One boring hour later, we pull up outside the address we were given-Dracula's Haunted Castle? Somebody's got a sense of humor; the boys of the Inquisition seem to be holed up in a funhouse. Well, whatever; we'll just get the ghoul and get the hell out. Breaking in the front door seems a little too risky-there's the occasional passerby-so we leave the car parked out from, slip round the back, and I let us in through the rear entrance.
It's dark, and just as my eyes adjust something comes flying right at us, a , what is that, a bat? Even as I'm jumping I have to laugh inside at myself; it's a funhouse prop, and when it stops moving we can see the mangy looking fake fur and the bicycle reflector eyes. We search the place quickly. At first it seems empty besides various ghosts and goblins, but I find passageways behind the larger figures, passageways that lead downwards into a hallway full of doorways. Hmm, the lady or the tiger… I try a door; unlocked. It's a little computer lab, not bad shit although not as nice as the Brujahs'. One terminal is up and running, a medical records program that I recognize from hacking the medical records of a few political figures. The file on screen seems to reflect a failed experiment, something about blood. I need to take this stuff, but there's no time… I grab all the diskettes and cartridges I can see, stuffing my pockets, and then I give their network a little nasty code-chomping creature I've named The Kiss of Death. It would take a computer shrink to straighten out this mainframe's scrambled brains now; feels almost as good as feeding.
The others won't wait for me anymore; they're too chicken to bust down doors without me though. Personally I think we should torch the place and get out-if the Tremeres' ghoul is here, that'll take care of him. The others think we're supposed to bring him back alive and outvote me, fuckin' democracy in action. And behind door number two… jesus, what the hell is that thing? It's staked to a gurney, so I assume it's Kindred, but some fucking ugly kind, that's for sure. I can safely say it's not a Toreador. The others want to leave, but putting two and two together, it seems obvious that the ghoul-nappers are into a little Kindred experimentation on the side, and that's just not right. We argue a little, I get sick of it, and unstake the creature, who responds without any gratitude whatsoever-the bitch, as it seems to be female, frenzies on us and Eleanor has to pull some of that Toreador attitude shit to bring her under control. The poor thing is fried, but at least she listens to Eleanor. I think if Eleanor told her to, she'd re-stake herself. I don't know what's more repugnant, her slavering obedience or her appearance.
And behind door number three-the stench of death, blood, and foul decay slams into us like a physical barrier. The room is a frigging field of carnage, humans, animals, arms, legs, guts, brains all strewn about. Something moves and we all get ready to rumble-what's this? Looks like a teenage Asian kid, skinny with long hair, and he's whining at us "who are you? I'm hungry…" Shit, he's Kindred, but I've never seen or smelled Kindred like this before. The others start talking to him; I'm too repulsed to speak, all this blood that should smell so good but it's all rotten, decomposed.. shit I'm going to puke… out the door…
That didn't make me feel any better. The others come out, time to get moving. We head for the stairs back up to the real world. I can't believe I puked and the Toreador didn't. I'm pondering the ignominy of this when whoosh, something flies past me and is on Leonardo. They roll struggling and I see it's just as ugly as that girl vampire drooling over Eleanor, if there were anything left in my stomach I might lose it again but there isn't, so I don't. Instead I leap on the monster-shit, he's strong, much stronger than me. He flings me against the stairs, he's got his arms around my chest and it feels like he's going to squeeze me in half. All I can think to do is bite him, my teeth are all I have left and besides I'm near to frenzy myself from hunger… I figure I'll just half-drain him, take his strength and leave him weak, damn he tastes good, but as I withdraw my fangs I see him shrivel and dry up, an empty husk. I didn't mean to kill him. Even though he was just trying to kill me, I feel bad about it. If he'd been treated like the others here, I can't blame him for attacking all comers, given the chance. Still, it was him or me, so I can't waste too much time on regrets.
Speaking of wasting time, what's that smell? Seems like somebody else shared my idea of torching the place, only they must have thought of it sooner, because we can already hear the sirens coming. They'll be driving up to the front-an avenue of escape cut off. If it were just the three of us, we'd manage ok, but we're dragging along these freakshow refugees, one unhumanly ugly girl and one teenage boy steeped in blood and gore. It's back into the building and braving the flames for us. It's not as bad as the sunlight, and I'm glad to see this place destroyed. House of Horrors indeed. Safe in the back alley, Leonardo retrieves the car we came in from the front-don't know how he got around all the law enforcement, fire-fighter types, but whatever. Probably more subtly than I could have done it anyway. Eleanor helps her little pet into the back seat, and I shove the boy, who hasn't stopped whining since we found him except to say his name is Kim, into the front seat between Leonardo and myself.
As we drive past the emergency vehicles, Kim gets agitated, starts demanding that we stop the car, because he's hungry and needs to feed-what kind of bullshit is this? We rescue the little creep from a frigging charnel house and he's demanding we stop so he can break the Masquerade? I say as much, only a little more politely, telling him I'll take him to the Prince and see to it that he gets fed and is safe. He looks at me like I'm the one who's nuts. He says he doesn't know what I'm talking about, and that he needs flesh now. I hand him the same look right back-flesh? Jesus fucking Joseph with a chainsaw, they weren't torturing Kim with all that rotten meat-he did it all himself. This is sick. It's one thing if you tear up your enemy for vengeance, or to make a point, but you don't play with your fucking food. Kim gets more and more insistent, demanding that we stop, and I start to struggle with him. He's close to frenzy, and I'm so fed up I know I'm damn close, but that would be the death of everyone else in the car if we both went off-have to stay in control-Leonardo thinks fast and throws on the brakes. We both hit the dash hard, but I stay conscious. That hard head is good for something besides pissing off Calliope.
The calm doesn't last for long as we drive down the highway; Kim regains consciousness and is just as insistent on feeding. He doesn't actually look that good, when it comes down to it. He tries to throw himself across me and out the moving car. I keep him in, and Leonardo stops the car. Leonardo asks Kim if he'll behave if Leonardo can find him something to eat now, and if an animal will do. Kim isn't sure what to say, and I can tell he's a bit afraid I'll start beating on him again. I promise him that if he feeds now and calms down, I'll see to it that he's taken somewhere safe, where he'll be taken care of and be with his own kind. He promises, and Leonardo sets off into the nearby woods. I keep a damn close eye on Kim until Leonardo comes back leading somebody's black Lab on a leash. What happens next is not a pretty sight at all. If there was any doubt in my mind that Kim was responsible for the grotesquery we found him in, this episode removes it. At least if the carcass is ever found, nobody will question that a wild animal did it-probably blame it on coyotes. Coyotes on mescaline.
The Tremere shantry is the closest safe place-damn, you know you're living a dangerous life when a Tremere shantry feels friggin' safe in comparison to anywhere else you've been that night. They offer us blood-fucking right, what kind of fool do they think I am? Leonardo says it's safe, maybe I can trust him, but he is one of them, first and foremost, so I pass. They want us to wait while they discuss our new foundlings. Guess I don't have much of a choice, since either they drive me back to Boston or I'm walking all by myself through the woods. I start perusing the diskettes I collected; a Tremere approaches me and offers their equipment to work with. They've got some nice stuff; not as fine as my clan's, but it'll do, and frankly I'm surprised they have it at all. The diskettes are encrypted, but nothing too complex. Mostly they're more of the same kinds of medical records, and it's obvious that the ugly girl and Kim were not the first or only experimental subjects at that lab. This is some serious shit; kind of interesting in a way, but distinctly chilling, a vision of a Kindred Holocaust if they can only figure out what makes us tick. If there were any doubt that this were the Inquisition, it's gone from my head now. And here's something that catches my eye-my old friends at Xion Industries, one Doctor Sinclair, involved in the experimentation. What the hell did they want to hire me for, back before this all began? To hack the Kindred? Fuck, I'm damn glad my Brujah brethren put a stop to that, cuz I'd hate like hell to be some poor human hacker caught lurking in their mainframes.
The same Tremere comes back to tell me that it's time to go. Not a minute too soon, IMO. I start to gather up the diskettes, only to be told that I can't take them-what the hell do you mean, I can't take them? I stole them, they're mine! There's no arguing with the Tremere in their own shantry though. I do convince him to let me keep the one that mentions Dr. Sinclair and Xion, seeing as how that's a personal issue for me. I still have to leave a copy though. I ask where Kim is, only to be told that he's staying there. I explain the promise I made, but it's like telling it to a brick wall. Fucking Tremere. If this were anywhere but their shantry, I wouldn't stand for this, forcing me to break my word. Can't ever, ever trust a goddamn Tremere. And I don't give a fuck if they can tell I'm thinking it, either. And now what? No, of course we're not being driven to our respective havens. There's still that fucking ghoul, which they now say is at Mass General. I am not pleased, not at all, but they say we have not fulfilled the boon. I say it's not our damn fault if their information was bad, we went where they sent us and did our best, but have I mentioned that there's no arguing with the Tremere? Off we go, back to the city. I think Leonardo feels apologetic for his clan's behavior, but I'm not gracing him with my conversational presence. Talk to the hand, Tremere boy.
We find the ghoul without too much trouble, and between Eleanor and Leonardo we're able to talk our way in, despite the hour. The ghoul's toast, kept alive by machines, and it's pretty clear that his brains are jelly. More experimentation, no doubt. Doctors interrupt us, I end up knocking them out, and in the fuss the plug gets pulled on the ghoul, who suddenly looks his age, which I'd guess to be about a hundred and sixty. Could the situation be any more fucked? I am so sick of this night, sick of other clans, sick of ghouls, and distinctly sick of the Inquisition. Leonardo sweeps the ghoul up into a coat pocket. Eleanor brings the doctors around and tells them what they're going to remember. I'm glad she can do that, but it gives me the creeps. Fucking sick of all of them, I repeat. Being the technologically minded one, it occurs to me that there's security cameras in hospitals these days, and so we waste more time hunting down the VCRs and figuring out which tape to pull, and telling the security guard what he's going to remember. Finally, I can go home, thank you!
Chapter 9, in which the plot thickens and I play a prank