LM13: Nemesis

[frankthetriviaman]

The two month period was hard on Gunnarson; he did work on the Blade Syndicate case when he could, but he was finding it harder and harder to get cases. Between Scotland Yard's detectives turning against Gunnarson, and the radio interview Walton gave turning many civilians against Gunnarson, he found that fewer and fewer cases were coming his way. He did talk to Hartley now and again, but with Cricket still in her coma, he wasn't about to leave her.

Gunnarson sighed as he considered his situation... times were changing, and he wondered how much longer a Private Investigator such as himself could last in a world like this.

......

As Gunnarson, Stein, Byrne and Greene tackled their end of things, Detective Walton was approaching the Blade case from a different perspective. Walton was a very convincing person, and used his skills on London's criminal population to pull off something rather extraordinary really- he didn't offer lenient sentences or anything like that, but he was able to convince a surprising number of criminals to become informants, all across London and even into surrounding cities. With ears to the ground all over the place, Walton began building a rather sizable intelligence network all across London... in just six weeks, he had 50 informants scouring London for any signs of criminal activity or the like. Even Gent was impressed with what Walton had pulled off.

"It isn't the most... orthodox approach, but it is very impressive what you pulled off, Walton. Most detectives are lucky to get five or six, but you've got a great deal of territory covered" Gent observed as he looked at some maps Walton had made.

"We haven't yielded Blade yet- but my network has achieved some substantial success in other areas. We've managed to prevent 3 planned heists and about a dozen murders with the intelligence we've scrounged up" Walton explained.

"At least we're making moves against the Ripper Underground... but what about the Blade Syndicate?" Gent asked.

"There are some unconfirmed sightings of his associates here and there... but nothing concrete as of yet" Walton explained.

"Is anything certain yet?" Gent asked.

"One thing is- whatever Blade is up to... he's not killing all these criminals that are going missing" Walton explained.

"That's a rather interesting conclusion" Gent observed.

"It makes sense sir; think about it. Blade is no serial killer, and taking whole bodies as trophies isn't exactly a practical thing. Then there is the matter of logistics- if they were hiding the bodies after they were killed, there isn't very many places they can be hid without drawing attention to the spot in question. Sir, whatever Blade is up to... either it's really well hidden, or we're looking in the wrong places" Walton explained.

"I see; well, good work Walton. Now, get back to the case at hand- the sooner we stop Blade the better"

"Understood" Walton said as he went to leave.

......

At the Blade Syndicate headquarters, during this two month period, Elvira was adjusting well, but she found herself suffering from something of an identity crisis. As she sat alone in her room, looking at her reflection in the mirror, she wondered just who she was.

"All my professional life, I've been an assassin for hire. No questions asked; someone gives me a contract, I killed, I got my money, end of story" She said to herself. Then she considered what she was up to now, "but now- I'm not killing anymore, and while I do feel my life has improved, I cannot help but feel like... like I'm betraying myself. Is this who I am? I always saw myself as a killer... I didn't take joy in it or anything like that- but to me, killing was a matter of business. Now that I'm head of security for Blade here, I do get paid and all, but... but I cannot help but feel like this is something beyond what I am meant to do. Or... or is this what I am meant to do? Was I living a lie all this time?" Elvira asked herself. Sitting in her chair, she buried her face in her arms, before finally admitting out loud, "damn it all... just who the hell am I!?" she semi-screamed.

[Toz76]

There was a knock on the door, and Ruocco's voice filtered in. "Are you okay?"

Elvira had become close friends with Blade's gang in the two months. Friend had developed a great exercise regime for her, Palepu's sense of humor had grown on her, Kross, Cambria, and Müller were the brains and always had an interesting trivia fact for her, and McKibbin and Knowles could always be depended on for a good time. But it was Ruocco and his strict adherence to duty that drew her the most. If Elvira hadn't been trained not to feel emotions, she would have sworn she was falling in love.

Ruocco walked in, sat next to her, and put an arm around her. "Are you alright? It can be difficult to adjust at first."

Elvira nodded, already feeling a bit better.

"It's understandable, when you've been raised from birth believing human life is a commodity that can be bought or sold for the right price, that a pacifist organization would be an adjustment. Believe me, it wasn't easy for us either. But after a while, you'll see. Things will get easier."

Elvira nodded and stood on shaky legs. She walked to the door and stepped into the common room.

Friend and Cambria were on duty and Knowles was in the shower, but the other four were lounging about in various states of undress. Now that the room was carpeted, the walls were a calming blue color, and there was actual air circulation, it was an extremely pleasant place.

McKibbin looked up as she walked in. "Everything alright?"

Elvira took a deep breath and nodded. "I think so."

*****

For Shakes and Lion, the past two months of mining had been hell.

[frankthetriviaman]

They, along with Rawhide, Juno and Ironside had been chained together and forced to work for weeks, day in and day out. The fact that they each lost an arm made the prospect of fighting back directly against Blade and crew impossible. But these men and woman (Juno is female) were still assassins, and had been planning something... interesting for months.

"The time is almost upon us; we will need to act soon" they would say when the guards were elsewhere.

"I can't take this work anymore... it's time for them to pay" Juno agreed

(I don't know how many of them will survive the story; but I at least want to do something with them before they are done away with)

Elsewhere, Gunnarson was on the verge of a breakthrough in the Blade case.

[Toz76]

The results from the latest arm discovery. The arms belonged to a pair of jewelers that had also engaged in money laundering. However, an investigation of the jeweler's shop revealed it had been completely cleaned out.

"That was a mistake on Blade's part. The jewels here were very unique. The Gadfrey Emeralds, Diamond Shards, and Yellow Rubies are all instantly recognizable. Sooner or later, they'll pop up on the black market, and then we'll have him." Greene commented.

A few weeks later, one of Gent's black market informers revealed that someone had sold him a Diamond Shard. The man was dressed in a bizarre black and yellow suit, and the informant had been able to trace him north into Scotland.

"So wherever he's hiding these days, it's somewhere in Scotland." Byrne said to the assembled detectives. "But where?"

"There's plenty of places to hide several dozen captives. Bombed-out ghost towns, depleted mines, unexplored forests..." Stein trailed off. "We're not much closer than we were before. But we do know one thing. The man that sold that jewel wasn't a known member of Blade's gang. Either it's bigger than we thought, or it's growing."

"Neither of those is a pleasant thought." Byrne conceded.

Meanwhile, Gent was arguing with his daughter.

"I tell you, I'm the perfect person to investigate Blade. I'm just as intelligent as Gunnarson or Stein, and I'm a woman. I can easily find one of Blade's men in a pub, get him drunk, and get you all kinds of information. No one suspects a woman."

"Blade has been known to work with women in the past, most notably Elvira Revinev. I think his men are too well trained to spill secrets to random girls at a pub."

But Marlena Gent was not about to sit this one out. Blade and the Case Of The Arms had been the talk of the town for months, and solving the case and bringing Blade in would be a real feather in her cap for her and women everywhere. Which is why she ended up on Gunnarson's porch one morning, holding a copy of her resume and prepared to prove her worth.

[frankthetriviaman]

Gunnarson let her in, and they proceeded to discuss affairs.

"I think someone like you could be quite helpful to this case; Id have to convince the others, but I think a fresh set of eyes on this case will help us" Gunnarson admitted.

"Thank you for giving me a chance" Marlena replied.

......

Newly arrived in Scotland, an old foe made yet another appearance in Great Britain.

"So, Blade and crew got an operation going, eh? Well, they'll be In For quite a shock when they hear the mob is back in town" Boss O'Connor said as he and some of his boys disembarked the ship and got their supplies into waiting trucks.

"To bad Finn's pulling off an assassination in Belfast sir; he'd love to be here for this" Murphy explained.

"Yes; I hope the Blade Syndicate loves presents... because this one's just for them" O'Connor grinned as the phosgene gas canister was loaded into the truck and once everyone was assembled, they drove off to their predetermined meeting point to plan their next move.

(Don't do anything with the mob just yet; don't worry, I know what I'm doing)

......

"...and that is why we need to let Marlena in on this investigation" Gunnarson said over the phone.

"Well... we have been getting few leads recently, All right, we'll give her a chance; a fresh set of eyes could really help" Stein admitted.

[Toz76]

The five detectives discussed what they knew.

"We know Blade is somewhere in Scotland. We know he's taken several captives. We know he's got more men now. And we know he's sitting on a sizeable amount of money. What's our next move?"

[frankthetriviaman]

"Well the obvious move would be to cut off his funding... but that's easier said than done" Greene pointed out.

"Right; well what about intelligence- any leads there?" Gunnarson asked.

"I've been thinking about it- Walton's got a sizeable informant ring going on, maybe his 50 men can dig up something" Byrne suggested

"It's 80 now; and I assure you I have information I think you'll see is quite valuable" Walton said as he came into the room.

"So; decided to work with me after all?" Gunnarson asked.

"Can it, you incompetent Swede, I'm here to discuss the case with real detectives" Walton said dismissively as he turned his attention to Stein, Byrne and Greene.

"I've been mapping the movements my informants have determined are Blade Syndicate related, and based on the available information, we can effectively conclude that Blade can only be in one of three locations" he explained, showing three circled locations on a map. "They are abandoned mines, and rather sizeable ones too. Given the sheer amount of people that have gone missing- large mines like these are the only ones big enough to hold that many people" he explained.  "We only have limited information though, so we cannot be certain that this is accurate though" he clarified.

"So what's your play then? No jurisdiction for any of us there, remember?" Stein asked.

"Simple- convert more crooks to informants. In due time... I think I can even get inside men on the job" Walton said, before leaving the others to their work.

"So Walton's on intelligence, so what's our move?" Marlena asked.

[Toz76]

"Our move is to examine the available evidence and figure o it which mine he's in." Gunnarson replied.

"Let's see here:
*The Montgomery Coal Mine. Very prosperous during the war, but shut down after due to less call for coal. Not exactly a pleasant place, but I imagine Blade is used to roughing it. It's currently owned by the government, but a reclusive millionaire named Bixby recently purchased it for "research".
*Smagdock Mines. It started out as a coal mine, but the miners stumbled upon a cache of precious gems, including the only emeralds ever found on British soil. It too shut down after the war. Someone named Regaby owns it now.
*Kellsthorpe Mine. Unlike the other two, this one was a slate quarry. It was actually used fairly often by the Black Scorpion, allegedly. Regaby owns that one too."

Byrne nodded. "It's got to be Montgomery. There's no way Blade would buy two mines if he was only going to use one."

"We don't know Blade's connection to the owner. Maybe Bixby or Regaby don't even know he's on their land. I think it's Kellsthorpe. Blade is the type of person to relish in the poetic justice of using a former enemy's execution chamber to bring about his twisted idea of peace." Greene countered.

"I'm gonna have to go with Byrne on this." Stein chimed in. "Occam's razor, remember? The simplest solution is usually the truth. In this case, the simplest solution is that Bixby is Blade or one of his men."

"Well, we can definitely agree there's nothing connecting him to Smagdock." Byrne interjected.

"Not necessarily." Marlena chimed in. "Greene mentioned Blade having a sense of irony of some sort. What's Blade's biggest failure?"

"Working with Drugg, I would assume. Even Blade hates Nazis." Byrne pointed out.

"Really? What about the time Blade got most of his gang arrested trying to steal some emeralds? The only emeralds ever found in the United Kingdom?" Marlena grinned. "From what I've read about Blade, he's fiercely loyal to his men. I'd call that a failure on his part."

Gunnarson leaned forward, a glint in his eye. "Being located in that mine would remind Blade every second of every day of his greatest failure. It would inspire him to be more careful, to not make mistakes."

"Plus, there's always a chance he could find more gemstones down there." Marlena pointed out. "Heck, maybe he's selling whatever coal is left too. He certainly seems to have the labor force for it."

"I'm willing to bet," Gunnarson continued, "that Blade owns all three mines, and probably more, serving as decoys."

"Whoa, whoa, whoa." Stein said. "You had me convinced for a second, but that seems needlessly complicated. Occam's razor says he only controls one mine."

"But what if Gunnarson is right? I know I'd have decoys if I were Blade. At the very least, I'd have a couple sentries near some of the other mines. That way, if one of them were investigated, I'd know immediately and could relocate." Greene chimed in.

"Then we'd better make damned sure we pick the right mine. And that requires more proof than "Blade thinks this way"." Byrne replied coolly.

*******

In a small Scottish town, several lowlifes were sharing a pint in a pub. Two of the lowlifes worked for Blade's gang. Another was one of Walton's informants, a man named Layne Cantrell.

Cantrell paid his tab and left to return to the inn he'd been staying at. He had no new info yet, but he knew he was getting close.

A beautiful woman caught his eye. She was wearing a dress so low-cut it should be illegal, and was beckoning him with a wink. Cantrell followed eagerly, thinking he was going to get lucky tonight. Instead, he felt a blow to the head and was knocked out.

When he came too, he was in a brightly lit room with concrete walls, strapped tightly to a table. Around him were two men in bizarre black and yellow pinstripe suits. The woman from earlier was also wearing said suit, and wielding a large hatchet. Cantrell was terrifyed. "Blade's got me." He realized.

"Elvira, disarm him." The bigger of the two men said. Elvira strode forward and swung the hatchet. Cantrell felt a searing pain and realized his arm had been chopped off. Tears welled up in his eyes.

"Now, I want you to listen to me carefully." The smaller, but somehow scarier second man said. "We don't want to kill you. We don't even want you to suffer. We just want the name of the officer or crime orginazation who ordered you to spy on us."

"His name is W-walton." Cantrell stuttered.

"That wouldn't be Michael Walton, by any chance?"

"I th-think so." Cantrell tried and failed to nod despite his bonds.

"Alright, thank you very much for cooperating. I think we'll give you an easy job. How does laundry strike you?"

The two men (Friend and Knowles), and Elvira left Cantrell tied up and gave the guards instructions. Soon, the whole gang had gathered for a meeting.

"I know we have a rule about only abducting and disarming criminals, but we can't allow the cops to find us. Elvira, I want you, Ruocco, Müller, and McKibbin to find Walton, leave his arm with a warning not to look for us, and bring him here to work. I could use a personal servant." Blade laughed.

The following night, Walton was strolling through a darkened neighborhood on his way home when he was ambushed by the foursome.

[frankthetriviaman]

Walton kept his cool as he found himself surrounded; Elvira and Ruocco to the front, Mckibbin and Muller to his behind. He repositioned himself so he could better see all of them.

"So, one of my own boys ratted me out, eh? Should've known that an alias would have been better to use. I am surprised that you found me though.... tell me, how accurate were we?" Walton said.

"You don't need to know that... not that it matters. Now, there's two ways we can go about this detective... come quietly and we won't have to knock you out" McKibbin said, brandishing a tire iron.

"Not interested. Here's a better offer- stand down now and the judge will go easy on you" Walton stated.

"I'm afraid we will have to miss our court dates... Blade isn't a very patient man, and we wouldn't want to keep him waiting. He's really eager to meet you after all" Ruocco said, coming close to Walton with an amputation saw.

"Think very carefully about your next move gentlemen... looks can be very deceiving after all" Walton began as he shed his overcoat.

"There's four of us and only one of you... we're not your typical mobsters Walton" McKibbin said.

"And I'm not your typical detective" Walton quipped. What happened next was utter chaos.

As the four went in to attack Walton, he ducked and rolled out of the way, catching them off guard for a moment

"What the?! Detectives don't move like that" McKibbin observed.

"Weren't you listening? I'm not your typical detective" Walton said before taking his Webley Revolver out of its holster and firing, striking McKibbin in his left knee. No loner able to support his body weight, he crumbled to the ground as his left leg gave out underneath him.

"You damn detective! I'll never walk again from a wound like this!" McKibbin screamed as he held his knee.

Startled from this sudden move, Elvira, Ruocco and Muller (sorry; not sure how to do .. U) were forced to draw their guns. The four were in a standoff.

"We're not going to kill you Walton... but we won't leave you unharmed either. Drop your gun now, or else..." Elvira said sternly. But all were taken off guard when a sub machine gun went off. Muller and Ruocco turned around to see a dozen armed thugs; 4 with Sten sub machine guns, 4 with Enfiled rifles and 4 with M1911 pistols.

"Well well well... what do we have here? Knew something was up when we heard that gunshot. And look what we find... none other than three mates with five-digit bounties on their heads... Lord Bury will be pleased to have you join him tonight, and we'll get a handsome payday, won't we boys?" The leader said as the others shouted in agreement.

"You don't know what you're dealing with gentlemen, turn around now if you know what's good for you" Muller warned.

"Like hell we will; you lot are our payday" the lead said as he pointed his gun at the crippled McKibbin "now stand down or I turn your friend here into a lead balloon" he warned.

Ruocco turned to Elvira, "No choice; going to have to use the packages" he said as Elvira nodded. They both reached into their pockets and pulled out unusual looking spheres. They threw them to the ground as smoke clouds suddenly formed and engulfed the immediate area.

"Let them have it boys!" The lead yelled as they suddenly opened fire. Walton and the others ducked for the ground as they opened fire. The dozen fired into the smoke, determined to claim their bounty. But when the shooting stopped and they went to reload. Muller and Ruocco burst from the smoke and began fighting them up close, firing hand to hand combat. Elvira was about to join them when Ruocco shouted "we got this! Deal with Walton before he gets away!" Ruocco shouted.

"Right" Elvira said as she turned around, trying to determine where he had run off too. When she saw where he had gone, she immediately gave chase and proceeded to catch up. Walton had managed to take position and fired a couple warning shots at her. "Keep your distance! I will shoot you if I have to!" Walton warned.

"I'd like to see you try!" Elvira screamed as she pulled out her gun. They held each other at gunpoint, neither giving an inch.

......

Ruocco and Muller did quite well, and had succeeded in knocking out half of the grunts. The lead and others still had them surrounded and were not relenting.

"I got these guys; check on McKibbin!" Ruocco screamed. Muller nodded as Ruocco kept fighting. He found McKibbin having ripped part of his jacket, improvising a tourniquet but he had lost a good deal of blood, but it looked like he wouldn't die.

"Don't worry McKibbin, I got your back" Muller assured as he came to help

.....

Elvira was getting impatient with Walton. "What the hell are you? Detectives don't act this way" she observed.

"Like I said, don't judge a book by its cover. Today, I'm a detective, but during the war... Lieutenant Michael Walton, Special Air Services" he revealed.

"Bloody hell... you're SAS?!" She screamed.

"Where do you think I learned my skills of persuasion? You can get a lot of intelligence out of nazis when you know how to talk to them" he explained.

"Well you're not going to get through to me!" Elvira screamed as she started running towards him.

"Maybe not, but I know something that will. I figured I'd run into you at some point, so based on your history, i figured something like this would stop you in your tracks" he said as he pulled out an object. Elvira suddenly stopped and was terrified of what she saw.

A syringe. Just like the ones Dr Drugg used on her. And there was something inside it. "No... not again..." she said, now backing away, as Walton approached her.

"Must have been traumatizing, wasn't it? To have fallen victim to Drugg not once, but twice? Must be pretty humiliating. I imagine right now you're thinking, what's in this one? A sedative? Poison? Or perhaps a cocktail..." Walton grinned as he kept approaching her.

Elvira couldn't take it anymore, and ran away, back towards Ruocco and the others.

"Thought so... and to think this is just saline solution" Walton thought as he proceeded to make his way to Scotland Yard.

......

Ruocco was catching his breath; surrounded by the unconscious bodies of the thugs that had tried to claim Bury's contract. He saw Elvira running towards him.

"Elvira? Where's Walton?" He asked.

"I'm so sorry, but he had a syringe and I almost had him, but when I saw that syringe and... and... I had to get out of there, I can't go through that again" she said, defeated.

"Dont worry about it; we'll try again another day". Ruocco said aloud before thinking to himself "it's worse than I thought; I knew she was traumatized from her experience with Drugg, but a fear of syringes to the point that she freezes? I'd better tell Blade about this" he finished.

"All right, what should we do about these guys? Any thoughts Muller? Muller?!" Elvira said. Ruocco and Elvira looked around, but didn't see Muller or McKibbin.

"Elvira... we were ambushed by 12 guys, right?" Ruocco began.

"Yea... I counted. Why?" She asked.

"I only count eight bodies" Ruocco said grimly.

(10 minutes earlier)

McKibbin was being helped by Muller when all of a sudden...

*Whack!!

Sneaking up behind Muller, one of the thugs took the butt of his rifle and plowed it right into Muller's head. McKibbin tried to warn him, but the thug struck faster than he could speak. The force alone knocked Muller out cold.

"Muller! You son of a...". But McKibbin passed out; luckily the bleeding had stopped, but the loss was enough that it made him weak.

"Boss! Here!" He shouted. The lead and two others ran over.

"Cut our losses boys! We're taking these two and we're out of here!" He ordered. A minute later, the four of them had returned to the three cars the group had been out driving in, searching for Blade and crew. Opening the trunk of one, Muller and McKibbin were thrown in, while the four got into the car's seats.

"Payday here we come!" The lead shouted as the others cheered and drove off.

(NOTE: they will not die, Im just firing this Chekhov's gun from earlier)

......

"Bloody hell... they were slipperier than we thought!! What now?" Elvira said.

"The gunfire from earlier is going to attract too much attention; we should probably get going before someone sees us" Ruocco said.

"What about these grunts?" Elvira asked.

"If all four of us were here, I'd say take them. But the two of us, I don't know..." Ruocco explained.

[Toz76]

Müller woke up in the trunk of the car, panicked for a second as his claustrophobia kicked in.

"I need to get out of here!" He thought.

Luckily, Müller knew how to open a trunk from the inside, but when he opened it a bit and daylight began to stream in, he realized he had two problems. They were driving 72 kilometers an hour along a gravel road, and McKibbin was in there with him.

"Bloody hell... wait!" Müller reached into his pockets and pulled out a grenade.

"I only get one shot at this, I have to make it count." He said to himself.

Müller grabbed McKibbin's unconscious form, and slung him over his shoulders as best he could. He then popped the trunk all the way open and stood. No one noticed, but they did notice when he pulled the pin of the grenade, dropped it in the trunk, and fell backwards, landing on top of McKibbin.

The car traveled 20 meters before the grenade went off, lighting the fuel tank and engulfing the car in flame even as it kept going.

This didn't much help Müller, though. He was mostly unhurt, but he'd used the unconscious McKibbin as a human shield and he now had a collection of bruises, scrapes, and open wounds to add to his leg. Müller stood, wincing, pulled McKibbin over his shoulder, and began walking.

Forty minutes later, he reached a small down in the middle of nowhere. He found an inn and rented a room. Once in there, he quickly stripped McKibbin and treated his wounds, before using the hotel phone to call a home in Edinburgh, where he said the phrase "Peacock is wounded, Beech stranded. Need pickup asap." The man in Edinburgh called someone in Somerset, who called someone in a car park in the wilds of Scotland, who sent a runner to Blade, and in 30 minutes Blade knew of his operative's location.

Meanwhile...

[frankthetriviaman]

Back in London, Walton was in a meeting with Commissioner Gent over what had happened the night before.

"...and if it weren't for my SAS training, I'd be in whatever hell hole Blade is currently holed up in too" he finished.

"And we found that mess of a crime scene this morning; the eight have been taken into custody since they are Ripper Underground. But we're still no closer to Blade..." Gent thought as he got up and walked in front of his desk. "We're so close and yet so far. It's out of our jurisdiction though- I will get in touch with the local police there and see if there is anything they can do to help" Gent said as the meeting concluded

......

Stein, Byrne, Greene, Gunnarson and Marlena were assessing the facts of what had happened the night before.

"Unbelieveable... even I never would have suspected Walton is former SAS" Gunnarson said, prompting confused stares from the others

[frankthetriviaman]

I apologize for the double post, but given the importance of these two Chekhov's guns, wanted to make sure they were fired before the story ends.

......

It had taken nearly 10 hours before Muller and McKibbin had returned to headquarters. Using some paid off, disgraced doctors (who were allowed to keep both arms), Blade was relieved when McKibbin finally regained consciousness.

"Blade... I'm so sorry... I failed you. That bullet... it destroyed my knee... I don't know if I'll ever walk properly again" he said weakly.

At the same time, Ruocco came up to Blade and explained the dilemma he found out about. "Sir, we need to talk. It's about Elvira sir... she may be mentally damaged because of Drugg" he said.

Blade knew both matters were important, but he had to decide which he had to deal with first.

[Toz76]

"McKibbin, you don't have to worry. You've served me well, and even if you're injured, I'm not going to dispose of you. Now rest, and we'll discuss your future later."

With that taken care of, Blade went to Elvira.

[frankthetriviaman]

He walked with Ruocco to Elvira's room.

"What makes you certain she was damaged by Drugg?" Blade asked.

"Well, she was saying how when she was fighting Walton, he suddenly pulled out a syringe, and she said that she just froze" Ruocco explained.

"I'm going to need to see this for myself... as much as I hate to do this to her, we need to know the full extent of how deeply she's affected" Blade explained as he picked up something off the nearby table.

A few minutes later, they came to Elvira in her room. She was sitting on her bed when Blade and Ruocco came up to her. "Ruocco explained everything to me... but why did you just freeze up like that?" Blade asked.

"I don't know... the moment I saw that syringe, it was almost as if... as if I saw him as Dr Drugg" she tried explaining.

Then Blade pulled out the syringe, "so what is it about this that made you..." he began, but already Elvira fled to the other side of her bed in a panic, and crouched behind it.

"No!! Keep it away! Keep it away!" She screamed.

Blade and Ruocco were surprised... but at the same time, understood her trauma.

[Toz76]

"She's obviously scarred by what Drugg did to her. And she was a wanted assassin, it's not like she could get any sort of mental help."

"We could kidnap someone who specializes in treating trauma." Ruocco suggested.

"Good call. Find the best doctor you can, disarm him, and bring him to me." Blade ordered.

[frankthetriviaman]

Ruocco set off to find someone that could help Elvira... but lucky for him, a chain of events lead to him being saved a lot of trouble.

......

Gunnarson, Marlena and the detectives were putting the pieces together, and had concluded that one of the three mines had to be where Blade and crew were located.

"We're going to need to get scouts over there... its the only way to be certain of which mine is the right one" Byrne concluded.

"I'll contact the local police and see if we can arrange something... it's out of our jurisdiction" Greene said as he went to make a phone call.

"I suppose I'll head north and see what I can find" Gunnarson said.

"I'm going to" Marlena said.

"You sure you want to do this?" Gunnarson asked.

......

Ruocco wasn't having much luck finding a doctor that fit the bill. When he went into a pub to rest for a while, it was clear that he may have just gotten lucky. At that moment, a man of about forty or so came into the pub, clearly fuming. He sat at the bar and said "strongest drink you got; I don't care what it is."

"Any reason you're like this today, MacGrath?" The bartender asked.

"Damn right you are... I find out my partners at the office are embezzling money and they force me out before I can do a damn thing! Probably buried the evidence by now" MacGrath grumbled.

"But you lot do business with soldiers who've got Battle Fatigue and people who've "been through a lot," why would they do this?"

"I'll tell you why- my partners were bloody frauds! Never even went to school for the field; they listened in on what I was doing and basically repeated whatever I was doing to their patients. Well I'll tell you one thing- I did not go into psychiatry for this crap... if they're going down, chances are they're bringing me down with them. So just give me a drink already... my life's over anyway" he said, tirade over.

"Whatever you say" the bartender shrugged before getting some whiskey. Ruocco walked over. "beg pardon... MacGrath, is it? How would you like a job?" He said with a grin.

[Toz76]

Elvira sat on her bunk, reflecting on her failure. How could she have allowed that mere cop to get to her like that?

There was a knock on the door. "Hello? Miss Revinev? I'm doctor Elijah MacGrath. We need to talk."

*******

Marlena nodded. "Hell yeah I'm sure."

"Excellent." Greene said. "I have a car with five seats and a large trunk. I'll pick you all up tonight."

"I thought just me and Gunnarson were going." Marlena said, bewildered.

"And have us miss all the fun?" Byrne smirked. "We're going to take this guy down together."

[frankthetriviaman]

But Gunnarson was cautious. "Are you sure you want to risk doing such a thing? Where we are going is out of your jurisdiction you know. Greene- that phone call you made to the local authorities- surely they can act on your behalf" Gunnarson pointed out.

[Toz76]

"Don't worry. We have permission from Gent. And we're bringing plenty of disguise supplies on the off-chance someone recognizes us." Byrne replied.

[frankthetriviaman]

"So its settled then; I suppose we should get going" Gunnarson said as they prepared to leave. Before they did though Commissioner Gent came walking into the room.

"Ah, gentlemen, before you go, I wanted to bring something up with you. Once you arrive in... Marlena? What are you doing here?" Gent said.

"Helping your detectives, Dad- they weren't getting anywhere so they asked for a fresh set of eyes" she pointed out.

"While that is very noble of you, I'm afraid I cannot allow you to come with them- the Blade Syndicate is nothing like the criminals you have been dealing with, and I cannot let you go" Gent said.