2 Sept 1934, Cont’d

The mystery figure turned out to be “the Lark,” a tall, dark and handsome type with a thick Eastern European accent. He said the rest of the of the guys aren’t his. He explains he’s Jack’s “cousin” who Jack had apparently contacted 24 days ago (“some travel time was involved”).

We then decided to interrogate the thugs. The first thug revealed that he is not the ringleader, but points out who the “boss” is. The ringleader is then interrogated and revealed the thugs were hired to break in and steal the bus locker key.

Speaking of the bus locker, we decided to follow up on that next. Turned the thugs over to police by way of the doorman.

We drove to the Brooklyn Central Bus Depot and after a little searching, found the bank of lockers. Alex had the key and so opens the locker while Clara stands watch (she got caught up in some hobo singing “Brother Can You Spare a Dime”). There’s a small Gladstone bag containing a handful of diamonds and a scroll-tube-like device and a bunch of things (knives, saps, etc.) that one doesn’t want to get caught with.

I couldn’t shake the feeling we were missing something, but the singing was somewhat distracting…

After much debate, we headed to “Joe’s Tavern” a watering hole of some repute where not quite everyone knows our names, but close enough. We took the stuff out of the bag to examine more closely. There was a long brass cylinder that has five parts that rotate independently. It’s covered in some sort of mystical writing. Alex handed it to Molly. The other wrapped object is about a fist-sized hunk of quartz crystal. Alex tried to get “a vibe” off of it. As described shortly thereafter, things went poorly as she found herself in the heart of a fire, yet didn’t not feel pain. She heard chanting in an unknown language, and saw the hunk of quartz in the fire with her. Then she was 14 feet tall and fire-smiting the person who did the chanting. Vision ended, but from our perspective Alex was simply thrown across the room by an unseen force.

The Lark and I raced to Alex’s crumpled form. The Lark got to Alex first, saying that he’d heard she had “The Gift,” but he hadn’t realized it was so strong. Alex recounted the vision (per above), and we asked some questions establishing the time period and/or the location (Anatolia, circa pre-Islamic time period).

We then decided to look at the “scroll holder”/cylindrical object. Then we decided to look at the papers for secret writing. Inside the lining of the bag, Alex found some notes in Jack’s shorthand. Clara asked The Lark whether he recognized any of the objects or what he makes of it. He gave some analysis. We decided to split up and have at our respective tasks and meet again in the morning.

The Next Morning at Maury’s Coffee Shop…

3 Sept 1934

Molly’s analysis of the five brass cylinder thingy – she has narrowed it down to a specific village’s local Zoroastrian sun cult. symbols moved
[INSERT CYLINDER INFO FROM PAUL HERE-JAM]

My analysis of the quartz was that it’s a rather non-remarkable example of quartz crystal, and its home location in Turkey is right near where Molly’s places the origin of the brass cylinder thingy. The parchment appeared to be blank by all methods at my disposal.

Molly talked more about the cylinders. [INSERT MOLLY’S ANALYSIS/CYLINDER INFO HERE-JAM]

We then decided the next course of action was to question Hamit Nur, the Turkish scholar. We headed to the Club, while The Lark headed out to the dock to look for a ship.

When we arrived at the club the concierge told us Mr. Nur was in the library.

Clara broke off to ask for permission to use the Icarus. She has to go see Aldus Griffon, head of the club’s steering committee, and after a bit a sweet-talking he signed the form giving her the ship.

The rest of us approached Mr. Nur, and told him they could help him. We went into a side room and talked some more. Nur was clearly on the verge of panicking. Molly reassured him in Turkish.

I then said, “Why don’t you start at the beginning…”

Nur explained that he no sooner arrived here in the U.S., when he received a letter from his wife and it said that his daughter had gone missing. He checked into it via proxy, and it looked like someone had tossed his house and there had been some violence. A day later he got a phone call to take the papers and put them in a satchel and leave them outside of Carnegie Hall. He refused. Then he heard the screams of his wife and daughter. So he did as they asked and dropped the satchel off. But he hasn’t heard from the kidnappers since. He fears he’s only made matters worse. And he knows that Jack is being blamed, but his conversations with Jack were limited to basic and general (and not inappropriate) questions.

The papers themselves are a collection comprised of various papers compiled by a scholar of the time. They range in terms of what they contained (some mundane, but some religious in nature). We asked some questions regarding the papers.

He agrees to come with us (to Turkey, which seems the next logical step in our investigation). The Intrepids will meet at the Airship dock at 5 pm. I wish I knew what we were missing…