You get away from the failed raid with little incident. As you put distance between you and the scene, the ORMO was starting to react and mobilize to the gunfire, then subsequently a structure fire. But you don’t know what happened after that.

Your group lacks a contact in the ORMO, and that is a real gap in your intel scheme.

Behind the scenes, my brother and I correspond by email to advance the plot between game sessions. These are two email responses to his actions post-raid.

Taking a wounded prisoner through the checkpoint into the old city could be problematic and draw attention, but doable. Alternatively, you might take her instead to your rented storage space outside the walls with less risk and fanfare.

On the car ride, with her being wounded from the gunshot to the leg, a touch of shock, and surrounded by unknowns… I figure you can get some basic answers from her.

I just drew her motivation cards. Impressive. Very composed given the circumstances, smart, and charismatic. Her situation has changed, and she’s ready to deal.

Her name is Elizka Madejowa. She was married, but was widowed by the war. Elizka works for the Guz, as you surmised, and that was his main HQ. She works security, and claims she was a section head. The guy you had briefly before he died, was Natan, the Guz’s chief of security (and her boss as well).

Elizka is unhappy you went through the back with little trouble, and asks you about that. The dock guards were supposed to be wearing nightvision, but had been known to set them aside due to the discomfort. And who’d attack the Guz’s HQ anyway? Never happened before.

Sgt Cutler was there, as was the Guz himself, although she doubts they are there any longer. Elizka is clearly confused as to who are, and what faction you represent. But she warns that you are in a lot of trouble. The Guz will be looking for who violated his HQ. He has extensive contacts throughout the city to draw on. And he’ll realize Elizka is missing.

I’ll assume Maks is keeping the cross-talk hushed, so folks aren’t yakking in English. And she’s blindfolded. But there will have been a few slips here and there after picking her up on the raid. You can’t be sure how much she knows about you. Or if she speaks languages other than Polish.

That’s the info you glean w/o giving her something in return.

What happens next? Where do you go?
Does Doc Schultz perform surgery on her leg? What do you do with her?
What precautions do you take? (If you go to the storage space, know that loud noises from your building could draw attention.)
Do you contact anybody else? Go anywhere?

19 Aug 2000. Morning.

The methanol fire. That’s scary. I’m upgrading the fire from our prior consensus. You still don’t know precisely what happened, but your crew heard a whump after you left, and it was clear the fire was burning furiously.

I’m assuming you haven’t done anything other than dump the stolen vehicle (nothing of note inside), secure Elizka’s cooperation, and hole up in the storage building. To get from the scene in Stradom to your storage building in Swiat – w/o going into the old city – required a roundabout trip north, west, then south around the old city. There’s a fair amount of traffic and people even at night, and plenty of opportunities to dump the vehicle. None that would hide the vehicle for a long time, but maybe leave the keys in the ignition?

You don’t think you were noticed approaching or entering the storage building, with a high degree of confidence. It’s a busy area (Think: All the associated people and business on the Mexican side of a port-of-entry.) The fire was a big distraction to the ORMO, which was mobilizing its fire units so the city doesn’t burn down.

Emerging from the storage building will be another matter. The Guz doesn’t run the city, but his tentacles run deep into the city council and ORMO. With the fire suppressed, eyes will be watching. Tomorrow (Sunday, 20 Aug) is supposed to be that impromptu outdoor mass with the Pope, with the associated security needs.

Yes, Elizka was on the dock, which I’d forgotten. I’m retconning it that she had just shown up out on the dock to speak w/ the guard when y’all attacked, otherwise why weren’t they wearing their night vision if she’s their supervisor?

Elizka seems earnestly and openly cooperative. The Guz isn’t needlessly brutal or paranoid, but her absence won’t be taken well. The KGB (and to a lesser extent, the CIA and Rapacki), they’re always nibbling at The Guz’s personnel, and the first assumption a furious Guz will believe is that Elizka turned coat and opened a vulnerability into the HQ. She’s ready to follow your suggestions, and offers additional insights beyond what you’re asking.

The building contained not only the Guz’s primary quarters, but some of his most valuable low-bulk gear. Medicine. Radios. Spices. Drugs. Exotic weapons. Stacks of Krakow ration chits, gold, and other valuables. If that all burned up in the fire, it will represent a serious loss to his organization. The Guz is not given to tantrums, but his fury will be great. His first go-to target will surely be KGB, who have been his greatest adversary. He won’t suspect Krakow city government.

Cutler was in decent shape last she saw. The Reset device is some kind of WMD he somehow acquired from the Russians she believes. Cutler had been trying to sell it to the highest bidder in Krakow, had been pretty cagey about only setting up meets with factions using paid stand-ins. But clearly it wasn’t enough, and The Guz’s men bagged him. Cutler – in his captivity thus far – hadn’t believed The Guz’s promises of money, so the less damaging forms of duress were beginning to be used: Water, sleep deprivation, etc. And then you guys attacked. There’s no reason to believe The Guz already had the Reset device.

Elizka’s working assumption is that you guys are CIA, or perhaps some unknown faction, but I’m assuming you are neither confirming nor denying.

She know of two warehouses that The Guz uses. One is in the ruins south of the river (much like where you did your gang fight), in Debniki, marked with a lime circle. The other is up in Warszawskie. The Guz compartmentalizes his organization, so surely there are more. She has no insight as to where he’d go (with Cutler), and that’s probably by design.

The Guz’s only weakness you can ascertain is that he’s bound up in the paradigm of the factions sparring in the city. Cutler and the Reset device have charged the atmosphere. The killings of the Americans, turning to open fighting in the underworld in recent days, and then your brazen assault on The Guz’s HQ last night… the atmosphere in the city is likely to be volatile.