2006, 5th February

Space Station, Apotheosis

“White Mamba.”

“Hmm?”

“That’s the name of the local PMC that’s taken up residence in the USA. And they often work hand in glove with the… supernatural population. I even know their leader well. We fought side by side for a time,” Magnus said.

“Who is it,” Michael asked.

“Astrid. She is a true Berserker.”

“Hmm?”

“Bear Shifter. Blessed with unsurpassed physical prowess. And Astrid is blessed with a tenacity that would make her special even without her blessed lineage.”

“Blessed lineage. I assume a Berserker is seen as somehow better than an Ulfhednar, based on that terminology?”

“So they say.”

“You aren’t convinced.”

“They are physically superior, which is immediately obvious from a glance at their frame. And they are rarer, certainly. The claim is that their lineage remains closer to the primordials our kind descends from. But I have yet to see any evidence of that fact.”

“But this myth means they enjoy increased influence among your people all the same.”

“Make no mistake, Astrid has earned every bit of the privilege she commands.”

“You respect her. You’ll work well with her.”

Magnus looked surprised.

“I didn’t realise that was on the table.”

“Lucia will need all the support she can get. And I doubt I will be allowed to extend my direct support, besides any resources I can muster within the limits of my status.”

“You’re saying you won’t be accompanying us back to the USA? Why?”

“Because he’s expected in Lyon,” Lucia may as well have materialised from thin air as she made her entrance, and Magnus was already halfway out of his seat before settling back down.

“I see you picked up a new trick,” Michael remarked.

“Hemispatial neglect; I saw it on display in the Hall of Lords. You’re familiar with it?”

“With the trick or the spot? The answer is yes to both,” Michael replied, “It’s a shielding procedure, and I am an apprentice in the mind field. And that spot is really only for the benefit of our Hollow employees. An untrained Hollow getting their hands on some of that tech could hurt themselves.”

“And the AI that replaced that one Master on the council? Valentyna told me you knew about that too.”

“Ah. Walter McKenzie. The AI standing in for him operates off a perfect reproduction of his psyche, but the man himself went missing long ago.”

“How did you figure it out?”

“I just noticed the response of the rest of the Masters to the AI. They don’t see it as an equal, and they never directly addressed it, talking around it instead. I didn’t guess what exactly it was at first, just that it wasn’t a Master of Apotheosis. You?”

“It’s speech was modulated well enough to leave differently timed gaps between syllables like a normal person should, but the gaps repeated in a pattern.”

“Did you tell Valentyna how you figured it out?”

“No. Did you?”

“I didn’t. I doubt she hasn’t already guessed, but why volunteer information so freely? So tell me, what was that you said about Lyon?”

“Some kind of Horizontal inclusion. The Masters decided to volunteer you to take care of it.”

“I see. It looks like my lessons begin earlier than expected,” Michael began to run his fingers on the letters that had appeared on the glass top of his desk, and Lucia saw that the keys had been arranged in a straight alphabetic order instead of the traditional qwerty keyboards she was used to.

A number of symbols popped up on the window behind them, and Michael selected one, a recording taking over the glass pane.

“Lucia, translate this for me, would you?”

It was a newscast about an unprecedented spate of disappearances in the Parc de la Feyssine, the corpses of the missing turning up in the waters with no signs of foul play.

A strange rash of suicides, none of the victims having anything in common save their geographical circumstances.

This story has been taken without authorization. Report any sightings.

“This is your Horizontal incursion?”

“Hmm. A minor case to start me out in my studies of the Spirit field and keep me out from under your feet as well.”

“So it’s not dangerous,” Magnus pressed.

“Dangerous in the grand scheme of things? No. Capable of taking my life? Very likely. But that doesn’t matter-”

“It matters,” Lucia interjected, a firm finality to her voice.

“I agree,” Magnus added with a hint of amusement in his tone, “That was a stupid thing to say.”

Michael regarded them silently for a moment, before he nodded.

“Well, it really shouldn’t be anything I cannot handle. Like I said, this is meant to primarily be a lesson. And I’m hardly on a pressing schedule; Horizontal incursions like these pop up all the time. Yours is the more exceptional assignment. All the resources I can muster must be necessarily at your disposal, not just because of the nature of your prey, but because of how deep in enemy territory the USA is.”

“You mean the half blood concentration,” Lucia ran her tongue over a razor sharp canine, “That’s fine. I’ll make it work in my favour.”

“Seems to me your opponent will have the same idea,” Magnus said, “A better understanding of our surroundings wouldn’t go wrong.”

“I’ll put you in touch with the people you’ll be working with tomorrow. You two should turn in, I still have some additional files to review regarding this new case in Lyon.”

While Magnus made his way back to the temporary lodgings that had been assigned to him, Lucia chose to make her way to Michael’s room instead; she needed to speak with him further.

Before he arrived, she fished her own cell phone from her pocket, flipping it open and dialling a number.

Lucia, a man’s voice inquired from the other end, almost disbelievingly.

“Sacha. It’s been a while.”

…It has.

“No need to sound so concerned. I’m not in France at the moment, and I don’t plan to return for a while. I’m just calling on behalf of someone else. He’ll be there soon, and he’ll likely need help.”

He’ll be in Marseille?

“Lyon. He should be there within the week.”

And the nature of his business?

“Sacha. If the nature of his business was something I could speak of so freely, I wouldn’t need to contact you, of all people, would I?”

I suppose not.

“Don’t worry. I’ll compensate you appropriately. You know I can.”

I don’t need your money, Lucia. Just… Just promise me… that this will be the last time.

And saying so, Sacha cut the line.

Lucia set her phone back in her pocket, and began to scan Michael’s room.

It was clean to the point of sterility, just like most of the Space Station, and was scarce of accessories, just as she had remembered his room to be before, bare with only the slightest signs of being lived in.

It was strangely comfortable.

Her eyes came upon a glossy lack cube, inlaid with strange runes, and when she gripped it, the runes flooded with light, projecting onto the walls the image of a sphere patterned with grooves over its surface.

A brain, degenerated, hemispheres fused together, shaved down to the stem by atrophy.

The last time she had seen a specimen like this had been in the hands of her father, and she had later learned that the victims were humans mutated by application of vampiric blood.

Recorded audio played from the cube she held in her hand.

Failure. Unviable physical transformation. Unfit even to survive the physical plane, let alone make the transition. Devolution. Vampiric reproductive process must involve unknown steps that cannot be replicated and modified viably at this point.

The images shifted to clearly humanoid figures, their muscle fibres exposed as the outer epidermis had been burned clean off.

Cause of receding Death energy through direct application of sunlight unknown. Receding Death energy turns metabolic heat against the creature. Results shortly fatal. The anatomical key must be the sun.

“That’s an old journal kept by Indra Prakash,” Michael said as he stepped in, “One of our previous Chief Librarians. Not a very prestigious position these days. We even have a Hollow holding on to the seat.”

Lucia set the cube back onto the desk.

“So that’s who Hans based his own work on? Doesn’t seem like he came any closer to solving the problem than his predecessor.”

“These kinds of puzzles take time to figure out,” Michael tossed his suit off and draped on the back of a chair, then threw himself upon his bed, “I believe Abas pointed Hans towards this research for the express purpose of advancing it, and I fully believe Hans is not the only one either. Then he may collect the sum total of the knowledge gained for a clearer picture.”

“Speaking of Abas, he’s away, isn’t he? Something regarding the defence of territory on the edge of quadrant 2.”

When Michael remained silent for a full five seconds, Lucia raised a brow.

“That rang a bell, did it?”

“Walter McKenzie. He disappeared somewhere in quadrant 2 when the Astral incursions first began to appear in that area.”

“So this is a rescue mission.”

“Walter was a fairly conservative man; opposed to changing the direction of the organisation, opposed to many of Abas’ own endeavours.”

“So he’s really set out to confirm a corpse. Or make one, if he isn’t already dead.”

“Hmm.”

Lucia collapsed onto the bed right beside him.

“I contacted someone in Marseille.”

“Oh?”

“Just in case you need some assistance with your work in Lyon. The man is competent enough and connected enough that he should be of some use to you.”

“Then I’m guessing he isn’t just someone you knew from your university.”

“More like someone from my father’s circle. Or at least, what I knew about my father’s circles from before. He was close enough to my age. I dated him for a while, but that was only a momentary diversion.”

“Well, thanks. I’m sure I can find some use for him.”

“Tell me one thing, by the way.”

“Hmm?”

“You and Adana- you speak as though you’ve known her a very long time.”

“We were both brought here at similar times, at similar ages, and brought up as Abas’ apprentices.”

“She seems fairly more advanced in her abilities than you.”

“Adana is special. Not just anyone can take the title of Talon.”

“How long do you think it’ll take me to get better than her.”

Michael laughed, his eyes flashing.

“Good,” he said, “I like that goal for you. If anyone could pull it off, it’s you. As far as how long it’ll take you, well, you’re welcome to surprise me.”