Second Floor Ambush

Kaze, Richter, and Belle (and probably Janet) tear up the stairs after the killer.

Belle runs after Richter, her heels clattering. She murmurs under her breath, "Dang Fades. Can't shoot 'em."

But she keeps her tiny revolver at the ready.

On the second-floor landing, the killer Fades into the wall. He waits for Kaze to come running up the stairs and lunges out of the wall, swinging his sword to cut her in half.

The sword goes right through her, as Kaze Fades herself. In fact, it comes within a handsbreath of cutting Richter, who’s close behind.

The assassin Faded before Kaze did. She flicks open a fan, which she slashes through his head, and between each knuckle of her closed left hand protrudes a narrow knife. Whenever the fan isn’t in the assassin’s body, the fistful of knives is. Meanwhile, the assassin is slashing and hacking with superhuman speed, his blade flashing as fast as an aeroplane’s propeller. If she weren’t Faded, Kaze would be dead a hundred times over.

Dozens of cuts and slashes produce absolutely no effect, until the assassin, running out of magic before Kaze does, becomes solid for a second. The edge of the black fan clonks off his skull with a sound like a hammer hitting wood. The assassin’s head spins around, he hits the wall hard behind himself, and Richter shoots him right past Kaze.

The assassin skids down the wall, dead. Another woman’s scream echoes from the floor above.

Empty of Foes

When Janet Fades through the wall to one side of the kitchen door, Richter and Belle have just seen the Fade who killed Hennesey and Muldoon run up the stairs, pass through Kaze coming the other direction, and keep going.

Kaze chases him up the stairs.

"Come on!" says Richter, and runs after them.

Two Against Many

Sky Masterson knows when luck is on his side.

He drills the third Fade right through the heart with the gat in his right, and he points the gun in his left at the spot in the room, perhaps behind Christine, where he would go if he were an oriental Traveler, trusting to his luck to guess the right spot.

SNAP! The third Fade jerks backward, shot in the heart.

Sky then (without looking to see if his first shot against the third Fade lands) swings his righthand gun toward the oriental traveler and shoots both guns.


The Traveler did not in fact Travel at this moment, but struck Christine across the brow with the wooden handle of his knife. She goes backward, miraculously falling between Sky's bullets.


The Traveler then slips an arm around Christine's waist, catching her as she falls. Before she can fall very far in any case, he Travels and is gone.

The two remaining Fades cannot seem to evade Shara's wings, so they dare not solidify. One looks toward Sky, sees Christine vanish, and whistles a short double sound.


(John, I have placed the character sheets under Useful Links on the right side of the page.)

Three Attacks

 (Back of the Hotel)

Janet Fades through the back of the hotel, with her 38 behind her back.

She’s in the kitchen, which is not empty. Two Negro cooks are laid out on the floor, dead. Their throats have been cut.

The kitchen door is partly open into the lobby. Janet sees the back of a seedy tramp’s coat. The tramp grunts with effort as he pulls a three-foot-long sword out of O.K. Hennesey’s back. Hennesey drops like a sack.

From her position, Janet also notices Nick Voinovich’s body sliding across the floor and through the front wall. She doesn’t see Kaze, but the angle’s wrong anyway.

The swordsman does not notice Voinovich. He does look up sharply, then swing his head toward the kitchen, apparently alerted by some subtle sound.

His almond eyes lock on Janet’s blurry gray shape.

(Front of the hotel)

Belle nods at Richter, lifting the revolver she drew from her tiny fur purse only a fraction of an inch in reply to his offer of another gun. She looks around alert, moving to glance some direction no one else is looking (checking for sudden appearances.)

When Richter and Belle are ready, Kaze leaves with them, having stabilized Voinovich as best she can.  She has several metallic objects in her hand and a scarf over the lower part of her face.

Kaze, Richter, and Belle approach the front door. Richter shoots his Tommy gun at the third floor, breaking a window, and shouts in a high-pitched yell, “Sky! There’s Shadow Guards in the place! Fades!”

Then he kicks in the door.

The swordsman, inside, is now between Janet and Richter. He blurs gray, using his Fade power, and bolts upstairs. Neither Janet nor Richter is quick enough to stop him from getting out of sight.

Kaze Fades through the wall of the staircase. She and the other Fade pass through each other. Both blink, but the swordsman keeps moving.

(Third Floor)

Sky Masterson continues to peer out the door. He replies to Christine. "Naw, no way anyone shadowed me here. I am too light on my feet."

Christine brightens; she believes him. Shara throws up the window sash; the night air is humid.

                                Four Oriental men in dark street clothing materialize about midway between the ceiling and floor, right in the middle of the room. They are holding hands in a circle. Three have the smoky gray translucency of Fades, while the fourth has the gray eyes of a Traveler.

                                All four have long knives in each hand. They let go of each other’s hands, drop to the uncarpeted floor, and ready their knives.

                                Everyone in the room, including the four Orientals, is equally surprised by where all the people and furniture are located. Sky, fortunately, was sufficiently concerned about Christine’s mood that he was glancing back at her face, away from the door, when the Orientals appeared. So he’s looking right at them. And the gun in his right hand is pointed pretty much exactly at one guy’s chest.

                                Shara ducks her head and sweeps her wings forward, right in the faces of two of the Fades. They were remaining Faded until they got the lay of the land, and therefore remain Faded while her wings are intersecting their bodies. And until they unFade, they can’t touch anyone.

                                The guy Sky is pointing at is the third Fade. He solidifies, acquiring color and opacity, and spots the only armed man in the room. Thing is, he’s got a knife, and Sky’s got a gun.

                                The fourth guy, the Traveler, happens to be closest to Christine. He swings his long knife (or short sword) at her, but it’s a wild, clumsy-looking swing, so that he’s going to hit her not with the blade, but the long, wooden handle.                               

Subtraction by Stealth

1. Janet:
   
   "Michael! what's going on? Do I need to go knock some people into shape?" Janet asks in a sharp whisper, picking up her gun and putting a hand on the car handle.
2. Sky draws one automatic, picks up his glass of bourbon, goes to the door, opens it a crack, and kneels down, placing the glass carefully on the floor next to him. He draws his other automatic and places it on the floor next to him, and uses his free hand to sip his drink. He is trying to look toward the staircase leading up to this room.
   
   "You folk expecting company? Who all knows youse is here?"
   
   He sips the drink and smacks his lips.The he puts the glass down again and picks up his other gat.
   
   "Mr. Muldoon, if you would be so kind as to ignite anyone who threatens Miss Tane, please? Is there a back way out of here for those of you who ain't got wings? I'll cover your retreat. Where do we meet up again? Miss Tane, if I don't get the chance, I'll like to take you out to the picture show, and maybe dinner in Havana."
   
3. Shana: "Yes, I see a fire escape! You can go down that way, or I can carry one of you!"

4. 
   Christine: "Nobody knew we were here ..." and then she goes pale "... except you, Sky."
5. --- meanwhile, outside ---
7. Michael: "There were shots, and people are getting ready to run. Only Sky and the girls are in the room. Go, but do NOT let yourself be seen. Be careful, I don't know where the other three are, or where the shots came from."
8. Kaze catches Richter's eye.
9. Richter: "Go. But come back, and tell us what you've seen."
10. Kaze Fades through the front of the hotel.
11. She sees the barefoot bum who was sleeping in the lobby, but he's on his feet now, withdrawing two feet of a three-foot sword from O.K. Hennesey's back. His face is more visible now; he's beardless because he's Japanese.
12. Scorchy Muldoon writhes on the floor, a hardback book buried half in, half out of his chest. On the stairs, Nick Voinovich slumps in a pool of blood, his scalp hacked to the bone. A smoking gun is in his hand , still pointed at the ceiling, where he fired a couple of shots.
13. The sword grates free. Hennesey falls nervelessly. Kaze grabs Voinovich by the shoulders, strains, and hauls him backwards through the wall and onto the sidewalk.
14. She is too winded to speak, but it comes across as Oriental reserve. Richter has grabbed a Tommy gun from the back seat and handed another one toward Belle Weather, but Belle already has a Navy Colt pistol in hand. It is the modern model, black as night and rubberized against corrosion, not the more famous Wild West version. It is a revolver, a six-shooter, the Navy not yet having adopted the Army's M1911 Colt .45. (This is, after all, based on a Larry Correia story.)
15. 
    

Pow

Sky finds a chair where he can glance out the window in case he has to go somewhere in a hurry, leans back on the two rear legs just like your mother told you never to do, puts his feet up in a relaxed posture, lights a cigarette, and smiles at the nearest female.

"So whatchya planning to do with your cut of the money?"

Shara smiles shyly and says, 

"Land, I hadn't really thought about it! A week ago I didn't even have a Power, and now we're wanted desperadoes and rich as Rockefeller, both!"

"I don't know about Rockefeller, hon," says Christine, "but we certainly have enough left from the last job for a lot of easy living. After this one, that's if I can get Nick to make the attempt, we might lay low for a while. Maybe even retire -- although where's the fun in that?"

Two rapid gunshots shake the floor from below. They're pistol shots, not rifle-caliber, although of the three people left in the room only Sky knows the difference.

Shara's hand flies to her mouth in alarm. Christine drops her glass on the night table.

"Shara, open the window," she says at once. "Better get ready to run, or better yet, fly!"

Shara turns to the window, spreading her arms wide. Feathers blossom like time-lapse flowers opening, covering her arms and separating from them to form wide gray wings, almost spanning the hotel room.

She steps forward then, and the wings fold as though weightless. They make her shoulders wider, but she can easily fit through the window. This puts her right next to Sky; if he wants to lean his chair forward, she'll have to move. Shara doesn't seem to realize she's walked almost completely into a man.

Meanwhile, Outside

1. Miss Weather listens to this, her eyes growing slightly bigger. "I hate to intrude...but this file I've been given is rather thick, and I only managed to get part way through it on the way here.
   
   "Could anyone be so kind as to sum up for me what we are doing...in a few short simple sentences?"
   
   Belle Weather...except, of course, she's wearing a skirt, too: http://img01.taobaocdn.com/bao/uploaded/i1/282487591/T204CHXjFbXXXXXXXX_!!282487591.jpg
2. Kaze:

   
   "Mr. Masterson is attempting to infiltrate a criminal gang which intends to rob a nearby bank. I believe he is... " and here she hesitates "...'winging it.'"
   
   "We are nearby so that in the event he requires assistance, we shall be ready to give it."
   
   "If he is accepted, then we will have an 'inside man' when they attempt the robbery." She says those phrases in quotes quite delicately, her manner as if she were politely trying an unusual cuisine.
3. Richter: "That's right. We're interested because they're Actives robbing banks, making normals look helpless. That's never good. But also, they're recruiting more and more Actives along the way, including a Power never seen before: functional human wings. The Elders over in Europe think maybe they've got some way to detect Actives at a distance, like a dowsing rod for Power. They blow into town, find the local Actives, and recruit them."
4. "If so, we want to know about it, and we definitely want to keep it out of the hands of the Anti-Active League, or the government."
5. Michael, in the other car: 
6.  "I'm hearing everything, and judging by how long Sky was climbing, they are on the second or third floor. 
7. It sounds like Sky has been accepted, or nearly so. Muldoon was sent to get O.K. so they can take a vote.
   
   "There was something odd said about "activating" Sky...I assume it's something about powers. It may be connected with the wings. I am very interested in learning just what she meant.
   
   "Wait, the phone just rang...Voinovich was called by Muldoon, and is heading downstairs.
   Janet, be ready for action. I don't know what this call means."

Reeling Them In

1. Janet:
2. Janet leans back in her seat, smoothing her skirt and wrinkling her nose at the garbage cans they were hiding behind. "Can you hear anything? How's Sky doing?" She asks Mr. Bor, watching him fiddle with his strange contraption.
3. Michael:  Michael remembers that in Russian, "Voinovich" means "son of war."
4. Sky:
   
   
   

   "Miss Tane! I is enchanterated to meetcha, and enthralled as well," Sky Masterson says in his most debonair fashion, taking her hand and kissing it.
   
   He gives Muldoon a firm handshake. "Mr. Muldoon. Glad to be woiking with youse. Something about being around other Actives makes a man relaxified, ya know? Like being amongst his very own kind."
   
   "Miss Lemon," he doffs his hat. His hair has been slicked down with Vitalis and Barbasol, partly nicely down the middle, Clarke Gable style.
   
   "Mr. Voinovich," says Sky, "I is also needing to make sure we is clarified on one thing. Like I'z just intimidated, I got a friend on the force, who can get the coppers looking one direction whilest we'z lam it outta there the other direction. But you gotta tell me the direction and gimme a chance to talk my patter to him, see? Also, any killing, and he is going to be a lot harder to make look around the other way. Now you can play your cards any way you want, all I am saying is, if you want me to play this police ace I gots up my sleeve, I can. If you just want to bust the joint and takes our chances, that dandy with me too. It's your deck. You cut the cards as you like."
5. Muldoon exits in search of O.K. Hennesey. Shara sits down on the bed.
6. Voinovich says, "Hm. Well, we didn't want to kill anybody ... never have yet. And now that Scorchy's on the team, we hardly have to. His Power may not be aimed very well, but by God it's dramatic! Nobody wants to make a move on us once he lights up the ceiling."
7. "Let's see, who's got a map around here? We passed the train tracks coming into town, but I don't know if they're west or east of the bank."
8. The phone rings. Everyone glances at it. Voinovich picks up.
9. "Yeah?" he says. He listens.
10. "All right," he says. He hangs up and hooks his jacket from the coatrack, slipping a .45 into his shoulder holster at the same time.
11. "Scorchy wants me downstairs. Stay up here," he says to the girls, and heads out, after a suspicious glance at Sky.

One of the Gang

1. 
   

   Sky tips his hat to the lady. "Miss." Then to the man he says, "Mr. Voinovich, my name is Masterson, from Chicago. You don't know me, but you might just need me.
   
   "Scarface sends his compliments, and so does Al. I'm lucky I found you, and you're lucky I did. May I come in? I have a proposition for you."
2. Voinovich squints at Sky; he's not sure he trusts this fast-talking stranger.
   
   "Well don't leave the man hanging in the hall, Nick," says the woman on the bed, standing up. "Offer him a drink."
   
   "C'mon in," says Voinovich. "Bourbon okay?"
   
   "Ah hope so; it's all we've got!" says the woman boisterously. She's had a few already. "You said something about a proposition, Mr. Masterson?"
3. Sky saunters in, takes the bourbon, and compliments it. "Think of it as a wager, sir. Here I am, in desperate need of cash, and not in good standing with my boss, who, as you may or may not know, has some influence in this area, and some policemen who also jump when he says 'frog'.
   
   "It so happens that I owe a man a large debt, but, as a gentleman of the honorifical type, I always make good on my markers. Sky Masterson, they call me, because on account of the sky is the limit with me.
   
   "Now I happen to know, on account of a fortune telling type Active what works for Al, where youse guys was likely to strike it lucky next, and I thought to myself a simple mathematical calcification would have to apply.
   
   "On the one hand, if I was to squeal like a rat to the cops, what good would that do me? The wanted posters on you only have a small amount.
   
   "On the other of my two hands, if I was to make myself serviceable to youse, and youse guys cut me in for a sweet amount of the looting, that is more in keeping with my businessific nature, and it helpifies me. You win, I win, we both win, we shakes hands and I am welch free on my marker.
   
   "And if I say a word in the right ear, the cops look the other way when they looks for youse. Got it?
   
   "I happen myself to be the proud possessor of a very special and rarish talent called Ace. When cops shoot at me, they miss. When I want to break into a place, I find a way in. When I get into a fight or take a shot with a smoke wagon, I am apt to hit and sure to shoot straight.
   
   "I am so lucky that I came here betting you need one more man for this job, and that I am him.
   
   "I am what everyone of the crooked persuasion needs, which is your good luck charm. Forty seven arrests and no convictions. "
   
   Sky gives the lady a particularly dazzling smile, wishing, for once, that he was a mouth.

Voinovich tugs his ponytail in bewilderment. The lady laughs.

"Why, Sky, you are just exactly what the doctor ordered. You MUST be an Ace!" she says.

"We are not in the same league with the Chicago mob," Voinovich cautions. "We're strictly self-employed."

"Which doesn't mean we can't take advice from a pro, does it?" says the lady, touching Voinovich on the arm. "Go on, Nick, introduce us."

"Well, Sky Masterson, this is Christine Tane," Nick says. "Christine, this is Sky from Chicago, I guess."

Christine puts the bottle in front of Sky for a refill, and offers her own glass.

"We've been planning to strike it lucky in this burg, but that bank's a corker. A regular twelve-seventeen!" she says. "Vault by Brinks, seven armed guards in the day and four at night, and combination locks on all the deposit boxes! Can you IMAGINE?"

"I can freeze the hinges off the boxes, but it takes a while," says Voinovich. "And there are near a hundred of them. The police here respond quickly to things; our main problem is that any getaway vehicle can be roadblocked easily. So we're planning to use the train tracks on Seventh Street, board a train, then jump it at a crossroads where we have a car waiting. But that's a lot of different missions -- hit the bank, steal the train, change to the car. A lot of things to go wrong. And there are only the five of us. So, yes, Mr. Masterson, I agree with Christine. You've come at exactly the right time."

"It's almost TOO perfect!" Christine enthuses. "But then, you're an Ace."

A short, peppery man with red hair bursts in from the connecting room. He's smoking a cigar.

"We're out of mixers ... well then there now! And who'd this be?"

"Scorchy, meet Sky Masterson, the answer to all our prayers," says Voinovich. "Mr. Masterson, this is Scorchy Muldoon. He's been stringing along with us since Texas."

"What a thing to say, Nick!" says Christine. "Scorchy's one of us now, all the way!"

"Pleased tameetcha," says Scorchy, offering a hand.

Out of the other room comes a thin, pale girl with long jet-black hair. She takes in everything with huge violet eyes, without saying a word.

Christine nudges Voinoivich.

"And this is Shara Lemmon," Voinovich says. "We just met her a week or ten days ago. Shara, this is Mr. Sky Masterson. He's going to be helping us on this job."

"What's his Power?" Scorchy wants to know.

"Ace," says Christine, then frowns in puzzlement. "Mostly," she adds.

"Are you going to activate him, Christine?" says Shara.

"He's already active, I think," Christine replies. "Has to be. He found us, didn't he?"

"If we're going to take you on, Mr. Masterson,  it has to be unanimous," says Voinovich. "Scorchy, run down to the kitchen and get Oscar, okay?"

"Aye-aye, your majesty!" says Scorchy, throwing a comical salute. "I'll pick up some soda an' bitters while I'm about it."

He leaves through room 307. That leaves Voinovich, Christine Tane and Shara Lemmon looking at Sky.

Room For One More?

Sky looks in the cars out front. He concludes the brand-new Nash with Texas tags, whose back tires are weighed down more than the front ones (as if there's something heavy in the trunk) is more than likely to be the gang's buggy. He casually saunters all the way around the building, notes a fire escape and a clothesline from the tenement across the way, then goes in the front door.

The lobby of the Starview Hotel has probably seen better days. Yesterday, for example. The carpet is dust-colored, the wallpaper is more textured than its designer probably intended, and the Edison lamps shine through a yellowish, greasy film.

There's no one up front at the desk. A ripe-smelling bum, barefoot but beardless, snores on a battered armchair in the lobby, clutching a rolled-carpet valise. Sky thinks he looks Italian or Greek, except for the lack of five-o-clock shadow. Spanish maybe. 

A door bangs open to the kitchen, where two cooks are working. A Negro waiter in coat and tie comes out, bearing a heavy chrome-domed tray in one hand and a whole milkman's basket of beer bottles in the other. Before the door can creak closed, Sky notices a Negro man in suspenders and cap eating in the kitchen, at a small table set back from the stove. He's solidly built; he could be O.K. Hennesey.

Sky heads up the stairs. There is no elevator. He knocks on room 309's door.

He hears a feminine voice inside, lifting as though asking a question.

Nick Voinovich opens the door. He has long white hair tied behind his head with a black band, like Lord Byron or somebody. He is wearing a striped shirt, black suspenders, brown suit pants and new shoes. He has a tiny Purple Heart medallion on his shirt pocket, where it wouldn't show with his suit coat on. He is hatless.

Voinovich's expression looks just like his mug shot; like someone just interrupted a conversation he was enjoying. Only this time it isn't the Sparta, Tennessee Police Department; it's Sky Masterson, Grimnoir Knight.

Not that Sky has to SAY that's who he is ...

Through the partly open door, Sky sees a blond woman seated on the bed; she could be Christine Tane, or the other one. She's in long skirt, blouse and vest, all different shades of gray, and wears a small pillbox hat.

The connecting door to room 307, on Sky's left, is open. From in there, Sky hears a man's laughter and the clink of glasses. Cigar smoke drifts from the connecting room. Good stogie, too.

Belle Weather

Out of the zone of broken streetlights steps a woman in a fur coat.

"Oh, good," says Richter. "Knights, meet Belle Weather. She's a Weatherman, ah, or Weathergirl, from back East. I was hoping your blimp would get in on time, Belle."

"Hello," Belle ducks her head slightly and smiles shyly. She is a cheerful, bright-eyed young woman with dark hair, dressed very elegantly. "So glad to have this opportunity to join you all. Hope I will be able to lend a hand."

Richter: "I'd like you to stay here with me, while Michael and Janet drive around back. Here's the skinny ..."

1. A young, slender Asian woman in a well-tailored, plum-colored silk pantsuit bows, her hands at her side.
   "Kaze Ni Taso Gare"
   She extends her hand and says in British-accented English:
   "It is a pleasure to meet you...."
2. Michael Bor: "Well, come along Janet. We should find a place that will have a quick way in for you, and a clear signal for me."

The Bandits' Lair

1. Kaze gives a faint smile.
   
   "Mr. Masterson, do I understand from your patois that you are volunteering to be recruited? That is most bold of you."
   
   She nods approvingly.
   
   "As to the matter of the 'doll' there are two dolls among our number, and I for one would not hesitate to subdue their doll should the need arise. You need not trouble yourself to subdue her and thus incur a curse's impact upon your person."
2. Sky says:
   
   "I ain't got no pat wa, and I am saying that many a gentleman of the flatfoot persuasion might be inclinated to regulate me as a crook or grifter, sure. I got that kind of face. Twenty three arrests and no convictions: I am proud of my record!"
3. When the Shenandoah's Daughter ties up in Omaha, Richter procures a pair of large, fast automobiles. He buys Janet a .38 revolver, which can fit in her purse or a holster, and three Tommy guns for himself, Michael Bor and Sonny-Boy, although Sonny is always armed.

   
   

   Using his spirits, Richter drives around until he gets a feeling. He pulls over to the curb outside a cheap hotel across from the Ralston cattle yards.

   
   "The Fear Fields," he says to himself. "Of course! All fear smells the same ..."
   

    

   
    Then he squeezes his eyes shut, gripping the wheel tightly. One corner of his mouth quirks in a flickering snarl. When he opens his eyes, Richter is sweating.
   
4. "They're in there," he says. "Most of them, anyway -- Hennesey and Voinovich for sure."
5. "Okay, I'm in this car with Kaze and Sonny. Michael, you've got the other car with Janet. Rig your gadget to Sky, so we can monitor him if he needs help."
6. "Anything else we forgot?" he says, looking each Knight in the eye. "If not, Sky, it's your show."
7. 
   

A Daring Alternative

1. Michael Bor: "Easily, If you can hide a battery on yourself." Says Mr. Bor. "But it will be much more difficult without the battery. I have some ideas, but it would be difficult with the time limitation, and would depend heavily on what materials are available to me."
2. Richter:
   
   
   

   "I wear a trench coat any time it's less than eighty out," says Richter. "Battery will be no problem."

   
   
3. Sky:
   
   
   

   "I am getting the strong sensationalism that ain't no one is listening as to when I was explainificating my idear. I am not making no play for no doll who is getting ready to rob a bank, because then she is tense and mooderifical and exhibiting other symptoms of femininity."He straightens the narrow lapels on this checkered coat.
   
   "To the contrarywise, when a doll is loaded with a roll of dough and has bought up a mink and some fine rocks and folerol, five will get you seven she is also in the mood for some liquid relaxation and gentleman companionship. This is not happening before the heist.
   
   "Howsever, if your spirit voodoo can give us the inside skinny on whereabouts their whereabouts might be, I could also recommend joining up if they's recruiting. 
4. Richter: "Mr. Browning wants this bank raid stopped. You really think you have a chance to infiltrate the gang before they strike?"

The Spirits Have Spoken

1. 
   

   Sky looks at the plans again. "So, we going to stuff this bird woman in a sack? It would be better to cool our heals until after the robbery is over and done, and she is spending money on a new hat or some other feminine frivolity, and sidle up and invite her out for a drink in Havana, and slip a Mickey Finn into her glass sly-like, so that she'z will be snoozing forty winks without more commotion.
   
   "I ain't hitting no doll. It's bad luck."
2. "Apart from Havana, I like it," says Richter. "Cuba's too hot. Or ... say, why don't we do the same thing here in Nebraska? If she's in town, Sky, you can make your play before they hit the bank!"
   
   "Let me just commune with the spirits ... same to you ... no! I told you no. Don't make me ... just a minute, Alclomdrexl, I'm talking to Hookreel right now ..."
   
   Richter's face twitches. He scowls. He stands up quickly.
   
   "Excuse me, won't you? This is going to take a while ... don't you talk that way to me! Smileworm, you see Hookreel, don't you? Well, Hookreel, as a mortal man I can't touch you, but you know Smileworm CAN ..."
   
   He leaves the salon, taking his portfolio. The bank diagram is still there.
   
   "Hey, boss," says the Filipino headwaiter, "he already signed the chit. Anything you want, it's paid for! But, uh, we're out of shrimp."
3. "I'd like more tea, if you'd be so kind." Janet said, setting down her her empty cup,then turned to address the knights, "Okay, let me make sure I got this. First, our we hiding at the bank to snatch them when they come, preferably after they've done their show and used up power. Or are we tracking them back to a hid out. And are we going for a fight, or can we slip in quietly to knock them out, because if we're doing that I bet I could get us some nice knock-out darts." The headwaiter came back with her tea, and after thanking him she continued. "But if there's going to be a fire fight I'm going to need a gun. All I got are my two good butchers knives, though I got pretty good with them carving chickens at the butchers shop. Although..." She added thoughtfully, "I suppose I could go gray to get through any bullets, have a handful of glass or rock or something, then stick my hand in and drop it somewhere inside them. That could distract them, or if I put it in the right spot kill them. But only it necessary. And we want them alive, correct?"
4. "We certainly wish the bank guards and the law-abiding citizens to be alive," muses Kaze.
   She does not touch what they call the tea.
   "And it is not clear if the young woman with wings is with them willingly."
   "Depending on the placement of the handful of rocks, you might cause a dire medical event. Perhaps an acceptable risk, depending on the nature of the mission? But it must be considered."
5. "They are also actively recruiting. Perhaps one of us could join them. Briefly."
6. Richter returns, wiping sweat from his face.
7. "I couldn't get them nailed down," he says, slightly out of breath, "but Hennesey, at least, is in Omaha already. Near the Fear Fields, whatever those are. If I ever get tired of speaking to people who use complete sentences without screaming, remind me how good I have it, okay?"
8. "But I did get in touch with Mr. Browning," he says. He raises his right hand to show the Grimnoir ring. "The winged lady's important, but it's more important to foil the robbery. So that brings us back to the bank."
9. "Sky, you and I and Sonny-Boy are going to be on the inside. We'll watch what develops and communicate to Michael, Janet and Kaze, on the outside. We'll park outside across the street, but you three will be on the other side of the vault, where you can hear everything. Michael, we've got a few hours; is there any way you can wire me for sound so you can hear whatever I say? That way, we can bring in the ladies at the best possible moment."
10. 
    
11. 
    

A Plan For Kidnapping

1. "Sorry ah'm late everybody." says sonny boy Jenkins as he comes into the dining room. He's a lean long faced man with dark hair and a wide brimed hat. "This th' bank we're watchin?" He gives a low whistle. " 's a nice place. So,how we gonna do this?"
2. "With two Fades, we could have someone in the vault itself," Richter says.
3. "That is good...and I could easily set up an array to alert us if they try to fly in. Wing beats from something the size of a human will stand out tremendously from background noise." Mr. Bor says. "I do not know if I can do anything to detect them on the ground. If I had detailed recordings of their voices I could easily find them with hidden microphones set in a radius around the building, If they spoke... If had a week or two, or a month, to study how they walk, and then convinced the city to install very sensitive seismographs under the sidewalks..." He trails off into thought.
4. "So it looks like our biggest advantage will be information," says Richter, taking notes. "We'll hear where they are; my spirits can track them anywhere. We could just wait for the bird-lady to get a few steps away from her friends, then Fade her right through the wall, and scram!"
   
   "That puts me, Janet, Kaze, and Michael on either watching the hoods or making the snatch. Sky, Sonny-Boy, we'll need you to watch for pursuit and keep their heads down if they come after us. I guess I'll drive; I can command my spirits from the driver's seat until it's time to move. That is, if they're kindly disposed that day, which is always in question. Spirits are jerks, mostly."
5. "Everyone's heeled, right?" he says, patting his shoulder holster. "If not, no harm; we'll stop by Sears Roebuck for rifles and Tommy guns before heading over to the bank."

Betting on Death

A gaunt, scarecrow-like man wearing a tailcoat wanders over. "Ah, is this the place we will be defending?" asks Michael Bor "Do these bandits usually use the front door, or do they like to sneak in from the back? Or might they just crash through the skylight?"

"Police reports say front door, so far," Richter replies. "But this savings and loan does have a skylight, and they do have someone who flies ... it's possible."

Janet, a dime-a-dozen typical black lady with an untypical love of books, polished off her tea and added, "They don't seem like the sneaking in type. So far their tactic had been rampage in, scare all them folks with their magic and cause chaos, get what they want and get out. And besides the money, they seem to want to get everyone afraid of our kind, too," she huffed, "not very polite of them giving us actives a bad rap, making life harder for the rest of us." Janet finished, and had to push her flat topped feathered hat back on her head before it could slip into her jam.

"Sky" Masterson is a dark-haired youth whose footstep is so light that he seems to dance when he walks. with twinkling and dancing gray eyes that seem to change color under different light, now hazel, now dark, now yellow like a beast of prey. Something in his glace seems supercilious but zany, as if silently saying either 'come out and play' or 'I double-dog dare you'. 

His features are strangely magnetic without being exactly pleasant. He has narrow face, a cleft jaw, cheekbones like a fashion model. He is dressed in an expensive but loud suit: a narrow silk tie of bright colors, a checkered coat with sharp lapels, a green fedora, which he wears at a tilt. One bulge in his coat is his heater, the other his roll of c-notes. He has the quirk of smiling with one side of his mouth only, the side without a cigarette dangling from it.

"I got a Benjamin says one of them beefs some Joe before the week is out. Lay you twelve to seven. You'll cover me?"

"I'd hate to take your money, Sky," says Richter with a thin smile. "Because they're not going to be at liberty a week from now, if we have anything to say about it."

"And," he admits, "the way they're going, you're right -- someone's going to step into a bullet before much longer."

"Now we can watch the bank from the outside or go inside. We have old photos of Voinovich and Muldoon, but only sketches of Henessey and Miss Tane. And as for the flying woman, all we have is this newspaper photo -- you can't see her face at all. She has short hair, but if she's wearing a hat, that doesn't help us."

"I guess what I'm getting at is that they could walk right by us if we stake out the bank. But if we're inside, we know we can put the finger on them. Now, we have two Fades, a Cog, a Finder, and an Ace, right, Sky? So we don't want to go up against the whole gang in close-range combat. What do you think we ought to do? Mr. Browning put me in charge, but I'll listen to any reasonable suggestion."

Dinner on the Shenandoah's Daughter

Aboard the luxury airship Shenandoah's Daughter, the floors are so solid you might as well be in a hotel. There's no shudder as in a train or roll as in a ship, even when there's clouds piled ten deep outside the window. Indeed, the passenger deck is inside the hull, so there are windows all along both sides -- and at the nose, where the sides converge, the restaurant offers a view in three directions, with sloping windows so you can look down at the countryside.

Mr. Richter has taken a private salon on the port side, mostly so that Janet and Kaze can eat with the white Knights without attracting attention. And the waiters are Filipinos, so they're not likely to object.

Richter has finished reading the brief on the Voinovich Gang and reaches down for an artist's portfolio beside his chair. He has a thin face, blond crew cut, dark gray suit and gold tie. The handkerchief in his vest pocket is held down by several pens.

Kaze Nitasogare is a young Asian woman dressed in dark purple silk. She slips from the shadows as silently as the clouds outside the window.

"How many have they slain?" she asks.

""None so far," says  Richter. "They shot a lot of guns in the air, and since they added Muldoon he's been belching fire to start things off. Makes everyone shut up and pay attention. But they've shot AT guards, tellers, a customer in Lubbock ... it's really just a matter of time before they ring someone's bell."

"Here's a map of the bank, as of yesterday evening," he says. He slides a large piece of art board onto the table.

"That's where the guards were at about 4 pm Central Time," he says. "There were customers, too, but not too many. They tended to move around a lot."

Bonnie, Clyde, and the Bird Woman

In the summer of 1934, a wave of bank robberies took place across the South and Midwest. The robbers were Active, and easily took their targets in small cities. They even robbed a bank guarded by a famous Brute, Dollar Bill Washington. Now the Grimnoir Society is interested in the gang, but not for the same reason as the BI.

Originally, the gang consisted of at least two Actives:

O.K. Hennesey, of Sparta, Tenn. Brute. Mid-thirties in age. No military record; arrested for disorderly conduct and bar fighting, but no convictions.

Nick Voinovich, 43, of Sparta, Tenn. Icebox. Veteran of First Volunteer Brigade (Active) in the Great War. He learned to work with other Actives to maximize their effectiveness in the trenches; the BI pegs him as the gang's leader.

Also present, pointing a pistol, was Christine Tane, 25, of Sparta, Tenn. Former French tutor, former waitress. No criminal record.

When they hit Texas, they'd picked up a Torch, Aloysius "Scorchy" Muldoon of Lubbock. Then in Tulsa, they added a woman with twelve-foot-wide wings. This gang is adding Actives every four or five jobs, which works out to about one a month.

This makes all Actives look bad, as the gang is robbing bigger banks with more violence every time. It reinforces the image that Actives can do whatever they want because society's helpless to stop them.

Also, we're concerned about the woman with wings. There have always been stories of Shifters, who could actually alter their shape, but so far all of them have proved false. There have been really good Ringers who looked like they could grow extra arms or a dragon's head, but this one is different. A reporter for the Kansas City Star took a photo of the bird woman swooping away from the scene of the crime. There hasn't ever been a Ringer born who can fool the camera.

The Atlanta charter of the Grimnoir Society doesn't have an Elder, not yet. But Mr. Browning has appointed Ronald Richter of Texas to head up this investigation. Mr. Richter is a Finder, and the spirits at his command believe the gang will next make a try for the First Federal Savings and Loan of Omaha, Neb. This isn't actually a bank, but a loan institution formed as part of President Roosevelt's financial reforms. Savings and Loans are all startups (they were only authorized a year ago) and are believed by gangsters to have inferior protection to regular banks. Whether or not that's true, FFS&L is probably not proof against ice, fire, strength and wings, which is why we're planning to be there when it happens.

(If you're part of this game, comment on this post and I'll incorporate your statements into the next post! Or send me an email.)

A Grimnoir Roleplaying Game

To Larry Correia, and all his fans, among whom I vigorously number myself: this is the record of a roleplaying game set in the Grimnoir universe of Hard Magic, Spellbound, and the Hugo-nominated Warbound.

There was a set of rules for Mr. Correia's Monster Hunter International, but nothing that I'm aware of for Grimnoir, so I went ahead and did it myself. The game does not make any money, nor do I pretend to have invented anything from the Grimnoir setting.

If I'm stepping on anyone's copyright, please advise and I'll pull all this stuff down.

That said, this is where I'll record the adventures of the Knights of Atlanta, as they track down a gang of bank-robbing Actives during the height of the Depression.