Quoted By:
"Right, let's chat about creepy Karloff and his creepy crawlies." Jonah says.
The holo-display shows a rotation of different clips, photos, and headlines from newscasts and cybershows, all of them about a series of deaths in and around Charleston harbor. Some very grainy, blurry footage of something sort of man-shaped thrashing in the water and disappearing under the waves. A recovered body with a missing hand and drained of blood. Alongside it, a satellite image of Charleston, and below that, a vertical diagram showing the city's makeup since the end of the Reconstruction War, when modern Charleston was built on top of the old city, burying it. Parts of the map and diagram both begin lighting up in different colors. "We think there's a messy eater out there. Could be an opportunity. So let's go over turf, and then I'll talk about the surf." Teague starts.
"As you may recall, we have an agreement that Karloff's people stay off of Syron property, don't touch our personnel, and don't do any feeding or hunting in districts that we contract as municipal enforcement." He continues, pointing to the HQ and surrounding area, part of the shipyard, places where the company keeps warehouses, facilities like Halberd, subsidiary offices, and employee residential complexes. "On our end, we avoid causing trouble in the undercity, the Southern swamp-fields, and this-" he gestures to Charleston harbor, where everything below the shipyard and cargo ports is highlighted, "the hunting ground for him and the aristocrats of his little club. Basically all of the harbor that isn't used for industry or big business, the tourist trap. Extremely desirable and reliable place to feed, whether it be blood, emotions, breath, or whatever. But they have rules too. With digital and drone surveillance at its current level, a lot of their kind find it extremely difficult to avoid suspicion. That's why they tend to hide out in the ruins and the swamps. Whoever, or whatever, has been making the news this past month is not playing ball, and bringing heat down where Karloff and his best butt buddies prefer to chow." Jonah says, and the holo-display shifts to medicL records and more images of the victims.
You notice some commonalities immediately. Drained of blood, usually missing a hand or foot, or suffering a compound fracture on a limb. All victims were in or near the water, but across the whole length of the harbor, and while some bodies washed up days after disappearance, where authorities do have an idea of when incidents occurred, every attack appears to be at night.
>Cont'd
