Baccano!/Recap/1934 Alice in Jails Street/Episode Chapter Three
Chicago.
Ricardo gets into his car, with Chris in the driver's seat. Chris complains that he was waiting for a long time and asks why Ricardo left his bodyguard back in the car. Ricardo replies that he didn't want to cause a commotion at the bookstore.
Chris starts driving. Ricardo suddenly gets a serious look on his face and asks Chris to just drive around for a bit.
Without much warning, Ricardo starts confessing to Chris exactly why he said that he wanted Chris to destroy everything, back when they first met. Ricardo explains that he had very recently lost his parents, people had betrayed him, and there was a lot of pressure on him as heir to the Russo Family.
Chris find it strange that Ricardo is confessing all this, and jokingly asks Ricardo if he's saying all this because he has no more use for his bodyguard. He adds that even if something like that were to happen, he wouldn't try to kill Ricardo in retaliation because they're friends. In fact, he doesn't think he'd be able to kill any of his friends--Chi, Leeza, Sickle, the Poet, Rail, Frank, Adele, or Firo. Chris finds this somewhat distressing.
Ricardo wonders if the people just listed are all the friends Chris has. He admits that Chris is his only friend.
Chris figures out that Ricardo used shopping as an excuse to get out of the Russo Manor and talk with him without fear of being overheard. They discuss the strange things that have been occurring at the manor in the past two weeks--things became much busier, a strange man in blue workwear arrived, and a woman named Lua was taken prisoner. All of this was as if the Russo Family did a 180 and started going on an all-out offensive.
Ricardo thinks that it's as if the Family is falling apart on its own--he didn't even need to give them a push. He's not too happy about that, since he wanted to decide how to destroy it. Chris agrees that the Russo Family's falling apart--even more so that it was before. In fact, now it's turning into something more resembling a cult or a terrorist group.
Ricardo tells Chris that he just wants to be normal kid who can make normal friends. He then says that things have gotten particularly crazy ever since those people in white labcoats came with the strange wine. This part's new to Chris, but before he can ask about it, Ricardo suddenly tells him to stop the car and starts looking around out the window. There's nothing unusual going on.
Chris wonders what this is all about. Ricardo tells him that he just heard an explosion.
Back at the alleyway, onlookers are slowly gathering in the aftermath of the explosion. Rail, despite being the one who set off the bombs, is surprised to see that the blasts were much further away from Graham's men than he intended. None of them are critically injured, just unconscious from the impact.
Rail goes over the sequence of events that took place over the past minute--just before the explosion, he had noticed some sort of silver disk spinning towards the bomb, knocking it away a good 30 feet. He then notices a small wrench sticking halfway out of the concrete wall.
Graham, back on his feet and spinning the gigantic monkey wrench, is impressed by Rail's explosives and starts another rant. Rail takes the chance to take out several more bombs, similar to the ones he used earlier--these, however, have small keychain-shaped pins on them instead of a clock. The members of Graham's gang, slowly recovering from the blast, back away to put some distance between themselves and Rail.
Rail pulls the pins from three of the bombs and tosses them between himself and Graham. Frank charges through the powerful blast and the resulting smokescreen to attack Graham before anyone can recover. Rail follows after him.
However, Graham is already right beside Rail. His clothing is slightly scorched, but otherwise Graham is uninjured. Frank, having gotten through the smokescreen, does not see Graham. He turns towards Rail and sees Graham lunging towards Rail. He charges at Graham, but stops. Graham has Rail's neck locked in the jaws of the monkey wrench.
Graham does a half-turn with Rail still gripped by the wrench, effectively turning him into a Human Shield. Frank panics and tries to take hold of Rail, but Graham pulls Rail back and Frank gets nothing but thin air. Rail is choking.
Graham praises The Power of Friendship and how it works wonders for hostage situations. He specifically targeted Rail's throat to prevent a possible Go On Without Me scenario, and proposes a ceasefire, letting Rail back down to the ground.
Rail won't have any of that, and takes out more bombs. However, Graham swings his wrench before Rail can do anything--he stops it right beside Rail's head. Rail realizes he's beaten, and panics.
Suddenly, Leeza's voice scolds Rail for going off on his own to try and capture Graham. She starts taunting Rail and makes fun of his Glasgow Grin. Graham, while looking around for the source of the voice, shows disdain for Leeza insulting Rail's scars. Leeza calls Graham a hypocrite for siding with Rail, but Graham accuses Leeza of being a powerless Smug Snake.
Leeza's chakram flies in from behind Graham. Frank notices it coming, and Graham, reading Frank's expression, does a half-turn and knocks it away with his wrench. He calls her pathetic and tells her to leave.
Graham keeps Rail and Frank in his line of sight, while paying attention to his blind spot in case another chakram comes flying at him. He asks Leeza if she's planning on leaving her two friends behind and running away like a coward.
Leeza replies that Graham will be the one who's doing the running. Graham, confused, looks around. Chi and Sickle enter the fray from amidst the onlookers. Graham matches them with their descriptions on the Wanted Poster, confirming that he was indeed incorrect when he accused the reporters of being the Poet and Sickle.
Rail wonders how the others managed to find them. Sickle replies that no one could have missed those explosions--the police will also be here soon, so she tells Rail that they have to wrap things up quickly.
Sickle faces down Graham, who rants about what he believes to be Love At First Sight with the Capoeira lady. Sickle coldly tells him to not misunderstand--Graham takes this as being rejected before he could even confess, but Sickle corrects him. She's talking about Capoeira--specifically, she doesn't consider her fighting style to be true Capoeira, but rather an offshoot that is primarily used for destruction. She lunges at Graham.
Graham notices Sickle's leg coming from the left, so he leans back to dodge. Sickle attacks again, calmly explaining that calling her fighting style Capoeira is an insult to the art that is Capoeira. Then Chi comes in, grabs Graham's left arm, and twists it back. It dislocates.
Despite the pain, Graham knocks Chi away with the wrench and steps back. Sickle goes back to a starting stance. Chi threatens to dislocate more joints if Graham doesn't cooperate.
Ever since he was a child, Graham loved to take things apart. After a scolding from his parents about not knowing how it would feel to be taken apart like the things he just broke, little Graham decided to listen to his parents and find out how it felt to be taken apart.
By the time his mother found him, Graham, who wasn't yet ten, was lying on the floor in extreme pain, with nearly every single one of his joints dislocated and twisted.
Remembering this, Graham recalls that this incident is what led him to assure himself that it was okay for him to take things apart, since he knows how it feels to be on the receiving end.
He calls himself an idiot, claiming that Ladd might have killed him if he were around because for a moment, Graham thought himself invincible. He then takes his wrench and fixes his left shoulder, popping it back into the socket.
Graham decides that he was being too easy on Lamia--only those who believe they'd never be killed would give soft orders like "capture them alive". He's going to focus on taking Rail and Frank alive, and is going to go all out on the others. Graham declares that he's going to destroy them.
Several minutes later, the police finally arrive on the scene. None of the people involved are still there--only bystanders remain. There are signs of explosions left in the ground.
The eyewitness accounts are all over the place, with some being accurate, and others describing Martians and exploding elephants. Common testimonies describe people like "a man in blue workwear", "a child over 6 feet tall", and "an Asian with hands like a mummy".
Some distance away, the Poet stands against a wall, philosophizing. A man and a woman standing beside him scold him for standing out too much when he, by virtue of being a Non-Action Guy, was the only one who was not witnessed. when the Poet retorts, a man in a suit comes over, translating that the Poet couldn't even get through the crowd of onlookers. The man and woman from before disappear into the crowd, as a little girl passing by thanks Sham for the interpretation. A police officer, calling her Hilton, tells her to get more used to the Poet's ranting. Hilton's answer comes from an elderly lady who claims it's impossible to get used to someone like the Poet.
The Poet leaves the alleyway, wondering why Huey would bring so many of the twins to Chicago. He then compares themselves to Alice wandering into a prison.
Rail quickly walks through a smaller alley with a hat and scarf covering his face, still wearing his eye-catching silver top. He can't believe that Graham was able to overpower even Sickle and Chi.
As soon as Graham declared that he would destroy them, he literally took apart Sickle's incoming kick with his wrench--when Sickle jumped away, Rail saw her leg was twisted in a strange angle. Sickle attacked again, this time with Chi. However, Graham blocked every hit with his wrench and dislocated one of each of their arms.
Rail realized that Graham was going easy on them earlier, when he heard police sirens approaching. He told Sham to take Sickle and run, and detonated several bombs, telling Frank to meet up at the first rendezvous point.
Rail, still walking through the streets, is at a loss. He thinks Huey might have an idea of what to do, but decides against contacting him--he still hates Huey way too much. Instead Rail decides that Lamia will have to formulate a new plan once they all meet up at the rendezvous point, and feels guilty about getting Chi and Sickle injured with his own plan.
Rail looks around the alleys for a place to change out of the silvery top. However, he realizes that the streets are too deserted, even for back alleys. He then notices that a group of people are blocking his way. Rail prepares to take out some more bombs.
Then he realizes that the people are all wearing labcoats. Rail wonders if they're Huey's men, here to get rid of him for failing the mission. He can see a large transport truck behind the researchers that shields them from being seen by people in the big street.
Rail turns around, only to find that his way back is blocked by another group of men in labcoats. He hesitates to detonate the bombs.
A woman's voice rings out from amidst the researchers, identifying Rail. She sweetly tells him that she was worried that they'd lose him in the alleys, but she's so happy that they managed to catch up to him. She asks Rail to come with them.
Rail asks the woman who she is. She introduces herself as Renée, who works for Nebula's science department. She's curious about Rail's unusual explosives, and thinks Rail would be the perfect bait to lure in the other members of Lamia. Alarm bells go off in Rail's head.
Renée wants to know exactly what kind of modifications Huey made to Rail's body, and asks Rail's permission to take him apart to find out. Rail realizes that Renée is just like Huey--she sees him as a guinea pig.
Ricardo tells Chris that he heard another explosion. Chris opens his windows and drives slowly, but he can't make out anything in the frantic din. When they arrive at the source of the sounds, it's filled with police officers. Deciding that it's best to keep Chris away from having to testify, Ricardo tells him to drive away.
Ricardo hears another explosion. Chris, having heard nothing of the sort, wonders if Ricardo's more sensitive to sounds like that because of what happened to his parents. Ricardo agrees that it might be the case, and says that the best case scenario is if he's just hearing things.
Ricardo points Chris over to where he heard the explosion. Chris drives towards the area, and sees smoke coming out of an alleyway. He stops the car and looks into the alley, but it's completely obscured by smoke. This time, he hears the explosions Ricardo was talking about. Curious onlookers scatter at the sound, and Chris wonders if he should go and check it out.
Suddenly, Ricardo points out to a child around his age, lying on the ground just outside the alley. Ricardo gets off the car and runs to the kid. Chris then notices the silvery top the kid's wearing, and sees the surgical scars on his neck. He runs over and recognizes Rail.