Picking up the rifle in his hand, Leblanc couldn't help himself but chuckle when Raven mentionned his comment toward Carmen.

"Yea, I'm sorry about that but I just couldn't help myself. Miss Parrot shaman used to be an actress in... well... how to phrase it... explicit flicks depicting people without clothes. I mean, she's got her reason and all, but I just thought, in my own sick way, that is was very funny. We're working with a star!"

Giggles giggles

"Hmmmm... Raven it is once and for all. Got it. I'm mainly just trying to lighten up the moob a bit. Everyone's so fragging tense it's getting creepy. Oh well... can't please everyone I guess."

He gave a side look to Raven's Ares Alpha.

"Really... wiz toy!"

He gave he a brief smile, and picked up the pace, keeping his eyes open and scanning the surroundings.

"People are serious because this is serious biz were in kiddo. Our lives are gonna depend on one another before this job is done. Just remember that when you are cracking wise. Also remember, we all have things in our past we would rather not be public knowledge. Carmen my have done things that she regrets and is trying to move past them. It doesn't help her if you are constantly reminding her about them, soka??

"Chill Raven, chill. I know you've probably done a lot more runs than me, but remember that I was also hand picked for this thing: like the others, I'm one of the best around. All I'm saying is that I'm mostly trying to lighten up the mood. It is exactly because this is serious work that I'm trying to kid around. At any second, we could end up dead... so we might as well enjoy the time we have. Life is short, and believe me, I might be young, but I've seen my share of it."

For a few second, his usual happy demeanor was gone... replaced by some dead seriousness.

"And concerning Carmen: this is the 21st century. Don't do something if you don't want other to find out about it. Especially not movies. Its that fragging simple. If a thing like that is going to brush her ego an make her hot mad... well; I'm glad we found out now, rather than in the middle of a fire fight."

Man do I need a drink right now.

Konton considered Carmen's aura, and that of the ward. She was an initiate, near his own power level. But the ward was built to last. Konton didn't think the parrot shaman had a very good chance and masking her way through the barrier. And even if she did, she would have the additional difficulty of not tipping of the watchers when she did it.

Add to that the fact that even if some how everything went as planned, Carmen would be alone inside the Ward. And Konton would have no way of knowing what was going on inside until she came out. Again he went back to third option.

"Eya, I don't think you should risk it. There are too many factors working against us here. The power of the ward is significantly beyond that of our initiate grades. The watchers will tip off their masters if they even suspect anything is amiss."

Konton left out the aspect of Carmen being alone on the inside. It was a point of respect for her abilities.

"I say we get back to our bodies, move the operation into the safe house, and then come up with a way to get the two of us inside physically. From there we'll have our run of the place astrally, neh?" Konton paused.

"Having said that, your Karma is your own. If you want to try bypassing the Ward here and now, that's your decision. And I'll stand by which ever you choose."

Konton could feel the Dragon Slayer straining against his fetters. All of this sneaking around was infuriating his totem. The Slayer wanted a battle, a real stand up fire fight.

Easy old friend, easy. You will have your moment of glory when the killing starts. For now we must "break the corners" as Sensei Musashi would do. Konton thought to himself.

Konton hovered near Carmen, awaiting her decision.

"Good points." Carmen replied. "Guess we've seen what we've come to see thus far. Shall we be off?"

Konton nodded in agreement.

"Hai. Let us return to our bodies. We'll take another crack at this from the inside."

Konton took one last look At the gleaming structure of the Ward around the hotel. He silently vowed he would succeed in whatever form his next attempt at storming these particular gates would take.

He bowed once to Carmen, and then sped off in the direction of their bodies. He doubted the team would like the news they would give them. But the sooner the team knew, the sooner all of them could work around it.

The blues and greens of Corpus Christi's astral space flew past him at blinding speed, as he zeroed in on the hanger that contained his sleeping flesh.

Miho smiles at Q, "Yeah, you me boss. We look hotel, bring back info. I go stealth or seen? Easy to act losts, or just easy keep unseen. What info you look for? What I find that not find by wire-head? Keys to rooms? Pre-access basement? Test security?"

It's obvious she's a bit confused at to exactly what she's suppose to look for on this recon mission, but she's eager to help out.

"Tadaima! I'm home" Konton called out.

He fell back into his body. Immediately the bright ethereal freeing sensations of astral space were replaced by breath and heartbeat. The breath taking colors and energies all around him reverted back to the dark and silent hanger. He felt heavy, and hot, and slow.

Instinctually, Konton reached down and brought his pistols to bare. He never liked that moment of absolute ignorance that waited at the end of an astral journey. While soul remembered it had a body, and body recalled it was alive. He had trained himself in that moment to move on pure rote. So that when his senses finally came, he would be armed and ready for whatever awaited him. It had saved his life more than once.

But there were no snarling beasts or corporate strike teams waiting for him when he woke. Just the hanger, and some scattered team mates. It looked like there was an effort to get the operation moving. Perhaps they had their safe house secured. Konton stood strait up from his kneeling position. Very quickly, he worked the stiffness from his muscles and joints.

"Three to all. Bad news on the astral front. We're going to have to come up with another way to get conduct astral recon. I'll fill you all in when Carmen gets back. But suffice it to say, the whole place is warded from top to bottom. We could have gotten in, but it would have alerted their security faster than lighting the building on fire."

Konton rolled up his mat, but didn't extinguish the incense. It was bad luck to do that until all travelers where home safe and sound. He went over to help with the transfer of supplies to the van, and the stowing of his gear. Once that was done, Konton began unmooring his bike.

"Three to all. Has the rest of the team been wired onto our Comms yet? And what if any news have I missed while I was away?"

Q sitting on the bumper on the van talking to Miho. " Well I thought we would be partly doing everything. Seen, unseen and testing the security a little. WE will be walking the Hotel and the convention center areas getting a feel for the place and where the security normally hangs out or makes their rounds. Will we check out the elevators and all the floors around the elevators. WE will try and gain access to restricted area for employees only and check out the service elevators and what not. Basically we will be getting the in person feel for everywhere the team will be going. Leblanc can look at the Security cameras and the blue prints all he wants but that might not tell him that the maids clean the rooms on floor 4 at 10:30 am every morning and the janitor mobs the elevator room in the Parking garage at 11pm every night. Or that the night guard takes a cig brake 18 times a day and always takes it in the parking garage. You get my drift here? There is nothing better then physically going to case a joint.

Three, Base, comms will be waiting for us at the safehouse. Once you and Five are complete, mount up and we'll roll. Break, One, Base, bring it in, we're moving out in five.

Since he had last spoken with Raven, Christophe hadn't uttered a single word. All his attention was focused on his surroundings. Scanning all around him, everything seemed a bit suspicious. There was almost no way in the world that anyone knew where they were... but in this brave new world, things tended to happen when you least expected them.

He had also learned, by reading between the lines of Raven's propos, that he still had to prove himself. The teenager kept wondering why precisely he had been picked for this job. It sure as heck wasn't because of his experience. Yes; he had been on the field quite some time... actually, almost every time... but never with such a large team of experienced runners.

Get me a deck and I'll show you all what I can do.

Leblanc was busy formulation diabolical plans when he was pulled back to reality by Grendel's call. The mages had done their thing, and it was now time to go and set up basecamp one.

His fingers were tingling with excitement. The rush of the Matrix was close.

Coming back to herself was always a disappointment. She no longer had the world at her fingertips, but was instead limited to her physical body. Looking around, she saw the signs of things being packed up. "So...we miss much while we were out?"

Konton returned his cleaned out corner of the hanger. He reached out a hand to help Carmen up.

"We're leaving for the safe house in five minutes. New comm gear and more information will be waiting for us there."

Konton blew out the incense and tucked it away in a pocket. He rolled up Carmen's Tatami mat, and packed it with the last of his gear.

"Three to Base. I'd like to ride follow up on my bike if that's alright with you. Easier than squeezing it and everyone into the Bison."

Three, Base, roger, concur.

Grendel watches from a multitude of sensor overlays as the team completes is gear up. Overhead, winding its way through a random slalom around the perimeter of the airfield, the unblinking eyes of the Condor's sensor package fed a top down view into the network. Supplementing and enhancing this was the three hundred and sixty degree panorama from the Bison's own sensors. Augmenting both displays was the symbology from both network and BattleTac interfaces.

With Carmen and Wraith onboard, and Konton astride his idling motorcycle, Grendel buttons up the Bison and pulls out from the airfield. Merging into midday traffic, he heads north towards the safehouse. In the cabin, the lights are set to daylight level while the climate control attempts to bring the temperature down to something less than sweltering. The central meter-square MFD shows the overhead view from the Condor, friendly units marked with green karats and data tags showing course and speed.

Konton rolled out behind the Bison. He was wearing his Rapid Transit black and red jumpsuit and helmet. It was hot, but with the suit unzipped, and at the speeds he would be travelling, the air would keep him cool. The biker outfit served three purposes; It kept his identity concealed behind an electronically tinted helmet visor, it provided no small amount of armor protection over his already formidable form fitting body armor, and it served to mark him as just another motorcycle enthusiast to any people that he passed by.

Konton felt secure following Grendel's lead. It was like prowling the town with a heavy tank escort. The team was headed north. He wasn't sure what form the safe house would take, but anything would be an improvement over the dust filled airplane hanger they just left behind them. The thought of all of that fuel residue building up over the years, covering every square inch of surface, nearly turned Konton's stomach. He had stayed in worse places by far. On a run, you holed up where ever you had to. But that didn't mean he enjoyed it.

Konton had visions of hot springs, or a nice stretch of this Corpus Christi beach line. Perhaps Wraith would surprise them all, and put them up in a suite of rooms at whatever Corpus Christi's version of the Imperial Hotel turned out to be. He honestly didn't care so long as he got to leave the airplane hanger behind him.

Up ahead, Grendel picked up the pace. Konton leaned lower into the Suzuki, twisted the accelerator and followed.

@ Team


The road headed east from the airfield toward the city is itself. Corpus Christi was a laree tower filled Babylon on the coast of Texas. The sea air cooled the ambient temperature slightly as the team approached the city. Grendel's mind whirred thorough all the probable routes that he could take, and chose the one with the least probability of trouble. Just before the road merged with the heavier traffic of its four lane cousin, Grendel turned the Bison off on to a side service road. The dirt road ran under the large freeway and over two sets of rail road tracks.

15 Minutes later the Elf turned the vehicle back on to pavement and headed south east. This road merged with Ocean Drive a fe minutes later. It was the only road for miles that led to the abandoned Naval Air station. Two narrow bridges later (which had everyone on edge for the ambush potential) and the team was pulling into another air field.

Naval Air Station Corpus Christi was once a thriving air field for the US. Navy. Now it was mostly overgrown and crumbling. The hangars and runways were still in good shape though, probably maintained by smugglers and the like who used the base illicitly. Just as Wraith promised the middle hangar was completely set up, power, AC, matrix jack point and an internal sec system wired to a variety of wireless cameras positioned outside.

Swinging his feet off the Bizon and unto the hangar floor, the decker's shoes echoed heavily in the large space. Christophe would have preferred something cozier and friendlier than yet another aircraft hangar. He would have been satisfied even with the most modest of all novocoke dens the Confederacy had to offer.

"Another hangar..." a small hint of annoyed could be detected in the teenager's tone "am I the only one who's starting to see a pattern here?".

He shook his head, letting out a sigh. The waiting game was now over, at least for him. While most the team was going to be taking it easy for the next 24 hours or so, he'd be giving sweat, tears and blood to the operation. It was time to get working. In total silence, which seemed out of the ordinary for the decker, Leblanc unloaded all his gear from the van, setting is close to the jackpoint. Out of one of his bags came out a large, apparenlty second hand, blue and green winter sleeping bag. Unrolling it, he positioned it on the floor, next to the jackpoint and to the wall. The decker pulled his bright orange shirt off, revealing the protective form fitting layer he was wearing. Slowly, almost as if it was painful, he unzipped the protective suit and took the top layer off. A large white and blue Fleur de Lys was inked into the flesh of his left shoulder, and a pair of large feathered wings, which seemed vaguely familiar, were spread across his back. The orange shirt went back on. In a quick and fluid motion, obviously doing something he had done thousands of times, he connected his deck to himself, then to the wall socket. A small music unit came out of one of his apparently bottomless pockets and was rapidly clicked to his belt. The decker then connect a small pair of bright yellow sports headset to it, and slipped it on.

Breath in, Hold it, Breath out. Again. In. Hold. Out. In. Hold. Out.

He closed his eyes, taking another three breaths.

When he opened them back, he was at composed as he could be. Calmly, he gestured to Raven to come near him.

"Here is the deal: if I ever start twitching like crazy, you pull this" he pointed to the fiber optic cable connecting him to the jackpoint. "No hesitation. Something goes wrong, you pull. I'll be able to hear you through the comm system. I need to be left alone while I work, so only communicate if it is absolutely necessary." He was looking straight in her eyes, and looked dead serious. "I'll be switching to another frenquency. 139.85. I'll jack out between each datarun to get some rest."

Using the wall as support for his back, Leblanc got comfortable. Heavy techno industrial music started pouring out of his headphone. His finger reached the connection button.

He flashed one of his overconfident smile to Raven "Wish me luck."

Christophe jacked in.

"Hey Marcus."

The stoic monk gave the angel a bow.

"We need to dig... You start over there. Keep in touch brother."

Marcus crossed Gabriel, and walked away in the distance, leaning on his walking stick. Gabriel extended his wings, slowly ascending to get an overall view of the grid.

"Well well well... Let's see what we can find."

Q getting out of the Bizon, stops to give a little stretch. Then grabbing his gear to find the sleeping quarters and to take a look around to get a feel for the layout of the building.

Miho sighed as she stood in the hangar. Looking over at Q, she asks, "We leave soon? I bored here." Truth be told, she'd have liked to have found a sparring buddy or something, but everyone looked all nerdy right now, or prissy... She ached to move, scrunched up in a plane for hours, then riding in a vehicle, she couldn't remember the last time she went that long without air. Or so visibly, but these were a bunch of twitchy fingers, and it seemed prudent that she remain more visible than not for the sake of people's tension levels.

Silently, Konton's heart sank. They had simply moved from one airbase to another. He dutifully followed Grendel's Bison past the gates and across the tarmac to their corrugated grey "safe house". At least this particular airstrip was on the water. The ocean breeze and the smell of salt water vastly overpowered any residual jet exhaust. Konton whispered a quick thanks to the Kami of the oceans for helping purify his new home. He brought the Aurora to a stop beside the Bison.

To the teams credit, they were swift to unpack and begin setting up their new base camp inside the hanger. Konton reached out with a levitate spell, and hoisted as much luggage as he could without straining himself. But he nearly dropped his concentration when he entered the hanger proper.

"Aa, yokatta!" He said wide eyed.

The interior of the hanger was well maintained. A section of the hanger featured a gleaming Renraku Panopticon Trideo. It was surrounded by a circle of overstuffed comfortable looking couches. There was a kitchen, decked out with stainless steel appliances and glass doored cabinets that flaunted their many contents. The back of the hanger was a maze of thick hanging curtains in various dark colors. Konton guessed that's where he would be spending his nights. The hanger had running water, working electricity, and what felt to be air conditioning.

Combined with the sheer volume of space, the amenities and utilities made the hanger quite a nice doss. With the addition of a few mats, Konton would be quite at home.

Konton selected what he though was the cleanest corner of the hanger. He stowed all of his gear there. The rest of the luggage he simply placed in the center of a large open section of concrete floor space. There is even enough room here practice, he thought to himself. But first things first.

Grendel backed the Bison slowly, carefully positioning the trailer out of the way against one side of the hangar. Chocking the wheels, he cranked down the support wheel until the tongue of the trailer lifted free from the Bison's hitch. With the load clear, he pulled the heavy van forward, and deployed drones. The Wolfhound lifted clear from its top-mounted bay, engines shrill in the relative quiet of the hangar. Nosing over, it disappeared into the afternoon sky, enroute the Hotel. The Doberman rolled off the rear ramp, taking up a perimeter patrol in the shadows of the hangar. Reaching out the electronic fingers, Grendel pulled the signals from the wireless cameras into the Bison's central display.

Two, Base, let me know when you're done with your initial matrix hunt, I've got additional information requests.

"Base, Two: send your request right now... I might be able to squeeze them in if I happen to be close to the required grids."

Two, Base, can you get me hydrographic maps of the coastline as far South as El Salado Island and as far East as Galvaston. Include tidal information as well.

Konton caught the edges of the comm chatter between Grendel and Leblanc while he was stowing his gear.

"Two, Three. Sumimasen, I'm not sure if you heard or not before you went Matrix diving. Five and I were unable to get into the target area astrally. So if possible, the two of us are going to need a way to get inside early so we can conduct some astral recon. Please add that to your list of requested miracles. Arigato gozaimasu."

"Also, They've supplied us with a fully stocked pantry. If you have a request, let me know. I'm going to start cooking shortly."

But before Konton could even feed his own growling stomach, he would have to see to some astral security of their own.

"Five, Three. I am going to call us up a heart spirit and a watcher. Just to warn you that the spirits you'll see are mine. Feel free to add your own to the mix. Onozomide areba."

Christophe transduced emotionless chuckle came on the air.

"Base, Two; consider it done. You want that printed or burned on a chip?"

"Three, Two; when ever you need to get in, just say the word and I shall work my magic. Just tell me in advance if you need me to cut out the MADs at the doors, or if you'd rather I cut you a subtle way in."

Two, Base, electronic format is fine.

Q setting up his "room" quickly find his new com set waiting for him.
"vary nice" he says to himself. putting it on and setting it to the correct channel. he chimes in.

"Six up can running on the com. Four I'm Ready to head out when you are."

Q takes of his poncho and put on a baggy shirt to help cover his armor and his hand gun. Then grabs his sunglasses and walks out ready to go.

Konton considered his options.

"Two, Three. Five and I will go once six and four get back. In the mean time, I've got a medkit and some healing spells standing by. In case you should have a mishap while surfing the matrix, or one of the pair come back injured."

Konton had changed into a light cotton bright yellow yukata, and cleaned himself up from all the traveling. He had laid out a medkit next to where Leblanc was playing coma patient. Konton didn't have any medical expertise, but the kit itself had a built in dog brain for emergencies.

"All, Three. don't mind the spook show. I'm summoning us up some security."

With that, Konton began slowing pacing the inside perimeter of the hanger. He quietly chanted a Shinto Spirit Calling. The air around him began to take shape. The vague translucent form of a young japanese naval officer slowly separated itself from the darkness.

Raven slid out of the Bison feet first as it came to a halt. She carried her two bags in one hand over her shoulder leaving her other hand free for her weapon.

"Place looks good," she said aloud. All the talking on comms was somewhat disquieting. Sometimes you just needed to hear a human voice.

Four, (Miho) and Six(Q), One, unless you need supplys and rest go ahead and saddle up with Base once he is done setting up security, and move out. Base, drop them a few blocks from the TZ and then do your familiarization. Once there done pick them up and head back here.

One, Base, copy, break, Four, Six, Base, I'm ready to roll when you are.

Grendel dropped the security cameras from his view, reordering the network interface in his mind. Overhead, the Condor II continued its lazy, random orbit.

Miho didn't say a word, she walked over to the Bison, glad to have something to do, and sat in, almost appearing to pout as she crossed her arms over her chest. She leaned against the window, her head resting on the glass as her eyes peered outward, and sighed.

Q with his sunglasses on and everything ready he walks over to the Bizon and looks inside. Seeing Miho, he jumps in and says.

"Alrighty then, lets go get our workout for today walking around."

With the team aboard, Grendel buttoned up the Bison, heading out from the hangar into the heat of the city. Network windows hovered in space around him, the status readout from the heavy van dominated the central display. To the left and right were overhead views remoted from the Condor and the Wolfhound, while below were weapons and electronics warfare interfaces. After a moment, he echoed the surveillance feed from the Wolfhound to the central cabin MFD so Miho and Q could see. BattleTac symbology decorated the display, data tags and vectors color-coded by threat level.

Fifteen minutes later the heavy van nosed into a curbside parking space. Grendel unlatched but did not open the sliding cargo bay door.

In position. Don't rush the recon, but lets try and have this wrapped in an hour. Rendezvous this location. If you're compromised, pass your location via grid ref or lat-long and stand-by for quick extract. Questions?

"Base, tenfore see you in an hour."

Miho walked out of the van, her hair changed so that it hung in front of her face like most of the young japanese girls of the age. A quick change of clothing had her in stockings, skirt, blouse, and jacket, playing the part of the 'school girl' just fine. For the first time, her voice is heard over the comm unit in a non-voice way. "Four going quiet Base and Six. Eyes forward."

"Base out, Four I'll be shadowing you, but not keeping you in sight, so keep in informed on where you are so i'm not that far away."


Q walked down the street and around to the valet parking driveway and into the lobby. Taking note of staffing and hours of the valet service.

2 Days to go time, 1130 Hundred Hours.

The Bison slowed to a stop at the corner of North Shorline and Mann St. Two blocks north of the seaside Hiltons drive through main entrence. The underground parking garage was around the corner to the right of it.

The two recon experts rolled out of the truck. The crowd on the streets was thick enough on the sunny day that they were able to blend in stay concealed.

As Grendel waited for the light to change he follwed the two runners with his sensors for as long as he could. The light changed and he took off. The roads around the Hilton were fairly straitforward.

The roads were layed out in a grid. The main roads were North to South. Starting with North Shoreline, N. Water, N. Chaparral, and finally N. Loweer Broadway.

Shoreline is split into two roads, the eastern most one only goes North, while the west one only goes south. The North bound lane ends at Hghway 37 where the southbound lane begins.

Chaparral and Lower Broadway also runs north only. Water St. is a two lanes North and south. Mesquit is South only.

As it is the downtown block every single intersection has a stoplight to control traffic. The streets that run West to East are all two lane roads. The Northmost road (Mann) is two way. The road south of it is Twig and it runs West to East.

Taylor is next, it is the road the intersects with Shoreline (where the Hilton is) it is two way. Starr and Peoples is next, they run East to West and West to East.

Miho approached the doors to the Hotel, she fell in step behind a man and woman going inside, stopping at the entry way to see what security looked like at the doors while re-tying her shoe which had loosened. Her bangs continued to hide her eyes as she scanned the area with practiced ease. She pulled a brochure from the rack by the front door to get an idea of where things might be in the hotel for their guests, then prepared to enter.

The front entrance had 6 double wide doors all leading to the main lobby. If there were weapons detectors they kept them discreetly out of view.

Miho stepped through the doors in the wake of the couple in front of her, maintaining a non-conspicious demeanor as she intentionally strolled to the other side of the lobby, pamphlet in hand, but quickly surveying the area with her eyes. She located the Elevator and started to make her way towards them.