Repose

[Mary thought it made sense to knock. It was her place, too, but was seemed to be the main word there. She had gone to the ranger station first (which should surprise no one) to get things in order before heading back to the apartment. It was getting dark, the sky bruised like a peach that had fallen off a tree. Beautiful, over. Mary was dressed formally, not the ranger outfit with the funny hat, but slacks and a button down shirt that said she was rising in the ranks of her profession of choice.

She knocked and when (if?) Nish answered the door, Mary had a bottle of tequila in her hand. Good stuff, made by a little village in Mexico that tried to get by on their own grit. That made the booze taste better in Mary's opinion. Oh, and Molly was there, too. The dog with a big happy face- almost a better ice breaker than the booze.]

[It comes out first as an incredulous claim, then a large news source picks it up, then another. There are partisan takes on the issue, but ultimately it comes down to this: Captain Liberty was real. A man claiming to be him, a so-called Steve McRory, who says today is his 100th birthday, though he looks no older than his early thirties, has opened himself to interviews. Either he's delusional, and committed enough to make several props (including authentic-seeming photographs), or he's telling the truth. As the day wears on, a few veterans come out to verify that they knew this man, and several of them have their own stories and accompanying photographs, all seeming to show a man identical to the one claiming to be this 'Captain,' a man most in this day and age thought relegated solely to the pages of comic books.

In Repose, the bar is closed before it even manages to open on the 4th, with several black cars having swarmed it. Steve, after giving a handful of interviews over the internet, is nowhere to be found.]

[Locked to Steve M]
[After this, he tries the forum first, then texts:] There? [If these go unanswered, he tries calling. Ring.]