Day 8 Part 1: 7AM-11 AM

FRIDAY, August 7th

Day 8 Part 1 - 7AM - 11 AM

7:23 AM 4th Floor Empty Suite, The Hotel

Mr. Confetti stares at the man who sits on the chair to his left. It's the Ventrue Elder Tommy Hinds! He turns his head, stares at the man who sits on the chair to his right. It's the Ventrue Elder Tommy Hinds!

Wearily, Mr. Confetti sits on a chair in the middle of them, and slowly rubs his chin. "Houston, we have a problem."

A few feet behind him, Magnussen, Jeeps, Pablo, and Jeremiah stare at the pair. "It's eerie. Like a double image." Jeeps says slowly. "Of course, they are dressed differently but-"

The two Tommy Hinds stare at each other, both extremely frightened. "So, which one is the real one?" Magnussen asks. "What do you mean by that?" Confetti stares at Pablo's ghoul. "They are both real."

"I meant which one is Tommy Hinds? Can you tell?"

Mr. Confetti's eyes narrow a moment. "Nope. Can't tell."

The door opens. Katarina stumbles in. "You have destroyed my sleep cycle completely! Oh. There's two!"

Jeremiah grins brazenly at her. "We saved Andy. Now we need you to transform him back to himself."

Pablo shrugs his shoulders. "We have all agreed to take a full evening off from the Contest of Will so that you aren't put farther behind. It's only fair."

Katarina struts over to the Tommy Hinds on the left. He recoils from her as she extends her arms towards him. As she touches his face, a small miracle happens. There is a large POP!

And immediately, he is Andy again. Everyone is stunned into silence.

"It does take hours to mold someone from their original shape as I did. But mere moments to reverse the process."

"Fantastic!" Jeeps exclaims. Pablo smiles brightly. "Well, that's a big load off our minds anyway."

"He is still Kindred. And that, I cannot fix." Katarina says simply. "We will all take responsibility for Andy's condition." Confetti says simply. "Now, you may all leave."

Jeremiah's eyes narrow. "Confetti are you sure that-"

Confetti waves him away. "You need your rest. Don't you have the immortal soul of Garwood Marshall to locate tonight?"

Jeremiah nods his head firmly. "That is true. I will need to be at full strength to-"

Confetti stands abruptly. "I have two minds to repair. This will keep me quite occupied. And unlike Jeeps, I too need to rest. I will fix one, then sleep. Then tonight I will fix the other."

"I know the piece of the puzzle, as you call it, is inside Tommy Hinds. But please, fix Andy first." Pablo says softly. "I'll begin his training."

"Very well." Confetti says grumpily. "But I can't wait to get into Tommy Hinds' mind!"

He grins widely and stares at Tommy, who recoils in horror. "No! Nooooo!" Tommy Hinds moans. "Oh stop being a baby, Hinds. I'm going to put you back together again, whether you want me to or not. You too, Andy."

Hinds suddenly rushes from his chair. Andy does the same! Confetti sighs. "Jeeps."

Jeeps fires his stake bolt gun. A wooden stake finds its perfect mark through Tommy Hinds' chest and he goes down without so much as a squeak. Andy raises both hands in surrender as he falls to his knees. "No! Nooooooo!" he yells.

"The rest of you may go. Jeeps and I have this under control." The sternness in Confetti's voice leaves the rest understanding he is not asking. Though some in the group don't like it, they all turn and leave.

"So." Mr. Confetti grins at Andy. "Let's get started, shall we?"

Andy's eyes get big as saucers. He thinks to run but his eyes fall on Jeeps' stake gun. He whimpers as Confetti closes in.

8:00 AM 2nd Floor, The Hotel

The alarm blares loudly, but not too loudly. An arm reluctantly crawls out from underneath the covers, the hand becomes a fist and the alarm is violently dealt with. It dies screaming.

Weaponsmith master craftsman Russell Hampton forces himself out of the bed. He moans unhappily and thinks about taking a warm shower. Then he remembers there is no clean water in The Hotel. He mumbles about the selfishness of vampires, and makes sure that isn't done too loudly either. Then he gets dressed.

He staggers down the stairs, past the lobby, surprised that no one is on guard there. Then he sees her. The Bellboy Girl slouched down behind the desk. Her eyes darting back and forth between the monitors. Then they slide over to him.

"Good morning." He says as cheerily as he can muster. She half-frowns at him. "Yeah, I know right? We go and adjust our entire schedules so that we're up when the Kindred are up, and now we have to change it back to do something else for them, huh? It's damn screwy, isn't it?"

She shrugs at him. Then gives him a toothy grin. He winks and heads further into the back hallway and enters his workshop. He gazes at the weapon.

The flail is nearly complete. Nearly, but not entirely. Normally, Russell might takes weeks, even months, on a single weapon. But it's damn clear that these people need their weapons now. Why Confetti would make them earn them as special prizes is beyond his comprehension, but trying to figure out anything Confetti is doing is like trying to play nineteen games of chess at the same time.

And Russell is damned terrible at playing just one game of chess at the same time. Best to keep it simple, and just worry about the task at hand. The flail.

Russell lifts up his hammer, lets the last bit of sleep fade from his eyes. Then he strikes!

8:32 AM Gary Public Library

Samuel Lukos hadn't had any luck whatsoever using the regular distributors in seeking the book that his benefactor had asked him for. But he knew that would be the case, going in. He just didn't want to act like a fool and not check the common sources. But no, whatever this "Childless Unicorn" is, it's not widely available.

For some reason, that made Samuel glad. He gets ordinary requests from people every day. It used to be a lot more frequent, when the town was better populated with educated people. Now it seems that a full quarter of the town is full of people who can't even read, let alone want a particular book.

Samuel dials on his cell phone. After a few rings, a familiar and friendly voice on the other side picks up. "Hey Ronald. Sam Lukos. Listen, I have a request for a book that's a bit out of the ordinary. Maybe you've heard of it. Yeah. It's called The Childless Unicorn. Hello? Ronald? Hello?"

Samuel Lukos blinks. Ronald Heiman, had hung up on him! Maybe the connection just got dropped. He dialed again. It rang five times then went to voice mail. Samuel sighs.

Just at that moment, his benefactor walks through the door, wearing a trench coat over his priestly garb, despite it being a bright, humid, scorching hot summer day.

"Hello Samuel, how are you?"

"Funny you should ask. That book you asked for, well, I think I found someone who at least knows something about it. But, he hung up on me! And I've known Ronald for over a decade, now."

Jeremiah nods his head sharply. "We'll talk about him in a moment. First..." he pulls out an envelope with five thousand dollars in it, and puts it in Samuel's hand. "How are the computers working out Samuel?"

"Oh, fine. Just fine. And I have extended the hours to night hours as you suggested, Reverend. But, I don't know how to get the word out. The library is still being barely used by the general public."

"That's all right Samuel. I couldn't expect anything to change overnight. We're building something important here. Something that's meant to last, not be a quick flash in the pan."

Samuel smiles at the thought of it. "Yeah. Well, so this money is for-"

"Security, Sam. I would like you to beef up security here."

"Oh, there hasn't been any kind of burglaries in-"

"Well, these are brand new computers. And there's all kinds of trouble outside these doors. Better safe than sorry, after all. If the computers were stolen and the rest of the library vandalized, the city hall might just close it rather than repair."

Samuel's fists clench. "I hate those politician-types. But close the library? They wouldn't have the nerve!"

"I have it on good authority they are considering shutting down the health department, Samuel. This library is likely even lower on their priority list than that."

"Good lord! Just how broke is Gary?"

"It's bad. But together, we'll build a great foundation of learning here. Security, Samuel. We need better locks on those doors and other security measures besides."

"I hear you. I'll get right on it, Reverend."

"Thank you Samuel. Now, tell me what you've learned about the Childless Unicorn. Who is this Ronald fellow?"

10:09 AM Solution Services Realty

"So, you understand what I expect of you, right?" Brenda's eyes narrow as she gazes at the young lady before her. Just out of college, Nancy Lewenholtz had that new car smell about her. The twinkle in her eyes hadn't yet faded, a rare difference between her and most of the residents in Gary, Indiana, Brenda mused.

Nancy had already failed at three careers in her first year and a half out of college. She hadn't admitted why in the interview but Brenda had read between the lines well enough. The girl is cute. Not gorgeous. Not swimsuit model materials. But cute enough, for sure.

At her first job her boss tried and failed to sleep with her. Career over. At her second job she had exceeded the work ethic and intelligence of all of her peers and quickly advanced. She was promoted twice in six months. She was then torpedoed by a rival who was sleeping with her boss. Career over. At the third job the company simply couldn't pay her well enough, and though her reviews were brilliant, she got passed over for the one promotion there was available by someone more tenured then herself, a normal and acceptable scenario, but then didn't receive a raise of any kind despite her reviews. She complained about it a little too loudly, was pulled into a conference room by her manager, and after a heated debate about it, was told to go back to her desk.

Three days later her name was among the company cuts. She had been the only one among them with excellent reviews. Three careers, all ended badly and through no fault of her own, really. Brenda had seen these kinds of things happen to others, over and over again. She would be able to mold this girl and motivate her into greatness just by being good to her and giving her the basic perks any worker in any career deserves.

Karen's lips purse as she considers the question. "Well, from what you are saying, we are basically going to gobble up anything that isn't a total ruin that falls on the list of what the Big Client wants. Do I get to learn who the Big Client is?"

"Does it matter or do you want to make lots of money?"

"It matters." The words flew out of Karen's mouth faster than she could prevent them from getting out. She realizes her mistake and her eyes almost bulge out of her own head.

"I..I mean-"

Brenda lets a wolfish smile cross over her face. "No. That was the right answer. A yes girl can't do this job. I need someone who can take charge for at least a few hours a day. I haven't been getting enough sleep, you see."

"So the Big Client is-"

"The Hell's Angels Biker Club."

Nancy's eyes nearly bulge all the way out of her face this time and fall onto the floor. "Are we...is this illegal in any way?"

"No. It's just real estate."

"Okay. Then, okay, that's fine then."

"We deal with a representative of the club. He's a bit goofy, but you'll get used to him. If a Mr. Howe stops in, you treat him like royalty. Even if he annoys you, yes?"

"Mr. Howe. Got it."

"So, when does the rest of the staff get here?" Nancy looks around at all of the desks.

"It's just us, Nancy."

"Just us?"

"Just us."

"Huh."

"More money for us that way, see?"

"Okay. So you, uh, fired everybody?"

Brenda laughs. "That would make me a real bitch if I did, wouldn't it?"

Nancy laughs too. Brenda stops laughing. "Yeah. I fired their asses."

"Oh."

"When my husband died, it was his company originally, there was a power struggle for control. A power struggle in a tiny real estate company, can you believe it?"

"I take it you won."

"I won the war, yes, and fired everyone. I figured I'd start over, get my own people in. You are the first of the new guard."

"Wow. Okay, I can live with that. So, where do we start?"

"You start with locating a garage we can acquire."

"A garage? What kind of-"

"Very large. For motorcycles. Lots of motorcyles."

"Right. The Hell's Angels."

"Right."

Nancy shrugs her shoulders. "I can handle that."

Continue to Part 2