I1: Draconic Research

[John Hino]

After calling his dad to share Weaver's warning, John went to do his own research at his computer. He began by compiling statistics on Hino Industries stock movement starting just before the initial drop. He used the advanced search functions to narrow the data down to just suspicious events.

[Narrator]

A lot of it is the usual movements and initially there isn't much to be found directly impacting it. However, just before the crash it appears that the trade volume in general seems to have gone up significantly. Very few transactions regarding Hino Industries stock (at least not more or less than usual) but others show a flurry of transactions. It's hard to figure out how exactly because there is an immense amount of data but it appears a carefully executed series of trades over the course of a couple seconds resulted in the drop of the stock.

[John Hino]

"A rapid trade attack. Bastards."

He assumed they covered their tracks, but he attempted to use his skills to trace where the cybertrades originated.

[Narrator]

Apparently the trades had been initiated from all over town, though mainly from the London Stock Exchange. There's no particular cluster anywhere outside that and even the accounts themselves show no similarities. If anything the variety in the accounts almost looks like it was purpose. Taking a closer look at them shows two things. One, they completed a lot of transactions outside of their usual portfolio and two, their bottom-line ended up close to what it would have been without those trades.

[John Hino]

John was impressed by the elegance of the attack, and extra annoyed because of it.

"Well then... that's a dead end..." he grumbled, "Without more to go on anyway."

Deciding to go at the issue from another angle for the time being, he began looking into the Hellfire members that were at the party.

[Narrator]

There are varying amounts of information available. Margali Szardos for one has her own entry in the X-Men files which goes on for quite a while. Generally she seems more concerned with mystical happenings and the Hellfire Club seems to be her vehicle for pushing that agenda. Most notably the demon she once tried to summon to take over the entire city. There's any number of reasons to arrest her but no known location is noted beyond the Club, which is too politically and financially entrenched to allow for a direct assault.

Part of that political protection is Nigel Hill, member of the United Kingdom Independence Party and from his reputation he probably wouldn't hesitate to turn any attack by the X-Men into a political thing. Naturally he's very outspoken and public which makes for a lot of boring and often bigoted material to slog through.

Yui Kumo is a somewhat recent transplant from Tokyo and it doesn't take too much digging for John to find out she used to be part of an Idol group, then launched a solo-career that finally ended with her funneling the money and influence into starting her own record company before her fame had a chance to fade. Her company pretty much grooms young artists into the next big thing before dropping them when their 15 minutes are up and they disappear into obscurity. She's very much not a public figure anymore though her claims of trying to change her focus seem to be not entirely accurate, at least if what little of her publicly available finances are to be trusted, which seem to indicate that most of her money is still flowing through her record company.

Ezekiel Stane also has his own file, mainly courtesy of the Avengers or, more specifically, Tony Stark. The young man is the son of Jebediah Stane, former board member of Stark Industries and thus heir to quite a bit of money as well as technology. He owns StaTe Industries which, while not necessarily competitive with Stark Industries, has quite a bit of market share in the technology sector. If anybody had anything to gain from a decline of Hino stock it would be him.

Henry Hereford seems to be the odd man out among these people, coming from a very blue-collar background in the United Kingdom. He started to work in construction like his father and quickly built himself a small company, that turned into a larger firm, which ended up landing a lucrative government contract, which launched his company onto the global stage. Today he has construction projects happening all over the world, a lot of it through an off-shoot company in South-East Asia and the Middle East.

[John Hino]

John dug into the London holdings of Kumo and Stane. Something about her in particular gave him an uneasy feeling.

[Narrator]

Stane has a research and development plant on the outskirts of London and some offices downtown, but most of his production facilities are in Easter-Europe and Taiwan. Kumo has, as she mentioned at the party, several night clubs in the city. They cater to slightly different tastes but all range in the mid to upper price range. A little bit of digging reveals the surprising fact that they seem to have bit of a reputation for not tolerating drug use (or trades) inside the establishment. Which probably mostly means cocaine, considering the clients likely to visit these establishments. There have been a couple of sting operations by the London police following allegations of prostitution but none of them turned anything up. Going into shadier places it becomes easy to see where those rumors came from though as some of the clubs are pointed out as places for picking up or arranging escorts.

[John Hino]

To him, Kumo certainly fit the bill for a Queen of Flies but Stane didn't fit Jester. He tried Hereford now, on account of the Asian connection.

[Narrator]

Hereford has plenty of holdings all over the world. He owns a minor logistic company that mainly ships construction vehicles and materials. He's big into government contracts and building infrastructure and is on record as saying South-East Asia is the market to expand into in that regard. From the looks of it that decisions seems to be doing well for him. The downside to that is that he naturally has to deal with some more corrupt governments, including that of Madripoor.

[John Hino]

John tried to find connections between Kumo and the others outside the context of the club.

[Narrator]

Apparently Hereford's company was involved in building The Nest, one of Yui's clubs. If any other connections exist they are not on record.

[John Hino]

With a sense of foreboding that was just out of reach, John took a closer look at The Nest.

[Narrator]

It's a dance club for the rich and famous. Or, more to the point, the offspring of the rich and famous. From the images on the website it looks like a significant part of the club is reserved for private tables that are still visible from the rest of the club. Prices are range from 'expensive' to 'outrageous'. It's hard to determine more from the pictures because those tend to focus on the "important' people and their groups at the private tables.

[John Hino]

John thought for a moment, then frowned and looked for both the club and Miss Kumo's old performances on YouTube in separate tabs.

[Narrator]

Apparently the group she used to part of was called ℃-ute, since disbanded because the stars aged past their 'prime'.

There's a couple of smartphone videos shot inside the club but not very many. Most of them show drunken British teenagers with much more money than sense. But occasionally a bit more of the club is visible, which shows the high ceiling except where there's a second story, a lot of which is taken up by a large front of mirrors. There are also a couple of doors leading away from the main room and with bit of an eye for procedure John might spot that those are actually somewhat guarded. At the very least they're open for every guest, but some are let through. Finally the staff at the place looks predominantly Asian.

[John Hino]

"Could be where the 'escort service' is operated from," he commented to himself. On that note, he looked for other crimes involving either the club or the singer. He even checked Japanese media for the latter.

[Narrator]

Yui Kumo appears to have a squeaky clean record, both in the UK as well as in Japan. There are some police reports regarding fist-fights at the club, the occasional police file regarding patrons who didn't take being banned too well, a handful of drug stings that always came up empty and two prostitution stings that went the usual way of 'escort' services, which is to say someone probably got bribed to keep their eyes closed and the club denied any rumors that go beyond waitresses being friendly to lighten the guests pockets and keeping them 'company'. As far as the official word goes the club seems to walk a line just on this side of what is legal and tolerated under the umbrella of "Not as bad as other places".

[John Hino]

John took another look at the staff as the name Nest began to eat at him.

[Narrator]

Mainly Asian, mostly women, which in and of itself doesn't seem too out of the ordinary for a club. They all appear to be in their mid to late twenties. Here and there a face might seem familiar but John can't put the finger on why. One of the videos happens to be filmed at an angle that shows the stairs leading up to the second story and the group of people coming down. The camera actually focuses on them briefly, showing Yui herself among what must be some of her staff. Something about that group seems extremely familiar.

[John Hino]

John moved the video back and paused it on the group. He stared for a few moments before it clicked.

"The band. That's... odd..."

He felt he was close to an important revelation but couldn't quite see it. He broadened his background checks to cover the entire band.

[Narrator]

It looks like most of Yui's former band members now work for her record company in various positions. Personal assistant, talent scouts, marketing and so on. The search also brings up current and former bands under their label. It seems as if they don't tend to last very long. It's somewhat common in this particular area, which has a high turnover rate even for pop-music standards, but unlike Yui's former band members none of the bands they had under contract seem to have moved on to work for their company. In fact a quick search suggests that almost none of them had any kind of follow-up career to speak of, apparently quickly having faded into obscurity again...

[John Hino]

"A front... but for what..." No. She can't be... can she? Oh God... No, don't freak out, look more first. Be sure.

He backtracked and began plotting the locations of Hellfire member properties in different colors. After a moment he decided to add the Westminster investigations to the list. There could be a pattern somewhere.

[Narrator]

It takes some time to gather all the information on all the various holdings, especially since Hereford apparently did some fairly substantial restructuring of his business not too long ago, but eventually he has a map for Hereford, Stane and Kumo's holdings. It looks rather scattershot but reducing it to what appear to be their main investments and the locations that the most effort seem to have gone into recently ends up with this. Hereford's shippign company based out of Rotterdam and India, his construction companies in London and the UAE and a major government contract in Madripoor. Stane's manufacturing in the Ukraine and Taiwan as well as R&D in London and Hong Kong. Kumo's nightclubs in London and Hong Kong as well as her record label in Tokyo.

[John Hino]

John looked closer at the Madripoor contract, as south-east Asia kept popping up and the notorious nation of scoundrels seemed to be end of a line pointing straight at London.

[Narrator]

Infrastructure, mainly. Similar to the work that just finished in London. A highrise, putting down gas and water lines, repairing streets. Mainly in Hightown, but here and there work is being done in Lotown as well, most likely a token effort to clean up the streets. Or possibly straight up motivated by bribes. Even criminals need streets and electricity.

[John Hino]

"Hmm... interesting..."

Some kind of trial build? John checked the similar London project.

[Narrator]

Construction Finally Finishes
The construction happening at the in St. Paul's tube station in London finally finishes to the relief of many commuters. The station was forced to undergo extensive construction work when a train derailed two months ago, damaging a platform and injuring eight passengers. MGN Constructions once again apologized for the inconvenience caused by the project and thanked the commuters for their patience with the schedule that had to be extended several times.

[John Hino]

He then searched for articles about the train accident.

[Narrator]

Apparently it had been an accident. A train conductor had misjudged a signal and driven a train into another on a sidetrack, which had derailed both trains and caused significant damage to the tunnel's structure. Judging by the articles about it the public outrage over the closed tunnel and necessary construction (which ended up affecting a street on the surface as well) seemed to have almost been bigger than the one about the injuries caused by it.

[John Hino]

Maybe I should see this station myself.

He compared the tube map to the London locations he's marked.

[Narrator]

The station isn't really near any of Kumo's holdings or the Hellfire Club itself. It's simply a tube station in the heart of London, next to St. Paul's Cathedral and the London Stock Exchange.

[John Hino]

No other choice then.