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Chapter 33 - Dr Jekyll then run and hide.

I smash open the door at the end of the corridor and I'm into another room. There's another one of those giant metal tubes with shattered glass pouring out its liquid on to the floor. Rin and Rain are stood at the other side of the room with Rin apparently a death grip on Rain's arm.

"Rain! Rin! Are you two alright?" I shout.

"We're fine, that thing just fell over and nearly squashed me." Says Rain, looking a little more than relieved.

I look around the room, there's a couple more tubes leaning at funny angles against the walls. All of them have their glass broken and the floor is sodden with liquids. Whatever was in these things is long gone now. Looking around some more I scowl, there's no sign of Lawrence. Where the hell has he gotten to?

He must have heard me thinking loudly because just then the door at the opposite side of the room opens up and he hops over something into the room.

"Well that's good, the gang's all back together. Who's he?" he points at Sparky.

"He's a member of the pack, looks like he got handed over by a traitor in the pack." I reply bitterly.

"Oh come on. Seriously? You sure he's not some shapeshifter or what not?" growls Lawrence.

That makes me stop and blink. I never thought of that. I mean it's unlikely to actually happen given all the circumstances.... However, you can't really be too careful.

I turn around and face Sparky.

"Okay, question time. How did we first meet?" I ask him.

"You fed on me after saving most of the pack from Black Spirals." he replies.

"It's him." I look to Lawrence.

"That's good. So, anyone found anything yet? We kinda need to get our skates on before the cleanup crew arrives." says Lawrence.

"Not yet, but I do have an idea." says Rin.

"Wassat?" says Lawrence.

"Well, I was thinking. A building this big, they must have shielded the whole thing from like, spells n stuff for detection, rather than just doing everything individually." she says.

Lawrence and I nod in agreement, it's a pretty reasonable assumption.

"So, since we're inside it now, shouldn't we be able to do the ritual again and find your beast? Since we're not trying to get through the barrier, if the beast is here, then I should be able to find it." she tilts her head.

I grin and catch Lawrence's eyes widen before he grins too.

"Nice idea, it'll cut down the search, let's get on it!" says Lawrence and walks over to Rin.

Rain grabs Rin and Lawrence's hands as Rin pulls out a stone suspended on a piece of string. The three begin to murmur something that sounds oddly like growling again, only I realise that this time, both Lawrence and Rain are copying more of the sounds from Rin. They must be starting to learn the ritual, or just have really good memories.

Sparky is glancing at the trio and at the doors. I can't blame him, I'm nervous as hell too. We could have company at any moment right now and I am not relishing the idea of having to deal with a bunch of technocracy muppets.

Yes I'm desperately trying to put my on inadequacies out of my mind so that I don't have to think about the possibility that I'm going to be little more than a speed bump in front of a monster truck. Really not liking the way this whole thing is going down so smoothly and what else we keep finding. I could make a whole mechanic's set with the amount of spanners we keep finding in the works.

A few minutes later by my watch, an eternity by the pit of my stomach. The rock on the end of the string starts to move and swing towards one corner of the room. My heart immediately leaps up into my throat, my spirit is here!

The wall appears to be a multitude of computers and the like, with what appears to be the odd screen and panel here and there. I'm assuming computers, to be fair, with how the technology is in this world, I honestly have no idea if it's a computer or a high tech toaster. Right now, it didn't matter which one because there's no way I'd be able to operate it.

Rin lets go of Rain and starts moving towards the row of devices, before tilting her head to the side and then turning and walking right. The rock still points towards the row of devices, but Rin seems to have found something else. She's looking at the floor in front of one very large panel.

"Hrm. There's scratch marks here on the floor. Like something heavy was dragged across it." she says.

"So? You're stood next to a wall full of heavy machinery, dragging that isn't exactly going to be light work." says Lawrence.

"You're forgetting who we're dealing with here, these guys don't need heavyweight machinery anymore. They're even more advanced than we are." and she reaches out and grabs a part of the machinery that's sticking out and tugs really hard.

There's a sharp squealing of metal on metal as a portion of the machinery moves towards her. She keeps pulling with one hand, her body getting a little bigger and the pit of my stomach does a rather nervous flip. It slides out of the wall like a puzzle piece. She stops pulling and sticks her head behind the machine.

"Thought so, there's a passage back here!"

I could kiss the girl right now, but I'll leave that to Rain, Lawrence moves up and stops Rin.

"Let me go first, you've done well, but I'm a little more seasoned at dodging shit." he says.

She doesn't exactly seem upset at his words, which kind of surprises me. What Lawrence doesn't mention there is something that I know about him that he tries to keep quiet as well. When he was a vampire, he had the same kind of magic resistance as I did. I wonder if he's kept that with his little change as well. Rin motions for Lawrence to take the lead there.

Lawrence looks around the back of the machine, then slips in. I can hear his voice come back out, but much deeper than I'd ever heard before.

"Keep Alex out until I shout it's all clear. You lot keep an eye on him, he's the most vulnerable right now."

I roll my eyes in annoyance and huff softly. This is all I needed, babysitting. All three of them glance in my direction and then find a different one to pay very close attention to. Anyone would think I was giving people the impression I was pissed off....

Urgh. Now we play the damn waiting game until one of us gets the okay from someone in the sodding tunnel. Yay, I get to stand here and start thinking. I look around the room, trying to distract myself or find something useful to do. The room appears to be pretty sparse apart from the remaining half a dozen of the giant tubes like what I found Sparky in. The rest all are empty luckily. I'm not entirely sure I want to find out what the hell they were doing, though if Sparky is right, it sounds like they were harvesting spirit energy. Spirit energy is still energy, what could they be doing with that kind of power? In fact, where are they storing it? Were they storing it? On top of that, if I get my beast back, I'll need to go back and report this to the pack.

That's another load of problems there with the fact that I'm going to need to do something about the traitor in the pack. Turning up and accusing him would be well and good, but if he was good enough to get Sparky caught here, then he's smart enough to realise that there's going to be problems for him. Hrm.

"Sparky?" I say.

"Ya?"

"How exactly did you find out about Vadir being a traitor and that he was feeding people to the techno's?"

He sighs softly and rubs his head. "Bad luck mainly. I literally stumbled in on him talking to someone one night and he got really pissed off. I wasn't paying attention to what he was doing and only realised when I was cooped up in that tank that I'd been hearing another voice. Vadir took me out scouting the next night and pretty much dropped me in their lap. I didn't stand a chance against him and the mechs."

Well that sucks balls and not in the fun way. So basically he just fell into trouble.

"There's a bigger problem though." says Rain.

"What?" I groan.

"I spoke to Sparky before we left...." he says.

That gets my eyes wide, that's not a good thing. That means that there's someone at our base who most certainly should not be there.

"Fuck. Of course there would be a problem if Sparky went missing, but if he goes out and comes back with a higher pack member, no one is going to bat an eyelid." I say.

"Yeah, but that being said, how are we going prove any of this? On top of that, we're talking about accusing someone pretty high up in the pack as well as tackling some kind of doppleganger. This is going to be near impossible to do without causing a severe rift in the pack." says Rain.

I rub my eyes. Rain has a very good point. We can't just walk in with Sparky and start throwing accusations. Especially if this guy hasn't been caught already and is high up in the pack.

"We need to do something, but when it comes to shit like this, I'm bad. I could never handle the whole cloak and dagger, skulduggery required of a vampire, which is why I ended up as I was. If anyone has any suggestions I'm all ears." I say.

The each glance at each other, none of them seeming to have an idea until Rain pipes up.

"Maybe Lawrence would have a better idea? You did say he was a much older vampire before he changed?"

I nod gently. "We can ask, that's possibly the best idea we've got right now. Speaking of Lawrence, shouldn't he be back about now?"

"It's clear!" echo's his voice from behind the cabinets.

"As if on cue...." I mutter. "Rain, you first, then you Sparky. I'll go next and Rin you watch our tails."

Rain and Sparky nod, moving into the tunnel and Rin promptly grumps.

"Why do I go last?"

"Because right now, only you and Rain are capable of shifting and have the best chance of taking anything that comes up either in front or behind us. I could have put my little bro last, but you look more likely to hit first and ask questions later, which right now is the kind of attitude we need if someone sneaks up behind us."

She grins at that, looks like she's almost looking forward to anyone sneaking up behind us now. I move into the gap behind the unit and into what appears to be another corridor. This one appears about 3 meters wide, which surprised me for a moment, the complex didn't look big enough to house this much from the outside. The walls are lined with a grey plastic looking material that looks like fitted panels all the way down until it comes a dark red coloured door at the end, about 100 meters away. Stood next to the door and peering through it held partially opened is Lawrence.

He glances back at us and motions us to come down the corridor. Rain is the first to him, followed by Sparky, before myself and Rin bring up the rear, both her and I giving nervous glances behind. Lawrence pushes open the door gently and looks around again before slipping into the room. I actually hold my breath in and wait for something to go wrong here, listening for sounds of explosions or cries of pain. Luckily, none were forthcoming.

Rain slips in next and so does Sparky, I look behind and Rin gives me a glance and nod before turning to watch the corridor, her back to me near the door. I stifle a gulp and turn to enter the door.

I can't say I knew what I was expecting in this room, but what I saw was... Pretty bizarre. I mean considering the rest of the place. It was basically a large room with lots of... stuff. Well, that's kind of the best I can describe it, because it's like walking into your really old grandparent's "Best" room. Full of ornaments and trinkets, several bookcases all full of old books, at least some were, some were newish. Then there's an entire wall which is all computer stuff.

I'm assuming its computer stuff, it's got flashing lights and holes where various things that look like trinkets or very tasteless ornaments have wires and other things attached to them. God, the sodding Tremere would have a field day in here.... Closest to having a boner those undead asshats could ever get at least.

Rain is looking over the wall of instruments, here's hoping he has a better clue than me. Lawrence has turned his attention to a wall full of trinkets and ornaments. A glance back at the door and I see Rin keeping a steady watch. Sparky is glancing around and looking nervous as hell. Well at least that puts me more at ease, seeing him looking almost exactly as he did when we first met.

So what else do we have here? Everyone else seems to have something to look at, barring Sparky. Wait, there's another pair of glass type doors just around the edge of the bookcase, I didn't notice them when I came in because the bookcase was at just the right angle to obscure them. Well, let's take a peek in there.

Walking around the case I look through the doors and grit my teeth a little as I inhale sharply through my teeth. On the other side of the glass is definately a large selection of equipment 'I' recognise. That damn room is an operating theatre. There's the overhead moveable light, a bed with restraints. Several moveable trolleys dotted around the room and beside the bed and even from here I can see the glint of light off medical instruments. The whole room is spotless and there's no sign of anyone in there, but something like that in a place like this... It leaves little doubt in my head exactly what the hell was going on in there.

"DAMN YOU!" snarls a familiar voice.

I dash back around the bookcase to find that damn Rick Moranis mage again. He's red with rage and spittle is actually flying from his lips as he is stood in the middle of the room, glaring at Lawrence and Rain.

"Now! Of all times! You bastards! You'll ruin everything! Don't... You... Tell.... Hiiiiiiim!!!" he cries out at the end of his sentence, each syllable stretched with what appears to be pain as he doubles over and clutches his stomach.

A glance at Lawrence and Rain show they're watching him intently and a growl from the door suggest to me not to look over at Rin. I look back at the mage as his scream suddenly builds into a massive cry of pain and suddenly, he's gone.

And stood there, is Mortimer.