Heart Breakers HQ - dimly lit study, 130th Ave NE & NE 128th Place, Kingsgate, Redmond
Wednesday 8/14/70 23:04:00


"Now you are wasting our time. Why would I invite you here to negotiate for something I don't have? If it was to rob you, I'd already have done so, and without exposing myself personally. The woman you work for believed I have it, or she wouldn't have sent you. She was shown an image capture from video footage, as well as some other disturbing material that I believe was quite convincing. I have better things to do and enough ways to die every day without inviting potential threats into my study and then engaging them in light conversation before ripping them off."

She paused, opened a drawer, and took out a cigarette case. As she opened it, she continued speaking. "Now, if you are wondering whether what I have is of value to you, I don't know. But if you are looking for a certain woman, as I believe your "Ms. Johnson" is, then what I have will provide you with essential information."

She lit the cigarette, leaned farther back in her chair, and inhaled deeply.

Heart Breakers HQ - dimly lit study, 130th Ave NE & NE 128th Place, Kingsgate, Redmond
Wednsday 8/14/70 23:04:10
Krait - Not geting warm with Frosty
PAN Icon offline, Custom hidden (signal 4), Moai offline

Their position wouldn´t get any better, so John stoped kidding around and jumped straight into the negotiations. He had not doubted, that Frosty had something to offer, but he had hoped to catch a glimps of it, before having to make his opening offer. Even though this wasn´t going to happen, he could maybe use this fact to their adventage as well. There where roughly 3 grand left on Ms Johnson´s stick and he could throw in another 500+ in zombie-cred. All together much more then he was really willing to pay. He had no dea what the paydata realy was woth to them, but he had a hunch that Frosty didn´t know either. So he aimed articularly low, to reach an agreement close to what he had in mind with the gangleader. He´d rather offer onetime medical services as well as technical services by himself, then paying any more then 500 . He´d even propose warding services or other onetime magical tasks if that would help acheive the right price. The arcane arts where a valuable comodity, in deed, but he´d only offer this option as a last resort, as he knew Paddy would not be happy with it at all.

Good Cop: "Allright, if you can´t give us any more details about the paydata, all I can offer you is 400 !"

Heart Breakers HQ - dimly lit study, 130th Ave NE & NE 128th Place, Kingsgate, Redmond
Wednsday 8/14/70 23:05:30
Krait - kick ass as a negotiator
PAN Icon offline, Custom hidden (signal 4), Moai offline

Taking another drag, Frosty contemplated the initial offer - or else made a pause for dramatic effect. John have had no idea how the gangleader was going to react to Paddy´s outburst. Streetlevel physical intimidation was not his area of expertese, reading people in any sort of business negotiation was. The way her eyes wanted to move down just for a splitsecond, before she forced them to stop and hold his gaze told him that she was actually considdering his offer, unsure what her information was really worth. Of course she knew as well as he did, never to accept the first offer, but her body language also told him to push for a hard line instead of giving considerable leway to increase the price and negotiate additional terms. Before she opened her mouth to make a counter proposal, John noticed the slightest shadow on her lower lip, as she slightly bit on it´s inside subcontiously, if only for the blink of an eye. Her lips parted, but the elf cut her word with an impatent remark.

Good Cop: "Are you going to give any reply or are You wasting Our time? We´ve got other leads to follow up on."

The spark of anger flared up in her finely modeled artificial eyes. The small slight was a bit of a gambit, but it pushed her to answer with little considderation and the fact that she answered without straying off topic on another gang-machismo tirade, told him that she really wanted to make this deal. Either she had noone other to deal with, or noone she wanted to deal with, as John had guessed from the beginning.

Frosty: "I want more money!"

She had not had enough time to think about how much she wanted - or how much she could ask for without rediculing herself or simply having the oportunity to make some money over a downed gangmember walk away.

Good Cop: "Then give us more details. Everything we know is that you THINK we MIGHT be interested in your data. Show us what you´ve got and we can negotiate a fair price."

He knew she wouldn´t give away anything without payment in advance, but his statement made the point that she had little basis to raise the price. She took another deep drag from her cigarrette, deliberately having them wait for an answer, while she gained some time to think. John was surprised, how easily he could play the coldblooded woman in a business-negotiation. From his first impression and how she had reacted to their intimidation, he would have expected a much harder fight. He allready knew that he would come out of this deal on top. As long as he didn´t botch it, he had her in the sack. The odd thought crossed his mind, that this woman could possibly get him in the sack quiet literally with all her bio-upgrades and stuff, even though she was a human and a whore. Don´t botch it! He forced aside the distraction. He kept setting the pace, dominating the conversation.

Good Cop: "So?"

Frosty: "So you pay me 450. Up front! Deal?"

No way! The way she said 'Deal' told him that this wasn´t her last word. He took the scavanged credstick from his breast-pocket, conected his sleave-cable and edited the content.

Good Cop: "400 , up front, take it or leave it!"

He flung the credstick onto her desk, having it roll to the side of her feet. His voice and gestures made clear this was his final word. She hasitated for another short drag, locking eyes with the male elf. Then she took down her legs from the table and killed the smoke, sending an unsatisfied sideglance towards the second elf, as she picked up the stick and sloted it into a reader build into a corner of the desktop. The certified credstick held the promissed 400 along with a small message, that she apearently didn´t read in detail but rather only checked if it had any imediate relevance.

<<You can keep the credstick. If you happen to need an incompetent male as independant negotiator, someone to get some stuff or techsupport organized or provide electronics modifications, upgrades and repair you can reach me via 1stTimer@mailstorm.evo.>>

Frosty: "I`ll send the info to your 'Johnson'. Now leave!"

Good Cop: "As soon as Ms Johnson confirms the paydata!"

He smiled and put a finger to his ear as if readjusting an earbud. She obviously wasn´t pleased with the outcome, but at least it had not been a waste of time.

<<Two@One [23:05:30-14.08.70]: 400 plus credstick, no service. Got the paydata?!>>

While he waited, John cast a 'you could take off my edge any time' sideglance at Silver.

Back of a cab crossing Bellevue
Wednesday 8/14/70 23:08:32

Carla's comm pinged an incoming message across her AR display - it was the same number that had sent her the earlier, disturbing footage. The file name indicated that this, too, was a video file, with a short attached message.
<<Confirm receipt with your boys. And if there's a next time, come yourself.>>

Of course, she could hardly make a confirmation without first seeing if the paydata was what they were after. She settled into her seat and opened the file, enlarging the image to fill her field of vision.

She was very short and it was dark...once she'd oriented herself she realized that this was probably an eyecam view of someone sitting on the sidewalk of a dingy street - wait - way at the edge of her vision was the burned out Biltmore Hotel sign - the scene was within a block of Ground Zero.

Across the top of the screen in pulsating pink colors a banner proclaimed VelmaVision. In the upper left corner was a menu icon, and in the upper right was a running time-date marker - the seconds ticking by, Carla marked the time as 02:25:XX 07/05/70. There were no other AR overlays in the image.

The view was focused on a young woman in typical Heartbreaker gear. This one was naked under her hot pink duster, and she brazenly flashed the occasional passing car in an effort to get some motorist to stop for her.

After about a minute, a pedestrian entered from the right, also across the street. It was a young woman, extremely thin. Even though Carla knew the appearance shouldn't startle her after all she'd learned, it still took a mental effort to get her mind to confirm that the face was indeed Sister Esmeralda's.

She staggered down the street with a kind of tired dignity. She wore a black leather thong and matching bikini top, clearly visible under a thin mesh mini-dress. Her hair was long and thin. Even from across the street and through the mesh, Carla could count her ribs. She could probably have made out the woman's entire skeletal structure, were she not covered in violent red welts, many oozing blood. The mesh stuck to the wounds as the blood congealed into the wispy fabric.

Though all apparently superficial, the wounds must have made every step and every breath painful.

There were bruises also, many on her face. One eye swollen shut and her lips broken and distended, the nun looked like she'd just emerged from a prizefight.

As she crossed the camera's lens, it kept its focus on the working whore, who accosted Esmeralda with the same exhibitionistic lack of subtlety she used on the cars. But the nun didn't give her a second glance, walking right on past, and out of the camera angle.

A few more seconds passed, still focused on the whore, and just as Carla was wondering if that was it, the camera shifted left and zoomed in on Esmeralda. She was half-kneeling on the sidewalk beside another woman. The other woman did not look like a working girl - she was small and dressed in filthy rags. She was on the ground, half lying down, and there was apparently a terrible gash on her forehead, with blood running heavily down her face.

It was clear that whatever her other proclivities, the nun was still a healer. But as she began to examine the girl's head, a large male form loomed out of the shadows of an alley behind her. Before she even knew he was there, the man - he wore a denim jacket with the sleeves torn off to reveal garishly tattooed and heavily muscled arms, and had a red-dyed goatee and eyebrows under a bald head - had enveloped the nun in a headlock and pulled her off the ground.

Before Esmeralda could react, the urchin girl sprang up faster than Carla had ever seen anyone move, grabbing one of the nun's wrists in one hand and slapping a patch onto the veins below the palm of her hand.

And then a small van with a gaudy "Dairi Baito Hires" logo on the side screeched up and all three disappeared into it.

The van was gone before Esmeralda had even had time to scream.

Back of a cab crossing Bellevue
Wednesday 8/14/70 23:012:20

Carlatook a moment to rewatch the ending of the video. Well, that cleared up some questions - it looked like Esmeralda didn't run off from the church on her own accord after all. One had to wonder, though, whether this kidnapping was set up specifically for Esmeralda or just for any poor sap who happened to stop by.

Carla sent both Krait and Paddy confirmation messages, congratulating them on a job well-done and directing them to get home safely. 400 nuyen wasn't nearly as bad as she had expected; she thought this info was going to cost her an arm and a leg.

Then again, it wasn't exactly a case-breaker; not yet, at least. She'd have to ask Krait to do some investigating of the characters in the video, and if that didn't work out, she might have to pay a visit to Frosty for more information.

She responded Heartbreaker's message:

There very well may be. I received the data; it was a pleasure doing business with you.

Paddy's Flat
Wednesday 8/14/70 02:00:00

The cab dropped Carla and Etain off outside of Carla's former apartment - where the twins were currently staying. The driver made his impatience quite clear as Carla struggled to pull Etain's half-conscious body out of the car (and, of course, he made no offer to help.) Fortunately, Etain was light enough that Carla could manage to help her up the steps and into the apartment, where she promptly collapsed onto the nearest bed.

Certain that Etain wouldn't be moving any time soon, Carla took the opportunity to run over to the clinic and grab a few medical supplies - a few bandages, some rubbing alcohol, and pain-killers, and the community medkit would do. She'd have to return the medkit promptly, though, because it was the best chance the nuns had at healing patients when Carla wasn't around.

When she got back to the apartment, Etain seemed to be drifting in and out of sleep. She obviously wasn't in top condition, but Carla was having difficulty assessing how much pain the girl was in. She didn't want to give the girl any more medication than necessary.

"How do you feel?" she asked, tapping Etain's forehead (where it wasn't bruised) to get her attention.

Paddy's Flat
Wednesday 8/14/70 02:01:36

Etain moved with the speed of a sleeping snail as she came back around at the incessant thumping of the Nun’s finger. Her hand came up to swat away at empty air as the nun’s hand was long gone. She groaned softly as she tried to gauge a proper answer to Carla’s question.

“Oi fale loike someone slammed me into a wall at da pub. I'll be roi dandy oi'm sure. Where's me brah'der?�

Just trying to speak made her feel like she wanted to throw up. She tried to look around and figure out where exactly they were, she could make out some familiar things looking like her and her brother’s gear and decided they must be back at the church. Continuing to look around her eyes moved over the medical equipment Carla had gathered while she must have been out cold.

“You're gonna use dat on me oi take it? Oi suppose oi owe ye me t'anks for gettin' me back 'ere.�

Heart Breakers HQ - dimly lit study, 130th Ave NE & NE 128th Place, Kingsgate, Redmond
Wednsday 8/14/70 23:05:30

When Krait finally took charge of the negotiation, Conall took a quiet step out of between Frosty and the elf. His intention hadn't been to actually up the ante or tension; he simply wanted to make things crystal clear with the whoremistress before she over stepped her boundaries. Now that things were cleared out, and seemed to moved on their own accord, he could let things happened.

Arms crossed on his chest, his eyes not leaving Frosty for a second, the young shaman stood next to Krait, and a bit retreated behind him. His instincts were still razor sharp, and his body ready to react whatever the next few minutes might happened. Even if the woman took their money, she might not actually deliver the goods. And even then, said goods might not even be what they were after.

At any time in the very near future, things could go from respectfully annoying and tensed up, to really bad with lots of scream, blood and bullets. Some part of Conall wished that things would go smooth and fast, so that he could be back to Etain's side as soon as possible. But another part was hoping that things might go sour. It would give him an opportunity to wipe Frosty's insult with her own ripped out tongue, and to show those two bits whores wannabe gangster what it was like to mess with Pure Blood. Conall had been so accustomed his whole life to others knowing automatically who he was, and what that meant, that out of habit, he could simply not think otherwise. The way people talked to him. The way the looked at him. The way the behaved with him. No one would have dared to do such a thing back home. But here, and he still had to constantly remind himself, it wasn't relevant. He wasn't a son of Ulster anymore. At least, not for some time to come.

After about a minute of waiting in silence, while Krait did fluttered pretty flirty eyes with the whore across the room, Conall had already formed his plan of action. If the drek did hit the fan, their only real way out would be to take Frosty as a human shield, mana burn the bitch across the room, break Frosty's neck and then wait funnel in whatever sort of so called “back up� these sex traders had waiting just outside the room. It would be fairly easy to do. Odds were Conall might catch a bit of lead if Silver was fast and sure enough on the trigger... and Krait might not make it out...

The young shaman had started to crack every single knuckle when Carla's synthezied voice pipped-in in his pointed ear. She had the data, and apparently, was quite satisfied by it's content. But Conall wouldn't breath out his final relief before he was back with his sister.

One of his rough hands, nails still crusted with dried blood, went on Krait's shoulder.

“Let's go mate. Oi fear de noight might not be over yet.�

Paddy's Flat
Wednesday 8/14/70 02:02:00

"They're just for cleaning up your wounds - it's nothing serious" Carla assured her patient as she looked around for an empty glass. Back at NYU, they had pain-relief patches that you could just slap onto someone's forearm, but around here, you had to do things the old fashion way.

"Your brother should be on his way home - he'll be here soon enough."

Carla returned to the bed, holding a glass of water in one hand and a small pill in the other. She extended the pill towards Etain.

"Take this; it'll help with the pain," she instructed.

Heart Breakers HQ - dimly lit study, 130th Ave NE & NE 128th Place, Kingsgate, Redmond
Wednsday 8/14/70 23:08:35
Krait - On the road again
PAN Icon offline, Custom hidden (signal 4), Moai offline

After a minute of inaction, John wondered how much longer they´d have to wait for Ms Johnson´s ok. If the paydata was actually worthless and their employer asked them to get back the cash, things could well turn violent for the two elves again. To break the silence and restart a conversation to try and leave the gangers with a better impression of the two males then they initially had, or at least no worst, John inquired about the prospective time untill they could go their way again.

Ms Johnson´s Retainer No 1: "Any idea how long it will take for the paydata to be reviewed?"

He asked the gangleader, at the same time sending the same question to Ms Johnson and asked for a copy. Two more minutes of sporadic, shallow smalltalk, they finaly got green light to go. No doubt, Paddy was eager to get back to his sister´s side asap and the Heartbreaker´s leader had not a bit more interest in spending any more time with the two elves. So he did not waste any more time for elaborate niceties.

Ms Johnson´s Retainer No 1: "A´ight!"

He nodded to his partner, before he sayed a short goodbye to the gangleader and gave a parting look to Silver. Chances where Frosty wouldn´t have any more business with them in the future, quiet probaby prefering to deal with the group via Ms Johnson directly, if another business oportunity arose, but John treated her as a potential, personal business-contact anyway. He was so broke and out of human ressources in this newlife, he´d take any chance, no matter how slim, to improve his lot, as long as the risk involved was resonably low in comparison.

Ready to move one! He´d have to come back to get his backpack from GZ tomorrow or whenever he could spare the time.

Heart Breakers HQ - 130th Ave NE & NE 128th Place, Kingsgate, Redmond
Wednesday 8/14/70 23:09:35


Personable as he was, the former lawyer failed to get anything but a stony stare from the whore-in-charge. The girls that had shown up in the doorway behing them parted wordlessly as the two elves left the room.

Their belongings were on the seat of the bike.

Within a minute of Ms. Johnson's confirmation, they were out of the compound and zooming back through the Kingsgate slums.

Paddy's Flat
Wednesday 8/14/70 02:04:11

Etain couldn't help but let a wry smile twist her lips when the nun mentioned this was "home." Truthfully Seattle was nothing like home but as quick as the smile touched her lips it disappeared as the reality set in that Seattle would soon have to become home since the Tir was off limits to her now.

Shaking the dark thoughts from her head she gratefully took the pill from the nun and chased it down with half the glass of water. Whether the effect was psychosomatic or just a really potent pain pill, her head felt a little less fuzzy and she managed to drag herself from the bed and to the bathroom to try to clean herself up.

Along the way she snagged a clean t-shirt from her dwindling bag of clothing. Closing the door slightly behind her she quickly washed the grime and gore from her hands and stripped off the ruined clothing, slipping into the clean t-shirt before emerging again to the nun's watchful eyes.

" Tanks again. i'll be gran' if yer 'av things yer nade ter take care av instead av babysittin' me."

Paddy's Flat
Wednesday 8/14/70 02:04:15

While Etain was cleaning up, Carla was sending orders to Krait. She forwarded him the footage of Esmeralda's kidnapping along with the accompanying message:

Good work tonight; feel free to catch up on any rest you might need. As soon as you're ready, I need you to take a close look at this video and identify who the characters are and who they might be affiliated with. Let me know of any questions or concerns you have.

::end message::

Etain came out of the bathroom shortly after. "Tanks again," she said in that melodic voice of hers, "I'll be gran' if yer 'av things yer nade ter take care av instead av babysittin' me."

"I think your brother would like me to stay with you until he gets home," she answered. "You're coming along fine, but he doesn't know that, and I don't want to test his temper. Besides, I need to talk with him anyway."

Carla stared unwittingly at Etain's face; the bruises provided a stark contrast to her otherwise pristine appearance.

"You know, you don't have to go on future 'runs with your brother if you don't want to," she noted.

Paddy's Flat
Wednesday 8/14/70 02:15:10

The ride back toward the little Hispanic neighborhood wasn't the most of pleasing things... at least not in Conall's mind. His sleek racing bike had been designed for many things: speed, rapid turns, acceleration, razor sharp agility. One thing it hadn't really been designed for was to carry two passengers. The young shaman had already hasted his sister around on his metallic steed, but that was considering the fact she was much lighter and carried herself in a tiny frame. She wasn't much excess baggage. Krait, on the other hand, wasn't particularly big.... but wasn't a delicate little elf. That and having the tech basically hug him all the way wasn't something he enjoyed very much.

At some point, the man had asked to be let off, but Conall had simply grunted some sort of answer through his helmet. He wasn't quite sure what he had expected him to do. Park off and have him walk out of the Barrens? Get himself a 200 nuyens cab ribe to some drek hole where he could buy favors from young boys? Hell no. Whether he wanted or not, the guy was coming along with him. A lot of things had happened tonight, and odds were the following days wouldn't be any calmer. Conall wanted to get everyone at the same spot so they could pool all of what they had learned. The sooner they got their facts straight, the sooner they could follow up their new leads, and the sooner this would all be over.

When he had taken the job as Miss Johnson's retainer, Conall had intended to serve her how ever long it took. He was in no hurry. He had no where to go and nothing to do with himself. But now that Etain had showed up, things had changed drastically. He couldn't just run around carrying little of anything. He now had to take care of her... which meant getting the job done, getting the cred, and finding other ways to earn them a living.

What Conall did between stashing his bike and getting to his home's door wasn't quite walking.... it wasn't quite running either. Whatever it was, it was done in a pretty big hurry. The closer he got to his sister, the faster Conall wanted to be there. Ever since leaving her in Carla's care, he hadn't gotten any news of her state. Odds were, she was fine... or else his employer would have contacted him. Punching in the maglock's code with one of his still bloodied knuckle, the young elf entered where he had lived for the past few days.

Paddy's Flat
Wednesday 8/14/70 02:15:10

"Oh good, you're back," Carla remarked as Conall entered the apartment. While awaiting his arrival, she had returned the medkit to the clinic and spent the remainder of the time browsing news coverage on the recent shedim outbreak. Noting the anxious look in Conall's eyes as he entered, Carla assured him that his sister was okay.

"She's fine - the bruises will take a while to die down, but she should be feeling perfectly well after a good night's sleep and a meal or two. Speaking of which, I want you to get a good night's rest too; that video you and Krait got for us leaves a couple of questions unanswered, so I want you both to get to work on it first thing in the morning."

Carla slipped on her coat, obviously preparing to leave. Her hands, feeling uncomfortably bare without their customary gloves, were stuffed deep into her pockets.

"You need anything from me before I turn in for the night?" she asked.

Paddy's Flat, near Sancturay of St. Ignatius, The Barrio, Seattle
Wednsday 8/15/70 02:15:20
Krait - Debrifing
PAN Icon offline, Custom hidden (signal 3), Moai offline

Since Paddy had ignored his suggestion to dropp him off in Touristville, John had spent the long ride back to Ms Johnson´s domain riding piggyback on his teammate´s bike. Besides being pretty uncomfortable, he had little oportunity to use the time productively, i.e. byentering the Ground Zero´s node in search of any additional information regarding their objective. Instead he concentrated on keeping his eyes and scann utility open for any tails. Only when their employer sent him a copy of the footage aquired from Frosty, as they closed in on the Barrio, he gave the paydata a first look. As soon as he saw the "Dairi Baito Hires" logo, he started a matrix search on it.

While the two men entered the appartment-building, John noted it´s position in his headware´s map-soft. As Paddy moved to punch in the door´s key-code, John switched his vision to infrared, but turned away his head as his partner actually started to push the buttons, unabledto see any more then the first number. Once they entered the small flat, however, he cast another look on the keypad. Highrated keypads had heated keys, to defuse the difference in temperature from keys being pushed, but that still didn´t make it impossible to find out the sequence of buttons hit on infrared, it only made it harder. From memory John pulled the code, that Ms Johnson had given to Paddy last week, to compare it.

Even though Ms Johnson had dismissed them, John wanted to use the opportunity to talk to the team in relatively high privacy.

Krait: "I am happy that Ayrin will be ok! I think everyone has done a decent job today and everyone has earned some rest, but since we´re all in one place without any strangers around now, we should use the opportunity to do a quick debrifing and I´d like to address some generic issues, as well. First off, can anybody spare a plastic-bag for me to store that baseball-bat?"

Paddy's Flat, near Sancturay of St. Ignatius, The Barrio, Seattle
Wednesday 8/15/70 02:15:22

Carla, not being an experienced operative, hadn't considered taking time for a formal "debriefing." But she agreed that if there were things that needed to be discussed, they might as well be taken care of now.

"I don't know about a plastic bag, but I could get some bandages to wrap it up in."

Paddy's Flat, near Sanctuary of St. Ignatius, The Barrio, Seattle
Wednesday 8/15/70 02:15:27

Between trying to take it easy, the pill the Nun had given her and her general distraction of waiting for her bother to come back it was hard for Etain to pick out just what was behind the Nun’s casual mention of not being a part of future excursions with her brother.

“Lady yer must 'av been belt in de noggin yerself if yer tink oi'm aboyt ter leave me brother's side again. me brah’der goes, oi go. De only time I'd tink aboyt stayin' behind wud be at 'is deman'...�

Loike 'ell i'll let someone else lock me in a cage again ter rot while de warrld passes me by.

Her voice was devoid of malice though the emotional storm flared beneath the surface and she was actually right calm as she spoke but there was no veil of confusion for her message to hide behind. She watched the Nun’s face and waited for a reply that didn’t come. It left the two women at a somewhat silent standoff… Until the apartment door opened. Conall was barely inside the apartment before Etain was throwing her arms around him.

“You're gran' so? Not a scratch on yer oi bet?� She whispered to her brother as she held him close.

She had been so wrapped up in Conall’s return that she didn’t notice Frank had slipped into the apartment behind him until he spoke. Her happiness of her brother’s return was suddenly tempered by the fact that the four of them would be “debriefing� about the hell they had just seen.

She reluctantly pulled away from her brother and sat down on the edge of the closest seat with a soft sigh, settling in for what might be anything but brief.

“Waaat exactly is it yer want ter blather aboyt nigh?�

Paddy's Flat, near Sancturay of St. Ignatius, The Barrio, Seattle
Wednsday 8/15/70 02:15:39
Krait - Debrifing
PAN Icon offline, Custom hidden (signal 3), Moai offline

Sesing that talking about the traumatic events at the GroundZero nightclub would at most be fealt as a necessary evil by one of his teammates or the other, the groups techincal expert decided to address the other things on his mind first.

Krait: "Since this operation is increasingly straying from plain vanilla investigative work, I think we should preestablish some communication protocolls. I have prepaired an exhaustive list of encryption protokolls that we can draw from when everyone has the apropriate algorythems and keys on their comlink. This way we´d be abledto change encryption and frequencies on the run, when our channels are compromized. For similar reasons I´d suggest we establish a networking-protocoll to be used in situations like this night and at the trade show, with all your comlinks subscribing to my com instead of any public wifi routers, which would increase security at least a bit. Another issue is the ease by which your comlinks -and your movement around the sprawl in turn- could be tracked since to my knowledge, none of you is using any spoof-ware or bogus-chips. I´d suggest you have me modify your comlinks accordingly to foil such simple tracking attempts, but I´d have to take them with me and work at it for a night. I know this isn´t a very comfortable thing to do, 1st because you probably don´t have comparable back-up comlinks, 2nd because we don´t know each other that well. Still I think it´s a necessity."

Once these issues had been dealt with, John wanted to make a debrifing and discuss the shedim involvement, before they finaly decided how to procede.

Paddy's Flat, near Sancturay of St. Ignatius, The Barrio, Seattle
Wednesday 8/15/70 02:15:45

"That sounds reasonable," replied Carla. She initially thought these attempts at secrecy were overly paranoid - who would be eavesdropping on a bunch of nobodies looking for a missing nun? And if anybody was eavesdropping, why would they bother doing anything about it?

Obviously, though, this investigation had become a little more complicated since it began.

"About how long will it take you to modify the commlinks? If it won't take terribly long, then we can all be present to watch while you make the modifications. That should help circumvent any issues of trust between us."

Paddy's Flat, near Sancturay of St. Ignatius, The Barrio, Seattle
Wednesday 8/15/70 02:15:58

Conall felt the biggest of load lift off his shoulders when Etain's delicate arms wrapped themselves around his waist. Barely holding his own feelings in check, he took her face between his rough palms and laid a very long kiss on her forehead. Feeling his twin close to him, and sensing that she was indeed alright, Conall sighed heavily out of relief. His usual serious mask and rough attitude disappeared for a moment as he forgot the very world around him. A little over a week ago, he had lost all that was dear to him... only to have it return. Knowing all too well what it was truly like to be alone in the universe, Conall never wanted to experience that feeling again. He wouldn't allow.

When Krait began to speak, Conall's powerful arms released their hold on Etain. Altough now mostly turned to face both Carla and Krait, his eyes followed Etain until she was seated not a few feet away. He gave her a warm smile, paying only slight attention to the discussion that was going on between the two others. He was so glad she was alright, he felt as if nothing could touch him.

Finally, almost reluctantly, Conall swung his attention back to the matter at hand. Tonight, things had taken a very rapid and abrupt turn... but he couldn't quite see how that changed anything. He couldn't see how the shedim outbreak could be linked to their activity in any ways... unless it was something concerning the data they had acquired. The young shaman hadn't see it himself, but by the look on Krait's face, it probably wasn't good news.

He raised both hands in front of him, gesturing Krait to slow down.

“Hoi mate, yer tink yer cud brin' us up ter speed on de content av dat data first, cos oi fale mighty lost roi dis instant?

Paddy's Flat
Wednesday 8/15/70 02:16:00

"It's a video showing that Esmeralda was kidnapped," Carla answered, "It doesn't answer all our questions, but at least it gives us a chance of identifying who her kidnappers are."

Paddy's Flat, near Sancturay of St. Ignatius, The Barrio, Seattle
Wednsday 8/15/70 02:16:05
Krait - Debrifing
PAN Icon offline, Custom hidden (signal 0), Moai offline

John had anticipated some suspicion and if he had his own tools, he´d prefer to keep it as uncomplicated as possible and get the mods done while the whole of the team was watching over his shoulder -probably not knowing what he was doing anyway- but he wouldn´t bring a crew of shadowrunners to his electronics shop.

Krait: "Well, unless you are abled to do the modifications yourself, you probably can´t tell if I´m doing anything I didn´t tell you anyway, but I understand that it would make you feel much more at ease with it. However, I do not own my own electroncs shop. I can use a friend´s tools, but he won´t apreciate me bringing along a load of strangers! ..."

When Paddy interrupted him, the technician nodded and replyed, lowering his signal range to minimum and transmitting the video to everyone present, so Ms Johnson didn´t have to do so.

Krait: "A´ight, we can do the debrifing first, maybe it´s best you watch the flick yourself now. Just so you know, if you want to watch me doing any hardware mods, we´d have to rent a toolkit for a day or two - shouldn´t cost more then 10 or 20 nuyen, though. Think about it."

As the aquired paydata became available to everyone, Krait taged the van in the video with a document labled '2 about DBH' containing his findings about them, while he paraphrased what he had lerned about them.

Paddy's Flat, near Sancturay of St. Ignatius, The Barrio, Seattle
Wednsday 8/15/70 02:18:41

Seconds after Carla had mentioned the content of the data they had just acquired, Conall's commlink buzzed on his belt. He unhooked it, flipped the tiny vidscreen and ran the video once. In the dimly lit studio apartment, it was easy to see the diffused light of the screen dancing on the young shaman's faces, bouncing off here and there on his rough features. His eyes had become two tiny slits, as if by focusing all his attention, he could somehow pierce through the shadows of what he was watching.

As Esmeralda walked into view, it did take a few moments for Conall to recognize her. He had only seen a single holopic of the nun, and it wasn't exactly showing her clad in... well... nothing much. Her skinniness made the young elf feel a bit sick.

“Well, de sorry state she's in does go ter confirm waaat we've gleaned from de club...� he said, still carefully studying his commlink's screen.

After a few more seconds of silence, Conall reattached his commlink to his belt.

“Assay, dis makes our night's outin' much more profitable� he started, showing no emotions whatsoever. Conall's usual mask of dead seriousness in all matter had gone back up.

He squeezed his broad frame between Krait and Carla, pushing the bathroom's door open with his shoulder and chucking his jacket inside the bathtub. Pulling his bloodied tshirt over his head and also throwing it in the bathtub, Conall began to run the faucet to wash his hair, hands and arms properly.

“From de looks av 'oy things are, dis nabbin' wus pure well executed an' planned" he started, running soap over his hands.

“Job tuk a cru av at laest tree ter execute it loike dat... an' it wus either planned ter de teck av de clock, or its at laest a reused MO.�

In the tub, the water started to turn pink.

"Can't say much aboyt de wheelman, or de big guy for dat matter, but de wee lassy moved too fast naw ter be wired. Dat, plus de bloody well planned ambush means dat who ever we're nigh dealin' wi' 'ad sum sort av professionalism. At laest, they nu waaat they're doin'.�

He shook his hands a few time, trying to shake off the water from them. Conall turned the water off and grabbed a nearby towel to run through his hair.

“Fact they tuk 'er alive means dat 'er chances av still bein' breathin' are already dat wee better. But, second fact is, wi' naw deman' av ransom, she cud pure well 'av been chopped up for spare parts long ago... whaich wud entail dat dis wus a random nab aff de street.�

Conall forehead wrinkled itself as he frowned.

“But den again, our doll wasn't in master av shape, so why go after somethin' dat might already be crocked goods...�

He exited the bathroom, rejoining the rest of team back into the tiny living room, trickles of cold water still rolling down his muscular and heavily tattooed chest. Beside a few scars which seemed rather recent, Conall looked to be in perfect shape. No bruises or cuts from his night out.

The young shaman wrapped the towel around his neck, holding both ends in his hands as if he had just simply walked out of a strenuous workout.

“Anyways; al' de trees we barked an' shuk in de club gave us bloody nathin' ter go on. Not a single wee person seemed ter obsess in any ways aboyt our skinny lady, an' naw soul 'ad a rayle ward av interest ter chip in. So al' in al', we learned nathin' dat we didn't already nu .�

He took hold of his commlink again, running the video frame by frame and jotting down notes on the tiny screen.

“Tech-head� he said, nodding toward Krait “Started us gran' wi' 'is diggin' av de logo. we shud luk into de perps seem as. Girl's a wee bit blurry, but de bloke, we've got enoof ter go on.�

He looked up and toward Carla.

“Best tin' is we split up duties dis minute, an' belt de groun' runnin' first light."

He made a few steps toward her.

"We're jammy we've picked up 'er scent again, but de winds shift fast, an' de clock's tickin'. Any second we loose, might be de second dat kills 'er. "

He looked at Krait, and then over toward his sister.

"Whaich makes me tink, especially after seein' 'oy everyone 'andled themselves the-nite... an' oi'm sorry ter say so, for oi mean naw insults ter anyone... but if things a go from push ter shove, none av yer are in any shape shove anythin' ter anyone. an' trust me, if dis goes wha oi believe it might, we'll nade ter shove a whole lot."

Paddy's Flat
Wednsday 8/15/70 02:18:45

"Well," Carla responded, "I'm glad that you're ready to get to work right away, and I have absolutely no objections to that. However, given that you recognize the caliber of our enemies, Paddy, surely you agree that we'll need to be able to communicate securely with each other."

She unhooked her commlink and tossed it over to Krait. The only way she could encourage the other teammates to cooperate with Krait's proposal was to lead by example and show that she trusted him with her own commlink.

Lead by example - that's what she had always been taught, and she had always ignored the advice on the grounds that she never planned on becoming a leader.

As far as Carla could remember, all of her private data was erased from her primary commlink and stored on her back-up, so she wasn't too worried about Krait prying into her personal details. Also, at this point, she highly doubted that Krait would disappear with their commlinks or sabotage them in any way. In the event that he did disappear, though, Carla was sure that she could hunt him down with a little help from Mr. Chu.

"Do what you need to," Carla told Krait, giving him permission to modify her commlink as she pleased.

Paddy's Flat, near Sancturay of St. Ignatius, The Barrio, Seattle
Wednsday 8/15/70 02:19:31
Krait - Debrifing
PAN Icon offline, Custom hidden (signal 3), Moai offline

John nodded to Ms Jhonson, while he withdrew his private Eastern Electronics Moai comlink-headset from his pocket and attached it to a cable, to shred it´s contents and reset the Lotus Multimedia Shangrila OS to default. His highpowered Edit utility made sure to eraze any contents -of which he had multiple copies on his headware and at his safe house- so throughy that no software could restore them without highly specialized gear to scan and analyze the storage chip´s therhodopsin-degradation.

Krait: "I agree that they where well organized and surely not after her organs. Still, the fact that our faction did not receive any demand for ransom, dosn´t mean nobody Emeralda knew did. Also from what the GZ denizens told us, her 'qualities' where considdered quiet rare even among their crowd. Thus she might fetch a good price on the slave market. Maybe some playpartner didn´t want to share anymore or a flick-producer wanted special talent. I guess there are some sickos out there that would get an extra kick out of a snuff-chip featuring a victim that dosn´t fold after one blow."

John took some effort to make a professional expression while he spoke, even though his stomach wanted to turn itself inside out.

Krait: "We might be abled to find someone who knows about that fast gal. We have no nice picture, but the number of smallframed females with extensive reflex-augmentation should be rather limited." The elf glanced at Ms Jonson. "Maybe your medical contact can find her doc, if she has one in town. The big guy should be much more easy to track down."

For a moment, John stared at the other male elf´s bare chest, artfully covered in celtic knotwork.

Krait: "Unless they are nano-tatoos, such extensive body-art is probably custom work. You´d probably fit into that subculture, which might open some doors." His gaze wandered over to Ayrin. "If it´s been done in this plex, the two of you might be abled to locate the needle."

John wondered if the beautyfull girl´s torso was decorated in a similar fashion underneath her cloths, but he kept his eyes firmly locked to her´s.

Krait: "If we can find the home-base of Dairi Baito, we might learn something through that route. Those guys that started the rempage at the club looked like they where into slave trade. Chances are slim, but maybe I can find some hint on the com I collected from the one that attacked me."

On that note, he fished Ms Johnson´s credstick out of his pocket.

Krait: "I payed for the vid with the cash I lifted off that guy and transfered the rest back to your stick. Still it wasn´t enough to compensate for the 130 I spent in the club and the 800 for our gray-skinned escort-service. That leaves the stick with 751 less then you gave me, not accounting for the twin´s expenses. Speaking of the outbreak, I´d like to discuss the disproportional interest those bodysnatchers had in us and the data in Velma´s head. As far as I know, they don´t act like this usually and -despit rumors about voudoun- there are no conjurers out there that can summon or controll them, though there are persistant rumors about socalledmaster shedim out there." He looked straight at Ms Johnson. "You asked about them before we encountered the shedim. What do you know about them?"

Paddy's Flat, near Sancturay of St. Ignatius, The Barrio, Seattle
Wednsday 8/15/70 02:20:01

Doing some sort of slow "cut it out" gesture in front of him, Conall spoke up before Carla could answer Krait's question. He looked straight at the fellow elf, speaking with a rather casual tone compared to his usually agressive one.

"She knows waaat we nu. De Corrupted were jist after bodies, an' awakened ones are usualy prime prizes for their clutches. They proobably jist tuk interest in us cos av de 'idin' oi gave dem. Shedims 'av naw rayle pattern av tinkin, or plannin' for dat matter. They're animals. Pure predators. They didn't 'av any more interest in us than a starval dag for a bowl av chow.."

He slipped the towel off from around his neck, absent mindedly twisting it a few time around his right hand.

"Waaat tuk place dis noight, wasn't al' dat surprisin' whaen yer stop an' luk at it properly. Oi guess someone jist got sloppy wi' their ward work."

He went and sat on the lone bed, pulling a travelling bag from under the bed.

"Whaich is makin' me steck ter me guns even more; yer al' nade ter either start bringin' 'eaters witcha, or at laest, go sum defensive traiin' in yer. Oi can easily protect al' av yer from anythin' dat might com our way, but by de looks av things, we might not alwus be joined at de 'ip, if ye get me drift."

Paddy's Flat
Wednsday 8/15/70 02:20:10

"It's rather safe to bet that we won't be learning self-defense overnight - or, at any rate, not soon enough to find Esmeralda," Carla answered.

"We can do our best to look for some firearms, but ultimately I think we'll just have to avoid using brute force as much as possible."

Paddy's Flat
Wednesday 8/15/70 02:22:41

Etain had tried to watch the video that was being transmitted to her via her contacts with as much emotional distance as she could manage at that very moment. Her stomach turned as she watched through Velma’s eyes the anorexic nun, bloody and bruised being snatched off the street.

She listened as her brother brought up points specifically concerning their lack of defenses should something like the attack at the club happen again and she nodded in agreement, but she wasn’t certain of what she could manage, even with his help in the short time frame they were facing. Perhaps it was time to bite the bullet and force herself to learn spells of a combat variety. Her protection spells would only go so far and if they weren’t enough to help her brother…

Shaking her dark thoughts from her head she needed to focus more on the task at hand and what had taken place at the club hours before.

"Yer al' notice dat de date av dis video is over a month auld roi?" She raised her brow as she looked across the faces that were assembled in the small space. "An' it matches up wi' waaat everyone in de club said, not seein' de nun in over a month." She didn't think she needed to really say more about the likelyhood of finding the nun still alive being slimmer and slimmer of a possibility the more time passed.

She watched as the nun carelessly handed over her own commlink to Frank amidst the conversation and slightly shook her head and rolled her eyes doubting the nun had dropped the same amount of cash she had in the last couple of days to get her name changed and to effectively fall off the grid as far as the rest of her family was concerned. She turned her gaze solely on Frank as she spoke calmly.

"Naw offense ter yer mate, but seein' 'oy oi don't nu yer from adam oi'm not quite ready ter jist 'an' over de nu oi jist dropped ter 'av dis tin' "fixed" so yer can chucker whatever yer plan on doin' ter it behind our backs." She continued to stare at the other Elf in the room, but said nothing more on the subject as in her eyes her stance was final.

"Besides de only tin' targetin' our groop as av late 'as been de shedim. Naw one's threatened us, followed us raun or otherwise outside av sum of yer paranoia.. Seems a bleedin waste av time an' nuyen ter go an upgrade our comms loike yisser suggest. The shedim are a bigger concern. While yer can explain away their interest in me brah'der an' oi since we're able ter tap de mana, it doesn't explain their more than passin' interest in Frank while we were inside dat club."

Paddy's Flat
Wednesday 8/15/70 02:22:50

Carla was getting uncomfortable with all this talk of shedim. Indeed, no encounter with a shedim could be easily forgotten, but she was concerned why her teammates seemed to be so fixated on the subject.

"Shedim sightings are exceedingly rare," Carla commented, trying to move the conversation off the topic, "What happened tonight was a freak occurrance; there's no reason to think that it had anything to do with us or our operation, so don't worry so much about the shedim. The ones we really have to worry about are Esmeralda's kidnappers."

"Now, we're going to need to communicate with each other, and I think Krait's right that we'll need to do itb securely. I have a second commlink that you might be able to secure, Krait, so that'll give us a total of three commlinks to use. Unless, we get a fourth one, or one of you have an alternate means of communication, we may need to stick to three-person teams in the future."

Carla was rather reluctant to give up her back-up commlink too. Not only because she'd have to remove all the personal data on it, but also because it was so low-grade that it might not even be worthwhile to use in the field. Carla could only hope that Paddy would bite the bullet and cooperate.

Paddy's Flat
Wednesday 8/15/70 02:23:15

Letting out a heavy sigh,.Conall pulled fresh black muscle shirt from the bag at his feet, slipping into it as he got back up. Standing, he looked across the room at his twin sister, locking eyes with her just long enough to tell her to drop the topic. The young shaman himself was a tad roughed up by the sudden shedim outbreak, but he couldn't see any connection with their current task... and bringing it up over and again wasn't going to do any good to anyone. He had already asked Carla what she thought of it and was satisfied with her answer.

“Oi believe everyone's feathers 'as been roughed enoof the-nite. waaat 'appened in de black box earlier wus....� he paused a second, looking for the right word “unfortunate. Oi don't 'owl a deadly dayle av knowledge on magical threats in de shedim kind, but oi don't clap 'oy they cud be in any way linked wi' waaat we are doin'.�

He turned to look at Krait.

“An' concernin' 'imself� he started, looking him over from head to toe “Oi guess yer man simply looked loike the easy prey � he finished with a smirk.

His rough hand went to his belt, where he pulled hi commlink off with a plastic “click� before tossing it across the room to Krait.

“Yer break it, i'll snap yisser fingers .� he said, with tone that sounded more like a warning, rather than an actual threat meant to scare the other elf.
A cause and effect quote; to the point.

Sitting back on the bed, resting his forearms on his knees, Conall's forehead wrinkled again, as he absentmindedly bit his lower lip. His eyes suddenly flared up with a certain spark as he quickly looked back up to Etain.

“You remember what that ridiculous parody of an elf said? That queen bitch?� he said to her attention only, in Sperethiel.

In Conall subconscious, the gear had started to turn as he ashed out the night's event. Something was starting to pop back to the surface. Etain nodded, probably a bit unsure as to where her brother was going with this. He shut his eyes, grunting a bit as his hand went to massage the back of his neck. The young shaman had never been one good with memory. Thinking about things weren't really his playing field.

He concentrated, trying to bring forth what the woman had said earlier. Then it came to him. He hadn't really paid any attention to it earlier... anger and annoyance had been running wild around his brain, screwing up his senses and clouding his judgment.

“She said... “will it never end�.... an' somethin' aboyt a slob, or slub... whatever... somethin' aboyt another guy not bein' able ter git paradise oyt av 'is noggin...� he continued in english.

His head turned to the side, his eyes darting toward Carla.

“Oi ain't much de mind reader, but maybe she meant weren't de first ones ter cum lookin' for 'er... Krait cud pure well be roi.... maybe someone snatched 'er for their own pleasure...�

Paddy's Flat, near Sancturay of St. Ignatius, The Barrio, Seattle
Wednsday 8/15/70 02:23:50
Krait - Debrifing
PAN Icon offline, Custom hidden (signal 3), Moai offline

Krait: “Fair ´nuff.� The tech answered as he picked up Paddy´s com. “I´d offer my own back-up, but it´s a cheap piece of crap barely worth the belt-clip holding it.� Looking at his sister, he continued. “I understand your reluctance, though I´m not talking about technomancer paranoia. There are plenty of regular hackers to worry about and the fact we didn´t notice them, dosn´t mean they did not notice us. But I can modify this one for you.� He showed off the Airware scavenged from one of the ‘artists’. “Got it from that possession victim – they looked like they´ve been into the slave-trade, so I thought it would be worth a look. Will take some time to crack it open, though.�

Pausing for a moment he considered dropping the shedim issue, but decided to make one final remark.

Krait: “It wasn´t as much the bodysnatcher´s behaviour in the club that worried me, as their actions across the street, as relayed by the vid the gang-mistress sent us. The fact that they seamed to be after the memory in Velma´s head can hardly be disregarded as coincidence. I just say, we should be prepaired to encounter these creatures sooner then any statistics might forecast. Which brings us back to the protection issue.� He looked at Ms Johnson. “Since our resources are stretched, maybe you could ask the people financing this whole operation to lend us some defensive gear. Leasing guns off the street is a gamble, since you never know what they´ve been used for, but these people should have an interest in not handing us any dirty ware. In case they can´t offer us anything, we´ll have to ay a visit to our friend Charlie.�

He connected Ms Johnson´s credstick once more, to ad a short massage.

If we can put up a whish-list, I´d be happy to get an Ares Viper, extendable button and shock gloves, but since we probably can´t afford to be picky, any pistol would do, as long as it´s clean.

Then he clipped the triad of comlinks onto his belt and gestured that he was almost ready to move, while he already ordered a cab to the edge of the hood.

Krait: “I´d at least need user-access to your coms, to put up the communication-protocols.�

Paddy's Flat
Wednesday 8/15/70 02:23:55

Carla told Krait the log-on information for her commlink; she never used personal information for her passwords, and she never used the same password on more than one device, so she didn't mind saying it aloud.


"By the way, when am I going to get that back?" she asked. "That's the only way you guys have of contacting me."

Sanctuary of St. Ignacius - Clinic
Wednesday 8/15/70 09:00:00

Carla was dozing off as a patient complained to her about muscle pains - or something like that; the Spanish spouting out of the woman's mouth had quickly dissolved into gibberish in Carla's mind.

"I'm sorry, could you repeat that?"

It wasn't just the fact that she had gotten hardly any sleep the previous night - it was also the fact that the previous night had been Hell. Ugh, after the filth she had seen at Ground Zero, the sterile, antiseptic odor of the clinic suddenly seemed a whole lot more attractive.

The previous night's debriefing had adjourned in quite an orderly fashion; Carla, as usual, had trusted Paddy and Krait to get get on with the investigation without demanding to know the specifics of what they were up to. And she didn't care what they were up to at this point; all she wanted was for this mess to be solved. As for Etain, Carla wasn't sure what she was doing. Was she working with her brother? Was she taking the day off? Well, she wasn't getting paid, so it really wasn't any of Carla's business, now was it?

She was completely out of touch with her team at the moment, but Carla expected her commlink to be returned to her by the end of the day. Whether it was Krait or Paddy who handed her commlink back to her, Carla would use the opportunity to catch up on any progress they had made during the day.

Paddy's Flat, near Sancturay of St. Ignatius, The Barrio, Seattle
Wednesday 8/15/70 02:27:01

Once everything was said and done, Conall escorted both Carla and Krait outside the tiny apartment. Proper etiquette, and his job description, would have entailed that he at least offer Carla to escort her back to wherever she called home... but he did nothing of the sort. His previous offers had always been turned down rather quickly, which led him to believe that his employer felt comfortable in her own anonymity. But what had truly brought restraints on his actions was the fact he simply didn't want to leave his sister.

With a simple curt nod, the young shaman closed the door behind his employer and fellow teammate. He simply stood there for a few seconds, his rough hand, blood still encrusted under his fingernails, around the hard plastic handle. Closing his eyes, he leaned a little forward, his forehead and throbbing headache resting against the cold fake wood finish of the door. Conall exhaled deeply, as if his entire being was deflating. The young shaman had seen his exile to Seattle as a sort of romantic adventure. He had almost convinced himself that he was part of a greater scheme cooked up by the very masters of the Seelie Court; that in some way, he was there to serve the greater good. He had not really been cast out of his own world and thrown into the gutter to rot forever. He had been sent to perform a task.

But this was no glorious quest.

He had ruined his sister's life. He had broken what was very dearest to his hearth. His rash decision to cut abrupt the O'Donnell lineage had robbed Etain of any sort of future she might have. She had abandoned everything to be by his side... and all he could provide for her was a weak attempt to shield her from the harsh reality of Seattle's corruption and sickness. He had dragged her into the midst of a sordid snuff affair.

He had pulled her into a world who's sole purpose was to claw at dreams and shred away all light.

Decadence. Murder. Death. Sins. Despair. Loss. Pain.
These would be the daily routine she would now have to face. Long gone were the trivial troubles of their previously shielded life. Long gone was the comfort. Long gone was the certainty that tomorrow would come brightly. Everyday would be clouded now... and the filth that oozed from this city would eat at their core like the very acid rain that fell from the sky.

Conall turned around, resting his back against the door and looked across the room to his other half. His harsh and rough features had somewhat softened. The hardened gaze in his eyes was gone. The young shaman opened his mouth, as if about to speak, but no words came out. Something choked in his throat. His lips sealed themselves. He simply couldn't bring himself to push out the words he wanted. Etain slowly got up from her seat, her bare feet barely making a sound on the bare floor. She came to him, her own golden eyes never leaving his. She approached until he could literally feel her breath on his face. Etain looked at Conall, her own lips parting as if she had felt his concern and wanted to comfort him. But like him, she fell silent again.

Her delicate hand slipped around his waist until she had wrapped him in her arms. Her head came to rest on his shoulder. Conall closed his eyes, feeling something sting at his hearth. She didn't speak, but he felt her words in his own mind.

Shed your concerns brother, I will be alright.

She released him slightly, looking up into his eyes.

We will be alright.

Conall pulled her close to him again, stroking her hair gently.

I know....

Wednesday 8/15/70 07:21:37
Contrary to all the previous nights, Conall barely slept. He would suddenly awaken, short of breath, with worrying cold sweat running down his back and the very taste of bile in the back of his throat. When he did sleep, he would find himself walking, alone, in a forest filled only with dead trees. No animals. No distant cries of birds. Nothing at all. A forest filled with death, it's very soil diseased. He would walk alone on a twisted and narrow path, the remnants of dry thorn bushes preventing him from straying off.

When first light did come, Conall didn't follow his usual rigorous routine. Strangely enough, the tiny rays of sun that filtered through the pulled blinds gave him a sense of comfort. He grabbed a few hours of rest, knowing very well that as soon as Etain felt better, he would have to pull his act togheter and hit the trail of Esmeralda's kidnappers.

Paddy's Flat, near Sancturay of St. Ignatius, The Barrio, Seattle
Wednsday 8/15/70 02:29:00
Krait – Digging through the rubble
PAN Icon offline, Custom hidden (signal 6), Moai offline

After Paddy had surrendered his comlinks passcode as well, the techie had nothing more to say but that they should expect to get their coms back in the morning and that they should be sure to check their chat- and gaming-accounts for any messages. Without any reqest to do so, he did not elaborate on his last comment. He wasn´t entirely sure if his partners would know their account´s passwords –or even the account-names- with their comlinks out of reach, but he considered it a test as much a means to keep up communication. He´d ask Ayrin, but the girl seemed not to be in the mood to simply give him her comcode and he himself was exhausted enough to not bother with any further arguments, so he simply droped the thought with a nigh inadiable sigh. After departing from Ms. Johnson, he walked the short way to the barrio´s edge, where a cab was already waiting for him.

He beamed the cabby a pre-programmed rout, that took him towards Renton in a more or less sinus-shaped line, changing back and forth between Seattle and Tacoma, visiting a drive in restaurant and a coffee-shop, drive in, as well, and taking a few other short stops. Somehow the whole action reminded him of that kid hijacking a robo-cab for several days. He set the ballistic glass deviding the passenger-cabin from the driver to opaque and settled into the relative privacy of the cam (at least the visible one) being covered by a small plastic lid and any possible sounds obscured by a full volume trideo-talk-show – topic: ‘The Matrix Manace’

However there where no sounds to obscure and little sights as well, as the elf just sank into the seat and zoned out into wonderland. Before he set out to work on the Ground Zero´s system, he spoofed his access-ID, to resemble the one of that corp idiot back in the club´s VIP. After a minute of monitoring, he went to the SM-club´s automated beverage ordering port, requested a status report and entered a 216 signs alpha-numerical sequence, when the node asked a pass-code. Instead of showing the report, a secret back-door opened up and let the hacker into the system. A quick scan showed that he had not been noticed.

Paddy's Flat, Sanctuary of St. Ignatius, The Barrio, Seattle
Wednesday 8/15/70 08:23:08

When she woke it took her an extra moment to realize that she was sleeping in the bedroom of the apartment. She remembered vaguely the Nun and the other Elf leaving last night and staying up for a little while talking with her brother saying the things that needed to be said. Etain could remember getting sleepier and sleepier while sitting on the couch and she was near certain that’s where she had fallen asleep. Conall must have moved her to the bedroom so she could be more “comfortable� as she slept.

As if to confirm her early morning theory she could hear him stir in the other room.

If it hadn’t been for the sparse furnishings and decoration of the apartment, Etain could almost convince herself that everything which had happened had been a nightmare and they were just off somewhere visiting temporarily. Sadly reality quickly came crashing back down around her and left her in this dark and dirty place. Even the rays of sunlight that filtered through the dirty windows weren’t enough to comfort her today. She felt unclean, her skin was suddenly crawling with all the muck, mire and filth that Seattle seemed to be built on.

Without any further delay she got out of bed and started a shower, as hot as both her skin and the building could stand. She cleaned up the best she could given the circumstances and was selfless enough to leave some hot water for her brother since he would undoubtedly feel much the same way she did this morning and need a shower of his own. She wrapped herself in what constituted a towel in the apartment and padded out to the living room quietly to not disturb her brother as she pulled what was the last of her clean clothes from her bag and slipped back into the bedroom, shutting the door behind her before getting dressed.

She was still drying her hair with the towel as she stepped back into the living room just to be closer to her brother, she always felt safer there. However the couch was empty and she could hear the steady stream of water running in the bathroom insuring he was not far away. Her brighter thoughts were interrupted by a soft yet firm knock on the apartment’s door. With slight pause and cautiousness she made her way over to the door and looked out the small safety eye to see Frank standing there.

Begrudgingly Etain opened the door and stood in the door frame quite impolitely not inviting Frank in.

“Waaat are ye at 'ere?� Was all she said.

“The work’s done on the items you gave me last night. I figured you could get Miss J’s to her as well.�

“Gran', we'll take care av it. yer shud git sum kip, yer luk loike cr'ahp.� She had a slight smile on her face when she said it, really the other Elf looked just fine like he had gotten a full night’s rest even. She took the proffered commlinks from the tech-head and set them on the small table just inside the door.

“Oi'm sure we'll al' be in touch as soon as we can git de nun 'er commlink. make plans an' go from dare dis mornin'. t'anks for droppin' dem aff an' doin' de work so fast.�

She was clearly trying to get rid of the other Elf without saying as much. Thankfully he seemed to take the hint and said his goodbyes before leaving. It wasn’t long before her brother was exiting the bathroom cleaner than the night before.

“Frank dropped aff de comms, we nade ter git dis ter yisser boss.�

Paddy's Flat, Sanctuary of St. Ignatius, The Barrio, Seattle
Wednesday 8/15/70 08:23:08

Hearing the faint muffled sounds of voices, Conall immediately turned off the water. He felt the cold droplets of water run on his face and down his neck as he did his best to shut everything out. To the best of his knowledge, no one was supposed to come by the apartment... or at least, he hadn't understood so. Slowly, trying his best to avoid making any sort of sound, the young shaman slipped out of the shower and grabbed the nearest towel... choosing to wrap his right hand in it rather than himself.

Wrapping it as tight as he could, Conall squeezed his knuckled white under the moist towel as he approached the door, gently pressing his ear against it.

His heightened senses went from high alert to really damn annoyed when he recognized Krait's voice. Letting go of his improvised weapon with a heavy sigh, Conall got back into the shower, cursing to himself. Turning the water back on with a rough twist of the wrist, the young shaman closed his eyes and went back into his own head. Running one hand over and over in his short cropped hair, letting the water flow down his face, Conall did his best to clear his mind. He had spent a great deal of his night watching Etain sleep. When he had first arrived in Seattle, all he had to worry about was himself. And he knew more than very well that he could take care of himself. But he now had to watch over Etain... Money hadn't been an issue to him at first. He had been confident enough he could amass enough cred doing small errands to keep himself well fed. But now it wouldn't be the case. In a bout of honor, he had forgone Miss Johnson's payment for a roof over his head... which, although a very chivalric act, could now turn rather ugly.

He needed to move her out of this hellhole, and fast. He needed money. Fast.

Exiting the bathroom, Conall came face to face with his sister, who was holding on two commlinks.

“Frank dropped aff de comms, we nade ter git dis ter yisser boss.�

All the wolf shaman did was nod.

Sanctuary of St. Ignacius - Clinic
Wednesday 8/15/70 09:01:13

As Conall's shoulder pushed agaisnt the heavy wooden church's door, he couldn't help himself but smile a little. The thing swung mighty and was holding steadier than the old one. The young elf was far from being a carpenter, but he had to admit to himself he was indeed good with a hammer and nails.

Stepping inside the dimly lit church, his sister tagging along him like his own shadow, Conall stopped a few second to let his natural low light vision take over.

Conall hadn't been quite sure what to do with Carla's commlink at first, until Etain had suggested they drop it at the church. After all, it was a pretty logical suggestion... of all the places Conall knew about, he had seen his employer around this one the most. And if worst came to worst, if they didn't find her anywhere around the church, they could just hand it to her later on.

His left hand holding on to his bike helmet, the right one buried deep inside his jacket's pocket, Conall started to pace up the aisle, looking for some sort of door that could lead to somewhere else.

Cab on the road, somewhere near Sea-Tac International Airport, Perimeter Road, Seattle
Wednsday 8/15/70 04:00:00
Krait – Cleaning the logs
PAN Icon offline, Custom offline, Moai passive (Signal 1)

Less then five minutes later, everything was done. Of course he had worked half of the day, for these five minutes to go down smooth. Not a chance to enter any but the cheapest systems on the fly with the utilities he could afford. The last thing to do before leaving the GZ, was to manipulate the logs to shroud everything he had done in the node. While he did so, he replayed his actions before his inner eye, to make sure not to forget anything.

Admin Access (Hidden) … Status: Green, 4 Programs running [Details], 3/7 Subscriptions active [Details] ... 0 Users (+1 hidden) online [Details] … Browsing for Security Files … please wait … Files Found … Analysis Compleat [Details] … Open Security Files … Status: Green, 4 Programs running [Details], 3/7 Subscriptions active [Details] ... 0 Users (+1 hidden) online [Details] … Browsing for Account Registry Files … please wait … Files Found… Analysis Compleat [Details] … Copy Account Registry … Edit Account Registry … Status: Green, 4 Programs running [Details], 3/7 Subscriptions active [Details] ... 0 Users (+1 hidden) online [Details] …

After creating 2 new hidden backdoors into the system, John went on to search the system for any intel on their target, but found none. Instead, he scored some security reports about the night´s events and even video-footage of the club´s interior covering the whole last night. He corrupted the vids after copying them, to clendestinely destroy any pictures of his team as well as Kayla´s. He whipped the Log Files of any of his activities and even fixed the Exploit and deleated the original account by which he had entered the system, before finally logging off.

As he regained conscious awareness of his physical surroundings, his Agent summerised it´s review of the completed matrix-run with the words ‘Milk Run’. When it had first started to talk this way a few weeks ago, John was shaken by a bout of technomancer-paranoia, until he found out that it had downloaded some slang-vocabulary update in an attempt to create some semblance of personality without the proper software-packages.

The cabby, an ugly indish ork with bad teeth, had already collected John´s late-night snack and coffee. So he had him make a few more turns and got off the ride, to change into another cab after a short visit at the airport, to get rid of any shadows. On his way to the electronics shop, the elven tech-head ate his grilled cheese and steak sandwich. Once there, he programmed his agent to do a few more data-searches and got to work on his team-mates com-links.

The tasks where quickly completed – bogus chips and physical switches installed, frequency- and encryption-lists saved as well as the data mined so fare. He also copied another list of frequencies and encryption-keys onto four optical data-chips as an emergency back-up. Then he tidied up the shop nicely, beamed 4 for the chips and went off to get home. He wonted to get a do some work-out and get a shower, before he brought back the com-links to the barrio.

Sanctuary of St. Ignatius – Clinic
Wednesday 8/15/70 09:05:02

It didn’t take long for both twins to spot the activity coming from one particular hallway off the main sanctuary. Approaching the hall Etain can clearly read the sign marking the way to the “clinic� in at least three languages and pulls Conall by the hand with a renewed sense of impatience down the stairs behind her.

“More than likely yer boss is down dare. She's a doctor roi? Sooner we git 'er de comm de sooner we can be on our way ter fend de lassy our way. We don't nade anyone else draggin' us down, we can use our gifts an' be done wi' dis place.�

Truthfully Etain couldn’t wait to get out of this place, into some kind of decent accommodations where the beds were clean and comfortable and she could take a long hot bath if she wanted. She didn’t know just what she was getting herself into chasing after her brother like she did, and for a moment she wondered if she had gotten herself in over her head. As quickly as the thoughts entered her head she brushed them aside, she had to be strong for her brother, she had made a promise she would be alright.

Turning left at the bottom of the stairs she was hit with the strong smell of antiseptic and the more subtle foul stench of lingering disease and infection. She waited only long enough to let her eyes scan the clinic for the Nun and to let Conall join her at her side. Not wanting to startle the nun or make for many more questions she loudly cleared her throat to get Carla’s attention.

“Excuse me miss, oi tink yer dropped dis earlier dis mornin'?�

Etain pulled out an familiar looking commlink from inside her coat and extended it towards Carla.

Sanctuary of St. Ignatius – Clinic
Wednesday 8/15/70 09:05:05

Carla took a moment away from her current activity to accept the commlink. Of the few people in the barrio who bothered carrying one, most of them were careful to keep it secret for fear of being mugged. Fortunately, Carla had little need to take such precautions; most of the locals had the impression that Carla's commlink was vital to her medical practice, and nobody dared cripple the abilities of the community's chief doctor.

Taking the commlink from Etain's hand, Carla switched it on and checked for any anomalies. All the basic settings had remained unchanged, and as far as she could tell, none of her data had been tampered with. It was only after verifying that everything was intact that she turned her attention back to the elves and spoke:

"Thank you. Have you two already set your agenda for the day?"

Sanctuary of St. Ignatius – Clinic
Wednesday 8/15/70 09:05:17

Entering the clinic, Conall instinctively covered his mouth with his sleeves, as if he was getting into a disease ridden pest nest. He didn't give the few occupants of the place more than a passing glance, caring more about getting his job done and getting out of here... than anything else.

When Carla spoke to them, the young shaman did lower his hand a little, but just enough to be heard.

“We're gonna belt 'ard on de trail av de tatooed guy. Sniff de streets ter clap if we can catch a scent.� said Conall, in a very matter of fact tone.

The young elf glanced left and right around the small clinic, as if checking for people eavesdropping. He stepped forward, getting very close to Carla and passed one of his arm around her shoulder, gently pushing her away from everyone. Now next to her, he dropped his voice down a little, almost whispering into her ear.

"When we fend de our new... lads... do yer 'av any instrucshuns as ter waaat oi shud chucker wi' dem?� he said for her only, his voice sounding dead serious.

Sanctuary of St. Ignatius – Clinic
Wednesday 8/15/70 09:05:20

"You do whatever is necessary to get the job done," Carla answered quietly. "Keep me updated on your progress as much as you reasonably can, alright?"

Sanctuary of St. Ignatius – Clinic
Wednesday 8/15/70 09:05:24

Conall gave his employer a curt nod, released her from his grip and headed for the exit. there was a lot to be done today, and very little time to do so.

Krait's place, Martin Luther King Jr. Way S & S Ryan Way/Boeing Rd
Wednesday 8/15/70 04:42:11


Once he'd showered, Krait was seriously tempted to take an hour's sleep before reviewing the results of his matrix queries. But just as he started to relax, he realized he had important business behind the gray door. Going through it, he entered the gray world, where the skies above and beneath and around him were all gray. The parrot was gray too, so he didn't see it until is spoke. "I don't sound like a parrot," it said. And it was true, it spoke with a definite pigeon accent. "Looks can be just so deceiving," it warned. Krait wasn't much of an ornithologist, but he somehow knew this parrot was an African Grey. It was gray. The wolf was gray, too. A big gray wolf with a luxurious gray coat. The African Grey said, "Some things you think you saw, but you didn't really." The gray wolf said in a gray wolf accent, "The strong have no need to hide." Then another voice came from the gray wolf. It spoke with a fox accent and said, "Some things you just never do see." Krait was impressed with the gray wolf's impersonation of a gray fox, but then he saw something moving inside the gray wolf's thick coat of gray fur, and saw a flash of russet in the gray world of gray fur, and realized he knew the truth. Then he left the gray world and took a nap.

Save-House, Martin Luther King Jr. Way S & S Ryan Way/Boeing Rd, Seattle, Van Asselt
Monday 08/15/70 09:32:09
John – What´s next?
PAN Icon offline, Custom hidden (Signal 2), Moai passive (Signal 2)

After John had delivered the commlinks and taken appropriate precautions to shake off any tails, he had collected his forensics kit from the stash and gone home again. There he collected samples from the blood sprinkled over the baseball bat, blood from the possessed artist at the Ground Zero club. Then he cleaned the bar-tenders melee weapon and wrapped it into a fresh, clean plastic bag.

09:30:00: Time for Paddy´s and Ms Johnson´s commlinks to ring. He had programmed them to do so and display his hidden message.

<<Changes:

-Will automatically produce a bogus access-ID. Makes you harder to be followed.
-On/Off-Switch can be used to select Off, Offline, Team, Hidden, Passive or Active Mode.
-Communication-Protocols for synchronized changes of frequency and encryption-key.
-Datachip with alternative Backup Communication-Protocols, keep it offline at all times.
-Regular up-keep and service is done, everything´s performing fine, no signs of infiltration.

Advice:
*The Team-Mode restricts all communication of your commlink to one hub that´s hardcoded into a chip. *Current target hub is my com. It should be used in all field operations while we are within signal range.
*The bogus-chip should be active at all times, but if you need to turn it off for some reason, you can do so in the system menue.
*You should restrict your Signal Rating to the needed minimum, to reduce risk of infiltration.
*All team communication over the matrix –as opposed to direct wireless connections- will be routed via an anonymous online service. Don´t use commcodes directly, so anyone intercepting dos not know automatically acquire them.
*Until I organized Encryption-Software for everyone, keep telecommunication to a minimum.
*Regularly check the In-box accounts that I established for you, in case I can´t use standart means to contact you.

The Communication-Protocols should be used for all Team-Communication.

Message will be deleated automatically when closed>>

For a moment, he sat on a chair, uncertain what to do next. He still felt unsettled by last night´s dream. Or was it a dream? He analyzed his simsense-module, to make sure he had not caught any troyan, virus or viral ad. From there he started to check every single bit of ware in his head. He searched the matrix for any hints on ‘the gray door’ and ‘the gray world’. He could clearly remember where he had encountered these phrases before.

He had read ‘Behind the Gray Door: Williams, Secrecy, and the Federal Grand Jury’, Published by New York University Law Review, 1994, 69 N.Y.U. L. Rev. 563 (1994) while at Harvard Law School. It had been May the 16th, 2050. It was a Monday, it was windy and John didn´t have to work that night. Balestra and Guinee, two of the cheerleaders came over, to do some homework for a business class. They had a vegetarian family pizza without onions and later on, they watched ‘Titanic’, an old flat-vid from beyond the crash. It was a good night.

He missed Alice.

‘The Gray World Assumption’ was something he had encountered just a few hours ago, when he had browsed his Edit Help while working on the Velma Vision flick.

While those where the most likely sorces of his ‘vision’ -mixed with his stress, paranoia and the impact of having some wolf-dude transform in front of his eyes- it where the results of his search leading to an old goosebumbs novel, Buddhism and Jibanananda Das, a dead Bengali poet, that kept his attention.

Normally, he´d talk to Manolo about this kind of things, but there was no Manolo, there was no one he could talk to. He was just over-worked, he needed some rest! Can I get rest, while Emma is out there? Could he get rest, while Esmeralda was out there?

For a moment, he sat on a chair, uncertain what to do next.

Save-House, Martin Luther King Jr. Way S & S Ryan Way/Boeing Rd, Seattle, Van Asselt
Monday 08/15/70 10:08:00
Targor – playing Dawn Of Atlantis
PAN Icon offline, Custom hidden (Signal 2), Moai passive (Signal 2)

He decided to relax a bit, so he did something he had not done in 3 months, he wirelessly picked up a professional law journal and browsed the latest publications for a while. Quickly the accustomed process calmed down his racing thoughts and for the first time in months, his mind was at ease again, for some precious moments.

After half an hour of reading, he deviated some attention away from the article at hand and opened his Dawn Of Atlantis account. Using the Targor avatar, he visited the Midland high temple and left a message for Snake Bane alias Paddy.

Honored Snake Bane

I have left information in your commlink´s note pad, that may help you on your current quest. Most likely to be usefull is the list of 27 parlors that could have done the work. There is a load of other information I have mined, but that´s less likely to be of any immediate help. I also included a compilation of this city´s filthy and dark erotic scene, this library might help if you procede quickly and touch those topics in your legwork, as well.

Good hunting, Targor

Then he changed his avatar and looked if one of his Wolverine Budies was online. Finding none, he applied his commlink´s massive processingpower and semi-intelligent search algorhythems to find some gamer tips for the current quests on DOA and left them a message containing his findings.

Sactuary of St. Ignatius
Monday 08/15/70 13:15:00

Upon glancing at Krait's message, Carla immediately recognized a bunch of technical mumbo-jumbo and inferred that it was probably just a report on the upgrades made to her commlink. Pushing the message to the side, she waited until her lunch-break to examine it in closer detail.

When her break finally arrived, she took a few minutes to read over Krait's advice. Carla wanted to send out a test message, but given that Krait had recommended minimal activity, she wasn't sure whether that was such a good idea. It struck her as rather odd that, although she was imploying him, she nevertheless felt obligated to follow his orders. It bothered Carla that she was so compliant - not just with Krait, but with people in general. Perhaps she could work on that later...when fewer lives were at stake.

She felt terribly useless at the moment, so Carla spent the rest of her lunch trying to rationalize why she was eating a hard piece of bread on a chapel doorstep rather than looking for her kidnapped friend (which she was doing, ultimately, so she could eventually pay the Black Cat to help her with the shedim problem.)

Wait a minute, why the Hell did she trust the Black Cat to help her anyway? Sure, being the naive idiot she was, she had been swayed by his charisma back when she first met him, but this guy was a professional mecenary - a profiteer!

And besides, who said she needed his help anyway? Paddy managed to take down an entire crew of shedim on his own, and judging by his low compesation request, his magic abilities couldn't be that spectuatular or out of the ordinary. If she was careful to stay away from places like Ground Zero, and if she could keep a decent combat mage by her side for back-up, then she might be able to deal with this problem on her own.

She certainly did care about Esmeralda, though, so Carla definitely intended to see this search through to the end. But she was seriously considering reevaluating her long-term plans.

Sanctuary of St. Ignatius – Clinic
Wednesday 8/15/70 09:09:56

Etain chased her brother up the stairs of the clinic and back into the sanctuary, he was moving with a determination that occasionally she found hard to keep up with. She could tell he had a plan in mind but getting him to pause long enough to explain it to her might be more difficult than executing the plan itself. She could see the determination in his steps and the tenacity in his eyes.

“So what's de plan? yer 'av dat luk in yisser mince pie loike you've got a plan, but you're gonna 'av ter share it wi' me if you're gonna nade me 'elp.�

Her voice seemed to snap him out of his headspace long enough to slow down and bring his sister up to speed on his plan to actually take Frank’s advice to start visiting various tattoo shops around Seattle, and likely the Barrens, looking for the artist who did the work on the guy who grabbed Esmerelda off the street.

She was quick to agree that it would be a good place to start, and between the two of them they could likely get any answers they were looking for as well as ferret out just who was attempting to mislead them along the way if they asked the wrong questions or got too close to a guy who didn’t want to be found.

“We shud go back ter de apartment an' git a gran' list av places ter go before we jist start drivin' raun randomly. Plus we nade ter luk de part, we go lookin' loike two Tir nobles they're not gonna gie us any info we nade.�

Agreeing with his sister’s logic, the twins made a quick stop back to the small apartment to prepare before hitting the pavement for what would likely be a very long day of searching.

Slave to the Needle Tattoo Shop – Touristville
Wednesday 8/15/70 10:45:51

As Conall parked his bike and the twins started up towards the door they were both counting their blessings that they had received Frank’s message before they got too deep into their search of tattoo shops on their own. He had provided the twins with a much shortened list with high-probability targets for them to check out on foot.

It had taken a bit of cajoling and convincing to get her brother to listen to her about his appearance, but the finished product was worth it. The twins didn’t appear to be Tir nobles so much as some level of upperclass gutter trash as they walked into the shop. If it was possible, Conall looked more menacing with a leather jacket over his bare chest, showing off a multitude of authentic and intricate Celtic tattoos. Etain walked beside him with platinum hair streaked with vibrant shades of red, purple and black, heavy makeup and an oversized army jacket.

Inside their senses were assaulted by a heavy haze of blue smoke that came from multiple sources inside the shop and wasn’t regulated to just the legal varieties of smokable materials. Etain could identify the sweet smell of Deepweed and it pulled at the various now darker strings inside her, reminding her it felt like it had been forever since she last got high. She clenched and unclenched her fists multiple times within the sleeves of her jacket as she tried to push the thoughts from her mind as they approached what was the counter of the shop.

The lighting was a mix of dirty bare bulbs and some natural light coming in from the grimy windows up front. The walls were lined with photos of clients, their work along with examples of what each artist could do. The girl behind the counter looked like it was the last place she wanted to be at that moment. Her blonde dreadlocks framed otherwise pixie-like features buried beneath nanotattoos and hunks of metal, a lit cigarette hanging from her lips.

“Whadda want?� The woman grunted, and Etain took that as her cue and stepped up to speak, placing their printout of the detailed arm sleeve on the counter she forced herself to tone down her Irish lilt as she spoke.

“Looking fer the artist responsible for this work." Etain flashed the photo of the guy's arm, noting her particular interest in a Medusa type figure making up the majority of his bicep. "Figure it’s time fer me t’get some work done and I like the styles of their work. Any of it look familiar to ye?� She pushed the photo closer to the girl to invite her to pick it up and study it and waited for her answer.

Save-House, Martin Luther King Jr. Way S & S Ryan Way/Boeing Rd, Seattle, Van Asselt
Monday 08/15/70 12:00:30
John – What´s next?
PAN Icon offline, Custom offline, Moai passive (Signal 2)

Deciding that roughly an hour of downtime would have to suffice for now, John lost no time, to take in a nice meal and visit the bathroom, before he layed down, to turn his attention to the artist´s commlink he had found last night. He turned it on and connected it to his own customized gear - prefering the optical fiber connection over a wireless one, even though his home was extreamly secure for residential standards. He carefully analyzed the device for system and firewall ratings, databombs and alert status, before entering full VR and beginning to probe it with the intention to gain admin access.

Since the task was fairly low risk, with no direkt connection to the outer virtual space and because it became pretty boring after a short while, John decided to tend to some other routine tasks on the side, mainly finishing the crack for the Sniffer Tool that he had started yesterday. In regular intervals, he checked a vidfeed from one of the offline cams installed in his safe-house and connected to him by gas-fiber as well. That feed showed a screen where any incomming messages or calls would be displayed, so John could stay in touch with the outside world, without connecting directly to it.