"Who in the bloody 'ell are you?" he asked, accusatorially. In the moonlight Old Crow could make out a man of below-average height, round features, and a mustache perched perilously on his upper lip. "And what the bloody 'ell are ye doon up 'ere in the middle o' the night?"
Old Crow looked calmly back at the man chained to the rock table, then back at Mr. Bowler.
"We could ask the same of you."
Pierre and Lamont stepped up behind Old Crow in a show of, if not force, vague moral solidarity. Pierre rested his hand on the hilt of his short sword. Lamont picked his teeth with his trident and said "ITS NOT GIANT TOAD SEASON YET WHO ARE YOU TRYING TO FOOL WITH THIS CONTRAPTION?" The man in the bowler winced, and the man on the table woke up and started to moan piteously. Mr. Bowler looked past Lamont at the man and scowled.
"Ow would ye look at that? Now ye've gone an' ruined th' 'ole thing! We'll never get 'im t'talk now." By now two more men had emerged from the toad, carrying the lamps that had lit the creature's eyes. Elizabeth noted that they were both Chinans. She turned to Eris and tried to catch her eye, but Eris looked distant, like she was listening to a faraway tune.
"We're up 'ere on official business! This 'ere scunner's a British officer! We're tryna get a lit'le information out of 'em." As one, the entire party looked from the now deflated toad carcass, to the moaning man chained to the sacrificial table, and then back to the man in the bowler hat.
"Maybe you should start from the beginning," said Old Crow.
"Well," said the man, now distractedly looking about the treeline, "my name is Jack. Jack Tripper. I'm an..." he turned his face up to look at Old Crow, "an entrepreneur."
"Parlez vous Français?" said Pierre. His heart fluttered a bit to hear his native tongue.
"Nein," replied Jack. Pierre's crest fell.
"AN ENTREPRENEUR? SO WHAT ENTERPRISE DO WE HAVE HERE, MAY I ASK?" Lamont was growing skeptical. He was still annoyed by the lack of seasonal verisimilitude with the whole toad thing.
"Well, you see," continued Jack, "me and my men b'long to a cap't'list ventcha round here wot takes a vested innerest in local politics." He took off his bowler and clutched it protectively to his chest. "You see, we get involved when it suits us, as you'd say, economically. And this scunner 'ere," he pointed his hat to the man on the table, "has vital inf'mation on the whereabouts of a cert'n shipment of a cert'n cargo, contained inside a cert'n wagon. And we are desirous of ascertaining its whereabouts."
Lamont looked at Old Crow, who looked at Pierre, who looked at Elizabeth. Triple play.
"WAGON, YOU SAY?"
Jack started at Lamont's voice, winced a little, and continued. "This 'ere bastard is the cap'n of the local garrison over in Elsinore. We were tryin' t'get tit out of 'im when you lot interrupted."
Pierre leaned in over the little man. He bristled a bit to make his presence feel a little more... present.
"And just how were you planning to use the giant frog?" Jack didn't look at all intimidated. In fact, Elizabeth, who had always considered herself a good judge of character, thought this little man had probably never been intimidated in his life.
"Well," Jack started with some hesitance, "we employ... methods." Jack looked over his shoulder conspiratorially before turning back to the party. Elizabeth thought he was scanning the woods. "You see, we give the bastard some of what the locals call Bonker's Tea. Then we start fillin' 'im up with how, if he don't tell us where this wagon is, we're gonna feed him t' the Wampsville Toad." Pierre shuddered at the mention of the tea. He had a feeling he'd had a cup of the very same pot. "Now, what with him bein' British, 'e don' exactly know the stories, the legends of th' thing. But oh boy do we tell 'im. By the time he's heard the one about the "Helpless Triplets", 'e's just near to wiggin' out! That's when we strap him down an' inform 'im of 'is fate."
"That seems unnecessarily cruel," Old Crow said, rubbing his chin. "You assault his body and his mind. Why not pick just one?" Jack popped the bowler back onto his greasy head. "Just in case one of 'em don't work."
Pierre looked back to the Elizabeth and caught her eye. She read his thoughts, then turned her mind to that of Rick. She waited for Pierre to distract him with a question before trying to jump into his mind and find out what he was really about.
"So was if I was to say we knew about this wagon?" Pierre offered. Jack's head snapped around to face him. His mouth turned into a sneer.
"What you mean? You know what about what?" Jack turned to Pierre with eyes wide. His face visibly darkened. Elizabeth probed, trying to get past that hat and into what passed for his psyche.
"Oh, we've seen a wagon..." Pierre trailed off, trying to draw him in so he wouldn't notice Elizabeth sneaking in the back door. "About 15 feet long? Covered? Full of crates?" Jack started to crumple the hat as he held it, his knuckles whitening with mounting fury.
"WHERE IZZIT? WHER'D YOU SEE THIS WAGON? YOU KNOW WHERE IT IS? TELL ME!"
It was at that moment his mind popped open to Elizabeth like a ripe fruit. she slid in slowly, tenderly so as not to arouse suspicion. but what she saw there made her forget all fear of being discovered. The blood. Splattered everywhere, in patterns that would make Rorshach weep. There were bodies, girls mostly, laid open like blooming roses...
Elizabeth snapped back to reality. Jack was up in Pierre's face, threatening him with in a way that showed he always backed up his threats. She waved her hands to catch Pierre's attention, before slipping into his mind to deliver four short words: "Take him down, NOW!"
Pierre acted at once, and hauled off and punched Jack right through the hat he was holding. The blow landed in his throat, and buckled him to the ground. Pierre drew his short sword and quickly knocked him out with the pommel. Elizabeth heard cries come from the dark woods surrounding them. One, two, three Chinans stepped out of the trees and made their way to the scene, bows and swords drawn, until at least a dozen of them drew closer and started to surround them.
"Eris?" Elizabeth whispered. She turned, but Eris was gone. "Damn!" It was too dark to handle what was looking to escalate into a terrible situation. She thought a second, collected herself, then held up her sheep's head on a stick.
"IGNIS OVIUM!"
Suddenly, the sheep's head ignited with an octarine fire. It's dead, mad eyes lolled at disturbing angles as it lit up the surrounding area. The Chinans froze, looks of horror on their painted faces. A few dropped their weapons and turned tail and ran. The cooler, more level-headed ones held onto their weapons as they fled. While the Abenaki Boys maintained a certain level of loyalty to Jack, that loyalty obviously came to an end as soon as sheep magic got involved.
Lamont looked around at the scene. Flaming sheep, scattered enemies, and Pierre looting an unconscious body...
All great omens for what was about to happen next.
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