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"Good," Jordan says with a grin. "Glad to know that neither of us want this to turn into a bloodbath. But I'm also worried that Bouchard's planning on hiding something from us. He was a little too insistent that his scouts go in first. I'm wondering what it is that he doesn't want us to know. Or what he wants to cover up."

You push through the crowd toward Qui and Jordan has a few hurried words with him before the Sheriff nods his assent. Bouchard glares at Jordan from the other side of the tunnel. "Go on ahead," you can just barely hear Qui say. "And report directly to me with what you see." You both give him a quick nod before setting out to follow in the scouts' footsteps.

Next

You slip through the muck as quietly as you can, ears perked to listen for any sign that you've grown close to the hidden nest of Tremere. It's impossible to tell just where Bouchard's scouts have gone—their Nosferatu gifts hide them from your sight—but Jordan seems keenly attuned to their presence and you have to trust her judgment. Uuntezazk pokes his face from a tiny pipe right at eye-level, startling you. "They are ahead," he says. "Be wary." And just as quickly, he's gone back down the pipe.

It doesn't take long before you can hear voices filtering through one of the intersecting tunnels ahead.

"—damn well that they'll be coming for us," a feminine voice says as you stop in place to listen. "Let's just finish those wards. They don't care what really happened."

Another voice responds in protest. "We didn't do anything wrong, Sasha. Alisha's an opportunist liar just like all the other Divas and everyone knows it. Why would we compromise our position by attacking her? A fledgling could see the truth!"

"Idiot," the original speaker replies with a snark. "She lied about the attack to force Corliss into calling a hunt on us. Whether we tried to assassinate that preening Degenerate or not is irrelevant. Just being here without announcing ourselves to the Court is a violation of the Traditions and the Sheriff has it in for us to begin with. Any excuse he can use to swoop down here and destroy—wait…did you hear that?" The voice falls silent and Jordan leans in to whisper in your ear.

"Bouchard's scouts are ignoring them," she says. "They turned the other way, ahead. If we nab one of these two, they could explain everything. We wouldn't have to run around slaughtering everyone if we knew the truth."

"But what about the scouts? Why are they just walking past?"

"That's why I wanted to tag along behind them," Jordan says. "Bouchard's up to something, and it's definitely not a desire to minimize bloodshed. What should we do?"