The Found Arcana - Chapter 7 [IC] Options

[Beta]

Brent's persona and Peshtigo came close for long moments before Brent responded to AM's message. <<I didn't understand what Peshtigo was saying at first, that he brought someone. How did you get here?>> The message was a bit jumpy, but AM isn't sure if that is due to the very thin matrix thread that she is supporting herself on, or if Brent is loopy from drugs. <What's that about an animal? I don't understand>>

[ Spoiler ]

total noise rating is 8 (5 for going through a satellite link, three more for the almost total lack of matrix devices to work with).

[Gilga]

AM responds "Keep an open mind, try not to eat or drink, we are coming for you soon.". but the line is so bad, that little go through. It is better to talk to him through Peshtigo. She concludes, and get back switching to AR, and heading back.

[Jack_Spade]

Bobby entered the coordinates on his own device and nodded. "I can find that. You two get the car. I'll fly ahead and scout out the place - and if necessary I'll remove Brent from the situation. We don't know how long it will take for them to notice they were compromised, so speed is of the essence. Bring my bag too. You can send trouble with me on the astral, can you? Also a little speedboost would be quite nice. Supersonic Otherwise I won't be able to contact you.
Damn, where is Jawsey when you need him.
Oh and open the door for me."
Dropping the mental connection, Bobby went to the bathroom, removed his jacket and shirt and concentrated on his transformation into a barn owl.

[ Spoiler ]

I'm using eagle base stats:
Shapechange F6: 15d6t5 3
I'm dropping a point of edge for some more stat love
Edge Reroll: 12d6t5 4
Body 5 Agility 9 Reaction 7 Strength 2
Translates to a fast movement speed of 9x7=63 m/round or 31 m/s or 112 km/h
A bit of love from Trouble with Movement can bring that up to 672 km/h

[Tecumseh]

"We have a lead," Mato announces to the teenagers as he stands. "We'll be in touch."

He walks back to the car with AM and Bobby, striding purposefully.

"Are you sure you want to fly on ahead?" he asks Bobby. "If they have a magician then they'll probably have spirit cover. A spirit will see right through your transformation, and it's going to be double suspicious if you show up with Trouble. That could trip the alarm too."

He motions to himself and AM.

"We can't follow as quickly. We'll either need to get visas to cross the border - and who knows if they're available this late on a Friday - or we'll need to smuggle ourselves across the border. Either way takes some time."

Mato debates whether he wants to go home and change first so that he's not stomping through the woods in his suit. Although, he does admit, the Chasseur Field Uniform was designed for outdoor conditions like these. Plus the long coat is super-insulated and plenty warm, which would be welcome in the snowy mountains. He turns to AM.

"I'm fine with what I'm wearing and what I have with me, but do you need to go home to change? You can use the Walther if you want a sidearm."

[Jack_Spade]

"Positive. I can deal with spirits - especially if I notice them before they notice me. There are lots of awakened critters out there and even a spirit will have to focus on me to spot and identify me. But I don't trust Brent to play it cool. If the kidnappers realize he had contact with someone, they'll either kill him and cut their losses, or they'll relocate. We don't have any time to waste. I can hide out with the boy until you can come and get us, but I can't raise him from the dead."

Bobby replied.

[Tecumseh]

Mato shrugs. He doesn't really understand the limits of Bobby's capabilities. He half-expected Bobby to fly there, drug Brent himself, transform the boy into a hamster, then fly back to Seattle with Hamster-Brent clutched in his talons.

Would the hamster freeze to death while flying at supersonic speeds? Would Bobby? How can you even breathe at those velocities? Wouldn't the windspeeds really screw up your eyes? There's so much Mato doesn't really grasp about magic.

[Gilga]

"Show is over hacker club. Thanks for your distraction." she says and grins, her cheeks and long ears are blushed from the excitement, this is the most fun she had in years, and she is a bit more manic than she would allow herself to normal be. Her smile is genuine happiness and not a subtle attempt to get a friendlier response.

She feels secure enough to speak business only once she seats behind the wheel.I am kind of terrified of border guards, or anyone with a SIN scanner. I feel like I commit some felony simply by existing. No matter the quality of the visa itself, they would scan my SIN - and it is a fake SIN so they mind discovering it is fake. Without any civil rights, and no country or cooperation backing me up, I am not sure if I'll even end up in prison or they'll just murder me to cut down on costs.

Visa is also very bad for us because I do not have a gun permit - and the deck is so illegal that the Mafia does not even make permits for cyberdecks. If they find the deck they'll arrest us. So Visa is of little use except to bring clothes, and in that case, we can perhaps just levitate the equipment across the border once Bobby transfers us to the other side.


The more I think of it, only professional smuggling or rouge magic to cross the border with illegal equipment. Visa is just not good enough considering we have Bobby. It let us bring protective clothes but not much more than that.

I can come up with some idea of how to cross the border with my magic but I am not sure how dangerous it is. I was not capable of such feats before I had Trouble, so I never had the temptation to pull out a Bobby and go places.


AM responds "... We can fly too - although slower than Bobby. We can go to the mountains, make the car invisible and levitate it across the border - or if Iktomi is not willing to let me lift the whole car then we can just take its back seat and levitate that across the border. You know like witches with broomsticks only with seat belts so we do not fall down. [
Perhaps less risky is to place our equipment bundled together in a place I have line of sight to, and levitate that across the border if we're caught they only take the equipment.
She comments and then explains Now levitation is slow but with Trouble's help -we can move like five times faster which makes us like 20 miles per hour, faster if I push myself and risk a minor injury. We'll need to see if it makes sense given the topography of the border.

Once we are on the other side, if we do not have a car, then we have you and you are as fast as a car. You can piggyback me or something. Uncomfortable, but we won't be behind Bobby by a lot - and if he has problems we will be around to help him.

She then looks at him skeptically "I'll need a gun even if I am not dressed up for the woods... but you actually brought a gun to Bellevue? I would not have dared to leave Redmond with a gun. I don't mind going directly if this is the case."

She allows the autopilot to load and makes some preliminary searches about the coordinates she discovered as they speak. Sometimes making a small hand gesture to move some icon in AR.

[Jack_Spade]

"That sounds pretty risky. All things considered you'd be better off asking some of your contacts if they can help you out. There a loads of Coyotes out there for just that service.
But I'm confident you can sort this out."
Bobby replied looking around for Trouble and their movement magic.

[Gilga]

okay, we'll keep the broomsticks for Halloween, but the two of you can cross the border legally as Sioux citizens, and you can bring the car. So the problem is limited to bringing the deck and myself across the borders. Considering you have licenses for the guns.

[Beta]

As the team returns to their car, Seraphina contacts them <<Peshtigo didn't come back again, we had him going back and forth, trying to explain to Brent what is going on, and after a couple more trips he didn't come back. MaxWell was tracking time, and says that the duration between first seeing Peshtigo and Peshtigo not coming back was about the same the first time we got contact and this time. MaxWell was quick to point out 'two data points are not a pattern' but I think it sounds like maybe there is a fixed window every few hours where we can get matrix contact>>

Some quick searching confirms that for Sioux citizens no formal visa is needed to enter Salish-Sidhe lands. They do have to explain the purpose of their visit and expected duration, and explicitly log in their commlink which they are supposed to keep active at all times ('so that emergency services can notify them of dangerous situations in their vicinity').

Going through the data from AM's earlier searches, they find that the best available satellite photos of the area are fairly crude, not coming from the usual atlas of good quality earth scans, possibly explained by the presence of a Salish-Sidhe military base, or possibly by the Aztechnology compound. The shortage of matrix devices lowered the precision AM's trace; the best AM could tell was that the nearest matrix device was on the edge of the Aztechnology property, probably part of their security along the edge of the property.

There was another possibility, however. The dividing line between those two properties is a river, and upstream a small distance is the "Wild Orc Recreation Ranch." It is an outdoor recreation ranch with a good reputation. A search on it reveals that it runs quite a few activities, such as horseback riding, zip-lining, hiking, and -- more relevant to the case at hand -- white-water rafting.

A quick study of the map reveals that the rafting must be down the river between the military and Aztechnology facilities. There are extensive reviews of the rafting, and there is mention of an island part way down the route where beginner runs pull off the river to rest and re-focus "the only place along the course where the guides allow non-emergency stopping." There is also mention of a building on the island, used to store extra supplies, first-aid gear, picnic gear, and the like. Based on the information, the island seems to be in just about exactly the location that AM found in her trace.

Rafting is closed for the winter, it won't re-open until March -- although there is a review by somebody who did a 'special charter' run in February two years ago, so there may be the occasional exception to that rule. But in general, it would seem that nobody should be stopping by that island at the moment. How the kidnappers would have gotten there is a question, but certainly it would qualify as remote, hard to trace, and hard to access, which might be something they were looking for.

[Tecumseh]

"The Americar has a smuggling compartment," Mato reminds AM. "I'm confident we can get a cyberdeck across, and the Walther too.

"The question is whether you want to go across in the glove compartment or whether you want to fly your broomstick over and get picked up on the other side."

He continues: "I can drive across; I just need a cover story. White water rafting won't do it. Nor will a business trip, not on a Friday evening. A ski trip could work, or snow camping, although it would be best if I had some winter gear to look the part.

"We also need to consider our return strategy. We should expect more scrutiny on the way back into the UCAS. Having a drugged-up Brent is going to look suspicious. Perhaps Bobby can carry him back, but can Bobby transform himself, Brent, and AM simultaneously? He wouldn't want to lose concentration at the wrong time."

[Jack_Spade]

"Maintaining three spells is no trouble. I have a technique to reduce the strain. But we don't have to overdo it.
Remember, we are a legitimate business. We can tell them our destination and that we are taking a look at the area for a client. If they ask why, we can tell them that it's a missing person case and that the last communication came from there. Nothing particularly noteworthy or suspicious about it.
And as I said, I can wait with transforming until we have crossed the border, so I can keep AM on my person and shield her with my aura. I can do likewise on the way back. Also, I can take care of the deck and hide it on me - I'm pretty adapt at hiding and pilfering stuff.
On our return trip we do the same + the boy."
Bobby replied.

[Gilga]

AM says "I like that missing person story because it is true. Easier to tell the truth than to lie, and the best lies are 90% truthful. We'll take the Americar, we may need the smuggling space. I'll let you guys figure it out, I need to refine our coordinates and make some corrections. "



She enters hot simulation and her awareness level of the chat is gone and begins viewing satellite images to try and match the exact location. She identifies the locations of interest, the military base, and the research facility, and then researches about the rafting. Few minutes later, she emerges out and explains her findings to the team, as well as sending their links some maps, and the most detailed image of the island she could find. Which is sadly not very detailed due to the military base nearby.

"All things considered, I think he is on that island. The crossing is no problem for us, the area is sensitive because there is a research facility of Aztecnology and a military base in the vicinity so we'll have to try and not alarm their security as well. All things considered, it is a nice place to hide him. Do we want to check the cameras in Bernt's house? to see how they got him?

[ Spoiler ]

Beta can the deck be u

[Tecumseh]

Mato is uncertain about the strategy of being transparent about their intentions. Yes, they are a legitimate service - and Mato has the tax bill to prove it - but it seems like a strange approach if the whole goal is surprise. The Rangers at the border aren't especially known for being corruptible, but how secure are their systems? Would someone who has taken over a strong Aztechnology host also have a seed planted in the SSC systems, looking for warnings about the site? Or would Aztechnology? To Mato it seems like they would be tipping their hand.

"I still think snow camping might be the better story," Mato says, outlining his reasons. "It doesn't seem like announcing our intentions - approaching an extraterritorial research facility or, worse, an SSC military base - would be prudent.

"Let's not worry about Brent's house. We can worry about that when we do a security consultation for them afterward."

[Jack_Spade]

"Well, we don't have to declare exactly the place with the research sites. We say one half way there and if anyone asks, we reply that that's where the trail led us. Snow camping has the inherent question why we want to go near there - and it sound much more like spying than telling the truth. I'm not a good liar - and those border guards are well trained and use even better empathy soft than you.
Much easier to tell them the direction we are going than the destination.
If you have time to kill during the drive and reception, you can try to extract the records, but let's not spend precious hours for something we will find out shortly anyway once Brent's link comes back up."
Bobby replied to his colleagues questions.

[Gilga]

AM says "Bernt is not the only missing person in the world, and most of our works as SIS are very small. So I don't think it is tipping our hand. You can be scarce with the details saying you came to do PI work, they'll imagine you are trying to get a photograph of some cheating husband on a business trip or something like that. Only tell them it is a missing person case if they further question you. "

[Tecumseh]

"Alright," Mato agrees hesitantly. "Let's go see how far expensive suits and a fancy AR business card can get us."

He considers the Americar. It is, in many ways, the perfect car for private investigators. Reliable, economical, not fast or sexy. If you need to ferry metahumans from point A to point B, a Ford Americar is probably the most straightforward and anonymous way to do so. That's what they want now.

But the interior is nice. When they bought it they paid for high amenities, the better to convey a certain degree of professionalism and success. Hopefully that echoes the effect of the suits.

"Let's get out of Bellevue before we get ready," he suggests. "There are some wilderness areas of Renton - right before the border - where we can get our game faces on."

Mato takes the lead in driving out of Bellevue. It's slower than usual due to Friday evening traffic.

Driving east on Highway 90, the two sides of the road are remarkably different. To the right, pleasant A- and B-rated neighborhoods forming the north end of Renton. Commuter neighborhoods, safe and secure. To the left, E-rated industrial zones forming the south end of Redmond.

"That's Monohan Vehicles over there," Mato says, pointing to a factory on the left. It's illuminated like a prison yard. "The manufacture various electric vehicles for Chrysler-Nissan there. Fortified walls. Raw materials are usually flown into the factory while finished vehicles take the the short trip out of the district in protected convoys." He raises his eyebrows. "Not a good place to be after dark." Which it is now.

Instead, Mato turns off at Highway 18, right before the border. It runs along the border fence and looks like a mountain road, cutting through tall evergreen trees and the foothills of the Cascades. He pulls onto a dirt road, away from the fence, onto a holiday tree farm. Opening the door, chill mountain air fills the Americar.

"Let's load up the smuggling compartment," he says. "Time to pick your form, AM."

[Gilga]

"The embarrassing moment of course" Nervously, but without bitterness, she says "A cat, I'll relate more to Trouble that way" she carefully takes out her clothes and places them neatly in the car. The underclothes are a bit like ripping a mental bandage, perhaps a gender thing, perhaps a body image thing. She does it quickly and places the underclothes on top of her pile. She seats in the front passenger seat hugging her legs. "Praise the Trickster, I am ready" she says, excited, vulnerable, a bit afraid, but mostly cold.

[Jack_Spade]

Bobby didn't wait around to oggle AM - living in the same flat had long ago removed practically any mystery anyway - especially if you, as Bobby liked to do took the form of a chinchilla to chill on the main sofa.
Now it was just a question of glancing at her and the next moment her form rippled and shrunk down to a very tiny cat.
Carefully he picked her up and wrapped her into his hoody that still lay on the backseat.
"Best keep still and silent while we cross"

[Gilga]

AM drowns in a sea of emotions and thoughts when her body is transformed for the very first time. There was an embarrassing moment of trying to stay decent with temperature, nakedness, and tight quarters of the car that limit her movements. Still, perhaps the most embarrassing moment would be to be transformed into a human and find herself crawling on four fully naked. How Bobby is so at peace with his body, she cannot comprehend. The transformation moment is very uncomfortable as if for a brief moment, she is without a form, but she is a tiny kitten in the next moment.

Very strange, visual signals are slightly off, and mainly the perspective is different. She sees very little now the windows are up there, and Bobby is barely recognizable as a complete entity but rather his hand or hoody. When he speaks, deafening would be too much but the voice is much louder than she expected it to be. Perhaps a combination of being small and having better than normal earing. She jumps from surprise stumbling in her unfamiliar body. Then when she tries to answer him, nothing much happens. Her mouth opens, but it refuses to do what her brain orders it. She cannot speak, of course, meowing is possible, but somehow it feels even more embarrassing. Instead, she wiggles her tail, not intentionally she is surprised even to have a tail and can move it. It just feels like something that happens when she is nervous. After the initial failure talking, AM does not try to walk knowing that success is far from guaranteed. She instead snugs her head in the soft fabric, and lets go of her body. Then she makes a mental curse about her keen sense of smell, meaning that she can now smell things that she did not smell before about the fabric. She closes her eyes, waiting for the experience to be over and trying to be as peaceful as she can. Things are too complicated for her to worry about the run at this particular time - her part of the plan is to keep it together in cat form.

[Tecumseh]

Mato likes cats and must suppress his insticts to pet the kitty, as AM might take this the wrong way.

Mato thought that AM would turn into a gerbil or a hamster or something. Something small that could be put in the pocket or the glove compartment. Or a tarantula? That would make sense for Iktomi, wouldn't it?

"What if there's an astral scan?" he asks Bobby. "What if they have a spirit sniff around the car?"

He stows AM's clothes, cyberdeck, and his Walther in the Americar's smuggling compartment.

[Jack_Spade]

"Auras do extend only a certain amount - the spirit would have to move through the car to find her. But that usually only happens if the guards already suspect that you are hiding something. If that happens, I try to draw their attention to me. Don't worry I can appear pretty interesting on the astral. Always remember, we aren't going to lie about anything. We keep it short and sweet. We are both first nation and we have legitimate business. Also, take out the papers from the glovebox, because we'll have to stash AM there once we reach the post. That should mask her aura completely even if an aware is looking into the car."
Bobby answered with confidence. It appeared that he truly wasn't concerned about getting caught for smuggling.

[Beta]

As they approach the border the team receives the expected ARO outlining rules and procedures and where to go -- just to leave the UCAS. Apparently the SINs don't raise any trouble as they are allowed to drive out of the UCAS without being stopped. A whole new set of ARO greet them in no-man's land. Fortunately they are easy enough to obey, so they provide SINs, vehicle identification, and category of trip then move to the assigned waiting slot.

With the light traffic it is only a few minutes before they sitting in a clearing lane, windows down, in the centre of a ring of cameras and who-knows-what-all-other detection gear. In the matter of bureaucracy and law enforcement everywhere the voice starts with the information already provided "Names, nationalities, and purpose of trip?"

Meanwhile AM finds that her nervousness keeps wanting to express itself as a swishing tail and loud purring.

[ Spoiler ]

Etiquette roll for real SIN, Con or etiquette -2d for fake SIN, and a composure test for AM. Hopefully no glitches ...

A

[Tecumseh]

Mato makes sure that his commlink is broadcasting his real SIN. While he's waiting in line, he looks around at the other cars. Many of them are families of corpers in their Rover Model 2072s, Ares Humvees, and Toyota Coasters. Rich folks off for rich folk recreation, liking a weekend of skiing. He's not envious or bitter - Mato grew up in a family like that - but he wonders if posing as corpers might have been better cover.

"Miguel Ángel Torres and Robert Walker," Mato says, feeling slightly strange for saying and hearing the names out loud. "We're Sioux nationals."

He feels smooth and confident. Is it the suit?

"We are licensed private investigators." Mato provides the relevant licenses along with information for SIS. "We're here on business. We expect it to be a short visit, less than 24 hours."

[Tecumseh]

double post