As the Professor recovers, and Sinead is missing somewhere in Los Angeles, the next port of call is Pierre Baptiste...the French cameraman on the ill fated 'Prince of Babylon' movie. McDade, McLeoud and Pavlov 'Paulie' with the Tommy gun, get the reclusive Frenchman's address from Winwood the Producer...and find a deserted warehouse well south of LA.
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| A premier example of an early 20th century Scottish 'Technical' deployed in the Mojave Desert...AI says |
Entering, it looks like Baptiste has surrounded himself with his trade - photographs, reels of spent film, cameras...and...he might have just topped himself, though they determine he is drunk and the shot missed, whacking an expensive camera instead.
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| 'Can't yoo zee ahh am bizzeeee?' |
They soon determine that he is as mad as a box of madness, and is only semi coherent when drunk...so they feed him the expensive brandy they brought, and find out about a very specific 'lens' which von Varnstein (the dead Director) had ordered in order to see 'something' on the desert set. Baptiste designed it, to von Varnstein's peculiar specification - but never saw a thing.
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| The lens...certainly not suitable for strapping to a firearm...oh no no No, the vibration, the lack of zeroing, the potential for falling off..yeah, f**k that sh1t |
Swapping a 2nd bottle of brandy for the lens, Baptiste tells them he is 'never going back' to the site...mind you. all the characters want is the lens, reasoning that they can both re-watch the film, and get the jump on the so called 'spectral horrors' that must have been the reasoning behind the curse.
Outside, they realise they have been followed by Roseanne Bartlet - a Holywood reporter with a New Yawk accent...who wants the story on the 'ghost-hunters' that Winwood has hired...she could be useful so the party agree that she can tag along (extra SANs always helps).
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| 'All I want is the story dahling!' |
At Atlas studios, despite the ravings of James Raven (the only main surviving actor) they find the receipts to the lens in von Varnstein's garbage bin, and determine to re-watch the movie excerpts with the lens in place on the projector...they then see what they are dealing with - the invisible spectral horrors are revealed by the lens (SAN ROLLS!!!)...and clearly something to do with the dead Indian tribe near the set.
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| ...also mad as a box of ticks... |
Time for Library use...they determine that indeed, the invisible stalkers have benefited from a spell, and the tribe was not altogether wholesome to begin with.
Preparing to leave, they also notice that ...Conswella,... Coinsuella, ...Kawn se....'Winwood's Head of the House' is wearing an elder sign... of sorts.
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| Nothing to see here... |
Time for action. The journalist and Paulie accompany McLeoud and McDade to the film set...though McLeoud makes some 'modifications' to the vehicle that Winwood has loaned them..raising the trunk, and securing the Lewis gun on the roof, then strapping the lens to Lewis gun (securely of course), and loading up with 1 in 5 tracer rounds...'FOLLOW MY TRACER!' What can go wrong.
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| Looks like my back garden, to be fair... |
Confident in their early version of the 1980s African 'Technical' vehicle they have developed (TM) in 1925, they find the movie set 40 miles to the south of LA...and drive around slowly...as partial remnants of wooden castles and offices flap in the dry wind...then...'worm sign' as McLeoud sees a faint flicker of a blue tinged head near a sand dune, then a lolloping clawed arm...'CONTACT!' ...what could go wrong?
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| "That's...not so good...' |
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| This is the original 1925 Scottish version of the 'Technical'...aye |
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| It's only a model... |
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