From Nocturnes in Purgatory by Joseph Armstead
He was in a spacious office filled with bookshelves populated by legal texts and leather bound journals of city and county history. It was a very masculine and imposing room, full of earthy tones and right angles, a place of power and tradition.
It was not a suitable place for reflection and contemplation. It was a place infected by the trappings of Ego-as-defined-by-Power, where decisions were made and action was born. It was not a place where Justice was welcome.
Generally, he resented the hell out of such places.
“I apologize we couldn’t meet at UCCCF headquarters in the Federal Quadrangle,” Mitchell Haggard said, “but due to the lack of a non-aggression treaty or interspecies alliance agreement between the Olympians and the U.S. government, there’s no way you would be welcome there. National Security clearance issues and all that. The D.O.J. and Homeland don’t trust your kind. Neither does the FBI, but they, at least, have learned that you in particular are a reasonable security risk. And, too, there’s still a lot of bad blood about what happened to Ric Corrigan last year, even if he was criminally compromised…”
“Not a problem,” Quinn replied softly, ignoring the comment about Haggard’s deceased predecessor as the UCCCF’s Metropolitan Section Chief over the Violent Anomalous Cases Division. Corrigan, a high-ranking managerial operative within Anomalous Cases, commonly called The Freak Show, had been acting as a double-agent in the employ of the Apollyonu. “Your government has yet to understand that we Olympians are not a ‘nation’ or a ‘people’ in the traditionally defined sense.”
“Yeah, well, it might not hurt you guys to get together, unpleasant as you each may find it, and see if you can jointly define something to present to the United Nations or somebody so you can freely interface with the human world with less friction—not to mention less bloodshed,” Haggard suggested. From his manner, he clearly recognized there was little hope his words would have any effect.
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