Vampire: The Masquerade
Stolen
2.06
Betrayal
Beck
Robin
Vince
Beverley holds the scroll case tightly. “This what you want? Back up.” She clenches her fingers and blood starts to drip out around her nails - and hisses and steams as it hits the floor, and she holds a hand over the case, ready to destroy it.
Vince takes a step back.
--
Outside, Robin knocks out Beverley’s driver with a single blow, then realises he’s concussed and needs medical help. He also pauses at the man’s exposed neck.
Making himself focus, he texts Beck that they’re at the dropoff point.
--
“Rhodes? Good.”
“Pissing off one of the royal council?”
“Maybe I’m making some powerful friends too.”
She heads for the car, warning Vince not to follow.
She stops as she sees a hooded figure in the car.
Robin tries to run her down. She leaps onto the bonnet and runs off, over a wall into a small park across the street.
Vince grabs at the scroll case.
Beverly gives it up to shove him away, then bolts.
Heading for the nearest Tube station.
Hiding for a moment, making herself unseen.
But Robin has a little Auspex so can see her, and goes after her.
--
Beck texts back, what’s happening with the scroll
Robin replies that Vince has it
Then he tells Vince to go. “I want to deal with this myself.”
--
Vince goes to check on the driver. Offering him some of his blood to heal the injury, and some whisky to dull the pain, before asking what he knows.
Which isn’t much, as Beverley was careful and he didn’t ask many questions. Though he does know he’s working with a vampire. And shows him an encrypted message app with a burner phone number.
--
Beverley slows as she reaches the station. Robin can see people parting for her without really noticing her.
She takes out a phone.
“I lost the case. The drop was compromised. Two, at least one of us. Didn’t want to fight over this. I apologise, and of course no charge. I can provide a description of one of them.”
Robin can’t hear the voice on the other end of the line. Beck, driving over to the dropoff. “I understand, and stay safe.”
Beverley snaps the phone in two, dropping one half in a nearby bin and pocketing the other.
She scans the arrival times and heads to a platform with a central train coming soon.
Robin follows her, the late night crowd unconsciously parting for him as well.
And he sees another ripple like that, like a shark fin through water, coming to intercept.
He speeds up to reach the platform before Beverley can get on the train or they can be interrupted. He puts a knife to her neck and forces her through a locked door into a supply room.
“Hello Beverly. Been a long time.”
“… Link?” She blinks in disbelief.
“Why?”
She responds by forcing the knife away, cutting her palm to do so, taking it from him.
--
Vince sees Beck’s car approaching. He tells the driver he has two requests... a little of his blood, and to back him when he says Beverley got away with the item.
Beck winds down the window. “Where is it?”
“Revered! So nice to - ”
“Where - is - it? Robin told me you had it.”
“She got it off me, Robin went after her, so hopefully...”
Vince is an expert liar... and while Beck is an expert in reading people, he believes Vince is scared enough of him not to try this.
“I’ll deal with you later.”
“Why is this so important to you anyway?”
“You don’t know the complexities of the situation.”
“I could help more if you don’t keep me in the dark.”
“What do you know of the prophecies of Caine?”
“Not much.”
“It seems one of them is happening.”
“Seriously?”
“And I need that insight to stop that bastard Rhodes destroying everything we’ve built.”
“What can he really do?”
Beck gathers himself and speaks more quietly. “If nothing else, a life is at stake. This can’t fall into the wrong hands. Rhodes, the anarchs...”
“You hired an anarch to take it.”
“Touché. But she wasn’t going to get any use out of it. It needs to be translated.”
“And you can do that?”
“I know someone who can.”
“Well, I’d say contact Robin. He knows more than I do, right?”
--
Robin circles Beverley, moving towards a broom he might be able to grab.
“Why?”
“You just left me. I was pregnant.”
Robin stops. He meets her eyes.
“I was young, i was stupid.”
“That makes two of us.”
She turns to go.
He goes for the broom. She hears and spins, kicking him back, forcing the door shut and snapping the handle.
By the time he gets out, the last train has gone.
--
Beck tries to call Robin. No response.
--
Robin finds a pair of vampires at the platform entrance. They look like street people, hoods pulled low almost concealing grey skin and jagged fangs.
“You okay to leave?” one growls.
He nods and goes.
--
Heading out into the night, Robin checks his phone, and calls Beck.
He and Vince are now in the back of his car.
“Where is the scroll?”
“Vince has it.”
Beck looks daggers at Vince. He clicks the phone onto speaker.
“He says Ms. Beaufoy took it back.”
“Not that I saw.”
“Were you with her the entire time?”
“I was. Have you checked around there?”
“I don’t have it, I swear!” Vince interjects.
“Stop the car,” Beck calls to his driver, and it slows to a halt.
Vince looks at the door beside him, seeing if it’s locked.
“And you know he can obfuscate, right?” Robin asks.
“That’s a bald-faced - ”
Beck grabs Vince, and feels the strap for the scroll case, then sees it.
He looks him in the eye.
“Hand over the scroll. Then get out, go to Rhodes, tell him exactly what you are.”
Vince can’t stop himself.
--
Robin returns to the dropoff, finds the driver semi-conscious in the back of his car. He thinks for a moment, then gets in and drives, looking for the route to the nearest hospital.
--
Beck arrives at St. Mary Woolnoth and meets with Mother Melise and just a few of their fellow Church members.
Then the door opens. Laurence holds it and Colette rushes in. “Is that it?”
“Yes...” Beck replies, puzzled.
“Good, good, I know Rhodes nearly got it, we were on the way to stop it.”
“You were?”
“If he does, we’re all dead.”
--
OOC
Vince used an Obfuscate power to hide the scroll, and got a double critical on lying. He was going to take it to Rhodes and strike a deal for access to his Tremere faction’s knowledge.
During the two dice offs for lying and seeing through it the players laughed about how tense it got.
Robin succeeded in finding his sire but failed to kill her, so a Desire fulfilled but an Ambition failed.
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