¡El dedo de la sospecha!
The Jade Jaguar enters the serpents’ nest.
Mexico City, spring 1935.
Tácito Uriel Velasco, attorney at law has gathered reporter Trudy Truman and shutterbug/sniper Javid Kulfi, for a mission outside his lawyerly expertise. His friend, retired judge Gustavo Abelardo, was being targeted for elimination. Criminals Raffio Navarro, and big boss Zolo Manuel, wanted him rubbed out as revenge. But Velasco didn’t know when and he didn’t know how. Could Trudy and Javid aid the Jade Jaguar?
***
Trudy’s contact in Mexico is Zara Bloome, New York Times reporter…
Who still wants to finish her story about the murder Javid did in the Eiffel Tower^. She’s going to go publish it (after all, he drunkenly confessed), unless they can provide an alternate explanation…with witnesses. She tells them to check out Manuel’s Transmission on the edge of town.
Heroically, Trudy begs her friend Aldous’s sister Bea to fabricate evidence that the slain Nazi was killed in a drug deal gone bad. What are friend’s siblings for if it isn’t avoiding international incidents?
This takes time. The players hustle, and get to Manuel’s ten minutes before closing, and try and infiltrate it.
The players think of a plan where they try three different things… None of which are coordinated.
The lawyer charms his way into the garage, asking Rafio to bring out his boss. (‘Sorry Jaguar, boss ain’t here.’)
Trudy sneaks in as well.
Javid provides sniper support… Until realizing the garage, being indoors, is out of range.
Velasco leaves the office, with Rafio…leaving Trudy inside, but she’s not actually good at the investigating part. She blows a lot of fate points to learn some limited information: the attack will happen between Tuesday and Thursday of next week.
The next lead is to rescue the judge himself. None of the trio are good at driving, so it takes longer than it should to get through the Mexican countryside, out to the hinterlands. They examine the little ranch Abelardo set up for himself, check to see if there are any nearby cars or visitors (nope), then knock on the door…
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Yep. The judge is going to die anyway, within months, so it takes some convincing for him to leave at all. The players persuade him that he can travel anywhere in the world he wants, and he suggests Cairo.
They successfully got him to the airport, but their escape vector, the Alan lrani, has a boot on it.The gangsters even had pull in the aviation bureau. Trudy’s keen senses let them know about the ambush just in time to duck for cover. Summoning his jaguar strength, Tácito smashed the parking boot off the jet’s wheel.
Javid provides covering fire with his rifle while the reporter and the lawyer rush the judge onto the plane. On board, Trudy calls out hostiles. Jonesy, an ANZAC vet who’s not used to being intimidated, bullies the hot rods off the tarmac with his jet engines. The heroes escape, with only a few holes in the DC-3.
Trudy calls in a favor, asking Professor Callahan if he’d mind a little favor flight from Los Angeles to Egypt? He agreed.
The group drove back to Mexico City, since their plane was a target.
The gangsters had used that time wisely: they used their political connections to get Tácito's brujo mentor arrested for witchcraft! It’s not like a mystic spirit boxer would be a target in prison… But fighting federal charges would take tons of time and focus. Was there a better way to fight it? Trudy suggested the press! This was obviously a political hit. if they made it a hot button issue among the Indigenous and personal liberty activists, the charges would evaporate.
Within a day, the front page of the New York Times international section read
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Their opponents had one more trick. The group was relaxing at Tácito's home, playing lawn darts, when the phone rang. Manuel had taken Tácito's secretary hostage. He should show up to work very soon or she’d be taking permanent sick leave from the ninth-story window.
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This is where the players’ incompetence helped them.
Because Javid hadn’t gotten the chance to shoot anyone at the mechanic shop… the gangsters had no idea the group had a sniper.
Conversely, Javid didn’t know that the gangsters
also had a sniper! He pretended to be a Sicario from out of town, and told the guy to go down a floor… Then locked the rooftop access. Maybe it was professional courtesy, but didn’t seem right to shoot the guy.
***
Tácito had a gorgeous office overlooking the Zócalo. From the lobby, to the elevator, to his waiting room, were two lines of Zootsuited gangsters.
They cheered sarcastically as he and Trudy faced off against the kingpin and his elite guard. Towering over everyone was a six-foot-eight Palurdo. Tied in Tácito’s chair was his secretary, Valeria. One way to solve this.
Zolo Manuel was a cowardly secuestrador, but a sharp-tongued bastard. He sent his legbreakers against the lawyer, while he focused on attacking the Jade Jaguar’s spirit. It was an extremely potent tactic. he pointed out all of the Abogado’s insecurities… But Tácito wasn’t alone!
Trudy Truman saw the vandalized office as a series of weapons. A jaguar statue was a bludgeon. The letter opener was a dagger…
but also like weapons were the crook’s weapons! She received a nasty gash in her arm.
Javid Kulfi, ace sniper, tried to even score. And while he could fire into the melee, he had to shoot out the windows… giving the Palurdo an idea.
The giant picked up the secretary, chair and all, and tried to hurl her out the window! Javid had only one chance to stop him… And gambled on a deadeye shot, aiming for a cabinet behind the man’s left knee. The wood splintered, and the man wrenched backwards… ending up pinned!
The lawyer threw lefts and rights at the stream of thugs. He could keep up the physical battle all day, but the verbal abuse cut deep.
One of the crooks had the bright idea of closing the blinds against the sniper. Trudy had to use old track skills to cross the room, get over the broken glass from the smashed diplomas and grab the curtain rod… then dash the other way across the room, before snapping the thing off and throwing to the street below.
Tácito body checked a crook into a bookcase, giving the Australian reporter a chance to free the secretary… who at Trudy’s insistence, called the police.
This turned the tide. The hallway and elevator Pendejos vanished. Tácito finally fought to a numbers advantage… giving Javid time to line up his shot. Manuel lurched forward, perhaps with an unknown fighting style… Then stumbled past the lawyer, a rose blooming on the crook’s forehead.
On the other side of the world, judge Abelerdo gazed at the pyramids, tuning out the British professor's rant about how
he could’ve built them in half the time.
^In “
Fear and terror at fashion week!”
