[Necrogigas]

O'Connor secured the weapons of the two kids and marched them back towards the group at gunpoint, "Hey Boss Lady, glad to see you're up. What'cha want to do with these two? Taking them with us is a bad idea, and shooting them is probably kinder than just leaving them here for the jungle to devour."

[Mercy Merchant]

Snow nods at Jane. "Some party.  Things were going swimmingly until we blacked out from the heat and crashed the party bus.  We were just about to get things moving again when some heavies crashed the party.  Then an even bigger heavy crashed the party and now it is just us again.  We should be.................."

Her attention is torn to Con and the two prisoners he has with him.  It hurts her to see boys used in this way, but they had both been prepared to share in raping her a short while ago and she is probably not the first woman to suffer that indignity.  Still, they are young.  She shrugs. "If it were up to me, I would think that turning them lose would be fitting.  They were eyeing me like they were ready to jump in and get their sloppy tenths or so after the leaders were done with me.  They might live if they stay to the road.  On the other hand, they might be able to give us some information.  Do you want me to try to talk to them?"

[farothel]

"Good idea, Snow," Sammy said, "see if you can find out if there are more problems ahead on the road.  We might as well know what's going to happen than blunder into it."

[Necrogigas]

O'Connor smiled wickedly, "Why spoil the surprise? Why ruin the adventure? We didn't know this would happen and look at how much fun we had." He turned to Clem, "Mind tying up the prisoners?" Once she was finished with the two boys, O'Connor suddenly turned his rifle on Ahmjay. He advanced menacingly"Snow, translate. You had better explain how we ended up crashing without being run off the road, and then have these bandits show up. They got here late, but given how effective they were, they must've been rather incompetent to being with. You'd best convince me this wasn't a set-up by your boss."

[Mercy Merchant]

Snow nods and translates what Con is saying, although she is a bit slower due to the software.  After finishing, she adds a few words of her own. "I would listen to him, Ahmjay.  He can be very mean and the arrival of those bandits is certainly suspicious."

She turns to CON.  "I told him what you said and added that you are very mean.  It came out a bit different, something like you are like the mean half of a two-headed serpent god the natives worship.  I hope he was not involved, although I would not put it past the guy who rented us the truck and its driver."

[Thvor]

Sam had done his best to help get the truck back together despite the soreness he was feeling. He let Con deal with poking through the wreckage--he still felt queasy every time he inadvertently looked at where the leader had been--but when people started talking, he became more interested. Unfortunately, he didn't have enough experience with the languages involved (yet) to take the lead, but he'd always found that how people responded to questions gave almost as much information as what they actually said, sometimes more.

[spoiler]Refresh my memory--what language(s) does Ahmjay use? I'm assuming Sam hasn't been around him long enough to pick it up (due to the linguistics ability, he needs 5 hours of exposure before he can try to acquire it). Regardless, he'll be watching Ahmjay's reactions closely.[/spoiler]

[Mercy Merchant]

The local language is Yaruba, but apparently French is still spoken here as well.  I do not know if the boy speaks anything else.

[Crossbow]

Ahmjay starts babbling frighteningly as soon as he realizes that Con means to shoot him.  When Snow starts translating to him, he goes from simple fear to fearful denial, when the suggestion that he is working with their attackers is relayed to him, Torley picks up notes of disgust and disbelief in the denials.  Ahmjay points to a mark on the shoulder of each of the boys, visible under the rags they are wearing. “I would rather die than work with Igbo scum.” the driver tells Snow as he spits on the ground in the boys’ direction.

Jane had been taking things in and letting you take the lead, but at this point she steps between Con and Ahmjay, pushing the barrel aside as she did. “I don’t know if Dobiri would ever try a game like this, but he wouldn’t dare cross Black Mamba, you probably don’t know her, but she is a player here in Africa and not one to mess with.  This is just some bad luck, jet lag and maybe some jungle spirit or Awakened plant thrown in for good measure.  Besides, if Ahmjay had been in on anything else, he would have worn a seatbelt to keep him from getting hurt in the crash.”

Looking at the boys, she shrugs and says “They were probably pirates like the ones we are looking to travel with, their lives might be worth something to their captain, or not.”

[Necrogigas]

O'Connor shrugged at Jane, "Whatever you say Boss Lady." He lowered his rifle and turned to examine the mark on the prisoners that Ahmjay pointed out, "Igbo, that the name of this pirate crew?"

[Mercy Merchant]

Snow lets her breath out and realizes that she had not known she was holding it.  She looks from Ahmjay to the two prisoners.  "Boss, do you think it would be useful to question these two to see what they can tell us of what we can expect if we continue on this path?"

[farothel]

"Do that," Sammy said, "but I'm going to do some astral scouting.  Keep an eye out here, I'll be right back."
She put herself in the truck, strapped her body in and slipped out.  Only in the astral, she moved over the road, checking for other strange creatures, metahumans, drones or other things that might impede their progress.  As astral travel was much faster than the truck could go, she tried to cover as much ground as possible before she had to go back, encountered something she had to warn the others about or until her spirit reached the coast, whichever came first.

[spoiler]
I've done 3 assensing rolls, to look for things along the way.
assensing: 3#6d6t5 1 3 3
As said, I'll try to cover the rest of the trip to the coast, or as much of it as I can before I encounter something or have to come back.
[/spoiler]

[Mercy Merchant]

Snow nods and walks over to the two boys, kneeling next to them, speaking in their language.  "My name is Snow.  I am a doctor and want to look at your injuries.  Will you let me treat you?" Whiles she is taking care of their wounds, she nods her head towards Con. "That man is very angry that you tried to kill us.  He will agree to let you live if you tell us all you know about where these men came from.  How many there are, what sort of guns they have, how many prisoners they have.  That sort of thing.  Will you tell me?"

[Thvor]

Sam hated not being able to understand people...actually, if he were being truly honest, Sam hated not being able to be understood by others. So he listened carefully as Snow talked with Ahmjay and the boys, watching their body language as well to try to pick up the non-verbal communication that went with the sounds and their translations.

[Crossbow]

Sammy's Astral Scouting is relatively useful.  The road ahead quickly becomes astrally impossible to follow with no real landmarks and the overgrowth.  But then she rises above the jungle and quickly finds the coast and what looks like the cove they are heading for, with 3-4 boats and a few dozen people around them.

Back in the clearing, Torley, from his position, reaches the same conclusion that Jane gives voice to, "I don't think those boys speak the language you are using, Igbo is a tribe in this area, but their speakers are not important enough to have the corps develop a linguasoft for it.  I would assume the ones in Lagos use a type of cityspeak, but I do know the Yoruba, like Ahmjay, do not get along with the Ibgo at all.  It was in the briefing files I gave you."

[farothel]

After her scouting, Sammy returned to her body.  Not all that much time had passed, as astral movement was so much faster than real movement.
"It's difficult to follow the road on the astral," she said, "there is a lot of life and the road can hardly be called that, so it's not easy to follow.  But I did manage to get to the coast and look around there.  I saw 4 boats with a couple of dozen of people around them.  So we'll have to be careful upon our approach, as they would outnumber us.  And from what I understood here they will all be armed."