Katy Shaw and the Search for the Stolen Secret

Cover art by PixelWayve

**Katy Shaw and the Search for the Stolen Secret** is a Noir album. It is the first installment in the Secret Series. It takes place during the Dieselpunk era of New Albion, prior to the events of The New Albion Radio Hour.

A live listening party took place on YouTube on March 8, at 3PM Eastern Coast Time, and the album was released on March 10.

## Characters and Credits

Candice Price as Katy Shaw

Kerttu Aarnipuu as Sheila

Hayley Warner as Cora

Lauren Osborn as Constance

Paul Shapera as Mark and Michael

Marjolein Nijsten as a New Albion Police Officer

Josh Plotner playing saxophone on The Balley, The Heist and The Warehouse

Nico Finke playing saxophone on Katy Shaw, Without Her, The Heist and end of The Warehouse

Jacob Wynne playing trumpet on The Rhumba Club

Gary Winters playing trumpet on The Heist

Cover art by PixelWayve

## Plot

As the civil war is going on, the party scene is raging as people try to forget all their fear and worries. Katy Shaw is one of these party girls spending every night at the club, stealing and fencing goods for a living. She commonly uses Skag, though she claims that she has her drug use under control. She also has a habit of falling in love with straight girls, and is secretly pining over her best friend Sheila. *(Katy Shaw)*

   As the narrator of the story, Michael introduces that he's going to be telling Katy's tale. He sets the scene on a Thursday night, and Katy and Sheila are partying at a club called The Balley. *(The Lowdown 1)*

At The Balley, Katy and Sheila are dancing and partying. Sheila suggests that they head over to Wormy's table to make some deals, but Katy heads up to the fire escape to take some drugs. The police raid the club, looking for a list of names of people to take into custody. *(The Balley)*

Because Katy was on the fire escape, she was able to hide up on the roof to avoid getting captured during the raid. However, Sheila was taken away by the police. Katy ran home to hide away and distract herself with more Skag. *(The Lowdown 2)*

Katy reflects on how she doesn't deal with things well. She has a tendency to run away from her problems and to hide her feelings instead of admitting that she's in love with someone. But she realizes that she can't live without Sheila. Katy says that if she loves her, she's got to step up and do something to rescue her friend. *(Without Her)*

Sheila's boss is Cora, the Cigarette Girl who's in charge of the spy union. She knows all of the secrets of the town, so Katy goes to her to see what information Cora knows about what happened to Sheila. *(The Lowdown 3)*

Cora works at The Rumba Club, shrouded in masks and secrets. The Cigarette Girl uses information as her currency, and promises to help if Katy acquires something for her in return. *(The Rhumba Club)*

 Cora is trying to broker a deal between the mob and the albino tribe, a merger involves the control of a drug called TanSan. It will take some thievery to obtain what Cora requested. Because the job is too complex for Katy to pull off by herself she goes to her friend Constance for help. *(The Lowdown 4)*

Katy recalls a moment from the past, when she and Constance made out one night. It wasn't a thing they discussed afterwards, and to Constance the kissing was insignificant drunken fun. But Katy had been secretly in love with Constance, and that night was a treasured memory for her. *(The Old Days)*

Constance agrees to help with the breaking and entering, says that she'd do anything for Katy. The two successfully pull off the heist. Afterwards, Constance says that things have been a bit weird between them, and suggests that they go somewhere to talk. Katy awkwardly says that she wants to, but she can't, and she has to go, and Katy runs off. *(The Heist)*

Katy returns to Cora, who gives Katy an address of where to find Mark, who can tell her more information about the situation. He's been hiding and is scared, but once Katy calms him down he explains what's happening. *(The Lowdown 5)*

 Mark has a friend named Ramon, who came up with a scheme to get a huge payday. A government liaison, Lloyd Allen, and a woman named Llewellyn are working on phase two of the secret soldier program at a Tinker Shop, and if they steal the plans they could start a bidding war between the resistance and the government. Mark is hesitant, but after some snide remarks from Brandon, he agrees to the plan. But it goes wrong when Ramon shoots the Llewellyn woman and murders her. They do steal the folder containing the plans, and when they're celebrating afterwards, Ramon took some TanSan and suddenly disappeared for two hours. When he came back, Ramon said he went back in time to a prairie place, but he dropped the folder there and forgot it. The police arrive and Mark and Ramon run, but Ramon is captured by the cops. Mark is hiding and laying low to avoid being captured, and hears that Ramon didn't survive the interrogation. The police are now rounding up druggies in a warehouse, and they're force feeding them TanSan in an attempt to find someone who can disappear like Ramon did, so that they can retrieve their folder. *(Mark)*

Katy heads to the warehouse hoping to find Sheila. On her way there, Michael gives a glimpse into her past to help explain her way of coping with life. *(The Lowdown 6)*

 Four years ago, Katy found her mom dead in a hotel room on Christmas Day. Her step father had left her mother, and he had taken everything from her. Katy had gone to steal a big score to keep them going, but while she was out her mother overdosed on pills and committed suicide. *(Christmas in the City)*

Katy goes to the warehouse and finds Sheila there. Sheila had expected Katy to run, and Katy replies that she's been running for a long time but it's time she stopped. Katy admits that she's in love with Sheila. Sheila wishes that Katy had told her earlier, and reveals that she was the informant that called the cops to The Balley. Sheila had watched Katy blip away one day when they had used TanSan, and had given Katy's name to the police. Sheila says that after Katy retrieved the folder, she would have been released and they could go back to partying with a nice monetary reward from the government. The police arrive on the scene and capture Katy *(The Warehouse)*

The government solders force Katy to take a huge dose of TanSan, and ten minutes later she disappears. Katy reflects on the cruelties that have been dealt to her, and how she keeps getting kicked around when she's down. She responds with anger, and after being passive for so long she's done being the victim and starts to fight back. Michael gives a brief aside about the stories he tells, describing how he cares deeply for each character, and how difficult it is to deal with all of the heartbreak and pain that are in every tale. Katy finds the folder, picks it up, and starts walking. She's got two hours to get far away from the warehouse, and when she blips back she'll be far away from the warehouse, the police, and the previous life that she has led. *(The Lowdown 7)*

## Soundtrack

"The Lowdown 1" - Michael
"The Balley" - Katy, Sheila, Police Officer
"The Lowdown 2" - Michael
"Without Her" - Katy
"The Lowdown 3" - Michael
"The Rhumba Club" - Cora
"The Lowdown 4" - Michael
"The Old Days" - Katy
"The Heist" - Katy, Constance
"The Lowdown 5" - Michael
"Mark" - Mark
"The Lowdown 6" - Michael
"Christmas in the City" - Katy
"The Warehouse" - Michael, Katy, Sheila, Police Officer
"The Lowdown 7" - Michael, Katy

## Trivia

* Paul had debated on what to name the album, and almost called it "Katy Shaw and the Secret of the Forgotten Folder" before ultimately deciding on the current title.
* In this album Paul wanted to play with the idea of what a tragedy is, as technically in a tragedy the protagonist should be worse off than when they started. At the end of the story, from an event standpoint Katy is worse off but from an internal standpoint she is better