I didn't succeed in rolling out of bed until close to eleven. Despite my later than usual waking, I still felt exhausted from the restless sleep of the previous night. After splashing some water on my face I quickly changed into my work clothes and rushed down the stairs in a hurry. While Mrs. Anderson's party wasn't set to begin until six, It was important that the security team be in place before the staff arrived for the set up. This meant that everyone being on site by four. If I factored in the time it would take to stop by the office to finalize things with Tommy, I would just barely make it in time. The Northrop usually handled running events and the like within the hotel's ballroom. But given the nature of the party, Mrs. Anderson had insisted on hiring outside caterers and security. A fact which at that moment was filling me with annoyance. Ever the dutiful butler, I found Johann waiting by the door holding a paper bag. Taking the bag and peeking inside, I was delighted to find an assortment of fresh donuts within.

"You're a life saver." I said clapping him on his wooden shoulder before rushing out of the house towards my car.

I'm pretty sure I broke several speed limits on my way to the office, but I managed to arrive in record time. I threw my door open while the car was still settling into park and began power walking to the front doors of the office. Inside I found Tommy at his desk.

He looked up with a look of mild annoyance and said "You're late."

"I know I'm sorry, Traffic was crazy." I lied

"Doesn't matter, you ready for the party? Have all the equipment?"

"Yeah. It's already loaded into the van. Gomez is going to drive it over to the venue."

"Then get going already. This is a big day for us." He said impatiently

"What do you mean? I just got here. We still need to go over our jobs for the coming week right?"

Delivering the words with a flat look Thomas simply replied "About that, James you've been doing this for half a year now. I feel like it's time I tell you. You're not suited for the office work side of this."

"What's wrong with my work?"

He held up some papers "This is the report you wrote for the courthouse job. You spent five pages talking about the potential safety risk of allowing people wearing suit jackets entry into the courthouse."

"Hey I simply pointed out that if someone wanted to do some damage that a suit jacket could hide whatever they're carrying."

"That's what the metal detectors are for." He responded exasperated.

"Ok fine so maybe my reports are a bit long winded but isn't that a good thing?"

"Maybe if you ever included anything actually necessary for the report. At this point Tailor has taken to writing reports in your place. Just go to the event and leave the paperwork to me ok?"

I was about to protest until I saw the look in his eye and realized that this time I might be better off just giving in. Otherwise, I'd just end up making his work harder.

"Alright fine. I'm going to go to the venue, but We're continuing this conversation when I get back. We're supposed to run this place together. So if I'm really as bad at this as you're suggesting then I'll try to get better."

The trip to the Northrop was an uneventful one. But as I pulled up to the opulent hotel for the second time in the last few days I felt that familiar pit of dread in my stomach growing. But as I saw Johnson Walk in through the front door those nerves vanished. Instead they were replaced by cold anger and determination.

There are few things in life I hate more than being manipulated. I suppose one could chalk it up to my time living with and learning from Jax. I have long held the suspicion that I may in fact be the person who has spent the most time with Jax. After all, while there were few in Eden City who didn't know of the tricky old man in a college kid's body, even those who could claim to have worked closely with him for decades would freely admit that they had spent at most a combined total of just a few hours with him. But despite my unique insight, the only thing I could say with any certainty about Jax was that he was a malicious trickster of a man. Indeed, many of the stories I had heard both from and about him over the years lent themselves as well to famous trickster gods like Loki, Anansi, or Coyote. And so I have long been driven to anger by the attempts of others to manipulate me.

I took a few long deep breaths to calm myself before exiting my car and heading inside the hotel. Dressed in the uniform of the security company I couldn't help but notice that I was attracting far fewer negative stares from the staff compared to the last time I had been in the hotel. I looked around to see who all had arrived and was greeted by the sight of Paul Gomez.

Gomez was a bear of a man with a thick full beard. He also had the distinction of being the most cheerful employee we had.

"Hey boss man. Hope you're ready for a boring night of watching some rich people drinking." He said in his deep baritone grinning at me.

"We can only hope it'll be boring." I replied with a chuckle before screwing my face up in confusion, "Wait where's the van? I didn't see it in the parking lot."

"I parked it by the service entrance. Tailor and I already finished the final walkthrough, and he's currently set up checking in the catering staff as they arrive."

"Wait am I last one to arrive?" I say surprised

"No Johnson still hasn't shown up." Was his reply.

I had to work hard not to give anything away as I silently wondered where Johnson was hiding. I had definitely seen him walk into the hotel and I wasn't sure how he could have missed Gomez's notice. But then I realized that Johnson must have used magic to avoid being seen, which only raised more questions. A hotel as high-end as the Northrop was always humming with the tell tale signs of magic laid into the foundation. While he could have used a spell to keep from being seen by Gomez, there was no way Johnson was skilled enough not to trigger the spells in the place alerting management to the use of concealment magic. Unfortunately, that only meant that it was more likely that hotel management, Johnson, and my uncle's death were all connected.

"Now that I think about it, Johnson did say that he was running late." I lied, "let me just hit the bathroom and then we can get into place ourselves."

I went to the men's room and once I was hidden inside a stall I pulled out my runic pocketbook. Activating the book, I looked for a concealment rune to hide myself so I could look for both Johnson and the hidden room without being noticed. Once I found the correct rune I pulled a marker from my pocket to inscribe it onto my skin. I had learned from my encounter with Lucas in the cemetery and had decided to start carrying around a skin safe marker for when I needed to use a rune directly on my skin. The rune I chose to employ would make it so that anyone who saw me would not consciously acknowledge that I was even there and would quickly forget about me. Of course, the rune would do nothing for cameras and the like. But, I was confident that the hotel probably didn't have someone dedicated to watching the cameras at all times. So even if I did show up on camera, as long as I didn't do anything suspicious there would be no reason for anyone to check the footage.

Exiting the bathroom, I checked my watch to determine how much time I had left before I had to get back to where the party was set to happen. I had a little over twenty minutes before I would have to go back. More than enough time to track down Johnson and the room. Remembering the odd proportions from the building schematics I quickly found the section of the hotel that seemed off. To the naked eye it looked to be a short hallway with two smaller meeting rooms to either side. Reaching back into my pocket I decided to pull out another tool I'd had the foresight to prepare. They were a pair of cheap plastic sunglasses upon which I had scratched a seeing rune on the sides. I put on the sunglasses and my vision instantly began to swim as I was assaulted by the sight of the magic in the hallway. I fixed my gaze onto the back wall of the hallway and clearly saw the outline of a door marked by magic. Sure enough when I went and touched the wall I found my hand closing around a door handle which hadn't been there a moment before. The door was cloaked with a rather skilled illusion magic hiding it from view. That coupled with a minor bit of mind magic would ensure that anyone who did approach the wall would unknowingly avoid it.

The room on the other side of the hidden door was rather small, only about sixteen feet wide and ten feet deep. But that was about third on the list of things I noticed. Top of the proverbial list was the overwhelming smell. The room must have been airtight because the smell hadn't been present until I'd opened it. It wasn't difficult to ascertain the source of the smell as to the far left of the room was what remained of a person. How long they had been dead was impossible for me to tell, but I didn't miss the collar around their neck or the chain leading from the collar to the wall. Next to the body was a shelf of jars and bottles which upon closer inspection proved to be filled with a variety of alchemical ingredients. Everything in the room screamed of a dangerous and secret conspiracy. But I was stopped cold in my tracks by what I saw in the right side of the room. Resting on a small table were a series of floorplans. The first few plans were a handful of blueprints showing floors eighty to eighty four of the Midnight Tower. Those floors were home to the workshops of the Tower's more research-oriented mages. It was on floor eighty-two where my father had died. The second floorplan was for Silver Hex Security. The blueprint alone would have been highly concerning. But what made it even worse was the fact that the floorplan had been marked detailing the various spells I had laid in place to protect the office. I was careful not to disturb anything in the room as I was already planning to tip off the police to its existence. Deciding that I wasn't likely to find anything else in the room which could point towards its purpose I elected to leave and return to Gomez and the others. I left the room taking extra care to make sure I hadn't accidentally dispelled the magic hiding it.

I was aware that I had yet to find any traces of Johnson in the building since seeing him enter and hoped that he might at least attempt to keep the charade going by working the event with the rest of us. I erased the rune granting my additional stealth before I turned the last corner to the ballroom. Immediately, I saw that the doors to the room were still closed and Gomez was waiting in the same place as before.

Approaching I asked "What are you still doing out here? I thought you were rejoining Tailor."

Smiling cheerfully he said "I was going to, but Johnson said he wanted to do it. You guys must have just missed each other."

My pulse quickened slightly as I said "I'm going to go check in with them, make sure they don't need anything."

Without another word I rushed to service entrance only to stop dead in my tracks. Tailor was lying dead on the floor with his throat slit and there wasn't another soul around. My first instinct was to rush out the exit thinking Johnson must have fled in that direction after killing Tailor. However, I was stopped by a nagging feeling in the back of my mind. Where was everyone? Supposedly, the catering company was sending thirty-five individuals. But I couldn't see or hear a single other soul. I turned to stare down the door that led into the ballroom and strode over quickly to open it.

I'm not sure what I was expecting to find on the other side of the door, but it wasn't what I saw. The room was completely empty. All I could do was stare in confusion for several seconds until I snapped out of my surprise long enough to fish my cellphone out of my pocket and call Thomas.

"Hello?" I heard the familiar voice on the other end say

"Tommy, there's not much time I need you to answer my next questions quickly and carefully. Did Mrs. Anderson ever say how she found our company or why she chose to use us for her party instead of one of the more well known companies? Also, Do you remember when you hired Johnson? Did he say anything odd at that time?"

"What's this about James? Is there a problem with the party? Did something happen to Johnson?"

"Just answer the question." I barked in frustration

"Uh. Mrs. Anderson just said that she'd heard about us from a friend. Didn't say a name though. And What do you mean when I hired Johnson? You were the one who interviewed and hired him remember? The first time I heard about the kid was when he came in on his first day. He was already wearing the company uniform and said you'd interviewed and hired him."

My frustration evaporated, replaced by a heavy exhaustion. "No I didn't."

"Hey, what are you doing he..." Whatever Thomas was about to say was cut short as the call suddenly went dead.

"What was that? Tommy? Are you there?" After receiving no answer I wasted no time instead I bolted for the front of the hotel.

"As I passed Gomez I shouted "Call the police and wait for them here, Tailor is dead! I'm going to the office, I think something's happened!"

I didn't bother waiting for a response already out the door and running for my car. Tearing through the streets I prayed that I wouldn't get pulled over for speeding or hit any obstructions. I've never been the religious sort but someone must have been looking out for me because my luck held as I managed to reach the office in no time. Unfortunately, that's where my luck ended as the building was currently a raging fireball.

I at least had the foresight to reach into the backseat of my car where I kept my coat. I wasn't sure if the protective spells I had layered on the coat would do anything to stop fire but it couldn't hurt. I threw the coat over myself as I ran into the building.

The front area was a raging inferno and I desperately began yelling. "Tommy! Tommy!"

I tried the meeting room next in hopes that Tommy might be in there. But there was no signs of him. As I reentered the main room of the office I saw him. I hadn't realized at first that Tommy's chair had been knocked over. But when I caught sight of it from the doorway of the meeting room I saw that not was the chair on its side, but there was clearly a human form tied to it. By that point the fire was too strong and I began to feel the heat of it burning my skin, but I pushed through the pain as I rushed over to the chair. Only to stop a foot away as I really took it in. The chair and the body tied to it were both aflame.

I felt a strong hand on my arm and whipped around to see a uniformed officer.

"Sir, you need to get out of the building!" He yelled over the raging fire.

I didn't have the energy to resist as I let him drag me out of the building. The next thing I could remember clearly was another cop asking me questions as I sat on the curb a ways off from my now destroyed office. I realized dimly that the firefighters had finally managed to put out the fire.

"What?" I said realizing that the cop had just asked me a question

"I asked if you had any idea how this fire might have started." He repeated himself trying to sound patient.

"No I'm sorry." I said lying through my teeth. I was fairly certain I knew exactly what had happened, or at the very least I knew one of the parties responsible. But there was no way I was about to let the police arrest the man. My father had always tried to instill in me the idea that being a good person meant being better than those who would see you harm. Meanwhile, Jax had spent years spouting the belief that the universe has a way of balancing the scales so to speak, and that sometimes you have to be the one to balance them. At that moment, I was more inclined to follow Jax's philosophy than my father's.

I didn't bother trying to figure out why Mrs. Anderson had hired us for her fake party, or even who Johnson really was. Johnson was obviously a fake identity anyway. Instead, I drove straight to the Siren's Call.

"Change of plans!" I yelled slamming the door open and striding over to the bar where Damian was, "Get Cassidy, we're leaving right now."

"Whoa, James what's going on? You look like shit. And smell like a bonfire." Damian said eyes wide with surprise.

"My office was burned down. With my business partner inside of it." Was my only reply. I saw that the man seated at the bar on my right had a glass of whiskey in front of him. I grabbed the glass and downed the contents in one fluid motion. The man started to protest until I reached into my wallet and slapped a twenty on the bar in front of him.

"Well? Come one man." I said looking at Damian expectantly.

"You cannot actually expect me to just run off because you decided we needed to leave now." Damian replied in protest. But seeing my expression he just sighed and added, "Ok fine. Give me a minute to let Ricky know he's taking over early, then we can go."

Damian stepped out from the bar and went to flag down a server who I assumed to be Ricky. They spoke for a minute then Damain returned to me to say "Alright let's go. I'll call Cassidy and have here meet us at your place. I assume we're stopping by there first?"

"Yeah we're going to need some things before we go trapsing around the magical realm." I reply as we head for my car.

The drive to Grey Manor was a tense and silent one. I was still processing the deaths of Thomas and Tailor, and I think Damian was perceptive enough to know to give me space. Eventually we pulled past the front gate and up to the manor house. I got out of the car and looked around surveying the estate. Internally I swore to myself that no matter what it took I was going to make those bastards responsible for Tommy's death pay, Even if I had to make an enemy of the whole world I was going to make them pay.