"And he has cheek to tell me get off phone!?" Yusuf exclaimed wildly. Archer snorted. "I said, Ateeq... you no pay no bloodeh bills in this house..." Archer liked Yusuf's rants. He barely listened to the details, but he enjoyed the man's foreign brand of extravagence. Yusuf was wagging his finger at the young agent - who was sat at a table in the kebab shop - as if it was Archer who was his son. "...you no pay no bloodeh rent. You no pay no bloodeh water. Gas. Electricity. You no pay [i]bloodeh phone bill![/i]" This time, Archer laughed out loud. Yusuf went on. "His girlfriend laughing on the line. He embaress. I don't care." For a long time now, Archer had been coming to this same kebab shop. It was hardly healthy, but there wasn't many places a creature of the night could get something hot to eat, and the young man never did much cooking. And Yusuf wasn't about to complain at the regular custom. At first, Archer was just another customer, but after regular visits, the chatty shop-keeper had begun to make conversation with him. Upon early inquiries, Archer had told him that he was a night-shift street-sweeper, which wasn't an outright lie, Archer thought. But Yusuf wasn't stupid. Luckily, he wasn't that intrusive or indiscreet either, so the two of them got along fine. "Kick him out," Archer offered casually. Then, as an after-thought, "Why on earth have you still got a house phone, in this day and age? Doesn't he have a cell?" Just then, a drunk couple wandered into the shop and Archer went back to looking through the Lightning Corp case file on the mysterious Aurora. Aside from the locations of the murder scenes, the file was complete garbage. Compared to the information that The Wizard doled out, most Lightning Corp case files were complete garbage. It made him wonder how other assassins did their jobs so effectively. [i]I guess everyone has informants,[/i] he thought. A shadow came over his table and he looked up to see the woman eyeing his papers, and promptly covered them with his arm. If Daniels or anyone else found out that he was reading his case files out in public like this, all hell would break loose, but Archer didn't care much for the regulations of his workplace. As a general rule, he didn't care for much of anything. The woman took the hint and swayed back to her boyfriend's side at the counter. Archer watched her with a degree of contempt, but his face changed when he saw the shop television, and the headline that was scrolling across the CNN news segment. As the couple took their kebabs and left, Archer pointed at the TV. "Yusuf, turn that up a bit, mate." [i][b]<"...and the wolf that escaped from the zoo in Central Park, Manhattan, is still on it's rampage. Police Authorities are asking citizens to stay indoors, after dark, until the beast is caught...">[/b][/i] "Crazy shit," Yusuf remarked. "Yeah," Archer agreed. "Who the hell goes to the Zoo to see a wolf, anyway?" Yusuf grunted. He started muttering to himself as he went into the back of the shop. Just then, Archer's phone started vibrating. [i][b]<"I won't deny it, am a straight rider, you don't wanna fuck with me...">[/b][/i] "What's up?" It was Titus Hart, from Field Support; one of the few people Archer considered a friend. He was looking for a 4th teammate for an online videogame tournament. "I'm busy with that one thing, but I'll let you know if I'm done early............ Alright." "Your boss?" Yusuf asked as he came back to the front of the shop. "Yeah," Archer lied. He shoved the last of his kebab in his mouth and licked all his fingers, then grabbed a napkin. Yusuf watched him curiously, as if he wanted to pry. Archer gathered up his papers and got up before shoving the case file back into his waistband, behind the gun-holsters at the small of his back. "I'm off, mate. I'll see you, yeah." "Take care, Archer." Archer blindly threw up a hand in leui of a wave as he walked to the door, and went out into the night, Yusuf watching him as he did. Using some of the skills he'd accrued in his life back in England, Archer broke into the oldest looking car he could find, on the street, hotwired it and drove it home. When he got inside, he threw the case file in the bin and grabbed his police scanner. He double-checked his guns. Full clips of sliver hollow points, blessed with holy water for added zing. One already in each chamber, as he'd been taught. [i]Stay ready so you don't have to get ready.[/i] Out on the streets again, driving around, scanner on the dash, he listened to the police calls coming through as he thought about the clues he'd managed to collect from The Wizard. It wasn't much, this time around - The Wizard had beaten him soundly in the chess match, before he could trade down all his pieces. She was the head of powerful noble family. She doesn't need the moon to transform. She likes dogs. She's learning the new world around her. She likes to play act. She feeds on both flesh and soul, gaining both sustanence and knowledge from meals. She likes to be rocked to sleep. Underground. Archer pulled up at some red lights. A few people crossed as he stared, one hand on the wheel. [i]She likes to be rocked to sleep,[/i] he thought. [i]Underground.[/i] That clue stood out to him. It wasn't for another hour, that he heard a police call on the scanner that would give him his lead. [b][i][/i][/b] "The subway," he said aloud to himself. The subway. Where else can you be rocked to sleep, underground. It kinda made sense. And it was the best answer he had. Pulling out his iPhone, he brought up a map of the local area and figured out the closest subway, then promptly executed a tire screeching U-turn and hit the gas. Ninth Avenue Subway. It was a location burned into his memory - the place where he'd found himself being toyed with by a gang of vampire teens. He'd almost become food that night. But then MacKensie Trydant showed up. After his life of petty crime in London, England had gone too far... After he'd messed with the wrong gang members and found himself, life in danger - a bounty on his head - his mother had put him on a plane to New York, to live with her brother, his Uncle Eric. His life of petty crime in England was over. While his Uncle Eric tried to sort out a work visa for the 19 yr old, Archer made some friends on the streets and managed to start a new life of petty crime in New York. But that life hadn't lasted long. He walked into Ninth Avenue subway station, that fated night, as a petty criminal and come out of the station with his true 'new life.' A career came shortly after. Hell; a US citizenship too. Everything had changed. His mother called him Bran. His friends in England called him 'A-Dog.' Now he was [i]Archer[/i]; an assassin - agent of Lightning Corp. A prefect behind the veil. A keeper of the peace between humans and non-humans. Archer parked in the carpark next to the station. He figured that if he went down into the subway and just checked all of the trains on the circular routes of the northbound and southbound lines, he might find his target. Homeless people had been known to try and steal a nap on trains before. Usually they'd be found by train inspectors and thrown off, but Archer guessed it would take a different kind of authority to make Aurora do anything she didn't want to do. The car engine died, and Archer scanned the streets habitually, before getting out. It would likely be a long and boring night.