Early on this chilly Monday morning, Ron goes to the North End to get the lowdown on Mikey Angelo. His plan is to confront Mikey and probably murder him. He gets a lot of information, but also attracts the attention of people who work for the syndicate in Boston. After hearing about the complexities of the situation from them, Ron has new theories about what’s going on and begins to rethink his plans. He returns to the safe house with some Boston Cream Pie.
Johnny spends the early morning hours tailing Bryan Slim. He finds Bryan in the abandoned lot near to the LTF, for a second time, and overhears him talking to himself. Only, this time, he realizes that the other person Slim is talking to is Carl Stanford. He witnesses “Stanford” try to strangle Bryan Slim with his own arm/hand before retreating to the safe house.
Vivian, meanwhile, has studied the painting that shows the group being tortured by Slim and Lostalus Black, and finds several other minor details that are cause for concern. There is some discussion about the future events that Stephen paints, and whether or not they can be change, or if they are fated.
Shortly after everyone wakes up and returns to the safe house, the caretaker stops by. Ron follows the caretaker into the basement to have a conversation with him. This swiftly degenerates into Ron insulting the caretaker and the caretaker making veiled reverences to Ron’s cannoli. Ron, in a fit of rage, pins the caretaker up against the wall and is about to go screaming berserk on his face when Vivian, who has been listening from upstairs, comes into the basement and basically orders him to stop.
Ron, wanting to have the last word, returns Mikey’s pocketknife to the caretaker. The caretaker is visibly upset and concerned by this, and profusely apologizes for Mikey’s behavior. “He ain’t right in the head.” The caretaker leaves, promising to talk to Mikey about this breach of Mafia etiquette. He is stopped, briefly, by Johnny, who asks him to procure some more “heaters” for the safe house.
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| The "Safe House" From the Front |
Look to the Future
The group decides to descend on Look to the Future for the
Monday morning motivational seminar. The crowd is smaller, but Bryan Slim and
his Turkish guards are here in full force. The speaker, Mr. Carruthers, is only
motivational if one were a narcoleptic, but that is not why the group are here
anyway. They have part of a plan to distract the crowd, and Slim, so that Dr.
Black can test his YOLE key on the security door located on stage.
Judge Putnam attempts to ask one of the Turks the location of the nearest bathroom. As there are no restrooms on the map, he is directed to a public toilet located outside on the harbor. The judge leaves, quietly disgusted.
Bryan Slim catches sight of Ron and is visibly shaken by his presence. After some glad-handing and showing off other future artifacts (including a snap bracelet), he ventures out to the back of the hall, where Ron and Viv are standing. Ron says something that completely punctures the thin veneer of civility, which sends Slim into an apoplectic rage. Seemingly overcome, he has one of his guards escort him out.
Judge Putnam returns from the bathroom just in time to see Slim and the guard leaving. He follows them both through the vacant lot. Though they mostly talk in Turkish, Slim and the guard pepper their speech with enough English words so that the Judge can follow their conversation. At one point, the guard asks Slim if they should contact, “him,” to see what they should do, and also suggests that Slim should return to the hall to continue the plan and accumulate finances for the group. Slim (actually Stanford), enraged, says that he is the final authority and he will do what he personally thinks is right. When the guard protests this, Slim melts his face off and kills him before fleeing across the lot to a house on a nearby street.
The judge searches the body, finding a pistol, an unusual magazine of large bullets, a knife, and a silver amulet with the seal of the Silver Twilight Lodge stamped upon it. Concerned at what all of this means, he goes back to the hall to report the findings to his companions.
A Family Matter
With Slim’s exit, the group decides that it is now or never,
and put their distraction into action. This involves Vivian and Ron starting to
argue in Italian, quietly first, then increasing in volume until they attract
the attention of everyone in the hall.
The three Turkish guards still in the hall remain at their posts, at least at first. This changes abruptly when a well-intentioned, portly banker attempts to intercede on Vivian’s behalf. Ron decks him in the mouth, laying him out on the carpet. When the guards are distracted by the escalation of threat, Dr. Black climbs up the steps to the stage and, with a few deft button presses, turns off all the lights in the room.
The darkness is nearly absolute. People begin panicking. The guard at the back of the room moves to intercept Ron and get him out of the hall. One of the guards on the stage leaps down and runs to the back of the room, while the other moves over to the light panel to turn the lights in the room back on.
Johnny steps into the main aisle and attempts to play soccer with one of the guard’s testicles. This fails, and Johnny winds up flat on his back on the carpet. He recovers quickly and heads to the steps leading up to the stage, where he helps Mikhail, Dr. Black, and Kane beat the tar out of the guard who was trying to get the lights back on.
Meanwhile, in the back of the room, several of the innocent bystanders panic and flee the building. Using the morning light streaming in through the front door, Vivian and Ron move outside, to continue their argument in the street. Two of the Turks (the one from the back of the room and the one that Johnny failed to stop), engage Ron in a bit of fisticuffs on the sidewalk. Vivian takes this as her cue to leave.
The commotion, and a busybody old lady who was out running errands, attracts the attention of a nearby Irish cop. Judge Putnam, realizing what’s happening, attempts to delay the cop’s intervention in the fight. He tells the police officer that, while, yes, this public display of violence is certainly bad, he’s just witnessed a murder, knows where the body is, and knows where the suspect has gone.
The cop is paralyzed with indecision, and doesn’t act until several other cops start arriving on the scene. He then agrees to go with the judge.
In the meanwhile, Johnny has fled the building to get the car and Ron has KOed one of the Turks with a savage uppercut.
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| We're Gonna Need More of These to Stop Ron Deluca, Boys! |
The Door
Inside the darkened hall, Dr. Black puts the YOLE key in the
security door’s lock and turns. There is a moment of resistance and an
unsettling grinding noise from the lock, but the door soon opens. On the other
side, Dr. Black sees a well-lit hallway with a stairway going down at the far
end. He ventures inward and downward. Kane and Mikhail follow him.
They descend into another well-lit, concrete hallway that takes a left turn a fair distance ahead. As the trio decide what to do, they all notice that there appears to be two seams in the concrete in the wall, which indicates a separate section of concrete that covers up a narrow gap. Mikhail slips his sword into the seam and sinks it about six inches into the wall before it stops, with a clank, at a piece of unyielding metal.
The trio determine that there may be some kind of emergency security door hidden in the wall, though they see no means of triggering it. Concerned at this finding, they try to figure out what to do next…
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