Checking in.

[citizenmoore]

To mervinmcginty:

Hopefully your flight went fine. Apparently I'm presently wanted for disturbing the peace, and the inspector's still leaning toward me being out of Lorena Station says I'm not disturbing it. Still, probably best to lie low. Might end up flying with you come spring with Damian. Depends on how he's feeling.

To citizendamian:

Your family's safely on dry land again. Your mother wrote some very long letters for you. Do you want to deal with them right now? I'll be back at the apartment tomorrow, I fear, since there's some things to deal with.

The Cafe Theatre is - artistic. I'm sitting in here going trough the mail / newsgroups. Do not check yours with the sound on. There's still some disturbing material being posted.

To Public:

Back on Paris IV. The Cafe Theatre has a lovely view at this time of year.

Comments

[citizenmoore]

"Done harm?" She slides her cup forward enough that she has to lean forward to put her hands around it. Off hand, she'd guess he's local Parisian, from the accent, and probably at least clever with his tongue. Probably not - too poor. Something in the banter lacks the studied lack of care that Mervin has, or Montague's slow quiet caution.

She takes a deep breath. "I thought you were talking about the blackmailers who were contacting me. But - tell me about Lorena Station? I feel like I've been shouting to the world about it far too much lately."

And there was something sickening about finding people posting that video of Damian or - there was this recording of him sounding like he was half befuddled and talking brokenly about running the tunnels.

To increase his Stockholm Syndrome, the interrogator said.

[stubbornlittleshit]

"Those too, at that. I would think they were most likely affiliated." Arno explains now, the thought having occurred earlier. "If someone wants you to stop speaking, what do they do when they can't make a fuss themselves? They get somebody else to do it. It's like...I hate to use a tired metaphor, but there are quite a few heads involved here. The Hydra comes to mind, only a rather specialized one with far more...I've lost that metaphor before it even got anywhere good, didn't I?" Arno stops, shaking his head a little.

"I think you have, actually in terms of people sprouting up. There are those in this world with the power to make problem for them or their friends disappear. And they do it rather painfully if you can't stop them."

[citizenmoore]

"It sounds as though the ones I have want me to do something for them, in return for being more benign." Yvette turns her cup of coffee in her hands and looks back at him. "It's a dangerous business, cornering someone and then expecting they'd work well for you. And usually you don't do that sort of thing with one person."

She sighs. "So it seems . . . like it might be good to find out who they are. That was what I was thinking. But - you think you know, I take it."

[stubbornlittleshit]

"I have a hunch." Arno nods slowly. "And sure, it's definitely dangerous, that. Been there...a few times." He adds, looking a little more serious for a second there. Sure, the offer was made to him and he was given the free will to decide, and to change his life, to make it better, but these days, that's not so much the case. He's felt...caged in the life for a while now, since he started learning all of the truths that go along with what he does, and all of the lies everyone's been telling each other along the way. It's also not any one side or person's fault and sometimes he wants to scream.

If he had to blame someone for that feeling though? Arno would blame Paris itself. It's become his city, both the beautiful lights and high vistas, and the dirt and muck of the sewers and the Court of Miracles, so called, anyway, for all that it doesn't hold half of what Hugo promised it did. It's everything else that's a mess, and all the people in it that make him...incredibly angry sometimes, and he just wants to scream. Of course, right now, there's more to focus on.

"So, more people, then? You're the first I've heard of getting threats but I do have the idea that we could track them if they aren't easily detected enough. I have some associates. Although, offhand. What do you know about the Knights Templar? Or, I've been told, in other places, they've started up a company called Abstergo."

[citizenmoore]

"You're the second person I've heard of interested in them. Though he was interested if Abstergo was directly working in producing finished yavanite out of Lorena Station. All I knew with them was NuFlor was a partnered company and there was some ties, but I think some was being filtered around."

Yvette sips her coffee and raises an eyebrow at him. "The Knights Templar are - wasn't that the Cathars? Or are you talking about something else?"

[stubbornlittleshit]

"Second person..." Arno frowns at that, running through a mental list of people he might know with connections that good that he was able to reach her there. "...Victorian?" Because that will tell him quite a lot there. "But yes, that Abstergo. And as for the Templars, well, that's what most would have you think. The truth's...a bit more complicated. Most are."

[citizenmoore]

"All right," she replies slowly. "A group, then. Running a company. You believe they are angry about Lorena Station falling apart, and then - they decided to blackmail me?"

It's possible. She hesitates, and then nods. "Probably Victorian. I don't remember if he mentioned it, but he used a Guy Fawkes reference."

She sets down the mug carefully, but it still makes a sound on the table. Mostly drowned out by the crowd. "What are you suggesting that I do?"

[stubbornlittleshit]

"I know they were doing...something in partnership out there." Arno frowns. "Could be them or another group they've got moving along. Unless...anybody else you've upset lately? If there's a trail, it WOULD be simple enough for contact to be made..." He hopes for her sake it's easily dealt with with resources already at hand but...

"That's more than likely who I'm thinking of. I'm part of a group working against Abstergo in general, but more against the Templars as a whole. They're heavily interested in changing our perception of history, finding powerful artifacts, or creating them that can create...a control state in most of the population..." His eyes blaze a little now.

"Here, we're so land locked they don't have much in the way of mining, obviously. What they DO have is the power to control political thought by selling lies dressed up as something else. In Victoria, I'm fairly sure, they're using the factories and influence to do the same. And if they have much access to Yavanite...who knows what they may come up with?"

Clearly it's not good.

[citizenmoore]

"The company itself has worked for better factory conditions, but - I don't think that's it." Yvette takes a breath. "I did break into a holding facility. A prison."

She's listening though. "So you . . . suspect that Lorena Station was popular as a source for cheaper technology or some other sort of plan."

She hesitates and flips through some pages on her phone to show a still of the Damian video. "Have you seen this?"