ENTRY 6: THE HEAT WAVE
----------------------

We join all of our party save Alistair (who was off getting his nails
manicured and chatting about African Safaris) on the morning of
Wednesday, 28 January, 1925.

Jim noticed that there were three ill-dressed plainclothes police
officers watching Elizabeth's apartment, and as the others are
discussing options for friends in Harlem, remembered 'Old Willie', who
works in his (Jim's) dept. at the University. The group decided to
split up for the morning, and Jim decided to research Erica Carlyle
and Victoria Post in _Who's Who_. He discovered that Erica, 26, is the
sole heir to the Carlyle fortune, and is very eligible. He also
discovered that she devotes much of her time to charity work. He
looked up Victoria Post and found that Ms. Post is Erica's 'confidant'
(chaperone of sorts), and is 29. Jim then wisely decided to look at
the society pages; they proved more fruitful. He gleaned that Erica is
very well adjusted and well liked by all- she does a good job of
managing the family fortune, is social at the appropriate times, and
is philanthropic. Despite this, she is somewhat reclusive, frequently
speaking through either Victoria or her lawyer, Bradley Grey. Jim made
the important discovery that she is having a charity ball at her
estate in 6 days.

While Jim was researching, Jonathan unsuccessfully attempted to
identify the mysterious yacht in the picture at the port
authority. Adrian sent a telegram about the Penhew Foundation, and
researched its reputation a bit. (It is a well known, well funded
organization known for funding some slightly more eccentric
expeditions.) Katya visited the charming and handsome Dr. Mordecai
Lemming, and learned volumes of very useful information about the
Rosicrucians and just how knowledgable Dr. Lemming is. She fled the
scene rapidly. Elizabeth went to the NY office of Medical Affairs, and
charmed a Mr. Ferris into letting her have access to the controversial
files of Dr. Huston (the Carlyle party psychiatrist) . She learned
that Erica saw Dr. Huston because she was troubled by her relationship
with her brother, and persuaded Dr. Huston to see Roger.

Huston's notes on Roger were very strange, gradually ending with the
bombshell that Roger and Huston were playing games with one another;
Roger had threatened 'exposure' of some kind to get Huston to embark
on the expedition, and Huston was worried that if he went, 'all
semblance of analysis' would be lost. Freaky dreams were mentioned in
the notes that sound quite a bit like things our heros have
experienced lately...

Jim met with the others at Elizabeth's house for lunch, and chatted
with all very wittily. In the afternoon, he decided to to talk to 'Old
Willie' in his department. When he arrived, the secretary fluttered
around and informed Jim that his apartment had been broken into, and
that the police were looking for him. He then went down the hall in
search of Old Willie. Jim obtained a very, very important piece of
information from Old Willie; that Fat Isabel's serves patrons of many
colors during the dinner hour, when people who live in the Bronx cross
through Harlem to get home. After discovering that important piece of
news, Jim went to his apartment to check things out. He discovered
that it had indeed been broken into, and turned upside down by at
least several people. He blocked the window so that more cold would
not get in, and headed back to Elizabeth's apartment to meet with the
others.

While Jim was doing this, Jonathan performed some research on Kenya
and discovered many useful things, having learned his research skills
from Jim. He discovered that the word Chicota generally translates to
either 'hunger spirit' or 'many mouths', and that the rune that's been
carved into corpse heads is generally associated with a certain
offshoot of an unnamed cult from -*Third Dynasty Egypt*-, and was then
driven out of Egypt (to the -*south*-). It was particularly associated
with worship of 'The Black Pharoah', who ruled Egypt at the time, and
reportedly lived many many lifetimes. Elizabeth went back to the
Medical Records Office, and discovered the name and (rather mundane)
story of Emilda Bosch, Huston's lady patient who killed
herself. Adrian sharpened his tongue and met with gossip columnist
Laura Lowe. He enthralled her with his wit and found out that Raoul
Pennair was still at CCNY, and that rumors flew a few years ago that
Huston went on the Carlyle expedition because Carlyle didn't trust him
to be alone.

After talking with Jim, everyone decided to do different things with
the evening as well. Jim decided to go to the police station and see
what they wanted him about. It turned out that an Officer Corban
wanted to see Jim to talk about what was missing from his
apartment. Threatened with dull paperwork, Jim funnily filled out
three or four times as much as necessary, making sure all of his
damaged yams were accouted for. The Officer informed Jim that the yams
were probably unretrievable, and that they were doing all they could.

While Jim was at the police station, Katya and Jonathan decided to eat
dinner at Fat Isabel's (which they felt confident doing thanks to
Jim's contribution).  The food was good, and greasy. Katya (not
surprisingly) made.... um.... friends, yeah friends, with two
gentlemen from Harlem named Theodore and Malcom. They walked her home,
with Jonathan trailing just out of sight. They discovered that Fat
Isabel herself waits tables and the skinny guy mentioned in the last
summary is actually a cook.

Back at Elizabeth's place, Elizabeth decided that after dinner she and
Katya should go and pay a visit to 'Billy', a jazz musician friend of
Elizabeth's, who was playing at Under the Table. Though Katya did wind
up spending the night with Billy, he did not have any useful
information about Magonga or Fat Isabel's. He generously offered to
kill people or find information for Elizabeth and her beautiful
friend; Elizabeth and Katya demurred on the offer for now.

That night, Adrian and Katya had A DREAM. It was awful. It caused SAN
loss. In it, Katya and Adrian make it to the Mtn of the Black
Winds. (Or the mountain appears and they're there at the right time.)
They are joined by their brothers and sisters from all over the world,
and begin worshipping the mountain. A large staircase appears, and
they (both Katya & Adrian and their siblings in worship) ran up the
stairs babbling. The black god appears, at the top of the
staircase. He is more than 10 mountains in height, and has no eyes or
mouth- just an incredibly long, bloody tongue. They continue running
up the staircase, watching as others are randomly scooped up in the
black god's hand to be inspected. If found worthly or pleasing, they
worshippers are dropped into the maw at the end of the bloody tongue,
falling down into eternity. Adrian and Katya are scooped up by the
hand and dropped into the maw...........

Not being used to the ravages of war in Russia and sundry other
places, Adrian did not fare as well in the aftermath of the dream as
Katya. Katya woke up, was unable to wake Billy, and so drank every
ounce of liquor in his house. When that didn't work, she took some
heroin she found in his room, and slept the rest of the night (and
morning) in peace.

As I said before, Adrian did not fare quite as well. He woke up
screaming at 3:30am, and ran around the house turning all of the
lights on. Jonathan attempted to discern the nature of the
problem. When Adrian saw Jonathan, he freaked out and ran out of the
apartment in his nightclothes, screaming. Jim bravely ran after him,
but Adrian (being insane at this point) was extremely quick, and Jim
lost him in the stairwell. Upon leaving the building, Jim saw no sign
of Adrian, but did see 3 shadowy figures watching Elizabeth's
apartment. Furious, Jim stalked up to the unmarked car containing the
police officers, and found them sleeping.  Waking them up, Jim
enlisted them to help find Adrian, who apparently decided that walking
around New York City in January in one's night clothes is a good thing
to do.

Jim eventually caught up with Adrian, and tackled him to the
ground. Adrian, still freaking out, fought Jim like a cornered badger,
making it absolutely necessary for Jim to punch Adrian in the face
with all of his might. Now bleeding and bruised on his face as well as
suffering from severe frostbite on his feet, Adrian managed to get
away from Jim's grasp and ran away, hiding near a trash can full of
burning something with a bunch of bums.

After several minutes, Adrian came to, and started vaguely wandering
back to Elizabeth's apartment. Jim saw Adrian, pursued him, tackled
the now weak and near-hypothermic Adrian to the ground again,
valiantly punched him unconscious, thus ensuring that Adrian would no
longer be a danger to himself or anyone else.  It was at this time
that the police officer caught up with Jim, having had far too many
meals at places like Fat Isabel's. Adrian got carried back to
Elizabeth's apartment, where Jim gently shook him awake and pushed him
through the door. When Adrian saw Jonathan, he freaked out again,
managed to run out into the stairwell, but Jim caught him more quickly
this time (with the help of Jonathan), and eventually managed to get
everyone back into the warm, locked apartment.

Jim decided that it was probably better for the medical doctor to
treat Adrian's frostbite than either he or Jonathan, and revived
Elizabeth. Elizabeth filled a tub with cool water, and took care of
Adrian. After hearing about the dream, Elizabeth was too afraid to go
back to sleep, so while Jim and Jonathan got some much needed and much
deserved rest, she and Adrian reminisced about England while they made
scones.

The next morning (Thursday, 29 January 1925), Katya returned from
Billy's, Elizabeth got a telegraph from her father asking for more
information on giving money to the Carlyle foundation, and the group
gathered around a breakfast table to discuss the next round of
plans. Poole had not yet returned.