Aleksei nods. "I will talk to Keaton. He is new to project and probably not well vetted." He looks to the professor with a slight disdain in his face.
"Aleksei, old buddy, I'd start easy with him - first just casually ask if he's mentioned the scroll to anyone other than the team."
"Be gentle. Got it.", Aleksei gives his best smile and goes to find Keaton.
When he does, he watches the man doing whatever it is a researcher does to try to get an angle on his personality.
Once Aleksei is satisfied with that, he talks to him. "Hello. I am Aleksei. We are new to project. I heard that you are too. Was told you could help catch up us." He purposely switches the words to appear that his English is not the best.
Bobby goes in search of Mr. Davis. When he finds him, he says "'ello, mate - how's it going? My name's Robert Northbrook, but you can call me Bobby. I'm affiliated with Intelligence in the war, and we've been assigned to your project." After making some small talk, comparing where they were born and where they've lived and went to school, he says "Tell me, have you mentioned the existence of the scroll to *anyone* outside of the project, even in passing?"
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KEATON
Keaton is a fairly young man in his mid-twenties and has brown hair, green eyes, and a thick mustache. As you watch, he carefully examines various bits of papyrus, then turns to several large tomes and searches through them before writing something on his tablet. On closer inspection, he appears to be translating from an unknown language into English.
He is slightly off-guard by your approach. "I'm sorry, but who did you say that you were with?"
DAVIS
Gregory Davis is a British man of thirty-or-so years, with black hair and dark brown eyes. He has the beginnings of a beard and looks as though he has not slept in a few days. At Bobby's approach, he looks up from his work.
"Allo, mate! Greg Davis." He offers a hand to shake. After the small talk, he responds, "Not a soul. It's really rather secret, you know?"
Aleksei smiles and extends his hand. "Many apologies, I'm Aleksei, friend of Professor McMurdow." Quickly changing the subject, he looks at the curious language. "What language is that?"
Aleksei nods along, trying to make sense of what he is seeing, but mostly watching the young researcher for any sign of deception.
"Is interesting. Not Cyrillic, nor Arabic. Possibly Sumerian?" He clears his throat, continuing with the small talk. "What did you do before coming to work for McMurdow?"
Bobby makes some more small talk with Davis, then leaves to go back to the professor to compare notes with his teammates.
Aleksei nods. "I think you are right. Though you will have to refresh my memory on Professor Reynolds, I do not believe I am familiar with his work."
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"John Reynolds. An archaeologist specializing in ancient Egypt. We were on a dig near the Great Pyramid of Giza, unearthing a necropolis that surrounds the pyramid. Long hours and dirty work. The sand gets everywhere, and the sand fleas are even worse. But it's the mosquitos that are the real danger. They carry malaria, Dengue fever, and yellow fever among other nasty diseases."
Aleksei smiles at the man, he was obviously not used to the field. "Sounds not fun, though you must have found something interesting to have stayed so long there. Or perhaps it was simply the end of your contract?"
Deciding he wasn't getting anything useful, Aleksei looks at his watch. "Thank you for your help. I must go clean up specimen. Hoping to work with you more soon."
He then goes to find his comrades. When he finds them, he takes out another cigar and lights it. "I'm not getting much from Keaton, other than he is fairly new to the project and worked with someone named Reynolds a while back. Could be something, but he was more focused on the work he was doing for me to get anything more useful without resorting to... other measures."
Aleksei watches as Frank keeps wandering in and out of their conversations. He mentally smacks himself as he realizes the most basic of spy techniques, anonymity.
"That's because he isn't doing anything but listening to every word you say." He starts walking towards the custodian, taking a long pull on his cigar. "Frank! Hey I got something to ask you.."
"Chyort!", Aleksei swears as he starts running after the custodian.
Bobby, too, starts to run :
Knowing full well that he could, if he wanted, outrun the man, but those cigars do a number on his lung capacity, Aleksei decides to attempt to cut the man off, making a sharp turn down a hallway and coming back out the other side.
Bobby draws on his boot-camp training from *long* ago, and puts on a burst of speed :
= 5
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You will need to tackle him to stop him.
Aleksei, you attempt to outsmart Frank and are successful. (You got a King of Clubs or an 8 of Hearts. You can take either. The 8 puts you at long range (-4 to attacks). The King puts you in melee range, however, because it is a club, you also get a complication which prevents you from attacking this round. Your choice.)
Bobby, you were much luckier, scoring an Ace of Spades. You close the gap easily and can make a melee attack.
Frank gets no cards, as he didn't get even a single success. :(
In the process of running, Aleksei realized he had forgotten to draw his knife, just in case, fiddling with it almost cost him as he steps out right in front of Frank with no weapon drawn and almost being bowled over...
Bobby easily catches up to the man, and flings himself at him, trying to grab him :
= 11
"Give up little running man," Aleksei says as he finally clears his knife. "Is no use to run. We have many questions and a lot of time."
Bobby takes advantage of the fact that the guy's Shaken, and puts him in an arm lock, with his arm behind his back and twists just enough to cause a little pain.
"Now, talk! Who do you work for? What have you done for him so far?"
Aleksei squares up with the man, gripping his knife tightly. "Then perhaps you will be willing to tell us where to find him." It wasn't a question.
Just cut him. A voice similar to his own entered his mind. Can't. Need his information.
Aleksei loses his cool demeanor and puts the knife point at the janitor's throat, pressing just hard enough to draw a speck of blood. "The only reason you are still breathing is because they say so. They get tired of you running in circles, I kill you. Here and now. All you have to do is give us the location of your agent so we can go and find the Spider and you can go on your way."
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Frank considers his options for a moment, weighing his chances of a successful escape if he tried to bolt again, then sighs. "The Norman's Coach and Horses, 29 Greek Street, Soho. I meet with him every week to give him what I've learned. His name is Köhler, a small man with a thick mustache and dark hair."
"When is your next scheduled meeting?"
Aleksei slowly backs away. "That was not that difficult." Turning to regard Bobby, he says, "We should have hum held until we check out this meeting. No sense in letting him spoil the surprise."
"I agree. I suppose we could get there early, and keep our eyes open for a small man with a thick mustache and dark hair - that's not too generic a description."
Bobby asks the professor to take him to the head of the museum, explains the situation to him, and asks him if there are any small rooms with no windows and lockable doors, and asks him if he would be willing to keep the custodian locked up for a day.
Aleksei nods. "Agreed.". He then helps to find a place to secure the custodian.
Aleksei agrees with the curator, but then adds, "This true, but if something were to happen to him, there will be less investigation here."
Bobby jumps in right after Aleksei, saying to the curator "Not that we're going to do anything to him, we just need to keep him off the streets for a day."
Assuming the next 24 hours pass without significant incident, about two hours before the janitor is to meet his contact, Bobby suggests they leave and take up separate posts near the contact point, and wait.