Chapter 1: Wednesday, 2 a.m.

Faces of Death Chapter 1 Wednesday 2am 27 JAN/18 2am on a Wednesday morning. The City is wrapped in the deep arms of the night. A faint fog clings to the banks of the rivers – some think this foretells that the rain will start again in the morning. Others know that the fog never really leaves, we just forget to see it. Through the faint wisps dance the frantic reflections of light. Light from the street lamps in Old Quarter, from the towering, ever-awake skyscrapers of Downtown, from heavy and tired ships pulling into the Docks.   Somewhere in the distance there is a rumble of earth, and a perhaps unrelated cry of something avian and hungry. A small piece of land crumbles from the bluffs of Winegarden and falls to the river below – another inch sacrificed, another lost. There is faint singing in pockets of Little Dublin, from voices that are quickly subdued by their own fatigue. But otherwise there is a stillness at 2am on a Wednesday morning.   Lines cross the city, invisible and urgent, connecting people, connecting places. They form a web, and a woman sits in the heart of that web. She has dark red skin and a bindi between her green eyes. Before her sits an enormous switchboard, a beast of small flashing buttons and sinuous cords. One hand holds her spot in a beat-up crime novel, and another adjusts the headset against her temples. Her third hand absentmindedly plays with the torn fabric of her chair’s armrest, while her forth deftly moves across the switchboard, almost faster than the eye can track.   “Operator,” she says politely to yet another caller. “How can I direct your call?”   2am on a Wednesday morning, and each player receives a call.   ~ ~ ~   Eugenia Excalibur is woken in her bed by a call – a call that made its way through several layers of administrative protection directly to her. It is clearly an urgent matter. Lawrence Brendt of Prydwen Vaults in Downtown calls nearly weeping his apology. There has been a break-in concerning thecompany vault owned by the Excaliburs. Per arrangement, he has notified her first, but must call the police.   After asserting that she will be visiting the vault ‘no later than 7:30am’, Eugenia sends for her personal assistant, Priscilla, who is already awake and ready. She charges Priscilla with a quiet assessment of the situation, and they retires back to bed.   ~ ~ ~   Mora doing reconnaissance on a future mark – a political target who is in current dalliance with his mistress at her abode just east of Downtown. She receives a call from Betty, a mysterious broker of sorts who sets Mora up with contracts on behalf of the less fortunate.   Betty informs her that a recent subject, Albert Cooper, has emerged from his house after weeks of self-confinement. Mora has a contract through Betty for the life of the alcoholic, jobless, and violent man on behalf of his beaten wife, Alma, and their son. Tonight, he seems to have ventured out to a little neighborhood bar called Buzzy’s in Cross End.   Mora immediately packs up her gear and switches targets for the evening.   ~ ~ ~   It’s the Tuesday Night Special at Ragnarok, the Rift-only Fight Club. Francis Burke is in the middle of a bout when he sees Lukas frantically waving him down, his cell phone lit up in his best friend’s hand. Francis puts a quick end to the fight and takes the call. It’s Emma, and it’s about her mom.   Seems Felicity got into an accident in Downtown and ended up at Saint Sanctuary Hospital. She insists that she’s fine, and doubly insisted that Emma doesn’t tell Francis. But Emma’s rightfully upset, and doesn’t know what to do, so she called her Uncle. Francis and Lukas both jump into Francis’s car and head immediately out, much to the disappointment of the rest of the fighters.   ~ ~ ~   Dee Lestrange gets a call along her ‘black line’ – the one reserved for her less-than-legal dealings. On the other end is Gio Del Mare, a devastatingly dashing would-be-smuggler, and occasional business partner to Dee.   Gio got a shipment in that night, but the police are out in droves over some Winegarden issue, and his normal lay-low spot is ‘busted’. He needs a place to tide the night over, and was hoping he could use Dee’s shop. He offers her a look over the goods he’s got on hand – he might be able to ‘lose’ anything she takes a shine to, or at least pass along some info on the buyer. He insists that the heat’s not on him, and it’s not a risk to Dee.   She agrees, and suits up with her guns to go meet him at her loading dock.   ~ ~ ~   Kitsune is up late – there are YouTube videos that demand to be watched, despite it being a school night. Their phone lights up – it’s Katuri. After several failed attempts to pick up the phone while flailing uncontrollably, Kit is finally able to answer.   Kat’s great-aunt, one of a myriad of maternal female relatives, has died. He did not know her well, but her death is weighing heavily on him. He’s at a loss for what he is feeling, what he needs. He tentatively mentions meeting up at ‘that place’, and Kit eagerly agrees.   Neither one wants to be the one to hang up first. After an adorable battle of wills, Kit emerges victorious. They head out into the night.   ~ ~ ~   Priscilla is monitoring the situation at Prydwen Vaults from across the street. The cops are present, as are many Prydwen employees, and the situation looks somewhat frantic. A rather distinct black car pulls up, and a few people step out. Priscilla’s otherwise immutable face suddenly has a concerned look through a pointedly raised eyebrow.   ~ ~ ~   Mora reaches Buzzy’s, a local dive and favorite local of Albert’s – at least, back when he would leave the house regularly. Albert has been there for a time, buying rounds for old friends and acquaintances with a sudden surplus of money. Mora settles into the back of the room, watching. She is hit on by a utter creep, and slightly pestered by Those Two Guys, but remains focused on Albert.   Finally, Those Two Guys are asleep at the bar, and all of Albert’s other crew have left for the night. He heads back out to the street towards home, and Mora carefully follows. When Albert pauses to take a leak, he is suddenly grabbed into the alley.   Mora gives chase, seeing Albert pulled down to the next block and into a nondescript white van by an average woman. The woman is oddly plain, as if absolutely none of her features were really noteworthy. She makes eye contact with Mora, and gives a surprising grin before shutting the door.   The van races down the street. Mora deftly pulls out her rifle, loaded with a tracking beacon, and fires it onto the back of the van. The hit is solid, and soon the van’s whereabouts are brightly displayed on Mora’s app, despite a momentary delay in sending feedback. Mora retreats into the shadows to observe more of the van’s movement before making her next move.   ~ ~ ~   When Francis and Lukas arrive at the hospital, Emma is waiting in the lobby for them. She explains what her mother told her – it was a crowded sidewalk in Downtown, someone jostled her and she fell in front of a car. Francis has Emma lead them to her room, after brushing by a resident who assumed Francis was there for Emergency Care.   Francis tells Emma and Lukas to wait outside, and walks in to see his sister in a hospital bed. She looks bruised and scraped, but otherwise the same fiery Felicity. She fights against his concern, reiterating that it was just a small accident, but eventually confesses that it’s crossed her mind that it was intentional. She eludes to some big investigation she’s been doing on the side, to prove herself as a reporter. She had just made contact with a man called Albert Cooper, and was supposed to meet with him soon with a second payment in exchange for big information.   Before they can get much further, one of the doctors on the night shift enters to check on Felicity. Francis introduces himself, but his normal charm is greeted with an unsettling curiosity from the doctor. She pronounces that Felicity has a minor concussion and should stay at the hospital at least overnight for observation.   Felicity convinces Francis to take Emma home. On their way out, the doctor watches Francis and company go…   ~ ~ ~   Gio’s horrible little Yugo pulls up at Dee’s store, making an uncomfortable amount of noise. He pulls out two crates, which the two of them drag through the back door. He then parks his car a few blocks away. As promised, Gio opens the crates and lets Dee look to see if anything interests her, either for possession or info on the buyer.   There are: 3 black eggs, with veins of gold, that seem to be solid rock; an assortment of rain sticks; two dirty coins in a display box; a gaudy bejeweled sword; various powders, liquids and tinctures in small bottles; a stack of rare, unprocessed leathers; and a small, curiously smooth violet-black stone. From Dee’s knowledge, they are completely unrelated, and likely intended for a variety of buyers.   Dee asks for the stone, but Gio balks. There’s only one, so it would be hard to have it ‘go missing’. Rather than take anything else, Dee extracts a promise of first refusal on the next goods that Gio gets his hands on. He agrees, and the sheepishly asks if he can spend the night. Alone, of course. Just for sleep.   After she rolls out the cot for him, Dee takes to the comfortable sofa on the display floor, and falls asleep with one gun under her pillow.   ~ ~ ~   Katuri is already at ‘the spot’ when Kit arrives – a small bench in one of the riverside parkways in Old Quarter. He seems lost in thought, and when Kit gets up the courage to approach, it elicits a yelp of surprise from him. Their presence is welcome, though.   Kat shares his confusing feelings about his great-aunt’s death. He’s struggling with the emotions – his own, and those of his family around him. His father is not as sympathetic as he would hope, and his mother is particularly upset. Kit doesn’t have any answers, and sometimes they sit in each other’s comforting silence. But occasionally, Kat will answer a question that Kit didn’t ask.   Kit makes the decision to grant a great boon of fortune to Kat to last until the sun sets – it is a gift they can bestow only once a day, to one person. They confer it through touch, and it makes Kat smile to feel a gentle hand on his shoulder. With that, Kat returns home. Kit follows him silently, happy only when they see Kat being welcomed back into the house by his grief-wrecked but understanding mother.   ~ ~ ~   Eugenia is awoken yet again. This time it is a terse text message from Priscilla: “You need to be here.”   Quickly, Eugenia is dressed and atop her motorcycle, racing into Downtown. She parks near Priscilla, and gets her assessment of the situation. Priscilla’s frown is all it takes to propel Eugenia into the lobby, straight for the elevator down to her family’s vault, despite the frenetic protests of everyone at the front desk.   The music in the elevator is NOT calming.   Down at the very bottom floor of Prydwen Vaults, the chaos is only slightly lessened. Eugenia meets briefly with Lawrence and the detective working the case, Dmitry MacAuley. But she ends up brushing them aside for her own view of the situation in the vault. The bottom half of the far wall is torn up, rupturing a few of the lock boxes on either adjoining wall. The hole goes down… far. And there is a harsh figure in black in the corner. She greets Priscilla coldly. Priscilla does the same, naming her Margaret.   Margaret gives away little. Lawrence apologizes profusely. The ledgers of the vault are kept on hard copy only, and the security cameras have an issue with their failover server, so there is nothing ready for Eugenia’s review. She leaves Priscilla in the official capacity of the Excalibur liaison, and establishes the expectation of a full report from Prydwen by midday. She then leaves, concerned with this Aegis Securities that employs Margaret and contracts with Prydwen.   ~ ~ ~   The tracker Mora has on the van has stopped somewhere in the Old Docks. She decides to head to the location, which turns out to be an abandoned shipyard with two warehouses and a large, empty concrete space in between. In the middle of that space, the van is ablaze.   She approaches cautiously, and finds that there seems to be a message waiting in front of the van. Her tracker sits there, intact, along with half a kidney (presumably human), and the blood-written words “Hello Theta 315”. She finds Albert’s body sitting at the end of one of the piers. A small trip wire knocks the body into the lake as Mora approaches, leaving only a handgun and a note that reads “I’m sorry Alma”.   Nothing else moves. Mora takes the gun, the note, and her tracker, and leaves the scene. She reports to Betty that Albert ‘had a sudden growth of conscience’. Betty takes that to be a euphemism that he is either dead, or never coming back. She thanks Mora for her work.   ~ ~ ~   Emma gets out of the car quickly as her uncle Francis pulls up to her house. He and Lukas start to talk about Felicity’s situation, but before much, Emma comes back reporting that the front door is unlocked. Francis tells Lukas to stay with Emma in the car as he goes to investigate.   He doesn’t find any intruder, but someone was definitely there – someone playing at being sneaky and failing utterly. Felicity’s desk received some specific attention, and her laptop is gone, but it’s unclear if it was there to begin with. Their old neighbor Nona comes through the back door to confront what she believes is the burglar. She is overjoyed that Francis is alive, although it doesn’t seem like she will remember. She confirms that she heard a lot of noise in the place earlier.   Francis sends Emma to get a bag of stuff so she can stay at his place that nice. Lukas calls the police and stays behind to report the break-in.   ~ ~ ~   Krysanthymum is at a bar when she receives a call from Flicker. From the bathroom. Of the same bar. Krys and Flicker are out for Portia’s bachelorette party, and Flicker has over-indulged, as expected. It will be a rough night for both of them, even as the Geiss sisters drunkenly rekindle a lagging devotion to each other.   ~ ~ ~   Michel is awake, brooding and pacing the floor of the bedroom he shares with Simon. Finally, the call he has been dreading comes; Babette, from the exclusive re-opening of Anastacia’s gallery. It is a smashing success, and Babette simply HAD to let Michel know. Michel puts forth a brave front that quickly deteriorates as Babette continues to send him pictures, including some in front of Anastacia’s fabulous RUG collection.   Simon pleads with Michel to ignore the goading and come to bed, keenly aware of his own early court date in the morning. Michel eventually relents, being seduced to silence by sexy times.