Henry pulled out his lighter, and placed his other hand under his coat to rest on the butt of his pistol in case he had to draw it as Jake opened the door.
Barney almost misses the meeting. He had been up all night, and woke up in an unfamiliar hotel room with an equally unfamiliar broad. He sneaked out of bed, his piercing hangover making him stumble, as he gathered most of his clothing, and quietly exited the room.
Stopping at a newsstand as he waited in line for a taxi to take him back to his hotel, he purchased the latest copy of the times, a bottle of asprin, and a mug of hot coffee. He browsed the headlines as he headed back to his hotel, as the words in the story kept moving around as he was probably still a bit drunk.
Before heading up to his room the bellhop stopped him. "Mr. Lipscomb. Sir there has been a man trying to urgently reach you. He's called four times this morning already. Here's the message he left".
Barney orders a ton of room service, then passes out on his bed sleeping the sleep of the recently dead. He awakes with a start to see it's already dark outside, he rushes through the shower, puts on last nights clothes that he forgot to have cleaned, and rushes towards the destination... trying to not be late.
He arrived in the office just as Jake began to open the door. "Wait! I'm here... better late than never right"?
Jake rattled the knob fruitlessly.
"Jackson! JACKSON!" He called out.
He turned to the others.
"Did you hear something like a gasp?"
"Get out of the way!" Henry yelled. Once Jake was clear, he tried to kick the door down.
Jake shifted 5 feet out of the way when Henry yelled.
Seeing all the quick movements and activity at the door, Barney's hangover evaporates. He instinctively shields Sylvia from the opening, as he draws his trusty .45.
"What is it! Is Jackson Okay"?
Well, at least they aren't kharisiri. Henry feels a moment of sorrow as he sees Jackson laid out on the ground. He'd seen similar before - back in Peru, and then some of the bodies during the War. Sorrow quickly turns to rage as the men attack him. "Big mistake."
Henry pulls out his pistol and fires at the one who attacked him.
SAN (45)
Barney is prepared for anything... or so he thought. As the body of his friend and it's horrid condition became clear to him, he stared, bile rising in his throat, and for the moment forgetting the 45 at his side.
He starts at the sound of Henry's pistol.
Sylvia's a doctor. She's seen terrible things in her line of work. But this is someone she considered a friend, someone who had clearly needed her help, and she hadn't been there.
"J-J-Jackson?" she whispers. She barely even notices the masked figures, too focused on her friend's mutilated corpse.
Barney shake off his shock when he sees one of the villains trying to make an escape, and fires off a shot.
(58%) Colt 45
Bullet
But sees his bullet strike the window sill.
"I'll try to cut him off".
Barney heads for the stairwell.
Henry was a bit occupied by the cultist right in front of him, as he tried to avoid the man's waving knife. He unloaded three bullets towards the man, though.
Sylvia's eyes snap to the person trying to get out the window. Normally she tries to avoid hurting people, but these...cultists? These cultists murdered Jackson. They can't be allowed to escape.
She grabs her handgun from her handbag and fires a single shot at the cultist closest to the window.
Coming around the doorsill, wondering what the hell gunfire is for, Jake is shocked at the corpse of his friend Jackson Elias.
Enraged, he whipped out his sword cane and lunged at the nearest cultist.
"No! You'll pay for that!"
Barney was running for the stairs to try and cut off the murderer. I thought that might take a while.
Sylvia fires another shot at the cultist climbing through the window. Unfortunately her eyes are blurred with tears and her hands are starting to shake as the enormity of the situation comes crashing down.
Henry is still facing off with the first of the cultists, so he fires at him again.
Jake ran up to the window and dove through to the fire escape.
There he lashed out at the nearest one with his sword cane.
Sylvia hesitates, then runs to the fire escape. She has no intention of firing her gun outside, not with the threat of possibly missing and hitting an innocent bystander. But if she can see where they're going, maybe get a glimpse of their car, perhaps the police will be able to track them down later.
Seeing Jake's mishap, she takes her time climbing through the window rather than trying to dive through it.
Henry looks to the others attempting pursuit, then holsters his pistol and bends down to search the cultist for any identification, identifying marks like scars or tattoos, or signs of who sent him to kill Jackson.
Jake, forever grateful there were no cameras a moment ago, stepped through the window and ran after the ... cultists?
If he catches up with one...
for a possible damage.
If the cultist is running for the drivers side Barney will intervene, running forward with his pistol out and demanding surrender.
If he is headed towards any other door, Barney will take cover and try to remember details about the car (Make, model, License plate, number of individuals, any damage, direction headed etc.)
Henry stashes the information in his pockets, then makes it look like the body was never searched.
Realizing there's nothing more she can do outside, Sylvia climbs back through the window. "I...we should...Henry, do you have any idea what's going on?" She looks around in horror. Gesturing vaguely at the cultist, she says, "He's dead too, isn't he? And I think Jake killed another one on the fire escape. I wanted to stop them, but I didn't want...I didn't think..."
She closes her eyes and takes a deep breath, forcibly composing herself. "The police should be on their way. Maybe...surely they'll know what to do."
If Jake can see the Barney vs cultist show going on from where he is, he'll race down the emergency staircase to help out.
If he can't see that, he'll reluctantly go back up and search through the guy he ran through, flicking off the blood and sheathing his sword cane on the way.
Barney twists to the side to avoid the lunge.
Knive (35%)
Unfortunately the smashing of the headlight of the car distracts him, and his hangover has slowed his reactions. and he ends up stabbing... Air.
"This isn't going to end well for you! Perhaps you should throw down your weapon. Your friends are already dead, so you can pin the murder on them and get off with an accessory charge... if you cooporate".
Fast Talk (65%)
"Yeah, we just have to hope they don't arrest us, and accept that it was self-defense."