In the aftermath of the battle at Racks
Paladin take the part of the Hopewell device from Mr. Benjamin. He
places it in a box that be puts behind an air vent grill in his room
at the 'secret warehouse' base.
Kismet goes back to her room at ESU and
does research on the Hopewell device and the recent theft of parts of
it from museums and collections throughout the Eastern Seaboard.
Spending the better part of the night combing through records and
rumors she believes she identified the 'jar headed man' who robbed
the Cornwall Museum only two weeks ago. The man is Brain Drain, a
Nazi agent and mentalist.
Doing additional digging she finds that
mole machine that plundered the civil war artifact repository (the
repurposed Gilbert and Bennett factory) back in June might have been
a WWII Nazi super weapon.
Monday Kismet and Paladin went to the
library and tried to hack into Racks computers remotely. Kismet
eventually figured out the computers were shut off because the
restaurant was closed penidng repairs.
She decided Tuesday to go to Racks and
use the excuse 'I left something in my locker' in case she was
caught. While she was checking out the main kitchen a bag of flour
fell and an arrow was drawn in it. She followed the arrow for a bit
when she ran into Lacey Bradley, Racks owner. She walked her to the
green room telling her Racks will reopen Friday and asked if she
wanted to work Friday. She even offered <Kismet> a place in the
Red Light Room. <Kismet> agreed to come to work but declined
the offer to work in the Red Light Room unless Racks was seriously
short staffed. Lacey said for her to think about it but she was sure
that the positions could be covered for this weekend.
After separating from Lacey Kismet
found another arrow. This one pointed to the private kitchen for the
Members Only area. Looking around there she found what she thought
might be a bone of a human finger, last knuckle to the end of the
finger. She photographed it and left before she was discovered
(again).
Meeting up with Paladin afterward they
decided to break back into Racks that night to retrieve the finger
itself, not just a photo of it.
Paladin then called Lynn Bernhart, the
bartender who dumped a pitcher of water on Arc during the fight. She
was expecting him to ask her out but when he said he had questions
her voice fell, disappointment obviously, but agreed to meet him at
the Bunker, the Brooklyn Brigade's base.
An hour (and 15 minutes) later she
arrived. She said she had nothing to say about Deena (and her
friend's) disappearance unless she could be placed in Witness
Protection, given a new ID, and a million dollars cash.
Paladin said he didn't think the WPP
would be a problem depending on what she had to say. He did agree to
help her pack a bag and put her up in a hotel, anonymously, for the
time being until Joe Nardinin can set up the WPP (Witness Protection
Program), if the data is good.
Lynn says she has no proof but she
thinks that Manfred Saietta is a mobster and a human trafficker. She
does not want to vanish and wake up in Hong Kong having sex with the
natives for Fish-Heads and Rice. The restaurant has only been open
since June (2 months) and already 10 girls have vanished from there,
all of them, ALL OF THEM, worked the Members Only Room.
She believes that prostitution is the
biggest thing on the menu in the Members Only area. The girls vanish
after a week or two working there never to be seen again.
Lynn thinks Lacey is being forced to
help Manfred but has no idea what hold he has on her.
Paladin puts her up in the hotel using
the Brooklyn Brigade's expense account, he will wait for Cassandra to
get mad at the end of the month before explaining it to her.