“We’re figuring just the speed we build up those storage facilities is going to get us noticed,” Mr. Hill grunted, considering his cards. “I know you ain’t hurting for money, Grimm, and I don’t know how much work you do in your downtime, but I like to stay busy. I ain’t into fancy-pants stuff like you guys, I just like to work with my hands.

“I can do this.”

Wong offered up two chips. Everybody sighed as they chipped in again.

“Where’d you come up with an idea like this?” Grimm asked directly. “You got a reputation for tearing things down, Hill, not buildin’ ‘em.”

“And a well-deserved reputation it is,” Mr. Hill answered directly, “but not in Murica here. I don’t need to be a hero here, but I’m expected to bash property back West. This is just another way for me to make money in my downtime, and if you know anything about me, you know I give my contracts my best.

“As for the idea, it came when I saw a picture of the big freaking hole the Mole Man made in Times Square when he and his bunch of cave-dwellers came clambering up from below the city.

“Records said it took six months to repair all the damage, although they got a rough cover up in only a month. That tunnel is still down there, though they plugged it with a couple hundred thousand tons of cement, I unnerstand.”

Grimm put down two cards, picked up the ones I dealt him. “You got the capital to get this started?” he asked bluntly.

“Nope,” Hill said simply, also taking two, and Grimm huffed. “We can put up the basic walls and foundation of the storage buildings simply enough. The machinery for conventional loading and offloading needs to be figured in if Sandy here isn’t handling the movement of the stuff, so we need architectural plans drawn up.

“Now, if we don’t do the fancy stuff of actually being ready to work and get the stuff there fast and rely on the city and conventional companies for the raw materials, we ain’t gonna have the speed. Getting the stuff there fast is gonna be part of the price we charge.

“Once the stuff is on site, we can work very fast to get everything fixed up. I figure there’s a few former public works people we can tap to oversee everything.

“If nothing works out, then the city just has a convenient storage place for road materials you can sell or lease to them, pay us for our time building it, and you’re clear of any obligations.”

Wong put down a card, received his own.

“Ownership?” Grimm asked pointedly, looking around at everyone. “This business is basically based on everyone here participating.”

“You fund the storage area, it’s yours and we lease it... or better yet, charge the city to use it as a materials reserve for city construction, so the stuff doesn’t have to cross the bridges,” Marko spoke up as I gave him a card to his one. “The business is us. Having the materials nearby makes it work. If we can buy shares in the facility by building it, that would be great.”

“Huh.” Grimm ante’d two chips, Hill matched and raised, Marko folded, and Wong matched. Grimm matched, sighed, and the cards came down.

Hill’s two jacks took the hand over an ace high and a pair of fours. I slid his winnings to him and collected the cards.

“I believe a simple design by Dr. Richards could be drawn up quickly and would quickly pass muster with city code and zoning laws. Your name should be sufficient to get building approval, and then it is a case of getting a contract with the city,” I said. “There will be immediate pushback from some of the unions and those who run them, of course.”

Grimm eyed the other two powerhouses at the table. “I gets the impression that’s not gonna be as much of a problem as it could be.”

“We’ll sit down and have a meeting with them,” Mr. Hill growled as I dealt out a new hand.

“Who you using for the legal stuff?” Grimm asked sharply, staring at his new cards suspiciously.

“Nelson & Murdock. Queens. Clean,” Mr. Hill grunted, fingering a chip and looking disappointed at his hand.

“Yeah, heard of ‘im. Reed’s starting to work with ‘em. One of the best lawyers in the city. Does a lot of pro bono work,” Grimm nodded approvingly, as Mr. Hill tossed in the first chip and got two new cards. “Okay, I’ll tell you what. I’ll float this by Stretch. If he thinks it’s a good idea, we’ll get the contract for the storage facility going, and let you show off by building it up.

“If it fails, we’ll see if we can approach it from another angle.”

“Good for me. Marko? Master Wong? Dealer?” Hill asked.

Nods from all around. Grimm would take the lead with the face and the open money. We’d see where things went from there, and if it was good, we’d have another business to work on.

-------

“Sooooo... someone you know?” I asked Master Wong very late that night, as we watched a fine old manse of considerable size on its own sizable lot that had been blown to shit burning with some flames that were not all natural. We were standing on a wall at the rear of the estate.

“I believe you were dealing cards to him earlier tonight. This is Visinotti’s estate.” Wong sounded pretty satisfied.

“Oh, they got him?” I was impressed. I didn’t think they’d go for the guy on top first.

Wong waved at Brother Magnus, who was floating nearby with ghostly arms folded, also looking satisfied. “Brother Magnus was invaluable. It took some educating him on what to look for magically and technologically, but he got us the layout and design of the defenses. Once that was done, the team was able to go in there, suborn them, and set up surprises.”

“I wasn’t aware you were contributing to the vampire fight.”

Wong coughed into his sleeve. “I may have made a talisman or two to help circumvent the simpler Wards. Nothing traceable.”

“Of course.”

Magnus spoke up, “Actually, this happened about two hours after they killed him. The attack at the Resort was a distraction to give them a moment of opportunity to set up his vehicle. They attached a rolling thermite charge or four endowed with blessed silver to the underside of his limousine, and ignited it in the driveway around the front. The flames took out his gaseous form, and he never made it out of the inferno.

“This is what happened after all the other vampires realized that he was dead, and came here to start laying claim to his domain and subjugating the other vampires.”

“How many died?” I asked.

“Once the team actually started attacking and finished them? At least fivescore.” The ghost of the murdered monk sounded quite content.

“They’re going to be promoting a lot of Drinkers to replace the vamps they lost,” I noted for them.

“And then trying for new Drinkers... which will be in violation of their agreements. There are strict rules on how many such things can be created and how quickly,” Wong stated.

I considered the implications. “So, they’ll try to recruit from areas not heavily watched, or draw from other vampire clans?”

“All in violation of their agreements, but Manhattan is too ripe a prize. All Visinotti’s Thralls and holdings, as well as his blood progeny, are all free now, with all the assets that represents. There is too much money and power up for grabs right now, and everyone is going to grapple for it.” And forces like SHIELD would be clear to get involved...

“A fine shooting ground for Castle’s team,” I judged. “I see white in those flames. I guess he’s not feeding his devil as much as he could be?”

“A pity,” mused Wong, and Magnus piously agreed.

“And they didn’t need Mr. Hill or I to pull it off. Good for them.”

“That would put you in a rather difficult position, given your other activities,” Wong pointed out.

The meetings of the elder vampires gave multiple opportunities to track vampires back to their bases, see who they operated with and against, and track all their affiliations. The Mick’s and Mr. Hill’s connections in the mobs only helped so much, although I did raid the law enforcement database quite illegally and download a lot of city, state, and federal information about the undead and their living network.

I had also done something similar through the FF as Dynamo, looking at criminals and the power players in the city, and located a certain someone who looked like an image that had risen off a certain Chair.

Frankie Costas, head of the Costas crime family. The guise of the Grigori Olivier on Earth.

Magnus the Pious was naturally going nowhere near the Costas place, completely unable to escape the notice of a being so powerful. The subdued Wards about the place weren’t at the level of the Sanctum Sanctorum, but they were certainly deadly enough to anything supernatural that tried to get involved.

Notably, the Costas relationship with Malachio was not one of a subordinate, or even of deferral. The Maggia weren’t strong enough to rate such against a vampire, so the only thing to think was that Malachio at least knew how powerful Frankie Costas was, even if the vampire didn’t know his real nature.

I was doing a lot of scrying and token-tracking these guys around, and Cindy was quietly arranging all the information into a very big network that Director Carter might or might not have taken several good long looks at... and surreptitiously added information to it from SHIELD’s own files and financial tracking.

It kept me nicely out of the spotlight, but I could Teleport. I could literally be on top of them in seconds if they warned me ahead of time to be ready to get to a certain spot.

It hadn’t been needed yet. Indeed, Mr. Hill himself had yet to get involved on most of the kills, even though he was technically the one organizing everything. It wasn’t that he couldn't do the job, but once it was known that he was involved, everything was going to reach a whole new level.

Blade and this new Punisher guy, a Driver in a tricked-out car, and some mercs from the West, not so much.

It was, in the end, virtually impossible for a small band to possibly throw off the presence of so many vampires and werewolves here in Murica. They could be created so easily, and there were simply too many of them.

But inspiration was a thing, and being preyed on by the supernatural was something nobody in their right mind wanted to be a victim of. The agreements with the government were too pervasive, their influence too great, the traditions too established. Those who hated the Tribes were perfectly willing to unleash vampires on them to get revenge on the Tribes and continue a war which was very cold, with all the razors.

There were always more people, after all, and they knew the weaknesses of vampires and werewolves. Surely they would be able to get rid of them all if things went sour.

They were total unmitigated fools, and only the infighting between and within the two forces was doing anything at keeping them in agreement with the old pacts...