Over the Edge: Session One, Part Four
Dakota and Iordain both draw knives and square off against gang members, while Frank runs past that fight to join Virgil at the other end of the warehouse. The thug that Virgil bashed over the head isn't quite out of it, so Frank seizes the controls of the motorized dolly and blocks his line of escape. Once he's completely penned in, Frank runs the dolly into him, crushing his leg against the wall.
Virgil has a major advantage of reach on both of his opponents, to say nothing of his years of combat experience against weird and alien threats... though it might have all been in his own mind at the time, hard to say. In any case, two punks with knives are definitely not enough to worry him. In a matter of moments, one is gravely injured, and Virgil's hand is wrapped around the other's throat. The man tries vainly to thrust his knife into Virgil's ribs, but he deflects the feeble attack and schedules the punk's next dirtnap. A knee in the rocks is more than sufficient.
Iordain and Dakota are having a little tougher of a time; Iordain's opponent has a reinforced leather jacket that turns aside several thrusts. Dakota is more accustomed to fighting...I dunno, reindeer or something, than people with knives. Still, he holds his own, scoring several hits against the knife-wielding gang member, until Virgil appears behind him and engages in a spontaneous sword re-gifting that really blows this guy's mind.
When the fight is over, one of the gang members is dead, one has a mangled leg and a hell of a concussion, another is permanently removed from the breeding pool, one is bleeding to death, and one has fled. Searching them, Frank finds a 9mm, a keyring that includes all of the useful keys for the warehouse, and a translucent red coin just like the one Virgil and Iordain found in the bookstore's back room.
The bound and hooded man is picked up to sit against a wall, but they don't immediately remove the bag over his head or his bindings, worried that he might compromise the security of their mission. Frank is accustomed to dealing with panicking people who have just been victims or near-victims of brutal crimes; with calming, measured tones he gets the man talking. He gives his name as Andy Stevens, and says that he is a dock worker. The gang members jumped him, put a bag over his head, and brought him here without telling him anything.
Virgil takes charge of questioning the gang members. He moves the beheaded corpse to sit a few feet in front of them and places the severed head in its lap. When the apparent leader of the group and one of the others finally come to, Virgil has no trouble getting across his sincere desire for clear, concise answers. Each man is doing his best to show that he is the more useful and cooperative of the pair. They explain that they are part of a group called, unsurprisingly, the Chain Gang, and their gang got hired by You Know, Some Guy to test the Crimson Chamber out on somebody. The leader of the Chain Gang is named Jean Augier. They were instructed to put the translucent coin under Andy's tongue before sealing him inside the Chamber. They even go so far as to give directions to the gang's basement hideout. This does at least earn them a reprieve from a summary execution.
With the immediate threat over, the agents decide that this would be a good time to avoid leaving evidence, particularly in the form of security camera videos. On the second floor of the warehouse, they find two small rooms; the keys they took off the gang member work here too. In the first, there is a security guard and a bay of screens clearly displaying the warehouse's main floor. The guard, however, has a half-full bottle of pills next to the keyboard in front of him, and he isn't even aware that the agents are in the room with him. Disgusted, they knock him to the ground and destroy a few hours of footage, just to be on the safe side.
In the second room, Frank finds the manager's office. In the extensive documentation, he quickly finds references to the device and United Exploratory, Unlimited, as well as less direct references to Ann Black. Working quickly, he photographs as many of these documents as he can for later study.
The Crimson Chamber itself is nine feet tall and about four and a half feet wide. It is made of modern-looking brushed steel, but its readouts are completely incomprehensible and unfamiliar. It's a little too large to go into the gang members' SUV without leaving the hatch open, so they start considering other means of accelerating their plan and securing the Crimson Chamber tonight.
TO BE CONTINUED...