Back in time, say while doing chores around the house, Graciana gets Todd's message and fires off a reply.

@Todd [Graciana]: Rumor has it that we are all about to be sent to juvenile hall to make the school look good. I want to look into this myself tomorrow. I have not yet decided what to do about it.

Graciana sighs. She sighs again after she checks the time on her comm link.

This is not going well and we need to leave soon. What to do?

After some thought, Graciana starts looking for the local street people. Instead of using normal sight, she looks for their auras. Those are pretty easy to find. She walks right up to them.

I wish we'd thought to go to Stuffer Shack and grab some food. This would go a lot better with a bribe.

“Hello,” she says to the street people, “would you please tell me about the fire and the guy who lived here?”

Andrew couldn't help but frown at Todd referring to whatever plot was in motion as destiny. Not if I have anything to say about it. The hidden message gave him a better impression of his classmate. He replied, Lucky for you, I happen to be one. Ok, that sounded obnoxious. But I know my way around matrix security, and it looks like there are more than just two of us who have caught on.

His message to Zoe was along the same lines, Genuine psychopaths aside, we're not alone. But we still have to come up with a way to escape this mess. You know of any place we can meet without anyone listening in? Angelo replaced the commlink in his pocket with a resigned shrug. Whatever plans he'd made, this was his highest priority, now. Anyway, he wouldn't be able to search for his father once the school had finished with him.

Stop blowing up my commlink, people Zoé thinks to herself. She's had enough new people for one day, and at the moment, she just wants to crunch some numbers and watch a movie and curl up and feel safe.

She analyzed the hidden message the stranger sent to her commlink, of course - she analyzed that thing very thoroughly, but found no data bombs or other nasties.

"It looks like people are out and about tonight, getting super-paranoid about this Melinda Xavier thing. I don't blame them, but I don't know any of them and now they want to meet up somewhere we can't be overheard.

I don't know. I mean, I felt safe bringing you two and Graciana here, and inviting Rio - where is she? - but...

Zoé comes out of VR, reaffirming her grip around Daiyu's waist and snuggling tighter into the taller elf. "Well... Food will be here soon, and we need to pick a movie. Since you two are indecisive..." She looks towards the screen, and it lights up. The trid display fills the room forward of the couch with the opening of Sugar Rush 2070, bright, colorful pastels about the characters of a racing VR game set in a sugar-bowl candy-land.

Then she snuggles back into Daiyu, closing her eyes. Behind the asian elf, her hand drifts down, her fingertips stroking from the edge of Daiyu's heel to her toes.

"I'm on the trail of some old data infrastructure in the area. If there are fiber trunks in there, leading to civilization and unused, that will greatly simplify our plan. I'm also gonna try and see if I can reverse-analyze the study info we have, and see what it was that made them pick us. Assuming we weren't just handpicked for being weirdos."

She squeezes Daiyu's foot, briefly, inhaling the second-hand cannibas smoke for a moment; giggling, she closes her eyes, snuggling back up to Daiyu and heading back into full-sim VR. When the food arrives, she'll pop out of VR to take the elevator downstairs and get it from the desk, then she'll come back and tuck in.

The woman Graciana is nearest to may or may not be surprised to be found, in the shadowed open end of a broken, choked passageway which opens onto the street, but she is alarmed. She scrambles back, hopelessly, among the broken bits of concrete, and with her back against the rubble and the wall, she whimpers a bit. Then she says: "Uh ... nothin'. Don't know nothin'!"

There are the sounds of running footsteps as others flee the area. The woman is panting a bit, half-sobbing. Her face is lined, sooty grey and she is wrapped in a collage of rags to protect her against the elements. She is maybe twenty-five, but the life out here is hard.

Graciana does not move forward as the woman backs away. Nor does she pursue whoever is fleeing. Frightened animals are dangerous.

“You must know something,” she says in a soothing tone of voice. “If you saw enough to be afraid of me, surely you saw something about the time of the fire. Was anyone around when the place burned? Was the place robbed first? Please tell me what I need to know.”

The squatter woman gulps, and starts to very quickly murmur: "It was the Red Riders.... the Redmond Riders came and took him away .... took everything ... burned it all ..."

Her face twists in terror and she babbles: "Oh frag, I don't know why, I just ... they just dragged him behind a bike till he fell apart, and burned it all! I swear, I don't know nuthin' more!" Her babbling breaks down into an open-throated wail, and tears pour down her face as she slams her torso against the ruined wall, over and over again.

“The Redmond Riders,” Graciana muses quietly, forcing herself to keep her voice and expression gentle. “Thank you. Please don't hurt yourself. Look, I'm going away now.”

Graciana backs up several steps, then turns and walks quickly back to the truck. Only when she is safely in the driver's seat does she let herself react to the news she just got, alternately hissing and shaking.

“Bad news, Tristan,” she says after a bit. “Your friend is going to be furious. Our stray puppy was grabbed by some gang called the Redmond Riders. They stole his press, towed him behind a bike until he fell apart and set the fire. There's no way we can recover a body. I can't even bring the witness with us. If I try, she'll die of a heart attack or stroke.

“Whatever your friend wants to do about this will have to wait until tomorrow. I am probably getting grounded anyway, but I should try to get home at a half-decent hour. We're not going to find this gang of putos tonight.”

Unless Tristan comes up with a brilliant idea in a hurry, Graciana will get the Toyota started and start driving back to Tacoma.

Two replies so far. Todd complied and completed his assignments before checking his replies. Graciana's assessment was pretty close to his assessment.

@Graciana [Todd]: I have to agree, this is a drek sandwich I would rather not eat. I am also weighing my options. If you want you can contact me at lunch. If you can't find me, recognize me or do not want to be seen near me contact me by com. I am also trying to look for answers myself but I suspect the solution is going to require more than one person's efforts. Hope to hear from you later


So So Mr Cool thinks himself a decker, that would be cool if true. Any clues may need to be pulled from TEA computer records. .

Even if he is a drek-hot decker we made still need more infomation that may not be found on the net.

@Andrew [Todd]: Glad you have a clue you would be the second who has contacted me. unless you want to have at the dead spots behind some of the buildings the best time to talk would be outside the school. I will be outside the front twelve minutes before class. Look forward to finding a solution.

After Todd finished he realized he should have contacted his blogger friend "Ivan Annoying". Ivan said he wanted branch out into more than cyber-bulling. And If Ivan is on the list. I would expect fireworks to start soon. he left a message on the list and ask Ivan to get let him know what he thinks.

Well tomorrow looks to be busy. I going to have put some electronic toys and extra sweater and a couple extra sandwiches. After he finished his preparations Todd got ready to go to bed

Once curled up with Daiyu again, whilst watching the movie in her VR node, Zoé begins work on statistically analyzing the data she and Rio ripped from the school's servers. She also throws out a reply to some of those people who contacted her earlier whom she hadn't yet gotten around to replying to, after searching for some basic data on them.

@Todd [Liara]: Hi. Sorry, I didn't get around to you earlier. I've been busy. If by 'share the same destiny' you mean we're both on Ms. Xavier's shit-list... Then yeah, you're probably right.

Cute hidden message, by the way. And you're right... This does stink. It makes me nervous, and I don't like it, not at all. We're on a list with fucking Kittenburner and DrekBoy, for fuck's sake. I think they're thinking of shipping the genuine nutjobs, the freaks, weirdos, and new kids off the juvvie in a batch. I don't like it one bit, either. Do you have any info or ideas or plans to share about this big sticky mess?

She then took a digital breath, and composed another message to someone else.

@Andrew [Liara]: I dunno. I don't want to just go inviting strange boys to my place. Well, not any more than I already did. And if I do, the girls need to outnumber them by a lot. So... I dunno. It wouldn't be that hard to just let everyone route through my 'link and chat that way. If we need a physical space for some reason... I dunno, I'm kinda stumped. I'm new to Seattle-Tacoma.

Zoé gets to work crunching the numbers; it's a task she can easily put down and resume, can work on in AR or VR, and since she won't need to sleep for well over another day, she can work through the night in VR or AR.

It will take her Only two hours of analysis to fully crack the information she's looking fo; time enough for a movie to run to its end, food to be had, and another movie, maybe, or not. Either way, when Sugar Rush 2070 has reached its conclusion, she looks up and smiles.

"Hey, Daiyu? Do you want me to drive you back to Tacoma, call you a cab... Or would you like to stay here? And, um, Hop? What about you?"

It was getting late, and there was nothing else he to be done at the moment. Angelo pulled the shades off his head and rubbed his eyes. He'd have to be satisfied with making contact with a few other people in the same situation. Be patient, he told himself. They had maybe a week. Do something risky, like trying to solve this problem on his own, and he'd end up giving this Xavier exactly what she wanted. A teenaged criminal.

Of course his uncle asked how his first day of school went. Andrew answered as truthfully as he could. "Could've been worse." He assured Shane he didn't get in trouble with a laugh that rang hollow. "But this is shaping up to be a tough year. Homework on the first day, even. I should get started."

"Been there." Shane gave him a hesitant pat on the shoulder. "Call you when dinner's ready."

"Thanks." No sooner had he entered his room did Angelo lock the door and toss himself on the bed. Was he just a magnet for trouble? He fired off a couple more replies.

@Todd [Andrew]: I can be at school early tomorrow. You know any non-students who can help us with this?

@Liara [Andrew]: Fair enough. He assumed she had strict parents. If need be, I can encrypt messages.

Hop frowned, paced, frowned and occasionally paid some attention to the gaudy cartoon that Zoe had pulled up.

"Sorry, just can't concentrate on this at the moment...and thanks but I'll pass on the weed, I don't like what it does to my head. I'll take something to keep me sharp but not to take the edge off. Thanks anyway.

So it looks like there are more of us on this damn list. It really doesn't make any fragging sense to me. Surely someone would notice a stat wrinkle if all the new kids for the semester suddenly disappear into lockdown? There's got to be more to this! Maybe they're recruiting their own army of obedient little shadowrunners..." the wry smile was supposed to indicate he was joking but the whole thing left a sour taste in his mouth. "All very Fagin! If I'm gonna follow my brother I'm damn well going to do it on my own terms!" he descended into muttering...

"I guess we're about done here for tonight. I'd better head home and make sure Kate got back from her dance class ok. My brother will be looking out for her and he hasn't called to let me know he's got work on so I'm sure it's all pure. I'm glad we've met now. I've got your backs ok! We are Not going to let those bastards walk all over us. Don't worry about the cab, I'll grab a bus, I'm a bit strapped at the moment. Would be good to have Papa's money floating in my account and it's not even illegal work! Lemme know if you need anything else otherwise I'll catch you at school tomorrow..."

It transpires from the intense scrutiny which Liara applies to the data at hand that Melinda's test was multifaceted. The first item was the most obvious: "Hey, kids, what career slot looks good for you?" but the trick is that there were more layers of assessment.

It also assessed for certain personality traits. Such as, for instance, a propensity to violence (low self control/anger issues) as well as problems with authority. But beyond that, it very specifically checked for criminal personality profile markers. Essentially, it's not merely an assessment and description, but highly sophisticated predictive testing. It's not a guarantee of a criminal outcome, or antisocial conduct, but a fair degree of certainty in the case of the adolescents who were marked for the special interview.

Predictive testing is controversial, but Liara already knows that that's an element of Melinda's research based on previous peering into Melinda's Matrix footprint. The outcome is quite subtle, and doesn't label the subjects as sociopaths, psychopaths or even borderline. It doesn't even call them criminal now (although surely the kitten burning ork boy would fit some or all of those descriptions) but merely assigns a high future probability of criminality, along with an assessment of the probable current degree of social marginalisation and maladjustment which the subjects might currently be experiencing.

Next stage: Tuesday Morning, 6 September 2072
RL DEADLINE: Friday, 22 November 2013

Todd packed his toys in the hidden compartment in his backpack. He doubted that he would be using the lock picks and re sequencer, his plan was to probe to get a feel for the layout and the administration area as well looking for security strengths and weaknesses. He looked at the keycard copier, Unless he got lucky and someone got careless he probably wouldn't using that either. Todd decided to include the items in case he somehow got lucky on the first probe.

I am going see if I can wander to into administration in the student accessible areas to get a beginning layout, don't touch anything and blend with the students. mid morning during the staff meeting should be a little more productive.

Todd went through his extra clothes locker and pulled out an ugly pull-over shirt and a nondescript cap. He loosened treads on the shirt so If anyone spotted him as he leaving, as soon as he got out of their line of sight he could quickly rip off the shirt and ditch it along with the cap. Anyone looking for 'some kid with a ugly shirt' would be less likely to look for him.

Into his insulated lunchbox he put his sandwiches in. While one of them was for his consumption, the other were cut into quarters and carefully wrapped.

Todd sighed. My little test marketing project. I was getting some positive responses. I was planning to go the next step and see if my friends in maintenance would allow me to set up a second locker to expand my business to include a automated crock pot to prepare and warm noodle soup.. If this list issue isn't resolved all my planning will be for nothing.

As Todd finished packing it occurred to him he could use his sandwiches to make contact with some of the others on the list without attracting much attention.

As a quick afterthought Todd grabbed a small direct connect. We see if Andrew has a better encrypt program than me. so we can start communicating with less chances of eavesdropping. I think I have done everything I can think of. I better get some good rest tonight because I may not be getting much for a bit

Between getting high, her commlink blowing up and snuggling with Zoé on the couch watching a movie, the next couple of hours drifted past in a bit of a blur.

@Todd [Daiyu]: Bad news travels fast I see. Not sure exactly what the whole drekstorm of this list actually means in the end, but it sure doesn’t seem good.

With the message sent back to Todd, Daiyu turned her attention back to Hop and Zoé and the offer to crash here tonight.

“I wish I could crash here tonight Zoé and not have to deal with family drama. I mean I’m all for the next day walk-of-shame and all, only not when I’m doing it. And since I don’t have a change of clothes handy and something tells me I can’t raid your closet…” The Asian Elf smirked at the thought of finding something of Zoé’s that not only fit, but wouldn’t get her kicked out of school on those grounds alone.

“But, if you’re seriously down for giving me a ride home, that would be wiz. If you want to swing through the area Papa Gotcha was talking about on the way, well make the detour really, I’m down for a little surveillance. The parentals won’t roll out the full-court press of concern unless I don’t come home before school tomorrow.”

Zoé giggles softly; after her number crunching was done, she just wound up snuggling into Daiyu's side.

"This building has an auto-laundry," she points out. "The clothes I dumped when I got home are already clean. Yours would be done in an hour or so." She squeezes Daiyu around the side, reaching down and stroking her fingertips down the taller elf's foot, from her heel to her toes, which she lightly tickles.

She sits up and slides into Daiyu's lap, hugging the taller elf. "I can take you home if you'd rather, though," she murmurs, her legs wrapping around Daiyu's waist. She places her heels carefully against the asian elf's, curling her toes into the span between the balls of Daiyu's feet and her toes. "I'm not sure I want to run through the barrens-lite at the time of night, though. So if you want to run through... I'd have to come pick you up early and we could run through before school - unless you'd rather just stay the night and risk the 'rent's wrath."

She pulls back, smiling; her irises change to question marks as the tiny, blue elf grins.

Graciana managed to drive safely home to Tacoma. She dropped Tristan off at his house, then drove home. After she parked her truck and before she went into her home, the survival knife went into the glove compartment, the earrings went back on and she spoke with the air spirit.

Do you remember this woman? (Image) Protect her until dawn and you will have served me well. I am glad I did not need to call on you for anything else. Thank you.

Then Graciana went to face the worst part of the evening – her mother.

“You ungrateful little slut, where have you been?”

“Mama, I am not - “

“I've been waiting here for hours, expecting - “

“You have not, it's only 10:30.”

“-Expecting the police to tell me you've been raped and murdered.”

“Mama! Tristan is a good boy!”

“There's no such thing as a good boy or a good ork!”

“Mama! What about Papi?”

“Don't you dare mention your father to me! If you were a good girl, you'd stay home and not scare me half to death!”

And so it went for a good twenty minutes. Señora Acosta only stopped at eleven o'clock because it was time for the news and time for Graciana to go to bed.

Graciana's last thought was I need to move out.

Andrew pulled his toolbox out of the closet, removing a small cardboard box. Flying Eyes weren't illegal drones. But owning a couple of tiny, aerial, hard to notice cameras would have raised some annoying questions. Manually working its landing clamp so that it attached to his desk, he began cleaning it. Andrew's commlink display informed him that it was 2:01 AM.

He had gone to bed, or tried to with no success, at 11:15. Admittedly, he hadn't slept well for years. Not since the Twins. Tonight was a little worse than usual, however. It was the thought of having earned the emnity of yet another unknown group with a lot of pull. More than him and everyone else who caught on to their plot. And he'd actually been trying to keep out of trouble until he could find a fixer willing to work with him. Damn.

Carefully holding the drone so it didn't roll around his desk, Andrew began applying oil. After this, he would sneak downstairs for a snack, then give sleep another try.

It’s another lovely day in freaking paradise.

Todd arose from his futon to start his Tuesday. For today Todd make sure that he had two items from his E & E (escape and evasion) Kit; a plastic bag filled with pachinko balls and game jacks sprinkled with graphite dust to make them more slippery. Todd checked the seals on the pair of shortened straws; since they contained particles soaked with pepper punch he didn't want the contents to get loose until he either blew then into a pursuer’s face or put in someone’s drink.

I will have find if I can get access to birthing gel, spreading that behind me will really make a potential pursuer’s day; Intrusion can be easy, it’s comedy that hard.

Todd loaded up on the latest updates for Miracle shooter and Maze Hunters. He use would them for a cover to compare encryption codes with Andrew. Since father lifted his ban on gaming he had played both over the last week. While he thought Miracle Shooter was okay as an AR shooter he starting to enjoy Maze Hunters for the puzzles and problem-solving scenarios. Strangely it was the janitorial lead of the night crew who recommended it. Egg Shen claimed that a diligent quest-er could find many of life’s answers playing the game. Todd found that funny coming from an old Ork, but still Egg was a great guy and source of many interesting insights

After Cleaning and gathering his gear he headed for the morning job. I better get a larger cup of soy-caf and have Wayne double up on the Sportzpresso I will need the Energy.

Graciana wakes from formless dreams at the usual time on Tuesday morning. What isn't usual is the speed at which she goes through her morning routines. She hurries into her armored charcoal gray cargo pants, barely taking the time to check the animal treat and chalk supplies. The front of her hair gets pulled back into a black and silver scrunchie, keeping the rest of it off her face. Today's long-sleeved top for school features a Julia set in black and grays on white. After some internal debate, the gray with green and pink iridescence feather earrings go on. The gray armored top goes into a bag, to be left in the truck.

Graciana still doesn't manage to evade a morning lecture from her mother. The topic is what kind of horrible, ungrateful slut would make her mother worry by not being home the instant school lets out. However, Mama does not specifically forbid anything.

Graciana manages to make it to the school parking lot early, so early that the marching band isn't practicing. With renewed motivation, she grabs her commlink and searches for programs that might help her renovate a property in the Dealers' territory.

Her first try changes the interface to Hmong. The commlink starts playing a French Canadian crooner singing about some war, as far as she can tell, while she sees pictures of Jimmy Carter hanging drywall. Graciana pays attention to the strange old man hanging drywall for as long as she can stand the crooner, which is not long at all. Then she reboots the commlink. The interface returns to Spanish, the crooner goes off the air and the pictures of Jimmy Carter vanish.

On the second try, Graciana is positively awash with data on various social programs relating to dwellings, development, purchases and improvements. She filters out anything that requires her to actually own the property, be of age, or be a business.

The remaining data tells her all sorts of things. There's a program to buy paint made in the UCAS for half price if she's restoring a property for sale. There's a program to help disadvantaged ESL youth enter apprenticeships. She learns that she could buy whatever property she picks if she undertakes to pay the back taxes of at least five thousand nuyen, or can prove it's been abandoned for ten years. There's a construction material recycling program which gives you old doors, windows and so on for the price of using your likeness in advertising. There's an urban renewal program which gives you access to flower seeds and organic fertilizer for free. There's a grant program which will be much easier to get if you first fall pregnant.

Graciana decides that she likes the apprenticeship program, the recycling program, and the urban renewal program.  That grant that requires a pregnancy gets deleted with prejudice. Graciana saves the data on the other programs for later.

I like the apprenticeship program. I need those skills and I may need that job. I don't want a photo of myself floating around, so I may not use the recycling program – wait! I can cast an illusion on myself that will photograph. For them, I'll make myself look better than I really am.

Feeling much better about life, Graciana goes into the school building, picks a classroom and settles down in a recliner.

Tuesday morning gradually becomes Tuesday, and as the day becomes slowly brighter, the day's news and activities gradually take shape.

Clouds drift overhead, blending thin blue with shadowy grey, while virtual forecasters in AR talk about how there may be a few more warm days (where warm is defined as flirting with 20C) to eke out of the season. The SINners and the SINless alike are reminded of how much shorter the days will be, and what the effects on power availability will be.

The Seattle Public Information Network reports that FullMatrix is working on a large scale giveaway, but is in need of funds to purchase equipment, even at the reduced rates which they get, so they are appealing to the community to pitch in an help them meet their targets. They point out that some equipment sized for metahumans costs more, and make veiled references to Humanis-sponsored groups trying to advance the position of humans with respect to metahumans by keeping equipment sizes to human scale only.

At school, there is less administrivia on Tuesday than Monday - basically inevitable. Just the usual reminders of how weaponry is banned on the school campus, and that breaking plastic to form sharp shards constitutes a violation of this rule.

Starling isn't anywhere to be seen at school. Rumour has it that she was forcibly institutionalised.

Graciana picked a recliner in a dimly-lit section of her chosen classroom, so she gets surrounded by her fellow Washouts as everyone arrives for another school day. The news about Starling scares her and she doesn't bother trying to hide it. After several rounds of “That's horrible,” “Whose life is it, anyway?” and comments on fates worse than death, Graciana settles down to her favorite class of the day, biology.

I don't want to miss today's lesson and the administrators need time to settle down. I need to settle down as well.

Once biology is over, Graciana switches off the VR net, but leaves it on her head. After a little stretch, she reaches out to the metaplane where the Watchers dwell.

As the Watcher arrives on the astral plane, Graciana commands, Do not manifest right now. Watch my body while I am absent from it. Tell me if anyone tries to talk to me or wake me up. Also tell me before you go home.

Graciana then slips into the astral plane and goes on the prowl for loose-lipped teachers, psychologists and administrators. Her first stop is the teachers' lounge. By now, they'll want more coffee. Graciana is particularly interested in finding Melinda Xavier, hearing about the new program and the assessment test, and finding out what happened to Starling.

A quick search of the astral plane locates Melinda Xavier. Graciana memorizes Mx. Xavier's aura for future use, then looks for a good place to manifest and eavesdrop. After a few moments of thought, she carefully settles in behind a couch.

Melinda is speaking with one of the vice principals. It's a wide ranging discussion, including urban brawl, the incarceration rate of current and prior participants, the psychology of adolescents and how it develops into criminal, deviant, antiosocial, or antisocial criminal deviant patterns, and how these may manifest in classroom, virtual, school ground and extracurricular behaviour. There's some talk of the lamentable illegality of perpetual monitoring of pupils, and thoughtful consideration as to how that would be affected by a boarding school approach, as well as whether parental cooperation could be assured. There is additional talk of whether the school could arrange school-issued electronics of sufficient attractions to persuade pupils to have them on hand, and use those for surveillance, and finally some talk about how the appropriately discovered high risk individuals will be placed in the hands of competent reformatory authorities on Friday morning, and how best to achieve it for lowest disruption, and how the parents and guardians will be informed. The plan is apparently to wait until they enter VR, move them from the location unawares, and then it's out of the local school's hands. There's mild speculation as to what guardians will say, but apparently the TEA has clearly established the legal boundaries, and can fend off complaints - thus the assurance of the vice principal.

Todd finished off his morning shift at the ramen cart. He went to the nearby soy-caf cart and asked the vendor for a large cup of his most powerful soy-caf.

“Wayne, high priest of the mighty Caf, grant this supplicant an extra three doses of your mighty Sportpresso ™ that he may conquer his slower and complacent enemies”

Wayne, the soy-caf vendor, wryly smiles and hands Todd the soy-caf after receiving payment.

Before Todd seals the thermos he takes small sip to judge the drink’s temperature, he then sets for school.

Under the sensei’s advice Todd was planning to use the school year to hone his skills. “Use not just your so-called school, make your world your classroom”

Great ideal Sensei, I just don’t think the TEA is going to give me that year. I may only have a few days to get more information

Todd sent another note to Ivan Annoying asking if he knew anyone higher up the media food-chain who might actually care about students being carted off as a bureaucratic expediency and what they would need to do in order for someone to do something about it.

Pausing to take a drink of his soy-caf, Todd then headed off for his meeting with Andrew.

Graciana had a little trouble following the conversation at first, but stuck it out, hoping they'd finally speak English. When Melinda Xavier and the vice-principal stop talking sociology and start talking about the program, she listens with growing horror.

Perpetual monitoring – hah, they should talk to Mama. She'd probably give them permission. I'm not sure she'd like me in boarding school, though. Just how are these losers going to pay for a boarding school when they can't keep this place in repair?

Friday morning?!?!? I have to admit that waiting until we're all in VR is a good plan. WHAT DO YOU MEAN, THIS IS LEGAL?!?!??!?

Forget Starling, I have to warn the others!

Graciana stops manifesting and streaks back to her body at the speed of thought. Once settled back in her physical form, she thinks about sending a message out. I can't encrypt it, though. I'll have to find the others at lunch.

[Daiyu written with Vegas's permission.]

Daiyu leaned back as Zoé climbed into her lap, embracing her. The signals the other elf girl was sending were a little mixed-up, ranging between warm, friendly affection and almost sexual. She stares into Zoé's eyes for a moment, and the world fades away; the amber monochrome of the other elf teen's apartment had been monochromatic enough to slip by her reality filter, but this was something else altogether; this was astral sight.

[With 7 successes, Zoé is an open book to Daiyu.]


Daiyu lets out a soft gasp; it was an overwhelming flood of information shining at her from Zoé, colors and dark spots, and astral light twisted into unnatural, mechanical patterns and shapes where her Essence had forced itself to accommodate augmentations. But put it all together, and you get a recognizable astral signature; you get her new friend Zoé, who was hugging her warmly and hoping for her to stay the night, her aura promising that no doubt she'd want to share the bed, wouldn't mind if Daiyu was naked, and slept in the nude herself.

Daiyu's vision snapped back to reality, and she smiled at the question marks that Zoé's eyes had become. She squeezed Zoé's toes with her own, a tiny, yet affectionate gesture she knew the smaller elf loved, and hugged Zoé tightly in return, one arm curling the girl's head over her shoulder, the other taking another drag on the cannabis, letting it give her a nice, mellow buzz before she put it in an ash-tray, extinguishing the joint. Hop had long ago departed, and the remains of the orders she, Zoé and Graciana had placed lay on the coffee table before them, along with a bowl of brightly-colored cereal Zoé had her kitchen whip up in a hurry.

"I... Would love to stay the night with you, Zoé" Daiyu answers with all and heartfelt sincerity, her cheek pressed up against the smaller elf's brightly blue ear. A lot of people, even of Daiyu's age, might be perturbed by the size and apparent physical age of the blue elf, but she only felt... Intrigued, interested, in such a freely-made, sincere offer. She giggles, partly from the weed, partly in place of a sigh, squeezing the pliant, warm girl in her lap, reaching down and stroking her hands down Zoé's essentially-bare back, then sliding her long, cool fingers up the girl's spine, under the back of her tube-top, scratching her with blood-red fingernails. She didn't need to ask; she'd seen the itch astrally, and Zoé arched appreciatively at it.

"I really would. It might even be worth it," she explained, squeezing Zoé's toes even tighter. "But the family drama would be a nightmare. I told you I have tiger parents - not just a tiger mom, but both - and I'm the second child, and a daughter. So I can never please them, only displease them." She lets out a sigh, wishing that she hadn't put down and extinguished the joint, pulling back and smiling at Zoé. "I'll see if I can get them to cut me loose to stay over with a friend sometime, though. Your place is too mag not to want to spend the night here."

Zoé blinked, her question-mark eyes turning into frowny-faced emoticons for a moment, then returning to her 'normal', black-and-white 'alien' eyes, and she smiled up at Daiyu. "Okay." She doesn't seem hurt by being turned down, and squeezes the balls of Daiyu's feet in return, pushing back up for a warm hug. "Another time. I'll get into my suit so I can take you home. Do you want to take some of the weed home with you?"

She asked the question innocently, as she disentangled from Daiyu, standing up and stretching - no wonder, as she'd been in largely the same pose for hours, both in VR and then while watching movies with Daiyu. The asian elf smiled, looking down at the bag of marijuana, torn between accepting something so freely offered, and the risk of it being discovered. For a moment, the giddy high and staring at the bag makes her consider taking it home; she could probably get away with hiding it amongst all the similar-looking herbs on the shelves, but that wouldn't fool her parents. They'd hit the roof if they found it, and go into orbit if they found out it was hers.

"Nah, I'd never be able to get away with it at home," Daiyu answers, looking up as Zoé strips, walking back towards her bedroom. This time, she doesn't avert her eyes as the smaller elf again demonstrates her complete lack of concern about being nude in front of her. She didn't seem to play it up to tease, and that simply made the Asian elf smile. She stood up, stretching her own arms and legs, and by the time Zoé returned wearing her Urban Explorer, she'd put her shoes back on.

Thankfully, the trip back to Tacoma gave plenty of time for any lingering whiff of the weed detectable to metahuman noses to be blown away by the wind, and Zoé dropped her off. "So, I'll need to pick you up before dawn if we want to run through the area we need to Matrixize," the small, blue space-elf notes.

"Straight to bed, then?" Daiyu shrugs. "Alright. See you in the morning." She climbed out of the sidecar, waved to Zoé, who watched until she had entered the chinese herb shop, and went straight to bed.


Zoé of course, did not go straight to bed - well, she does, but she doesn't go to sleep. She won't need sleep for another day or so, thanks to her sleep regulator, so she spends the night researching.

Zoé begins by going into stealth mode and routing through the free access node nearby, and establishing a long trail of proxies and bounces, at least two hundred, and will stop every three or so IP to determine if a trace is being run; if one is, she's going to disconnect it.

Note to self: If I get an Agent, I can make it run Spoof on me constantly.

She starts with Melinda Xavier; she wants to know everything there is to know about Ms. Melinda Xavier; professionally, personally, past and present. It takes her ten minutes, but she's pretty sure she's successfully scoured the Matrix. She wants to know where she lives now and in the past, the matrix ID of her personal commlink and CHN, what her social media sites are like, any past information of a salacious nature, anything about her siblings or lovers, where she likes to catch breakfast in the morning; anything she might be able to use as leverage against her, or used to appeal to her, and especially anything she might have mistakenly let drift into some corner of the Matrix as regards the current program to get rid of the students.

Then she gears up and does it again, this time searching for information on the principal of Southeast Tacoma High, looking for information in largely similar vein, and again, checking at least once every two turns to see if she's being Traced.

She considers digging into her new friends, wondering if perhaps some sort of deep data-mining background check may have aided the decision as regards who to preemptively scoot away to juvvie, but decides against it - it's just not nice to dig into your friends. Your enemies, of course, are fair game: Having dug into the two members of staff she knows for certain are responsible for it, though, she decides to compile a dossier on the obvious trouble-making asstards at the school, just in case.

She begins with everybody's most hated asshole, Kittenburner, ascertaining everything the Matrix knows about him in a mere seven minutes, and then moves on to The coprophile, taking eight minutes to dig up what dirt the Matrix has on him.

BreedOrkGirl doesn't seem likely to give them any trouble or be worth making trouble for on her own, so instead, as she's violating all sorts of privacy, she decides to look into her own personal nemesis, Eden Madsen, searching for all of the above information, plus especially anything she might have posted about Zoé, or anything her honeybees might have posted about Zoé that would be linked to Madsen

She considers looking into Papa Gotcha, but of all the persons she's searching for information on, he seems the most likely to have some sort of search-trap-and-trace set-up in place. Searching on him should require some extra-special precautions. For lack of anything else to do, then, and feeling too nervous to play games, she takes her guns to the big desk-table and starts to clean them. She's still pretty newbie at cleaning her weapons on her own, but thankfully they came with AR-enhanced owners' manuals that lend her all the aid she needs.

When she looks up after she's done cleaning her weapons, she's disappointed to find that it's only 1 in the morning; due to pick Daiyu up at five, she has to kill five hours. She considers calling her aunt, but rejects it - if Cynthia picks up on her being nervous, she'll make Zoé talk, and if she realizes how bad this mess with the school is, she'd probably pull her out of that school then and there and go shopping for a new school district. Zoé doesn't want to abandon her new friends.

Instead, she fires off messages into the void.

@Rio, Hop, Graciana [Liara]: Me and Daiyu are going to swing by the place Papa Gotcha wants us to restore connectivity to in the morning, give it a good once-over with the sensors on my bike and in my head. I've been digging up dirt on our enemies, too. If there's anybody you need dirt on, let me know... I could use something to do, 'cause there's no way I'm getting to sleep tonight.

@Cynthia [Zoé]: Hey, Cynth. Made some new friends today, which is cool. Almost had one stay over, but she has those standard Asian tiger parents who would've shredded her if she had. She's really hot, too, and somehow combines goth hotness with warmth. There's others, 'course - I made like, three new friends today, all told, and got a lot of frags in Miracle Shooter at school.

Yes, I am actually doing my schoolwork, too. Love ya, hope your night's going well. If it's going really well, I want the trideo to prove it. Hope she's hot, or is it a boy this time? Who knows. We still on for tomorrow night?

She heads up to the roof of her building. Some buildings have swimming pools or basketball courts at the roof. Hers has a roofside terrace with tables and chairs, and chaise lounges. They're bolted to the ground, because the middle of the roof has a helipad, lights beaming into the night sky from it. It also has a maintenance shed, and an old orc janitor taking a smoke break beside it. She waves to him as she walks to the south side or the roof, plopping down in a chair and looking to the south, staring out as she considers her next move.

Hrm... I wonder...

Zoé uses her mapsoft to place the icon of the mission area in her line of sight, and gazes in its general direction. She can't see anything, though; even leaning on the railing and cranking her zoom up to maximum, she can't see anything, and sighs.

"Stupid fog, stupid smog." There might be direct line of sight or not, she just doesn't know. It was cold up here, too, though with her jumpsuit she didn't notice it much. "Awh... Frag it." Instead, she goes back to her apartment, disrobes, and curls up under the covers, and starts doing Matrix searches for local newshounds who can turn into crusading reporters critical of the education authority, especially any who have tangled with or taken the TEA to task in the past. It takes her eight minutes to narrow that down to a list, and then she starts looking for...

Ugh. Lawyers.

Liara spends some time looking for lawyers, especially those who have a history of successfully suing the school systems in the Seattle area, especially the Tacoma area. A nice fat settlement would be gravy, but she'd settle for a successful injunction followed by a court-order to cease & desist. There's a kilofuckload of lawyers in Seattle. It takes her nine minutes to get a list of lawyers and law firms which meet her needs. She'll organize the list based on price and whether it seems likely they'd take usch a case pro bono or not. Cynthia might be able to pay a lawyer, but... Well, planning. It never hurts to have more data on your plate than you need. That's an option. So is dropping out, which she's currently thinking of as the nuclear option. She'd like to have options between the bend-over-and-take-it option and the nuclear option.

Fuck. only 1:46.

Zoé sighs.

Most of the information Liara uncovers about Melinda is ground she has already covered. Boston based academic, psychology, postgraduate work in the field, history with correctional services and so on. A table dance on vacation in the CAS, parents with histories working for the UCAS government - but here the records are spotty. The great Crash surely wiped out a lot of earlier data forever. The Matrix ID of Melinda's personal commlink appears to be legion - apparently she changes commlinks the way some girls change shoes. But hey, Liara doesn't come away empty-handed - there are dozens to select from. Old ones recorded in papers written in 2064, recent ones which were current when she ran a small contract for juvenile potential analyses in Cleveland, lots of them. Social media sites for Melinda are tastefully impersonal - they reflect professional interests and activities. Lots of position statements on appropriate education of troubled youth, lots of railing against incarceration systems, criticism of political positions. Liara could easily spend hour upon hour reading it all. Siblings appear not to exist, lovers appear not to be listed - or not exist. Where she liked to catch breakfast in the morning in 2067 when she did an internship in NYC was this little bagel shop which did awesome farmed salmon lox, but the only reason it got a mention was that it was a place where she could also observe a regional gang's morning routine.

Either Melinda is a boring monomaniac career woman, or leading a very successful double life, or her Matrix presence was scrubbed before, during or after her move to the Seattle enclave. There's nothing there which leads to an obvious conclusion that she's anything but a very boring wageslave.



The principal is in a largely similar vein to that of Melinda - the most terrible thing which stands in her background is one time she apparently forgot to pay a parking ticket on time and had to pay an additional fine and court costs to make the problem go away. At first glance there is some very weird activity involving her as a young woman, until it becomes apparent that she took part in amateur trid productions when she was a student; only exciting if callow art were a scandal for a principal's educational background. The principal is a fan of AR cats, and apparently has spent, over the course of the last half dozen years, a couple of thousand nuyen on them. This may be slightly disturbing, but hardly constitutes a scandal either. She also goes through regular personal conduct audits through the TEA, and comes up clean every time - this is a matter of public record. The principal likes a morning bowl of cereal, because breakfast is the most important meal of the day, and there is some footage of her taking part in 10k runs for charity. Sweaty, flushed, but not scandalous.



Kittenburner is almost a nonentity on the Matrix, aside from a presence largely distinguished by unsubtle but persistent trolling and a taste for violent games. He was in the foster system, but got tossed back and now lives in the system.

Drekboy doesn't appear to be a coprophile at all, so much as a particularly determined wabbit with vitriolic neo-anarchist leanings. He angrily advocates for total violent destruction of The System, whatever that means, and defends his behaviour as the only real means he has to strike back, but expresses his intention to reach for bigger and better things in future.



Madsen has an amateurish but surprisingly polished presence online, which is amazingly voluminous and autobiographical. Liara finds hour upon hour upon hour of simsense material available, as well as trid, and even simple audio babbling about any butterfly of a thought which drifts through the vapid zephyrs which make up her intellectual life. She has apparently decided to find a lawyer who would take her case, and expresses every intention to use her automatically recorded trid of the assault to ruin Zoé personally, financially, and emotionally, now and forever.



The reporting profession has changed - while there are large corporations which do control substantial media conduits, they tend to hire very few people other than a few editors and techies. Their own presenters are digitally created, and while they do get information from freelancers, the freelancers themselves are the new newshounds. Many of them get their start as bloggers and then branch out - so by the standards of looking for bloggers, Liara can dig them up by the dozen and the score. If she wants a really big name, the number reduces, but those ones seem to be either drooling sensationalists who care nothing for the truth, or the willingly co-opted agents of corporate propaganda.



Liara has a duly arranged list of lawyers - mostly the ones who do pro bono work are partners in large firms who can afford to do the work for the press, or a couple of civil rights idealogues of spotty rates of success. On the whole, the professional teams retained by the authorities tend to have the better batting average. Why this might be would require a deeper meta-analysis of the legal arguments and background than Liara really has the means to set in motion, or the education to truly comprehend at this stage.

Andrew wasn't expecting trouble the moment he when he went to school that morning. At least, he was trying not to look that way. Admittedly, he had packed his gecko tape gloves and a few discreet pieces of equipment before he left home. Andrew just hoped his new status didn't entail backpack searches. Aside from the drones, there wasn't anything too suspect. Tools were tools, and the gloves looked like gloves, at first glance. He could pass as a good little student for now. Nonetheless, he loaded his Encrypt program before he found a seat and contacted Todd.

@Todd [Andrew]: Morning. You learn anything new about the problem we're having?

Andrew's appearance doesn't appear to raise any alarms, and in fact the school day's progress seems to be very pedestrian so far. The school's campaign for happiness and nonsuicidal joy is in full swing, with the AROs in the hallways reminding him of the beauty of the Tacoma skyline, the intense rush of sports, the possibility that he, too, could be a great inventor or even the president of the UCAS! The possibilities of life are endless.

Oh, and it's cool to stay in school.

There are also some reminders of how awesome the school's teams are, but organised sports have become a lot more segregated owing to parental demands, and watered down on various fronts, so those are usually only of interest to people who are personally invested for some reason, such as participation.

Todd arrives at school fourteen minutes before the bell. He takes another drink of his Sportpress-laced tm soy-Caf

The Sportpresso tm people claim that each shot has all the caf and vitamins a active body needs, let's hope they are right


Todd quietly approaches Andrew

The approach



When he get up to Andrew he quietly clears his throat "Pardon me please, but would you be interested in the latest updates for "Miracle Shooter" and "Maze Hunters"? offering Andrew a hardwired lead attached to his official comlink.

I hope this guy remembers his message and can figure what I am doing

Andrew rolled his eyes. Wonder if kids had to deal with this kind of "motivation" 50 years ago? That said, he idly wondered if school sports had any restrictions on augmentations. If he got the chance to stick around, track and field would provide a way to stay in shape. Awkward as Todd's greeting sounded to Andrew, he tried not look too surprised by it. "Yeah. Appreciate it." He plugged the lead into his own device.

@Andrew [Todd]: I got a 128 bit encryption key (level 4) so well can talk with less observation. If you have better encryption software I would be happy to use your instead. If you know of others who wants to do something about being put on the dreking list we could get them the encryption key and start planning less noticed.

I am working on some contacts for information.I have contacted a blogger friend to see a media angle could turn up the volume so loud that the TEA may have to back off the ideal for now. I hoping Ivan knows people higher on the media food chain since we may need at lot of volume to make them at least think twice.

I may have to talk to another friend tonight to see if he may have dug something up.

I may instead may have to contact my fixer to look into some extra equipment


Right now I was planning to do a little poking around this morning to get the sort of information he can't get from the net

By the way do you actually want the latest upgrades for "miracle Shooter" or "Maze Hunters" or let me guess. you are so cool you already have next month's upgrades already?

@Todd [Andrew]: I've got a better program, yeah. But I haven't cracked the copy protection. Hang on, I have to ask. Just what the hell is the school up to? Have you found out, yet? That was probably the most frustrating part of knowing he was on this mysterious list. I only know one other student in the same boat as us. An elf named Zoe.

He reminded himself to give his friends a ring, and soon. Could Jenny help him, here? She'd known enough to tip him off about the Horizon Group. Huh. How'd you get in touch with a fixer? Angelo was impressed. He had spent the better part of a week looking for leads on that front. Andrew guessed the type of poking around Todd meant to do could land him in (more) trouble with the authorities. Let me know when you want to start looking. You might not be able to find the info on the Matrix, but I can still use it to cover for you. Make sure you aren't caught on camera, or something.

He smirked. Hey, I'll take the upgrades. And give you that encryption program in trade later.

@Andrew [Todd]: Which ever program we can use to an set a encryption key to we can setting up secure communications we should use now. The sooner we can coordinate with the others the better.

As far as what the TEA is planning, the "favorite" scenario is everyone on the list is about to be carted off to juvie. One speculation is that someone is trying to improve certain statistics for both institutions, regardless of weather said students deserve being carted off in the first place.

If you are talking about the blue elf yes, I also got a reply from her. If you run into her before me let her know I am looking for answers too. I also heard from someone named Graciana. I will be trying to contact her during lunch. Speaking of which I have a few spare sandwiches in my lunch box, I been engaging in a test market program to see if I can start a side business providing an alternative to what passes for lunch around here. I can be spare you one if you don't have something better.

Well, yes this is certainly an opportunity to finally put my recently learned trade craft to use.Todd noted to himself

Yes I am going to be into admin and blend with early morning student crowd. This will be a soft probe just to check the security to see if they added something since the last time I checked. I will use the probe to plan out second probe during the morning staff meetings at 9 am. We can talk before that to see if we come up with a coordinated plan

As for the fixer talk to me after school and I will do what I can to hook you up

After a bathroom break, Graciana returns to her nice obscure recliner.

She tells the Watcher, Continue to watch over me, please.

Graciana then settles down to her easiest class of the day, hoping her mood will likewise settle. Graciana tries to be a model student until lunch, when she will go in search of Todd and his sandwiches. However, she does fire off a few messages which she hopes will slip by the administration, if they're bothering to monitor student commlink messages.

@Tristan [Graciana]: Hi, what did your friend have to say?

@Todd [Graciana]: Hi, save me a sandwich, please. Skip Day is Friday. What are you doing after school today?

@Liara [Graciana]: Sorry I skipped out. The favor turned out to be really important. How was the movie? I hope you actually got some sleep after all. What are you doing after school today? Don't forget, Skip Day is Friday.

@Todd [Andrew]: Oh, wonderful. It's nice to have that cleared up. I'm going to guess the people in charge have accounted for the fact that our families won't be too happy about our incarceration? He scowled. Give me a heads up if you need digital support. Waiting for some more backup doesn't sound like a bad idea, come to think of it. You know anyone besides Zoe? Oh, and I made lunch at home. Read: tossing some of last night's spaghetti into a plastic container. I'll definitely take the contact info for the fixer, though. Thanks a lot.

As an absolute last resort, he might have to find some work and raise some vanishing into thin air money. Drastic? Yes. Foolhardy? Probably. Xavier and whoever else was involved had forced his hand.

As Todd approached the administration area amidst the still sleepy crowd that was his fellow students.

Keep calm and blend, Todd told himself again this is where I do my recon thing and spot potential problems before my mid-morning run.

@Andrew [Todd]: Testing, I am hoping you can read this message and the school can’t. Don’t forget to get the encryption key to the Zoe and anyone who think could help. I will try to contact Graciana at lunch.

Todd read Graciana’s message Well..Drek. Better let Andrew know

Speaking of Graciana, I just got a noting something about a Friday skip day. If I am reading between the lines this may not be good news. I will definitely have to contact her to confirm my suspicions.
I will get back to you about 8:30 am to compare notes.

As Todd approaches the school administration area started mentally going thru his checklist one last time
1. Set Audio and Video for record
2. Tried to blend with crowd and do not attract attention to self
3. Have story about needing a form if a staffer happen to notice me
4. Be observant but don’t forget that you are also recording this for later analyst
5. Don’t stare but move you head slow enough to let your camera put the data for later
6. Have the sound filter concentrate on isolating conversation. Pay attention to staffers make ing an effort not to be overheard
7. Look for cameras and possible ways to get past them.
8. Don’t even try to go into unauthorized area but note where they are for future investigation
9. If possible check old office areas for old computer connections, otherwise wait to mid-morning probe
10. Check to see if any of the staffers and leaving their doors open. Don’t go into offices but check for signs of lax security practices that can be exploited later
11. Don’t Panic

As he went through the Administration entrance he smiled to himself
Showtime

This time of the morning the conversations are largely boring stuff about regulatory standards, how the traffic was and how the weather might be.



There are a few which Todd can spot. The easiest way is to avoid the passageways - there aren't any in the private offices which he can see.



There's a decent list of them - mostly the computer rooms, some equipment storage rooms and so on. Largely not mysterious.



This might have to wait until mid-morning.



Oh, lots of laxity. Open doors, even what look like terminals left logged in.

After leaving Liara’s pad Hop slipped onto his board and cruised the street until he found a bus stop that was adequately lit and didn’t house any really unsavoury types. He made it back home, late, but as anticipated his parents were still buried in VR and left it to the house node and Catherine to welcome him home. She was a bit peeved that he hadn’t waited for her to introduce her to his new friends but it seemed like she’d made a few at the new dance class so forgave him readily enough. It was still us against the world and at least she didn’t seem to be on the shit list! He bloody hoped her name wasn’t on it but he didn’t want to alarm her by mentioning it if she didn’t bring it up. He’d ask Liara in the morning to check for him.

Meanwhile the tech in his head meant he had no need for sleep just yet and he settled in for some VR. Slipping out of his meat he launched his persona across Seattle to reach the Citadel game node

@Pulse [Hop]: Beth, you out there? Meet me in our spot in the Citadel?

Glorying in the hotSIM the Citadel entry hall was realer than real and he relished the sensations of stepping into the planar portal that would take him through a dizzying vortex to reach their inner game world that was off the beaten track. It had been conjured by someone at Stillwater and lacked enough excitement for it to be a popular destination within the multiverse that was available to the adrenalin junkies. The grass was wonderful under his bare toes and he brushed his hands through the bioluminescent fronds as he made the way down to the pool.

Beth was waiting for him. Her persona rose from the centre of the pool in a wash of pulsing light, almost painfully bright without the safety limiters on the SIM feed. Clasping her hand he forgot all about school, weird admin lists and other worries for a time…



Liara’s message jerked him back to reality and it was somewhat regretfully that he peeled away from Beth’s embrace. ”Sorry, I need to send a quick message before my new friends do anything drastic. I’ll tell you what’s going on in a bit…just be glad you’re not stuck in this drekfest with me!”

@Liara [Hop]: I don’t mean to sound patronising but I don’t think you two should go out there alone, even in daylight. It may not be real barrens and most of the preds will be asleep by then but there may still be the pervs and the weirdos lurking. If this was gonna be easy Papa would have done it himself! Can you swing by [address tag] and pick me up? If you go at a reasonable pace I can hang off the back of your bike on my board. Better still get Gracie to swing by with her truck? Oh, and could you find out if my sister is on the drek list please, Kate Hathe, will be interesting to know if there’s something in our profiles that marks one against the other? She hasn’t mentioned it so I’m guessing she either doesn’t realise the significance or she’s oblivious to the whole thing, which is what I’d prefer I can tell you! Thanks Liara, see you tomorrow? H

”Sorry Beth, right, where to begin…”

After some thought, Graciana takes another quick break and sends two more messages.

@Daiyu [Graciana]: I might be busy after school, are you? Remember, Skip Day is Friday.

@Hop [Graciana]: I hope you got home okay last night. The favor turned out to be really important. I might be busy after school, are you? Remember, Skip Day is Friday.

Quietly slipping into a recliner Todd started reviewing his sensory recording. The recordings didn't reveal anything more than his 1.0 eye and ears had already discovered. Using the office directory and the recordings he mapped out the office for his mid-morning recon.

The presence of the cameras in the hallways was troubling Todd. Frag I was hoping for more blind spots in the coverage how can I…

It was then that it occurred to Todd he was making the classic mistake of thinking in two dimensions.

Todd sighed, If sensei Castillo was here I would expect him to slap me on head for being dumb. If Senorita Satan was here she would slap me for the heck of it

Reviewing his plan noted two areas he could climb up into the area between the ceiling and office tiles. Not only can I get past the cameras I can look for any usable computer or security connections.

Todd worked on his recon timeline. Todd would leave the class about five minutes before 9 am to go to the bathroom in order to get his gear and switch into his quick-change outfit.

Assuming nothing stopped him, Todd would then go to administration area. Todd though the best time to go would be about 9:07am. This should allow for anyone doing those last minute tasks before their staff meeting. He should be out of the area by 9:50 at the latest. Better keep my ears open in case that the meeting ends earlier

Once I get above the drop ceiling I can hopefully get access to the individual offices. If possible Todd wanted to check Ms. Xavier’s office first. Todd suspected that she would be security conscience enough not leave her computer on or her comlink on her desk; however, if she actual made a security error like than the time checking her office would be well spent.

Other targets would the staffers who left their doors and computers on during the early morning, hopefully this laxness would carry through the mid-morning.
This might be the point I should contact Andrew to see if he got any ideals.
Queuing up the encryption program he sent Andrew a report of his morning recon and his mid-morning plans

Graciana is just too upset to settle into her classes today, so she takes yet another break to contact her supervisor at the animal shelter.

@Vaness Wilde [Graciana Acosta]: Vaness, I'm going to do the best I can to make my hours at the shelter, but I think my mother's going to throw me out of the house this week. Please, do you know anyone who can help me? At the very least, can I park my truck at the shelter overnight and sleep in it? Thanks!

There is an almost immediate response from Vaness. The tone of her response is not conveyed by the dictation routines in her commlink which turns the voice into a simple text message, but Graciana can almost hear the enraged incredulity through the glowing words in her display.

@Graciana Acosta [Vaness Wilde]: Throw you out of the house? Graciana, what is going on? You're not pregnant, are you? Do you have any plans, better than sleeping in your truck? Because that's not going to happen.

Graciana isn't sure whether to frown or smile. She thinks for a bit, then fires off a reply.

@Vaness Wilde [Graciana Acosta]: No, I'm not pregnant. What's going on is rather complicated. I have trouble believing it myself. Mama's going to throw me out over it, I can tell. I can't legally sign a lease, so I'll have to take over an abandoned property and fix it up. That's going to take time and money, so I'll probably have to sleep in the truck for a bit.

@Graciana Acosta [Vaness Wilde]: This is insane. What possible reason could your mother have for throwing you out? And you can't take over an abandoned property, where would you find one? You didn't get in trouble with a gang did you? What about the school, can't they help? There are programs, they can help kids in trouble.

@Vaness Wilde [Graciana Acosta]: No, I'm not in trouble with a gang, thank goodness. It is insane and the school can't help. The school is the problem. I don't want to quit school, but it looks like I must. When I do, Mama's probably going to throw me out.

Please, tell me more about these programs that help teens in trouble. I need all the help I can get.