"Is that what that is?" Liam said, pitching another bag of chips into his basket. "Wasn't sure if you'd join me here. Last few times we spoke it was a tad more secluded."

He glanced up and down the aisle. Hardly anyone was around at this time of night, and though they weren't alone they may as well have been.

"I trust you've been keeping abreast of everything, however it is you do it?"

"My dear Liam, you have my mostly undivided attention," Book replied smoothly. They were indeed by themselves in the store, save for a lone and extremely bored cashier. One who was more than likely trained by his employer to ignore strange oddballs. "You've got a better chance than anyone of succeeding. For now. The only thing that's kept me wondering is what, precisely, you're waiting for."

Liam grinned. "Unlike you - or indeed, quite a few of the aspirants who tried and failed before - I still have to live here when all is said and done. I'm not trying to change the world to suit my liking. I have far more modest ambitions. That I've committed to do this at all is primarily to remove the temptation from future generations."

"I'm convinced Jacob is struggling to delay the inevitable. I've seen who came before. I have no way of knowing who will come along in a decade or a century's time long after the dust has settled should he have his way - but I know they will come. Those of us here and now may not be entirely without guile, but I am inclined to think we are the least of all evils."

That would have to be enough. God help him if he was mistaken.

Book nodded eagerly as Liam spoke. "Oh, I know, Liam," Book replied, when he'd said his peace. "All these centuries, I'd been appealing to people's greed. Maybe I should have been appealing to their nobility all along." Liam couldn't tell from his tone whether he was being patronizing or not.

"I doubt fate will be so kind as to hand you the victory uncontested, but your ragtag bunch is more than enough to handle whatever resistance remains. Miss alone could handle most of it. And that Robyn... goodness, what a phenom she has become. My finest work, if I do say so myself. Just make sure she doesn't blink herself out of existence before the big day, or we'll all have a problem."

"I expect you would have gotten comparatively few takers, appealing to their nobility," Liam acknowledged. "Although its hard to say if the outcome might have been different."

"I'm not concerned about overcoming any resistance. I agree wholeheartedly. Between the two of them, Miss and Robyn can handle most anything. I'm hardly needed at all, accept to compel them to cooperate. What concerns me is who is likely to resist us. The Tremere have existential concerns at the moment. The ruins are an afterthought at most and I've already earned their enmity."

"Holloway, on the other hand..."

"Like I said, I still have to live here. I don't want to cross blades with him, even if we are likely to prevail. I'd rather keep him in my corner, and have him believe his plans were successful. Which brings us to why we're here - both in Montreal more broadly speaking, and in the chip aisle of a grocery store at this early hour."

"I know about the sea cave. Jacob does not. By tomorrow night I'll have a bundle of explosives to bring down the entrance to the complex while leaving the backdoor intact. My question for you is - could it work? You know the ruins as well as anyone alive. Could I collapse the entrance without sacrificing that tunnel? Or is it too fragile after all these years? Or does it not matter at all?"

"Were it a normal tunnel, built by a normal culture, absolutely," said Book. "Given what I know of their build methods and the explosives you compromised on, it would take an extraordinary amount of skill and more than your share of luck to effectively collapse the entrance. You certainly don't need to worry about upsetting the sea cave. Pulling it off, and fooling any demolitions experts who may be watching into thinking you took out the whole facility? That'd take a miracle. And they'll be watching. Both of them. Unless they've got something more immediate holding their attention. Might wanna make that a certainty if you want to avoid fighting either of them. Though I have little doubt that, together, it's a fight you'd win."

"Don't count out the Tremere, either," he added. "If I wasn't so confident in Robyn's ability to break the seal, I'd have approached them long ago. But they're resourceful, they're desperate, and they know there is power to be had in those catacombs. People like that beat the odds all the time. You can safely assume that they'll be guarded at a minimum. If you're really unlucky, van Fokke himself might be down there, and you'll seal yourselves in with him."

Liam nodded, absently chewing on his lower lip as he considered Book's caution and advice. "It sounds like I'm going to need a distraction then," he remarked. "I'd hoped to use Robyn's project to cover the explosion itself but it sounds like it may be needed simply to pull the boys away - although it would probably only get one. Hasan, in all likelihood. I'd still have Jacob breathing down my neck."

"Although if the Tremere might actually be down there as you say, I may well need their help at the beginning. Hasan would have some notion. He's been watching the ruins more closely."

"You've also got a ten-storey monster to spirit away," Book said. "If Chianna should fail, well, I'd say that's a pretty big distraction. A no-show on your part, and a quick word at the Lamplighter on your way to the ruins would be all it'd take. I can't say she'd be particularly happy about that, though. Providing she survives."

Liam chuckled. "Chianna is nothing if not a survivor. And to say she'd be unhappy is an understatement."

"There are... a number of reasons I'd prefer not to go down that route. Although the suggestion is appreciated."

Liam turned the thought over again before dismissing it. He'd already wondered if there was some opportunity to be made from Chianna's request. He just wasn't seeing one he liked.

"I had another question for you. Unrelated. Augusto has come through when I've needed him. And once this job is finished, your need for him would seemingly be at an end. Can the pieces of his soul - those that remain anyway - can they be made whole again?"

"I'm honestly surprised you didn't try to recruit him," Book said with an indifferent shrug. "Kinda why I took his soul in the first place. But I'm sure you had your reasons." He pondered the request for a moment. "You can't just unscramble an egg. Well, I can't. You can't use a soul to shatter the fabric of causality and expect it to come back together whole. I'll gather up what scraps I can, and have them sent to him. But that's the best I can do."

"No. I've no desire to grow the conspiracy, no matter how sure a prospect one might be. This is a cross to bear, not a blessing."

If anyone could stand to gain on their own and not tear the world apart in the process it was Augusto. Or Pockets. But Liam resented being folded into this conspiracy himself, no matter how integral to the end he had become. He couldn't do it to another - least of all a friend.

"It will have to do. Thank you."

"Suit yourself," Book said. "You may regret that if you run into someone who needs killing, but I've let you do your own thing thus far and it seems to have worked out pretty well."

"So, did you need anything else?"

Liam shook his head. "No. I think that covers it. Thank you."

"You'll be seeing me again soon one way or another, I expect."

"Count on it," Book said. "I'll meet you all down there." He sauntered out of the grocery store, coughing loudly as he passed by the cashier. What a pip.

The flight back to the boat was an uneventful one. Augusto was evidently just concluding some business as Liam arrived. An array of guns, ranging from practical to fanciful, were still set up on the mess hall table, but the customer had already departed.

"Hey, there he is," Augusto said, sliding an assault rifle to one side to clear off the table directly across from him. His attendant stopped his removal of the display models and set about fetching them a bottle and glasses. One must keep their priorities. "Y'know, your buddy Jack should brew up a vodka. You don't know how many Russians I gotta drink with and they all sneer."

Liam took the seat opposite Augusto and nodded at the attendant as he set a pair of glasses down between them. "I'll have to ask," Liam said. He was still thinking about his encounter with Book. "Not sure if the color will be an issue."

Augusto winced a little. "Yeah, I guess if I busted out pink vodka they'd rag on me even more," he mused. "So how'd it go in town?"

"It went better than expected," Liam said, easing back in his chair and raising his glass to clink.

"Much better, if I'm being honest. I remain within the Cardinal's graces. And I had a chance to make amends with an old friend. All told, a good night."

"You and that silver tongue of yours," Augusto said, clinking his glass and taking a generous sip. "Your ka-boom-boom is right on schedule. It'll be ready for transit when you get up tomorrow. Ms. Grimaldi has also asked me to pass along this rendezvous point." He slid his phone across the table. The map pointed to a small rural boat launch a few kilometres from the exclusion zone. There were many like it along the way, but Liam was pretty sure he knew the one.

"I didn't ask her what you're up to, because I like my balls best when they're attached to me. You gotta do what you gotta do to stay in her good graces, I guess."

Liam nodded and took a sip.

"Those weren't the only stops I made tonight," he said after a moment. "I had a word with the devil." Liam looked up from his glass and met Augusto's gaze.

"I asked him to give you back what's yours. All of it."

Augusto's face went dark. He drained his glass. "What'd he say?" he asked, finally.

"Said he would," Liam replied. "He said he can't make you whole again. I believe he said 'you can't unscramble an egg'. but he can gather up what's there and give it back to you. Everything I have as well. Its yours."

Augusto was silent for a moment. A number of emotions played on his face. Relief. Whatever remained of joy. Confusion. Realization.

"Seems I owe you a lot more than I've delivered," Augusto said. "So much so, that I'm gonna keep it to myself that you're enacting his big plan. It's the only thing that makes sense."

Liam glanced up at the attendant who had cleared the table and fetched their glasses. "I appreciate it," Liam said, turning his attention back to Augusto. Setting his glass down he reached for his Dumauriers and lit one before offering the pack to his host. "Cigarette?"

"Strictly speaking if I was enacting his plan, he would have told me to fuck right off.  Book tried it his way for five hundred years and it didn't work. He's hitching his wagon to the most promising horse. Between me and van Fokke he's betting on me."

Augusto took the offered pack, and waved his free hand at the attendant as he did so. "Don't worry about Dmitri, he's heard worse. Worked for FSB before I smuggled him out." The attendant refilled his glass with a customary two fingers. The two shared a look, and then attendant continued filling, nearly to the brim.

"I'm not gonna tell you not to do it," Augusto said. He slipped out a cigarette and lit it, speaking around the tip as he did so. "Mostly because at this point I don't give a shit. But I will tell you to watch out for you and yours. Book only cares about getting what he wants. He doesn't give a damn for what kinda shape the world is in when he's done. Or the people who helped him."

He took a long contemplative drag, and leaned back in his chair. "And don't fool yourself, either. You might be making up the steps, but you're still dancing to his tune. We all are. If he wasn't getting exactly what he wants, he wouldn't be talking to you."

"I know," Liam said, leaning back. "That's why it has to be me. I'm well aware that Book doesn't care what the world looks like when he steps out the door, and I've already seen van Fokke's vision of Utopia."

Liam took a drag on his cigarette.

"Jacob's plan was doomed to fail, and that was before I compromised on the C4. You and I both know it, though he'd never hear it from me. The only person capable of staving off the inevitable was Seavers, and he's gone. Now its just a matter of time. This isn't a problem that can be buried - not for long, anyway. But for my sake it has to look like we've buried it - at least for a little while. I do care about what the world looks like when this is all over. I still have to live in it."