found that helpful so V would know how prompt her people were and a precaution in case this somehow wasn't him. She nodded her thanks as the human man cuffed the dwarf man, pausing a moment to watch the two of them and hear the others before she responded to him with a faint smile, "Hello, I've sent my thanks to Valda. Thank you for your speed in this, I appreciate it..." she said softly, her high voice getting more accented the more tired she got before turning to Cerise, ...I think I'll take the phone, maybe run it through mine or one of V's machines... Nurai said with a shrug. The summoner wanted to keep as many not-going-shoot-her pieces of this puzzle close to hand as possible.
Nurai didn't find anything especially interesting, beyond the bag full of documents.
The big man nodded. "It is not great problem. We shall take this one somewhere, and see what can be learned around the edges of his mental bonds. It take time to do, but can be useful."
The phone was locked with only a simple slide lock, and had a cute kitten as a background. Although most did were not operating a gattling gun. Beyond the basic apps the background seemed to the only customisation, and the phone book contained only number. The ICE details on the lock screen said, 'In case of death, dismemberment or random, please ring this number.'
The gun was unusual. Beyond its clearly magical nature it didn't seem to contain any ammuntion, and could only normally load a single shot. Remembering that the gunman had not reloaded at all was...curious. However, it could narrow its barrel to choke shotgun shells into a narrow, focused blast or widen for an heavy spread.
After the big man left, Cerise watched for a moment. Then... "Is nobody else going to ask how Valda knows people like that?" she inquired. That was a pretty solid response time, all things considered.
"She knows people like us. I can't say I'm surprised, honestly." answered Aurora, going through the documents in the bag.
Nurai was sorting the documents to take away with the dwarf man's phone to look at later in a nicer place when her own phone pinged again, and after looking at it for a moment, Nurai chuckled lightly.
"Chern? Valda requests you pick her up something to eat...I think I saw a place not far from here now selling пиріжки which she might like..." Nurai said as her tired smile became more amused.
Chern grinned, lighting up what could only be called a rugged face. "Most likely. I shall buy some. Better than McBurgers. She eats too many of those things when working late." Making a face, he hauled the complaining gunman away.
The documents contained in the bag contain legends, myths and folktales from Fever along with a small box of floppy discs. The books have been highlighted in red, blue and green, but there doesn't seem to be a key or reference as to what the highlights mean.
Someone had lots of primary-colored highlight- er, someone smarter than her would figure it out. "Hmm... any of these stick out to voodoo senses?" she asked, flipping through a few of the things in the bag.
Jim considered firing the shotgun to see about the ammunition curiosity, but he didn't really have a good place to do it. He shrugged and handed it back to Remington. "You know how to use this thing, amigo?"
Remington nods and accepts the gun.
"I have a bit of experience with magical firearms. I should be able to figure it out."
Cerise found a small USB stick at the bottom of the bag.
"Floppy disks...going to need to find an adapter for those..." Nurai commented with a sigh as she repacked what she was holding.
"Let's find a place to crash and heal and go through what we can of this. Anyone have preferences?" Nurai said as she pulled out the car keys.
"It's prudent to assume we're being followed. Someplace easily defensible."
"You guys can crash my place if you want. I have the tech to read those." Jim said, nodding to Nurai with the floppy disks. "A guy like me has got to have his safe houses. There's always somebody looking for The Jim." He added proudly, with a thumb to his own chest.
"Voodoo senses? Floppy disks are deader than disco, we may make zombies out of them. I guess we could get a reader on Amazon? And Mom's pub should be safe enough, it's got a reputation."
"USB." Cerise said, holding up the small stick. "Maybe get it read by a proper security firm to be sure it's not primed to overload the wrong machine or something. People can put crazy electronic defenses on these things nowadays."
"A guy like me has got to have his safe houses. There's always somebody looking for The Jim."
"You include space to exercise in your safe houses? Impressive."
Jim cocked his head at Remington with an uncertain half-smile. "Ey, si, of course..." His eyes wandered into space, then he shook it off. "That guy is strange." He thought to himself before turning to the others. "You go to someplace legit and they might just be making copies or erasing your disk. Best to handle this kind of thing with people you trust... under the table."
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Terrible jokes worthy of punishment aside, getting to Jim's safe house is easy enough.
Once inserted into a drive, the floppies reveal they are all password protected. Apparently the former king was paranoid about his documents. However, the program used looks old, outdated - it probably won't be hard to crack.
The USB drive doesn't seem to be protected, and instead holds the contents of his computer. It looks like it needs a specific program to read it properly, as like this it's simply a giant info dump.
All around the room are maps of different regions, posters of obscure musicians and old movies, second-hand furniture, and quite a few piles of tools and hardware. A few computers lie in a disassembled state while one or two look like they might work if connected, and a single faded off-white tower sits in operational defiance next to a large CRT monitor. In the far corner stands a metal cabinet slightly larger than a mini-fridge with a mixture of solid and blinking lights, their purpose unknown. The one window in the room appears to be of a thick, tinted glass, and bars criss-cross from the metal window frame. Above, the main source of light is a bare light bulb that gently bobs to the sway of the unbalanced ceiling fan.
Jim wheels around in a squeaky old half-back office chair with shoddily-patched holes in the upholstery. The big CRT monitor burns dimly behind him as he looks to the others and reports the news.
"Luckily for you gente, old Jim knows a thing or two about computers. I can probably get into these disks, but finding old software is going to be tougher. I have some guys, but they don't always work on your schedule, comprende? So what do you think?"
Cerise blinked at Jim. S-should she mention that everyone ought to know about computers these days...? "I think we should see what we've got before we worry about calling others in." she said, fairly relaxed now that there wasn't a guy to sit on.
"Maybe it's a really easy password? Like "Elza"?"
"That'd be nice" Nurai said to Aurora as the summoner as she considered Jim's question and put the gunman's odd phone on the table near the rest of the computer parts.
After checking her own phone for a moment, Nurai pocketted it and got her wand, "Let's see what we can do first. You computer-whiz stuff, I'll try to deal with some of the wounds..."
She picked at one of her own wounds for a moment and cast behind her at where she shadow leaned against the wall before she turned her attention back to Jim and cast again, the wooden wand lighting up for a moment as she did so...
Cracking the floppies prooves fairly simple. They contain, for lack of a better word, case files and research that the Chief had dealt with during his time as King. Unfortunately they are both plentiful and unorganized, but with some work they would make an immense resource for looking into the weirdness of the town.
One of the more recent files seems to focus on the Chief being followed by several sets of people in various sets of attire. Six pictures are included, including the two you met at the garage and the Gunman with a second woman. The other two are unknown.
He also notes that at least one of the wards was attacked, but it ended in complete failure. It took him quite some time to clean up what remained of the person trying to do so.
"Hmm... so, track down who's in these pictures, I guess?" Cerise inquired, gesturing at the least-understood pictures. The more they could piece together, the better off everyone was going to be.
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"Let's split up."
"Hmm... so, track down who's in these pictures, I guess?" Cerise inquired, gesturing at the least-understood pictures. The more they could piece together, the better off everyone was going to be.
"Do we still have access to the gunman wherever Valda is holding him? We can ask him to identify the people in the pictures. Is there a way we can get the pictures to him using computers?"
"Yeah I can send these pictures to Valda. Which reminds me," Jim hopped into the other room and came back with a laptop. He set it up and pulled out his camera, plugging it into the laptop and waiting for it to start up. "I need to send her the pictures I took."
When Nurai produced the wand, Jim raised his eyebrows as his wounds closed before his eyes. "Ey amiga, that's good magic!" He nodded. "Many thanks."
He turned his chair back around towards the CRT and spoke to the group. "I'll send these over. You gang can help yourself to whatever is in the kitchen."
Outside of the dingy computer room and just across the hall, the stained carpet gave way to vinyl and dark wood-paneled cabinets stood opposite an island that also served as a bar to the den. Two low lamps with dusty fabric shades hung over the island from the ceiling while three recessed lights illuminated the kitchen counters. Various clipped bags and dried, opened tin cans littered the area. The trash was overflowing with glass bottles and food containers of every sort. There was a single-basin sink and no dishwasher, but at very least the dishes in the cabinet were clean. Perhaps because, as was evident by the trash can, he mostly didn't use them.
As the others got to work, Cerise took out her cellphone and started tapping various buttons, humming a bit as she did so. Her bodyguard talents weren't needed at the moment, so with nothing else to do, she figured she might as well read something to pass the time.
Jim swiveled around. "Alright, V has those pictures. She got the wheels turning, you know? I am going to go try to clean myself up."
Nurai nodded, her tired smile widened for a moment, "You're welcome, you took quite a battering back there..."
After Jim left, she focused on her eidolon and her own healing unless someone else asked. Knowing others could heal themselves, Nurai wasn't entirely sure who else might need it...
I guess it doesn't make much sense to have housekeeping for a safe house, Remington thinks as he wanders around.
Music suddenly spread out from somewhere. 'Only One King' by Jung Youth, albeit with an increased tempo. It takes a few moments to realize that it's the Gunman's phone.
Nurai staring at the phone for a few moments after realizing what it singing at them before picking it up and saying "Сәлеметсіз бе! Nurai mұнда" in her usual light voice. "The shortie you may be trying to call is busy at the moment, can I help?" as she twirled the wand in her free hand.
Her shadow against the wall snickered slightly.
"What the **** was that?" the male voice on the other end asks in astonishment at being greeted in a tongue they clearly didn't speak. "Doesn't ****ing matter, anyway. Look, we want the shortarse and the sword. You've got us over enough of a ****ing barrel that we'll ****ing pay to get them back. How much do you ****ing want?"
Cerise looked rather amused at the voice coming from the phone, but she kept her mouth shut. The good news was the bad people didn't have the sword, it seemed... so that made this some kind of race against time? Interesting.
Nurai listened quietly. She took a moment to glance at the phone to see if a name came up. If only a number came up, she would use her own phone to google to see if anything came up. She leaned against the wall into her shadow as she returned to the call. She looked at the table as she did so for pen and paper...
Her voice still light, she said into the phone "The 'shortarse' is dealing with some issues after he shot and use grenades on some people. People who may have...bigger connections. I want to help you but his-smallness is pretty tight-lipped of course and busy so...let's check some details first then we can discuss costs..." she looked to others for suggestions.
"Ok, you might want to put me on speaker phone or what for the next bit, because this is important." The voice waited 30 seconds or so before continuing, "The shortarse has a kinda magical curse on him so he cannot ****ing break his word. Do not, I repeat, do not try and ****ing force him. He has his own protection in place. It will get ****ing messy. So, he isn't any use to you. He is to us. What do you want for him and the sword? Cash is easiest, power can be done, and certain information if you want it."
Making a motion to the others that he wants to speak, Remington speaks up so the caller can hear him. He smiles the whole time, knowing how that will affect how he comes across even if the listener can't see him.
"Oh, I think that would lead to a very heated discussion among ourselves about whether we're ready to release a man who tried to kill us. His fate is still under... consideration. For now. But you offered information? What can you tell us about recent events concerning Fever's wards against outside attention? Let's start there, and then we can talk about the sword."
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"Ah, yes, the sword" muttered Aurora to herself as those apparently more used to negotiation, well, negotiated. "The sword for the King, the sword chosen especially to empower the King... the King's sword."
Nurai puts the phone on speaker as requested and placed it on the table so her own hands would be free. She listened quietly with a glance to the others in the room. She used her phone to text Valda that someone wanted the dwarf back and warned that any methods to force him to talk might cause some curse issues.
After Remington spoke, Nurai added "Quite happy to discuss negotiating his release and such, you're right that I've no use for him, mostly just holding him to keep him out of the way for a while after his shooting rampage. Men who are so thoughtless are such a pain and I've better things to do than deal with one who is so quick on the trigger..."
Nurai felt wary about naming a price or anything specific just yet when she didn't know who she was dealing with though she also was unsure if asking a name would be helpful.
"That's the sword we want, yeah," the voice replied, sounding a little confused. "And the information is payment for it, if that's what you want. I'd take ****ing cash in small,pre-cut gems, but I'm not you. I'm also not ****ing foolish enough to give away chips for free. We will agree to pay first, and then you hand over the sword and the idiot, if you swear to do so within a circle that ensures truth. Basic Zone of Truth thing, as I ****ing understand it, you can have a spellcaster check it for no ****ing hoodoo ********. Trust isn't exactly prime here, after all. If you want, we can agree to have Shortarse swear he won't fight you for, say, the week as well. Except in self-defence. He ain't dumb. So you swear to tell the truth, he swears not to kill you, we give you the info, you give us the idiot and the sword. Sound fair?"
Remington forces a chuckle. "Slow down, son. I know you want what you want, but you're jumping the gun a bit. I didn't ask you to tell us what you know about Fever's wards. I asked you what you can tell us about them. I need to know you're information is worth our time. There's no point to us discussing terms until we know you have something we'll want."
As the others spoke, Cerise wrote a few things down on a piece of paper, then held it up for others to see.
I know someone who's good at getting information. These people probably don't have as good a hand as they want us to think.