Day 48: Cafeteria (Breakfast)

[should_be_dead]

Luckily for Mele, the night had ended before Tenzen had changed his mind and deemed Mele appropriate for target practice. Even if the situation of who was mocking who had seemed to change into the Iga ninja's favor. Despite her behavior, perhaps the insolent woman could serve some sort of use nonetheless. He had been trapped in this place for a

Comments

[unheroed]

When Jones mentioned the radio clue (or lack thereof, really), Harvey couldn't help but feel vindicated. He'd noticed the way Lana had questioned him last night about not carrying one around, but now he knew that he'd made the right choice in refraining. Not taking it meant he could carry more important things (such as weapons) and also stopped him from being tempted to walk right into danger. Good thing that someone else had been able to test the theory for him.

The news of the church being even more destroyed wasn't good, though. While Harvey hadn't been married to Jones' idea of examining that area, it had seemed like a decent enough lead. All of that had to be compromised by now. Definitely a downer for Jones, but Harvey wasn't about to cry over it.

What really tripped him up, though, was the last thing that the other man had to say. A minotaur... "What, like in Greek mythology?" Harvey was no buff, but everyone knew a few things about the Classics. The minotaur and the labyrinth, right? No wonder the place had become a wreck. Harvey was slightly skeptical, not finding it easy to conjure up a mental image of the thing, but he knew that Jones was one person who wouldn't lie about or misinterpret what he'd seen.

[its_the_mileage]

"Yeah, except the Greeks never thought to give it armor plating." That was still a sore point with Indy: how were they supposed to beat the thing? The obvious answer was that they weren't. But they knew its weakness; if they could just get at those eyes-- The dog leash might not work, but Indy still thought ranged weapons were the way to go. If you had something more accurate--like a gun, say....

Hmm, Indy thought, gaze flickering thoughtfully at Dent before it went back to the stack of pancakes. But what would it take to convince him? Their interactions had been cordial enough, but Indy's impression was that Dent was fundamentally self-interested, not the kind of guy much given to putting himself in harm's way just to waste his limited ammunition on someone else's problem. Idly, Indy wondered where he kept the gun.

"That's obviously what they were going for, though," he continued after a few bites. "It was probably eight, nine feet tall; bipedal; bull's head and horns; hands, the works. Like someone had their copy of Ovid open while they were in the lab and just went to town with it." Indy frowned. "I just want to know how the hell they put it together."

It'd had undeniably human qualities, and he was pretty sure they hadn't come about the way they did in the myth. Between the minotaur and the Zombis--was that where all those missing patients were going, ending up as part of Landel's twisted folklore recreations? Then what was the point of the brainwashing?

[unheroed]

Armored plating. Even though Jones was clearly ticked about the whole thing, all Harvey could think was no surprise there. If he'd had to deal with this minotaur himself his reaction would have been the same (or worse) than Jones', but hearing it second-hand just made him roll his eyes. He regretted it soon afterward, though; it always felt strange when his bad eye moved around under the tight bandages.

As Jones went on with the description, Harvey tried to conjure up a mental image. It was a whole different story from trying to picture a suspect when the description came from the mouth of the victim, though. Still, the sheer height of the thing and the fact that it had horns put the danger Jones must have been in into perspective. Harvey was glad he hadn't been with him on his little adventure when that monster had decided to show up. He'd picked the right night to go.

The man's implied question wasn't one that Harvey could answer, though. How the hell could he explain how something like that existed? Or how a living-dead horse could make him hallucinate so vividly? Or how people could rise up from the earth and start attacking any living thing close-by?

"Beats me," he said gruffly. "I'm surprised you're even asking at this point. So how'd you manage to get through all that with your life?" From the sounds of it, the monster could have thrown Jones across the room with one swipe of its arm.

[its_the_mileage]

"The night ended," Indy admitted flatly. He still thought they would have handled it eventually, gun or no gun, and he would've preferred a good story to the inconclusive tale of failure he was telling now.

Still, at least he'd gotten the griping out of his system; Indy didn't think of himself as the sort of fellow who made a habit of sitting around whining when there was work to be done. Too bad the whole schedule here was set up to afford more time for complaining than action.

He shifted the topic. "What about you? Ever catch up with your friend?" Hell, maybe the friend could fight the minotaur, if he was as big on getting into scraps as he sounded. Even if he just got gored right off the bat, it might buy the rest of them a little time to think of something else to try.

[unheroed]

As far as Harvey was concerned, Jones was lucky. Heading off against something like that was going to get you killed, no questions asked. It wasn't like they had superpowers or anything. This idea of the Head Doctor's about making them fight things that were way beyond the norm was just ludicrous.

It looked like that was the end of Jones' recounting, though, since he moved on to the subject of Jason. Harvey hadn't seen the kid enter the room yet, though he hadn't been focusing that closely on the doors.

"I saw him yesterday," he said with a shrug. "We decided to part ways last night. He had something to take care of, so I just went ahead and looked around the second floor some more. Ran into a new arrival and took her along. Another lawyer, if you'll believe it." Harvey hoped that Jones didn't take that as a sign of his benevolence. It hadn't been about that, not really. If Lana had grated on him in any way, he would at least have relied on the coin when it came to whether or not he should take her with him.

[its_the_mileage]

Indy snorted. "Another one? What does Landel have against you people?" Maybe it'd been one law school rejection too many that had led him down the path of quack science.

By Indy's count, that made three lawyers, two inspectors of one type or another, two archaeologists (including himself; not including Richter and Marcus, whom Indy considered amateurs), one researcher, and a herd of adolescents claiming to be superheroes and bounty hunters and magical dragons. And whatever the hell it was Pilgrim did. The common denominator among the adults he'd asked seemed to be relatively prestigious professions or advanced training of some kind, but he didn't have much data to go on. Or even any way to tell who was lying through his teeth about what he did, for that matter.

As for the second floor, Indy had explored a good chunk of it, but there were still a number of rooms he hadn't looked into yet; the only useful features he knew of were the array of supplies and the mystical injury-swapping chapel (ha). Dent probably knew more about that floor than he did by now. "Find anything interesting up there?" he asked.

[unheroed]

"That's a good question," Harvey said with a shake of his head. "As she pointed out, it doesn't seem like the best move to start imprisoning people who are well-equipped to bring him to justice eventually." Still, he got the impression that Landel didn't need to worry about that. With everything else he'd pulled thus far, it was probably the least of his concerns.

It did make him wonder if Landel was making some sort of point, though. Maybe it was so that he could go on an ego trip, to show himself (or someone else) that he could make a risky move like that and still come out on top. As far as Harvey was concerned, that luck could only last for so long. Hadn't he had everything going for him at one point? And it'd all been burned away.

Jones' question about the second floor was an expected one, and Harvey (carefully) shrugged his shoulders. "Yeah. Found a morgue. There was a computer in one room, but it didn't work. And I picked up a syringe and a scalpel - from different rooms." He didn't mind telling Jones where to go to get those things, if he was interested. If the supplies were restocked, then why not? It was no skin off of his back, and even better if he could get helpful information in return.

[its_the_mileage]

"You'd have to get out first," Indy replied dryly. "And it doesn't sound like he's losing a lot of sleep over that possibility." The mild crack actually hid surprise; that was a lot more idealistic a view than he would've given Dent credit for, and he couldn't help adding with some interest, "So that's your plan when you get out of here? Bringing the law down on Landel's head?" Somehow Indy couldn't see this whole thing ending in the trial and conviction of the century, even if they escaped. Maybe he'd just met a lot of zealots over the years, but in his experience crazy enterprises like this usually ended up taking their authors with them when they finally blew up. He just hoped this one wouldn't take the rest of them with it too.

Most of Dent's revelations about the second floor were less impressive, considering Indy was pretty sure he'd been the one who'd told Dent that you could get scalpels, etc. in that lab area in the first place. Not to mention the morgue was labeled right on the second-floor map, at least his copy. "Found" wasn't the word Indy would have used.

The news about the computer was interesting, though. "Was the problem with the computer the same as last one you found? That you couldn't get past the password?" he asked. Someone here had to know something about hacking, but he wasn't sure he knew enough about the subject to be able to ask on the bulletin board without getting it getting torn down.

[unheroed]

When Jones went ahead and assumed that Harvey had taken on this whole retribution for Landel plan as his own idea, he could only scoff and shake his head. "I never said that. It was just something that she brought up, and it does make good sense. It also shows just how confident that bastard is," he grumbled. Harvey was honestly torn between thinking that the man would get his just desserts eventually and somehow knowing that it wouldn't necessarily turn out that way.

It looked like Harvey had already brought up the computer with Jones. He should have figured that if he'd told anyone about it, it would have been the archaeologist. No need to get into his shoddy memory, though. As if he could really keep track of every trivial conversation he had here.

"Yeah. I told someone else how to get there over the board. It sounded like they might actually have the skills to crack it, but I haven't heard back on them yet." Come to think of it, it would probably be a good idea to check up on that. If the stranger had managed to find out something interesting due to Harvey's information, then he was damn well going to hear about it.

[its_the_mileage]

"He's got reason to be," Indy pointed out. "Even if you could get him to trial, you'd be laughed out of the courtroom as soon as you started talking about Zombis and brainwashing and time travel. You'd need very concrete evidence, and even then...." Hmm. "Maybe what we need is fewer people running around with kitchen knives and more with cameras." Indy was still slightly bitter about those damn kitchen knives.

Actually, it wasn't a bad idea; not having any evidence of his finds was a chronic problem of Indy's, one he'd like to avoid here. He tried to remember whether any of the shops in Doyleton carried cameras and couldn't. Who knew if there was anything left to take there, though, especially if those fires had spread. Wouldn't tomorrow be the day of the big weekly field trip, assuming there was anything left standing?

He polished off the last forkful of the pancakes (syrup next time, Indy resolved) and glanced around. Looked like breakfast was almost over. "Good thinking," he said in response to Dent's recruitment effort. "Let's hope they managed to find something out."

[unheroed]

Jones had a good point. Harvey hadn't put much thought into trying to prosecute Landel because that had never been his plan, but it wasn't something that would be done easily. It didn't mean it was impossible, since there were other clear signs of misconduct here, but having a camera would certainly help things. And then he remembered. "I met someone here who has a camera," he said suddenly. "A Polaroid. If someone cared enough, they could probably ask him to borrow it." Or work with him, since he wasn't sure Leonard was going to let that thing out of his hands so easily. Not when he needed it to remember even the smallest things, anyway.

"I'll put up a note about it today," he said with a nod. He figured that Jones could keep an eye out for it himself and then get the information that way, if he was that interested. It was a less direct way of giving the guy a hand. It wasn't like he felt as if he owed the man anything, but they were falling into a sort of "I scratch your back, you scratch mine" relationship.

By that point the intercom had gone off and the nurses were pulling away from their posts at the walls to gather up patients, and so Harvey set down his shake and got up from his seat. "I'll see you around," he said with a curt nod.