2006, 15th January

Paris, France

Pierre got around a fair bit owing to his familial line of work, which required him to be able to move through countries as he required.

But the teleportation network of Apotheosis was unmatched in utility.

He had arranged to meet one of his contemporaries at a nearby restaurant.

The food in Paris was worth a visit all on it’s own, in Pierre’s mind.

As he sat in the air conditioned interiors being waited on, he regained some of the composure he had lost since that fateful meeting with Michael.

That man had scraped up an old vulnerability; knowingly, or not; and Pierre had allowed that vulnerability to show, even outside that initial interaction.

That was a mistake.

His father would be-

No, never mind that train of thought.

This was the moment Tanaka chose to walk in.

A slight, bespectacled man, Tanaka was what the magi would refer to as a hollow, and even many of his fellow hollows would be inclined to overlook the man.

That would be a mistake, and for many, it had been a fatal one.

Tanaka worked for the largest name in crime France had seen in years; the Bellone family.

Pierre had asked to see Tanaka because of a very obvious connection between the family and the man he was supposed to investigate.

The human link.

Hans had accrued a large number of hollow test subjects, both according to Anisha’s story, as well as his own documentation, that Pierre had gotten his hands on.

Apotheosis was too far removed from the rest of the world, and certainly the magi were above such legwork.

But they did maintain some ties to the world.

Especially this part of it.

The Bellone family was heavily involved in human trafficking, and Apotheosis was their largest customer bar none.

Of course, Tanaka knew none of that, and he wasn’t really required to.

Seating himself silently across the table, he gazed at Pierre over the rims of his glasses.

“Wasn’t expecting to see you here after you disappeared off the face of the Earth.”

Tanaka had no idea how on the mark his statement was.

“When I was putting the feelers out regarding those people, I wasn’t expecting you to reach out. What’s the matter, loyalty to your employers running a bit low?”

Tanaka knit his fingers together and leaned forward.

“Why were you inquiring about that batch of people in particular?”

Pierre’s instincts set off an alarm in his head, something that often happened when his life was about to become more complicated than it needed to be.

Tanaka was very good at his job, and part of that was his tendency not to ask questions unless absolutely necessary.

Pierre simply leaned back into his seat, crossed his arms and stared the man across him in silence.

Tanaka rubbed the bridge of his nose, and sighed.

“I heard about you sniffing around the second it happened. I wasn’t going to reach out, obviously. Then one day later- One. Fucking. Day. Later. I hear from the top- whoever asks around about these people in particular, the man above wants to see them. You get what I’m saying? One of the most powerful men in Europe; and he specifically wants to see you. So what the hell have you gotten yourself into?”

Pierre exhaled, releasing a breath he had been holding for a while.

“I have no idea. But I suppose I’ll find out.”

Pierre, after having flatly refused to be escorted anywhere by Tanaka, so called neutral location or otherwise, was now about halfway through his bottle of wine, which tasted rather bland to him, when it really shouldn’t have.

He could have paced a hole in the floor, but he suspected that wouldn’t be in keeping with the decorum of the place.

Although the way the older gentleman sat in the table adjoining his, face nearly drooping into his dish, was-

Several utensils clattered in a terrible din, and Pierre sprang to his feet, pulling a small handgun from where he had concealed it at his side.

Every patron within the walls was slumped over, and the staff had fallen to the floor.

He let the magic flow through his senses, using a life perception spell, and sensed the hum of life within them.

Not dead then.

But then he saw something else.

Life was everywhere, within people, within the earth as innumerable organisms resided within it, concealed from normal sense, even microbial life scattered through the air.

What he sensed now was a void, a vortex of blackness where no life could be seen, and the tiniest sputter of light that touched that bottomless abyss seemed to be consumed, and gone.

Inhaling sharply, he turned off the perception magic, and took several hurried steps back, nearly tripping over his own feet before he could find his balance once more.

Seated across him now was a man that appeared to be in his late thirties, of raven hair and pale skin and-

Pierre forcibly tore his gaze away from the man’s eyes, before he could expel the contents of his stomach all over the floor and on his shoes.

He felt rather like the rat entrapped in the serpent’s gaze before he was swallowed whole.

“Hello, Pierre.” The man spoke with a voice that sounded more human than it had any right to, “I am Lionel Bellone.”

Pierre rarely ever walked into any given location, brazenly, before preparing himself as much as he was able.

He had a sniper waiting in a building on the other side of the street, with a clear view of them through the window.

But twice in a row now, it seemed his preparations would come to naught.

Lionel sat still in his chair, betraying not a single motion, more like carved marble than sentient organism.

Pierre cautiously took his seat opposite him, holstering his firearm, knowing it to be useless.

Lionel broke the silence first.

“You are from Apotheosis, as was the person who acquired the assets you asked about. You are not with them, however. You oppose them.”

Pierre wondered for a panicked moment whether the monster was plucking the thoughts from his mind, but no- nothing Lionel had said so far really needed invasion of his thoughts, merely logical inference.

“You don’t really need to know anything about those people, just the routes they followed to reach them. And whether they acquired more. Anything that lets you know where they are, follow their movements.”

Were the neutral pronouns a sign that Lionel hadn’t directly interacted with his customer, or merely bait to pull some inscrutable tidbit of knowledge from Pierre-

Pierre decided to leave the mental gymnastics alone for a later time, and focussed on keeping himself coherent and not dissolving into a fear induced wreck.

“I need something from you.”

Lionel pulled a brown globe from his pocket, grooves carved onto its surface.

Pierre had seen nothing of the sort before. He found his tongue.

“Is.. that… a map, of some-”

“It’s a brain. Human.”

Pierre blinked, more than a little disconcerted.

“That… doesn’t look like-”

“It’s been mutated. Vampire blood fed to humans causes unpredictable changes. A number has gone missing already. So far, it has been within acceptable statistics, but any more than this- you understand?”

“You want me to find this… experimenter, and stop them?”

Lionel said nothing.

Pierre had the feeling this was not a creature people lightly said no to.

“I’ll do it.”

The lights went out.

Pierre froze in place.

“My people are destroying the surveillance tapes.” Lionel’s disembodied voice spoke from the darkness. “I’ll find you again in one week.”

When the lights came back on, Lionel Bellone was already gone.

Pierre was going to need some help on this particular assignment.

And perhaps he should work on brushing up his magical skills along the way.