Rose squeaks. "I didn't even think about that!" She looks down at her hands for a moment, then smile brightly at Doc. "Thanks, Doc! You saved my beautiful hands! but... where are we going to get chem-protected gloves small enough for me?"

News:

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A simple datasearch brings up the TruTech public node, all glistening and shiny for the benefit of shareholders and customers. It is sculpted like a cathedral complete with resplendent dome, all done up in old-fashioned chrome.

Welcome to the TruTech Public Access Site. May I help you? says a Kitsune(a rating four IC that runs analyze, in the form of an anthropomorphic fox), also analyzing you in the process. It sees that you aren't currently trying to hack user access, and smiles its demure smile.

May I:

Inform you of our products and services?
Interest you in the newest cybertechnological developments?
Tell you about our company?
Help you find a retailer near you?

Whisper exited through the back door, once he was sure Malac.I was able to set up the teams commlinks so they could stay connected and be encrypted. He put his mind to the problem of infiltrating, mostly it would be strait forward, invisiblity, illusions and such. His bigger concern was when things did not go as planned, and he had to make sure the team could handle that when it did.

He returned to his small apartment, he checked the ward to make sure it was undistrubed, it was a simple matter and it came in very handy. Once in the ward he wents about preparing what he would need. His tasks were two fold, one he would scout the location astrally, and two he would summon to spirits and bind them, for the job. It would cost but it would be worth it.

Arriving at the TruTech main offices, near the on-ramp, Whisper looks around in physical and astral. Both sights see a little urban blight— TruTech does its business fairly near downtown, and the facade of the building shows the physical and mental grime that builds up. After looking a little bit, you see that the ward covers a big dome intersecting the building, like so.

Two hours of gazing until your eyes are tired(standing outside of the main building and hiding from the guard patrols) tells you that:

The guard patrols are each made of three humans and two dogs,
Pretty much everyone has cybereyes, some have minor non-combat cyber for various things, one guard on the 12:00 has a cyberarm,
The ward is medium-strength, weaker than your magic,
There's nothing there on the astral besides the ward, the guards and some ivy,
One of the 12:00 AM guards will have a full-blown flu in about three days or so,
and the 2:00 AM guards are all pretty unhappy.

Getting home at 2:00 AM, you begin a summoning, scattering about your stones taken from the Sacred Mountains in secret patterns, which will focus the chi of this wretched city to create a spirit. You hope that you do not get a wretched spirit.

You do your water kata, and as you shift the stones like water shifts mountains, a spirit coalesces from the chi around you, one of the many little gods of Puget Sound. Somehow, you intrinsically know that this little god will be more amenable to servitude. In total silence, it bows and awaits your command.

Flush with success, you begin performing your air kata, but at the thirty-fourth move, "Lion Jumping On Peony", you trip upon one of your stones and the chi of the spirit dissipates.

Meanwhile, Rose sends a text message to her fixer.

<<Mr. Masterby>>
<< Mr. Masterby, do you happen to know where I could get some chemical protection in my size at a time like this?>>

<<Rose>>
<<Hello, Little'un. If you had some chemically-resistant cloth you could just go to Mr. Bodckle, your regular tailor, and ask him to suit you up. Chemically-resistant cloth you can get at the TruTech store: should only be about a mile from you. Good luck, whatever you're doing.>>

Some distance away, Whisper looks inward, focuses his inner strength and strikes the air, forming invisible shapes in the air which slowly materialize into a little god. Breathing in too much of the unfiltered air of the sprawl, however, he chokes and coughs a little bit.

Dancer finishes her noodles and leaves soon after Whisper does. She keeps in touch with the others by commlink.

She heads home, where she changes into her jumpsuit and the rest of her armor, packing her gun, too - more as a precaution against L.A.'s other predators than any worries about the late night guard shifts, since she is only checking out the perimeter defenses. She also changes her hair and face to disguise her appearance - a relatively simple matter, since she is not trying to look like anyone specific.

Taking the tube to a spot near the Trutech offices, she meticulously checks out both the perimeter security, although she doubts she will spot anything that Whisper won't. She also checks out the immediate environs, thinking in terms of escape routes and checkpoints.

Apparently in order to save costs, the concertina wire has been replaced with normal wire in the north of the lab(the map has north up). The lab is small enough already: just busting through the door will be enough.

Doc stays in contact with Rose and Dancer and parks a few blocks away from Trutech ready to provide a quick escape if needed. After summoning a watcher spirit to watch over his body he follows Dancer along in the astral, manifesting for just a brief moment next to her when she is alone so the Dancer knows he's there.

Rose fires off a message to the rest of the team as she conceals herself.

<<Team channel>>
<< Hey, can anybody pick up some chemically resistant cloth for me? I can pay you back... I just don't want to have it connected with this.>>

Having done so, She flutters high into the sky and moves towards the TruTech building, settling on a nearby building and begins to watch TruTech in both the physical and astral realms while waiting for the others to arrive.

<<I think I can order more than enough for my clinic lab and shuffle some your way Rose.>>

Doc responds then pulls up his throw away commlink and adds the cloth to his latest order for the clinic's supplies. Then sits back listening to comm chatter and awaiting any need for backup.

0002 Pacific Time, 7/3/72

News:

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Staring blearily into and around the TruTech offices, everybody looking into the astral suddenly spots something new: 6 ghouls march right up to the TruTech building, give a little sign to the guards, and are let in. These ghouls are pretty average ghouls, except that they're all wearing the latest in fashion, with corresponding ultra-fashionable commlinks and accessories, and wear heavy make-up to hide their identities. You can tell by their auras, though, that they're all true ghouls.

Rose stares at the ghouls for a moment, then opens up a subvocal channel to the rest of the team, making sure Damien's agent, Markus Mk II, kept an eye on the channel and dealt with any unwanted eavesdroppers.

<<TEAM>>
<'Did anyone else notice the group of creepy flesh eaters just enter the target location?'>

Dancer, from her hiding spot on ground level, comms Rose back:

<< Yes, saw a group they let past the guards. Ghouls, huh? Wondered why they had so much makeup on. Think we should tail them, or ambush them, when they come back out? >>

Rose rolls her eyes and replies,

<'We're not hired to ambush them... unless they walk out with our merchandise. Besides. I don't know about you, but I'm not picking a fight with a ghoul... much less 6 of them! And as to the makeup... Anyone who was a ghoul but wanted to avoid causing a panic wears it.'>

Dancer replies:

<< Yeah, sorry, a bit jumpy. It's just our Johnson is keeping stuff from us, and now something weird like this. It might not have anything to do with our job, but I'd still like to know what they're doing here. >>

Rose shrugs to herself.

<<Team>>
<'Does anyone have the time to summon a spirit or two to follow those ghouls when they leave?'>

Whisper, returning to the scene followed by two spirits, comms back:

Air or fire?

Rose shrugs, then realizes Whisper can't see her.

<<Whisper>>
<' Umm... whichever one is going to be harder for them to spot? Air, I guess, since fire's all flashy and stuff...'>

A barely-noticeable ripple in the air seems to precede the ghouls' going.

The small god of air whispers:

"Greetings. This servant of the celestial order wishes to inform this exalted friend of the summoner of celestial order. . ."

<snip>

"that those impure ones leaving the mansion carry a plastic case filled with strange meat. This is what this servant of the celestial order. . ."

<snip>

"wishes to tell this exalted friend of the summoner of celestial order."

Rose jumps and almost falls off her perch when the spirit appears in front of her. "Thank you, Servant of the Celestial Order. Please, continue following them and keep us informed of their path." She smiles.

0030 Pacific Time, 7/3/72

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Fifteen minutes later, the spirit returns.

"Greetings. . ."

<1 megapulse deleted here>

"that the foul ones have been apprehended by a group of people not unlike the exalted friends of the summoner of celestial order, and incinerated into little bits. These purifiers of the celestial realm then proceeded to examine the contents, and whoop with joy, whispering aloud that they had discovered a magical briefcase of "infinite ANFO". At viewing this strange case, this servant of the celestial order did see that that was the case. . . ."

<.5 megapulse deleted here>

Rose looks confused for a moment before sending a message off to the others.

<<Team>>
<' Anyone know what ANFO is? The spirit says that the creepy flesh eaters got offed by a group similar to us, who proceeded to look into the case and say, quote "they had discovered a magical briefcase of 'infinite ANFO.' " '>

Dancer, equally confused, replies:

<< I haven't heard that term before, either. I wonder if it's an acronym, or whether the spirit misheard something like 'infinite INFO' instead. >>

0040 Pacific Time, 7/3/72

The humdrum stakeout almost returns to you, the spirit joining in examination of the entire site very, very, carefully.

Then, a great big explosion breaks the silence of the night. In a colossal hullabaloo, three things happen:

-The guard patrol rushes out of its patrol route and out of the complex itself to investigate the explosion, which was at the next block.

-Whisper cannot be contacted. His commlink appears to turn off in the Matrix side, and the astral and physical chaos of the explosion, some of the dust of which enters this block, all combine to hide him utterly for an instant— and in that instant, he disappears.

-A metahuman figure has been hurled next to the wall by the explosion. It is carrying the remains of a briefcase, and astral examination shows that it is a troll with a bandolier of knives.

0041 Pacific Time, 7/3/72

The Troll picks himself up, and looks around.
He is an average sized Troll (i.e. big). His glasses are askew, and his eyes are very large and strange. There are earbuds dislodged and hanged by their hooks from his ears. He has on a brown lines coat, and seems bluky, even for a Troll, underneath. You do not see any weapons other than the knives on the bandolier, and for those who are observant, one at his waist.

0041 Pacific Time, 7/3/72

Dancer futilely attempts to contact Whisper.

<< Rose! I've lost contact with Whisper. You're the fastest, could you see what happened? I'll keep an eye on this troll. Not sure he's involved yet, but we might have some questions for him. >>

Still partially hidden behind a parked car, Dancer observes the troll, who is standing to his feet. After her earlier bout of nerves, she is trying hard not to get trigger-happy as her cold eyes scan this suspicious new arrival. With her tweaked-out cybereyes, it is like observing him from a few feet away in broad daylight. She needs to remember that his troll vision makes the darkness no hindrance for him, either. She slowly draws her gun, but keeps it at her side for the moment.

Rose blinks at the explosion and the appearance of the Troll. “Well… you don’t see something like that every day. Does make for a nice distraction, though.� She shrugs and ponders attempting to complete the mission now for a moment before receiving Dancer’s comm call.

She immediately puts a call out towards Whisper’s commlink herself. <’Whisper! You there? Alive? Dead?’>

Getting no response she frowns and turns to where she last saw the air spirit. “Servant of the Celestial Order, are you still here? Can you please go and check the condition of your summoner?�

Mach straightens up, straightens the glasses and earbuds, and moves back towards the center of the explosion, a concerned look on his face.
(He does clearly look around trying to see what is going on just before he moves away from the wall.)
Those observing carefully note that there seem to be several knives in Mach's right hand as he starts moving.

Spock is a splatter on the wall, a brownish stain. He was your partner for the run. Supposed to be a milk B&E, but recent events have given you new incentive to check your Johnsons better from now on. Strange, since he was about two yards from you and you got off fine, except for your eyebrows. A weird artifact, indeed.

Your eyes do spot a metahuman silhouette hiding behind the tinted windows of a parked car.

<'Dancer, I've sent Whisper's spirit to check for him. Figured it would have the easiest time finding him. It didn't vanish. Does that mean he's not dead? Anyway! Wanna take advantage of the mysterious distraction to complete the mission?'> |Dancer and anyone else who might feel the urge to contribute|

Rose nervously reaches into the neck of her chameleon suit and pulls out a slightly crushed origami rose, carefully straightening it out before carefully tucking it away.

Dancer comms back:

<< I have to admit, I thought about that myself. We could try. I am armed and disguised, so the only thing left to worry about is whatever liquid the chip is sitting in. But they might even have protective gloves or materials lying around in the lab, so it wouldn't hurt to try it. I just need to be careful easing past this troll. He hasn't made any hostile moves yet, but that doesn't mean he hasn't noticed me. I'll stay in contact, in case I need backup. >>

<<Well, I'm heading on in. Malloc.I, please get into the system and see if there's anything in the tank to drain off. Also, shut down any alarms if you can. Dancer, be a dear and get the door. >> |Dancer and Malloc.I |

Rose tosses herself off her ledge and spreads her wings to their fullest before gliding towards the entrance, doing everything in her power to stay silent and unnoticed.

A slight blur on the door goes entirely unnoticed as the guards begin hastily returning to base. The guard patrol enters the facility to check for intruders, while the another, new squad resumes patrol.

Welcome to TruTech Administrator Access.

Username /*Security Breached Securit

/*Security Breach Override*/

Username: null

Password: *******

A great big stone slab rings down upon the node's ground, with the message of the day upon it:

"Today is a good day to die."

You start sneaking about in the node, after hours and hours of hacking. A Babel-ish vista of mudbrick towers impossibly tall looms upon you. Golems patrol the streets, taking no notice of a blur in the air.

Dancer utters a few mental expletives as the returning guards effectively block her from following Rose. At least it looks like the pixie managed to slip in.

<< Sorry, Rose. Those guys came back too fast. At least the troll headed out, too, although I'll still keep an eye out for him in case he comes back. I'll keep an eye out here... let me know if you need me to start a distraction at some point. >>

<<Online. No active alert. Searching for 'tank'.>>

Malloc.I's icon fluttered, unseen, through the sculpted landscape of the node, inspecting icons it encountered, while running a search routine trying to find a network connection to, or any data on, the contents of "water bath 18".

Rose glides in through the door as the guards return, immediately wheeling away and finding an out-of-the-way (and out of camera sight) shelf or large piece of equipment to land on and rest for a moment while she organizes things. She studies the interior before sending a message to the others.

<<Ok, I'm in. Malloc.I, How much control do you have over their system? I mean, do you have control of the cameras? Can you ensure that alarms don't go off? Actually, can you trigger an alarm? perhaps a fire or carbon monoxide alarm or something? And Dancer, I'll let you know when I need a distraction. Got any 'splosives?>>

Dancer comms back:

<< Sorry, no explosives. I'll have to shoot out one of the spotlights or something. >>

Not being sure what to do, Mach steps out of the immediate lights and activity.
He is keeping an eye on what is going on, particularly the car which seems to have someone in it.

Also send a test to whatever context the Johnson game Things have gone wrong, but I have the case.

"Water bath 18", depressingly enough, turns up some pornography(which some employee thought was hidden) and some controls for an array of tanks. Bath 18, 19 & 20 are controlled here, apparently.

All the golems seem to be one hydra-headed piece of IC kept running. Once in the controls for the array, you see glittering bits of the lumpy clay representation of the vats rising up: "Ignition", "Drain" and "Poison".

Malloc.I fired off a quick message to the team, whispering into the air. <<Tanks located: 18, 19, 20. Three settings: "ignition", "drain", and "poison". All possibilities. Please, advise.>>

<<erm... what's the likelihood of those being mislabeled in an attempt to trick someone from the outside into killing herself?>>

<<Possible. Unlikely. Irrelevant. If controls are trapped, our options: limited. Status: unchanged. Alternative: proceed with assumption.>>
The text is accompanied by a few random safety images warning of danger, toxicity, and flammable substances.
<<Effect of function 'Drain': likely lead toward goal: chip extraction. However, effect on chip: unknown. Proceed?>>

<<Ok, first, can you identify the contents of the tank? It seems silly to activate the drain procedure if there's nothing in there to drain. Second! I will send you a message when it's time to drain the tank. I want to be in the room and ready to retrieve the chip before we start the drain, in case it causes unforeseen consequences. Understand?>>

With that, Rose takes off again, doing her best to stay high, out of sight, and out of the way of anybody working in there. She slowly and quietly circles around towards the room the map says contains the tanks, praying that things don't go horribly wrong.

Inside of the tank room, you come to the realization that the map was a little wrong. In this case, every surface of the entire room(including walls and ceiling) is covered with low, squat tanks(covered with plexiglass without latches on the walls and ceiling). Inside every tank is an opaque, shiny metallic liquid.

'well poo.' Rose thinks as she flies into the room and flutters to a stop in a corner of the room. 'What do I do with this mess>'

She quickly swings her commlink around so that the camcorder is facing into the room and begins recording as she slowly pans across the room so that all of the tanks are shown. She then attaches the recording to a message she sends to the rest of the group.

<<Erm, guys? Mr. J's information is wrong. Please see the attached for further details.

attachment: ohshit.trid

ps: which tank do you guys think is the right one?>>

Dancer's eyes narrow in annoyance as her suspicions (about the skimpy logistical support from the Johnson) are confirmed.

<< Looks like we got some misleading information. No surprise. I would say have Malloc.I drain the tank the chip is supposed to be in, and go for that one. >>

Malloc.I waited for what seemed like an eternity in the Matrix (although it was only a second or two) after reading the suggestion from Dancer to see if anyone agreed or disagreed with the idea before he committed to the action. Getting no response, he decided to proceed and accessed the icon for draining tank-18.