Chip raises an eyebrow at Angel's comment, but doesn't say anything.

0119 hours, March 16, 2063

Touristville encompasses much of the west-middle of Redmond and represents the only "safe" part of the area. While deeper into the Barrens, it is a true urban wasteland, Touristville is somewhat more restrained. Here, corpers out for a night of excitement mingle with gangers, and don't always end up regretting it.

Much of the area's draw are the many nightclubs and bars studding the area, most of which feature a varied clientel. This is a good part of town for Shadowrunners to meet with Johnsons, as well as for corpers to find an illicit thrill. The bars and clubs will serve anyone with cash and provide just about anything someone is willing to pay for.

The Cave is just such a dive. Outside, it's not very imposing. The plascreet and fiberboard walls have been painted a matted black, though the acid rain of the city has made it run pale in places. Gang graffitti tags the building in numerous places, with two gangs more prominent than others. The crowd outside the club at this time of night is noticably lighter than it would be on a Friday night, though there are still a few folks standing around. Most of them look like gangers or junkies, and the wise avoid them on the way in. They don't look ready to accost a group of people, though loners may not get off so lucky.

Inside the club, the blaring lights and sound of a Troll thrash metal band makes seeing or even thinking difficult. A troll splatter stands by the door, though he doesn't seem to be doing much active weapon screening. A couple of poleaxes and rifles sticking out of a bin behind him seem to indicate the level of weaponry he's looking out for.

Inside the club, there are about twenty five people, including the bartender and the band. A few of them appear to live uptown, but most are street types.

Billy hangs out outside of the club, scouting the streets. He stays light-hearted when dealing with any gangers, laughing at insults and taunts with a very good-natured attitude. Since Alicia may very well have been travelling alone, he tries to see which colors seem most likely to have given her some harrassment.

The gangers pay the group little heed as it arrives, but when Billy breaks off from the rest, they perk up. When their efforts at enciting something don't to do much, they loose interest.

The group which tried with the more vigor is composed mostly of human youths wearing black synthleather with red trim and a golden skull on a black armband.

Billy continues to walk the streets, paying particular attention to anyone/anyplace that seems interested in lone-stragglers, while trying to remember what gang is represented by the golden skull on a black armband.

After a bit of thinking, Billy seems to remember something about the golden skull. The gang is called, imaginatively enough, the Golden Skulls. They're small-time hoods, mostly. They do muggings and BTL dealing in the Touristville area. Rumor has it that there might be a Yak connection, but if there is, it's small enough that the Skulls aren't showing any wealth from it.

Rent casually mingles with the patrons and soaks up the ambiance. He nurses a few beers for awhile and gets a good feel for the place before doing any mingling. He wanders around, making casual conversation. He keeps his initial questions vague, mentioning "some chica named 'Tricia' or something, friend of mine who's a janitor uptown says she's a looker, likes slumming in places like this sometimes, real wild chick" - followed by a general description.

He becomes more animated if he gets any recollections from anybody, acting like any other red-blooded male who's been given a tip on a 'hottie'. If he does ferret out an accout of how Ms. Marks left the place, he will conceal his triumph by looking thoughtful, then saying "Nah, that doesn't quite sound like the chick I'm lookin' for. Dang." If he doesn't get a recollection, he will shrug and change the subject to something else, and talk a while before wandering off. Patience is a virtue for Rent, and he's got all night.

Billy will begin a more investigative search by watching where the Golden Skulls go and come to and from. Try to locate their 'base of operation' as it were. Once (if) located, he'll head back to Club and talk to the others.

Finding the Skulls' appareant headquarters doesn't take long. The apparant leader has staked out a table at one of the area's few outdoor cafes and a few of his boys occupy more tables than they should.

Rent's efforts prove frustrating. Most of the people in the club could care less about helping a troll find a human woman. After it seems like he will get nowhere, he stumbles into some luck. An ork in a nice suit seated near the stage and watching the act get read perks up as the woman is described to him.

"Sounds like Johnny's slitch. Ain't seen the neither of them around in a week, which pisses me off since I was expectin' him to play on Saturday. If you see that drekhead, let him know he owes me the advance for that last gig and a rescheduling fee."

Billy heads back to the Club to locate the others. At the club he'll grab an empty table near the middle of the club and order a drink while flirting with any skirt that passes.

The women in the club at this hour are of generally two types, taken and hardened. Billy has decidedly little luck with either type.

After a bit more asking around, Rent figures out that Johnny crashes somewhere down in Glow City. He gets a best guess at an address, but the group decides it's a little too dangerous to try going down there at night. Instead, the group reunites the next morning to discuss what they have found.

Chip

Yawning and leaning back in his chair, Chip looks over the group.

"I tried locating Miss Marks' phone, but it has been disconnected. Everything points toward it being stolen; I'm guessing by someone with asian connections. But I'll come to my theories. No strange calls seems to have been made by Miss Marks herself, so nothing to go on there.

"Her uncle's mafia connetions seem fairly extensive, but I haven't found anything specifjc that's useful for us at the moment," he says and leans forward, rubbing his eyes. He places a chip on the table "Everything interesting is on this chip here, if anyone wants to have a look. Before I share my theories, I want to hear what the rest of you found out."

Rent steeples his fingers under his chin thoughtfully. "Well, there's that lead we picked up about her boyfriend - apparently she likes slumming - but I had also planned to check out the Caf'n'Pastry place to see if I could scrounge up any more information, first. Right now, it's looking more like random foul play than anything to do with her work or her relatives in organized crime, but it's still too soon to tell. But hell, I guess it would probably be better for us to all head to Glow City now, when we're all together, and take care of our individual legwork afterwards."

He glances around at the others. "Any of the rest of you find out anything interesting?"

"Well, best I could find is what the street looked like.", Billy responds, "If she got picked up on the street, the Golden Skulls; a local gang; seem to be our best bet for investigation. They're the only ones who would pose a threat here in this area, and guaranteed that if they did't do the deed themselves, they'd have seen it done. I've ID'd their base of Ops, and maybe we should recon their area, try to get a 'feel' for their atmosphere."

Chip

"Glow City sounds good to me. Personally I think the evidence hints at a yakuza or triad connection, but it's too early to say, and not really my area of expertise."

Syl

"That's an interesting idea that's crossed my mind also, but it's down there on my list as I'm having a hard time trying to imagine why the Yaks'd get involved with our target - after all, she's not immediate family to Carlos Marks and her pop looks pretty clean. I agree though, it's too early to say." Looking over towards their one silent member, "Thoughts on hitting Glow City Vince?"

Syl

"Well, let's get moving on this before it gets too late," Syl says as she gets her gear ready.

Rent nods and stands up.

"Yeah. After we hit Glow City, we can try some other leads it it doesn't pan out. So far, though, he's the only eyewitness we've got. Billy, I might help you if you're going to recon the Skulls later - I can be "street" enough when I have to be, and it's always good to have backup in that part of town."

Chip

"Glow City it is." Chip stands and takes out his hardliner gloves, thinking he is the very essence of 'street' as he puts them on and cracks his knuckles.

Before long, the group sets out for Glow City, one of the very worst parts of the Barrens. Going off the information that Rent was able to gather, it doesn't take the team long to locate the abandoned tenement where one Mr. Johnny Crimson is supposed to live. The place is burned out and the windows boarded up. The doors hang loosly on their hinges, held tight by gravity and their own weight.

Rent stares intently at one of the doors for a minute before walking up to it, lighter on his feet than you'd expect a big bruiser like him to be. He carefully pries the door open, then slips in, silently motioning the others to follow him. His hands remain free as he enters the building, as he (over?) confidently believes that he can quick-draw his pistol in plenty of time if he has to.

Using every bit of skill he possesses, Rent opens the door with a soft squeek. It's pretty clear that it would be a lot louder if he hadn't put so much work into it. Inside the hallway is darkened and the floor strewn with debris. The small landing just inside the entrance gives way immediately to a flight of stairs going up and a flight going down.

Aside from the dripping of water, there don't appear to be any sounds.

Chip takes out his lowlight goggles and slips them on before following Rent's lead as carefully as he can. With one hand he adjusts his goggles, keeping the other on the sawed-off shotgun in his coatpocket, just in case.

He does his best to maintain a calm exterior but his heart is beating fast, not yet accustomed to the worry and anticipation of sneaking in somewhere, not knowing what you'll find or who will be waiting for you.

He takes care scanning the area, taking a few deep breaths to center himself.

Rent pauses only slightly before taking the steps down. He decides that it's probably better to search the basement first, before hitting the larger area of the upper floors.

The stairs leading into the basement end in slimy water about three steps from the floor, looking at the stuff and remembering the neighborhood, Rent decides that down probably isn't livable. Unless slightly irradiated water up to your knees is a selling point in this area.

Rent smiles, shrugs, and turns back upstairs. He is ready to retake the lead again at the landing, but won't if Chip and the others stay in front. It's all good to him.

Chip stands aside, comfortable in letting the troll take the point. From what he hears, trolls have superior vision in the dark, rivalled only by dwarves — at least that's what his dwarven friend says — and in all the matrix games people always shoot the trolls first, so it feels safer, somehow.

Some doors hang on the hinges of the rooms on the first floor, though it is clear that they have seen better days. A few rooms show signs of habitation, tough none of the rooms without doors look to have been recently inhabited. The closed doors block any view into the room beyond.

Toward the end of the hallway, one door has a peeling paper label stuck to it that reads "JC".

"Hmm... 'J' for Johnny? Could very well be," thinks Rent. Cautiously, he tries the doornob, ready to put some muscle into it if the door turns out to be stuck or locked. For a normal apartment, he would knock like any civilized visitor, but he imagines such social amenities are pretty much nonexistent in this part of town. He would only be alerting their prey, and right now this is their only solid lead to Ms. Marks whereabouts.

Chip has a bad feeling about this...

He carefully pulls his sawed-off shotgun out of the coat pocket, holding it close to his side instead so he can either hide ot or aim it as needed, then he moves up right next to Rent, applying some of the combat tactics he's never really paid much attention to during matrix games.

The door swings open reluctantly at first, but then of its own weight. The room gaping beyond is relatively dark, even with sunlight still streaming down outside. In the front, Rent can make out more of the dim interior than the rest of the group and immediately realizes that the places is unoccupied. The air is cool, without the faintest trace of body heat.

As eyes adjust to the dim light and normal vision comes into play, and the wrongness of the room becomes apparent. The smell wafting from the closed room is also a good indication that whatever is going on is long over.

A short investigation later, and the source of the smell is obvious. Someone appears to have very messily, and quite slowly, killed a man and hung their body on the wall of the room. The place is covered in blood that is dry and old by this point.

The only sound is the buzzing of flies.

Rent wrinkles his nose in disgust at the scene. He doesn't speak until he is back in the hall, away from the grisly sight and sickening smells. He lets out an explosive breath.

"Well, there went our best lead. This doesn't bode well at all for Ms. Marks, but I was afraid this story wouldn't have a happy ending as soon as I heard that there was no ransom demand. I was going to head to that coffee place, and maybe I will later, but at this point I think we need to talk to the Golden Skulls."

Chip hesitantly steps into the room, holding his breath and fighting back the urge to throw up his breakfast. He takes a moment to make sure he isn't stepping in any bloodstains - dried or not, he doesn't want it on his shoes - and takes a look around to see if he can spot anything useful.

"Damn, I knew I should've chosen that forensics soft instead of medicine," he mutters.

The room is a complete wreck. Aside from the body, it looks like the rest of the room was given a very thorough treatment. Furniture is smashed trash and debris are scattered everywhere.

Chip moves out of the room, one hand pressed against his mouth, the other holding a credstick. He leans against the wall, taking a moment to calm himself, but in the end his stomach wins the battle and he throws up.

"I need to get out of here. Get some air," he says to the others and walks past them.

Once outside, he shows the credstick to the group.

"I found this under the mattress. The guy in there was a human man, in his late twenties, so I think it's likely it was our man Johnny."

Rent frowns, pondering the information. Actually, doing so helps to distract him from the disturbing images that he has just seen.

"Yeah... I guess we can check out the ID on it to be sure. But what would someone with a Silver Credstick, even if it's just fake ID, be doing in a hellhole like Glow City? The only explanation I can think of, is that he was hiding from someone. Maybe Ms. Marks got caught up in his troubles."

Syl

Following the others to Glow City, the derelict buildings began to bring back memories of her youth to Syl - yet the conditions in this part of the Barrens were even worse than what she knew. Even the gangers didn't claim territory like this for the only things that lived there were worse than they. But this was a job, and so she forced the emotions down, letting her artificial eyes adjust to the gloom.

Upon reaching the room, the familiar scent of death told the AfroInd what she confirm as the door was opened - that someone had found their target before them. Someone was was not just interested in information. As difficult as it was, Syl took in the images and directed them to the storage memory of her deck.

Chip hands the credstick over to Syl.

"Can you check this and see what you find out? Maybe we'll get something more to go on..."

Syl

Taking the Credstick from Chip, Syl examines it visually before surveying it's contents.

The credstick's funds don't display because of the silver status of the stick, but the name attached to the account does. Alicia Anne Marks.

Syl

Syl hands the credstick back to Chip, [COLOR=orange]"I can't access the funds on the chip, but the account belongs to our target. Unfortunately, we won't be able to question our friend here as to how he came to be in its possession."

Chip pockets the credstick, and paces back and forth in the hallway.

"At least we know she was in contact with him after she disappeared. Maybe she was here when Johnny got killed - though I hope not. We should do some more digging on Johnny boy here - see if it's his enemies we should start looking for..."

He stops and looks at the rest.

"Let's go."

Syl

"''fore we take off, any of you think you can get some info out of whatever neighbors Johnny has?"

Rent looks back at the dilapitated building with a rueful expression and sighs. "Yeah... I guess we could check a few other doors, at that. If anyone else is in this hellhole." Resigned to a bit more unpleasant poking around, Rent heads back inside, this time heading to one of the doors on the side of the hallway to check it.

Most of the rooms with doors are abandoned, though they show signs of habitation in the recent past. The few which aren't hold the bodies of their former residents. Most of them appear to have been shot execution-style, though a few apparently went down fighting.

They've been dead for several days, at least as long as Johnny.

As the group moves back toward the front of the building, and down to the landing and the front door, Rent tries the door to the apartment at ground level which opens into the stairway. The door doesn't open, appearing to have a functional lock.

Chip steps up beside Rent, unslinging his backpack.

"Lemme take a look at that, I might have some tools and stuff to open it."

He takes a closer look at the lock, to see what type it is.

Syl

"May I suggest we try knocking first?" Syl says as the men appear to be deciding on bypassing the lock.

Rent smiles. "That's real polite and all, but do you really want to alert someone who is likely to be either a dangerous fugitive or someone so scared they might do anything?" He shrugs. "On the other hand, we've probably made enough noise already that it's a moot point. But before we knock, let's get clear of the door, in case whoever's in there takes a more ballistic approach to 'open up'."

Standing to one side of the door (and making sure the others are out from in front of the door, too), Rent raps sharply on the door a few times.