track from his fixation on Kicia, not to mention his
impossible yearnings for his teacher the Marchessa. Renee dug Alec a
good bit, and confronted him over Kicia. He made his feelings
apparent, and Renee soon left Alec, Zenith, and Hallmark – at least
for a good 10 years. Her replacement became Alec's “sidekick” for
the duration of his time cruising Flicker Street for fares: a 16 year
old cabbie-in-training named Hobie T Reale, Diggs' nephew. Alec
taught Hobie some martial arts and Hobie referred to Alec as
“teacher”. Alec said he was on a mission, Hobie could not come
along, and when next he came to Hallmark, he would give Hobie a
proper training. The two would often smoke ganja and ruminate on the
nature of the universe, which Alec would soon be doing in a whole
different venue.

Inthe midst of all this,
Alec never wavered in using his tightness with Ray to see Kicia every
chance he got. They had a sweet and tender dynamic that belied the
violence and vice surrounding them. Alec practiced using his hard-won
skills to hit the mob, and was only marginally successful. Finally,
the time came for his mission: to infiltrate Javier's Order of Cosmic
Emptiness. He managed to kill guest speaker Antioch Moldor, a
powerful warlock and founder of the Aggregate analog group the
Damnation Brigade. Javier let Cowan escape and was intrigued by him.

It had been two months of
what was supposed to be a two week mission. Alec went to see Kicia
one night when she was home alone studying (Ray got her back in
school) and Ray was clubbing. They finally had “The Talk”
(capital “T”, capital