Baccano!/Recap/1934 Peter Pan in Chains/Chapter Four

Chicago, Nebula Headquarters.

Renée sneezes and begins overseeing the experiment being conducted on the newly captured Frank. One of the researchers comments that Rail has been very busy blowing up parts of Chicago in search of Frank, causing a great deal of chaos. Renée thinks it's very sweet that he's willing to go so far for his friend, until the researcher reminds her that Rail's rampage, caused byt their kidnapping Frank, has caused other Nebula departments immense damage. Renée wonders if they could find some passing bomb freak to pin the blame on instead.

The researcher gets exasperated, telling her that Karl Muybridge, Chairman of Nebula, was not pleased with the fact that Renée's experiments had damaged other departments, and said that Renée should apologize to Rail immediately. Renée is surprised that the Chairman knows about Rail, and wonders what she should do.

Another researcher then incredulously reports that there is, in fact, a passing bomb freak in Chicago.

Meanwhile, Gustav St. Germain is sitting in the Chairman's Office in the Nebula Headquarters, accompanied by Carol and Lua.

After they had made their escape from the Russo Manor, they decided that hiding in a hotel or a train station was out of the question because there could be spies. Since they also had no way of leaving Chicago without a car, Gustav St. Germain brought them to Nebula.

Karl Muybridge expresses relief that they are safe despite the events that occurred earlier, and recounts that Ladd once broke into Nebula Headquarters and almost ended up killing him--but decided against it when he noticed that the Chairman didn't seem to care when he would die. He then tells the Vice President, Carol, and Lua to hide out in the employee dormitories until things settle down, thanking the Vice President for offering valuable information in exchange.

The Chairman then calls in a man from the Security Department to take the trio to the dormitories. The man is eating sugar cubes.

The man from the Security Department, still gobbling up sugar cubes, introduces himself as Rubik and leads Carol, the Vice President, and Lua to the dormitories. The Vice President recalls that Rubik was a regular at the Daily Days.

Rubik doesn't recall having met the Vice President, but confirms that he used to work with the Daily Days until about two years ago. The Vice President notes that the company had lost contact with him since then, and Rubik complains that the corporate spy business got too difficult when a monstrous group of people known as "Sham" appeared.

Meanwhile, on the transcontinental to Chicago.

Sham recalls that the first time he saw Isaac was when he and Miria were scattering money over the streets of New York. Isaac fondly remembers the day, and is thankful that people like Sham were there to pick up the money and distract the police. Sham then says that he next saw them on the Flying Pussyfoot a year later. He explains that he was in first class, thanks to a certain beneficiary. Sham doesn't tell Isaac that he was thrown off the train by the woman in work wear.

Sham then tells Isaac the story of a god who brings people together and creates connections between them. He claims that this god, however, must create unthinkable coincidences in order to make things work--and the god is afraid that other people will figure out that he is inhuman and reject him. Isaac tells him that there's no reason that the god shouldn't help people out regardless, as this might endear him to others instead of turning them against him.

Glad that he decided to talk to Isaac, Sham thinks about this solution he was just given and decides to apply it to his own manipulations.

Jacuzzi's gang is holed up at an abandoned factory in Chicago, waiting for Rail to regain consciousness.

All of a sudden, one of their members runs in, saying that they've found out where Graham is. He's at a bar called Dolce, and is currently fighting a guy that looks like a vampire and a woman in green.

Dolce is in shambles. The owner desperately tries to plead for calm, but nobody heeds his requests.

Christopher finds himself enjoying the fight, and thinks that he could probably kill Graham if he had his old gun-knife. However, he realizes that he doesn't want to kill anyone anymore. He laughs, deciding that Technical Pacifism is pretty fun in its own right.

Graham starts laughing as well, and Sickle wonders what's gotten into them both. All three of them pause for a moment.

Then they all get splashed with a bucketful of what smells like alcohol, courtesy of Ricardo. There are several empty bottles of tequila beside her. She tells them to cool it before it all goes up in flames. Chris thinks to himself that tequila isn't high enough in alcohol concentration to burn, but notes that it's certainly calmed him down. Sickle and Graham are still as well.

The owner takes the opportunity to plead with them. Today was supposed to be the thirtieth anniversary of the store's opening, and he asks them to stop fighting. He tells them that they can leave without paying if they want, but to at least let them run their business in peace. The owner is almost in tears.

Everyone, even the noncombatants, feels guilty.

Chris asks Ricardo if he's done something that bad. Ricardo tells him that he was being a total villain.

Graham has a My God, What Have I Done? moment, and Sickle awkwardly apologizes to the owner.

The owner thanks everyone for their cooperation and informs them that their food is almost ready.

Ricardo asks Chris and Graham why they started fighting in the first place, when they're both working for the Russo Family. They have no answer to that.

After a moment, Graham remembers that it was because Chris was saying something about protecting Rail.

Chris claims that he was trying to rehabilitate himself and take revenge for his friend/family member Sickle's injuries, and notes that it still probably wasn't reason enough to destroy this bar in the process. Ricardo tells him that the shop won't fix itself.

Just then, Jacuzzi and his gang run inside, looking for Graham. Christopher recognizes him as the guy Tim was using during the Mist Wall incident.

Meanwhile, Rail is asleep, dreaming that he's being laughed at and insulted by Huey. He then realizes he's dreaming, but doesn't want to wake up. Rail muses that the only way to make things right is to blow up everything.

He then wakes up in an abandoned factory, being taken care of by Jacuzzi's gang. Rail panics, realizing that his bombs are gone. He wonders who all these people are, and Miria introduces herself. Nice then enters and explains to Rail that they brought him here because they couldn't let him be caught by the police.

Rail notices Nice's scars and feels like she's similar to him, but sees that she's holding his bag full of explosives. Nice asks him where he got these bombs, and Rail replies that he modified some explosives he got from a Hollywood filmmaker. He wonders what they're going to do with him and the bombs, and Nice returns them to him without hesitation, explaining that when she was Rail's age, she used to go around blowing up lakes and buildings.

Back at Dolce, Sickle, Graham, and Christopher decide on a cease-fire in honor of the store's thirtieth anniversary. Sickle demands to know who the men in labcoats (that kidnapped Frank) were. Graham doesn't know anything about them, but adds that as long as Sickle and her team are on the Wanted List, their business isn't finished.

Ricardo interrupts them and says that the Wanted List stuff is most likely no longer valid because her grandfather is missing, most likely dead.

Shaft advises Graham that it would be best not to make any more of a ruckus here, and Ricardo tells him that they need to get together all their information and figure out what is going on.

Jacuzzi is confused as to what is going on, but Graham goes up to him and asks him to help fix up the store.

The Poet, meanwhile, thinks to himself that everything is going much too smoothly, as if all of this had been planned out by someone. He then realizes that there was a betrayal involved.