VIDOFNIR
Evening
Aries Palace — Amadei
"Winning against this fellow, who must be someone of note, was only step one of this approach. The ultimate goal is the higher stakes tables in the back, where I should be able to poke at this place's secrets more freely. Should the tables exist I expect an invitation shortly. If they don't - well, no harm, no foul. Other avenues exist. I presume you've been investigating them yourself?"
Lynd smiles.
She speaks in a low voice. “Within thirty minutes. That’s about the time they’ll take before they send someone up to you.” She frowns, for a second. “Given that you don’t have a cyberbrain, they’ll probably find you through your phone. Keep it on.”
As you walk, your Regalia notices eyes on you, though no one appears to approach for the moment. Some of them are simply onlookers, gossipers, marveling at this mysterious newcomer who’d won that game, but others aren’t so innocuous. Nothing malicious, yet, but it’s keenly clear that you’re being watched.
She speaks up, now, a normal volume. “Garcia. That’s the name of the man you’d just beat. He’s a well-known celebrity, here, you know the type.” A voice of mock disbelief, of awe. “Unbeatable! Invincible! The man who’s never lost a game! Well, of course, that wasn’t true before and he knows it, and it’s even less true now. But he has that sort of reputation, and is even acquainted with the owners. There’s no way they wouldn’t take an interest!”
She leans in and looks into your eyes and whispers. A breathy voice, that no one else can here. Her words entirely betray her expression. “He’s a Knight of the Second.”
You feel a buzz in your pocket, and notice files uploaded into your smartphone, by her just now. Her gathered intel.
Everything’s a jumble, scraps of information cobbled together. A basement below the facility, transport routes to some district out in the industrial parks. VIP records of powerful men from powerful companies. Timelines of disappearances, databases of employee records. Maps that trace their cyberbrain activity, tracing them back here. They come here, work, and disappear.
Almost none of them are Espers.
It’s a lot to take in, that you don’t think you could easily filter through without a cyberbrain. You might as well ask her what specifically she may know.
And you arrive at your destination. A deceptively humble place with the finest wines, and oddly empty at the moment. Lynd raises an eyebrow at something. There, you see speaking to the bartender, is that girl who caught your eye before.
PENANCE
Evening
Aries Palace — Amadei
Straight to the point. The bartender raises an eyebrow, at first, at your straightforwardness, but he nods.
“A wine like this?” He frowns, taking a look at it, and then laughs. He seems to recognize the thing. “You’re a lucky girl, you know. Ice wine that dates back to before the War’s a hell of a time to get your hands on. A product you can only find at establishments such as ours.”
“A man had dropped by, earlier today. Filled a goblet, and then kept the rest on reserve. Said to save the rest for later. I suppose, then, it must have been for you?”
“Now that man, he was something else. Quite young, too. I’d never seen his face around here before, and here’s a place where every VIP is well-known. But he just came up here, just like that, and bought the whole bottle! Without batting an eye! Though,” he says, raising an eyebrow now, “Ah. Looks like he’s come back.”
And you follow his gaze, to the entrance of the bar, seeing a man with a girl on one arm, who looks your way.