"Yes, Senior. If I may ask a question...?"

"You may."

"I was surprised to be met by you, Senior. What brings you to London?"

"Why, the ghost hunt of course. You're the fourth party to arrive chasing the rumors. While I personally believe it's unsubstantiated..."

"I felt it best that we have someone more senior on hand just to reinforce that no conflict between rival parties will be tolerated in our compound."

"Just so."

"I have no more questions, Senior."

"The staff will see you to your room. Good hunting."

"Thank you Senior." Cocoa bows deeply again.

A man in a suit comes forwards and bows. "This way, if you please. And your payment?"

Cocoa slings off his pack as he walks, unzips it slightly and pulls out his wallet. Extracting a pill from it, he hands it over.

Butterfly Dancer follows suit.

As does Abyssal Bride, suspecting she ought to put cotton balls inside her tin of pills to quiet them, next time. Probably they don't bow, now, because of hospitality? It's not like she knows.

They're ushered to a suite with two king-sized beds with bedside tables (one of which plays host to a phone), a television, an overstuffed armchair, a little kitchen nook, and a large bathroom. 

"The Immortal Cuisine restaurant takes reservations for the evenings," says the servant. "And if you should wish to meet the other ghost hunting parties, I can convey to them your intentions."

"We'll want to discuss that among ourselves. Thank you for your service." Cocoa bows. 

The servant bows. "You may call me at any time on the in-room telephone. The service number is marked."

"Thank you." Cocoa smiles neutrally.

The servant nods and departs.

Cocoa holds the door for everyone to come into the room, and then closes it.

Butterfly Dancer sits down on the bed with an intensely thoughtful look.

Yeah, thoughtful indeed.

"I assume the rooms are secure from eavesdropping?"

"Of course. I still wouldn't be impolite - no sense getting into bad habits - but strategy planning is safe. I wasn't expecting to hear of three other ghost teams, though. Word travels fast." 

"The question is, what gives us the best chance of saving an innocent spirit from torture and enslavement? My instinct is that we should be out there, but leaping when we don't have any information could well get us killed if competition is fierce. We're safe here, of course, but outside these walls a competition over the ghost could easily turn bloody."

"If there's a senior on one of those capture teams, things could go very poorly for us."

"It's unlikely that there would be, this far out... but then, Rising Dragon is here."