Spare Parts

After the fight was over, and the Morrigan demanded that we reseal the eye... You know what, let's talk about that first.
Bitch could have just fucking asked. Nobody's been nice or respectful enough to ask me to do anything except Brigitte and Aziza. And what happened? Brigitte got handled in a pretty expedient manner, and not just because it was going to work in my favor or because I needed to get her body across the country before it started serious putrefaction. I did it because she asked.
Aziza is coming up on the list, after I deal with the other bastards who weren't nice enough to ask (like the crazy vroma who's sending me Guinnee).
I'm looking forward to not being one of "the kids" anymore. Fuck.

So, anyway.
Yeah. After the Morrigan cast a fucking spell on us and told us we had a year and a day to reseal the eye (and I'm so fucking tempted to let that timer run out to its end, just to piss her off, but I don't think the guys will go for it and I doubt she'd care anyways and it would just get us into deep shit when someone else absconded with the Eye), I hauled ass with Gunnar and Jack to Chicago.
Gunnar is keeping custody of the Eye for now, which was fun when we went through customs. Only not. It was kinda funny, though.
The airport guy had some problems with our haul from Ireland. Gunnar started with the story that it was something he won at an auction. Guy didn't buy it, and I wasn't really able to help at all. So Gunnar made some threats about breaking an arm, or two arms, or something like that and suddenly we were dealing with a much more amicable and pleasant individual. "I got this at the auction too," I smiled broadly as I presented the katana.

That katana, by the way, was actually pretty easy to get from Nate. All I had to do was ask. I tried to be honest, but vague. I told him I needed it to help Gunnar, but I almost told Nate, "I need to see a ghost about a hostage," which would have brought on a lot of questions I didn't have time to answer, especially since this was right when Nevermore came flapping up all pitiful looking from his recon excursion.
I figured Gunnar was eventually going to tell the group what was up anyway, and just left it up to him.

So. We get off the plane, we get to Gunnar's mom's place. His aunt wasn't around, which I admit was a long shot but it wasn't a bad idea. So there went that. We probably should have done some scouting but I was following Gunnar's lead and he just opened the front door when Victor didn't pick up.
And there was Gunnar's mom. Tied to a chair. And gagged. And underneath the chair were landmines, one under each leg. Gunnar moved to take off the gag, and then my "worst case scenario" vision kicked in. Words cannot express how much it would have sucked to watch my future mother-in-law explode the first time I met her. So I stopped him, told him to hang on just a sec. Just in case, I did that thing I do where people can get hit a few more times, but for his mom. Then he removed the gag.
I should have just let him proceed, because that wasn't his mom. It was Sylvester. Which, you know, I kinda expected he'd be here. Just not tied to an IED. I'd told Gunnar that Victor never struck me as the type who worked alone. Not because he liked people, or because he thought there was safety in numbers or some other sort of tactical advantage. My theory is that he used them as cannon fodder and meat shields. And mine-weights, apparently.
So... I knew that I had no way to disarm the mines, I was willing to step outside and tell Sly just to hop down and pray for the best. Yeah, it was a little cruel but he kinda asks for this sort of trouble.
Anyway, in this instance it was Gunnar who was the good cop. He told Jack and I to get out of the house while he worked on freeing Sly. I wasn't going to leave, at first, but Gunnar made a really good point that someone needed to put the two of them back together if something went wrong. And honestly, in a similar situation, I'd want Gunnar to listen to me if I told him to leave while I did something dangerous (not that I'm ever expecting he actually will listen in that situation, it's just what I'd want).

Jack actually did something really impressive (impressive that he did it, not that it was impressive in its difficulty). He handed his breastplate over to Gunnar while Gunnar worked on getting Sly out of the house. Gunnar, it turns out, can disarm landmines. I learn something new about him everyday.
I'm presuming everything went well and he knew exactly what he was doing. I know that may not be the case, but I wasn't there to witness otherwise so I'd rather not contemplate how close he came to blowing himself up. We poke our heads back in, Jack demands his armor back and Gunnar starts looking the place over.
It was a mess, but kidnappings usually are. Gunnar was able to tell that there was a struggle (which, I mean... Well, I'm not a P.I. but I could tell that much). He could tell it started in the kitchen, but couldn't really discern anything outside the house. So Never pipes up with his little British self: "Oi, lemme see wha' I can do, Viking."
It took Never all of a minute to figure out where Victor went. That bird is really useful, and Victor is really dumb.

He was across the street. Gunnar knocked and said he heard voices behind the door. I heard nothing over the loudness of Sly's stench. Seriously, he smelled so badly it was messing with my ears. Gunnar got the door open and Sly threw up.
Um, we found Victor. Minus his arms. He'd bled to death, which is an awful way for a Scion of Ares to have gone. At least it wasn't like he'd bled to death from a paper cut. His arms had been removed at the shoulder. And he was surrounded by twelve bodies. I didn't get a good look, but they all looked unkempt and very dead.
And we found dwarves, and more importantly we found Gunnar's mom. She was fine. Shaken, and I'm sure she was both hungry and thirsty after having been here a couple of days (three, judging from the condition of Victor's body). Physically she was intact. Mentally, she was a little hysterical. Gunnar was turning to me, probably to ask me if I could calm her down but Jack, of all people, beat me to it.
So I kept an eye on Sly while Jack calmed Ms. Esparza and Gunnar spoke in Norse with some dwarves. I've had a little more time to study the language but they spoke kinda quickly and I'm pretty sure what I thought I heard was wrong. Something about arms.
When I looked at Victor though, he had that same crazy carving in his chest, like those people who'd been liberated of their brains. When I had a chance to talk to Gunnar, and he told me what the dwarves had seen and said, I got the creeps and the chills and felt a little sick.
I'm pretty sure whoever um... literally disarmed Victor is the same person responsible for those missing brains. The dwarves said it was a guy. And this guy seems to be building something. Something out of the parts of other people.

"Spare parts
And broken hearts
Keep the world turnin' around."
Bruce Springsteen, Spare Parts