Char Li's Angels: The Skull of Saint Diana - Part XIV

Charlie Crocker, the Scraver Boss contact Belvoir has found, invites him to a sit-down meeting. They talk “hypotheticals” but Belvoir learns that the Scraver was a middle man hired to provide the team that stole the relic, but that the Guild was nothing to do with the massacre outside the church. Crocker refers to the party that hired him was a Noble House who were old enemies of both the Hawkwoods and Justinians, which Belvoir takes to mean House Decados...

Belvoir and Crocker have tea and sandwiches...

Boss Crocker also recommends an exclusive Scraver speak-easy to Belvoir and he excuses himself to go and sample their wares. 

Meanwhile Sir Zillah and Canon Alexi(u)s were visiting Saint Regeo’s Cathedral. They speak to a member of the clerical staff who promises to find out information about Baron Tochiro’s attempts to have the ceremony hosted there for them and send the details to them at their ship. Alexi(u)s also takes the opportunity to send a coded letter in response to Bishop Richelieu. With their Psi enhanced senses, Zillah looks to see if it is the same code used on the note that Colonel Sir Fe Zhou left them, but it is not.

Back at the ship Sir Ulrich welcomes Bishop Arcellius and Baronet Chi-Fu aboard while Bas secludes himself in the Captain’s Office. The Baronet in particular proves to be a very demanding guest; he seems unhappy with everything about staying aboard the Blessed Saint Horace and insists on having frequent and unrestricted access to the ship’s communications array (to both keep in contact with the rest of the fleet and to send regular reports back to Midian). In turn Ulrich contacts the Lord Admiral Baron Chan for support in dealing with the Baronet and how they should comply with his requests.  He is surprised to be given short shrift at to be told to get on with things; the Admiral thought that Count Char’s people were meant to be capable and resourceful, he does not expect to have to nanny them.  Ulrich detects that not all is well with the Lord Admiral.

Zillah and Alexi(u)s return to the Blessed Saint Horace and share details of their investigations so far with Ulrich. They then take the opportunity to converse with the Bishop in the ship’s chapel.  He expresses his disappointment in the fact that due to the fact that Baron Tochiro arranged things so rapidly, and then events spiralled from there, it’s unlikely that he will be able to pay a visit to the continent of Castillo. He had hoped that while on Ravenna he would have had the opportunity to make a personal pilgrimage there. 

Data about the flight plan of the suspect Wagon of Paulus finally arrives from the Charioteer’s Guild. It is in the form of reams of raw data but Ulrich eagerly sets to deciphering it all. They learn that the shuttle craft fled south from the city at a low altitude, heading across the southern pole then northwards over the continent of Follari South then on to Follari North. When it reached the ruins of the devastated Muster Deep Core city “106” it headed up into orbit, apparently intending to use the radiation and other energies emanating from the ruins to mask it’s trail. Ulrich contacts the Tiger of Tashrak and speaks to the First Officer, explaining what he has discovered and asking if the ship can check their own sensor logs to see if they might have detected the Wagon of Paulus or even a ship it may have rendezvoused with. Ulrich also sends word to the Charioteers requesting any similar traffic data they may have.

The Wagon of Paulus flight plan, as gleaned from the Charioteer's data

The Baronet demands to speak with Belvoir, who does not appear to have returned from the city. Messengers are sent out to try to locate him in one of the local taverns but eventually Ulrich (who has studied the ship and now knows it in more detail than any of the crew) finds him asleep at a Jet Jockey station.  The yeoman is sleeping off yet another binge, having snuck back aboard via the manoeuvring thruster bays. When he eventually answers the summons, the Baronet tells Belvoir that his inclusion in the mission was solely because Chi-Fu wanted him there.  He put pressure on Count Rem Dei Kun Char to include him as he has personal need of his particular skill set and capabilities.  The Baronet requires some “Severan Poppy” and commissions Belvoir to acquire him some urgently. He provides 50 Firebirds, saying that any left from the purchase is his to keep and then swears him to secrecy.

Even though it is now late into the evening Belvoir heads back into the city, taking care to avoid the notice of the mobs of zealots still roaming the streets looking to persecute aliens, guilders and outsiders. With his increasing familiarity with the seedy side of Suryada he easily finds a dealer but, due to the church’s current crack down, he finds he has to pay well over the odds for the drugs, securing only three of the half dozen doses the Baronet was looking for (and having to use some of his own funds to do so).