Imperial Security and Intelligence Service

"Good God, Bea, what is it?" Anders picked a fist-sized metal ball with several small holes in it up from the workbench. He turned it slowly in his hand. There appeared to be a sliding button on one side. He knew better than to push it, though. In Bea's laboratory things had a disconcerting way of exploding.

"A bomb," the old woman said pushing her thin-rimmed glasses up her nose. She had always looked schoolmarmish and motherly to Anders. What would one learn in her classes? The many uses of thermite, or how to garrotte a man with a scarf? The mind boggled. "Press the button and spikes pop out of these holes here." She pointed to the small depressions dotting the ball. "Sticks well in wood. You then have fifteen seconds to get out of range. Very useful for taking out carriages and whatnot, hmm?" Her spectacles had creeped down her nose in fitful jerks as she spoke. She pushed them up again.

"I imagine so," Anders said, wondering if that fifteen seconds was more than just wishful thinking. Though Bea's devices worked astoundingly well in the field, there were times when things went… awry. "This won't shatter the user's jaw like that sound device you invented last year, will it?" Bea started to fume.

"That was a fluke," she said indignantly. She hitched up her small frame to well over 5 feet. "And besides it was a side effect."

"Well what's this one?" Anders asked changing the subject. He pointed to an upright metal cylinder with a screw on top.

"My lunch," she replied sarcastically pulling the top off the cylinder and pouring hot soup into a cup. "Like some?"

ISIS is California's best kept secret and most effective weapon. Founded in 1869 by Sir Benjamin Ford it is an offshoot of the California Secret Service which, though still active, is a minor player in the intelligence community acting largely as a public cover for ISIS' clandestine activities. Outside the immediate circle of Emperor Norton, Minister of War Carson, Director General Ford, and its members, no one knows of its existence.

ISIS is headed by a Directorate, which oversees the various departments. Each department is in turn divided into Bureaus, which are each headed by a secretary.

The Service is made up of men and women with very elaborate and convincing cover stories and hold positions from lawyers and doctors to servants and washer women. Several mages from the Order of the Golden Mean as well as the Order of St. Boniface and the Eleusinian Order make up its ranks as well.

ISIS maintains its headquarters in San Francisco in a small, unassuming block of brownstone storefronts near the Imperial Palace. Each store is actually staffed and handles customers, though not in great quantity. Each store does just enough business not to arouse suspicion, but not enough to get an overload of customers.

Underground is another matter entirely. A network of elaborate tunnels criss-cross beneath the streets and house most of the service's ten bureaus, multitude of labs and interrogation and conference rooms. Entry is through the offices of "Meeks, Fortescue, Barnes & Frederickson - Attorneys at Law". Other points of entry and exit known but to a few select individuals are dotted throughout the city.

Once inside the Service is a bustle of activity. Agents from the different bureaus are in meetings, working out elaborate schemes or fitting up for some new adventure to keep the Empire safe. Each bureau is held in a different wing of the underground headquarters. Only Bureau X, a group known only to Emperor Norton, Minister of War Carson, Director General Ford, and its members, maintains its headquarters elsewhere in the city. Bureaus often overlap each other. Agents from several different bureaus will come together to form a tight-knit team for an operation.