Gordon's Not Alive

The Red Line Corporate Solutions team is holed up in the British Embassy in Bucharest, plotting its next move. The original plan was to go after Sorin Lupu, a former high-ranking member of the Ruvari Szgany clan, in the hope that Lupin would lead the team to Dracula; that plan is abandoned as the team instead decides to return to the water pumping station from which Carmel was rescued.

Natasha Avram, former Russian government assassin. Wears a lot of leather. Driven by money. Possible sociopath.

Sten Brodrington, ace driver who is a bit vague about which specific branch of British intelligence he worked for. He's looking for direction and purpose in life, or at least that's what he says.

Max Fischer, German investigator with a mysterious past. A little twitchy. He's hoping for some sort of redemption.

Carmel Shaked, Israeli break-and-enter specialist with a bit of a nationalistic streak. Carmel has had enough of secrets and lies.

Before they do so, Carmel meets up with her local contact Dacien Comenescu to find out what he has discovered about Natasa Dobra, a suspected Bride of Dracula. Carmel takes the rest of the team as backup and meets Comenescu at a local library.

Comenescu looks a bit battered and bruised, and suggests that there was some resistance to his acquisition of the files; Carmel doesn't ask for details and transfers the agreed €30,000 to Comenescu's account. Meanwhile, Natasha spots a man watching the meeting and moves to get a better view; Max comes in from the street -- leaving Sten in the car -- and also takes up position to watch the man.

Carmel's contact hands over a bundle of musty paperwork from the 1980's; everything is in Romanian, but Comenescu points to sections where Dobra's handwriting is visible. The team needs Dobra's handwriting to use in a ritual; the same rite was used to destroy the Rotterdam Bride and the team wants to use it against the other Brides, Dracula too if possible.

Comenescu leaves, and Carmel follows soon after. The mysterious watcher also leaves and the team decides not to pursue him. The Dobra files are distributed amongst the team members for safety, and then they head to the pumping station. On the way, they meet the surviving members of the EDOM strike team that accompanied them on the original mission; the EDOM agents are keen to rescue their former teammates Gordon and Sean, or recover their bodies if a rescue proves impossible.

A police car is parked outside the station, with a pair of alert-looking officers inside. Sten advocates chucking a grenade into the car but the team decides on a more subtle approach; Carl, the leader of the EDOM squad, is sent over to offer the police a bribe -- none of the Red Line team speaks Romanian -- and ask them to drive around the block for a few minutes. The attempt fails so the Red Line and EDOM teams wait for the shift to change before sending Carl to try again; this attempt also fails and the officers attempt to arrest Carl, but the Red Line team steps in and subdues them.

The teams enter the pumping station and explore, finding little changed since their last visit; none of the bodies have been cleared away and of a police investigation there is no sign. This is unusual but not unexpected; it's clear that Dracula's conspiracy has infiltrated the Romanian authorities and that the vampire's minions act with almost total freedom.

Nothing new is discovered, but the bodies of Gordon and Sean are found, torn to pieces. The EDOM team collects the remains and starts to leave; the Red Line team attempts to stop them but Carl explains that his mission is to recover the bodies of his comrades and he has done that, so he will not be staying. Carl and his squad leave, with Carmel muttering accusations of cowardice and incompetence at their backs.

With nothing else to find, the Red Line team also leaves the pumping station and, back at its temporary digs at the British Embassy, conducts some research into the Romanian special forces units that Dobra seems to be using as muscle. The only useful evidence that Carmel and Sten turn up is a series of payments made to the families of deceased members of those units; these payments are in excess of the usual compensation and pensions one would expect in such cases. The stipends have been authorised by the Ministry of National Defence, but the Red Line team cannot pin down anything that can lead them to Dobra or Dracula; even so, Sten does a bit of hacking and creative accounting and diverts some of the excess funds to the team's own accounts, to make up for the freezing of its assets and its dwindling cash.

The team then decides to try the finding ritual in Le Dragon Noire to locate Dobra; Natasha does not believe the spell will find living creatures -- although it is arguable if Dobra can be defined as such -- but Carmel recalls seeing dog tags around Dobra's neck when she had her close encounter, so the team decides to use those as the ritual's focus. After a few days of preparation, the ritual is enacted and Dobra -- or her dog tags at least -- is located, in the Palace of the Parliament in Bucharest.

The team heads to the Palace and sneaks into the massive building; as the majority of the structure is unused, this proves to be an easy task for the former secret agents.

Lingering traces of the finding ritual lead them to an underground level in which they discover some sort of open plan governmental office; they feel that Dobra is in a room beyond the office, but there's no way to cross the area without being spotted, and no one feels like getting into a fight with civilians.

Instead, the team finds a massive cliché ventilation duct and uses it to crawl over the office and into the space above the room beyond; through a vent they see Natasa Dobra working at a desk, unaware of their presence. The team ambushes Dobra and seems to catch the alleged tactical genius by surprise; the team is in turn surprised when Carmel teleports across the room to take a position behind Dobra.

The confusion surrounding Carmel's new ability gives the vampire the space she needs to retaliate; she orders Carmel to step away -- which she does -- and then turns to Natasha and uses her dark powers to force the Russian to hide under the desk. Then she runs for the door.

Sten steps into the vampire's path and, recalling his rugby days at Cambridge, tackles her; he is not a weak man but Dobra is stronger and while Sten does slow her down, he suffers for it, breaking a few bones in the process. Max leaps in, stake in hand, and plunges it into the vampire's chest.

Max's player burns a lot of Luck points to make the strike accurate and Dobra hisses and splutters before falling still. As Carmel climbs up the wall and back into the air conditioning vent like some sort of spider -- again shocking her team-mates -- the others hack Dobra's head from her shoulders, and set fire to the corpse.

The fight was quick, but it has attracted attention in the office outside, and the Red Line team makes a swift exit the way it came; getting out proves to be much more difficult than getting in, and a couple of the team members are clipped by gunfire during the escape, but escape they do. Once clear of the Palace, the Red Line team bundles into its getaway vehicle and races to the border.

Next: Bulgarian bulletstorm!