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karohemdPreviously
We raced away from the area and caught up with Vargas' car who suggested visiting Prof. Bonaparte. While the others went to see the professor, Nicholas and I returned to Seymour's house to relax for a while. Nicholas had to clean up and I decided that there were too many people to see Bonaparte already. I read the papers which contained a story on "tourists who prevented a kidnapping”. Thankfully, our names weren't mentioned. There was a small obituary for Prof. Seymour but no news story on his death or even the break-in. Probably good as well.
The others came back and reported not having found Bonaparte but instead some armed goons who involved them in a firefight. Vargas found out from one of the goons that Bonaparte was "being held" at an abandoned farm north of the city.
The next day was a day of legwork. I took the map we had found at the dig site to the council offices to find out who the marked properties belonged to. There were ten marks on the map, six of which were actual and registered dig sites, while four spots were military property arranged in a square around Camp North of the Canadian National Guard outside Montreal. The dig sites were registered by joint requests of Professors Bonaparte and Seymour. After the first dig site had been opened and the two professors quarrelled over rights to finds, the university intervened and forced them to enter a joint venture.
The police was next on my list, to find out who the trucks that had turned up at the dig site belonged to: a haulage company called "Maple Express". Back at the council offices, I found out the registered owner of that company: outstanding citizen and celebrity Paul Thompson, local bigwig and philantrope. Anything involving logistics, transport including rail rights belonged to him, as well as considerable stretches of land. His grandfather had been one of the city's founders so he was from a well-respected family, untouchable.
Thomas found out that the farm buildings had been abandoned for 10 years but still belonged to a Lachelle family.
There was some discussion as to what to do next and we decided that Thompson was too big for us so we chose to investigate the farm in the evening to see if we could find out what happened to Bonaparte.
Doctor Vargas had organised a flat bed truck we took towards the farm in the evening. Before we could reach the farm, however, there was another police roadblock. The officer claimed there had been a "trapping accident" and that the farm was closed while an investigation was taking place and "professional hunters were taking care of the bear". There was no point in arguing so we drove back a bit and then around and across the fields towards the farm. When we were close enough, we got out and crept a bit closer on foot. The place didn't really look abandoned with all those lights illuminating the buildings. With my telescope I could make out four peole moving around, two of them guarding the doors of the barn. After a while, they opened the doors and I managed to take a peek inside. There was a fence inside and behind that fence ... were people, just standing there, unmoving. I could see about thirty but considering the size of the barn, there could be hundreds, if not thousands... That sight was quite enough so we decided to call it a day and returned to the truck.
What should we do? The police were clearly in it, so reporting what we had seen would most likely get us locked up. There was, however, a base of the National Guard nearby. It was highly unlikely they would be bribed so we were thinking of reporting our findings to them.
Dr Vargas returned his truck while the rest of us returned to Prof. Seymour's house. The news of the day was that oil had been found nearby.
Late at night, we were woken up by Thomas' scream of "Fire!". I grabbed my rifle and stepped into a smoke-filled corridor. I also heard the crackle of fire from downstairs, so I went back into my room to fetch a wet towel to wrap around my head. That's when I heard machine gun fire from outside.
Suddenly I felt awful, a gut-wrenching sensation, and passed out.
When I came to, all of us were sitting around the breakfast table at the hotel ... in Plattsburgh.
The newspaper on the table claimed it was Saturday, the 29th of May...
After a few cups of strong coffee Nicholas told us about the book from Bonaparte's office. He claimed it would become "unstable" when damaged so he stabbed it with his penknife when he realised we had been in grave danger. The book had sent us (who Nicholas claimed were "keyed" to the book) right back to where it had all begun.
To be continued
Edited and cleaned up a bit. Late night typing when it's still to hot to think isn't my strong point.
We raced away from the area and caught up with Vargas' car who suggested visiting Prof. Bonaparte. While the others went to see the professor, Nicholas and I returned to Seymour's house to relax for a while. Nicholas had to clean up and I decided that there were too many people to see Bonaparte already. I read the papers which contained a story on "tourists who prevented a kidnapping”. Thankfully, our names weren't mentioned. There was a small obituary for Prof. Seymour but no news story on his death or even the break-in. Probably good as well.
The others came back and reported not having found Bonaparte but instead some armed goons who involved them in a firefight. Vargas found out from one of the goons that Bonaparte was "being held" at an abandoned farm north of the city.
The next day was a day of legwork. I took the map we had found at the dig site to the council offices to find out who the marked properties belonged to. There were ten marks on the map, six of which were actual and registered dig sites, while four spots were military property arranged in a square around Camp North of the Canadian National Guard outside Montreal. The dig sites were registered by joint requests of Professors Bonaparte and Seymour. After the first dig site had been opened and the two professors quarrelled over rights to finds, the university intervened and forced them to enter a joint venture.
The police was next on my list, to find out who the trucks that had turned up at the dig site belonged to: a haulage company called "Maple Express". Back at the council offices, I found out the registered owner of that company: outstanding citizen and celebrity Paul Thompson, local bigwig and philantrope. Anything involving logistics, transport including rail rights belonged to him, as well as considerable stretches of land. His grandfather had been one of the city's founders so he was from a well-respected family, untouchable.
Thomas found out that the farm buildings had been abandoned for 10 years but still belonged to a Lachelle family.
There was some discussion as to what to do next and we decided that Thompson was too big for us so we chose to investigate the farm in the evening to see if we could find out what happened to Bonaparte.
Doctor Vargas had organised a flat bed truck we took towards the farm in the evening. Before we could reach the farm, however, there was another police roadblock. The officer claimed there had been a "trapping accident" and that the farm was closed while an investigation was taking place and "professional hunters were taking care of the bear". There was no point in arguing so we drove back a bit and then around and across the fields towards the farm. When we were close enough, we got out and crept a bit closer on foot. The place didn't really look abandoned with all those lights illuminating the buildings. With my telescope I could make out four peole moving around, two of them guarding the doors of the barn. After a while, they opened the doors and I managed to take a peek inside. There was a fence inside and behind that fence ... were people, just standing there, unmoving. I could see about thirty but considering the size of the barn, there could be hundreds, if not thousands... That sight was quite enough so we decided to call it a day and returned to the truck.
What should we do? The police were clearly in it, so reporting what we had seen would most likely get us locked up. There was, however, a base of the National Guard nearby. It was highly unlikely they would be bribed so we were thinking of reporting our findings to them.
Dr Vargas returned his truck while the rest of us returned to Prof. Seymour's house. The news of the day was that oil had been found nearby.
Late at night, we were woken up by Thomas' scream of "Fire!". I grabbed my rifle and stepped into a smoke-filled corridor. I also heard the crackle of fire from downstairs, so I went back into my room to fetch a wet towel to wrap around my head. That's when I heard machine gun fire from outside.
Suddenly I felt awful, a gut-wrenching sensation, and passed out.
When I came to, all of us were sitting around the breakfast table at the hotel ... in Plattsburgh.
The newspaper on the table claimed it was Saturday, the 29th of May...
After a few cups of strong coffee Nicholas told us about the book from Bonaparte's office. He claimed it would become "unstable" when damaged so he stabbed it with his penknife when he realised we had been in grave danger. The book had sent us (who Nicholas claimed were "keyed" to the book) right back to where it had all begun.
To be continued
Edited and cleaned up a bit. Late night typing when it's still to hot to think isn't my strong point.
