Something evil this way comes... [daylightfadings]
For a moment, I paused from reading all the files that lay around my desk and started thinking...
This was not quite what I had in mind when I accepted to come to Rome. Perhaps to some degree I was expecting to have much more control of the Roman firm, but equal partnership? And with two spineless failures nonetheless- that was a bit hard to swallow, my morning coffee had more evil brewed in it than those two put together. But it didn't matter one way or the other really. I had plenty of time to play my cards the way I always did and show who was the real boss around here. As I kept thinking, what I found most interesting was how the chain of command had changed within the company itself. Perhaps it was just me, being too pretentious, but I never missed the obvious, and quite obviously, Mr. Renfield had become quite the powerful man within Wolfram and Hart. I suppose the Senior Partners had their own reasons for their actions, after all, beings such as them and a multi-dimensional company of this magnitude were bound to have secrets, as did everyone else who worked for this firm, including myself.
But even with all that power and class, I wondered... how did a man like Renfield end up picking two of the worst of Wolfram and Hart to run an entire firm? Even if you put the two of them together, they didn’t come close to being half the CEO that I could be. And with their unimpressive track record, I was surprised that the Partners had let them live for so long at all. I suppose, one has to assume, that just as the Partners, Mr. Renfield had his own reason for choosing them. But just because I completely disliked them, didn't mean I wasn't going to work the part of co-CEO. I have always been a team player, of course, my team always consisted of the best and the right caliber of people... Lindsey and Lilah weren't exactly the right caliber. Not only that, they were quite the annoying pair. Their whole careers were shrouded in failure after failure- making the LA branch the black sheep of the company, always trying to catch up to the heard witht their tails between their legs. Everyone in the firm was aware of what went on in LA. And for a company that required nothing but excellence from all it's affiliate firms, partners and employees, what they had accomplished in LA was completely unacceptable and quite frankly embarrassing for all of us. In my opinion, the immigrant clean up crew that swept and kept the offices clean and free of any insect infestation, could do considerably better than those two ever could.
Looking at things from the bright side... even if they wanted to, they wouldn’t pose any real threat to me, and with time, they would become just a mere memory on everyone's mind... that is, if I played my cards right. All I really needed was a little bit of patience...
I leaned back on my desk shaking my head, trying to clear my thoughts once more as I scanned through some of the files that I had acquired from Files and Records. One of the firm's main priorities was to find this ancient Holy Grail and a History Channel special on the artifact wasn't your valid source or information. But I wasn't about to tell that to Lindsey or Lilah, that is... if they had even started looking. I was pretty familiar with the legend on the Holy Grail, but a little research never hurt anyone. And there was plenty of information on our records of the relic, most of it, old folklore, bits and pieces of stories that dated as far back as the late 12th century. Nothing solid to really rely on but it was a starting point, and this project needed to start somewhere. As usual, I pulled out my cell phone to make the call that would assemble my team. I gave them all full details on the Grail, where to start looking for any clues, and gave them specific instructions on how to keep me informed on their progress. Not that, I had to do all of this myself, but I didn't trust anyone in this firm yet, and I wasn't about 'share' any of the information with my two idiotic partners.
Once that was all taken care of, I moved to my next order of business. Finding a good reliable authoritative figure in the city, with an eye for the... paranormal or supernatural, to use the old word clichés. Not many of those wondering about the streets these days, especially here in Rome, and especially not any real competent ones. I needed to keep good tabs on the things that went on in this city, and crooked cops just wouldn't cut it for this little project. You really couldn't trust their kind and trying to erase them and their mistakes could potentially become costly and not to mention tricky at times. Quite the messy business and messes were really not my style.
From the small pile to my right, I pulled one file that caught my attention. It only caught my attention at first because the file had come from the LA branch. I smiled as I read the name and the brief bio. Kate Lockley. Highly intuitive, very decorated, had some run-ins with some very strange happenings around the Los Angeles metropolitan area, and... ah yes, family in Italy. Just perfect. As I read further, a small smile crossed my face. She had her own private practice here in town; that would definitely make things much simpler and less obvious than just plucking her form the states under false pretenses of new job, new home, new life... all things too good to be true, making the pawn a bit suspicious.
I pulled out my cell phone one more time and called the office number on her file and a machine answered on the other line... "Miss Lockley, good afternoon. My name is Marcus Hamilton. I am looking for a private investigator here in Rome and you came very highly recommended. I- hardly do business with people I don't know, but since I just arrived in Rome several days ago and have... limited resources, I was hoping to perhaps set up a meeting with you to discuss some business. How does a luncheon sound? I'll be at the Ristorante Tre Scalini in the Via Dei Santi Quattro at 12:30 tomorrow. Hope you can make it there."
I hung up and decided to make my last call for the day. "Good afternoon, Files and Records!" Things were starting to fall into place, just as they always did. "Marcus Hamilton here. Get me everything you have on Kate Lockley."
This was not quite what I had in mind when I accepted to come to Rome. Perhaps to some degree I was expecting to have much more control of the Roman firm, but equal partnership? And with two spineless failures nonetheless- that was a bit hard to swallow, my morning coffee had more evil brewed in it than those two put together. But it didn't matter one way or the other really. I had plenty of time to play my cards the way I always did and show who was the real boss around here. As I kept thinking, what I found most interesting was how the chain of command had changed within the company itself. Perhaps it was just me, being too pretentious, but I never missed the obvious, and quite obviously, Mr. Renfield had become quite the powerful man within Wolfram and Hart. I suppose the Senior Partners had their own reasons for their actions, after all, beings such as them and a multi-dimensional company of this magnitude were bound to have secrets, as did everyone else who worked for this firm, including myself.
But even with all that power and class, I wondered... how did a man like Renfield end up picking two of the worst of Wolfram and Hart to run an entire firm? Even if you put the two of them together, they didn’t come close to being half the CEO that I could be. And with their unimpressive track record, I was surprised that the Partners had let them live for so long at all. I suppose, one has to assume, that just as the Partners, Mr. Renfield had his own reason for choosing them. But just because I completely disliked them, didn't mean I wasn't going to work the part of co-CEO. I have always been a team player, of course, my team always consisted of the best and the right caliber of people... Lindsey and Lilah weren't exactly the right caliber. Not only that, they were quite the annoying pair. Their whole careers were shrouded in failure after failure- making the LA branch the black sheep of the company, always trying to catch up to the heard witht their tails between their legs. Everyone in the firm was aware of what went on in LA. And for a company that required nothing but excellence from all it's affiliate firms, partners and employees, what they had accomplished in LA was completely unacceptable and quite frankly embarrassing for all of us. In my opinion, the immigrant clean up crew that swept and kept the offices clean and free of any insect infestation, could do considerably better than those two ever could.
Looking at things from the bright side... even if they wanted to, they wouldn’t pose any real threat to me, and with time, they would become just a mere memory on everyone's mind... that is, if I played my cards right. All I really needed was a little bit of patience...
I leaned back on my desk shaking my head, trying to clear my thoughts once more as I scanned through some of the files that I had acquired from Files and Records. One of the firm's main priorities was to find this ancient Holy Grail and a History Channel special on the artifact wasn't your valid source or information. But I wasn't about to tell that to Lindsey or Lilah, that is... if they had even started looking. I was pretty familiar with the legend on the Holy Grail, but a little research never hurt anyone. And there was plenty of information on our records of the relic, most of it, old folklore, bits and pieces of stories that dated as far back as the late 12th century. Nothing solid to really rely on but it was a starting point, and this project needed to start somewhere. As usual, I pulled out my cell phone to make the call that would assemble my team. I gave them all full details on the Grail, where to start looking for any clues, and gave them specific instructions on how to keep me informed on their progress. Not that, I had to do all of this myself, but I didn't trust anyone in this firm yet, and I wasn't about 'share' any of the information with my two idiotic partners.
Once that was all taken care of, I moved to my next order of business. Finding a good reliable authoritative figure in the city, with an eye for the... paranormal or supernatural, to use the old word clichés. Not many of those wondering about the streets these days, especially here in Rome, and especially not any real competent ones. I needed to keep good tabs on the things that went on in this city, and crooked cops just wouldn't cut it for this little project. You really couldn't trust their kind and trying to erase them and their mistakes could potentially become costly and not to mention tricky at times. Quite the messy business and messes were really not my style.
From the small pile to my right, I pulled one file that caught my attention. It only caught my attention at first because the file had come from the LA branch. I smiled as I read the name and the brief bio. Kate Lockley. Highly intuitive, very decorated, had some run-ins with some very strange happenings around the Los Angeles metropolitan area, and... ah yes, family in Italy. Just perfect. As I read further, a small smile crossed my face. She had her own private practice here in town; that would definitely make things much simpler and less obvious than just plucking her form the states under false pretenses of new job, new home, new life... all things too good to be true, making the pawn a bit suspicious.
I pulled out my cell phone one more time and called the office number on her file and a machine answered on the other line... "Miss Lockley, good afternoon. My name is Marcus Hamilton. I am looking for a private investigator here in Rome and you came very highly recommended. I- hardly do business with people I don't know, but since I just arrived in Rome several days ago and have... limited resources, I was hoping to perhaps set up a meeting with you to discuss some business. How does a luncheon sound? I'll be at the Ristorante Tre Scalini in the Via Dei Santi Quattro at 12:30 tomorrow. Hope you can make it there."
I hung up and decided to make my last call for the day. "Good afternoon, Files and Records!" Things were starting to fall into place, just as they always did. "Marcus Hamilton here. Get me everything you have on Kate Lockley."