"I'm sympathetic to your frustration, Krarr, but we all must make sacrifices. Your sacrifice is that your 'hunts' will be boring here in Tucson. Think of the sacrifice your prey must make.
"And do not think of violating Prince Lettow's dictum. Many Princes consider him excessively merciful. But if he has a fault, it is excessive patience. He will take his time compiling your list of crimes, if you cross him.
"Now let us turn to the issue of remuneration, since we cannot provide this service for free."
After a brief negotiation—ferocious but not uncivilized—you and Alexander agree to a payment of $200 per drink of blood. If you want to reduce that price, you'll have to improve your standing with the Camarilla.
Where to tonight?
It's time to call in a favor. After some hedging, you find a pay phone, call the Viper, and explain your woeful situation to Dove, who used to be a courier. She's annoyed, but Prince Lettow needs all the couriers he can get.
"Head down to the impound lot on West Franklin," she says. "They're not directly connected with us, but they're okay. Pick up anything there that starts."
You get out of the Viper before Dove starts extracting explicit favors.
Next
The impound lot is guarded by a chain-link fence and the fattest, friendliest Rottweiler you've ever seen. He's even friendly to vampires. But you soon realize why there's so little security. The cars here are like props from a Ken Burns miniseries about the decline of American manufacturing. You pass rotting Oldsmobile 88s and broken-down GMC Jimmies, rusted-out Ford vans and all that's left of a few AMC Eagles.
After messing around for a while, the only thing you can get to start is a 1999 Chrysler Sebring convertible in gleaming silver, speckled with rust and badly executed bodywork. The convertible part doesn't move, but the engine part does—sort of—so you roll on out of there.
You spend a few minutes driving around Tucson, just getting used to the Sebring. The tank is mostly full, but you want to get a feel for this machine as quickly as possible, so you roll into a Chevron Station. Here you can fill the tank and get a feel for the nightly experience of maintaining your new car.
You're just getting ready to clean the windshield when a metallic-hued sports car rolls into the parking lot. Julian Sim parks his Fisker Karma next to your Sebring, steps out of the sports car, and looks around.
"I remember when I used to need gas," the Banu Haqim says.
"If the next few nights go according to plan, I'll buy you a used car lot. A nice one with lots of understated luxury, not like that auto lot I see you skulking around all the time. But first, from the bottom of my dead little heart, thank you for the last job you did for me."
"The last job?"
"That silver knife has caused more trouble for my enemies than a whole pack of thralls could," Julian says. "First it distracted Jasper Knowles so he couldn't find me while I was in Denver, then Prince Lettow's enforcer, Dove, spent two weeks investigating the pawnshop where I dropped it off instead of bothering me, and then you drove it out to that airfield in Texas. Sorry you got into trouble there, but it's not like you ever needed to succeed. I don't know who grabbed it in the end, but it's still causing trouble."