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cameras always distorted a little when he was in view. He often passed in and out of the building unnoticed. It was easier to do his job if people were unaware of his comings and goings. The work of the unholy was best done in the dark, secret parts of the world.
    Haden walked to the wall beside the security guards break room. He placed his hand on the fourth granite block from the left, the fourth up from the floor and pushed. He was immediately drawn through the wall. The portal recognized his essence as one that was permitted within and reacted accordingly. His body was pressed and diminished to a point just short of irreversible oblivion. The pain was excruciating, but movement through the fabric of the universe was exhilarating. The combination made the short trip to his personal sanctum exhausting and refreshing all at once.
    Haden had always found it amusing the way movies portrayed hidden portals as being mechanical and hidden by some facade of interior design. It was entirely possible, even probable, that such entrances existed, but he thought it was overly simplistic to think that there was no other means of hiding a doorway in plain sight. What sort of idiot hid a room in such a way that anyone could accidentally open the door by leaning against a brick or pulling a book from a shelf? Fiction or not, it was sloppy thinking of the worst kind.
    Rematerializing in the middle of his hidden room on the thirtieth floor was always a little disconcerting, but that was a small price to pay for security. His sudden presence caused the candles in the room to flair to life before Haden could will the flames lower. The room was as attuned to him as any mortal space could be, but even there he had to attune his aura to avoid nature's reaction to his decidedly unnatural presence. Food, animals, plants and fire all reacted noticeably to his presence unless he wished it otherwise.
    The night had been exhausting, causing his thoughts to wander more than usual. Chasing after Albert's playthings had been little more than a distraction, but it had been time consuming. Finding out that one of the blessed was involved had certainly made the night more interesting, even if it was only one of the Light's lesser servants. Why He would send someone so weak to the lower realm was a mystery, but they say he works in mysterious ways. Haden laughed at his own little joke before heading to an iron door built into one of the walls.
    Haden pushed open the door and stepped through, allowing the heavy iron to swing shut behind him and disappear into the cool granite wall. The door was a portal similar to the one in the lobby, but required less power to operate and was a simpler form of the same application. Still no physical mechanics, but it looked like there were as a matter of preference. For all of his otherworldly power Albert still preferred the conventions of using an actual door. Haden tried to accommodate him as much as he could.
    Albert's public office took up an entire third of the top floor of Archimedes Tower. It was a sprawling space, filled with conference tables, a bar, and flat screen televisions scattered about the room on every wall (and occasionally the floor and ceiling as well). Two large desks sat near the corner where the floor to ceiling windows of the two exterior walls met. The entire space screamed wealthy, powerful, adventurous and successful; the exact image that Albert wanted the public to see. It is what they expected from him. Details were critical and Haden was there to keep Albert's details in order.
    The sounds of conversation drew Haden’s attention to the conference room, a little section of the office where Albert held court with some of the executives and advisors of the various enterprises that he had interests in. The informal nature of the location left most executives either profoundly uncomfortable or overly at ease, either one left Albert with an advantage. The boardroom was as much a battlefield as any