Sharkboy takes the question literally.

"You're the decker. Don't you have some programs that handle that kind of stuff?"

bnc turns around and raises an eyebrow at Sharkboy.
"Can't hack magic links. Sorry to disappoint you. I'm just horrified by the idea that she might shove dick pics of Wraith right into my brain."

Anna shrugs "Fine... be like that. Its naive of me to think that I get to share what I feel when I explore the world with my mind." She stops sharing, and serious up "So what do I do now that you showed me the lost sister's aura?"

Sharkboy felt a bit dumb for not understanding the metaphor, and his fist inclination was to play obtuse.

"What's wrong with Wraith's dick pics? Is there someone else's dick you'd want put in your head?"

Unfortunately for his satisfaction, he was to be an intimidating and serious professional for the duration of this job.

"Oh, of course. I can imagine that would be awkward.

"Was it at least useful in giving you some ideas for how to try and secretly contact her?"

bnc shoots Anna a look and opens her mouth to respond. Then she pauses a split-second and says instead: "Sorry." For a moment, she considers saying something more but then she decides that has to be enough. As a kid of the barrens, bnc muses, Anna should be more used to rejection. So bnc responds to Sharkboy instead. "No but that wasn't the plan either. He was showing you what she looks like and Anna what her aura looked like before it was warped and twisted by an HMHVV infection we don't know drek about.

So, unless you have a big deal of new ideas, I'd say we continue the meet after I've done some research about infected parts of Salzburg. Also, I need to rep my deck.
Let's say, 6pm, same place? If you come up with ideas 'til then, that's awesome. I might be able to provide one clue or another she'll understand but I've no inkling whatsoever where to place them. I'll dig through the news - both lighty and shady - to find out whether someone's been eaten by a crystal ghoul."
She walks over to the door briskly, then turns. For a split-second, her facade crumbles, then she regains control. "If you'll excuse me ... Ah, and does one of you honeys know the Heal spell? Dumb bitch of an eighteen-year-old me installed a fraggin' headware deck."

Anna replies "I SHOULD be able to deduce what she looks like now, perhaps if I observe similarly infected people and try to aham... understand exactly how their infection changes their aura - then I may be able to do the equivalent of a sketch artist. I... never tried it before actually. Having some idea of her current aura would mean that I could send spirits to look for her, or look for her myself. Not the most promising direction, but perhaps we do not have plenty of better directions?"

Wraith cast an overly sour look at bnc when she mentions his dick pics, but he clearly had to suppress a grin. A second later, a telepathic image of a middle finger raised at bnc appeared in the group's shared consciousness.

"Yeah, I hope this can help you or a spirit find her, if needed. But do we agree that we're trying the uhm, trawling approach first? Less risk of exposing her, after all. If we can't come up with a good plan for that, or if it fails, then I guess spirits are our last resort. That's what we needed to inspect her aura for. If we ask a spirit to help search someome, we need a... Mental representation. Spirit needs to know what the person looks like, and as spirits' eyes usually are astral, we needed her aura.", he explained.

"Wha... Yeah, I can heal wounds, but it's not my forte. Are we talking cracked-open skulls or mending cuts?"

Anna replies with a thumbs up emoji to the mental association, then she thinks at the team. Talking seems suddenly strange when they can just think at each other. "I am an health mage... What do you need? "

Sharkboy quickly comes to dislike the link, but tries to not think too much about the reasons why. "So when can I sever this telepathic link from you guys?"

"Job goes to Anna, then", Wraith approved.
He turned towards Sharkboy: "Anytime, we should be done here. I've shown you all I had and... wait!", and the young mage almost facepalmed himself. "Wait, I saw her another time. Well, not really, but Andreas did. The merc we interrogated in that forest. When I clawed my way through his memories, I saw him chasing Kerstin. Here...", and he shared the scene with the rest of his team.
"... that's how she looks now."

"Someone who heals the access port I've got to carve. Will I find one of you two during the next couple hours in the hotel? A bad healer will do, too. It's only gonna be a small, clean wound.
Ah, and Wraith: Don't you have that pain suppressor spell? That'd make it a lot nicer, if you will."

When Wraith creates the image of Crystlin in bnc's head, she stands completely still. Hardly any sign of emotion can be read on her face, only the stillness.
The stillness one knows from people who visit a KZ or watch scenes their mind cannot yet comprehend.

"You are going to do WHAT?"

bnc takes that as a yes, nods curtly towards the group as a whole and then again towards Wraith, her gaze lingering on him for a split-second to give him time to answer her request about the painkiller spell. She then leaves the room.

Wraith nods at the question if he'll stay at the hotel, but adds with a concerned look "Suppress pain? No, my magic can't do that."


" I'll sever the connection, so if you know anything the team needs to see, now's the time.", he says towards the whole team, then, after a couple of seconds, he closes his eyes and and the brimming cacophony of others' thoughts ends.

Anna sighs "I'll do that... You crazy self mutilating person."

"I know a great doc in Munich, in case you need help with that ware," Nova mentioned, not quite sure what bnc was going to do to herself.

"I have some dopadrine to numb the pain, but I don't know how aware you need to be during this. I don't think dopadrine really covers actual head-splitting, either"

bnc declines the offer of drugs, indicating that it's only a cut and that she'd done this a couple of times already.

Back in her room, she undresses and lays herself into the tub and wraps herself into a warm blanket. She then Jumps into James to open her head far enough to retrieve the damaged cyberdeck. She unpacks her gear and brings the deck back into shape, before she inserts it into the still motionless body's head again and tends to the wound.

Once the deed is done, she dives into the matrix to do research about infected in Salzburg and cases of homicide, cannibalism or mysterious disappearings in both the legal and the illegal parts of the web.

Searching the Salzburg Grid shows that the border city has a lot of money flowing through it. Tourism and Catholizism are the two watchwords around here. There is a functioning welfare system operated by the Caritas and quite an effective police force, the Bishop's Guard. They are all trained to deal with magical threats - including infected like vampires, making the city particularly unwelcoming to runners, infected and anarchists.
The most prominent citizen is Nebelherr, the German dragon, who bought the Schloss Hellabrunn, including the park and the zoologic garden.
Incongruently to the magic opposing Archbishop, the University Salzburg does have a study course for hermetic thaumaturgy.

All in all, Salzburg is considered the most secure city in all of Austria.
Consequently, there is no known infected community to be found and all missing persons cases are very stringently pursued.
Discretion seems to be a very important part of operating in the Mozart city...

The only interesting bit of news is an item about a brawl at one of the university taverns, where a student from a Burschenschaft got roughed up a week ago. The private blog post mentioned that a mummed woman didn't liked to be called a muslim whore and kicked the guy's teeth in before leaving the place. It's name: Urban Lemon Chili, Kitchen&Bar.

Anna said "I'll numb your pain consequence-free, your body will just increase its endorphins to block the pain. Can't believe you are operating on yourself. If you are going to do this often I will study a surgery spel that opens your body without a cut. They use it to operate on awakened to not damage their holistic cohision. Perhaps the augmented should be careful, no idea though."

Meeting done, Anna walks to the gym and trains on the treadmill and several other basic exercises.

6 pm

After a meal, a proper shower, a Heal spell and some valueable time alone, bnc returns to Anna's room and waits for the others in silence. Once everyone's arrived, she shares the information she's found.

"Apparently, we've got two ways to go from here. One is the Urban Lemon Chili, and I recommend we go there tomorrow.
The other is our trawling approach. I have drawn a first sketch of what I think should make her aware of us without attracting unwanted attention. Before I tell you which clues I've left, let's first see how many of them you can find. Especially Wraith should be able to see all but one.
There it is:"
As there is no matrix connection, bnc has brought a sheet of electronic paper to display the sketch. It feels awkwardly medieeval.

Clue for Kerstin

"What do you think?" bnc asks somewhat giddily. She seems to be proud.

"Something about throwing boners in the garbage." Sharkboy scrathed at the back of his purple hair. "If I spoke any German I imagine I'd maybe make out more of it."

"It says Tell us your favorit pirate-broadcaster to win a trip to beautiful Reutte, Tyrole. That's a hint at Kerstins former boss.", Wraith translates while staring at the image thoughtfully.
"I like it. The Be - No - Coward might be a little too on the nose... but then again, it's Kerstin. Better safe than sorry. I don't get the meaning behind the hammer and stuff, but the bold CRUSH hints at that poor orc-fella, I guess?"

Anna performs the spells to ease bnc's pain, and fix her head. Strange head implants have no reasonable way to take out, why put the deck inside the head, and not in a bag or something? Paranoia? anti theft? To feel like you have super powers? Who knows...

Afterwards, she completes her training, and returns to her room for a shower and then spends the rest of her time studying. She waves at bnc a little "Hi" suddenly distracted from the arcane text she was studying. The rest show up shortly after, bnc must have called a meeting. Anna listens intently to what bnc discovered and then says "So Bean Si decided to go Muslim...? This is quite smart actually - these girls cover themselves so much that it should not be very difficult to
mascarade as one. "

Then, she gives the hint a glimpse but does not comment.

"Not quite. Something about throwing Bones in the garbage. It's one of those memories that connect us. Bones was the name of someone who ... was very unpleasant. Towards me. Kerstin beat him up badly, took a photo of her art and then disposed him into a garbage bin. It's a thing basically none except for the two of us know. So, if the Be No Coward phrase catches her attention and the other clues make her realize what's going on, this one will confirm her it's really me.

No, Reutte is no hint at her boss. It's the place where our last action took us. You remember, don't you? The thing with the reporter who got caught by König Mundl. Then there's Crush, you recognized him.

I don't think it will raise too much awareness. My nickname is unknown to our enemies, as far as I know. It looks like an ad for pirating but in reality, it delivers four clues to make even her realize what' going on. In addition, if she follows the ARO she'll come to a site where she can 'join the competition'. And from the answer, we'll know which one Kerstin is. Unless we had a great many more fans than I thought when we Ran for the pirate channel.

What do you say? I think it might work!"

To Anna bnc says: "I think you got that wrong. Someone called her a muslim whore because she was all wrapped up. That doesn't mean she actually tried to pass as a muslim. Only means someone couldn't distinguish between a mummed woman and a muslima."