Gil & Natalya
"Yep. The comissary serves a mean cup o'joe and the food ain't too shabby either."
Facing Nat, "Ma'am, here's my LTG, let me know if you have trouble from the staff."
He hands you a slip of paper with an LTG scrawld on it.

Nat takes the paper.

"Thanks, I will."

She waits for them to leave and helps tidy up in the meantime.

Gil
Otto walks you out and down to teh little cart, he then drives the both of you over to the comissary for that prophesised cup of coffee and various noshes.

Natalya
Luckily dorm rooms are by necessity and design easy to make liveable from almost any condition. After 5 minutes of dedicated neatening, nesting and strightening, the room is liveable for all but the most fastideous of students.

Jack
The Chief looks down, "No, not much anyways. There are other things moving here Jack. Things that make my gut feeling twist into into an Escher pic, I have a bad feeling about this whole thing. To tell you the truth, i'm glad the bastard had me take my boys off this, if you can, I suggest you get out too. There are precious few good cops left, civilian or otherwise. If you still want to keep digging tomorrow, swing by, I'll try to have something dug up by then if I can."

Gil buys some soy doughnuts/hotdogs/buns/eatables and checks his cell phone for any messages.

Now Otto and Gil have left her in peace, Nat jams a chair up next to the door to at least hinder anyone trying to get in, and closes all the curtains. She takes her coat and gun holster off and rests it on Jenna's bed, she takes the necklace from her coat pocket, switches the lights off, and sits eye closed clutching the necklace, concentrating entirely on the astral space in the spot where she picked it up.

"Delia." She says softly. "I need your help... I need to know who did this to you..."

Natalya
Hours seem to slip by, the dorm pod is as quiet as a grave. You hear none of the usual noises associated with student life, no music, no trid, no telephones ringing, nothing.
The spot where you found the necklace remains normal, but you do feel a presence in the room. Looking around, you see the spirit you saw earlier. Her face is soaked in bloody tears that blow away in a wind that no mortal will ever feel, her hair is matted, brown and black in areas though it's natural color seems to be the blonde that peeks through from time to time, her clothes are a mere caricature of there former style. They seem almost a cartoonish idealization of how we subconsciously see our own vestments, her throat is missing, as though it never was.

Her pained eyes are fixated on the necklace in your possession, she looks through you with understanding and wisdom only glimpsed at by the most brutalized modern primitives and self-immolating martyrs. She turns, towards the door and waits for something.

Gil
After some pleasantries with Otto, his wrist watch beeps a subtle tone,"Ah man, my shift is up in 20. I have to go back to the office and file the paperwork. You know how to find your ay out of here? Cause I'd be happy to give you lift back to your car if you like."

Greg
You wake around midnight to the incessant beeping of your personal phone with a message from the boss about the meeting at 7.

"Nah, I'll hang around." Gil heads back to the dorm room, with the food.

Nat stands up and approaches the spirit tentatively, compelled to follow but wary of the spirit's motives.

"Where are you going?... do you want me to come with you?... I'd like to know who did this to you."

Gil
As you enter the dorm pod, you feel incredibly cold, to the point that your teeth chatter and you see your misting breath in the LED glow from the now dormant comunal electronics. Looking down, the coffee in your hand for Nat seems frozen solid, yet just outside the temperature was normal.

Natalya
The spirit shrinks away from teh door, as if concerned with what is approaching. Then room becomes fridig, your breath is visible in heavy mist, and your teeth chatter. you see a shadow in the translucent door, as though someone is just outside.

Jack claps a hand on the Cheif's shoulder and nods.

`Thanks Randall, and remember: if you need some off the books consultation, you have my number.`

He leaves the Cheif to his thoughts, returning the umbrella when he passes by a place to drop it off. Next stop, to try to talk to the mafioso kid.

Gil says, "Nat? You okay? Where are you?"

Nat calls to Gil, "I'm here, I'm ok, she's afraid, just leave us for a while ok?"

She returns her attention to the spirit. "It's ok, they're going." She rests her shivering hand gently on the spirit's shoulder. "I've come here to help find who did this to you, but I need your help."

"You sure? I don't like the idea of leaving you alone with her."

"Honestly, I'm alright."

Gil
With your enhanced vision, you are able to make out the communal space; all of the dorm doors are frosted over. There is an overwhelming sense that you are not alone. The bag holding the doughnuts is becoming hot to the touch, almost smoldering.

Natalya
The spirit of Delia just stands there, shrinking back away from the door, towards your position. You see something covering the door in the astral, but you cannot see where it is coming from.

Jack
Randall replies, "If I do, you'll be the first to hear about it. Be seeing you."

On the way out of the building you stop to retrieve your weapon, the guard shift has changed, you don't recognize the names, must be really new. They return your sidearm without incident and you feel their accusatory eyes as you walk out the door.
Once outside, the reality of the sprawl slides home as you see a young punk running from an old man on a plank of some kind, the kid is holding a prosthetic leg and the man is obviously missing it. before you can react, the kid has darted into the street and doesn't see the #988 bus in time and winds up pasted to the grill.

One way or the other, life balances itself out in the 6th world.
Today there are other kids to save, some as impetuous and half as lucky.

"Err, Nat? I brought you some dinner... Some doughnuts and coffee, but the coffee's cold now."

"No, honestly, it's ok... Now is really not a good time."

Gil
You feel fingers brush the back of your neck.

Natalya
The spirit collapses to the floor, silently wailing to a mother who can no longer hear her baby's tears.

Nat rushes over to open the door as quickly as she can, her hackles raised she concentrates her abilty into defending from hostile magic just in case.

Natalya
The door is ice cold, it does not open immediately. As you trigger the door to open, you can see the hoary coating slide off and vanish as if it never was. You step outside to Gil.

Gil
As the door to Jennifer and Delia's dorm room slides open, the cold, the presence and the fingers instantly vanish. The room seems normal.

Nat looks straight a Gil, unable to speak for a moment, before bursting out...

"Dammit! I Thought I had something then... she must be in some kind of perpetual loop, reliving her final minutes. It's going to take a longer sit in, without disturbances to find out anything from it."

Gil,"Maybe those were the last moments of that spirit. Maybe she died at the door. Remember someone went to a lot of trouble to sanitise this place physically and astrally. Only makes sense if she died in the room."

"I disagree. Maybe you didn't find anything because there wasn't nothing significant to find. I'd rather wager they abducted her and killed her elsewhere than killed her here and spent all that time cleaning up. That would certainly give them more time to do the job, come back, find anything incriminating, tidy up, and leave. So far as the magical cleansing is concerned, it could be a simple case of the magic they used to find what they needed being above legal limits. A search with powerful spells and spirits would take almost no time, and warrant minimal physical disturbance of the room, but would also likely tarnish the astral, so they cleaned that up before they left."

"I mean, I could have walked in here, cast some kind of detection spell, figured out what everything in the room was, and where it was located, found what I wanted, gone over, picked it up, spent minute clearing the astral of any spell signiture I left, then walked out again, all within a couple of minutes. It'd take a fair while longer to slash someones throat, clean up the blood, clean up the pollution on the astral, find anything linking this to me, and take the body away, all that without creating a fuss and without anyone spotting anything."

Natalya
As you scan the common space you see 5 other spirits in the room. Two from the doors opposite you and 1 by the LUG room. Their faces are twisted remnants of young women, hatred and loathing fill thier eyes. You see the focus of their ire quickly, the contents of the bag and the small cup of soy-caf-cicle.

"Drek... something going on here..."

Nat grabs the offending bag from Gil and launches it out of the room.

"4 more spirits and they don't approve of your idea of supper."

Gil and Natalya
Not having enough mass to trigger the eletronic eye on the door, the paper bag now crisped from the spirits wrath slatters against the pristine, milky white transluncent plex-glass; a now well over cooked doughnut explodes in a small shower of food particles. The spirits recoil from the particles, disappearing completely now.

Nat takes a step back wide eyed.

"That's interesting. Where'd you get that stuff?"

Gil & Natalya
The campus clock begins to intone the midnight hour chime.

"... because I think I know how they disposed of the bodies."

It's times like this I wish I never quit smoking...

Jack sighs, and heads to his old sedan, let the young guns inside clean up the mess of a kid, get the old guy back his leg. He piles into the Ford, and decides to check in at the office, call the mob kid from there.

Jack
You find a message from the 'boss' about the morning meeting, etc.
The ride home is uneventful, save for the street scag that tries to muddy your windows for you with a dirty rag and a squeegee which saw better days with his great-great-great-grand father.

You pull up the kid's LTG, it rings twice and you get a curt answer, "What?"

`Name's Jack Marshall kid, a mutual friend of yours might have mentioned I was going to call.`

He takes a sip of his coffee, and a moment to think.

`Office is a bit stuffy, and I'm hungry, know a place we can get some good Italian, have a little talk?`

Jack
"Heh, real funny. I know a joint; eight tonight, deSalvo's on Fifth and Juniper. Just tell the girl your there for me, she'll know what to do."

Something itched at the back of his mind with the wording of that. It's not unheard of that mob families might co-operate to get rid of a common enemy, after all. The Bigio's have got a lot of influence in this town. Still, it doesn't show on his face.

`deSalvo's, Fifth and Juniper.`

He writes the number down.

`Got it, see you there.`

He cuts the call, and writes up a note for the others, letting them know where he's going for the meet, just in case things go pear eyed. Checking the time, he decides he'd best set out now. He can catch a nap in his car before heading in, maybe stake the place out a little.

Jack
The traffic is a little heavier than you expected, a gang seems to have disabled another junction box, took almost fifteen minutes for the conrolelrs to sort it all out, by that time three of the cars ahead of you were missing antenae, hubcaps, and at least one bumper.

You arrive at deSalvo's, it looks like a quaint little place, nestled between deSalvo Imports and Mama deSalvo's collectables.

Gotta love Italian neighborhoods...

Before leaving his car, Jack again checks the rounds in his Thunderbolt, making sure they're all intact. He dusts an unseen something off of his tie, holsters the piece, and steps out. Unconsciously he finds himself casing the block, looking for anything which might indicate this is an ambush. If it is, he's pretty much screwed.

Gil

"Cafeteria. Hmmm, reminds me of the "Cooked in curry" serial killer back in the 30s. Or maybe they were poisoned, but poisoning a specific target or targets is going to take some doing. Let's head outta here. We've got a meeting at 0700."

Nat phones John (the LS detective).

"Hi John, I know it's kinda late, but... those bodies you were talking about? I think I found them, you my might want to get a team down here."

"Waoh, hold on... we've no definatives yet. Until we actually find the bodies, it is too early to call in the cops."

Jack shakes off the ill feeling as he approaches the restaurant.

Gonna develop a condition some day, you keep paranoid like this...

Then again, a lack of paranoia may end up with a condition called lead poisoning. He pushes open the door, taking a moment to look the interior of the place over, composing a smile. His hardened eyes seek out the kid.

Jack
You spot the kid easily enough, he's probably the only adult male patron not currently in need of a triple bypass and his own RTG. He's seated at a booth next to an interior wall, with no easy view of the windows, a good spot to avoid a 'whacking' via drive by. He sees you and waits for you to approach.

Gil & Natalya
Yawning Nat, that you? Bodies? Team? Hu...Right.
Some tapping faintly through the phone
Gotcha, I'll have some men there in a few minutes. Stay put.

Nat heads down to the cafeteria to have a look round while we wait for the cops.

Gil's senses are now in combat mode, all bright eyed and bushy tailed. His weapon hand is on the butt of his pistol.

Jack nods to the consierge indicating someone is waiting for him. He approaches the booth, keeping an eye on the goings on around him, and watching out for rogue waiters laden down with trays of pasta. He slides into the booth across from the kid, idly picking up and looking over a menu. After a moment has passed, he looks to the kid.

`You know why I'm here?`

Jack
I can guess. First that prick gubernatorial lackey shakes me down for info on my ex, then I get a call form you. I'd say it has something to do with Jen's disappearance.

`And I'd say you're a bright kid.`

Jack makes an oder, chicken primavera, and when the waiter is gone, he looks to the kid again.

`Anything you might not have told the prick, maybe something you didn't feel he deserved to hear?`

The insinuation is that Jack's good at keeping secrets. That he's a confidant of sorts.

Jack
Look, I told him what I could. Though, there is someting, i went looking for the Biggs kid, he hadn't been to work since they were seen out. His scooter is missing, off the grid, his apartment is vacated, landlord doesn't remember when or who, and she's the nosy type, so it's real odd.

Looks like we have another crime scene...

`The pizza guy? Sounds like either he's fled town, or someone wants it to look that way...`

He considers a moment.

`Thanks for the tip, I'll skip grilling you for info. Let's just drop the shop talk, enjoy a good meal.`

The kid may drop more info over diner. And hell, it's been a while since Jack had been able to eat in a decent Italian restaurant and not worry about someone shooting him.