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"Mr. Arthur Wake, please."
"Speaking. How may I help you?" Arthur isn't sure, the voice sounds familiar, but it is distorted by the phone.
"Mr. Wake, this is Joseph Tudor, and I am going to need your assistance this evening."
"Yes, I am at your disposal, Mr. Tudor. What do you need of me tonight?" Arthur sounds faintly surprised and also intrigued.
"I need you to come over to my home and help me shift through some things. My address is 13985 Marsh Lane. It is on the inside of the 635 loop. Will you need a ride?"
"Melisande lets me use one of her automobiles, so I will not need one, but thank you. I can be there in about three-quarters of an hour."
"Very well. Oh and Mr. wake you may want to were something you do not mind getting dirty." The line goes dead.
Arthur looks at the phone, considering. Something he does not mind getting dirty? Older clothes, then. He quickly writes a note for Melisande, informing her of his being called away by the Primogen. He takes it to her office and leaves it where she will find it. The note also outlines what protocols she must do herself if he does not return by a later hour. He changes into more casual clothes, a pair of older khaki trousers and a dark grey sweater. He drives the astonishingly expensive silver sports car that Melisande has loaned to him toward the suburban address Joseph specified. Just a bit less than 45 minutes later he is parking the car a few blocks down, under a streetlamp, setting the car alarm and walking to the house. He stops abruptly as he sees the explosion damage.
The street is a quiet residential lane that seems far from the hustle and bustle of the other end of Marsh: tree-lined and quiet. One of those bucolic places where nothing ever happens. The house used to be a two-story colonial affair with an attached garage; however, now the right side is a shambles, with a large gaping hole is where the wall and roof used to be.
Arthur wonders what happened to the house. He walks close, toward the front door. The door is open and there are three people about, two women and a man. "Mr. Wake, so kind of you to make it," the man, Joseph Tudor, says. Joseph is in a pair of slacks and shirt, all covered in soot. "As you can see there has been a bit of a problem here," Joseph remarks.
Arthur smiles at the group. "I am glad I could be of assistance, Mr. Tudor." One of the women is Soon-Li, a small slim Asian woman who Arthur met when she helped him set up his apartment before he moved into Melisande's home. "Good to see you again, I am sorry about the circumstances though," he tells Soon-Li.
"Arthur, how good to see you again." Soon-Li smiles at him and shimmies toward him slightly. She is dressed in a tight, revealing skirt and blouse. Arthur is appreciative of Soon-Li's outfit but this is not very obvious by his manner, which is friendly and helpful and respectful.
He turns to the woman he does not recognize. "I don't believe we have met... I am Arthur Wake."
"Hello. How are you? I am Liz." She gives Soon-Li a dark look, then sticks out her hand and she and Arthur shake.
"Until I arrived I was well, now I am quite concerned. What happened, if I may ask?"
"The Nos took exception to some research I had been doing and decided to show their ire. Need you to help pick up anything left," Joseph tells Arthur. "The police have already come and taken the women's statements." Joseph glances toward the hole. "We are going to also have to dispose of a body. Sinclare did not make it."
Arthur nods silently at the news that someone was killed, then says, "I am sorry your house had to take the result... yes. Shall I start now, or would you like to show me what you wish me to specifically take charge of?"
"Soon-Li is taking care of the body, but I need you to help Elizabeth and me to pull out and catalogue my library. It was quite damaged." Joseph walks through the hole and into the shambles of what had once been a wonderful library. "This way."
Arthur follows, looking around at the partially destroyed room, its bookshelves lining three walls. "Regrettable damage, but I think most of it can be saved."
The remains of a leather chair and heavy desk are thrust aside and there are books strewn everywhere. Arthur looks sad to see some of the books completely ruined.
"I hope you are right. Many of these books are one of a kind or fairly rare," Joseph comments.
Arthur bends down and picks up a fine volume, several pages half gone, the rest bent and stained but still whole. He carefully straightens the bent pages. "How long do we have to work here?"
Joseph tells Elizabeth, "You start on that wall over there and start picking up all the books that are on the ground." He turns to Arthur. "You start over there. We will stack those on the desk and sort through them later. Days if we have to. The insurance people will not be out here until tomorrow." Arthur nods, and gets started on the books Tudor indicates, while Joseph starts going through the books on the shelves and picking out ones that are physically damaged.
Elizabeth chats with Arthur as they work. "I hear you are one of the up and coming?"
"That sounds flattering, thank you," Arthur says, not quite sure what she means.
"Where are you from?" she asks.
"I'm from Pittsburgh... how about you?"
Elizabeth is a plump kind of short woman with brown just-off-the-shoulders hair, with grey streaks in it. "Dallas born and raised."
"I like your city very much." Arthur carries more books carefully and gently to the desk.
"I spent a lot of my youth traveling. Started my own make-up company and got in good with Hollywood. Then came back here when the industry moved in and been here ever since."
Arthur sounds suprised. "There is a large film industry here? I hadn't realized."
"I met Mr. Tudor when he came out to one of my sets." Elizabeth looks at joseph with a nice smile. "Oh yes. I've been here for about 25 years now. Second largest in the US next to Glittertown itself."
Arthur smiles as he carries more books to the desk. "I spend so much time with my nose in a book or a microscope, I miss a lot. I do try to get out a bit - all work and no play, you know what that does."
Elizabeth chuckles. "Oh yes dearie. I do know that one. I am lucky in that I love my job and it takes me out to places I may have never gone to otherwise. You should come out to the factory one day and let me show you around."
"That sounds wonderful. Er, what did you mean that I was .... 'up and coming'?" There is silence for a bit, and Arthur wonders if maybe he should not have asked that.
Elizabeth finally glances at Arthur with a surprised look. "Well, I have not been on the inside for long, but if I understand things people who are brought into the "Big C" are special. Being groomed and all. I mean to become," she shrugs, "you know. A Vampire." She says it quickly, like the thought bothers her.
"Uh huh." Now he is sure he should not have asked, and is embarassed, so he quickly moves on aloud, though his thoughts linger. " I love my job too, find it endlessly absorbing. Where is the factory? What do you produce there?"
Her tanned face lights up. "Well, the factory is what I call my place. I produce princesses and monsters, heroes and villains."
Arthur looks down as she speaks quickly, very sorry to have bothered her with the thought, then looks back in a glance as her voice brightens, "You.... do? How?"
"I develop and design make-up for 'the stars' to use. I also provide the tecnical expertise on how to use it." Her warm brown eyes twinkle.
"A creative and rewarding pursuit, it sounds to be." Arthur smiles at her, refraining from speaking of the subject that disturbed her, now that he realizes what was meant.
Elizabeth smiles, eyes crinkling, "Well you are a scientist I presume. That talk of microscopes and all. Do much chemistry?"
"I have done a bit, yes. Though that is not my area of focus."
Picking up the last armful, Elizabeth deposits it on the now overflowing table, then straightens. "Hmmm, too bad, could use a good one, and it would have been nice to keep it in the family so to speak." She glances at Joseph then back at Arthur.
"Melisande has a degree in chemistry. She is educated in many of the sciences, far more than I... though depending on what you need perhaps I could serve. I am primarily interested in cognitive sciences, psychobiological processes."
"Oh? yes but she's a... I mean I had not thought to ask her." Elizabeth glances down guiltily, then back up. "Psychobiological. Boy, that is a mouthful."
"What specifically do you need done, chemistry-wise?"
"Someone with a stronge chemisty background who may have done work on emusifiers. I am wanting to improve upon some makeups that are out there and I need someone who has done that kind of thing before."
"I see. I am sorry I am not better versed in that field. Would it be all right with you if I mentioned it to Melisande? There is no guarantee she would be interested, but if she is, I am sure she would do it extremely well."
"No, that is all right. I will ask her myself when I meet her. There is no hurry. Well, that looks like all of those." She turns to Mr Tudor. "Joseph, what do you need us to do now?"
"It is getting kind of late. I suggest that we all head to our beds and work some more on this tomorrow," the Tremere Primogen says.
Arthur looks to Joseph. "Of course, Mr. Tudor. Shall I return tomorrow in the daytime, or await your call?"
"Thank you for coming out tonight. I will also need you tomorrow as well. Whenever it will be convienient. Elizabeth and Soon-Li will be here most of tomorrow so any time will be fine."
"You are welcome. I will return tomorrow then. I will see you then, Liz, Soon Li, Mr. Tudor."
"Come tomorrow as soon as possible and after we get some of this done I will take you out to the factory to brag some," Elizabeth calls, smiling, to Arthur as he left.