“This is Bluebird and Icky Vicky checking in. Cameras are rolling, we’ve got access to your cams. We’re all set to start knocking out alarms and draining accounts,” Vicky radios in.

“The Fates are ready to cut the strands,” Destiny calls back from one of the safehouses with her team.

“Rats ready for the new era of piracy,” Lynn radios in with hers.

“Alright, alarms down,” I inform Vicky.

“Teams you are good to go,” Vicky sends them off.

I let Vicky worry about emptying accounts, I’m not interested in cybercrime, not as a career move anyway. Instead I focus on monitoring the ongoing situation. The Fates, as they call themselves, or the attack team strike hard out the gate. They’ve employed wizards to put up shrouds keeping normal folks out while they go wild. I watch on one screen as a big Orc hired for the job crashes straight through a wall and starts fighting anything not dressed in our agreed upon black ski masks. Not as uniform as the vampires’ attack, but same idea, hide our faces. Others take different routes, vanishing from sight entirely choosing to stealthily kill. They’re going after vampires first and foremost. So far the only people guaranteed dead were a few vampires. The view becomes useless as more light fills each screen as vampires are taken out using artificial sunlight. There’s a lot of ways to kill vampires, and they’re all being used to draw them out but the magic light attacks seem to be a favor with the attack teams.

“Hey Lynn, you’re going to want to break through the floor in front of the fire extinguisher on the East wall of the building. Straight cash hidden in the floor,” I give her some information as they clean out one of the key warehouses.

“Good call, I would have gotten that back in my day,” she punches a huge rat fist through the floor without transforming her entire body.

Switching back to Destiny’s cam is useless, she’s moving way too fast for me to keep up. It seems like she’s prioritizing finding the chalice and leaving the fights to those hired to do the job. Get your money’s worth I guess. If you paid some people to kill vampires, let them kill vampires.

“Vicky, how’s it going on your end,” I ask.

“White collar crime is the future of this guild and I’m damn good at it,” she giggles knowing she’s doing something illegal. That’s a red flag.

“Hey Lynn, incoming from the North side of the building. Go ahead and move to the next spot,” I give her the update.

This is the part I really wanted to see, the one piece of the plan I couldn’t believe. All of the things they’re stealing from this location had been placed right in the center of the main room. A scrawny looking mage throws his hands up and the cameras go black. When my view is clear again, they’re right in front of me with all of the stuff. They really had a teleportation spell, that’s incredible. The team here starts loading things into trucks right away as the mage teleports Lynn’s group to the next warehouse, on the other side of town to give them more time. I was told the teleportation guy was expensive, but he’s worth it.

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“Alpha house clear,” one of the Mercs radios in.

“Any casualties,” I ask.

“Just a bunch of vamps. Once thrall died, but he tazed himself and had a heart attack. Wasn’t our fault, that was just stupidity,” he doesn’t laugh as he gives me that information so I know he’s serious.

“I guess we can’t do anything about that. Funds will be in your accounts this evening. Feel free to take anything you want, and be safe,” I didn’t want any deaths, but we can’t stop idiots.

“Charlie house here, we’re clear as well,” another Merc calls in.

“Good job, travel safe,” I feel like a truck drive on CB Radio, I used to love Smokey and The Bandit.

I switch over to Destiny’s camera, and the view is straight up at the ceiling. Shit, that’s bad, she isn’t moving. The only movement comes from her shallow breathing, but I can hear all kinds of chaos around her. A savage roar forces me to rip off my headset. Large hairy white arms come smashing down and ending her camera view.

I recognize those arms, she’s against whatever that big thing was. I can’t get there to help, I’d only be in her way, but she can take that. I flip through other cameras trying to get a view of the scene. Finally, I land on a group of mercenaries and rats squaring off with the creature.

“Vicky, what the hell is that,” I can’t call it.

“That, is a troll, a half troll it looks like,” the excitement she had earlier is gone.

A troll, haven’t seen one of those. It’s large and hairy along most of it’s body. Only wearing sneakers and the same track suit bottoms as the attack. It’s entire torso is covered in fur and while it stands straight up, the body looks more gorilla than man, almost like an albino ape. But the face, the face looks way more human. I can see why it might be half something else because I can’t imagine a human sleeping with a full-sized troll. Bullets hit but don’t seem to have any effects. Lightning bolts and flames seem to be more effective but not enough to bring it down.

Destiny’s camera is done but in the corner of another screen, I watch her roll over onto her hands and knees. I’m was hoping she would stay down and play dead, but I knew that wouldn’t happen. Another part of me hoped she was running away when she got up. I knew that wasn’t true when I spotted her smashing a display case and picking up a sword. For a moment it looked like she purposely cut her own hand. I realize that was the case when she runs her hand across the blade, seemingly leaving a trail of her own blood. She’s delusional from the beating. I watch as fire comes out of her mouth. Can all vampires do that? The sword is covered in flame; making me feel like I’m going insane. Destiny glances at it like the key to all of her problems. I remember Destiny telling me she wasn’t a weapons expert, and her sword work is proof. Still, the burning and bloody blade seems to be doing damage on the troll, or at least letting other people’s attacks do some damage.

It’s still a long fight, but eventually the beast falls. Either from exhaustion or they finally managed to hurt it enough. The mages with them quickly work to cast some kind of spell over it. I’m not sure if they’re binding it or killing it. The flames on Destiny’s sword dissipate, she tosses it aside and walks out of view.

“This Bravo House. We got the chalice and we did that shit,” Destiny radios in.

“Yeah,” is all I can say.

“You gotta teach me that thing with the fire sword,” Vicki chimes in.

Lynn and her team appear back in the warehouse, after a few minutes. Everything went smoothly this time around. If I hadn’t watched close to fifty vampires die today, I might think things went too smoothly. Even if these folks are as heartless as Destiny claims, they wouldn’t sacrifice that many of their own. They probably lost control of hundreds of thralls too, all over the city, maybe country. I banish the thought of things going too smoothly and celebrate with the rest of those at the warehouse. I feel like I just won a championship, and champagne never tasted so good.