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[fistandantilus4....]

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Nix slept fitfully. It wasn't new. Ever since the Pueblo, he'd had trouble sleeping. It wasn't the shape shifters, or even the Blood of the People, it was Eyes. And his eyes. They were wide with terror when they'd found him. It wasn't the kind of terror that a gun to your head caused either. Eyes hadn't died of the gun shot wound to the head, Nix was sure of that. The astral markings were all wrong. The trauma to his body, blood leaking from all his orifices, it just didn't fit. The shot had taken him in the head when his body was lying on the floor. Eyes had been sitting when he'd begun hs trance. He always did it that way. Something had killed him in the metaplanes. That something was still out there. It made Nix lose sleep.

Their last job had left a lot of scars, more physical than he cared for too. The spell duel at the gas station had left a nasty scar down his cheek, when a spell from Walking Hawk had blasted away a window and part of a wall Nix had been behind. The emotional scars were beginning to find their way into his dreams though. They were the bleeding walls at the edge of his vision. They were the shadows that were always just out of sight. He'd been living this life long enough to know that the nightmares would eventually go away, but they were a bitch until then. It came with the territory, with having the Talent, and being sensitive to that sort of thing. In his dream, a woman screamed.




It seemed like every time Caliph turned around, people were finding new and interesting ways to frag each other. Life in the shadows wasn't the sort of place to have a soft heart, but the kind of work he'd just gone through, with kids and betrayals, murders and the all mighty bottom dollar, was hard to shrug off no matter who you were. It had taken a heavy toll, although the dividends were a nice step in the right direction. Spider had recovered from the mysterious decker, who's icon he couldn't even remember. Eyes was gone, dead and buried, another chummer who'd end up as just another name on Shadowland's Honors Page. Nix at least had come through strong, but it was just he two of them now, not the team they'd used to be.

He'd gotten to the point where he could almost sense it, feel when the universe was about to come back around with another mule kick. There always seemed to be a particular tone to the ringing of the phone when the next job was coming in. So when the phone rang with that tone, he almost didn't answer. But the facts of life in shadows were these; you were only as good as your last job. And in the Shadows, only your enemies memory went back more than a few months. He could pass on this one, live of the pile of cred they'd earned, and quite a while at that. But who knew when the next one would come in? Who knew if this phone call would be the Big Score, or the Run that got away, leaving the Peublo as a one hit wonder, and Caliph and Nix fading into obscurity, back into the shadows of anonymity. The phone rang, daring him to pick it up.

[Redjack]

Nix - At his new doss

Weeks had passed and still they persisted. He sat in his loft, in the middle of his circle, drinking a mocha. Not a soykaf mocha, but one with real espresso, real milk and real chocolate. As he relished in the taste, he pondered the cost in friends and the cost to his sanity. Everywhere he went, was constantly keeping track of those around him; Assensing random people. He avoided crowds and took pains to diversify his routine. He sat there, as he did more than not since Utah; He just felt more tranquil in his circle.

Finally he rose and dressed. Pulling the closes on, he noticed his facial scar in the mirror. He reached up to touch it, watching his reflecting and noticing the ring. Another piece of armor to protect him from the world. He put on the form fitting armor and then the chameleon suit. His running bag contained even more armor. Into two of his pockets went fly-spies in their little cases and a number of data chips in even more pockets, each with a copy of SIN.

Looking across the room at his hiding spot where he kept data chips of the originals, he sighed. Since the hacking he had become oh so paranoid about not just the physical and the astral, but also the matrix. He had spent the last number of weeks immersed in not only expanding his magical knowledge, but his knowledge of that other medium as well.

Finally, he put his pair of comlinks into his pocket; One wired to the other which it turn was wired to his sim module. He had turned off the wireless on his new one, using a direct connect to the second to connect to the matrix and skin link to the nano-paste trodes. He shook his head. A month ago I didn't know any of these terms.

The ceramic knife was strapped to the inside of his leg. He wasn't sure why he had taken to carrying it, only that his gut had told him it was what he needed to do.

Walking down the stairs to the ground level and out of his wards he shuddered. How did that saying go? 'Welcome to the Jungle'?

[rob]

Caliph - Driving on I-90, coming into Seattle

Man, I love road trips. Leaning back in the front seat, sipping on a mug of coffee and bailey's, looking at the scenery. I ain't got much to say most of the time, so I get a lot out of these little drives. This one has been a couple weeks, and I've gotten quite a lot out of it.

My car is barely recognizable as the slag heap that was pulled off the Utah freeway. We went over damn near every square inch of the thing. I'm pulling 140 Km/h in an off road vehicle. I was getting lazy in Wyoming, so I just took the overland route for two days, got a buffalo drive-by hunting, and still made better time. My new arm commlink works like a humdinger.

Ain't all gravy, though. The new pistols I keep in my waistline and my sock still chafe a bit. Ain't as honest as a good, clean, rifle.

I finally got through to Nix t'other day, to his new number. He knows more or less when I'm coming in. Got a basket of stuff for Spider, belated celebration of his not-death. Includin' some fresh buffalo meat. Good stuff.

Thinking a bit about it, and wondering if I should pull over to get that deer I just drove by, when the call comes in. Let it wait a couple seconds before I link it in and bring the window up in the corner of my eye. I wad'n't expectin' any calls. All the habits start taking over now. In the space between when I pick up and when I start talking the SATCOM disconnects from the rest of the vehicle and shuttles call straight to my main commlink.

"Pete's Pizza, we deliver. Would you llike to know our specials?"

[fistandantilus4....]

The voice and icon on the other side were of the artificial variety, an obvious mask and generic icon to protect the caller's identity.

Good Evening Caliph, I am Mr Johnson. I have an interest in acquiring your services and that of your companion Nyx. The request for employment would bring you to Europe, in investigation of a missing person. If you have an interest, please rendezvous with me this evening at 1900, your local time.

A matrix link remains as the call disconnects.

[rob]

Caliph - Driving down I-90

Maybe it's a holdover from the Utah business, maybe not, but the first word that springs into my mind when Johnson disconnects is 'ambush.' How did he get my number? Why didn't I get a call from a friend, where are this dude's bona fides? I dislike this. Start the data management crap. Save the audio transcript of the session, matrix link, contact information, my current location, horoscope reading, anything I can think of to an offline data chip sewn into my bracelet. Reconnect the SATCOM to the car, and keep driving.

Pull up a throwaway commlink and load Nix's phone number and one of my throwaway IDs into it. Copy the link to the throwaway and manually put a dummy word in the copy for the throwaway.

When I get some real matrix connections from outside the car, I give Nix a call from whatever access point's available, routed through a couple other sites.

"Hey, the plumber called, and he'll be available tomorrow at 1700. That shouldn't get in the way of meeting up for coffee tomorrow afternoon, right? Steve still coming?" Think about it for a second, - yep, both dates I gave are 26 hours late, plumber is our proword for business, Steve is the codename for Spider, and I can't transmit any of the attachments without compromising the message security...

[Redjack]

Nix - Michael's (Upscale restaurant, specializing in seafood)

The first half of the day had been quiet. Nix spent the majority of the morning in Everett. There are several nice parks in addition to a number of upscale magic shops. The presence of the rather large spirit of man watching over him from astral space had actually caused a bit of a stir at Fey Magica, but nothing that wasn't manageable.

By lunch, he had made his way to Michael's, just off of Council Island, but with an excellent view of the island. There had been an excellent review of the wild salmon in lemon butter. Looking out across the water he took it all in stride. The view was nice and the salmon was very good, but he missed the lunch specials at the Blue Ribbon Diner. He had specifically avoided his old haunts and had yet to eat at the same place twice since returning.

When the incoming call popped up in AR he looked up surprised. Since Spider had helped him set up his new security setup, very few calls made it through all the filters. He had dumped all his old LTG's, sending each contact a different LTG with which to call him. Those calls then filtered through a shadow server, proxied to a second shadow server to which his external com connected to. He used a number of different shadow servers for the primary shadow servers as well. The agent running on the external com then validated the encryption, cross referenced the LTG to a blind address book then forwarded a hash of the information to his internal com where another agent validated the hash, the incoming LTG and the source to a populated address book. If all of that passed muster, the call then connected. If not, the first agent call forwarded using the greater Seattle yellow pages against a randomization matrix. He really didn't understand how the hell it all worked, but he was quickly learning.... and he had paid Spider a literal fortune for the hardware and software to hook all this up. That on top of the sum for the troubles he personally suffered from his involvement in Utah.

Answering the call, Nix listens to the information. He pulls up a date calculator plugging in Caliph's meet time given the previously discussed twenty-six hours differential. Seven tonight?! Nothing like a few days notice.

<<@Caliph [Nix] I'll give Steve a jingle. Which plumber did you get? Where do you want to meet before we get coffee?>> Nix pulled up a GPS. Caliph would respond back with a time and a location away from the actual location. Every ten minutes is a kilometer north of the actual location. Every minute is a kilometer east of the actual location. 23 minutes would mean the location he gives is actually 2 kilometers north and 3 kilometers east of the actual meeting place. They would always hook up as close to two hours as possible, using a direct PAN connection to actually hook up. Things have gotten so complicated.

He logged into the Star Trek Forever game server as Engineer Geordi La Forge. People weren't supposed to have accounts using the names of actual characters, but Spider had set this up to ping him when Nix was on the board. He was sure he wasn't the only person, but the log on would trigger a notification from an agent or subroutine. Even if he was busy, Spider was usually pretty good at multitasking.

[rob]

Caliph - Pulling into Seattle on I-90

<<@Nix (Caliph) - Plumber's just some dude I pulled up on the matrix. Don't really know bout him. How'zabout we meet up at that place over on Bay and Barclay?>> Missing info in that statement should speak as many volumes to Nix as it does to me, and should alert him to why Spider needs in on this one. The address I give him should put us around a click from Finnegan's, the meet site from last run. I don't really have any other areas scoped out as recently, and won't have the time to scope another one out.

Drum my fingers as I pull into the urban portion of the interstate. Cities are too busy. Too many extra rules. Too little information for this meet to feel comfortable. Uncomfortable Caliph can cause problems for people in his general area...

[Redjack]

Nix - Michael's

Nix was in fact a little concerned about Caliph's response. A contact that had not been fully vetted made his paranoia act up. It had been neigh on a month since Nix had last been to Finnegan's. Truth be told, if Caliph had not picked the spot, he wouldn't be returning there this soon.

Nix quickly finished the fish he had been picking at for the forty-five minutes in two. His change in demeanor was noticeable, but nothing that would draw unwanted attention. He pulled up the bill in AR, transferred the funds, wiped his face with the cloth napkin and silently departed the restaurant after insuring his parking had been validated.

As he mounted his Mirage, he considered again the sedan he thought to purchase once he arrived back from the NAN. A car would have provided a full autopilot, an enclosed space and considerable more safety in transit. That said, the large spirit of man protecting him was very efficient at stopping accidents.

The closest secure parking garage to Finnegan's was two blocks away. That actually was pretty close to an optimal distance for Nix's purposes.

[fistandantilus4....]

As Nix pulls into his spot, a familiar pinging sound chimes on his comm.
Engineering to 10 forward, how's it going in Leisureville Chief?

Spider's familiar icon, now updated with All New Red Shirt , pops a chat query into Nix's AR.

[Redjack]

Nix on the other worked from a bank of icons, switching them out on a whim. Today it is a stock Mitsuhama Salary-man 709 series icon. With a flip of a virtual switch, the business suit is replaced by a star-fleet uniform.

<<@Spider [Nix] Good to hear from you captain. I'm heading on an away mission and there may be a lava monster about. Are you available to beam down?>>

[fistandantilus4....]

I always make time for my Number One. To be honest, I'm having a little Trouble with Tribbles on a new holodeck program I'm working on, and could use a break.

This channel is secure. Where are you beaming down to?

[Redjack]

<<@Spider [Nix] Place called Finnegan's --> Attachment: GPS ARO <-- is where Caliph and I are meeting. He will then provide the details on where we are meeting a new Johnson. From the sounds of it, it must have been some sort of blind contact. We'll need to vet the Johnson out and will probably have a run following that up.>>

[rob]

Caliph - Near Finnegan's

Pull straight towards the area where Finnegan's is at from the highway. Pull the earlier security assessment of the area up, and mark a couple spots. Once I pull off the freeway, start driving like I'm a lost idiot, waiting to see someone looking like they're just as stupid as I am. Get near the site and do a drive around, but at the pace w're making decisions, I don't think there's much to worry about, unless I'm being tailed. Keep the standard battery of sensors running, just in case.

Hop onto the gridguide using a spoofed license ID as soon as I see a parking space, looking for one with visibility of the door to Finnegan's from the truck. Signal the truck to look for Nix, and I find a little shop down the road and as private a place as we're could get. Plan is to redirect Nix to the actual meet site as soon as he gets there.

Load the stuff for Spider, my thermos, and my AK into my gym bag, and hop out. AK in the bag, pistol in the waistline, sting in my boot; should be alright. Sit and wait, looking as much as I can like a dude who's reading the newspaper in AR. Which I'm actually doing. The new attention thingy in my head makes this all much easier.

[ Spoiler ]

Looking around: Intuition 5 + Perception 4 + Visual 2 + Enhancement 3 + Attention Coprocessor 3 = 17 dice; buy 4 hits
Listening: Intuition 5 + Perception 4 + Enhancement 3 + Attention Coprocessor 3 = 15 dice [1,2,5,3,2,4,6,6,1,6,3,4,4,1,4] = 4 hits
RF Signal Scanner: Electronic Warfare 1 + Commo 2 + RF Signal Scanner 6 = 9 dice [4,1,4,1,1,1,3,6,5] = 2 hits

[Redjack]

Nix - Two blocks from Finnegan's - Mark Rogers

Nix had made his way from the bike's parking spot on level 3 to the elevator when the SpiderNet™ ARO lit up. Caliph is within PAN range so he's within a kilometer. The encryption program was cycling down to the best encryption that Caliph's com could handle.

<<@Caliph [Nix] I just parked the bike. Swing by and I'll just ride with you.>>

He considered his words. The last time he had ridden with Caliph, it had become a hell and inferno. He subconsciously touched the scar on his face. After all the healing he had received it was still not enough.

As the elevator went down, he took his external com offline then pulled a data-chip from his front pocket and inserted it into the com's chip-slot.

Mark Rogers, a private detective rode down the elevator. His com routed a connection for the internal com for both SpiderNet™ and SpiderChat™.

[rob]

Caliph - near Finnegan's

I see Nix's alert pop into my vision before the truck picks him up, walking around.

When he gets within visual range, I pop a new message to him that shows him where I'm at, hanging around the square caddycorner to Finnegan's. <<@Nix (Caliph) - Let's noodle for a bit, first. Coffee shop over here got a nice seat in the back. Got a present for you.>>

Walk back to the coffee shop, signal for a big cup and pick it up from the counter as I walk towards the seats in the back. Put a nice slug a whiskey in it from the thermos, and wait for Nix to show.

[Redjack]

Nix - Coffee shop near Finnegan's - Mark Rogers

As Caliph comes into view, Nix realizes that its good to see his old friend. He had kept extended personal contact to a minimum since returning to Seattle. Once he had stopped for a coffee in the hospital cafeteria where his ex-wife works only to have picked the absolute worst timing in the world and been escorted out by her current husband. Nix had considered turning the man into goo for a number reasons and only one reasons stopped him; The fact Mark is a cop is not it.

Walking up, Nix is wearing a nice suit. Normally devoid of any jewelry, he now wears a ring on his right hand and he is carrying a nice saddle-pack that appears made to strap down on a motorcycle. "How was your trip?"

[rob]

Caliph - Coffee shop near Finnegan's

Stand to greet Nix, smile, offer him my hand, motion to a seat, take mine. I'm a little underdressed compared to him, but I just come from the road. Jeans, concho belt (works good with the pistol in the waistline), button down shirt, my armored underoos, jacket, hat. Still probably got some crumbs on the shirt, from eatin' while I drive.

"Good. Nice suit you got. Sit a spell, grab some bean juice. Here, check this out. Got a present for ya." Shuffle around in the gym bag for a second, pull out a nice saran-wrapped buffalo steak. "Real buffalo. Got a couple extra for Steve. You should see the ride. She's a humdinger now."

While I'm workin' on the pleasantries, compose the real content. <<@Nix [Caliph] - this meet stinks to high hell, so far. But I ain't had the capability to follow up. Transcript, audio, and link attached <attachment.pkg> Sent me a matrix link, which I want someone else to look through for us. I ain't gotten any new programs, so I don't want to go with my data trail. When I find out who gave him my number, he'll get a talkin'-to.>>

[Redjack]

Nix - Coffee shop near Finnegan's

As Caliph rises, Nix also extends a hand. The pair made a contrast: An elven Amerindian in a suit and an ork Caucasian in street clothes. "Suit. Yeah." Nix replies, now aware of that contrast.

As Caliph hands the buffalo steak over, he accepts it with a smile. "Thanks." The real conversation however is occurring in cyber-space.

<<@Caliph [Nix] So we should plan to nuke the site of the meet. Probably should prepare a little meet and great, should it be a trap. I have a few ideas about that, the trick is to get out of the blast area before the mushroom cloud though.>>

[rob]

Caliph - Coffee shop near Finnegan's

Can't help the blink from moving to my face. Blink. Respond with sip of coffee and general "Yup."

<<@Nix [Caliph] - Um, what you getting at? I didn't bring enough toys to make the meet an open-air event. If you mean having an oh-shit plan, well, yeah.

But, yep, we need to do some sniffin' before we get to this guy. If you got the matrix stuff on hand to do it securely, you can snip on down there. But I wouldn't even recommend that - he mentioned you by name, too. Misspelled your callsign, but still too much info. I'd say we have Spider hook that up. Where is he?>>

[Redjack]

Nix - Coffee shop near Finnegan's

Talking to people is coming hard after having spent the past one a virtual shut-in. "I'm glad to hear you got you're van fixed. That must have taken a considerable amount of your time?"

<<@Caliph [Nix] Actually I was thinking to make contact with a local gang and perhaps fund a diversion. Spider is online. Hmmm.... I see the meet is at 1900.. Wait, is that a purely virtual meet?>>

[rob]

Caliph - Coffee shop near Finnegan's

"Yeah, fixing her up put me in the shop for a spell, but went pretty quick. That ol' boy Jek knows what he's doing. But we got some nice stuff done." Relax, stretch a bit.

<<@Nix [Caliph] - Don't know, haven't cruised down the link. Could be instructions for a real meet, could be a trap, could be whatever. Wasn't going to do it from the road, because they could follow anything that reaches back to that link to its home address, even if they didn't know who it was. That's what I wanted Spider to tell us..>>

[fistandantilus4....]

Nix Can do, I'll be standing by. As always I'll be standing by, although I do have some regulat ship's maitenance to see to. Let me know what you need Number 1.

[Redjack]

<<@Spider [Nix] We were actually looking for you to join the away team, captain. Also, we need you to run down a link, check for details and see if there is a trace enabled.>>

[ Spoiler ]

I'm assuming, Rob did, that the original message contained some info about where the meet is going to occur?

Nix sips from the mocha that the barrista delivers. "I've spent some time in the shop myself. Picked up a new trick or two."

<<@Caliph [Nix] We may have problems getting Spider to beam down, he's not one to leave the safety of his bridge more often than he has to. We may need an independent contractor for on-site matrix work. I'm also thinking we should get a face. You and I need to avoid taking meets in the flesh. I got an idea.>>

<<@Jack Richard {cc:Caliph} [Nix] Jack ole buddy. I'm looking for a face. Our last face went on a walk-about. Actually have a meet today, though it may be high threat. Got anybody on the hook for that type of work?>>

<<@Caliph [Nix] We get this guy to take the meet for us. Do we want him to negotiate the meet for us or count him in? We could use someone to keep you and me lower profile....>>

[fistandantilus4....]

Gumshoe
Alex wakes to a softly beeping message notification on his comm. The message has Argus tags, connected to a short voice message and attached matrix address.

Good Evening Mr. Gumshoe, I am Mr Johnson. I have an interest in acquiring your services . The request for employment would bring you to Europe, in investigation of a missing person. If you have an interest, please rendezvous with me this evening at 1900, your local time.

It wouldn't be the first time Argus had third-party connected a run to him. A little extra cash is always good.

Nix
Depends. On the details. How much are you looking for here? Last time was pretty hairy, although I appreciate the compensation.

[Redjack]

<<@Spider {cc:Caliph} [Nix] There in lies the rub. We have no idea the threat level.. In fact, this may be a trap all in itself. Listen I know you don't like to mix it up in the meat, but that's what we need. I'm open to suggestions..?>>