Yi tranfers a sum of 500 to Spider and quickly records the name to give to the others later to see if it means anything to them.

"My thanks again."

With a deep bow she ends the conversation and allows her body to relax for moment. Hopefully this creature wouldn't prove to be too difficult to avoid.

Charlotte scans the sheet. One thing stands out. All of these jobs were for Director Montaigne. Director Montaigne who is no longer a Director.

"My team isn't careless. All of these expenses were accounted for in our after action reports. With AR and VR video annotation per Foundation reqs. And approved. I'm sure you have the clearance to request the reports in full from Records."

She looks up and pushes the sheet back, eyebrows climbing. "What is this really about?"

Charlotte

O'Henry glares, sputtering something about internal audits and issues above your paygrade before Zuramawae cuts him off suddenly, leaning forward across the table to speak.

"Montaigne did some consulting work on the side before she left the foundation. We're in the process of tying up loose ends associated with that. However, you're obviously not involved in that. Some people seem to take it as an excuse to perform their own personal witch hunts." The last sentence is shot with chilling coldness towards O'Henry. Even Daniels seems to shrink back as O'Henry stammers noiselessly.

Zuramawae seems satisfied with the response, because she smiles enigmatically as she turns back to Charlotte.

"More importantly, there are some people upstairs that wanted to know how you'd respond." She arches both brows, "I'm satisfied. You can go now, Charlotte. The board looks forward to reviewing the information from your next successful expedition."

Taking a few moments to let her skin breathe, Yi replaces her mask and makes her way back to the meeting room to regroup with the team as requested.

Wait a minute...Charlotte half stands, knuckles curled onto the tabletop, "Montaigne was moonlighting with my team? My team!" Her jaws clench and she takes a deep, sudden breath before getting hold of herself. They'd have been hung out to dry if they were hurt on those missions.

She growls down at the table, "Loose ends... I'll tie 'em around her neck." She looks up, smiling and stands. Her eyebrows raise, "If I can be of any assistance... My team will be reconvening shortly. Thank you for your good wishes. I'm sure the good will will extend into the near future..."

She shakes hands with all three, murmuring her gladness to have met them, or - in O'Henry's case - see them again, and thanks for coming to her personally.

The AR attache rezzes in outside the door, ready to guide her back out of the labyrinth of the meeting rooms and offices. She waves it away, though it trails behind her, tracking her movements so that if she strays - unwittingly, of course - into a sensitive area, she can be shepherded out.

She makes her way back to the Delta meeting room, checking to see if either Ingiri or Heron have responded to her messages. Nope. I'll check again later.

She passes Iago on her way in, "Did Deray accept our invitation?"

Mickey is in the conference room, tasking the holo-projector in the table to respond to his commlink's signal. There is a complex grid filled with arcane symbols that he seems to be filling in.

The 25x25 grid is subdivided into smaller 5x5 grids and he lazily inserts symbols as the rest of the team shows up. Sudoku had been exerted to its final lengths once all the permutations were completed in 2012. Cryptologists and hermetic scholars had developed this variation wherein the individual had to combine the symbols under the same rules as original sudoku, but also create a spell formula for minor effects. The most complex ones were 100x100 and produced magical effects that verged on the edges of legality in some of the more authoritarian states.

Of course, the symbols themselves held no power, especially not when created by a holo-projector, but the exercise was useful to get a new perspective at spell design.

"Hey Yi, boss lady. From the smell of things, dinner is in ten."

He keeps fidgeting with symbols, as he talks.

"Sent word to the old man asking for some research about archaeological digs from the appropriate timeline. Sometimes I wish that I had grad students to do my research for me, it's really the only part of the university I don't miss. Of course, I wouldn't give up the field work, minus the shooting and killing, for anything. That S&K part I could do without."

Turning to actually look at his teammates for the first time since they entered the room, Mickey notices a few missing bodies.

"Where are the others?"

Walking along the echoing halls of antiquities, Jeff found himself finally able to unwind. Here, people just meandered by, looking at these relics of the past. They might not understand the full signifigance of the items, but that was good by him too. These folks weren't about to start shooting at him. This was one place where he was safe.

"You know, you could have stayed here. I'm sure that's what the Director would like." the viking walking beside him said. Odd as the sight, might have been, it didn't draw the attention of the museum patrons. That was another thing that was different here. The mundanes couldn't see the spirit that walked amoung them.

"Yes, I could have stayed, but I wouldn't have been happy. Here, I see pieces of the past, getting to make guesses about the big picture. With the group, I get to go places, and see things that few men have ever seen since ages past." he told the man, who had shifted as they walked to a crusader. This heroic spirit had many faces, and seemed to enjoy showing them off amoung the different eras of the museum.

"The lure of the unknown. It has lead adventurers to prosperity and heartbreak. Many have never returned. That's especially true of where we're going."

"Yes, it would have been something to have seen Timbuktu in it's heyday. To have been a part of the Société de Géographie's challenge of discovery, going where non-muslims tread at their own peril. I would love to see the tomes of the University of Sankore. But guess we'll just have to settle for the tourist trap." he said. Dragonslayer by this time had shifted to a Moorish sheik. Getting closer to the right region.

"Who's to say that all is lost? Pompeii was recovered from the ashes. And while the treasures of Timbuktu might not be as well preserved, perhaps we'll find certain gems. The spirit mask at least would be a great find. Though something to be handled with caution. There are spirits that don't care much to be controlled by magic, and might take offense. Not to mention all the critters of the region. But of course you know that."

"I'll keep that in mind." Jeff said. They had finally reached the part of the museum dedicated to Timbuktu and Western Africa. "Too bad I don't have time to read up on Shabeni and the other tales..." he added as he took a seat on a bench where he could survey the room.

Charlotte rubs her side, "I could definitely do without the shooting. Killing too." She takes her seat and while they're waiting begins running down the information her team would need to blend in - as much as they could - in Mali. A thought occurs to her and she starts a message to the Director of Record for this assignment.

// Delta protocol

// To: Deputy Director of Operations
// From: Charlotte Victory Faust
// Re: Delta Project

// Director, would you inquire with the makers of Corp Wars to
// see if we - through discreet intermediaries - could acquire or
// lease the usage of the Corp Wars facilities in Mali? I imagine
// brokering any such deal would take time, so I'm bringing it up
// now. At the very least we'd like to know the locations of the
// installations and *ahem* obstacles. Please keep me in the loop.

// CVF

She sends that message off and returns to the AR windows full of information on Mali's past, present and forseeable future. Why do I get the feeling that the Spirit Mask of Timbuktu won't be in Timbuktu?

Charlotte

Iago never smiles, but there is a hint of humor in his voice as he responds.

"She seemed most pleased to accept our invitation, Ms. Faust. I'll speak to the kitchen and make sure there is a fresh meal waiting for all at the completion of your meeting."

The response from the DDOO's office is almost immediate, thought of little value at the moment. Gears were set in progress, however, and already the horde of assistants would be researching, finding people, numbers, information, and leverage.

ViP is waiting in the conference room, and she hangs around just long enough to see if you need her for anything else.

All

The conference room is much as you left it, plus one arcane sudoku. The group filters in, one by one, each apparently coming from a different location within the complex.

In the Conference Room...

Cirio plays with his pen- a very expensive looking Pelikan with a gold ring clip. At Mickey's prompting, he sets it down and considers a mental map. "I've been in and out of the Sahale for years. Smooth flying, but can be a problem in the landing. The savannah is flat and dry, but still no surface to put anything but a light craft on the ground. Our best bet would be a VTOL...but that's a little out of my price range."

"Of course, we still need to know where to go. Timbuktu is still very much in existence, although you won't find it on any modern map. The French have it as 'Tombouctou', and that's how you'll see it named. There are many mosques there; but the city was ransacked by the French centuries ago- our mask was either moved to safety, or was located elsewhere entirely."

"My suggestion is to start our search in Tombouctou. We could fly in over the Sahara from Casablanca. We are unlikely to be bothered as the flight plan is almost entirely over the Sahara. They have an airport there that can handle fairly large aircraft, and a few services. I don't know anyone there, but we could start with the local imams and curators. If nothing else, the guides should be able to spin us a good tale."

"If we have access to satellites, we can analyze the topography in the general area to signs of man-made structures. Unless the sand has covered it, there will be signs."

With the pressing of a few buttons, Mickey banishes his game from the projector and saves his progress in his commlink.

"How much are you short? While I was at the University, they had a visit from the Prime Minister who arrived in a gleaming jet which dropped right into the middle of campus. For that kind of prestige, I could throw a bit your way.

"Also I'm not sure about satellites, but we do have the topogaphies from the data we purchased."

Retasking the holoprojector to the data feed from his copy of the information they had secured in the bar, the Russian magus projects the maps across the table. Topographical information being translated by the computer into hills and valleys.

"Thank you, Iago."

Charlotte takes her place at the table. She opens a variety of AR windows, mostly dedicated to the web of ideas she and the team would be tossing around. She smiles at Cirio, "I'm working on getting our transport squared away. I'm hopeful that Corporate will come through."

"Nice map, Mickey." She looks at the rolling terrain thoughtfully.

"Anybody have any bright ideas or insights while we were away? I'm waiting to hear back from a number of people."

Yi holds up a hand to get Charlotte's attention. "I did some checking and the only thing I found to moving just under the surface was someone or something called Yosandra, if it helps several snake references were made with the name. Ring a bell for anyone?" She moves her head, looking to the other team members, hoping for the light of recognition to flare up in their eyes.

Cirio smiles wryly at Mickey, and then nods to Charlotte. "Corporate. Best financing on the market."

"There may be a few other people by that name, Yosandra is the name of a particularly charismatic leader of a circle of Snake shamans that operate out of Africa and Eastern Europe. Within the awakened community, her absence would be felt if she were to go to ground or if substantial harm comes to her. We should walk carefully, Snakes are generally viewed as wise or secret keepers. It's possible that Sandy's obsession with learning secrets will place her in opposition to us, though she may be willing to trade what she knows about the Mask...for a cost."

"For the irony, Yosanda, no R, is the name of a mouse in ancient African mythology, that managed to convince a snake that if it were to let itself be eaten, it would grow stronger then by eating her. She's a bit of a folk hero, though both the story and the Totem would suggest that we be careful in our dealings. If the offer sounds too good, we should probably exercise some of our S&K protocols even though I dislike them.

"Speaking of S&K, was Dakota reassigned? She wasn't at the briefing earlier. What's the story boss-lady?"

Charlotte makes notes in scattered AR windows. Casablanca as starting point? Holy men, guides, scholars for rumors/info. Yosandra.

Charlotte smiles at the myth-come-to-life. "This Yosandra sounds interesting. A mouse leading snakes."

She shakes her head at Mickey's query. "I haven't heard anything specific. She left on personal business and hasn't checked in. It's been a week and the front office officially 'concerned.'"

"I put in a request for another operations specialist when I couldn't contact her. Just because it takes two weeks to recquisition a mirror to scratch their asses up there." She looks up into a corner of the room and winks, "Present company excepted of course." She looks at the others, "But I'll let you know if I hear anything from her or upstairs."

"So, anything else? Or should I turn this back over to ViP?"

Yi seems to take a moment to think. "I will try to talk to this Yosandra when we get to the area and see if we can broker a temporary alliance with her group. I would not rather have a pack of shamans slinging mojo at us while we're working. That's all my info."

Charlotte nods at Yi, "I'm sure I don't need to caution you to be discreet. I don't want a pack of shaman's slinging mojo at us after we've got the Mask. That reminds me, I wonder if there's budget for cover identities if the Corp Wars deal doesn't work out." She makes a note on the AR list she's compiling.

"Any of you think we should try to find out why we were attacked when we got the chip? Or who else Deray may have sold the chip's information to?"

"I know that it may open us up to getting sold out by her, but now I'm thinking I'd rather know who we may be up against. Thoughts?"

"If Deray will sell us the information about who else knows about the chip, I'd say let's buy it. I have no illusions that she is going to give the information over without compensation."

Mickey begins correlating the nearby cities on to the topographical maps.

"Deray is enough of a business woman, that we should be able to buy a timer--she won't sell us out for X period of time."

"I don't think it could hurt to try to find out. We may have extra company when we arrive on site so any information we can get now would level the playing field." Yi looks around allowing her eyes to only linger moments on each person, feeling the discomfort and strain of trying to have a normal conversation. She always felt more relaxed looking at someone if she was hitting them.

"Yer the bunch a pansy egg heads I'm a tasked wit keeping there lily white arses wiped whilst traipsing aroond the barbarian wastelands?"

Standing in the doorway to the room is a 110 centimeter tall 50 kilogram tartan and bleach white clad dwarf. Only a dwarf would be almost as wide as she was tall. Through the grizzled shaved light hair on her head the lumpy skull and scarred flesh stand out in this age of cheap widespread cosmetic surgery. A sour expression on her face reflects her mood as she stands in the conference room doorway, one hand braced on her her hip, the other gun metal hand braced against the door frame.

Sturdy worn combat boots, polished shiny black, provide contrast to the colorful tartan skirt around her waist. A white shirt with lace front and sleeve ends complete the ensemble.

The only piece of equipment she's wearing is a large revolver in a holster on her waist, the looped lanyard hooked into her waist belt. Though with the obvious datajack in her skull, and half her left arm replaced, there's certainly more equipment then meets the eye.

The room goes still as the rugged dwarf makes her entrance into the team conference. All eyes shift to the figure standing in the doorway. To a figure that wasn't Dakota. The sense of unity amongst the people sitting around the table is palpable. They are united in purpose, by time and trials and, after many months, by trust and friendship. And now by an unexplained and unexpected loss brought sharply into focus by the new face in the door.

A head's up would have been nice, she growls mentally at the ceiling and the HR drones far above. Charlotte gauges her team's reaction and quickly intervenes. She stands, "I believe we are indeed those egg-heads. I'm Charlotte Faust, Field Team lead."

Charlotte is wearing a pale cotton garment under a light colored modern-looking sari that is probably three times the size of a human one. Though her dress is consistent with the location of the pacific rim AFHQ, she looks more hispanic than southeast asian. Charlotte is attractive as trolls go. A wide, welcoming, tusky smile. Warm brown skin, and wildly curling hair worn very short. Short, backswept horns and exquisitely dark, depthless eyes.

She offers her hand for a shake and then gestures around the room, "Jeffrey Chambers, antiquities expert and magic support. Cirio , extraction specialist." She grins at Cirio, "Yi, intrusion and closequarters combat specialist. Mikael Klavitsnova, antiquities expert and resident tridoku master." She gestures to the front of the room, "This is ViP, intel liason. And Iago, operations manager." Charlotte raises her eyebrows at Iago, and the man nods once, simply. The new arrival's meal will arrive with their own.

She waits politely for the sturdy woman's own reciprocal introduction and then gestures at the table and the rather detailed topographic satellite displays projected above it. "We're in the middle of planning a new operation. Been to sub-saharan Africa?" She moves back toward her seat and, with a pang in her chest, gestures for the new field operations specialist to sit in Dakota's vacant seat.

"Учтивость отсутсвия нескольких женщин," the "tridoku expert" whispers in his mother tongue.

Mickey is wearing blue jeans and an untucked dress shirt. His commlink is set on the table in front of him, the data-stream visible through Matrix traffic leading into the holoprojector.

"So boss, has Dakota's job assignment been fulfilled by short and pale over here?"

As soon as she heard confirmation, she strode into the room towards the empty seat talking audibly to herself during the introductions.

"Jesus, Mary and Joseph, it's trog in charge, I'm going to give the Hobgoblin a what for. Wiz, extraction? thief, boffin, spook and valet..."

Sitting down in the indicated seat and responding to the question about sub sahara she expounds strongly in a thick brogue, "Bloody place where ye fry yer brains out during the day, freeze yer tits off at night, sand gets into yer crack, blooody uncomfortable let me tell ya, but not as bad as all the dust in yer rifle even though ye seal it in five kilos of grease and blows up in yer hand." She gesticulates with her left gun metal hand, "No water, food, nor ammo, so yer needing to be humping whatever you brung with all over the gods forsaken place. If the dust devils, chimerea, sand men, hyena, dogs, griffons, men eating plants, and sundry other bogeys don't kill ya, then you got to deal with the thrice bedamned wogs. And ye can't bring enough ammo to shoot all of them, which would be best."

"Never been meself. Stupid place to go."

Cirio exchanges a glance with Charlotte, and smiles. He tips his glass to Charlotte, and again to the Dwarf.

"Well," he says, "...now that that's clear..."

Yi allows the roughness of the new arrival's words to wash over her, leaving only a small smile on her face underneath the mask. She takes a moment and accesses the small sensor net embedded in the mask and begins to scan the dwarf, looking for insight into the team member.

After hopping up into the chair, and with a disgusted look giving up on resting her feet on the table surface as she leaned back precariously, Knocker asked, "So why have ye chosen the bloooody burning sands as a place to die?"

The planning session was brief, lasting only as long as necessary, and dinner was waiting for everyone as Iago had promised.

The next few days flew by in a flurry of activity as gear arrives, is checked, packed, and stowed. 16 hours before the team is scheduled to arrive the Ares Dragon, the requested long range VTOL craft, arrives at the Foundation hanger. Iago assures that the gear is packed overnight, and the next morning finds the team heading west across Egypt, a few hours north of Cairo, skirting the coast to spend the shortest possible time over the desert itself.

Cirio seems at home in the air, on the ground and on the water, and clearly enjoys piloting the massive rotorcraft. He spends the first hour shaking it down, subjecting the passengers and the crew to a few unsettling maneuvers, before returning to a more leisurely flightplan.

The Egyptian desert comes all the way to the shores of the Mediterranean sea and is novel and beautiful for only so long before the monotony renders it commonplace. Cirio doesn't seem to show any fatigue- relaxing completely in the VR of the aircraft.

Charlotte seems in her element as well. The old-timers should know, and Knocker can probably surmise, that she's no slouch at piloting aircraft. She's no Cirio, though.

She looks at the time display marking the hours since she'd sent messages to Heron and Ingiri. They'd answer in time. But sooner was better. She spends some time talking to Knocker getting to know her better, laughing at the blustery dwarf's warstories and genuinely enjoying herself.

The damned trog was trying to be friendly, which was typical, but still annoying for the fresh meat to be that way. Like a two ton puppy. What made it worse was the fact the trog was essentially the new louie. Mission leader. Fragged up. Knocker was in no position to just make her go away. At least they weren't trying something stupid like tangling with a battalion of SK heavies, to "keep them occupied" with half a platoon of greenies while the main force tried to find a hole to hide in.

At least the attention gave her the chance to go over the basics, the commands for run, stand, and attack, and the basic roles during the engagements. It looked like they'd been under fire together once already, and so they might have gotten to that essential understanding of trusting each other and working together as a unit. But Knocker couldn't know for sure till she went through it with them.

She finished reassembling the Ultimax and closed up the tool kit. Then she tossed the heavy weapon to Charlotte.

"That there is a trog tickler. Yer the only other one that kin carry and use it, so pay attention. The gods forbid you ever have to take it from me and use it t' save the others. This end is the barrel, the bullets come out here, do not look down it ever, and watch where you point it at all times. Do not hold the barrel, it gets hot. Hot enough to cook a wog if you ever stick em with it."

Charlotte played the part of a gracious host. Checking frequently the aura of their new member. It was her method to let folks work at their level of comfort, but she was getting fed up.

"Knocker, if you're worth a good goddamn you checked out our reputation before signing on with us. In that research you might have discovered that we managed to wipe our own asses before you came along. We've bled together. Fought together. Suffered defeats. Won victories. Until you've done the same with us I don't expect to take shit from you or for you to heap shit on my team. MY team."

"By the same token, you wouldn't have been assigned to us unless you had a similar reputation. I trust that you will do your job. And I expect you to trust that we're not a cabal of the world's only surviving brain donors. Check?"

Cirio's pleasant synthesis with the helicopter is briefly interrupted by Charlotte's...discussion...with Knocker. He briefly considers throwing a word in, reconsiders, and slips back into VR.

"...it's going to be an interesting trip..." he thinks.

Yi allows her mask to hide the lopsided smile that Charlotte's outburst pulled from within herself. She watches with some interest to see what Knocker said or did next.

A quiet chuckle starts from Mickey as he watched Short and Stumpy give the boss a lesson on gun awareness. It turns into an audible laugh at Charlotte's response.

"Hey boss, if I can interrupt. The doc just sent me the download on other digs from the same time period. Most of what has been found came out of Kenya and other parts a bit south of our target area. There was a dig, roughly same timeline and same region over at Jenné-jeno. Much like Timboctu, the actual location of the city was abandoned, and a new city, just Jenné, sprang up nearby."

Transmitting the information across their associated network, he appends the southern documents after the Jenné-jeno file.

"I haven't seen any signs of the curses like the pharaohs laid down or the giant boulder traps based off pressure sensitive daises yet, but I'll keep you informed."

//Personal Message
//Attn: Charlotte
//Is Knockers taking all of Dakota's
//duties, including the S&K ops command?

She took a step forward and craned her neck back as she stared up into the face of the team's face.

"Aye lass, 'tis right, I'm the new meat. Fer all The Hobgoblin said about ye all, and the damned lies in yer files, I still do meh job. Tis fer me to see wit me own eyes whose blooody arse I'm to be killing wogs and bleeding for. Til we've drunk together the blood of the damned Keiths from ter' skoools I'm the new meat, t'aint gonna change."

Scratching her chin briefly, "But it's good you spoke for yer team. T'yer credit."

Pointing out the open chopper door as they cruised over the med, "Tink yer kin hit that blooody bloo sea fer me?"

Yi let the tension flow from her body as the brief confrontation seemed to be resolving without actual physical conflict. Her head was beginning to ache slightly with the strain of trying to decipher the newcomer's thick accent but it was rare to find someone who understand her through the tusks so it was all the same in the end.

//Personal Message
//Attn: Mickey
// Yes. Knocker will be taking on all of
// Dakota's duties. Including the S&K
// ops command. It'd have been nice to do
// some exercises before we dusted off. Any
// suggestions for ice-breakers.

Charlotte looks levelly at Knocker for a moment, then smiles tuskily, "Not much account with anything but pistols." She takes the weapon into her hands, holding it somewhat awkwardly, pointing the barrel down and out of the hatch. "Walk me through it?"

She checks her tethers and clips in, then braces herself against the doorframe, with a grin at Knocker, "We already covered which end is the dangerous. Start a little further along, hey?"

The dwarf cracks a huge smile revealing contrasting sets of perfect and crooked and cracked teeth, the results of incomplete dental repairs. She holds up a hand signalling to wait a moment and reaches over and rips out a cushion from a nearby bench.

"Here, the gooon has a blooody right kick like a mule, but all we want to do is show you what it feels like t'old the tickler. So tis will stop the bruisin, but would ruin yer aim. Brace it against yer hips, and put the for'd hand on top, elbows bent, knees bent. Barrels gonna climb like a right monkey up a tree, and t' kick will even knock yer back a bit."

Checking over the grip, Knocker nods, "Good, now, you aren't ever trying to hit anything, it's just t' point it at the wogs so's t' keep their blooody 'eads down. So all we want is to try and keep t' barrel steady."

Stepping back and too the side, she finally points to the partial belt feed, "5 rounds only, so's we won't worry about punching holes in the fusealage if it gets away from you."

"Now just lean in, and t'ere yer goooo!"

A moment later, "So's anyone else be wanting t'try a go with t' tickler?"

"I'm fairly sure that I know how to not kill myself with that thing. Picking that up however, raises the general threat that I present--which of course, is something I try to avoid."

Mickey adjusts the straps on his harness ensuring that he is tightly fastened. He begins picturing a large hammer lifting over the gun and dropping down from cartoon heights, but scraps the thought.

"Boss-lady, are we going to go over the S&K procedures, since Knocker is running that show?"

Yi's interest is grabbed at the mention of going over tactics. "Agreed, what kind of operation are you looking to run?" She moves back to the main compartment of the helicopter and makes the conscious effort to join the group.

Swigging some water, and then lustily spitting out the hatch, the short metahuman turned back to the group, ignoring the moisture ripped to shreds in the exterior rotor backwash.

"Aye, 'tis a blooody good idea to let me know blooody well who you want me to kill."

She taps her head a couple of times as she remarks, "If I tink fer meself I tend to just shoot everyone and figurt'it ooot later after a few brews."

Mickey looks to the other regulars on his team, an almost begging look towards Charlotte.

"Well then, we may have a few problems. The general breakdown that we are used to goes something like this. Inside HQ and during our cultural briefings, the Boss-lady here runs the show." He gestures to Charlotte.

"Outside of HQ, especially when we are hitting a hotzone or suspecting gunfire to break out at any moment, your predecessor ran the show. She began encounters with a standard PARP--Prelimenary Aggressive Response Plan, across our secured network. There are standardized codes that we have to launch pre-planned activities--such as hit the deck, go comm blackout, etc.

"If things got hot, the PARP would be modified by the code that came across the system, and we would act. Were you briefed on the codes we operate with, and our previous mission records? Beyond your foul attitude when you first walked in, I haven't heard anything to date that proves you are half of Dakota. You have her same bad choice in men I hear, but that's never stopped anyone."

A fleeting thoughtful expression crosses the dwarfs face as she listens, her hand slowly pulling a stubby metallic cigar shaped wand from her belt. As Mickey pauses she gives presses down on a slider bar on the wand and points it in Mickey's direction. The interior electronics of the chopper flicker momentarily as they switch modes in the face of the intense electromagnetic jamming.

A mad grin revealing her haphazardly repaired dentures, Knocker jovially asks, "Pop quiz, good answers and I won't shoot anyone. Right, yer PARP is shiiite, you've just mortally insulted a crazed halfer from t' Clan Gunn, yer flying a few klicks up in a chooper with an open hatch with yer leader standing in it, and ter's a fully loaded machine gun at tis halfers feet. What are you going to do?"

With a glance at the others, "I'd appreciate yer' not helping him wit his answers."

Tapping the machine gun with her foot, "T't tut, safety's off too."

In the meantime, over the team's channel the PARP signal for comm blackout is sent to be received by team members not in the direct line of the jammer.

"I'd start by suggesting that you never threaten a man who is unarmed."

Blackened boxes begin forming over Knocker's eyes, they spread to the rest of the team. To the helicopter and it's inhabitants, Mickey begins to fade from view, vision of him blocked by strings of mana.

"Then light the ammunition in your belt on fire, or perhaps your undergarments, whichever seems more productive at the time."

"A man after warming me pants!"

"Ha!" gathering herself she, Knocker dials down the wand and slips it away in her belt, while raising her hand in a gesture with a mixture of acknowledgment and surrender.

Taking a breath, "Not too bad, almost killed me wit' t' funnies, but if ya'll stop that we can have t'at l'il chat you've been wanting."

Cirio momentarily comes out of VR to manually check his instruments as Knocker's jamming comes on-line. He shakes his head, lamenting the lack of a cockpit access door.

To Charlotte and Mickey:
"Is this going to get serious? Do we need to be ground side? Personally, I don't like falls."

To Cirio, copying Mickey:
"Me neither. No more surprises."

To all:
Charlotte puts on an affronted look, "Mickey, you didn't save me. I could be tumbling to my death. And after all we've been through."

"And you," she looks pointedly at Knocker, "In the future I suggest you give our pilot a heads up if you're going to be fucking with his rig at altitude."

"It's pretty clear we need to work this out. Thanks for getting the ball rolling, you two," she favors Mickey an Knocker with a tusky grin before buckling back in and indicating the others should do so as well. She runs the team's official and unapproved combat sim... a heavily modded VR game where different 'players' can set mission parameters and the avatars and NPCs resemble their real life coutnerparts in some detail. There are avatars for each of the team members except for Knocker. She directs the new specialist to the avatar generator. <<Knocker, it'll be a rough approximation until we can get real benchmarking done on you. Reflexes, aptitudes, etc. When we can't do live fire, we use this to practice and review past operations.>>

<<We'll start simple. A basic scenario where hostiles have broken in on a negotiation...>>

The sim fades in - it is a smoky hooka bar. A long rectangular room with one public entrance. Patrons are reclining on pillows in various states of repose and sobriety. There is a low-grade inhalation-vector toxin in the air. It is very familiar to most of the team. Charlotte assigns each person to a spot similar to where they were in real life, Knocker and Cirio get to place themselves before the situation goes hot.

Shrugging, Mickey explains his perspective.

"Charlotte in the size game, I'm fairly sure you'd throw her out or at least pull her with you. And then we'd have a good ten to fifteen seconds to levitate you while Knocker learned what the surface tension of water feels like from a one klick diving board."

Settling into VR with a shiver, he modifies the sim to include something dark and local in front of himself and Jeff. The transition to his mind leaving his body for VR always reminded him of how it felt to shove off the flesh and plunge into the astral.

<<Have negotiations been completed?>>

"Ye know about plans and the enemy? When you meet t'enemy he foooks em right up, t'ats why he's t'enemy." grinning convivially at Charlotte, "At least you learned the lesson."

Knocker slips on her helmet that had been hanging on her belt, "Sims eh. Gimme a bit to set up, but meanwhile a little chatter. Not too good with the virtool stuff meself, so bear with me... of course I'm a halfer ya dumb machine!... oh sorry, but while that darling man ken certainly take care of himself, we are a team on a mission, Yes blast it, I am that good ya damned calculator!.. 'n in this case the mission success probl'y rides on keeping Charlotte safe, of course also t' rest of ooos, yes yes, I know you blasted piece of oooptics this scots halfer ken ignore all those injuries, it's got to be somewhere in yer damned menu tree, I was saying? Oh, yes there it is, I ken quite easily push a trog out the door, 'specially a stunned one, an if ooot the door goes meself, well, I been in worse spots, what.. no no no, just ignore a certain amount of the disabilites ys moronic device! 'n while the wizard may be strong enough to keep Charlotte alooft, I dooubt he can keep the dragon in the air at the same time. That's just wrong, the muzzle velocity on those rooonds is off, here use these numbers. Besides, whatever you though ya could do, I'd be doing something too, whatever it was, and it wouldna be pleasant. Oooh, you have that model, I want to try that one. Main t'ing ya wouldna known what I would do, n' no matter what the sceeenariooo, there's always only three options, Attack, Defend, n' Run, no no, not you you stoopid sprite, give me the full set of skills, n' given I wa t' threat n' Charlotte was the target... well yer a smart one, so I'll leave yer too t'ink on it."

<< Blast, ken someone help with these settings? I've bolloxed t'em good. How do I set it to allow me to fire the damned gooon remotely like I really can?>>