Dec 07 20:20:46 108 PA - Of Slavery and Subterfuge

From Chronicles

Dec 07 20:20:46 108 PA.

GABRIEL'S CAMP

It's nice to be up after the sun has risen. Gabriel's breakfast has long since been finished, as were his exercises and calisthenics. However, he can't work all day, either. Today is laundry day, which finds him down near his large stream washing clothes the old way - by hand. Despite the snow, his spirits aren't dampened, judging by the little tune that he's whistling. Even the skies are benefiting from lack of clouds. He does glance at his old watch now and then, waiting for his guest to arrive.

Jaxain radios for Gabriel to walk him through the dangerous dance of death through his mines, and once through gives the other man a somewhat somber nod. "Good morning." He offers a smile. He's wearing his armor and jet pack again, like always recently, but judging from the lack of sound hasn't been using it to get too close to the small camp. No need to make extra noise, after all.

It doesn't take long for Gabriel to escort his guest inside. "So, you were doing the brain thing with me over dinner. Either that, or I was talking to myself about some very dangerous things." He allows a short chuckle, but adds, "Dangerous enough that I thought it good to talk about them during some nice, bright daylight hours."

Jaxain nods, sighing slightly, "It's a tough topic, man." He looks around the clearing, starting to take off his armor. "I did a bit more research and thinking, and... now I am not so sure. I know that Bella DID make a blood slave of Sebastien. Monique is sure of it, and the stories she told me..." He is quiet for a moment, "I'm sure. But, it is possible the master vampire Donna TOOK the pact away from Bella, and placed control in her own hands..." He looks at Gabriel.

Gabriel goes back to his laundry, but doesn't take his mind off of the important conversation. "Well, look. I'm not accusing anyone of anything. I'll just say some things, and then we can talk about them. First off, Bella keeps pushing me with small threats that she doesn't want the farm to end. I can understand that it's nice to get food without hunting - but she also claims that she hates the lifestyle. I think that she's pretty much embraced her lifestyle. I know that she and Donna are pretty good friends, and why not? They're both very 'human.' I don't know how they came to be such good friends." He wrings out a sock, then adds, "If Bella's blood slave had been taken away? I'd think that she would have told us, wouldn't you? To make sure that we weren't starting to look at her with an evil eye?" The older man grunts, and moves his bare feet a few inches in the snow. Not done talking, but needing a moment to wash.

Jaxain nods slowly, "They are friends?" He is quiet for a moment, "Or are they just pretending..." He shakes his head, "Now I am even more surprised you trust her to bring her 'friend' out to be killed by me, and not warn her." He sighs. "Well, even taking Sebastien as a blood slave in the first place would be a horrible act, so I'm not surprised she'd want to hide it... But do you think she planned to kill us in the bar, or set up a reverse ambush that would kill us? What if they paid off Valeriya to help kill us?"

"I don't know, it's all too convoluted. Like a really bad mystery novel, full of plot holes and story lines that don't actually go anywhere," Gabriel says, shaking his head with sadness and frustration. "You seemed awfully sure last night that it's Bella. Why? I have more to add, but I'm interested."

Jaxain nods, agreeing with Gabriel. "Because as far as I was aware, blood slaves cannot be transferred. And I AM certain that Sebastien WAS Bella's blood slave. But I did a bit more research, and it turns out that it MIGHT be possible for a master to take control of a blood slave." He sighs. "I went with the best information I had, but now it has changed slightly. I still think we have to apprehend Sebastien ourselves, without Bella present, and divine the truth. I don't trust that she is still on our side."

"Oh, I see. Well, that does change things somewhat for the better, possibly," Gabriel allows. "I started to wonder if Bella's bitching at Sebastien during our planning meeting for being a giant pussy might have been cover. But, apparently she is on the up and up. Still." He wrings out a sock, and finishes up, taking his things to place near the fire to dry. "She's no saint, Jax. She tried something on me. I was at the club, and she took me into one of the booths, I thought she had information to share, but all she had to say was... nothing. I don't know what it was that she did, but she did some kind of mindfuck on me - or rather, tried. Her eyes glowed." Gabriel's own eyes search out Jax's with that bit of information. "But whatever it was, it didn't take, and she was pissed off. But I got a little pound of flesh out of it." Smirk.

Jaxain raises an eyebrow, "Huh, you went to the club with her?" he seems surprised, "What did she say when she used her power?" He asks, "And, keep in mind, she isn't necessarily on the 'up and up'. It just means there is a possibility she is. I still think she can't be trusted. She took control of Sebastien, she may still have control of him." He pauses for a moment, "Or telepathy, she may have sent you a telepathic message instead of saying something. Either way, that will give the key of what she tried to do to you."

Gabriel finishes putting up his things to dry, then stands to look at the other man. "She wanted me to leave. Apparently she wanted it badly enough to make it obvious. Maybe I was supposed to forget about what I saw, if it had worked on me?"

Jaxain shrugs, "Huh, ok. Well yeah, it would be bad for you to be there. Maybe she had good intentions." He shrugs, completely oblivious. "So why do you think she is still on the up and up?"

"I'm not sure. I just... I get a good vibe from her. In my line of work, it's feelings that often go farther than hard numbers and photographs." Gabriel shakes his head in amusement. "I'm sure it sounds weird. She could have taken me over the night we met. Killed me or fed on me a hundred times over with no one else knowing. I just; I guess I can't believe it of her. Not that it helps us determine if she really is a problem and I only happen to feel good about it."

Jaxain nods slowly, "I don't like that she lied. She said she hadn't ever taken Sebastien as a slave. And that, is a lie. I am sure of it." He looks at the jet pack in his hands, shaking his head. "Vampires, well most vampires, can only have one blood slave at a time. Anything else, any other mind control, only lasts ten or twenty minutes. Then you return to yourself."

Gabriel goes over to lean on one of his larger trees. "So. I can only assume that it's either Donna, or maybe she's *very* smart, and has an underling doing it, so that it can't be traced somehow. In any case, I can't see any way to continue our efforts without taking Sebastien out of the equation. I'm sure he's a bad-ass of some kind, but everyone can be subdued one way or another. Knock him out, pump him full of drugs and keep him in an artificial coma. Toss him in a hole. Somewhere that we can bring him back, but otherwise pretend that he's dead. In *fact* -" Gabriel points "- it would be very good if we could make it look like he'd actually died."

Jaxain nods, "I don't think it will be as hard as you think to capture him. What if there were three or four of us, each as strong as a dragon?" He tilts his head to the side. "I think we could hold him pretty easily, and then just tie him up." He shrugs, "As to making it look like he died... that’s not something I'm very good at."

"As long as we can keep him under wraps, I can handle making it look like he died, Jax." Gabriel nods solidly. "Apparently he can't speak with his master via mind alone, that seemed to come up last night. Though the master would probably still know that he lived. That wouldn't be something that I would be able to cover."

Jax gives Gabriel a curious look, "You are right... I think she could tell. So maybe better to make it look like he fled, than died. Because if it looks like he died, she will surely be more suspicious than if he was simply missing for a few days."

Gabriel nods. "True. But making him flee doesn't guarantee that he won't just show up again before we can gather the *new* intelligence that we'll be needing, to formulate the *new* plan that will be required. I think I'd rather make us normal people believe that he'd died... and have his master - or mistress, more appropriately - raging and pissed off that she couldn't call her little underling. She may suspect something - but given enough time she won't have any idea when to expect something, thus the balance of power will be somewhat brought back to equilibrium in our favor. No?" His eyes glance up, looking for someone to poke holes in his theory.

Jaxain grimaces slightly, "I dunno. I still think that gives the advantage to her. I think we should misdirect using Sebastien as the tool for that, and come up with a plan that doesn't involve him and is different from the one he knows of. Then we subdue him, and carry it out, before she is even given warning."

"But it's only a misdirect if Sebastien is allowed to contact her face-to-face." Gabriel stands from where he was leaning and smiles. "Now, counter-intelligence is something that I've done for decades now. I can feed it to him, and if he wants to talk to her, that's fine. But we don't know how often or if ever it is that she talks to him. Could be a total waste of time and effort. Meanwhile... I need to be putting together a new plan, because I know that things are going to change now that I had to scrub our assault. So... what do you think?" He quickly raises up a hand. "Forgive me for speaking out of turn as a commander of the operation, but as no one else ever proposed a cohesive plan, or quite frankly gathered a tenth of the intelligence that I have? I suppose that I feel a little bit of command back in my heart after more than a year of watching from the sidelines as a plebe."

Jaxain nods with a slight shrug, "Oh, as far as planning goes, I'll follow your lead 100%." He grins, "What do I think? To be honest I am tempted to just leave the entire issue alone. If it wasn't for Sebastien hanging in the balance...." He shakes his head. "But I'll back your play. I have another spell coming to me soon that will even increase my invisibility further, making me impervious even to creatures that can 'see the invisible', as long as I can remain in a shadow." He seems a bit uncomfortable. "It's not my usual way of operating... but I thought you might approve. So that's why I went with that spell."

Gabriel smiles. "It's a good way to operate, indeed. Now you just need to learn how to hide in plain sight, as well." A friendly smirk follows on the heels of that. "I'd like your opinion, though. I don't trust Tek. He's not a bad guy, but he's a dumb kid and largely in it for the money. I can't trust Bella as much as I'd like to. I wouldn't give Valeriya the time of day, if it hadn't been unfortunately necessary. Sebastien has to be left out, one way or another." He wanders in a short circle, kicking snow away with bare feet. "The problem with using Sebastien for misdirection is that everyone needs to be in on it - no one can slip up. That means that even if I did trust them completely, they're still all amateurs - including Valeriya - who would be needing to split their attention." The old soldier and spy seems to have reached a decision, as he turns and nods. "Our friend Sebastien needs to be put away somewhere that he will never be found by anyone other that you, me and whoever owns the hole, until this is all over."

Jaxain nods slowly, and says, "Well, then you should put your armor on." Jax looks at Gabriel, "Cuz I have a spell to make you strong enough to rip your own arm off, or punch a hole right through a tree, and you should get used to it before we tackle Sebastien." He considers for a moment, "I trust Tek. Not as a spy or as an expert tactician, but I think his heart is in the right place. I trust him to do the right thing just a bit more than I trust Bart. Val..." he smirks, "She's a liability, straight up. Bella, well we'll have to get the information from Sebastien before we know if Bella can be trusted or not." Jaxain adds, "I think we should enlist Monique to help us subdue Sebastien. She... cares about him. She can help us hide him, and can be trusted completely."

With a quick nod, Gabriel agrees. "Yes, I know. They've been in love for quite a long time. Ever since I've known them." Perhaps the delicate use of 'care' was unnecessary. "She's also quite the powerful little puffball with a giant puffball to protect her. Good idea, Jax."

The remainder of the day proceeds with similar planning, discussions and attempts at figuring out what can be done to combat a growing problem.