As the old man comes at me I will attempt to block his punch and go on the defense for a little while.
Well to be completely honest, Father, I'm not quite sure. Each floor is a different business.
Round 2 Init 10
Night Stryker blocks Bruno's punch, managing to read his deceptive move. Bruno doesn't hesitate and follows it with another blow.
But Night Stryker deftly side steps the blow.
Finding all that he could, Dustman leaves the warehouse. Escher peers down from the rooftop and sees a mysterious man appear out of nowhere. It takes him a split second to remember The Dustman, but once he does, he gives Night Stryker a thumbs up.
Out on the dock, the hulking Bruno appears to be winded. Despite his strength and build, his endurance was easily defeated by Night Stryker's constant moving. With every punch Bruno threw, Stryker would sway deftly and respond with a well placed hook or jab. Above the skirmish, Stryker spots Escher's thumbs up signal. Night Stryker dodges one last haymaker and gives the man two swift jabs to the chest. Bruno crumples, and the crowd goes wild.
"Bruno got beat!"
"Hah! There's a first for everything!"
"Where's my money, Carl!"
After meeting with Mr. Bets at Safe Bet, Father Pavel and Jason Kwon make their way back towards town with their documents and possibly more questions.
You get the information gathered from your investigations to Detective Alcorn. She and the rest of the police force are in a tizzy over the VIPER attack earlier in the day. You go back about your daily business, tending to the needs of your lives or handling some minor heroic encounters.
Late in the day, the Detective dials Pavel and Escher in on a conference call.
"Hey boys, we have some information about a clearing house for street drugs. Vice was working on a raid, but their SWAT support was pulled after today's mess at the courthouse. I'm afraid the sellers are going to get wind of the operation and pull out. Maybe it is something you can look into? Our intel suggests that most of the illicit drugs in the Fens come through this place. This could strike a major blow against whoever is moving these drugs if we can take some of these guys in and get them to turn over on their bosses. Not to mention getting the drugs off the street."
She texts you an address on Charles Street, only a few blocks from Pavel's church. The building is a five story tenement, abandoned but for some squatters, at least that is how it appears.
Building looks like this, but way more run down. Look at all of those lovely fire escapes.
Father Pavel calls Escher and Nightstryker, and invites them down to the Pizzaria to talk it over, given that they seem unable to reach the others at the moment.
When they arrive, he is grabbing a bit of lunch already, and waves them over to his table.
"Hello, come, have seat. So, what do you sink about drug-house?" If Nightstyker is there, he fills him on on the tip from the detective. "I took valk by building. Is big. Hard to block all exits. Has many fire escapes, front door, back door, roof... If police vere to raid, I am sinking there would be no ewidence by time they entered apartments. Is possible that ve go in, find top man, stop them from flushing the ewidence, but vould hiv to be quiet. Maybe, go in from roof, find lookout... ask him questions... If ve knew which apartment to start vith, maybe we catch red-handed. If ve make supply disappear, maybe it disrupts local flow, da? Once ve hiv big man, maybe he tells us where he gets supply. Big man won't want to talk, but maybe we ask real nice..."
"I might be able to talk to a few people I know and they might have some information about what floors we need to take out to make sure our raid is effective."
The entire building in uninhabited, but there are usually a few guys sitting on the stoops or hanging out the windows of the lowest apartments. If you want to make a buy, you give one of these guys your order, and then walk slowly down the street. By the time you get to the guy at the end of the line, next window, whatever, your order is ready for pickup.
So money is never handled by the people who handle the drugs. This makes it difficult to prosecute for selling drugs. The supervisors hang upstairs, but the walls and floors of the whole place are swiss cheesed with holes making it easier to move around and turning the whole place into a maze.
The place is run by an enforcer and crack shot called Drifter.
No one is sure if the drugs are stockpiled all in one place or hidden throughout the building.
After explaining all of that
"Well I think we take it from top and bottom clear out everyone and then make sure the gas lines are all safe and secure." with a wink and a nod
"Alright. Now, or wait for dark? The madam constable made it sound... urgent. Night vould be easier, though. Either way, I am ready now. I need only my faith and hands God gave me."
"Vell, if dare are no objections, ve sould go now. No time like present, so dey say. Drug dealers may be more likely to sleep during day anyvay."
With that, the good Father gets up, pays his tab, and heads with the others down to the tenement pointed out by the detective. He takes up a position across the street, his collar in place on his shirt, standing with his ever present stack of pamphlets inviting passers by to the parish for mass, and advertising the various social and counselling services offered there. All the while, he focuses his attention on the building before him; guards at the entrance, anyone coming and going.
He extends his senses out into the building as well, counting the number of individuals on each floor. He makes a note of their conditions and mental states as well; those that are injured or in a state of fear were likely not to be there willingly; it was common practice in such places to detain women, and sometimes men, that could not pay their debts, so that they could "work-off" the money they owed with customers that come to the building for drugs. The customers would use their drugs, use the indentured 'guests', all in one location. Convenient.
Once he had an idea of how the occupants of the building were dispersed, he pulled out his cell and group-texted the info to his companions, in a circumspect pattern that wouldn't mean anything to anyone else that read the texts.
Five floors and a basement.
1st floor 8, 2 of which you can see hanging in a window.
2nd floor 6, 2 in windows who you can see once you know they are there. Keeping watch.
3rd floor 20, most in various states of fear and dismay, all malnourished.
4th floor 3, all in motion.
5th floor 18, feeling good.