Against his better judgement, this noon Corn was in his car heading to meet Crypto downtown in a cafe that Corn has picked. While in the main road and 5-10 minutes from his destination - traffic included- he barely noticed a large man in Orthodox Christian clergy robes and a gray beard walking down the street, leaving a large hotel that was on the way, followed by a junior priest with splotchy skin and a shorter beard.
A few seconds later he was stopping at the stop sign in the intersection where the hotel was, mindful of cars from the guests of the hotel when the back door of his car opened and a tall black woman in high heels and an elegant dress one would expect to see at a cocktail party at night entered his car as if he was a taxi!

"What...?! Who are you? What are you doing?!? Get out!" Corn said angry and animated. The woman was too calm and too well dressed for this to be a robbery in the middle of Sacramento at noon. She probably mistook him for an Uber or something. Still, with a moment's concentration he brought up his mage shield.
3 successes


The scent of perfume assaulted his senses as the woman instead of getting out got comfortable in the back seat and said. "Relax! You're scaring me! I got your license plates from someone you know as 'Crypton' or something. He said you would never leave a lady in distress! I really need you to take me to him before anything happens. Please go!"
Crypto... For fuck's sake!
And she is probably lying and trying to manipulate me! 'Lady in distress' and all... she probably stole something or caused some kind of trouble and they expect me to help!
But... that manipulation seemed to work. He couldn't in good conscience kick out a woman that asked for him to give her a lift to a destination he was always going.

Fuming, Corn headed downtown as the annoying guy driving the car behind him started with the horn.
"I am Celeste." The woman in the back said.
Celeste... Quite probably a prostitute. I am driving prostitutes to Crypto after they meet their clients - probably that Bishop. How low have I sank? Corn thought as Celeste rumbled on. "What's your name, darling? Your friend never said. Are you superman fans or something? "
"Let us be clear on something. I am not your friend and I am not friends with that sleazy leech." Corn barked angrily to his passenger.
After a moment of quietly fuming he added, "And the Superman thing is called Kryptonite, his alias is from elsewhere." He would not let them drag Superman down to the mud with them, even if they dragged him.
"No need to snap at me, sweetie. For someone that is not friends with that guy, he knew you pretty well; he told me you would be stopping at the stop sign and that I should get in and after some complaining, you would get me to the meeting. I really needed that lift and it is good you were punctual. You did me a solid here. You know I can give you a discount ... "
"I am a happily married man." Corn growled, more annoyed that he was so easy to predict than at the woman's suggestion.
"What types do you think support us working girls, honey? Horny teens with their allowance?"
I am not winning this one, Corn thought with a sigh.

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

The meeting with Crypto was short. As expected, the mage waved away Corn's complaints. The Bishop, visiting the flock from Romania, had a list of relics and artifacts held by the Metropolis of Banat, some of which were in possession of the Romanian Church and some were lost during the Communism years. A group of unnamed gentlemen have contacted Crypto for "something" that may or may not have been there. The Bishop himself was also interested in the location of some of the things in that list that may be in the hands of some Slavic mobsters, as many of them used to work for the secret services of communist states in the Balkans. He was also interested in Celeste and her services... So it's a win - win - win.
Crypto explained that Celeste being seen with a visiting Bishop of the Romanian Church would not draw attention. Chaste members of the clergy being in the same hotel as high class prostitutes was not as rare as some would think. Furhtermore, Celeste being seen with Corn wouldn't draw attention to Crypto by the people that may be watching the Hotel, the people Celeste needed to avoid. And of course he didn't seem to care that he drawn Corn in what could perhaps be a dangerous situation - or at the very least very embarrassing.
Corn was about to throttle Crypto when the other mage off-handedly gave him the sheet of paper he was holding after he had taken photos of it:
The list of religious relics and ancient texts that are considered to be have been given away by the Metropolis of Banat to the "Lord's Army" and other faithful before the communist take-over. Many of these would be of great interest to the Mysterium...

Crypto played him again. And this time, Corn didn't mind. He would get that list to the Mysterium in LA, where he knew a few people interested in such texts for some major Guanxi. Win-win-win as Crypto put it.