We were slow to get up that morning. As Daedelus (I think it was Daedelus) was watching television, he saw a report that Kasee's house had burned down. Kasee just watched the report in shock, and pretty much stayed in shock for the rest of the day. She retreated to her room and that was pretty much the last we saw of her.
Eric, Renee, Daedelus, and I went over to check in with Mr. Forteau later in the morning, but we were unable to get in to see him. Renee gave the stone golem a written message, and we headed back to the chantry.
Another planning session was in order, but we didn't have any more to go on the night before. Eric called a friend of his named Raoul and gingerly explained what the problem was. Raoul suggested we find out where the weather machine was and attack it from that angle.
Through some sort of computer sleight-of-keyboard and some massive hacking on the Federal Express computer network, Daedelus was able to track the weather machine from Champaign, Illinois, to Washington, DC. Unfortunately, the trail ended there. We thought someone had picked up the weather machine there, and we'd have to try some other method of attack, when Daedelus suddenly gave a cry of triumph. We gathered around and he showed us how a package of similar size and shape had also been sent on October 26 from Champaign to Cary, North Carolina. We figured that the package to Washington had been a decoy. The alternate package was now sitting in a post office in Cary. Renee pointed out that FedEx didn't deliver to post offices. Daedelus laughed and said that the people we're dealing with could make FedEx deliver to wherever they damn well pleased.
Now that we knew where the weather machine was, we had to figure out how to get it. After much wrangling, we finally decided that the only way to approach the problem was head-on, so we agreed that some of us would drive over to the post office in Cary and pick it up. John (our resident garou) had wandered off in the night, so he wasn't going to be of any help, nor was Kasee, who was borderline comatose in shock. Daedelus made sure she was OK and I admonished Dog to keep an eye on Mary, and we headed out. Cab took Daedelus' motorcycle and said she needed to check on something, and that she would meet us at the post office. That left Renee, Daedelus, Nathaniel, Eric, and myself to pick up the weather machine.
On the way to pick up the package, we got into an argument over what the disposition of the weather machine was to be. I personally didn't want it anywhere near me - there's too many heavy hitters chasing after it and we'd most likely be swatted aside in a most unpleasant fashion. I had no problem giving it to Mr. Forteau - he had always dealt with me fairly, and in my experience of working with him as my mentor, I had never been given cause to believe that he was insane enough to turn the weather machine against Reality or that he was working for the Technocracy. Eric popped off that he thought we should give the weather machine to a Master Porthos, an Order of Hermes master. The others seemed uncertain, so Eric asked Daedelus to call Master Porthos on his speaker/cellular phone as we drove.
He was a smooth one, I'll give him that. He insisted that he didn't seek the destruction of the weather machine (I'm not sure what the effects of that would be, but I suspect it would be disastrous). No, he explained, he only wanted to deconstruct it. The others asked a few more questions, then broke the connection. I knew these Hermetic mages were all screwed in the head - there's no difference in my mind between destroying and deconstructing, and I said as much. Eric insisted I was wrong, but Daedelus, Renee, and Nathaniel all agreed that we should turn the weather machine over to Mr. Forteau. I'm going to keep an eye on Eric, though - I don't trust him.
When we arrived at the post office, it was 4:20, ten minutes before closing. Eric and I waited outside at the car, and Renee, Nathaniel, and Daedelus went in. Renee looked busy buying stamps from the vending machine, Nathaniel stared intently at the "Most Wanted" pictures on the wall, and Daedelus went to the counter.
After about five minutes, I heard a forklift start up around the corner of the building. Daedelus came outside and started walking over to that corner as the forklift brought out a large wooden crate. At the same time, six cars with flashing lights came roaring into the parking lot, and about twenty guys with guns jumped out, shouting that they were with the Drug Enforcement Agency and told us all to freeze where we were. Sounded like a good idea to me. I thought briefly of stepping sideways, but realized that could very well put my friends in an even worse position than they already were.
Eric, Daedelus, and I were slammed up against the car and patted down. Daedelus asked one of the suits who seemed to be in charge what the problem was, and he said something about smuggling drugs. Oh crap, I realized, this was a set up! The suit in charge took a sledgehammer and hauled off and whacked the crate, then jumped back, as if expecting something to come tumbling out. Nothing did. I saw Daedelus smile slightly and figured he had something to do with it.
The Suit in Charge was pissed. He told them to take us downtown and charge us with possession with intent to distribute. When Daedelus said he had found no drugs, the suit only smiled and waved us away. A very apologetic police officer escorted us to a police car. I noticed that Renee and Nathaniel were still inside the post office and hoped they had the good sense to stay there until the mess outside quieted down. They shut the doors to the police car and we drove back into downtown Raleigh.
After booking and fingerprinting us and taking all of our possessions they put us in a temporary holding cell. I had used my one phone call to try to call Mr. Forteau, but there was no answer. Terrific. We sat in the cell and put our heads together. I could leave anytime I wanted - all I had to do was to step sideways, although it would be difficult in the middle of the city. Daedelus assured me that if he could get to the telephone, he could escape as well. Unfortunately, Eric was pretty much stuck there.
The Suit in Charge came in after about an hour and said that we must have thought it was pretty cute to get rid of the drugs in the crate, but they searched the car and found a bag of white powder, which he threw at our feet. We were to be transferred to the federal penitentiary in Richmond until we could be arraigned. They'd come for us in two hours.
We kicked around several different escape ideas, including using an electrical arc from the outside power lines to blow a hole in the wall (which we discarded - too likely for one of us to get hurt). They came for us after only an hour. Eric had to mess with the electromagnetic door to the holding cell hallway to give us more time to think. We finally decided that we were better off making our move where the ratio of escapees to police was a little more favorable, and Eric released the electromagnetic door.
They hustled us out into the pouring rain into a black van. There was a guy driving the van, and a police officer who looked like he had just left his job as a Marine Drill Sergeant sitting in the back with us with a shotgun. We, of course, were all chained to the seats, in lovely orange coveralls. Escape would be possible, but not pleasant, I thought.
We drove out US Route 1 towards Wake Forest and Richmond, the rain around us seeming to pour down harder the further we got from Raleigh.