Chapter 2- New York

[Mephistophilis]

Alex puts his hand on the guard's shoulder. 'My good friend. You can be of an enormous help to us. We have been summoned here to meet with Dr Shapiro after a little sojourn in Bolivia on behalf of Caduceus. Since we were almost killed on his behalf we would enormously appreciate if you could show us to his office.'

[Snapper]

Crowley:

"The intrepid hunters of lost antiquities now find themselves working for Acme Insurance in middle management."

[kabukiman]

"Oh, Mr Shapiro is waiting about you. Why didn't you come by the elevator? It is much more confortable. Just follow me"

[Mephistophilis]

'At my age you need to keep the old joints limber. Please lead on.'

[Mr. Handy]

"A secretary told us to take the stairs," says Harry as he follows. "I asked if there was an elevator, but I didn't get an answer."

[Snapper]

Crowley:

Crowley, lighting up another hideously strong French cigarette with a strangled cough, says, "Perhaps they wanted to test your physical training <cough>?"

[aine]

“It’s only two floors, I’ll walk up. We can see who gets there first.”
Jan turns and starts climbing the stairs, after a morning of cabs, elevators and bustle, the staircase provides a relatively quiet interlude.

[kabukiman]

"Well, it is probably someone new here. Just follow me."

He takes you to a great office... except this one is full of maps, books, artefacts and people on the telephone screaming or comparing notes. There is a small door that says "Shapiro". He knocks and nobody answers. He knocks again (louder) and a voice screams: "What?"
The security quickly opens the door (without waiting for an answer) and makes you a sign to enter.

[Mr. Handy]

Harry takes off his signature hat and steps inside.

[Snapper]

Crowley:

Bemused, Crowley signs and enters.

[Mephistophilis]

After scrawling his signature, Alex strides into the office. 'Dr Shapiro, at last, we finally meet the man who nearly got us all killed. An archaelogical expedition from the Miskatonic University indeed, it's almost criminal!'

[aine]

Jan stalks into the office and smiles like a snake at Dr Shapiro. She sits in a chair and crosses her legs.
“What about it, Dr Shapiro?”

[kabukiman]

His attitude change completly and he smiles:
"Your THAT team! I must confess we didn't expected that you will have such greast results. To tell the true, we didn't expected that you would find so many problems. The german army? That is unbelievable"

[Mr. Handy]

"Believe it," says Harry. "They were there. And they got their butts kicked. Not merely by us, though. That temple had some serious defenses."

[Mephistophilis]

'Unbelievable is one word for it. I might say the same about your protestations of ignorance over the radio. He leans forward onto the table and splays his fingers. I think you owe us a bit more of an explanation.' He stands and raises his voice, 'We've earned an explanation!'

[Starspawn338]

Butch has been silent so far, still not comfortable in this setting, but he has to speak up and echoes Alex.

"Yes indeed. It is not the germans but the archeological find itself." He says. "What is it and who made it? We demand answers!"

[kabukiman]

"Well, I supposed I own you an apology, but in my defense, I must say that we didn't expected too much trouble. AT least, that kind of trouble.
Well, to start, this foundation, Caduceus was created by Mr Meadham. He is a very rich man, and some years ago he found a... non conventional threat that almost killed him. He decide then to use his vast fortune to fight those menaces. Of course, this cannot be spoken openly, so Caduceus has a facade of an humanitarian organization to help people in need. So we investigate places that have some strange rumors, then we sent Cauduceus as an humanitarian relief organization to help people in need, and trust me, there is people in need everywhere and we actually really help people. That staff, doesn't know anything of the real goal of the organization, but one of the members know; that member makes an avaliation, and then send a report here asking for help against the OTHER kind of threat. Well, in your case, there wasn't suppose to be a threat, since the mummy was sleeping. About the other dangers, we didn't knew the nazis were involved. Now, you must understand, most rumors are just that, with zero danger, except the diseases and ocasional bandits. It is basically paid vacations to those involved. But in this case it was very diferent."

[Mr. Handy]

"Did you know about the snake people?" asks Harry. "Are we supposed to believe it's just a coincidence that this organization's symbol contains a couple of snakes?"

[kabukiman]

"Of course we know. It is thanks for them that we exist. Our founder, Mr Meadham was almost killed by one of those creature and decide to create Caduceus. Our name is kind of a declaration of war. Our fourse, we discovered latter, that those snakes weren't a bunch of isolated creatures, but inteligent and organized, but he didn't want to change the name as a kind of challenge to them."

[Mr. Handy]

"It would have been nice to know that before we went in," says Harry. "Just how many of them are there? Is this a war we can win?"