Page 350 - Hunter - The Vigil

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Michael Moryken, Unit Philly row house. A few days later, the entire block was destroyed

Commander, Liberty Unit, Task by fire in a confrontation between police and a cultlike political
group based in the neighborhood. There’s no evidence that the city
Force: VALKYRIE government’s use of explosives against said group was engineered
He never intended to be the head of a covert government by TFV. But then again, there wouldn’t be.
action squad that uses next-generation technology to wage
war against things that shouldn’t exist. But in some ways, Alicia Mangum, Senior Associate
Commander Moryken is well suited to the job. He has no Director of Biotech, Keystone
family and no close friends; he avoids romantic entanglements Pharma LLP
and other social relationships that might distract him from his A rising star in one of the Cheiron Group’s many sub-
work. His idea of a relaxing evening is to spend a few hours corporations, Alicia was fast-tracked to promotion not because
testing a new caliber of Etheric Rounds against a captured of pharmaceutical knowledge or scientific background, but

NoCoE (Non-Corporeal Entity) down in the active target because of the skill she demonstrated as a project manager,
range, then catching up on the latest postings on the TFV corporate law savant and strategic planner. She earned her
secure infoblog. Most of his superiors consider commander law degree, MBA and three Bachelor’s degrees by age 24, and

Moryken an ideal TFV field commander. A few are certain her first year at Cheiron saw her achieve three promotions

he’s one bad day away from becoming a sociopath. and bring fi ve major projects to successful completion (under
What no one but Moryken himself knows is that most of budget). Her transfer to Philadelphia also initiated her first

his emotional core has been inaccessible to him, locked away real exposure to the nature of Cheiron’s operations. During
since age 21, when he stopped to help a stranger change a tire the tour of the R&D labs, she excused herself once, vomited
somewhere on I-95 south of Philadelphia and found himself in a ladies’ room toilet, then demanded to accompany the field

at the mercy of something not human. That stranger offered team on its next target acquisition assignment to determine
Michael a deal: give up a piece of yourself and live, or stay whole their resource utilization efficiency ratio. Since then she’s

and die. He chose the former, and when it was over, he found proved equally ruthless at harvesting nonhuman bio-samples
himself divested of the ability to form meaningful connections and maximizing quarterly profi t margins.
with the people around him. He knows he should care about Alicia is not all business, though she likes her subordinates
the needs and feelings of others, but only with intense effort can to think so. She comes from a wealthy Southern family and has
he summon any empathy even for family members or longtime found it easy to maintain a cordial, good working relationship
associates. It was his search for the thing that did this to him with Philadelphia’s Ashwood Abbey chapter, but turned
— a being he calls “The Driver” — that eventually drew him down its offer to join because she’s repelled by its self-serving,
to TFV. His hope is that his service will bring him into contact hedonistic outlook. She believes that the work of the Cheiron
with the thing that victimized him. His fear, and increasingly group can be of benefit to humankind, and that fi nding and

certain hunch, is that the thing was once a hunter itself. exploiting the weaknesses of monsters is a service for the greater

Liberty Unit good. Turning a profit while doing so is just good business. For
Philadelphia’s TFV branch was placed in the city during the present, she’s able to overlook the fact that the Cheiron
the 1976 US bicentennial celebrations, with orders to “defend Group’s research pretty much has just one benefi ciary, and
that’s the Cheiron Group. Sometimes she thinks about the
the nation’s historical treasures from extra-normal threats, and human-seeming creatures confined in the company’s Southwest

operate proactively to eliminate the same.” But no such threats Philadelphia holding and R&D facility, or the unknowing
ever materialized, so in the subsequent decades, Liberty Unit has victims of the monsters at large in the city. And that’s when

suffered repeated budget and staffing cuts. Today the entire unit she takes a deep breath and closes her office door. Then she

consists of Commander Moryken and three field agents. Their buries herself in spreadsheets and annual reports, or fl ips open

public office space is located in an unassuming building near her iPhone and schedules a fi eld mission.

City Hall. Training facilities, an armory, specialized holding cells,
medical and science labs, secure storage space and other resources Antagonist: Zipperhead
are housed across the street in the Grand Lodge of Pennsylvania. He’s a tall, lean, ripped-jeans-and-leather-wearing relic
Originally a Masonic Temple dating back to colonial days (Ben of the 1970s, complete with old-school tattoos and safety-
Franklin, George Washington and other notables belonged), the pin piercings. Zipperhead takes his name from a self-inflicted

building retains its Masonic facade, but was co-opted for use as scar that runs from the nape of his neck up over the crown
a covert government operations center decades ago. For most of his head and to the top of his forehead. When he’s feeling
of its history, Liberty Unit has followed a tradition of going on particularly frisky, he covers the scar with an actual zipper

unauthorized “fishing expeditions” in various SAZs (supernatural sewn into his skin. Zipperhead’s vampiric existence — his
activity zones) in and around the city. This practice, a way for Requiem — began some 30-odd years ago, when he was
Liberty’s highly trained and underutilized agents to evade boredom stabbed and robbed while staggering home from a punk-rock

and gain field experience, sometimes ends in disaster. A notable gig on South Street. Instead of bleeding to death in an alley, he
example happened in May of 1985, when a since decommissioned was transformed into one of the undead by a vampiric skank
agent decided to gouge out her own eyes with a wire coat hanger who had tired of hunting alone. Since then his fortunes have
after glimpsing something hidden beneath a stairway in a West
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