Chapter 1




Early November 2076, Vienna


The blood was leaking all over the the clean white tiled floor. It was silent enough for the grinding of the young woman's teeth to be audible as she tried to staunch the steady flow of life from the gash in her side while not passing out from pain. But pain had been a constant in her life and therefore the threshold for it had been raised again and again until she was able to surpress the animal instincts and panic that would normally accompany a wound of this severity. She didn't want to die - even if it would promise the sweet release from pain. An iron will made her fight through the beginning blackness brought on by the blood loss.
Still, her field of view had narrowed down to a small tunnel through which she now was barely able to make out the pair of expensive shoes moving quickly to reach her side. Their owners didn't hesitate to kneel in the pool of blood, dirtying the expensive suit trousers beyond saving. She felt a cool mist touch her and someone's strong, callused hands pull hers away to reveal the oozing gash. Another sensation, something trickling into the open wound. The pain was unbelievable. Red hot, tearing, burning, consuming. Finally, her threshold was surpassed and she fell back, her throat hoarse from screaming. Finally, blackness and oblivion.

Late January 2077, North Western Austria

Raph's commlink alerted him to a missed call and a message. The clock told him it was just after dawn on this grey winter day. The beginning day had banished the creatures from his dreams. It had been one of those very vivid ones. Dreadful things had happened and... even as he tried to remember the memories slipped away, evaporating like morning dew.
The message was from Harald Märle.
<<Hello Raph,
There is a job for you. Or rather Someone had one for Sophie, but now it's yours if you want. It's about finding a girl in trouble. He didn't want to tell me more, but he said that maybe Sophie's pupil would be up for the task. If you are interested, he'll meet you at the Starnberger See at the cross of the dead King Ludwig II, at 12.00 o'clock. I checked the comm number, but it was obviously a burner phone. He introduced himself as Herr Nacl.
Good bye
Harald>>

Late January 2077, Munich

Sharkboy was awoken by a rough shaking. Kennedy Vincent was as always surrounded by the smell of expensive cigars and whiskey.
"Hey, wake up. I told you not to go to that party. Shit. Get it together man." A glas of water was pressed to Sharkboy's lips which seemed to contain a slowly dissolving pill.
"You need a clear head. A friend of a friend got in contact with me. They are looking for an "intimidating professional, who can stand some rough and tumble stuff". Best part: It's not even illegal, just some job to find a missing girl. There's a big cred stick in it for you. So go get your pants and that face mask you use. The meeting is today at some lake. I booked you a car with the coordinates. And remember: Customer wants an intimidating professional."


Early February 2077, Munich, bnc's den

It had been almost a month now that the team had split up. Gerhardt had been supportive, organizing all the toys and gear bnc wanted, but the man himself hadn't visited her. Too dangerous, he had said. And likely too busy. Dr. Schmidt had been relocated to S-K Prime, now that his prototypes were back. Lot's of things to do. Slobbertooth had send a post card - an honest to god real paper post card - from somewhere in Marseille. Krestov had called a few times - he had been rerouted to Russia after arriving in Europe. He had urged bnc to stay safe until he could come back, but had been rather evasive on when this would be, why he had to go to Russia and what the hell he thought he was doing. The only thing he had said was that it was important and he didn't want to involve her unless absolutely necessary. His commlink had since then stayed in a small cafe in St. Petersburg.

The sun was shining outside and Anna was around, the only one from the previous run that had stuck with her.
Their conversation was interrupted by a message from one of the deep matrix hacker boards, that bnc frequented. ---Kypher69---, one of the local hackers she had gotten to know and if not like at least respect for his abilities, had sent her a private message:
<<Hey, you still in Munich? Had to leave for Berlin early, so I can't give you the multidimensional co-processor module for your headware. But I stashed it for you to retrieve: There's a electronics convention at the BMW museum. I hid it in the left wheel well of the Isetta on the fourth floor. Should be enough tech geeks around that security will have other things on their mind than a girl touching old cars.
Cheerio Motherfragger.>>

"Uh, sweet meat, shut it for a second ... uh, sweet. What do you say? I think it's time for a debut for James, isn't it? I think he's just ready to do a little walk-and-fetch for me. Would you be nice and give him some support? I'm still not sure what he actually can and can't do."

She gets up and attaches the false skin back to the false face, gingerly, then stretches. After most of the work was done, she had brought back the sofa into the living room, stashing her tools and gear into a corner of the room. She drains the rest of her soyfruiyo in one long gulp and throws it into a box she was about to throw away anyway. Wiping her face, she grins at Anna. Her eyes - though fake - have a glimmer in them. Anticipation. Joy. And the unnamed feeling when you know that you're a weirdo, and that's why life is more awesome for you than for everyone else.

Sharkboy morning got off to a rough start. To go along with the nagging pain in his leg, he had a headache either from the party or the lack of dopadrine in his system. The fact that the WWF head product manager had come all the way from New York to wake his ass up certainly wasn't helping matters either. He rolled out of the bed, fell flat on the floor, groaning in complaint at the early start. I thought the wiz part of being an independent contractor was getting to set my own hours. He finally pushed himself up, throwing on a ski-mask out of habit.

Quickly removing his clothes besides the mask, he turned on the shower to wash off whatever was on him and get the feeling of gunk out of his throat and gills. Undressing around employers and coworkers was second nature after all the time he spent in locker rooms. As the water heated up, he moved around the room and laid out his suit and gear to make sure it was all there and finally acknowledged Mr. Kennedy, "The mistake wasn't going to the party, it was trying to be the party. Get my bow out of the closest, It's in the bow-shaped plastic case. Then get the frag out, boss."

"And don't worry about me playing your badass babyface for you. It's a change of pace sure, but Sharkboy 24:7 says I'll kick your ass, and if you don't believe me I'll hit you with a Tiger-Shark knee so hard you'll forget your name."

Sharkboy morning got off to a rough start. To go along with the nagging pain in his leg, he had a headache either from the party or the lack of dopadrine in his system. The fact that the WWF head product manager had come all the way from New York to wake his ass up certainly wasn't helping matters either. He rolled out of the bed, fell flat on the floor, groaning in complaint at the early start. I thought the wiz part of being an independent contractor was getting to set my own hours. He finally pushed himself up, throwing on a ski-mask out of habit.

Quickly removing his clothes besides the mask, he turned on the shower to wash off whatever was on him and get the feeling of gunk out of his throat and gills. Undressing around employers and coworkers was second nature after all the time he spent in locker rooms. As the water heated up, he moved around the room and laid out his suit and gear to make sure it was all there and finally acknowledged Mr. Kennedy, "The mistake wasn't going to the party, it was trying to be the party. Get my bow out of the closest, It's in the bow-shaped plastic case. Then get the frag out, boss."

"And don't worry about me playing your badass babyface for you. It's a change of pace sure, but Sharkboy 24:7 says I'll kick your ass, and if you don't believe me I'll hit you with a Tiger-Shark knee so hard you'll forget your name."

Anna replied"Can I take him shopping afterward? I mean, James would look amazing in a suit."

Kennedy gave Sharkboy a very dismissive look: "You are just in luck that we are wrapping up the shots for the new promo video - half an hour later and the call would have reached me on the way to the airport. God damnit man, open a window once in a while. When you are done with that job I expect some good promo material from you. Those German bastards can't get enough of your ugly face - probably see themselves in you." He tossed the bow case on the bed.
"Don't frag up - you are on your own down here - and give me a call now and then so I know when you are free for the next match."

"Guess no. I'm inside, after all, and I'll hang myself before I go shopping.. Twice if need be. Just do your face and nails or whatever and be finished in 10 minutes. I'm eager to leave."

bnc makes herself comfortable on the sofa. When she lies nicely, head cushioned properly, she shuts her eyes, inhales, and yells "Ugh, drek. With all them geeks around, I guess it's a fucking bad idea. Let's just go in meat space."

Sighing in frustration, she stuffs Tommy into the concealable holster and pulls on her five-years old armor jacket from back in the beginnings. "This is so wrong. So utterly, utterly wrong." Her Defiance EX Shocker vanishes into the hidden arm slide.
She then leaves practically naked, bringing only Anna and three Noizquitos to the museum. Just for good measure, the rotodrone stays somewhere near, however.

When bnc and Anna step into the bus, she realizes that she is probably the worst rigger there has ever been. Ah, and jost the worst decker, too, she also shuts down her highly illegal and freakishly expensive cyberdeck. If she can't be awesome, she can at least be inconspicious.

"Fine... I'll dress him in autopilot..." She seems happy to go with bnc on the flesh though. Anna accompanies bnc, equipped with her second skin and Zoe dress. "You could use some new clothes yourself you know... Or god forbids something more ladylike" Anna carries a legal taser concealed underneath and does not sustain any spells. She carries nice looking earrings which are also a fetish, as well as a sustaining focus ring in her pocket. "Too many people like you... They'll probably just admire James and let me go unnoticed." She joins bnc for the bus ride without much of a fuss.

Getting around in Munich is pretty easy - the automated busses, trams, S- and U-Bahn took bnc and Anna towards the Olympia Center. The warm rays of the sun made the cold winter day amazingly bearable. Exiting the vehicle both saw themselves surrounded by scores of young and youngish people with fashion straight out of Neo-Neon-Post-Punk-Cyber-Chick. Cyberware - fake and real was sported as well as all kinds of LED augs, and lots and lots of latex. And that was just the real world. In AR the costumes were beyond bizzare - quite a lot of them appeared as the hardened shadow runners from the Karl Combatmage trids.

And all were surging towards the soup bowl shaped building of the BMW museum. There, a gigantic AR banner called out to the masses: "Die Funkschau 2077 - sponsored by S-K"

Still nude except for the mask, Sharkboy went over to Kennedy and suddenly lifted the man up by his jacket. "Look drekhead, I don't need to cut some glitterboy promo because the moment I walk down the ramp ready to rock everyone knows I am the alpha predator of that ring, and that people only leave when I let them. You fired me because I nearly killed one of Curry Man's boys in the ring, now get the frag out of my room before people start thinking I still work for your soggy ass."

He gently put Vincent back down and changed his tone. "That's about what they're looking for on the job, right Ken?"

"You ... you want to dress him? Oh, sheesh, that's ..."
bnc pauses, reading an ARO that floats around. Then she turns her gazu to Anna.
"That's maybe not a bad idea after all. You do know about fashion ... he's yours. But if anything happens to him, no-one will even recognize your face anymore. Mind you, I'm serious."

bnc steps our of the U-Bahn and freezes. "Oh, man, why on Earth could he not just deliver the fragging thing with a drone? He can't do that to me.
Okay, Anna. What do you think. Destroying some of those assholes' links without a reason and reprogramming their looks for no good reason at all despite loathing them. Good idea or bad?"

bnc finds herself sighing a lot this day. "At least the sun's shining.", she mumbles to herself, then dives into the mass.

"Atta boy." Kennedy grinned and patted Sharkboy's shoulder. "Keep it up and we might get you back where you belong before long."

Sharkboy returned the smile, "Glad to hear it.

"Seriously though, get the frag out. I need to shit and it's bad for business if local promoters think I'm just working for you to steal their gimmicks. I already get enough of those questions."

One day I'll have a spirit possess you and make you go shopping with me! You are such a slob..." Once Anna realizes where they were going, and who the crowd is she said disappointed "You could have said where we were going... I would have dressed as Sukie Redflower!".... "Why do you want to destroy electronics again? ... and would you hate them less if I make you look like them?

.

"I hate the fact that I know you could actually do that. And I'm not a slob. I'm into many things. Fashion just ain't one. And neither are cars, if you wonder. I'm just here to retrieve something. We can grab lunch or something afterwards. And you can still download a Sukie Redflower ARO. It's more realistic if you go nude", bnc says dryly.
She lines up with the other, maybe shoving gently here or there to get into the building more quickly.
"Huh? Why should I destroy electronics? What do you mean?"

She replied "Wasn't your first response to this crowd was digital vandalism? Or was that some strange code-word? I am kind of lost now." ... She then downloaded her ARO downloaded but said "Way too cold to pull off naked... but I can just stick to the second skin, it can look like anything due to Ruthenium polymer... It is like my favorite polymer... I wish my first skin was actually made of that stuff."

"Aaah. I don't mind the electronics. I just want to kick some ass with bad taste. This is pathetic.
And don't you dare run about in a naked-look Ruthenium polymer when I'm around."

Anna laughed "You may be a decker, but there is definitely a scrip kiddo inside... and I am too fat to pull off Redflower anyhow. What is it that you need to fetch?"

Kennedy left without another word, leaving Sharkboy behind. As promised the autocab hailed him a minute later.

At the BMW museum:

The masses moved slowly towards the entrance. Now that the two were among them, bnc could also make out some people wearing little CCC stickers on their icons - members of the ancient Chaos Computer Club - a club with nearly 100 years of hacking experience. They looked excited but also determined. A single armed guard - an ork that looked remarkably similar to Slobber at first glance and without any kind of Matrix presence as it seemed - ushered people through a sensor array and additionally waved a sensor wand over every visitor, making them remove weapons and drones.

For an instant, bnc considers giving up only one of the weapons, but then she realizes how ridiculous that is. Even with a weapon, she is still harmless. And she's got a mage with her.

As there's little to do, she idly checks the 'links and real-life physics of the CCC people, trying to identify them either as real hackers or as groupies. bnc leaves one drone somewhere hovering in the air to get overwatch over the entrance area and lets the other two Noizquitos slip in as unseen as possible. If there's some time left, she already investigates the virtual landscape inside the building.
When they arrive at the entry, she pays two tickets and gives the guns to the ork without complaint.

Anna attempts to smuggle her concealed but perfectly legal, taser. She plans an excuse in case it is detected.

It took Raph a few seconds to realize that this message meant he had to be in the middle of a lake on the other side of the BDL-border in a matter of a few hours.
He cursed as he jumped out of bed, went to prepare some insta-coffee and heating a egg&bacon-flavoured soy-snack while he took a quick shower to get his head clear. Who the drek meets in the middle of a lake? He didn't like the idea of meeting with total strangers while being surrounded by nothing but water, but at least a meeting in broad daylight near a tourist attraction meant his concact wasn't planning on sinking him on the bottom of the lake. Not yet, at least.

While he gulped down his breakfast (burning his tongue on the still way too hot coffee), he checked his comlink for weather and traffic and planned the quickest route to cross the border.



He donned his Ace of Cups and put on gloves and his lined coat to protect himself against the cold winter winds (and because the cloak was more discreet), as he put on his helmet and went to his garage to get his trusted Suzuki Mirage.

As he was on the bike, he let the autopilot take over for a few moments to reply to Haralds message:
Thx, i'm on it. Gonna be damn tight, but as long as there's no jam at the border, I should make it in time. Take care.

He was travelling without any suspicious items - that meant leaving his gun at home, but he'd be just fine without it.In addition to standard travelling-gear, he had brought a burner link and his micro-camera with him.

When Kennedy left, Sharkboy took off his ski mask and pulled out his comm and had the autocab wait away from the front of the hotel as he completed his morning constitutional and cleaned up for work. He got dressed in his black berwick suit, and finally covered his face with his custom ballistic mask. Painted dark grey with patterns of shark teeth resting against each other painted a bone white along the cheek panels. A short but noticeable fin ran across the top.

He checked his pockets to make sure he had his dopadrine and commlink with him, sealed his bow and quiver in their case, and put his extra pieces off armor and equipment into a small bag and headed down to the cab.

Raph:

The ride went smooth as silk, the crossings were open and he didn't run afoul of any "Schleierfahnder", so that he reached Starnberg and a few minutes later the edge of the lake with a few minutes to spare.
The lake was placid - and frozen solid. In the distance he could see a few people ice skating.

A tall man with broad shoulders, a grey, neatly kept beard and a fetching fedora - coat combo was waiting, sitting on a bank, looking across the lake. His face put him somewhere in his late 40ies early 50ies. Attractive features in a silver fox kind of way, that must work pretty well on girls with daddy issues.

The cross made from teak wood some 10 m out in the lake made it obvious that this was the right place.

Crunching snow made Raph turn around - and look directly in the face of another broadshouldered man - with a shark mask.

Sharkboy:

Despite the little delay, the car made good time, taking him through a very picturesque snowy landscape. When it parked automatically, a helpful AR window indicated that the meeting place was 50m down towards the lake - including a little satellite image with a dotted line how to get there.

He could make out two men - one sitting on a bench and another one moving purposefully towards the first. The snow crunched beneath his feet and both man turned around to stare at him.


bnc and Anna:

The guard seemed to take his job serious: With trained movements he ran the wand down the bodies, using the sensors as well as the tactile information to find contraband. When he found something hidden he didn't bother to listen to any explanations, he simply made a photo of the offender, before turning to the next one. All contraband got labled and stashed in a series of lockers - to be retreived only upon leaving the building.


When it was Anna's turn he didn't take more than two seconds to find the hidden taser. A short flash later, Anna's face joined the ranks of the other would be smugglers.

bnc meanwhile had spotted two guys that were definitely pros: They had relatively cheap goggles modded into high rated commlinks and likely also had silent running decks with them since she had spotted a wrapper modded icon but no cyber deck on one of them. Both looked comparatively normal - just boots, jeans and winter jackets - that bulged over pretty impressive beer bellies. Both sported long, wiry beards and probably not too much in the area of personal hygiene.

"Oh, crap... I forgot I had it." Defeated she smiled at the camera and moved on gracefully as if nothing happened.

bnc simply moves on, once Anna is free to go. A moment she considers ignoring the CCC people but then the curiosity gets the better of her.

What the heck are they doing here..?", she wonders. Inmidst of so many icons, she can take the risk of booting her deck, too. Running silently, she analyzes the modded icon, hoping to find out where it belongs.

Anna is let in while bnc still tries to get a grip on the CCC guys' gear - but with no trace what or where the cyber deck is hidden. In any case, they both don't trigger a reaction from the ork, who waves them on - meaning the two aren't carrying weapons, drones or other forbidden items.

A challenge at last.
"Something's off. Assense the dude I'm indicating with an ARrOw.", she whispers to Anna, before she attempts something risky. She focusses, inhales, and then tries to MARK the spottet icon, hoping to beat the skilled hacker underneath.

Sharkboy slung his archery case over his shoulder, walked up to the men with a put-on swagger and accent, and announced his presence "Órale vato, ¡wassápenin! Mi nombre es Sharkboy" The Spanish was clearly not his first language, and the terrible accent was more a caricature than an impression. He waited for a response from either man to form and then cut them off mid sentence.

"Alright, here are the ground rules.

"One. The mask doesn't come off.
"Two. These gills are real. If you can't deal with a changeling, then that's your glitch.
"Three. Don't stand, don't stand so, don't stand so close to me.
"Four. The Mask doesn't come off." Sharkboy punctuated the last one by bringing his face very close to the visibly younger man's.

"Follow the rules and we'll all get along just fine, wiz?" Sharkboy gave the man two rather firm pats on the shoulder and headed over towards the bench.

Having spotted a stealth tag disguised as a commlink with a wrapper program, bnc tried to hack the tag so she would hopefully gain a MARK on it's master




But to her dismay no second MARK appears - the tag doesn't seem to be slaved. Instead she sees a single file on the tag, titled: "These are not the droids you are looking for.txt"

Grumbling, bnc first checks, then (if it's safe) opens the file, not really expecting something worthful.



For the moment, bnc has to give in. Searching for silently running personas in this chaos is just plain stupid.
The thing is a bit different for her agent, however. She commands the agent to randomyl check all hidden icons close to the two guys and alert me if it finds a cyberdeck.
Then she tries to keep an eye on the two - or a drone if that proves difficult in this mass of people, and attempts to find the lift.

The file contains a bit of asci art followed by text:
"You are pretty nosy, aren't you? Black Hat beware, you are messing with the Schockwellenreiter. Turn back before it's too late."

Just as Raph was about to respond and introduce himself, Sharkboy interrupted him with his rules. He sighed. Why do I always get the swaggers? No beef in front of the Schmidt, just ignore it for now. Skip the smalltalk and get right to it.

"I'm Wraith, and my Spanish doesn't go beyond tequila. So I hope that's no habit of yours.", , he replies in a cold voice. The proximity of Sharkboy's face obviously makes him uncomfortable, but he ignores it and doesn't break eye-contact. He nods as a greeting.


He takes a look around the lake and then nods approvingly towards Mister Silver Fox: "Picked a lovely spot. But... to the matter at hand?"

bnc just rolls her eyes, keeps a flying eye on the hackers and proceeds to get to level 4.

"You can stare as long as you want, Wraith. Just let me know if you find out anything interesting that you couldn't get from a picture with my signature on it."

He then turned to the man with grey hair. "Yeah, why exactly did my old boss storm into my hotel room to let me know I needed to be here this morning?"

Anna refuses without much explaining "No need" being outed as a smuggler was bad enough, she did not intend to also flag herself as awakened. She follows bnc a bit puzzled as to what she wanted of that place.

At Lake Starnberg:

The man on the bench got up and moved closer, nodding his head: "Thank you for joining me here. You can call me Herr Nacl.
As you might have already guessed, this is a rather urgent job, that needs both brain and brawn to have any chance of success. There is a third member that I requested earlier - a hacker to be precise that I sent as an advance to this mission to gather information.
But first things first: This job is about finding, protecting and bringing back a girl. She is in grave danger, as two independent groups are after her. You see, she carries unknowingly some proprietary technology in her. One group wants to get that tech back - no matter the state of the girl. The other group just wants to destroy her - I'm not entirely clear if it's out of revenge or to send a message."

Nacl took out a piece of paper from his coat: "That's her. We can't be sure if she still looks exactly like this, but note the prosthetic eyes and the malnourished appearance. These two details won't be easily changed. The girl herself is a capable operative - technologically fit as well as highly intelligent. She tends to change identities a lot, so for the moment let's call her by her code name BEAN SI.

And before you ask: No, I do not want to harm her - on the contrary. I want to help her survive this mess."

The assensing showed that Herr Nacl has a considerate ammount of bioware in his body - augmented muscles, spine and to some extend his brain, although the impact on his holistic aura is minimal, indicating very, very advanced techniques. Likewise there is a minimal invasive implant in one of his eyes.


At the BMW museum:

For a commercial show there are quite a lot of small and in part pretty amateurish stands around, showing self developed gadgets as well as very interesting looking - and potentially illegal code. But with extra territoriality in play this is likely not that big of a problem, but explains the rather draconic security precautions. Upon entering, Anna finds herself accompanied by a small drone sphere, following her around - likely a result of the failed smuggling attempt.

Instead of visiting the stalls bnc went straight for the elevators. The crowded ride isn't made better by one half of the crowd being rather unwashed, while the other has used so much make-up and styling products that alone through the proximity new organic chemicals are synthesized, that smell worse than each individually.

Maybe it was just the crowds, but bnc felt pretty anxious all of a sudden

At the BMW museum:

Upon entering the fourth floor, bnc noted a few things: For one, there were no surveillance drones in sight any more. But more important, there were three men who just didn't fit into the crowd: Two were large and muscular. They had made an effort to blend in with the other people here, but their outfit looked too much bought than chosen. They kept looking around and had the unmistakable eye movement of someone comparing reality to an AR image. The third one fit better with the crowd but was wearing - as bnc realized - a so called shaman tuxedo, fitting to the tradition of the Dr. Singer Schule - a style of magic only found in Austria.

Much more worrisome was the fourth person: A genuine techno-hacker styled guy with obvious signs of a BTL addiction. He looked at her and was smiling like a cat that has spotted the open door to the canary cage...

Anna quickly assenses the people in the room but stays silent, instinctively feeling that things may turn worse.

Wraith did his best at hiding his anxiousness: He knew that girl! This meeting with strangers had suddenly become way too personal...
He let Herr Nacl finish without interrupting him and sorted his thoughts in the meantime. What drek've you gotten yourself into, lass? And since when do you have a Samaritan caring about you? Or... pretending to care?
He eyed the silver fox carefully as the man insisted on his good intentions.

"What kind of groups are we talking about? Street gangs or more like wetwork-teams?", he asked and tried to hide his now personal interest in the job. Play it cool. Professional distance.

"Get out of here! Spell Defence now!"
bnc hates oversimplification but it's a rather bad time for explicing the Austrian Dritte Weg. bnc turns around and dives into the mass, breaking eye contact to the Singerian. With a short mental command, she actives the auto-injector, sending a blood-vectored derivant of Golden Mirror into her system. Quickly, she grabs Anna by the hand and leads her to the stairs. In the lift, they would be trapped.

They could be here for something else entirely, bnc.
So? Just lean back and wait?
No fragging way

With another mental command, she activates James and orders the autopilot to don his armor and come here at maximum speed. A last command sends her agent to check all of her gear for marks.

Anna does not understand what all the fuss is about, but as bnc is grabbing her hand and running she uses the physical contact to augment her speed. Naturally, Anna is much faster than bnc and with a dash of magic, they are roughly the same speed.

At Lake Starnberg:

Herr Nacl seemed honest enough - though Raph had to admit that he likely also had biotech pheromone glands that made his words extra convincing.
The "silver fox" smiled sadly: "Both. The group - let's call them Harvester for now - that wants what's inside her are high tech and well funded. The other group - let's call them Crusaders - have contacts in various subcultures. They have lower tech and magic, but can recruit more easily and from a larger pool of expendables.
I hope you understand that this is a race against time. My hacker contact has gotten a tipp, that a girl, fitting the description, was seen in Munich recently. You have the advantage that you possess a recent picture. The others have to work with a description.
I want you to go to Munich and find her before the others can do. I'll pay each of you 10.000€ now and 10.000€ after you deliver her safe and sound to me. Here is my contact number and the number of the hacker. Considering that you have to transport her, I also have a van ready for your use. It has a clean ID, is reasonably armored and all amenities necessary to stay away for a time from civilization if necessary."
By now a slight Vienna accent had stolen itself into the man's speech, betraying real worry and agitation.

At the BMW museum:

As could be expected, the elevator had gone already and would take a while before it returned.
Anna could see the multitudes of auras - some more damaged than others - but focused quickly on the group that bnc had indicated: The two broadshouldered guys were healthy, mundane and packed a bit of low invasive cyber or bioware. Likely improved reflexes and muscles. The mage - and nothing else could he be with such a strong, vibrant aura - was actively assensing and seemed to be on par with Anna as far as raw magic potential was concerned. As soon as she had become dual natured, the other mage had noticed her too, as they were the only once in this state around here. The emotions of the tree could be described as bored and tense.

The fourth guy, that had begun to close in on bnc, was a wreck: Drug abuse was clearly visible in his aura, bad health and cheap implants around his head and hands made him look like a wanna-be cyber zombie. Still, his aura indicated happiness and desire.

bnc had fallen back a little. Her drone gave her an estimated time of arrival of 25 minutes - an eternity in a situation like this. But at least they didn't have guns in here - right? What could they do? Grab a girl and pull her with them? In broad daylight? Her eyes found the Isetta where her package was waiting for her - it was less than 15 m from her position away...

Anna enjoys the physical exercise but is not overly concerned, and is fun to stretch her legs a bit. Grinning she says "...So there is an awakened, a mage perhaps comparable to myself. Two lightly augmented muscle and a BTL addict, their emotional state is like they were waiting for you. So an ambush perhaps, the BTL addict that is after us is different from the rest. He seems happy... We are defended by top-notch spell defense, nobody here seems to be armed and I am well... you know what I can do. Why are we running again?"

Sharkboy didn't recognize the girl. Looked pleasant enough. "Sounds sounds like this girl is very lucky to have you. Isn't just anybody who can afford that much to save one girl. So there are the Harvesters and the Crusaders, and which unnamed group do you represent? The Guardian Angels?

"And what are these Guardian Angels rules of engagement. Don't tell me they want us to place nice while protecting her from some street gangers and some Koroshi-ya?"

"It's serious. I'll explain later. If you've drawn attention anyway, summon a spirit.", bnc snaps quickly. Her expression is serious and strained, she looks troubled.
She glances at the ARO that shows her the feed of the Noizquito that observes the CCC hackers. There's no logical link yet between her assaulters and the hackers, but in a situation lilke this, anomalities should be kept in mind, just in case. They might even be allies if done well.

While moving quickly towards the chiphead (that is, away from the three and towards the lower floors), she loads her AR console and attempts to get a grip on the chiphead's drone.

At Lake Starnberg:

"Guardian is an apt enough name, though I'm not a group.
I won't tell you how to handle this, but of course I don't want the authorities getting interested in the whole situation. The less fuss the better. Do what you have to, but no more."

At the BMW museum:

The chip head only has a cheap R3 commlink active and no drones as far as bnc can see. His face is marred by acne scars, his hair shaved to a thin buzz cut, lips, eyebrows and ears are pierced with enough metal to trigger any metal detector. The prominent ports of his two datajacks look like horns on his head. He does have cyber hands - obvious cyber hands - that he keeps opening and closing as if in anticipation.

The MARK on his commlink tells her that his name is Peter Koch and that he is a delivery boy for Aldi Pizza Service. The most recent opened file on his link is an image file.

"Send us your commcode so we can get in contact when things go tits up later. I'd love to stay and chat, but we should probably leave before god wills that she gets harvested."

Sharkboy looked over to Wraith. "Unless you've got something more to say, get in the car and buckle up, buttercup."