--G.
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Benjamin D. Hutchins, Co-Founder, Editor-in-Chief, & Forum Mod
Eyrie Productions, Unlimited http://www.eyrie-productions.com/
zgryphon at that email service Google has
Ceterum censeo Carthaginem esse delendam.

Nanami Kiryuu felt slightly silly, sitting in a tall-backed executive desk chair dead-center in an otherwise empty and featureless floor of a vacant office building. She knew it was good theater; it'd make a powerful impression on the people who were supposed to come and see her shortly. The phase before they arrived, though, there was something mildly ridiculous about that. She supposed she could at least have pretended she was working on something if she'd had a desk, but that would have defeated part of the purpose.

She opened one of the files on the datapad she held (her only prop for the little drama she was to play out) and read it again to kill time while she waited. The nature of the business was such that she couldn't be sure exactly when her guests would arrive.

From the Journal of Mr John R. Carruthers
10 May 1941

For nearly six decades now I have been the custodian of a terrible secret. I have kept it faithfully and willingly, for the good of all concerned. It does not weigh on me, but I know there will soon come a time when I can no longer carry it. Even if the Germans don't manage to do for me, the White Plague will, soon enough.

If mine were an ordinary terrible secret, I would be perfectly willing to take it with me to the grave, but it is not. In fact it absolutely must not be allowed to die with me. For all that it must remain hidden now, there will just as surely come a day when it must be known. It is for this reason that I set pen to paper today and, for the first time, make a permanent record of the extraordinary events I witnessed in the winter of 1884...