Wraith shows a puzzled grin at first suggestion. "Austria is a quiet place... I've never heard of a rascist club hat wears shark masks.

But... I'm not sure the best way to make a racist share his xenophobia is sending an obvious foreigner."

Replying to Nova:
"Right, the tapes. That leaves four of us vacant for the security tapes - and the blogger. Guess the tapes fall in bnc's hands. I'd volunteer for the blogger, I think I can easily blend in as a student of... What's she doing, sociology, political science? I bet it's one of those.
Shark, you wanted to lay low, is that still right? Nova, where do you see yourself?"

"Given the situation and my talents, I figure that if I'm going out there, I'm going out there to cause a cluster and distract some mark from whatever gimmick you're running."

"Where do I see myself... that's a good question," Nova replied shrugging her shoulders.

"I can blend in and be fairly inconspicuous, if need be. So... backup for one of you?"

bnc points her index finger towards Nova. "I know, where I see you, hopefully. Somewhere closeby when I rape the sec cams. If anything goes south, I'd love to have some chrome arms in my vicinity.
Wraith, I think you should do the talking. You're a local, you're a man, you know German. You can have the boobs as a sidekick if you want. As an Amy she won't necessarily fall victim to his prejudices. Also, in my experience, nice people have a load less prejudices against girl they wanna slot.
Well, if we're done talking here, I'd go fuck some cams. Tingirl, you with me?"

"Actually, Anna... The more I think about it, the more I dig your 'might make me less suspicious' idea. You're right, this does sound like a job for you."


"As for that blogger, this Marisa... I'm a little worried the Harvesters might already have an eye on her. Or are at least monitoring her digital activities and further sharing of her story. Maybe it would be better to approach the student in Marisa, not the blogger. They can hardly monitor everyone she talks to.
Perhaps I can already gain her attention during lectures, establish some common ground, some talk about social or political ongoings, a witty discussion about xenophobia... Something like that might get her to share her story while being more discrete that questioning her specifically. bnc is right, let's not take the direct approach here.
What do you think?"

"And why would she look less suspicious? What do you think how the average guy pictures a shadowrunner who tries to lure infos out of you? An attractive blonde American on a mission in Germany, or ... yah, well, someone who looks like you? You don't look like someone anyone would find suspicious. But, again, you're the faces, yours the choices. I do like your approach to Marisa, however. But don't waste too much time on it. We have no clue whatsoever if this is connected to Bean Si at all. All we know is that someone got beat up by someone he held for a muslima. It could be anything and everything. So, do you thing, but don't attend seven lectures to get her used to you before you strike. We're on borrowed time."

Wraith shrugs uncertainly.
"I guess that all depends on what cards Anna - or whoever - plays. Yeah, if we wanna approach him as future booze buddy and start a homophonic cracker barrel discussion, I guess you're right, she's not the ideal type. Still, I could imagine that when approached by an obviously attractive woman, he's less on guard. I don't know.
But fact is, without decent German, one can't really blend in as a student."

He turns to Anna
"Or... How would you approach him?"

Anna replies without much thought "I'll be a prospective student, a bit worried that my level of German is insufficient to study here. I'll also show intention to study the langugae, and perhaps look for a German course or better yet - a private tutor. Perferably cute!"
Being a student, a fake studnet was something she did until very recently.

Wraith hesitates for a moment. "You speak German well enough to pass as a student? If so, that plan sounds all right to me. You're talking about the student who harassed Kerstin, not the one with the blog, right?"

By the way, a Burschenschaft is a special kind of students' network, don't know if that's clear or if there is an English equivalent. They share a building, activities and probably a common hierarchy, often very conservative and usually well-connected. Some have fencing rituals, with duels and stuff, like Thomas apparently. Pretty retro.

So... Is it settled? Let's find out their next lectures then and intercept them as soon as possible."

"Alright," Nova agreed.

"I will stay with bnc and make sure that she isn't ambushed or anything."

"If bnc is off-site, perhaps it will be better if I stay with her. That way you can go incognito and stay near Anna or Wraith and make sure they don't get into any trouble."

Anna replies "I can make conversation as long as the other person is not drunk, or speaks very fast... My vocabulary is limited. I can augment myself to understand better though. I am not sure that bnc is not a better student. I mean she understands magical theory much better than myself, and I went to university. I can make her more charming and confident if needs be. If someone assense her, she'll only look richer. I augmented rich pricks all the time in my unversity days."

"No, I'm not a fan of bnc going to public places like a university when we have plenty of other options. We don't want another incident like at the museum. Plus, the law student likely doesn't have any information that we can't get through either the security cams or the blogger - with the downside that he's less likely to share it because, well, who gladly tells a stranger 'yo, I got my ass kicked by a random chick I insulted'. I don't think he's worth the risking bnc getting exposed. Frankly, I'm not even sure he's worth the hassle of questionning him.

If you doubt your German is good enough, we should perhaps just start with the cams and the blogger and see if they yield enough clues. If you think you can do it or find another approach, then fine, we can do the blogger and the law student paralell."

I will do it... just whisper in my ear if I get stuck. I'll use a translation autosoft and augment my mind. It will be alright.

"All right! Let's get moving! Time to burn."

The Urban Lemon Chili bar turned out to be a pretty hip student hang out with sub par security. The few security cams around the place offered barely any resistance to bnc. Unfortunately, there turned out to be no records of the event. Close examination revealed, that there had been file manipulations done to the recordings, looping about an half an hour of footage.

Otherwise the place was perfectly pleasant with good food, friendly staff and clean, comfortable surroundings. The art deco gave it appearance of a Vienna coffee bar from the early 1900s.
It already began to fill with people looking for an early lunch...

Having found out Marisa's next lecture, Wraith decided to go right there to hopefully intercept her there. Before leaving, he did some thorough research on the toppic of her lecture and also asked bnc for helpful inputs. He shares both his audio and visual feed with the group.
"If you got brainy remarks, I'm glad about anything. "

He arrives at the lecture early in casual clothing, but looking as handsome as he could, and first takes a look around the surroundings to find out where the lectures, the cafeteria and other important places are. He'll also take a casual astral glance around, just in case anything is watching his target.
Wraith will try to get a seat with direct line of sight to Marisa.
At a good time for students' comments, he - seemingly spontaneously - recites a well-prepared, witty statement. Thanks to bnc's knowledge, some research and his charisma, his remarks seem intelligent and are tailored specifically to gain Marisa's attention, approval and interest. If there is an actual discussion going on between the students, he'll join the fray.

He discreetly observes her reactions and anything remarkable she says or does during the lecture, if she looks at him, he'll throw her a charming smile.
At the end of the lecture, he'll look for any opportunity to intercept her and initiate talks.

It wasn't hard at all to get to Marissa and to hit her up. She was outgoing and talkactive and immediately fell for Wraith's charm. She had augmented her ash blond hair with fiberoptic strands and winded them into fine dreads - not unlike bnc's hairstyle. She was slightly on the thin side and seemed to have a habit of biting her nails. Questioned about the incident she freely told him:
"Oh yes, that was a really cool story. My friend and I had gone to the Lemon Chilly for a beer and these dumb Burschenschaftler were quite rowdy. Brit, my friend wanted to go but I hadn't finished yet. So anyway. This guy, Thomas his friends called him, was already pretty drunk and annoyed the other patrons.
He picked on that woman - tall, completely covered by a hijab, or what those face veils are called where you can only see the eyes. She had been talking to an other man. An elf, I think, tall, blond with a super cool mowhawk and one of those urban street skater/parcour outfits, you know, those armored coveralls. He had the "Teufelskerle" logo on his back.
Anyway, those two were talking and Thomas started to call to her. First it was just cat calling, but then he got up and started to touch her and call her names.
That's when the muslima turned around - I've never seen anyone move that fast - and straight up kicked him in the face, like a really aggressive ballet dancer. Thomas flew backwards and I could actually see his teeth flying. The girl turned around and left. She didn't run but she didn't linger either. Real girl power that one - even if she let herself be oppressed by the patriarchy."

Anna kept in the van and scouted the Lemon Chilly for possible astral observers.

After approaching her, Wraith slowly steered the two towards the cafeteria, so their talk apppeared more casual and friendly. He also sprinkled some unrelated smalltalk in, so she didn't feel too questionned about that event.

Hearing Kerstin (if she was indeed Kerstin) being described as a "really aggressive ballet dancer" forced a smile on his face, that he quickly disguised as a smile of awe and amazement at her story:
"Wow, that's quite a story! Must have been amazing to witness that first hand. I envy you... why do such exciting things never happen to me?"

See only see the eyes? Yes, that's the only way to find out if it is Kerstin!
Wraith, seemingly impressed by Kerstin's 'girl power', dug further into details about the covered women, trying to get Marisa to confirm their suspect's identity:
"So that punk got what he deserved. Quite a Powerfrau indeed! Uhm... you sure she was just a regular woman - I mean, did you actually see her eyes, did they look like a norm? That strenght sound impressive, an orc perhaps? Anything could have been under that veil, after all. Even one of these anthro-drones, I hear they can move crazy fast. Or at least the trids make it look like that..."


The mention of the other man got him interested, yet he tried his best to not press her too directly about him.
"But that elf doesn't sound like much of a 'Teufelskerl' to me... I mean, I get that this chick doesn't need a protector, but this guy just stood by as his girl got assaulted and then stayed with the Burschenschaftler - or what? You sure he was with her and not just happened to sit there?"

"bnc, do surrounding cameras show a man with a 'Teufelskerle'-logo on his back? Perhaps we could check nearby parking slots and see if there's a car he walks to?"

Marissa nodded: "Well of course, I didn't want to assume her genetic expression. I only saw her eyes glittering, like those fancy contacts, but of course it could have been something else like Surge or the like."
Questioned about the other guy she said: "I think he didn't have much of a chance to help her before she took care of it herself. He just laughted, finished his drink and left as well."

bnc had her work cut out for her, looking around for a likely camera. Digging and hacking took quite some time, but finally, she managed to get one good frame of an elf with a blond mohawk. When she showed the image around the team, Anna realized that she knew the guy - rather intimately...

Once Anna sees the picture she exclaims "Mowak guy is a shadowrunner named Splinterbruch... He may still be in our safehouse. Want me to call him?" She tried as much as she could to be obscure as to HOW she knows him, not to betray any weakness.

<< How well do you know him? It seems like he is on the good side of Bean Si, which means, he might know how to get into contact with her and could arrange a meeting. But we will have to tell him about her sister. So... can we trust him? >> Nova replied.

She replies I know him since yesterday, met him at the safehouse. So I have no idea how trustworthy he is.

<< Okay. But you should contact him for sure. It is our best lead right now. We just need to figure out how to do it. Maybe we can give him a message for the 'muslim girl' or something like that? bnc, what do you think? >>

"Wraith, does she have footage? She's a blogger, after all. Maybe she's got cybereyes or any other cam always at the ready."

When Anna says she knows the guy, bnc is taken by surprise. "What? You know that guy since yesterday? Is this some weird threesome thing aga- Uhm, thinking about it I don't wanna know.
Frag, did we really just move more than a hundred km away from the person we need most mere couple hours ago? Frag and double-frag...

Call him but set up a meeting. He won't talk about anything as hot as this over a 'link. And if he does, I'ma ex him myself. The way I know you he won't be surprised if you want to see him again. Do talk with him - asap, but don't tell him what it's about on the phone. Make it look like flirting. It's not that late, maybe you can arrange to meet him tonight, even."

<< Sounds good to me. Meet first, ask questions later. >>

Anna replies "I'll just ask for a meeting, he gave me the number so it should not raise suspicion."

She texts >> @Splinterbruch... Last night was great, and I really needed that kind of attention. Many thanks! Perhaps you can meet me again today? It may be important.

@Anna>> Let us know how you're getting him to meet us. I don't want him to get dolled up for a date, only for me to scare him off.

Given the circumstances, Anna felt a bit nervous if her lover would still want to meet her the day after. She ignores Sharkboy's comment and forces herself to wait for a reply to her text. While she could technically leave the steamy encounter behind her, after SHE texted the guy the day after, her ego, and self-esteem were at stake

Splitterbruch replied: <<Hey, didn't expect to hear from you so soon. What's so important? I'm still at the Adler.>>

"Footage? I'm trying to he discrete and unsuspicious here. I really don't think asking her for footage is a good idea.", Wraith replied to bnc.
"What's to be gained by that? We already have camera footage of the guy and apparently Anna can arrange a meeting. The Harvesters can sniff Marisa out just like we did, they might ask her who questioned her about the Lemon Chili. And if I act suspicious now by asking her for fragging videos of that very incident, they know exactly what we're up to.
Let's not get cocky now - we have what we wanted, after all."

She thinks for a moment and then texts back >> I'll be in the Adler in about an hour and a half to explain. It is too sensitive for a link, I'll hint you if you insist but I'd rather that we speak in person within the relative safety and privacy of the Adler.

Splitterbruch replied quickly: <<Sure, I'll wait at the pool with a stiff drink - >>

<< So, since it seems clear, that Anna has to go back to Linz. Do we all go, or just two of us, so the rest can continue here, or follow leads immediately, if Anna gets him to talk? >> Nova asked.

"Personally, I think we can't be of much help with Anna's... Acquaintance. This is her catch, and he might be likelier to talk to her alone, than to her and her team of runners.. Perhaps one as back-up, while the rest takes to work here in Salzburg. We have a message to spread, after all.
But Anna is the one who knows him - do you want to approach him as a team, or do it solo plus back-up?
Or do you guys think we need bnc to get him to trust us?"

Wraith turned his attention back to Marisa, whom he had stalled with smalltalk while he had to focus on the discussion with the team. There was one last thing he wanted to know from her: whether anyone else had come to talk about her story before him.

Again, he did not take a direct approach: He pretended to ask another question about the Urban-Chili-incident, only to cut himself off mid-sentence. "...no, sorry, that must bore you. You probably had to tell this story a hundred times by now? I bet people gossip and then everyone wants to hear about that."

If she doesn't give a satisfying answer, Wraith will carefully press her more:
Using her assumed feminist position as a starting point, he will pretend that he bets people are questioning her just to argue how the woman overreacted and was the actual aggressor.

<<Solo plus backup at a minimum. It's someone with information on our target, working in the same city where we think she is. That's a touch suspicious. Maybe have James show up with her to give her muscle and us eyes without my gills making an appearance?

<<@Anna, what do you know that this guy can do? Would it be obvious to him that Nova is augmented or that James is a robot?>>

Anna replies "I want bnc, if Splitterbruch knows Kerstin then he may be able to do 2+2, and figure out that she is the lost sister. If I ask him about her without bnc then he has no particular reason to trust me. So many forces are trying to find her, so why be honest with me... and I am a mage, meeting a shadowrunner in a safe house which is kind of exclusive to Eve and Abdecker - acting violently is burning important contacts. So, I think we'll be fine - you are welcome to remain a short range if you feel like I am too reckless here, it is our safehouse after all... You would not raise suspicion."

<< Either Sharkboy or myself should go with you. Anna should first meet the guy alone, but the others should stay nearby. That would leave Wraith and the other one of us two to stay here and do some more research in the meantime... >>

<<If the meet is at the Adler, I should be the one to go as backup. You won't stand out on a college campus as much, if someone needs to rescue Wraith from his date.>>

Anna replies "he is well augmented, and has some martial art training. At the Adler it does not matter... everyone are shafowrunneres anyhow" she replies with a thought.

Marissa shrugged: "No, not really, it's really cool that you read my blog though."
She smiled at Wraith: "Do you want to get a coffee later?"

"Aight, then I'll stay here. I could start spreading the "Twisted Sister" tonight. Nova, you're with me, then? Guess it's time to take that shiny new bike out for a cruise."

Spraying graffiti had to wait until it was dark - that meant he saw no problem with having coffee with Marissa. "Yeah, I'd love to go for coffee.", he replied with a charming smile. After all, a blogger was a useful person to know, and going for a coffee with her would only help conceal his real interest in her stories. So it was only professional to accept her offer - or at least that was what he told himself.

But there were other plans to settle first. "Thing is, uh, I got... a paper to submit, so I'm pretty busy at the moment. Can I call you later this afternoon?"

<< Yes, I will stay in Salzburg as well. >>

Marisa replied with a smile: "Yeah, sure, I've got to go to my next class anyway. See you."
With that, Wraith was free once again to go about his business.

The drive back to Linz proved to be no trouble - and true to his word, Splitterbruch waited at the pool.
"Hey there, couldn't wait to see me again?" He smiled mischievously, confirming to Anna, that he was indeed the man from the bar.

Anna approached the man and leaned lower, to give her lover a brief but passionate kiss. "Indeed, waiting is hard for me." she replies to the man's assertion. She seats near the pool, and gesture at bnc "bnc, meet Splinterbruch, Splinterbruch meet bnc. I am helping my friend bnc
in finding her long lost sister. Long story, and I am not sure that I can tell it all right here at the pool, but doing our own legwork we discovered that you may be affiliated with her sister. So, naturally we wanted your help. Are you comfortable in talking here, or shall we move to someplace more private?"

she asks.

Splitterbruch squinted at bnc: "Your sister? Who are we talking about here? And why do you think I know her?" He turned back to Anna: "Here's fine. No other runners or guests are currently here."

Bevor bnc enters with Anna und Sharkboy, she carefully checks the surroundings: She meticulously searches the area for sensors, both in the matrix and the meat world. Once this is settled, she secures the area as good as she can with her three Noizquitos and lets James wait in the changing room. Only then, she doesn't stall the team any longer and enters to meat Splitterbruch.

bnc offers her hand to shake, but she's clearly insecure. She's never talked to a shadowrunner who wasn't in her team before, and though it's stupid, it somewhat frightens her. She never regarded her comrades with all their mistakes and failures as real shadowrunners, but this is somewhat different. Talking to people never was her strength - but talking to a half-naked shadowrunner only wearing a bikini (assuming they don't go to the pool in armor) did it for her. She self-consciously wrapped a towel all over her skeletal body, covering her ruined, pale skin that stretches over protruding ribs. A quick glance at Anna and her perfect womanly bikini figure made her even more uneasy. She felt like her antithesis, a woman so deprived of womanly features that there's nothing left but a mind caught in a prison cell of blood vessels, bones and organs.

That's why when she offers her hand, it trembles slightly, and feels cold and clammy like a dead fish. All she manages is to avoid a nervously stammered "uhm" before she answers in kind of a firm voice: "Yes, my sister. You may have met her in Salzburg..."
She then glances at Anna, indicating her wish that she continue the conversation.

Anna seats legs in the water and talks to Splitterbruch that stands in the water holding a drink. "So her sister is professionally named Bean Si.
She looks at Splitterbruch for any sign of recognition but will continue trying to establish some trust and honesty as she speaks. We chanced upon this story when bnc was assulted by some random assholes at the BMW museum. She just looked kind of like the description they had. Long story short, we gradually learned that the assholes were after her sister - Bean Si. Which is on the run from at least two groups of very determined people, and to make matters worse is also very sick.
Now, you must be wondering why am I telling you this when only yesterday I avoided talking about anything work related?

she pauses for a moment My genius friends placed you talking to a Muslim dressed woman which we believe is the lost Bean Si at some student place." She looked at the runner, in expectation that he would continue the talk, and tell his side of the story.

Upon leaving the university, Wraith first had a look at the flat that Elizia had rented for them and its surroundings.
He chimed Nova to discuss their further proceedings:
"So... I'd say we wait if the others get any results from this runner, and unless they come up with something really promising, we start with the graffiti tonight, hm?"