010 - The Legacy

[Tullaryx]

"Sir, our agents have completed their task in Laredo," Anselmo told Lionel as he sat in his library looking over at one of the recently acquired and very rare tomes.

"Will I have any reason to expect for any trouble to resurface in the Texas-Mexico border area?" Lionel asked as he carefully turned the pages on the large leather-bound.

"None at all, sir. All resistance has been eliminated and the surviving soldiers and lieutenants of the Syndicate have taken the blood-oath," his consigliere answered. Lionel nodded his satisafaction which also signalled the elder gentleman to leave him to his studies.

Lionel Johnson's organization had finally taken over the entirety of all organized criminal activities on the West Coast from Alaska all the way down to the Baja Peninsula. In-roads were being made into the Southwest and he knew that Nevada was close to being his. If Texas fell to him it would make things easier to move into Mexico. There was still much about this new world he was learning, but one thing which remained the same in this world as in his own was how people like him and his group and what they provided and represented seem to always thrive through order and chaos.

The book in front of him was recovered from a monastery in what remained of the Black Forest in Germany. The religious order which had maintained the monastery and it's library for centuries were very hesitant to give up the book. While he hated the loss of life unless it was something that was necessary to his aims and goals this particular situation had called for it. Lionel had read the news reports coming out of Germany of a major fire which had broken out in the Black Forest area where the monastery was located. No survivors had been found and Lionel knew that there wouldn't be or his agents would have to deal with him for leaving behind such a mistake.

"There has to be something. Some clue as to a spell or ritual to open up a transdimensional portal in one of these books. The Ancient in his own world had used a spell to bring through another dimension creatures and monsters to fight Doniatrakos and the hunters in the final assault. If a world such as his with limited knowledge of magick could come up with such a spell then this world with its abundant history of magick research and its use should have something similar.

He has been scouring the globe for all types of tomes and grimoires. None of them have come cheap or bloodless. This collection of magickal literature and codices was one reason for his current campaign to take over the entirety of all global criminal activities. He needed the funds it would generate him to buy, bribe and finance campaigns to forcibly acquire what he needed. As he looked up from his newly acquired book and at the shelves in the library filling up with past acquisitions he knew he still needed more money.

There was a clue he found in a previous tome which spoke of a secret society of magick-using aristocrats during the late 1800's who had collected even rarer books and codices than what he has now. All the clue told him of their existence was their group's name: The Club Dumas. He had Anselmo have agents ask people in this world who were expert in the history of the occult and all things esoteric about this club. Only a third of the agents who had gone out to make these inquiries ever came back to report what they've learned. Those who did report back to Anselmo or, at the very least their handlers, spoke of a club which either had died off before the Antoire Incident or had been gone into deep hiding because of it. These so-called mystics and their knowledge of magick of this world was his key to getting back to his own world.

Lionel knew he needed to find out if this group still existed after a fashion. If they truly were dead to this world then he needed to find their legacy. A repository of occult and magick that his agents had learned from informants to be unrivaled. There was one piece of clue which looked promising. It could be a name for someone or something. Maybe even a place, but it was a clue nonetheless. All the clue gave him was the word: TYNE.
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