The pieces of this chess game were all stacked in Markus's favor. Two more moves, and check mate. However some areas weren't all going to be so easily covered with quick and well maintained guises of deception. For this, he needed someone who could "notarize" a few things for him, and by that, he meant forge the signature obtain from Mr. Manfrella. Once the documents were made out, he would be able to leave a large chunk of the company in the hands of Celeste Manfrella, and exploit it for the next step in his small plans.

He knew little about the person who he was meeting, and planned to spend little time in the sanctuary to fulfill his business. It wasn't that he feared anyone there, it was just that he didn't need anyone outside to see him, that would cause a stir in his political view that for now remained placid. All he knew, is that the person he was meeting was well versed in the art of forgery.

Curiosity killed the cat, at least as long as you listened to original sayings and not their wittily updated modern versions. Of course, in the modern versions the cat still died, so either way it was quite fortunate that Allison was not a cat. She liked cats, and had a few cat-like traits, such as that trap known as curiosity, but she was not, in fact, a cat.

Regardless of species, though, Allison was curious, so when someone she didn’t know knew her name and asked for her help in a “minor but important matter,” she spent a moment staring at the man, wondering just how he thought that “minor but important” could be anything but an oxymoron, then nodded. And, a few days later, was in Sanctuary’s rec room (which was free, this time, of ceiling-clinging lizard men), waiting for… someone. And more importantly, to figure out what exactly she’d agreed to.

And even more importantly than that, for a chance to leave any area that included squabbling, competitive fourteen year olds. She had not remembered how loud they were.

One of them having some kind of volume-amplifying ability might have something to do with that.

Allison gave up on distracting herself when she’d covered half her face in lines that spiraled out from her eye and the center of her forehead, absorbed the rest of the ink she had into a series of concentric circles on her palm, and did her best to plug her ears with her fingers. It helped, slightly.

Through an intricate web of expanding contacts, Markus had set this up, he doesn't know who or what will be at his destination, just that they were capable of forgery. That's what he asked for, and that's what he was hoping to get. Through the Sanctuary and into the recreational room he crept, as that is where he wanted to meet and where he told his man to tell whoever was going to help him to meet at.

Looking in while he strode inward he saw a girl, young by the look of it. "Good evening... Ms...?" Markus asked politely as he gestured fourth to her as he stopped mid walk and waited to move closer once she had answered.

Allison didn’t spent that much time waiting, really. It just seemed like it, with the noise and the headache and noise and the inability to block the noise out and the general lack of anything supportive of patience and dear apples someone shut up the noise.

When the (presumably, anyway; Allison was more than willing to go with an assumption, if it got her away from the noise) person she was supposed to be meeting appeared, Allison dropped her hands and stood up. And, then, brushed her hair back to cover an instant of pause. She had no idea who this was, or why he wanted to talk to her. It was Sanctuary, so she was safe… but ‘safe’ didn’t prevent people from being annoying.

Hair tucked safely behind an ear, showing off the spiral and waves of black lines that covered half her face, Allison smiled and held her hand out. “I’m Lily.”

"Pleased to meet you Lilly." Markus spoke as he sat down at the table with her as he shook her hand firmly then released and crossed his arms. "I wasn't expecting you to be a mutant, no offense, I have no prejudice vices in this world. But I am sure you can understand my point." Surprised by the black spiral on half of her face Markus immediately could tell that she was a mutant.

"Well down to business, I suppose you meet the requirements as prior requested by my contact? Experience and forgery and such?" Now shooting questions off to quickly dislodge the subject of her being a mutant that he believes he so rudely brought up accidentally.

Allison did not, in fact, understand the man’s point. Or have any idea of it, really; why would he ever have thought he was meeting anyone but a mutant in Sanctuary? Unless, of course, the point was ‘I did something stupid and want to brush it off.’ That, she understood. Was kind of tempted to answer with ‘no’ or ‘I wasn’t expecting you to be so old,’ but she understood. And had had enough practice in politeness not to say what she wanted.

Experience… well, no. Allison was starting to get the impression she had a reputation, but she didn’t really have much experience. Of course, experience was really only a means to the end of expertise, and Allison had other means to that. Primarily, the one currently on her face. So she nodded without any particular concern for the (sort of, technically, because he didn’t ask what he wanted to know) lie. “Yes. And you are…?”

If he had her name, misleading or not, she was going to get his. Even if it was a lie.

"Markus Burke." He replied with a firm and solemn voice. "I'd also like you to know that my reputation is something at stake here so, you now have the upper hand, but understand that you will be greatly compensated for if you fulfill your end of the agreement I have planned." Then pulling from his suit coat he manifested two papers, one blank with a large assortment of paragraphs, and the other signed by one Mr. Manfrella.

"The signature on this paper, I need you to forge it perfectly onto all of the required areas on the blank one." Sure Markus could have tried to forge this himself, and he knew undoubtedly that people in his political party could, but he also knew that with the death of a man such as Celeste's father, people would become greatly suspicious. So it must be perfectly and almost entirely the same as the original. Now he pushed the papers in front of the girl and awaited her response.

Markus Burke sounded… somewhat familiar. Allison was fairly certain she’d heard the name before, though she couldn’t come up with where. Well, then, either she genuinely did have an advantage, or he had for some reason chosen to impersonate someone whose reputation was important and easily damaged. Allison… couldn’t see a purpose for that, really. Especially since she could, presumably, easily look up this Markus Burke and check. She made a note to do that later, and accepted the papers.

Copying the signature… would be easy, really. A bit time consuming, to get all the details right, but easy. Maybe a bit more time, to make sure the signatures weren’t too identical… the biggest issue would be if the exact document was needed, because then she’d have to imitate the dent that a pen would make in the paper, and that would be more problematic. Not impossible, but still, difficult, and more time. She eyed the papers, then set them face down on the table. “Will it be used itself, or faxed or photocopied?”

"Once everything is in place, I will be using the original for factual use when the time comes, and archive copies that I will make of it." Pulling a pen from his suit coat he handed it to the girl now. "Also there is one more paper I need you to forge for me in his signature once you are done with that one." Markus then pulled from his suit coat his Conformatist card with his contact information on it and place among the papers. "That's if you need anything else from me, just call the number and remember that this meeting never happened."

Aw. That was almost disappointing; Allison would have liked to have been able to promise being done in fifteen minutes. It was probably best that she didn’t, though, just in case it was harder to imitate the signature than she thought it would be. She accepted the card and pen with a smile that was only slightly amused. As if she’d have mentioned a meeting where she agreed to forge important legal documents, anyway. “Of course.”

Allison eyed the card and slid it into a pocket, then leaned back slightly. It matched what he’d said so far; she’d check on it all later. “So, you mentioned being ‘greatly compensated.’”

"Yes, there is a great many things that I can provide for your services, money, connections that would fit your expertise like this well, or I could help you with any problems you may have that could lead into my works. I'm quite resourceful and reliable in certain areas. If you have any idea as to what you need now, please inform me so I may get it out of the way as soon as possible, if you can't think of anything feel free to call the number on that card as I've said."

Everything is coming together nicely, soon I will have enough money to fund almost all my projects and break into a more ideal form of crime that should lead me to where I am going. Markus consumed by his thoughts momentarily began to bring himself back down to Earth for the moment to continue his work. "One last thing, how long will it take you to accomplish this task? I am sure you will be able to get it done and there is no rush I just need to understand when you can get it to me."

That was quite a list of possible rewards… an enticing list, as it was almost certainly meant to be, with the sole flaw that Allison really didn’t need, or much want, any of it. She had enough money (and needed virtually none), wasn’t all that interested in forgery-related connections (and could probably track down Nate to ask, if she was), and as for problems… well, she couldn’t think of any particular problems she had. Not on any scale that one person, however connected and ruthless, could fix, at least; there wasn’t much any person could do by themselves to end discrimination.

Well. Not unless he was a particularly powerful and convenient type of psychic, anyway. But if he was, he wouldn’t need to bribe her; whatever his goals were, they could almost certainly be accomplished much more easily if he had an ability like that. “I’ll call you when I think of something, then.”

And if he didn’t hold up his end of the bargain when she thought of it, she’d at least be able to ruin everything he accomplished through her, and likely a lot of other things he’d done at the same time. If his reputation was that important… well, he’d better keep his promises, to Allison if not to anyone else.

Allison shrugged, holding a hand out, palm up in a slightly more composed, and obvious, gesture. And, at the same time, displaying the ink rings on her palm. “A day. A few hours, if you wanted it that quickly.” That might be slightly difficult, if she had to fix something, but would still be possible.

"Sounds good, call me when you are ready to meet again, I'll let you choose the place once you have those two papers signed." Markus stood up now and straightened his tie, turning away from her and making his way slowly out the door of the Recreational Room. This was a success for him, hopefully, but he knew this would not fall through and would make itself out to be what he desired. Once this is all tied together it will be time to start my new project. Still distracted by a lingering thought, Markus was getting ahead of himself, but knew his ego was well within it's bounds.

Allison did call Markus Burke, after she’d confirmed who he was. Well after, in fact; having confirmed that, she knew exactly what she wanted, but didn’t want to give the impression of being too eager. What she wanted, after all, was fairly large; it’d be fair for him to ask for more from her for it than the two papers he’d asked for so far, but that was no reason to let him know he could push for more than what was fair. And she had no doubt that he would if he thought he could; no politician succeeded by being fair.

Not that Burke didn’t clearly have other forms of cheating. That was what he’d come to her for, after all. Still, it was unlikely that he didn’t take advantage of what he could, so Allison waited. Fortunately, she had already promised to have her job done the next day, so only had to wait until then before calling. Using her phone, since she’d have to give him her identity anyway, which was convenient, since while it would have been easy to go to a mall, find a shy guy and claim her phone had run out of batteries and could she borrow his to call a friend for a ride, she didn’t really want to. Since she’d be telling him who she was anyway, though, there was no need to hide whatever information on her was still attached to her phone number.

So Allison waited, this time in Sanctuary’s library--no more noisy fourteen year olds, thank you--for Markus Burke to appear. The papers were beside her, tucked into a plain, worn folder, even the one that a Mr. Manfrella’s signature had come from. The original signature was still there; if it wasn’t needed, she could get rid of it instantly. And she had the same tattoos as before, just in case.

After finishing up the call he had received from Alli or Lily as she called herself to Markus, he got around and ready to meet her at the Sanctuary once more, this time in the library. Now at his car he fumbled through his pockets for his keys, but then he heard down the street the sound of tires. Sure this was normal on a day like any other but something sounded an alarm in his head. He was all within his rights to be alarmed, it was a cop car strolling down the street oddly slowly. Only seeing it in his peripherals Markus made no eye contact, he just slipped in his car normally and acted like nothing happened. Waiting for it to pass he slowly turned the keys in the ignition, the car passed with no trouble given.

Making it out of his driveway with no attention given onto him, he now made his way to the Sanctuary, he didn't even know if the police were after him, but he was so sure that he was safe he didn't know why he was afraid. It was just a slight case of paranoia setting it's tone in Markus's mind. He was soon safely parked far away from the Sanctuary and decided to walk the rest of the way to meet Allison inside. It wasn't long before Markus was sweating, and he didn't know why, he could only assume it was just paranoia and had to insist that he was fine. Straightening his appearance out before once more meeting with this girl and then stepped in to the Library to look for her.