4 Factions Trying To Plan (Part 2)

JP with Redsword, Jaxx, Trustno1, mdman, Lorem, Your Name Here

Does anyone have any theories on what's going on at that theater?" asked Sartre.

Agent Powers replied to the team, "Its a place called Smoke By Crunch. I order a lot of meat and veggie dishes as well as some kosher. If we have any left overs I put them away or we can use the mini fridge in our rooms. So help yourselves."

Ekaterina sat next to Agent Powers as she sampled the food and shrugged. It was not on the level as her private chef back home but it was good. She did like kosher foods since she ate with Dahlia on their missions. Agent Powers piled a lot of meat and veggies on his plate and ate it without making much expression on the flavor. He was just glad it was better than raw bugs.

"I have uncovered some info. Is everyone ready to start the meeting?" Alyssa started.

Agent Powers gave Alyssa a big thumbs up as his mouth was full. Ekaterina replied, "Of course." Then she nibbled on her lamb.

“Sure!” said Choi. “I also have a posible lead to follow-up on with Marina.”

Dahlia indignantly added. “I will join you!”

"Yes," said Sartre.

"Choi and I also have found a new lead to follow, yes, I am in favor of starting our meeting now." She said, having eaten a relatively normal sized sandwich while the rest talked amongst themselves. "We can assign leads once we all know what we face.”

"OK, then," Alyssa started. "First of all, I have to say the lack of information on the theater and the group renovating it is weird. The woman who went missing, isn't missing but at Methodist Hospital - Sarah Simmons.

Sarah was working at the theater for its restoration. She was working with Hope's Promise - a non-profit organization which restores historic sites in economically disadvantaged areas. There is nothing suspicious about the non-profit.

The theater was last used in the 1950s. As most of you probably know the surrounding area of Gary Indiana is an extremely high crime area with an extremely low population. Drug use in the area has skyrocketed since the pandemic and there have been multiple fatalities recently from Opioids.

Nothing surprising, except one such group of fatalities, that were ruled an accidental drug overdose, were the suspected triple overdose of three young men in their twenties in an abandoned house. However, it looked as if they had been drained of blood. Their toxicology reports listed high levels of opioids.

The woman in charge of the project is Victoria Rodgers. She seems like she's been with this non-profit for many years but not anything unusual about her.

The other thing is there's a lack of haunting or supernatural reports for an area the size of Gary. I honestly expected to find a few, there's barely any. That's all I currently have." Alyssa finished talking and took a sip of her Coke.

Sartre said, "Anyone else have anything to note?" When should we head to the theater?”

Agent Powers shook his head no since Alyssa was the one getting info on the case. Ekaterina looked at Dahlia as they had less info on the case and then asked, "Do we know why Sarah is in the hospital yet?”

"Who could have fired a shot?" asked Sartre?

"Anyone, we're in a crime ridden area. It could have been a stray bullet for all we know." The hacker gave her ideas. "If we investigate tonight, then I suggest we go as a group. Except, maybe the trio, " Pointing to Choi and the two women next to him. "Over there. They can go meet with that guy...whoever it is.”

"Should we go tonight or should we wait until morning?" Sartre asked the pallid hacker.

"I'm good either way." Alyssa responded.

In the chip Peter spoke to Alyssa: "I was hoping to get to see how you were doing before we go hunting ghosts.”

"What does everyone else think?" asked Sartre to the room. "We might need flashlights if we go in tonight.”

Alyssa nodded, which was really for Satre, into the chip she said, "Alright."

To the room the hacker said, "Going in the morning would probably draw less possible attraction from any criminals that might be lurking around.”

"In the chip: Where can we go to discuss how you've been sleeping?”

Alyssa responded into the chip. "My room." The other stuff they could discuss there.

"Should we vote on, tonight or tomorrow for visiting the theater?” Sartre spoke out loud.

“Can you really function only on junk food Alyssa?” Sartre said into the chip.

Agent Powers swallowed his food and gave Alyssa a smolder before he replied, "I'm fine either way."

Ekaterina looked at Powers then Alyssa then at Dahlia and then replied elegantly, "That works as well. We should also look into the local criminals to see what they were up to when Sarah was hurt. If you don't mind, I can send some extra eyes to check them out." Ekaterina was referring to her rodent and bug allies she manipulated of course.

Alyssa nodded at Dahlia, she knew about the team, everyone on the team including Dahlia’s helpers. "That would be very helpful."

Into the chip, she said to Peter, "We should discuss that later."

Back to the room, the hacker asked, "Does anyone have anything to add?”

"That guy you met at the coffee shop. The one who told you to meet him at the bar. What was he like?” Sartre asked Choi and Marina.

Choi explained that he appeared to be a military type, cropped hat and all. He wasn’t ready to talk in the coffee shop. Maybe he needed alcohol to loosen up. “We are supposed to meet him at a place called the Wallpaper Bar at 7:00 tomorrow night.”

Marina crossed her arms and nodded. "Yes, it's probably best to go during the day, the creatures of the night tend to be weaker, sleeping or otherwise busy during the day, catching them unawares is probably smart. Then again, they might not even be there during the day." She shrugged. "If so, we can go tomorrow night."

At the suggestion that Choi, Dahlia and her go talk to the man, she raised an eyebrow. "I'm not sure it might be the best idea for me to accompany them.”

Those comments brought a grin to Dahlia’s lips. Her plan was working. It would be just her and Choi.

Yeong raised a brow and turned to Marina. “Wait a minute. You were there when I approached the guy. What if he expects you to be there?”

Eun-Ji raised her hand and waited to be acknowledge by Alyssa, the one that appeared to be running the meeting. It was disrespectful in her opinion to just blurt out whatever one wanted to say. “I vote daytime.”

It was correct that the daytime was better against, not all, but many types of creatures in favor of the dark. In addition, daytime would remove the obstacles to vision considerably and require less gear. One more point, other people which they may need to be in contact with will also be awake. She didn’t say all this, she just made it clear what she thought was the better option. In truth, she was probably going to do that anyway, even if they all voted for the night.

In between listening to pertinent information, Eun-Ji also recognized that there were several flirtations circulating around the room. The way some individuals looked at each other, as well as their overall vibe towards particular others was clear as reading words on parchment. She couldn’t help but feel this group lacked professionalism.

Alyssa figured she should rein this in, after all who needed a ten minute conversation between the trio and who would go with Choi or not. She acknowledged Enu-Ji, thankful for the interruption of the bar talk. "Alright, then we'll go after breakfast in the morning. We can all meet outside the theater, at lets say 9 AM. " She turned to Choi, Marina and Dahlia. "You three just decide among yourselves who's going tomorrow night. Now, was there anything else?”

Eun-ji raised her hand again and once acknowledged produced a flash drive and handed it over to Alyssa, since she was sitting close enough. “I would like to contribute this information to what we already have. It is photogrammetry of the exterior of the theater and archived documents of the interior. I have used them to construct a three dimensional digital model. In addition, there are as many news articles as I could gather on the site and the venues held there since its construction.”

Alyssa was a little surprised at how cooperative Eun-Ji was being. She took the flash drive. "Thank you, this should come in handy. I'll look it over tonight.”

Choi smiled with pride at his partner. “Thank you for sharing this information, Eun-Ji. I knew you were working on something pertinent.”

Eun-Ji bowed slightly to Alyssa.

She was concerned with why Choi was giving her that look that they had some sort of affiliation, partners perhaps. Other than being Dragons they had no solidarity in her opinion. In fact, she was never informed that he was to be working with her on the last mission. It was him that informed her that his master instructed him to make sure she succeeded. She did not view his unsubstantiated claim as valid. Though she doubted he would be of much interference this time around, it appeared he would easily be misdirected into the wanton affections of their new guests; Templars and a Council of Venice. The entire melting pot situation made her sick. Regardless of her personal feelings on the matter, work was work.

Alyssa didn't know what to think of the flirting that was so obvious. She really didn't want to think much about it at all, except, things like that could affect the working dynamic of a group and not always in a good way. The hacker however didn't feel it was in her business to say anything, at this particular moment. Certainly, herself could never be that blatent. "Anything else?" She asked, feeling the meeting was starting to run long.

"When I drove in, I saw the bar that you talked about. It's called The Yellow Wallpaper.” Sartre said. "Other than that, I say 9:00 am is good, we may also be able to catch up with Victoria Rogers." He finished his chips.

In the chip, Peter said: "You sure can facilitate a meeting Alyssa.”

Eun-Ji looked about the room, hoping that was the end. She was looking forward to the drive back to Chicago and some rest after a long day of field work.

“I will assist in the morning,” Choi confirmed. “Then, whoever is working with me at the Yellow Wallpaper will take an early dinner and head to the bar. I have enough seats for three passengers.”

Despite some light flirting earlier, Marina had no deeper interest in Choi than friendly cooperation. The same applied to most everyone else in the group. This was an assignment, not a dating pool. Dahlia seemed to think she was a romantic rival, though.

"I doubt he'll care about who goes with you, Choi. You shouldn't have any issues." She said, then looked at Alyssa and the rest of the group. "Have we talked with this Victoria Rodgers in person yet? If not, we probably should. As well as seeing Sarah Simmons at the hospital and check her intake records. We shouldn't discard witness testimonies, they can be unreliable, but they can also hold clues to what we're looking for.”

"No, we haven't. We should do that tomorrow as it's past visiting hours at the hospital and a Victoria will likely be at the theater." Alyssa replied, plus it was late to make a visit to someone with a bunch of questions.

“Good idea, Marina,” Choi added. “One group could go to the hospital at the same time another goes to the theater.”

Marina nodded. "I can go to the hospital with someone else, maybe Sartre or Eun-Ji, so I can get to know them a little better. The rest can go to the theater and see if there's anything weird, as well as try to see what Victoria knows. Then that night, Choi can meet with his mystery man, and if necessary, we can check the theater again. In case the creatures of the night decided not to show during sunlight hours. Sounds good for everyone?”

"That works for me," Alyssa agreed.

“Sounds good,” Choi affirmed, not fully understanding why Marina had moved herself away from the Yellow Wallpaper investigation. She did say that the Council wanted her to get all aspects of the team working together. Well, he’s work with whomever.

“I agree,” said Dahlia. “This is going to work great!”

Agent Powers listened to the others talk while eating a lot of food. Since he ordered enough for twenty people he planned to eat his fill. Since he was not picky with food he focused on what the others didn't want to eat. He listened and understood they were going to investigate several places in the morning after breakfast. However he didn't know what Alyssa wanted him to do yet since he was only good at getting food and combat. Oddly enough he was oblivious to Ekaterina nibbling on her meal and listening to the conversations while glancing at him. She was already planning to use her minions to do deeper investigations but was not sure where she was going yet. She then raised a finger elegantly as she asked, "Will we be breaking into several smaller groups for the other places?”

Alyssa seemed confused by that question, "I'm not sure what other places you are referring to. So far we only have the theater, and a few people to go to the hospital.”

Ekaterina then elegantly replied, "Well if we find more suspects during our investigation at the theater like the possible shooter or eye witnesses we may need to break into smaller groups for that." Ekaterina was already planning to use her minions to do the search for her at the theater.

"There is also the guy at the bar.” Sartre added.

“Kat?” Dahlia suggested, “Why don’t you and Mr. Powers come to the bar with Choi and me?”

Choi arose from his seat. He was frustrated that nothing was finalized as to who was going with him to the bar. He headed for the door.

“Look,” he muttered, “I don’t care who goes with me, as long as I don’t go alone. I don’t fully trust this guy. He may have others in hiding on his own turf. So, I want to be prepared.”

He opened the door, truly intent on leaving. “Just let me know who it is. I will meet everyone at breakfast before heading to the theater. Are we doing it here?”

"Let us for, right now, focus on the theater , speaking Victoria and speaking with Sarah during the day, as we don't know who or what we'll find. We can decide on other people we might want to talk with or places to investigate once we know more." Alyssa said, "As for the guy at the bar, that's not until tomorrow night and it seems like Choi and whoever goes with him has that covered." It seemed to be jumping the gun to decide to check out people or places that they had no idea about, yet. "So, tomorrow morning the majority of us meet at the theater. Marina and one person goes with her. Tomorrow evening Choi and whoever goes with him to the bar. We can decide the rest when we know more.”

"Breakfast here, yeah sure." Alyssa said. As Choi got up to leave. Why was it so difficult to just coordinate this group or hard for people to not go beyond what was said. Alyssa wasn't going to assign people to do things but there also shouldn't be a twenty minute discussion about it, people should just say if they're going or not. Not as bad maybe as herding cats but it could get close sometimes.

Alyssa stood up, and started packing up her laptop. "Figure it out at breakfast. I still have things to do. You all could just say you're going to the bar or not. That would be easiest. I'll see everyone in the morning." What could she say? It was now just getting aggravating.

Into the chip, she said to Peter, "Feel free to come up to my room when you're ready."

She cleaned up her plate and can and headed out.

Choi slammed the door shut and headed to his room. He was tired after a long drive and the frustration of the three teams and a moderator, who didn’t seem to moderate tonight (maybe she was just observing, feeling everyone out), not coming up with an fluid and solid plan. A nice hot shower and the bed would do him well.

Dahlia smiled at the others. She knew what she would be doing. Inwardly, Dahlia thought she had somehow pissed Choi Choi off. She’d be sure to go to his room and apologize.

Agent Powers remained quiet as he kept eating. He planned to stay and clean up after the meeting was over. Ekaterina looked at Dahlia and smirked as she saw Choi got rattled. She wondered if she and Dahlia needed a strategy meeting later on.

Dahlia sent a quick text to Kat to go to Dahlia’s room for a few minutes. They could discuss progress, and future plans. She then got up, excused herself, and went to her room.

Ekaterina finished eating and wiped her mouth ever so elegantly. Then she picked up her phone to see the text she got. She smirked and looked at Agent Powers as she said, "Thank you Mr. Powers for the meal. I look forward to working with you in the future."

Agent Powers gave Ekaterina a smolder and then replied, "Yeah sure anytime." Then she cleaned up her plate and headed to her room and texted Dahlia that she was taking a shower and to come over anytime.