02-Apr-2071, 21:17:22, Outside Chelsea's, Downtown, Seattle

Nuke is torn away from his pre-hack analysis by the familiar “Cop Voice� booming down the street.

The mouthed expletive is reflexive.

02-Apr-2071, 21:17:20, Outside Chelsea's, Downtown, Seattle

aha!

None of her internal shock or realization reached her features as she decided to let the mess unfold before her. She would be all too happy to get out of the line of fire.

02-Apr-2071, 21:17:22, Outside Chelsea's, Downtown, Seattle

Down.

Nuke drops to one knee, getting as much of a parked car as possible between himself and the trio by the taxi. Trying his best to look scared and confused, he hurls himself at the cab’s firewall. The badges and automatic weapons have come out. The time for subtlety has passed.

02-Apr-2071, 21:17:23, Outside Chelsea's, Downtown, Seattle

For the fraction of a second the "cabbie" stops, then screams and opens fire at the cop. His shot hits the man in his right thigh, causing him to fall down to the pavement, spinning in a half circle, blood soaking his pants. The "cabbie" then reaches into the car and pulls out an assault rifle with an underbarrel grenade launcher from underneath the blanket. The compromised commnet reports his "I am coming, doll!" to the runners.

Snow Flower hears a "No! Don't shoo...t!" from inside the car just as the man is shooting, and can see the cop roll over on his stomach and bring his own gun to bear on the cabbie, squeezing off a burst while he yells "Officer Down!" The Thunderbolt cracks, and the cabbie gets thrown into the car's door, as much from the impact as from the surprise. He doesn't seem that hurt, but some blood's showing through his jacket.

The japanese mage's trained senses can almost feel the ripple in the astral space when a spell is cast inside the car, through the polarized windows, and sent straight at the cop. Gasping, the cop rolls his eyes up, and collapses, unconscious.

Stray has watched the scene, and is now sprinting towards Snow Flower, vaulting over a cowering troll on the sidewalk and pulling her Ares Predator IV out from her holster. The young adept is hoping she won't be too late, even though she's not entirely sure what is happening there.

02-Apr-2071, 21:17:26, Outside Chelsea's, Downtown, Seattle

With his network fairly secure, Jasper settles back down. The gunfire in the street is also kind of comforting for him. The sneaking around and the politics are not his cup o' joe, but a firefight , he understands. The sound of the cop on the radio was the only change in plans. Its evac time. watching the drones video feeds from the floor of his van he decides the grenade launcher is first priority.
--Rosie, take down the assault rifle--
--Bud, evac to Charlene--

[ Spoiler ]

rolls and such

<<Lets get outa here ya'll>>

02-Apr-2071, 21:17:27, Outside Chelsea's, Downtown, Seattle

The cabbie throws himself to the side when Rosie dives and strafes his position, trying to put the car between himself and the drone. Despite his wounds he almost makes it - but almost only counts with grenades and horseshoes, not LMG bullets. The man is cut down in the middle of his attempt to dodge, and thrown on the ground, more blood splattering on the pavement, as well as parts of the car's door. He doesn't look dead - yet - but he also does not look like he'll have an easy time getting up again. His assault rifle slides over the ground, and comes to rest about a meter away from Snow Flower.

In the tapped commnet more english-accented cursing and the word "trap!" is heard, as well as frantic calls from "Doll", asking what was happening.

02-Apr-2071, 21:17:27, Outside Chelsea's, Downtown, Seattle

The pattern of the cards were systematic and regular when laid out. The same pattern laid out everytime. Smooth, regular, predictable, a comforting pattern on the table.

Then a hand reaching across the table, routine fixed, a pattern thousands of times, comforting in it's regularity.

And then the card is flipped and chaos revealed.

...hai, I make my play... but what is the game?...

Snow Flower converted her fall into a compact tumble and from her crouch made her move. Despite the high quality materials and apparently restricting style. her outfit always allowed her to move. Aside from the simple practicality of allowing her to squat and kneel as was simply polite, in situations like these it prevented her from ripping her outfit to shreds from her own moves. It wouldn't help against the screaming metal projectiles scattering in random directions as they ricocheted off or through their targets.

In her crouch she slid past the cab door and dropped to her knees by the undercover Lone Star officer, carefully making sure she has passed within reach of the downed cab driver and angled to face towards the cab interior so she could heard clearly both by her own team's commnet and by anything in the cab.

In her clear precise north american standard she sharply commanded in a voice clearly directed into the cab,"Cease fire!"

"Everyone withdraw."

Snow Flower placed her hands on the officer's neck in the classic check for a pulse."We will all talk after I fix this."

She felt incredibly exposed, but that was nothing compared to the rush of adrenalin starting to charge through her body.

so many bullets

02-Apr-2071, 21:17:28, Outside Chelsea's, Downtown, Seattle

The mage inside the car doesn't bring down arcane harm on Snow Flower, so he might have been swayed by her words. The cop is unconscious, but doesn't seem in immediate danger of dieing, despite his bleeding thigh wound. "Doll" is still screaming through the commnet, asking what is happening while Bud is starting to withdraw. Rosie is circling overhead, though it's not clear if she's coming around for another pass at the cabbie, or to return to the van.

02-Apr-2071, 21:17:28, Outside Chelsea's, Downtown, Seattle

Screams of panic joint the bark of gunfire in the night as the sidewalk in front of Chelsea’s gets another nocturnal visit from the Violence Fairy. Nuke hunches behind the fender of a silver Toyota Elite and continues working on the car’s system.

02-Apr-2071, 21:17:29, Outside Chelsea's, Downtown, Seattle

Rosie deems the "target neutralized", and passes overhead, seeing no other threats - though that might change once the first Lonestar drones arrive. No ICE jumps on Nuke when he enters the node inside the cab, and starts sifting through the data inside.

He can spot the mage, "Limey" moving forward, towards the downed "Cabbie". He sees the feeds from "doll", who staggers, trying to escape through the revolving door with a body still hurting from the stick'n'shocks. And he spots a data trail coming from afar, probably what's left of the hacker's presence.

Stray curses, and starts to run away, stashing her gun as she makes her way to her bike. The young adept is slightly irked about not having had a chance to do anything, but also glad no one - on her side - got hurt.

A bit away, a lot of people are running, screaming, seeking cover from the hail of gunfire.

-Apr-2071, 21:17:29, Outside Chelsea's, Downtown, Seattle

<<Well that was about as smooth as a one legged waltz, I'm falling back before the doughnut convention arrives. Snow, you gonna try to talk to the Star? I can have shelly wait a couple a blocks down the street.>>

Jasper's already in VR, Charlene pulls away and her paint job changes to a faded brown and yellow, with equally faded letters that read "Rosco's Chicken and Waffles". Rosie hovers over the team to block the cameras until they start to leave.

02-Apr-2071, 21:17:29, Outside Chelsea's, Downtown, Seattle

Inside the cab's node, Nuke takes a moment to aid the other's team's escape by opening the door closest to Doll, then begins his digital smash and grab in earnest. The node's contents are copied to his nexus, along with anything he has access to in the other team's network. After stealing a copy of everything he can get access to, he begins tracking Gearhead.

<<Pulling out. Looking to see what these guys have found and searching for their hacker.>>



On the sidewalk, he crawls away from the chaos, trying to look like someone else caught in the crossfire.

02-Apr-2071, 21:17:33, Outside Chelsea's, Downtown, Seattle

The deafening silence filled with the minor noises of the crowd scrambling away or tensely staying still. The occasional metahuman buried deep in their ARO reality filter standing out as they walked through a Reality Filter setting ignoring the effects of high cyclic gunfire and blood on the pavement. Or perhaps it was a virtual setting where such items did not stand out.

Snow Flower had her own reality to deal with. She strained her will and channeled the power of the spirit worlds into her effort. Scaled skin, whiskers, and morphing of her features into high slanted eyes, loose jaws, and sharp chin of the ancient wise ones transformed her face for an eternal age as she knelt over her subject.

"You have bravely prevented the kidnapping of Mrs. Keiko Mushari from what you are certain were russian accented men. Sadly Keiko must leave as she does not want to embarrass her husband, an important official visiting from corporate head office."

With her other hand she maneuvered a small medical patch she kept handy for such emergencies. Still on her knees she checked the cab driver for a pulse, preparing to apply the patch surreptitiously, but withdrawing the patch, and herself when the cursing Englishman approached. It was probably safer to leave him be, but it would be much better if he or his team got him out of there. Snow Flower could have never moved him by herself.

She commmented in the direction of the cab, "Control him please. He may be confused when he gets up."

02-Apr-2071, 21:17:33, Outside Chelsea's, Downtown, Seattle

While Snow Flower starts working on the cop "Limey" crawls out and frantically starts to magcially heal the bleeding "cabbie", making it unneeded to use a patch on him. There's a lot of blood on the pavement by now, and the man's muttered words are lined with english curses as his faintly glowing hands pass over the wounded's skin. The Cop, still not really conscious, soaks up the fake memory Snow Flower implants into his mind, nodding shakily. It's not sure Limey managed to understand what Snow Flower did or said, he glances at her while he starts to drag the wounded and still unconscious man into the cab, struggling while the air begins to shimmer and a fire elemental materializes and starts burning the blood and other traces away.

Nuke raids the node, but doesn't get that much information out of it. The hacker is in some cafe, or so it looks like, a few hundred meters away. Something interesting is found though: The group apparently was hired this very evening as well, and through some clever digging of their own they managed to identify their Johnson as "William Gannings", an attorney campaigning to become the next district mayor. As far as they know someone's blocking the kidnapping investigation, and Gannings wants the girl found and delivered to him to get to the bottom of this affair.

Jsaper's ready to leave while Stray's driving away already, asking where to meet up through the commnet.

02-Apr-2071, 21:17:40, Outside Chelsea's, Downtown, Seattle

<<We need to get outa the Lonestar search radius. Preferably somewhere a little more Boozer friendly .. hehe, naw seriously though, the less cops and cameras the better>>

Jasper jumps in to "Rosie" to watch the cleanup while "Charlene" follows Stray's bike at a distance. Thinking over the confrontation, He knew this team had some kinks to work out. This group was smaller than before, and its going to take more stealth and finesse.

02-Apr-2071, 21:17:46, Outside Chelsea's, Downtown, Seattle

Armed with Gearhead's location, and the findings of the other crew's investigation, Nuke switches his attention back to the situation on the street.

<<Good plan. Pick a place. Snow, I'll keep an eye on the cab if you're going with them. If not, head this way and I'll give you a lift out.>>

The sudden appearance of the fire elemental makes him flinch, but he relaxes when it doesn't attack. The waiting motorcycle starts with a rumble, waiting for his arrival.

02-Apr-2071, 21:18:00, Outside Chelsea's, Downtown, Seattle

The crowd noise was returning to normal. A cue to move.

Snow Flower stood up and called out into the spirit world for a kami to assist. The strain washed through her, controlled, but no less painful or dangerous.

02-Apr-2071, 21:18:30, Outside Chelsea's, Downtown, Seattle

Jasper slid "Rosie" higher and prepared to follow Nuke out of there. It sounded like He was taking care of Snow's transport, so Jasper sent "Shelly" to catch up with the others.

<<How about Lucky Eddies in Auburn? its a little closer than Puyallup, and Eddie's pool hall is in our kinda neighborhood. as a side note, I think United Oil has a lot of its Seattle business there. Auburn that is , not the pool hall. >>

02-Apr-2071, 21:18:56, Outside Chelsea's, Downtown, Seattle

The kami appeared, staring down at Snow Flower, and silently asking what she called him there for. "Limey stares at the woman, apparently sensing the spirit as well, opens his mouth as if to say something, but then reconsiders, and starts the motor of the van. The fire elemental hisses at the spirit even as it turns its heat and fire on the plastic parts the van had lost to Rosie's bullets.

Stray checks the location of this "Lucky Eddies", and lets the autonav system calculate a route. <<That looks good.>>> A bit away from her usual haunts, but that was a good thing in this case.

Both Nuke and Jasper get away clean.

02-Apr-2071, 21:18:56, Outside Chelsea's, Downtown, Seattle

Nuke watches the weird dynamic continue to unfold on the sidewalk as he skulks back to his waiting motorcycle.

Luddite. Need to get her a skinlink.

Comfortably in the saddle, he sends the location of Gearhead's cafe to Jasper.

<<Can you fly over this place and try to get a visual on their hacker? Don't want to make contact with him or anything, just want a face to go with the handle. The place in Auburn sounds fine.>>

As he continued watching Snowflower dealing with the other team, he began trying to piece together the new information. A pimp and a politician were both looking for a kidnapped callgirl who'd just spent the night with a corporate lawyer. Lone Star wasn't supposed to be investigating, but a detective had been lurking around the scene of the crime. What was really going on?

02-Apr-2071, 21:19:16, Outside Chelsea's, Downtown, Seattle

<<Ole Rosie can keep a lid on a scene for a bit, but on the move in this neighborhood, she is gonna git a lot of attention. They got some cameras over there you could borrow?>>

Jasper checked the coordinants of the cafe to see if there was time for "Charlene" to swing by.

02-Apr-2071, 21:18:56, Outside Chelsea's, Downtown, Seattle

"Someone help this brave man?" were the last words she spoke before straightening up and leaving the wounded officer. A bit of effort and concentration had allowed her to reference the last set of message traffic over the commnet, after which she was able to pick out her option.

Unhurried, Snow Flower walked to the man on the motorcycle while making her request to the kami , "My companion and I would be blessed if you would conceal us from undue attention."

02-Apr-2071, 21:19:42, Outside Chelsea's, Downtown, Seattle

The kami gravely nods, and graciously works his power, cloaking the presence of both Snow Flower and Nuke. With most people still moving away from the location of a firefight there was no trouble with particularly oblivious passerbys stumbling into them either. The sirens, which were faintly audible earlier, start to get louder - the Star's on the way. The "cab" changes colors as it turns around a corner, then speeds up. Debris on the street that has spilled from a waste basket overthrown by some panicking troll is thrown into the air when a Lone Star vectored thrust drone sweeps by, coming to a stop near the still groggy cop.

02-Apr-2071, 21:19:49, Outside Chelsea's, Downtown, Seattle

Once Snowflower is settled, Nuke rolls out of his parking space, headed away from the spontaneous law enforcement convention now in progress.

After a block or two, he takes a moment to start sending GridGuide a new fake AccessID for the motorcycle.


"In case you missed it, we're headed down to a place Jasper knows in Auburn. The cop going to make it?"

02-Apr-2071, 21:19:53, Outside Chelsea's, Downtown, Seattle

Balanced comfortably on the back of the bike Snow Flower answers, "Yes. Less trouble, and more useful if he lives."

"Let's hope Auburn is less exciting neh?

02-Apr-2071, 21:20:04, Several blocks from Chelsea's, Downtown, Seattle

Nuke winds the throttle open as the bike accelerates out into the evening traffic.

"It better be. Something's seriously wrong when you're leaving a nice part of downtown and headed into Auburn to find some peace and quiet."

02-Apr-2071, 21:25:38, Downtown, Seattle

Charlene drives just in time to see the hacker getting loaded into a DocWagon ambulance. Getting a picture of the hacker's face is not too easy, but Jasper manages, though the lower half is hidden under a breathing mask connected to an O2-tube. A quick romp through the cafe's camera recordings reveals that the hacker had placed some agent there editing his face while he was away. Another DocWagon ambulance drives by, on the way to the scene of the firefight.

02-Apr-2071, 21:30:18, Downtown, Seattle
After his detour to ID the Hacker, Jasper moves to catch up with the group in Auburn. He forwards the images along to the team as he tries to put some pieces together from this evening.

<<Heres the pics I got of our hacker, He looks like he's in as bad a shape as his cab buddy. >>

Thinking about it, Jasper wondered if letting these guys live was a good move. It seemed beneficial in some ways, but shooting someone and not making sure they were dead was usually a liability in Jasper's book.

02-Apr-2071, 22:15:32, Lucky Eddie's, Auburn, Seattle

Lucky Eddie’s, a little hole-in-the-wall, smells like smoke. Stray notices that at once, and wrinkles her nose. It doesn't smell that bad, not like some bars where the "unwashed masses" is a literal description of the clientele, but it's a strong smell. One one got used to quickly though.

The people present look the enwcomer over, but just to check if she's someone familiar to them, then, probably after taking in her attire and attitude, look away - plainly, the clientle here doesn't want to bother armed strangers. After a glance at the bar the young adept walks over to the table where the runners that had already arrived are seated.

02-Apr-2071, 22:17:01, Lucky Eddie’s, Auburn, Seattle

The adrenaline drains from his muscles and brain as Nuke makes his way through the smoke filled room, doing his best to project the “I will stab you to death with a sharpened toothbrush� vibe that got him through prison with his virtue intact. Spotting the claimed table, he makes his way over, glad to see that the locals are giving him his space.

�So, what have we got to go on?�

02-Apr-2071, 22:18:05, Lucky Eddie’s, Auburn, Seattle

Jasper had only been to Eddies a handfull of times, But he really felt comfortable there. After reloading and securing the drones he strolled straight to the bar for a whisky and lime. He strolled through the work-a-day crowd adding his own cigarette smoke to the hazy atmosphere. Following Nuke to the Table, he grins a fat grin with a cigarette waggling in the corner of his mouth as he spoke,"Well, we learned that cab drivers can't dance"

He chuckles to himself as he looks for any takers on his joke.

02-Apr-2071, 22:18:08, Lucky Eddie’s, Auburn, Seattle

Nuke scowls.

"I learned that while someone is trying to suppress the investigation, they can't keep all the cops in line. The other team was hired around the same time we were to find the girl, and bring her to their client. They seemed convinced that they were hired by a local lawyer named William Gannings, who's running for district mayor. They're supposed to deliver the girl so he can sort out what's going on here, probably to root out which dirty cops are involved."

Wonder if this whole thing started with a manufactured corruption scandal to put Knight Errant over the top to replace Lone Star in Seattle...

02-Apr-2071, 22:18:14, Lucky Eddie’s, Auburn, Seattle

Jasper took a long drag on his smoke and exhaled with a sigh as he realized Nuke wasn't in the mood for jokes,"Yer thinkin Dirty cops now? so why this hooker? or this lawyer? Now that I'm thinkin about it, there's a lot a lawyers poppin up in this situation. It might be good to find out what cases mr Gannings and mr Kelborn have in common, if any, and find out what they're working on now. "

02-Apr-2071, 22:18:14, Lucky Eddie’s, Auburn, Seattle

"I'll look at what else Gannings is up to, but that still doesn't put us any closer to the girl. Didn't get anything useful from looking around the street either. Know where I have to look next, though. Snowflower, Stray, find anything good?"

The exhasperation is increasingly obvious in Nuke's voice and body language as he continues monitoring the fake cab's node.

02-Apr-2071, 22:18:15, Lucky Eddie's, Auburn, Seattle

She'd paused before following Nuke into the place. It really didn't matter. Nothing was going to keep her seperate from the others in the minds of those who were in this place. Snow Flower stepped in the doorway and stood where everyone could get a good look as she gave the entire room a scan. She had no doubt in a few days she would still remember every face in the room.

Switching on her enigmatic smile she smoothly went to the table, turned her back on and attention away from the room, and listened to the opening conversational gambit before asking, "You have the number of the cab people neh?"

She continued after a pause, "We can eliminate them as suspects, and the officer. It is not surprising other clients are concerned. Anyone employing her services is someone of consequence, and thus at some risk depending on their status and standing."

02-Apr-2071, 22:19:00, Lucky Eddie's, Auburn, Seattle

Stray shakes her head. "No, before I could get a good look at the side alleys the whole thing with the cab went down..." The adept takes a bite out of a sandwich she has ordered.

02-Apr-2071, 22:20:00, Lucky Eddie's, Auburn, Seattle

Jasper realized they had little to go on to find the girl. He leaned back in his seat, idly watching a game of pool.
"without any hard lead on where the girl is, we're gonna have to find out who took her, and start looking for them", he said half to himself as he twisted the empty shot glass between his thumb and forefinger. He then glanced to the group,"we could still pay a visit to mr. Kelborn. Of course, our new friends might have similar plans."

02-Apr-2071, 22:20:20, Lucky Eddie's, Auburn, Seattle

"Who will be checking out her appartment?"

02-Apr-2071, 22:20:24, Lucky Eddie's, Auburn, Seattle

"Getting into her place should be trivial. I can slip in there, take a look around, then we can go bother Kelborn. Should still leave plenty of time to get into the GridGuide system afterwards."

Nuke takes a moment to spoof the nexus's AccessID to throw off anyone who might be trying a probing attack on it.

"And yeah, I've still got that cab's number. Might make for an awkward conversation, though."

02-Apr-2071, 22:20:24, Lucky Eddie's, Auburn, Seattle

Japer takes a slightly puzzled glance towards Nuke,"You wantin to go solo into Cheryl's place? I mean, I thought checking out Chelsea's was gonna be trivial, and there was more people staked out there than Strippers at Ticklers. Now I ain't tryin to step on yer toes, I know I'm about as stealthy as a fart in wind chime shop, but if lone star or one of these other hooker fan clubs is waitin in the wings, you might want some back up"

02-Apr-2071, 22:20:24, Lucky Eddie's, Auburn, Seattle

"If more than one Lone Star officer is interested in the case then wouldn't they observe the flat as well?" Stray worries about encountering Lone Star again - especially after the attention the caught today.

02-Apr-2071, 22:20:28, Lucky Eddie's, Auburn, Seattle

"We are safer together neh?"

"If I can get inside the apartment I may be able to find things others have missed, but it will be tiring, and I cannot pay attention to other things while I do this magic."

02-Apr-2071, 22:20:29, Lucky Eddie's, Auburn, Seattle

"Probably. It can't hurt to have an extra set of eyes looking for trouble, as long as that extra set of eyes doesn't decide to start a gunfight."

02-Apr-2071, 22:20:28, Lucky Eddie's, Auburn, Seattle

"Yes. I do not know what happened but there were many bullets."

Somewhat reluctantly Snow Flower unclipped her caterpillar shelled metalink and placed it on the table and held her finger on it keeping it pinned to the down like a lepidopterist.

"I am so sorry, maybe one of you could advise me about this, do I need a new one to help keep me, how, ah, in the loop. I would consider it useful to know of what dangers there are before the lead rain, neh?"

02-Apr-2071, 22:20:34, Lucky Eddie's, Auburn, Seattle

"If you'll let me take a quick look at that thing, and I'll see what I can do."

Nuke casts an accusatory glance at the rigger.

"Jasper, can you fill her in on what happened."

02-Apr-2071, 22:20:44, Lucky Eddie's, Auburn, Seattle

"Sure, You see what had happened was ol Nuke here was kind enough to spot our cab friend scoping out the van and sniffed out his radio communications. Then we got to hear him chatting with three teammates, one of which he mentioned, was in the lobby at Chelsea's. And what did our new buddie do when he spotted Charlene? He gets his hacker friend to break into our network. So when I hear that this guy has compromised Charlene, I'm lookin at the possibility that he's gonna drive away with all my drones and half my gear. So I acted. I got the drones unloaded, and, knowing they too could be hacked by this intruder, I decided to make the most of them while I could. I sent bud into the Lobby to quietly subdue the operative and the desk clerk there. I mentioned it on the commlink, but without any back up, bud couldn't drop the chick fast enough, so she calls for help. that's when cabbie starts shootin up the street, and the cop, that came outa nowhere, well you had a front row seat for that. When I saw saw the grenade launcher, I had to put the guy down. And with the cops calling for backup, I gave up on the lobby and went for the retreat. now Nuke crushed the hacker like an empty beer can, so I may have over reacted a little with hindsight and all. "

02-Apr-2071, 22:21:32, Lucky Eddie's, Auburn, Seattle

Stray fakes a cough to mask her reaction to Jasper's tale.

"A little bit", yeah... the adept thinks. To her, it felt like a gang war broke out.

02-Apr-2071, 22:21:50, Lucky Eddie's, Auburn, Seattle

Snow Flower listened attentively and smiled encouragement as the story came out, interuppted only by a sharp glance at the young latina snorting. After the short human rigger had finished she nodded and pointed at the commlink she'd pushed over for Nuke's inspection.

"Sorry, I don't know much about these things."

"I need to learn."

She summarized for herself, "We had found them all, including the brave officer, by listening to their commlinks, and then one of them found Charlene. So we start shooting because there is some danger of losing Charlene.", she nodded to herself.

"Reasonable. Charlene is very valuable, I like talking to her."

Snow Flower turned her attention back to Jaspar and looked at him squarely, "I need to understand better. Charlene is very important and valuable. This hacker, we could have fought him without bullets in there neh? She pointed at her commlink in Nuke's hand idly. "Even if he had won against us, Charlene would take time to drive away, neh? We would have all the hacker's friends, which he would have left behind, for us to hold, turn in to the authorities, or take divine retribution on for violating Charlene at our leisure neh?"

"When you pull the trigger the game is done, there are no more cards, only win or lose."

and no more time to stack the deck...

02-Apr-2071, 22:22:09, Lucky Eddie's, Auburn, Seattle

"There was never any real risk of him stealing the van. Their hacker was completely out of his league, and I defeated him pretty much instantly. He's only alive because I decided I didn't want to kill him and he only got away because I chose not to chase him. Even if he had been able to get control of it, he just wanted to know who we were, since he thought we were the kidnappers"

Nuke continues fiddling with the commlink.

"But back to the cop. What do you think you can find out about him?"