RPIII-Panic Prone [Invite]

[Christian Moynahan]

The invitation they each received was brief and vague, and gave little indication as to who its sender was or who else had been invited, except for those who shared positions in their respective organizations. Its appearance was innocuous enough - envelope and invitation both printed on cotton card stock, with the invitation itself bearing the official seal of the Hotel Angelis, and the envelope stamped with the hotel's location as a return address. The contents, however, read with a sense of urgency that could just prove enough to draw its recipients to the stated time and place. It read:

Dear [recipient],

Your presence is requested at the Hotel Angelis this Saturday, October 5th, regarding a matter of grave implications and potentially devastating consequences. Please arrive no later than seven P.M., and give your name to the receptionist. You will not need this invitation to enter; please destroy it after taking note of its contents.

Thank you in advance.

Following the invitation's instructions to the letter would result in each individual being directed to one of the top floors, just below the two penthouses. The ride on the elevators - made of reinforced glass and steel, with stunning views of the lower levels as they rushed smoothly upwards - would be quick, and, upon reaching the appointed floor, they would be shown into a large private dining area by a gently smiling female attendant. The doors would close behind them, and they would find ample seating, either at tables or along a bar, if they chose to sit at the time.

Across the room from the door, a map of the United States had been attached to the wall, with arrows and unintelligible words scribbled across it. A stack of papers and folders had been placed on a tiny table next to the map, beside a large black marker and a tube of pencils. Otherwise, the room looked like a perfectly normal hotel dining room, minus any table dressings. A young woman in a slender, form-fitting black dress moved silently about the room, setting things up and filling any requests the guests had for refreshments.

The tall, slender figure positioned at the far right of the room, where ceiling-to-floor glass windows looked out toward the Vegas Strip and beyond, barely seemed to look up when each guest entered, instead turning away from the view slowly each time to give the new arrivals a small smile of welcome before greeting them personally, using their last names. Whether they recognized him depended on how much attention they had paid to the business world recently. "Thank you for attending," he then said, or some variant of such. "Would you like anything to eat or drink? Miss Alvarez will bring you anything you might like. The Angelis is well equipped for just about anything, I've found."

Come; enter the foreign
Face; all that's shameful
Cheat; may the past find
Out; separating…
-Chevelle, "Panic Prone"

Nature did not quite seem to want a quiet transition for Christian. For the first month or two after the announcement of his appointment as the CEO of Ark Industries, he had undergone a full media frenzy, as people wanted to know who he was and what Ark was doing, and his chief public relations officer had wanted it that way. Then, as that settled and Christian started to get comfortable in his new position, the cholera outbreak took hold, and Christian had thrown himself fully into developing a cure for the malignant strain. With his colleagues at Ark and the Kilvayne Corporation hard at work and cooperating beautifully, it had taken them about three weeks to develop something that worked, but they had done it. And now… there was this.

As far as he knew, at the moment, he was one of three people outside of the American government who was aware of the full scope of the problem. Having contacts on Capitol Hill had its uses, as he had just found once again. His contact had caught wind of the trouble when the secret meetings started. Tiny Congressional sessions under the cover of darkness, briefings with the President and his Cabinet, all unknown to just about anyone who was not a critical part of that world.

Christian knew now, however. He understood to some extent why the government had kept it so quiet - once the population at large caught wind of what was happening under their noses, in their communities, there was a very good chance that they would panic. Mass hysteria would do nothing to help the situation, Christian knew, which was why he had brought these few individuals together under one roof. With any luck, they would find a solution to it that would allow them to reveal it to the public once it was treated, and not before. If they ever told the public at all.

His already slight body had grown thinner and his skin was paler than it had been due to how ragged he had run himself during the cholera scare. However, he thought he was bringing himself back around, as he had been eating better and was back in the habit of actually spending time outside. The dark grey suit he wore today, with a black dress shirt and lavender tie, did something to help with the weight loss problem, but only accentuated his pale skin; he could hardly have helped it in any case, as his black hair had grown out enough to make that the case anyway.

The Angelis had not been his first choice as a meeting place, but, ever since his initial meeting with Maurelle, he had felt as though he were being watched. Not by Maurelle; she had no reason to watch him, not with the… business arrangements they had made. But the feeling was definitely there, mostly when he was in his home, which unsettled him because that was the last place where he should have felt uncomfortable. His home was his sanctuary, the one place where he could be himself. Yet now he had a vague, though unsubstantiated, feeling that it had been compromised.

The feeling had followed him to Las Vegas. Perhaps he was suddenly growing paranoid, he thought. Perhaps the time he had spent in solitude, working in Ark's labs to help with the cholera cure, had driven him a bit mad. Or… perhaps he was right. He always trusted his instincts. But he had no proof of anything, nor any inking as to who would watch him or why. He was the CEO of Ark, true, but if his business practices were of interest to someone, why would his home and his travels factor into it?

He set his mind back to the reason for his travels. The other two people in the know, on his end, were Gabriel Constant and Lucius Kilvayne. Or… he thought about that again. It was more likely that there were four other people "in the know," as he knew Gabriel kept no secrets from his wife, and he would not be surprised to learn that the same was true of Lucius and his fiancée. They each counted as one anyway, Christian supposed. He'd had very little exposure to such strong alliances.

As the attendees began to trickle in, Christian slowly moved away from the window. The view was enthralling, exhilarating - dizzying in a way, but in a good way. Night was falling, as well, and the Strip was lighting up. He had a meeting to run, however, and that required all of his attention. He took up a new position near the map on the wall, while removing his suit jacket and folding it over the back of a nearby chair. He had sent the invitations very specifically. Most would arrive alone, although a few would be in pairs; Lucius and Dakari, for one, if they were able to attend, as well as the two pairs of co-leaders he had invited. He should have been clearer about the meeting not being "plus one," but there was refuge in brevity, especially when he was trying to avoid revealing the meeting to certain parties.

He waited for the group to gather and greet each other, and retrieve their requested refreshments from "Miss Alvarez." Then he stepped to the middle of the far side of the room, in front of the map, with his hands folded behind him. "Good evening," he said; he had a deep, soothing voice, the sort with a clear tendency against being raised often. "Thank you all for taking the time to attend tonight. I assure you that the time is not wasted, as the problem that brings us here is not a simple one."

In a moment's pause, he glanced over the faces of those who had made it to the meeting so far. "For those who may not have guessed it, my name is Christian Moynahan. You may be aware that I am the CEO of Ark Industries, but the business that brings us together has nothing to do with my own occupation. Neither does it have to do with any of yours." He turned to the small table next to him and picked up the folders, and stuck a pencil into each one as he continued to speak. "But it is a matter of national consequence, one that requires action that no one cognizant of the problem so far has been willing or able to take. We are here to define that step and take it."

[Frank Rook]

Frank sat at his desk, just like he did quite often these days. He’d been busy in the past few weeks. The stack of paperwork that filled the inbox was finally starting to tip over from structural instability. Once he got to it, he did so in a very no nonsense manner. By ‘closing time’ that day, he had at least a third of it done. He was about to take a break when a knock on his door sounded and a small blond woman girl walked in.

”Sorry boss, new load of mail,” she said, clapping a stack of papers and letters three inches thick onto the inbox. She smirked at the look on his face. ”I do not envy you,” she said her smile widening. Frank saw her a few times a day. She was from the front desk, the one in charge of delivering everything to everyone. He couldn’t blame her, she was just doing her job, but he hated her and everything she stood for…

”I hate you,” Frank said plainly. He sounded quite serious, but she knew he didn’t mean it.

”Naw, you love me and you know it,” she said with a smile on her face. She usually wasn’t this peppy, but she’d seen the state of Frank lately. She didn’t know what was going on, but she did know that she liked him as a boss and that she wanted to help him any way she could.

He waved when she exited the room and took the first envelope off of the stack. He slit it open with a small double edged knife he kept on the desk for that purpose, or whatever else he could think to use it for, and looked at the letter inside. His brow furrowed when he started to read.

Dear Mr. Rook,

Your presence is requested at the Hotel Angelis this Saturday, October 5th, regarding a matter of grave implications and potentially devastating consequences. Please arrive no later than seven P.M., and give your name to the receptionist. You will not need this invitation to enter; please destroy it after taking note of its contents.

Thank you in advance.

He double checked the date to make sure he hadn’t missed it, and saw that in fact today was the fifty. Lucky him. He stood up and slid his jacket on, running a hand over his belt line to make sure everything was in place. He briefly considered going down to the armory to take along something with a bit more kick, in case it was a trap, but he figured he would be ok. He took one more look at the letter, memorized it as best he would be able to, and then reached for the original. He wondered if it was the best choice to destroy it as the letter instructed. If something happened, this would be the bread crumb that would lead whoever came looking right to him. He wondered just how good it would be to leave no clue as to where he was going… Deciding to say fuck it at the last moment, he put it in his side desk drawer, the ‘personal’ drawer. Which was to say, held a carton of cigarettes and not much else. If something happened, he was going to make damn sure that whoever did it wasn’t getting out easy.

-------------------------

Pulling the Charger into the parking lot of the Hotel Angelis, stopping himself short from going back to the trunk, he locked the car up and stood against it for a moment to enjoy a cigarette. It was probably a no smoking building, but time would tell if he gave a fuck or not. He waved off a valet that came over to him and offered to park the car in a more convenient spot as well. No way in hell anyone was getting in this car without him being in it as well. Not with the payload in the trunk and the seat adjusted just the way he liked it.

Showing little regard for the property of someone like Dakari Johessman, he tossed the butt to the ground and walked toward the entrance. He only had to stop at the front desk and tell them he was here for an appointment to be directed to the elevator. He took them up to the proper floor and took a look at the hall he found himself in. He was only able to look around for a few moments when a young woman that looked blissfully unaware of the kind of people who signed her paycheck directed him to a set of doors down the hall. They fed into a large dining hall, at least that’s what it looked like. It had the big ass table in the middle, a bar off to the side. Usual sight for the high end places like this. Frank instantly looked around, looking for anyone he may know. A few people were milling around, one notably over near a large map. Frank only saw him from behind, but something about him looked a bit… Off.

He politely declined the attendant’s offer for a refreshment, instead asking where he could go have a cigarette. She informed him of the no smoking policy the hotel had, something he was already quite well aware of, but told him about the balcony that he was more than welcome to use for that purpose. He gave her a nod, knowing that she was just doing her job and that he shouldn’t take his distaste for her boss out on her. He simply walked through the glass doors that led to the open evening air and lit a cigarette as soon as he was at the banister.

With only the slight chill of the October air to keep him company, he let his thoughts wander as to the purpose of the meeting. He still wasn’t convinced it wasn’t a trap, but this seemed like a very elaborate setup for one. On the other hand, if Dakari was behind it, it would be quite elaborate. He assumed so anyway, given what he knew about the woman. The fact that she was shacked up with someone like Lucius Kilvayne was also worrying. He was the type to let grudges go, Frank assumed. It could even be payback for the little spat his brother had caused a few weeks back. If it was his brother. Kilvaynes multiplied like rabbits, it was hard to keep track of the family tree.

Tossing the butt over the guard when he was done, he walked back into the room to survey the situation. A few more people had arrived, and he recognized every single one of them. He didn’t know if anyone would recognize him, at least not as a higher up in the Company. He had run afoul of a few of these people in the past, in one way or another. It still didn’t ease his mind about this being a trap.

He relegated to people watching for a bit, reaching up to adjust the tie at his neck for a moment. It felt like it was choking him, even though he knew that was physically impossible for several reasons. The largest of which being that it was a clip on tie.

More people began to filter into the meeting, some of which were pretty big names. He made out the hotel owner, a person who was pretty high up in Ark, another who was the head of Intellitouch. The people here were as diverse as it got, but they each had something in common. They were all ‘someone’. He began to rethink his earlier thoughts about this being a trap. That didn’t add up with the people here. If it were a trap set up by someone like Dakari, he doubted she’d even be here. No, she had better things to do and plenty of scumbags that she could kick a suitcase of cash at to do her dirty work. Same with Lucius. Even if they wanted things to be more hands on, the rest of the people who showed up needlessly complicated the process. Now that he thought about it, he doubted it would have been an unsigned invitation. They were both arrogant to a fault. They wouldn’t lead their prey into a trap where said prey didn’t know who was setting it.

He considered having another cigarette on the balcony when the figure over by the map finally turned to address everyone.

”Good evening. Thank you all for taking the time to attend tonight. I assure you that the time is not wasted, as the problem that brings us here is not a simple one,” the man said. Frank recognized him when he finally turned around. He was the new head honcho for Ark. Interesting… If he was the one who called the meeting, then things seemed to be taking a whole new turn.

Taking a seat that didn’t have anyone in it to either the left or the right, he hunched forward for a moment and rested his elbows on the table to get a good look at the position of everyone else. When Christian kept talking, he leaned back in the chair to get comfortable. He was interested. Most of him assumed that it was about the cholera outbreak. Given the map on the wall, he was pretty sure that was what it was. If not, then what the flying fuck else was going wrong in the world today?

”For those who may not have guessed it, my name is Christian Moynahan. You may be aware that I am the CEO of Ark Industries, but the business that brings us together has nothing to do with my own occupation. Neither does it have to do with any of yours,” he said. He didn’t show it, but Frank was more and more interested in what was going on. He guessed that whatever the problem was, they were all supposed to work together on it. How he would handle working with some of the people in this room, he didn’t know… If the gain was more than the consequences of such an alliance, he’d do it in a heartbeat. But those consequences could be pretty high… As he spoke, Christian began to pick up folders from the table he was standing next to. Probably details on whatever it was he was proposing.

”But it is a matter of national consequence, one that requires action that no one cognizant of the problem so far has been willing or able to take. We are here to define that step and take it,” he said. That was ominous… Frank stayed quiet for now, figuring that whatever they would need to review would be in the folders being passed out. Christian would also, in all likelihood, go on to explain the facts as well. Frank didn’t like to speak until he had all the facts, and he much preferred getting the facts from a source that wouldn’t lie to him. He expected that whatever was in those folders would be sourced with data that could be verified. If not, he couldn’t be sure that he wouldn’t call bullshit on the whole thing.

[Khalidah Rahal]

Hey, crumbled star
I guess it didnt last forever
Does it ever?
Forever's never
I guess you really weren't so clever

The Hotel Angelis
Las Vegas, Nevada

She received the rather innocuous looking invitation at her lavish home in North Las Vegas where she'd been spending much of her time behind the scenes delegating the Jung Facility's resources around the country. With the cholera outbreak, she'd opened the Facility's ranks to a number of individuals well-versed in the healing profession, most of whom were painfully human, and others whose abilities would be a boon to the ill. Most recently, she'd given a sizable amount of money to The Cleveland Clinic, a world-renowned set of hospitals, clinics, and offices which serviced everyone from drug addicts off the street to royalty half a world away. Possibly due to her family's inherent genetic abilities, the disease had passed them by, though other families weren't as lucky. Cholera was a devastating disease.

Although Lilka hadn't received an invitation, she'd more or less invited herself. It was a rare event when she and her sister met more than twice a century, and since she'd already taken up residence in one of her long-lost relative's apartments—Jordan Mercer—she'd decided to allow her apprentice a night to himself. Ever since the afternoon when he'd seen who he thought was Felicia take a header off the balcony of the hotel in which she now stood, she'd (almost) quite literally been up his ass 24-7. But he was coming along quite nicely. It really helped that during this lifetime, she'd decided to become a psychiatric social worker. Helping people work through their issues was just something she did, and Jordan's mind was a Disneyland of broken memories and hurt feelings.

Standing next to her sister, from the looks on their faces to their nearly identical posture in the elevator as it transported them to the level where they needed to be, it was obvious that they were closely related. Though Khalidah lacked the roundness of her sister's face and the curves of her body, their eyes bore the same jaded look, and their auras gave a distinct air that they were not women to be trifled with. That wasn't to say that they were unapproachable. Both sisters enjoyed the company of others, though Lilka's more than slight disregard for humanity occasionally bled through in personal and professional arenas. Khalidah sighed. Hopefully tonight Lilka would remember to mind her tongue.

As soon as the elevator doors opened, Lilka was the first to step out and begin walking toward the meeting room. There were no signs to follow, but it wasn't like she hadn't been here before. She paused for a moment and looked over her shoulder to make sure that Khalidah was following. “You walk like an old woman.”

“Because I am an old woman,” she quipped. Physically, she appeared to be in her mid-forties, though she'd seen much more than forty centuries of life pass before her. It was a slow but enjoyable process to watch humanity nearly drive itself to extinction only to bring itself back from the brink time after time. As much as humans were loathe to admit it, they were about as resilient as cockroaches.

Khalidah followed Lilka into the meeting room and took a seat beside her at the table. Lilka gave the man standing at the window a passing glance and rolled her eyes as he approached the map on the wall. Hopefully this would be over soon. She didn't have the patience to sit through several hours-long meetings. Those types of activities were more up her sister's alley. But seeing as how she'd accepted Khalidah's invitation, she felt obligated to sit there and keep her mouth shut and just listen until someone said something that pissed her off (which probably wouldn't take long).

She gave Lilka an admonishing look as the other woman shifted around in her seat and examined her surroundings. “Zachowuj się, siostro.”

Lilka smiled ruefully and chuckled. “I mają nie rozpoczął żadnych wojen w tym wieku.”

The more the centuries wore on, she wondered if the genetic codes of the numerous species her sister had acquired had caused a detachment somewhere in her psyche. Whereas she had the patience of a saint, Lilka was often quick to anger if she felt that her anger was justified. With her warning out of the way, she nodded at Christian. Lilka spared him a half-second glance (which she figured he was lucky to have even gotten from her), and set her sights elsewhere, outside the window on the gleaming Strip below.

"Thank you all for taking the time to attend tonight. I assure you that the time is not wasted, as the problem that brings us here is not a simple one." He sounded wear as he addressed them, perhaps due to a severe lack of sleep over the past few weeks. Ark Industries had been tossed rather unceremoniously into the world spotlight, and Mister Moynahan didn't seem the type to be comfortable with speaking in front of large audiences at length. Khalidah, on the other hand, had no problem with it. She'd been manipulating the masses through simple word of mouth before that bastard Jesus had 'walked across water.'

When were humanity's problems ever a simple issue? She withdrew a stylus and an iPad from the mobile bag at her side and touched the screen to turn it on. Foregoing the usual pen and paper as so many college students had done in recent years, she opened a program and started hastily jotting down notes in a language no one living would have understood unless they'd studied ancient Aramaic for several years.

Christian went on to elaborate about the point of the meeting, and it was only then that she realised that she and Lilka had been latecomers. Well, not necessarily late, but they must have been the last people seated. Eh, she didn't really like being the first person inside a meeting room unless she was the one leading the presentation. It made her feel obligated to do something more useful other than just sit there and wait for something to happen.

“We've all been taking action in our own way,” she replied, perhaps a little too sternly. “I highly doubt that everyone here has been sitting on their laurels and letting the world pass them by, as it were.” Khalidah gently set the stylus down on the table and looked up. She'd been doing her utmost to keep the world from falling apart, but she'd grown tired of being tasked with such a burden. When all of the individuals present were dead and gone, there was a chance that she'd still be cleaning up whatever mess they made, well into their future generations. “What is it you propose we do, Mister Moynahan?”

חלדה רהל חלדה רהל

∞ Word count: 1182
∞ Mood: I have to pee.
∞ Outfit: Khalidah, Lilka
∞ Lyrics / Quote: Humble Star, Blessed Union of Souls
∞ Illustrations: None.
∞ Comment / Informational links: None.

[Helena Rahal]

Heaven is on the way
You could feel the hate
But I guess you never will

The letter had been innocuous enough, if it had not been addressed to Helena Rahal. The number of people who knew that person existed numbered less than twenty and most of those were family. However it was the content of the letter that really had Helena suspicious and wary, as it held a sense of urgency that made Helena feel uncomfortable. Requesting the destruction of the letter was some Cold War spy movie stuff, Helena wondered who was trying to entangle her into this mysterious plot.

Helena was not about to simply let this go, despite her misgivings about this letter, its wording had her intrigued. If for nothing else, she wanted to know who out there with the sort of pull to secure the Angelis had discovered her identity. However she was not about to attend this meeting alone, her instincts telling her that this was not something to attend alone. Her first choice had been her aunt, as her powers as an telepath could have proven useful had the meeting turned into a tricky situation.

Unknown to Helena though, Marie was busy in The Netherlands, beginning the legal proceedings to transfer total ownership of Vital to Helena. It had required her to buy out everyone but Jasmine and Helena herself, but it would be her gift to Helena, an apology for what Helena had seen as Marie's transgressions against her. As a result, Marie had to decline her niece' request to attend the meeting with her, under the guise that she could not make the trans Atlantic trip at such a short notice.

Maurelle though had foreseen all of this and had arrived at Helena's residence the night of the fourth. It was not something that Maurelle was particularly happy about, as she had intended for the charity fundraiser to be the last time the two would interact in the immediate future. Marie's own change of plans as well as other powerful people making their moves had altered the future and Maurelle's plan. Maurelle now found herself not only attending this meeting with a person whom Maurelle had recently found herself in her own meeting with. However even then she had no inkling that they would be meeting again so soon nor under the circumstances that was bringing them together once more.

Given the severity of the language in the letter, Helena had decided to opt for a business look for the meeting. While Maurelle opted for a black ensemble with white fringe, Helena kept it more light with a baby blue top and black pencil skirt. Maurelle had her tablet at the ready while Helena merely had her blackberry at hand. Maurelle was handling their travel, with one of her teleporters popping them outside the entrance to the Las Vegas hotel five minutes before seven. Taking a lighter from her pocket, Maurelle took the note from Helena's hand and set it to the torch, which Helena had been reluctant to do. "Let's go, I doubt we want to keep them waiting."

With a frown as the note turned to ash against the sidewalk, Helena acknowledged Maurelle and followed her into the hotel. A few years ago she would not have dared to enter the Johessman run establishment, not without the fear of death. That fear was nowhere to be found this night, just anxiety and curiosity, as the Johessmans no longer were a threat to her and hers. The world had spun its web of fate in a very intricate and interesting design, one that Helena wondered how those like Maurelle with the precognitive abilities could even begin to understand.

Helena was the one to approach the receptionist that greeted them upon their entrance. "Helena Rahal and Maurelle Lacroix." The names put the receptionist into action and she directed them to the elevator and told them to hit last floor before the penthouses. As they entered the floor, they were quickly greeted and directed into a spacious dining area. "It's going to begin shortly, we should take our seats." Maurelle whispered to Helena's ear and following the advice, Helena picked out a pair of seats at an empty table.

As Helena looked around the room, there were a few people in attendance that she noticed, one of them quite striking. None other than Frank Rook of the Company was in attendance, a very odd occurence since she had heard nothing of him since parts of the Company had gone public. Yet there had been very little that had made its way to her desk the last year or so in the New York branch, so much so that she more often than not found herself attending her own business than at work. Perhaps it was a good thing, the number of Special related disasters had been few and far between since the power outage...

Then out of the corner of her eye, she saw her mother in law and Lida's sister enter the room. That was a very interesting turn of events and could explain how whoever had organized this had found her out. Yet before she could get the attention of Ma, the man who had been standing over by the large scale map began to speak and Helena's draw nearly dropped as it was none other than the new CEO of Ark. "What a complicated web we weave." She muttered to herself, as her intrigue was now more peaked than ever given Ark's checkered past.

Christian tried to use pleasantries and reinforce the gravity of the situation, which he was keeping close to this chest. The map suggested that it had something to do with America and the initial thought for Helena was the cholera outbreak. However, that had been slowly been getting contained over the past weeks and would not strike such severe words to gather people like Frank and Ma, nor would it explain why Helena was here. Something else was definitely afoot and Ma was quick to prod Christian. Both Helena and Maurelle sat on the edge of their seats, eagerly anticipating what the new CEO would answer and reveal about the gathered collection of individuals.

OOC: Okay, so this is just a bit creepy, but as I was replying to this thread, Pandora put on Panic Prone by Chevelle. Universe, what are you doing?

[Lucius Kilvayne]

Your world was made for you by someone above
But you chose evil ways instead of love
You made me master of the world where you exist
The soul I took from you was not even missed

”Good evening. Thank you all for taking the time to attend tonight. I assure you that the time is not wasted, as the problem that brings us here is not a simple one,”

Lucius had known that Christian Moynahan would be the host of this event, of course. He and Gabriel being the other two men who formed a trinity of power with Moynahan, it was expected his moves would be known to them. That being said, he had to admit that the expediency Christian had shown in making this happening was quite impressive. And he certainly wasted no time establishing the gravitas of the situation as it stood. Lucius was pleased by this, of course.


”For those who may not have guessed it, my name is Christian Moynahan. You may be aware that I am the CEO of Ark Industries, but the business that brings us together has nothing to do with my own occupation. Neither does it have to do with any of yours,”

Lucius felt that almost anything could be construed as having to do with his occupation. Then again, his true occupation and his on-paper occupation were entirely different things. His true occupation being the conquest of the world, it stood to reason that any breaking news or emergent factors could be considered as influential upon that occupation. There were still far too many things he did not have a measure of control over, and that state of affair had to be addressed soon. Christian did not likely fully understand Lucius Kilvayne's endgame at this point in time, but he gave the man credit. He was smart enough to figure it out eventually. Lucius could have even been wrong about his assessment, perhaps Christian had figured him out. That would explain why Lucius had been invited to this gathering, rather than informed from a distance. Maybe, maybe, maybe. So many possible futures, he had to remember anything could change at any time. The game was ever-changing, and Lucius loved the challenge.

”But it is a matter of national consequence, one that requires action that no one cognizant of the problem so far has been willing or able to take. We are here to define that step and take it,”


He was amused that Christian had invited Dakari to a meeting at her own hotel. That had a certain irony to it that he had to respect. He looked around the room at the gathering. Some here might have expected Dakari or himself to be the mastermind behind this, but Christian had certainly put that notion out cold. Lucius was a party to this, but Christian was the focal point. That would likely resonate with the astute people here assembled. He couldn't resist an aside to Dakari.

" Perhaps I should allow him to be the face of everything I plan from now on," He said quietly, careful not to be overheard, " He seems to be practically volunteering."

“We've all been taking action in our own way,”


Khalidah Rahal had, unlike Mr. Rook, decided to forgo patiently waiting for Christian to explain himself, and simply launched into a series of probing questions and pointed statements. From what Lucius understood about Khalidah, he had to admit that Christian had his work cut out for him. He knew that Jordan Mercer was close to the woman and her kindred, and from what he heard through Gabriel...Mercer was losing his mind dealing with those women. Lucius didn't envy either man, honestly.

“I highly doubt that everyone here has been sitting on their laurels and letting the world pass them by, as it were."

That was true, though the people here generally worked at cross purposes...they all wanted the best outcomes for the world. They had all played a part or two in ending the cholera epidemic. They had connections to past events that had changed the world already. Some of those events they couldn't allow to be connected back to them, however. Secrecy, lies, and half-truths. That was what the assembled people here trafficked in. Despite the more idealistic among them preferring to claim otherwise. They were not so different, all of these power players. The movers and shakers. Helena and Maurelle. Gabriel and Alexandria. Frank Rook. Khalidah and the woman he didn't know. Christian Moynahan. Dakari Johessman, and himself. The movers and shakers of this brave new world.

The common thread was their shared heritage, and their enemy. Isn't that the way it had always been? The enemy of a man's enemy is a man's friend. Temporarily, anyway. This would make a fun alliance while it lasted, however, and Lucius wouldn't gainsay the idea. It had a purpose, and it was his purpose.


“What is it you propose we do, Mister Moynahan?”

"I was just about to ask that very same question," Lucius said with a smirk, " The anticipation is too much. I am digging this whole cloak and dagger scene, however."

[Dakari Johessman]

There's a humming in the restless summer air
And we're slipping off the course that we prepared
But in all chaos there is calculation
Dropping glasses just to hear them break

The particularly severe look on Dakari Johessman's face was meant for all of the attendees in the room save their host and her fiancé. Everyone knew her as the tough, take-no-shit lawyer, manageress, and first of the heirs of the Johessman empire. She liked to be thought of that way; it gave her an air of mystery and danger, and kept everyone who wanted to approach her a few steps back. Dakari had never been the most sociable member of her family. Far from it.

The façade was becoming more and more difficult to keep up, however. Lucius Kilvayne brought out something in her, something strong and courageous, but also compassionate and gentle, and empathic. It must have been the love. It had opened her heart to much more than she had ever thought she would feel, even as a child. And, in a way, she… was glad for it.

The night's meeting, however, was not an occasion for that compassion. The first offense had been in Christian Moynahan asking to use one of her meeting spaces for a very vague gathering. Her hatred for Ark had never cooled. The Senate hearing was as fresh a memory in her mind as though it had happened just days before, not years before. Even bringing down the north wing of the Capitol had not satisfied that anger. The building had sung to her then, its metal supports just crying out for her hand to twist and bend and break them. Ark, however… Ark deserved its own destruction, but that would have to hold for now.

Her now-fiancé's acquisition of Ark had given her cause to reconsider her position. No, she still hated Ark; but now it showed promise, in the hands of her love, and of his best friend, a man he trusted and who had so far proven to be a worthy acquaintance to Dakari. Likewise, he had selected and seemingly grown close to Christian Moynahan, but that man had yet to earn her respect. That took time. She had no reason to distrust him more than the average human being, but neither had he won himself into her so rarely attained good graces.

She was not sure whether Moynahan had invited her because she had lent him the space or for some other reason. He had invited Lucius, after all, and he understood how close she and Lucius were. He probably also understood how ill advised it was to make an adversary of her, and how easy that would be given her history with Ark. Moynahan had been prepared to pay well for the space, but she had turned down the money. Guest right. If she chose to kick him out for any reason, she would owe him nothing.

Some of the faces there were recognizable. Khalidah Rahal was present, attended by a woman who bore a close resemblance to her. She was also surprised to see Maurelle Lacroix and Helena Rahal in attendance. She had not seen Helena in her new form until now, but she, as one of the representatives of the Johessmans in the States, had been made aware of the change, very privately of course. Helena Rahal, in whatever form she chose, was under the protection of the Johessman family, and while they did not purposefully keep Helena under any type of surveillance, they did always know whenever a significant change in her life occurred.

Dakari still did not like Helena, no more than she had liked Inaki. But her family did, and she was her family, so she tolerated the woman. At any rate, there was no reason for Dakari to speak to her. She had her fiancé for company, and besides, the setup of the place looked more like a lecture hall than anything else. She took a seat next to her "date," and chuckled as she commented on Moynahan's enthusiasm.

"He does do an excellent job," she admitted in a murmur, leaning close to Lucius, her words meant for him, but possibly heard by anyone close by. His introduction of the subject alone had largely captured her attention, and he had not even revealed what the subject was. Yet while he did seem the type, to her, to milk the spotlight and drag things out for the attention, there seemed to be an urgency in his tone, and in the way he moved. The man had a way of moving that reminded her of nothing else but a panther; usually a subtle saunter, but now he seemed to be stalking some unknown prey.

For her part, Khalidah was not interested in beating around the bush. Something in her tone suggested an admonishment. Dakari peered from her to Moynahan to see how the man would react to that. The woman was right, though; everyone she knew in the room - which was everyone but the man with the clip-on tie and Khalidah's sister - was a person of importance and influence, and, as matters had begun to take strange turns, had always been at the forefront of every effort to curtail it. Everyone in the room was important…. Dakari wondered why that was. What exactly did Moynahan have in mind?

Khalidah asked just that question, and Lucius seconded it, in her own way. Dakari very briefly cracked a smile at his comment about the scene, but changed the smile into a smirk instead, for anyone who might have been looking. She was more interested in learning what all this was about, but she kept silent for the moment. Lucius had voiced her own thoughts, and repeating them would probably have only encouraged Moynahan to further take his time. She smoothed her skirt and adjusted her blouse, the first few buttons having been left open, and settled into her chair. Dakari had other matters that she could spend her time on if Moynahan wanted to grandstand, but if it was serious as he was making it sound, then she would sit and wait, at least for the next few minutes.

Words: 1005.
Attire: Black and gold. lol.
Excerpt: Lorde, "Glory and Gore."
Comments: Probably should sleep now.

[Christian Moynahan]

Note: This came on while I was formatting this post. For best results, play while reading from where Christian begins to talk ("I will be glad to explain").

-------------

Stay asleep at the wheel and never care to know
the crash is coming
Are we destined to see a tragedy?
Look away; the crash is coming!
-10 Years, "Soma"

Given the sorts of people he had invited, Christian decided he had been foolish to expect them to follow his instructions. The first to arrive, Frank Rook, barely regarded him, preferring instead to have a smoke, which did not bother Christian directly, but he had hoped the man would have had more respect for the property than to simply toss the butt of the cigarette fifty stories down the side of the building, not to mention alongside the balconies under theirs. He was certain Miss Johessman would find a way to blame him for that particular gesture.

The next arrival had unaccountably found it necessary to have a friend tag along with her. Christian was aware that he had not specified the necessity to come alone, but, all the same, he would have expected her to have enough propriety to read into the urgent tone of the message and understand the implication. Then again, Khalidah Rahal did what she wanted. He supposed she had either simply wanted to bring her sister or just hadn't cared.

He was pleased to see Maurelle Lacroix attend with Helena Rahal. Both women had been invited, albeit separately. Marie van Kleij had been invited as well, although he had not expected her to be able to make it. He had needed a representative from Vital Energy among the attendees, however, and he knew Inaki Soler to be the heir to the corporation. Yet when he searched for a way to contact that personage, as he had with the others, he had come back with corrupted information. Maurelle Lacroix, however, could attest to his prowess in locating the information he needed; and so the invitation had been sent to Helena Rahal.

That, whether they had realized it yet, was the knot that tied them all together. Information. That, and influence. IntelliTouch. Vital Energy. The Company. Acacia Heights Entertainment. The Kilvayne Corporation. Ark Industries, of course. There were others, but he had expected those to be a bit slow in arriving, if they were able to make it at all. As shown, he had done his research.

No one approached Christian upon entering, which was for the best - mostly. He could tell by their faces that they all recognized him. Their reticence, however, suggested negative dispositions toward him, with the exceptions of Maurelle and Lucius. It made little difference. His role in this was only as the organizer. They could love him or hate him; the purpose remained the same.

All the same, he was glad for Lucius' presence. Gabriel - who had known about this meeting before Christian realized it should occur - had declined to attend, for reasons pertaining to his family, and also to keep the meeting evenly keeled. In this case, Gabriel did not know what was going to happen - each person in attendance represented a thousand possibilities, a million variables. His presence, and by extension Alexandria's, would only have complicated the matter further, or so Gabriel said. Christian was never entirely sure how much his friend was leaving unspoken.

He began by introducing the problem without explaining what it was. That was not a matter of personal style. Had he begun by giving his name and then immediately launching into an explanation of the situation at hand, there would have been far too much of a shock, and that, based on his past experiences, would set a negative tone for the rest of the meeting. Yet that approach apparently had its negatives as well, as it seemed to irritate Ms. Rahal to the point of making a fairly charged remark.

Christian turned his gaze toward her. That is, his attention was clearly trained on her, but an inscrutable quality in that gaze seemed to suggest that he was looking beyond her, or, alternatively, into her; it could easily have been either one. The lighting in the room, especially near where he was standing, added to the effect by highlighting the gold flecks in his otherwise blue-green eyes.

No, they had not been "sitting on their laurels." No, indeed. Christian was well aware of that. That was exactly why he had gathered them at the Angelis, although Khalidah could not have known that yet. Still, the suggestion left a bitter taste. Using only his teachings from college and university and all he had taken away from his time spent in the pharmaceutical industry, Christian himself had done his best to combat and end the cholera outbreak, spending days and nights away from home, in Ark's labs, in conference with the Kilvaynes and every other group that had been involved in the effort. In the end, it was his antibodies they had used as a template for the final treatment. The suggestion that anyone in the room had been sitting on their laurels - however well-intentioned it may have been - was not one he was ignorant of in any fashion. However, he kept his distaste for the comment well away from sight and perception, choosing instead to let it pass. There would be plenty for them to take offense to later.

When she asked him what he was going to suggest, he gave her a faint smile, then nodded toward "Miss Alvarez." The young woman disappeared into the next room and emerged again some seconds later with a tray, topped by glasses of water, which she went about setting next to each person, before leaving one on Christian's small table and retreating with the leftover glasses, those for the late arrivals.

Lucius spoke up next, with a comment that earned a small chuckle from Christian. The comment was funny in itself, but also because, of the people in the room, Lucius was the most informed. Not that that said much. "I will be glad to explain," he said, his voice smooth, "especially since there is something I - and not only I, but many others - must ask of you, again, after you all have done so much work in the cholera scare, and in the Special community, and in much more than that. But we are going to need bright minds and sizable resources to solve this one. Even more so than the last."

Christian closed his eyes briefly, his head bowing slightly, and then looked up again, taking in the entire group. He had run this revelation through his head many times over, but to be speaking it felt absolutely unreal. It made the catastrophe that much more tangible.

"Our country is in the midst of a severe famine."

He let those words hang in the air for a moment. This was nothing to take lightly, and he was certain someone would request his sources. He would have. In long, deliberate strides, he made his way around the room and handed most of the attendees a folder, with a pencil tucked inside. Khalidah received one, despite having brought a tablet; Lilka did not, because Christian had not made spares and was not going to loan out the others until he had given the late arrivals time to show up.

Upon returning to the spot of wall with the map stretched along it, he took a sip of water from his own glass, allowing everyone time to glance through the content in the folders. "A series of crop failures began just over a week ago, on September twenty-third, somewhere in Minnesota." He gestured toward Minnesota, although a series of scribbles had obscured the name. "The crop death radiated outward from there. All forty-eight contiguous states were affected by the morning of the twenty-sixth." He took a step back and placed his hand flat against a sheet of paper that had been attached to the map. A copy of what was typed on that page would be found in each folder.

"Fruits become ready for harvest in the spring and remain so throughout most of the year, so those were not affected much. We took significant losses in grains and vegetables, however. You'll find a packet with more precise numbers in your folders." The numbers were also written in or near each state on the map, but, as with the rest, they were in Christian's unreadable handwriting. Fortunately, he had typed everything in the folders.

"I'm not sure when the failures came to the government's attention, but my sources tell me that the Cabinet started to hold meetings regarding it on the evening of the twenty-fourth, and Congress on the twenty-fifth. It appears that the President's hands are tied in the matter, by certain interested parties who would rather keep the matter quiet and in the hands of their candidates." Christian could not resist rolling his eyes slightly. He hated politics. "Since then, the government has been quietly importing from other countries to make up for what we are lacking, and will lack. It will be noticeable before long - less local produce in stores and, by my calculations, higher prices. I don't know how much time the government has before the public at large takes notice and begins to panic."

He rested one hand on the back of the chair where his suit jacket had been strewn. "I asked each of you here because you have the insight, the intelligence, and the resources to formulate a plan and put it into place before that happens. I also chose each of you because you care. You would not occupy your positions in your respective organizations if you didn't." He folded his hands in front of him. Exhaustion was beginning to settle over him again. "Are there any questions so far, before we continue? any requests for further information I can provide?"

-------------

How creeped out are you right now, on a scale of 1 to Cumber!BG?

[Helena Rahal]

Forfeit the game, Before somebody else
Takes you out of the frame, And puts your name to shame.
Cover up your face, You can't run this race
The pace is too fast, You just wont last.

The rhetoric spewed forth by Christian was not impressing Helena at all, it was just more build up, more suspense. If the situation was as dire as the letter and his introduction was making it out to be, dilly dallying about was not the way to proceed. As far as Helena was concerned, the sooner that the issue was revealed, the sooner that they could begin to overcome it. Was that not the reason that Christian brought all of them together, to stop or prevent all together what this new crisis was?

Maurelle frowned and Helena let out a small gasp as Christian finally revealed the nature of the crisis they were here to combat. Maurelle did not like this one iota, it had not been in any of the futures that she had seen as of late. That concerned her greatly, something of this magnitude should have been in one of them if not all of them. It made her wonder if someone out there had developed a way to block a precog from being able to see events. Though even that was so, she still should have been able to see the repercussions of those events...

Which meant this was an entirely new development in itself, perhaps and most likely not natural. All the same, the truth of the matter presented a very odd and interesting situation for all them. However, something bothered Maurelle about this, even as Helena fidgeted beside her while Christian elaborated and had his assistant hand out information dockets. She had a very sneaky suspicion about all of this, the more details that were revealed just made her feel more confident that something was amiss. Not that she doubted Christian was withholding anything, but the entire story was still not being told here.

Helena did not like the details at all, she had seen how a mild freeze in Florida during the winter had drove up the prices of oranges and their related products the following year. This was not just a freeze, this was a complete and utter crop failure of grains and vegetables, the mainstay of most Americans diets. The amount of bread and pasta consumed per day across the nation was staggering, much less what could be consumed in a week, a month, half a year, or even a whole year. This crop failure threatened much and how it was being kept a secret by the government sickened her.

What she failed to see though was how she was supposed to be able to help in this matter. Even if she operated in the capacity her aunt wanted her to, as the future owner and leader of Vital Energy, their representative in the States, Vital was just an energy company. Helena did not have the same pull, the same network that Khalidah had, she was just a figurehead. What was a figurehead of an energy organization supposed to do for a food crisis? Even Maurelle as a mafia leader was far more of an acceptable solution here, she had the means to move things discreetly and in mass quantity.

Helena could tell that Maurelle though was not pleased, where there was normally a wry grin or a smirk on her face was currently replaced by what could only be called a scowl. Her entire demeanor shouted of a person who was broiling underneath her pale skin and that scowl on her face. While Helena could understand being astonished and even a little blindsided by the revelation of this situation, she failed to see what could have Maurelle so worked up. There was nothing overtly screaming that it was a threat or a problem for her, at least not any more than the rest of the gathered individuals.

"Maurelle, get control of yourself before anyone else notices." Helena said in a hushed whisper to her associate and tried to feign looking over the dossier. She did see some of the figures and it astounded her to no end the projections of the losses of the crops. While it would not have an immediate effect, within a month or if they were lucky, three, the effects of this famine definitely would be in the public domain. After that, Christian's prediction of chaos and hysteria would likely be proven right, the masses seemed to lose themselves when things did not go according to plan, when their routine was broken.

"Think Helena, look at what we're being told, look at what is happening. There is something going on here well beyond what we already know, there is something very wrong with this entire picture. Don't tell me that you can not see that, you're usually remarkable perceptive." Helena was taken aback at the brashness in how Maurelle spoke, though she could not doubt the woman's words. There were pieces missing from this story.

Maurelle pounced at the opportunity to voice her concerns when Christian opened up the floor for questions before they moved on. There were questions to be asked and if Christian had the answers, they needed to hear them now before they tried to formulate anything of a solution for this grave situation.

"Do we know the cause of the crop failure or if it has completely ran its course? Furthermore, what about the the crops in the rest of North America, has Canada or Mexico been similarly affected? And how do we know that should we manage to mitigate this crisis that it will not rise again next year or in the following years? We can not push forward with any sort of solution if we fail to know exactly the root of our problem." There was more she wanted to ask, but the questions were obvious if one between the lines.

For Maurelle it read as if this was a solitary strike against the American state, not some freak accident of nature. Perhaps she was wrong, Christian's answers would give a hint one way or another, but her instincts told her this was a covert action. Though who had the means to create a disease that would cause such a failure of the genetically enhanced plants and on such scale so quickly and without detection was beyond her. Or what they could hope to gain at all from the maneuver...

[Khalidah Rahal]

Anyway during the supposed "famine"
We lost a lot more than 10% of our nation
Through deaths on land or on ships of emigration
But what finally broke us was not starvation
but it's use in the controlling of our education

While Khalidah was content to remain silent and take notes on her tablet, Lilka was sizing up their competition. Not that there was a competition to be had. Alone, the two women were forces of nature; together, they were capable of cataclysms. Though Mr. Moynahan portrayed a calm face to the public, Lilka was under the distinct impression that it wasn't a position he enjoyed being in. Constantly being under the scrutiny of the media microscope would have been enough to drive anyone to the brink of insanity. His body language lent itself towards dominating the discussion in a room full of alpha personalities, but she felt as if most of it were for show. Unless the other meeting attendees were well-versed in reading and interpreting microexpressions, they probably wouldn't notice anything.

Lilka looked away from Christian as Lucius Kilvayne's voice briefly drew her attention. His fiancée—Dakari Johessman—was glaring at her as well as the rest of the meeting goers. Lilka stared her down until she set her sights elsewhere. Dakari was no threat to her, and she assumed the young attorney was pissed off at having been invited into one of her own meeting rooms. She actually found her incredibly attractive, but Dakari didn't seem the type who would be open to having a threesome with another woman, no matter how many years of experience she had under her belt. Hmm. She'd still ask later. Even if Dakari replied with a slap to her face, it still meant that she'd be touching her. The way that her face lit up with a smile (for a split second, at least) at Lucius's reference to the meeting being rather cloak and dagger made Lilka think that Lucius was a very lucky man.

The expression on Christian's face hinted at annoyance when she asked him to get straight to the crux of the matter. Time was valuable, and she hated spending it idly on pleasantries. They could all get acquainted later. If this meeting was as important as she'd been led to believe, she wanted to know that her time wasn't being wasted.

Khalidah's face was like stone as Christian stared at her as if he were attempting to penetrate the thick walls surrounding her mind. She met his gaze with a tempered look and maintained her upright posture, laying her pen hand calmly over the tablet's flat screen. She could feel her sister tensing in her seat and made a small, almost unnoticeable slashing gesture with her stylus, hoping that Lilka would understand the gesture to mean that she needed to hold her tongue. Like most other animals, humans subconsciously viewed eye contact as aggressive behaviour, and Lilka was about as far removed from being human as she could possibly be while residing in the human form she'd been given at birth.

"I will be glad to explain, especially since there is something I - and not only I, but many others - must ask of you, again, after you all have done so much work in the cholera scare, and in the Special community, and in much more than that. But we are going to need bright minds and sizable resources to solve this one. Even more so than the last." He spared a moment to bow his head and consider the best way to put his thoughts into words.

"Our country is in the midst of a severe famine."

The expression on her face never changed. Famines had long been an integral part of human history, and were actually quite an efficient way to 'reset' nature's clock when the world became too overpopulated to supply an area with the necessities to encourage life. She did feel a certain amount of concern for the other individuals in the room who hadn't lived long enough to experience the effects of a true famine. The rest of her concern extended only as her family. Humanity as a whole was an afterthought until she could be certain that her family would remain mostly untouched.

A large-scale famine in the United States would have devastating results. She imagined there would be mass rioting in the streets as people fought for the food that they so desperately needed to survive. An individual's instinct for self-preservation generally trumped following laws of any sort, and the national government was hardly equipped to withstand the effects of a catastrophe of this magnitude.

Khalidah took the folder of information as it was handed to her. Lilka hadn't been expecting to receive a folder since she wasn't on the official guest list, but she still narrowed her eyes at Christian, feeling as if she'd been slighted. The contemptuous look vanished as quickly as it had contorted her features, and she snatched the folder from her older sister. “Przepraszam? Odłóż to!” She admonished Lilka under her breath and glared at her until she set the folder down between them so that the information could be shared.

"A series of crop failures began just over a week ago, on September twenty-third, somewhere in Minnesota. The crop death radiated outward from there. All forty-eight contiguous states were affected by the morning of the twenty-sixth."

Well, that was certainly perplexing. Crop failures rarely just 'happened' of their own volition. Usually there was an outside catalyst; a storm, a severe freeze, insects that had grown resistant to the pesticides used on crops. For a famine to take hold so immediately and to spread so quickly, there had to be a reason for it.

"I'm not sure when the failures came to the government's attention, but my sources tell me that the Cabinet started to hold meetings regarding it on the evening of the twenty-fourth, and Congress on the twenty-fifth. It appears that the President's hands are tied in the matter, by certain interested parties who would rather keep the matter quiet and in the hands of their candidates."

Lilka found herself chuckling when he rolled his eyes. “Jebać polityków. Pieprzyć ich wszystkich. Dranie Szczur, całe mnóstwo z nich.” She'd never had respect for any of the world's ruling class, even when she'd been a part of it. They were only out for their best interests, and screw whoever got in their way. They'd just be trampled. “We should be so lucky that they should be the first to perish.” Unlike her elder sister, Lilka had trouble containing her opinions in the company of people with whom she was not acquainted.

After a pause, Christian expanded upon the reasons why he'd gathered them all together. Given the caliber of individuals present, Khalidah already knew why he'd chosen them to be the patrons who would donate their time and money to averting what could turn into a monumental conflict once the American populace knew what was going on under their noses. "Are there any questions so far, before we continue? any requests for further information I can provide?"

"Do we know the cause of the crop failure or if it has completely ran its course? Furthermore, what about the the crops in the rest of North America, has Canada or Mexico been similarly affected? And how do we know that should we manage to mitigate this crisis that it will not rise again next year or in the following years? We can not push forward with any sort of solution if we fail to know exactly the root of our problem."

Khalidah turned her head towards the petite brunette as she fired off her questions, which were all very valid, though they didn't exactly get to the heart of the matter. If it was obvious to her, it must have been obvious to the other intelligent individuals in the room that they were not being presented all of the facts. Crop failures just didn't occur on such a widespread scale in the matter of a few days. There were other elements at work here. “Even if it has run its course, the effects will still be devastating.” She glanced down at the notes she'd been taking. “There haven't been any significant weather anomalies in the Midwest which would have instigated massive crop failures. Nothing out of the ordinary. There haven't been any reports of swarms of locusts or other insects destroying crops, and both of those things take more than days to spread from one end of the country to the other.” Swarms of crop-eating insects tended to come and go rather quickly, and their detrimental effects hadn't been devastating enough to cause famines—at least not in recent memory.

Lilka had been tempted to ask why they shouldn't have just allowed the famine to run its natural course. There would be hundreds of thousands of deaths as people slowly started to starve. The rich would no doubt still have access to food; in an effort to sustain themselves, the poor would attack them in droves. “This is certainly one hell of a way to start a revolution.”

חלדה רהל חלדה רהל

∞ Word count: 1579
∞ Mood: There, I posted, and now I have to pee.
∞ Outfit: Same as previous posts.
∞ Lyrics / Quote: Famine, Sinnead O'Connor
∞ Illustrations: None.
∞ Comment / Informational links: None.

[Frank Rook]

“We've all been taking action in our own way. I highly doubt that everyone here has been sitting on their laurels and letting the world pass them by, as it were,” a woman that Frank recognized said. Not from work, anyway. He’d met her once, and he knew her reputation quite well. As far as he knew, she was a good person. Also in a position of know, which explained why she was here. Now that he thought about it, everyone here had connections. It all but wiped out his thoughts of this being some kind of trap.“What is it you propose we do, Mister Moynahan?” she asked. He’d very much like to know as well.

"I was just about to ask that very same question. The anticipation is too much. I am digging this whole cloak and dagger scene, however," Lucius added. He’d admit that he had thought the same about the meeting, although he would be loath to admit that he agreed on anything with the man. Franks distaste for him knew no bounds.

”I will be glad to explain, especially since there is something I - and not only I, but many others - must ask of you, again, after you all have done so much work in the cholera scare, and in the Special community, and in much more than that. But we are going to need bright minds and sizable resources to solve this one. Even more so than the last." Christian said. Frank was getting tired of his stalling. It sounded like he was trying to simultaneously butter everyone up as well as buy time for something to happen.

"Our country is in the midst of a severe famine," he said. He was quiet for a moment, as if making sure everything sunk into the mind of every person in the room. Frank eyed him for a moment, looking for a further reaction. He did little more than walk around and finally hand out the folders he’d been holding a moment ago. He made the circle around the table, Frank opening his as soon as he got his hands on it to flip through the pages inside. He saw papers with FDA seals on them, small maps of regions that had attached information, everything it would take to prove such a case. It all seemed… Neat.

The map that he unveiled next had hastily scratched notes that blacked out the print of the map in places, and Frank took to comparing them to the notes in his folder. Everything matched up.

"A series of crop failures began just over a week ago, on September twenty-third, somewhere in Minnesota. The crop death radiated outward from there. All forty-eight contiguous states were affected by the morning of the twenty-sixth," he said. Frank almost didn’t flip to the page that matched with the one attached to the map as he let the weight of that statement settle in. Just over seventy two hours for it to spread across the entire country? That couldn’t be a natural phenomenon.

"Fruits become ready for harvest in the spring and remain so throughout most of the year, so those were not affected much. We took significant losses in grains and vegetables, however. You'll find a packet with more precise numbers in your folders," he informed them. Frank flipped over to the correct pages, finding the right forms. He didn’t know how to judge the numbers, crops not being his specialty, but he didn’t need to know anything about farming to see just how high the numbers were. Millions of pounds of produce and grain, gone.

"I'm not sure when the failures came to the government's attention, but my sources tell me that the Cabinet started to hold meetings regarding it on the evening of the twenty-fourth, and Congress on the twenty-fifth. It appears that the President's hands are tied in the matter, by certain interested parties who would rather keep the matter quiet and in the hands of their candidates. Since then, the government has been quietly importing from other countries to make up for what we are lacking, and will lack. It will be noticeable before long - less local produce in stores and, by my calculations, higher prices. I don't know how much time the government has before the public at large takes notice and begins to panic," Christian said. Frank wasn’t surprised to hear any of that. The government certainly didn’t have the people’s interest in mind. He’d been employed by the government for a long time. He knew that better than most.

“We should be so lucky that they should be the first to perish,” the woman with Khalidah said. It seemed she agreed with him about the government, but it wouldn’t work out that way. It never did…

"I asked each of you here because you have the insight, the intelligence, and the resources to formulate a plan and put it into place before that happens. I also chose each of you because you care. You would not occupy your positions in your respective organizations if you didn't. Are there any questions so far, before we continue? Any requests for further information I can provide?" the executive asked, but Frank didn’t take his eyes off the packet of information in front of him. It looked pretty grim, that much he knew. As for what they could do about it… He didn’t know. He couldn’t think of a single thing the Company could do about it. But he’d be willing to squeeze whatever help he could from it if it meant they could be of some use.

[color=a00000"Do we know the cause of the crop failure or if it has completely ran its course? Furthermore, what about the the crops in the rest of North America, has Canada or Mexico been similarly affected? And how do we know that should we manage to mitigate this crisis that it will not rise again next year or in the following years? We can not push forward with any sort of solution if we fail to know exactly the root of our problem,"[/color] the woman on the other side of the table piped in. She didn’t make bad points, per se, but she was slightly skewed. They needed to work on the root of the issue, true, but if people started dying from starvation while they tried to fix that root problem then their efforts wouldn’t do any good.

“Even if it has run its course, the effects will still be devastating. There haven't been any significant weather anomalies in the Midwest which would have instigated massive crop failures. Nothing out of the ordinary. There haven't been any reports of swarms of locusts or other insects destroying crops, and both of those things take more than days to spread from one end of the country to the other,” Khalidah noted. So, no reason for the crops to be failing, they just did. It sounded to him like they were dealing with a Special problem. That, the Company could do. They hunted down rouge specials every day.

“This is certainly one hell of a way to start a revolution,” Khalidah’s friend said, and he wondered what she meant for a moment until he took into account her earlier comment.

”She’s right. It seems like the perfect way to have an uprising on your hands. When they go hungry, even the most timid become animals, do terrible things to feed themselves and their own.” he said, still not looking up from the notes. The gravity of the situation was crashing down more and more as each second ticked off the clock. It was all a bit overwhelming, and it was all Frank had to stop himself from lighting another cigarette at the table.

”Have you ruled out a connection to the cholera outbreak in any way?” he asked. He wanted to know that more than anything. The outbreak had come out of nowhere, and in all likelihood it hadn’t been a natural occurrence. Much the same with these crop deaths.

[Lucius Kilvayne]

But the longest hours you'll have in your life
Are the ones you sit through to know if you're right
So I'll wait, but I pray that I'm wrong
Because I think I know what's going on

"He does do an excellent job,"

Lucius nodded, and almost answered, but it wasn't long before things were underway. Khalidah and he had more or less jointly prodded Christian to drive on to the point, and he was quick enough to oblige. From there, it was down to listening to him and the responses from the room. Lucius wanted to take it all in before offering anything from his end. Besides, it was a more interesting game if he had a hint of everyone's hand before he made his move. This was likely going to be a major opportunity, as he saw it. Every crisis was an opportunity, to the visionary mind of Lucius Kilvayne.

"I will be glad to explain, especially since there is something I - and not only I, but many others - must ask of you, again, after you all have done so much work in the cholera scare, and in the Special community, and in much more than that. But we are going to need bright minds and sizable resources to solve this one. Even more so than the last."

The previous crisis had involved a similar coalition of power players, and fate had seemed most interesting in bringing that coalition together again and again. That coalition being loose and ever shifting was a strength that GEIST had lacked. That the Rogue Society hadn't been able to ever fully leverage- it had worked against them. Perhaps it was that the Rogue Society was loose without true diversity. This coalition, whatever they called it or didn't call it...it was diverse enough to not fall to an obsession with small prizes or petty conflicts. This coalition was about crisis management, and achieving a balanced state. That seemed to make it more effective. The balance of power would have to be watched carefully. It was all very exciting, really.

"Our country is in the midst of a severe famine."

Lucius feared as much. It was all so very Biblical. Pestilence, and now Famine. They had seen War and Death already, but that didn't mean there wasn't plenty of room for more of those two Horsemen. This was yet another opportunity for Lucius to play the hero. It was a strange thing, too. It was also clear that there was someone behind these events, who had a very different agenda than Lucius or his associates. That would require investigation, surely. Lucius frowned, considering the implications.

"Are there any questions so far, before we continue? any requests for further information I can provide?"

The rest of the information that came after was useful for drawing the framework. The epicenter was the Midwest, no surprise there. It had rapidly spread, and there were no obvious hints as to causality. The government was covering it up, naturally. How predictable, and stupid of them. They were likely tired of the private sector showing them up on these events. Maybe someone in their ranks was responsible. Wouldn't that be something.

The pot was being stirred by someone, that much was certain.


Lucius decided to finally put his two cents in, so to speak, "Uprising or not, we have the means to make this a complete and utter failure for whoever set it in motion. I suggest that when the crisis is resolved we make it our business to find the parties responsible, and remove the threat they pose before they can set their next scheme into motion. I do not like the notion that anyone can operate without the knowledge of those who are here in this room. It should not even be possible."

[Dakari Johessman]

How could you falter when you’re the Rock of Gibraltar?
I had to get off the boat so I could walk on water!
This ain’t no tall order, this is nothing to me!
”Difficult” takes a day; “impossible” takes a week!


Admittedly, as much as she hated it, Dakari froze in shock for a moment when Christian explained the problem. It got worse from there; as the full weight of that reality, of what a famine would do to the nation occurred to her, she started to frown, until Christian directed them to the packets he had handed out. She opened hers and paged though the information he had provided. Something about the numbers looked strange to her. That, and the pattern. Khalidah voiced Dakari’s own concerns well enough, so she let that part pass. In fact, the consensus began to turn toward not a natural disaster, but an unnatural one. She glanced to her fiancé as he spoke of finding the person responsible for the famine.

She agreed that such an attack - if it was an attack - should not have gone without notice of at least one of the persons gathered in the room. Who was it that they were working against, then? That group had to have some incredible resources at their disposal. The thought was unsettling, especially for Dakari, who preferred to be in control of everything she touched.

Lucius was right in another matter - that the capture and punishment of the entity responsible should happen after they resolved the food crisis. “Where exactly is the government importing from? The U.S. may have allies, but the chance to extort us by ramping up prices on their own end would be difficult to resist for anyone, friend or foe.” She looked up at Christian expectantly. His response had little bearing on what she was going to suggest anyway, but she was curious to hear the answer all the same. She glanced down at the papers in her hands for a moment, looking at the numbers of crops lost by Christian’s estimations, then glanced up again, her lips drawn together tightly until she spoke again.

“My family has control over the Caribbean countries and most of Central America,” she continued. “The tropics aren’t capable of supporting all of the grains and vegetables that we need, but there are some that the islands produce for themselves, such as potatoes and corn, and some peppers, although these notes don’t say how short we are on those. Rice as well, I believe. We can gather however much of those crops we can spare and bring them over to the States.” What she failed to clarify but actually meant was that they would smuggle the extra crops in, both to avoid tariffs and to keep the public from noticing. The Johessmans had plenty of smuggling routes. They were usually used for less benign items than vegetables and grains, but they would certainly work in this case.

“We should focus on replenishing the large cities. The current sores and the government’s imports will run out there first, and based on the larger populations alone makes it more likely that people will notice and cause hysteria there. Besides, hysteria in large cities tends to be very, very ugly.” Dakari tapped her pencil against her lips. “I’ll ask my brother to get started on that immediately. And no, we’re not going to charge out the ass for this. We could probably do it as a favor.” She smiled, but there was a touch of mischief in that smile. Nevertheless, her tone made it clear that she was firm in her plan, and that she was going to carry it out whether the others in the room wanted her to or not. This was her country by birth, after all, and, despite all it had done to her and her family in the past, she did not want to see it fall into panic and rioting.

Words: 626.
Attire: Black and gold. lol.
Excerpt: Jay-Z, “Diamonds From Sierra Leone (Remix).”
Comments: Maybe the most Kari has ever said in a post.

[Christian Moynahan]

Swinging honesty across this violence
Obscurity has no hero
-Coheed and Cambria, “The Broken”

Of all the reactions in the room, none concerned Christian half as much as Maurelle’s. He knew the woman to be very calm and collected, and extremely self-aware. He saw Helena lean in to speak to her, to, apparently, no avail. A frown appeared briefly on Christian’s lips. He might have gone over to speak to her personally and try to offer her some comfort, but that would have drawn attention to her, and attention was likely the last thing she wanted at the moment.

There seemed to be a bit of conflict going on with Khalidah and her guest as well. That did not surprise Christian in the least, not after how the woman had reacted to the way he had looked at - or ahead of, or beyond - Khalidah. He already cared little for the guest, and the small disruption did nothing to ease that. He continued, however, ignoring them for the most part, until the guest said something in a foreign language and then, in English, commented on the politicians perishing first. At that, he glanced at her and gave a soft chuckle, better seen than heard at that distance. Well, it seemed they had at least their disdain for politicians in common.

Maurelle was the first to ask questions, not hesitating to release a barrage of them at him. He sighed and folded his hands behind his back. “I have not been able to discern the cause of the famine. The fact that it has a fairly definite point of origin and that it spread outward from there suggest that it was an infectious agent, but even that does not expand in a nearly perfect circle.” He gestured toward the map briefly. “The famine does seem to have run its course, but, as Ms. Rahal mentioned, that is not the end of our problems. Rather, consider it the beginning.” He glanced toward Khalidah again, but this time with a more normal look, and nodded. “I checked for insects and weather, and found nothing out of the usual. I was also able to obtain the government agencies’ interviews with some of the affected farmers and producers. No one seems to know anything.”

His gaze went back to Maurelle. “The crop failures terminated roughly at our borders with Canada and Mexico, much as the cholera outbreak did.” Now he glanced at Maurelle again. “My hope is that the resolutions we come up with and put into place will prevent such a famine from ever happening again. We will find the cause first, and respond as necessary.”

Khalidah’s sister made an odd comment then. Christian turned to her, frowning slightly. That was something he had lacked in all of his research - a motive. If one wanted a mass panic, one would take away one of the public’s most necessary and depended-on resources. No one in the developed word ever thought about food shortages beyond frozen oranges in Florida and the like, and that made these crop failures all the worse.

Mr. Rook added his agreement to the other guest’s assertion. Christian nodded as well. “That is why we have to solve and stop this thing before before the public takes not of it. If they ever find out, it will be long over, and therefore give them no cause for concern.” He took a few steps to the left, eyeing the group carefully. “Our roles in it will likely never be known. We will not be heroes. In fact, I expect the government to take full credit for our work. If anyone here feels motivated by the possibility of fame, I advise putting those thoughts to bed right now.”

He stopped and looked at the group again. Many of them had proved to be very ambitious and a touch vain, and controlling as well, reaching for power, to rise above their current stations. Christian was certainly one of them, but in all his work in his various fields, he had never been directly credited - not for analyzing and spotting dangerous faults in certain medicines for debilitating conditions, not for making more efficient processes in the development of spacecraft propulsion… and not for lending his own physiology to the solution to the cholera outbreak. Those slights still stung, but he had long since learned that such advances had nothing to do with him, but the people it benefited. Not everyone in the room, however, might have learned that lesson.

He tilted his head toward Mr. Rook. “I have not. In fact, there are a few parallels between the two events. Both the outbreak and the crop failures started at one point and radiated outward at an unnatural pace, and did not cross our national borders, nor affect Hawaii or Alaska or our territories. I would not discount any theories regarding their connection.”

After his friend spoke, Christian nodded at Lucius. “That is something we will have to do. With all of our resources, we should have little trouble locating the source of these problems. And, with any luck, we will do so before another tragedy occurs.” He sighed and ran a hand through his hair, his level of stress clearly growing as he considered the possibilities over and over again. Much of this he had thought about long before the meeting, but - as it had when he had first said the word “famine” aloud - it was made that much more real by hearing himself and the others discuss it. He took in a breath and let it go to recompose himself.

When Dakari suggested bringing additional imports from the Caribbean, Christian gave a slight nod. “That would be a helpful start in keeping the nation unaware while we try to implement a solution and find the perpetrators. However, the government will most certainly notice the additional foodstuffs coming in, especially in the larger cities. That is a risk you must be aware of.” He paused. “Make sure you use me a cover as you do that. I will take the fall for it, should it be necessary.”

He sighed again. It was difficult to resist the temptation to collapse into a chair. “All right. We will provide our own imports while trying to solve the crisis itself, then finding the party responsible for all of it. Does anyone have any ideas on how to handle either of those?”

[Khalidah Rahal]

(OOC: Trying to crank this out before the trazodone kicks in, so if the post gets weird, that's why.)

If thou shouldst wed a business man, be wary, oh be wary:
He'll tell you he's detained in town on business necessary.
The business is the business that he gives his secretary!
Oh, I hate men!

“She’s right. It seems like the perfect way to have an uprising on your hands. When they go hungry, even the most timid become animals, do terrible things to feed themselves and their own.”

Lilka glanced over at him and hoped to catch his eye, but his face was still turned downwards, studying the folder of paper he'd been given which contained the meeting's notes. “Well, at least someone here has an ounce of sense.” The best way to get the lower class pissed off was to restrict their access to life's essentials such as food and water. The country's wealthiest individuals would be able to buy their produce or have it shipped in without much issue.

”Have you ruled out a connection to the cholera outbreak in any way?” He raised a point which neither Khalidah nor her sister had considered. The two events could have been intertwined—perhaps some smoke and mirror tactics from the federal government were involved. But what could they possibly have needed to deflect attention from by means of killing off the populace? She couldn't have been the only one thinking about how Old Testament the disasters sounded when she considered them in her mind. Cholera wasn't exactly what she would have considered pestilence; being a physical affliction, she associated it more with the plague of boils. Famine could have been caused by pestilence or locusts. Or perhaps she should have been thinking in more New Testament terminology: Pestilence and Famine were two of the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse.

"Uprising or not, we have the means to make this a complete and utter failure for whoever set it in motion.”

[/color] He had a family to protect, just like the rest of them. Dying of starvation was probably one of the more painful and slower ways to die, and watching a loved one waste away until they were little more than skin clinging to bones was equally as excruciating emotionally. “I suggest that when the crisis is resolved we make it our business to find the parties responsible, and remove the threat they pose before they can set their next scheme into motion. I do not like the notion that anyone can operate without the knowledge of those who are here in this room. It should not even be possible."[/font]

“We aren't omnipotent, nor are we infallible.” The fact that some of the world's strongest personalities were together in the same room may have provided them with a false sense of ego that they could indeed control anything. “All it takes is one person to plant a seed of doubt that will result in the toppling of a civilization. I'm under no suspicion that we should be aware of what's going on.” She crossed her arms and leaned back in her chair. The government had failed in its repeated attempts to endlessly surveil the populace, and such surveillance had ultimately backfired. “Realistically, the only thing that we can do right now is trace these events back to their sources and do with them what we will.”

She'd lived through famines and wars alongside the rest of her family. With the exception of her sister (now sitting quietly beside her and examining her nails), she highly doubted anyone in the room had experienced anything remotely as tragic and far-reaching. She did, however, agree that it would be prudent to keep the drastic news from the general populace for as long as possible given peoples' predispositions towards using any means necessary to preserve their lives and those of their loved ones.

Dakari was the next to voice her opinion and made the rather astute suggestion to begin importing a handful of food staples from overseas. It was a temporary stop-gap, and given America's rampant consumerist culture, she wasn't sure how long that ruse would last. People would catch on pretty quickly when food stocks started dwindling in their supermarkets, and whistleblowers were always on the lookout for new ways in which to blame the New World Order for the problems plaguing their lives. “We should focus on replenishing the large cities. The current sores and the government’s imports will run out there first, and based on the larger populations alone makes it more likely that people will notice and cause hysteria there. Besides, hysteria in large cities tends to be very, very ugly.”

That much was true. Khalidah nodded in agreement and folded her hands together on the table as she continued to listen. Over the years she'd found that there was far more to learn from a conversation than the words that were being spoken. It was often the things that went unsaid which held the most weight.

Christian further explained the origins of the famine, its spread, and its eventual termination. Evidently, he believed that the famine had run its course; it was the after-effects that were going to be an issue. “That is why we have to solve and stop this thing before before the public takes not of it. If they ever find out, it will be long over, and therefore give them no cause for concern.”

“No, that'll just give them incentive to be pissed off about how they were never told about something potentially life-threatening which will lead to them wondering just what else is being hidden from them. The last thing any government wants on its hands is a suspicious populace.” It was a pipe dream to think that they could simply sweep this under the rug and have no one be the wiser. Even if the famine ended up not affecting them, the fact that something had been hidden from them on such a massive scale would have bred distrust.[/font][/justify]

חלדה רהל חלדה רהל

∞ Word count: 1052
∞ Mood: Falling asleep at the keyboard.
∞ Outfit: Same as previous posts.
∞ Lyrics / Quote: I Hate Men, Patricia Morison, Cole Porter
∞ Illustrations: None.
∞ Comment / Informational links: Zzzz.

[Helena Rahal]

If I had to
I would put myself right beside you
So let me ask
Would you like that?

Maurelle's suspicions were all but confirmed with the answers that Christian had for her. It was obvious not only to her but to others as well, there was no way that this was a natural occurrence. Someone or a group of people were crafting a disaster of the most desperate kind, depleting one of two resources that everyone needed to survive. If it was to incite class warfare or just cause mass panic she was not sure, but it was one way to set about creating chaos and disorder. The very tenets that were quite a bane to Maurelle and all she was intent on achieving.

She also had to agree with Khalidah's sister after Christian had the notion that they inform the public of the famine after they fixed the issue. If they did not already know now and were not going to know of the famine before the assembled group did what was within their power to erase the issue, then it was best they were left completely unaware. Learning after the fact would only cause more resentment that they were not made aware of the potential catastrophe beforehand. While it meant that they would never be made heroes or given recognition for their efforts, it was ultimately the best course of action.

Assuming of course that they would be able to mitigate the problems that such a complex issue presented of them. The sheer magnitude of the upcoming workload made even Maurelle wonder if they would truly be able to accomplish such a lofty goal. Even if they did, she was certain that there would still be those who would suffer the painful and terrifying death of starving to their end. Lacking even the base needs had a certain effect on a person's psyche and it was not at all pretty.

"It seems that I have need of the smugglers at my disposal once more. If need be, I can use the teleporters in my employ to help get cargo into the areas needed without the need for the authorities to know of our efforts." Maurelle offered with a bit of a shrug. None of this sat well with her, but better trying to figure out a plan of action now than just sitting idly by and being pissed that she had not been able to see the famine coming. Nothing of this magnitude should have escaped her gifts and that it had truly had her unsettled, but it was not wise to let others know of that distress.


Helena listened to all that was said and just sat in utter disbelief. None of this made any sense, despite all the evidence before her telling her just how real the threat of the famine was. Lucius was right, how could none of those in this room been able to not stop something of this nature from occurring or at least see such plans being set in motion? These were all powerful people of one nature or another who had their ears to the ground. One of them should have known that something of this nature was afoot and moved into to stop it.

Why was she here, it was becoming more and more obvious to her that she did not fit into this group. There was absolutely no reason for her to be in this meeting, she lacked anything to offer the group. All she was was their token moral conscious.

"And what would you have me do Mr. Moynahan?" Helena asked, almost a whisper to her own ears, but it was loud enough for everyone to hear it. She lifted her eyes from the dossier in front of her and towards Christian, scrutinizing him. "What could you possibly expect me to do? I lack the means to move produce to and fro across the globe. My family's company is a power company, not a shipping company. I also lack the money and networks to employ the sort who could do so. There are those in this room who make my company's net worth seem like nothing but a child's allowance."

She took a deep breath and let out a long sigh. What could he expect from her? She was not even a high ranking agent at the Company and she doubted that the Company could afford to entangle itself in this. They were after all supposed to be working with the government now, with the dissolution of the RSF.

"My powers may have allowed me to play a small part in helping cure the cholera outbreak, at least regionally. Yet I can not bring back dead crops to life, no matter how hard I might desire or want them to. What Mr. Moynahan could you possibly expect from me?"

[Frank Rook]

"Uprising or not, we have the means to make this a complete and utter failure for whoever set it in motion. I suggest that when the crisis is resolved we make it our business to find the parties responsible, and remove the threat they pose before they can set their next scheme into motion. I do not like the notion that anyone can operate without the knowledge of those who are here in this room. It should not even be possible," Lucius said. Frank looked at him with a cocked eyebrow for a moment. It sounded like he was drinking his own Kool-Aid. Which was quickly called out by one of the two people in the room that he was liking more and more.

“We aren't omnipotent, nor are we infallible. All it takes is one person to plant a seed of doubt that will result in the toppling of a civilization. I'm under no suspicion that we should be aware of what's going on. Realistically, the only thing that we can do right now is trace these events back to their sources and do with them what we will,” Kahlidah said. He found himself nodding slowly as she spoke.

”The more powerful you are, the more people know about it, and the easier it is to avoid you,” he said. If anyone wanted to deny that, they only needed to look at the amount of drugs, illegal guns, and human beings that were being traded around under the noses of authorities all over the world.

“Where exactly is the government importing from? The U.S. may have allies, but the chance to extort us by ramping up prices on their own end would be difficult to resist for anyone, friend or foe,” Dakari said. He hated to admit it, but someone with her network was perfect for this. It also reminded him of some more unsavory parts of his past career, parts that would give him some commonality with her.

“My family has control over the Caribbean countries and most of Central America. The tropics aren’t capable of supporting all of the grains and vegetables that we need, but there are some that the islands produce for themselves, such as potatoes and corn, and some peppers, although these notes don’t say how short we are on those. Rice as well, I believe. We can gather however much of those crops we can spare and bring them over to the States,” she told them. His distaste for her notwithstanding, she was probably doing the most good out of all of them. Much more than her boy toy, who wasn’t doing much at all but showing his arrogance.

“We should focus on replenishing the large cities. The current sores and the government’s imports will run out there first, and based on the larger populations alone makes it more likely that people will notice and cause hysteria there. Besides, hysteria in large cities tends to be very, very ugly. I’ll ask my brother to get started on that immediately. And no, we’re not going to charge out the ass for this. We could probably do it as a favor,” she said. And there was the catch… What favor could she want to cash in on in the future? He chose to stay quiet about it, because he didn’t want to be overly antagonistic, but something about that rubbed him the wrong way. Instead, he decided to toss in his own two cents.

”I can throw some less than savory names in the hat. I know of a fairly large smuggling ring in Europe, spanning from Russia to Germany specifically. For good money, they’ll procure whatever they can. If I can provide you with the information, your pipelines into the country would be helpful,” he said, looking to Dakari. They usually didn’t operate outside of Europe, but an exception would be made with the right amount of money and the low risk of someone else smuggling the product into America.

“I have not been able to discern the cause of the famine. The fact that it has a fairly definite point of origin and that it spread outward from there suggest that it was an infectious agent, but even that does not expand in a nearly perfect circle. The famine does seem to have run its course, but, as Ms. Rahal mentioned, that is not the end of our problems. Rather, consider it the beginning. I checked for insects and weather, and found nothing out of the usual. I was also able to obtain the government agencies’ interviews with some of the affected farmers and producers. No one seems to know anything,” Christian informed them. Of course no one knew anything… Just like no one had known anything about the cholera outbreak. Asking most people would yield the same thing. They didn’t know what happened, they just wanted it fixed. He wondered…

”I know testing was done on the water systems for the cholera outbreak. Did it ever bear fruit?” he asked. The next question would be obvious. Did they find anything in those tests that could have affected the crops as well?

“The crop failures terminated roughly at our borders with Canada and Mexico, much as the cholera outbreak did. My hope is that the resolutions we come up with and put into place will prevent such a famine from ever happening again. We will find the cause first, and respond as necessary,” he said. If they could get the country through this year, and stop it from happening again, there wouldn’t be a big chance of it happening on its own. They just needed to find whoever had done it.

“That is why we have to solve and stop this thing before the public takes note of it. If they ever find out, it will be long over, and therefore give them no cause for concern. Our roles in it will likely never be known. We will not be heroes. In fact, I expect the government to take full credit for our work. If anyone here feels motivated by the possibility of fame, I advise putting those thoughts to bed right now,” Christian said. Frank could understand why he said it. A few of them in this group, at least one for sure, would be arrogant enough to want to stand up and yell ‘Look, I helped, see what I did here?!’ Personally, he’d gotten used to no one ever knowing about the things he’d done. Came with the job, every job he’d ever had actually. He wasn’t in it for glory, he was in it to do the right thing.

He perked up when Christian looked over at him specifically to answer his question. It’s what he wanted to know more than anything. It meant he’d get the chance to look for the person that’d killed his wife. As impersonal as it may have been for them, Frank blamed them the same as if they had put a gun to her head and pulled the trigger themselves. “I have not. In fact, there are a few parallels between the two events. Both the outbreak and the crop failures started at one point and radiated outward at an unnatural pace, and did not cross our national borders, nor affect Hawaii or Alaska or our territories. I would not discount any theories regarding their connection,” he said. It wasn’t definitive, but it was good enough for Frank. He already knew he’d be spending every second he could digging into this.

“That is something we will have to do. With all of our resources, we should have little trouble locating the source of these problems. And, with any luck, we will do so before another tragedy occurs,” Christian said to Lucius. Yes, they’d look for whoever did it. It was the right thing to do. Any other ulterior motives were strictly a bonus. He addressed Dakari next, offering his own neck if anything went wrong. That showed integrity. Frank liked that.

He let out a sigh, looking like he was ready to collapse. He didn’t look well right now. He’d probably been obsessing about this for some time. It showed on his face.

“All right. We will provide our own imports while trying to solve the crisis itself, then finding the party responsible for all of it. Does anyone have any ideas on how to handle either of those?” he asked. Frank immediately spoke up.

”If you can provide any leads, I have a whole lot of people I can set on tracking them down. I have agents all over the country. We can be anywhere in a matter of hours,” he said. As extensive as the Company’s resources and infrastructure was, they couldn’t pull information out of thin air. They needed something to go on.

The woman that had come with Ms. Rahal spoke up, again offering ways to get food into the country under the radar. Ms. Rahal herself spoke up next, only doubting whatever she could offer.

”And what would you have me do Mr. Moynahan?” she asked. ”What Mr. Moynahan could you possibly expect from me?" she asked. Frank looked at her for a moment, running those two sentences over in his mind for a moment. She had some points, maybe, but Christian didn’t strike him as someone who would invite someone here for shits and giggles. There was something she could do, she just didn’t know it yet.

[Lucius Kilvayne]

So let me get this straight
The only will is my own
I do whatever I want and stay alone
All my decisions make it untouchable and tainted

“We aren't omnipotent, nor are we infallible.”

Lucius nearly sighed. This was coming from the most powerful, and most experienced, person in the room. Also, the best connected. Still, Lucius Kilvayne was the kind to set his sights on reaching that level. He wanted a world that moved to his tune, and worked toward his aspirations. He wanted to be the visionary leader. He wanted to be king. But a king requires subjects, and someone was working hard to deny him this. That could not be allowed. Of course, the assembled parties expressed an utter lack of appreciation of is Machiavellian overtones. That there was a hint of doubt he would deliver solutions was not to his liking. He was disappointed, really. Perhaps he had given his erstwhile allies too much credit, if he had to come right out and say what he intended to do.

They should have figured it out the minute Christian told them the situation. With his resources, a vast number of processes would be expedited. Research projects would be in full swing, shipping routes were as good as secured. Dakari would be contributing significantly in that regard, as she informed the council. Lucius preferred to work a board of people who knew his style and abilities better than most of those present. Christian and Dakari were the only initiated among them, who had not come to the table with an attitude to challenge Lucius' value. It was beneath him to prove himself to some parties, but others he wanted to impress. Khalidah, for example. She was a mystery to him, and a very significant player.

As people spoke, he was sending emails to project managers in various departments of the Kilvayne Corporation. GMO research, botanical studies, general agriculture, and blight control. He gave orders to freight captains and dock managers, and lobbyists. A vast network of people working to solve this problem. Without being fully informed that there was a real problem. It was all framed as "hypothetical", "experimental", or "implementation of new standards and priorities". The average employee could contribute to solving the problem, but it meant nothing if they told their friends and family about it. Panic being the greatest nightmare of all possible outcomes at the moment.


”If you can provide any leads, I have a whole lot of people I can set on tracking them down. I have agents all over the country. We can be anywhere in a matter of hours,”

"I will send you a liaison, if needed," Lucius said, " From my security corps- Elias Stone. I have already assigned him to looking for such leads, and any information Christian has is easily funneled into secure data storage in my corporate vaults. All of that can and will be prepared as a digital dossier for your people, Mr. Rook."

Lucius continued, addressing the general group.


" I have already set my contributions into motion, having just diverted the appropriate projects into endeavors to solve the crisis. As it so happens, this eventuality was not unforeseen by the top minds that comprise the various companies of the Kilvayne Corporation. We were fortunately already taking measures to prepare for such an emergency. The difference now is that the time-tables have made dramatic changes. Such is life, however."

He hoped he didn't sound too bored.

[Dakari Johessman]

If I gave you sanity
for the whole of humanity
Had all the solutions for the pain and pollution
No matter where I live
Despite the things I give
You’ll always be this way
So go ‘head and hate!

Most of what Christian was saying was in the reports he had given them, but Dakari wrote down additional notes as he responded to their questions. The commonalities between the cholera outbreak and this famine, and the fact that they had both hardly crossed out of the States - all of it was beginning to sound, just as the others had suggested, like a purposeful, focused attack. That bothered Dakari more than she liked - but at least whatever this was was happening when she was in a position to stop it. The quiet coups her family had led now gave her access to plenty of resources of every type. And they weren’t planning to stop anytime soon.

She bit her lip slightly as Christian addressed her plan. She and her family could easily bear the brunt of the blame for anything that the government might catch wind of… but if they could avoid drawing attention for now, it would help their own plans greatly. Solemnly, she nodded. There was something admirable in the way he spoke - and in the way he put himself into the line of fire, not Ark, and not the Kilvayne Corporation, or anyone else. Just himself. She generally frowned on that form of selflessness, but to watch him do it, with so much to lose that he had just gained, earned instead a great deal of respect from her.

She raised an eyebrow when Khalidah suggested that they were neither omnipotent nor infallible. Dakari did not consider herself to be either, but with her resources, her family, and her own strength, she was damn well close enough. Having Lucius at her side only made that even more the case. Anyone else in the room was welcome to feel however they wanted about it. She didn’t need any of them to make her feel any more powerful. Christian had chosen to include the others, not her. She had personally fought her own way through more danger and difficulties than some of the people in the room could begin to imagine. Khalidah could speak for herself.

Khalidah’s relative spoke up when Christian suggested that they keep the whole thing under wraps. To that response, Dakari scoffed loudly. “And whose problem is that? The government is clearly incapable of handling a large-scale event on its own. They’ve failed at providing any sort of solution to this famine, or else Mr. Moynahan would not have called us here. I also seem to recall that it was the private sector that stopped the cholera epidemic, not any of the government agencies. Their reactions to several Special-related catastrophes was to categorize and treat us all like walking time bombs. They let the former leadership of Ark Industries off for their own worldwide failure. Need I go on?”

She leaned back in her seat with a smug look on her face. “If ‘the populace’ isn’t already suspicious of the government, then they’re fucking sheep. We can handle the cataclysmic crop failure. The government can worry about damage control or a cover-up, whichever they prefer. They are very good at cover-ups, after all.” She turned to Christian. “I, for one, will be taking the quiet route. Aside from the people not needing to know, I am smuggling, which is a crime even if I’m bringing in life-saving field crops.”

She glanced to Maurelle as the woman offered a solution that was similar to her own. “That will be much faster. My family uses more traditional routes, but we have never been discovered, so I’d say we’re effective. We should look over the map later and decide which areas you should handle and which I should take on.” Frank Rook offered some resources in the same vein, and, surprisingly, she found, she was going to work with him, and without reluctance. She nodded at Frank. “Europe will have better crops than the tropics. We’ll work that out.”

The collaborative effort had Dakari feeling confident - until Helena spoke up. Dakari would have very much liked to punch the woman in the teeth. She wondered just how far her family’s protection of the young woman extended. Was it possible to save a person from herself? Before Christian could answer, Dakari leaned back so Helena could see her and said, “I can tell you what he doesn’t want you to do. Whine like a pansy-ass bitch. Use your imagination. Since I doubt Mr. Moynahan knew anything about my less up-front businesses until now, I seriously doubt he called me here for that. But you know what? Instead of making my own self small around all these big names, I stepped up and made my play. Now catch up, sweetheart. We aren’t pandering to the lowest common denominator.”

Meanwhile, her fiancé had been hard at work, and, while Dakari had not been so intrusive as to look over his shoulder, she had a general idea of what he was doing, and, possibly, why he was doing it. Some of the less cognizant members of their little party had made some statements that seemed particularly targeted at him. Besides, while Dakari considered herself close to omnipotence, Lucius had a more definite stance on that - and rightfully so. He was the head of one of the most powerful and influential companies, if not the leading company in that regard; he personally possessed one of the most brilliant minds in the world and a prodigious ability to match. Again, Dakari had the thought that if Khalidah preferred to be humble, she was more than welcome to it. However, there was enough division among them without making that point one of contention, at least not verbally, so she let Lucius make his move, and simply raised an eyebrow at anyone who looked as though they might try him. A Johessman or a Kilvayne was threat enough; two together was cause enough to run.

She folded her arms and relaxed in her chair. “Well, then. We’re off to an excellent start.” She turned to the Rahals. While Khalidah had asked Christian some hard questions and brought about much of the information they needed, they had yet to offer any resources or ideas. While she had nothing against any of them - again, Helena was under Johessman protection, and she had all the respect in the world for Khalidah, so far, they had been all big talk, but no action, and plenty of pointed statements. She gave them a saccharine smile. “Does anyone else have any contributions?”

Words: 1094.
Attire: I don’t even remember; too lazy to check.
Excerpt: Jill Scott, “Hate On Me.”
Comments: Badasses assemble! xD

[Christian Moynahan]

Who knows how long I’ve been awake now?
The shadows on my wall don’t sleep
They keep calling me, beckoning….
Who knows what’s right? The lines keep getting thinner
My age has never made me wise
But I keep pushing on and on and on and on….
-Imagine Dragons, “Nothing Left to Say”

Inwardly, Christian sighed. He had led enough meetings in his long history of careers to know that bringing a number of power players together would cause clashes and division. He had expected that of this gathering, but had hoped for better. Unfortunately, that hope was beginning to seem more and more misplaced. Lines were being drawn across the room, invisible but palpable. Fortunately, they were beginning to come up with solutions. If they could just make it a few minutes more without coming to verbal blows, then there would be no trouble at all.

Christian was mostly undecided on the subject of how much information should be given to the public. He was, as he had hinted, leaning toward none at all; Khalidah’s sister put that thought to bed, until Dakari rebutted it. Both worm were right, just in different ways. Christian tried his best not to think of his fellow citizens as “sheep,” but, all the same, their government was already hiding plenty from its people. The famine was only one such instance; Christian was also aware of others, but those held no bearing here. They were just little novelties to him.

While Christian would leave most of the decision-making up to the rest of his assembled team, the decision regarding how much information made it to the public he would largely reserve for himself. He was the one that was most visible in this plot; he had already offered to cover the Johessmans, and he would extend the same to the others, particularly Maurelle and Frank, who would be using less-than-legal methods as well.

Helena spoke up next, but what she asked took Christian by surprise, as was evident on his face. He was trying to think of how to explain his motives when Dakari got there first. As she concluded offering her thoughts on the matter, Christian pinched the bridge of his nose and exhaled. The exhaustion was really taking a hold of him now. “What Ms. Johessman means, Ms. Rahal, is that I asked you here not because of any specific resources you might have, but because I felt that, as someone with much experience not only in the business world but also with a tenuous relationship with the government, and simply through the power of your own intellect, you might be able to offer some insight and ideas on how to approach the problem.”

Dakari was correct, though she had put it much too harshly; he was not going to pander to anyone, and his job was not to build Helena’s self-confidence, nor to stroke any egos, not even that of his friend. If Helena felt she was out of place, he would be sorry about it, but he had only words to give her; taking them to heart and understanding them, and then joining the rest of them in working towards solutions, would be up to her.

He also shot Dakari a mild look that suggested that she refrain from making any such interruptions for the rest of the meeting. The look was mixed with a bit of amusement. Christian had known about the Johessmans’ illegal shipping practices, from what they were smuggling right down to the routes they used. Christian was very good at finding the information he needed and vetting anyone he planned to work with. That was not the reason he had invited her, however; everyone had been chosen both for their connections as well as their ability to think and plan quickly.

Frank asked him about the results of Gabriel’s testing of New York’s water systems. New York had long since been pinpointed as the initial point of the outbreak, so Gabriel had focused there. The results had been kept quiet, among Gabriel, Lucius, himself, and a very few others, because those results had raised more questions than they had answered.

“Yes,” Christian answered. He looked as troubled as he felt. “But not the sort that solved much for us. We found that the bacterial agent was spread through the city’s water system, but not that the water treatment plants had failed. Additionally, we found that the vast majority of patients had not been infected due to the water, and cross-testing ruled out foodborne variants as well. We don’t know how the infection spread.”

All the bad news did nothing to improve Christian’s condition. He had planned to work some more on this following the meeting, but he would need a chance to at least sit down and do nothing for a while before he could focus properly. It looked as though he would be pulling cholera shifts again, for only a little while, with any luck.

It might have been considered ironic that once again, Christian was going to be shielded from the effects of the latest calamity. There had been his immunity to the cholera before, and now, in the famine, he found himself in a relatively good place; the most convenient way for him to gain energy and keep healthy was to, like other humans, consume food, but he also seemed to do well enough by simply being near energy sources. That made his own involvement somewhat peripheral; he really had no need to do anything, but his concern for others and his tendency to lead had resulted in him pulling together this committee. Besides, the thought that he did not necessarily need food had simply not occurred to him until that moment.

He chuckled as Lucius responded to Frank, then explained to the room that he had already gotten a head start on the solutions they were putting together. On the one hand, it was an excellent example of taking the initiative and using connections to get things done. On the other hand, Christian was fairly certain that Lucius had gotten started already to prove a point, at least in part. No one in the room should have doubted Lucius Kilvayne’s ability to act, and Christian was not sure that anyone did; all the same, it seemed Lucius had taken some of the verbiage to mean exactly that - and Dakari had as well, if the look on her face was any indication. He would have to talk to both of them about that later. For the moment, he moved on.

He nodded toward Frank. “I’ve been able to pinpoint the genesis of the famine within one hundred meters, with a margin of error of about three degrees. There is a small farming town there. It’s in a very isolated part of Minnesota. I would imagine everyone knows everyone there. Your people will either find that no one knows anything, that everyone knows the answer, or that everyone knows the answer but is unwilling to give it up.” He shrugged slightly. “Look for signs of infestation, disease, and anything else unusual. Have them ask the locals where the crop deaths started. Use any means of interrogation necessary.”

When Dakari addressed the Rahals, Christian glanced toward her and quickly picked up on what she was doing. The woman had provided an excellent solution, one that would be invaluable, but she had taken on Lucius’ attitude toward those who may have underestimated him, and she happened to be far less tactful in how she behaved. He needed both Khalidah and Dakari, and Helena did not need the additional slap to her self-esteem, but it was Khalidah’s sister that concerned him the most. She was the most likely to clash with Dakari, he figured, based on the entire group’s behaviors. Christian leaned forward and splayed his hands out on the table, speaking up before any of the Rahals could offer any sort of response.

“I have my contacts in Washington monitoring the special committees that have been put together for this specific purpose. If anyone in those groups, or in most of the rest of the agencies, comes across any new information, I will know about it in no more than five minutes. Also, if we need any additional means of transportation, I can call in a few favors to some friends in Texas, who will provide us with very fast, efficient, and durable airplanes. I should know; I designed them. Should any of you run into any trouble, please contact me immediately. I will take care of it.”

He stood up straight again. “Again, thank you all for attending and giving your time and resources to this effort. We will be in touch; this is a collaboration, and we will need to work together if we wish to succeed… and we do need to succeed.” He let that statement hang in the air for a moment. “Are there any closing questions?”

[Helena Rahal]

It's like I'm paranoid lookin' over my back
It's like a whirlwind inside of my head
It's like I can't stop what I'm hearing within
It's like the face inside is right beneath my skin

Helena felt each word as if they were a knife in her back, as each wound was compounded further. Dakari's scolding was the last thing that Helena needed right now, with her self doubt was so substantial. It defeated her and greatly, much worse than Dakari could have thought she would do so when she decided to bring back her bitchiness. Helena knew that she did not belong here in this group and now she also did not want to be here among these people. She would not play the morality token not after the bitch had decided to return to the fray. Her mind was made up now, she was not going to be taking a part in any of their plans.

Maurelle did not need to be a telepath or empath to understand what was occurring inside the mind of her companion. Helena's eyes had glazed over, she had checked out of this meeting even as Christian was trying to soothe her from Dakari's verbal assault. It was very ill timed and not tactful in the least, just what was the Johessman woman trying to prove anyhow? That little show of arrogance was absolutely the worst decision she could have made at the time, it was no wonder that most people preferred to deal with her sisters.

Helena was many things and among those was being among the best and brightest people that you could hope for. Yet that was the Helena that was only on show when the woman was feeling confident in herself, when doubt and worry was not clouding her mind. Helena was the type of woman who needed an arm around her to reassure her of her abilities, of what she had to offer to the world. The woman was prone to mistrust and self doubt and that little bit of care and support meant the world when it came to getting the best out of Helena.

Which made Dakari's outburst even more strange. Maurelle had spent very little time with Helena face to face and one of those occasions the woman had been knocked out. Yet even in that time, Maurelle had been able to understand how to treat and act around the woman. Dakari had spent far more time with Helena, sure she knew just how fragile Helena could be at times. Or perhaps she simply did not care, which did not bode well for their group.

Perhaps Dakari thought she and her betrothed could mitigate this crisis singlehandedly, with just their own resources. Mayhaps even they could, yet their efforts would be greatly helped if the rest of the group was contributing. Dakari's little show of arrogance had in all likelhood already cost the group one member and was bordering on another two depending upon how Lida and her sister took the show of arrogance. At least Mr. Kilvayne had the decency to be subtle in his attempts to make a point about where he thought he stood. Dakari should have taken the same hint.

Still, it would not do Helena any good to sit there and looked checked out, even as the cholera outbreak was discussed. If Helena did not think that she had anything to offer with the famine, then the least she could do was help with the cholera. Maurelle knew how she helped solve the equation down in New York's water treatment plant and it seemed to Maurelle that Helena's powers could be utilized more to assist in that lingering crisis. Yet Helena was sitting there, not even pretending to look interested in it, which would only give the engaged pair more ammunition.

Leaning into her companion, Maurelle spoke as quietly as she could to Helena. "Helena, snap the hell out of this. I get it, you're overwhelmed and you do not know what to do. I understand that and why you feel that way, this is some serious business that we are dealing with. Yet you have to know that there will always be people around you who will help you, but you have to be able to help yourself as well. So show them why you are someone who deserves their help, why you are important to this group, why you were invited."

Helena looked at this woman and nearly balked. What did Maurelle see in her, what had Christian, what had... Felicia seen in her? She was a plain, boring woman who barely had above average intelligence. She was no one important, she was not resourceful or capable, she was nothing that would make any of them desire her in any sort of capacity. What could these people possibly see in her, what made anyone believe in her?

"Alright, I'll try." Why she was going to try, she did not know, but there had to be something in her that they saw. Something that she was missing herself when she looked at herself in the mirror. There had to be something that made these people think that she was worth the effort that they put into her, the belief they had shown in her. Everyone, not just Maurelle and Christian, but everyone who had ever believed in her and helped her along the way.

Her attention went over to Christian who had stood up and looked like he was ready to send the group away, asking for any final questions. "I don't have a question, but I do have advice. Do not tell a soul about what you have uncovered. Panic, rioting, chaos, these are but a few things that will arise if the public finds out. More likely than not will be a full on revolution and the fall of the state as we know it. If you want this nation to be still standing in some way after you solve this problem, no one outside this room should be made aware of the situation."

Maurelle had to hide a smirk that was forming on her face. It was not quite the full on pledge to help out with the situation that she was hoping from her companion, but there was fire still in there. Perhaps she lacked the cleverness or resourcefulness to think of her own way of helping out the crisis, but she knew how to give advice to protect those needing protection. Christian was right about that, Helena would do or advice others to do whatever the right thing for the most amount of people would be. It just ironically was in this instance keeping them completely in the dark about the greatest potential calamity of their age. Still though, the fire was alive in the woman's eyes and heart, she would be needed Maurelle knew and that fire of hers to.

"You know how to get ahold of me if you need me." Maurelle said as she gathered her things and gave a look to Christian. Besides Helena, he was the only one in this room she felt like working with directly on this project and it wouldn't be needed. "Best of luck to the rest of you on your endeavors in this project of ours. I know mine will be flawless." This time she did let out a smirk, if only they knew how meticulous she was.

Even now, as she took Helena by the arm and helped her leave the premises it was on effect. The original plan had been to spend the night in the Angelis, but with the bitch returneth, that would not do. Besides, Helena needed the unique care that her wife gave her. Instead, one of the teleporters in her employ was awaiting the pair as they exited the building, ready to take them to their respective homes. Maurelle Lacroix was never ill prepared.

FIN for Maurelle and Helena

[Frank Rook]

"I will send you a liaison, if needed. From my security corps- Elias Stone. I have already assigned him to looking for such leads, and any information Christian has is easily funneled into secure data storage in my corporate vaults. All of that can and will be prepared as a digital dossier for your people, Mr. Rook," Lucius offered. Frank bit back the comment on his lips. The one that would inform Mr. Kilvayne that no, he didn’t want someone that was, in all likelihood, a war criminal working with him. But, he reasoned that it wouldn’t be a problem if he were present at all times. He simply gave a nod and left it at that, opening the floor for Lucius to speak again.

"I have already set my contributions into motion, having just diverted the appropriate projects into endeavors to solve the crisis. As it so happens, this eventuality was not unforeseen by the top minds that comprise the various companies of the Kilvayne Corporation. We were fortunately already taking measures to prepare for such an emergency. The difference now is that the time-tables have made dramatic changes. Such is life, however." Frank could respect that Lucius was able to provide a great deal of help toward the goals of this group, but his distaste for the man as a person was infinite.

Dakari chimed in with her anti-government rant, and Frank had little to say in defense of that government. He probably knew more about the seedy underside of it than she did, even with every public action they had taken over the last couple of years. The things he knew… He was quite sure he could topple the current administration if he wanted to.

“Europe will have better crops than the tropics. We’ll work that out,” she said in response to him. He merely gave her a slight nod and reached into his pocket for a pen and a notepad. He scribbled some information on it and closed the book again, saving the note for when they were done here. He was sure Dakari could make the calls herself. It’d probably be better coming from her anyway. The smugglers in Europe didn’t particularly like Frank.

She started in on Helena and he couldn’t disagree with what was said, even if he wouldn’t have worded it quite so harshly. They needed things to move along, they didn’t need them to be stalled while everyone sat around on their hands and tried to think of what they could do. They weren’t the government.

The conversation turned back to the questions he had asked, and he cleared his mind for the information Christian relayed him.

“Yes. But not the sort that solved much for us. We found that the bacterial agent was spread through the city’s water system, but not that the water treatment plants had failed. Additionally, we found that the vast majority of patients had not been infected due to the water, and cross-testing ruled out foodborne variants as well. We don’t know how the infection spread.” That wasn’t good. Frank didn’t know a lot about the tests that had been run, just that there had been tests and that they had been conducted by top minds. If they couldn’t make sense of them, then that meant something particularly insidious was going on. The answer to his next question was slightly more helpful.

“I’ve been able to pinpoint the genesis of the famine within one hundred meters, with a margin of error of about three degrees. There is a small farming town there. It’s in a very isolated part of Minnesota. I would imagine everyone knows everyone there. Your people will either find that no one knows anything, that everyone knows the answer, or that everyone knows the answer but is unwilling to give it up. Look for signs of infestation, disease, and anything else unusual. Have them ask the locals where the crop deaths started. Use any means of interrogation necessary.” That last sentence gave Frank cause for alarm. A lot of evil had been committed in the past under the guide of ‘any means necessary’. The greater good was a one way ticket to hell, a lot of the time. He sat in silence to mull those thoughts over while Christian ended the meeting. He assured them that he would know of any new developments in minutes, offered help that he could, and made it clear that they were to work as a team. Frank was quite adept at working with people he didn’t like. He’d done it a great deal in the past. He was also adept at working behind the scenes in said relationship to ensure that everything came out right, in the end.

"I don't have a question, but I do have advice. Do not tell a soul about what you have uncovered. Panic, rioting, chaos, these are but a few things that will arise if the public finds out. More likely than not will be a full on revolution and the fall of the state as we know it. If you want this nation to be still standing in some way after you solve this problem, no one outside this room should be made aware of the situation," Helena added as she stood and readied herself to walk out of the meeting. On one hand, she did have a point. A lot of bad things would come from the information going public. A lot of good could come of it as well, after the initial backlash. Namely, the replacement of the leadership of the country with someone else. Someone who knew what the people were capable of and when they had to draw the line as far as messing with the people.

"You know how to get ahold of me if you need me. Best of luck to the rest of you on your endeavors in this project of ours. I know mine will be flawless," her companion said. Frank watched the two of them go, wondering just how well her endeavors would go. Apparently nothing was a sure thing these days.

Frank tore out the paper he had written on out of his notepad and stood up, walking over to Dakari and setting it on the table next to her.

”Ask for Visilie. It’s his real name. It will cause some waves, but he’ll know you’re serious. Tell him what you want and where you want it delivered, and he’ll do it for half the money up front and the other half on delivery. If everything goes well, he’ll want to keep working for you. I imagine that after all of this is done, you’ll have goods from Europe that you want smuggled in. He’s a good contact to have for that kind of business,” he said. He hated to play any part in bolstering her network, but it was a sacrifice he needed to do. And if it got any worse, he could drop a line to the authorities in Europe and have Vasilie shut down.

”I’m sure everyone here knows how to contact me,” he said to the room at large. ”I’ll be in touch,” he said. He walked out of the room, his mind swirling with all of the information he’d learned. He needed to get everything in order, quickly.

Fin Frank

[Christian Moynahan]

Was born a blackened seed in the wild
and I never was a child
I was pulled right out of the sea
and the salt - it never left my body
Someone opened me up when I was sleeping
and filled my body right up with sand
I carry a heaviness like a mountain
It forces me to remain
-Chelsea Wolfe, “They’ll Clap When You’re Dead”

As everyone made their closing moves, Christian rolled his shoulders and cracked his neck. He was going to need all of his strength for what he was about to do.

First, however, he nodded toward Maurelle as she commented on her contacting him. Helena left with her; Christian kept it that way. Lucius, Dakari, and Frank shared information. Doubtless Lucius would give Christian what he needed to help as well. Frank left, as did the others. Dakari began to leave the room beside Lucius, but here, Christian intercepted. “Miss Johessman. A word, please.”

Dakari tapped Lucius’ arm lightly and gave him a kiss on his cheek, then stepped back to speak with Christian. The door closed behind them, leaving the room locked from the inside - not an accident - leaving no one in the room but Dakari, Christian, and “Miss Alvarez,” or whatever name she had taken for the evening. Dakari leaned against the bar, which was fine with Christian. He stood with his back to the glass windows.

“What’s on your mind?” Dakari asked.

“I wanted to thank you for the use of this beautiful space,” Christian said. “I think it gave the right atmosphere for what I needed to share.”

Dakari smiled. “You’re welcome. Thank you for including me. I’ll be glad to help.”

She began to walk toward the door. Christian held up a hand.

“While we’re on the subject….”

Dakari tilted her head and returned to her perch. “Yes?”

“I felt very much as you did regarding Helena Rahal. I had hoped she would offer more insight and assistance than she did, rather than reverting into a shell. However, I also felt your delivery of those sentiments toward her was poorly done.”

Dakari crossed her arms.

“I hope that you will work with her with your thoughts much more guarded. It will take time, but Helena will grow into her own. Your more pointed approach will be less effective, and perhaps even reverse that growth.”

“I’ll work with her however I choose.” Dakari chuckled. “Have you seen how animals are trained, Mr. Moynahan? The whip works faster than the coddling does.”

“I don’t think you will.”

Dakari raised an eyebrow. “And you will stop me how, exactly?”

Christian shrugged. “I will contact your parents and have you replaced with one of your siblings. Your father, in particular, would be disappointed in you, I suspect.”

There was a pause, a frozen moment in time.

Dakari’s father had been killed in a blast at Dakari’s office some years earlier. They had mourned him; they had buried him. Very, very few people knew that he was alive. Christian Moynahan was one of the last people who should have known that.

With a sudden swell, every metal object in the room rushed forward, all crashing through the glass panes, sweeping Christian off his feet and through the windows with them.

Dakari shrugged at the brown-haired woman, who looked concerned. “They’ll get a new CEO. Better ones than that will be easy to find.”

The metal objects had gone through the windows, falling stories upon stories, shattering the windows. Christian stepped back into the room, his wing constructs stretched to their full extent. They had not been strong enough to let him fly, but he had only needed to hover and push forward. He closed his hands, and the wings disappeared, folding into his back.

“I’m a little more difficult to get rid of than that, I’m afraid.” He stopped a throwing knife with a wave of his hand, a brief blue flash appearing in its path; Dakari’s weapon flew sideways of its mark. “I’ve heard you can hold this building up. I can bring it down.”

Dakari was scowling fiercely, even shaking in anger. Christian approached her and tucked his hands into his pockets. “I will not attack my friend’s fiancée. But I think new arrangements are necessary.”

“Go to hell,” Dakari spat.

“You behave around the Rahals and Maurelle Lacroix, and I keep my information regarding your family to myself. Otherwise, we’ll test which of us can do more or less damage to this hotel of yours.”

She did not reply. “Are we agreed?” Christian asked.

She crossed her arms again. “Fine.”

Christian stepped back. The doors swung open. Once Dakari marched out, they closed again, once again locked from the inside. Christian collapsed with his back against the bar. “Are you all right?” Amaia asked, leaning over to look at him.

“I will be.” He closed his eyes. “Turn the lights to their highest setting.”

It was done. Christian remained there for a while, his breathing returning to normal, then giving a small smile. “That will be fine. Thank you, Miss Ramirez.”

“Was that really necessary?” Amaia asked.

“Motivations.” His eyes remained closed. “Some are simple. Others take a bit of effort.”


FIN thread