[tshiggins]

(...continued)

At about 10:30 a.m., or 13 hours after the coerced telephone call and much longer than anybody expected, Arthur announced that the surveillance cameras he'd installed along out on Highway 285 had picked up 10 motorcycles ridden by bikers flying Angels of Purity colors. That put them only about five minutes away, and everybody scrambled to take their positions.

Beatrice raced to her sniper's nest on the roof. Aurelia, Randy and Doc Bascher set up inside the house, and Henrietta, Arthur and Frank took cover in the trees and underbrush on the side of the gravel driveway, opposite the house. Inside, Randy put a Pantera CD in the stereo, and cranked it up to "11" just as the bikers pulled up.

The bikers came to a stop and roared their engines before shutting down their bikes, and then reacted with confusion when nobody came out to greet them. The clear leader and one of his lieutenants began to walk toward the nearby kitchen door, as several club members at the back of the column headed for the front door.

Unnerved by the potential flanking maneuver, and the fact that the first couple of bikers didn't step on any toe-poppers, Beatrice pitched a pipe-bomb down the slope of the roof. Realizing that the plan hadn't survived contact with his allies, Frank detonated the napalm canisters hidden in the vehicles near the front of the column of motorcycles, and all hell broke loose.

A particularly effective vehicle explosion blew the door off one truck and into the spine of the lieutenant ("Clint") at the back door (solid success on the roll to set up that bomb, and a critical failure on the guy's Dodge...), half the bikers reacted with stunned amazement, several others (including the boss -- this wasn't his first rodeo) dove for cover. One of those at the front of the house landed on a toe-popper (which squibbed out) while a second one up front went prone on another toe-popper and lost a knee.

Meanwhile, Frank opened up with his confiscated M-16 (suppression fire), Arthur dropped one with his crossbow and started to reload while monitoring his cameras, Doc went on overwatch from the kitchen window, and Henrietta exercised her newfound faith in aiming. Beatrice chucked a couple more bombs that prevented Boss Bartholomew from reaching his bike (which Frank had perforated by then, anyway), but a second lieutenant ("Jonesy") reached his saddle-bags and came up with a Ingram Mac 10 chambered for .45 ACP just as Beatrice sent Grunt to take down the Angel Bart.

Jonesy took aim at the dog, but hesitated to shoot into close combat long enough for Randy to leap through the (already open) kitchen window and tackle him -- much to the annoyance of both Doc Bascher (she had a bead on the guy) and Frank (who did not want friendlies in the kill-box).

Several of the bikers wigged out and scampered, Jonesy tried to shoot Randy with the Ingram but missed (Randy had him grappled, by then) and the Boss tried to put a round in Grunt before Aurelia popped out, pointed an arrow at his face ("WTF?!") and told him to surrender. He complied, and the rest of the bikers followed suit -- much to Beatrice's annoyance (she still had a pipe-bomb left).

With that, the group zip-tied everybody who wasn't missing any parts and stashed them in the basement, added the body of Clint to the two already in the meth lab, and searched the bikes. They came up with the (now somewhat-battered) FN-FAL Boss Bartholomew tried to reach, the Ingram (which Frank advised they get rid of), added to their now-sizable collection of 9-mils, and discovered a sturdy, metal briefcase that Aurelia said had a lock tough enough that she'd need some time to get it open.

They hurriedly loaded Bartholomew, Brandon (the lieutenant already captured) and Jonesy into their own vehicles, along with all the loot; roofied everybody else from Doc Bascher's supply of dog tranquilizers; set fire to the meth lab and headed west, deeper into the mountains -- strobe-lights from emergency vehicles flashing in their rear-view mirrors from a mile back.

Aurelia rang up her ally, Wren, and asked her to check Google Earth for a place to hole up, and learned about an abandoned mine a few miles away (pretty common in the Colorado Front Range, actually, and since many feature piles of orange mill-tailings laced with traces of mercury and arsenic, most people keep their distance).

The group made their way to the mine and dragged the Angels into a dilapidated outbuilding. Aurelia got the briefcase open, and found two small Starbuck's coffee thermoses, a notebook and $50,000 in non-sequential 20s and 50s (brief celebration!).

A quick perusal of the notebook revealed a set of questions that closely resembled the sorts of things "Olivia" was expected to supply in her membership application to the Academy Club, as well as several devoted to any knowledge she might have about any "esoteric" books owned by her supposed great-grandfather, Oliver McShane.

This triggered a round of speculation that basically broke down into three main theories:

The Frank Theory: The bikers were hired by the Academy Club, which might not actually have Oliver's books and wanted them, desperately.

The Beatrice Corollary: The Academy Club might have hired the bikers, and might have the books, but perhaps they could only be opened by someone of McShane's blood.

The Aurelia-Arthur Theory (and the most popular): The Academy Club's old mysterious adversaries had hired the bikers and likely had a mole inside the establishment. They either wanted to know the contents of the books and anything else "Olivia" might know about them, in which case it might mean the Academy Club didn't have the books either (although the Beatrice Corollary may be in effect).

With that, A.J. pointed out that the group had just engaged in a lot of needless speculation. After all, they had Bartholomew in the room, and that meant they could just ask him.

At that point, we stopped for the night. The interrogation will lead off the next session.

-----------------------------------------------------

Funny Quotes

Frank: The reality is setting in. If we walk around like Boy Scouts, selling cookies and popcorn, we're just gonna wind up dead.

Henrietta: If they don't like the tranq gun, they get the real guns. Lets hope the tranq gun works.

Frank: Okay! I have a plan!
Aurelia: Does it involve killing people?
Frank: No! Well... no. Maybe?

Bennie Rae <listens to Mike discuss how to make toe-poppers and home-style napalm>: And how do you know so much about this?
Bernetta: The look on her face was awesome!

Henrietta: It's amazing what we go through for a purse.
Aurelia: It's not just a purse! I spent hours making up that fake paperwork!

Debbie: You make your best "Throwing" roll so far, and drop the pipe-bomb right in the lap of the guy we need to take alive.
Bernetta: I haven't detonated it, yet!

Beatrice: Wait! I have more pipe-bombs!
Aurelia (to Frank): What were you thinking?
Frank: I know, right?