6

You enter a circular room illuminated by a giant red hologram of a hemoglobin molecule. It's labeled KXG: Kiowa Xenogenetics. A party is in full swing—twenty scientists and technicians are chatting, drinking wine from fancy glasses or gathered around a baby grand piano where a man in a tweed jacket is playing ragtime. A whiteboard reads CONGRATULATIONS DR. TAKAHASHI ON YOUR, and then a complex formula that's beyond your ability to understand, despite your technical training.

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You must be the courier," a young woman says. "My name is Vani Anand. Dr. Caul will be here in a few minutes. Until then, help yourself to some wine. And I apologize beforehand if anyone badgers you. We're trapped in here for months at a time like Antarctic researchers, and anyone new is interesting."

Vani isn't really dressed for a party: she's wearing a loose-fitting work shirt full of pens and notebooks, though she's put on gold earrings that sometimes gleam red in the holographic light.

Before you can chat, Vani gets a text and excuses herself, leaving you at the edge of the party. You study the crowd, contemplating how to make a good first impression with these people. Dr. Caul will react badly to the information you're carrying, and you don't want your behavior here to make her mood even worse.

They look pretty harmless.

Most of the scientists look well-off and well-fed. There's an Old Money smell to a lot of them, from the WASP doctors listening to ragtime on the piano to the comfortable-looking computer scientists—most of them immigrants from India and Pakistan. Everyone seems pleased with themselves and a little bored.

Everyone except one red-haired woman who skulks in the shadows. Pale and sullen-looking, she has the wan look of a blood doll, but her blue eyes are hard and wild as a trapped wolf's. She wears a long moss green cardigan that she keeps pulling down over her wrists and silver rings with occult symbols. You can only read part of her shirt under the cardigan: ECT TECH, ACE TRADIT. Latin?

The Tremere are a bunch of creepy Warlocks, but they normally hide better than this.

You consider whom to approach and what you want. Potential allies for you and Julian? To uncover the secrets of this place—perhaps to increase your own power? Or maybe you should just try to put Dr. Caul in a good mood for your inevitable meeting.