"Ghoul," Liam said. "We can talk about what that means on the way."

"They're like living servants, right?" said Jin, following him outside. The parking lot was empty, aside from his own car and what was presumably Jin's gray Honda Civic. The only eyes on them belonged to a solitary crow foraging in the parking lot. It angrily jeered at them and went back to its business.

"You better drive," Jin said. "I'll send one of the local yokels to pick up my rental. I'm not coming back to this shithole."

Liam tossed his bag in the back and climbed into the driver's seat. "Vampire blood is potent stuff," he replied, turning the keys in the ignition. "When regularly consumed by a mortal it can extend the scale of their lifespan indefinitely. Ghouls can also heal wounds that would cripple an ordinary human, and gain a measure of our strength."

Liam pulled out of the lot and turned on his headlights as they rolled onto the highway.

"The cost - or the additional benefit - depending upon your perspective, is a loss of free will. Ghouls become deferential to their masters to the point of total obedience. Its why they can be trusted to watch over their masters."

"Caleb is my German Sheppard. He's twenty years old and he can run down a jeep and tear off its bumper. He also likes squeaky toys and bones, because at the end of the day he's still a dog. He's supposed to be obedient, just like any other Sheppard."

"Shit," Jin said. "You realize that when you guys come out of the closet you're going to have entire websites devoted to Ghouls-seeking-Masters? And I'm not just talking about goth teenagers.  Hell, what does ghouling do to cancer? Or Alzheimer's?"

"There are already blood junkies out there," Liam said with a grin. "Some humans even hunt vampire for their blood, allegedly. Can't say I've ever met anyone that crazy myself."

"So far as I know, Ghouls cant get cancer or Alzheimer's. And the antidote breaks down the loyalty bond so its now possible to get the benefits without having to be anyone's lackey, although only a handful of people know that right now."

"Sounds like you got gold running through your veins," Jin said. "Plenty of ways to endear yourselves to the common folk once the cat's out of the bag."

He looked at the road ahead, and checked his watch. "So where exactly are we headed?"

“It’s not all it’s cut out to be,” Liam replied. “Immortality is a long time. You lose the people you care for and eventually, if you’re not careful you start to lose pieces of yourself. You have no idea how hard I’ve fought to stay ‘human’ all these years. I’ve never taken a childe, and with good reason.” His thoughts went to Sophie briefly but he chose not to discuss her particular situation with Jin.

“I do worry about the implications. Death is the great equalizer. A world without death is unsustainable. Worse is the world where the wealthy are permitted to slip its bonds while everyone else is forgotten. I don’t know what the answer will be, but I do know the world the Tremere have planned for us can’t be permitted to come to pass.”

Liam drove on in silence for a few moments, watching the road speed under his tires by the glow of the headlights.

“We’re going to meet a friend. Rick Thomson. He’s a ghoul of about my vintage - Rick also fought in the Great War. I haven’t been in Montreal in ten years. Rick knows the lay of the land and he’ll fill us in. I’ll give him a call as we get close to the city.”

“Of everyone in the city Rick knows me best. He knows about Kate, my last ghoul. If anyone questions you it will be him. The sabbat view ghouls as property, or at best cherished pets. As an individual you’re  beneath their notice.”

"They sound like a fun bunch," Jin said with a roll of his eyes. "Can't wait to meet 'em. Don't worry about your friend, though. I'll make something up."

The trip to Montreal was a little over an hour; plenty of time to explain the intricacies of Kindred life to his passenger. Jin was a rapt audience, asked many probing questions, and took copious notes. But Liam couldn't shake the feeling that Jin was playing dumb on the subject. Perhaps he was confirming his sources, or wanted to see to what degree he could trust Liam.

As they approached Montreal, Liam dialed up Rick. He was quick to answer.

"Liam O'Farrell," Rick said warmly. "How ya doin', bud?"

"I'm good," Liam said, glancing up at his rearview mirror. He caught Jin out of the side of his vision, lingering on him for just a moment before turning his focus back on the road. "Just pulling into town."

"Where's a good place to talk?"

"My apartment is probably best," Rick said. He relayed the address. "No need to meet up in alleys like Soviet spies. This isn't Verdant Falls."

Jin called up directions on his phone, and silently showed it to Liam. It was right on the eastern edge of the city near the highway.

Liam nodded though Rick couldn't see it. "I'll be right along," he said. "See you shortly."

After hanging up and going over the directions with Jin Liam glanced sideways at his passenger.

"I've been doing most of the talking," he said. "How about you? How did you end up on this case?"

"Long story," Jin said. "Guess it all starts back in the 90s. I'm not sure how familiar you are with the Eiffel Tower bombing?" Liam had heard mention of it before. The Toreador's bastion had been wiped out by a Technocrat spirit nuke. Everything with a supernatural bent was obliterated. Chaos ensued in the power vacuum that followed. It culminated in the very public destruction of the Eiffel Tower. "I was fresh outta high school, and working for the counterterrorism bureau. My first assignment was to check out a series of phone calls from Paris to South Ontario. Didn't lead me to terrorism. It led me to a Verbena mage and an adopted pack of fledgling werewolves. Kids, really. Not much more sense than your average teenagers, but they turned into lumbering murder machines when they got moody."

"The mage had been investigating the events leading up to the bombing. A group called the Technocrats had set off some kind of device that had destroyed every supernatural being in the city. Turns out the bombs had been set by a couple of were-rats that were convinced that the tower was a broadcasting antenna for the Weaver. Like a boob, I put the truth in my report. I worked the records room for most of the aughties."

"But looks like I was vindicated in the end. A few years ago, the Branch looked up my file, contacted me and reinstated me as a field agent hunting for ghosts and goblin. I've been free as a bird ever since."

"As for how I started looking into Verdant Falls, well, if you gotta ask you haven't lived there long. It's been the centre of weirdness in North America since the very first colony was slaughtered by Puritan Witchfinders. It really got my attention after the disappearances in Riverhead, but I was still a file clerk at the time. I requested the job right away, but I only got a crack at it after senior agents came back screwy."

"Sharp not to go there yourself, else you would have ended up like the other agents," Liam replied.

"Tell me though, the branch most know some of this right? I mean, I get that Verdant Falls has been a big black box these past ten years. But the rest of it. You know about the Mages and the Technocrats. You know about the Garou. I realise I'm giving you a fairly unvarnished look behind the curtains, but the power structures, the blood bonds - you knew what you were looking for when you knocked on my door. This clearly isn't your first rodeo."

"Bravery is for soldiers," Jin replied. "And I'm a spy. I'm not about to walk into a Manchurian candidate factory when there are better ways to get the job done. I just needed to wait for the right opportunity."

Jin chuckled as Liam pressed him. "If you can't tell what I knew about, what was a guess, and what was a bluff, that means I'm good at my job. I've been with the Branch for about five years now, and I was sticking my nose where it didn't belong on my own for longer."

"I suppose that's fair on both accounts," Liam replied hoping he wasn't merely trying to convince himself. "Why a business card instead of a badge?"

They were getting close to Rick's now and Liam started looking for parking. Unlike Verdant Falls, Montreal still had traffic even in the midst of a pandemic.

"Because my badge doesn't have my contact info on it, and you can't keep it," Jin replied. "Wanna see my ID? Here." He pulled an ID card from his wallet. It didn't look much different from a driver's license. Liam had no frame of reference to judge its authenticity.

Liam found a pay parking lot across from Rick's place. The apartment building was fairly new and not overly tall. A sophisticated directory intercom was by the front door.

"Want me to wait out here, or come up?" Jin asked.

"I hate these things..." Liam groused as he fidgeted with the intercom. He went right past Rick's name more than once before alighting on the correct entry. "No, come up. I'll let him know I have company when he picks up, although I suspect he can see." Liam nodded towards the camera in the vestibule.

"Just give me a minute when we get to the door in case he has reservations. Rick trusts me," he added, with a meaningful look at Jin as if to say he was going out on a limb in trusting Jin and hoped it didn't get cut out from under him.

Thumbing the button he waited while the intercom dialled up to Rick's apartment.

"We're here," he said as soon as the line picked up.

Rick buzzed them in, and they took the elevator up to the penthouse. Rick was waiting by the open apartment door when they arrived. He stepped out to meet Liam and pulled him into a hug. "Good to see you," he said, slapping Liam's back. "How long has it been?" He soared a glance at Jin, but didn't acknowledge him just yet.

Liam leaned into the embrace with a smile. "Its really good to see you again," he replied. "Its been far too long. Coming on ten years, I think. Jacob had me plenty busy."

"So I heard," he said. "Kicking ass and taking names." He looked at Jin. "Speaking of which..."

"Jin Konno," said Jin. He kept his distance, and allowed Rick to see a smile before he put on an n95 from his pocket. "Forgive the intrusion."

"It's no bother," said Rick. "You're the first man with a pulse to set foot in this apartment in a long-ass time."

"Well well," Jin purred. "Lucky me."

Rick stepped back, allowing his guests inside. Jin closed the door behind him.

"So Liam," Rick said. "I'm assuming you didn't come all this way to deliver me a twink."

Liam glanced at Jin and then stepped through the threshold into Rick's apartment. Somehow he was always the last to know.

"I wish I could say this was just a house call, but unfortunately we're here on business. Jacob and I took a trip down to the Bar Harbor enclave to meet with Flores. I released a gangrel yellow band a couple of weeks back, fellow by the name of Cortez. The gangrel are livid. Luc wants to go straight for the jugular, but Flores is old fashioned. He's demanding a meet with van Fokke first, a chance to raise the ire of the clans."

"I persuaded him that meeting in the city was a nonstarter. We're hoping the Sabbat might host as a neutral third party. Noonian must have a witch hunter embedded here, no?"

"I mean, he'd be stupid not to," Rick said. "But I doubt they'd be too open about it. He wouldn't be too well-received after the Sabbat got ousted the way they did. I wouldn't call them neutral, but you're not likely to find a much warmer reception anywhere else."

"If you want to ask the Queen yourself, she's over in Collines D'Argent. It's a gated community up in the hills. Ask for Isabelle Cartier. I'll call and tell her you're coming, but there's no way I'm going to ask her to play host to some Tremere. I gotta work here."

Jin, to his word, stayed quiet.

"Is that the honorific she's using now?" Liam asked. "Queen?"

"I'm happy to be the middleman," he assured. "The request is coming from Flores, personally. Its enough for you to make the call so that they expect me tonight."

"No, still Cardinal, as far as I know," Rick said with a shrug. "Merely being dramatic. Glad to hear the Gangrel are done hiding, though. We're long overdue for an official opposition."

He took a meaningful glance at Jin, then met Liam's eyes. "So, you're doing okay?"

Liam laughed, but it sounded mirthless. “Yeah. No. I don’t know. How does anyone tell anymore?” He asked, looking for somewhere to sit. “I’m okay, I guess. Feeling a bit helpless at the moment,” he confessed. “Jin is helping me.”

“Have you spoken to Hasan?”