Garrison and Adrienne - European Escapades 3 (Backdated)

[x-adrienne.livejournal.com]

Garrison and Adrienne are on a train in the Alps and manage to inadvertently thwart another Chalker revenge attempt.

"I've never been in the Alps. It looks vaguely like if Disney tried to remake the Rockies." Kane leaned back in the leather seat of their private compartment. They had boarded the train in Germany, Adrienne having to deal with his wide-eyed touristy joy of getting on. As soon as they'd settled down, he'd ordered and espresso just to watch the guy deliver it.

"Well, I think Disney actually did buy this place so they could shoot Frozen here," Adrienne joked, drinking the espresso he hadn't actually wanted. "You ski, though, right?"

"I do. Very well, in fact, although I think it's been easily five years since I was last on the slopes." Kane took at a look at the mapbook he was holding. "You know, we'll be passing through Visp in about seven hours. There's a transfer there to the Matterhorn Gotthard Bahn line that goes into Zermatt. If we wanted to, we could ski the Matterhorn there."

"We should," she agreed. "Especially if it's something you haven't done in so long; something you like doing. I haven't been on the Matterhorn since I was a kid, with my family My memories there are really not great," she muttered wryly. "It would be nice to make some good ones."

"That sounds like fun. I've wanted to go to the Matterhorn every since I first went into a Baskin-Robbins." He paused at her blank look. "It was an ice cream place. They used to make this crazy sundae that had about a dozen scoops of ice cream called the Matterhorn. I... sorta thought it was a mountain of ice cream."

"I know what Baskin-Robbins is, Slick," Adrienne retorted petulantly. "They're based out of Massachusetts." She was pretty sure the Matterhorn had only had seven scoops of ice cream, but never having eaten one, she wasn't going to challenge his reminiscence. "And I think that was the reason they named it that. Because it was a mountain of ice cream. Either that, or because you would have to climb the Matterhorn to work off all the calories if you ate the whole thing. Well..." she looked him up and down with a jealous eye, "most people would." She pulled out her laptop and set about making reservations for them in Zermatt. "Would you ever climb it? The Matterhorn?" she asked conversationally as she typed.

"I'd eat it. I've never really gotten into the idea of mountain climbing. Seems kinda dull, especially when a guy like me can drive pitons in with his bare hands without breaking a sweat." He flopped down on the opposite bench, lying so he could keep watching the mountains slide by. "But if scaling the Matterhorn is on your bucket list, I'd be happy to join you."

"It is," Adrienne nodded, grinning up at him from the computer, "so yeah. Not this trip, obviously," she shrugged, "but I'd love to do it with you some day. Might as well put the hundred laps in the pool every day to good use, right? Besides, that way if I don't have the lung capacity or the upper body strength to do it and I pass out or whatever, you're around to rescue me or something," she smirked.

"I'll just tie you to my back and keep going. Like a Canadian King Kong." He said with a laugh.


***

Mick Chalker could just barely hear them through the open vent he was tinkering with. After finding his brothers Vic and Nick in the police morgue, the victims of a bombing and a gangland killing, he knew that the Americans that Vic had emailed him about finding in Milan had to be involved. He'd tracked them down to the train; an older model set of carriage cars that appealed to tourists who wanted a picturesque journey through the Alps. He'd quickly secured passage in the carriage next to them.

The old cars had a single overhead venting system that served two compartments. With the cold weather at this altitude in the Alps, all the windows would be shut tight by their riders, making those vents necessary for air circulation. He hoisted the CO canisters that he'd smuggled on to the train and linked them to the heavy rubber line. He pulled it up into the vent he'd opened and feed it through so it was against the opposite vent that fed the compartment that the mutants were in.

He secured the hose and slid back down into his seat before turning on the gas. He'd already hung the 'do not disturb' sign on their door so no one would open it up. The carbon monoxide would fill the compartment, rendering them both unconscious first and then suffocating them. Their deaths would be certain, lethal in a way they'd never known until they were gone.

***

Adrienne had set her computer aside and picked up the sketchbook she'd bought in Milan and had been using extensively to work on clothing designs, the trip apparently a great stimulant to creativity. She'd drawn a rough but not-entirely-horrible sketch of Kane with a gorilla body and now showed it to him triumphantly. However, in passing him the book she managed to bump the pot of India Ink she had insisted on sketching with, sending ink into his lap. "Shit! Sorry!" She dug into her new purse for a Tide To Go pen, some wet naps she'd stolen from a restaurant a couple days before, and a Magic Eraser. Frowning at the size of the stain, she snapped the pen in half and dumped the whole thing onto his pants. "Hmm. Maybe you should take those off," she mused, and managed to smirk even though she was upset with herself for dumping the ink. The smirk disappeared, however, when the smell of the various cleaning products hit her. "And maybe open the window?"

"OK, next time you're going to dump things into my groin, please let me get my pants off first!" Kane said, backing away from her suddenly frantic attempts to fix the stain. He shucked off his jeans and dropped them into the tiny washroom. At least he could close the door on the smell. He then opened up the window. The wind came in, sharp and cold. Fortunately Kane had been in colder weather with less clothing.

Taking a deep breath of the crisp air, Adrienne ducked back into the compartment's washroom and set about cleaning the stain. "At least it wasn't coffee or hot chocolate?" she retorted guiltily.

"What, are you making a list for next time, woman?" Garrison said, enjoying the breeze. Unbeknownst to him, the air rushing in was buffeting the vents, and forcing the gas back the other way through the vent.

***

Mick checked the hose and the canisters for the tenth time, trying to guess how long it would take for the carbon monoxide to work. He was having trouble paying attention and his vision seemed off. It was problem just the stress. The loss of two of his brothers, the anticipation of revenge and the thought of striking a blow against mutantkind. He leaned back in the seat, noticing for the first time how comfortable it was and how tired he was. The gas was flowing fine and nothing could go wrong. He'd just shut his eyes for a moment, he thought. A quick nap and then time to celebrate.

***

The train station at Visp was a busy terminal with multiple connections to other lines. Kane had been left to guard their luggage as Adrienne went to pick up their transfers for the train to Kermatt. He handed her a coffee as she returned, settling down on him on a bench to wait for their train.

"Hey, while you were away, I was talking to one of the other passengers from our train. Turns out that someone died during the trip here."

"What?!" Adrienne looked around, as if at that moment she might see the body or something along those lines. "Really? How?"

"No idea. Must have been a heart attack or something. There's only a couple of cops around, so I doubt it was a homicide."

"Well, that's good at least. That it wasn't a homicide," Adrienne clarified. "Still. Horrible that someone died. So sad. Are we gonna be delayed at all? Like, do they have to question us?"

Kane shrugged. "Doesn't have anything to do with us. We should go get our train."

Adrienne threaded an arm through Kane's and suddenly grabbed his groin where she'd spilled the ink. "I got us a sleeper, but I'm not tired. I hope that's cool with you."