Rewriting the script

The slightly befuddled (and majorly frustrated) NSA operatives, seeing that there is now no way at catching their target by foot, start to head on back quickly to an awaiting car to give chase when they see what appears to be Zavitz riding right back their way!

Back their way, and right under the onrushing bulk of a speeding fire engine.

"Shit." Krug says again, this time shocked.

It had been a very quick and dirty operation of seeking out Zavitz before the others found him.

The task had been made several times harder than it could have been since Zavitz's phone number was unlisted.

At least Lenny Bloom had been easy enough to trace, since the Doctor remembered the name of Bloom's left wing newspaper (which had appeared painted on the window in his one and only scene in the movie).

As for Zavitz, it had been a desperate gamble where it had been hoped (correctly) that life would follow the movie again and Zavitz would run the same rout his movie counterpart.

Inquirer had caught up with Zavitz back at Captain Ike's, and had shadowed him invisibly (via her magical cloak) to a point that she'd been able to arrange a quick handoff with an awaiting (and spell disguised) Sigin.

The few witnesses of the quick event would tell people about how the scene seemed to jump from one position to the next and Zavitz's was on the other side of the expressway and speeding his way back like mad to the people who'd been chasing them....only to suddenly decide to commit suicide under the wheels of a fire engine!

In truth, what had happened was that Sigin had caste a hasty illusion spell, cloaking Inquirer tearing the frightened Zavitz off of his bike and putting the spell entranced sewer rat that Sigin had captured and transformed via a curse spell to appear as Zavitz. The spell perfectly mimicked the clothing and most of the other items on the frightened man's body, but not the small things like the business card that Dean had given him (nor the electronic watch that was still too mysterious and new to the dragon mage who'd only recently been introduced to the concept of electronics).

Bloom's death had also been faked when Betty, after a urgent call by Inquirer who explained the problem, had spell enscrolled a rat and transformed it to look like Bloom. Betty had then, moments after Zavitz had called Bloom, come in and knocked the real Zavitz out by magic. Replacing real with fake, Betty had then dragged the unconscious Bloom over to a corner, turned herself and Bloom invisable, and watched silently as several of Reynold's goons break into the building....and cut down the still dazed rat Bloom. The gunmen then made it appear as if this had been something like an armed robbery (stealing money and valuables) and left before first police car could arrive.

Betty, not wanting to risk an encounter with police (or any goons who'd stayed behind to take care of any unfortunate witnesses), had levitated the still unconscious Bloom to her nearby awaiting car, dropped her invisibility spell, and driven quickly back to the warehouse complex and awaited the others.

Both the rat that got clobbered by the fire engine that Inquirer had thrown it under and the rat that Betty's rat wouldn't stand up to close medical examination. But by the time the coroner got around to seeing the corpses, they only found two dead rats in the body lockers. See, by that time the spells had worn off and the now dead rats reverted to their true form.

The incidenet would be written off by the hospital as some pathetic joke by some sicko who'd broken in somehow and stolen the bodies.

Made much more sense than the truth.....

Anyway, that aside, the plans of the Doctor and Inquirer had almost worked...
 

Oh, they'd saved both Bloom and Zavitz's lives.

After they got over their fright and confusion of suddenly coming out of their spell induced slumber and being told that it would be an EXTREMELY good idea to find a place to lay low (out of sight and underground) until things blew over.

After Bloom heard the story of how some men had tried to capture Zavitz from the man himself...and doing some paranoid reasoning....he saw that that sounded like a great idea.

Their mysterious and oddly dressed benefactor (Sigin in his ordinary dandish outfit ) nodded, and next thing the fugitives knew was that they were standing outside in the dark......underneath a highway overpass.

"Uh....did you?" Zavitz's began.

"I....really don't know...but I think we'd better at least get in contact with some old friends.....to at least hide," Bloom says, after recovering from his surprise.

And so they hurried off to parts unknown and did just that.

The problem was, however, was that after all of that excitement...the Doctor, who'd hoped to be able to sneak into the last store that Zavitz had torn out of, could not get to the store's VCR in time to snatch up the security tape that contained the video showing Zavitz putting that tape in Dean's bags. Just too many people in his way and standing around the place where the blasted thing was stored. Then Kruge and the others had, on a hope and a hunch, had doubled back and found the store....and hit paydirt when they viewed the security tape!

 The Doctor, muttering an oath, goes and tells the others of this latest development.....

1. "Well, we go with Plan B then," Elrondir sighed......