Akuma takes a seat and grabs something to munch on.

"Yeah... I'd rather not have to go back to that place either. I wasn't liking the idea of a female strip club to begin with, but that place was all men!"

"It's so wonderful to know that you two are secure in your manhood," Gwyn says as she takes a seat. "And I wasn't mincing words. I TOLD you it was male strip club, meaning men stripping. It's not my fault you mis-interperetted me," she adds, trying not to laugh. "Anyway, is there anything you need or want us to do to help you?"

Akuma shrugs, but looks to be fuming a bit on the inside.

"Not really yet, what did you guys come up with?"

'We know they were being held at the motel, but they wised up and moved on after we walked by the fist time, the second time we got thier number from the clerk."

"You do realize this number could be from anywhere, right? Even though it looks like it has the same area code, it could just be a throwaway number." Drying his hands, Lex takes the number and pulls out his deck. "Might as well start off with something simple"

Jacking in, Lex zips over regular accounts to the 'white pages' to see if the number's listed anywhere.

@All
As Lex plugs in, you see his body go slack as his mind begins to attack the problem at hand. After about 40 minutes, Lex comes back and unplugs, "Good news and bad news. Bad news: I couldn't find the exact number. Good news: I know that it's a VAT&T number so I should be able to find out more about it with a little bit of work.

@Lex
Jacking back in, you quickly locate the public host for VAT&T. Exploring their host for a moment, the Iconography on the public side is a simple storefront, with icons, probably programs, ready to assist you in your telephone or cellular purchase. The room is long, with around 50 different models of phones. At the back of the store, there is a door marked "Employees Only" in orange letters.

Straigthening your bowler and fixing your monocle, you move towards the door. Pulling a deck of cards from an inside pocket of your vest, you hang them in the air behind you. As they begin to automatically perform a card trick behind you, you see the icons of the host's security begin to follow the cards and lose sight of you. Quickly pulling another card from your pocket, you jimmy the lock on the door and slip inside.

The secured host of the VAT&T network is, interestingly enough, shaped and modeled after a Treehouse. The vast, sprawling tree -- an oak it looks like to you -- seems to have house nodes located throughout the tree. Staring at it for a while, you notice that it seems to be laid out roughly like a topographical map of the area. Each node may represent either cells, stores, offices, etc.

The icons around you are most often styled after tree creatures. You see birds flying from node to node, probably cell calls judging by the frequency and quantity of them. There are also some squirrels leaping from limb to limb which confuse you as to their purpose. It seems that any humans on the system have more generic icons, probably provided by their terminals.

Shrugging your shoulders for a moment, you pull from your vest a third deck of cards, this one representing your browse utility. Spinning as you release the cards you program your utility to search for the cell that the number given to you by Gwyn is currently located within. That should significantly narrow the search. Your cards move out from you and begin to move about in the trees. You only have to wait a few moments until one returns, the Ace of Diamonds. The others re-spawn in your jacket pocket and the Ace leads you towards an access node in the lower branches of the tree.

@Lex
As you approach the access node for the cellular network currently containing the number, you find in the branches of the tree a small treehouse. Entering it without much difficulty, you see the the inside is much larger than the outside would represent.

Inside you appear to be in a sphere. The door you came in is still behind you glowing slightly to mark an exit from the node. However, all around you you see glowing lights, some connected by lines -- probably connected calls within the cell. As you examine the system, the Ace continues to lead you forward, and as you get "closer" to the edge of the sphere, more detail is provided about the locations within each cell. The Ace leads you to a specific light. You can see that it is currently located in cell #2037 within the range of tower 10.

Keeping that information in mind, Lex performs a Graceful Logoff. Shaking his head to clear his mind as he gets up, Lex looks over at Gwynn. "Trying to track down j-random cell phone is like looking for a needle in a haystack. I've narrowed it down to an area, but we need to try something different. I'd probably have an easier time if whover's got this cellphone was using it at the time I was searching. Any thoughts?"

Gwyn thinks a moment and then says, "Why don't we just call the number and try and keep them talking long enough for you to trace the call. They gave it to the hotel receptionist, so a woman calling them wouldn't be too suspicious."

"Can you estimate how the long the trace will take you?" she asks Lex.

"I guess it would just depend on the location of the cell, and how lucky I get. Let's give it a shot. Gimme a minute to get back in, then call'em up. I'll follow what I can."

With that, Lex settles back down and jacks back in, making his way through the grid to where he was last.

Gwyn takes a minute to think of what she'll say and then pulls out her cell phone and dials the number.

@Lex
Jacking back in, you have no trouble logging back onto the VAT&T cellular host. As the tree appears before you once again, you re-orient your deck on the cell node that you accessed before and attempt another log on. This one, like the last one, is successful, but something changes.

As you move into the treehouse that you found before, a small swarm of bees seems to follow you. They aren't moving in a threatening fashion, but they do reappear with you in the cell node. Nothing seems out of the ordinary, yet, but it's only been a few seconds so Gwyn probably hasn't made her call yet.

@Lex
Straightening your monocle and looking more closely at the swarm of bees, you're code begins to analyze their movement patters. It's definately a reactive Scout program but beyond that you don't get much more.

@Lex
You attempt to position your self next to the swarm, ready to swat it against the wall of the "treehouse" with an oversides playing card. However, it seems to anticipate your manuever and as you side step, it moves in kind and ends up surrounding you in a swarming mass of angry insects. As the swarm engulfs you, you work feverishly to keep them from stinging your icon.

@Lex
With a sigh of relief, your oversized "fly swatter" gets in a lucky swing and you mash the bees up against the wall. Pulling off your hat you collect the code sequences within it and place it back on your head.

@Gwyn
You dial the number that the goth chick at the motel gave you. The phone rings a few times before a gravelly but femail voice comes on the phone, "What!?"

@Lex
As you manipulate the data streaming out of this cell into others, your browse utility flags one datastream coming in. Following the data to it's destination, you notice that as you get "closer" to the "floor" of the node, the grey, featurless landscape comes into focus and you can see streets a highways. Still following the datastream, you see it connect with tower 10 as you expected it to and bounce out towards a specific cell phone.

"This..this is the receptionist...from the hotel. You..you gave me this number and said I should call if anything....or anyone came around asking questions." Gwyn says, stammering to sound scared. She waits for the reply.

@Gwyn
The voice on the other end of the phone sounds impatient, "Yeah, you just called. What do you need now."

"Look..don't get mad, ok? I..I'm sorry to keep bothering you. I..I'm just trying to do what...what you asked, you know?"

@Gwyn
The voice on the other end of the line sighs, "I won't be mad unless you don't tell me why the hell you called this time. I'm not here to keep you busy if your shift is boring you, missy."

@Lex
The datatrail coalesces and you can almost hear the conversation streaming back and forth. From the "tide" of the data moving along the stream, you can tell that someone on the other end of the line has picked up. In just nanoseconds, you fly in close enough to see the end of the stream, a small slave icon of a cell phone. Looking around you quickly orient yourself on the location of this slave on the network. Armed with an address, 211 Hamilton Blvd. in Allentown, you turn to log off the network and see a large bird of prey diving down at you obviously prepared for combat.

"Well, you see, it was those two female detectives. They...they came back about ten minutes after they left the first time. I...I don't know why. I didn't tell them anything though! So they finally left, but they gave me their card. I just wanted to keep you posted...like you asked, you know?"

@Gwyn
"Really," the voice on the other end comments. "What's on this card that they gave you, hun?"

"Um...the one detective's name and a phone number, to her office I guess."

@Lex
The hawk dives at you raking its talons across your icon's face. You can feel the memory leakage where its viral code begins to infact your persona and it seems as if time slows down for you compared to the rest of the host. The hawk lifts away from you and returns to the sky for a second assault, but in nanoseconds between when it liftsoff and when it turns to attack again, you tell your deck to get you the hell out of there. As you fade off, you see the trees, formerly a green color shift to a nice autumnal yellow.

Pulling the cord from your datajack you look around at the others. Gwyn is still on her cell phone. Akuma and Rowan seem to be listening to Gwyn, somewhat interested in what she's saying, "So what did I miss? Oh -- and I hear there's a nice place we should check out in South Allentown," you say with a smirk.

@Gwyn
The voice on the other end of the phone pauses for a moment, "Hey. Wait a minute. Who is this? How did you get this number?"

Gwyn does her best to sound like she's burst into tears and replies, "What the fuck, man! You gave me this number!! I knew I shouldn't have called. The whole world is against me and everybody hates me. I was just trying to do what you said and you have to go and call me a liar. FUCK YOU!"

And she hangs up.

She turns to Lex completely composed. "So, where to?"

"211 Hamilton Blvd. And by the sound of your little conversation, we'd better get going...now." Pretending his head is an old toy from the 20th century, Lex gives his head a good shake to clear his thoughts as he moves to grab his Ares and jacket.

You see Lex walk down the hall, turn around, walk back to his deck, sit down, and jack back in without missing a beat. "I'll only be a nanosecond," he says with a quick smile before his face goes slack.

Gwyn shrugs at Akuma and Rowan and leans against the wall to wait for Lex.

Akuma makes sure all his gear is in line, then gives a nod that he is ready.

@Lex
Hitting the yellow pages directory for Allentown, you search takes only moments. It looks like the whole area around 211 Hamilton is commercial warehouses. There are a lot of "missing" entries in the yellow pages which means the lots are vacant, not in use, or the people using them have unlisted phone numbers.

Lex shakes his head as he comes out of the matrix. "Looks like this 211 Hamilton is in the warehouse district. We should be prepared for surprises." He makes his way down the hall (this time all the way down) and packs his Alpha up, including some extra mini-grenades. Checking his Browning in his holster he comes back into the living room. Alright, we'd better get moving.

@All

Exitting Lex's apartment and use the bike/car combination, you hope onto route 22 and head towards Allentown. The road seems clear tonight, the go-gangers who claim the aging highway as their turf seem to be taking a night off for some reason or other. Traffic is light, and the partly cloudy skies hide the moon more often than not, which is just as good to for your sensibilities.

Pulling off the highway and heading into the city proper, you avoid the center city where the grid might be able to track your movements and stick to the slums that surround the business district almost as a shanty town would surround a castle. With little incident you find yourselves on Hamilton Blvd. Travelling down the block you drive by 211 and see that it is a smaller building nestled in between larger warehouse looking structures. There are no lights on but also no obvious active security.

"Let's find a darker place to park and use the unlighted entrance to get in," Gwyn suggests.

"Here's hoping they're still there. You don't think your little phone call tipped them off in any way, do you?" Lex checks his vest and alpha one last time as the car pulls around.

"I dunno. I think my last tantrum probably confused them. Let's hope they didn't have the time to move, though, if I did."

Akuma checks his weaponry to make sure everything is in place, then scans the area for signs of any hiden security devices or personel.

@Gwyn
The only entrances that you have seen to the building is the door on the front with the soft blue light above it and the truck/loading dock on the other side. You haven't seen the back, yet, though. And, there's always a window.

@Akuma
You don't see anything on the outside of the building. It's in relatively good repair and at closer inspection it looks like there may have been a sign or a nameplate above the door with the light but it has since been removed. Without going around the building or looking into windows, you can't really get a better idea of passive security might be on the premesis.

As you stand to watch, however, you could have sworn that you saw a figure on the second floor in the left hand window above the door. It was just a shadow and your logical side tells you it could have been a bird or something casting a shadow on the building, but looking up, the partly cloudy skies are hiding the moon's light pretty effectively .......

"Let's check the back of the building for an unlighted entrance," Gwyn whispers as she gets out of the car.

"Hang on... I think I see something..."

Akuma zooms his vision in on that window and cycles through all his eye mods checking it out.

@Akuma
What ever you thought you saw, isn't there anymore. Quickly glancing at all of the windows you can see shows you nothing but the darkened interior of the building. The magnification helps to show you what looks like a large room on the bottom floor, probably for storage.

Akuma grunts. "Alright, lets move. We'll circle around back and take a look there first. I'm point. Stay behind me."

Without another word he begins to move across the street looking as natural as he can. He then blends in with the shadows and creeps slowly towards the target building, stoppingat the alley between the target and the building to the left. He then peaks down the alley to see if it is clear.

Gwyn follows close behind.

Lex does the same, scanning the windows of the building as he moves behind Akuma and Gwyn.

@All
The building remains unchanged as you move around the west side of the building and onto the backlot. Behind the building is a small parking lot, accessible from the road behind the building. There are two cars currently in the lot, both Chrystler-Nissan Sentras in dark colors -- blue or black. The rest of the lot is empty but for a few lights that create more than enough shadows to help to keep you all hidden. As Rowan brings up the rear, you begin to inspect the back wall of the building and find what is probably an employee's entrance. A similar blue light hangs above the door, but unlike the front door, this one seems to have a burnt-out bulb.

Using the shadows created by the intermittent lighting for cover, Lex moves to the closest car and takes a peek inside. After a once-over, he makes his way towards the second car and does the same.

@Lex
The cars seem to be normal non-rigged cars. Neighter has anything out of the ordinary inside of them. Holding your hands above the hood, you feel no heat, so they probably haven't been used very recently. Considering the air temperature for a moment and letting your Math SPU do the calculations, you figure that they've been here for at least two or three hours. May have been longer as well.

Akuma sneaks up on the back door and inspects the maglock to see how difficult it will be for him to bypass it.

@Akuma
Inspecting the lock shows it to be an Ares model maglock with keycard access. It's an older model, probably not upgraded for a few years, so you don't foresee any difficulty in removing it.

Gwyn asks Lex and Akuma to watch her body real quick while she projects into the building. "I'm going to find out exactly where in the building they are while you work the maglock, that way we can get to them quicker," she says to Akuma. She sits with her back against the wall and in a few seconds goes limp.

Akuma nods and turns his attention to the lock as he takes out his toolkit. It takes him a minute, more than enough time for Soluna to return from her Astral look-around and for Lex to get back to the group from checking the cars. When everyone is ready, Akuma smears a little grease on the door hinge and then slowly opens it and creeps inside.