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Julian just shakes his head. "You're making a mistake, Krarr. We're young and allowed to make mistakes, but…not forever."

He signals his librarians and starts grabbing whatever he can get his hands on. Now you're going to work while Julian steals everything he can. You step outside the red tent.

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The evacuation is really kicking off, with Olivecrona coordinating her underlings and Julian pretending to help her while chatting with you (he seems friendly at the moment) and stealing as much as he can. You consider how you can help. Or "help," as the case may be.

Olivecrona keeps a lot of files and equipment on lockdown in the red tent. What is she hiding in there? If you can keep your wits about you, you could use the distraction to break into her secure area and see what's back there.

Your Nosferatu contact, Lenora, could help you organize the Anarchs to load up supplies, which would take leadership skills and attention to detail—mostly to make sure they didn't steal too much.

You could try stealing a vehicle to load the prisoners on amid the chaos. That might help your getaway, though you'd need patience and steely resolve to drive it to a safe spot.

If you're smart and technically inclined enough, extensive computer data is waiting to be transferred out. The equivalent physical data (boxes of files, folders, maps, and mimeographs) would require an equal degree of intelligence, as well as a good understanding of academic research techniques, in order to grab the most valuable material.

Olivecrona's operation is already a mess, whether digital or physical; someone with a keen eye for detail might just be able to hang around and spot everything that gets dropped, misplaced, or misfiled. There's a lot of equipment to move, and the cat-masked guards aren't helping. Why would they? This is vampire business, and most of them don't understand what's happening. But you could ask Olivecrona for money and pass some of her cash around to get the guards working for you.

And while the Russian Brujah would have to be persuaded to help, their tent is right next to Olivecrona's… If you could convince them to help with the evacuation instead of just fleeing, they might be useful.

Whatever you do, you can't let this data get caught out in the open. If the SI hits you before it's packed up, it'll be a significant breach of the Masquerade.

You concentrate your vitae, invoking your aura of majesty.

You head back to Millicent's and enjoy a suitable vessel with the other Kindred.

Next

You return to the red tent just as Julian and Olivecrona finish emptying out the government offices.

They're arguing in acrimonious and frightened tones; almost nothing has rolled out, and the camp is in chaos.

Nilay pushes their way through the crowds to speak with Olivecrona. They're limping. Two of their fellow retainers are helping a third get out of her ballistic vest. You can see she's been shot twice. Listening carefully, you hear Nilay say, "…all around the camp already. They'll be here in less than an hour. And…"

Julian holds up his hand for Nilay to be silent. The Banu Haqim cocks his head and listens. The retainer shakes their head, but you hear what Olivecrona and Julian hear: the faint drone of helicopters.

You're almost out of time.

Your car is still inaccessible, and besides, it won't hold enough people. Patrolling the parking lot, you discount several possibilities because they're too small, too well guarded, or too big or noisy to hide until the time is right.

You have to abort twice when you try to roll out—the first time in a minivan, the second time in a bus—and guards notice you almost immediately. But finally, you find the perfect vehicle: a small gray school bus with shackles on each seat. The back half is full of kids' seats with mini handcuffs; you remove most of those to make more space, then start the bus up. It runs fine. You drive it around the route you've already planned, lights off, switching the engine off whenever you think someone might be looking your way.

Finally you get it perfectly into position, parked surreptitiously not far from your Mitsubishi so it blends in with the rest of the busted equipment. There's a straight shot right into the fence, which you know the bus can tear down if necessary.

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You peer into the back of your Mitsubishi, surprised that it's full of equipment.

Julian spots you looking at it and says, "Key data on this doomed operation. Don't throw it away—we're both going to need it."

You appear to have inherited a whole file cabinet and several old tower-style CPUs.

Elsewhere the evacuation is proceeding smoothly. Or at least it is until prisoners suddenly swarm out of their holding cells.

Olivecrona and Julian both see what's happening, and with the bloodless calculation of vampires with too much to worry about, they go back to their packing.

"It's time to roll," Olivecrona tells Nilay. The retainer nods and gets Olivecrona and the Malinois in her Jeep. Julian sighs—you don't think he was able to steal much from your sire—and hops in his Sprinter van.

Prisoners are escaping in every direction and in whatever way they can. You watch the chaos for a second, but then an F-150 behind you lays on its horn and flashes his lights like you're not rolling forward fast enough in a Burger King drive-through. The convoy is moving. You roll through the main gate.

Julian used to say that when a plan went perfectly, everything was boring. He only said that about his Starcraft games, but it applies in real life, too. There's some action behind you, and a helicopter screams overhead ten minutes up the road, but if the Information Awareness Office or whoever authorized this op expected a pitched battle, they should have struck earlier. You're gone.

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