Oct 7 Plot Beginning

1 Charlemagne Duquesne, a graduate from Charlotte State College/SUNY-Charlotte with degrees in Computer Science and Creative Writing, had several technology-based jobs in the immediate years after graduation. He was an Information and Data Analyst for Beverwyck Savings Bank, a Software Design Engineer for the U.S. Navy, and Database Architect for a small detective agency. It was at the latter where he was introduced to the real world of private investigation, the one that he had written about under the pseudonyms Sasha Caine and Alex Ventura.

It did not hurt that, since the age of 14, he had four guardians, spirits who watched over him and assisted him in difficult life choices and to help when life became complicated.

2 He had been followed since college, since the publication of his first novel, the plot based on the stories he read in his maternal grandfather’s journals. The older Mackowiak wrote about working in a special unit during World War II, made up of strict and observant Catholics, who were beyond reproach and came highly recommended. Charlemagne had thought these were the scribblings, the daydreams of a bored Army cook, the job Grandpa Jules had said he held.

Now, as a private detective in training, as the other operatives called him, he began to observe his surroundings more, and now noticed that at least one car would follow him from the offices of Campion and Champion to lunch with his father several blocks away. Though no one ever came to talk with him, it unnerved him.