Los Angeles traffic was a strange beast. The usual roads at the usual times were congested to the point of being parking lots, but there was also the random unpredictable traffic jams that could arise at any hour or any road. In this case the cause was fiery crash on the small road Grace took to the hills where the city sprawl grew thinner. At first there wasn’t much to look at except the glowing red brakelights of other cars, but as her slow journey went on and the road climbed in altitude, the rest of the city came into view. The urban tapestry was lit up with thousands of lights, and even at this hour Los Angeles was restless. Views like this reminded Grace of what she worked for, what the organization had achieved so far, all the millions living with greater safety and prosperity than humanity had ever know before. While the successes were visible, apparent when looking at the vast grid of streetlights or any other piece of modern civilization, the obstacles that stood in the way of further progress preferred to remain hidden.

	The other reminder of the importance of her work was currently blaring over her car’s speakers. Traffic jams provided ample time for conference calls, and nothing important could ever happen in her line of work without them. On quiet night drives she preferred to listen to something stimulating yet contemplative, like chamber music by Babbitt or Carter, but there was business to be done. This was one of the most hair-pulling types of meetings, one where they had both the local Syndicate officials and some NWO higher ups from far away, each expecting the world and threatening to blame her for all the mistakes.

 At the moment a voice with a thick German accent was droning on “Given that we are all available at the present time, I believe it would be prudent to review some of the regional gamma-level scenario containment plans. I trust that you will all update them with the latest intelligence and developments so that we may further refine them and incorporate all of the latest points of data in our future plans. Now, firstly we will start with 11B, Reality Deviant in clear view of public and covered by one or more live forms of media with significant geographic reach.”

Another voice chimed in, this one sounded quite nasally “Um, given the recent discussions of the present situation regarding Hemophages, I think it would be prudent to spend our time going over a related scenario. May I suggest 47E, Major media figure infected by Hemophage carrier, it’s one we haven’t revisited in quite some time.” Luckily, by the time they started Grace’s car was near her destination. She interrupted, because she wanted to let them know she would be absent for the next section of the call and because she couldn’t stand the fact that she worked with people who managed to call the bloodsuckers a term that sounded even more pretentious than their chosen moniker of Kindred. 

“Excuse me, but I will be absent on a brief intelligence gathering and communication mission at the location previously discussed. Current events have caused me to believe that we are in grave need of updated intelligence.” One of the people had a question for her “You’re doing this yourself? Isn’t this the kind of thing we’ve got all the databases for?” She said “These are the kind of people who have done a very good job of avoiding what is covered in our databases and traditional intelligence gathering activities. As you all are aware, I have limited resources at my disposal and few of them are directed towards the Kindred, as they are rarely create problems for us or the public at large. Given the time pressure, I am investigating one spot myself”.

	Grace parked the car and shut off the engine before a reply came. She stepped out her nondescript black luxury sedan and donned her wide brimmed hat and NWO-issued sunglasses. Her attire was formal, it would be more at home at business luncheon than a place like Sunrise, but it helped give her a sort of anonymity. Just standing outside she could see the place was crawling with kindred and other reality deviants were probably present too. Even the most novice tradition mages could sense vampires in a crowd, all you had to do was know enough about lifeforce to pick out who wasn’t truly alive. Enlightened science was no less effective, but what simple tricks couldn’t tell you was what really mattered, facts like who they were, who they knew, what they wanted, what they were capable of. That was something that took work to find out. 

	She wanted to take a careful approach, observing before actually trying to communicate with anyone. Grace found a spot just inside the doorway, watching silently as people came and went. The place was quite large, big enough to accommodate several different distinct clienteles. It was also a situated on some prime land, though who knows what the owner originally paid for the spot. For now she just took in the details, trying to get some general context and waiting to see who it might be productive to discuss current events with.