Chapter 0 - Graham Talbot

Lo-mah (the suffix was a term of affection Graham learnt to add as an expression of the deep respect he had for the old woman) would never contact him out of the blue. The old woman was fiercely independent, from the old samsui tradition, and sought no help from anyone. But Graham woke to a missed call notification on his phone; for Lo eschewed text messaging, naturally.

The voice was distinct in her thick Cantonese, perhaps a bit more quavering than he remembered, but with no nonsense as she got to the point straightaway. "Are you in trouble? Ying got a message from a strange woman. She says she’ll tell everything about you unless we pay her fifty thousand. Don’t know how she got hold of Ying’s number. Call me!" Ying was Lo’s granddaughter, in her final year at HK University doing business studies.

Well, shit.

This was not be best wake-up he'd ever had, but to be fair it also wasn't the worst. Graham pulls himself out of bed, shaking off the lingering touch of being dead as he fires up his laptop. The deck chimes, and he plops down in his seat. It's a reasonably comfortable roller chair, and he spins around a number of times as his mind works.

Alright. So... they weren't specific. I haven't told anyone what I am. I have to be careful I don't overcorrect. This may not be about being a Kindred... it may be about being a "mugger." Although I don't know how someone would have IDed me, I'm covered from head to toe when I feed. A tail? I try to be careful, but I guess it's possible...

Graham logs into his trading system and begins looking over the overnight changes. Briefly, his mind flashes to his "hunting attire" -- Longsleeve turtleneck, utility-style cargo pants with a web belt, heavy leather work boots, leather shooting gloves (for manual dexterity), a three hole style balaclava, and even tinted goggles. All black. No shiny metal, and no skin exposed except his mouth. He didn't use a light. No hair and no fingerprints.

Could it be because I know some people who engage in... sub-legal activities? Hmm. I wouldn't think so. Most people who try blackmail don't pick a target if they think that target has friends who can make them a missing person. Could it be a shot in the dark? American investor, make some vague threats and hope they just panic and give in? Easy fifty large? Hmm... was it the people he knew? He thought they were on good terms, but fifty thou is fifty thou... still, he thought they were smart enough to know they'd make a lot more from him long term, and wouldn't burn a bridge for some short-term gain. Probably not them, then.

Graham plays the voicemail again. His brow furroughs. It wasn't as if Lo knew he was dead. The fact this blackmailer went to Lo's granddaughter, to contact her, to get ahold of him... blackmail notwithstanding, someone needed to learn a lesson on bringing innocent bystanders into their little games. However, rule number one was simple: Never negotiate from a position of weakness. He needed more information.

He dialed. "Lo-mah! Who is bothering you and Ying? As far as I know I am not in any trouble, but I certainly don't appreciate this mystery woman bothering you. How can I help?"

Lo Ningsin was a kindly soul, and to hear her perturbed over the phone was not a state Graham was at all pleased to hear. She repeated what Ying had told her, as verbatim as possible: Ying had just gotten off class that afternoon when she received a message stating that they knew Graham's secret and demanded the fifty thousand, that was nearly $400000 in Hong Kong dollars. At first she thought nothing of it, it looked like any other spam, or perhaps a prank even, though she wondered how the spam source pulled out the name Graham Talbot. Ying had met Graham before, but only in passing, at grandma's, and didn't even make the connection until subsequent messages mentioned Lo's name, address, and personal ID number; the same Tuen Mun residential address Graham remembered. That was when alarm bells went off and Ying got hold of grandma Lo straightaway. The blackmailer's deadline was 48 hours, to be wire transferred to an account number that Ying would receive at the appointed time.

Lo-mah was distraught that they would have reached her granddaughter and not herself directly (but then again Lo wasn't the most savvy in smartphone messenging), and both grandma and granddaughter were now worried for each other's safety. Blackmail and crime syndicates were far from alien to Hong Kong, but it was the connecting the dots that was puzzling. To link Lo to Graham meant that it was information dredged from some time ago. And the vagueness indeed meant that Graham had no idea at this point what the 'secret' referred to, it was interesting that the blackmailer left it unsaid. He might have been very careful when he hunted, but was his identity as Graham Talbot being compromised in some way? All in all, it might simply be an attempt to hustle an old lady, with Graham's name randomly pulled in, but that was downright nasty bullying business.

As Graham politely questioned the kind old woman to find out what the hell was going on, he realized he was probably going to do quite a bit of phone activity this evening. The usual cup of room temperature water he dipped his thumb in, while usually quite sufficient, seemed like it might be more of a chore than usual. Quite often he didn't bother with the Blush of Life -- there was no need. His actual computer didn't require it, and he often didn't leave home. But tonight... tonight was shaping up to be very different. The reality was, he was probably heading out tonight. And so, he willed his heart to pump, and to push his vitae through the abandoned veins.

"I told Ying to come stay with me for a while, at least until whatever this is blows over. But she says she'll be alright at the hostel. I'm still worried though. Whoever called her knows who she is. How could they threaten me through her! Could you check on her, maybe talk some sense into her?" That was grandma Lo through and through, putting the well-being of others before her own. "And are you sure you're okay?' There was much unspoken between Lo and Graham; she never asked questions about his origin nor situation. If she thought him strange or unnatural, she kept that to herself, or wrote it off to the larger superstitions she had about the world as part of her culturally animist beliefs, for Hong Kong was . Her question was not to pry, that much Graham knew, but it came out of her instinct to want things to be well, sparing little thought on the fact that the blackmailer knew her personal details too.

Moments like these were what caused Graham's inner beast to begin to rise, that made him want to hunt than be hunted. He had no leads at this point: if it were one of the recent investors he could work his way through the list, that would be a start. Or since it was blackmail, he could reach out to some of his underground contacts. The triads of Hong Kong were powerful organisations with great power and reach. If it had to do with the masquerade, he didn’t yet have enough connections with his Kindred here, and Jebediah would be too far away to give him guidance on this matter, although his time in the Catskills taught him that the best option was always the most direct, to confront the problem head on.