And so, we return to Ascension. The story so far…
Captain Bryant of the Royal Navy Air Force Police has spotted Alice Diamond and Jim Bullock of the Forty Elephants Gang emerging from Government House with a small package, and the apparent approval of the Governor.
The package contains the Ivory Falcon, a legendary, priceless artefact supposed to have been carried into the Battle of the Teutoburg Forest by the Ninth Legion, with a mystical unknown inscription on the base that brings wisdom, eternal youth, or possibly madness to all who dare read it.
Soon after, the police were distracted by Mary Carr shooting at Bryant, which allowed Alice to escape in the island’s taxi, driven by another gang member. Mary and Shirlie leapt into their car and followed suit…
Meanwhile, Sgt. Williams, patrolling in the harbour, had found the owner of the Taxi with a bottle of Charles Vane’s finest alcoholic engine cleaner, and wandered over.
Williams opened with “Good morning Nigel. Are you taking the day off?”. Nigel responded with a rude word and took a swing at the officer.
This was not a good start.
Florrie was driving the “borrowed” Taxi with Alice and the Ivory Falcon on board.
“Did they get away?” She asked Alice.
The gang leader looked back towards the high street, “Yeah” she reported. “Jim’s standing in the road with a copper trying to figure what’s going on.”
Florrie grinned. “Good plan” she said. “A four way split is better than five.”
“Yeah” Alice agreed. There was a pause.
Alice looked at Florrie and added: “But a two-way split would be even better…”
Meanwhile Shirlie was following in the gang’s usual getaway car.
“I told you Alice’s plan would work…” Shirlie began. “I bet Jim still hasn’t realised…”
Suddenly she saw Lieutenant Cain running down the alleyway ahead.
“Police!” She yelled, swerving down a side alley. Mary reacted immediately, leaning out of the window in classic gangster style and shooting at Lieutenant Cain, who returned fire. A roll of the dice determined that Shirlie would turn left at this point, away from the gunfire…
Jim and Capt. Bryant stood in the street as the cars drove away. The police captain looked at the gangster. “Looks like she fooled both of us…” be began.
Jim, however, was still a few minutes behind events. He saw a policeman next to him and reacted accordingly, catching Bryant off guard. Bryant went down and after the fight with Carr and nearly getting shot, this proved one punch too many.
Seeing Coulson driving over, Jim started running up the alley…
In the taxi, negotiations were continuing:
“You mean… just you and me?” Florrie asked Alice.
Alice rolled her eyes. “Yes Florrie. Get us to the ship now, and we’ll set off away while the others deal with the coppers.”
They turned a corner…
Williams had taken a nasty blow to the side of the head, but he was still on his feet and ready to give as he had received, when the taxi came barrelling around the corner…
On the high street, Sgt. Coulson saw his senior officer on the ground. He stopped and leapt out.
“Keep going” yelled Bryant.
“But…”
“I’ll last a few minutes” yelled Bryant. “Get after them.” Coulson reluctantly got back in the car and the pursuit was on…
“Police!” yelled Florrie.
Alice leapt across the car, pistol in hand. “Think… about… it…” she yelled between shots. “With the money from this job, we can retire, set up somewhere else…” she ducked as Williams returned fire.
“I like it..” said Florrie, then swore as Williams punctured the radiator.
“Good. Now get us to the ship” shouted Alice, firing again as they rounded the corner…
Williams, and Nigel, both remarkably unscathed, watched them go.
Alice didn’t know it, but things had gone from bad to worse for her (former) colleagues. On a solo game I have to pull a chance card for certain characters in each turn. Florrie pulled “held in place”. This means she could not perform an “action”, which includes steering or stopping a car. This can really cause issues when trying to manoeuvre an alleyway with the police chasing.
Predictable events followed…
The Taxi groaned and wheezed its way up onto the quayside. The ship was waiting…
“I feel a bit bad for Shirlie and Mary though…” Florrie began.
Alice was still watching for pursuit.
“If it makes you feel batter, I’ll bail ’em out of jail when we get paid.”
“What if they come after us?”
Alice gripped her purse. “Florrie, we’re about to be the richest two girls in… any city you wanna mention:” she replied. “That sort of money can solve any problems.”
Back in the alleyways, Lieutenant Cain helped Shirlie out of the car, Shirlie, as usual, was complaining.
“Why are you arresting me? I was helping the governor with summat, you’ll be in big trouble now: these cuffs are too tight. I’ll be out in an hour just you wait and see…”
Mary, never one to give up, had legged it smartly around a corner.
Alice leapt out of the taxi. “Get moving!” She yelled to the deckhand. Florrie climbed on board, mildly hindered by her skirt.
“We were told there’s five of you.” Shouted the Captain from the bridge.
Alice glared. “Change of plan” she yelled. “Get us out of here!”
A few hours later, Ascension, and the smudge of smoke from its various factories had faded. Alice and Florrie had been served dinner and were watching the sunset.
“Where’s the Falcon?” asked Florrie.
Alice patted her handbag. “In here, don’t worry.”
“I’m curious. Wasn’t there supposed to be some inscription on the bottom?”
Alice shrugged. “Yeah, ancient Chinese, or Hebrew or summat. That woman in the casino said it was dangerous to read it.”
There was a pause.
“Well?” prompted Florrie. “You want to see what it says?”
“Who cares?”
“Oh, come on…”
Alice retrieved the small package out of her bag.
“Be careful, that’s our retirement plan.”
Florrie opened the package. Inside was a small white falcon perched on a rock. It was glued to a wooden plinth: Florrie produced a knife from somewhere in her dress and prised the statue free, grinning. Then she looked at the base of the statue.
Alice saw her grin fade, and her face turn white.
“What is it?”
Florrie handed the artefact over. “The inscription…”
With a mounting sense of dread Alice turned the falcon over. She looked at the crudely scratched markings and then looked at Florrie in horror.
“South Pier Amusements Arcade, Brighton…” She breathed.
There was a brief pause, then a shout of anger, followed by a small splash.
