Ney,Frothy,Rumar

9

It's almost closing time, so you hide in the on-site cafeteria's kitchen until everyone has left except for night security and a few technicians at monitoring stations. Elton steps into a break room to work some hasty protective magic.

Podge pops his laptop open on the counter and brings up a map of Everlite HQ. Previous scouting has accounted for ninety five percent of the building's interior space, and since you went through the sewers, you know that it doesn't have much of a basement.

"That leaves the central gallery of the third floor as the only place where Everlite's prisoner—or secret mastermind—could be," Elton says when he returns.

Podge grumbles, but doesn't say anything. He's obviously more interested in exploiting Everlite's mediocre security to expose their crimes.

"The 'Big Calc' is some sort of racket and we need to expose what's going on. Let's take some pictures and learn what we can."

"Let's go right to where this fomor is, smash any security, and learn what we're really up against."

"Whatever Everlite took from the Deer Cross Pack might be in the same place. We should look for them, to return them to their owners or maybe to use them ourselves."

Next

"We don't know if it's a fomor," Podge says. "And we don't know if it knows anything. We have a chance to bring down Everlite—"

"Unless you have a van full of dynamite you didn't tell us about," Elton says, "you're not bringing them down tonight. At least, not by digging around their servers. Our only chance is to find whatever they've captured and interrogate it. We know this thing was there at the Battle of Graves Farm."

"No," Podge snarls. "This is a battle against the Wyrm, and the Wyrm is Everlite. I give the orders, not you, sorcerer."

Elton just laughs. You suspect he still sees a little punk kid whenever he looks at the ahroun.

As Nin ranges ahead to make sure you don't walk into any late-night office workers, you check the adjacent rooms. Every time you come back, the Shadow Lord and the Bone Gnawer are still bickering in low, angry voices. Podge looks for open computers, but all you find are ventilation units, vending machines, and storage closets. At one point, Podge waves everyone back and works some Bone Gnawer gift to disable a bank of cameras. A few minutes later, as Elton herds everyone toward the unidentified sections of the building's third floor, you see your first sign that Everlite isn't just some energy company: a round steel door, like something in a Swiss bank vault, surrounded by cameras and tablets flickering with readouts.

"Impressive," Elton says.

Podge brightens: if you can't get farther, you'll have to follow his plan of looking for incriminating data.

"Everyone stay here and don't get caught on camera," Elton says.

The theurge heads back the way you came. So does Nin, but she only goes to a vending machine to get a Snickers bar. Podge mutters the names of spirits and Gifts, discussing how to travel through the Umbra or otherwise get through the door. Five minutes later, it swivels open, revealing Elton in lupus form and three unconscious Everlite guards.

"These are regular guards. Any more signs of Neo Albion?" I know I'm not invincible.

"What a mess. Are they going to live?" I'd rather not kill these people if we can help it.

"Nice work, Elton." We're sort of, maybe, a little bit, starting to work like a pack, and that's good.

Next

"Graynail and Holds-the-Dawn never let us have this kind of fun," Podge says, nudging the guards. They're just local security, but they wear pistols in addition to tasers. Podge collects pistols, car keys, and wallets. "Elton, how did you karate chop three off-duty cops as a wolf? And how did you—oh, I see."

You can also see the ventilation duct that hangs open from the ceiling. This building is so old that a Garou in wolf form can fit in the ducts, which just turned that amazing steel vault door into a bad joke.

But one of the guards is starting to groan.

"They're waking up," Podge says, retrieving one guard's zip ties. "I know the old crew had 'tying guys up and putting them in closets' down to a science, but I'm new at all this. El, make sure no one else is coming. Nin, take their phones. I'll make sure they don't wake up—Thunderhoof, go find some place we can throw these guys."

The other side of the huge steel door looks more secure than the rest of the facility, but it's not the gleaming high-tech fortress-within-a-fortress you imagined. You see old, beautiful brick and hardwood covered in cheap synthetic carpets. Podge and Elton continue to bicker as they pull the round steel door shut, but even though this is a high-security area, you don't think it could serve as a holding cell for whatever Everlite captured. (Or whatever runs Everlite—you can't say for sure it's a prisoner.) You grab one of the guards' IDs and follow fiber optic cables along the ceiling to a rectangular metal door. A swipe opens the door, revealing a stainless steel room the size of a large utility closet.

"Can we put them in there?" Podge calls to you.

There's a sort of door-shaped recess on the far side of the room, and you'd feel stupid if this closet leads into a break room with even more guards. You sweep your badge around inside, but nothing else opens. So this might work for knocked-out guard storage.

"ESCAPE ATTEMPT DETECTED."

The lights turn red. Uh-oh. You turn—just as the door snaps shut.

"RETURNING SPECIMEN TO SECONDARY CONFINEMENT."

"Elton!" My pack needs to know what's happened.

Dammit! Where's the control panel? I'll rip it out if I have to.

Well. s**t.

Okay, okay. Maybe this goes somewhere cool where I can learn more. I wait it out.

Next

There's no visible control panel. Only a tiny vent at your feet, and no overhead access.

Someone bangs on the door, but the sound fades toward the ceiling. You're in an elevator…going down. After only a few seconds, the door slides open again, revealing a brick-walled room lit by blue-white fluorescents that still can't dispel the shadows of a groined ceiling. Mahogany furniture and stuffed leather chairs make the place look like a 19th century gentleman's club hidden in a fancy wine cellar, but the far wall, the north wall, is reinforced shatterproof glass. A man stands behind the glass with his hands clasped behind his back. Short, slim, with his black hair pulled up into a bun and his beard touched with gray. South Asian, and at first he reminds you of your dad, but no—he looks strange, especially in the bright, flat artificial lights. Glossy and eerily symmetrical.

"You're finally here," he says. No, his lips didn't move—the voice came from a speaker next to one of the leather chairs. "Now we can discuss our escape."

"You're that damn fomor. The one that was there at the Battle of Graves Farm."

"I'm here for answers. If you have good ones, maybe we'll talk about escape."

"How did you end up in this butterfly jar?" And how do I get out?

"I'm here to stop Everlite. Are you their prisoner or their master? Are you responsible for the Big Calc?"

Next