“So, how much do we tell Ezerian?” Orik asked. “I can believe their story, because the great serpent Jörmungandr comes from that same foggy soup. In fact, Ragnarok is the final war of chaos versus order. Very much like a foretelling of the Elder Gallara versus our world.”
“Well, that leads to my second piece of news. Ezerian insists on meeting you all, because they do believe that I’m working with them. They wanted to meet my staff. We have to make decisions before then as to what we’ll tell them. They’ll be here at ten tomorrow.”
As I sat back, the others began to talk—arguing some points, agreeing on others. I remained silent, staring at my notes, wondering where we were going to go from here.
After a little while, I went on to explain what I found out about the vampire situation.
“They have nothing against vampires. What is the problem is that they need the Underground from which to run their operations. If Saturn agrees to temporarily vacate, they’ll stop their attacks on the vampires, and when they’re done, they’ll cede the Underground back to the vampire coalition.”
Lazenti let out a sigh. “But why do we have to be the one to give way? Isn’t there anywhere else they can set up their operations?”
“We can ask them tomorrow,” I said. “But I want to meet with Saturn this afternoon. I want to give him this information and hopefully prevent any skirmishes from breaking out. I think they’re trying to stay out of sight of the government, because—other than the mayor—I don’t think they’re going to have much luck in convincing our government that they have decent intentions. Granted, they don’t want the Elder Gallara coming through into their realms and it’s probably easier to stop them from here. But the enemy of my enemy is my friend, as they say.”
“I’ll call Saturn and see if he can meet with you this afternoon,” Lazenti said. “We’ve developed a rapport, and maybe I can help convince him that this isn’t an attempt who wipe out all the vampires.”
“Okay. We give them an opportunity to talk to us tomorrow. But remember—I’m supposed to have been working with them these past weeks. Don’t give me away.”
After everyone had agreed to be on their best behavior, Carson changed the subject.
“I got bored and decided to take another look at the Give A Hands Up organization. This time I found more information. I went deep into the dark web, and followed the trail back to when Efrain Appleberry ran the original organization. This was when it was first opened as the Jobs Coalition, which eventually turned into the Community Contributes. When I dug into the history of Efrain on the dark web, I found a great deal of disturbing information.” He hit send on his tablet, and all of our inboxes pinged as his email arrived. “This is for your records.”
I opened the email and found myself staring at a list of facts that proved damning for Efrain and his organization. “Slave trade? Really?”
It wasn’t that I was surprised, but it always startled me when I saw the seedy underbelly of supposedly good organizations.
“Oh, it’s a tangled web,” Carson said. “Apparently Efrain was into a covert slave trade ring. Job Coalition was responsible for kidnapping and selling members of the Supe community.”
“Selling to who, and for what?” Sophia asked.
“Everything from the sex trade to organized fight rings who wanted to see whether a bear shifter could take a wolf shifter. They forced them into their natural forms and made them fight. Most of the women were auctioned off as exotic prostitutes and kept captive until they either died from abuse, or killed themselves. It’s an extremely ugly string of events. I didn’t list everything there, but trust me—Efrain deserved to hang for what he did. In fact, that would be too good for him. Luckily, someone found out and Efrain Appleberry was killed by a shifter woman’s family. His son took over and for a while ran it just like his father had. There were worldwide traders in this group, but when the law began to enact rights for the Supe community, they were forced to disband.”
“What happened when they changed their name to Community Contributes?” Orik asked.
“That began a period where the Appleberry family switched over to monetary schemes and financial scams. During World War II, they changed their name again, and began profiteering on black-market goods. I’m not sure exactly how they kept up the front of being a philanthropic organization, but they managed it.”
“They did a good job, but we all know that a number of supposedly philanthropic groups are often fronts for scams. What about the current day?” I asked.
“As we knew before, the organization changed names a number of times, and each time it was for a new scam. But most recently, James Appleberry took over and renamed it Give A Hands Up. And he aimed the organization toward homeless veterans. Again, we’re not sure exactly what they’re doing this time, though we know they’re making use of the portals. Efrain Appleberry also made use of the portals to move slaves around.”
As we digested the information, Lazenti returned from his phone call. “Saturn will meet with you at two this afternoon.”
“Where should we meet him?” I asked.
“He’ll text you the address. He’s still in the underground, although he’s hiding out because he knows the Demonkin are looking for him.” Lazenti shrugged. “I promised him that you wouldn’t tell them where he is. You have to keep that promise.”
“I will. If worse comes to worse we can set up a Meet-Me meeting between Saturn and my father. After we meet with Saturn, Dante and I need to go talk to Benny and his friend Dan-Dan. As for Give A Hand Up, somebody needs to put a stop to that organization for good.”
As we ended the meeting, I glanced over at Dante and Orik. “I’d love to take you along with us, Orik, but you stand out way too much. Dante and I are going to have to go on our own.”
“That’s fine,” Orik said. “I have plenty to do here.”
“Good. Let’s get some work done and then Dante and I will take off at around one thirty. Sophia, can you order in lunch for everyone?
She nodded. “Ivar’s sound good?”
“Fish and chips sounds good to me,” Carson said.
We put in our orders with Sophia and then headed to our offices to get some work done. Penn followed me.
