CHAPTER 4: Il pubblico secreto

This new chapter title translates to "The Open Secret"

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"Among the dead, the new society grows with power. Our destined reign moves ever closer as mortals make ever-widening missteps. While popular media of the 20th Century blanketed the world with misinformation, the children of The Dracul built, stored, (and through our preparations) have maintained our true nature in the midsts of living humanity, while their society declines.

The ordering of this New Society has allowed our ranks to be comprised of only the highest intellect that Nature could conceive and We could subvert. Only the spark of life is unattainable. Those of us who have moved through the course of centuries now find that one thing unworthy as a goal. Let God's warriors have their Pandora's Box - It cannot save them.

It will soon chill every human heart to discover that we are a sanctioned component of the Judgment. Even the proudest vampire among us no longer professes to be a god. Instead, in the 21st Century, we are a mobilized army. Where we will strike and the force of our numbers are the only part of our plan that is completely obscured. The battle plan is guarded from the few egotistical humans that wonder about and study our movements. We know the timetable - and hold a far more powerful position than any single general in a war. Like the first fallen angels, we wait in the shadowy chasms to tip the balance against harmony. As a group we are formidable, and so we work to keep each member sheltered - until the trumpets sound.

So I am a dark angel, a lovely and terrible woman. Of course, it is an honor to end one's nightly duty knowing my service (a trusted and valuable resource to the Dark Army) figures in the evolution of all things. But already there have been times when our successes and prideful leadership blinded us to financial losses the whole has not yet recovered fully. This has been a good year, yet I am wary in my pride. The female entrepenuers among us best sustain the army's funding through smartly concealed activities alongside wildly successful business ventures that cater to mortals. My businesses have been many, but this newest one, I am pleased to be at the forefront of expanding.

Greedily absorbed fads sustained until they are genuinely accepted in the mainstream - that's my business specialty. I am the TRUMP of the rank and file blood band. From sushi to spa treatments, fitness centers to AIDS awareness, I am the child who has fabricated secret celeb pleasures to make phenomenal businesses on the West coast, yet, the real genius behind their purpose I can hardly put on a resume, now can I?

The all women's workout franchise isn't new. But I masterminded the ideal front from it's model. Curve Conscious, The gO club, Steppin' 4 Me, all built with women in mind, and secretly I took it further. On the basis of 'eliminating self-consciousness during the work out,' none of my facilities have mirrors. And provided for the comfort and safety of women, hours are only the daylight hours. Parking lots are locked tight by nightfall.

The facility houses a different clientele once the daily operating hours cycle out.

While I prepare my staff of familiars this pre-dawn, I am thinking of something new that has to be prepared. Putting a stop to the small society of defenders who have a growing interest in making the purposes of vampire existence an open secret."

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Consul Josephs was feeling a bit cranky as the sun rose. The hangover he could deal with. Xavier drifting to sleep and slumping onto Josephs' shoulder was another matter. Jet lag on their skewed schedule was hard, certainly. How could a man resist the call to sleep under such pressure?

Josephs chuckled deep in his chest as the thought of a cartoon phrase suddenly came to mind. He made up his mind about how to treat his companion's trespass. He smirked and signed the phrase to himself, a silent admission. "You knew the job was dangerous when you took it, Fred!" While it wasn't likely that any of the awake passengers on the plane knew basic sign language, because if one did, the strange personal joke - a Super Chicken reference - probably could be easily translated; he knew they would have no idea why he was stating it. This only made Josephs smile more broadly. For a moment, it was pleasing to think he was gaining a pleasurable dimension to his work by slowly losing his hearing. One of the advantages to being one of the most knowledgeable Dracul Seekers, and in his position to also utilize a mostly silent form of communication - he and his assistant, Aubrey, could openly discuss secret matters in the most open environments.

With his mood improved, Josephs actually felt more impish than cruel as he rapped his companion's exposed soft throaty area with a quick slap of several fingers. Given some of the situations that Josephs had already barely scraped his new assistant through, this particular attack point was a shocker for the dark-haired, young-faced Mr. Enbrus. While he did not shout out, he made a farcical grab for his throat accompanied by a barely controlled flailing of the other arm for defense equipment that was not at hand.

"Your equipment was checked in with luggage, X..."
The intense eyes of Josephs only sparkled with humor as he signed this, and made special emphasis on the name sign he'd created for Xavier. It was the letter "X" held right next to the left eye, immediately followed by a partial signing of "awake" on the same hand. He had already modified the intensity of this combination a number of times. Sometimes it seemed to make reference to how hard it was to wake Xavier, but like now, there was a more vaudevillian exaggeration to the motion, to indicate how scared and bug-eyed he looked.

"Curse you!" Xavier hissed and signed with venom into Josephs' face. "I mean that," Xavier added. He then meant to turn his face away from the deaf man to show his annoyance. Josephs, however, caught that temptation in the initial turn of Xavier's eyes, and moved a hand in quickly to stop his averting his gaze right away. Josephs smiled a moderate smile, which also stopped Xavier, given his patented curiosity.

"You knew the job was dangerous when you took it, Fred!" the jokester signed, already enjoying his own joke. Xavier weakly smiled, but the tension fell from his face.

"Ah, you've woken me for Saturday morning cartoons, have you? I was hoping for a re-run of Myth Busters, at least! A fool can't have any fun on a commercial plane flight anymore." Technically-minded Enbrus did have a talent for mellowing into light-heartedness fairly quickly when the topic was right. This Josephs already admired in his backup.

"Mission." Josephs then signed curtly to move Enbrus on-track.

"Talk now, here? Okay?" Enbrus questioned.

"I showed you before," Josephs motioned all around, "People either don't have a clue what we're saying anyway, or they avoid looking at you."

Xavier seemed to verify this with his own eyes for a moment, then continued the conversation. "You were wiring the Council while I processed our last target's captured film documentation. You haven't seen the images. Some I have in the carry-on, here by me."

"What images lead us to Venice Beach, California?"

Mr. Enbrus continued to describe rather than dig out the photograph. "One panoramic shot in particular. It shows a gathering of weightlifters on beach property, yet the focal point of the image is a large storefront across the bikepath. I've verified that it is an occupied and licensed business at that location."

"Venice Venus?" Josephs clicked out from memory.

"...sanctuary gym for women." Enbrus finished with the tagline in thought since he'd drawn it out in his brief New York research junket. "Perhaps I've been in the Brotherhood too long, Sir. That point actually makes me a bit uncomfortable!? What are we expected to do here?"

"There's a strong belief that the Dracul leadership has fragmented into male and female factions," Josephs vocalized male and female as he continued to sign for clarification of this important point. "As soon as we are off this plane, we will surveil-"

A flight attendant walked past down the thin corridor which momentarily drew Aubrey's attention and a concerned look to his face. Josephs impatiently snapped his fingers millimeters from the point of Xavier's strongly-angled nose.

"Keep your face!" The signed words did not actually translate as such, but the stern look on Josephs mature yet still sculpted face carried the message clearly. And although the words were stinging for Xavier, his mentor masked the outpouring with a smooth flow that appeared calm. "Curse your insecurities about our cover. We are not trained as spies, true, but our safety everyday is more at risk from your puppy-dog face than anything we talk over!"

Enbrus sunk to somberness, but raised his eyes as if he were interested in holding up his end of the conversation. A swift "Sorry" came in the motion of his left fist passed over his chest. "I think the breakfast cart just passed us. Some juice would've been nice about now," Enbrus quipped.

Josephs was not at all hungry, and whether his companion realized it or not, the pressurized cabin was uncomfortable for Josephs from the onset of reaching best altitude. This, of course, did not show on his face. How little my true self shows to those I should let know me best Josephs let his mind intone. "I will let you out to chase down your liquid sunshine. Not a problem, Brother," Josephs added graciously.

Enbrus rose without a word, and Josephs reached out to touch his arm before he passed beyond reach in the narrow walkway. The two men looked at each other, if not eye to eye at the moment, at least on the same page. "I will teach you to trust, if I can teach you anything by the end of the mission." Where Josephs half-expected a look of youthful regret, for the first time, perhaps, he got the look of attentive stony-faced acknowledgment he'd just suggested that his partner was lacking. An improvement.

"We watch this establishment day and night. Should it give us clues to the next link to break in the Dracul chain-of-command, great hunting. No leads, then research starts up again, and you get to catch up on your sleep! Josephs added. I'll upgrade you myself to business class for the return flight to Rome."

Further chapters begin at Seeking Certain Assurances