Critiquing Evidence

Tuesday afternoon, July 15

Colleen Thomson was facing a bunch of charges levelled by STRIKE FORCE, so the party gathered in STRIKE FORCE HQ (in Philadelphia). With them was Lieutenant Prospero, Colleen, her lawyer Carole Christie, and Captain Lassard.

They had a questioning session, and went through Colleen's charges, one by one:

Infiltration of STRIKE FORCE

Back in 2009, the Gem of the Veil (allows the owner to identify veil-creatures and type) was much more costly than it is today. In 2011, Mage-Tech (a large magical R&D operation run by the Mages) had made a major techno-magical break-through in the production of these gems. Production no longer required the essence of a ghost, or the entrapment of a ghost, that was required formerly. This allowed the gems to be made far more cheaply and fast, and thus, today, they are more ubiquitous.

So, back in 2009, STRIKE FORCE had to rely on its members who had the Sixth Sense ability to vet new applicants to the organization; STRIKE FORCE, of course, did not want veil creatures in its ranks! Corporal Trent Howes was the recruitment officer on the day when Colleen joined, and a Corporal Filling was his magical vetter. It turned out that Filling was a lazy sod, and had neglected to vet Colleen at all. Trent wasn't very pedantic on the rules and he had ticked the "veil check" box on Colleen's application form. Thus she had entered the STRIKE FORCE mundane section as a veil creature, strictly against protocol.

"I wonder how many other veil creatures snuck into STRIKE FORCE then?" said Reggie.

"Only three," said Colleen smugly. "But I outed them."

Bewitching of a STRIKE FORCE Officer

In 2009, Colleen started her career as an Admin flunky in the STRIKE FORCE mundane section. She caught the eye of a Lieutenant Lassard, and he made her his PA. Due to Colleen's fae powers, and her fetish Dolly, she helped Lassard achieve a remarkable collection of successes, thus he rose through the STRIKE FORCE ranks, and was promoted to Captain. Then he was set in charge of STRIKE FORCE New York.

All this time, no-one knew Colleen was a fae. Throughout all this, Lassard and Colleen fell in love. So, in some ways, he was bewitched.

Siri was called in, and she conducted some tests on Lassard. She could find no traces of magical bewitchment.

"But that doesn't preclude true love," she smiled.

Lassard agreed to go with Jacob and Reggie to a neurologist. Lassard was in the early stages of dementia. They concluded that, without Colleen's help, he probably couldn't do his job.

Accessory to murder of Trent Howes.
Accessory to escape of Werewolf Reginald Maudling.

Back in 2012, werewolf Maudling was sentenced to be executed by firing squad, and was on Death Row (in New York) awaiting this. Lieutenant Lassard and Colleen went into his cell to question the werewolf on another matter and when they left, Colleen had closed his cage door. She had not been trained on the Oldershaw lock that held Maudling's cage closed, and so she didn't latch it correctly. Maudling escaped soon after, killed Trent Howes who was the guard, and got away.

There was an extensive enquiry after the fact, and its main conclusion was "Lack of Training", and piled no blame on Colleen at all. If anything, Howes was the assigned guard, so he ought to have activated the Oldershaw lock himself.

Suspecting the worst, the party sent the mugshot of Maudling to Juan, still embedded in the Morte Christe bikers, and sure enough, Maudling was there. He was using a different name: Wilfred Owens.

Accessory to assault of Cletis Crawdad, twice.

In 2013, Cletis Crawdad was one of a group that STRIKE FORCE was hunting for armed robbery. (Even though Crawdad was a human, his group was known to have veil creatures, hence STRIKE FORCE got involved.) Colleen, a non-combatant,  was left with the vehicles while the rest of the heavily-armed squad entered the building. Unknown to them, Crawdad had snuck around and got to the vehicles. He surprised Colleen, took her captive, and raped her. Eventually, the squad arrived back, dropped him and rescued Colleen. Tempers were high, and Crawdad was badly beaten up by them.

Two weeks later, Crawdad was being transported out, chained up, and Colleen beat him up again herself. Lassard helped.

Although these assaults were noted at the time, no-one worried that they had happened.

Cletis Crawdad was later taken to the Philadelphia Eastern State Penitentiary, under Warden Clam, where he "escaped" in 2014, and joined Morte Christe bikers q.v.

Grand theft of STRIKE FORCE property: Toyota Prius

The Toyota Prius in question was the very car that Colleen had driven down to Philadelphia yesterday. It was formerly Lassard's but he had gifted to Colleen.


After hearing all this, lawyer Carole was pretty sure she could get all the charges dropped. Prospero agreed, and he concluded that the only reason that this witch hunt had begun was that Major Ewing hated fae. With this in mind, Prospero planned to go over Ewing's head, to the STRIKE FORCE commander of the entire USA, Lieutenant-Colonel Spalling.

"We better check who Spalling hates," said Leon.

They had a look through STRIKE FORCE's records at Spalling's distinguished career . It was pretty obvious: the number of werewolves that had died in Spalling's missions out-numbered all the other veil creatures three to one.

It was also concluded that Colleen would no longer be able to be part of STRIKE FORCE, and without her, Lassard should really resign his commission. Especially considering his dementia.

"I'm getting too old for this, anyway," he quipped wryly.

Tuesday afternoon, later, July 15

With his wedding exactly two weeks away (on 29th), Sledge phoned his mum with a bunch of last-minute panics. But his mother and fiancee had everything in hand.

"But you will need to choose a best man, dear," said Mrs Hammer patiently. "And get a suit for him and yourself. Safiya has sent through the correct colour for your bow-tie and cummerbund."

Sledge looked at his phone forlornly: "Contacts deleted."

It always said that.

Sledge eyed Reginald.

"You're my best man, Corporal Gates," he ordered.

"It would be an honour, sah," snapped Reggie.

"Your first duty. Contact my wife-to-be, and get the colour of the bow-tie and the cummer thing."

Yes, sah."

Tuesday night, July 15

Safely ensconced in his five-dot safe-house, Reggie, Jacob, Sledge and Leon slept the sleep of Morpheus.

Back in the Elfrith Alley apartment, Mina arrived to be greeted by Ebony and Theo.

They were pondering over a letter sent to them by Ms Anderson, Oberon's PA:

Dear party,

How are you?
I am good too.

On June 15th you struck a deal with my Lord Oberon that you would
provide him a certain weekly payment as lease for your Elfrith Alley
apartment. A certain tasty payment that he would savour.

You are four weeks in arrears.

Please expedite this matter forthwith.

Kisses
Ms Anderson, for Oberon Sanchez

This payment was, of course, a "drink". The party had done this once, back when they first took up the Elfrith Alley lease (they found a volunteer who didn't mind losing some blood), but lately had been distracted by their missions, and had forgotten about it.

The apartment was still valuable to them, and Abu ought to make a break-through any day now - he was still coming daily to work on the hieroglyphics of the tomb down in the cellar.

There was nothing for it: Ebony headed off to vampire Oberon at his offices Khyber Pass Bar & Grill.

It seemed Oberon wanted lives, now, not just drinks, and Ebony was not sure that she should deliver lives to him. Plus she was worried about her soul [[ Morality stat ]] if she headed down this dark path.

"You can do something else for me," smiled Oberon. "I gave you those rings for a reason. Go seek out Defacto. Maybe I clear your debt then."

Tuesday midnight, July 15

Defacto's business card detailed his address, so Ebony headed there.

Sure enough, in the morgue under the University of Pennsylvania: Abramson Cancer Centre Hospital, she found him. Like Oberon, Defacto was surrounded by a group of women, and some other vampires.

 Defacto was amused to see her. He straight away had a job to test her and her party's skills:
There was a warehouse in Fishtown. On the corner of Webb St and East Albert St.

"Raze it to the ground," he said.

Colleen's Problem

Monday late afternoon, July 14, 2014

Jacob and Reggie headed off to Sherman park. Sure enough, Colleen Thomson was there.

Apart from Captain Lassard, it seemed no-one in STRIKE FORCE had actually known that Colleen was a fae. When HQ was informed about this on Saturday (from the party's discovery), Major Ewing, STRIKE FORCE commander of the tri-state area, took this very personally.

Colleen claimed she was fleeing for her very life.

So, Jacob and Reginald took her to a motel.

"Do you trust us?" Reggie asked.

"Um... yes," she said. "I have no-one else."

"Okay then," said Reggie. "We want to borrow Dolly for a while."

Colleen's "Dolly"

Dolly was Colleen's plastic doll which she carried around with her. Sledge had found it the day of the biker attack on the STRIKE FORCE apartment last Thursday, when he went through Lassard and Thomson's gear (after they had hurriedly fled). He had got Theo to touch the doll, and it Sixth Sense tingled.

Colleen reluctantly handed Dolly over. Reggie stayed with Colleen, while Jacob took Dolly to Siri the witch.

Siri did some identification spells on Dolly and reported that Dolly was a Fetish. This is an enchanted item that holds a ghost voluntarily. The owner of the fetish has a symbiotic relationship with the ghost; the ghost grants the holder some powers and the ghost feeds [ willpower ] off the holder. Siri could not detect any malevolence - but then she could never be always certain.

When Jacob returned to the motel with Dolly, they asked Colleen for more information.

"Dolly is my ghost companion and she lives in this doll. She helps me see into the Hisil," said Colleen. "In fact, remember that ghost at the mayor's reception? Well, Dolly helped me that day. She can also read the future if she is in a good mood."

"So she can talk to you?"

"Not out loud; she talks in my head. She showed me the future through my own eyes. I saw me being executed by a firing squad."

Apparently, that was a common method of execution used by STRIKE FORCE on evil captive veil creatures.

"But you are not evil," said Jacob.

"Not what Major Ewing thinks," said Colleen. "He is a bit of a zealot. I bet fae is his hated foe."

"But he can't just kill you like that," said Reginald. "STRIKE FORCE has set guidelines for this, and ... and there has to be a trial, a court-martial. It's in the constitution: Section 104, Courts-Martial."

"He can rig the court-martial."

"Also," said Reggie. "You aren't a full STRIKE FORCE member, because you are not human. This means you can avoid a court-martial."

Colleen had not thought of this.

"Good thing I sought out you guys," she smiled.

"We need to get you a lawyer," said Jacob.

Monday sunset 8:29 pm, July 14

Jacob and Reginald updated the rest of the party, and they updated Lieutenant Prospero.

"Bring her in," he ordered.

Lawyer Carole Christe

Everyone met at STRIKE FORCE offices.

Theo and Ebony pointed out that they needed a veil-aware lawyer and that Mina probably had trustworthy lawyers, so they got hold of Carmine Roker, Mina's curator at her gallery. Carmine was very helpful and gave them a lawyer's name: Carole Christie, of Christie and Partners law firm.

They phoned Carole and arranged to meet her at STRIKE FORCE offices. It was after sunset now, so Mina would be up. Ebony phoned her, and she was more than happy to allow Carole to help. Theo had a smug grin.

"Happy for Mina to help us now, aren't we?" he said to no-one in particular.

Major Jack Ewing

Prospero agreed with the party that Major Ewing couldn't just summarily execute Colleen Thomson, no matter how much he hated fae. And, in fact, he confirmed Reggie's statement that Ewing could not even insist that she be tried in a court-martial.

Prospero phoned STRIKE FORCE's New York HQ. When he mentioned Colleen, it did not take long for him to be put through direct to Major Ewing.

Lieutenant Prospero stood holding the telephone headset out from his ear, while Major Ewing's voice screamed out, loud and clear to all in the room.

"Bring me that sidhe bitch!" he bellowed.

Prospero kept his cool despite the onslaught of Major Ewing's apoplectic bellows. He managed to get in his words while the Major gasped air between each tirade.

"Ms Thomson has got herself a lawyer..."

More raucous bellows and screams.

"... from Christie and Partners, and the lawyer pointed out that ...

More screams.

"... that because Ms Thomson is only an honorary member of STRIKE FORCE, being non-human, she is not subject to the normal STRIKE FORCE Court-Martial process..."

More hysterical screams.

"... and can opt for a civil trial...

Screams.

"... which she has done."

Screams.

"So," said Prospero over the top of more screams. "Sir Major, sir, can you please arrange to FAX the charges through to here, and I will see that the lawyer gets them."

Prospero repeated this sentence again, despite the screams which had now descended into vile threats and disgusting invective. Then he just hung up.

Prospero insisted that Colleen stay in the STRIKE FORCE cells. Carole agreed that it might be safer anyway.

Jacob then phoned Captain Lassard, and told him that Colleen was here. Lassard left New York headed for Philadelphia straight away.

While they were doing this, Sledge, who had heard about Colleen's Dolly's prognostication abilities, asked if he could talk with Dolly. Colleen agreed.

Sledge held Dolly to his head and opened his mind. Sure enough, he heard Dolly's voice in his head [ critical Perception roll ].

"Show me my wedding day!" he crowed.

Sledge was in the church. His mind's-eye "camera" was on him and his bride Safiya standing at the altar with the priest, and they were reciting their wedding vows. The view then panned clockwise, scanned over the party and groom's family, and looked down the aisle. The church doors suddenly exploded inwards, and Morte Christe bikers (he recognized some) rushed in, spraying automatic gun-fire over the pews and guests.

Back in the real world, Sledge yelped out loud, and the image vanished.

"Is that true?!" he stammered to Colleen. "My wedding was all shot up !"

"If you do nothing, the vision is pretty accurate," said Colleen. "But you can influence the results. It is not fixed in stone."

"Get Saturday's Lotto numbers!" said Leon.

"No," said Colleen, missing the joke. "It doesn't work that way. The image you get is always related to you. You can't ask about someone else's future."

Monday late evening, July 14

Reginald, Jacob, Leon and Sledge were at Reggie's safe-house; it had just had magical protections installed (similar effect to a Shroud or the no-eavesdrop ruby) [ he bought five dots in Safe-house Security ].

The pariahs with their cursed tracking-rings, Ebony and Theo, were in the Elfrith Alley apartment. Mina was down in the cellar at the Nexus.

There was a loud knock on the door. Theo peered through the peep-hole and saw a tall thin man, wearing sunglasses, and dressed in a black trench-coat. Not willing to face this guy alone, he summoned Mina. She came up from the cellar, wearing rubber gloves, just as Theo opened the door.

Instantly, her eyes gleamed feral red, and fangs extended, as did the man at the door.

Vampire Maurice Parsons

"Maurice!" hissed Mina.

Maurice fled, at supernatural vampire speed.

"Damn!" cursed Mina. "He is one of Oberon's. Maurice Parsons. That means Oberon will know I am here."

Theo frowned.

"You need to go to Oberon now," said Mina. "It is no secret that Ebony is my bitch. But you need to tell Oberon this. That is the reason I am here. He must not, of course, know about the Nexus."

Theo nodded wanly, darkly, and headed over to the Khyber Pass Bar & Grill; Oberon's haunt.

The bodyguards knew Theo pretty well these days, so they ushered him upstairs without a word. Oberon was there with his usual bevy of women, plus Dimetrius, Marceline, and Maurice.

Oberon cut straight to the point.

"Who owns the block where your apartment is, Theo?" he asked.

"Uh, you do, sir," said Theo.

"So why is dear Mina there?" The way Oberon said the word "dear" was as far from dear as one could get.

"Um.. she is... uh Ebony is a bitch ... I mean becoming ...ghoul to Mina," said Theo.

"This I know," said Oberon. "So is it not fair for you to become ... 'bitch' (such a lovely term!) to me? Theo, my bitch?"

"No, sir," stammered Theo. "Not at all."

Oberon gave a tiny nod, and suddenly, quick as a blink, four vampires were on Theo, one holding each limb. They held Theo down, back to the floor. Maurice held his jaw painfully open with cold dry fingers. Oberon cut his own wrist and let the black blood trickle into Theo's open mouth.

Theo (and no doubt Oberon) knew that ghouling [ verb, transitive ] is an entirely voluntary thing. A vampire can not force someone to become a ghoul. The human must want it; the magic requires tacit consent.

Nevertheless, Theo did his level best not to swallow Oberon's blood. He spat it out, coughed it out, and vomitted it out. Each time he did this, one of the vampires would punch him savagely in the solar plexus. Eventually, poor Theo passed out from the ordeal.

Tuesday early morning, July 15

Theo woke up. He was naked, in an alley, covered in blood, vomit and ... Tibetan whiskey.

Theo staggered out to the street. He soon got his bearings, and stumbled back to the Elfrith Alley apartment.
'
Ebony let him in. Mina was still there. He told Ebony and Mina of the encounter, and then had a shower. Afterwards, Mina diagnosed Theo's wounds [ 6 lethal points of damage ].

"I'll get you some poultices for your injuries," she said. "I feel a trifle responsible for this."

"A 'trifle'?" he mumbled as Mina swanned out.

As soon as Mina had left, there was a knock on the door.

Ebony peered trough the peephole and saw Maurice. Theo nodded wanly, and she let him in.

Maurice wandered about the apartment, idly looking around.

"Sorry about your wounds, old chap," said Maurice. he didn't sound sorry. "Nice place you have here. You do know Oberon owns this place?"

Theo scowled.

Maurice offered his wrist.

"Like a drink?" he sneered. "It will make you feel better."

Theo shook his head. Maurice then handed over his calling card, and left. Sure enough, the card tingled with Theo's Sixth Sense.

Mina arrived back with her poultices, and she gently applied them to Theo's wounds. They were steeped in magic and tingled the whole time. Soon he was right as rain.

Maurice's card was later put on a bus to Florida.

Tuesday morning, July 15

Lieutenant Prospero tore the paper off the FAX machine. It was from the New York STRIKE FORCE offices.

15-Jul-2014
Major Jack Ewing's Offices

Charges pertaining to Fae Colleen Thomson.
Member of STRIKE FORCE from 6-Jun-2009 through to 12-Jul-2014.
Adjutant to Captain Albus Lassard 3-Aug-2009 through to 12-Jul-2014.

6-Jun-2009
Infiltration of STRIKE FORCE: 
Ms Thomson infiltrated STRIKE FORCE, evaded the screening tests with fae magic, and did not declare her veil side.

3-Aug-2009 continuous to 12-Jul-2014
Bewitching of a STRIKE FORCE officer: 
Ms Thomson did bewitch Captain Albus Lassard with her fae powers, dulling his mind, and perverting his will. 

18-Oct-2012
Accessory to Murder: 
Accessory to Escape:
Ms Thomson did knowingly fail to secure the cage of Werewolf Reginald Maudling, who then broke out and killed STRIKE FORCE Lance Corporal Trent Howes. Werewolf Maudling then escaped STRIKE FORCE premises.

30-Sep-2013
Accessory to Assault: 
Ms Thomson failed to prevent the assault of Cletis Crawdad.

5-Oct-2013
Accessory to Assault:
Ms Thomson assisted in the assault of Cletis Crawdad.

14-May-2014

Grand Theft of STRIKE FORCE property:
Ms Thomson did knowingly steal a 2013 Toyota Prius registration IBR8K4WW which belonged to STRIKE FORCE.

END

Oh Dear

Saturday noon, July 12

STRIKE FORCE Lieutenant Prospero contacted the party.

"Go to Salisbury," he said, "and find out about those Morte Christe bikers. We want to know who hired them to shoot up our apartment. Maybe you could first find out where they got those heavy weapons from."

Juan was embedded in Morte Christe. So they tried him. He wouldn't answer his mobile, nor respond to texts.

Oh dear.

Saturday afternoon, July 12

The party headed south, across the border into Maryland, and to Salisbury.

Sure enough, on the south side of Salisbury, there was a park. And the bikers had made camp there.

"We still don't know why the police haven't just waded in and arrested them all," quipped Jacob.

"Maybe state jurisdiction?" said Ebony to no-one in particular.

The bikers were under surveillance by two patrol cars, but it was from a distance.

Jacob made his own observational position on the far side of the park, and, with binoculars, spotted Juan's bike. Eventually Juan was spotted too. Still alive. That was good.

Saturday evening, July 12

After dark, Ebony and Sledge, the good sneakers of the party, skulked into the camp. Ebony, surreptitiously dropped a pre-paid phone into Juan's pocket.

Sure enough, Juan contacted them later.

"Can't talk in camp," he whispered into his phone. "They have a phone detector set up. Call you back, noon tomorrow."

Sunday noon, July 13

Juan called the party.

"I know what you want. I know not who hired Morte Christe to attack that Fishtown place, Angel keeps very quiet. But we did go via a brick garage to get guns and RPGs. On the north corner of Webb St and East Albert St."

Straight away, they contact Prospero and relayed the address.

Prospero did some digging.

Sunday afternoon, July 13

Lieutenant Prospero called the party back.

"That dwelling is owned by a holding company, which is owned by a trust, which was formed by known associates - known ghouls actually - of Defacto. So I think we can make the connection..."

Nods all round.

"Unless you lot want to poke further, I'll order in the SWAT boys to take it out."

The party conferred a little, but they were pretty sure.

"Send in SWAT!"

While this was going on, Mrs Hammer, Sledge's mum, phoned Sledge and asked him for dinner. She also dropped some news.

"Your betrothed has been offered a job at the prison," she said proudly.

"Um," said Sledge weakly. "What prison?"

"The Eastern State Penitentiary. The warden herself called. Lovely lady, Candy or something. Said she knew you well."

Oh dear.

Sunday evening, July 13

Sledge rushed to his mum's apartment.

Sledge and Safiya's wedding was in sixteen days' time (29th July), so Safiya had started to make grand plans. And she couldn't wait to tell Sledge about them. She had selected several sets of vows, and asked him which ones he liked the best. He chose the ones that were the most soppy and twee - cloyingly so.

Safiya wanted a $60,000 wedding dress, so and didn't want to put too much "financial burden" on Sledge, and the prison job "just came up".

"They want me as an accounts clerk in the admin block of the prison," exclaimed Safiya proudly. "And I know Excel!"

Sledge managed to convince Safiya not to take the job.

Mrs Hammer also had received a large bunch of flowers, and a friendly "thinking of you" card - sent from the warden.

Theo was called around. he ran his fingers over the flowers and card. Sure enough, the ribbon tingled.

Sledge phoned the warden. Both her cell phone number and her home phone number didn't work. He phoned the prison after-hours line, but they just said try the warden on Monday.

Sunday sunset 8:29 pm, July 13

Reggie was in his safe-house with Jacob and Leon.

Ebony and Theo were back in the Elfrith Alley apartment when Mina arrived.

She offered Ebony a drink from her wrist as usual. And Ebony "declined with regret".

Mina took Theo aside for a good chat. He talked about getting the two STRIKE FORCE notables (Lassard and Thomson)  safely away to New York, the Morte Christe bikers, and the SWAT team.

Reggie and Jacob, and maybe Sledge, had been getting a trifle annoyed at the way Theo spilled his guts to Mina, and had warned him about this ... but they weren't here to stop him.

Sunday late evening, July 13

Mina was chatting with Ebony, and conversation got around to Oberon. Mina mentioned it was about time he got stirred up. So Ebony offered to, and she and Theo jogged around to Oberon's place, Khyber Pass Bar & Grill.

Oberon was quite happy to see them. They told Oberon about Defacto offering Theo his magic card (at the Mayor's do on Wednesday night), and how they had noticed that Oberon got rather annoyed.

Oberon, surrounded by his PA Anderson and some other babes, just laughed it off. Then asked the two if they'd like to work for him; go and pretend to work for Defacto,

"But keep me appraised," he added.

They would be interested, and Oberon offered them a brief-case of money for successful completion

Oberon's ring

($80K). He then gave them two filigree silver rings.

"Put them on please, they will help you resist Defacto's influence."

They both did. Worried that the rings might be cursed, they tested, and they could take the rings off.

"They will stop you becoming his ghouls," Oberon smiled.

When they got back to the apartment, Theo took his ring off and put it on the table.

Five minutes later, he happened to glance down and the ring was back on his finger.

Oh dear.

Theo and Ebony did some experimenting. The ring seemed to teleport back to your hand when you weren't looking or expecting it. You'd put your hand in your pocket, and when you took it out, the ring would be back. You'd look away, and then glance back at your hand, and the ring would be back.
It would never do it under direct observation. You could stop the transfer if you, or someone else, maintained a watch on the ring, or the hand. But even a glance away would be enough.

Mina was down in the basement in the shroud area. She listened patiently.

"That's a ghoul ring," she said. "It will be tied to Oberon, and stops you becoming a ghoul to another vampire. But I haven't seen them teleport like that. Oh ... and don't bring it into the shroud !"

Ebony was in the shroud, and had left her ring upstairs. It hadn't teleported down here.

"That was lucky!" she mused. "So it won't teleport into the shroud."

Mina didn't look very happy.

Sure enough, later, when Ebony was outside the shroud, the ring reappeared on her hand.

When Sledge got back from his mum's, he had the no-eavesdrop ruby. It behaved similar to the shroud (it prevented the ring returning to its owner when you stood near the ruby).

Monday morning, July 14

Sledge phoned the prison and eventually got through to the warden.

"Well, so nice to hear from you, Mister Hammer!" she said effusively.

Before he could answer, she continued.

"I see that your inaction to take out my escapees has resulted in the death of, what was it? five souls in Fishtown. I hope you regret changing sides. Their blood is on your group's hands."

This was news to Sledge. But he didn't let on. In the CCTV footage of the attack, they never saw anyone be injured. Prospero never said anyone was injured.

"Stay away from my family," he said. "She is not taking your job."

"Oh, don't be like that ..."

Sledge hung up.

Monday noon, July 14

Back in STRIKE FORCE HQ, the party had a meeting.

Reggie, Jacob, Leon and Sledge were concerned that Ebony and especially Theo were telling Mina too much. Reggie was so annoyed that he ordered a court marshal of Theo. Sledge was the highest ranking STRIKE FORCE member of the group, so he convened it.

Theo and Ebony argued that keeping a good vampire, Mina, on their side can only help them in the long run. And look at history: not only had Mina provide massive amounts of good and useful information, but she had also housed them to help them protect Lassard and Thomson, only a few days ago.

Reggie and Jacob argued the other way saying all the information and secrets they had given Mina had found its way into the hands of the bad Veil creatures, and that no good end would come of it.

Reggie had plenty of passages from the STRIKE FORCE constitution to back him up, and he liberally quoted them ad nauseam, disiecti membra poetae, gravida panis.

Theo was found guilty, but when they petitioned Lieutenant Prospero to punish Theo, he just said, irritated "Sort it out yourselves."

Monday afternoon, July 14

Ebony had arranged an appointment with Siri, to get Oberon's cursed rings identified, and maybe uncursed. So she and Theo headed there.

Siri ID-ed them as cursed Ghoul rings tuned to Oberon. Which meant they would reduce the chance of the wearer becoming ghoul to another vampire who wasn't Oberon. They also had a tracker, but not listener, on-board. And they had the Return-to-owner curse, which the Ebony and Theo had already divined the mechanics.

"How do we get them off for good?" asked Ebony.

"Not so easy," said Siri. "Four ways: One, get Oberon to take them off. Two, kill you. Three, Dispel Magic. Four: Metallic Consumption."

Ebony's ears perked up.

"I wouldn't advise Dispel Magic. It causes an explosion, which, in a confined space, would cause major damage, ..."

"Well, do it outside."

",,, and if we do it outside, with the ring off you, the problem then is that there will be fragments of silver filigree left after the detonation. And if they maintain any traces of the Return-to-owner magic, which is usually the case, then they will try to reform the ring, and will hurtle towards you at relativistic speeds."

"Let's not try that," said Theo.

"Metallic Consumption," continued Siri, "is safer by miles, but as these rings are silver, we will need a powerful silver antigen, namely werewolf blood. Two tablespoons ought to be enough for both rings. Oh, and it has to be fresh; no older than an hour. I can then dissolve them."

As Ebony and Theo were leaving Siri's, the rest of the group was in her waiting room. Sledge had brought in the ribbon that was tied around the flowers given to his mum by the warden.

Siri didn't take long to deal with this.

"That's demon magic," she said. "I can't do anything with that. Try Cello."

They traipsed over to Cello's offices. She came up with the same conclusion, but she did ID it as a tracker and listener, of demon magic.

Monday late afternoon, July 14

Jacob's mobile rang.

"Hi is that Jacob?" It was a woman's voice

"Speaking."

"This is Colleen Thomson, Captain Lassard's adjutant."

"Oh. Yes. Hi Colleen."

"I don't know who else to trust, but I need protection. Can't talk here. I'll be in Philly soon. Meet me at Sherman Park, under the Walt Whitman bridge. 6:30 pm."

"Uhm ... yeah. Very well. Protection from whom?"

A pregnant pause.

"STRIKE FORCE." she said. 

Oh dear.