Living in the Shadows: IC, Jan 8th-14th Options

[Scrapheap]

01:00:04 Wednesday, 10 January, 2063 - A Warehouse in the Barrens

Scrapheap pulled the smoke grenade's pin and lightly tossed it behind him, almost in the same motion. He then lunged forward, grabbing a battered Manhunter in each hand. As the smartlink's display flared to life, he grimly turned his attention to the single gunman standing between his little group and the stairway down.

[WinterRat1]

10:19:07 Thursday, 11 January 2063, Metropolitan Park Apartments, 601 S. Washington St., Seattle

Detective Morris leads Lana to a small conference room in the management area of the building, where a human black woman is sitting. She rises as Detective Morris introduces her. "Svetlana Prevlov, this is Detective Tabitha Fox. Please, have a seat."

Lana shakes the other detective's hand before taking a seat as Detective Morris closes the door behind them. Placing a tape recorder on the table, he says, "I want you to know we're only trying to take a statement from you right now. You are free to choose whether to cooperate in our investigation. Do you understand?"

She nods her understanding, and he continues, "We'll be recording your official statements in addition to our written notes unless you specifically request to have something off the record. Before we get to formal statements though, let's just talk about a couple things, ok?" Again she simply nods.

"All right, first where were you and what were you doing last night, say from about 20:00:00 to about 00:00:00?"

[Vegas]

10:21:02 Thursday, 11 January 2063, Metropolitan Park Apartments, 601 S. Washington St., Seattle

Lana couldn’t help but let her eyes move about the sparse furnishings of the conference room after the other detective was introduced and Detective Morris reminded her she was here and answering questions of her own free will, for the time being at least.

She found herself nervously drumming her fingernails against the fake wood conference table and understood why cops pulled this routine of interrogation. The isolation made even innocent people nervous and on edge. When she was directly asked a question where there was an expected response she cleared her throat slightly before speaking. She wanted a glass of water desperately all the sudden.

“Last night I was here at the apartment till around 21:00, working on some school assignments. Then I headed down to meet my boyfriend and his friends down at the Klassy Kat.� She paused for a second, but before either Detective could go down that avenue of questioning she decided almost full disclosure of what was going on would likely be a better way to go.

“My friend from school works there, she asked us to come down and just hang around while she worked last night because of some creep who had been hanging around there as of late. After that we went back to my friend’s place to grab some of her things because she was going to spend the night at my place. We got back to the apartment right in the middle of all the chaos.�

[WinterRat1]

10:21:49 Thursday, 11 January 2063, Metropolitan Park Apartments, 601 S. Washington St., Seattle

The cops look at one another, then Detective Fox asks, "Can you be more specific about what time you arrived back here?"

Before Lana can answer, Detective Morris adds, "And what did you do after you arrived back here and saw all the chaos?"

[Vegas]

10:21:57 Thursday, 11 January 2063, Metropolitan Park Apartments, 601 S. Washington St., Seattle

“Honestly Detectives, I don’t know exactly what time it was when I came home I guess it was before midnight, they pretty much had the fire out and they were tending to the injured and all the residents were milling around outside. I spoke to Mrs. Chernov and after I realized it was my floor, my apartment and it looked really bad… I tried to call my sister, but I couldn’t reach her.. she would have been home most likely and no one had seen her. I could only imagine the worst. After that, I left with my friends, all I wanted to do was get drunk and not think.�

[WinterRat1]

10:22:34 Thursday, 11 January 2063, Metropolitan Park Apartments, 601 S. Washington St., Seattle

The two detectives look at each other, then Detective Fox leans forward and looks into Lana's eyes. "Have you spoken with your sister yet since last night?"

She seems oddly intense.

[WinterRat1]

01:00:04 Wednesday, 10 January, 2063 - A Warehouse in the Barrens

Even as Scrapheap whirled, trying to bring the Manhunters to bear on his opponent, the guy was right on top of him, having closed the distance at superhuman speeds and deftly slicing and dicing with a katana he'd pulled out of nowhere.

Trying to stay calm, knowing Nora was right behind him, Scrapheap bobbed and weaved, punching out with the Manhunters to keep the guy back and almost sneaking a kick in through the guy's defenses. But his opponent was fast, and even more than fast, he was good.

Turning his defense of Scrapheap's kick into an opening, he stepped outside Scrapheap's centerline and whirled, bringing his sword across and slashing John's chest when he raised his arms to keep them from getting chopped off. Feeling the blade cut through his armor, his initial thought was Oh drek, please tell me the armor's going to hold!

Behind him, seeing her uncle cut by the blade, Nora raised her hands to her mouth and screamed.

[Vegas]

10:22:52 Thursday, 11 January 2063, Metropolitan Park Apartments, 601 S. Washington St., Seattle

Lana leans forward slightly on her own as she holds the woman's gaze the best she can.

"Since last night? No Detective, I have not."

[WinterRat1]

06:41:16 Monday, January 8, 2063 - Cruising along Seattle's highways (under the speed limit, of course)

Virgil was silent for a long moment, then he answered, "I think you hit them all Dragon. I also think you've nicely illustrated the root of our problem." The two of them looked at each other and nodded.

"Yeah, there's way too much for us to do together right now. I hate to say this, but I think we need to split up. We'll never be able to tackle all this within the time frames we need to if we don't," Dragon answered.

"OK then. So how do we do it?"

"Let's do it logically. Daedalus is already doing his stuff, so let him cover that. We're all going to need to keep an ear to the ground regarding the Mafia and Yakuza, and keep everyone informed if we find out anything new. I'll work on helping Sybersnake, Roberto, and Tiffany in their respective messes.

You work on finding Julia, and handle the Jedi and Jonah angles. Plus, you can work with your Draco Foundation buddy to try and score us some cash out of all this.

Between the two of us, we should come up with a better idea of where Aztechnology fits into all this, so we'll have to keep each other posted on that as we find out more. How does that sound to you?"

"Makes sense to me. Let's do it. I should probably take Juliette's car back to her before it gets wrecked any worse. Where do you want me to drop you off at?"

"Actually, do you think I could borrow it for a bit longer? I'm going to need to find a new set of wheels, and I still have my shotgun in the trunk. I don't want to have to haul that thing around on a bus."

"Understood. But," Virgil grins at him, "try not to total the car. I'm going to have a hard enough time as is explaining the dents from when the rocket exploded near it."

Dragon grins back. "Right. In the meantime, where do you want me to drop you off?"

"Downtown. I'll spend some time losing any tails we may still have on us before heading back to the safehouse. You can drop the car at my safehouse when you're done, and I'll take it back to the clinic."

"Got it."

[WinterRat1]

07:13:47 Monday, January 8, 2063 - Downtown Seattle

The two of them drove in silence for a while, each man lost in his own thoughts. As they closed in on the downtown shopping area of Seattle, Dragon was the first to speak. "We're getting close. Get ready to hop out."

Virgil smiled inwardly. Despite his businesslike demeanor, he knew his friend was worried for all of them. Although they'd all been in plenty of scrapes before, by any standard this was a pretty big mess they were in this time, and getting out wasn't going to be easy for any of them.

"Right." Preparing to hop out, the shaman added, "Stay safe Dragon, and stay in touch. I'll see you soon."

As the mercenary slowed the car to a stop he looked at his friend and nodded. "You too. Take care of yourself Virgil."

Virgil climbed out of the car and grinned back at Dragon through the open window, "Of course. Just like every other time. May Tyr watch over us both."

Nodding, Dragon tossed his friend a quick salute. "See you on the other side."

Returning the farewell gesture solemnly, Virgil turned and vanished into the gathering morning work commuter crowd.

Dragon watched his friend go for a moment, then carefully pulled back out into traffic. Dialing up a pre-arranged message drop he and Sybersnake had set up, he left her a message.

"Things have gotten significantly out of hand. One thing you should know, I'm currently flying solo. Given what we're up against, I think we could use some backup. I know a guy I think would be valuable to us, but since this is your show I wanted to ask you before bringing him in. Call me back on a secured line and I'll update you on the situation."

[grendel]

07:26:19 Monday, January 8, 2063 - Downtown Seattle

Traffic crawled through the metroplex, metallic segments of an endless millipede undulating through the ribbons of asphalt and concrete woven between the spires of glass and steel. Ordinarily it was camouflage, a thousand anonymous vehicles within which to hide. Or, at worst, an obstacle to be avoided, a labyrinth shifting at a hundred kph. Now, it was an millstone that ground Dragon's thoughts into an formless fine powder. Sybersnake and S-K. Virgil and Julia. The Mafia. The Yakuza. How many variables could he put into this equation? And now, on top of everything, he was flying solo. Not to mention his evaluation for the Company was coming due. Their advance team was due into the metroplex in less than three weeks. And he'd heard troubling rumors that it was going to be half of what was originally planned. Apparently a dozen new contracts had sprung up on the grid between when the OpOrder was signed and when he'd last checked the TO&E. Something was going on, he could feel it like static in the air just before a lightning strike. He changed lanes. His phone hummed. Highlighting the incoming call icon, he clicked the line open.

"Go."

"Got your message. Sorry to hear about the troubles." Sybersnake's voice did nothing to calm the cold, bad feeling at the back of Dragon's neck. Her normal breathy tone was absent, replaced by an undercurrent of ragged exhaustion. For a moment, Dragon felt a little guilty.

Here I am, moaning about all the things going wrong in my life. At least I've still got a base of operations and a plan, options to use. She's been kicked out of anything resembling normal, set loose on the streets with an unusuable deck and the forces of S-K after her.

"Not your responsibility. Anyway, I've got reinforcements I can call in. Have you recovered anything on your end?"

"A little. I've been doing some offline diagnostics and it looks like most of my deck is clean. I haven't had a chance to fully vet the backup copies of my utilities, but I'm confident they'll check out. I'm not running to jump online just yet, though. Figured I'd wait until I had some muscle at my back in case things went sideways again. As for personnel, that's your baliwick. I trust your judgment. Where and when do you want to meet?"

[WinterRat1]

10:23:13 Thursday, 11 January 2063, Metropolitan Park Apartments, 601 S. Washington St., Seattle

The two detectives look at each other for a moment, and then Fox asks again, "Are you sure?"

Lana nods, not wanting to go back on her story, and the two detectives take a deep breath seemingly in tandem.

Finally Detective Morris takes a deep breath and reluctantly says, "We...found a body in your apartment. We haven't been able to identify it yet, and we were hoping you could confirm it wasn't your sister. Without your confirmation she is currently alive, we'll have to wait for the results of the DNA test to verify the body's identity."

Detective Fox looks gently at Lana. "We know this is a shock sweetie, is there anything we can do to help?"

[WinterRat1]

01:00:04 Wednesday, 10 January, 2063 - A Warehouse in the Barrens

Fortunately, Scrapheap's veteran reflexes had enabled him to throw his body just far enough back the blade wasn't able to penetrate his armor, raking along his armored jacket but sliding harmlessly away from him.

Beneath him, however, Max was not so lucky. As he half-ducked, half-ran towards the northeast exit, a stray burst caught him in the shoulder. Several rounds punched through his armor and into his flesh, spinning him around and knocking him to the floor. Grimacing, he gingerly touched his shoulder to feel how bad the damage was. His hand came away covered in blood and it was all he could do not to scream with the pain.

[WinterRat1]

07:30:46 Monday, January 8, 2063 - Driving through Downtown Seattle

"Let's meet at Aurora Village Downtown. It should provide us an easy way to lose tails and there will be enough civilian cover to make even S-K think twice before hitting us publicly. At least that's the plan. I need to drop off some stuff at one of my safehouses and return this car to its owner before it gets wrecked worse than it already has been. So let's say...12:00:00 at the Food Court. That should give me enough time to get things set and touch base with the guy I want to bring in. Will that be enough time for you to complete your prep work?"

[grendel]

07:31:03 Monday, January 8, 2063 - Driving through Downtown Seattle

"Aurora Village at noon? I can do that. Watch your back out there."

With that, she was gone. Dragon closed the comm interface, scanning through his blind spots again before changing lanes. So many variables, so few equations, and so little time. Ever since his conversation with Virgil and Daedalus a couple days ago, he'd had this feeling that a vast, hidden machine was slowly coming to life. Gears meshing, servos groaning in symphony, a great shadowed lock who's key was being turned millimeter by millimeter. And when the last of the tumblers finally clicked home, all Hell was going to break loose.

Since when did you become so poetic?

He grunted in annoyance at the thought, jamming down on the accelerator.

Focus. Keep your eyes on the target.

[grendel]

08:35:42 Sunday 14, January 2063 – Outside “The Bakery�, Renton, Seattle, UCAS

Sascha nodded angrily, waving his hand as if to brush away her concerns, obviously impatient for the meeting to be over.

"Ya, ya, don't sweat it. I've got it fixed with the foreman on the job site. Just tell him I sent you and he'll get you through the back gate. Be discrete, though! I don't want a bunch of trog construction workers asking too many questions."

[WinterRat1]

07:33:19 Monday, January 8, 2063 - En route to one of Dragon's Safehouses

Time to call in some backup. Dragon had mixed feelings about bringing Erebus into this mess.

On the one hand, the elf had proved himself to be capable, intelligent, resourceful, and appeared both loyal and professional. As far as initial assessments went, he definitely seemed to be the kind of guy you wanted to have on your team.

On the other hand, Dragon knew very little concrete information about him, and he didn't like the idea of bringing a stranger into what was essentially a personal matter. For one thing, he didn't want to expose Sybersnake to any more danger than she was already in. Plus, he didn't like the idea of possibly getting Erebus in a world of trouble over something that wasn't strictly a business thing, no matter how he sold it.

Still, the elf had mentioned he was looking to get established in Seattle, and seemed willing enough to stick his neck out to do so. Certainly if they could pull this off it would a nice feather in their caps, and build the foundation for a solid working relationship going forward.

More to the point though, Dragon simply was out of options. There wasn't anyone else he could think of to watch his back on this, and from all appearances so far, he was going to need the backup to get Sybersnake out of this mess. Put that way, there was no other real choice. He had to at least make the call and see if the elf was game.

Dialing the elf, he cut straight to business as soon as the line connected. "Erebus, Dragon here. You mentioned earlier you were looking to get established in Seattle with some solid professional relationships and building up a good working rep. If you're up for it, I have a guaranteed high risk, potentially high reward situation I'm working on. There's some payoff involved, maybe more if we can leverage it. But the real benefit would be building up a good working relationship between you and me for future endeavors, as well as some other people who are going to be in on this action. I could use some backup, and your name is at the top of my list. Interested?"

[Vegas]

10:24:11 Thursday, 11 January 2063, Metropolitan Park Apartments, 601 S. Washington St., Seattle

In the chair across from the detectives the young woman paled visibly. Internally her shock wasn’t that her sister was “dead� it was more that there was a body found in her apartment.

If that body isn’t Niki who the hell could it be?

Lana sat there in apparent stunned silence while Detective Fox seemed to start to play the roll of Mother Hen and was offering her help and all she could do was shake her head and stare straight ahead.

“I don’t know what I’m supposed to do. I mean… is everything gone upstairs? What about… I mean…how long till you know if that’s…if the body was Niki?�

Her voice cracked and she closed her eyes as if to hold back her tears. She was buying herself a little bit of time and letting the detectives lay their cards on the table as far as it came to what they would offer in terms of help and what they expected of her. She still didn’t trust the cops 100%, besides, as soon as they did a little digging they could quickly determine that she was still a minor and who knows what they’d try to do with her until their DNA testing was complete, and who knew what would happen after that.

[Cedric Rolfsson]

07:33:19 Monday - Erebus' Seattle Doss- Seattle UCAS

Beep. . . Beep

Erebus looked up from where he was scouring the last of the powder residue from the H&K 227's barrel at the sound of his P-Sec's ring tone. Not many people had that number and everyone who did he wanted to talk to right now. Pulling a datacord from his pocket he seated one end in his datajack and the other in his P-Sec so he could talk hand's free.

He didn't even get a chance to say hello before Dragon's voice came on line with his offer.

Holy drek! More trouble already?

The idea of sticking his head above ground right now sounded bad, he'd been trying to figure out how to hide out for awhile but the reality was he was out of reserves and he needed to make some moves. He'd been impressed with the way Dragon handled himself, and the idea of getting dialed in to the smaller sammie's network made him practically salivate. He was still a little wigged out by the other man's interrogation techniques, Erebus could still see the cold disinterested look on Dragon's face as he calmly chopped off the Yak's fingers. That expressionless mask would probably feature prominently in some of Erebus' less pleasant dreams for awhile.

The reality was he couldn't afford to pass up the offer, no matter how high the risk.

"Ya, I'm interested. I'll be straight with you chummer, I need the connections and even the chance of a payday is worth it now. This time I'll bring my car instead of my bike, give me a meeting time and place and we'll hook up."

[WinterRat1]

10:27:33 Thursday, 11 January 2063, Metropolitan Park Apartments, 601 S. Washington St., Seattle

Detective Morris sounds genuinely sympathetic as he says, "I'm sorry Ms. Prevlov, but the lab guys are still going through your apartment for any clues as to what happened. Not everything is gone, but we can't let you up there until we're finished with it, otherwise you might accidentally destroy some evidence."

Detective Fox adds gently, "Do you have any family you can stay with while you wait for the DNA results? We can contact you as soon as we know, probably in the next day or so."

[WinterRat1]

07:33:29 Monday, January 8, 2063 - En route to one of Dragon's Safehouses

"Aurora Village Downtown. You know where that is? 12:00:00 at the Food Court. I'm handling the personnel, the person with the situation briefing will meet us there. Do you have any other questions for me?"

[Cedric Rolfsson]

07:33:31 Monday January 8, 2063- Erebus' Doss

"Nope. I'll see you there." Erebus disconnected the call.

He checked the barrel of the subgun again, looking for particles or damage, and seeing none gave it a very light coating of Hoppe's Cleaning Oil and set about reassembling the weapon. He only had the one clip for the subgun, but that would be easy to remedy and since he only had a little more than half a clip full of ammo it didn't make much difference at this point.

The young Elf moved through his doss, getting together a bag of clothes and supplies to put in the car. He would put together extra ammo for his pistols and take both guns with him, and probably stash his AK in the car too, just in case.

He figured he'd still be able to get in a few hours of sleep and be ready for the meeting come noon.

[bclements]

20:59:01 Wednesday, 10 January 2063- The Sundowner Tavern, 14640 58th Ave S. Seattle, UCAS

The night air blasted at Isir and Leo, the warmth of the Sundowner quickly forgotten behind the jangle of an old-fashioned bell and a plexiglass door. For their part, the waitstaff barely blinked at them leaving. Only the homeless man noted their passing in detail; Roderick sulked in the booth. Isir pulled his cap down lower to cover his ears as the first blast of wind and lifted snow hit the doorway.

“Sorry for having to pull this on you, but I don’t have time to mind him and…do what I need to do.� Isir said in lightly accented English, holding out a slim, dark hand with a cheap portable phone.

“This has got my number programmed in it, and if you don’t get me, you will get someone. While what I’ve said in there is true, Rod’s valuable enough to get us up and running quick. And we know where he likes to sulk off to; that slitch can slip out of your fingers very quickly if you don’t pay attention.�

Isir laughed at the last, smiling a broad smile that showed chrome-tinged with black teeth. “So, 4000 nuyen worth it? If you’ve got questions, ask them now. That phone is for emergencies only, omae.�

[Vegas]

10:28:19 Thursday, 11 January 2063, Metropolitan Park Apartments, 601 S. Washington St., Seattle

Lana nodded blankly as she stared off at a point past either of the detectives.

“I can stay with friends. I’ll be safe.� Her voice was flat, lifeless. “Is there a way I can reach either of you if it’s necessary, or I need something?�

She ran her fingers through her hair and tried to remember to breathe. The room kept feeling smaller and smaller and she couldn’t wait to get away from the detectives and back out with her friends.

[Cthulhu449]

20:59:58 Wednesday, 10 January 2063- The Sundowner Tavern, 14640 58th Ave S. Seattle, UCAS

"If he is worth 4000 to you, I will keep him from trouble," Leo said, taking the portable phone from Isir's hand. The hard plastic clicked lightly when his fingers clamped down on the casing, and he had to resist the dull urge to watch his arm swing back and deposit the device into his jacket pocket. Sometimes the chrome seemed to move on its own.

"How controlled do you want the situation? Do you want him to go to ground, should I be his shadow, or keep it like I'm not there? Is any of that money up front and do you have any gear I can get as pay? Other than that he won't be too much hassle and I appreciate the opportunity."

Leo glanced back at the homeless man to see if he was still watching the impromptu meeting. He thumbed towards the bum with an arm that rebelled in line with his wishes. "He with you?" the Russian asked.