IC: Down in the Puyallups with Team #3, Kilroy's latest venture, this time its corporate Options

[Thanee]

Tuesday March 18, 2070; 13:22:06; Puyallup City, Puyallup District
Jazz

As soon as her scanner has changed hands, Jazz drives away from the van.

< [Jazz] For now, just scan the thing, maybe something is attached. If necessary, yeah, I guess it has to be opened then. Jake? >

[kvasac]

Tuesday March 18, 2070; 13:22:06; Puyallup City, Puyallup District

<@Team [Jake]:Agreed. In the meantime, lets give them some chase..> Jake moves away the van from the current location and away from the pursuers, if possible, en route to delivery point.

[Redjack]

Tuesday March 18, 2070; 13:22:30; Puyallup City, Puyallup District

Jazz puts the bike in gear and quickly dispenses with the block between her location and Jake's van. Once there, she passes the scanner off to Anon's waiting hands, then both her bike and the van accelerate out of the parking lot; Not a moment too soon as a pair of Lone Star cruisers appear in Jake's rear view.

Jazz watches as Jake heads south through Puyallup City, racing for the 512-hwy with two cruisers in hot pursuit. At this point, she knows the two cruisers are too close for the van to ditch them. A block to the west she parks in the lot of a stuffer shack and races in to the bathroom.

Jake, knowing that a meet location has not yet been established, heads south for 512-hwy to get out of the city streets. He quickly comes to the realization that one bad move - or one bad piece of luck and this ride comes to a horrid end. To make things worse, as he looks in the rear view at Anon, the mage is holding the scanner sideways trying to figure out how to operate it. "I'm really not sure what in the hell to do with this."

[Thanee]

Tuesday March 18, 2070; 13:22:40; Bathroom of the Stuffer Shack, Puyallup City, Puyallup District
Jazz

Not the best location, but there was little choice at the moment, and at least she was out of sight for the moment, and had a few minutes at least before someone would start to wonder. Jazz makes sure, that her commlink's microphone is turned on, so she can hear, if anything is going on inside, as she sits down and connects to VR. She doesn't bother to take off her helmet, she would have to take it back on, anyways, and who knows whether the Shack had cameras.

< [Jazz] Anon, have you found anything? Jake, I'm sure you have seen the two cruisers by now. Unless your ride is faster than it looks, it will be tough to outrace those... maybe Anon can do something, hopefully they do not have magic backup yet. Will work on the signal for now, while figuring out how I could possibly help you with those. Disconnecting for a moment, be right back. >

After spoofing her comm's ID once more and rerouting her signal a few times, Jazz connects to one of the team's commlinks to get a local scanner to be able to look for the package's signal.

[Redjack]

Tuesday March 18, 2070; 13:22:42; Puyallup City, Puyallup District

Anon smacks his forehead.
<<@Team [Anon] I have no idea how to use this thing.>>

Jazz finds that Anon uses a disposable comlink; No loading software there. Jake on the other hand uses a total custom job. Highly upgraded.

[Redjack]

Tuesday March 18, 2070; 13:22:45; Puyallup City, Puyallup District

Jazz loads up her software into Jake's com and quickly locates the homing beacon. She recons their is probably a boosted RFID tag in the case somewhere.

[kvasac]

Tuesday March 18, 2070; 13:22:45; Puyallup City, Puyallup District

<<@Jazz[Jake]: What have you got for me? Now, I think I could have helped some but that would impair my driving.>>
Jake also looks for any nearby tunnels that can help him in loosing pursuit.

[Thanee]

Tuesday March 18, 2070; 13:22:45; Bathroom of the Stuffer Shack, Puyallup City, Puyallup District
Jazz

< [Jazz] Well, not much, I'm afraid. The signal isn't matrix-based, so we can only disable the sender, since there is no jammer available. Anon, please take the scanner I gave you. I will tell you what to do with it. Do exactly what I say and nothing else. >

Jazz then continues to give Anon instructions on what buttons to press and where to move the scanner to, utilizing the commlink camera to get a view into the van, so she can give him clearer instructions.

[Redjack]

Tuesday March 18, 2070; 13:23:33; Puyallup City, Puyallup District

Hell in a hand basket fits. Not even a minute has passed, but it seems like weeks as Jazz walks Anon through using her scanner. He is not technically inclined so the endeavor is mildly painful, but not impossible.

The closest to a tunnel Jake can find is the highway underpass, which he reaches in short order. For the moment, this forces the two cruisers in line behind him, but only for the moment.

----------------

For Spades, 12 minutes passed. Twelve long minutes. Across Auburn, touching the edge of Tacoma before dropping into the Puyallups. Through a dozen side streets before finally loosing his pursuer in a jumble of a local bike gang. Granted, he wiped a few of them out and one of the bikes got stuck under the cruiser. He'd need to steer clear of that area of town since he wasn't really familiar with who they are or who they are connected to, but it did solve the immediate problem of the cruiser chasing him.

TeamNet was down; No doubt Jazz had changed everyone's SID's and spoofed their access codes. Of course, simple call to Jazz and she could easily reconnect him to TeamNet; Even better, she could change his settings first.

[kvasac]

Tuesday March 18, 2070; 13:23:33; Puyallup City, Puyallup District

Jake will try to outmanouver the cruisers in the tunnel by moving between other vehicles, creating as much obstacles between the pursuers and himself as possible.

[SoyKaf Adict]

Tuesday March 18, 2070; 13:23:46; Puyallups
Spades

It had been a few seconds before he had come to think the entire idea through, after all adrenaline makes for poor planning serum. He calmed himself down before he patched in a link to Jazz through his comm'.

Here's to hoping that she can still pull up the old signal through the muck she must be going through.

The connection rang on his side for a couple of seconds, his stress was mounting, especially considering his being cutoff from the group. He may have evaded his pursuers, but he had no idea what to tell the Johnson, not even if his teammates had survived the ordeal. He really needed a fix, something keep him pepped up. A phantom surge of nostalgic muscle-memory passed through his skin, it had been a while since he used Cram, but it reminded him of its benefits. He'd have to make contact with a dealer somewhere eventually, Spades remembered somewhat that he had a small portion of his stash left from before Kilroy first contacted him.

He was jaggin' just a little bit, but knew he couldn't think about it now.

C'mon Jazz, be there.

[Redjack]

Tuesday March 18, 2070; 13:23:46; Puyallup City, Puyallup District

For Spades the seconds waiting for an answer to his com seems like a week and a half. At this point he is headed back east on hwy-512. Traffic is light at this time of the day, most of the wage-slaves holed away in in their cubicles or working away at their jobs to support their meaningless lives. The few vehicles are the highway now are delivery vehicles or the various people who either work other shifts or are without work.

=============

Jake exits the far side of the underpass, looping into the cloverleaf onto the highway, seeking some vantage over the Lone Star cruisers in pursuit.

Anon seems to have the located the location of the bug within the package.

[kvasac]

Tuesday March 18, 2070; 13:23:46; Puyallup City, Puyallup District

"anon, do you have the bug?"

[Redjack]

Tuesday March 18, 2070; 13:23:52; Puyallup City, Puyallup District

"Well, I located where it is inside. I'm not sure how to get at it without tearing up the packaging."

[Thanee]

Tuesday March 18, 2070; 13:24:00; Bathroom of the Stuffer Shack, Puyallup City, Puyallup District
Jazz

< [Jazz] Alright. This looks good. It seems to be fairly far to the outside, probably just inside the wrapping. Do you have a knife or something similar? Then cut the packaging where the bug is, and get it out, or cut right into it to destroy it, best from a steep angle, getting the blade between the bug and the actual package would be good. Just be sure to leave whatever the package is intact. And remember, it's not quite xmas yet. We are not supposed to open this. >

At this point Jazz realizes, she has an incoming call.

What do we have here... Spades?

< @Spades [Jazz] Hello? What's up? >

[kvasac]

Tuesday March 18, 2070; 13:23:52; Puyallup City, Puyallup District

"Do you think we have a choice at the moment?"

[SoyKaf Adict]

Tuesday March 18, 2070; 13:24:37; Puyallups
Spades

He exhaled a lungful of tension, letting the air almost whistle past his lips.

<@Jazz [Spades] Phew. Thought you might have met Dunkelzahn for a minute there. My TeamNet isn't registering with the group, and I'm nowhere near you. Could you fix it-- pretty please? Oh, and how's the baby?>

He kept his gaze occasionally on his rear view as he spoke to her, weaving his way through the mild traffic. The innuendo shouldn't be lost on her, at this point he was being cautious for caution's sake.

Just because I lost my first tail doesn't mean there couldn't be another, in the real world or VR.

[Thanee]

Tuesday March 18, 2070; 13:24:40; Bathroom of the Stuffer Shack, Puyallup City, Puyallup District
Jazz

< @Spades [Jazz] Well, things are not running well at all. We got it, but it has been rough, and the van is in hot pursuit as we speak. Hopefully we can get the signal that is emerging from the package dealt with now, so there is at least a chance to shake them off. I will hook you up and send you the GPS data. If you see anything you can do to help, go ahead. >

Spades then receives an incoming data package, updating his comm with the relevant information.

Then Jazz focuses back on helping Anon do what he must do.

[Redjack]

Tuesday March 18, 2070; 13:25:15; Puyallup City, Puyallup District

Anon pulls out a little pocket-knife, a very little pocket-knife, then proceeds to saw away at the package; Small and dull.

Jake accelerates the van through the clover-leaf, having run the complete gauntlet and facing south yet again. The near-carnage of cars swerving to not get ran over by the van actually serves to keep the cruisers at bay. As he truly exits the clover-leaf, Jake accelerates due south, heading deep into the Barrens. Less than a dozen blocks in the patrol cars cease pursuit as a moderate size go-gang join the fray. Easily a dozen bikes around and behind the van, one of the riders signal Jake to turn left onto a side street.

Spades gets updated TeamNet information and picks up not only GPS data, but video feeds as well.

[kvasac]

Tuesday March 18, 2070; 13:25:15; Puyallup City, Puyallup District

Jake follows the instructions for now, but runs a quick check on the status of his drones getting ready to deploy them at maximum firepower if it is needed.

[Redjack]

Tuesday March 18, 2070; 13:26:45; Puyallup City, Puyallup District

Several more blocks and one of the bikers signal the van to stop. A quick count adds up thirteen bikes; Mostly human riders, but there are two orks and a troll. One human, who appears the be the leader (of this rabble anyway), parks his bike, dismounts and walks towards the van.

[Redjack]

Tuesday March 18, 2070; 13:27:09; Puyallup City, Puyallup District

Spades passes the retreating cruisers as he advances on the team's position. At this point he is just over four city blocks away; Two south and two west.

For Jake the leader reaches the driver window and raps on it with his knuckles, signaling Jake to open it.

[SoyKaf Adict]

Tuesday March 18, 2070; 13:29:38; Puyallup City, Puyallup District
Spades

Spades made sure not to eyeball the cruiser on his way back through the maze of city streets. His car was one of many, but it didn't shift colors or block radar. He was just an average Joe, but one that could be tracked. It was a somewhat stressful test, but it would have been obvious if they'd tagged his car. The situation didn't help his nerves, but he knew he was close. When he came to a stop at a traffic signal, he pulled up his commlink AR through his glasses, keeping the opacity to a minimum as a layered map popped up in from of him.

He had turned his GPS to 'sending only' straight to his PAN, made it easier to follow the directions especially when he coupled it with TeamNet's allocator. He wished he would have brought some AR gloves with, the convenience wouldn't have gone amiss. Spades was still trying to configure it as the light turned green, he was more than happy to keep on the move, though... Especially considering the area. As luck would have it, he wasn't too far away from their impromptu rendezvous spot.

Wait... They had people on their tails last they spoke, and they were stopped. Perhaps they were caught? I need to scope this out before I figure out if I need to play hero, or investigator, depending on the situation.

Three turns left.

[kvasac]

Tuesday March 18, 2070; 13:27:09; Puyallup City, Puyallup District

Jake is hesitant to open the window. After all, there are lots of germs outside.

<<@Jazz[Jake]:Jazz, can you check out who these guys are? They want me to open my window and I don't want needles germs or hand grenades inside the van.>>

[Thanee]

Tuesday March 18, 2070; 13:27:10; Bathroom of the Stuffer Shack, Puyallup City, Puyallup District
Jazz

< [Jazz] Err, sure, lemme check your video feed... one sec. >

Jazz then looks for identifying marks on those guys, and checks the Matrix for some info on them, also looking for general info on the local area.