Borax gets on the radio, "David, you're with Makeba. Track it. DO NOT engage. We need to find their base. Farrell, we need you here."
Borax turns to the group. "If there's a fridge car, we move the bodies to it and disconnect it from the rest of the train. if not, we move the bodies to the last car and disconnect that."
Borax gets back on the radio, "Farrell, I need you to get to the engine. On my signal, get the chain moving and the jump off. Set it for...."
"On it. Makeba, watch your corners, I'll take point."
Naomi holsters her pistol and moves for the hole in the wall, ready to jump through, tuck and roll from the train.
After a more thorough assessment of the situation, Borax radios a new set of instructions,
"We can't disconnect any cars, so we have to clean this up. Hit the bathrooms and the maintenance closet for soap, towels, and any mops. We nee to clean this up as much as possible. Don't leave behind any casings."
" We'll toss the bodies off the train and radio in for a helicopter to rendezvous with Makeba and David when they return from tracking the alien. I suggest those two get a change of clothes and find another way into town after the bodies are picked up . If we can find something to wrap the bodies or store them, all the better."
"The rest of us will stay on the train. Let's move to another car after we get things cleaned up. Any questions?"
"Yeah, no sweat. Recon, disappear, exfil. You good, big man? Ready to roll?"
Naomi calls out over the comm while looking for tracks of the purple headed alien's passage.
"Ja, boss. On route now.", he says, shoving the broken glass out of the way, as he leaps through the window. Landing into the gravel next to the trainline with an 'oof', he sheathes his axes, nodding at Jacob. "Le'see what's the weirdest blod in the area.", he replies, as he quickly starts following the path where the gray went. As soon as he reaches the woods, he starts looking for tracks, his nose breathing in deep the smell of the trees with a pleased sigh, before he crouches down to look, then quietly begins following the trail. "Mind yo step, ja?", he whispers to Jacob.
"We'll move quick," Rosa confirms. "Doctor, stick close to me, just in case." She hurries to find something to hide the bodies in and hopefully a mop.
Richard takes a moment to clear out the remaining glass with one of his axes, before clamoring through the broken window and out off of the tracks. There's a drop of a few feet down to the ground, but once he hops down Richard already notices signs of the alien's passage. A few scant drops of blood dot the grass at his feet, heading off farther into the wooded area. It seems to have made surprisingly good time considering its injuries, but unless it has some quick means of escape it's likely Richard and Jacob can catch up.
Rosa heads back through the train cares with Dr. Stein, who just nods at her comment about sticking close. She notices when he pulls out quite a lengthy combat knife, perhaps a bit on-edge after the fight. About half a dozen cars back she finds a mop bucket, which Dr. Stein takes immediately. She also finds enough ice to store the bodies, although finding any boxes to hold them in seems a bit difficult. Nothing she finds is both large enough and movable to hold even the bodies of the smaller grey aliens, let alone the larger one. Still, Dr. Stein takes one of the smaller boxes you both find and begins filling it with ice. "Might as well have it on hand to use, right? No use coming back here once we find something. I don't think there'd be another food car on this train, though... we'll have to think of something else."
Richard continues his pursuit in the woods, ducking from tree to tree with surprising efficiency. As he notes the blood, he points it out to Jacob, then continues down the trail. I should've probably got my gun. But I'm not answering questions about guns in here..., he thinks, as he follows the trail with all the speed he can muster. "Makeba here. Still in pursuit.", he whispers into the radio, before pointing his attention to the tracks once more.
"They have to have garbage bags, don't they?" Rosa says. "Surely that would at least get them out of sight for a while."
Richard continues his pursuit of the alien, but he finds an abrupt end to the trail. The blood gets thicker and now lies in smaller pools, until they spot a small circle burned into the grass; a few smaller concentric circles sit within it, and the ground is freshly scorched.
Rosa finds a pack of trash bags after scrounging through the food car, and brings them back to the others in order to start loading the bodies into the bags. "That's taken care of," Dr. Stein says, frowning as he tries to load a body in without it bleeding on him. "Now we'll just need to clean up the mess..."
Rosa just finds a bucket and either a mop or clothes or whatever she can make the best of and hands the bucket to the doctor. "Cleaning up potentially biohazardous blood shouldn't be a new one for a doctor," she points out. "Let's just do it quick and hope no one starts waking up."
"Well, s%+$.", Richard's voice carries on the radio. "The little bastard went and get into a flying saucer or something.", he mutters, anger in his voice. "There's one of those mad crop circles - I'll move back in cover unless the locals decide I'm the one getting funny with their forest.", he relays, angrily swinging at a nearby tree with his axe. "Boss man, what I do?"
Borax responds to Makeba, "Take a quick look around for anything it might have dropped and then double-time it back to the train."
"Ha, I suppose you're right. I hadn't though of it that way. Here, hand me the mop." Rosa and Dr. Stein take a bit of time to clean the mess as best they can, and by the time they're done there's barely any trace of a stain. Makeba takes a few minutes to look around, but finds nothing of note in the clearing. By the time he returns, the bodies are prepped to be left for a recovery team. "We should probably get the train moving again before these people wake up," Dr. Stein says, heading toward the front of the train. "I'll handle it, you all might want to stow those weapons again." Soon after, the train lurches forward and begins rolling again, and eventually the other passengers wake up from their sleep-like state. It doesn't seem that any of them really noticed a change, although you do notice that one or two of them cast a disapproving look at the light stain on the floor.
About an hour later, the train pulls into the station at Stamford. The town seems relatively small, quaint, and utterly unaware of the reason you've come to visit. "What do you all want to do first? Find somewhere to stay? Take a look around? I think some of you mentioned the sewers?" Dr. Stein looks around, holding his heavy bags in one hand. "More importantly, where do you want me to go?"
As the train begins to arrive close to town, Borax has a conversation with the group,
"The one that got away, only knows Makeba, David, and Jacobs, so you three are now an item. Team beta. Make your way to the sewers and and start scouting and bomb placement. Jacob, you run the op and call it.
I'll work with Vasquez and Stein on team Alpha. Vasquez, you'll run the topside mission and I'll just be there to carry the bags.
Garvril. Pick a team and follow it. Keep your distance, but look to see if either one of the teams is being followed. We have to assume that we are not the only pieces on the board.
Any questions?"
Borax reminds everyone that the town might be under CCTV and advises the two teams to get off a different part of the train.
"Sewers? Ugh, looks like I'm gonna need a week of baths after this mission. Seems prudent, though."
Naomi stows her pistol after topping off the magazine, then secures her carry-on bag.
"Split up, rendezvous at the closest pharmacy and then we hit the underground? Or should our team Beta disembark together, just to keep more eyes open at once?"
Rosa nods to Borax's plan. "I suggest we set up a base where the doctor can perform any lab work or tests he might need first, even if it's just a hotel room. And having a secure location to fall back to and meet up will likely be beneficial. Then we should check who had children disappear first and start on interviews and examinations. Starting with oldest victims should at least keep the trail from going any colder. And first victims might have been stranger or sloppier so there might be evidence we won't see other places."
Borax nods at Rosa, "Yes. Both teams should have two separate rendezvous points. If the first is compromised, use the second. We''ll also need two rendezvous spots for the combined teams if things go from bad to worse. We should store food, water, and medical equipment. Once we've picked the spots, I'll see if someone at HQ can drop off some extra ammo and gear."
"Also, when communicating over the radio or when reuniting with anyone you've been out of eyesight with, use pass phrases to ensure we aren't dealing with an imposter. Won't help if they are using mind control, but if they can mimic our appearance, we might catch them unaware."
"Eish.", mutters Richard, scratching his head. "Let's hope sewers smell cleaner in this country, ye?", he shrugs. Pulling out his phone, he points the location of the pharmacy to the rest of his team. "See you there in twenty, ye?" Patting his bag, a muffled sound of weapon rustles inside. "I'll get band-aids. Surprisingly us'ful things, you know." He leans back on his chair, putting his hands behind his head and letting out a sigh. "And here I hoped we'd get a chance to talk with de locals in the waterin' hole first.", he shrugs.
Borax raises an eyebrow at Makeba's last comment, "Good thinking Makeba. After you're done with the sewers, you might hit the local pubs and see if there's anyone talking about seeing odd things or businesses doing things at weird hours. It occurs to me that these aliens might be so bold as set up shop above ground. I just figured they wouldn't be able to blend in, but then I could be completely wrong about that. If you don't get any leads from the drunks, we might start looking into local recordings and city records to see if anyone has purchased any large warehouses or buildings around the time this stuff started. Likewise check with the commercial and residential real estate brokers."
"But first thing's first. Make sure they aren't running around under the city."
"I'm gonna blend for a bit, listen in and try to pick up some ground level intel. I'll also grab some food and supplies. I don't suppose there's a convenient hunting, fishing, camping store in this burg, somewhere we can score some more outdoors equipment without raising an eyebrow."
Once she has secured her food, bottles, and a handful of useful camping supplies (tarp, poncho, flashlight & batteries, some rope, some paracord, fire making stuff, cheap mess kit), Naomi heads down into the sewer entrance area with Jacob.
Notice
; Ace (11, 1 raise)
Wild
"So, Jacob, what do you make of all this craziness? These purple alien things, are they really here to conquer? To colonize? What in the world do they want?"
She continues to make small talk as they head underground.
Taking the time to scout out the town separately before heading off on their various tasks, the group does find a pair of cheap hotels they can pay for in cash without any questions. The amenities are terrible, but you get what you pay for and it's unlikely anyone is going to raise eyebrows about your being there. Once you've got a few rooms, it's simple enough to get in contact to let the other team know you've got a base of operations. Rosa, having though ahead, gets Dr. Stein set up with an area to do what he needs to do; while he's not busy now, having even a makeshift area for him to work is better than nothing.
Wanting information on the missing children and the parents who were affected, Rosa knows the best place to go looking is likely the police station. She also knows they aren't likely to give up that information to just anyone, but looking in her suitcase she does find a uniform she could use to pass as some sort of government agent. Doing some looking around on the internet or just by asking in the lobby, it's easy to find out the city hall and police station are right next door; it wouldn't be hard to go find information on the people who lost their memories before looking into building records like Borax was hoping to.
Underneath the city, Naomi doesn't find anything in her preliminary look around in the sewers. At least for the moment, it just seems to be all smelly water and old stone.
Rosa takes the suit out of her suitcase and can't keep a small smile off of her face. She has to fight the urge to switch her ringtone to the MIB theme song as she quickly changes into the nondescript, but professional looking suit. Then she escorts the doctor and anyone who wants to accompany them to the police station to begin asking some questions. She absently straightens her tie as they enter the building. "Good morning," she says pleasantly to whoever is at the front desk. "My name is Miss Vasquez, and this is my partner, Dr. Stein, from the Public Health and Care Department. May we please speak to whoever is in charge of liaising with other departments? We're here on an assignment."
Richard sighs, then opens his bag, pulling out a set of overalls, a toolbelt and a tool-kit. "And here I was hopin' I'd get to go to fancy places. But tuff luck, in this part of the country.", he chuckles, as he pulls out a set of goggles and a set of wire-cutters. "I don't think those are out of place? There's bound to be some s%&# gunked up and locks getting jiggy, ja?", he shrugs, before putting on a reflective jacket. "Just for in town.", he comments, before grabbing the toolbelt, and heading towards the sewers.
Naomi rings up Makeba, outside the sewer exit for the moment.
"Nothing down here but smelly water and cold stone, so far. No intrusions or suspicious activity detected. I've secured an entrance and have some provisions, so whenever you're here, you're good."
She squats by the side of the concrete drainage outflow pipe she's 'secured', cracks open a protein bar, and keeps a quiet watch for anything untoward.
Rosa walks up to a secretary at the front desk, who looks up from her computer. "Public Health? I don't see your name on the schedule. Are you sure your appointment is today?" The secretary at the desk looks through the schedule again, and then frowns. "Still... I hope nothing's wrong. You know what? Go ahead through, I'll just reschedule his appointments. You'll want to speak with Mr. Phillips, he's two doors down on the left." She gestures through the door farther into the town hall, and turns back to her work.
-----
Down beneath the city, Makeba and the others scout farther into the tunnels. They make it quite a ways down beneath the city before Makeba finally spots signs of passage, and it leads them to an old storage room. The room is mostly empty, except for what looks like some recent signs of habitation. It could just be a homeless person, but the sleeping bags sitting in the corner look too small for an adult. He also finds a scrap of what looks like a child's shirt.
"Did they not call ahead? I was told that someone from the office would be in touch. I'm sorry about the mix-up. I'll try to get out of your hair quickly." Rosa smiles and nods to the secretary, then heads down the hall toward the office. She knocks on the door twice to announce herself. "Mr. Phillips? Are you in?"
As Rosa pokes her head in, a balding gentleman turns around from rearranging some books on a shelf. He looks to be in his mid thirties, with a suit jacket and a pair of jeans on. He adjusts his glasses before speaking. "Yes, that's me. But I'm afraid I'm not sure who you are, miss. You certainly aren't my next appointment, so I'm sorry to say I don't really have time to meet with you. You should schedule an appointment. Cheryl out front can do that for you. Okay?"
"Hmm...child sized materials down here? I wonder if the ET's are impersonating children, or something else a bit more esoteric? Bears looking around, at least, maybe we can find a bit more clues in the stuff itself?"
Naomi inspects the found materials closely, looking for signs of use, ownership, or the like.
notice ACE! ACE x2! Total of 24?!?
wild
"Apologies Mr. Philips," Rosa says, stepping into the man's office. "I'm Miss Vasquez and this is Dr. Stein. We're from the Public Health Department. I'm afraid there was a mix-up and our department didn't properly inform anyone that we were coming. If I can have five minutes of your time, we'll get done what we need done and be on our way."
|
The irishman snickers at Naomi's theories "I ain't one to judge noone's conspiracies, but I think the answer could be more simple... An escapee, child-size escapee, running away from the grays." Jacob says, crouching in front of the shirt's remains and observing them.
"Keep yer weapons ready, just in case." as he stands up and turns to Richard "Look for more trails, I'll radio the chief."
<"Farrel here, we found signs of passage and child-size clothing, we'll scout and secure the place before planting. Over.">
Richard grins. "There's no bears in English woods. Wolves, either. English hunted pretty much anythin' that could eat them to extinction, wherever they went. Cows is the most dangerous animals in here, boss, before our friends from space came."I sure could go for some beef now, mind you. His smile turns towards Jacob. "Sure thing.", he says, glancing down at the shirt. "Though, I got to say, s~$@-covered stone isn't the best material a tracker can work with."
"Well, if you're from Public Health..." Mr. Phillips sighs and shrugs, then waves Rosa and the others into his office. Really though, I can only spare five minutes. I've already got to cut my meeting with Public Works short so my wife and I can look for my—" He cuts off, and coughs. "Sorry, no need to worry you with my personal affairs. Suffice to say, I have a busy day. How can I help you three?"
---
Naomi looks over the clothing, and from what she can tell it's simply just torn fabric. It's from a plain blue shirt, and looks to be from the collar. There's a tag on the inside, with a name scrawled on it in permanent marker with a child's handwriting; "Zahcary". It doesn't appear to have caught on anything in the room, and there's little for it to have caught on in the first place. There's no real signs of a struggle, but whomever was here could have taken care of that. Judging from the sleeping bags, though, there were a few children down here rather than just one. The sleeping bags could probably fit two children if someone squeezed them in there, so the four of them could have held a little over half a dozen children.
Makeba finds a trail to follow down one of the tunnels, but loses it just as quickly. The splashing water of the sewer system wipes away any path that isn't more than footprints. However, he can tell that the group was comprised of several individuals. He spots eight small tracks, likely the children, and then simply some marks that look like someone was deliberating obscuring those specific sets of tracks.
"Thank you very much," Rose says as she steps inside. "Since you're on a schedule, I'll be brief. It's come to our attention that there have been a rash of incidents in this area. Now, missing persons are hardly our area of expertise and I have full confidence that the local police force can do their jobs. However, there are... other concerns. Memory loss isn't exactly a common ailment and the situation has us worried. The last thing we need is a brain affecting virus or heavy metals in the water supply at a time like this. Those are worst case scenarios of course, but we need to know what the case is before we can act. And since our two cases seem to be intertwined, I've been asked to request your department's cooperation. If we find any signs of what's causing these memory loss cases, we pass it on to make sure you have everything at your disposal to solve your missing persons, and if you find any more victims or any signs of a cause, you pass it on to us so we can make sure they're all examined and treated. Can we work together on this Mr. Phillips?"
After Rosa's entreaty, Borax hears his earpiece come to life and he steps out of the office to speak privately.
After Borax confirms what Farrell has just relayed, Borax tries to contain his urgency,
<Is there any way to ID the belongings? Hold off on the original plan. If there are children down there, we can't risk it. Over.>
When Borax returns, he looks for any pictures of Mr. Phillips family in the room.
Richard appears from behind a corner, scratching his head. "Eish. If I wanted to disappear, I'd go for the sewers. Not even dogs can smell ya here.", he notes. "So what I found was some kids, I think about eight. And they know somethin' is comin' after them, so they're hidin' the tracks.", he adds.
He shrugs. "So, kids runnin' away from somethin'. I say, they saw some s@!*, possibly told someone, and then nobody believed them, so they started runnin'. If we ask around the town, there's bound to be someone who knows where the kids used to run around, isn't it? Old buildings, abandoned train stations, that sort of stuff.", he proposes.
"All we need to do is start asking about the town's children without looking like a bunch of pedos.", he laughs out.
"Well, there WERE children down here. Not much here but their leavings, to be honest. Probably a half dozen, if my guess is correct. As for ID, the only thing I've found is a tag half-ripped off a blue shirt collar. It says "Zahcary", misspelled and in a child's handwriting. That's a slim lead, but maybe if one of the missing kids is a Zachary or Zack, that could give us something to work on."
Richard shrugs. "Well, we're not finding them now. I say we go somewhere and b~&&~*$& somethin'." He draws one of his axes and wipes the blade on his shirt. "How's this - we've found somethin' toxic or somethin' in the sewers, and want to check if there's some place the kids and all are hangin' around. Kids and elderly are the first to get afficted by stuff like this, ja?"
"So you think it may be some sort of... illness? Or something poisoning the water? That's quite serious. Of course, you'll have our cooperation with your investigation. Let my office know whatever you need, but I'm afraid that this is as much time as I have. I really do have pressing business." Borax heads back into the office at the same time, and catches sight of a picture on his desk; he spots a family of three, with Mr. Phillips and his wife along with a young boy, no older than six or seven.
Borax waits for a moment, if one presents itself, to snap a photo of the picture with his phone and the shutter sound turned off.
"Then I'll collect what you have and get started checking on the victims right away. Thank you kindly for your help." Rosa nods her head and stands to head out and get started. "And I'll make sure to call ahead and confirm if I need another appointment."
Borax manages to snap a picture without the man noticing, as he turns his back to grab his briefcase. "Let me know if you need anything specific from me, but Public Health can be assured you will have my utmost cooperation. Now, if you'll excuse me." Mr. Phillips shepherds you all out the door, then heads out the building on his own. Dr. Stein waits until everyone is out of earshot, then looks around.
"Well, what now? We could probably get our way into the records building if we want to look around for a base of operations. Alternately, we could maybe get back into his office if we need to. Dr. Stein notices Borax's phone and cocks his head. "What's up? Did you get a phone call or something?"
Borax holds up his finger as if to say one second, as he pulls out a notepad before heading over to to the secretary desk's desk. "Excuse me madam, Dr. Phillips mentioned something about his son and wife. I didn't quite catch his son's name, is it Zachary?"
"His son? Yes, his name is Zachary. It's a terrible shame, really." The secretary clams up for a moment, then gives them a nervous look. "Wait... that is why you all are here, right? I didn't just spill the beans on these missing kids? I wasn't supposed to tell anyone from out of town..."
"Thank you madam. I won't mention it."
Bohan returns to the Dr. Stein and when they are all out of ear shot, he explains what the sewer team found and the obvious connection. "Vasquez, how do you want to play this?"
"We received reports from an outside source," Rosa assures the secretary. "We're here to help." She frowns slightly. She hadn't expected to have run into a victim this soon. "We'll need access to the full list of victims so we can get started. We should collect what we need from records and get moving."
"Records? I think they're with the police department. You're welcome to poke around in the records room though, if there's anything else you need. I can have what the police collected sent to you though, since Mr. Phillips gave you all the go-ahead to poke around. We could have it faxed to you, if you want. Where are you staying?" The woman pauses for a moment, her fingers pressing the buttons on her desk phone. "Or would you rather I just told them you'd be swinging by to take a look at it?"