To the sound of a jingling bell, the door of Maritime East Shipping Agents opens to reveal a small, cramped office. A few chairs are set before a tiny, paper strewn desk while the walls are adorned with posters of far-away places – Egypt, Africa, and the Swiss Alps feature prominently.
Every surface is stacked with folders, brochures, and mementos of foreign travel. On the wall behind the desk is a particularly gruesome African mask, and wherever you go in the tiny room it seems to look down on you with smoldering hate. Soon after the bell rings, an elderly man in an extremely well-tailored Italian suit comes out from a back room, beaming.
"Welcome, welcome. Alfred Noble. How may we be of service to you?"
As the door closes too behind him you are aware of another, much younger man sitting at another desk within the room.