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| The hunt for Carmilla... |
The agents entered the central district of Vienna, which was shared by the four Allied powers, in an effort to locate the Bulgarian Carmilla lookalike, Alma Cril. Upon approaching the townhouse where she lived, they heard professional level piano music. The door was opened by a man with a Hungarian accent, introducing himself as George, who it turned out was co-habiting with Cril. He was obviously a concert pianist.
The house was littered with expensive art and artefacts, some of which looked like it was in the process of being packed up. Fox identified these as possible looted art that was destined for sale on the black market. George told the agents - who posed as variety journalists - that Cril was asleep and regularly slept late, not rising until after lunchtime.
Cril was eventually rousted out and thought she was being interviewed by the 'journalists' until O'Reilly lost patience, knocked George out, and subjected Cril to more direct questioning. Her answers were similar to those provided by di Pietri, and again she expressed an interest in getting out of the city and asked directly for a British passport in exchange for her cooperation. She was able to also tell the Edom team that another of the girls was working under the name Lara Clim at the Kommandatura, the Allied headquarters in Vienna, and only 20 minutes' walk away.
Cril exhibited the same reactions to a crucifix as di Pietri and also did not show up clearly in O'Reilly's shaving mirror. Fox was able to sit down and create some false papers for the couple which could get them out of Vienna and into the British sector in Austria.
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| On the streets of Vienna - 1948 |
The team now decided to head over to the Kommandatura where they bluffed their way in using their British electrician papers. Cril had told them that Lara Clim was working for the French legation on the second floor of the building. They managed to approach her and persuade her to show them where the main junction boxes were in the basement before again starting to interrogate her. She managed to use her mesmerism power against both O'Reilly and Blake, succeeding in making O'Reilly leave the generator room. Blake proved more resistant and forced the girl into a corner with his crucifix.
Fox went after O'Reilly into the corridor outside, and managed to slap him back to his senses. As the Irishman was recovering they both spotted another girl who looked like Clim approaching them down the corridor. She produced a pair of automatic pistols and ran at them with supernatural speed while firing the guns. Fox was winged although not seriously hurt. O'Reilly managed to shoot the girl with his crossbow, but she kept coming.
Hoffmann ducked out into the corridor and also started shooting at the girl, hitting her in the head and killing her. But behind him Blake was having trouble restraining Clim, who threw him across the room and into a wall. Blake returned to the attack and IIRC killed Clim, but may have just knocked her out. Fox retrieved ID papers from the dead girl with the gun-fu, who turned out to be the Ukrainian nurse, Clar-mila Vilsen.
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| The Kommandatura - Allied occupation headquarters in Vienna |
Anyway, the agents quickly cut the power in the building and split up, sneaking out using either their Infiltration abilities or their electrician cover identities. Heat was already up to 3, so the target numbers were beginning to get hefty.
Having escaped from the Kommandatura, the Edom agents headed back to the Soviet sector. It was getting dark. They drove towards the house of Carmalli di Pietri. There was no sign of her Soviet lover, so it was a simple matter to pick her up, blindfold her and drive over to their safe house. The agents were planning to use her as bait to attract Carmilla, although they told her they were going to get her out of Vienna.
It was at this point that Hoffmann noticed they were being followed by another car. He drove down a blind alley so that the team could stage an ambush, cutting off the other car when it tried to follow them. They suspected it might be Carmilla. However, three men got out of the vehicle and drew pistols while the driver tried to reverse back into the agents' car. O'Reilly, Blake and Hoffmann jumped out and started shooting at the car (O'Reilly had handcuffed di Pietri to the car door to stop her leaving), which was riddled with bullets. The driver was hit and killed and the car flipped over in the alley. The three surviving strangers ran down the alley and started shooting at the agents' car.
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| O'Reilly burns through his Shooting pool.... |
The vampire Carmilla grabbed Fox by the back on his neck and pulled him into the back of the car. Fox was overwhelmed by the chill spreading through his body from her icy hand. Outside, Hoffman managed to toss a grenade down the alley, killing one of the three remaining attackers. The other two concentrated their fire on the car, hitting Fox. Smoke filled the alleyway, along with flying bullets.
Realising Fox was in trouble, O'Reilly fired indiscriminately into the car, and also hit Fox. Blake threw a knife with unerring accuracy and hit Carmilla in the eye, blinding her. She screamed with rage and pain, but this allowed the barely conscious Fox to throw himself out of the car as she had lost her grip on him. Which was lucky, because Hoffmann and O'Reilly both immediately tossed grenades into the vehicle. The second explosion triggered the fuel tanks, turning it into an inferno and torching the 300 year old vampire in the process.
The burning wreck also blocked the alley, allowing the agents to retreat after Blake had provide some first aid on Fox. The Edom team escaped on foot before a Russian patrol showed up (Heat to 4 at this point).
After that it was a simple process to lie up overnight in their safe house and escape from the city through the sewer tunnels the following morning. Their mission was accomplished and Carmilla Karnstein was no more.
We very nearly messed it up!
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