"Switch to plan B," said Jacob.
Jacob phoned the Warden's land line and got the Warden's P.A. Ms Sutton. So, then, Reggie phoned the Warden's mobile and got the Warden herself.
"We have the four escapees. Meet you at the old abandoned foundry in Crackton."
"Well," said Warden Candy Clam. "That is indeed a surprise. See you soon."
In the foundry, in an empty office building, Angel and Drowbar were arranged on the floor pretending to be tied. And the seven werewolves hid in a side room,
Headlights approached. The Warden's Alfa Romeo pulled up.
By now, the party suspected that Ms Sutton wasn't all she appeared to be. And, worried that it might be Sutton, and not Warden Clam, who was driving again, Theo approached the car to greet her. He had his Sixth Sense at the ready. Sure enough, when Ms Sutton did step out of the car (there was no-one else in it), the sense tingled. He scratched the back of his head - the pre-arranged signal - and escorted her inside, and into the room with the two "captives".
Ms Sutton looked at the captives with a frown.
"They're not very well tied," she said.
"NOW!" shrieked Theo as he drew his katana.
Seven angry Dalu werewolves sprung into the room, holy water dripping from their claws.
Ms Sutton's eyes flashed a feral flame, and then, quick as a cut snake, she just vanished, with a loud wet pop, and a reek of sulphur.
A second or two later, the noise of the Alfa's engine gunning outside filled the air, followed by the screech of tires.
Everyone raced outside, to see the Alfa's tail-lights racing off. Reginald opened up with his MP5, Sledge with his magnums, and Leon with shotgun. Reginald emptied a clip, and managed to take out a tyre.
Everyone bundled into the truck (the hired truck with the roller doors), and they took off after the wounded Alfa, Reginald driving [ one of the few with the Drive skill ]. With a wrecked rear tyre, the Alfa struggled to drive, and Reggie had no trouble to shunt it off the road with the heavy truck. It rolled twice and came to rest - empty of occupants.
Off in the distance there was another pop, then a flickering of fire.
By the time the group got to the location of the flame, there was simply a ring of fire fading from sight. Sulphur reek filled the air.
"Interesting," said Jacob, party demon expert. "This burning ring is a demon Teleport spell remnant, but it appears that demons have a short-range version of the spell which is very fast to cast [ reflexive action ]. I did not know this."
"How the hell do we catch something that can blink away?" asked Theo to no-one in particular.
"Are we are out of our depth?" said Jacob. "I hate demons."
They dismissed Angel and his werewolves, offering him the truck so he could drive his mates back to Morgan Forest.
"Back to my safe-house," said Reggie.
Because Ebony had given Ms Sutton the Gem of the Veil, the group were worried that she could be tracked in a similar way to the way that Cello tracked owned items. So, Ebony was forbidden to enter Reginald's safe-house. [ Reginald's safe-house is four-dot Security. That means it is safe to all terrestrial forms of tracking and locating. But only a safe-house with five-dot Security is immune from magical location and detection. ]
So Ebony was sent packing to STRIKE FORCE's offices.
"Speaking of which," said Jacob. "Ebony had looked at Ms Sutton through the gem. Why did she not show up as demon? Sutton only showed up as 'veil aware', like us. Why?"
No-one answered.
Theo and Leon didn't want to hide, so returned to the Elfrith Alley apartment.
Vampire Mina was there. Theo updated her about everything. Mina's demon knowledge wasn't particularly useful, but she did point out some things.
"If Warden Clam is so powerful, why didn't she harvest the hearts of the escapees herself?" she asked. "Why does she need you lot at all?"
Friday morning, July 4
Back in STRIKE FORCE, the party updated their progress, and the latest events, to Lieutenant Prospero.
"If Warden Clam is so powerful," said the Lieutenant. "Why does she need you lot at all?"
"We need some more information on demons," said Reginald.
"Jacob is your demon expert," said Prospero.
"Does STRIKE FORCE know of any other demons in the city?"
"I believe that there are three plus the Warden," said Prospero. "I have a list. Here."
He got out a bit of paper.
- Fat Freddy: shop-keeper in the central city.
- Dr Bryan Philby: cardio-thoracic surgeon in the Thomas Jefferson University Hospital.
- Joanna Borgia: owner of the Sacred Heart Retirement Village in Ludlow.
- Candy Clam: Warden of the Eastern State Penitentiary.
Reginald phoned the Warden's land-line, several times, pestering her with questions as to why she released the four escapees if they were not legally due to be released. She didn't rise to the bait particularly. Her main argument was that they were missing the 16A form, so were illegally out. She didn't even appear to sound particularly enraged as to what happened last night. Though, she was a little annoyed at having lost her Alfa Romeo 4C.
The party went to "Needful Things", a small trinket store, in the city centre (Mort had got his vampire stake-gun here a few weeks ago; not that any of the party knew this). After the usual dancing on the head of the pin over admitting that you are, or are not, veil-aware, Theo finally got a chance to meet demon Fat Freddy. Theo had to hand over a significant amount of money. Fat Freddy put Theo's money to one side.
Demon-expert Jacob knew that demons possessed people. This victim was called the demon's cover. However, he didn't know that this possession actually destroys the victim's self - their soul, their all - utterly. The demon becomes the person; is them. And demons of greater power can have several covers. So, it was assumed that both Candy Clam and Ms Sutton were covers of the same entity. The demon does have a true form, but this is a horrific thing enough to wreck the mind of a mundane. When the demon does reveal this form, this act is called going loud.
As to the rapid teleport, this is called Blinking. There exists grenade called the Deblinker Grenade, which stops the teleport spell (including blinking) of any creature from working within its radius. Fat Freddy had no Deblinker grenades in stock.
"It would be more than my life's worth to sell those!"
Asked who was the most powerful of the demons in Philly, Freddy said that would be Dr Philby.
"And why didn't Ms Sutton show up as demon when Ebony looked at her through the Gem of the Veil?"
"Well, demons have an ability called Spoof, which allows them to hide their true self in magical detection situations. It's not automatic, so you need surprise."
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