Bergen, Norway

    The bombs detonated in quick succession, sending a cloud of smoke rolling down the mountainside. The blast appeared silent; the staccato reports took a few seconds to reach Liam from his altitude. The sound echoed across the remote countryside, though it was thankfully too far from civilization to cause alarm. Swooping down for a closer view, Liam confirmed the cavern entrance was completely sealed. The Camarilla’s most recent attempt at a European production site was no more.

    It was a short flight back to his campsite. Caleb was waiting at the mouth of the camouflaged tent. He stood and wagged his tail as Liam shifted back to his human form. He trotted forward to present his master with a mostly-eaten rabbit, but paused when Liam winced.

Pain shot through him as he put his weight on his right leg. A sharp-eyed Tremere had managed to get a lucky, and had stabbed his thigh with an enchanted blade. It would take some time to heal.

“Don’t worry, boy,” Liam said with a chuckle. “I’ll be right as rain in no time.”

Other than the injury, it had been a fairly standard mission. The facility had been heavily guarded, but Liam had managed to enter the caves without detection. He had set most of the charges by the time he was discovered.

The Tremere had interrupted him in the delicate task of setting one of the charges, and had rushed him from behind. Liam’s sharp senses gave him enough warning to spin around and spy the dagger being thrust toward his chest. He had deflected the blade into his thigh and placed his right arm through the blood mage’s ribcage in an instant. Fortunately, his attacker did not have time to cry out, and the rest of the production crew was destroyed by the blast.

He found the least uncomfortable rock to sit upon, and lit a cigarette. He drew deeply on it, and looked up at the stars. The danger was over, for now. He allowed himself a moment of silence, before he exhaled the smoke. He watched it swirl and spread as the wind carried it down into the valley. Soon, the sunrise was going to start illuminating the peaks. He decided he’d stay to watch the alpenglow before he sealed himself in his tent for the day. He’d earned it with all the horror he’d witnessed.

Liam spared a thought for the innocent victims of the blast. Hung from a wall by their wrists, naked and shaved from head to toe, with all manner of chemical burns and arcane runes carved deeply into their bodies. Organs removed, body cavities stuffed with ritual components. Kept alive with a crude form of Embrace. All manner of tubes jammed into their veins to collect the foul thaumaturgical end product. Most of them women. Most of them trafficked. Just like all the others. He hated that he was growing inured to the horror of it all.

His lamentations were interrupted by a voice, very close behind him. He hadn’t sensed anyone approaching. Caleb didn’t make a sound, he only stared over Liam’s left shoulder.

“Liam O’Farrell, as I live and breathe!” Book cried. “Imagine running into you out here. What are the odds?”

Liam smiled. Smoke gently curled away from his nostrils and slowly dissipated in the still air before the dawn. He'd tried to quit. Made it six months. Broke down in the south of France and bought a pack. Quit again. Bought his last pack. Then another. And another. This last time he'd made it two months. He flicked his cigarette to the ground and crushed it beneath his foot letting go of the last of the smoke within his lungs with a sweet sigh.

"Incalculable, I should think," he said, turning at last. "Morning, Reverend. I'm afraid I haven't been very good about coming to church, lately."

"It's okay, Caleb," he said to the shepherd. The dog dropped his head into Liam's lap, and Liam patted the rock nearest him invitingly with a nod towards the horizon. "I don't think I have long, but you're welcome to join me."

Book stared at the rock for a moment, then he shrugged and took a seat. "Cool as a cucumber, as always," he remarked. "I've got a few minutes too, I suppose."

He stared at the scenery with Liam for a moment, allowing silence to pass between them. For a being older than Liam, he seemed wholly uncomfortable with the idea of sitting still. Without taking his eyes off the scenery, he tilted his head toward Liam. "I guess you must really miss the sun, huh?"

"Every single morning," he said wistfully.

"I long ago made peace with the Beast inside. But this," he said, with a wave that dismissed and encompassed the totality of the heavens at once. "This ache doesn't go away. A hundred years later and I feel it just the same."

He smiled softly. For a gangrel of his age, Liam was more human than most humans. He kept his hair short and clean and wore only a few days stubble rather than the old-man-of-the-mountain beard that most wildlings fell into after a time.

He glanced at Book at last.

"I would have thought you had all the time in the world. What brings you across my canvas doorstep?"
This message was last edited by the player at 18:03, Fri 22 May 2020.

Book chuckled. "Oh, I'm trapped hurtling through the cosmos in one direction same as you," he said. "Time is why I'm here, as a matter of fact. I'm here because, God bless you, you never remember to turn your phone back on after a stealth mission."

Liam wasn't sure what one statement had to do with the other, but he had indeed turned his satphone off prior to embarking on his clandestine deeds. And just as Book had observed, he had forgotten to power it back on. He usually got around to it by the next evening, but it wasn't as though it was ringing off the hook.

Liam fished the device out of a pocket and stared at its dull black screen. He had a tendency to forget about it for days at a time, and on those rare occasions when it rang it usually startled him. “So I have,” he confirmed with the grace to be mildly sheepish about the admonition. He powered the phone back up.

“It’s hard to teach an old dog new tricks. Present company excluded,” he said scratching behind Caleb’s ear.

“You didn’t come all the way to Norway to scold me about calling home more often. Has something happened?”

"Oh, but I did," Book said, smiling a little wider. "I asked you before: what are the odds that we are both here? Think of the astronomical improbability of it all. That a planet forms here, on a weak point in the fabric of reality. Of all the places in the infinite universe. What are the odds that the planet was capable of supporting life. That life evolved at all. That life became sentient. That they learned to overcome death itself, and to alter the fabric of space and time. All of this - all of it - culminating towards a single event. So you could exist to take a call. So you tell me, Liam. Why am I here to make sure you get it?"

“I suppose it must be a very important phone call,” Liam said dryly. He glanced down at the phone which was doing it’s best to find a satellite signal. “The sort of phone call that comes only once, and you’d hate to miss it.”
This message was last edited by the player at 13:26, Sat 23 May 2020.

"You've been missing them all night," Book said. "But I hate to interrupt you while you're working." There was an awkward pause for a moment. "I did say I had a couple minutes."

The phone rang. It was Jack's voice on the other line. "There you are," he said. "Shit, Liam. I'm glad I caught you."

If anyone could be said to be as cool as a cucumber it was Jack. Normally all but unflappable under the most harrowing of circumstances, the Mage sounded downright worried.

"Sorry, Jack. Still forgetting to turn my phone back on when I get back to camp."

"What's the matter? Did something happen back home?"

Jack was indeed worried, or at the very least rushed. His usual slow, deliberate drawl was replaced with a rushed one. "'Fraid I can't say over the phone. I need a job done and you're my first choice. Bloody mayhem assured. Death is likely. Real fate of the planet shit. Are you in?"

Book leaned in, resting his hands on his chin in a sarcastic sign of engagement.

Liam met Books’ gaze, his brow raised questioningly. The Reverend of course knew more than he was letting on.

“Where and when would you like to meet? I’m still in Europe. It may take me a day or so to hitch a ride.”

"Just give us your coordinates and we'll pick you up at sunset tomorrow," Jack said. Fortunately for Liam, the satellite phone was a dumbphone. The GPS coordinates were displayed on the screen and easy to relay. With their plans in place, Jack breathed a sigh of relief. "You know, the reason you were my first choice is because I know you would never refuse a friend in need. You saved my ass, Liam."

"You can tell me all about how great a friend I am over a couple of beers in the Winnebago tomorrow. Suns coming up any moment so I should tuck in. I'll let Caleb know to expect you."

"Safe travels."

After the line went dead, Liam glanced at the digital clock face on the phone. Book had been correct. A couple of minutes was all the time they had left.

"Do I ask how your business coincides with his or will that take more time than we have?"

"That depends on you, really," Book said. The sunlight had started to illuminate the tips of the peaks. Wouldn't be long now. "You're a clever guy. Why would I, of all people, make sure you, of all people, got into contact with two of the last holdouts of Verdant Falls?"

"Because the Camarilla are getting close to Vamanando," Liam remarked. It was the only thing that made sense to him. Liam had amassed a vast and eclectic web of associates and contacts since first setting foot in Verdant Falls years ago. Some were fleeting. Others enduring. A few were connected, sometimes in unexpected and surprising ways. Many stood alone in their own little orbit.

But the Venn diagram that comprised Jack and Book overlapped at only one node apart from Liam, and that was Vamanando. Jack was determined to keep the eldritch horror contained, and Book had made it his life's work to release it. Only now it seemed someone else might get there first...

Book squinted. "Physically, yes, they're close," he said. "Not in any way that matters, though. They're more interested in how to kill it. Wasted effort, if you ask me. No, if I thought for a moment that those slimy old hobgoblins were capable of performing such an undertaking without fucking one another over then I'd be having this conversation in Keisinger's office. Sitting on something more comfortable. Good guess, though."

“Because Jack has had a change of heart?” Liam hazarded, his voice conveying his disbelief. Jack had seemed fairly resolute on this particular matter in the past. Out of the corner of his eye Liam watched the daylight march it’s way down the distant peaks. Distant but moving quickly. “You see an opening somewhere at any rate, even if he hasn’t connected the dots.”

"No, you'll probably need to go behind his back on this one," Book said. "I'm sure this will all make much more sense when you're in the thick of it. Still, I wish you had more faith in yourself."