Payment in Kind

Monday 5 am, June 23

The party went to Oberon's place, half an hour before sunrise, and told him all about Mort, in every sordid detail.

As an elder vampire, Oberon was well-versed in facial control and keeping his emotions in check. Nevertheless, his eyes burned like hot coals, and his calm visage revealed the truly horrendous form beneath, if only for a fraction of a second.

"Bring me the tape," he said.

"We will get it for you tonight," they replied meekly.

Since it was only half an hour until sunrise, Oberon dismissed them. "I need to make some calls."

Monday morning, June 23

After breakfast, the party (sans Juan) went to STRIKE FORCE to report in to Lieutenant Prospero, and to fetch the security tape. Here, the Lieutenant introduced Reginald Gates to join the team [ Darryl's new character ].

Gates was an ex-corporal from the marines, and self-styled STRIKE FORCE expert. He had memorized the STRIKE FORCE constitution, and was always the one to push correct protocol and procedure. He always addressed his superiors as "Sah!"

The spent the rest of the day bringing Reginald up to date.

Monday sunset 8:33 pm, June 23

Straight after dark, the party hurried to Khyber Pass Bar & Grill and up to Oberon's offices. They quickly handed over the tape. Oberon dismissed them while he viewed it.

When they returned an hour later, he had his PA, the curvy Ms Anderson, give them a brief case

"So the culprit was right under your nose all the time," he said coldly. "You will find your reward in there."

Not fully trusting Oberon, they took the case to a deserted back-alley, and examined it thoroughly. There was a tiny locator GPS pin on the back-hinge, and Jacob spotted a rune by the handle. Sledge was brave enough to open the case. Inside was a pile of uncut diamonds. Each time one was taken out, the rune flashed.

Ebony phoned Oberon and got his PA.

"Um, what's with the rune on the case?" said Ebony.

"If you separate the diamonds from the case," she grinned. "They will melt." Then she hung up.

Jacob thought about this for a while.

"Diamonds can't melt," he said. "I think they can burn, but you need to get damn hot for that."

"Let's get a second opinion," said Sledge.

Sledge managed to track down the phone number of witch in town (using STRIKE FORCE's database), who was not Cello. This one was called Siri, so he rang her and arranged a meeting.

Monday night, June 23

Siri met the party in a quiet square, and she identified the rune as a combination Counter and Messenger.

"There will be another rune, somewhere, paired with this one," she said. "It will count removals from the case."

She also spotted a Fire rune on the case too, which the party hadn't noticed.

"That one can be triggered from a distance," she said wryly.

"How come all you witches are so attractive?" stated Ebony, unable to be discrete.

Siri smiled.

"You will find that all creatures of the veil," said Siri. "Witches included, tend to go in extremes on the human scale. Scary and ugly at one end, and beautiful and well-wrought at the other end."

Monday night, later, June 23

There was a street of Jewellers in Philadelphia, so the party took the uncut diamonds and case there, and found a jeweller who was still open. The owner was quite happy to value them, but it would take all the next day. He also assured them that diamonds do not melt. So the party left only the diamonds with the jeweller, and took the case away.

Ebony stuck the now-empty case on the back of a Greyhound bus which was leaving town.

Tuesday afternoon, June 24

They returned to the jeweller. The place was still intact. There wasn't a smoking crater 20 metres deep, nor was there a fleet of ambulances carting off badly-burned corpses. The jeweller had valued the uncut diamonds at $430,000. He was happy to buy them off the group for that value, less 20%, so they agreed and got a bank cheque for $344 K.

They went and opened a party bank account.

Reginald, who knew the STRIKE FORCE constitution backwards, was happy to point out that STRIKE FORCE required its members to pay 10% gross on any income they made while doing "Veil business", so they ended up with $301 K in the end.

When they were paying STRIKE FORCE its cut, Lieutenant Prospero had some news.

"It seems your mate Mort was caught in JFK airport, New York, yesterday," he said. "The silly fool was trying to smuggle some Semtex in his carry-on luggage onto the plane."

Jacob laughed.

"Oberon, I bet!" snorted Sledge.

"So Oberon does know?" said the Lieutenant.

"Yeah"

"I see. That might explain the Semtex..."

"But how could Oberon possibly work so fast?" said Jacob. "And Mort was travelling under different papers and stuff, like you said, Lieutenant."

"Um... no," said Prospero. "Mort had never joined STRIKE FORCE. He was entitled to nothing..."

Prospero paused, mid sentence, as if gathering his thoughts, then suddenly burst out hysterically: "Nothing! You hear me?! Nothing!"

Jacob and the others took a worried step back. Prospero calmed a little.

"So ... we didn't actually give him papers. He was travelling under his own passport with his own name: Mort Gezkowski."

While this sank in, Prospero continued.

"Anyway, it was day-time. Mort was put into an airport holding cell while enquiries were made, and while Homeland Security and the Guantanamo Butt-reamers were fetched. But then, mysteriously, he vanished from his cell, late afternoon. The CTV camera recording in his cell was all blurred out at the time.

"Luckily, we have top men in the airport..."

Prospero cast his gaze off into infinity in the best STRIKE FORCE manner, and said, again: "Top men."

"So they managed to get to his cell before the CSI boys arrived," he continued. "And do you know what they found?"

"Erm... no"

"I'll tell you!" said Prospero. "Sulphur, an iron powder residue, and a burnt circle on the floor. You know what that means?!"

"Demons!" cursed Jacob.

Prospero nodded sagaciously.

"Thanks to you lot, we know that the Penitentiary Warden Clam is one," said Prospero. "You think she is involved?"

Blank looks all around.

"There is no love lost between demons and vamps. So, if the demons got Mort, maybe he is still very much alive."