It's a month later, a month after our counterstrike. Or perhaps pre-emptive strike might have been a better name for it in the end. Perhaps. Things have moved along since then, some for the better, some for the worse. The influence battle between the Princes and the Sabbat has slowly petered out after an initial group of exchanges. As expected there hasn't been any real changes, we have a step in, a toehold. We're slowly trying to expand it but for now, it's stalled for the most part. As best, intelligence tells us that they've begun to rebuild. I don't know how long more before they're ready to attack us again, but I'd give it another 2-3 months. Certainly the numbers of the packs have been mainly rebuilt. Unfortunately, it's not always numbers. It's also training.

Things have fallen into a routine back here. Slowly the major changes we needed to get done have been done or are being done. We're no longer that worried about falling from a straight counterstrike but it'll be a while before we can actually hope to be certain of ourselves once more. I'm alone in what passes for the intelligence room for now. We use it mostly for meetings but with the number of charts layered around the room it's a good place as any to think of what I need to. Pierre, a still unknown force thankfully is watching the city for me, just moving around as far as I know. Janus is back down in his sewers working on one of his toys and Sandy's out co-ordinating with the Prince. The rest of the team are on their own errands, the Warlock off in his chantry studying as I understand it, Siltens working on one of his contacts to ensure that we have things nice and tight. Cox is out with Sandy, still guiding her along and the Brujah were never really fully part of the group. Oh, they're useful and good at what they do but for the most part I leave them be. I know who to call when I need more muscle, but beyond that...

I sigh, drawing my mind back to the map laid out in front of me and shake my head. I was going over the basics of the city again, as I've done a hundred times before. I don't expect to find anything new, but perhaps I might get another idea. Or just a better understanding of the city. I can't help but feel a small tug on my lips at that thought, glancing to the books on my left. The History of Gotham. Historical Gotham. Scenic city's of America. Huh, book reading. But I've learnt a few facts that I wouldn't have. Not even if I lived here for a hundred years.

I turn back to the map, gazing over it. It's a huge city, one of the largest in America. 2.3 million at last count within the actual city, never mind the suburbs. Large enough to sustain the population we have certainly, especially since it doesn't even count the transient population of tourists and others. I look over the map and the simple piece of plastic covering it, holding it down. A number of markers have been used on the plastic, drawing out boundaries and such over it, giving a clearer indication in some ways of the city. In some ways. I smile once more, looking upon the city as I recall a verse in one of the books "Gotham city, a marvel of luck and human forethought. Perhaps one of the best planned, organised cities within the America's, its well defined boundaries and domestic and industrial sections have over the years consistently drawn financial inflows. It might even be thought that the hand of Fate itself guided the construction of this city, so well planned is it". Fate? No, not really, more like a Prince who was here at the beginning and has stayed since, pulling on his and his Clans resources to build this city. Heck, he's even showed me a few of the maps he has, maps detailing the city he envisioned. Some of it has changed, by necessity, time and luck. But still, the vision of the man and the patience to craft this. Whatever else...

I sigh once more, realising I've been drawn off point and bring myself to focus upon the map once more, reaching out to brush aside some of the pens as I trace the area. I do nothing more, instead tracing the words and names in my mind. Huxbridge, better known in these parts as Hell. A fitting name for the place. Home to the most desperate, driven and nasty individuals that this city can lay name to. Those who want to really disappear go there, the one's that slip, dance, fall and jump through the cracks of life. The non-people. I'd be surprised to learn that even half of them have a Social Security number. The place is hell on earth, the only reason that there is running water still and a proper sewage system is due to the efforts of the Nos to ensure that they can get in and out of there silently. Bordering the worst of the industrial areas, it's still one of the most hazardous places to live on, the natural flow of air driving all the really nasty stuff those factories let out straight there. Most of the people who live in Hell work in the factories, of one kind or another.

I sometime wonder about Hell. As much as I'd like to get rid of it, it's a good dumping ground. I'm doing the best to slowly clean it out, but even the concessions I've dragged out from the Prince will take time to act out. And the truth it, there are too many reasons to keep Hell as it is. Even I can't shove through all I was not. I doubt the Prince could either to tell the truth, so at best we can raise the standard of living there by a bit. At best. I smile slightly once more, at my own conscience this time. I owe the people nothing there, I know none of them really. But I know if I didn't try, I'd regret it. Still too human I guess. I trace my hand upwards and along the edges of Hell, over the area known as the Barrens. The borderlands between the main city and Hell, it's exactly that. Neither as 100% lethal as Hell itself, it's no rose picking area either. Running across a number of areas, the lines we drew aren't really that accurate. But they'll do, we really only need them to give us an idea of the place. Low paid blue-collar workers, gangs, prostitutes, pimps and drug dealers. All the best in humanity. But at least they have a school there, a number of churches and a basic social system that doesn't date back to the Stone Age. Downtown, well, your basic inner city. Spiralling glass towers, office blocks and the rest. You get the same thing in any city. Wilton Inc. owns the tallest building in the city, it's got the best view from the rooftops. It's also where I go most of the time, to just look over the city. Though falling off it is not a good idea I'd have thought.

I switch my gaze, looking upwards where the city meets the river, gazing on it. Toreador territory mainly, it's one of the most beautiful parts of the city as well as being the busiest all round. A tourist trap if there ever was one, still it's useful. I guess there are a lot of names for it but my personal one is Rose-land. Yeah yeah, I know, picking at them. But they've been giving me hell for the past month, none of them are happy with what happened to Stone. As if it's my fault. But I guess you have to lash out at somebody, and the Prince is too hard a target.

I look over the rest of the map, noting St.James Park. Not a very original name, but it suits the place well. It's not as large as I'd like it to be, but at least it's there, a refuge for most of the Gangrel. The Lupines around here aren't that great in number but it's enough to keep most of us on the inside. So St.James has kinda become de facto Gangrel territory.

Those are the main subsections of the city, Brujah domain as it stands running within the Barrens whilst the Nosferatu seem to have taken a liking to Hell. Ventrue of course have Downtown. The Tremere have no complete section of their own though the University is one of their major hangouts. Clan Malkavian is worst off in the city I guess, having Domain only in certain buildings. Mainly hospitals and asylums. Not very surprising there at all.

I gaze upon the map once more, tracing out the cities and the various streets that are shown there, my mind conjuring up the various streets as I continue to look upon it, wandering if I have the control over the city that I need. So many new games that are played, the political and the mortal that there is no way to know it all. Or even half of what I'd love to know. I ain't the Prince but as Sheriff I need to know enough to back him up when he needs it and when to step back. At least with the Sabbat still seated so close to us the Kindred are working together. Nominally at least. Better the enemy you know than the one that you don't.

I feel my mind wandering off once more, wandering what Janus is up to. With the thought of the man comes also the memory of 2 nights ago. He invited me down to one of his labs in the sewers and I came of course, knowing he would have something to tell me or show me. I was right on both counts it would work out, seeming that he had some information concerning a rather important individual in the city. That and he wanted to show me what he had been working on lately. An arm mounted flame thrower. Quite useful and all, I even tried it out on one of his dummies. And found out only later that it blew up half the time still. Off hand, off the cuff comment from Janus. Sometimes his humour... I just shake my head, going back to looking over the map and then looking up to gaze upon the map straight ahead of me. It shows the positions of the various cities around the area with the latest news on them, different pins for different things. Nice and blue for Camarilla cities, red for Sabbat and green for contested cities. All colour coded, so nice and pretty and telling a pretty damn depressing tale. We're now right on the border between Camarilla and Sabbat held territory and except for New York we're pretty much the largest city too. Which is fun, all things considered. Really. It means that we're the first city that they'll want to take over if possible, centred as we are in the mid-US. Makes it so much easier to get recruits, influences and information once we are taken over. Which I guess is why we're at last getting an Archon here.

Of course, the only reason we're getting one now is due to politics. Oh no, if not for politics we'd have had the Archon here a long time ago. Okay, I can see why they had trouble getting one over here before the Sheriff died, or even for a short while after that. Having so many cities lost in one go and trying to make sure we didn't lose any more is understandable, and the fact that we actually were doing okay might have stopped them... but damn it, this long? Just because the Prince has pissed off a few people on the top with some comments on the new Justicars and the Camarilla shouldn't get in the way of strategy. Politics. Bah, humbug. I know I should be happy we're getting one at last but they could at least have told us who it was. Instead of "Please note that an Archon will be arriving within your city within the next 2 weeks to help with the Sabbat situation". Okay, phrased differently. But that's the gist of it.

Politics. Well, I guess that's the next thing I need to look over anyhow, I know all the physical stuff for now. I guess we should start from the top down. Elders. There's the Prince of course, the man himself. Ventrue, pretty much the toughest son of a bitch in this city I'd say. Certainly he's kept this city in his control for a long while. The Tremere Seneschal, Lawrence Damask and the Tremere Regent LeBeau can be counted in those ranks I guess. We've got the Toreador Primogen Richard Castlerock, a pretty damn new arrival all in all as I understand it. Only been here for 2 years. The man's pretty damn smooth and pretty damn powerful from what I understand. Clan Brujah unfortunately has no elder in this city, something to do with the number of Ventrue Elders here beforehand - as in 2, one of who was the Sheriff. Emphasise was. Add Pierre, Janus and Sandy to that list I guess though I think most of them might have something to say about that.

Pretty much all the Elders in the city. No Malks and the Gangrel don't have an Elder either. Hmm... guess time to consider the Clans. Ventrue are the biggest not surprisingly at 6 of them in total, 2 of whom are the Prince's childer. One an Ancilla and the other a neonate for the Princes childer. Another neonate underneath the Ancilla and two more Ventrue -of which Silten is one of course. Not a bad number. 4 Tremere in the city, the Regent and Seneschal as spoken off and then another 2 who totter around the city - both Neonates. The Toreador are a bit lower than the rest, at a not bad 4 in total including the Primogen. Castlerock being the oldest and another Toreador Ancilla by the name of Winterheart, Edward. Add another 4 Nosferatu to the mix, the eldest an Ancilla thanks the recent - as in 2 years ago, disappearance of his Sire, the Gangrel who have a total of 4 including myself, the other two being Cox and an Ancilla who pretty much keeps to himself in St.James Park. 1 Malk in the entire city and then the Brujah. 4 of them technically, 3 Cammarilla - 2 neonates and the 4th Anarch to the nth degree. Of course, that's somewhat more difficult to say who's Anarch and who's not. After all, they all jump up and down and scream at the prince and the Cam when they can, just that the Anarch idiot is the one who causes the most trouble. I guess that pretty much clears up the board for the Camarilla side of things.

That makes a total of 26 of them and another 4 of us. Total of 30 and then not to forget the 2 Caitiff we supposedly have, the other 2 Giovanni in the city and the Setite. Pretty big population of 35 of us. We're slightly over the limit that would make any of us comfortable, the Prince, the independent clans or myself. But it's not really a choice we have, a number of them are recent arrivals from older cities that have fallen to the onslaught from the Sabbat. Not as if we can turn them away. Not in good faith and we do need the numbers and what the hell, we have enough people. 2.3 million should theoretically feed 23 of us and the outskirts hold more kine. Add the transient population and it's not actually as bad as it might seem. Certainly the numbers that we should watch out for such as the anaemic cases in hospitals haven't shifted too greatly. Partially because we took care of that Sabbat pack.

I'd go down the lines of influences next but it gives me a headache to just think of who controls what where. It's no clear delineations, not 100%. Oh sure, the Prince controls the police for the most part, he's got them sewn up. But I have a bit of influence there too, partially because of my job. And certainly the Nos have some contacts there and I wouldn't be surprised if the Seneschal had some influence there. And of course, if your business is that of an arms dealer like one Brujah that could be named, you'd be a fool not to have some influence in the Police. The lists could go on and on and on and as I said, it just gives me a headache to think about it. So I won't. Not now.

I look upon the information that I have before me, gaze upon it for a moment more before I turn, moving to pick up another map. It's a closer look at the streets of the city, one that marks even the alleyways that run through this area. Perhaps showing some of the origins of it's founder. Certainly the alleyways are as bad as any within Europe. A haphazard affair of the heart. I stay standing up, tracing each alleyway on the map and in my mind, working silently. Perhaps none of this will count perhaps. But you don't take chances, not if you wish to survive. Not unnecessary chances at least. And so I work, going over the alleyways again and again.