Confidants: Information and planning

[Albert Baker]

The address given turned out to be in Land Park and further looking lead to a detached plain gablefront house in yellow brick, red roof tiles and the windows and doors as well as the fence and porch painted in white. Passing through the fence and over the white cobblestones leading through the small lawn some steps could be taken on the porch and upon ringing the door bell the door would open.

Inside the path lead through a small room with an iron wardrobe and wallpaper with white roses on blue to the living room where an oval wooden table stood and two places at it being prepared with notebooks and various writing implements. On the wall were the same 70s-wallpaper and some photographs, framed, under glass and black and white. Finally the door to another room opened and the host appeared, sitting down and gesturing for the guest to do the same.

"Good evening and wellcome, Mrs. Kingsley."

[Helen Kingsley]

Helen turns up at the predetermined time and date. And place, of course. She rings the doorbell and gets inside, hanging her jacket onto the iron wardrobe and continuing on with her bag over her shoulder. The wallpaper elicits a little chuckle, she remembers the kind of pattern only too well. It sort of fits, though. Still, she only gives the pictures a little attention as she looks for the host of tonight.

"Evening, Dr. Baker."

Helen takes a seat and starts to empty the contents of her bag onto the table. A notepad, a cheap circle, pencils, triangle rulers, pens in different colours, a bunch of folded maps, a small folder with some stack of papers in it. a box of thumbtacks, a roll of adhesive tape, a roll of duct tape. She wquickly sorts all the stuff into a few neat towers, piles and stacks.

"Ssssso... How's your date been going ?"

[Albert Baker]

Al sighed and frowned upon thinking back as the talk had not been quite as productive as he had hoped and it probably left the issue that one of those present had to talk to Mrs. McIntyre, which might not be fun at all...

"It was not as enlightening as I had hoped... I know the domain Camp will start the journey from and not much else... The rest is idle speculation and nothing worthy of note as the few snippetts I have received not only aren't helpful on their own but raise more questions without answering any... The only clue is the location of Islamorada, which is at the most southern point of Florida."

With a sigh he went to a cupboard nearby and opened it, then began absent-mindedly looking through some records before putting one on the record player. After turning it on and unleashing the soothing sounds of Vivaldis Four Seasons he sat down again.

"How was your respective appointment going?"

[Helen Kingsley]

"Islamorada sounds about right, yeah."

Atr least that's what the ghoul had given away and it's not the worst track to follow.

"Lets see... what are we sure we know ?" She opens her notepad and shuffles through a few pages, skimming the contents. "Nikko Camp's a prospective embrace all legal and stuff. Prince's on board and all that. Camp was minced by three fellows and left the place in an ambulance. Your buddy Tressilian and his kid saw the whole thing and are now assumed to be either murderers or at least wannabe murderers by this McIntyre. Nobody knows who those three guys who attacked Camp are.

Camp disappears and can't be found for two days. Prospective Sire gets nervous, loans some ghoul from a friend and sends her to deliver that message. Lil' Tressilian and McIntyre arrive at some point before or around that as well. Jake, Clarke and Sanchez are hired to look after the kid, by Tressilian I guess, someone burns down some haven of theirs. Ghoul arrives at Nox, worst case its now Attack plus three days, and delivers the message. We meet the coterie and take over. Next night, I talk to the ghoul again and you visit the kid."

She puts the notepad aside and opens a pretty big road map that she spreads over the table.

"So yeah, worst case, Camp has five days headstart, although its likely less. Dunno if there are other friendlies involved, but if an ambulance was involved and rumors talk of murder ? Even if Camp's a ghoul, the kid's probably not feeling too great right now. What do you think ?"

Due to timey-wimey, the numbers might be off, so if there's any obvious thing interfering with the way Helen determins the time, let me know ! The current narrative assumes the plot threads hapopen on same or concurrent days that might not be the days they were started or entered continuity.

[Albert Baker]

Al nodded with a hint of frustration, for what they knew wasn't much indeed... It might even be that all this is a plot to force exactly this kind of situation and somewhere the Harpies were smiling and gleefully rubbing their hands... All in all not looking quite good, but also not hopeless... not yet.

"That is indeed what we know... It isn't much but that doesn't bother me much. What does bother me are the things we don't know... We don't know who burned the haven down and why they did it..."

He nodded then thought for a moment about the question before answering.

"Indeed. If I were Camp I'd have done everything in my power and calling in any favour to get out of hospital and into some... less professional care. I dare say it'd take a while to travel as there must be quite a bit of healing taking place before that can be done safely. So that'd mean either hide somewhere for some time until being able to travel or have an attendant and do that 'on the road' so to say..."

He thought for a while while looking at the map before then focusing on Heklen and continuing finishing with THE question of the day..

"I'll try getting descriptions of the assailants. The question is which of us is going to speak to Mrs. McIntyre?"

[Helen Kingsley]

Helen flips open an exercise book with what looks like notes and tables in it.

"Anyway... Let's play Camp for a bit. You've been badly mangled and at this point, you probably decide to trust nobody for a few days and go to ground. Remember Camp had been off the radar for two days before that letter was sent. Knowing it was probably people who got an issue with your prospective sugar daddy-" she chuckles, she should call Tiff that more often from now on "- who's been keeping tabs on you for some time now, it's not too hard to think they might be watching your friends and family, provided they know you're still alive. So an attendant would be either someone you don't really give a fuck about or someone not high up on the list... Still, it's about-" She leafs through the notebook "3100 miles from Florida to Sacramento, give or take. Public transport's too risky." she goes through a bunch of paper with markings and highlightings in several different colours "Because you might leave a papertrail and if one single wrong person sees you leave ? They'll be waiting for you in Orlando or Atlanta. You go by plane, they can try to bottleneck you in Dallas. And what stops folks from calling in a favour and send some folks to some extended holiday in LA, just to be sure ? I mean, you could try to somehow get to the Bahamas or Mexico, but we're talking someone who the Men in Black are after.

You want to stay off the radar and not where Invictus folks with their connections can find you. Car would be ideal, but we don't know how long it'll be until you can drive again. If you drive strraight through in one haul, 3100 miles would be about two days. But you gotta sleep, eat, and hide when the bad guys come out. So let's say 10 hours tops." Still one hell of a ride. Helen's longest was nine hours in one go and that was one hell of a ride she would like to never have to repeat. "Plus some chickenshit to throw folks off and that sort of thing... About a week, more if you really go nuts with it."

She shoves the notebooks back to some place under the map.

"I mean, lets just focus on streets, how can you get to Sacramento in the first place ?" Asked about McIntyre, she frowns, but says nothing.

[Albert Baker]

Al nodded, as he deemed her assessment good and sound. For the most part he listened and didn't say anything as there was not much to say.

"That sounds about right. The question is whether the big highways are taken or that route is being substituted by smaller roads..."

Raising an eyebrow at the fact his guest apparently doesn't wish to answer the question about the necessary talk he got up, changed the record and then while Beethovens Sixth filled the room he looked at the map thinking.

[Helen Kingsley]

"Depends. I mean, we're talking coast to coast and there's toll stations on the way. Sacramento has nine feeder lines, but thats assuming you aim for the city center. Elk Grove, Folsom or Citrus Heights is pretty far outside. You get off the big Highways early enough or try the green border, you might make it undetected. Is a gamble, though, if you don't know anyone in town and risk running into someone who plays your friend but ain't."

Hm. Interesting choice of background music. Funny how the old people always go for the classic stuff...

"The question is, what happens if we talk to McIntyre ? Think she'll be open to friends of a friend of her suspect or she'll try to get an opening to trail whoever talks to her to find the kid ? Me, I don't really want her to be able to do that. So that other thing to consider is should we relocate Baby Tressilian to make talking to McIntyre safer or would that call attention to ourselves, in case the trail got lost before ?"

[Albert Baker]

"Indeed. It would be a quite high risk, especially without knowledge of who to trust. The question here is how desperate the situation is... I think we can't gauge that on our own and it might be time for some inquiries..."

Scratching his head after thinking on the question for a while he briefly fixed his glance on one of the photographs before replying.

"That exceeds my knowledge, though I tend to the latter. Ruby thinks Mrs. McIntyre doesn't know who were are, so in her theory it would be... safe on some level, if we spoke with her... Yet I do think a relocation would be better, though the question is where. The farm is too public and the temple isn't meant to be inhabited permanently..."

[Helen Kingsley]

"Inquiries like what ?" She ponders a little about that. "I'll spread Camp's description around a bit, maybe someone will spot them." Still, maybe they got lucky and got a better description before time runs out ? They'll see about that. "Depends, though. If anyone involved is observed, relocating will lead folks straight to her. We should probably keep that as a last resort." Still, it won't hurt to go prepare contingiencies. She's already got an idea... "I'll go see if there's anything possibly safe, even if transporting will be a bitch. Ruby's your friend, I think you're best off talking to McIntyre. Not my social circle and all that. We could also both go, but that'd put both of us on the map."