Alphonso will dash up and invite the fellow to join his makeshift club...
Alphonso's strike is true!
The man falls backwards and slams into the hold. Stanley and Arnault are easily able to locate him and subdue him as the fall stunned him enough that he is unable to fight back.
The two men recognize the saboteur as Adam Henning a Steward on board the ship though they have had little interaction with him the crew has spoken well of him at lunches they have taken with them.
Dazed he says nothing as the two men restrain him.
"Nice catch," says Stanley as Alphonso's blow allows his to catch up and both recognize and possibly restrain their alleged saboteur. He looks around the hold and its nearby environs for some sort of rope or other tool with which to tie him up for keeping him held on a more long-term basis once he starts to regain his normal faculties. He knows that the man is still a little dazed, but he can't help trying to get some answers from him anyway.
"Why sabotage the radio?" he asks, even though it occurs to him that this guy being down here might just be a coincidence. "Everybody speaks so highly of you. What's in it for you?"
Alphonso will get some rope and help subdue the man and hog tie him behind his back hands to feet while he is still dazed.
As Stanley and Arnault restrain the dazed man Alphonso quickly finds rope and heads down into the hold to bind the man.
The man shakes his head and scowls, "Who said I did anything? I was down here looking for a saboteur, chasing me allowed him to get away. Dolts!"
Arnault and Stanley pause for a moment wondering if the claim is true. Alphonso though has a great deal of experience with swindlers and he know, this man is lying!
Alphonso Psychology 30%
Arnault Psychology 20%
Stanley Psychology 5%
Alphonso continues to tie the fellow up smacking him upside the head after finishing the bindings saying stop lying or I shall take you to the kitchen and see about tenderizing some meat before I flay it from the bone.
While Stanley, personally, believes that it's possible they got the wrong man, Alphonso seems extremely confident the man is lying. Stanley gives his colleague a sideways look. "That seems rather excessive," he says, uncomfortably. "Does this ship have a brig? I can't remember. If there is one, we should take him there." He turns his attention back to their prisoner. Their prisoner. The words don't even make sense to him. He's an engineer, not a policeman.
"Who put you up to this sabotage? Lexington? What was your target tonight?"
The man stares daggers at Alphonso, "Starkweather is the target,the damn bastard is reckless. He should not be leading any expedition but be in jail!" The veins in his neck practically bulge as spittle flies from his mouth. It is clear his hatred of Starkweather is extreme indeed.
Phoebe calls down, "Should I alert the First Mate? Starkweather? Moore?"
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we shall drag this trussed chicken to Starkweather first and then the first mate unless of course he falls over the rails first while still tied for not telling us... everything.
"I'd say get all of the above," Stanley replies to Phoebe, more seriously. "Let's get a bunch of different eyes on this. There's been so many fishy things about this expedition, the cure has got to be shining as much light on it as possible. Leave no shadows."
And don't make it easy for any one of them to sweep this under the rug, he thinks to himself, but doesn't say out loud.
Phoebe retreats as the three male investigators interrogate Henning, "Starkweather led an expedition during an Alpine climb that led to the death of my brother Allan who fell to his death. I am trying to help you. Starkweather would sacrifice all of you for his fortune and glory! If I destroy some equipment it'll force us to turn back, saving all of you and simultaneously making Starkweather look the fool!"
"I think you overestimate the damage you've done," says Stanley. "I mean, a long term trip like this is going to have spares of critical systems, and I could probably whip up a replacement radio in about fifteen minutes. But, then again, seeking revenge makes people foolish, or so I've read."
Arnault nods along with Stanley's words. "You should be fighting zis in zee courts if you believe Starkweather is responsible for your brozers death... zough I doubt you vould vin it sounds like an accident... By sabotaging zis expedition you only make it more likely zat somvone else vill die!"
Henning snarls, "No one would've died, I was saving everyone from his incompetence!"
He says nothing further as Starkweather, Moore, Captain Vredenburgh, and First Officer Turlow arrive all led by Phoebe.
The Captain appears shocked, "Henning was the saboteur? Have you proof beyond finding him here?"
Henning stares daggers at Starkweather but says nothing, yet.
besides the fact he admitted it to us all as well, no nothing besides that
Stanley lets out a single, involuntary chuckle at Alphonso's succinctness. "That's true," he agrees. "He's under the impression that Mister Starkweather indirectly killed his brother, and he says he was trying to save us all from the same fate, intending to force us to turn around. I was as surprised as you are, Captain. I've only heard good things about this man to this point of the trip."
Starkweather replies, "A confessio is good enough for me. Shall we lock him somewhere until we arrive in Australia?"
The Captain motions to Turlow to take him away, who does so gladly, "James, we need to search this ship, what if something else was sabotaged?"
Starkweather gets red in the face, "I'll not hear of it! We have had delays enough, we shall search the ship tonight!!!"
He motions to the investigators, "You caught him, what do you all think?!"
"About searching zee ship? It's probably a good idea and I'm happy to help tonight to minimise any delay... vee should check zee food and vater supplies first"
"Searching the ship is definitely warranted," Stanley agrees. "We caught him tonight, but I doubt that this was his sabotage started with the radio. Speaking of the radio, is there a spare? Or perhaps, instead, parts to build a new one? I don't fancy the thought of sailing blind and deaf, but could almost certainly be of help with electronic repairs."
Starkweather replies, "Let us search and ascertain the damage before we overreact!"
The Captain frowns but nods in agreement.
Moore turns to Stanley, "Yes, we have back ups but... let's just search".
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Alphonso goes on a detailed compete search since he took inventory on day one going item by item seeking what ever else has been... fouled.
A Search of the Ship
Phoebe and Stanley seems to check every blasted thing that hasn't been sabotaged. It seems that Hold four and Hold Five, with the exception of the poisoning of the dogs (their illness seems like less of an accident now) a few days ago, have not been subject to the sabotage
This of course comes at somewhat of a relief until Alphonso and Arnault do start finding issues.
Alphonso starts the search in Hold 3 since the group is already there. Besides just the radio all radios stored here have been damaged and require repair - one other camp radio and four small trail radios in total. It seems that chlorine bleach was poured into the photographic chemicals rendering the chemicals useless and perhaps even hazardous creating photographs.
The generators in Hold One have been tampered with. Shockingly, the most glaring sign of sabotage is found in Hold Two, a small cloth parcel hidden deep down in the lower hold, thrust between two layers of the gasoline drums is the tip of the iceberg. Unwrapped, the parcel proves to contain a large coil of quick-burning timer fuse and a dozen non-electric blasting caps of the type found in the expedition stores. Several of the caps have been fixed to the ends of sections of fuse; combined with the thousands of gallons of fuel stored here, they make the elements of a deadly incendiary device. Worse yet, another such coil hung on the wall in the tween-deck next to the access ladder reveals that he was trying to create a fuse he could light without even having to enter the Hold at all...
"But of course he never vas going to kill anyvone... just blow up zee whole blasted boat!!" Arnault mutter as he finds the package jammed between the two tanks. He rushes off to find someone who knows about how to remove it all safely!
"It's a good thing we got to him when we did," Stanley observes. "I have to admit that I'm not the most insightful person when it comes to judging others, but this feels like an awful lot of sabotage and planning for a single person to pull off, even with the amount of time since we left New York. We should press him on whether he was working alone. I suspect Phoebe would be the best at that sort of thing, with her background in head-shrinking."
Alphonso returns to the group saying more radios have been damaged and the generators also require extensive repair. Finally, the photographic chemicals have been tampered with dangerously so and are useless at best.
Nodding in agreement with Stanley's assessment but before she can chime in surprise overtakes her, "You want me to force that man to talk!"
Crossing her arms, "To do that the quick way, which is the brutal way, I cannot do. And considering what he has done I doubt the violent option would work anyways. And the 'head-shrinking'" finger motioning the words in clear disdain for the term, "take time. He has no reason to just answer our questions so I would have to build a rapport with him. "
The investigators seek out Starkweather to advise him of what was discovered as you approach, you can overhear he and Captain Vredenburgh speaking...
"We must turn back, sir,” the Captain insists.
“No, Captain!” argues Starkweather. “We must not!”
“Mister Starkweather—we are just out from Panama City. Australia is a good two weeks away. We cannot repair the machinery in the middle of the ocean, we do not have the materials to do so. Your supplies will spoil, sir! They will rot, and be worthless to you, before we can possibly arrive!”
You can almost hear Starkweather scowl, “We shall not turn back, Captain!” he snaps. “We have lost too much time already! She is several days ahead of us—we shall not lose another day! We shall buy more supplies, if need be—now press on!”
You hear Starkweather storming off.
Keeping her voice low and speaking to Arnault, Stanley, and
Alphonso "Any idea's on how to convince Starkweather that winning the race does not matter if we are half starved and ill."
Watching Starkweather storm off, "We should check Henning's cabin before we speak with him. But getting Starkweather to wait is more important. We do not know if Henning was alone or not."
"Convincing people has never been my strong suit," Stanley laments. "Unless I can prove it with math, and am talking to the similarly numbers-inclined, words just don't serve me well enough. Unfortunately, I suspect that there's only one number that matters to Starkweather: the number one." He gives a grim look.
"You guys go ahead and check Henning's cabin. I'm going to inspect the planes to make sure they're still in good working order. They're our lifeline, and we can't take any chances with them."
He doesn't say so out loud, just in case Henning wasn't working alone, but there's also the extremely likely prospect that there will be working radios in the planes that their saboteur might have overlooked if he didn't think to sabotage them.
----
heads to the hold where the planes are stored, the engines have been removed to make them easier to move around in storage. Of course part of his job is to securely put them back together once the expedition arrives on the ice.
----
You arrive at Henning's bunk one which he shares with two other crew mates. Coates and Abraham. Both are present and speaking in low whispers.
we had to eat that lousy chow. But there is something about Starkweather—there’s just something wrong about the man. Remember what Henning said—where Starkweather goes, other guys die.”
The stop and smile at you as you enter, "Nurse, how can we help you?"
----
Ammonia under pressure vents out of the pipe and into the refrigerator room, filling the air with pungent fumes and settling on all the exposed food parcels.
Inspecting the fridges it appears that sulfuric acid was poured along one of the copper pipes of the refrigeration system breaching the wall of the pipe.
Substantial amounts of food has been ruined! You'll have to act fast to save the food that has not been destroyed.
It appears that this was a recent act, either Henning came here first before you caught him or he is not acting alone.
----
You stick around the cargo hold where Henning is left. The crewman that was going to stand guard assumes that you are going to be doing the "watching" and you don;t disabuse him of that notion.
we know so little of each other Henning Alphonso takes out a small, very sharp knife and a carrot and starts peeling it in front of Henning.
so so many unfortunate things have recently happened it would be in keeping with that if a few more occured. Perhaps you might tell me everything I need to know about what you have been doing and who else may have been helping you, unless of course, you wish me to help you discover a new level of unfortunate you may not have previously imagined.
Stanley gives the planes a thorough going-over, both the physical parts but also any electronic components as well.
Forcing herself to smile at the presence of the two men. S+%#! Why did I come alone? "I was sent to collect a few things."
----
Henning practically growls at you, "Buzz off, I've nothing to tell you Banker!"
----
Everything here checks out fine.
----
The men grimace, "Like what? We wasn't involved Nurse Barrett. We had no idea what the guy was up to. Always seemed like an affable type to me, somebody who'd look out for ya'". States Coates.
Waving a hand dismissively at the idea, "I never said anyone thought either of you had anything to do with his misdeeds. Only that I was asked to collect his things."
So Alphonso slowly draws the knife down to ready to use and looks first at Henning's fingers, then to his toes then up to his groin and then his nose and ears all feeling draining out of Alphonso's eyes, now just the cold calulating killer remains and he says plainly locking the two of them in the room
would that be your final answer?
Arnault stares at the refrigeration room with his mouth hanging open for a moment before suddenly springing into action, grabbing boxes and yelling at the top of his lungs as he moves them!
"Help! Help! Zhe food stores vill be ruined! Rally zee crew! Help! "
---
As you cry out several of the crew rush down to aid you in this crisis!
---
---
Noth men relax visibly. Abraham points to a foot locker at the foot of one of the beds, "His locker is right there Nurse Barrett".
As you step over to check it you discover it is locked.
---
Henning grins, "Yep, that's right f&%~er. You do that ta' me you'll be in prison and I'll get off scott free. Can't torture a man in the civilized world pal!"
you are right, too much mess with the knife. putting the knife away Alphonso takes his open palms and careful not to bruise the fellow overly much starts to slap him around.
Quickly taking off his sweaty shirt Arnault ties it around his mouth and nose and rushes in at the leaking pipe, finding the right valve he quickly manages to spin it shut... as the gas stops pouring forth, Arnault pulls the shirt down revealing a smile from ear to ear, he looks at his hands, red from the cold valve and shrugs before turning to help the crew to go through the food.
Glaring at the lock and looking back over at the two men, "You wouldn't happen to know where his key is would you?"