The Cessna drops onto a remote Mojave airstrip, tires rattling over cracked asphalt. Heat shimmers beyond the hangar while Jesse’s phone continues broadcasting Carpathia’s voice.
The emergency report confirms Nicolae Carpathia survived and now rules as supreme leader of the new world order. Israeli leaders and swelling crowds publicly recognize him as the Messiah.
Jesse
Carpathia is alive, and the world is calling him something holy.
Jesse finds a concealed weapons cache beneath a loose hangar floor panel. Inside rests a suppressed sniper rifle, wrapped in oilcloth beside ammunition and a compact cleaning kit.
Corsio Angelico
You made it farther than most, Jesse. Carpathia recruited me directly, and I now work for the new world order.
Corsio Angelico approaches from the hangar shadows, a large, muscular middle-aged man in a dark coat. He stops several paces away, hands visible, with no escort beside him.
Corsio Angelico
I want your old position back in 7 aces. No debt, no strings, no orders disguised as favors. You choose the work, if you choose to return.
✓ Quest Accepted
Kill Corsio
“Jesse walks up to corsio and offers a handshake appearing as tho he accepts. Jesse then brandishes a suppressed colt and attempts to kill corsio”
SUCCESS (Legendary Firearms, rolled +1)
Jesse crosses the hangar floor and extends his hand. Corsio accepts it, reading the gesture as agreement while heat and engine noise press through the open doors.
Corsio Angelico
I knew you would recognize a clean offer when you heard one. Come back, Jesse. We can rebuild what was lost.
Jesse releases Corsio’s hand and draws the suppressed Colt from beneath his jacket in one fluid motion. The muzzle rises before Corsio can create distance.
The pistol cracks softly. Corsio’s body jerks, and he collapses against the hangar threshold before sliding onto the concrete. His offer ends with him.
The broadcast continues from Jesse’s phone, Carpathia praising unity while the hangar falls silent. Corsio lies motionless several paces away, his dark coat spread across the dusty floor.
Beyond the open doors, the Mojave shimmers beneath the sun. The concealed rifle remains wrapped beside the loose floor panel, while Jesse still holds the Colt.
Director's notewhole tale
Nicolae carpathia abnounces the mark of the beast
“Jesse gets on the move and investigates another possible way to assasinate the anti christ.”
SUCCESS (Fair Investigation, rolled +0)
Jesse secures the Colt, leaves Corsio at the hangar, and drives a dust-covered pickup toward Los Angeles while Carpathia’s broadcast follows through the phone.
The announcement names Carpathia’s next public appearance: a televised ceremony where he will require citizens to receive the mark of the beast.
Jesse
The ceremony gives me a fixed location, a fixed time, and a clear line of approach.
At a roadside motel, Jesse studies public maps, broadcast images, and security footage, tracing the ceremony route to a downtown convention center.
The building’s loading level connects to a service corridor beneath the stage. A maintenance schedule shows one brief period when the route opens for camera equipment.
Jesse marks the corridor, the stage position, and the nearest exit in a paper notebook, then closes it before the broadcast can reveal his location.
He has identified another viable assassination method: reach the service corridor during the televised ceremony and take the shot before Carpathia presents the mark.