Chapter 4 - All The Devils Are Here
This is a sacred place.
The walls of the great cavern seem somehow uncertain, curving up and around in intricate, chiselled patterns, shimmering with unfaded etchings that ripple and start. The long-abandoned tools and scaffolding of the Tremere excavations have faded, merging with the shadows and the faintly iridescent subterranean moss that hangs, motionless, in great strands from the ceiling far above.
Eames steps down out of the rusted iron elevator. Despite herself, she shivers.
In the very centre of the cavern, its boundaries marked out by seven standing stones, is a perfectly-formed circle. And at its heart, a dozen flickering, unreal faces gibber and gawp silently.
The twelve televisions stand, one on top of the other, in an uneven pile, plugged in to a struggling extension cord. All of them are showing different news channels; all of them are muted.
She steals, in absolute silence, towards the little figure seated upright on the faded, rose-patterned sofa with one leg crossed over the other.
Before she reaches the boundary of the circle, Hob says, in his benign, curiously disinterested monotone,
“Is Terence with you, Regentia?”
Eames halts. Her expression of shock and loathing transforms itself swiftly into one of sincere affection.
“No,” she says, and steps around in front of the sofa. “No, Terence is still out of the city, working on something for me. He sends his best, of course.”
Hob regards her for a moment. His pale, reflective eyes, hidden behind golden-rimmed, round spectacles, seem to wash over her. His countenance, olive-skinned and indefinably exotic, remains entirely blank.
“Terence is a good friend,” he says. “He treated me well.”
Eames continues,
“I think we’re nearly there on St George In The East. I’ve had to…make the buying arrangements through a third party, so as not to arouse suspicion.”
Hob nods carelessly, his gaze returning to the television screens.
“Once they’re all bought,” Eames presses, “we’ll have you introduced publicly as a Tremere from Leeds. I have friends up there who can vouch for you. It’ll be put about that you like your privacy, so you won’t be called upon to spend any time in public. You’ll get a house, and a barony, in time. And you’ll have your share in the city.”
“You’re very kind,” says Hob, in that same strange monotone. “But you’ve come to ask a favour of me.”
Eames turns her head.
A banner is flashing across the bottom of the BBC News 24 channel.
BREAKING NEWS: TWENTY-FOUR KILLED IN GAS LEAK AT THE RITZ.
“The Sabbat hit them earlier tonight,” she says. “Some of the Embraced victims are still running around south of the river. I need to make sure none of them make it to the morning to be caught on camera.”
Hob tilts his head.
“No,” he says, a slight sharpness entering his tone. “No, that isn’t it. There’s something else you want me to do for you, but you’re afraid to ask. You want to sit on the throne, but you’re afraid to make the final step. Which is more than a little ironic.”
For a second, Eames is unable to contain her fury. Her face contorts, her eyes narrowing – but it only lasts for a second.
“I think you should know,” she says, controlling herself, “that I don’t for even an instant believe that you are what you claim to be. Your talents are…undeniable, but I view you as nothing more than a skilful con artist.”
“You don’t believe that I am what I am, Regentia,” Hob responds, “because if I am, indeed, Fallen…then millennia of superstition and outdated nonsense and foolish belief are the one true echo of the greater universal reality – and you, Regentia, and the rest of your kind, are utterly damned.”
His dull eyes meet hers.
“This place is as it was in my dream,” he murmurs. “Like…a lunatic built a termite nest, and after he was dead and gone a thousand lunatics built their own nests across the ruins, each of them with their own brand of mania and their own vision. And at some point – who knows when? – the nest began to breathe, and live, and devour the silly little creatures that dwell within. Because what I have learnt from this city, Regentia, is that it is cruel; nobody is indispensable to it. Anyone, no matter how powerful or unique they consider themselves to be, may be tossed aside and broken and annihilated – and London will continue to breathe, unharmed and unconcerned. So if you believe that I am lying, Regentia, I would advise you to continue humouring me…because you may die and be forgotten as easily as the rest.”
His face seems to slip in the darkness; it stretches and grows, black and inhuman.
“When you speak to him,” he says, smiling, “do give my very best wishes to my friend Terence.”
*
You gaze out over the black water, and lie. It comes to you more easily than you could have imagined, slipping on your tongue, merging with the truth until the two become indistinguishable. You tell Argyll about the jade necklace your stepfather gave you, when you were young – a present not for talking, he said, a present for keeping this our little secret. And when he touched you that night, you remember clinging on to the jade necklace, sweaty in your palm, gazing at the green split with brown until reality faded away.
His expression alters, his dull, horse-like face twisting. He’s sympathetic, or pretending to be.
“You…threw it in the river?” he asks.
“I had to let go of it all sooner or later,” you murmur, turn, and go.
He catches up with you halfway along the road. Slowly, without speaking, he falls into line with your step.
You could have killed the fucker; you know that. Eames would probably never even have noticed he’d gone, let alone cared. And you’d have got him off your back, given you time alone…time to think.
*
You step back into St. Alphege’s, Argyll at your heels.
Fowlesworth looks up.
The old Kindred is sitting in one of the pews, clutching a large plastic bag to his chest.
“Where’ve you been?” he says, in a tremulous mumble that’s somehow both accusatory and pleading.
“Out,” Argyll snaps, not bothering to even feign respect for the older apprentice.
Fowlesworth gets to his feet and comes to stand in the aisle.
“Did the Baronness know you were out?” he asks, his lip quivering. “Because I’ve been working all night, um, because there was no-one else around to help. So if you were, um, going out, you should really have checked with her first. The youngest apprentices should be the first ones asked to perform the basic duties.”
“Of course she knew we were out,” Argyll snaps, stepping forward. “But she realised we had better things to do with our time. What were you doing tonight, Fowlesworth? Scrubbing her bathroom tiles? Feeding her fish?”
He’s swaggering; trying to impress you. Fowlesworth’s fingers close more tightly on the plastic bag. He whines,
“You’re not allowed to speak to me like that-”
Argyll snatches at the bag; it tears.
And colourful swathes of material go spilling out across the floor.
Argyll stares down at the pile of clothing. Slowly, he stirs the edge of a large, polka-dotted bra with his foot.
“She’s got you buying her clothes?” he asks, disbelievingly. “What, do you try on her pants as well? Fuck me, that’s pathetic.”
Fowlesworth says, quietly, his eyes lowered, “Fuck. Off.”
How do you want to react?
A) Egg the two of them on. A potentially violent enmity between the two of them could be useful in future.
B) Slip past them. It’s best not to get on anyone’s bad side – and an authority figure could hear the raised voices.
C) Defend Fowlesworth. You never know when his sympathies might come in useful.
But more importantly, you need to begin to plan how to get Dubrik’s evidence. What are your thoughts?
A) You need to get a copy of Eames’ key. Once you can get into her office, you can find the evidence you need.
B) You need to cause a distraction – something that might cause Eames to flee from her office and leave it open. (You could even consider rigging the door so that it doesn’t shut properly.)
C) You don’t need to get into her office; you need a way of recording her when she thinks nobody’s around. You need a bug that you can plant on her.
D) You need to gain Eames’ trust; if she believes that you’re loyal, she’ll be more likely to spill information or let you get a glimpse of what she’s up to.
E) The…thing beneath the Vessel can only have been moved there recently. It’s currently invisible – but traces could have been left when it was being moved. You need to track how it got into the chantry.
F) There’s another way in; you can make use of your knowledge. If you take a trip to the chantry at Lambeth, you could figure out how to enter the cavern from the other end of the escape tunnel.