Lacie is less concerned with this debate and more concerned with staring at the pictures of something inhuman contained within.

"I'm just partway through, but 'Katherine knows, her camera doesn’t lie… she has seen… when?' It looks like possibly the camera might have been showing something that they weren't able to see? Which might explain what he was doing with the camera? --'I cannot feel it close. Real?' in the context of mouths is unfortunately unclear whether it's close as in nearby or as in not open...""

"Here's a very important question: if we stay up any later will we be able to wake up come morning?"

"Yeah, I feel like we're not going to figure this out tonight and might as well let it sit until we get to LA? Which I think we should probably do first thing in the morning."

The next morning--

The smell of the harbor comes to the investigators through the humid air, so thick with people’s sweat that it feels like they could wring the sky itself out and make it rain.

They're leaving your hotel when they see five thugs. Asian men, big, tough, made of solid muscle. Tattoos in some strange language. Their clothes are cheap off-the-rack shirts and slacks, ties and hats. Their guns are Colt M1911 pistols. They're walking towards the investigators.

"I think we should get in a taxi and fast."

"Agreed."

She looks but there are no taxis loitering around the front. 

As the thugs draw closer, they hear the language they're speaking. It's not English. The investigators have the sneaking suspicion it's not a human language at all.

Damn.

Lacie screams.

Well, to be fair, they are staying at a flophouse.

Maybe instead of hanging out outside of the hotel while people come closer to us with guns we should not do that. Maybe we should do something else. It is so unfortunate how we already gave up our keys.

Anemone attempts to tug Lacie back into the flophouse. This may not be the most strategic decision ever but you can't just start shooting at people and maybe they have a phone or something

Lacie has a handgun! Lacie is going to use her handgun. She pulls out her gun and starts shooting wildly in the air, her hand shaking too much to hit anyone.

Lacie, you can't just shoot people because they're foreign. Rude.

There are five of them, with guns, Carrie thinks she can't do anything meaningful against that without a weapon of her own. She tries to run back inside.

Great! This is great.

Zoe takes off running towards the street.

The thugs split up, one pursuing each of the investigators. 

A thug slams Mordred in the face. He hears a sickening crack. 

This is just like the circus, this is just like the circus, she dodges things all the time at the circus--

The thugs approaching Carrie, Lacie and Anemone seem disinclined to get too close to the woman wildly shooting a handgun at them. 

Noticing what happened to Mordred, they tap their guns meaningfully and drop a note on the ground. Then they speak to each other again in the strange language and leave. 

Someone who has not just been slammed in the face and can accordingly see should pick up the note and then they should leave the place where people were just screaming and firing guns and generally making an enormous scene.

The note reads, in childish handwriting:

Go HOME

DROP THIS CASE