"Of course he did," Robyn grumbled. "The sneaky fucker. That kid gives me the creeps, but you know her better than I do. Is she someone we want to be arming with this knowledge?"

“She’s the only Thaumaturge I trust with this ritual, because she’s completely unbeholden to the Pyramid,” Liam replied. “Miss is Miss. You get more or less what you’d expect, but none of the conflicted loyalties. She doesn’t belong to them. She doesn’t belong to anyone but herself.”

“And she’s no child. She’s a hundred years older than I am.”

Liam smiled. “She’s very taken with you, you know. Your autographed book occupies a space of high honour on her bookshelf. She said it was the finest guide to practical magic ever drafted.”

"Well, at least she has good taste," Robyn said, blushing a little. "If you vouch for her, I'll focus all my efforts on piecing together something a Thaumaturge can digest. Truth be told, there's other things I'd like to pick her brain about. Maybe I'll deliver it in person."

"So did you tell her about the mook juice?"

"No," Liam said with a shake of his head. He zipped up the duffel bag and tucked it neatly aside before stuffing a shirt over his head. "That's not my secret to tell, the same way I was hesitant to tell Jacob. But I want to."

With the Saiga under one arm, Liam made his way over to the door and waited for Robyn to finish whatever she felt needed doing. Hector would be waiting.

"I told you last night I figured out how we're going to do the job at the Waterworks. Its far too hard a target to smash open or break into. So we're going to have the Tremere do the job for us. One of ours."

"Miss tells me there are eight or nine architects overseeing operations there and after the events of the other night, those positions are open. van Fokke is scornful of Miss since she's female and was embraced as a child so I highly doubt she'll be considered for any of the positions, but she can influence another candidate to apply. One of our choosing."

"A man on the inside could make all the difference. They could get the juice right into the pipes."

"Holy shit," Robyn said, thinking it over. She closed her notebook, grabbed a hoodie, and followed Liam to the edge of the property. They continued the conversation as they walked.

"Fine, you can tell her about the cure," she said. "Just... Please don't mention that I have the Tome. I can't believe someone who rose to the head of a Chantry isn't going to take an opening to grab it for herself. I don't need reasons to not trust her."

Liam winced and paused in mid stride, turning to look directly at Robyn. "I'm sorry," he said.

"That I didn't think was your secret. Since it left my hands the Tome has always gone where Book wills it. Miss knows that. She also knows she can't do this alone, with or without the Tome."

"If she tried to take it from you, she'd lose me and she needs me. Now more than ever, I expect."

Miss was probably the loneliest Vampire in Verdant Falls at the moment.

"She also needs you. And we need each other. When I walked in she'd just been turned away by van Fokke. She wanted to assume supervision of the excavation of the Old City ruins. She's still trying after all these years. She might have risen to the head of the Chantry but she's trying to give up everything."

Robyn stopped dead, and faxed her jaw like she'd just been punched. "Liam, Jesus, do you have any idea who that woman is? She wasn't in the Third Tribe. She was the Third Tribe. She was their fucking scholar. She's spent a significant portion of the last century looking specifically for that book. She doesn't need you, Liam. She doesn't need any of us if she gets her hands on it. Especially with Seavers out of the way. That, incidentally, is the only other thing she spent her time trying to make happen. She would kill all of us, and your dog, to get her hands on that book."

She tapped her foot, and fumed for a moment. She was lost in thought.

Liam pursed his lips, worrying his lower one with the ridge of his top teeth. He looked at Robyn for a moment and then went back over the conversation he'd had with Miss in his head.

Why had he felt the need to tell her? He'd been so guarded with the serum, and yet the comment about the Tome had leapt almost unbidden.

It was because he wanted Annie to know that Robyn wasn't just an ally in the sense of the war against the Camarilla, but that she could be an ally in liberating Vamanando he realised. That was a far smaller circle, and one that excluded a fair few friends that Liam would otherwise trust with his life - but in this particular instance would trust to drive a stake through his heart unquestioningly. In fact besides himself and Robyn it was comprised of exactly Annie, Book and Tim.

It was in defining this circle that Liam had run into trouble in the past. That was why Rat had tried to kill him. He'd been desperate to put his trust into someone and he'd picked the wrong someone. Liam believed Annie was different, but what he could never know was how much of this belief was earned and how much was wishful thinking. Only Annie knew that.

"Ask It," he said at last, his voice quiet and subdued. "You asked it about me. About Sunshine. About the curse."

"Ask it about Miss."

"I've been wrong in the past. But this time... this time I don't think I am."

"Fine," Robyn said, and she started walking (stomping, really) towards the rendezvous with Cortez. "But she came up a lot today. She and Ms. Mandala were close. And I can tell you already that she uses pity like some people use sex appeal. She's playing you like a fiddle, mark my words."

Liam almost smiled at this and had to bite his lip. There was probably some truth to what Robyn was saying. Miss might well be playing him. Most of them women in his life had a way of doing that from time to time, and deep down a part of him didn't really mind it. "Would you like to take the lead with Hector or should I?" he asked, endeavouring to catch up.

Robyn played with the idea of taking her frustrations out on her unexpected overnight guess. But she thought better of it. "The less he knows about this place, the better. You better take the lead."

Thwy came upon the spot where Cortez had slumbered. He was not visible at first, but appeared from behind a tree that looked too thin to hide him.

"You come with a witch," he said. "Is she why I keep finding myself turned around out here?"

Robyn's eye twitched.

"I came with a smarter woman than I am," Liam said evenly. "We're here to answer your questions about what happened to you, as promised."

"Whats the last thing you remember before you lost your free will, two years ago?"

"I remember going through this last night," Cortez said tersely. "I was approached by a couple of Tremere about chartering a helicopter. They bagged and staked me, and force-fed me something. My questions pertained more to you. What's being done to stop this? And who knows?"

"You're looking at it," Liam replied. "There's a handful of free Kindred left in the city fighting them. The Camarilla have a hegemony. No other faction contests the city any longer. There used to be a sizeable Sabbat contingent in town but the Cams wrecked them a few years back. Whatever's left of them fled to Montreal. Apart from us, the only thing holding them back is this virus. It breaks the bond."

"And as to who knows?" Liam shrugged. "The Tremere Pyramid, all the way to the top. The leadership of the Camarilla have given it their blessing, although I can't say how widely that knowledge has been disseminated in the rank and file. And whoever the Sabbat told when they were thrown out of town. The Garou found out about it the hard way. The Camarilla decimated them and quite literally salted the earth. There's nothing left of them here any longer."
This message was last edited by the player at 04:12, Wed 19 Aug 2020.

Cortez folded his arms. "During my service in this city, I have sired and teained two dozen childer against my will," he said. "What the Tremere are doing is beyond criminal. It is beyond an act of war. They have betrayed unspoken boundaries that have been respected by kindred of all persuasions since the time of Caine. I intend to bring us back here in force. The abominations they have created cannot be allowed to live."

"Knock yourselves out," Liam replied, seemingly not very impressed. "So far as I know, I'm the only Gangrel left in the city not wearing a red or yellow band."

"Except when it suits me," he conceded, having donned one as recently as the night before.

"I'd be glad to not have to clean up the skies all by myself."

"And I'm not surprised to hear it. I was going to ask. The Tremere weren't looking for someone to fly a helicopter. They've got a city's worth of pilots to chose from. They were looking for someone to supply them with more scouts."

"Ten years ago when the leadership changed over in this city, the new Prince brought the Redwatch with him. I'm sure you saw bits and pieces of it on the inside but I presume they weren't overly forthcoming. The old guard is all former SS, embraced in the forties. Their numbers have been steadily whittled down over the years and I was starting to wonder how many gangrel they had left."

"I'm going to guess not many if they went out of their way to capture you. With you gone I expect they'll be desperate to find another, or else all they'll be left with are thin-bloods. Your friends in Bar Harbor aren't safe if they're still even there."

"There are others," Cortez said. "Two others. I didn't recognize either of them. One wore a yellow band, the other red. Guy in the red band, Knoblich, he was a prick. Always struck me as a Nazi. Didn't help that I couldn't say no to him."

"We could use another brother when we breach the nest," he added. "Give me your contact information if you're interested."

Liam had come prepared for this. He didn't truck in texting contact information back and forth. He carried a notepad and a pen. Like a god damned adult.

"Two others," Liam said as he jotted down his number and tore out the page. "One of whom we can pry loose if we can find them. That's helpful information to know."

He handed the paper across to Hector. "Call me."

"Oh, one other thing. About ten years ago just before things went to shit, the damnedest thing happened. Flores came to town. A justicar, in the flesh. In those days there were only two of us, myself and another gangrel by the name of Luc Beaumont." Liam briefly wondered if this was the other yellow band Hector had seen.

"Maybe he had some inkling of what was to come. Either way I had the sense that he was keeping an eye on things, so maybe he didn't go far. Last I knew they were headed out by Gaspé. A friend like that could tear the nest wide open."

"Luc Beaumont is in the enclave," said Hector. "Or was, when last I was there. And Flores runs it. I have not met him personally, so I can't give you any more information than that."

So Luc was not the other Yellow Band then.

"I met Flores only the one time. He may remember me, I'm not sure. Luc will know me."

He stuck out his hand.

"I told you we could shake later. Fly safe."

Hector shook his hand, and nodded cordially to Robyn before taking wing. Robyn crossed her arms, and watched the winged figure head out of sight. "Nice guy," she said. "Barrel of laughs, that one."

"If Vampires are assholes, Gangrel are the least sociable of all," Liam said turning away and starting back up the path. "Most of us live on the fringes already. I just happen to like people more than most," Liam said with a wink for Robyn.

"They could be powerful allies in the struggle ahead though. Flores is an old gangrel. Vampires of his generation are few and far between."

"If the oldest kindred were represented in the pantheon's of old, he is Orion," Liam said, pointing up to the three stars on the hunter's belt in the northern sky. "Consort of Artemis. The only man to ever win the heart of the goddess of the hunt."

Robyn blinked slowly at the stars and rubbed her eyes. "Sorry, my brain spent most of yesterday drinking from a cerebral fire hose," she said sheepishly. "Allegories make my head hurt. Is them declaring war good for us, or do we need to worry here?"

"Its bad news for Keisinger and van Fokke," Liam replied. "As for us, its too soon to tell. I'll talk to Jacob later tonight."

He pulled out his phone and glanced at the display to see if he'd ever got a reply from Augusto before returning it to his pocket.

"For now I need your help with something."

Even though he knew they were safely stowed away, Liam patted down his pockets to find the microphone and sending stone reassuringly tucked away. He didn't need this being overheard.

"On the topic of secrets and Demigods, Flores isn't the only one around. I'm going to take you to meet another one tonight, one I'm not supposed to know anything about."

Augusto had replied with a single thumbs-up emoji.

Robyn shifted her weight uncomfortably. "I was hoping to have a quiet night in," she said. "How long will this take, and what are the odds of it going... well, like all our other plans?"
This message was last edited by the player at 20:25, Sat 22 Aug 2020.