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Sipowicz lets loose another shot from his pistol. It hits the hood.

The carnie's car drives into Hal and Sipowicz (5 and 6 HP damage respectively.)

Sipowicz staggers, his hip fractured. He grimaces and brings up his pistol for another shot. The bullet hits the windshield, shattering it and hitting the driver (1 HP.)

Hal takes aim...

Hal doesn't panic, but in all the confusion he shoots wild

Round 3

Hal's bullet dents a fender. The carnie's jalopy is 20' away, slowly turning. It's windshield shattered, dust from the dirt road clouding view.

Sipowicz, kneeling in pain, brings up his gun to fire his last bullets. The first is a deadshot, hitting the driver in the forehead. He snaps back then slumps over the wheel. The car jerks, sputters and stops.

The passenger - an elaborately tattooed man - staggers out. He's taken a bullet to the shoulder.

Sipowicz's second shot hits the carnie in the stomach. He spits up blood and collapses dead.

"Fuck, the next time we don't barge in like a bull," Sipowicz groans, lying down on the ground holding his hip.

Hal claps Sipowicz gently on the back "Good shooting. Hospital?"

He'll dash over to the carnie's car, and take a peek inside.

Hal staggers over to the carnie’s jalopy. It’s all shot up. The dead driver is slumped over the wheel. Hal sees nothing of worth as his vision gets blurry and he loses consciousness.
Hal wakes up in a hospital room. In the next bed is Sipowicz.

“We barely managed to get out of there alive,” says Sipowicz with a pained smile. “That pharaoh is bad news, even though we don’t have proof he killed Sam. I called and reported what happened to Pinkerton central. We’re going to need more feet on the street for this. The boss says the Bureau of Investigation is involved in the bigger picture.”

"We gotta finish him, the pharaoh, but hose lunatics have probably already moved on---shit!" is Hal's first thoughts as he wakes, doubting the Pinkerton's will do anything useful except skirt round their quarry. "I'd be dead without you, Sipowicz, I owe you, big time!"

"I know you want revenge Hal, but we can't just go in and kill people," says Sipowicz. "Remember the Pinkerton motto - 'We never sleep.' We'll get our man and put those carnies out of commission."

A nurse comes in to take the temperature of the injured investigators.

"A tad high, but that is to be expected in your condition," the nurse replies. "Here take some aspirin."

The next several days Sipowicz and Hal stay in the hospital until they are in good enough shape to leave. (Each gains 4 HP.)



The two investigators catch a train back to Baltimore. During the train journey Sipowicz explains that Pinkerton is going to assign two more detectives to keep tabs and look in on the Dark Pharaoh's Freak Show and Carnivale. Pinkerton has contacted the Bureau of Investigation to apprise them of their activity, given the Dark Pharaoh was also a person of interest in the BOI case. The head of the BOI investigation, an Agent Mulder, is very interested in talking with Hal.

So two weeks after the shoot-out at the carnivale, Hal finds himself taking a train to Providence, Rhode Island, where Agent Mulder is currently based.



"Nice to meet you Mr. Lancaster," says Agent Mulder.

**In these weeks, Hal puts all of his assets in Mathilde's name---unbeknown to her---in the event of his death**


"Likewise, Sir"

“Thanks for coming in Mr. Lancaster,” says Agent Muldrer, offering Hal a cigarette, coffee and donuts. “Mr. Sipowicz briefed us on your investigation. Algier Joassaint, aka The Dark Pharaoh, is a suspected narcotics and alcohol dealer and worse. He is also a person of interest in a cult organization."

"Your own suspicions regarding Hamilton's role in the alleged murder of Sam Archer are not surprising. Mr. Archer was a consultant to the BOI in our investigation, as his own case regarding stolen museum artifacts crossed into our own. During a search and question of another person of interest, Konstantin Chertovski, Mr. Archer went rogue and shot Chertovski dead in cold blood. Mr. Archer then fled the scene and to date has not been found. The information that he was last known to be visiting the Dark Pharaoh Freak Show and Carnivale is certainly of interest."

"This cult investigation has had a disturbing knack of driving investigators to violent actions. We're not sure if the men simply crack under the pressure or if they are exposed to some agent or drug. Early in the investigation there were strong leads around narcotics. Subsequent investigation uncovered occultism, certain unexplained events, and murders." *

"Due to the esoteric nature of some elements of the investigation, we have a number of civilian consultants who have been helpful in putting forth possible theories. Some of them stretch the limits of believability, were it not for the admittedly strange happenings."

"Mr. Lancaster, I'd like to invite you to join the cadre of civilian investigators in the case. We are going to New Orleans soon and it would be a good opportunity to follow up the Dark Pharaoh connections there, among other things."

Agent Mulder hands Hal a folder. "These are notes (**) on the investigation. Feel free to review and ask me any questions."

* and **