What his father could possibly need him for escaped him.

He did not answer his phone, but his father's voice on the answering machine was unmistakable.

"I have a job for you. Someone will be by for you soon."

When he called his mother about it, she said, "Yes, I know about it, no, I don't know what for. Probably Webday, dear. Did you get the Feslime I sent?"

The word job was the last word Barth wanted to hear. Not because of the promise of evilly nefarious dealings, all that was alright, but because it would invariably involve work. Even with the threat of work hanging over him like a sword, the fact of the matter was that more than work, Barth was afraid of his father. He did not want his father to love him, or be proud of him. He mostly hoped his father would ignore him.

Now that he had his father's attention, he hoped whatever the job was, it would be quick, painless, and that afterwards their relationship could go back to brief formal status reports.

Since he didn't know what the job was, or for how long, he didn't bother having Christof pack. He did stop briefly by the Open House booths - long enough to delegate all NAP responsibilities to his Greeter and Vice President. From there, he waited. Not in his dorm room, but outside the school gate, sitting next to the road like an unenthusiastic hitchhiker until a familiar black carriage pulled up alongside him.

The driver was a severe, gloomy looking vampire shaded by an umbrella. "Good evening, Master Barth," he said.

"Hello Grimhold," Barth replied, and slowly climbed into the carriage.

The back seat was not empty.

The only thing he recognized about the man waiting there were the scars that riddled his face, neck, and hands. They were his father's mark. He had seen Contractees with marks like that before. The folks they belonged to disappeared in short order.

"You're Ardenter's son?" the man asked.

"Bartholomew Mudd," Barth said. He didn't offer to shake his hand. The other man looked like he'd done enough hand-shaking.

"Harker," he said.

"Listen, I err, don't suppose you know what all this is about?" Barth asked.

The carriage started to move.

"He said that out of his sons, you were the most expendable," Harker said.

Barth said "Ah," as if he had expected it to be something like that, and sat back in his seat.

Things were not looking up.