Erik runs his hand over the contents of the envelope now on the table, and takes particular attention to the list on the index card.

The index card appears to be the list of 'if you see it, 'take it' items that Mr. Firebright had mentioned. There are several items mentioned on it...



..and that's all it contains.

Clay picks up the letter as Erik examines the index card, scans it, and passes it around for everybody to read.

<letter>

-~-

The mission at hand is simple: You are to break into the inner offices of this Puchi Virtual Tools building. Don't worry, this is a low scale office. They do not even have a link to the actual Puchi system (the building address and schematics and any known patrol data are on the datachip not attached to this letter).

Quick and quiet is the preferred method of performing this task. Casualties are to be kept to a minimum, but if you run into trouble, you are perfectly obliged to neutralize it as desired. One exception to this rule is the wellbeing of the office manager: Clayton Osbourne. No harm must come to him.

The main objective is to upload the red datachip into the main server of the building matrix. The datachip will start automatically - get out after you put it in, as it will eventually activate the building alarm.

In the envelope is an index card with a list of items that should be retrieved if found - they are not required, but a bonus may be given if all the items are acquired. The exact location of these items (with the exception of contents within a locker) are unknown. We simply know they should all be within the building and in the inner offices.

-~-

The letter also gives a date stamp of how long the team has to accomplish the run before it is considered null and void. As of tonight, you (all) are on a 2 week time limit.

Clay raises his eyebrows and looks around the table to gauge the reactions of everyone in the team after the last person has read the contents of the letter and the card. He casually picks up the datachip containing the building schematics with two fingers, slots it into his commlink, and turns to the group as the data transfer process is initiated.

"So, what do you guys think? I figure the first thing we should attend to is to get a photograph of this guy, Osbourne, since we don't want to accidentally smoke his ass. I don't know who T. Mara Cartine is or how this person relates to the job, but a photo of him or her might be helpful too.

"Next thing, legwork. We'll want to find out everything we can about this place before we hit it. I can put in some astral recon tonight, since I don't have any plans anyway. Erik, you're more than welcome to join me if you want. If we manage to get access to someone privy to the security layout of the building, I can pluck the info from his mind and see if there's anything worth knowing that's not on the datadisk. We might want to do that anyway to find out the locations of all the items we're supposed to retrieve so that we can recover them as fast as possible during the job. The prime candidate would be Osbourne, since he's supposed to be the head honcho of this facility. Knives and/or Aurel, do you guys want to take care of that? We'll need to find out where this dude lives and how to get access to him.

"By the way, is anyone here skilled in the art of busting locks and overcoming electronic security systems?"

"I do not use electronics if at all possible. However, if no one else is able, I am willing to find Osborne."

Aurel had always had a well-informed - and loyal - group of contacts, odd for someone as socially challenged as she. Her network was the sole reason she had survived as a runner this long without the benefit of running searches.

"What other information will you require?"

Clay rubs his chin. "Let's see...his home address and an easily recognizable picture of him would be useful. Info about his family, if he has any, and working hours would also help. Same goes for Cartine, if you can pull it off.

"Any information on the security detail at the building would also be useful, specifically the patrol routes of the guards, the passive security systems in place, and whether or not they have any security hackers or mages on call. Between Firebright's intelligence and what I can pull out of Osbourne's mind, we'll probably be pretty well covered, but an additional set of data couldn't hurt."

She nodded slowly.

"I understand. When will we meet?"

"Depends on how long it'll take you to gather the pertinent info. We all should probably exchange contact info at the end of this meeting so we can get in touch with each other. We'll meet again after we've done all the necessary legwork, and come up with a plan of action then."

Knives nods. "I won't be so useful in planning this job - but I'll drop anyone in our way on the way in.Can't make any promisses about not catching Clayton in the cross-fire - but a picture of him would help a lot."

"I will try." A pause.

"Communications might be... difficult. I am accustomed to recieving messages by paper, and my comlink is badly functional, at best. If you find contact necessary and I have not already contacted you, relay your message to a girl named Sayuri at the Golden Hind brothel."

"Gotcha, Aurel. By the way, what exactly are you guys' specialties anyway? We should lay our talents out on the table so that we'll know what the team is capable of. Me, I'm a magician, a hedge witch to be specific.

"Yes, I'm a male witch, no, it's not funny," Clay continues, grinning. "I can throw a pretty mean spell and know a whole bunch of 'em. I can also summon a decent spirit, but there are people out there a lot better at that aspect of magic than I am."

Knives grins, "They call me 'Knives.' With a flick of his wrist one of the butter-knives he was playing with earlier appears in his hand and he begins to twirl it about between his fingers. "You could say I'm a knife specialist.... I would demonstrate, but if we had to pay 600 to use this room for an hour, I'd hate to think what he'd charge us for damages."

Erik, looks down at the list while he begins speaking "Anyone else think it's unusual to hire two mojo-men for a simple job?" Looking up before he can get an answer "Sure chummer, I'm up to a little astral jog."

"Not unusual - but telling." Knives stopped playing with the knife and leaned back in his chair, kicking one leg up on the table. "I get the feeling he's ready for shit to go down. My reputation isn't exactly for getting the job done quietly, ya know." He points at the two mage-types with his butterknife, "And you two doin' magic says he's expecting more than typical rent-a-cops at this place." Facing Aurel he adds, "...and I'm guessing he contacted you because you're well connected." He shrugged, "That says to me that he's expecting us to handle things ourself and not bother him for supplies or information."

"He's not exactly breaking the bank on this one - but the way he pitched this job doesn't seem like it would be too much trouble, either. I'm sure he knew more than he let on, but had he explained why he needed four skilled Runners for a job like this - he'd have to pay us more."

Looking around once more he chuckled, "And for a job like this..." He pointed at what was left of the package, "... you'd think you'd hire at least one hacker."

Erik's chuckle, more of a snort arises as he hears himself being called a skilled shadowrunner. Quickly he covers this social faux pa with a cough. Patting his chest "Good salsa."

Aurel shrugged at the comment about her being "well-connected."

"I am fortunate enough to have the friendship of a small group, but my skills in infiltration are more likely to find the information I need than my group, as you will find they are rather specialized in their knowledge. However, my true talent is in weaponry. I prefer to have my pistols on my person at all times, although I am quite proficient with sniper rifles as well."

She took another drink of the bottle she had brought with her.

"I do not often miss."

"Yeah?" At the mention of weapons, Knives seemed to take a lot more interest in Aurel. "I'm a fan of the Slivergun, myself."

"Never actually fired a rifle before...."

She nodded.

"It is a good gun. It is heavier than I would normally use, as extra weight slows you, but a good weapon nonetheless. I prefer the Hammerli." She shifted, resting her elbows on the table and chin on top of her folded hands.

"I could teach you the rifle, if you choose."

"Sure, that'd be pretty cool." Knives flashed a look around the table. "Maybe I could give you a few tips on personal defense before we go into this."

"Hell, I would offer to teach you guys how to use magic, but if I could actually do that, I wouldn't be here putting my neck on the line for two and a half kay," Clay says with a wide grin.

"So, anything else anyone thinks we should discuss? Or shall we part ways for tonight?"

Knives shrugs, "Here's a comm ID where you can reach me." He then pushes a few buttons in AR and attempts to send his contact information to those who want it. "Other than that, I'm ready to make the run once we think we have enough information...."

Then he stands up, "I dont' actually have any legwork, at the moment - and I'm fine with that, I'll pull my weight later on... but if something comes up and you want me to check something out... feel free to call."

Erik, accepts the commlink and sends out his own to those assembled."So, where you want to dump the meat and hit the ether?"

"You down with meeting up at the building in astral mode at 12 o'clock?"

"At high noon?" Laughs "sure, i can be there."

Once the conversation had turned away from topics with which she was familiar, Aurel stood and quietly slipped out, through the tables and onto the street, where it was not long before she was off on her Mirage.

About half an hour later, after riding through what seemed to be every back alley in the city, she reached a rather nice-looking shop with a garage that was almost full to the bursting with scrap metal.

After bypassing the security with the ease of practice, she slipped into the back door behind the shop, into a small workshop. An HK XM30, along with some smaller assault rifles, was leaned casually on the back wall, and a few sniper rifles had been left on the desk, giving the room the impression of being even smaller than it really was.

"Jorl?" Aurel called as she carefully avoided the firearms and entered the slightly larger sitting room, which seemed to double as a kitchen of sorts, as apparent by the half-eaten soy burger that seemed forgotten on a side table.

She cursed internally as it became apparent that her friend wasn't going to be available for a while yet. His job had, likely as not, taken him out again, and she didn't really want to know what he would be doing.

After removing unidentifiable food substance from the lounge chair, she sprawled out on it and fell asleep, hoping that he'd return in enough time to give her the info she needed.

As the bell of a nearby church gongs to signal the arrival of the midnight hour, a shadowy figure riding on what appears to be a broomstick swoops down from the sky, hitting the sidewalk with a barely audible oomph produced by a less than perfectly estimated landing. Clay shakes his head twice to clear the stars, disassembles his trusty sweeper with the efficiency of someone well practiced in the motions, and heads back into Uncle Jack's after swiping the door open with his keycard. Navigating the narrow halls of the coffin motel, he comes to a stop before his room. Sliding the door open, the young ork is just about to walk inside when he notices a shadow cast on the far wall where no shadow has any business being. Clay sighs.

"Come out, Mr. Jonas. I know you're there."

A couple of seconds pass before a rustling is heard to the left of the doorway, and the elderly dwarf emerges with his battle axe gripped in hand. He glares defiantly at Clay.

"I'm gonna get ya o' these days, Humanis scum," the dwarf growls gruffly.

"Oh gee, I can't hardly wait. G'night, Mr. Jonas."

The dwarf grunts in response and leaves down the corridor. Clay rolls his eyes, steps inside the room, slides the door closed, and crashes onto the mattress. It's been a long day, and he finally managed to snag himself a nice shiny job. He stretches his arms and releases a loud yawn. He'll be damned if he ain't going to sleep well tonight.

---

The shrill sound of the preprogrammed alarm clock on his commlink pierces through his sleep like a stiletto, and Clay slowly opens his eyes, letting the blur of sleep melt away from them. The time of day dances in colorful neon numbers in front of him: 11:00 am. The ork spends a few minutes to collect his thoughts, then sits up. He considers grabbing some breakfast, but thinks a moment about the stuff they serve for breakfast here and ditches the notion.

Might as well get to work. The faster we get this gig done, the faster we'll get paid.

He lies back on the bed, closes his eyes, and feels an electric tingle course through his senses as his ethereal spirit slowly separates from his physical body. As he opens his eyes again, the vibrant colors of the astral plane envelope his whole being, reaching into his very core - if he'd been a less experienced magician, he might've lost himself in their pulse. As such, the young ork takes merely a brief moment to appreciate the beauty of the astral world before he focuses his mana, channels it inwards, and shoots off like a bullet, passing through walls and obstacles in his path like they're nothing but illusions in the air. It isn't long until he arrives at his destination, the address contained on the datadisk whose information he'd copied to his commlink.

When Erik arrives at the scene, Clay greets the other magician with a casual nod, points at the building, and takes flight towards his target, seeking to discover the secrets that lie within.

Erik leaves the backroom and walks through the establishment with a cocky self assured attitude. Erik makes no bones about staring down a chump or two or obviously eyeing women as walks past.

Erik continues his strut up to the point he reaches his Black Harley Davidson. Erik throws his leg over the backend of the powerful bike before squating down on the synthleather seat. Looking around he starts the bike, at first its only the click and whine of the starter, then the deep throaty rumble as it turns over. Erik pulls back on the throttle twice letting the spirit of the beast machine roar.

The tires skreech on the pavement as he takes off towards Ballard, his long coat hugs in someplaces while it whips around in the air at others. Passing a cabbie going to slow for him Erik rides the white line and flips him the bird before rolling back on the throttle. The machine beast roars and leaves the cabbie behind as he weaves through the traffic.

The bar is still packed with the Berserkers when he arrives, their bikes parked along the street in a neat row. Erik makes his way in past the bouncer, a big Human who went by Bo' De who never made any attempts to hide the prison tats on his muscular arms. The bar is now a mingling of the Beserkers, women and salarimen looking to tie one on.As, Erik passes the table he spies the same son of...that insulted him earlier. He's there with his regular old lady, one that if common law still existed he'd be in a marriage to. Erik watches as he passes, his eyes follow to where he looks....Lyda! The secret,on the side, when its available girl.

Loki whispers...insult for insult, your pride for his woman. Smiling Erik approaches. The talk is light and friendly, she's a regular amongst the bar and around the Beserkers. Erik, takes quick glances to see the rising yet checked anger. Several rounds at the bar and then a few at the large table, Lyda's in Eriks lap singing and laughing with the rest around her. Erik sings and laughs...he laughs alittle louder when their eyes lock.The closeness esculates from a few small pecks on the cheek, to pure kisses, and then to Lyda laid across the table as they made out. At first there's cheering then the chorus of get a room you two.

Lyda leads Erik out by the hand to the street, before leaving Erik takes a last look back..smiling. In the corner obviously upset but with no way to show it he sits, listening to his old lady nag.

The trip by bike is short to Eriks doss. Clothes are off or flying off before they are more than 4 steps in the door. The alarm wakes him..11:00 AM already?
Rolling over Erik, realizes he's not alone as she moans her disapproval to the alarm. Looking at her body only partially covered by the sheets...Oh Loki, you are indeed wise

Erik walks to the small living room, leaving Lyda asleep. Erik settles into a comfortable chair and begins to breath in and out slowly. Erik's eyes snap open as a thought pops into his head.Finding a pen and a piece of E-paper he scibbles a quick note that he places on his lap as he begins again.

NOTE:

Smiling at his little joke Erik begins the pattern of breathing again. The feeling at first is like a lightening of his limbs and then he explodes into the astral. Searching at the speed of thought he finds where he needs to be.

Erik nods back

On the astral plane, the building that is Puchi's is a sad state compared to its physical counterpart. Granted, a building is a building - astral appearances don't change that much for objects.

The first obvious defense flaw in the building is that it's not covered by an astral barrier, though it could be inside the building or in key areas. Being the public area that it is, obvious protections are few: there's a guard at the front desk in the front of the building, a couple of security cameras to watch the inner lobby (visible through the glass doors and few meters of glass walls beyond that. Outside, the regular security camera's used by the city and lone star are also an issue., though only one camera appears to be looking directly towards the building.

The parking lot is about half full, a car periodically showing up after so many minutes to represent other employee's showing up.

The datachip does have a picture of Osbourne: your average manager type with brown hair, slightly graying, and human. The picture is a head to shoulder shot, and from the looks of it, Osbourne is at least healthy, if not the athlete of the year. According to the rest of the chip, there is no more security in the areas you can see either, but the place you need to go is on the third floor.


(Heh, I'll try to supply some sort of 'map' if you go inside. Just make sure you are fairly specific of where you head so I can try and give you the right stuff. I'll presume you're facing the front of the building for the moment.)

Erik watches the outside cameras for any sort of movement they may have and then he tries to discern what type of area they cover. Collecting this small amount of information he regroups.

After sharing his findings with Erik, Clay swoops back into his physical body and sits up on his bed. He spends a moment checking himself to ascertain that all of him was still there - one would think that a mage who'd done the astral dance as many times as he has would have long ago shed such a breed of paranoia, but even now, he can't help but feel uneasy at leaving his body unattended to while on astral jaunts. After he's finally convinced that he's still whole, he hops off the bed, walks over to the miniature flip out food counter in his room, selects a pre-cooked bowl of fried rice, and plops back down on his bunk to eat. While he's chowing down with a fork held in one hand, he activates his commlink with the other, punches in a text message, and sends it out to the rest of the team.

<message> Check up on target done, no hitches. Discuss at next meeting. Aurel, drop me a line when you get your info. Knives - I'm gonna head out to tag our main guy when he gets off work today and pick his brains to see what he knows. Want to help out? If yes, respond with affirmative and meet at Sizzlin' Hot Coffee at 3. </message>

About a half-hour later, a Clay gets a short response. "Sounds like fun. I'm there."

Aurel woke quickly as she heard Jorl enter through the small door in the front. He was bulky, with a slightly grizzled, middle-aged face, but he smiled easily when he saw Aurel sprawled on the couch.

"Haven't seen you in a while, kid." He set a bag down on the small table by the door, then crashed on a nearby chair.

"I'm busy." Aurel had been living in an abandoned warehouse for the past several months, and even though he knew where she was, it wasn't a situation he was particularly happy with.

Jorl pulled a beer from his jacket pocket and tossed the second one over to Aurel.

"So, what'd you want? You don't just come see me without a reason. What happened to the little girl I knew who'd hide behind my leg when she was scared?"

She wisely chose not to respond to that.

"Know a man called Osborne, from the Puchi megacorp?" She sat up slowly, and leaned her arm on the armrest.

"Yeah, sounds familiar... I think he bought a load of firearms not to long ago... Grenades, autos, the works. 'Bout enough for a small group, maybe eight, unless he's got a crapload of suppliers. Apparently into magical charms and junk too, but that's just a rumor. Why, you gonna hit him?"

Aurel shrugged, then stood up.

"Retrieving info. Something like that." She coughed, then smiled.

"Those soyburgers are reproducing. You really should do something about that."

She left quickly, and was soon on her motorbike back to the Golden Hind, where she got Clay's message from Sayuri. Her reply, through Sayuri's communicator, was short and to the point.

Done. I'll join if you like.

Not long after, she found herself a room at the brothel, and borrowed one of Sayuri's stash of paper books - they had been her great-grandmother's - and began reading.

<message> The more the merrier. </message>

After sending his reply to Aurel, Clay walks through the transparent double doors of Sizzlin' Hot Coffee, a small, homely Mom n' Pop coffee joint off Battery Street that's famous for serving a sinfully good cup'a cappuccino (except in this case it should probably be called Mom n' Mom, since the place is owned and run by a lesbian ork couple). More important than the quality of the coffee, however, is the fact that it's one of the few storefronts across the street from the Puchi corporation building that provide a direct line of sight to its main exit. He orders a mocha cappuccino from the counter, spends a couple of minutes flirting with the waitress, then grabs a seat by the windows. Reclining back, Clay proceeds to enjoy his coffee as he waits for the rest of the team to show up.

Aurel didn't even bother responding. As soon as she had heard the message from a very nearly undressed, and very miffed, Sayuri, Aurel was on her bike again, and soon in front of the coffee joint.

She slipped in and sat down quietly next to Clay, wrinkling her nose slightly at the smell. She had a belt with god-knows-what on it now, and her pistols were cleverly hidden behind a half-skirt she wore for that purpose.

She nodded towards Clay in an attempt at a greeting, and laced her fingers together again, waiting for him to speak.

Once the whole group is assembled, Clay takes one last sip of his coffee, then begins to speak.

"Okay guys, here's what Erik and I gathered from our little astral jaunt to the target. For better or for worse, there's only one way in and out of the building, and that's through the front doors. As far as mundane security goes, there's a guard posted at the reception desk, and one more upstairs on the third floor during the later hours of the day. Additionally, there are also a couple of guys in the security room watching the cameras and stuff. No magical security from what I can tell, and no security hacker. The places we need to hit are secured by maglock, so we'll need to swipe a keycard from somebody before we go in. The building isn't opened during the night, so it should be completely empty then, making it the ideal time for us to enter."

"Well, that's that." Clay turns towards Aurel. "Didja dig up any dirt on Señor Osbourne?"

Aurel nodded.

"He appears to have been quietly buying weaponry, perhaps enough for a group of six to eight... unless he has been buying from several sources. Grenades and autos seem to be the standard fare. It is also rumored that he's interested in small, magical items." She paused.

"Is that enough?"

Knives quietly sits back and takes in the information the others have gathered. He seemed interested in the locations of guards until Clay suggested going at night when no one would be around.

"Sounds good enough to me." Smiling, he adds, "I'll be prepared for the worst."

"An office manager buying grenades and automatic weapons? Something smells fishy. This Osbourne guy may be more than he appears...which, incidentally, happens to be an excellent segue into what we're doing here now."

Clay nods in the direction of the Puchi building. "I have no idea when Mister Osbourne is gonna get off from work, but when he does, we're gonna nab him. We'll need to get him to a secluded place, where I'll hit 'im with a mind probe to find out what he knows. Here's the tentative plan: you guys go out and scout for a nice and desolate place with no people around, and comm me when you find a good location. When our guy exits the building, I'll throw an influence spell on him to direct him there, where you guys will be waiting with a trusty rusty ambush. Do whatever it takes to knock him out. Just make sure ya'll don't accidentally kill him, 'cause mind probe don't work on corpses."

"Howzit sound?"

Aurel smirked slightly. It was gone quickly, but the coldness in her eye remained, hard to miss even in the less-than-perfect lighting.

"Understood." She had a sniper rifle tucked away on her Mirage, perfect for a setup like this one.

She stood quickly and nodded towards Knives, checked her weaponry, then moved towards the door.

Knives also seemed to grin maliciously. "I'll make sure to hit him with something blunt. Let's go."

Aurel was soon out the door and on her bike, giving her partner a quick glance to make sure he was following.

"I need an easy-access rooftop."

As per usual, she planned on hiding, and watching, until something unexpected happened, at which point she would back up her partner with her rifle. He could do whatever he chose, but she would be the failsafe, plan B.

She waited for Knives to decide where to head, as it was unnecessary trouble to do otherwise.

(Gonna ghost everyone just a 'little' bit, mainly Knives since he was left with picking out a spot, lol).

After a brief discussion on just where to take the target to, a quick scan of the datachip's information on Osbourne shows that he usually gets off work a little after noon. The hour isn't specific, but it's better than nothing.

--*echo in Shadowrun theme music, then echo out*>

Later on, some few miles from Puchi's building, Knives an Aurel are set up in a small parking lot intended for a too-large, abandoned office complex (it's for lease, call ######## Now for details!). Erik is also here, situated out of sight and in the astral so he can keep an eye on Clay and Osbourne to make sure everything is going as it should be. Only Clay is near the Puchi building, alone, trying not to stand out too much with the light crowd of business men and women walking to and from their places of work, food, entertainment...it's own little city in a city. From what limited information Firebrights datachip had, it was determined city camera's and law enforcement were the most lax here. Meaning a quick, quiet mental mugging might go unnoticed.

It's 2:13 according to the large digital/analog Attached to the front of one of the several buildings. Everyone has been waiting patiently for two hours at least according to it...and patience (or lack thereof) have finally paid off...when Osbourne steps out the front door of the Puchi building, coat in hand, and heading for his car in a nearby parking lot.

it's 2:17. Get ready...

#Visual on target acquired.#

As Osbourne exits the building, Clay maneuvers himself discretely to establish line of sight to the office manager. Drawing the mana nestled within himself up to the surface, he molds it into a spell containing a single mental command, infused with orders for the target to drive to the address Knives and Aurel selected and get out of his vehicle once he arrives at the destination. Locking on to Osbourne, Clay releases the spell and feels a tingle behind his eyes as it connects.

Here's to hoping it works.

Knives takes his position in the parking lot. Although his longcoat is quite nice, some might mistake him for a bum, since he is double-fisting beer bottles, and leaning up against a car.

His position was actually chosen quite carefully, as from his vantage point, he could hurl either or both bottles just about anywhere in the parking lot. Of course, if it wasn't for the buildings and cars, nothing on this block would be safe... but for the time being, he would only need to hit one man, who should be walking around the corner any minute.

Aurel had her eye to the sight of her rifle, aimed in her partner's general direction, so she would be able to see what was happening. The tripod was set up so that her weapon was shoulder level, where she liked it.

It wasn't a tall building, a two-storied former business outfit, not more than a hundred feet from where her target would be heading - so although she could be seen fairly easily if she was being looked for, her chances of missing were almost negligible. Assuming everything went well.

She loaded a few gel rounds into the chamber, and waited.

Osbourne looks, well, happy with himself as he walks out. It might be even why he doesn't care that he's whistling tunelessly as the influence spell slowly borrows its way into his mind...

He's just put his hand on the door of his car when there's a pause in his actions. The whistling as stopped, the content look has faded into mild confusion.

Could it be that he....?

WIth a shake of his head, Osbourne shrugs off whatever confusion he was under, resumes his pointless sound-making, and gets into his car, and drives off....

...to the parking lot where Knives and Aurel are waiting. He's even polite enough to get out of the car for a better shot, though he seems to be reconsidering why he showed up here in the first place.

As Osbornse stepped out of the vehicle and looked around, he had just enough time to wonder what he was doing there before hearing a whistling sound to his left. He turned to investigate and was rewarded with what felt like a baseball bat to the face. Then darkness.

From his position on the other side of the nearly-empty parking lot, Knives saw his nearly-empty beer bottle cross the considerable distance between them and collide with Osborne's face. It was beautiful. The bottle shattered on impact, bathing the man in backwash, and with enough force to drive him back into his own vehicle.

Flashing Aurel a thumb-up, he moves over to the body and checks it. Osborne's face was cross-crossed with flesh-wounds and peppered with bits of broken brown glass, bleading noticably from his obviously broken nose, and was already developing a large bruise on the left side - but he was breathing, and that was really all that Knives cared about.

Taking another swig from his off-hand bottle (glad he didn't have to waste it on Osborne) and signaled to Aurel to move closer as he helped prop Osborne up. On his comm, he texted Clay saying the deed was done.

Aurel smiled slightly as she began to repack her rifle. It seemed too easy, maybe, but she was hoping that it would continue to be that way.

Once the gun and tripod were packed away, she walked down the flight of stairs, watching her surroundings carefully - it would be no good to rush, and be taken unawares.

Once she reached Osborne, she did a cursory check of his injuries, then tipped his head forward, so the blood would drain out of his nose instead of choking him.

"Perfect," she said, partly to Knives and partly on the situation in general.

She considered briefely that people might be suspicious when they saw Osborne's mangled face later, but she assumed that Clay, at least, would have some idea of how to fix that - with minimal expenses.

A few minutes after Knives sends out his message, Clay swoops down from the skies into the asphalt parking lot below, landing softly on one knee. Standing up, he walks over to the group, and kneels down next to Osbourne's unconscious body. He takes a moment to appraise the man's beat up face, and whistles, impressed.

"Wow, you guys really did a job on him. Looks like he'll be waking up with one heck of a headache."

He rubs his hands together, and grins. "Okay, time to see what he's got locked up in that brain of his."

The young ork closes his eyes and lays his hands down on Osbourne's head, index fingers touching his temples. Chanting softly underneath his breath, he conjures up a wave of mana and channels it to form a bridge connecting his mind to the other man's.

"We souls who were once two, are now but one,
Open thee thy moon and stars, light and sun,
Show to me that which you keep far apart
from the world in the caverns of your heart."