Post by frankthetriviaman on Jan 6, 2019 22:48:10 GMT -5
November 10, 1949
Looking out from his safe-house somewhere in the English countryside, Blade was still trying to determine the situation before him. It had been a long time since his Headquarters was raided and his Syndicate effectively dismantled. It took him more than a year to build up his empire from more than his core group; had there been no interference he very well could rival the Ripper Underground in power by now. And yet, here he was... reduced to the lowest point of his run. With almost all of his closest associates dead or arrested, and everything at the mine seized, now there was just the contents of his safe-house, and the truck he fled in. And the manpower had been reduced to himself, Muller and Byrne. He trusted both of them, but weeks of doing almost nothing was starting to take its toll on the trio.
"Look, I can't believe I'm saying this, but we can't just stay here and do nothing- if we're ever going to get our place back..." Muller began
"Open your eyes Muller, we're not getting it back! It was hard enough building up the Syndicate without competition, do you have any idea how hard it will be now that there's competition not just from the One-Eyed Man, but from Bury, and Napoleon and Shadow" Byrne reminded him.
"Hmmm... I suppose you are right. Patience is the order of the day; we aren't going to get everything back overnight and we need to realize that" Muller informed them, now looking at the situation pragmatically.
"That damn Swede needs to pay; he caused all this! He shouldn't have interfered when we went for the emeralds" Blade stated.
"I agree that Gunnarson needs to be taught a lesson for his repeated interference with our work... but if we are to address this fly on the wall... we need to deal with the thorn in our side" Byrne explained.
"And that is?" Muller asked.
"a certain detective... the one who no doubt led the charge that put us in in our current predicament- Michael Walton" Byrne explained.
"I beg your pardon?" Muller asked.
"Walton... is of little interest to me- Gunnarson and Marlena are my primary concern right now. Even so, I must admit no ordinary detective could have held his own like that... and lead such an operation that took down the Syndicate in one day." Blade observed
"If we are going to get revenge on Gunnarson, we need to insure that Walton doesn't get in the way" Byrne rationalized. Then the first idea came to mind, "Well, I suppose we could hire..."
"We took down all the assassins in London, remember? And even if we sent one after him it wouldn't make a difference; he held his own against Elvira" Muller pointed out.
"Seems your problem will be figuring out how to deal with him" Blade noted.
"Hmm... we weren't close friends, but we weren't strangers either. All right, here's what I know: you know how our enemies were dealt with when we used "typical" methods?" Byrne began.
"Of course" Blade replied.
"Well, forget about using them on Walton. You saw the papers, right? After he took down the syndicate he brought down the Irish Mob too. The man knows how to fight; he's got a car with a trunk of military-grade weapons; but he only uses them when it is absolutely clear that confronting the threat without the, ahem, "hardware," is more dangerous than confronting said threat with it. And we're not talking some Black market crap that breaks at the worst time like most of our stuff... it's from top-of-the-line sources and he keeps them maintained" Byrne explained.
"Hmm... I guess I'll humor you for a minute. So he's great with weapons, I get that. Suppose we confront him without..." Blade began
"Confront him without a weapon and it's still an uphill fight. In the war he went up against the worst the Nazis had to offer and came out on top... including the Waffen-SS" Byrne explained.
Muller, sitting on the other end of the table, practically dropped his mug of coffee at the mention of the name, "but those were the some of the most dangerous troops under the Third Reich" he said in shock.
"Exactly; Walton held his own against the German elite because he was one of the British elite... he's S.A.S." Byrne revealed.
"That would explain a lot... his ability to organize, being able to fight on par with assassins, not exactly part of police training...even though this matters little to me" Blade noted.
"There's more... if we go back to London, it's going to be hard to lay low; he's got an informant network numbering in the hundreds. When we caught that one to get Walton's name, I'm afraid that was only a drop in a sea of information. He's got eyes and ears all over London, and into the surrounding cities and counties."
"He's not lying sir; I was dealing with some low level Ripper grunts the other day, trying to get information out of them. Know what they said?" Muller offered
"What?" Byrne asked.
"They said that at any given moment, only two men know what's going on in the London Underworld; Lord Bury, and "some Scotland Yard detective who's very persuasive" by their own account" Muller finished.
"And we know that's Walton. All right... so he's highly trained, heavily armed, got eyes and ears everywhere..." Blade began.
"And he's intelligent, and he's competent, and he's got skills we couldn't hope to compete directly against" Byrne finished.
"Which brings us to the important point- how do we get him out of the way?" Muller asked.
"I'll be honest... confronting him head-on, I don't think we can" Byrne admitted. There was awkward silence in the room for a while as they realized that even three on one, they wouldn't be able to confront him directly without sustaining some sort of loss. "However... there is one idea that may work. A long shot at best, but it could work if we plan it right" Byrne continued.
"Well, since I don't have anything better to do now... I'm listening" Blade said as he finally sat down at the table with Byrne and Muller.
Looking out from his safe-house somewhere in the English countryside, Blade was still trying to determine the situation before him. It had been a long time since his Headquarters was raided and his Syndicate effectively dismantled. It took him more than a year to build up his empire from more than his core group; had there been no interference he very well could rival the Ripper Underground in power by now. And yet, here he was... reduced to the lowest point of his run. With almost all of his closest associates dead or arrested, and everything at the mine seized, now there was just the contents of his safe-house, and the truck he fled in. And the manpower had been reduced to himself, Muller and Byrne. He trusted both of them, but weeks of doing almost nothing was starting to take its toll on the trio.
"Look, I can't believe I'm saying this, but we can't just stay here and do nothing- if we're ever going to get our place back..." Muller began
"Open your eyes Muller, we're not getting it back! It was hard enough building up the Syndicate without competition, do you have any idea how hard it will be now that there's competition not just from the One-Eyed Man, but from Bury, and Napoleon and Shadow" Byrne reminded him.
"Hmmm... I suppose you are right. Patience is the order of the day; we aren't going to get everything back overnight and we need to realize that" Muller informed them, now looking at the situation pragmatically.
"That damn Swede needs to pay; he caused all this! He shouldn't have interfered when we went for the emeralds" Blade stated.
"I agree that Gunnarson needs to be taught a lesson for his repeated interference with our work... but if we are to address this fly on the wall... we need to deal with the thorn in our side" Byrne explained.
"And that is?" Muller asked.
"a certain detective... the one who no doubt led the charge that put us in in our current predicament- Michael Walton" Byrne explained.
"I beg your pardon?" Muller asked.
"Walton... is of little interest to me- Gunnarson and Marlena are my primary concern right now. Even so, I must admit no ordinary detective could have held his own like that... and lead such an operation that took down the Syndicate in one day." Blade observed
"If we are going to get revenge on Gunnarson, we need to insure that Walton doesn't get in the way" Byrne rationalized. Then the first idea came to mind, "Well, I suppose we could hire..."
"We took down all the assassins in London, remember? And even if we sent one after him it wouldn't make a difference; he held his own against Elvira" Muller pointed out.
"Seems your problem will be figuring out how to deal with him" Blade noted.
"Hmm... we weren't close friends, but we weren't strangers either. All right, here's what I know: you know how our enemies were dealt with when we used "typical" methods?" Byrne began.
"Of course" Blade replied.
"Well, forget about using them on Walton. You saw the papers, right? After he took down the syndicate he brought down the Irish Mob too. The man knows how to fight; he's got a car with a trunk of military-grade weapons; but he only uses them when it is absolutely clear that confronting the threat without the, ahem, "hardware," is more dangerous than confronting said threat with it. And we're not talking some Black market crap that breaks at the worst time like most of our stuff... it's from top-of-the-line sources and he keeps them maintained" Byrne explained.
"Hmm... I guess I'll humor you for a minute. So he's great with weapons, I get that. Suppose we confront him without..." Blade began
"Confront him without a weapon and it's still an uphill fight. In the war he went up against the worst the Nazis had to offer and came out on top... including the Waffen-SS" Byrne explained.
Muller, sitting on the other end of the table, practically dropped his mug of coffee at the mention of the name, "but those were the some of the most dangerous troops under the Third Reich" he said in shock.
"Exactly; Walton held his own against the German elite because he was one of the British elite... he's S.A.S." Byrne revealed.
"That would explain a lot... his ability to organize, being able to fight on par with assassins, not exactly part of police training...even though this matters little to me" Blade noted.
"There's more... if we go back to London, it's going to be hard to lay low; he's got an informant network numbering in the hundreds. When we caught that one to get Walton's name, I'm afraid that was only a drop in a sea of information. He's got eyes and ears all over London, and into the surrounding cities and counties."
"He's not lying sir; I was dealing with some low level Ripper grunts the other day, trying to get information out of them. Know what they said?" Muller offered
"What?" Byrne asked.
"They said that at any given moment, only two men know what's going on in the London Underworld; Lord Bury, and "some Scotland Yard detective who's very persuasive" by their own account" Muller finished.
"And we know that's Walton. All right... so he's highly trained, heavily armed, got eyes and ears everywhere..." Blade began.
"And he's intelligent, and he's competent, and he's got skills we couldn't hope to compete directly against" Byrne finished.
"Which brings us to the important point- how do we get him out of the way?" Muller asked.
"I'll be honest... confronting him head-on, I don't think we can" Byrne admitted. There was awkward silence in the room for a while as they realized that even three on one, they wouldn't be able to confront him directly without sustaining some sort of loss. "However... there is one idea that may work. A long shot at best, but it could work if we plan it right" Byrne continued.
"Well, since I don't have anything better to do now... I'm listening" Blade said as he finally sat down at the table with Byrne and Muller.