Blood in the Water - Intro
| Blood in the Water - Intro | |
|---|---|
Vamps don't do that. | |
| Players |
An Omega employee dies under mysterious circumstances, and the report makes it way to Lucius, who calls in the team to investigate. |
The report came across Luc's desk early this morning from Human Resources -- the death of an Omega Employee, an accounting intern by the name of Sasha Gray. Mid-twenties, entry level. Performance reviews not particularly impressive. The note attached to the file from R&D, though, explains how it made it up to Luc's desk in the first place: "Cause of Death: Exsanguination. Initial research suggests wound pattern unknown to match prior records." It's precisely the kind of thing that Luc pays people to keep an eye out for. And if it made it all the way up to him, it's already gone through the vetting process to make sure that it isn't just some random fluke accident, but a genuine cause of Weirdness. What's a little less sure is how Colt managed to intercept it before it got to Luc. It's obvious he did. He left a note too, on a little post-it on one of the crime scene pictures showing a very white, very terrified-looking Sasha's corpse, eyes filmed and wide open, mouth in a rictus scream: "Vamps don't do that." Lucius had enough on his plate that he could likely barricade the doors to his office and work only on the paperwork occupying his desk and still take a full week to get it all finished. Yet this single report managed to steal away his full attention for nearly an hour, a distraction that he could hardly afford if he wanted to stay ahead of his workload. After deliberating on the matter extensively, he requested Kassandra arrange a meeting with Noa, Ethan, and Colt in one of the conference rooms on the top floor. This was a "mandatory" meeting, he told her while authorizing the use of the helicopter to pick up anyone too distant or transportation impaired to make it in a timely fashion. That was forty-five minutes ago. As Kasandra does when her boss puts her to work, she springs into action. No text messages are fired off this time--it's phone calls. Ceaseless phone calls if any of those being called to gather don't answer on the first attempt. She puts out the call, starting with Ethan and working down the chain. No questions asked, just that polite, professional 'get thy ass here' -- no 'or' and definitely no excuses accepted by the wolfblood. And when they do arrive at the building, they are whisked up immediately to a luxurious, if sterile-looking conference room on the same floor as Lucius's office by Kasandra herself. There are a few curious looks, but with Kasandra leading the herd, those curious looks don't last long. It's a room that has seen rare action since their arrival to the building, so what better than a murder to christen it. It's richly appointed with those high-back leather chairs and the longest conference table known to man. "Here we are," she says, somewhat worn and frayed around the edges for the woman, as she directs them all inside. Ethan arrives in the suit. Really, he must have liked both of them, because he wears them every chance he gets. Then again, he might well have been at one of the many networking events he's been attending, of late. But nobody who was anywhere near him when that call came in would ever be transportation-impaired; Baby is on the job and he was of course happy to offer a ride to either of the other two. No need for a chopper on his account, in any case. And he offers no excuses at all, catching on to the serious tone. His expression, upon arrival, is somewhat pensive, but he is content to follow Kasandra into the conference room and slide into a seat, offering a nod to Lucius just as he’d offered a nod to Kasandra upon their retrieval and fast-walk to the pristine meeting room. Noa arrives hard on the heels of Ethan. She caught a cab from where she was. She's wearing boots, leggings, a tank top, and a blazer. She looks mildly relieved: the tank top is white and has a stain like red wine going down it. She doesn't try to hide it, but it's definitely not supposed to be part of the outfit. She offers a jaunty salute to Lucius and a small smile to Kasandra, there-and-gone. She entirely fails to offer any explanation for either the relief or the stain. Colt shows up last. Or maybe first. It's hard to tell, since he doesn't seem to come in through the door, so much as -- just -- gets noticed as being there. At some point. When and where, precisely, that occurred is somewhat vague. What might be even more surprising than that, though, is that he's in a suit too. He's showered, and shaved, and looks -- almost professional. It's a striking change of pace for the werewolf, who most of the time looks a little too frazzled to *care*. He looks around at the others, then looks to Kasandra. "Is he coming?" he asks her. "Or are we going to him?" There doesn't seem to be an 'other' option in Colt's logic. "He's coming," Lucius informs Colt as he strides through the Executive Door. It's really just like the other two doors into the room, except it comes out from a different wall and is called the Executive Door. It's sole purpose is so Lucius can go from his office to this particular conference room on the top floor without having to interact with people specifically waiting to speak with him who might be lingering outside his door. Today he's also flanked by Maxwell who seems to be trying his level best to keep up with Lucius and utterly failing the whole way. "No, not that," Lucius barks in an annoyed undertone to the secretary as he continues walking towards his seat at the head of the conference table, shoving a couple of documents the frazzled secretary is trying to hand him back. "Just... Put them all on my desk. I'll have Kasandra go through them later." Maxwell mumbles an apologetic few words before hurrying out of the room through one of the non-Executive doors while Lucius shoots an exasperated look at his Assistant. "Thank you all for coming," he says simply as he glances around to the three who don't normally work within the confines of Omega tower itself, "Ethan, Noa. You're probably wondering why I called you here so quickly. Colt..." He shoots a look at the Wolf that is somehow a mix of withering exhaustion and amused curiosity, "You likely already know what this is about." With that, he nods to Kas -- a signal for her to work the multimedia projector in the room and bring up a projection of the first page of the report. "This just came across my desk." While that tired look lingers on Kasandra's face, several small breaks happen. One is a brief flash of a smile at Ethan, and the other a curious loft of brows at the stain on Noa's shirt. Before she can even ask what that was about, Colt is asking about Lucius, and, well, Lucius saves her the time of answering. "Right on time as always," she says as she shuts the main door, the subtle click of the lock heard before she's shooting Maxwell a glare at his retreating backside. No love was clearly lost there. The other non-Executive door gets locked next by Kasandra before she reaches into her pants pocket to retrieve a slender remote and begins to work the buttons without looking at it. The lights lower, and the blinds shutter as the projector flares to life, offering that blue-tinted glow to the room before that requested first image pops up for everyone's viewing pleasure. She slants a glance toward Colt, curious, but she refrains from asking the question that lingers in her stare. The first image is the image of Sasha's face, along with Colt's note. Anyone that has seen a vampire attack knows that they tend to be subtle. Almost impossible to detect really, and the bite of a vampire has a certain amount of bliss to it. This woman didn't die in bliss. This woman died in pain, and horror, terrified out of her mind. The image isn't dissimilar to a certain image at the end of the first Ring movie. She's dressed in semi-casual clothes, a blouse and skirt that looks like it could have doubled as work and play clothes. Her apartment is stylish, and nothing appears to be out of place, though she was found on the floor of the bathroom, apparently, the tub half-full of water. Ethan frowns and takes out a small notepad. He starts jotting details down, frowning. He glances at Colt; recognizing his handwriting easily enough, but doesn't seek to interrupt. Anyone who glances at his notebook might see he's already jotting down some questions, but it also seems like he's holding them till the end in case they are about to get answered with what either Lucius or Kasandra has to say. A touch of something flickers in his eyes; empathy for the dead woman. "Well, y'all got my attention," he murmurs, though in an unobtrusive way...a way of commenting without really interrupting. Noa leans back, looking at the image, and looks troubled. Anything that she knows of that could cause this wouldn't normally leave the woman there and...uneaten. Or it would just take her with it. The terror in her face is something Noa's seen before. It's never a fun look. She entirely fails to comment. She's got no words right now. Colt looks at the pictures, then looks around at the people gathered. Given that he's already read through it, he gives a rundown. "She'd been working here for about a year," he tells them. "Not really any reason to target her for anything that I can see. She didn't have access to any sensitive data. She was just on the Accounts Payable team. Not even the *fun* accounts. She handled the laundry and water delivery accounts." He shrugs. "Not exactly high priority." He points to the picture, though. "First thing you might notice -- she died of exsanguination. Notice all the classic symptoms of a lack of fluids in the tissues. Sunken sockets, slack skin. Second thing you might notice -- ain't no blood in this picture. Cops'll say she was moved, but I don't think so. Cameras saw her go in, never saw her come out. Water was still warm when the cops got there. Her friend found her. Door was unlocked. They were supposed to go out." He looks around the table. "Which means that this is some Weird Shit. And that means that it's the kind of thing that you want to look into." A look at Lucius there, directly. "It *also* means that you're gonna get hands-on with this one. On the scene. You wanna be a part of the Accords, then you have to have some practical, first-hand experience. And," he notes, reaching into his pocket. "One of these." He takes out an odd-looking coin. Thick, heavier than anything in current circulation. He slides it across the table to Lucius. "Consider that your insurance policy. It can literally save your life." Lucius' hand settles atop the coin, catching it and arresting its travel before he picks it up and examines it, first one side, then the other. He glances aside to Kasandra when he's finished before sliding the coin towards her to both have a look for herself and also to deposit it somewhere secure -- likely a safe. "I've already started calling in a few favors. We should have undisturbed access to the crime scene for at least an hour, maybe two." His eyes narrow a bit at Colt, clearly annoyed by something, though he doesn't offer up anything in particular by way of explanation. Instead he turns his attention to Ethan and Noa, "I apologize for pulling you off your other projects, but I'll want you both there as well. Noa--" He pauses and looks her over, in particular eyeing the stain on her shirt, "Borrow something off Kasandra." His eyes then swivel towards his Executive Assistant and he murmurs, "Schedule a fitting for Ms. Weaver. Sometime this week, if possible." Apparently it's Noa's turn to receive some fancy office wear. "Any thoughts on what this thing is? Clearly you don't think it's a Vampire. Have any of you seen anything like this?" Another slanted gaze goes Colt's way when he starts in on the briefing. Still, Kasandra mutely stands there, content to operate both the remote and a laser pointer. Those details Colt calls out get the sweepy highlighting treatment of that red dot, glad there are no cats in the room to give chase of that zooming dot under her control. She listens to all the details and says, "She wasn't anything special. I met her, briefly, maybe once--twice. There was that office mixer you made me go to. I didn't interview her." Why would she? That position was far too beneath Kasandra to make her noteworthy, but now that's gotten herself dead? Another story altogether. That coin gets a pointed look, but it doesn't surprise Kasandra as she flicks another look at Colt, leaving something unsaid once more. Instead, she makes a little face before scooping it up and slipping it into her other pocket, giving Lucius a nod of understanding. Safe and sound. Secret even. As Lucius hones in on Noa, Kasandra's gaze goes right to that stain on the other woman's shirt. "I think I've got something that'll fit her," she says evenly before her expression lifts, and she flashes another quick smile at the prospect of a shopping trip. "A fitting with you sounds far better experience than I had with the boys." A glance is given toward Ethan and then Colt, a touch of appreciation in those dark eyes. "But damn, they do clean up well." It's that last question that gets her nostrils to flare as she shakes her head. "Do we know anything about other entry or exit points? Windows? Fire escape?" Ethan closes his notebook, shaking his head at Lucius question, though he tips a finger at Kas at her own. Though he half-shakes his head at 'nothing special' as if something about those words bothers him. Still, he leaves whatever that is on the table in favor of saying what he considers to be more important things. "Personally? I don't like to speculate. Generally find it to be a waste of time. Thing about the spooky is even if I could rattle off 17 candidates for you right this very minute--and I can't--every last guess could still turn out to be something new. There's always something else out there." His mouth makes a grim, brief line. "Sooner we can get out to the crime scene to start developing and running down the leads the cops won't find or understand if they do, the better. Especially as it could have been anything getting in any kinda way. Fire escape. Showed up looking like her and nobody realized the camera shows her walking in twice. Emerged from a mirror. Crawled up out of her toilet...too many possibilities. We won't get anything done in here." Noa flicks an annoyed glance at Lucius at the clothing comment. She calmly takes off the blazer she's wearing, pulls her arms back through the armholes of the tank top and turns it around so that the back is now the front. It makes the neckline rather higher. Then she puts the blazer back on. "I've heard of a number of things that could do it. None of them currently exist here, they're all...elsewhere. Different plane of existence. Thank you, Miss Kasandra, that's kind and I appreciate it. And you're right, they do clean up well." Colt gives a side-nod to Ethan. "He's not wrong. Could be plenty of things that could do this. And it's not a vampire I've ever heard of. They tend to be fairly low-key. Don't kill too often. Or leave -- that." He wrinkles his nose, nodding to the projector. "If they did they'd be front page news every day." Looking to Lucius and Kas, he asks the pair, "How do you feel about a field trip?" Luc's annoyed look gets a raised eyebrow from him. The look from Kas gets the faintest ghost of a smile. "It'll be fun. Assuming we don't die." And then, specifically to Noa, "The tailors only speak Italian, but they're fluent in dirty looks. Don't take any of their shit." "So all we know," Lucius asks looking between the three consultants of supernatural origin in turn, "Is that we don't know anything..." They hadn't really done much -- or any -- investigating yet, so it's clear he's not /too/ disappointed, but clearly he had hoped at least one of them might have some idea. "Then we had best get over there quickly and see what we can figure out," he breathes out, nodding once to Colt when he suggests a field trip. "Have them prep the helicopter," he tells Kasandra briefly as he pulls up his phone and fires off a few texts. "Do we need any equipment?" he asks, glancing up from the screen to each of the others in turn, "I'll have my security bring it with them." "Just Kasandra," she says to Noa with another flash of a smile as she turns off the projector and gets the lights. The blinds remain closed as she slips that remote back into her pocket. There's a snort as Colt gives Noa some 'tips' about dealing with the staff at the illustrious Atelier Matteo. "First of all, they are amazing. Secondly," she turns her gaze onto Noa, her smile bright if tight, "we aren't doing Italian. I think this calls for a visit to see my mother." A beat as she considers something and then adds to Noa, "Unless you prefer a suit like the boys." And why not? Since Colt is proposing the field trip, Kas gives a nod to him, unbothered about the dying part. "Sounds fine to me." Her phone is in her hand as she starts tapping on the screen as her head bobs to what Lucius rattles off to her, the Executive Assistant doing her job. She then glances at Colt, waiting for his response as whatever answer will determine a few commands she needs to dish out. "My equipment travels with me," Ethan says, glancing at Kasandra to include her in that answer, and there's no hint that he's joking. "There are a few things I know Colt n' me will be able to try, when we get there. In the apartment, in the building, around the building. And if we don't turn anything up, well, we can go over the more conventional stuff and *still* probably turn up some leads the cops miss. This is about how it always starts, pretty par for the course. The big what the fuck is always chapter one. We almost never get a nice, neat, 'shit, must be a name-your-clusterfuck.'" Still, his blue eyes are shining, almost as if he's in his element, as if there's almost nothing he'd rather be doing than running down the truth of a mystery like this. He does pause. "Though while we're about this, Mr. Shaw, you might think to have your contacts check to see if there's any cold cases anywhere in the police databases, either here or in another city, which served up a similar murder scene. Maybe this is first victim. And maybe it's just the latest in a pattern, which means more data points, more leads, more places they aren't going to think to look." He cuts off, almost as if he has a *longer list* and more thoughts, but is choosing not to bombard the room. "Colt, darlin', I don't take shit from anyone. Except Ethan, who knows better than to give me any, I'd kick his ass in." Noa offers Ethan a fond look. "Kasandra, a trip to your mother sounds fine to me, thank you." She clearly has no idea who Kasandra's mother is, but from context, someone who's fashion forward. "As far as equipment, I'll need a sterile knife, jack knife is fine, some kind of black mask, even if it's a black sock with holes cut in it, and a picture of Ms. Grey. One that can be easily torn." | |