The Mayor's Reception

Wednesday late afternoon, July 9

Since the party knew that Lassard's adjutant Colleen Thomson was a fae, on the trip back to the STRIKE FORCE safe-house, they quizzed her.

"What kind of abilities do you have?" Reggie asked.

Thomson didn't even blink.

"I'm have some sidhe Perception skills: Detection (both discrete and discreet), Hyper-perception, Veil-view, Clairvoyance, Clairaudience and a few others."

No martial help there, then.

Wednesday sunset, July 9

They all got dressed up for the mayor's reception in dinner jackets and black bow-ties. It was to be held at the ceremonial mayor's residence.

The core group arrived early and made their acquaintances with the major's security staff. Most of the four storey 1700s palace was covered by CCTVs, and most of the garden estate too. There was a separate security room with an armoury and screens all over the wall.

Head of security was Jeremiah Charleston. He, and three others, were veil-aware (indicated by Jacob's Gem of the Veil).

The 180 guests started arriving around 8 pm, but it wasn't until after 9 that everyone had arrived..

Theo was dressed to mingle, as was Jacob. Sledge, Leon and Ebony were stationed in the security room, and Reggie flitted between.

Captain Lassard was a superb mingler, and Thomson his perfect foil. Theo dutifully followed the two as they went from group to group in the main hall. Gone was the bumbling fool; Lassard was in his element.

The first group they visited was Oberon's entourage. He was there with his PA Ms Anderson, Dimetrius, Marceline and Petra, and two more vampires who were introduced as Formosa and Ken Tucky.

Vampire "Lord" Defacto

Theo met "Lord" Defacto for the first time, Defacto was the third vampire noble in Philadelphia (Oberon and Mina being the other two, of course). He was there with an entourage of seven guests; all vampires but one.

Next was Doctor Bryan Philby, demon and heart surgeon, with his group of four; two men and two women. Jacob's gem revealed one of the men, "my good Orderly Pete", as a werewolf, but the other three "staff nurse Olga", "nurse Cassandra" and "just Mike" were just plain humans (albeit veil-aware). Interestingly, Bryan did not show up as a demon with Jacob's gem. This meant he was probably using the (active) demon "spell" Spoof.

Demon Dr Bryan Philby

Cello was the highlight of the guests, as she no-doubt intended, and was dressed in a figure-hugging black number, with stuck-on diamond patterns in the shape of mythical animals. Her gown went tight down her leg, and had a side slit right up to her waist. But her decolletage and cleavage was her forte and she didn't disappoint tonight; magic must have been used to stop them spilling because even the slightest move had her twins lolling and jiggling like two angry over-weight cats fighting in a bag.
She had some Ryan-Gosling-esque eye-candy in a bow-tie ensemble on her arm

While this was happening, Sledge and Leon made their way out to the guest car park and checked on the guests' vehicles (with Charleston's approval). Defacto's limo had nothing suspicious in it, but the trunk of Oberon's limo was full of heavy weapons - machine guns, SMGs and small arms. Bryan Philby's Estima had two empty chilly bins in the back, each with cold packs. Cello had a sporty number; all clean.

Later on in the mingle, Defacto summoned Theo. Theo wandered over.

"I have heard good tales of you and your group ... of experts," he said in a pithy Philly drawl. "I might have some work for you."

Defacto gave Theo his card.

Jacob happened to glance at Oberon the instant this exchange was happening. For a fraction of a second, Oberon's face was black with rage, showing the monster within, before he regained control and returned his normal arrogant countenance.

The finger food, vol-au-vents and champagne flutes were carried around by the Mayor's wait-staff on silver trays. This made Philby's werewolf Pete rather uneasy every time he reached for a snack. Silver burns werewolves; comparable to a human holding a yellow-hot (930 C) piece of iron.

Wednesday evening, July 9

The gong was sounded and everyone was seated.

Much to Pete's horror, all the cutlery and serving spoons were solid silver too. And the salt & pepper shakers. And the gravy boat. Pete was seated next to Dr Philby, who ended up having to fill Pete's plate. Werewolves eat a lot, so Philby was kept busy. Pete ate with some plastic utensils he had brought with him.

Part-way through the first course, Philby caught Theo's eye and gestured him over.

"Lord Defacto tells me you and your group are superb at solving the unusual," said the doctor.

"Ahm...," said Theo. "Yeah..."

"Here's my card," said Philby as he placed it in Theo's top pocket. "I probably have some work for you."

Wednesday evening, later, July 9

Adjutant Thomson walked over to Jacob.

"There is a veil presence upstairs," she said. "I just started to sense it now."

Jacob contacted group and they sprung to action.

They told Charleston, and he assigned another three men to go with the party; one of the three was one of the veil-aware chaps.

Guns out, they all headed to level four in the lift.

Reggie assigned the non-veil-aware guys to descend on the fire-escape stairs.

Level four was clear, and three too.

Ebony was wearing her etheric goggles. On level two, she spotted something in the hallway, and went hysterical.

"It's a ghost!" she squeaked. "An old lady, skeleton, glowing eyes, old-fashioned dress. Horrible grimace. Sharp tearing teeth. Evil evil evil. She is coming!"

Ebony cleared her voice for a moment.

"Sledge, see the vase. Aim for that, where the stem narrows. Fire when I say."

Quick as a flash, Sledge drew his .357 magnum, loaded with the etheric rounds.

Theo felt his Sixth Sense prickle.

"Now!" shrieked Ebony.

Sledge fired. In the open, the .357 magnum pistol is loud at the best of times. With etheric rounds, you can't actually see the bullet (it is ethereal), and it does no damage to real world objects. But the barrel pressure to accelerate an etheric round to bullet-speed is actually higher than with normal fully-jacketted rounds, so not only does the gun's recoil kick like a mule, it is louder by 25% too.
In the narrow hallway, it was deafening.

"You got it!" yelled Ebony gleefully, over the ringing of everyone's ears. "It's running! Yah! Stupid evil ghost bitch. Yeah, run you whore! Run! Now, Sledge, aim for the door handle of the far door. Fire when I say."

Sledge sighted up his still smoking gun.

"Now!"

Some of the group managed to block their ears this time, as Sledge's magnum sounded again.

"You got it. It's down!"

As they raced towards where Ebony said it had fallen, there was a cacophony of gunfire just ahead of them, and the stairwell safety-glass door exploded in a hail of bullets.

Everyone dropped to the ground, and sought cover.

All was quiet for a second or two, then a security man crept sheepishly around the corner. It was one of the non-veil-aware guys that Reggie had assigned to the stairwells. He had obviously panicked.

Ebony pointed to a spot on the ground.

"I can see it fading," she said. "The evil ghost."

Reggie went below to the guests. The noise of the gunfire had been quite obvious down here. Almost everyone was on their feet, with security staff everywhere, guns all out. The mayor had been shepherded away.

Philby had his hands on the shoulders of Pete, physically holding him down. Pete was beginning to change into the first werewolf form the Hishu. Werewolves are incredibly strong, but so too are demons; almost the case an irresistible force meets an immovable object. Needless to say, both were trembling with effort.

Cello was sitting coolly and serene, her heavily mascaraed eyes flickering around.

Lassard was blithely eating away as if nothing had happened.

You could hear a pin drop (and Lassard's munching).

Reggie announced: "Ladies and gentlemen, it is all under control, and you may return to your seats."

Sledge joined him on the floor, as the guests started to meander back to their seats.

Pete calmed down too, and managed to reverse his change, though his shirt was split.

"I need to go outside," said Pete.

As Pete brushed past him, Sledge said "Meow."

Pete paused. If looks could kill, Sledge was dead fourteen times over.

All the vampires obviously heard this altercation too;  they all glared at Sledge. Dimetrius and his girls extended their fangs.

Cello looked up, and put her napkin to her mouth.

Sledge heard her husky tones in his ear - some kind of ventriloquism spell: "I wouldn't do that if I were you."

Pete walked outside.

Rather than reveal the ghost, the party made up an excuse to Charleston that the felon had crashed through a window and run off into the night. No foot prints were found, but the mayor's security could conduct a search in the morning.

Wednesday midnight, July 9

The rest of the evening passed without incident, and the party bundled their charges into their limo and headed for the STRIKE FORCE safe-house.