Van 1
April 20, 1974 | Saturday
Michael
Okay, so a little over two hours into the drive, as Roger and Cinque have spent time parrying and sussing each other out in conversation, as Cinque tried to see if Roger was a government plant and as a result Roger got to find out all about Cinque's early years as a stooge for the LAPD (and as a test subject for weird experiments at Vacaville Prison), the two men decide to just turn on the radio. What comes in on AM radio around Fresno at 1:30 in the morning isn't probably gonna be anything other than either "beautiful" music or strangled prayers by a radio evangelist, but Roger and Cinque don't even get a chance to hear that as there is some weird interference on the radio's reception that the Phreak sort of taunts Roger about lightly from behind the door that Papa Legba stands before. His voice doesn't stick around, but the Phreak's interest definitely gets Roger's feelers tingling. So the first thing I need from Roger is a plain old Electronics Operation (Surveillance)-13 roll.
Bill
>> SUCCESS by 0
Michael
This radio interference, Roger can tell by ear, takes the form not of the surveillance mics in the van interfering with the AM radio: our Project bug-planters are much more talented than that. No, the Phreak was right with his teasing bit of observation, this signal is an active outside radio transmission spraying the van on a wide-frequency belt. And in the radio interference, Roger could swear he can sense data. Whether that is Roger's Army and Project training on what shortwave radio data transmissions sound like, or the Phreak's voice asserting this fact faintly from behind the door of the loa, Roger's not sure. But there's a message somewhere in there. What's the source of this transmission? Roger hasn't a clue.
Bill
Roger thinks: A transmission pointed at a moving vehicle would have to be moving too (even from outer space, which Roger is trying not to think about just yet.). The I-5 is one long straight shoot, so it should be possible to try to figure out something matching with us (unless it’s invisible, which is another thing not to think about…).
Roger has been taking it careful driving down, given they don’t want police attention. (And there’s two brothers in the front seats.). Looking around for cops or a probable speed trap, when it looks clear, he’s going to floor it for a bit. And then try to see if anyone behind them has to react the same way. So Cinque doesn’t freak out about it, he’ll say he’s checking for a tail.
Michael
Okay, two rolls for this, you can make Driving-17 for the at-the-wheel component, and I'll make a secret Observation roll to reflect Roger's checking the road and environs both before and after the quick speed burst.
Bill
>> SUCCESS by 3
Michael
Cinque puts his own eyes on the road and his wing mirror and shifts into tactical mode as best he can while Roger puts the pedal (briefly) to the metal and gives the van the best acceleration burst he can under the circumstances. Given the emptiness of the freeway at quarter-to-two in the morning on the outskirts of Fresno, Roger should be able to see if any of the headlights in his rear-view mirror suddenly try to catch up. Roger finds the cars a half-mile or so back fade into the distance as the speedometer hits 70... 75.... 80.
Roger also checks the side of the freeway and into the nighttime distance, aware that a radio transmission might be hitting them from a further vantage point as they pass this specific patch of freeway, but he sees nothing unusual or out of the ordinary within sight. It's nearly a new moon tonight, so other than the occasional streetlights in the distance there's nothing much more than Roger's headlights forward of the car for illumination; call this observation inconclusive.
Cinque looks in the side mirror again behind the van and says, "Coast is clear." The interference on the radio seems to have gradually waned and faded. If there was someone following at a distance, hitting the van with radio interference, it's out of range now. The civilian commercial broadcast on AM 550, all the way down at the left end of the dial, presents the last few seconds of a country song ("...I've seen some sights and life's been somethin'...") and then suddenly roars to life with the voice of a comically country-fried DJ:
"Yer listenin' to Kay-You-Zee-Zee, that's KUZZ-AM in Bakersfield, cousin! Big Larry Hamilton here witcha on the overnight, you just heard Cal Smith, that "Country Bumpkin," 'fore that we had the man who signs my paychecks, Mister Buck Owens with "On the Cover of the Music City News," but now, why don't we take a listen to a gentleman who used to, heh heh, reside in public accommodations hereabouts, this is Merle Haggard, "Things Aren't Funny Anymore."
Cinque turns his head slightly to look at Roger, exchanges an at-first shell-shocked (after the sudden acceleration) look with him, and then breaks out in sudden, raucous laughter at the music on the radio. Roger's not sure whether to laugh with him or whether this brother has actually kinda flipped from the tension.
Bill
“Shit, man. Right here is the craziness of California. This place is so big you can go from funk to its absolute opposite in a drive. Fucked up, that is.” Roger smiles, turns down the volume, and slows down. “Sorry to spook you, brother. Long drive, and can’t be catching the Man’s gaze.”
But he doesn’t turn it off, and he keeps an ear open for another crackle.
Michael
The van will probably need a refuel somewhere right around Bakersfield for the final push into the Southland. There are likely some safe-ish all-night gas stations for two young Black men to quickly refuel at on the mostly-Mexican south side of town. In fact it seems to me like a Streetwise-15 roll would let Roger find the quickest way in, through, and out of the notoriously cracker suburbs of Bakersfield to somewhere in the inner/south side of town where he and Cinque could be fairly unobserved.
And pivoting off of that, if Roger wants to be the man to pay for the gas, I'll make a secret Observation roll based on where you're at with the Streetwise roll; Observation to look out for unwanted attention at 3 am on a Saturday and to see if any unusual cars or vans pass by while the SLA van is being filled up.
Bill
>> FAILURE by 2
(Ugh. Where’s the Green Book when you need it?)
Michael
As Roger pulls off the freeway into the "wrong side of the tracks," making his way to the Lakeview district of Bakersfield in the hopes of some friendly all-night gas station, it takes Roger and Cinque a couple of blocks on East California before they both see the blue flashing lights of a group of a half-dozen squad cars blocking the right turn onto presumably Lakeview Avenue, a few hundred yards down the road. There's a small crowd of Black gawkers gathered on their front stoops on East California, keeping their distance from the police but still curious about what's happening, and as Cinque starts to sweat this, Roger also sees further down, a fire engine speeding into view towards the police roadblock.
"Shit," Cinque says, gripping the dashboard to get a better view.
"We should just U-turn and get the fuck out of here. Or wake up Fahizah and Mizmoon and get them to drive to a gas station..." Roger thinks, given how drugged the girls seemed, that they're unlikely gonna be able to operate a motor vehicle, much less navigate unfamiliar streets under duress.
Roger thinks to what he knows of law enforcement; this kind of police presence in a place like the Black section of Bakersfield on a Friday/Saturday night means someone's gotten into some kind of trouble, trouble enough to alert the entire white law enforcement power structure. A fight, a drunken shooting, something like that.
East California Avenue is a divided thoroughfare, but there are gaps in the islands for left turns and U-turns, and as Roger slows down to take the next one, he sees, as if vouchsafed by the divine presence Himself, Nuestra Señora de Guadalupe Parish, on the south side of East California, a modest mission-style church with rectory and school attached. The Black residents aren't the only folks woken up by this police swoop; there's a tall balding bespectacled white man all by himself in an overcoat and pajamas out on the front steps of the rectory, looking on at the scene a few hundred yards down the road with visible concern on his face.
Bill
“No, brother, we gotta play it cool. No sudden movements, aight?” Roger will pull the van into to the church parking lot, shut it down, and warn Cinque in his firmest tone to stay put. Then he’ll get out and approach the old white guy, as unmenacingly as he can, hunched down and humble. A few feet back, he’ll ask, upping the Spanish accent: “Padre, we’re looking for a gas station. But what’s all this trouble? I pray to San Cristoforo, then I see you.”
Michael
(Options here are I make a 3d6+2 Reaction roll (bonus for the RP and evoking St. Christopher) for you or you can roll Streetwise-15 to guarantee a Good response; it's not necessarily that Father Dan here is a streetwise tough or anything, but rather that Father Dan here is familiar with the neighborhood and Roger can put on the kind of protective front that will indicate he's not local and is just passing through and thus is due "reasonable aid and/or information."
Risk/reward and probability here would probably point to the Streetwise roll, of course, but hey, it's your call on Roger's approach here.)
Bill
>> SUCCESS by 2
Michael
Father Dan introduces himself. "Oh, it's terrible, my son. Some sort of explosion over in Lakeview, and then I could've sworn I heard gunshots. And then..."
CRACK. CRACK. Two shots from what Roger can tell is probably a (reveal this if you pass a Soldier-13 roll) thirty-ought-six or 7.62 rifle echo across East California. Bystanders flinch and duck, Father Dan jumps, and Cinque slinks down completely into the passenger seat of the van. Roger sees the cops manning the roadblock draw arms and move closer to Lakeview Avenue right before Father Dan takes Roger by the arm and moves Roger into the vestibule of the rectory, away from the sound of the gunfire to the east.
"Yes," Father Dan says, sweating and panting. "Gunshots." There's no sound of return fire, which makes Roger think that this sniper is out there in the dark taking potshots at the cops who've already pressed into the Lakeview neighborhood.
Bill
>> SUCCESS by 3
“That’s a rifle, padre. I was in ‘Nam, this sound. I know it. If he’s in a good spot, anyone out on the street, tsk, gran peligro!. Safer in here.”
“I go, bring mis amigos. Santuario”. Roger leaves the father and makes a run for the van, taking cover from sight lines from the shooting (and cops) as he can.
Before he gets too close to the van (shoot me once, shame on me), Roger will try to assess how Cinque is freaking out and whether he might draw “friendly fire”
Michael
[secret Psychology roll made at 14—a +2 for having cowed him with the Streetwise crit earlier in the van]
Roger zips through the front garden of the rectory, keeping to the shadows as he hits the pavement of the parking lot. Roger gets a quick read on Cinque's body language and expression—he's remained quiet and low in his seat. He's staying cool but he also definitely has a "frozen in the headlights" look to him; Roger's seen that look on grunts before and it's the look of a guy who's been in the Shit too long, the thousand-yard stare that denotes a GI about to go fight-or-flight. It seems to Roger that he's locked in Fright mode. He's staring at the dash as Roger gets to the passenger-side door.
Bill
“Good job staying cool. Just stay cool. Are the girls good to move? We can wait this out in the church, safe. Get a good alibi. Get out safe.”
Michael
Cinque looks askance at the church. "You sure about this, brother? Who's to say this priest won't sell us out?"
Bill
“Better chance than the thin walls of this van against a sniper, I tell you what. Or cops itching to catch anyone when they’ve been under fire. Just be cool. Smile, be nice, and we might hit the road safe in an hour. Revolution has found safety in the church before— both of us care about the downtrodden.”
Michael
"Let me get the girls... uh, the comrades." Cinque grabs his broad-brimmed hat from where it was hanging off the back of his seat, puts it on low on his head to obscure his features, and gets into the back of the van where he proceeds to try to rouse Nancy and Mizmoon from their very dosed slumber.
Bill
Roger ostensibly watches the area around the van from outside, but he’s keeping a close eye on Cinque. He’s trying to figure out what and where he’s packing, in case he needs to take him down.
Michael
[Secret Observation-14 roll made]
All the heavy armaments and ammo are still stored in the van, but Roger watches Cinque hustle a sleepy Nancy and Mizmoon into the church through the side door and notes a conspicuous bulge at the small of his back, underneath his Army surplus jacket. A pistol, probably a .32 snub revolver by the size and profile.
Bill
Roger’s got his own hold-out going too, so it’s only fair.
Roger will run interference with Father Dan so the other three don’t talk to him too much. Basically just trying to get to a quiet place and lay low. Assuming he can get a little unobserved time with each or either of the girls, he’s going to Hypnotize their suggestible empty heads into just being sleepy and/or quiet.
Michael
We can do one Hypnotism-17 roll for both Nancy and Patricia S., sizable bonus due to, heh, hypnotics already being in their system. I'll narrate that at the appropriate point in this scene.
(Also, I'm not sure how much Kalfu is already peeking around Papa Legba's door, Bill, given your stated OOC plans, but given how the loa are a little closer to the surface of Roger now after his Phreak irruption—i.e., the Cosmic Power hour-long "residue" you get now after a possession—I'll let you take the lead there with the knowledge that I'm definitely ready to supply some diabolic meat to that scene.)
As Roger speaks with Father Dan, laying some heavy Catholic shit on him to keep him distracted (given your Streetwise roll, I don't think an explicit Fast-Talk is needed until you actually are asking him for more than sanctuary), Cinque gravitates to the icon of Our Lady of Guadalupe that the two women are huddled under right now. In (archaic) Spanish and English a legend underneath the icon says,
"Por mano de María Virgen se habia ganado y conquistado aqueste Nuevo Mundo." "By the hand of the Virgin Mary had this New World been gained and conquered."
-- Padre Miguel Sánchez, 1648
Cinque swallows hard, gulping audibly before this vision as Father Dan looks over Roger's shoulder at Cinque, saying, "She too is a patron of travelers seeking safety." He puts his hand reassuringly on Roger's shoulder. "The first man to encounter this vision of the Holy Virgin, the Indio peasant Juan Diego, was born 500 years ago this very year. The Mexicans seek to have him beatified and canonized."
Bill
>> SUCCESS by 8
Roger just gave the girls basic calming commands, to ignore the gunfire, keep cool, keep quiet, and be ready to listen to further instruction from this voice, his voice, over others.
"Padre, it is a long journey we go on. And things in L.A., they will be hard. I would ask help from Madre de Dios. Will you pray with me a while? I have no rosary, can you find me one, so we may pray together?" Once prompting the priest to go rustle up one, Roger will give Cinque a quick aside: "Let me work the priest. Keep an eye on the girls. I think I can convince him to cover for us."
With Cinque and Father Dan off, Roger steps out of the sanctuary, sits down, pulls out Kalfu's vever, and "prays", sticking to Spanish: "El Diablo, I ask you for your aid — and you will like it. Lend me your aid, your voice, and I will put this priest under command." (Roger will Auto-hypnotize to fill his "loa bleed" slot with Kalfu's Hypnotism level, taking on the uncanny lack of shadow to balance the points.)
Michael
Okay, cool, you can go ahead and do an Autohypnosis-16 roll for me and then I'll have some information to spill about Father Dan once Kalfu is fully riding his cheval.
Bill
>> SUCCESS by 5
Roger just gave the girls basic calming commands, to ignore the gunfire, keep cool, keep quiet, and be ready to listen to further instruction from this voice, his voice, over others. "Padre, it is a long journey we go on. And things in L.A., they will be hard. I would ask help from Madre de Dios. Will you pray with me a while? I have no rosary, can you find me one, so we may pray together?" Once prompting the priest to go rustle up one, Roger will give Cinque a quick aside: "Let me work the priest. Keep an eye on the girls. I think I can convince him to cover for us." With Cinque and Father Dan off, Roger steps out of the sanctuary, sits down, pulls out Kalfu's vever, and "prays", sticking to Spanish: "El Diablo, I ask you for your aid-- and you will like it. Lend me your aid, your voice, and I will put this priest under command." (Roger will Auto-hypnotize to fill his "loa bleed" slot with Kalfu's Hypnotism level, taking on the uncanny lack of shadow to balance the points.)
Michael
As Roger kneels before the icon of the Blessed Virgin, crowned in the glory of St. John's Revelation, as she appeared to Juan Diego back in colonial Mexico, a whiff of gunpowder—the selfsame powder that the conquistadores used to subjugate the Chichimeca—drifts across the small, incense-scented church. The master of the crossroads crosses himself (backwards, subtly so that no one can see), finishes his Hail Mary in the Devil's Tongue, speaking the nearly-dead language of the Chichimeca Jonaz, and looks at the four other... the four humans standing and sitting uncertainly in this house of God.
All four have a great and profound doom upon them, a doom so sure that Kalfu did not even need to take the time to speak with them to sense it.
Cinque, Fahizah, and Mizmoon will die by fire or by bullet; Kalfu is not quite sure which, maybe both. The threads of fate and death are heavy upon them, though, and it seems to Kalfu that this doom will come soon, inexorably, all of them betrayed by the hand of someone they thought friend and comrade.
The vision that Kalfu is granted when he turns his deep crimson eyes on Father Daniel DeDominicis, though, is quite different. It almost comes to Kalfu as a series of news headlines spinning across his vision, like a microfiche machine... or a Renshaw tachistoscope. "Anderson and Associates Report: Credibly accused, along with 42 other Fresno diocese priests and lay personnel," "Year(s) of Incident(s) 1975 to 1985," "Not reported to police until 2002," "Current whereabouts, status as a priest, and whether he has access to children: unknown."
Bill
The wish his cheval had for borrowing just a piece His power, Kalfu does not forget, but the priest... seeing what he is, he is too delicious to leave just to those small plans. So while He has on recent occasion allowed smaller gifts to Roger, no, this time He will see it through Himself. Invited in, Kalfu rides Roger fully. Oh, young Rogelio will get what he was bargaining for, just not quite as he would have done it.
Kalfu gestures the priest over. "Padre, please, let us pray together. In the quiet." Kalfu puts Roger's hand out to take a rosary, but with the other touches the priest's hand, gently, and for a little too long.
Michael
Father Dan, after being taken aside, and after having internalized these two young men, one Black (he does not seem to have recognized Cinque from the newspapers, perhaps thanks to Cinque's rudimentary disguise), one mixed, are with two young white women, is a combination of frightened and, Kalfu can sense, excited. Excited perhaps that these young men are in danger, or are danger.
"Son, I feel you have been caught in a bad place at a bad time. Are those two girls on drugs? The police will be certainly looking for people who look like trouble, and I would not want you, a good Catholic chico," Father Dan says with an ingratiating smile, laying down some Chicano jive he's undoubtedly learned from the boys of his parish, "to suffer for it."
Bill
"Yes, padre, the chicas, they are 'strung out'-- we are taking them to L.A. to get help." Kalfu cannot help but smile at using the truth this way. "Rogelio... this one... fears for them." Kalfu takes out the rosary, the cross upside-down, and goes to his knees before the priest. He looks up at him from waist-high, then pulls him down by one hand. "Please, say the prayers with me, help take me through them." Without pausing, Kalfu begins the "Hail Mary"... faultingly, mistaking words, leaving clear pauses where prompting would help (and never completing any.). Kalfu leaves the gaps, and lets the priest draw himself into the needed role of stable, precise, repetition... and into a Hypnotic state.
Michael
Hypnotism-23, sizeable bonuses for appealing to his religiosity, guilt, and the g-d cool-ass scene-setting here. Corruption available, natch.
Bill
>> SUCCESS by 12
(I would posit the loa don't usually like their chevals using the power of the Enemy while they ride them, but Kalfu is always one to use his enemies' tools. He'd ante up 1 point as spice to this meal.)
Michael
A success by 12, will undoubtedly crumble Father Dan's will. 5 more Corruption will get it into the critical zone.
Bill
(He'll do it... Kalfu has a horrible idea, and wants to lay down some long lasting directives.)
Michael
The repetition of the Hail Mary, after a few iterations, fades from English, into the church Latin of Father Dan's seminary years, and even into a sort of childlike, idiomatic, dialect-laden Neapolitan Italian, as if young Daniel is remembering making novenas after Confession. But Maître Carrefour knows all tongues, and observes the Corruption-powered hypnotic state lulling Daniel into a trusting, safe space, as if the adult priest is simultaneously both teacher and student. His will is now the Devil's plaything.
Bill
Kalfu remains kneeling, but breaks off from the prayers, and starts whispering, in Daniel's Italian. "Yes, keep praying, keep moving the hands, and listen to My voice, the voice of your Master. For you are already Mine-- you have signed a deal with the tears of your prey. And these are its terms."
"Primo: you will provide sanctuary to your visitors tonight, you will protect them from the authorities, you will vouch for them, you will lie for their sakes, you will see them off uninterrupted on their way, and not betray their trust, at least not until cock-crow three days hence."
"Nod to your Master, that you hear and understand."
Michael
Father Dan nods silently, his mouth barely moving in a mumbling, near-silent prayer.
Bill
"Secondo: As you sin, so will you confess your sins, you will make your superiors aware, even of the sins most terrible." At this, Kalfu places a hand on the priest's waist, far too familiarly, for emphasis. "You will make your superiors, the whole hierarchy, more pure by this... or damned as complicit. Either result, you will make them know." He smiles.
"Nod to your Master, that you hear and understand."
Michael
A single tear and a flush of shame as Father Dan nods for the second time.
Bill
"E terzo: You will reveal to no earthly secular authority the identity of your Master, of these commands, or your deal. Confess as you must to your church superiors, but tell no one else, except as your Master may command in the future."
Kalfu places Roger's index finger over the priest's lips, sealing them. Then he gives the Judas kiss to his temple, and begins to chant to bring him back out of the trance.
(Kalfu will not be sharing this memory with Roger. He feels Roger might take seeding the destruction of the Catholic Church the wrong way. Just a truthful brief informing him that the priest will aid them fully.)
Michael
When Father Dan wakes up from the hypnotic trance, vaguely troubled but otherwise his old gregarious self, he gravely and sincerely approaches Roger, himself woozy after having been ridden, still stained with the Devil's marks. "I must insist in offering you and your friends sanctuary tonight, my son. The police will undoubtedly be crawling the streets looking for this shooter. Stay, at least until daylight, until the police remove the roadblocks. Sleep for a few hours, leave at dawn, you can be in Los Angeles in time for breakfast." (edited)
Bill
Roger awakes from his own trance warned just enough to react correctly. “Gracias, padre. We are in your hands, and God’s.” Inwardly, Roger notes to be more careful trying to bring up Kalfu partially— who knows how that could have gone.
Michael
The rest of the just-around-two-hour trip to LA, after the quick nap at the church, is uneventful: no weird transmissions, no mysterious snipers. When Roger pulls alongside the small rundown house on East 122nd, the rest of the SLA is there. Roger and Cinque hustle the girls into the house and spend some time unloading Van 1 out of sight of the neighbors in the large back yard/alley. Cinque sincerely thanks Roger and expresses appreciation for how cool he was under literal fire out there... and for listening earlier in the drive, "You know, all that childish snitch shit I did. I guess we both had to confess tonight," referring to Roger's time with the priest. "Keep in touch, brother. Until the revolution," and he gaves a Black Power fist before dapping Roger up and giving him a quick brotherly hug.
Bill
Once he gets the van driven back, Roger will give it more than the usual once over. He wants to be sure every mike in the van was in full working order, no signal leaks. Then he’ll find a highway map to try to mark down where they were when the signal hit them.
Doing so, it occurs to him it could have been a fixed transmitter. I-5 is a main route— worth a permanent site, knowing your receiver… of whatever it is… will be by eventually. Which suddenly reminds Roger of the receiver found in the Ransoms. (edited)
Michael
(I've rolled Roger's Electronics Operation (Surveillance) roll to check the mics and tape recorders secretly.)
After giving the van a thorough sweep, the mics look like they were well-shielded and Roger cannot reproduce the effect even when taking the shielding off. It was definitely an outside signal.
Roger grabs the AAA map book out of the glove box and remembers the mile marker and exit distances and narrows it down to a stretch of a half-mile, about 5 miles north of the Route 180 turnoff and 2 miles south of the Merced-Fresno county line.
(Purple arrow pointing to the portion of highway here.)
Not much out there but ranches and vineyards (for raisins)
Bill
The location, catching East-west to Fresno on top of north-south, does seem to reinforce the useful stationary location, but the broadcaster could be hidden anywhere out there, if so. Still, doesn’t eliminate a moving broadcaster targeting them directly. Too much of a mystery to Roger; he needs some more pieces. Although what with Cinque’s confession and thoughts of Charley’s chip, he’s wondering if Mitch ever gave him the once-over before Roger came into this.
Michael
I don't think Mitch has laid eyes on any of the members of the SLA except the ones he scried upon in Van 2, but hey, he's down in LA with Roger and Jo and Archie now, so it could be done.