Jan had done a couple of things before leaving Warsaw. Firstly he had taken one of the partly completed copies of the Black Madonna and had stowed it in his pack, unsure whether it was a memento or part of an explanation to give his superiors should he ever return to France.
He had also taken time to sit down with Butterfly and explain, over the half full bottle of vodka he had, what had happened to her husband and how he had been killed. She hadn't really asked him for any details on their initial meetings so Jan suspected that she had already presumed the worst but he felt that it was the right thing to do to give her a relatively full account. He'd left out the details of finding the bodies of the DGSE agent and the rest of his FFL team strung up in trees where their killers had left them to make an example. She didn't need to know that and the memory still made him shudder, particularly as he'd been unable to bury their bodies.
Back in Gora Kalwaria Jan had enjoyed spending as much time as possible inactive, letting his wounded arm heal up and exercising it at points to make sure that he regained all of his strength in it. He hadn't had the opportunity to really rest in a long time and sleeping on the boat was particularly enjoyable. He had made it to Church several times however and he hadn't been completely idle. He had used those days when the weather was clear and dry to re-charge the batteries of his and anyone else's radios and NVGs using his solar generator. Setting it up on the deck had initially attracted quite a bit of attention from Griet's crew but very quickly it became routine. Jan made sure he packed it up carefully each time however and returned it to his backpack.
Jan also spent some time getting to know Danny and his fellow crew members, Mac, Kel and a Major who went by the name of "Boots", having gathered that they would be joining the Queen on her continuing trip down river. They told him the story of being shot down and how they came to be in Gora Kalwaria and he was impressed with their survival skills as they had crossed quite a bit of hostile territory. Jan was particularly interested to discover that Boots spoke some French and he took the opportunity to speak to her, in what had become his native tongue, whenever he could. It was a much more cultured language than English in Jan's opinion, even though he wasn't really a man of culture.
He'd also said his goodbyes to Robert, Monika and Piotr, leaving it to Anneka to decide whether she wanted to get back any of the medical supplies she had given to Jan, which he had subsequently passed on to Monika. They were good people and it was sad to see them go in certain ways but good that some were leaving their group alive for once. Far too many had died over the last couple of weeks!
A veritable market had broken out amongst the Kommandos as they reorganised gear and passed things amongst themselves. They had accumulated quite a number of spare weapons between them and the Queen presented an opportunity to deposit lots of them into the weapons locker, potentially for use at a later date. They were getting short of NATO grenade launcher rounds and had plenty of PACT ones so Jan decided to switch to an AK-74/BG-15 combo to free up his rounds for Konrad and Tuck. They Steyr couldn't share mags with either Konrad or Tuck's rifles so it was the logical one to ditch.
The end result was that Jan looked slightly different than before, now dressed in a customised Lifchik chest harness, thanks to the needlework one of the women in Gora Kalwaria who had stitched a PMK pouch and a radio pouch to the normal set up, with a grenade belt attached below and carrying an AK. Apart from his NATO issue Kevlar vest and helmet he looked very much like an Eastern European mercenary, fighting for whatever cause would pay him the most.
With the steadily filling weapons locker Jan also took it upon himself to offer Mac, Kel and Boots some of the spare firearms they had. They were effectively infantry now whether they liked it or not and there were weapons to spare so, in Jan's opinion, they should be appropriately armed.
When they were finally getting ready to get underway and leave Gora Kalwaria, Quyen had spotted Jan smoking and had come storming over to speak to him.
Minh Quyen:
Realizing with horror that she was down to under half a dozen smokes she sought out Jan (who she knew was actively seeking out a new supply). The others might be concerned about guns and ammo but Quyen only needed two things to be effective - explosives and cigarettes. Well... that was not true but she need them nonetheless."What about tocacco Jan? Find any?" Then before he can answer she points at him accusingly and says in pretend seriousness "YOU LIE!"
If Jan found any smokes Quyen will ask for no less than half and will challenge him to a fight if he refuses.
Initially he had just grinned back at her and blown smoke in her direction while deciding whether to remind her that he had been a Savate and unarmed combat instructor in the Legion at one point. He had relented however and had delved deep into his pack, pulling out single Gitanes cigarette which he offered to her. Quyen knew that Jan usually kept his French cigarettes for himself and for special occasions.
"We will talk about other cigarettes later," he replied as Quyen took the cigarette and Jan lit it for her,
"but for the moment have one of these to mark our leaving of Gora Kalwaria and the next stage of our journey together. I hope that Mariusz has found some good coffee. That would make today a very good day."
This message was last edited by the player at 22:59, Sun 15 Apr 2012.