"well it looks like you folks had more luck than me. I couldn't find too much more than we already knew. As for an actual plan, High Rise do you think you could piggy back off my comlink? That'll let you and Null stay patched into the meet. I think that we should just play the meeting by ear and see where the client wants us to go from there. We'll keep in touch with text messages though.

"Sounds good to me, and we still have time to finish breakfast in style. Did you guys see the game between Homicidal Hedgehogs and Puyalup's Heroes last night? There was this absolutely brilliant takedown halfway through..."

Even though he's still damp Orion feels at home, and manages to finish breakfast in spite of the kitchen staff's efforts. He doesn't touch the soykaf though - no sense in pushing his luck this early in the morning.

Monday, March 10, 06:40. Soy n' Go, California Ave., West Seattle.

"I missed everything but the highlights on the news that night. Feel bad for... What's his name... number 32. The big troll that took the slug to the head in the 3rd quarter. I heard he's still in intensive care."

As the small talk begins to die down Malleus checks the time display in his ARO.

"Well gentlemen it looks like it's probably about time for Orion and I to head out for the ball. Null why don't you head down to the parkade and wait for us while High Rise park about a half block away or so and keep your drones ready to roll.

Unless anyone else has anything to add Malleus pays his bill and gestures to Orion to follow him. They take his car for the short ride to Emergent Cryonics and park in the parkade near the exit.

Null's attempts to participate in the conversation are slightly awkward. From his blank look, you guess he missed the game, although after (presumably) doing a quick search on his commlink, he manages to interject a few statistics from the game.

After Malleus and Orion finish their more circuitous approach to the parkade, they find Null waiting for them, idly leaning against his nondescript leased vehicle. His nonchalant pose can't quite hide his slight twitchiness of nervous energy.

Judging by the faces around the table High Rise is glad he ate at home. Diner food has never been to his liking anyway.

(to Malleus)"Ya, sure. But as I said before I might need to be in the building if they have wireless blocking wall paper." He logs onto Maleus' commlink and sends a quick IM. <You read me?>

(After they leave) High Rise does a quick once over of the drones to make sure they are fueled/charged. He also has to move a few things around incase he needs to carry passengers later on.

After the short ride to the parkade they meet up with Null and Orion hands him his holster and light pistol.

"I guess you have your own arsenal, but can you hold on to this one for me? If the local security decides to check us I can't afford to stain my SIN, I don't have a permit for this... ought to get one, but never got around to it. If it's no problem for you that is."

Orion straightens up from his normal shambling gait and actually looks like corp material. He checks the connection between his jack and his com, and makes sure the groups comcodes are prioritized and that communication runs smoothly. Satisfied, he smiles at everyone.

"Okay, ready to go."

Malleus leaves all his weapons in the jackrabbit but he does take one of the mage masks and put it in his briefcase. He walks past Null as if he doesn't recognize him and makes his way to the elevator beside Orion.

When he recives High Rises' message he responds back <<Loud and clear.>>

WITCH HUNT

Chapter 2: Overseeing and Oversight

Monday, March 10, 07:00 The Horizon Building, West Seattle.

Somewhere, away from the Cascades, the sun has risen. But here in the Emerald City, there is a gray blanket that refuses to let go of the seaport sprawl. This morning you get a double helping. West Seattle, down by the Sound, is entrenched in fog, and the air sits damply at 3 degrees.

The Horizon Building is a solid pillar of of the status quo. The walls, once you're close enough to see, are a russet granite, veined with black, polished to a mirror finish, and coated in a fine layer of dew. Darkened, mirror-finish floor-to-ceiling windows line the top six of the building's seven levels.

Malleus and Orion:
The lobby area, walled by glass, is obscured by condensation. It must have a very nice view of the fountain in the pond when the weather's not so miserable. The lobby interior is semicircular, and two levels high. The floor motif is a mosaic of the top half of a great star, like the sun breaching the horizon. The points radiate outward from the main entrance doors. Two sets of seating areas with potted exotic plants are in the middle of the lobby area. In the middle of the circumference of this semicircle is the guard station and reception desk just to the right of an RFID-badge activated turnstyle providing access to the building's elevator bank and first-floor offices. Farther to the right of the reception desk is a pair of glass doors. Inside it you can see another reception desk, unmanned, with a large "Emergent Cryonics" corporate logo above it, changing color hypnotically.
There are three sets of cameras visibly covering the lobby area. Up above, in the area of the second floor open to the lobby, you can see a promenade type of area.

Null: The parkade is cold and empty. A handful of cars are here, early working execs and building staff, but most everyone has yet to show. Malleus and Orion head to the lobby, leaving you alone with your thoughts and nothing really to do.

Malleus confidently crosses the lobby floor towards the security desk. He stops in front of the security guard and says

"Good morning. We are consultants hired to speak with Jessie Reynolds, Engineering Development Manager. I believe we are expected.

Malleus carefully controlls his tone of voice to suggest that he is very busy and has much better things to do than sit around yacking with some security guard but he keeps his tone from becoming condescending or rude.

High Rise sits in his van with the drones and software getting a proverbial itchy trigger finger. Using his subscription to Malleus' commlink he scans the area around Malleus for a network, hoping the lobby isn't wireless blocked.

High Rise:

The lobby is not wireless blocked. From your access to Malleus's commlink, right away you detect an ARO in the lobby named, aptly enough, "Horizon Lobby". Its Signal doesn't appear to be strong enough to reach you out at the van. The front desk guard's commlink, however, is in active mode. His name is Sid Geiger, and he'd like to let you know that "Safety is on Everyone's Action List at the Horizon Building". You get Sid's commcode. Since he's not behind the wireless blocking area, you'll be able to hack his commlink through the matrix if you so desire.

You know there must be other ways into the building, given enough time to find the hidden nodes.

Nice place... well corp money can buy a lot of things. Whoa, a guard! Now I'd better look as though I belong, we do have a meeting scheduled after all. Malleus looks chill. I'll just follow his lead. Hello there... Sid? Well well, I think someone overdid their cologne this morning.

Orion takes the lobby in with all it's ARO signs and information. The place is pretty clean after all, there's no spam attacking them when in public mode. The weather outside looks fine now and there's even a map accessible for visitors. Orion resists the temptation to look it over at once and follows Malleus to Sid's desk and produces a sincere smile.

Null blinks slowly as Orion and Malleus leave the parking garage and head towards the lobby. He holds the gun and holster that Orion left with him as if he is not quite sure what to do with them. Finally, he decides to put them in the glove compartment of his leased car for now.

He walks through the parking garage, trying to get a good feel for it - a tactical map is one thing, but checking out potential ambush sites in person is much better. And if anyone asks him what he is doing here, he can answer that he is one of the consultants hired by Mr. Reynolds. But he has found that if he makes no effort at skulking, but looks as if he has every right to be where he is, people tend to ask less questions.

He does anxiously check in with High Rise over his commlink, asking to be updated if anything significant develops. Other than that, he settles back to wait. It's not as unpleasant for him as it would be for others. He can sit in his car when he needs to sit down, and his commlink keeps him connected to chatrooms, data havens, rumormills, and the rest of the teeming online community. He doesn't mind the physical solitude - truth be told, it's what he's used to.

High Rise knows Malleus is going to disappear pretty soon so he starts scanning larger scale to look for either the horizon building's network or... He has to check his notes to remember the name of the company. Emergent Cryonics. Who comes up with these names? What do they even do? He also does a matrix search for the company and checks out the lobby's page via the guard's commlink.

While at their matrix site he tracks his connection to their site. Just need to know where you are...

Ohh, nice suit... and legs! and...

Luckily, Orion manages to conceal his reactions (or so he thinks) in time. He smiles at miss Yarr and when she chooses to greet Malleus first, Orion waits before nodding to her and saying "Good morning miss Yarr" without interrupting her timing and letting her do her thing. He walks behind her and does indeed admire the view, but restrains himself from taking some photos with his comlink.

Now I'm awake atleast.

Instead he casually (just to have something to do) downloads and checks her business card while following her and Malleus.

Behind the glass double doors is a waiting area with a hallway leading beyond it. A sign posted there identifies it as the HR offices.
Sasha walks behind the empty reception desk and holds an ID badge to a sensor at the computer. It rings softly back at her and she begins typing while talking to you. "I'm sorry, I didn't stop for proper introductions. I just realized we don't have your names in our contractor database. Let's start over." She smiles. "My name's Sasha." She holds out her hand to shake.

Null: You have a walk around the parkade. The open-air stairwells have blind corners that would make great ambush sites, especially if any of the lights were disabled. Any of the large concrete pillars will do to hide behind, and once this place is full of cars there will be plenty of places to hide. It's also worth noting that like most parkades, pedestrians and vehicles have to share the roadway.

Malleus nods
"My appologies, My name is Mr. Dawson*, Ryan Dawson. Senior consultant with Oracle Consulting, this is the first time your company has felt it nessesary to hire us. Oracle Consulting is a company that helps corperations attempting to comply with the Licenced Mages Act. I'd be happy to give you our public relations number if you have any further questions but I'm surprised that Mr. Reynolds didn't tell you to expect us."

What kind of impression does Malleus get from her. Is she just filling out routine paper work or is she actually suspicious.

*See ooc

Orion takes Sasha's outstreched hand and gives it a firm shake while giving her a warm smile.
"Harry Smith, pleased to meet you Sasha. Don't worry about formalities and first impressions, we're just here to see Mr. Reynolds. Are you on his staff?"

Malleus:
Malleus: "Oh he did, yes; he just didn't say who to expect!" She chuckles and smiles. "It's nice to meet you. I think we have your company's contact commcodes on file already but I can take that number just to be sure."

edit - interjecting pleasantries with Orion:
Orion:Sasha shakes your hand. "Good to meet you, Harry. No, Mr. Reynolds is a part of our development team with the other brilliant engineers working here. I'm a part of the HR department." She smiles. "Advanced math was never really my thing, but I have plenty of administrative talent!" She laughs pleasantly. "We all do our parts, of course."

** after exchanging pleasantries with Orion **

"I'm going to set you up with ID badges so you can move about the office, work at a terminal, and get into all the places you need to, ok?" She looks at her screen, and her eyebrows twitch in a small gesture of surprise. "OK. For your clearance level, we'll need your SIN of course, but also a quick sample of voiceprint and thumbprint."

** Unless you interject or are interrupted: **

A prompt appears in AR for you to connect to provide your SIN. Sasha reaches under the table and gets a biometrics device, placing it in front of you. It has a wide array of functions, but you will just be using the print and voice readers.

Malleus sends his SIN over the link and places his palm over the handprint reader.

Hopefully the SIN holds up. It should if they're just comparing voice and fingerprints though

It feels a bit wierd to be using Harry again, but atleast it is rooted deep enough that it's almost natural.

I wonder how mom is doing... and the rest of them. Maybe I'll send them a mail after work is done.

With a mental command he sends his real SIN to Sasha and confidently places his hand on the reader. His SIN is still unsullied after all.

The next time we do a job for someone like this, they had better appreciate we'd like some privacy! It's rude having us checked up like this. Before we leave, Reynolds had better wipe these records of us being here clean.

High Rise doesn't care about the system the site is on, just the transmiter that links the outside world to the inside, hopefully that isn't very guarded. I should've been doing this last night, but what did I do? I updated Alfred's word defenitions.

For now ignoring the lobby node to avoid drawing the attention of the security guard he starts probing Emergent's transmiter for open traffic ports to exploit.

Malleus and Orion:

Your SINs, voiceprints, and handprints are all in the corporation's database now.


Sasha watches her screen as your information is processed.


"OK, you're all set! It'll be just a moment while badges are created." She presses a few keys and a commcall is placed.

< "Hello, Sasha, what can I do for you?" > On the other end of the line is Reynolds.
"The consultants from Oracle are here to see you, Mr. Reynolds. They -"
< "Excellent. I'll be right down. Provide them with guest badges for now, please. I'll escort them around." >
"No need! I've already set them up with Clearance 3 Contractor IDs."
< "You - I asked to be informed as soon as they arrived. Why wasn't I informed? >
"Erm, they did just arrive, Mr. Reynolds. I've been -"
< "As soon as they arrived, Sasha. God. . . what's - - " >
Sasha presses a button on her terminal, taking the call off speaker and continuing it in her headpiece, turning her back to you.
(neither of you have audio enhancement with you, so the conversation is one-sided)

"I just thought that -"
. . .
"Everything is fine, Mr. Reynolds."
. . .
"Yes."
. . .
"No, but -"
. . .
"It's done." She looks over her shoulder at the two of you.
. . .
"Ok. Thank you." She ends the call.
"I'm really sorry about that." Sasha doesn't look at your eyes. She seems embarrassed, but smiles, like it's no big thing. "Mr. Reynolds will be right down. Please have a seat; your badges will be ready shortly."
Sasha walks down the hall to the rest of the HR offices and disappears behind a corner.

Orion remains standing, watching Sasha round the corner. He shrugs and hopes this is not a sign of how their visit will affect Emergent Cryonics - afterall, Sasha did what she thought was best.

We're not really fit for the business world. We don't fit into their schedules, molds, or even ideas about how things work. On the other hand, this shows my suit works. Mmm, feels well too...

With the web site being off-site the easy backdoor disappears. Not wanting to alert security with a full on hack job Highrise tries another approch, a mobile node.

He sends a Fly-Spy up to the roof via the long way around incase it does get spotted. Looking around he finds the transmitters, and..bingo! Several HVAC that hopefully are big enough for a signal to get through. He sets the Fly-Spy on top of the sheet metal box and pings Malleus' commlink once. Hopefully the signal will bounce from node to node and find him but if not then he'll try another HVAC opening.

Malleus looks around the waiting room and finds a chair. He motions for Orion to sit beside him and calmly crosses his ankle over his knee. He pulls his comlink out of his pocket and manually fiddles with the controls, trying to see if High-Rise has managed to get a clear signal.

After Null is satisified with his meticulous appraisal of the parkade, he calls High Rise again, this time only getting his voicemail message. Probably because the ork is busy hacking into the building's security. He hesitates a second, marshalling his thoughts, before subvocalizing a message. Since their communications are not secure, he will have to be oblique. Fortunately, their cover identities make a lot of things seem less suspicious.

"This is Jake checking in. I have finished my security sweep of the parkade. Overall, no major security problems. A few blind corners, but they are well lit. My only minor concern is that the video sensors in the area might be vulnerable to hacking."

"There, that should let him know what he needs to... if not, I can explain later. With pictures, maybe, heh, yes," he thinks to himself as he settles back into his lonely vigil.

As Orion stands there he notices Malleus and relaxes. He lets out a breath he didn't even know he was holding and sits down in a chair.

So tense and not noticing it? Man, I should have brought something relaxing...

He spends the time setting up a simple news search to run on his comlink notifying him about any future change of ownership for Emergent Cryonics.

High Rise:

ping. . . Contact! Wait. . . gah, signal lost! You saw him, but the connection is really weak from up here. What you really need is something like these transmitters - an aerial above, with a hardwire connection running through the signal blockers.

Oh, and you have new voicemail.

Malleus and Orion:

You notice that your contact to the outside matrix has been cut off since you passed these glass double doors. You can detect other commlinks in the area, as well as the nodes Horizon and Emergent Cryonics Local Mesh. You have a few moments to peruse them while you wait. Check the spoiler if you choose to do so.
Horizon node:

Emergent Cryonics Local Mesh:


** unless you have something else to do beforehand **

About a minute to minute and a half after Sasha walks off, out in the lobby you see a brown-skinned human man emerge from the guts of the office building, make eye contact with you, and walk toward the waiting room you're in. You realize from his picture earlier, of course, this is Jessie Reynolds, your prime point of contact in Emergent Cryonics. He picks up his pace a bit and a moment later he's extending his hand in warm greeting to you.
Jessie is a middle-aged man, probably pushing 50. Dark skin, dark eyes, graying black hair, and kind of short, only about 162cm.

"Good morning! Good morning. So glad you've arrived. So. . . how are things?" he asks, raising his eyebrow and lowering his head to indicate he's asking if everything's fine with Sasha and the IDs.

Orion rises from his seat a heartbeat after Malleus does and greets Jessie Reynolds with a handshake after Malleus has.

"Good morning Mr Reynolds, my name is Harry Smith. I hope you understand how much we value you as an employer in this very case considering what we just went through to make our meet go smoothly. However, we'd like you to take measures to erase your records of our visit. Now, let's go somewhere more private and discuss the matter at hand."

Malleus & Orion:

Reynolds pales and looks noticably more agitated when Orion mentions erasing records of their visit.
Through gritted teeth, he says quietly, "Yes - let's - talk. . . in private."

Just then, Sasha returns with ID badges and hands them to you. They're attached to a lanyard, worn around the neck, and bear the photo from your SIN along with your name and "Contractor - Oracle Consulting" on an orange background. "Here you go. Now, your clearance level is 3, which is Orange. You'll see three colored bars on the side of your badge - green, blue, and orange - those are the colors of the areas you have access to. Blue areas just need the RFID, green requires voiceprint authorization, and orange areas require handprint verification. Your badge also acts as a passkey for terminal operation and network access. Just keep an open subscription in your commlink for your badge, and you'll be able to connect your personal commlink to the Local Mesh. Okay? Okay. Call me if you have any questions. Mr. Reynolds, they're all yours!" Sasha smiles as the two of you leave Sasha, following Jessie Reynolds through the badge-reading turnstyles and into the guts of the office building.

"Please, let's just talk when we get to my office," he says, quietly.

Past the security desk is a bank of four elevators that respond to Jessie's call immediately. You note that further toward the back of the building on the first floor is a large conference room with glass doors, and two sets of double doors on the left and right which both require a badge to open. A sign indicates that the doors to the right lead toward the Starbucks.

Jessie takes you to the 5th floor. The Emergent Cryonics corporate logo is displayed prominently on the floor here. On either end of the elevator landing are frosted glass double doors with the EC logo. A camera in the corner keeps watch. Opening the doors requires Green level access, which Jessie handles. He leads you down a hallway which passes by a cubicle farm. The lighting isn't too bright, and it's rather quiet. The background noise of computers isn't too loud, either. You pass by four people on your way to his office, who all stop to look at the new faces. You also see that this cube farm area is pretty well covered by camera surveillance.

Jessie has a corner office on the 5th floor, on the east side of the building (the side not overlooking the Sound). The thick fog outside obscures all vision, but Jessie closes the blinds with a mental command as you all enter. Before he even reaches his desk, a commcall has been placed.

"Hello?" The voice on the other end is very nasally.
"Malcolm, this is Jessie. Please see me in my office."
"Ok. Be right over."

Jessie has a seat at his desk, breathing a long sigh and looking at Orion, trying to choose his words. "I'm sorry if either of you were forced to give out more information than you wanted. I'll do everything that I can to see that your records are 'lost'. But please, unless we're in this room or some other private place. . . and most areas in this building cannot be considered private. . . don't say anything to attract undue attention like erasing records. I really don't know whether or not Sasha overheard that. I know you were being discreet with your voice, but please, use more discretion."

Orion blushes slightly.

"Well, that means we've made one mistake each then due to poor communication. Let's make sure there are no more. Why don't you tell us everything from the beginning, including your position here at the company and if anyone is opposed to us working here."

Orion seems to be doing an acceptable job managing the meeting so Malleus lets him do so. He turns on his eye recording unit and tapes the meeting into his Transys's memory while keeping the comlink on passive. He also ensures that his Sony is set to send the information direct to High Rise but other than the typical greetings and plesantries doesn't say much.

As High Rise considers how to best get through the grate he decides to check the "new mail" icon thats been flashing.

<1 new message 3 minutes ago: ><This is Jake checking in. I have finished my security sweep of the parkade. Overall, no major security problems. A few blind corners, but they are well lit. My only minor concern is that the video sensors in the area might be vulnerable to hacking.><end of messages>

I should get back to him, let him know I don't know anything going on yet.

He opens a chat window while still in vr so there'll be a delay in response due to the different view of time while in vr.I wonder if wired sams have the same problem but without the helpful timing software, waiting for someone to respond and then talking as fast as they think.

Once the voice line is open he greets Null with a: "You called?"

Monday, March 10, 07:30 Emergent Cryonics, West Seattle.
Malleus & Orion

Jessie Reynolds nods, saying, "Yes, alright. Well, the beginning of. . ." he makes a head and hand gesture indicating annoyance, "this. . . really starts with Malcolm Jackson, one of our engineers. We're both Sons, as you know, and although we don't really socialize with each other outside of the office, I am his direct manager, so naturally I was the one to come to with his. . . " he raises an eyebrow to indicate something very interesting, "findings. . ."

"Before he arrives, I should tell you that Malcolm is a bit. . . " he rolls his eyes, "paranoid. . . a bit too paranoid for his own good. Do you follow? So, I was skeptical when he said he knew there was a mage hiding out in the engineering function pod. Now, we've had a few. . ." he looks off to the side and wrinkles his face, "incidents. . . lately; odd things, but explainable. There was a fire in the building, for instance. That's when Malcolm first came to me, saying the fire was the handiwork of a rogue spellcaster, masquerading as one of our engineers. It was, I admit, very suspicious. I mean, it happened in the men's room of all places. Just down the hall from here. It really rattled us."

"I had my hands full handling the logistics of managing a team while cooperating with the resulting Lone Star investigation. I told Malcolm he had to have proof to bring accusations like that to bear. He told me he would get it. A week later, one of our employees, a software guy, confesses to setting the fire! Word is, he was a diagnosed manic depressive with bipolar disorder, and kept it from the company. No one had any idea, and no one really knows why he just snapped. Maybe he stopped taking his meds; maybe the gloom finally got to him. Living under a gray blanket for five months can do that to a man, if you follow." Jessie lowers his head, indicating what he's just said is supposed to have some deep significance.

"So you'd think that was that, right? Neg. Malcolm comes to me the next day and puts a chip on my desk. 'Here's your proof', he says." Jessie leans over his desk conspiratorialy, like he's about to share a bit of juicy gossip. "It's a video of an invisible person!" He seems disappointed in your lack of surprise. "You've seen it then. . . ah. But what you don't know, and what's the most. . . " he wags his finger at you, "revealing. . . is whose cubicle was being rummaged through. Chuck's!" He smiles triumphantly, but realizes you don't know who that is. "The software guy, you follow?"

There is a knock at the door.
"Come in, Malcolm," says Jessie.

Malcolm steps in. He is a caucasian human of average height, but a bit pudgy. He wears a blue shirt and black tie, AR gloves, and glasses also obviously designed for AR. He closes the door behind him. He smiles politely and professionally to the two of you.

"Hi. Malcolm Jackson, engineering." He extends his hand. "You must be the, uh, consultants, right?"

Null reflexively nods at High Rise's reply, before realizing that the gesture won't translate over the commlink, and subvocalizing again.

"Yes. As I said, my security concerns are minor, but perhaps you could examine them yourself - you have more experience in hacking counterintrusion measures. Ah... how are the other consultants doing? Have they checked back in yet?"

"I really wish this was a secure line. I feel so out of touch with the others - if anything goes wrong, there's no way I'll even know it," he broods, his thoughts growing more agitated. He massages his temples as he paces restlessly, feeling an excess of nervous energy.

The solitude of the now-deserted parkade does not bother him - in fact, he prefers it to the rush of incoming workers that just ebbed a few minutes ago. But he doesn't like being out of contact with the others. He can't protect them, or warn them. He knows about all of the tricks that mages and spirits can pull, from showy blasts of energy to more insidious attacks, and he wishes that he could be examining the scene first-hand, with his heightened senses and deep knowledge of magical threats.

Malleus stands and offers his hand to Mr. Reynolds after he enters.

"Yes, Please call me Mr. Dawson. Sounds like you've had quite the past few weeks. Mr. Reynolds here was just filling us in. If you don't mind, I'd like to hear the rest of what he has to say and then get your input. Hopefully we'll be able to have this situation resolved within a few hours. It's my experience that unlicensed awakened tend to reveal themselves pretty soon after the heat gets turned on, figuratively of course!” Malleus chuckles slightly and smiles as if in a shared joke. “We don’t want the pundits screaming that we want to start a round of medieval style witch hunts. Anyhow as I was saying, mages tend to be quite cowardly at heart even if they can be ruthlessly conniving when they feel their secret is safe so it’s usually easy and painless to discover and remove unlicensed mages."

Jessie and Malcolm both chuckle along with Malleus. Malcolm takes a seat near Jessie.

Jessie then turns to Malleus and says, "Alright. I'm almost done anyhow. So, Malcolm brought this video to me. I checked it out; it was genuine. We put our heads together about what to do, and come up with an action procedure. No one can know about it, that's a prime criteria. No one inside or outside the company can know that we've been infiltrated by a rogue magician. I mean, we're trying to stay profitable, here!" He grins. "I'd heard rumors that the Sons of Apollo had vigilante members that handled problems like ours, if you follow. So, I sniffed aound a bit, and someone introduces me to Mr. Ancient. I think you know the rest."

"I'm reluctant to hack our client's system while our guys are in there. I think I've found a way to get back in contact with The Others but it'll take another minute or two. Once that gets done I'll see if they can get me some kind of security access."

High Rise brings the fly-spy back to the van and gets a Kanmushi booted up. After closing out of VR to get back to the physical world where fly-spies can't open the window to a wired van he picks up where he left off with Null. "Until then I can send a fly-spy over there if an extra set of eyes would help."

Jessie finishes with, "You. . . you haven't mentioned anything about mages related to your visit to anyone, have you? That would. . ." he puts his hands together in a worried expression, "complicate. . . things. I've explained to the higher ups that your visit is a part of resizing the engineering function pod."

"I belive I mentioned that Oricle Consulting helps companies ensure their compliance with the Registered Mages Act. That should be easally explained however as a proactive effort on your part to train your employees to keep their eyes peeled for magical activity as part of your restructuring."

Jessie replies, "Yes, yes that sounds good. Now, ah, Malcolm. . . I told them about the fire and about Chuck; why don't you tell them how you first came to suspect illegal magic at work here."

As soon as Malcolm opens his mouth, it's clear he's not the most socially well adjusted man. (One could say his manner was uncouth)

"Sure, uh, first I just wanna say I'm glad something's finally being done about this and I think it's shameful it's taken so long for any action to happen. I mean, it's not your fault, Mr. Reynolds, you're just doing your job, but uh, it's just that, um. . . y'know, society's uh. . ." He trails off. "Mmrphh... sorry, can I start over?"

"So, I was first suspicious last year when uh, things just kinda starting going well for me, yknow? Because things never go well for me. Not like, everything. -uh- But before that, things were not so good at work or at home or. . . or anything. Anyway. . . so, uh, the company was doing really well that year, they uh, gave out bonuses which they hadn't done before since I started working here, and uh, our engineering pod was getting all the uh, funding and stuff that we needed, which, heh, heh, yknow, never happens. Anyway, someone, I think, Tracy Stevens, said something like, uh, 'It's like we're charmed,' and uh, that was. . . I said to myself, that's it, that's exactly it. Someone's put a spell on us, or - or, someone's a mage or something. And that just opened my eyes. So I started looking, yknow? For signs. Suspicious behavior. . ."

The longer he talks, the more Malcolm begins to perspire.

"And it was there. I didn't have to look far, I mean. I heard noises, uh, like whispers or - or. . . in my cube, while I was working late and no one else was there. We've had power interruptions for ah, for no reason. Edmund's terminal got swiped, uh, and later they found it out in the dumpster, melted down. Awhile back, this is before the fire, the cabinet in Chuck's cube fell down for no reason at all. We also had false fire alarms go off, um, twice in one day. Weird stuff. Uh, and then that fire in the men's room. That's when I knew for sure. Mr. Reynolds, uh, said I had to get proof, so I started uh, setting up a little camera in my cube to uh, capture stuff, yknow? And then the day we found out about Chuck, my camera gets that invisible mage on video. I was like, 'Got you drekhead!' heh heh, uh, cause, uh. . . and Chuck, they got to him. They made him confess to a crime he didn't commit! Uh, the mage set that fire, and Chuck was just there to take the uh, the fall. It's like a fall guy, he. . . I showed Mr. Reynolds the video the next, the next day and now, " he grins, "here we are!"

Orion listens to Malcolm with a grave expression on his face and nods now and then to show he's listening attentivly. When Malcolm is finished he quickly glances at Malleus, who also seems to be pondering the situation, before looking at the two engineers again.

"Well well, with the video and all I understand why you suspect a mage hiding here. I'd guess Chuck was fired, but is his cubicle cleared out yet? The Star must have made a little investigation even after he confessed and rummaged through it, or did they just accept it and arrested him?"

"If it's not removed by now I'd like to have a look through Chuck's stuff to see what the invisible mage was after. Are personell already here or would a quick visit right now be less conspicious?"

While waiting for an answer, Orion mentally creates a short text message for Malleus:
<You think there was some significance to the timeframe with Chuck there before? I didn't really catch it. Can a mage do that to a person, warp his mind so he confesses? Otherwise: melted terminal, fire alarm, fire in men's room. A little out of control it seems, or just learning. Also, you think you can ask for acess to the personell files for our offsite computer department? So that High Rise can set up a list of suspects. They seem to like you, better you ask.>

Jessie replies, "Oh, no, his personal effects are long gone, sorry. Lone Star took anything that wasn't company property. They may have bounced back some of those things to his family or attorney, I don't know, but we haven't seen any of it. The cube's already been set up for a new occupant. Office space is kind of tight around here. His working files, emails, personal downloads, etc. are still on the network though. I could get you access to those."

High Rise gets the drones situated and on their way to the roof, once again going off in some other direction before heading toward their actual destination, just to play it safe. When they actually get there the Fly-Spy sets the Kanmushi down near the HVAC exhaust and lands it somewhere somewhere that it can get a clear signal into the ducting. The Kanmushi is sent right into the ducting either a meter down or until it is forced to turn, which ever happens first.

Then, he tries pinging Malleus again.

Searching. . . Contact - Commlink identified.

Clear as a bell, High Rise. You're in.