Blackjack notices Danny making fun of her and pauses her activity when she does. She sticks out her tongue at him for a second and says, "Cheater!" following with a giggle.

Blackjack takes Grendel's suggestion and says, "Base, Six. Yeah, I can drive. You're going to maintain control right?"

She waits for Grendel to put the Bison into autopilot and switches seats with him. Once in the driver's seat, Blackjack locks the optical cable for the van's auxilliary controls into one of her jacks and completes the ruse. She keeps her pocket pc, which is in one of her coat's pockets, jacked into another jackport and begins recalling the permit number for Grendel's Bison.

She rolls down the window at the checkpoint. To the border guard, she smiles big and coos, "Heey!"

Using her normal voice Blackjack explains the situation, "We're here visiting some friends we met in Seattle. They wanted us to see where they lived when they were younger. They said it's really beautiful."

The guard smiles at the pretty blonde and her bubbly attitude. "I think you will find it a very beautiful country, do you have your pass?"

He holds his hand out expectedly.

Blackjack continues smiling at the guard and says, "You know what? I'm SOO stupid! I thought that I put it in my pocket the night before, but I realized it wasn't in any of my pockets when I was checking for it just a minute ago. You guys have a computer right? I wrote down the pass number when I applied on the matrix and got my confirmation. If I give you the number, can you look it up?"

Blackjack puts on her best helpless woman face and says, "Pretty please?"

The guard hesitates for a moment. His hand wavers and he looks at Blackjack pretty hard. After a uncomfortably long moment he smiles. "Okay, but in the future you need to bring your pass."

He pulls out a little flip pad and writes down the number, smiles at the curvy blonde one more time, then walks away to the control room.

Blackjack waits for the guard to return, trying to keep her cool. She feels confident that the number will work, if the guards bother to look it up instead of calling for backup.

We're just a group of friends wanting to see the Salish-Shidhe, she thinks to herself.

Warpath sits in the back of the Bison, doing his best to look innocent, calm and composed. He seems to be pulling it off fairly well.

Jessie kicks up her hearing and sound filters to try and overhear what is going on in the guard booth.

Five minutes slips by, then ten, fifteen, twenty. The warm muggy air in the aftermath of the storm isn't helping either. The guard re emerges, a smile on his face, another officer comes out right behind him, but hangs back a few meters.

"Hi," he says to Blackjack, can I get you to step out of the vehicle miss...?"

Blackjack frowns and says, "Ok. What's going on?" She opens the door and gets out of the Bison.

"Oh, nothing's wrong," he says with a disarming smile. "The computer is running your pass right now, it shouldn't be too long. I thought while we are waiting you might..."

He talks for a few minutes when it dawns on you, he's trying to pick you up. After a few minutes longer his companion comes over,

"Pass checks out, heres the tab, keep it on your bumper or windshield at all times." The other guard doesn't seem thrilled with his partner hitting on the tourist, he has a dour look after handing over the tab an walks away.

The first guard, whom you learned is named Joe Eagle hands you a card, "here's my number, call me some time." He smiles again and walks back to the guard post.

Blackjack smiles from ear to ear and says, "Thanks," while trying not to blush too brightly. She climbs back into the van and closes the door behind her.

She rolls up the window and then turns around and says, "OH MY GOD!! That guard just hit on me! He gave me his business card with his number and everything! He told me to call him some time!"

Danny breaths a sigh of relief, then shakes his head and chuckles.

"Don't spend so much time doin' your make-up, 'n' that kinda thing won't happen."

"Develop a relationship. Next time we need to run the border, we'll do it on his watch. Should make the trip easier."

Grendel noses the Bison through the checkpoint, accelerating towards the rendezvous point once clear.

The guard waves one more time as the Bison rolls through the border. The Salish is a completely different world compared to Seattle. The roads are well maintained and clean. The signs are in good condition with no graffiti. It is easy to find the well marked engineers road 2 kilometers pass the border. No gates or fences make it impassible. The road itself is dirt, with a few unavoidable potholes but nothing the big truck can't handle. The road starts to climb into the mountains, and after a few klicks, runs next to a large river.

It takes nearly an hour for the skilled elf to navigate the large beast up to the 2000 foot mark at the end of the road. A large waterfall, probably 100 meters wide sets the background. The crashing of the water on the rocks makes everyone need to almost yell.

The closer you get to the end the more excited Jason gets, thanking the group every few minutes. At the end of the road is a large cul de sac. A small rope bridge stretches across to the other side. Standing on this side of the bridge is three figures, 2 elves and Blaze. on the other end of the bridge, a large 4x4 of some kind can be seen, and another figure with it.

"Alright, I'll go make the transfer. Three and Four, come with me and watch my back, I don't want more people coming out than they have, it could make it look like we don't trust them. Everyone be ready for action though. Base, anything coming up on sensors?"

Jessie unbuckles and climbs towards the back of the van, "Come on Jason, lets get you home."

Jessie helps the boy to his feat and then opens the door to the back of the van, stepping out with Danny and Warpath as protection. She then leads the boy out towards the bridge to meet with Blaze.

Alert for any signs of suspicious activity, Grendel scans the skies and surrounding terrain, including the person and vehicle on the far side of the bridge.

Danny raises an eyebrow at Jessie's commanding tone, but follows in silence as she heads towards the exchange, pausing only briefly outside the van to light a cigarette.

Delacroix's eyes fade away and blackish blue tint replaces them. The elf peers into the astral space to see what secrets of it he can decipher.

"Thanks again guys, you all are great," the boy says as Jessie leads him out. Blaze smiles as the group emerges. Jason yells and runs toward him, the two elves behind Blaze jump a little but settle down immediately. The boy hugs Blaze. When the group catches up to the energetic youth the smiles have not faded.

"Thank you, thank you very much. I'll let Zoe know you guys came through, Casper, " he says to the elf in the motorcycle leathers, "Take Jason across." The elf nodded and escorted him to the rope bridge. Blaze signaled the other elf. He slid a backpack of his shoulders and crouched down. Unzipping it, he pulled out a small briefcase and held it out to Jessie. When she takes he nods and retreats back across the bridge Leaving Blaze and the three runners.

"Thanks again for your work, you guys did well." He shakes hands and heads across the bridge."

"Our pleasure. Be good, Jason."

Jessie heads back to the van and pops open the case, ready to hand out their prizes.

"Great work everyone, I'd work with any of you again in a heartbeat."

Blackjack gives Danny a wry look and puts the business card into her pocket, saying, "Hmph!"

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Blackjack leans out the window of the Bison to get a good look at the action. When Jessie opens the case, Blackjack says, "Yeah, you guys are great. I enjoyed working with all of you. Let's not assume the job is over yet though. We still have to get out of this place and back to our homes."

"Speaking of that, Six, does anyone have a preference about where they'd like to be dropped off?"

Grendel points the Bison back towards Seattle, keeping a close eye on the sensors for any signs of trouble.

Danny climbs back into the van, and retakes his seat.

"Don't matter that much t'me. Ah'm between residences at the moment, so one place is as good as any."

Blackjack says, "I would prefer to be dropped off at my house too, Grendel." Blackjack smiles at Grendel.

She waits a couple of days, and then she gives Joe Eagle a call, think to herself, 'Who knows? Maybe this could work.'

"Need to get back to my Brumby," Warpath notes. "Though I can hoof it from a ways away, if need be." He pulls out the collapsing duffle bag he'd been using to covertly carry weapons, though he doesn't load it up just yet.