I knocked on Alice's door once and waited.

Silence.

The hallway remained dark and quiet around me. Most of the mansion was just beginning to stir somewhere downstairs. The servants would have already completed preparations for tonight's meeting.

Thursdays were always busy on the property. Politicians, businessmen, drug dealers, senators, and criminals disguised as respectable men would arrive before nightfall, dressed in tailored suits and expensive watches. By midnight, half of them would be d