Stepping inside the elevator, George slipped his magkey and pressed the key for the correct floor.

As the door closed back, he slowly started bobbing his head to the beat of the elevator's music.

Chummer... this is kinda groovy...

The Black cowled assassin sizes Markus up, and springs forward, blindingly fast, with the petrochem-slick movement a telltale sign of the tech they call move-by-wire. As he approaches the killer switches grips on the blade, and stabs for Markus' left armpit.

And while his opponent is quicker, Markus' movements were steadier. He brushed his enemies blade arm away from from his body, the tip bouncing off the drywall, leaving a wicked cut along the wall. Markus than let loose with a three round burst. The Gel Rounds slammed against the his opponents torso, and although meant to be non-lethal, Markus could immediately tell that at least some of the rounds had achieved penetration, leaving the knife-wielder laying in a crumpled pile at his feet.

"BING!"

The Elevator Door opens.

Markus swivels to see a heavyset scowling man tapping his foot to elevator music, and wearing mirrored shades despite the shaded confines of the elevator.


George stops bobbing his head in time to the music as the elevator doors open with a "BING"

Before him stands a man with a drawn handgun... another man is laying at his feet, clearly unconcious, and quite possibly dead.

Markus turned towards the elevator, gun held steady.
Hmm if he was expecting trouble he would not be so casual coming up and most likely has the codes.

"I trust you have a more legitimate reason to be up here?"

Markus lowers his gun still facing forward but aimed at the ground. He waits a bit before slowly kneeling down next to the assassin, his hand moving to his neck to check for a pulse.

The assassin is alive, but has a shallow weak pulse, and even shallower breathing. Feeling around, you can now tell that he has broken at least three ribs. Two of the three gel rounds appear to have pierced the armor, leaving small entry holes, and no exit wounds. He's definetely not waking up any time soon.

With a loud “BING” the doors infront of George slid appart. The ork had been expecting to come face to face with a man… not two… and well… on wasn’t actually standing. His wired reflexes kicking in high gear, his right hand burskly pushed his longcoat aside so he could grab the handle of the Colt Cobra. He raised his left hand forward, making the universal signal for “stop”.

“Wait up chummer!”

George hadn’t quite pulled the submachinegun off its quick release harness. He had been about to pull it free when he had realized something. The downed man was wearing a mask. He knew, for a fact, that the man Hobbes associates had sent was in the suite. Odds were, he probably wasn’t wearing a mask while on the job.

“My reasons are as legit as yours chummer. Looks like enough shooting has already been done for the day” the human looking ork spoke, in a calm and reassuring tone.

Slowly, with his hand still on the cobra, he slid his right foot forward to keep the elevator’s door open.

His eyes peering over his mirror shades, he cocked his head to the side.

“We seem to be at a slight standoff here… I’m not going to fool myself in thinking I have the drop on you… and seeing that you got this fellow there lying down on the count of you… well, you’re probably not as bad as you look.”

George permitted himself a quick look at the dead man on the floor.

Come to think of it… he’s not even bleeding…

“So… you my guy? Or do we plug each other?”

"That depends who your guy is. I was expecting this place to be occupied but not with this," Markus prods the body laying next to him.

"Well, I'd rather not have to shoot anyone else right now. I take it you work for Mr Bonapart."

"If you would I could use a hand with this fellow here." Markus shifts his stance watching George, when he's sure George is not going to make any sudden hostile moves he holsters his gun.

"He out for the count, unfortunatly even rubber bullets can do a bit more damage than expected at point blank. I'm going to try fix him up a bit so we can move him, prehaps when he come around he can answer some questions, assuming you don't mind his company, I'd rather not leave him behind hotel security and others could ask questions."

Markus pauses a moment.

"He's also got some very expensive toys inside him for an errand boy."

Markus removes the man's ski mask and checked for any posible weapons before trying to fix up some of his wounds.

Seeing the man relax and holster his weapon back was rather soothing to George. He decided that following the same course would help defuse the situation. Slowly, very slowly, the ork released his grip from the Colt Cobra's handle.

"We relocated for security reasons" he made a brief nod toward the unconscious assassin "which was a good move".

George made a few slow steps until her was next to Markus. He observed the man work pat down the assassin for few seconds, his intense gaze masked by his mirror shades. His left hand then went under his coat, where he clicked a switch, while his right went up to press something in his ear.

"One here. I've got our man. The suite has been compromised. We're bringing a package down. Over"

Once Markus stepped aside, George bent over, his two large hands closing around the assassin's collar to heave him up.

"By the way" he looked at Markus over his mirror shades "the name's Pliskin."

"Markus. I think the best thing would be to support him between us, at least that won't look to suspicious if we run into anyone just helping a passed out drunk to his room."

Markus picks up any bits and pieces that the assassin droped along with his knife and drops them into his briefcase which seems to be populated with a large amount of pens paper and other paraphernalia.

Markus helps lift the man up standing on his right supporting him with his left arm. Once George has him supported he picks up his briefcase and heads towards the lift.

"Where to?"

Passing his big arm around the unconscious man, George helped carried the assassin up to the elevator.

Getting in, he pushed the button for the correct floor, saying only one thing "Going down..."

The scene cleaned up as well as can be managed on short notice, the two bodyguards, captive in tow, travel down one floor to the 15th floor.

"BING"

Markus watched the doors open slowly, sticking his head out of the door to check for people before following Georges' lead towards the room.

The hallways are mercifully empty, and it is only a short jaunt to the hotel room. Making it to the room undetected, two enter the room , carrying the unconcious body of the masked assassin inside.

Caitlin is waiting in the apartment, with her medkit already out... just in case. When George and Markus come in, she raises an inquisitive eyebrow at the man they are carrying, before addressing George.

"My, you have been making new friends. Does he need any medical assistance before we interrogate him?"

She turns her gaze towards Markus next. "And I assume you are the new security person?" Her tone is neutral, but her eyes seem to be analyzing and measuring him, as if she is trying to gauge his capabilities.

"Hello, I've patched him up a bit but if you have some magical form of healing that would help. I hit him a little harder than planned. I hope we will be able to bring him around soon as I would like to know who has an unwanted interest in your employer."

Not even looking at Caitlin, George answered back only with a low grunt. Sliding his arm off from under the unconscious man, the ork simply dropped him to the floor.

"We don't" he took his shades off, sliding them upwards on this head "have anything to tie him up with".

His now uncovered deep brown eyes settled on Caitlin for a few seconds.

"Whats the status on the ward?"

"The ward is up and running," replies Caitlin. "I don't have any stimulants, so we will need to wait for our would-be assassin to wake up. I could heal him some more, but if he is stable, then there's no sense in healing him - it would just make him harder to handle. As far as restraining him goes, I'm sure we can improvise something. .. unless our new 'associate' has some restraining devices at hand?"

She looks blandly at Markus, not wasting the opportunity to give him an astral once-over (which she also does when she examines the assassin).

Caitlin Only

"Hi, I'm Nadia," Nadia says to the guy who helped George bring in the near-stiff. "Sorry I was so short with you on the phone. I didn't know if we could trust you or not."

Grabbing the man by the back of his collar with one hand, George heaved him off the ground a bit.

Without any ceremony, he dragged him across the tiny room up to the bathroom... where he rolled him in the bathud. From the open door, the ork threw his coat across the room and unto the bed.

"Doesn't look like we're going to get much sleep tonight." the large human looking ork spoke over his shoulder "If anyone has any particular skills in interrogation, now would be the time to speak up..."

He turned his head slightly to the side, glancing off beyond his large shoulder.

"Someone should get back to the boss... keep an eye on him."

Nadia Only



Everyone Else

The assassin is a Japanese male, of approximately middle aged, and very "Suit" in appearance. He is appearance is, in fact, wholly unremarkable. If he was not laying in the hotel bathtub, its certain that one would not be able to pick him out of a line up of other japanese men.

"Hey!" Nadia exclaims after seeing the assassin's face. "That's the bastard who shot me!"

Markus looks up at Nadia's exclamation. "This is not good, lets hope he has not alerted anyone else to your presence here. Check him for any comunication devices, though chances are they are internal, might want to make sure he's not carrying any sort of concealed weaponry."

"Moving rooms was a good move, does anyone have any sort of remote camera's or devices that could be used to monitor the other room. A watcher spirit could be used otherwise if someone is able to summon one up."

Markus returns to searching the body for anything suspicious.

On the the assassin's person is light pistol, with a silencer attached in a conceable holster in the small of his back. A check of the clip indicates that apparently he learned his lesson from dealing with Nadia, since the ammunition is APDS. He does not have any other noticeable weapons or equipment on him.

Caitlin speaks up.

"He could very well have some internal communications device - he has pervasive cyberware and bioware, including quite a bit of headware. I wonder if we should interrogate him elsewhere - he could also have some kind of internal transponder. I doubt we'll get much useful information out of him. He has 'deniable asset' written all over him. And he had a drone working with him when he was following our limo, but otherwise he's been a solo act. I give him points for persistence, if not effectiveness."

She paces a bit, looking thoughful. "We also need to check out the conference room, before the big meeting. I would prefer to be part of the reconnaissance, so that I can check the status of the wards and other magical defenses. Our client should be safe if he stays within the warded area here, and if at least one of us stays with him at all times. Thankfully they moved the meeting up to today... the bad guys have a narrower window of time to try anything."

Clearing up his throat to get some attention, George threw his ball in the discussion.

"Caitlin's right on the whole line. Way I see, we only got two options here..."

He extend one of his big hands toward Markus, probably asking for the assassin's pistol.

"First option. We shoot him now. Kill him here and now. Cut him up. Get him out. Dump him in the Sound."

He gave a quick smirk to both ladies.

"Second option. We call for a cab. Pour some alcohol on him to make sure he smells a lot. Drag our poor drunken friend downstairs and send him on his way...... way out."

"I believe I can organise to get him out of here, can get him picked up by some mutual friends who should keep him out of the way long enough and be able to extract any information we may posibly need."

Markus dials a secure number to Microdeck's security division. He verifies his identity with the system.

"I'm at the Hilton, I have a Japanese man, an assassin after Mr Bonapart, I'd rather not have to make a mess in here if I can avoid it and he posibly may have some information of use. Need a pickup in 30 minutes loading area, if there is any problems I'll contact you."

Markus hung up. and headed over to the room phone. He dials the security desk.

"Night security shift manager please." He waits for him to pick up the phone.

"Hi, Mr Ambrosie here. I believe I have run into the fellow who was responsible for the little ruckus earlier this evening. Now I'm sure you don't want Lonestar running all over the place again. If you could give us access to the loading area we'll quietly remove him from the hotel before he can bother anyone else."

It takes about 15 mintues of phone work for Markus to get through the uniformed security clerk back at Microdeck, to someone with the authority to actually do something, but eventually he gets an agreement that some security officers will meet him with a car in the loading dock.

The night shift manager is a different story.

"I'm sorry sir, where is the disturbance? are you in a position of safety? should I send someone to your room?"

Once Markus explains that the disturber of the peace has already been incapacitated, the man gets more confused.

"alright. What room number are you at? I will send up some security officers, who will hold on to the man until Lonestar arrives."

"You missunderstand, I'm trying to help you out there, unless you want to explain to Lonestar and most likely the Press, how you let a highly wired, heavily armed assassin, into your building and into your corporate suite. Just give us access to the loading area and you'll never see or hear from him again, no-one will have to know a thing."

Caitlin doesn't even blink at George's first statement. She watches the efforts of Markus with a slightly bemused smile - even as a relative neophyte to the shadows, it still seems strange watching someone call the front desk to arrange for an intruder to be disposed of. Her own concern would probably have been keeping it secret from them.

She mentally bites down on her reflexive disdain for company men... she reminds herself that she fit that description herself not too long ago, and someone like Markus could make a good contact, someone who might be able to recommend her for future work.

George holding him at gunpoint notwithstanding, she still keeps an eye on the assassin, ready if he wakes up again. His injuries are not life-threatening, so she rather callously ignores them. She had to ignore people who deserved healing in her old job, so she takes a bit of spiteful satisfaction at being able to control whom she patches up... or doesn't.

I wish I could work the phones like that. Nadia thinks as she watches the security man do his thing.

"Were exactly did you find this bad guy?" Nadia asks George. "I'm definitely feeling less secure than I want to be. I think we need a new plan."

When Markus made his call, the big ork didn't even flinch. If all his attention wasn't concentrated on the assassin, he probably would have done something... One thing was sure, he found the whole idea ridiculous. Markus was a suit, and thought like one. If the corporate man fragged up, George would have to deal with it... and he sure as hell didn't feel like it. Disposing of one guy was already enough.

"Caitlin... would you mind just checking on the boss... Last thing we need is for him to get tagged now."

The more he kept his gun trained on the unconscious assassin, the more George felt like squeezing the trigger. Wishfully, he hoped that the man would wake up and jump at him... give him an excuse to cap him.

When Nadia asked him about the man, his only reply was to point toward the ceiling.

"If we have to, I already have a backup safehouse setted up."

Caitlin sighs internally as she watches George, standing over the assassin with an obvious itchy trigger finger. "Yeah. Well, at least if you have to shoot him, we can wash the blood down the drain."

She checks in briefly with their client before walking back out to discuss the conference room security. "Obviously, that will need to wait until we get our baggage here (disdainfully gesturing to the assassin) taken out, since at least two of us should stay with the client at all times."

"Can't we get some information out of him before we get rid of him?" Nadia asks.

Turning from the phone, muting it temporarily, "Thats the plan, the guys that are picking him up will get as much info from him as they can and then deal with him as they see fit."

The Security clerk takes a long moment of silence before responding to Markus.

"I'll have hotel security up to your room shortly sir, to take this problem off your hands. We've called Lone star, and they'll be sending an officer. But for convinence, we'll simply say that hotel security found the man... If that is alright with you."

"That will be fine, thank you." Markus disconnected the phone with a sigh.

"I'm really starting to dislike that man. Okay change in plans, security are sending someone up, we need to get this guy out of here before they arrive or say he's escape and hide him and try get him out. Or... we can just hand him over to Lonestar, which I'm reluctant to do, and killing him would probably just open a whole new can of worms."

Markus thinks a moment, "We could say he is with us and the assassin managed to knock him and try slip him out but they might recognise him. I'm open to suggestions, this was not quite how I planed on it working out."

George, who had been standing watch over the unconcious man, grunted. Since the ork was far from being a very expressive person, it was hard to say if the grunt was some sort of sigh, a half laugh, or a plain grunt. He lowered his submachine gun, pointing the it's long sound supressor toward the ground.

As he walked past Markus, he spoke without looking at him.

"You created this mess chummer; you deal with it."

Without adding another word, George used the side door to get back into Hobbes' room.

Caitlin raises a sardonic eyebrow.

"I would say that after you call the front desk of a hotel to say that you have an unconscious intruder in your room, it's a bit late for any skullduggery. Let security take him away. As I said earlier, it's not likely he would have given us any useful information. At this point, he's merely a potential distraction. The meet has been moved up, so even if they don't charge him, it will still be too late by the time they release him. My only concerns at this point are securing the meeting room, and keeping our client safe until then."

It is not long afterwards that there is a knock on the door.

"I'll get it," Nadia says, glad to be doing something after feeling so useless since the new guy with the knocked-out assassin arrived. Though she expects it to be the body-removal men, she carefully checks the peephole before opening the door.

There are two men standing a few feet from the door. Both are wearing blue suit jackets with the Hilton crest, and the words "Hotel Security" emblazoned beneath it.

When the Door opens, the man on the left, who has a closely trimmed crew cut, and for all the world has the features of an ex-military or ex-cop type speaks.

"We were told that you have someone for us?" He says, in a gruff baritone voice.

The other, who is taller, thinner and with longer blonde hair says nothing.

Caitlin nods, and gestures nonchalantly towards the bathroom.

"He's in there."

Although she seems relaxed, it is no coincidence that she is standing just behind the room's Queen-sized bed, where she can duck for cover in an instant. And she is carefully scrutinizing the two men - checking to see if their mood seems off-kilter with their appearances.

Glyph Only



The two men step forward into the room, and look towards the bathroom when Caitlin points.

"You the one that called?" Blondie says to Markus.

"Yes, he's there in the tub." Markus says casualy, but very much aware, watching their moves for anything that looks out of the ordinary.

"Oh yea one more thing you guys have any ID?"

Markus only




As Blondie moves towards the bathtub, the one with the crew cut reaches into his jacket pocket, removing a leather object, resembling a badge. He flips it open to show his own, unsmiling picture, and the words "Hilton, Security. #321012

"Good enough for ya?" He asks


"Help me with this guy," the blonde one says... and his partner comes over, grabbing him around the upper body. They drag him across the tiles and towards the front door.

"Is there anything else we can do for you?" Buzz cut says, no trace of irony in his voice, as the three shadowrunners watch the two security men drag an unconcious body across maroon carpeting.


George Only

Markus nods.

He waits for them to leave.

"I'm going to follow them just make sure all its okay. I'll return in a bit."

Silently, the large ork walked the few steps that seperated the door from the armchair he had been sitting in a few minutes before.

After making sure Hobbes was sound a sleep, he made himself comfortable. His longcoat on the back of the seat, the Cobra resting in his lap, George's mind started to wander.

It was rather late... or early, depending on how you looked at it. Judith was probably sound asleep. For a few seconds, George was almost tempted to call her, but quickly got his senses back. He'd only wake her, and worry her. The job would be over soon, there was no purpose in making her more anxious than she already was. His thoughts went back to the current situation.

That guy thinks he's a fragging cowboy. What the frag was he thinking, calling the cops. Should've capped him in the suite when I had the chance. Suit's going to get us fragged.

George's big finger clicked the transmit button of his transceiver.

"Two, One; Make sure to keep an eye on him. He's going to get us fragged with his legit attitude. Three, One; what's the status on the ward?"

"One, Three: The ward is up and running. It's not as good as my being present, but it will protect him against astral threats - and I will also be alerted if anthing tries to bring it down. Now we need to figure out who's going to scout out the meeting room with me - I know you would rather not have just one of us staying with the new guy, but we really need this information.

Caitlin shakes her head slightly, feeling a bit frustrated. She hates having to leave the client even for the quick, and very necessary, recon of the meeting room. She can also feel the tension between George and Markus, and hopes that it won't be too distracting for either of them.

Her thoughts turn towards the end of the job, finally in sight. After paying for the comm gear, she won't be walking away with too much from this one, but it's a step towards building a reputation, and better-paying work in the future.

"Got ya, One. He's not gonna frag us over."

"Three, One; Good. Thats one less thing to worry about now. For the recon... Two will go with you. I'll keep an eye on both in the meantime."

Can't wait to be home free.