The village slept most of the day away. The sun was setting when Liam roused, but immediately he could smell that the kitchen was full of activity. A late dinner was being served. Mel typically did most of the cooking, but Liam was surprised to see the cement plant foreman leading the procession. He was putting the finishing touches on a vast pot of salsiccie e fagioli, with Mel happily stepping back to help Robyn and Joyce split a bottle of Chianti.

"Hey, there he is," he said enthusiastically. "My emancipator. I'd offer you a bowl, but they're telling me you don't eat."

“I don’t,” Liam confirmed. “But he does,” he added, nodding at the large German shepherd hunkered under the kitchen counter that was scrupulously avoiding Liam’s gaze.

“Traitor.” Liam chuckled.

Liam held out his hand to the foreman. “Liam. I didn’t really get the chance for a proper introduction last night. Welcome to the village.”

Caleb gave Liam an unrepentant side-glance, and continued his vigil. It appeared that Ed had reserved a little pancetta specifically for bribery purposes.

"Ed," the foreman replied, and gave a firm handshake. "Lookin' forward to gettin' to work here."

"I hired Ed this afternoon," said Robyn. "The others wanted out, so they're at the government camp."

"Not sure yet if I wanna make this my permanent home," he said, looking out the window at the artificial sky. "But I couldn't pass up this opportunity."

"I figured that the people who do wanna stay are gonna need more permanent homes," Robyn clarified. "We have the means to build them from the landscape up. Ed here has plenty of experience; he's gonna manage construction. We're a little ahead of schedule, but I had to jump the gun when you delivered some contractors."

"Well I'm glad to be of service," Liam replied. "Can't say I'm surprised the others didn't want to stick around, but happy to have you, Ed."

"You might just get me out of your basement at this rate, Robyn."

He smiled.

"How'd the day go? Any word from the city?"

"All quiet," said Robyn. "They noticed the op in the suburbs. Sent the regular cops, which tells you how many shits they give. We confirmed their suspicions that their Fugue is breakable, but there's not a damn thing they can do about it right now. They've got bigger fish to-"

Robyn and Liam's phones buzzed in unison. "Well that bodes well," she quipped, taking out her phone. It was Pockets.

My room. Now.

Liam exchanged a look with Robyn. He could only imagine what this meant.

"I think we're needed downstairs."

Pockets had devoted all her monitors to displays of the Alhambra's security feeds. Mooks lined up in the hotel room hallways in image after image. Teams of Redwatch were traversing the hallways, handing out an assortment of weapons. Small calibre guns of multiple varieties. Assorted grenades. Machetes, fire axes, bats and even furniture legs. The executive floors where the Pyramid had made its home were sheer chaos. Shelves were being ransacked, Camarilla agents were dumping armfuls of papers into burning waste baskets. Computers were being ripped open and hard drives were being smashed. They were preparing to bug out.

Right on cue, the military phone rang. It was Cal.

"You awake? You seeing this?"

Liam took the call. "Yeah, I'm watching it live," he said. "Looks like they've had all they can take."

"What are you seeing on the UAVs? Anything moving in the city yet, or is all the activity happening inside?"

"It's all happening inside," said Cal. "Heavy clouds and fog gathering over the whole city right now. Can't imagine that's a coincidence."

A Witch-Hunter appeared in the server room, and after a brief conversation with the technicians working inside, he cleared the room. The camera feed flickered, and lightning began to arc from his hands. Then, all at once, the feeds went dead.

"Welp, that's as much warning as we're gonna get," said Cal. "We've got a little time to prepare. I'm waiting on orders but I'm open to hearing opinions."

"If they're bugging out, they've got a mind to go somewhere," Liam replied. "How are things looking at the highway cut off? Or the port for that matter? Is there a ship big enough to hold them in the harbor?"

A freight ship was an unlikely getaway vehicle unless it was packed full of hostages.

"Ain't no way they're escaping by sea," said Cal. "Even if they push past the blockade, the Americans will fuck them but good. Human shields or no human shields. We've got men at the highway cordon outta town, but not enough to suppress a crowd that big. Those rooms are all over capacity. If the plans they submitted to the province are to be believed, they have over 1200 rooms. I don't like that math."

"So lets presume that's where they're headed," Liam replied. "Petty expected the Tremere to ramp up agitators on the other side of the blockade as well when they were ready to move, so you should probably get ready for that as well."

As much as it might contribute to the night's disruption, whatever happened outside the cordon was very much not his responsibility to deal with.

"As for what we do..."

He looked at Robyn and Pockets. It was like the ruins all over again. Presumably they weren't marching thousands of civilians to the highway, but any vehicles they put on the road were bound to be packed full of them. Separating the mooks from the high value targets was going to be a task.

"Can you.... ward an entire highway? Or a bridge?" he asked Robyn.

Robyn shook her head. "Not in a manner that isn't going to be overwhelmed pretty quickly," she said. "There are more dangerous Tremere than the Witch-Hunters, and they're all gonna be in that mob."

"We're working on dispersing the agitators on the far side of the cordon," said Cal. "We called in the RCMP for support, and they've issued an order to vacate the area. Scared off more'n a few of them, but the ones that're left are pretty riled. We've developed a tear gas infused with the cure. Hasn't been tested yet, but it should disperse them and break up the Tremere's network a little. Won't be the worst press we'll be facing after today."

"What about using it on the mob?" asked Pockets.

"We'd need a lot of it," said Cal. "The wind and rain they're kicking up is gonna hinder its effectiveness. And a panicked crowd that big is gonna be a danger to everyone, Fugue or no Fugue."

"What about the sprinklers?" said Robyn. "Pump them full of the cure and break up their mob before it forms. We'd need to move quickly but I can get a fire truck over to their mains faster than they can react."

"Same problem there's always been with that plan," said Cal. "Stampede for the exits. I can't really say it's worse than it's gonna be when they're mobilized, though. At least they're armed, and the only vampires around them right now are shit-eaters."

Book glided into the room. He leaned against the edge of Pockets' desk, listening silently to the conversation with a self-satisfied smile.

Book's appearance gave Liam a moment's pause, though he doubted it registered in his voice. "What if we control the exits?" This question was mostly for Robyn. The portals in and out of Nowhere could be placed anywhere, after all.

"Given the options I'd prefer to start the show in the Alhambra. Less chance of one of the Tremere slipping out."

"I'm good," said Robyn. "But you have to remember who we're dealing with here. Any portals we put into the Alhambra are going to open up this place to the Tremere. Even if I dumped the whole crowd on the moon, I'm still giving extremely powerful hedge wizards access to this dimension. I don't know to what degree they'd be able to affect it, and I don't want to put the village at risk like that. Not to mention the possibility - God forbid - they kill me and take control of this place. You've seen a small sample of what I'm ultimately capable of here. Imagine that power in their hands."

Book put a fist under his chin, leaning forward in mock fascination of their plans. His mere presence suggested his proposed solution.
This message was last edited by the player at 20:10, Wed 01 May.

"I... I need a moment. Grabbing something. I'm leaving you with Pockets, Cal."

Liam looked pointedly at Book and then stepped out into the hall, but he didn't stop there. Instead he continued back to his own room and went digging through his effects for the journal from Miss.

"What's your proposal?" he asked without turning. "I mean, specifically. I get the general gist. I was hoping not to have to do this under duress though."

Finding the journal he flipped to the most recently marked page to see if Miss had left him any correspondence.

Miss had indeed left a note.

Somebody filled the Temple stairs with concrete, and all the excavators in town mysteriously came down with broken hydraulics. They've got Mooks out there with shovels but they're fighting the clock. I think you pulled it off. When are we moving?

"What's to propose?" said Book. "You've evicted those duplicitous Tremere, and the government needs time to entrench itself down there. You'll never have a better chance to succeed than tonight, and no better time to use that power to further your noble ideals. Everything you've done - everything we've done - has led to this moment. You go in there, break the seal, and send the whole crowd safe into their homes. Simple as a thought."