The characters have taken the info found in Holbrook Alder’s apartment back to Corvin Barrack. These include personal checks written to “Vangelos Engineering.” Barrack explains that Vangelos Engineering is run by one Scott Vangelos, a brilliant but eccentric bio-technical and electrical engineer once employed by a company called “ProtoTech Global.” He was eventually fired by ProtoTech, owing, in part, to his addiction to “Lightyear”, a drug that seems to stretch time.
Vangelos, apparently, has set up his own company and is – or was – getting paid by Alder out of money Alder was taking from CyCorp. It seems like maybe Alder was just embezzling, but the amounts he was taking from CyCorp matched exactly the checks written to Vangelos. Barrack thinks the characters should go visit Vangelos to learn more.
This they do, as night falls quickly over the city streets.
A little research suggests that Vangelos’ “office” is on a corner in one of Chengou’s dirtier districts. As they approach the area, they notice that it is strangely empty excepting one homeless man under a dim streetlight. He sits propped against a garbage can with his legs covered in filthy blankets. When he sees the characters, he beckons them over.
Soo cautiously obliges, and the beggar, seeming drunk, says “thirsty, drink?” Soo offers water, but he doesn’t seem to want that. When Soo asks about Vangelos, the beggar begins ranting.
“Thirsty. It wasn’t me…”
“Have you seen it!? It wasn’t me! The gray bird, thirsty.”
Soo notices he wears a cheap looking necklace of a bird. When pressed further on Vangelos, the beggar, seeming to recognize the name says,
“Stays inside. Gives us a drink sometimes. Wasn’t me! Have you seen it?”
Having at least confirmed that Vangelos’ office is somewhere around here, they begin to search the area.
There’s a table and chairs set up as though there had been people here earlier. There are also a few mostly empty vending machines in the corner along with an old truck parked beside a dumpster. On the other side of the dumpster is a door. They assume this must be the place, and after managing to pick the lock, they enter Vangelos’ workshop.
No one appears to be inside and except for the glow of computer screens, and numerous small LEDs, the room is dark. It is also quiet with only the faint whirring of small fans and dull hum of power supplies. The floors and walls are made of concrete, and what appears to be an operating table with a coffee stained, cigarette burned mattress, and dirty yellow pillow, sits directly across from the door. On the immediate left is a pile of scrap metal parts and next to that a long work bench.
The characters turn on their flashlights and begin to look for the main light switch when Yung makes a grisly discovery. On the ground in the far-left corner of the room at the end of the workbench is a man, face down in a pool of blood. They don’t know for sure, but they suspect this is Vangelos himself. They confirm this by turning the body over and comparing with what pictures they can find on their phones.
Somewhat alarmingly, the kill looks pretty recent. On guard the characters begin to search the workshop. On the work bench are several semi-complete “projects.” Some look like artificial limbs, some are test apparatus and others are hard to identify. The computers on the back wall are all on and a few papers are lying about. Most of these have symbols and equations relating to mechanics and fluid dynamics. They also find a syringe of what must be the “Lightyear” drug that Vangelos was supposedly addicted to.
Looking further amongst the papers, Kolchak finds a few oddities. One is a clipping from a very old newspaper on the Shakleton expedition to the Antarctic. Another is a burned piece of parchment from what appears to be an even older manuscript with strange symbols and a drawing of perhaps an arm. Another very old, torn, but unburned parchment depicts a jester like figure in medieval clothing. A book on Greek mythology is also found.
Looking around the operating table Murphy finds a clipboard wedged underneath the mattress. Taking it out he sees that the back is painted in the darkest black he has ever seen. It reflects no perceptible light, appearing as a rectangular black hole in space. It’s solid enough, however, as Murphy taps the back. On the front he finds a few crude drawings, presumably made by Vangelos himself. They seem to similar sketches of a many armed, many headed creature.
As the party searches, every wary of whoever might have killed Vangelos, they hear a slight buzzing, accompanied by some apparent movement in the pile of scrap metal by the door.
Soo moves forward to investigate and as he does the file of scrap falls to the floor revealing what looks to be a partially assembled – or badly damaged – robot. Both of the robot’s legs are missing, one arm is bent behind its back while the other one appears to be missing a hand. A few shreds of synthetic skin hang from its face. One red eye flickers and jerks wildly about while only strands of broken wires hang from the other eye socket. Glowing light from an LED somewhere it its broken torso can also be seen.
In a mechanical voice the robot begins speaking, though many of the words are broken as its voice module intermittently malfunctions….
“..see! Who…there? Who? ..ker! Ma..?”
Soo comes closer and sees there is writing on the robots frame. The paint is scuffed but it appears to say “IUNUX.”
“…ker? Come…”
Soo attempts to communicate with the machine, but to little avail.
“Hek..rees ..bos…mos…T..los!!”
Seeing he’s not getting anywhere Soo tries to pull the robot from the scrap pile…
“T..los book. Paid! I’ll pa..you!!”
With that the arm that was behind the robot’s back swings forward, it’s mechanical hand holding a bloody knife.
It swings at Soo making a cut and Soo drops the robot. It continues trying to swing as Soo retreats and the other characters open fire.
“T..los! ..ker! Now I see! Pay!”
The robot eventually succumbs to the hail of bullets. It’s voice slows and cracks as the lights behinds its eyes and torso grow dim and go out.
Soo and the others move forward to examine the thing. The knife in its hand was bloody before it stabbed Soo. Did it kill Vangelos, or was it someone else’s blood on the knife? What did all that gibberish mean? These would be the questions foremost in the characters minds. At least until the robot’s body is physically examined...and no power source can be found.
