Jacob stayed behind to help move the strike team across the border, and Flores was due to arrive behind him in a few days' time. This meant that Liam was driving alone. As his business in Ontario was private, this suited him just fine.

The drive to Montreal was a long one, but he had just enough time to make it across the border. There was very little in the way of complications with the Canadian border guards, though the guard did search the trunk when he arrived at the border.

Arriving in the Sabbat stronghold just before dawn seemed ill-advised. He opted for a rest stop just outside Granby. This would allow him to signal Rick of his arrival should he so choose.

The room was slightly less disgusting than the rest stop he'd had on the trip south. His stay was uneventful during the daylight hours. However, a knock at the door roused him just as the sun had finished setting.

Liam had found the weight of Helios to be far less oppressive since he'd been bound. Though he could trace its movement across the sky and was thankful for its departure, it felt more like a heavy blanket than a stone tomb now. He was aware of its presence and he was aware of its passing, but it was not uncomfortable. He awoke almost unfailingly now with the deepening light of dusk.

"Coming," he said, rolling out of bed. "Just a moment."

Liam tugged his shirt over his head and pulled on his trousers. He carried no arms for concern of the border crossing, so there was nothing else to reach for. Pacing the few feet to the door he opened it with a yawn.

"Sorry," he said. "I was just napping."

The man on the other side was not one he recognized. He was Asian, with a military physique and bearing. He was cleaner-cut than anyone had any business being during a pandemic, and almost annoyingly handsome.

"Evening, sir, mind if I come in?" he said, placing his foot in the door. His right hand was in his pocket.

Liam looked down at the waywardly placed foot and then up at the clean cut face in front of him. He stared at the man for a moment, neither shutting the door tight nor opening it wide.

"I'm sorry, you are?" he asked.

The man smiled, and with a flourish of his left hand, he produced a business card seemingly out of nowhere. He handed it to Liam. It was emblazoned with a government crest, and read:

Jin Konno
Field Agent, Special Operations Branch
Canadian Security Intelligence Service

"That's who I am. Remind me, which one of Brian Fantana's balls are you pretending to be?"

Liam spared a glance for Field Agent Konno's card then closed his eyes and pinched the bridge of his nose. "You'll have to forgive me, I don't get the reference but you may as well come in," he said, stepping aside and gesturing into the 'suite' with his arm.

"Its not much, but make yourself comfortable."

As soon as Konno stepped through the door, Liam closed and latched it behind him then turned towards the bathroom. Flicking on the lights, and with the door wide open he turned on the cold water tap and splashed water over his face.
This message was last edited by the player at 18:00, Fri 15 Jan 2021.

"Smart move," Agent Konno said, letting himself into the room and closing the door behind him. He looked around casually as Liam abluted. "So tell me, how do you like Verdant Falls?"

Liam came back into the room, wiping his face with a towel. "It's home," he said with a shrug. "The place has sort of lost its charm, if I'm being honest."

Liam sat down on the bed and offered the room's sole chair to his visitor.

"I should probably get this out of the way now - am I being placed under arrest for some reason? Or is this just a friendly truckstop motel room check in from the federal government? I swear I intend to quarantine, although you don't have a mask on so I'm going to go out on a limb and suggest that's not why you're here."

The Agent's smile widened as Liam delivered his answer. Then, in answer to his question, he shrugged. "I don't know, is there something I should be arresting you for? I'm not with public health, so you can guess how much I care about whether or not you're quarantining. I really just came by to ask you that question."

"You see, I've never actually met anyone from Verdant Falls," he said, leaning on the edge of the motel room's shabby desk. "Visitors come and go, but nobody who lives there ever actually goes anywhere. I've asked that question of a lot of them. I've even asked it of fellow agents who spent time in the city. And they all gave the same answer. The same answer, like they were reading from a script. Every one except you. Now why is that?"

"I guess my agent forgot to drop off the script," Liam said. "Mind if I ask you a question, Mr. Konno? Have you ever been to Verdant Falls?"

"I can't say I have," he replied. "All the agents we've sent came back... Off. Something is rotten in that town, but I'm sure I don't need to tell you."

He looked around the room. "I don't see your friend here. And he didn't cross the border. Left him in the States?"

“He’s staying with friends,” Liam remarked. “Don’t worry though, between the two of us you got the fun one. He’s something of an acquired taste at the moment.”

“Let’s hear the scripted answer,” he continued, beckoning with his hand. “Come on, I’m curious. They have the worst god damned writers.”

"'Verdant Falls is a great town, but ultimately its very boring.' is the common phrase that sticks out a lot for me," he said. "Then the person will say they prefer things to be a little more exciting like - and then they'll say the name of whatever town they ended up in. Then they'll launch into whatever passes for exciting in ttheir dull pedestrian everyday to throw you off the subject."

He leaned forward a little. "Now your turn. Who's 'They'?"

Liam picked up Jin's card and read the face again. "Of all the gin joints in all the towns in all the world..." he muttered.

It was a good fucking thing Jin Konno had walked into his.

"We'll get to 'they' in a moment," he said. "Special Operations Branch," he read off the card. "What is that? I'd like to know who I'm talking to."

"To that end, I'm not the only one going stag tonight. You don't have a partner. Is this a personal professional interest? Am I talking to Jin Konno, or am I talking to CSIS? Because I have a really hard time believing someone higher up the chain in CSIS didn't try to shut this down. They lack for imagination but they aren't sloppy."

"Is this a date? Because you sure are ignoring my needs," the agent said with a wry grin. He opened the mini-bar with a foot, and helped himself to a tiny bottle of overpriced whiskey. "I'm working alone because that's how I work best. And as for who's paying attention here, let's just say that this is a very official visit. The Branch's name is vague for a few reasons, and not just to keep our work insulated from whatever penny-pinching pinhead the public has decided they want to run things this week. You know exactly why I'm here."

He cracked the neck of the bottle. "I'd offer you one, but something tells me you can't hold your liquor. So please, let's have it."

Liam smiled. He’d long wondered what the government knew and simply wasn’t telling. The Masquerade had been dying a death from a thousand cuts for decades. There was simply no way to keep a secret as big as this in this modern world, even with the tireless work of Rick and his peers around the globe.

“They are Camarilla. Tremere, more specifically. Do those names mean anything to you?”

"Vampire wizards," Jin said, sipping from the bottle. "That's about all's I know about them."

"Vampire wizards, yes," Liam concurred. "I just want it understood that this isn't some QAnon tinpot bullshit conspiracy. This is real. Its happening. And you're fucking lucky you knocked on my door instead of some other vampire's. There's a whole lot of vampires in Verdant Falls and almost all of them are on the other side. I'm public enemy number five, and believe me when I tell you its a short list."

"There's a carton of Du Maurier's in my coat pocket," he said, nodding to a heap next to Jin on the table. "Mind tossing them over?"
This message was last edited by the player at 16:00, Sat 16 Jan 2021.

Jin made a point of rifling through each of his pockets before discovering the cigarettes. He tossed them over. "You don't have to convince me," he said. "I knew about things that go bump in the night long before I joined the SOB's. And I gotta admit I didn't know what to expect when I knocked in your door. I was ready to sift through your ashes for clues. I certainly wasn't expecting you to sing like a canary. But don't let that stop you. So the Tremere are up to something, and they're facing some internal opposition. Do go on."

Liam lit up and reached for an ashtray on the bedside table. "Like I said," he exclaimed, blowing smoke. "You're lucky you knocked on my door."

He glanced at his watch. "This isn't internal opposition. The Tremere are a monolith. They're fundamentally incapable of division. Look, you need to understand some things about vampire politics first to see the bigger picture. I'm happy to elucidate, but I've got a couple of ground rules."

"Number one, I've got a meeting in Montreal later tonight and I can't be late. Number two, this is the start of a dialogue. You want me to open a window into our way of life? Fine by me, I'm trying to tear down the whole bloody wall. But I'm going to need your help too."

Jin swirled the half-empty bottle for a moment, his lips pursed in thought. "Deal," he said. "Can I tag along with you to your meeting? I know how to keep my mouth shut."

Liam pondered this for a moment. "Maybe," he said. "Let me mull it over. I've only ever taken one human ghoul before and it... it didn't go great," he confessed. "The people I'm going to see know I normally travel alone."

He set his cigarette down in the ashtray and leaned forward, offering his hand.

"Liam O'Farrell," he said. "I think a proper introduction is due."

"If you pull up immigration records from round about 1910 you'll find me coming in through the port of Halifax. I was fourteen. The archives of the Department of National Defence may also have a record. I fought over in France," he said rolling up his sleeve, the cipher on his shoulder now faded beyond recognition. "Officially I'm listed as missing in action, presumed dead. I suppose that's true," he said with a grin.

"And that's my life on paper. Since then I've been a dead man. A ghost. I think its high time I was resurrected."