Planning a Counter Attack

On Wednesday morning, inside a hotel room with old-fashioned furniture and a rocking chair by the bed, Graham opened his eyes and stretched his body. The sunlight penetrated through the thin green curtains with floral patterns and brightened up the room. Although the warmth couldn't completely dispel the cold morning air, it was still enough to lighten up the atmosphere a little.

"Morning, Val," said Graham.

"*Yawn*... !!" He then yawned widely and almost got a cramp in his jaws because of that.

"Val, it's a sign that I need more exercise," he muttered with a tone of relief. He seemed thankful that the cramp didn't happen.

He got up from the bed and quickly washed his face and brushed his teeth to get rid of his morning breath. He didn't shower that morning because he had already done so the night before, just like usual. It was just too cold in the morning for a shower.

The bathroom of that hotel was decorated in the same fashion as the rest of the room; almost everything was lime green in color and the decoration was old fashioned. He looked at himself in the mirror whose wooden frame had an intricate pattern carved on it while splashing water from the brass tap.

Graham's appearance had returned to his original self sometime during the night. He admired the sharp features of his face some more because he knew he wouldn't be able to see them for a while. Whenever he was in public, he had to wear a disguise now for his own safety.

"I, in the name of the Deity of Cunningness and Transformation, hereby change my whole being to that of Christian Barnhart!"

He chanted his Deity's name and his whole body began transforming. He became shorter and his skin got paler. His overall build became thinner but there were some layers of fat here and there that served as proof of the lack of exercise. In less than thirty seconds, Graham had completely transformed into the working man Christian Barnhart.

He sniffed his own shirtless body that looked like it hadn't seen the sun in ages and muttered.

"Val, you're right. This man does reek of cigarettes. That is funny, though. we showered last night as him so our body shouldn't smell. If we want to get rid of this man's cigarette stench, do we have to shower again?"

Graham rested his chin on his right hand.

"Does it mean the body's condition is reset whenever we transform? It makes some kind of sense because, in that stranger's memory, Christian Barnhart smells like cigarettes. Now I wonder if it works the same with wounds and injuries," he said analytically.

Graham became curious and then he walked back to the hotel bedroom to pick up his dagger. He pressed the cold metal against the flesh of his palm and made an incision with the sharp blade. Blood began coming out but he didn't care.

"I order myself to return to my original appearance!"

Once he said that, his whole body underwent transformation again. He became taller and his skin got more tan. His naked torso also looked leaner and more muscular. The giant scar on his back also returned. He looked at the wound on his palm that he had just made and it was still there.

"So, the injuries we get while transformed carry over to our original body. Now let's transform back,"

"I, in the name of the Deity of Cunningness and Transformation, hereby change my whole being to that of Christian Barnhart!"

Once again, Graham's appearance turned into that of Christian Barnhart. He looked at his palm and was pleasantly surprised to find that the wound was no longer there. He tried pressing the flesh where the injury should be to check.

"Hmm... this is a great find, Val! So the body does reset to the condition according to our target's memory. In that man's memory, this guy has no such a wound on his palm. However, the pain is still there, so the wound still exists actually. Just the blood has stopped flowing and we cannot see it physically," he analyzed.

"That made me curious, Val. Does it mean when we transform into someone without an arm, we'll also lose our arm while being transformed? That would be interesting. And if we ever lost a limb, we could just transform into someone else to enjoy the limb back. Although it has a duration of only two hours, with the limit of ten uses per day, we can technically keep the transformation the whole day anyway," said Graham in amusement.

Once he was done with his experiments, he quickly got dressed. He only had the clothes that he wore yesterday so he didn't have a lot of options. Even the pants that he was wearing were from yesterday. He noticed the slight smell of cigarettes on his clothes because he had been wearing it as Christian Barnhart. He focused on the shirt and then said an Order.

"I order the bad smell on my shirt to go away!"

He then focused on his pants.

"I order the bad smell on my pants to go away!"

With that, the clothes he was wearing now smelled just like something that hadn't been worn in a long time; it wasn't fresh, but it wasn't reeking either. He then put on Purloin, which had a thin yellowish mist enveloping it, around his waist, and placed his bullet pouch on its side. He also wrapped his gun holster around his waist just on top of the belt. There was a tiny bloodstain on both the gun and the holster. After that, he also put on his beloved brown watch on his left wrist.

Graham looked around to make sure that there were none of his belongings left in the hotel room. He had only brought his briefcase, the content of which was still inside, and the clothes he was wearing including the trench coat. He put on the coat and picked up the heavy briefcase, ready to leave. After making sure that his revolver was safely concealed, he exited the room and took out the key.

He walked down quickly and reached the first floor soon after. The receptionist was no longer the old woman who always slept with her eyes open, but rather, a thin man in his forties. The man was watching Graham walk closer to the reception desk closely with his eyes squinted.

"I'm checking out now," said Graham as he put the key on the desk.

The man took the key and looked at the number on it. He then opened the register book and looked up the information about the guest.

"Room 313, you've already paid. Thank you," said the man shortly.

Graham then left the hotel with the old-fashioned furniture and went out to the street. He looked over his shoulder and muttered quietly.

"Now, Val, let's give Agatha a call. We need to secure the things that we left in Luuk's apartment, and also the place that we have paid for until the end of this year."

Graham looked at his watch and it showed seven-fifteen in the morning. He didn't feel very hungry; that was why he didn't have breakfast at the hotel. He just wanted to get things done as quickly as he could.

There was a payphone right in front of the hotel, so Graham quickly entered the phone booth that was painted orange and stood there looking at the black public phone in front of him. He recalled the number that Agatha had given him and dialed it after inserting one penning coin into the coin hole.

Beep... beep...

Graham heard the beeping sounds that came when the phone was being connected to the other side and after a while, someone picked it up.

"Good morning, this is van Nostrand's household. How can I help you?" said the voice from the other side. It seemed to belong to a woman in her fifties.

"Good morning. Can you connect me to Agatha van Nostrand, please? Tell her Graham Hymes is looking for her," replied Graham straight to the point.

"Miss Agatha? Alright. Please wait a minute," replied the voice politely.

After that, Graham only heard the faint static from the other side. He waited patiently and not long after, the sound of the landline phone being picked up was heard again.

"Hello. This is me, Agatha. Is that you Mr. Hymes?" said a woman whose voice was very familiar to Graham. It was Agatha's soft and warm voice that was a little distorted by the phone.

"Hi, Agatha. Yes, it's me. Can we meet up soon? I need your help," replied Graham.

The other person didn't reply right away. After several seconds, finally, she responded.

"Is that really you, Mr. Hymes? Why does your voice sound different?" she said with a hint of suspicion in her tone.

"I'm wearing a disguise because of something. The sooner we can meet, the earlier I can explain the situation to you. I will compensate you for your help," he replied.

Agatha seemed to be thinking for a while.

"Okay. Let's meet up at the café across from the Town Hall. It's called 'Het Huis'. Do you know where it is?" said Agatha finally.

Graham recalled his memory and then remembered the place that she mentioned. It was the place where he did stakeout accompanied by Mirjam.

"Yes, I do. I'm going now. Meet you there soon," he said.

"See you soon," replied Agatha.

Graham hung up the phone and exited the booth. From Grotemarktstraat where he currently was to Raadhuislaan where the café was located, it would take too long to walk. Graham walked to the side of the street and waved his arm to stop a public motor carriage that was driving by. Not long after, one pulled over and Graham got in the black vehicle.

"Where to go, Sir?" asked the driver.

Graham recognized him right away. It was Egon Barben, his most trustworthy public driver. However, Egon didn't recognize his passenger who was wearing a disguise.

"Take me to a café called 'Het Huis'. It's across the street from the Town Hall," replied Graham.

Egon nodded.

"So, Raadhuislaan. That will be six pennings, Sir," said Egon.

"What? I am sure it was only five pennings last night," argued Graham.

Egon suddenly got a familiar feeling, but he couldn't put it exactly.

"No, Sir. It has always been six pennings," he replied, not backing down.

"Alright alright. Just take me there," said Graham with Christian's high-pitched voice.

Egon drove away at once, leaving the busy Grotemarktstraat. The traffic that morning was rather bad. There were still a lot of people on the road going to work, so the number of vehicles was quite high. It was even busier on Raadhuislaan because that was where the center of the government was located. It took Egon more than eight minutes to take his passenger to his destination.

"Here you go, thanks," said Graham as he slid the money through the gap in the glass separator.

"Thank you, Sir," replied Egon politely.

Graham got out and then went directly to the café that Agatha had designated as their meeting spot. He took a seat in the corner where there was no one nearby and sat there. Since he wasn't really hungry, he didn't want to order any food since it was too expensive there. He just ordered a cup of hot chocolate not to seem like a freeloader.

Not long after, a black motor carriage drove by quickly and parked abruptly on the side of the street. A beautiful woman with dark brown hair tied up and decorated with a hair ornament got out and slammed the door shut. She was wearing a tight black coat and a pair of black high heels while her hands were covered in black net gloves with a floral pattern. It was Agatha van Nostrand, who was currently walking towards the café where Graham was sitting.

"Miss Agatha, welcome," said the waiter politely as she approached the establishment.

"Morning, Dan," she replied warmly.

Agatha was looking around in search of someone, and then her attention was drawn by a man in the corner waving his hand. She observed the man for a while before finally approached him.

"Is that you, Mr. Hymes?" she asked cautiously.

The smell of her fragrant perfume entered Graham's nose. It was the smell of citrus and a base note of spice.

"Yes, it's me. This is my current disguise. You should call me Christian for now," replied Graham quietly.

He beckoned Agatha to sit down and the latter took the seat opposite him. She sat down elegantly with a perfect posture and looked at Graham's new appearance in amazement.

"How did you completely change like that? Is that your new ability?" asked Agatha quietly.

"Yes. Let's go straight to the point. I need your help," said Graham.

He then proceeded to tell Agatha about the Pale Society and what had happened in his apartment building. Agatha was listening intently while nodding occasionally. Her expression showed genuine concern especially when he told her about the Pale Society's plan and about the Umm Ghulah.

"So that's what the ghoul that we killed would have become," she said with worry in her tone.

"Yes. So I need your help to secure my place back. You are now also a President rank, aren't you?" asked Graham.

Agatha nodded with a proud smile.

"Are you a Gore?" guessed Graham.

"Yes. How did you know?" she asked, slightly surprised.

"Just a guess. I will also ask Luuk for help. He is currently hiding in another hotel," said Graham, and then added, "Sorry if this is out of topic, but why are the staff here so friendly towards you?"

Agatha let out a chuckle.

"It's because this café belongs to my older brother," she said, with a smile.

Graham looked over his shoulder and muttered, "So that's the reason, Val. No wonder she chose this place. She must have not trusted us fully back during the call; that's why she picked a familiar place with people she knew,"

"So what is the plan, Mr. Hymes?" asked Agatha.

"First, I need a new disguise," replied Graham mysteriously.