1
Allyson made the trip to Lil's in near record time. Parking the bike on the street, she hurried to the main entrance. It was still 3 hours until opening, so she easily skimmed through the small crowd at the door, nodding to the dark-clad bouncer as she entered. As much of a hurry as she was, she paused to admire the club. The inside of the entrance was occupied by a antechamber with several chairs and sofas, with a connecting coatroom that was currently locked. In the back wall of the waiting room was a set of gigantic wrought-iron Gothic doors with a pair of gargoyles on the sill. Passing through the doors, you entered the middle level of the club proper. Containing the dance floor and the main bar, it was easily the size of most other clubs. The second level was an extended balcony-style floor above the main level. The third level was below the main floor, divided up for smaller groups and other music besides what was on the main system. Allyson strode through the bustling staff doing the final prep for opening. A sudden high pitched whine broke over the speakers, lasting just a second. Most of the staff paid it no heed, but she saw the security staff all wince at it from their planning huddle. Heading over to the massive main bar, she nodded to its 6 keepers. Bellying up, she caught the head 'keep's attention.
"Hey Steph. Fatima around? Got some news for her."
The older woman shook her head. "Not at the moment Miss L'ourax. Miss Al-Roshta had some sort of business Uptown. She left just after dark. Sorry."
Allyson bit off a curse and thanked the 'keep. Turning from the bar, she noticed the security huddle had broken up to start their duties. She saw that Balthazaar himself had conducted the briefing. Which normally would be perfectly normal, considering he was the head of security for the club. However, he was also Fatima's personal bodyguard, and was never more than three steps from his Mistress. Heading over, she caught him as he was putting away the briefing materials. He noticed her several strides away and gave her a toothy smile that stood out against his dark skin. Balthazaar Sudhare was a man that made the old football players look like figure skaters. Standing a just over seven feet tall, he was almost 400 pounds of pure muscle. Allyson walked straight into his shadow without even flinching.
"Hey Bal, why aren't you with Fati? Your day off?"
The man smiled at the diminutive woman. "No, little sister. The Mistress asked that I stay behind as some VIP's will be arriving here before she returns. Worry not, she took Casper, Melchior, and half of the Pack with her."
Allyson smirked. "That's ok, I think she just keeps you guys around as ornamentation anyways."
This got a deep laugh from the bodyguard. "Now is there something I can help you with Allyson, or did you just stop by to insult this poor old mutt?"
Allyson sobered in a hurry. Looking around to make sure no one was with in hearing range, she hopped up on the table so she could be in the general vicinity of his head. Leaning in, she told him about the Troll at the Ghouls'. His eyes widened, and she saw the closest thing to fright she had ever seen pass over his features.
"Are you positive?" he asked in a whisper. Allyson shrugged.
"I didn't see it for myself, no. But I smelled its stench, and the Ghouls didn't seem to feel the need to keep it hush-hush."
Balthazaar pushed the fear from his features, replacing it with a frown that she recognized as his thinking face. Motioning for her to follow, he headed towards a door near the bar. Allyson did a somersault off the table and did so. Passing through the door she recognized the familiar office area. Shielded from the club's noise by heavy soundproofing, this was where the 'up front' business of running Lillith's Delight occurred. Passing by several cubicles and offices, they stopped at Balthazaar's smallish but posh office. Entering, Allyson wondered again how he managed to get any work done in an office made for a normal sized person. But then again, he was hardly ever in here, preferring to spend his time at Fatima's side.
Rummaging through a cabinet, he pulled out a rather bulky piece of equipment and placed it on his desk. Lifting a handset from the face of the machine, he began to punch in some number. Allyson was silently impressed. She recognized the machine as a BP-980 satellite transmission encryptor. A very expensive high-tech piece of electronics, it made it virtually impossible to intercept the communication, much less decode it. It was also highly illegal to own outside of military/government circles. Not even Allyson's connections could get her to that level.
Balthazaar finished establishing the link and began to speak to the other end in a language Allyson didn't understand. Of course, her linguistic skills were limited to English, Cantonese, and a smattering of Li'tealn, the Vampiric ancestral tongue. Balthazaar shortly finished the conversation and closed the connection. Turning to the woman, he had a small smile on his face.
"The Mistress said she knows about the Firstborn. And that no-one is to interfere with it in any way."
Allyson just stared at the bodyguard, her mind whirring away. Fatima know a Troll was in North America. And wanted it here. Argh, I hate it when she does these kinds of things.....
Outwardly, she shrugged. "If she knows about it, my job is done. Like I was going to tangle with something like that anyways...."
Balthazaar laughed, shaking the walls of the office. Squatting down to the Daywalker's level, he smiled a full smile, showing way too many sharp teeth.
"What do you say we go have a few drinks in celebration of the fact the Mistress knows more than us? My great-granddaughter has just joined us in this fair city, and I believe you two pups would get along fine." Allyson saw the twinkle in the bodyguard's eyes, and sighed to herself.
"'Zaar, I have no plans on settling down in the near future, so you can stop introducing me to all your great-granddaughters and -nieces and shit. God knows you're one of the few men I can stand, so let's not push it with the Mother Hen bit, hmmm?"
Balthazaar shrugged, and clapped Allyson on the back, almost knocking her over. "Whatever you say, little one. Would you settle for just the drinks?"
Allyson frowned. "As much as I hate to admit it, I have to go see HEX tonight. He said he had some news for me."
The bodyguard snorted. "Sounds like a wonderful evening." Allyson's frown twisted into a scowl.
"Whatever. I need to go though. If I'm late, he'll just make me stay longer. Tell Fatima I'll be by in a few days. Laters." With a nod, she left the office and wound her way through the club. Just before she exited, she noticed a unfamiliar woman on the second level. Dressed in a Security uniform, she was rather attractive in that lanky way most Pack members had.
Hmmm, maybe I'll have 'Zaar introduce me to his great granddaughter after all...
2
Across town, Allyson pulled her bike into a slot in a fairly crowded parking lot. Dismounting, she headed down the street. Bowing her head against the cold wind, she quickly made the twists and turns through the back alleys until she came to an unassuming door set into a warehouse-like building. Blocking her way was a general issue Goon. Stopping in front of him, she cocked her head impatiently. The goon just stared off into the distance. She cleared her throat. Still no response. She was starting to remember why she disliked men so much. So much for subtly....
"Get the fuck outta my way, asshole."
The goon looked down and gave her a contemptuous smile. "This is a fucking grown-up place. Get the hell out of here, ya little runt."
...in retrospect, this was a rather large mistake.
On the other side of the door was a good-sized entryway that doubled as a guard post. Four more goons had set up a small table and were spending the quiet shift playing cards. Every now and then one would glance to the monitor that showed the outside camera. One did so, just in time to see Allyson approach the outside door.
"Hey Rob, ya wanna let the Boss know the Kid is here?" He spoke to another of the guards. "He's been... shit!" The first goon paled.
The others looked at him. The one they called Rob spoke. "What? Forgot to wear your cup today John?"
John rose from his chair and headed towards the inner door. Over his shoulder, he shot his coworkers a panicked look. "No, I just remembered that new guy Tim is on door duty tonight. You know how he is with kids...."
The other goons pale and dove towards the inner door. Before they could open it, the outer door crashed open, falling off its hinges. The twisted form of the poor new guy kept moving and slammed into the inner door, barely missing John. As the goons turn to look where the 3 inch, reinforced steel security door used to be, Allyson stepped through the doorway, guns in hand and Death in her eyes. Tim began to moan pitifully from the floor. No one else moved. They didn't notice when the monitor switched views, showing a computer-generated harlequin's mask, which was frozen in a smile.
"My, my, my dear Allyson. You certainly know how to make an entrance.", the synthesized female voice, full of suppressed glee, came from a hidden speaker. Allyson whirled to face it, and barely kept from putting several bullets into the monitor. The inner door buzzed and swung open, and the voice spoke again.
"Now if you're done playing with my staff, we do have some business to attend to."
Allyson put the guns away. Taking several deep breaths, she walked past the goons and through the door, not bothering to step over poor Tim. After the door closed behind her, all four goons let out the breath they were holding in. John looked down at the twisted body at his feet.
"When were we going to warn him about her?"
"Tomorrow.", Rob replied.
John thought for a moment. "Well, I guess this saves us some time."
3
Allyson strode through the warehouse, keeping the throbbing of her shoulders off of her face. Luckily, word travels fast, and most of the people she came across stepped out of her way. Sighing to herself, she wondered how much HEX was going to charge her for a new door. Looking around, she noticed that business was fairly brisk tonight. Of course, HEX ran a top-notch smuggling/black-market operation besides the infoskimming. She would have been happy to attach herself to his projects if it weren't for the fact that HEX was so determined to 'woo' her. She especially disliked men when they wouldn't take no for an answer, and they were too important to kill.
Eventually, she came to a door marked 'Lost Angles'. Taking a deep, calming breath, she opened it and stepped through. And into computer-generated madness. The room was circular, impossibly large. The door opened onto a small platform in the center of the room. Opposite the door was a stone throne. Lounging on the throne was a fully-rendered red and black female form, wearing the harlequin mask. A stylized cape flowed over the back of the throne. The figure's mask still held the amused expression. Allyson hesitated for a second, and then looked down. Her skin was a garish orange color, and her clothes looked like she just walked of the Aquaman movie set. Looking back at the figure on the throne, she gave it her patented 'cut the crap' glares. The mask was static, but its grin got bigger. The synthetic voice giggled from the proximity of the reclining woman.
"Can I help it if the young AndrAIa is the only overlay that fits you?", the figure said.
"Cut th....". Allyson stopped midsentence. She kept forgetting the computer did voice overlays too. She hated the sickly-cute voice she got saddled with even more than the body.
"Cut the crap HEX. What's the big news?" She folded her arms and glowered at the infoskim, which unfortunately made her even cuter. HEX waved a disapproving finger at Allyson.
"What's the rush, dear heart? Surely you're not in a rush to leave you're good friend HEX, are you?"
Allyson counted to ten backwards, and the urge to shoot the informant passed. Barely. "HEX, either spill the beans or I walk. Or I start putting holes in your holo-projectors."
The figure in the chair straightened up so fast that the projectors could match the overlay. Allyson got a quick glimpse of the middle-aged man underneath the hologram before the overlay caught up. She smirked.
"You wouldn't. Would you?" The panic edged out the amusement in HEX's voice. Sighing, and mumbling something about sacrifices and love, HEX double-tapped the air to his right. A computer window sprang into life, showing a picture of an unremarkable blonde woman in her mid-forties. "Do you recognize this woman?"
Allyson looked at the picture. There was something about those blue eyes, but it was just a tickle at the back of her mind. She shook her head.
"Nope. Should I?"
The mask took on a sly aspect. "I didn't think you would. However, we found a digitization key imbedded in the picture. Looks like the photo had been altered. When we undid the alterations, this is what we found." HEX tapped the window again, and the picture was replaced by another. Allyson felt like she had just taken another slug to the gut. The original photo looked to be a portrait of a young girl, around 12-13 years old. And now the resemblance to Allyson was unmistakable. She stared at the innocence in her eyes and the easy smile on her face, and felt the intervening years close in on her. Shaking off the memories, she turned to HEX.
"Where did you get this picture?"
HEX opened another window. It contained what looked like a surveillance photo, showing a woman in her early twenties talking to an older man in an office.
"Her name is Samantha Talbeth. She's been in the city for about a week now, going to all the homeless shelters and charitable organizations that help the destitute." The mask raised an eyebrow. "She says the woman in the picture is some long-lost relative of hers. This relative supposedly came to the metro area about 20 years ago, and she's trying to track her down. I guess this relative ran away from a foster home, so she thought looking at the records of support agencies would be a good start."
Allyson was frozen, staring at the picture of the newcomer. She didn't buy the 'relative' angle. A school picture was easy to get ahold of, and if it was a family member, why would they start looking after 42 years, and then just stumble into her backyard? It must be someone working for Lab 28. Except they were all dead, she had seen to that.
Fuck it. It doesn't matter who they're working for. They are not going to find me...
Allyson looked at HEX, who was staring back at her with a perplexed mask. She squared her shoulders and took a deep breath.
"How did you find out about this woman?"
HEX looked relieve that she was back. "One of the charities she stopped at is one of my fronts. I happened to be there that day. You're just lucky I know the little I do about your past. That and I've used similar software on your picture in the past." A rather lecherous smile appeared on the mask.
Allyson shook her head. If she killed him now, he wouldn't be able to help her. "Put the word out. This Samantha is to have no luck on her little hunt. Send me a copy of everything you can dig up on her, pronto. And if I catch you doing anything with my image, I'll rip those neural links out of your head myself. Clear?
"C-Crystal."
"Good. I'm outta here. Keep me informed." With that, Allyson turned and left the office, breathing a sigh of release when she crossed the threshold into the land of sanity again.