IC: Distant memories Options

[Mysterio]

Feeling the boom go through him, Codec nervously looks out the side window and is amazed at the sight of the remains of the Lady Jane.
We just need to see that creepy Kiteo guy and there...all done...

[Rakshasa]

Scary, there was no other polite word for it. The journey back to the farm had been harrowing, not because of attack; it was the anticipation of it. But it just didn't materialise. Of the oncoming shipping there had been no sign. No sign of pursuit of any kind.

Ace insisted that the wounded Bluebird was better off with him as he dropped the rest of the Team within walking distance of the highway. The five mile hike back to the farm had been, literally, like a walk in the park. What the odd driver must have thought, seeing dark clad, armed and armoured figures traversing the road in the early dawn light, the Team neither knew nor cared. All they had in mind was to get inside the house and crash for a good eight hours well deserved sleep.

Somewhere out in the harbour a klaxon sounded, fog was rolling inshore as a watery sun tried in vain to warm the land below. The sound penetrated the Sorceress's dreams, dispelling the pack and it's leading dog fox. She got up and padded into the warm kitchen, feeling the coffee pot on the stove and shaking it. Nothing but sodden grounds and a slight slosh of burnt coffee. She refilled the pot and set it to stew, clattering mugs. Taking rolls she had stashed in the small fridge, she placed them on a baking tray and put them into the range oven, stoking the fire. By the time the coffee was ready the heady breakfast smell of fresh baked bread had seeped into the very pores of the old farmhouse.

"Do I smell breakfast?" Flip appeared, rubbing sleep from his eyes. Seeoh looked at him then out of the window at the sun at its zenith.

"If you call half past noon breakfast time, then yes. Park your butt and I'll pour." Hot rich coffee hit the Orc's mug, the aroma filling the small room. Hot rolls and a dish of butter arrived as he took his first sip of the steaming brew.

"You certainly know how to take care of a man, Seeoh and no mistake." Flip broke a roll apart and liberally smeared it with butter, watching it melt.

"I have to, you and the rest are no use to me if you're grumbling about empty bellies in the middle of a fire fight." But she grinned at her friend anyway.

Flip chuckled through grease spattered lips. "Now, to business. Don't I recollect you having a friend in the `goods shifting' business?"

"Pret Barbarosa. Yeah, he's a fence I use sometimes." The Irishwoman split a roll buttered it. "But I wouldn't trust him further than I could throw him, and he weighs 300 pounds if he's an ounce." She started eating.

"That bike of yours carry two?" Flip drained his coffee and reached for the pot.

"Just about, if you're thinking of being my rear seat cover."

"In that case, I'll carry the bag and we'll go see if we can't get eighty on the nuyen for what's in it."

Leaving the rest of the runners, just rising to the smells of fresh coffee and rolls, with the briefest of explanations, Seeoh and Flip headed into the city, and Pret Barbarosa.

[Silverspur_2020]

Pret as usual... was sat on his old worn bar stool by the bar, cigar in mouth as he watched the combat bikers on tv and muttered about how the whole thing is all a big fix!

Looking up as the big Orks frame filled the doorway as the slight sourceress led the way in to see him, maybe he could make enough money out of these chumps to cover his losses?!

As Flip looked around the bar... he realised it was so stereotypical for this area that it was almost funny! old west style swing doors into the building with a large bar running the length of the room, bottles and kegs behind it with the tender polishing glasses and chatting to his patrons. Booths were all around the edge of the room with plenty of shade and shadey charecters to enjoy it. Looked like a real fun joint to be in on a Friday night!! Flip would bet his bottem yen that the barman had a pump action behind the bar....

[Silverspur_2020]

After a couple of hours sleep, Codec woke up and scatched his temple datajack thoughtfully.... It had been to long since he had been in the net so decided to relax there for a bit.

Spending what feels like days (but what is really just minutes) he has visited some of his favourite pleasure nodes and caught up on local net events... but something keeps bugging him, Ace seems like a good guy... if mega paranoid... So who were those people?! what did they want with them? and for codec one of the most strange questions of all... would they come back for his friend again? Sitting in a cyber park watching a fountain he contemplates.

Wordlessly, he stands up, and heads for the local coucils node.... without even breaking his stride as he nears the office he activates his cloaking program and walks in, defence programs at the ready he simply jumps the security barrier and heads on in....

CCTV. A wonderful thing in this day and age, everyone has it and everybody is watching everybody else. The council along with Lonestar have access to the major CCTV nets in the city... so somebody must have seen something.



And so begins his search.

[Rakshasa]

The bat wing doors clattered to and fro behind the Witch and her cohort as she headed for the fat, sweating shape that she knew was Pret Barbarosa.

"Hi Rosa, long time no see." Seeoh perched herself, uninvited, on a stool at the bar next to Barbarosa. "You still in the market?" She leant toward him, looking innocently directly into his eyes.

The fence glanced around him, nodding to a couple of heavy weights along the long bar before turning to smile at the Irishwoman. "Could be. 'Pends on whatcha got. And this ain't no place to set out your stall." He thumbed over his shoulder. "Come in the back." Barbarosa heaved his bulk off of his reinforced bar stool and waddled away to open the door to his office. He turned as he entered and glanced at the disparate pair, beckoning them to follow.

This wasn't going to be as easy as usual with the Witch after all. This time she'd brought her own muscle, and the boy looked pretty handy. Still, no matter, the fence smiled inwardly as he watched the two walk past him into the office - and his two heavies following close behind.

[Mysterio]

Codec quietly begins to look through the index of city sections on the grid. Here it is, this is the area we were in the other night. He begins to play the tape of the garage where all the action took place. Watching the time index on the bottom right hand corner of the screen he notcies that it is getting closer to the time that the action should have roughly started with Ace's arrival.
Suddenly the tape give a brief blip...
What the frag??? Codec rewinds the tape and watches it again...same blip...and after that there is nobody on the tape, no action...nothing. Just the same garage area, as if nothing ever happened. Checking the time index he notices that there is a good 3 hour gap from before the video blip to the point afterwards
It's as if someone erased a part of the video..but who? and how? And where is any of the blood or blood stains from that night?

[GunnerJ]

Alone with Bluebird, Ace had the chance to get some of the answers he needed. He hovered the Osprey a discreet distance from the coast and waited until she woke up. What an odd woman, he thought, you wouldn't know that she was mostly metal and ceramic beneeth the skin just from looking at her.

Bluebird. A bird of happiness. True blue, the color of loyalty. Right?

When she awoke it took her less than a second to register the rest of the team's absence and the Osprey's remote location. Her pistol sprang to hand and pointed at Ace.

He held his hands up in mock submission, like a kindly old uncle being confronted by his niece's Nerf Predator toy gun. "I surrender, don't shoot!" He smiled. "Or do, if you feel confident flying this hulk to shore. I have a hard time with it myself."

Warily, she lowered the weapon. "So," she said.

"So. It's not that I want to be threatening, but there are a few things puzzling me. Here's a few basics. How'd you meet Kiteo? How long ago? And what do you know about his work: just Yak bulldrek, or does he have any other business?"

[Silverspur_2020]

obviously annoyed that for once she didnt have the upper hand, she answered the questions as truthfully as she could, knowing that this guy was ultimately on her side anyway....

"I worked for him for about a year, I met him while dating one of his bodyguards. He learnt that I was a hitwomen, so he put a few contracts my way. Mainly people from other Yak fractions and Mafia, but a couple were his own men, faked to look like hits from the other side. He was impressed with my work and was obviously a man with serious ambition! He has his fingers in all the pies, including some he shouldnt do! Why do you wanna know flyboy?!"

And with that sarcastic question she reminds herself that he is a team mate, and his interests are probabley for the right reasons.

[Silverspur_2020]

The witch and the adept walk casually into the back room, looking around the roomt they quickly realise this is the "bussiness" room with no windows, and the only other entrance blocked up. Sitting down, Seeoh watches the sweaty excuse for a man ease himself down into his chair, staying stood up Flip watches the two thugs follow them in... eyeing them up for size and weight, just in the event of a quick exit.

[Rakshasa]

Turning a convenient hard-backed wooden chair around, Seeoh sat, legs akimbo, facing the fence and nodded to the Orc. With a casual swing, Flip hefted the rucksack onto Barbarosa's desk.

"A small sample of a big score we just made. Give me a good price and perhaps we can do business on the rest." Seeoh reached into the gunny and pulled out a few samples. Several half- kilo clear plastic cartons of blue dust, a dozen blister packs and a handful of multi-coloured capsules spread across the stained desktop.

Beady eyes glittered with avarice as the fence poked the assorted wares with a podgy finger.

[Silverspur_2020]

"That depends on just how much you have....but if this is a good sample and it all tests pure, I would say 15K a kilo" he says trying to keep a poker face as he delivers the offer.

[Rakshasa]

Seeoh picked up a clear pack of blue dust and opened it. "A grain of this splits down to a dozen shots. A shot's worth five nuyen on any street in this or any city in the country. Even allowing for the cutting, packaging and distribution, I'd say that was a four and a half profit per."

The Sorceress closed the carton. "This box alone would make up nearly two hundred thousand shots. That's a cool mill on the street. Now, my math ain't so great, but even I can fathom that this single carton's worth 50K before the first cut." She emptied the rucksack, piling six cartons together and stacking the blister packs in sets of ten. "There's six cartons."

Seeoh drummed a finger on the top one. "A carton weighs around a half kilo." Picking up a carton and waving it at Rosa's pockmarked nose. "According to you, what I have here is worth 7500¥. Which is a difference of 42,500¥." Seeoh looked at Flip and raised an eyebrow as she smiled, turning her face back to the fence with the smile still in place. "40K on a carton. 10K for all the capsules and I'll throw in the Sildenafil. You look as though you and your boys could use it."

The growl from the heavy with the hooked nose the Witch took to mean he, at least, had need of a helping hand; or more precisely, a pill. Whadya say, Rosa? 'Member, we've got plenty more stashed away. Give me a good price now and, maybe, I'll cut you a better one next time around."

[Mysterio]

Codec wasn't excatly sure what to do at this point. he knew that if he didn't say anything to Ace, then whoever is up to this could frag Ace...or worse. But he knew that if he showed Ace the altered video...well stuff like checking out these sort of things don't sit too well with the paranoid

[Mysterio]

Finally figuring it'd be better to just tell the guy what he had, codec downloaded the video archive of that event onto his deck. Jacking out, he walked slowly into the kitchen area. No one to be found.
"uh..hello?...Anyone...?"

[Silverspur_2020]

"you gotta be kidding me babe! if you have this amount of this quality... you must have got it from somewhere, which means its hot any way you look at it. That also means that somebodies gonna be looking for it. I will give you 10K a carton, no more, no less."


Hearing a groan from the lounge, Codec finally finds Bluebird laying on the sofa watching tv... looking strangely feminine and prone...."Whats up?"

[Mysterio]

Codec was caught off guard at the sight of Bluebird. He didn't know that she could ever look...vulnerable. She was easily one of the toughest people he had ever encountered, but now, just lying on the couch...Though she still made him feel uneasy around her.
"Uh...um..Ace...uh...is...is..is he around?" All the time not making eyecontact with her.

[GunnerJ]

"Why do you wanna know flyboy?!"

Ace nods his head understandingly. "Obviously it would be unfair for me to do all the asking and none of the telling, but right now, I'd prefer to refrain from saying. I will tell you, though, that your perspective on Kiteo may be subject to change. Especially in light of this information about hits being put out on his own men. I'm thinking that if it happened once, it might happen again.

"Now, about these pies, would one of them happen to be a big, warm apple pie? The UCAS government or military?"

[Silverspur_2020]

"How the frag should I know?! Guys like this dont exactly advertise what they do! I just turned up, go the brief and did the hit! - He probably had people in the UCAS goverment, but then again how many MP's do you know that can't be bought?!"

Obviously seriously peeved now, Bluebird makes a mental note to return this favour sometime!

[Rakshasa]

The Orc stepped forward and leant on Barbarosa's desk. "See here chummer. A minute ago there was 15K per on the table. Now you're offering ten?" He gave a sideways look at the witch. "This piece of drek is a bigger crook than you are." He lifted his mass back upright. "Come on, I'll get us a better deal uptown." Flip started to refill the rucksack.

Seeoh smiled at the Orc. "He's offering ten per carton, not per kilo. Right Rosa?" She looked at the fence who nodded. "They're half kilo cartons. Means we make 60K instead of 30." She shrugged her shoulders and smiled at Rosa. "You don't have to worry about heat. No one's gonna be looking for this stuff. To be honest with you, there isn't any more. The rest is at the bottom of the harbour, six miles out. This is all we could get before it all went to Davy Jones. So how about a round figure of 80K for the lot? We've got expenses too you know."

[Mysterio]

Codec lifted his head off of the floor and looked around. he was still a little groggy from being asleep after he jacked out.
What a weird dream....Bluebird on the couch?
Not really caring to discuss this with anyone he decided it might just be better off to go back and have a quick look in the Matrix, see if anyone had heard anything of the little confrontation.

[Silverspur_2020]

Barbarosa looks at the two in front of him...thinking that if this in deed the case then maybe he can buy this off of them, and find some way of getting the rest thats at the bottom of the harbour. "Ok girl, you got a deal... I will give you 80K, but im telling you now that if any heavies come asking, for that price im gonna point them straight in your direction! unless of course you want to accept a lower price and have me forget where I got it all from?!"

[Rakshasa]

The offer seemed pretty fair to the Sorceress, from several points of view. However, she wasn't in this alone. "Whadya think Flip?"

"I think that dropping 5K would addle his grey matter quite well. I also think that we should offer the precise co-ordinates of where the Ship went down for, say, 5K". The big Orc knew that Codec would have the location in his deck from when he was trying to steer the Ship. He gave Seeoh the most innocent look he could muster. "It's worth it for the head start, cos you know the original owners will be out looking as well."

"Seems reasonable. And the harbour is a big stretch of water, particularly when you get six miles out." She grinned at the fence. "How about it Rosa? 80K and we give you exact co-ordinates in exchange for your complete forgetfulness."

[GunnerJ]

"I gotta say, I'm surprised at how on the level you're being about all this. Well... yeah. He wouldn't tell you everything he was involved in. But I have reason to belive he is involved in something we don't want any part in."

Ace told her about how he left the UCAS Air Force, about the conversations he remembers Treesong having about getting work with an Asian fixer, and how Treesong was in the goon squad that ambushed him.

"And, about that, well, thanks for showing up." Now I feel pretty dumb. She was pretty reasonable. Dragging her ass out here and making stupid threats... Jesus.

Without saying anything he sets an autopilot course for the farm, passively listening for a response. He was glad he did not mention the weird jet he saw in his "visions," though.

[Silverspur_2020]

*Well I THOUGHT we were working as a team, so I have no reason to hold much back... besides, its not like I have given you valuable information! there is every possiblity that he has contacts doing that for him. And I certainly wouldnt put it past him" With that Bluebird sits back and doesnt know weather or not she is annoyed, because what he said seems quite a reasonable thing.

[Mysterio]

Floating through the Matrix, Codec decided to head back to where he saw the video.
I need to find out who wiped out some of this video feed
He brought up the video file once again, and rewatched it. Same as before.
On a gut feeling, Codec wandered from the video department to personnel. It was a locked door. Smiling, Codec fished out a virtual hairpin and began to pick the lock...