[b]Collaboration by Ruby, Lightning Fast, and Fiber[/b]
[img]https://i.imgur.com/1JK1NHE.jpg[/img]

Below them was a never-ending expanse of blue, the end of the Pacific Ocean as it hugged the state of California. First they flew over the Santa Monica pier, glowing in neon and crowds, flanked by Santa Monica beaches littered with tiny campfires and crowds of shadows as people were spaced throughout the beaches in groups. She saw it on Instagram almost nightly; happy groups on the beaches, taking in carnival games on the pier, eating at one of the restaurants and drinking at a nearby bar before heading back to the beach until the early morning hours. 

Beyond was the ocean traffic, this far north it was nearly all private small craft of varying sizes, from sail boats to yachts. A little further out, in the distance, you could see the cargo ships lining up for the Port of Long Island and the Port of Los Angeles. She thought of Keith, the dock worker with the tiny, shitty, apartment that loved his life and was always smiling, unless he was watching the Dodgers or Lakers. He'd been Eva's friend for years and years, never at all knowing what, or who, the beautiful friend of his really was. He just liked to joke that she never aged. 

There was twenty two miles of ocean between Catalina Island and Los Angeles. Yanci could remember the days when the island went by it's other name; Santa Catalina. When there were still tribes on the island, on top of the spattering of Spanish. Now the vast majority of the island was hotels, expensive Airbnbs, or the truly expensive homes that started in the eight-hundred thousands. Their contemporary and Balinese inspired home was appraised for nearly seven million, and it wasn't the most expensive on the island anymore. 

"Are the hotels occupied?"

Rachel looked up from her phone long enough to answer, "Zane's has a handful of guests, the rest we turned away when we locked the island down and closed the airport. Ada is not, it's empty except for the staff."

"We'll go there. What's the nearest helipad?"

Andre answered for her, even if his eyes stayed out the window, watching the Pacific, as if he was seeing it for the first time all over again...every time they made the trip. "Jacob's helicopter tourist business we helped save. He won't care if we park there. Rach, car waiting for us?"

"Yup," Rachel gave two, quick, little nods as she sent the text, "done."

With Grace they were all a little more cramped than before, but for a fifteen minute ride they were already five minutes into, it went quickly combined with the muffled hum of the engines and the rotors. The approach the island was noteworthy to her, if only of the cruise ship not far from the island, and more importantly, the landmark she always looked for when they approached:

Of all the locations on Catalina Island, only one was named for the night: Starlight Beach. The beach bit of the name was generous, it was a rocky strip of sand and pebble, with no easy way to the beach save for a twenty foot drop due to erosion. When Eva and she had first seen it, the drop wasn't so bad, and the locals still used it as a landing and launching point to hide from the Spanish authorities who had banned them from their own island, forcing them into the missions near the shore. It was there Eva and she named it, it was there, far away from human eyes, the two Kindred would enjoy the starlight on Catalina long before the rest of the island was settled.

Then below passed Two Harbors, the only other little town on the island, on two of its four sides were harbors, the little strip of land that connected the more occupied side of Catalina Island with the wild, hiker's paradise, side of the island. The landing came over a quick pass over Avalon, the town was lit up, with the casino bright, and the dozens of yachts and sailboats anchored in the harbor glittering with both internal white lights and the safety lights of boats on the water. On the highest point over town was the summer "cottage" built by Gilded Age magnate William Wrigley Jr; in actuality an L-shaped mansion in the Georgian Colonial Revival style. The helipad was just beyond, down the hill. 

Yanci gave the pilot a room at a nearby inn he favored most, near the casino, before jumping in the SUV that took their group up the hill to Mount Ada. The staff was gone, now, given the next few days off. The only two people there were security, Andre's people, and one of the prettiest blonde women Yanci had ever seen. She was Eva's, a working actress that went by the name Gwendalyn. Whether a stage name, or a given name, Yanci still didn't know. They filed past the curved staircase and into the living room of Mount Ada, furniture not out of style for the time, but modern in construction and still comfortable enough, Ada Wrigley's portrait over the unused fireplace. Grace was set there, with Mihail to watch her with Gwendalyn and security nearby if they needed something, as the rest of the group filed outside to the wrap-around terrace.

"What's next?"

"I have an appointment at LAX I need to leave for, soon. I've setup transport with Jacob, he'll fly me. Hardestadt is arriving, and Henry requested I show up. I'll head down the grand staircase in a few minutes." Rachel's glance just stayed with Yanci, her lips smirking as Maty made a whistle and Andre snickered. "Yep."

"Good of Henry to show up," Andre's tone wasn't missed, but Yanci just let it go. If Henry wasn't around, he had his reasons. "Mihail mentioned needing to head back to the city. I'll get some of my people to take him on a boat, since the ferry is done until we lift the lockdown. Then I'll probably go down to Mugu, see what them Navy boys are up to, catch a flight to Pendleton. Hopefully by that point I've heard something more from Eva. Word is that Sabbat Cardinal is in the area, Cicatriz. Maybe I can break bread with that motherfucker."

"If not?"

Andre just chuckled, "I'll figure it out."

"Yeah," Yanci imagined he would, one way or another, "I still have the meeting with Iontius. No idea what the fuck he wants."

"Need security?"

"I don't think so, honestly. Ionitus has never caused any trouble before."

Maty blinked, "Yeah, but he's a Fourth Generation Toreador. They don't make trouble, until they do. Just be careful, take a panic button, is all we're saying."

Rachel nodded along with it, Andre adding an agreement. It wasn't something Yanci could argue with, "Yeah. I'll take a driver, at least, I'll head out tomorrow evening at sundown. Maty?"

The Tremere sighed, shrugging, trying not to laugh at the chaos of the moment, "I'll stay with Grace; she's still our best lead to Eva. I don't plan on using the ritual to get to Eva unless I have to, and I suppose at this point Eva might just tell us if she needs that. I got the impression she's still talking through the Blood."

"Do you think she's talking to them?"

"Yes," every eye darted to Rachel, as she answered in Maty's place, in a tone that told all of them she knew...something. Rachel looked around, frowning, "I can't say much more, you know, but I do believe she's talking to at least Arikel. I honestly get the feeling, though she didn't say anything, that she might be talking to...well, I know it sounds stupid, but--"

"--Caine? Fucking seriously?" Andre's eyes were wide, as Maty whistled loud, and Yanci looked around for anyone nearby. 

Rachel looked tense at the suggestion, and shrugged, sharply, but the impression was left. 

Downtime was not something Grace handled well. For one thing, she had a very good sense of time passing, and could total up the seconds wasted. She also had an extremely large and multifaceted task list close to the top of her mind at all waking hours. The coterie had their own things to discuss, and Grace gave them their privacy out of respect, but passing the time was slow. She spent some of the time with Gwen and Mihail dodging their questions, never giving out too much information. Mihail was told she was Julie’s boss and an ally of Eva, anything else would be up to him to infer. To Gwen she shared even less, letting her speculation run.
                Having recovered from the conditioning backlash and trying to make some conversation, Grace used one of her old party tricks: pretending to guess information about the people she was talking to, while she was actually just looking it up in databases as they talked. Mihail didn’t have much, very little information on his hometown in rural Romania was available to her, so after rattling off some stats from recent games and the ratings he’d given some local restaurants on his Yelp account, she was running low on material. She was no good at actually discussing the game of basketball. She had more to work with Gwen, coming off as some sort of psychic or mystic guru. Grace quickly found they had little in common, at least at this point in their life, and she tried to ask when the Coterie would be finished with their business and able to see them. While she waited for a response, Grace looked over the furnishings of the room, seeing custom pieces and antiques all over; very little of it came straight from a store. That made it harder to estimate how much it all cost, but one thing it made clear was how much care they put into making the place look stylish.
Yanci made a quick 'hey' and pointed in the direction of the nearest set of doors that lead to the interior, all of them turning to see Gwendalyn hanging out one of the doors, pink tank top and jewel toned blue tights, hair ponytailed, "Sorry to interrupt, gang, but Grace is asking where y'all went."

Matty found himself smiling, “Is she playing coy?”

"Yeah, she has no idea how transparent you guys are."

Gwendalyn knew nearly everything, save some of the more outrageous parts of it; who, exactly, Henry was. Who, exactly, Eva was in touch with and why. The rest had been fair game to the girl. Yanci was well aware of Eva's intention to embrace her, even if Eva herself wasn't quite certain it was her intention...Yanci just knew the woman that well. "Gwen, did the staff leave food for you three?"

The mortal grinned, her upper body sticking outside the cracked door, her lower half still inside. "I mean...the chef did make dinner for us. He thought he was making it for the 'VIP group' coming in late, he didn't know..." Gwen curved her index and middle finger downward, bringing the hand not keeping her from falling on her face up to her mouth, as if they were fangs. 

Even Andre laughed.

"Poor guy. We'll leave a tip for him."

The girl moved back into the house as the group filtered in, Rachel and Andre lingering towards the side of the room closer to the entrance hall, as they were the ones leaving soon, Yanci took a seat near the fire, near Grace and Mihail, her brown eyes hitting Mihail, "Hey, Andre is heading back to town soon if you need a ride? I thought I remembered you saying something about needing to go back."

Mihail nodded. “Grace is trying to psychoanalyze me and it’s making me nervous. I’ve got a meeting with a friend soon.”

Maty leaned over the couch, his long hair tucked behind his ears as he made sure he was near Grace, but not too close, careful about personal bubbles, Gwen on the other side of him, "Room fit for a Prince of Wales work for you, Grace?"

"I've got the wine cellar for you two bloodsuckers."

Yanci sighed, "Great, a cellar. I wish I didn't want that."

"Could head to the house?" Maty asked, a prompt that left Yanci rolling the options in her mind, coming the conclusion of a shrug.

"I'll decide when it comes. Gwen, you already take the Queen's room?"

The blonde blushed, because, in part, she was one of the few people in the room still capable of blushing, "I MIGHT have already put my stuff in that room, yes. It's possible..."

Maty blinked in her direction, "How possible?"

The seriousness of her tone and face seemed to catch the Tremere by surprise, as if she was shocked he had to ask, "Oh I totally took that room. Are you kidding me? The main suite and the guest suite were both made ready by the staff, so it's really wherever Grace wants to settle in for the night."

When the group walked in Grace was eating one of the vegan options the chef had prepared. She tried not focus on these aspects, but she did have to admit it was quite good. To answer Gwen’s question“As long I have a place to work it will be sufficient. I don’t sleep or do anything else that people typically do in bed; when the drugs are working, anyway. I can get set up shortly.” Then she looked over the group, giving special attention to Rachel. “I have some other questions, but I want to start with something that’s on my mind. Your group knew about me, including some names I used to go by. How? Rachel stands out if you search through past lists of those who scored in the top 100 in the Putnam Competition and crossreference it with mysterious death and disappearances, did you do that for me or use another method?”
"Mages don't sleep? Even these vampires sleep..." Gwen caught the look Yanci gave, and just smiled, bright, "Right. I'll go make sure it's unlocked for you."

Andre tapped on Mihail's shoulder and gave the room a quick deuce, "We're gonna go. Hour boat ride, and all that shit. Keep in touch."

Rachel stared as Mihail and Andre left the island estate, stared as Gwen went up the stairs to check on the Grand Suite, William Wrigley Jr.'s old room. If Rachel had fur, it would have been standing up...something about Grace bringing up her past life put her on edge. Putnam was a memory for another existence, a memory long buried and bringing it up felt akin to someone necromancing a dead memory back to it's own special kind of unlife. Instead of let on, the member of the Coterie with the disposition closest to Grace's simply gave a tilt of her head and what could have been a shrug. "Something like that. Some data-mining, some contacts. There are Tradition mages who talk to us, without knowing exactly who they're talking to. And some of the information comes directly from Eva...who could have lifted it straight from your own mind, for all I know."

It wasn't something often spoke of, Eva's natural talent for telepathy, Yanci knew best. That was before Eva's potency was given a neon-charge. "We do have Inquisition spies," Yanci allowed.

Maty nodded along, "Our work with Techno-Thaumaturgy has also allowed us information that rivals even the Enlightened Sciences...to a degree, anyway. Not that our information network helped us find Eva, so...obviously it has it's limits."

The M-word was a touchy subject with Grace, but she had learned many people would call them mages. She told herself it wasn’t an insult, merely outdated terminology. After all, she wouldn’t get mad at some calling a physicist a natural philosopher, there was no sense in making a fuss out of this. As a rule, most mages did sleep, even Grace did under normal circumstances, but there were virtually no universal rules among Mages. Rachel’s answer was vague, but Grace was in no position to call out others for giving vague answers. It was obvious she didn’t want to discuss her past life, a feeling that Grace sympathized with but didn’t share. As far as Grace knew, she had always been the way she was, just a little more naïve, a little focused before the Technocracy came along and gave her a true cause to dedicate her life to. Thinking about how powerful Eva’s telepathy might be didn’t put her at ease, it was quite clear she was dealing with something far outside the scale of anything she had seen before. Even casual contact could’ve had undetectable but severe effects on her psyche, something that she didn’t want to contemplate right now. To keep her mind off of it, she focused on the current moment and said. “Interesting. I feel as though there are still aspects of Eva that are mysterious even to your group. It’s comforting to know I’m not the only one operating in the dark. If you would like, I could collaborate with you, see what is possible when Enlightened Science is paired with Techno-Thaumaturgy, but we will need something to focus on.” She looked to Yanci, and then to Rachel “Can we assist you somehow, or should we work on our own?”

"I have to go see if the de-facto leader of the main Kindred organization, the Camarilla, will help us against the end times, or just act out of self interest," Rachel explained, letting out a little sigh under her breath even as she said it. Her mind did circle back around, even if it came with a momentary bite of her lower lip, first, "Funny thing with Eva...if you ask, she'll tell you. Just...blurt it out. I imagine that is what's going on right now with these Void Engineers and Eva right now. They ask, she tells, they don't even realize she's asking her own unspoken questions in return. I came to run a lot of her empire because one night I asked, curious, about everything she had a hand in. So she lays it out, from Hollywood studios to connections to organized crime, anything and everything in between. It took us a week and fifty-something legal pads to get it all from her brain to data I could start organizing and aggregating. Before I know it I'm making calls for her, and...it just never stopped. Ever. Snowballed until I became the manager of it all."

"But if you don't ask..." Maty trailed off, smiling, "I didn't know she was even into the blood magic I came up in, until one night she started talking about this ritual about daylight, after I was taken in by this group. I stopped and asked her, straight up, 'How much do you know?' She talked my ear off for hours. I was blown away by how much she knew, and her talent at it. I remember being told once in the Tremere Circles...it doesn't matter if you know how to do something, if you just do it intuitively because you were born with it. The learning of the how and why is the easy part for you, then. That's pretty much Eva and magic. Something in her is just...predisposed to it."

"That's why Henry is drawn to her, I think," Yanci said, finally, the foremost expert on the woman present. "I have to go meet with a Kindred who uses sex to feed. No blood, at all. Seems kind of boring, to me, considering feeding is when we typically feel the most alive...it's as close as we get to being drunk, or high, it's when we experience the most sensation. But he's so ancient, feeding probably bored him after a while. Ancient Greek, I believe, he is. A thousand years before Christ even came around. Sired by one of the thirteen Kindred Gods, the Antediluvians. Imagine how this guy feels having to bend the knee to Eva. Eva's...not even four hundred years old, yet she can perform like someone three times her age. Maybe more. Honestly, it's hard to tell, unless you're that old. She was the only one who kept Nathaniel in line for that long."

"The Kindred that crashed our meeting? Former member of the band," Maty followed up to Grace, trying to give some context. "It's not that Eva isn't open with us, or that she keeps her secrets...like it's possible Eva is talking with the most ancient Kindred on the planet right now, but I don't know."

"I don't know, either," Yanci said, Eva's very own childe kept in the dark. 

"But I know," Rachel admitted, without a hint of emotion to the admission. 

"That's fine," Maty continued, "there's no paranoia in our group. If Eva wanted Rachel to know, then dammit, Rachel knows. If we need to know, they'll tell us. Point is, a lot of what Eva can do or does she just...does. It just comes naturally to her. She's as close to a vampire cheat code as exists in this world. We honestly don't spend a lot of time studying her or analyzing her. If I wanted to know who she was talking to, and she was here, I'd just ask her. She would tell me."

"Speaking of...the best thing you can do is try to reach her through your own channels, Grace. Eventually they have to tell you. Control, Eva called it? You're part of this crusade, they're not."

Rachel perked a brow at Yanci's words, but found herself nodding after her, "Or just tie up any loose ends. I have a feeling the moment she gets back, the real end-game begins. Hopefully it waits for her, anyway. As for you, specifically, it’s a contact from inside your organization. Like Maty said…little good it did us when we needed to find her. It’s possible they were feeding us information, just trying to get information on her. We don’t know how long they’ve been targeting her."

Cybernetics might mean that Grace can get all manner of annoying and irrelevant messages, but it also made it extremely quick to send one through the proper channels. It was short, pointed and address as far up the chain of command as she could go. “I just sent a request, marked with highest priority I have access to. I don’t know when or what the response will be. Bureaucracy has a way of being beyond anyone’s comprehension. I have a feeling Control will come around eventually. It sounds like I won’t be able to help you with your excursions, so I will remain here. Maybe we can find some other way of contacting Eva. I’m sure we all have some burning questions for her, like why does this city have so many golf courses if they are all closed at night, or why it is so auto-dependent yet Catalina is almost entirely car free.” She paused. “Those were jokes. I was not serious. I acknowledge they are interesting subject but secondary. I will let you know what I hear from Control and I wish you luck” she said, thankful that she wouldn’t have to meet any more ancient vampires tonight if all went according to plan.