Chapter ONE - NYC (Kabukiman, ghill)

[Dave Syrinx]

Spoiler:

New York City

Hanson walks down Lexington Avenue to the spot where Anna had told him to meet her. 98th Street was it?

[kabukiman]

Hanson is furious. He has spent the last hours trying to solve problems that his idiotic boss have created. He was in his way home, when suddenly Anna call him to come to this place. Anna. For some strange reason, she presented him as "her boyfriend" to other people. But everyone seemed to like the idea, and it was a good cover, so he accepted the situation. He finally saw her
.
"Hi honney! I'm glad you arrived! Alzis is waiting for us inside" She kisses him, waves to the doorkeeper, a huge guy outside who ignores her but nods to Hanson; he knows the hierarchy, and Anna is a nobody. Even if she seems to be the only one to ignore it. But somehow, she manages to know all the right people and survive.
They enter the place. It's near empty. She asks for a vodka, Hanson asks for a juice. It's important to keep a clran mind before talking with Alzis. The bartender don't sday a word and gives the two glasses.
"You think we can stay to dance this night?"
"To dance?"She doesn't seem to understand that he hates dancing. Unless the Godess appear.
"Where is Alzis?" - She asks

[Dave Syrinx]

The bartender says, "Stevie is in the back room. There was some videos he had to watch." The bartender is reminding Thomas of the dude who played in Miami Vice a couple of years ago. Tubbs? The dark dude.

"Tommie, I do want to stay tonight. Why do you always want to work? Let loose. Live a little..." Anna pulls his arm for him to hug her.

Having no idea what kind of gig this will be Thomas, is a bit hesitant. What kind of place is this?? It gives a vibe of some Romanian Strahd von Zarovic á AD&D. He smiles to himself. Those books were the most fun of his extra curricular reading. Even if he never got to play them. He had them with him.
The little research he had managed to get done on this Steven Alzis was that he's a producer of music and procurer of antiques. That's why he got that vibe. The place is littered with old pieces of furniture and bric-á-brac.

[kabukiman]

"We will see latter that"- he answers to Anna.
"As soon as Mr Alzis is ready. please inform him that we are waiting."

This place was indeed different, but Hanson couldn't understand how. It wasn't the typical store selling mumbo-jumbo stuff. But it had a peculiar look that Hanson couldn't describe... Well, he had to wait.

[Dave Syrinx]

"I can show you in, if you're in a hurry.", The bartender leaves the bar and shows Hanson and Anna through a door and a short corridor, past an office and to a large movie set room. Bright lights shine at a massive steel desk, behind which Steven Alzis sits behind. He looks up from a document he is reading and shuts off a Bang Olufsen TV set at the desk.

"Just testing some shots for a show pitch. 'The Mind of The Dark'. Well..." Steven, dressed in pinstripe dark grey suit gets up and grabs Thomas by the shoulder. "Every page counts, son." He looks at Thomas. "I've heard you like to read. And I have a hobby, to collect books. Not just any books, but the forbidden books, the ones you're not supposed to read. Like art you can't show, because it's not yours to keep. You get it?" "What I'm after at the moment is a book called Congo Regnum, a book about a strange taste for flesh. A book about how to consume the memories of another. That works perfectly with the show I'm setting up." "My informants tell me that the book should be in the US under the watchful eyes of a group of renegades called White Aryan Resistance. They hail from Butte Flats in Oklahoma. Heh, apt name." "Now, you see, I can't go there myself to procure this book. But I can give you a briefcase with the amount of money to make a swap with my contact over at that place. No paper trace. Just a briefcase and yourself. In out, done." Alzis releases his hold of Thomas' shoulder. "When you get back with the book, I'll let you see my collection in the cellar. Fair?"

[kabukiman]

Aryan resistance. Lucky Hanson was from the right color... This almost seem to be some kind of ritual of acceptance. To see if Hanson was competent; well that maked sense: only pretender cultist would make a weird cerimonial.
"It's a deal. I presume that we should leave now? Anna, we will see if you find any nice place to dance in Oklahoma"- he says with a smile.
As soon Alzis dismiss him, he will leave.

[Dave Syrinx]

Just a lay of the land.

[Dave Syrinx]

Hanson gets an address from Alzis and a briefcase. As he leaves, a hurried neophyte of the club brushes past him with a sole piece of paper. Something that looks like a page torn out off of a book. He places it on Steven's desk.

[kabukiman]

Hanson looks with curiosity to the neophyte but don't say a word and leaves.

[Dave Syrinx]

Anna looks at Thomas. "How, how are we getting to Butte Flats, Tommie?"

[kabukiman]

I'l rent a car and drive there. And since I didn't enjoy my hollidays last year, I'l take some days off.

Traveling as a couple shouldn't raise any suspicion. Not that anyone should suspect anything, thinks Hanson

[ghill]

Owen walks down the steps into Club Apocalypse only just avoiding the young couple as they exit the club. In the darkened interior he grabs a beer from the Tubb's lookalike, then walks to a table out of the way. He does his best to avoid talking to anyone he's reasonably confident Alzis will have been informed he'd arrived the moment he walked through the door and he doesn't want to appear to keen.

[kabukiman]

Hanson go rent a car.