With a discrete motion Calisto plugs into her phone. With a quick thought she pulls up Jaron's number.

Cal here, sorry for the interruption and the time delay but I needed to ask after our guide. What can you tell me and did we get anything on the runner back in Seattle?

After delivering his charges to the tea palace, Nanashi was hesitant to follow them further. What was to happen here was not of his concern. But yet, he was fascinated. He had got that little glimpse of the future in the reading, and he wanted to know more. Yoko always said that his curiosity would be his downfall. Hopefully not today.

Still feeling the outsider in this gathering of companions, he nevertheless took the Fool's invitation to join him online. If he was to be their guide in the local Matrix as well as in the physical world, he rationalized, he needed to have some clue of what they were here for.

Biomage jacks a cable and joins as hitched observer. After a minute, he unplugs.

"This is going nowhere. The old man is crazy," he says.

Calisto:
He is a friend of a friend. I do not personally know him but he came with high marks from Hafiz and his contact here. Were you thinking of bringing him in to deal with a lack of manpower? If so, that'd be fine, just bring him up to speed quickly, this looks to be at a crossroads of sorts. What I found on the hitter is minimal. He's a hired hitter, specializes in Eastern Europe and Russia but is known to do business on the West Coast. Professional, stays bought until the end of a contract, he will be missed in certain circles. Still running the film tracks hope to hear back within a few hours."

Calisto regards Biomage with a flate stare. "I see."

I'll take the necessary steps then. As far as this team goes, do we have any standing orders on structure?

Calisto:
"I've assembled a team that should be able to succeed at the task at hand, with some contingencies in place for redundancy in case of another situation similar to Wren. Otherwise be careful, new cities are easier to get killed in than our familiar havens."

"So what your saying is a really a recon, you want to find out where he is hiding, so you can destroy him, right," Jester digital representation says to the Fool.

"If you don't mind me asking, who is this 'he'?" Nanashi asked.

Trixie looks over to Nanashi in the digital world. Even in the hitcher jack her Icon shows up with amazing clarity. "You are treading on dangerous ground. You need to know that if you get involved with us as more than just a guide, you are going to be putting yourself in a load of trouble. Not that just being our guide has its own risks as well."

"Was thinking life was getting a bit boring of late...besides...was curious about the Living Shadows you're looking for." Nanashi answered, hoping he did indeed know what he was getting himself into here.

Trixie says it plainly, seeing if the new party member is going to scare easy, "We're hunting an AI named All-Father."

Living Shadow? What the drek is that about? she thinks to herself.

Inside:
"Exactly my friend, we are looking for the code as it will show us where he is hiding and where he stockpiles his strength and influence."

The Fool's attention seems to turn from the Jester and focus on the local guide.

"His is a name which we do not speak in the Matrix. But Trixie is right, he is the accumulation of all our feelings deposited here and given life."

Trixie can't seem to keep the well its too late for that look on her face, as well as a bit of embarresment.. "I wasn't aware that our communication inside your deck was open to evesdropping."

"An AI that thinks its a god?" he asked at Trixie's mention of the All-Father AI. Odd enough...but seemed the Fool agreed. "Seem there's been something going on online that I've been missing..."

"Its already spread out of the Matrix, but we'll talk about that when we're off-line."

Inside:
"It should not be, but he has done things I have never seen before and do not wish to learn when it it is too late that we have underestimated him again. Be careful."

Inside:
"Do you wish to see more or shall we return?"

"I think we're good to return and plan on some actions with the team."

Inside the digital world melts away as your consciousness is siphoned back to your body. Around the table, everyone jacked in gives a brief shudder as they sit back up straight.

"Well you have seen what I have done, now tell me what you have to tell."

"I'm still confused...of course, that comes when you stick your nose where it doesn't belong..."

"What do you know of Mennon? I'm pretty sure it was him that sent the assassin after me. We need to find him before he finds us again."

"Mennon does as men are wont to do, break that which they do not know so that they can break the mold of imitation. The priest prays for ous souls and grinds us beneath the soles of a propaganda war. A puppet without strings, his pulpit stings without recourse."

The Fool stops to drink some tea and see if you are following his disjointed thoughts.

"What I don't get, is that if All-Father is spreading BTLs to brainwash people, why doesn't he use something to keep Mennon under tighter control? If he is a loose canon, why would something as calculating as an AI leave him to be a loose canon?... Unless All-Father doesn't mind what Mennon is doing."

"If he wants control, then control he must be given. Children of Halberstam are the children of us all. Gain power per our game, what do these chips do when the chips are down?"

Trixie stops and looks confused, "Children of Halberstam?"

"Otaku, or talk to you."

Why does this old man keep talking in riddles? Is he afraid someone will understand him?

Biomage says, "I suspected, once we learned more about Mennon, that he is willingly involved with All-Father. He may be trying to achieve his own goals and actually think he is in control. Something about purifying the Matrix.

"The chips are personafixes disguised as BTLs. They're supposed to train loyalty to our enemy. He's building an army, but who is he fighting? The otaku?"

Jester shudders as he comes out of the matrix.

He nods to Cal confirming there fears, it is definitely a AI.

"So, where can we strike old man?"

Thanks Jaron. I'll be in touch hopefully. Contact me as soon as you get any info.

Calisto disengages from the phone and turns to their native guide. "If you're interested we could use some more help with this. I think you have a good grasp of the stakes and the pay is good."

"Doing a favor for a friend and getting paid for it at the same time...sounds like a good deal. That, and it would spare alot of confusion if someone enlightened me as to what is going on..."

"Personafixes are BTLs that don't fix personas. The tribes he claims exclaim the bribes he tried." The Fool's speech patterns are immediately obvious for their difference between the matrix and meat as he continues on through words that sound sing-song except for the flat tone in his voice.

"Old men were once young, young wants were old then. Find the chips that tripped the mind."

Biomage sighs, "What are you talking about, old man?"

Calisto slides over to Nanashi. "Do you have a p-sec or portable computer? I can transfer the intel we have so far."

"Never leave home without it." Nanashi commented as he pulled out his pocket secretary. Hopefully now he'd be another step closer to understanding just what he had gotten himself into.

Calisto pulls back her sleeve, revealing the ever-present wrist computer. She begins to tap a sequence of keys and data begins to stream over to the p-sec.

After the separate conversation with Callisto, rather than continuing to sit in on the periphary of the conversation, Nanashi connected his commlink to place a call over transducer.

The Fool tunrs to look at the cyber-armed mage.
"I answer verily, and sir, eerily."

Conversations completed and phones hung up, the team acknowledges the new recruit.

Trixie has been lost in thought for the last few moments. Almost in a trance-like state. She looks confused, but not by what the Fool has been saying (she seems to understand his speach just fine), but by some things he is making her remember. After a moment, her eyes refocus on the Fool. "Have you seen Him?"

"Ay, the man with just one eye."

"And the Raven. A harbinger maybe? He... attacked me, I've been Conditioned. His image was burned into my head. I didn't think of it till now... He could have done much much more to me, but I was left with my free will in tact. He.. appears to me..

“At first I ignored them as mere hallucinations, but I was foolish. He wouldn’t have burned me without reason. AIs do nothing without a reason.”

Trixie turns to the group as a whole.

“He first came to me in the doctors office when I was being scanned for Psychotropics. That’s why I ignored it, the doctor said I’d be hallucinating. All-Father walked in and handed the doc his coffee, then looked at me and said that ‘Some had made their choice. What would I choose?’… But it turned out to be Wren bringing the coffee.

“Then I saw a Raven above Wren, pecking strings and such from his brain. I should have put it together then. ‘Some have made their choice’!

“He was telling me Wren had already traded sides. And we’re all likely to have to make a choice eventually too…

“Calisto, can you get back on the line with Jaron and see what he knew about Wren? There must be something there.”

Turning back to the Fool, "Old men were once young, young wants were old then. All-Father is the Old man, but you are right, he was born someone, like all AIs. We need to find out where he is from. That will help us figure out where he is going. Everyone is the sum of their experiances, why should an AI be any different?"

Nodding at Trixie's suggestion, Calisto dials up Jaron.

Sorry for the quick call back but Trixie had a brainstorm. I need as much info as possible on Wren. She thinks there's something there that will lead us closer to the target.

"Zeidel's thoughts were not idle."

Phone call made, he took the opportunity to glance over the research that had been sent to him, seeing if he could find any insight to offer. Coming across the copy of Zeidel's journal, something clicked. "Ah...so that's where the Living Shadows came in..." he commented, mostly to himself.

Calisto:
He is a specialist in microtronic surveillance and B/E. I know his daughter has a rare genetic defect that causes her to need regular transfusions of bone marrow. That's the reason he started running. I brought him in on this run, because he is familiar with security systems and could set up surveillance points on the murderer as you tracked him down.

Trixie glances from Fool to Nanashi.

"Zeidel found something. What is the Living Shadow though? All-Father?"

Turning to Calisto, "Do you still have Zeidel's deck in your bag?"

"No clue...I just recalled Living Shadows from reading the tea leaves...it said you'd find the Shadows of Life here. Could be an aspect of the AI...hmm...perhaps if I had the physical version of the journal, I might be able to pick up some sense of what the owner was going through at the time..."

Calisto opens up her pack and pulls out the journal. "The computer is with our luggage in the car. When we get to where ever we end up staying, you can take a look at it."

Is there anything you know of that ties our target to Wren or the runner we encountered in Seattle?

"Wren is a specialist in microtronic surveillance and B/E. His daughter has a rare genetic defect that causes her to need regular transfusions of bone marrow. That's the reason he started running. He was brought in on this run, because he is familiar with security systems and could set up surveillance points on the murderer as we tracked him down. If that condition is recored anywhere on the matrix, the AI would have known." Her face becomes thoughtful. "If the AI arranged for him to leave, why not just kill him?"

Taking the journal from Callisto, Nanashi focused on it, attempting to trace any links to the one who had recorded his thoughts in it's pages, particularly information on his later days.

"Maybe the AI had a use for him and offered to fund taking care of his daughter in exchange for his service?"

Coming up from the deep well of silence he'd been moving in over the last few hours, Jack speaks for the first time since leaving Seattle.

"That seems more likely. It would be much easier for the AI to shift electronic funds then actually kill someone."