Sleight of Hand

[Grace]

I’m sure most of you are wondering how things came about. You know, what we were doing at the church, what happened to Ron and I while everyone thought we were dead and culminating with the assault on the hospital. The whole story is not mine to tell but I will relate those portions as I know them.

As I mentioned before, Hannah was taken by one of Khavik’s minions while the rest of were trying to fend of his feint assault. It didn’t take long for Khavik’s demand that Ron and Wie come meet him to exchange themselves for Hannah.

There were problems with this, of course. None of us thought Khavik could be trusted to keep his word. What’s more, there was no way Wie could have made it by the deadline set forth by Khavik.

Ron had a different plan however. I would disguise myself as Wie and take her place. We would go to the church and attack whoever we found there. We didn’t expect Hannah to actually be present. On the off chance she was, I was to grab her and get her out of there while Ron went after Khavik.

Everyone else was to surround and observe the area. The hope was that Ron and I would flush out our opponents and then our allies could pursue them back to Hannah and Khavik.

First of course I had to learn to be Wie. I had to dress like her, walk like her, talk like her and as much as possible, look like her. It didn’t help that I’m a little taller than her. Wearing flats offset that a little bit. I remember complaining that the outfit Ron picked for me didn’t match my jacket. He pointed out that Wie was blind and didn’t always wear matching clothes.

By the time that it was go time, Ron was satisfied that I could pull it off.

So we walked in the church, ready to assault our foe.

When your ambush is going to well, it’s a counter ambush.

At some point in the confusion that followed our entry, Ron spotted the explosives and shoved me down the secret escape route. He followed right after. I hit the ground and rolled even as the concussive force of the explosion above us hit.

Much of the area we found ourselves in was collapsed around us. If it hadn’t been for the explosives Mr. Smith had built into my jacket for me, we may have been stuck there some time. Of course it wasn’t a matter of just taking off my jacket, setting it against the wall separating us from the storm drains and then detonating it. There were some unique anti-vampire features built into the detonation circuit that we had to circumvent first. I didn’t have the skills to do so, but Ron did. He’s quite handy.

I confess that I was sweating as he removed the detonator and one of the charge packs from the jacket while I was still wearing it.

We had a visitor before we were quite done. I'll let him decide if he wishes to relate who he was and how he knew we were under the church. I know he's already been chewed out quite roundly for his silence on this issues.

In any case, we blew our way out and made good our escape.

Our next plan of action was to take the fight to our enemy.

[Hannah]

The nightmare was there pretending to be me.

I don't understand why Dad shot at the nightmare when it looked like me, he just says "I knew it wasn't you." When I press he adds. "You're my daughter, I'd know you anywhere."

I guess he was right and I love him and all, but remembering my father pointing a gun at me and opening fire . . .

One of the many things the nightmare left me with that I don't want.

[Cybermancer]

It would seem that the title, Sleight of Hand is appropriate in more ways than one.

[Holister]

Clever ruse.