Yet another shady meeting place. Standing outside the softly lit building, Ilario wondered whether a noble looking and clearly secure house would soon become the less predictable area for staging such a rendezvous some time in the future. Still, at least the pattern left many opportunities for hidden mechanisms and explosive contingencies. Or perhaps Hawk just decided to buy out an old tavern for the night, who knows? If he were honest, Ilario didn't much care. Hawk had informed him of another assignment and this was likely to just be a briefing.

As Ilario stepped up to the door, he pulled out a small ear trumpet from behind his cape and pressed it to the door, listening through the other end with his ear. There was no immediate noise, but he was listening not to what was on the other side of the door, but the door itself. Still listening, he knocked the coded knock clearly against the door with his free hand and scrutinised the sounds of the locking mechanism. It opened immediately and Ilario walked in, quickly hiding the trumpet away. The mechanism was... satisfactory, but he would rather change the code soon. Hopefully the engineer who constructed the thing allowed for such an action.

The inside was warm and cosy, not to mention far cleaner than the outside would suggest. [i]Hidden decadence as always, I see,[/i] Ilario thought. It was only when the red flare of a pipe lit up the face of the shadowy figure on one end of the set dinner table that Ilario noticed he had company. It was something of a shock at first, he was so still that it was like he was a part of the furniture. After looking across the room awkwardly for a few moments, Ilario closed the door, hung up his cape, and spoke in his heavy Colameri accent, "Good evening." He then proceeded to the table and read the note. His eyes looked up from the note to the man, "We are to be colleagues then? What do you do, sir?"