> So far, our data about Tamanous barely qualified even for the bogeymen directory. There was not enough facts to make all these urban tales look plausible. After asking around which people in our community could bring something, I caught a lurker of ours. JD is French runner, living in Québec now. His first involvement in Tamanous business dates back to 2051, when a certain Madeleine Mueller hired him for her protection (it seems her employer at Sol Media felt less concerned by her security than by the rating an assassinated reporter could make). Before that he was in the French Gendarmerie in the VIP protection unit and at Interpol, and he kept a lot of useful contacts to dig about Tamanous. As far as I know, there is one or several groups who paid him regularly to check Tamanous whereabouts.
> Captain Chaos

As soon as a use was found for body parts, there was people to make a business of it. During Middle Age apprentice physicians were performing autopsy in spite of the Church ban. Later in the Twentieth Century, the length of waiting lists for transplant surgery created a new black market of organs. The demand greatly reduced with the new cloning technology, but opportunity remains for an illegal organization. They cut down cost on therapeutic cloning by ignoring taxes and health regulations, and sells as well restricted and costly enhancement biotechnology.

In the Awakened World, smugglers also gained a market with vampires, wendigos and ghouls' very particular alimentary habits. Recently, the SURGE also restarted genes hunting. DNA sample of rare or unique changelings can worth a lot of money for who find it.

> The hunt for metagenes will probably go on for a few years. As far as we can tell, the SURGE rate is the same in Wisconsin than in Central Africa, so there may be still plenty of unlisted cases to discover living or buried in a small village in the most remote parts of Africa, Asia or South America.

A single organization, Tamanous, has cornered worldwide all these activities with aggressive methods of operations and elimination of the opposition. The Mafia and the Yakuza forgot about breaking their hold, while some Triads and Andes' Cartels seem to have an indirect involvement in Tamanous' activities.

> There's one exception to Tamanous rule in Chiba. Even Tamanous couldn't break into Yakuza-Central.

> No. They're there too. They leave a huge margin to the Yak but they are their supplier of stuff and technical expertise.

Tamanous' activities can be traced back to 2041. Before that, nobody can say for sure. There were people conducting business in Tamanous fields, but no clue about when it becomes an organized set. The ties with the ghoul nation of Asamondo makes probable that Tamanous' roots could be rather found in the early 2030ies.

Tamanous may owe its name only to the first of its network that was discovered. In 2043, the Salish-Shidhe authorities located three black clinics in the vicinities of Vancouver, Boise and Seattle. Vehicles going in and out of the Boise clinic were also crossing Tir Tairngire border regularly. But almost everything disappeared within the week after their localization was known, leaving little doubt there weren't a very organized people behind them. The most disturbing aspect was the way they supplied themselves with blood, organs and other body substances of medical use by abducting people.

The organization got its name because after five bodies missing several organs were found on Tamanous hiking trail #27. Tamanous was a major spirit of the Northwest Pacific natives' mythology, sometimes described as cannibal, fitting with the method used by those people. The Tamanous gang was quickly considered as another homegrown Amerindian mob, just like the Lakota and Koshari Mafia from the Sioux Nation and Pueblo Corporate Council.

> There was obviously something very different with Tamanous. The Lakota as the Koshari big business are gambling and estate scheming, the logical continuation of what was going on in the reservations.

> I won't pretend everything has always been clear in the Amerindian territories, but be careful not to cross the line.

> The choice of the place bear a significance. The trail goes near a place where the young were initiated. I think the bodies found were the first work of a new henchman of the organization.

> Stupid media. Tamanous is a word you find out in several tribal cultures with different meaning. In the initiation that gave its name to the trail in that area, Tamanous were individual guardian spirits, no cannibal thingie.

> With all the amalgams the Amerindians made to resurrect their culture, you can't overlook the possibility that the organs leggers themselves mixed the stories to create myths and initiations that ensure loyalty.

> You should know since the Awakening. All the old mythos were true. Some tribes remembered the Tamanous as guardians, some other as cannibal, and some other as the creator of Crater Lake. But it is only one single thing. The Tir Princes supported to rebirth of Tamanous circle to harvest blood and fuel Crater Lake Mana.

> Is that true?

> Harvesting blood and conquering the world ? Hmm... let me check... not sure... The legend about Tamanous and Crater Lake does exist. For the ties with Tir Tairngire, I won't be the one proving them, although that would at last explain where did they get a part of their state budget all these years.

> In brief, it's another glorious example of what "common knowledge" becomes when left unchecked for too long. The bottom line is, we don't know how and where the organization we called Tamanous started.

You might have heard of Tamanous regularly these days in the Pacific Northwest. With the crisis between the Salish-Shidhe and the Tsimshian, the media keep receiving information about corruption case provided by Mitsuhama or the North American Association for Technologies of Organism (a corporate association widely dominated by Universal Omnitech and other Salish-Shidhe biotech corporations) to discredit one or the other government.

Since, new branches of Tamanous were discovered. They were and still are dispatching their stuff in America from the Caribbean ports, where their ruthless methods to exterminate competition were the most openly displayed against pirates crew. But in 2061, they removed the Rivero family from the Antilles almost overnight. A commando killed about 70 people in the Rivero black clinic on Antigua.

> The story says on the "Rivero night" some higher-up of Tamanous was dinning in Don Raul Batista villa in Havana. After looking at his clock, he just told him "given the hour, I think it's time to discuss a new agreement to ship our stuff out of South America, as Mr. Rivero doesn't work with you any longer."

> Batista was well aware of Tamanous plans long before. One of the victim of that night was Fernando "The Wrists" Perez, who was undergoing a facial remodeling at Rivero's clinic, two weeks after the failed assassination attempt against Batista's cousin. If Lucas Rivero hadn't stepped on Tamanous' toes first, Batista would have killed him anyway.

In turn, the CAS have been after them. I think at the beginning they thought Tamanous operations in the Caribbean were a moneymaker for Aztechnology clandestine operations. But DocWagon and other medical corporations lobbied the government to go after Tamanous harshly. As a result, Tamanous was the major target of numerous "Criminal Deterrence Operations" illegally conducted by the Department of Domestic Investigation outside of the states. The UCAS government also included Tamanous in the Federal Bureau of Investigation and Central Intelligence Agency's international scope.

> Medical corps don't just lobby. Tamanous is a competitor and some like Seretech and Hopkins Inc. treat it like their other competitors, and can even make good PR with it.

> They're not Tamanous only enemies. The Crying Masks Society from the Sioux and Algonkian Council consider Tamanous as a arch-evil.

In Western Africa, the human flesh smuggling that feeds Asamondo ghouls' nation since its foundation in 2030 is one of the biggest all-time connection of Tamanous. Several attempts to dismantle it were made, but with no other way for the ghouls to feed themselves, it restart each time, while giving little to no information concerning Tamanous' other operations.

> I still don't understand why Big D gave all those creds to the ghouls' cause. How much will end in the pocket of Tamanous ?

> The ghouls can't survive without human flesh. They are people who can't synthesize some human proteins and can't digest cooked meat because of a disease. Tamanous people may be asshole, but they are the only one helping those poor guys.

Around 2050, Marseille illegal experimentation scandal seemed a corporate affair, but Tamanous was there as well. Nearly all the people who were supplying the secret corporate labs with abducted human guinea pigs and restricted medical compounds were related to Tamanous networks before or after that affair. The investigations subsequent to Marseille experimentation scandal was a major blow to Tamanous. But since, the few French police units still working on it became careful of possible politics involvement. Tamanous centers of activities have probably moved to Switzerland and Oslo, in the middle of a nebulae of small black clinics.

What Marseille was to cybernetic interface, Azania was to genetic alteration as discovered with the Genera scandal in 2056. More than a few people working for Tamanous were present in the background each time while people focused on the corporate forefront.

> That means Spinrad Industries, Saeder-Krupp, Fuchi and Yamatetsu in Marseille, and AG Chemie Europa, Proteus and Mitsuhama in Azania, have all conducted business with Tamanous at some point.

> Although Tamanous is not very present in Asia, Yakashima is also deeply in bed with them. In the cannibalism story I told you a while ago, some Tamanous guys from Australia are seemingly supplying the involved Yakashima executives with their meat.
> Glaive

> Don't forget the Torrens prison scandal in 2058. Theer was a full organ legging ring operating directly inside the prison of Lake Torrens in Australia.

In every bad a good, Tamanous have heavily suffered from the Shedim manifestations. The first months completely disrupted a lot of their operations around the world. When Shedim weren't killing everybody, it often allowed the police to locate their facility's location. Because of Shedim, drugs smuggling has become a safer activity for Tamanous.

> At the same time, Tamanous' mages are among the best experts of Shedim and the realm of the deaths.

To say it once, don't go toe to toe with Tamanous alone or with your small-time band. Messing with Tamanous is as much dangerous than messing with any major syndicates. This one has particularly violent reaction. When targeted by the police or a megacorp, usually Tamanous just disappear to limit the damage. But if your operation against Tamanous is only sponsored by a gang or an individual not powerful enough, odds ain't with you. At the opposite, a lot of runners' communities in the major sprawl have some sort of ban over dealings with the organ harvesters.

> If you're in trouble with the Mafia or Yakuza, you always have a little chance to face a traditionalist, a guy who will talk about honor, respect and control and eventually let you go away. I've never heard of such things with Tamanous.

Now that I warned you on how to use it, I let you access to what I've compiled from the police and intelligence reports about Tamanous I could get my hand on. The amount of known has significantly grown in the past few years, thought it's not clear if it's Tamanous' size or the polices' results that are in increase.

Tamanous main business remains the supplies of human organs and pharmaceutical compounds by illegal means. Those means can vary from just ignoring local taxes to the most frightening methods. They steal in hospitals and morgue, loan money on the guarantee of your organs and buy to poor family their children's organs. People are abducted just because they happen to have a rare blood type. And there are the farms, where humans are nothing more than a support to produce enhanced organs and rare proteins.

> There are fields, endless fields where human beings are no longer born; we are grown. For the longest time, I wouldn't believe it. But then I saw the fields with my own eyes, watched them liquefy the dead so they could be fed intravenously to the living and standing there, facing the efficiency, the pure, horrifying precision, I came to realize the obviousness of the Truth.
> Neo

> *sigh* Not that flatvid again !

> Funny, in my memory it was Morpheus who was saying that line.
> I.mage

> Okay, I suppose I'm the only one here that ever saw the inside of those human farms. Let me tell you, there's nothing funny with it. I didn't see any endless field, rather small dispersed facilities underground. There are still about half to two hundreds people in each. Some are just rows of cages, other have SOTA equipment all around, people in growth tank. Even when they left quickly, the find the time to salvage worthy electronic components or such small things, while people are left to decay in the tanks.
> Glaive

They are also running some black clinic with these organs and drugs. Truth to be told, Tamanous remains the easiest way to obtain bioware on the black market. Although they don't have any supply source for cybernetic implants, they are in that business as well. The secret surrounding some delta clinics' operations clearly reminds of the one Tamanous ensure on all its operations. They could be the power behind one of the so-called independent clinics.

All these activities also allowed Tamanous to expand. They have very important sums at disposal to loan money to anyone. They can take a few or all your organs as a guarantee or as a payment (after a delay) but they accept other kind of payment for good clients, including somebody's else organs. Tamanous networks also has the equipment to smuggle bio-weapons and conduct neural reprogramming.

> Tamanous is regularly supplying the Chimerae with programmed one-time assassins. The rumor says the Chimerae sold a technique borrowed to the Russian FSB, but Tamanous greatly improved it.

> Chimerae's one thing. Now Tamanous is also supplying bugs with host bodies.

By all account, Tamanous does not seem to be a large organization in numbers, in comparison to some large some Mafia families and Yakuza clans. It is rather constituted of very mobile people, who quickly disappear whenever the police is closing, and resurface in another business on the other side of the world the following month.

Tamanous have very competent scientific experts, who remains in permanent movement and do not stay in a location more than needed. The standard is unusually high, with most henchmen being as much competent as assistant chemist than they are at brawling. They are also in touch with heavily armed groups, some African or Asian warlords and the Andes Cartels.

All known Tamanous leaders are most wanted by the numerous government. If they arrived there, it's that they don't mind having their hands dirty, and if they're still there, it's that they are nevertheless cautious. On several occasions, Tamanous displayed its typical, very aggressive policy against police services too effective against them. But that remains far from the storm that passed upon every criminal syndicates who tried to cut into Tamanous market.

Osawa is a Makah of the Salish-Shidhe Council. For what is known of Tamanous history, he's the last of the historical leaders. Osawa is violent but always cold like death, a cautious attitude that may have saved in life on several occasions. He always escaped but among his crimes he's wanted for more than a dozen murders of policemen throughout North America, during arrest attempts and undercover missions. The four other boss of the early era died one by one in violent arrest attempts.

He started with some of them in 2038. He was using his place at Universal Omnitech Security Checking Service to have pharmaceuticals products falling from the trucks. He made his way since but stepped down in the management of Tamanous' activities as he get 56. Recent reports indicate he could be already or soon enough undertaking a leonization treatment.

> I wouldn't be surprised if he'd get his treatment by Universal Omnitech. UO had always maintained a double accountancy and made a profits of the products sold on the black market by "rogue" employees. Possible Osawa never stopped working for them.

> The UO connection theory have been around from the start. No solid fact ever came to back it, but the new elements fit perfectly every time. Both UO and Tamanous have their biggest bases in Northwest Pacific area and Africa, making doubtful they could remain totally unrelated.

The Odessa mob is an important part of the Organizatsya but I advise not to ever call them Vory. That's a Russian word, you see, and some are quite sensitive with that (Organizatsya ain't either, but it sounds close enough in Ukrainian). Anyway my point was one of Odessa mob boss, Andriy Lytvyn. As you might guess, I speak about him because he's also controlling a part of Tamanous' activities. Lytvyn is a respectable businessman, owning about 16% of Bioenergetica Corporation (a Swiss shell company, whose subsidiaries in Ukraine and Russie deal with fuel chemistry, from cars to cyberware) and controlling twice as much by proxy and straw men. The legit business is covering numerous illegal trades, but its activities in cybernetic and biologic implants are directly connected to Tamanous.

> Lytvyn inherited the Tamanous connection with the rest from none other than Yuri Severenko. When he left for Zurich-Orbital, he let Lytvyn the proxy rights for Bioenergetica and Renraku and the connections to Tamanous and Chimerae.

> And this is backed by... ?

> We'll see. If he get killed shortly after posting that, that would be not a great loss and still a good start.

If Osawa is responsible for Tamanous' pre-emptive security, and Lytvyn makes logistic, Daniel Kahn is the organizer. The major point in his bio is his infection by the HMHVV-1. In short, he's a vampire. With an organization like Tamanous, he had obviously no problem to find his meals. But it took time to figure out he held such a high position in the organization.

Before that, he frequented for years business circle in France and Switzerland, in spite of his condition. Although the suspicion raised before that, it's only after the assassination of Alois Kulikovski in Paris in 2055 that he was indicted for something.

> A gruesome case if you ask me. Kulikovski was about to give the French justice the full rundown on Marseille experiments. Usually Kahn is careful and doesn't get involved in murders, but with Kulikovski, he was making an example for all the other higher-ups of Tamanous.

> Hey, don't skip the flavor ! What was so gruesome?

> Kahn turned Kulikovski into a vampire and nailed him to a wall with wooden spikes. The corpse wore no trace but the blood shed indicated the tortures were days long before Kahn cut his head off. You asked.

Sources point his current location as the vicinities of Trieste. It should be noted that there are no information available on his place of birth or the exact time when he started working for Tamanous.

> From Trieste, it's harder for Kahn to maintain in contact with his sire in London. This current situation weakens the Ordo Maximus since Kahn's controlling most of the Tamanous networks for them.

> Yeah, it's a well-known fact every new vampire when he get bitten receives his conspiracy member card.

You have two reasons to meet Pieter Brunner. The first is that he is a good geologist and an even better negotiator. Several corps resort to him to negotiate mining rights, including DeBeers-Omnitech, Tanamyre Resources and Yakashima Technologies. The second, lot less official one is that he's the person to call if you want to contact Tamanous at the highest level. Everybody know it, but nobody can prove it. You get in touch with Brunner and a few days later Tamanous get in touch with you. That simple.

> Of course, it's not anybody who come to see him. Brunner have a lot of influence inside Yakashima as Tamanous is the exclusive supplier of the executive's cannibal feast.

Brunner himself is not always easy to find, especially if you don't come as a friend. He usually rent isolated and well secured villa where he's called to do business, be it in Africa, the Andes, the NAN or Australia.

> In 2060 the CIA found out Brunner was a regular of a high-end resort on the Azanian shore near Cape Town. Langley wanted to break in to visit Brunner laptop, but the White House made Brunner's abduction the mission's prime objective, with some serious firepower. It was one massive failure, with CIA operatives and Brunner's bodyguards fighting each other in the middle of the tourists.

> Obviously Brunner ain't expected to return there anytime soon. I hope he left no tip for such a deficient confidentiality.

The Colonel Makebo is very officially a military advisor to the government of Dahomey in Western Africa, responsible for the maintenance of the Eastern military zone. Practically he has his own fiefdom on the other side of the border, ruling everything up to Kainjimeer. As far as I know, Tamanous doesn't have any activities in that area, but Makebo's troops were sighted protecting Tamanous' transporters in various locations in Western Africa, including weaponry shipments delivered to Asamondo. Coincidentally Pieter Brunner was in the area on an affair of phosphate mining for Yakashima.

> Makebo is in bed with Tamanous and the Asamondo, but he's only a partner. He has his own business, including a profitable smuggling network along the Niger river.

> He's deeply in bed. Recently rival Niger smugglers were attacked by what were probably ghoul soldiers graciously lent by the Queen of Asamondo.

No investigation has successfully linked Hector Makebo with Tamanous so far. As there are no trace of his alleged war crimes either, he is only wanted for the abductions (and probable assassinations) of NBS' journalist Daniel Peltier and his assistant in 2060 and connections with Nigerian narco-traffickers.

> Peltier was an Ares Intelligence agent undercover, who was about provide a lot more reasons to arrest Makebo. His weapons smuggling wouldn't matter if his access to Tamanous labs wasn't making him a major dealer for bio-weapons.

The Doctor Michael Aldi had been arrested by the CAS intelligence services (namely the DDI, but the DSI provided its share of intel) in February 2058. A lucky outcome given the fact he was about to sell a viral weapons to a terrorist group. It remains unsure how important Aldi exactly was in the organization, but he is nevertheless an interesting character to learn about.

> Not to mention that he's a worthy prize that ain't gonna stay in jail for long. He knows too much, from Tamanous organization to NBC warfare agents fabrication.

Michael Aldi is born in Italy and studied cellular biochemistry in France. His first employment was a NBC warfare research laboratory in SOX, run by Esprit Industries. Next, he suddenly decided to go in Africa to head an alleged humanitarian mission.

> Can you say "real-scale test" ? Okay, you can... I was just checking.

His career as a corporate scientist seemingly stopped when he opened the Clinique Aldi in Nice on the Mediterranean coast. In addition to youth treatment and new organs for the rich and the wealthy, he was covering with his signature supplies of restricted medical equipment to Marseille secret corporate labs. The clinic at least remained opened until his arrest. In the meantime however, he traveled several times in Africa and Eastern Europe, directing the installation of most Tamanous facilities in those area, from small drugs labs to "human farms".

> Aldi ain't running for Tamanous. He's working for that group of WMD smuggler who bombed the Pentagon in 57.

> Or worst, there is a connection between the two...