The life and times of Johnny Bishop ("Ferrman")

I'm not exactly sure how I came to work for Tiny. It's just been that way as far back as I remember. At first I was your basic gofer, fetching a scotch and soda or an invoice or whatever he happened to require. But as I got older, he started to involve me more in the business. Then it became checking in crates of rocket launchers or assault rifles, performing a manual inventory, memorizing the stock on hand for when a customer inquired. And still later, choose a random weapon from each crate, stripping, oiling, rebuilding, and test-firing it. Tiny guaranteed quality, you see, so he insisted on double-checking everything that came in the door.

The work wasn't without its perks. Tiny underwrote a basic headware package for me as a "coming-of-age" present. When I got serious about the weapons, I asked for a boosted cyberarm. That one took a little time -- but eventually he came across a merc who didn't have any further use for his arm (on account of the gaping hole where his chest used to be), and hooked me up.

By far the biggest bonus, though, came when I uncovered what we came to call "the Strawberry affair" (as in, Strawberry jam). Tiny had pulled down a massive order for assault rifles. Everybody knew it too -- the buyer had shopped around, and I can't image we really undercut anybody on price, but Tiny's rep and his guarantee came through, so we got the order. Thing was, we didn't have anything like that quantity in inventory, and everybody knew that too. Along with the mad rush to lock down that order, there was a mad rush to lock up every crate of assault rifles any kind of reputable supplier could cough up. If Tiny couldn't fill the order, you see, it would go right back to whoever was next in line.

We ended up buying up shipping containers full of AK-98's that "fell off a train" somewhere between Russia and China. I was weeks on that one -- Tiny airlifted me over for an on-site inspection, and then I ate, drank, slept, and pissed within sight of those containers until they finally made it home. We were tight on the deadline, and Tiny signed the order to transship them to the UCAS without delay. But the whole deal bugged me -- buying sight unseen off the back of the train, babysitting the damn containers, and all that. On my authority I refused to let them leave until I could do the whole inspection again. Tiny came down to rip me a new one, but stopped cold when the rifle I was test-firing jammed after about 15 rounds.

These were AK-98's, mind you -- you could throw one in a vat of acid and then let a pack of raving elephants stomp all over it and it would still fire true as the day it was assembled. Except not this batch. This batch we bought, one out of every three just jammed. I'd had no problems with the initial inspection. Tiny might have wondered if I'd just got lazy and skipped it, except when he went for his money back, the suppliers gave him chapter and verse about the racket I made test-firing outside their village, and swore up and down it was brand new, a quality product, and all that. To this day I have no idea what happened -- like I said, those containers were literally never out of my sight. I reckon one of Tiny's rivals got to them, somehow.

But in my obstinance, I saved Tiny from a spectacular flameout. He ended up getting his money back on the originals, though they came up with a few more for him to buy off the back of the next train to make up the difference. It was touchy with the buyer, but they'd've still had to deal with at least three second-tier dealers if they didn't just eat Tiny's delay. He cut them a bit of a discount, and everyone ended up making out on the deal. Especially me. After that, Tiny sent me to the chop shop (in Seattle no less!) with carte blanche. I didn't know how far I could push it, so I picked the top-line bioware and called it a day. Tiny raised his eyebrow a bit when I came back home, but that was it.

All in all it was a good life, and that made the end of it all that much more shocking. We hit a slow season, as we did from time to time, and Tiny's inventory of small arms began to swell. He figured the best way to take care of this was to set up some kind of ongoing relationship -- a front if you will. We reached out to some gangs in Seattle, and got the best feeling from the Cutters. Tiny shipped me out, and I spent a good bit of time with Vladimir (their leader) and his lieutenants reviewing their operations and working out the particulars of how they would receive and distribute our guns.

We seemed to be pretty close to closing a deal, but the next time I followed up with Vladimir, I got some other bad boy instead -- Ivan "the Terrible." He made it crystal clear that not only was the deal off the table, but the table was apparently tied to Vladimir's ankle, somewhere deep under the Sound. I was still scrambling to find the bright side of this when I put in the call to Tiny. Only there wasn't any answer there either. I found out later, the Vory were quite determined to be the sole weapons supplier to the Cutters, and in their own precious way removed both Vladimir and Tiny from the equation. Without Tiny at the van, his whole organization just crumbled. (Well, scattered, really, I'm sure each with as many crates as he could carry.)

This left me alone in Seattle with pretty much squat for cash, gear, and contacts. I fell back on Jimbo, the fixer who brokered one end of the AK-98 deal, and I've managed to come up with a pad and some tools, but that's about it. I tried to lay low -- I'm sure the Vory are looking for me too -- but the time for that is coming to an end. What I really need now is a job.

- Fixer (C3 L2; Black Market Weapons Pipeline)
Jimbo brokered the buyer end of the Strawberry affair deal. He knows
that Ferrman went out of his way to make things right for the client,
even though there was a big screwup behind the scenes. On the other
hand, he did help the client build a complete biometric profile of
Ferrman before everything got straightened out. So Jimbo's fine
working with Ferrman, but he's not bending over backward for him.
Jimbo happens to have a certain specialty in locating weapons of all
types, from handguns to exotic heavy weapons.
- Street Doc (C2 L2)
Doc Morrison runs the shadow clinic where Ferrman got his bioware
installed. He's always willing to help out a client who's made a
major purchase like that, but not at the expense of his future biz.
- Ganger (C2 L1)
"Nick the Knife" is one of the Blood Mountain Boys; he's the ganger
Ferrman deals with for the security on his pad. So they meet from time
to time for the "monthly dues", but otherwise there's not much of a
relationship there.
- Dockworker (C2 L1)
While working to set up the weapons/Cutters scheme, Ferrman came up
with Big Al, a shift leader at the docks. He's always willing to
look the other way when an important shipment is arriving, so long
as "the other way" is toward a big night out at a gentleman's club.

Lifestyle (1400)
2 Comforts
2 Entertainment
2 Necessities
2 Neighborhood
4 Security
+1 Workplace
-1 Network Bottleneck
-1 Poor Condition
-1 Trigger-Happy Landlord
-2 No Privacy (Astral)

Ferrman's apartment is in Renton, not too far from Shadow Lake. It was probably nice back in the day, but it's a little too far from the action for the modern sarariman -- so the whole area is a little decrepid. Despite the lake nearby, it's turned into a bit of a wasteland, where anything living sticking out like a sore thumb. About all you can say for it other than "the very basics are covered" is that the Blood Mountain Boys deal BTLs out of an old convenience store nearby, and it's easy enough to send a few extra nuyen their way in order to get some regular security. Ferrman's installed his weaponry shop in the spare room, and upgraded the security from maglocks to cameras to gun safes, but it's really the Boys who do the most to discourage strangers from visiting. Well, that and the fact that the roof leaks acid rain on a daily basis.

Spells: Cast 4 + 4 + 6 = 14 + 2 mentor (sun)
Increase reflexes default die: 4 successes
Combat sense: 2 http://invisiblecastle.com/roller/view/2987647/
Increase reactionshttp://invisiblecastle.com/roller/view/2987644/ 7 successes
Using heightened concentration to ignore -6 from sustaining spells

2 goes at summoning a spirit


Nett effect. 3 successes from a task 4 spirit, increased reflexes 4, combat sense 2, Increase reactions 7