19490206 10:02:44

AA-N-8814

19490206 10:02:44

When Brian Forenze approached the door way, it opened before him as he reached out to the door handle. A large man dressed in an impeccably clean business suit held the door open for him from the inside. He nodded once. Brian looked away as he entered, and the man holding the door open closed it after he entered and remained in the doorway. The only direction in which he could go was to the immediate right, and upon turning the corner he looked over to the main living room of the house and saw four other men standing there. All five in the room stood silent, the other four of which stood surrounding a simple wooden table with no chairs. There were four small boxes arranged on the table. Against the left wall stood Phillip Torro, to Phillip's left was Xavier Stillman, to Xavier's left was Albert Courin, and standing to Albert's left against the right wall was Judge Nicholas Carrel. This was the first time these five men were ever in the same room together, and Brian assumed that nobody knew each other, neither by name or face.
"Good, you're on time. Glad to see you.", said the man at the right wall, who then continued speaking promptly. "We have no time to waste, gentlemen. I am Judge Nicholas Carrel. The only person here who may recognize me is you," he said while nodding to Xavier, who quickly shook his head to say "no" in response. "Right, I recall you mostly staring off in your trial. Even better. Regardless. The language I will use here will be very vague, and you will soon understand it is to all of our benefits. The reason that you are all gathered here is the reason why you were all given leave on your incarceration - because we have a job for you all to do, and you were chosen as the best men to do the job. Recall that this is your chance to redeem yourself, as well - you found yourself where you were because you fucked up. Consider this your Last Chance. You may not get another. Particularly since I - we - can put you right back in a blink. Never forget it. Now. The way this was done before was through a protocol of code names. It may seem stupid, but it does the job. We have chosen how you will adopt them for yourselves and your future comrades of your choosing. Your particular identities will be assigned now." Judge Carrel then slid one box to each of the other four men. "Each box has poker cards in them. Only of one particular suit, and only of two through ten. You will now choose one from the box at random."
Albert was given the hearts box, and drew a nine.
Phillip was given the clubs box, and drew a four.
Brian was given the spades box, and drew a seven.
Xavier was given the diamonds box, and drew a two.
The Judge spoke again.
"Nine of Hearts. Four of Clubs. Seven of Spades. Two of Diamonds. Remember these names, everyone. The suit assignments weren't random, if you were wondering. You can figure out the rest. Report to my office at the courthouse at 8AM. Hearts on Monday, Clubs Tuesday, Spades Wednesday, Diamonds Thursday."