While browsing the available information, bnc finds a lead that fits the profile Anna sketched: Melinda de la Noir, self professed demon princess started her career in hermetic magic at Heidelberg University, but broke that off and instead joined the Hellfire Coven. Her main achievements so far are three marriages to rich old guys who a short while later died of natural causes. Despite their best efforts, Police never could pin those deaths on her. Although there are no official information, rumors put her in direct line of succession to Koselbruch.

Once bnc has dug out some intel, she shares it with the group.

<@team <well dun anna u dug out sum viable lead. ill try to track her. u move to ur meet. guess its abt time>>

And so bnc does try to pin the woman's location as good as she can.

When Anna hears the news she smiles, a bit bitterly "I'll never have a Yael SIN, few people name their girls after biblical women". Anna felt strange, ironic even as she always imagined it to belong to some pale blonde chick, whereas she had a mixed heritage which was clearly not European. The name grew up on her when she started doing these crazy exciting things to survive.

>> Good thing I dyed my hair brown. she comments absently (brown is her natural hair color). asking (also in the matrix) "Do we need to see the third place?

It took bnc only a minute to find out the commcode of de la Noir. From that it was just a matter of finding the device on the matrix. To bnc's delight the link was online - a respectable Hermes of the second generation (DR 5, all relevant attributes at 5).

<@team <grrls i found the bitch>>

From the commlink number it was only a small step to the location: According to the tracking, de la Noir was currently at a holiday bungalow four km north of the team's position.

Grinning, bnc forwards the location to the team.
<@team <1 step closr 2 the bonus. ill go scouting while u talk to them parents>>

>> Alright, just don't alert her.

<@team <good u mention that i almost forgot>>

bnc moves James into the direction but lets him rest in about 1 km distance. The Munin drone, however, she steers to the house.

The rest of the team got on their way to meet the parents of the dwarf girl. It didn't take long to find the parking lot of the small office building, where the two worked.
On the dot, the two - a red headed male with a full beard and a blue jumpsuite and his wife, a cute, blond that under normal circumstances would have looked quite stunning if not for the dark circles and worry lines all over her face.
The man spoke up: "So, what is this all about?"

Meanwhile, bnc's drone had found the right address. The bungalow sat flush with the hill to its back, but had a Rover in the in front of the garage that fit the wheel profile.
All drapes on the one story, four rooms, kitchen, bath building were closed, likewise doors and windows.
The Rover was offline, but bnc could detect another two commlinks of the same make in the vicinity - otherwise there didn't seem to be any occupants within a 100m radius.

Nova walked up to the two and told them straight up what they had told the other parents as well. "It's about your daughter. We know, she went missing and we strongly believe, that her disappearance is related to a case we work on. We are not with the police, we are private investigators. We might be able to find her, but we need your cooperation. I don't know how your stance on magic is, but we would like to use ritual magic to get a lead on her location, hopefully leading us further to the people we are after, if our suspicions prove right. Would you help us with this?"

The two dwarves looked at each other, than the man nodded: "At this point, we'd even pay our souls to the devil if that would bring our kid back.
Would a lock of her hair work for you?"
He went to a small truck full of cleaning supplies and came back with a daintly little book. Inside the parfumed pages, someone had written in beautiful cursive poems and collected scraps and pictures. One of the first pages contained a baby photo and a lock of blond hair.
Carefully, he removed a few strands from the adhesive and put them into a clear plastic bag.
"The police also asked us for samples. Do you need anything else?"

Anna allows Nova to do the talking, and assenses the surrounding.

She then adds "an up to date picture would help, and if she has any technology on her, even if it is not online our technology person may find a way to exploit it."

"Thank you! I know this must be hard on you. We will contact you, if we learn anything."

For some reason, that police part made Nova suspicious.

"Sir, when did the police come by to ask for the samples? And do you recall the name of the police officer? A description might be helpful, too."

<< Don't you also think that it is odd for the police to ask for such samples? They are not going to use ritual magic, or are they? And if so, why did they not get any results? Maybe they just needed DNA samples, but that seems a little early. bnc, you had the police report, right? Does it say anything about that? >>

"Yes, I have the entire file. That didn't contain anything of the sort. Also, they put so little effort in the case, I'd be very surprised if they would bring up the resources necessary for ritual magic. Ask for photos, if they can. If not, the specific date und time. I might find satellite photos, traffic sensors or anything of the kind."

While the drones move, bnc also digs deeper into the commlink.

The dwarf said: "Just yesterday. It was a... His eyes turned a bit glassy as he tried to remember. You know, I never actually looked at his badge, silly me. I can remember that I wanted to, but somehow I got distracted.
Anyway, yes, I'll send you a current photo to your link, Mrs...?"

"Ivanova, sir. Irina Ivanova."

<< Anna, did you see that? Can you discern, whether someone tampered with his memory or something? >>

"Can you tell me exactly, when he was here, yesterday? Or maybe we can take a look at your work schedule from yesterday, to figure it out. I really doubt that one was an actual police officer. That is not standard police procedure. They do not take these kinds of situations as serious as they should."

>> I can try... If they are good they'll be no signature by now though.

she looks for astral signatures, or signs of magic, as well as assense the parents for general impression.

"Just this afternoon - it's why I still have the book with me. A tall man, muscular, heavy set. Wore hiking boots. Full beard, black hairs and large sunglasses."
The dwarf answered.

<< Alright, what is wrong with him? First it's yesterday, now it's this afternoon? Call me paranoid, but at this point, I think that the locks in the book might even be fake. >>

Anna took a look on the astral - and yes, there was the faintest trace of a spell - manipulation, she was certain. Someone had messed with this man's mind alright. And it had a similar tang to the ritual too, so likely came from the same tradition.

bnc had good reason to curse: Both attempts to turn on the microphone and camera had been beaten back by the firewall - causing it to put two MARKs on her - or rather her persona.
A reboot was in order to sift through the material she just copied to her link.

Her flying drone was close enough to a window to hear the cry: "My link says it just was targeted by a hacker. They are on to us. We have to move now."
The icon vanished from the matrix, as the link rebooted.

Anna responds >> It is the ritual leader, she cast a manipulation spell, and if the signature is still here it was today.

She bids her goodbye to the confused parents, and then on the way back responds "It seems that we are no the only ones looking for the girls."

"Thank you, sir. You were a great help. We will contact you as soon as we learn anything substantial."

With that, Nova bid her farewell and left together with the rest.

Taurus, once away from the house will try to raise bnc on comms. Can't just go dark like that, we need to know what is going on.

He races to his ride, hoping he can get to whatever site she had been doing recon at.

bnc curses under her breath when she got caught. Before shutting down her device, she voices a short message:
"Frag I was caught. Get here asap, they're fleeing"

Once her deck is rebooted, she immediately sends an order to James to run towards the house. "Sorry, I messed this up. I'll stall them as good as I can."

While James - tuned to run superhumanly fast through difficult terrain - is on the way, bnc quickly casts a glance at the files she just grabbed.

<< Crap! I'm on my way. >>

Since she was already heading to the cycle, Nova now picked up her speed. She checked the logs during the drive to get the location bnc sent them earlier.

bnc's spy drone registered how three people exited the bungalow. Two large, broadshouldered man and petite looking women with raven black, short hair. One of the large guys carried a girl, wrapped liberally with tape like a living mummy over his shoulder. Despite their haste, they still took two trips to bring out bags of equippment to the car, before getting in it

Glancing at the captured information confirmed that the three had ambushed and kidnapped the two missing girls, yet there was no sign of the dwarf girl being carried outside.

Jumped into James, bnc does the exact thing she bought this highly versatile anthro-drone for: running, jumping, climbing through the forest at breakneck speed.

Anna curses and goes on pursuit, taking the cross country riding which is more exciting and augmenting herself with magic.

Nova took the off-road route, since time was of the essence here.

James naturally was the first to reach the scene - just as the Rover drove off the property towards the road. At the moment it was slow enough that he could reach it effortlessly - but what then?
While Anna dove into the wilderness with her monocycle and deftly avoided any obstacles while her smart tires adapted to the ground for maximum grip, Nova had a lot more difficulties navigating after her, soon losing sight to her chummer.

The cabal had obviously heard of hacking protocols because all their equipment, including the pilot, were offline.

Cursing under her breath, bnc jogs after the car, also setting the Munin in motion.

With James and the flying drone shadowing the car, Anna soon came into line of sight of the Rover. The car was driving hard on but not above the local speed limit, heading across the rural roads and then into heavily forrested area. Soon they would have to close in on the car and get noticed or risk losing contact.

Before engaging, Anna casts the invisibility spell to make her disappear from sight.


She looks around, seeing that Nova is left behind and texts >> bnc, I have visual of the car - but Nova could not follow me, can you reliably track them? I could try with magic but they are three mages so are likely to discover a spirit lurking, or something of that sort.

@team "I got a surveillance drone flying. I don't know how long I can keep up with the speed but for the moment I have them locked. Since they don't have any gear online, I don't see how they'd find out about the drone. But be aware that the car is going considerably faster than my drone."

Just to be sure, bnc instructs her agents to constantly check for any silently running icons inside the or in the vicinity of the car.

>>I'll keep eye contact for them as a backup for the drone, but would not engage or provoke them. Nova, Taurus try to catch up.

Before too long, the rover had to slow down as the road got too bad. They were now significantly closer to the abandoned vacation village. By now the trees stood too dense to get a visual on the car from the air. For the moment it didn't look like they were moving again, neither did any icons come online. Being invisible, Anna was able to get close enough to see the car. It appeared that no-one had come out.

Anna instructs her bound spirit Sophie (F6 spirit of man) to watch the astral, and notify her if there are any active spells/traces or if the occupants of the car try to leave the car. Other than that she tries to remain out of sight, and does not engage.

>>I think they'll go to the vacation village. -- perhaps they are waiting here under the cover of woods to see if they were discovered.

Since the off-road tour was gowing a bit slow for her, Nova figured, that she would just head back to their place and get her gear, since things would start to get serious possibly a bit sooner than expected.

<< Guys, don't do anything stupid. I am taking a detour, need to get some more gear before we go after them. We have proof now, that our suspicions were right and the girls are the key. They only seem to have the one, correct? Which means, they probably still need the other. They were looking for her, probably today. >>

The spirit noticed that a spirit of man of a little less then equal strength to himself was now sitting outside the car, hidden on the mundane, but materialized. It gave no sign that it had spotted the invisible Anna.

Once the chase is set, bnc hides James in proximity to the abandoned vacation village, then rests back to read through the files she captured.

Soon, Nova reaches the scene - now kitted out with heavy gear. Still, no-one has left the Rover as the clock steadily moves towards midnight.

Anna is relaxed when Nova arrives, she texts >>Still no movement from the car, what are they doing in there? bnc, are there any eyes on the house shortly after the car left might be worth a visit there.

<< How long are they in there now? And shouldn't we get the samples back, so the old lady can start working on finding the other girl? >>

>>They haven't left since they stopped here (20 minutes), care if I sneak inside? I think car may be a decoy. We can return the hair as well ofcourse.

"all right, but be careful, especially on the astral. We know one is a spellcaster for sure, and the others are likely ones, too. Be aware of spirits. We're closeby and they have no way to use or interfere with the matrix. Share your feed, so we can see with your eyes. If you can comment subvocally, do that. Your perceptive skills are extraordinary."

>> Nova, look for me, and just so you know there is a spirit of Man guarding the car so one of them is
a summoner - and providing the trio participated in ritual magic - I'll assume a full mage.

Anna prepares herself with a spell that she casts out of sight, she scubs the residue and then instructs her spirit to protect her body while she is gone. She moves ver carefully, using the cover of trees, and the natural human tendency to observe the astral from familiar prespectives. She attempts to sneak past the spirit and peek inside the car.

Using the verdant lush environments to conceal her own aura, Anna made her way towards the far side of the rover, where she had spotted a tiny crack in the windows, letting in air. Close enough to the car, she could make out only the top of the hostile spirits aura, but she was both quiet and sneaky enough not to draw its attention.

Looking through the crack, Anna could spot the woman an one of the men. The other she could hear but not see from her position:

The woman spoke in a whisper: "This delay is unacceptable. That way we'll never get ready before midnight."
"Relax. We still got the other one and we now know how much reagents we need to pull off the sacrifice. We can do this without backup."
"Silence you fool. We got burned badly enough the first two times. And we do not know how much the dwarf girl might have heard before escaping."
"If you'd have let me throw another fireball..."
"Idiot, do you want the whole area to go up in flames? You could have just as well advertised where we were then. The police is likely looking for us already."
The unseen speaker chimed in:
"I don't think so. From what the dwarf spilled, they aren't really interested in finding dwarfs and humans around here. I have the hair here, we could track her down right now..."
"No. We have to conserve our strength for the main ritual. We are hurt as it is. I have Magog searching for her. Once he finds her, he can bring her back or eliminate her."