Topic: My Enemy's Enemy

Caroline Granger

Date: 2010-11-21 14:49 EST
Caroline waited until she was well out of sight of the Inn before letting vent to her true feelings, letting out a loud scream of anger and frustration and kicking at the wall beside her.

How dare anyone threaten her family' How dare he threaten Lola like that' What right did that arrogant son of a jackal have to terrify a perfectly sweet girl out of her wits, let alone assume that they would just lie down and take the threats and cough up their profits to him"

Anubis Karos ....There was a name almost everyone in Rhy'Din knew one way or another. Caroline had never met the man herself, but she'd heard stories, oh yes. Everyone had heard stories about the Egyptian slaver. How he threatened, cajoled, terrified, and intimidated his way into as many profitable organisations as he could; how people who crossed him disappeared.

Well, he wasn't the only one in this town who had connections, who could get something done. Lola would be moved up to Maple Grove by tonight, and once she was there, she wouldn't be alone for even one minute. Humphrey would see to that. It was one thing that Caroline truly did trust her grandfather to do - protect his own.

Her thumb tapped wildly across the keys of her cell phone, picking out the number she had promised her parents she would never use again. If Caroline had been thinking clearly, she would never have done this. But she wasn't thinking clearly; she was angry - no, make that flaming furious - that anyone would threaten any of her family.

The phone rang just once before it was picked up, and a slimy, well-remembered voice spoke on the other end.

"Well, if it isn't Rumor," it said with a low chuckle. "What can we do for you?"

Caroline set her jaw, forcing herself to stay as calm as she could. When she did speak, it was with only the barest shake in her voice.

"I need you to get me in contact with the Selasse Alliance. I have a business proposition for them."

Caroline Granger

Date: 2010-11-21 15:24 EST
They called themselves the Fathers of the City.

To everyone else, they were the Selasse Alliance.

More than seventy years ago, the leaders of a better class of criminal who worked within the boundaries of Rhy'Din city had come together to form their own organisation. Organised crime, on a huge scale. They had fingers in lots of different pies; from the petty robberies and crimes of passion on the streets; to the high level games of blackmail and fraud that mottled the beautiful world of business and politics in the upper echelons of society.

No matter who you were or what you did in the murky world of crime and disorder, sooner or later you would come face to face with the Selasse Alliance, and they would either recruit you, or they would throw you to the wolves.

Caroline had been one of those unfortunate enough to be recruited. At the tender age of eighteen, she had been caught doing a little embezzling from her grandfather's companies - not much, but enough to build up a little nest egg and get herself out of the city and away from being a Granger. Unluckily for her, it had not been the Watch, or the company accountants that had caught her - it had been the Alliance.

They had given her a choice - remain in the city and work for them, using her inside knowledge of the business world in which her family moved to the Alliance's gain ....or be exposed to her family for the thief she was and handed over to the authorities.

The teenaged Caroline could not face the disappointment of her family if they ever discovered the truth, and in her naive way, had thought that working for the Alliance would not be so bad. And so it was that Rumor began to stretch her wings within Rhy'Din's business community. It was only later, when she discovered some of the uses her information was being put to, that she attempted to get out.

It was only by the Alliance's choice that she was released when her father got wind of Rumor's true identity, and that was only because she was still of more use to them as a sleeping agent. She knew they could choose at any time to reactivate her, and indeed, they had been sending out feelers along those lines for over a year now. But she had always refused to acknowledge them.

But now ....she needed their help. There were no more choices to be made.