Chapter 24: Pity the Flu

[Li Violette]

I pick up my phone and see that it is Cephrien who is trying to call me. I feel some relief since all of the teleportation booths I have found are out of order. At least I have found out that I am in Denmark. I take a pause in my long walk to answer his call.

"Cephrien, so good to hear from you! I am in the middle of nowhere in Denmark and all of the teleportation booths are out of order. I am going to try to take a train back to Switzerland..." I explain to him. I walk up to the train station and try to buy a ticket. At first they tell me that they are not running trains until some flu or something clears up. I am confused, but as Speaker, I demand a train. After some deliberation, they say I can ride on a train delivering goods to Switzerland.

[Bonifaz Artz-Lehrer]

Bonifaz doesn't think that the ideas put forth by Salome and Horacio are awful, but, they seem rather weak and ineffective in his opinion. They seem like timid actions. He sits down on the tiled floor of the run down grocery store and listens for a while about the discussions the anarchists are having. Finally, he chimes in.

"I'm going to let you in on a little secret. Right now might be the best time to plan any major actions. The capitalists and Manalists are going to be weakened by...something. This ...something...is going to slow down the economy. If you have any major ideas, I would go forward with them within the next week or two. After that, there is going to be a lot of repression against rebel groups... there's going to be a major backlash." Bonifaz informs the anarchists. He doesn't want to let them in on his secret, but it might be a long time before anything this major happens again. In fact, he can almost count on it.

"You have a window of opportunity....and that is all." He warns.

"So maybe you should think of things a little bigger than your book clubs and gardens."

[††Venice "Cephrien" Ashgrove††]

Cephrien felt slightly dissatisfied by her decision-- He would much rather portal over there and retrieve her himself.. but he simply shrugged it off. She was probably more of an adventerous person that he thought. Maybe she liked the thrill of being hunted.

..Or something..

Yeah that would be weird.

In any case, she had confirmed herself to be in Denmark and despite the fact that she seemed to be alive and well, Ceph still wanted to be there incase anyone strong tried to attack her. He couldn't risk her life-- she was the future of this world. He created a vortex a few feet behind himself and spun around to walk into it, feeling slightly relieved to finally be leaving Rome. Within a matter of moments, he reappears in Denmark-- close to the train station with which she said she was going to return home. Ceph takes a jog down the block and makes his way to the doors of the station, which surprisingly had very little people in it.. infact, the only people he could notice were the workers and..

"..Good.." He says with a sigh of relief as she spots Li. The trains were most likely unavailable due to that Flu outbreak.. so he wondered how she planned to get back in the first place. Although knowing her, she probably had the power to find some way. He calmly walked in her direction and gently placed a caring hand on her shoulder.

"Are you hurt?"

[Li Violette]

I tell the people at the station that Iwon't be needing the train afterall. I step off the platform and it pulls away to bring needed supplies to various places in Europe. As for me, I am happy to have faster transportation.

"Hello ....I am fine. Not hurt at all. I was kidnapped, but mostly went along with it because I wanted to learn about my captor. Maybe he sensed that and left me alone. In any event, I know nothing about him. Only that he is an elf and that he can summon an Ice Elemental." I explain to Cephrien. I step over to him and we start walking, but not in any particular direction. It is just something that feels natural when explaining things.

"I'm a little out of the loop. The train lady said that there is a flu going around. Is that so?" I ask him. I could contact the Moderator directly, which I will soon enough, but, for now, I don't mind socializing.

[††Venice "Cephrien" Ashgrove††]

He wondered just what kind of person would summon a monster to raid the celebration and kidnap the speaker. Though he felt somewhat of a weight lift off of his shoulders-- Whatever prisoners that was being held there had probably escaped in the chaos. So it saved Ceph the trouble of attacking it himself.

"Yes, there has been a recent appearance of some kind of Flu virus." Ceph began as they left the train station and began to wander outside to speak of the current events. He himself didn't know all that much about the virus-- He couldn't be bothered to worry about it, since he could not be affected to these things.

"Many forms of transporation are being closed off to isolate it so that they may get it under control." He continued to inform her with what he knew, though she had probably already figured this out already. Ceph's eyes scanned the area-- it didn't seem like there was any danger around.. at least not any danger that would recognize him in his current appearance. Ceph figured that he would keep it for awhile longer.

"Do you want me to return you to your office?"

[Li Violette]

"Yes, that would be great. I am sure that the Moderator is worried about me. Can you teleport me to his office in Switzerland?" I ask him. I look over his clothes and wonder if he looks convincingly like a supporter of the Manalists. He was well known when he worked for hte Invisible Hand...but since the Hand is...Invisible, most members are not known. Though, would the Moderator recognize him? He didn't seem to other times. "It doesn't seem that the Moderator remembers you. It may be safe for you to accompany me if you like."

[††Venice "Cephrien" Ashgrove††]

Cephrien quietly bobbed his head and looked off to the side, placing a hand on her back to guide her into the safe isolation of the nearest dark alley. Once they disappear from public into the alley, he snaps his fingers to summon a vortex that would drop them off just outside the Moderator's office-- the hair on their heads slightly waver in the breeze it creates as it invitingly whirls around before them. He thinks about her offer to join her-- Normally, he would've declined it.. since there was a big chance of compromising her cover. But now he had a disguise-- and he still wasn't all that convinced that she was out of harms way, since he didn't know who kidnapped her in the first place.. So he would linger for a bit longer.

"I will do that then." He replies as he nods again.

[Archer Aylmer]

I wake up with a start and reluctantly go join the others. I feel sort of dizzy from lack of sleep so I lean against a wall and listen to everyone's thoughts before chiming in. I don't like talking to people very much.

"Bonifaz is right, now is a good time to act. I say... Do both. Do something big while you've got the chance, then later work on... Um... Gardening? Or whatever."

[Calithin Crest]

I feel pretty wary of Rommel's explanations, and can't help but project a skeptical air about me. It is sort of like... If I owned a drug company I would happily and constantly release diseases in order to make a profit, so I assume that he is capable of the same.

"Freddy, that's suuuuuper suspicious."

I am not really one to keep my opinions to myself...

"However, in your defense I will say that... It's not like you haven't had access to various illnesses forever. There is no real reason why you would release one now of all times, since... As far as I know you haven't been in any financial trouble or anything. And trust me, I would know. I watch the market like a hound."

I remain thoughtful for a passing moment before speaking again:

"With that in mind, perhaps it would be a good idea for you to keep a close watch on your employees. I still think this was an act of terrorism. The flu has spread much too quickly to be from a simple variant strain that has resurfaced."

[Max Alexander]

Max listened intently to the groups discussion, chiming in periodically and nodding his head in agreement. THe amount of people/groups/things that could have caused this outbreak is huge, and they had to figure out a way to fix it. As business leaders themselves, they were responsible for keeping the world moving and not falling behind.

Max turned to the moderator and responded. "The illness at MTV just became apparent when we had massive absences. It is normal to have a few, as everyone gets sick, but when we started having a hundred or so called in, thats when we discovered it was more than your average illness."

[Bambi Engel]

Bambi was thankful for the Moderator arranging a doctor for Annette although she didn't express it. She was sure Annette had more than enough money to pay for a doctor. Like a few of the others, she finds Frederick's convenient vaccine suspicious. On the other hand it's certainly a good development.

She holds back laughter at the mental image of Annette being greeted with a singing telegram. Oh, yes, she'd love that. The accountant nods idly at Ariel's ideas for making up profit loss or reducing it. She wasn't too worried about Global Bank, they had creditors that could be placed to make up for the missing workers.

"I'm afraid I don't, I think I caught it during Holy Week but for some reason I overcame it easily after a day. It hardly effected me so I didn't think much of it. Annette also seems to think she caught hers during Holy Week. It'd make sense, such a large gathering would have had to aid the spread of this flu greatly." She speaks as she takes the vile from him for Annette. She doesn't grab any herself, as her body had already been exposed to the flu and been rid of it.

[Linnea Korpela]

"Ice cream sure," Linnea beams. "Kith it looks like you have a bit of a burn there."
She is surprised since she thought that since his skin was a little darker and a different color that it would resist the sun a little.
Linnea's head snaps up when she hears her name, she recognizes the face but she can't find a name to go with it. Maybe she met him in her gallery, it seems that every time she see him that he's having a bad week.
"What happened?" Linnea says in reference to his bad week, she is surprised to see him in Cuba.

[Lucio De Saldanha]

Lucio also orders an icecream and leads Linnea and Kith to a little table with an unbrella. He figures that it will protect them from the sun. He licks his icecream, which is an orange swirl flavor. "I was captured by the Manalists, tortured, and made to fight in the arena. I only escaped since during the parade, someone released a snow monster. But, I'm here now! So, I guess things can't be too bad." Lucio states before taking a few licks off the ice cream cone. He hates to complain, but it has been pretty stressful.
"And what brings you fine people to Cuba?" He crosses his legs after asking and gives them his full attention.

[Armin Lehrer]

"You anarchists can certainly submit articles to Rebel Action newspaper. We sort of haven't been printing since our London office was attacked. But, we would like to get it going again. Your other ideas are okay too." Armin admits. Tactically, he would prefer things involving mass action, but their ideas could lead to that.

Then Bonifaz makes his announcement and Armin feels a chill go down his spine. Whatever Bonifaz is talking about, it doesn't sound good.

"Could you clarify please." Armin asks. "What...are you talking about, in particular..."

[Ariel Tal Shachar]

"It seems likely that the flu originated at Holy Week in Rome. It was a large gathering of people from all of the world. If it started there, it could have easily spread elsewhere. If it did originate there, I would lean towards this being terrorism. It would be awful bad luck that after 30 years a flu would re-emerge at that exact loaction and during Holy Week." Ariel states. Bambi's information was quite useful. It does seem to make sense. It is possible that it originated elsewhere and a spectator happened to have the flu and spread it to others...but it seems a little more likely that it was terrorism.

"I am going to send the Invisible Hand to your company to review your security and your security logs from the past few months. This is not because I don't trust your word, but because for the safety of the world and to prevent future outbreaks, it must be done." Ariel announces.

Frederick turns red with anger. He makes a fist, but managers to hold his temper. "My company...would not have released this disease. As a token of good faith, I will give each corporation that requests it...500 complete doses of anti viral drug and 500 vaccines. But, those labs are my responsibility. Anyway, it is my property. You have no business there." Frederick says defensively. Ariel feels frustrated, but he doesn't show it.

"Of course, it is your property and I should respect that..." Ariel agrees. He should, but he won't. He will secretly send the Invisible Hand to infiltrate his labs and find out any useful information. "But, I think we will take you up on your offer of free vaccines and anti viral drugs."