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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Silver Moon" data-source="post: 3552629" data-attributes="member: 8530">Chapter One-sixty-seven, “Liberty Party Headquarters”, Thursday, June 15th, 4:30 P.M.Chester arrives at Dick Lester's funeral parlor. Lester is out front in the main room and says that Berg is in the back. Chester enters the rear room to find the Marshall there with Kevin Tomlinson. Berg looks up and says "You were right Chet, it wasn't Cole Rixton." Chester sees the man lying in the casket but doesn't recognize him. Tomlinson says, "It was Billy Clanton, a Tombstone hothead, cattle rustler, and brother of the guy we now have in jail. There are confirmed reports that Earp did indeed kill this man, but he must have already been a member of the undead at that point."Chester whistles. "That's good to hear. That means Cole is being controlled by them. Mother Jimenez said that there are two vampires in town and about thirty people under their control. Fisk and Ike Clanton are two of them. The others are mainly in Fisk's house and Liberty Party headquarters. We're about to bust into Fisk's house while he's at the jail. Someone needs to warn whoever's at the office about Fisk and Clanton. I got to get back."Berg exclaims "Chet, you can't go breaking into a Mayoral candidate's house or his party's headquarters three hours before the Mayoral Debate! The town knows nothing of these creatures, it would appear you are simply trying to soil his reputation at a critical time!" Tomlinson says, "Maybe we should wait. Harbrace is still up in Dos Cabezas and he still has one remaining arrow given to him by the Goddess." Chester states, "The longer we wait, the stronger their grip. At this point it's more important to stop them than for me to get that star."Jake watches Chester go one way, and the four others go another. He immediately starts to follow the four, concerned about the women and certain that the four of them must be headed to immediate danger where as Chester is probably on an errand. He stops, in mid stride and something tells him to follow Chet. Torn, he quickly gives in to his intuition. He follows him to Lester's place and positions himself to overhear the conversation. Fisk! He nearly spits the name out loud. Nothing would stop me from going into his house. He then nearly laughs out loud. Or the two of us.Jake walks around the front of Lester's place and enters. He strides right up to Berg and Chester. "Marshal. Deputy." He tips his hat. "I have heard from some friends we have a problem. Chet are you thinking of busting into Fisk's house to solve it?" From the look on his face Jake continues, "I thought so. Marshall what if we could disguise one of your Deputies," Jake nods his head towards Chester, "as someone else and break into Fisk's place to deal with this problem? You keep Fisk occupied and we do the dirty work. Rumors can be what they are, but none of them involve the deputy here. Even though it does not look like he is there, a fully deputized law officer of Promise City leads the action and I agree to follow his direction. You agree, however, to do what you can to keep me out of jail." Jake winks.Berg begins to speak and Jake cuts him off, "Yes, I know my methods rankle your ethics. You must agree, however, that a little unorthodox Jake help is better than the good people of Promise City being turned into food troughs for a bunch of the most foul creatures you could imagine." Berg replies, "Mr. Cook, I have to uphold the law. I cannot allow you or the Deputy here to go busting into the homes of citizens in this town or into the offices of political parties.Now, what I can do is have my lawmen continue to follow up on the investigation already begun my Deputy Martin an hour ago. Those men were resisting arrest and harboring a criminal, Mr. Brice Koontz here. Brice never went anywhere without his idiot brother Elmer, who is neither of these other two bodies. So Elmer is probably still around too, also with a false face. If you can find some reasonable evidence of where this Elmer is we can certainly investigate further, after all, he robbed Condon's Bank. But Chet, if that location turns out to be the headquarters of one of the other political parties you stay clear of it and get Helen or Neil to go there instead."Jake gets a dark look in his eye. "Mitchell Berg, though you and I may have not seen eye to eye on every matter, I have respected and trusted you. I have considered you a friend. I have behaved myself in your town under your watch. I have done what I can to keep you ought of trouble, and even perhaps from being shot full of holes. I have done what I have done of my own free will and you owe me nothing. Nothing!." Jake seems to be barely controlling himself. "These, these, things... have crawled out of the pits of Hades, the spawn of foul gods and you are afraid of breaking a few laws in Promise City!"Jake is nearly hysterical. "Fine. Have your cherished laws. May they do a fine job of ordering the nice people of Promise City in a queue for these fiends to feast upon at their pleasure. I thought you would care more about the actual people." Jake points at Berg. "Let this be upon your conscience. As Hermes is my witness I have done more than my share, only the gods know for what blasted reason." Jake turns on his heel and storms out of Dick Lester's place into the street. Chester looks on in shock as Jake storms off. "Marshall, are you sure about this? These creatures are past what the law can deal with. How can you keep one of them in jail? But, if you want evidence, I'm going to find it."Kate left with Jeff but didn't hurry since Chester was talking to the Marshall. "I hope this isn't all a mistake," she said, half to him and half to herself. Jeff and Kate reach the back door undetected. Jeff checks the door and confirms that it is presently locked. There is a glass window a foot above the knob which he says he could break and reach in to turn the knob from the inside, but the sound of the breaking glass might be heard.She comments, "The windows are probably locked as well." Kate was silent a moment, knowing there was a way she could get them inside. "Jeff, have you ever wondered why the others being me along on these dangerous missions?" He replies, "No Ma'am, you've proven yourself quite capable before and I know you to be trustworthy. If I didn't think you were up to it I wouldn't be with you now."She replies, "Then trust me when I say, if it's necessary, I can open this door without having to break any glass. I'd rather not, but the silence will be more important. You should know that I must be very careful here. I can't take all the risks I usually would, and the others may act protectively, more so than you'd expect."Minerva communicates with Luna. "What do you see?" She communicates that she sees nothing unusual. Minerva and Nakomo casually stroll to the front of the building, keeping their eyes open for any one who might be guarding the place. A man steps out from the Liberty Party Headquarters and eyes the two of them. Minerva recognizes him as Charlie Villers, the Liberty Party's candidate for Town Marshall.She states, "Good Day, Senor Villars. How are you?" He replies, "Just fine Priestess. I heard that you were involved with that altercation a few hours ago over at my friend Dan's hardware store." Minerva shrugs noncommittally. "He is a friend of yours?" Villars replies, "Dan is yeah. I heard that he got carted off to Jail for questioning, that the only ones who were killed were the Koontz brothers. Honestly Ma'am, I'm sure Dan was unaware of who those two really were since they had magical disguises on. I imagine Deadeye Douglas gave them those before heading off to Colorado, he was a wizard you know."Minerva answers, "No I did not know that. They are a part of Dead Eye Douglas's Gang? Perhaps it would help your friend if you went to the Marshal’s office now and spoke on his behalf." He answers, "Yes, that might help. I believe that Hamilton Fisk is over there now as well." He pokes his head inside to tell his friends where he is going and then heads off east down South Street. Minerva and Nakomo wait for Villars to walk away and around the bend. They then walk directly into the headquarters to see how many are inside and to get a layout of the room .Three men are seated in chairs on the ground floor of the room. Another is standing behind a bar with a well-stocked liquor cabinet beside it and looks as though he had been serving drinks to the others present. Minerva doesn't recognize any of them. In addition to the dozen or so chairs, two old couches, and a staircase upstairs there is one other item on this large 25 by thirty foot first floor room that stands out, namely a large stuffed grizzly bear standing upright, a full nine feet tall, on a pedestal near the back door of the room. She states, “Good day gentlemen. I was wondering if you had any literature for tonight’s debate.”Minerva recalls the animals that came to life in the taxidermy shop, and eyes the bear warily. "So about that literature..." The one behind the bar says, "Lady this isn’t a library or a church. Women only come to visit us here for one thing so unless that's what you want I'd suggest you get a move on." Nakomo lunges forward and Minerva blocks him. "Do not trouble yourself with these vermin Nakomo, they are not worth our time." She exits the shop and casually makes her way around to back, checking for other entrances and windows as she does.When she gets to the back she tells Kate and Jeff what they found out. "There is a huge bear in there as well. It would be difficult to kill. If it becomes necessary, I could paralyze it for a while.. There is also a staircase and four men guarding it."Kate says, "Perhaps we need to rethink this. I don't doubt we could take care of what's in this house, but we're going to use up resources doing it. In the headquarters there are four men and the bear and we would be weaker than we are now. Surveillance may be what we need right now. The monsters won't come out until dark and they will not need all their guards. Someone watching these places with a mirror will tell us which ones they are and we could track them down."Minerva exclaims, "The monster's don't require guards when they are awake, because they are so strong. I would rather take on 100 mortal men then one of them in the night, but you are right we are not strong enough alone. We should get Tomlinson and Jake and then figure out a way to distract or restrain the men while Chester and someone else goes upstairs and destroys the creature. Could you create a barrier on the stairs to prevent them from coming up? I could create a wall of wind on the stairs but that would certainly draw attention."Kate shook her head. "No, those things are beyond me. But we do need to find the others. I'm sorry. I pushed you all hard to come here now and could have gotten us all killed." Minerva ignores the comment and says, “How about a physical barrier blocking the upstairs from inside the up stairs room? I wonder if there is a way to get up there without using the door?" She says examining the roofline and any windows on the second floor. "Now would be a good time to spout wings or be able to crawl up walls. I am sorry, I do not seem to have any clever ideas."Kate replies, "We do know where Fisk is, and we suspect him of being influenced. If we freed him, he might be willing to let us into the house himself. I realize that's unlikely given how ornery he is, but it's not impossible." Minerva replies, "Ornery? Katherine you are being too kind. However I do agree that if we freed his mind he might let us into the house, but the others minds are still clouded and they will continue to protect the vampire even if he does not.""We don't really have time for me to wax eloquent about Mr. Fisk's better personality traits," Kate said dryly. "I was thinking more of the legal entry into the house and the party headquarters. I don't have a way to get in from the upstairs, and I'm not sure a barrier on the stairs would help. We'll have to get past the people downstairs to get up anyway. I think the best we could do is designate a couple people to get upstairs and the rest of us would have the job of keeping the guards down. I could make the stairs quite slippery once our friends were up."Nakomo, Katherine and Minerva are a short distance from the house they are watching when Deputy Martin arrives. He asks the young Indian, "Did you notice if any of the men inside are in disguise like at Madson's?" He describes Elmer Koontz based on his Wanted poster. "If we know he's in there or any other outlaw, then we can go in. Otherwise we'll be breaking the law." Minerva replies, "No, Senor Martin, the hombres inside made a point of being unfriendly and I did not stay. I can ask the goddess to share what knowledge she will with me. Stay here a moment."Minerva goes back to the doorway, but first positions herself outside and prays quickly to see the evil within. She then stands in the doorway and scans the room. "I dropped my hair pin," she says after gathering to her what the goddess will show her. She bends quickly and retrieves the non-existent pin from the floor and leaves them with a scathing look. She sensed some evil from most of the men present but no great quantities of evil as a vampire would radiate.Meanwhile, Jake gets a short distance away from the funeral parlor when Kevin Tomlinson catches up with him. "Hold on Jake, you're forgetting something, Berg isn't the law, that is, the final law, around here. The last word will be with Judge Isby and I have his ear. You know that I agree with you, this can't wait." Hands on his hips, Jake is breathing hard. "What are you suggesting? That we tell Isby what is going on? You already made it clear he should not know, for reasons I suspect but you have never confirmed. How do I know for sure his is not one of the old crone's little candles, again."Tomlinson replies, "Isby is not under their influence, he hasn't been since Colin Turner was destroyed by you guys over in Thomaswell. But he doesn't understand about supernatural creatures and now isn't necessarily the time to teach him. If he knew that he was under Colin Turner's undue influence, well, that would shake his self-confidence and he wouldn't be the decisive judge that we need him to be.But bank robbers are another matter, especially ones wanted for a major robbery here in this town. Berg is right about that dead Brice Koontz not straying far from his brother, that should give you enough leeway to do whatever you want. And weren't both you and Martin guards at that bank at that time, who both got wounded then? Seems like the notion of 'law of the west' would apply here too, in that you two are getting back at an injustice done to you. If worse comes to worse I could probably convince Isby to allow a jury trial instead of a directed verdict, at which point you'd probably get acquitted based upon that alone."Jake replies, "Well, then, I feel worlds better about risking getting shot to pieces or dined upon by fanged demons from Hades. I mean, who would not? I get to save the noble but ignorant citizens of Promise City and look forward to the joys of being on trial where I PROBABLY can get a jury who will PROBABLY acquit me. Shucks, Mr. Tomlinson, when you put it that way sign me right up!" Jake grits his teeth and kicks at some dirt. "Fine, let us be searching for Elmer Koontz. First we find the others and see what they know. That will give me time to think about doing this without poor Silver Jake Cook going to jail."When Minerva returns Jake and Kevin Tomlinson have joined the others. "Your pardon, Senor Martin," the priestess says, "but the goddess only reveals that they are evil, but less evil that those cursed vampires. I do not know if they wear disguises of magical nature." Jake says tersely to them all, "So, does anyone have any idea on how we locate Elmer Koontz?" He has that impatient look in his eye that often appears before he does something rash.Jake, Kate, Minerva, Chester, Nakomo and Kevin Tomlinson are huddled together near the back door of Fisk's house. They see Charlie Villars heading west again on South Street, returning to the Liberty Party Headquarters. They move further behind the building so that he will not see them. While doing that Jake catches the glimmer of the sun reflecting off of something metal along the hillside some 200 feet back, some 85 feet southwest and lower than the Lucky Deuce Mine situated on those hills. Looking closer he sees the barrel of a rifle around 185 feet away protruding from behind a boulder near the base of the hill and pointing in their general direction.Jake snaps his hand out and saucily grabs Minerva's buttocks, "Slap me -" He never finishes his sentence as her arm was already in motion and he fails to duck her hand in time as planned. He grabs her dress and fakes a fall, pulling her with him. He flails his arms and legs around and throws himself in the middle of their group attempting to knock down or scatter everyone. "Hit the ground, now!" He hisses desperately.</blockquote>

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