The long walk, (or hiding the railway tracks) Options

[knasser]

Last session, the players completed a mission to assassinate the captain of an Atzlan cargo ship arriving in Seattle. This they did at midnight, travelling by stolen coast guard rescue helicopter. The mission turned out to be quite easy as they bluffed their way in to see the captain. Having not GM'd for a while, I found that I have become overly theoretical and adhered too closely to principles of not railroading the players and letting things play out naturally. Consequently the game wasn't as exciting or well-paced as I would have liked.

The PCs are now flying back toward the Everett docks in their stolen helicopter, it's about ten-minutes past midnight and they're still a good eight miles out. They haven't exactly covered their tracks very well so I'm thinking this helicopter might be intercepted and they'll end up either dumped in the ocean near the shore or at least stranded on the docks. They don't have any transport of their own and they're rather loaded with weapons and armour. What I'm thinking is that I make the journey back to their hideout in the Redmond Barrens an adventure all of its own. If anyone has ever seen a film called The Warriors, you'll have a feel for the sort of thing I have in mind.

What I need help with, is ways of keeping them from just getting a taxi home or other ingenious plans they might come up with (one of them has a contact with a flying, intra-city shuttle for example). And I want to do this in as justifiable a way as possible so the rail-roading is as hidden as can be.

The ship they hit was carrying a major shipment of drugs to be picked up by the Eighty-Eights triad, so they've got one dangerous enemy they don't know about after them already. Three of the four also have Spirit Bane: Water, so there's a weak, Free Water spirit that would be a natural enemy for them and will likely spot them as she patrols those areas of the docks. They have a shaman, but he's in no condition to take on a spirit that remains mostly Astral, so I'm thinking she can dog their footsteps, bringing their enemies to them as she figures out what's going on. The Everett docks are partly Scatterbrain territory, so there's a good opportunity to bring in one of my favourite gangs and they can behave as randomly as I like. Lone Star do currently have visual records of two of them, but no particular reason to connect them to this crime so far. However, they'll have the description of the group (1x South American female troll, 1x Caucasian ork, 1x Caucasian Elf, 1x Caucasian Human) which might be distinctive enough to go on at midnight on a weekday in a limited area of town. Again, the players need not necessarily know that they are being hunted by Lone Star right away.

So the obvious problems and my current thoughts are:

Why can't they get a taxi / bus?
Visual inspection of the group makes them look too dangerous to pick up, they match descriptions of the people who attacked the ship and these reports are now being circulated.
Why can't they call their contact with the shuttle?
He's not available, his wife wont let him out because he's minding the kids, etc.
Why can't they steal a car?
They have no hacker who can take control of one.
Why can't they kidnap someone with a car?
No good answer, yet.
Why can't they just fly the helicopter home to the Barrens.
Should be able to deal with this by whatever method I choose for stopping them just flying it all the way back. It will be picked up as stolen and then shot down if they don't comply with instructions.
Why can't they just break into an abandoned building and hide for a day.
No good answer. I think I need some general method of keeping the pressure on them, e.g. the spirit tracking them, Lone Star sweeping the area.
Why can't they just split up and head their separate ways?
No good answer. As it stands at present, at least one of them is likely to say: "okay, see you" and head off to a separate hideaway. Not splitting up until they've dealt with however they're being tracked might be the right sort of thing

Anyway, I like the idea of this adventure. I like the rich background and setting material I can work into it. I'm not satisfied with my efforts to make it natural and draw the journey out a little.

Any suggestions or anyone ever done something similar?

Khadim.