Pater Familias

I’m in the business of information. I broker personal power, bending it to effect change as needed for those who can afford my services. I don’t need the pecuniary gain; I merely do that which has been the family trade for centuries. We have practiced our art through two dynasties and survived the communist revolution. In the last forty years, however, we have moved from Shanghai to Hong Kong to America, disbanded and discredited by remnants of the English Empire. Such has been our fate. Karma was unkind.

I’m the only son of an only son who was the last surviving member of the Tong family. I am alone in my generation, just as my father was in his. My father was legendary in his craft. He was master of the mental push. I idolized him in my youth. I still do. So I’ve trained all my life, studying the business of information. To avenge my father’s humiliation, and that of our ancestors. The ghosts that pulse within my veins.


So it was that I met with Charlton Matthews, the man I despise most, about his job offer.