Eliza replied:
<<He can be haggled, but he famously has a temper. If he feels insulted he might kick you out without hesitation.>>

The Rabbi replied: "Mounting in the sense of adding a weapon mount, no, not on short notice. Single shot reloads are notoriously complicated.
But your anthro drone has hands and I have the right autosoft."

"Thank you! Then we will take the whole lot, sans the drone, but with the crossbow for our drone, of course," Nova replied. There was no point to haggle here and potentially make things worse. Getting everything on such short notice was certainly a great service.

"Too bad. Yeah, let's take the soft. No more than rating 4, though, as I haven't upped James's OS yet. Thanks and stuff.
Unless..."

bnc switches the speech canal.

@Elliza "Would you be able to get me a rating 6 pilot on short notice? Would improve James' hitting power by far."

Eliza replied: <<Not on short notice. That kind of gear is military grade. But I can certainly give it a go with my contacts.>>

The Rabbi replied: "Very well. Leave your credstick here. You can fetch your gear at this address in an hours time. The software you can have directly"

"Then you have yourself a deal. Nice doing business with you."

Nova coordinated the payment, so they left only one credstick with the full sum.

Before the deal is closed, bnc makes clear that Nova doesn't purchase the autosoft needlessly, then she answers Eliza.

@Eliza "I'm aware that it's military grade, so I'm actually happy if I can my hands on it at all. Personally, I'd have no clue how to get such a high-rating pilot. If you somehow miraculously could get it before we attack the vampires, it would certainly help, but I know that's kind of impossible, and I also don't think it's high priority. I was just thinking, you know, sometimes strange coincidences happen and the right offer just happens to arrive at the right time or so."

@Team "I guess we shook off the police and other followers. Are we going to meet up at the hut?"

Eliza replied: <<I would indeed not hold my breath.>>

The Rabbi concluded the deal and checked the balance on the sticks.
"Good. Anything else? Otherwise you go now. There are other people interested in my service."

"Actually there is." Taurus prepared himself for a bad reaction, but continued, "Can you tell us anything about the Lovci Stínů? We are concerned that we may be working at cross purposes with them, and we may have already had encounters with them that didn't exactly go well."

At the hut, somewhat earlier

bnc takes the cookie graciously. "Oh, wow, thanks, uh, ma'am? Very much appreciated."
bnc rolls her arms. Too much sitting. Before soon, she'd need painkillers if she didn't workout more. "Yah, well ... let's say, shadowrunners are notoriously lonesome wolves, which makes it kinda hard working in a team. How do you do it? I mean, you seam like a planner. You don't just simply weave through the flow, but you coordinate and arrange. How do you work with people who ... yeah, you get me."

"Usually, people stop complaining once I've turned them into a frog... for a time. And no, I'm not good at it. I've spend a very long time becoming who I am by doing things my own way. Once you have the power, people fall in line - usually. There are exeptions of course.
Now eat. The way you are abusing your body is concerning. You are wasteful in your care for your single most important ressource. And I should know. I made the same mistake in my youth - and I'm paying in my age now."

Muhme fell silent again and returned to study the hologram of the leylines.


The Rabbi narrowed his eyes: "Yes. I have heard about that incident. You did not make any friends there. Being a Hunter of Shadows in this city is a lucrative but also very dangerous profession. I am selling to you only, because a contact vouched for your contact. And business is business.
Since you didn't kill anyone of them and let them go again, it is unlikely that they are gunning for you. They have bigger problems after all.
For a price I can deliver a message to them - or at least some of them. Is there anything you want to tell them?"

"How about this? We would like to apologize for the commotion we caused through our actions and lack of knowledge of the local conventions, and we would appreciate if there was a way to pull on the same rope together instead of tying each other up with it. We do have the same goal, after all."

The Rabbi nodded. "That message I'll pass on for free."

before they reach the Rabbi


bnc bites into the cookie. "The single most important resource is my brain. It's only a matter of time since science liberates me from the necessity of ... that", she says with disgust in her voice, accompanied by a double-handed motion indicating she's talking about her body, "but thanks for the advice that, in the end, you too believe it's just about who's the better bully." At this, it's not so much anger but resignation and/or disappointment, that shows through. She loves the cookie, though, and munches away.

during the meeting
@Nova <nicely dun>>

Nova gave the Rabbi their contact info to pass along with the note.

"Thank you and have a nice day! Pleasure doing business with you."

"Don't be so quick to write of your body. It's an amazing machine and still unmatched by any machine. Still, no matter of mine as long as you can perform your part of this mission."
Muhme replied with a tone that made clear she thought bnc was too young to understand.

The rest of the team meanwhile found themselves outside again and the delicious smell of several restaurants reminded them that it was past noon and they hadn't eaten yet. The delivery was supposed to arrive in an hour in a warehouse in the south of the city. Plenty enough time to get there.

Something prevents bnc from snapping back. Instead, she took Muhme's response as a dismissal. She was her boss, after all.
"Right. Whatever. Thanks for the cookie, Mrs. Johnson." What a weird, weird thing to say.

bnc goes somewhere where Muhme can't see her - the bathroom, most likely, to do some basic training. Before too long, however, she grows frustrated, and instead has the food machine print her some pasta. Not quite food, but that's a thing she doesn't really care about. With that, she sits crosslegged in her seat, nodding to Muhme if she makes eye-contact, and turns on AR to see what has happened in the meantime, join the Rabbi deal, and catch up with local news.

Once she's finished her pasta, she breaks into the gallery again.

Having been in the host before, it was no problem for bnc to find the archive for the camera footage - at least those that weren't archived yet - it reached back to the beginning of the month.

Before downloading the file, she checks for data bombs and/or encryption.

Nothing secures the files.

How odd. And convenient.
bnc downloads the file and reboots her deck, then fast-forwards through the recordings to find the moment when the statue was brought in.

The convenience relativized itself soon, as the statue was apparently installed before the start of the month. Looking on the matrix information page, the exhibition object with the name "The Hunger" had been donated to the gallery at the end of march from a sponsor. The creator was apparently a woman from Seattle, called Andrea McLaughlin.

Yeah, that didn't come too unexpected, did it?

bnc shares the info with the team, then does some research on Andrea McLaughlin.

Not too much is on the matrix about the reclusive artist, but from what bnc can figure out, she was a very productive outsider artist until she was apparently murdered by a runner team in Chicago about 30 years ago. Since then her artwork has gone up in price. The statue is valued at 50k€.
About the buyer and donor, bnc found nothing. Though there is a press photo of the director of the art gallery receiving the statue, displaying her name: Katya Czerniak.

Czerniak is a middle aged woman with good connections to the government. She has not had any significant scandals, but was critizised for quite a few decisions that quite a few journalists suspect, were either due to bribery or cronyism, to curry favor with powerful people. Putting up the statue is mentioned as one of those examples.
Her address is listed in the not particularly secure host.

bnc forwards the info and the address to her team.

"Anna, you said something about you wanting to find out about the origin of the statue. There's your lead. I don't really know where this should bring us, but if you wanna break in and fight out yourself, there you go. It's our only lead to find the vampires before they find us, anyway."

Anna paused for a bit, and looked away "I can go check it out. she says.
She walks to her bike, trying to see who will join her.

"Well, it's not like we have anything better to do at the moment, right? Except, getting our gear, of course. We might want to do that first."

Nova went to her bike as well, putting on a backpack with the broken-down Ares Alpha and some ammo in a briefcase inside, and room to spare for the ordered items.

After an uneventful collection, the team found themselves in front of the building the art gallery director was supposed to live. It was a modern high rise with a lobby and a doorman - a well dressed dwarf that looked as broad as he was tall. A facility host ran the building at a moderate R5 (A6S5D8F7), AROs warning potential intruders that the building was under contract with the local premium police force as well as being staffed with a security team and defense drones. All in all one of the more safer neighborhoods, but far from perfectly safe.

As the team looked on, they noticed a drone hovering somewhat suspiciously across a flat - which according to the address belonged to the director.
Could it be, that someone else was also surveiling the director?

If they all come together, James'll tag along.



Once they spot the drone, bnc analyzes it more thouroughly.
What kind of drone is it?

bnc identified the drone as a HORIZON CU^3, a a simple single fan, vectored thrust drone with a sophisticated sensor array, normaly used for news footage. It was slaved to a Proteus Poseidon Command Console within 100m. It currently was running silent and recording/streaming to the console - apparently using radar. As a slaved device, it's firewall was at a respectable rating 6. No-one seemed to be jumped in at the moment and therefore the R4 auto pilot was in charge.

Anna asks Taurus to look out for her, and then projects into the apartment. She checks if there is astral surveillance, and if it is warded. If she finds no noticeable astral security she tries to sneak in.

Anna made her way into the astral. There was a low level ward around the building - wage mage stuff, barely worth the hassle, but likely advertised as "Top notch astral security" to the mundane renters.



There ware no spirits or watchers around - outside. But as she slipped into the building, she became aware of a rather bad astral "smell". The director was at home it seemed. Emotions littered the whole place - mainly despair and fear. What she could make out from the mundane side, looked messy and filthy. Empty cartons lay around, half eaten meals, dead plants and creeping mold on the walls. And in all this, the director sat, rigidly, staring into empty space, not moving a muscle. Her aura showed huge chunks of essence missing, but no corresponding cyberware. And spells. A layer of three, quickened.

bnc testively tried to get hold of the drone.



"The rigger's who's controlling the drone is right here. I think I can pin him down."

bnc got her MARK on the drone and the Rigger. At the moment there was no persona formed on the Command Console.

Anna takes a look at the spells, and then carefully makes her way back.

The sight deeply effects the young mage, in principles vampires are just sick people to her, but a person that does THAT to another human being true a monster. The young woman reported, suppressing her own emotions as she spoke.
"Director is there staring at the dark and feeling terrified and desperate. She has massive essence loss and no augmentation, and it has been like that for a while because the level of neglect in her apartment. She has three quickened spells on what is left of her aura."


Then she took a few deep breaths trying to relax.

"Should we knock?"

"Give me a couple seconds to work"
Before the team enters, bnc tracks down the RCC's physical location, indicates to her teammates and sends her Munin that way.

"I can loop the drone's camera but don't dally. Every second I have to edit you out of the stream is a second the spider can notice I'm messing with his stuff. Go for it, tigers. James stays outside this time."

"Well, at least it does not sound like someone who has been working with the vampires out of her own free will. Maybe we can get her to talk and find out more," Nova suggested.

"Can you say more about the spells? What is their purpose? Quickened means like permanent, right? Is she a mage and has cast those herself, or has someone else put them on her?"

Anna found the background count elevated but not too much for her to deal with it:
The first was a health spell - likely something impairing her willpower
The second was controlling her thoughts
The third was a kind of telepathic connection to whoever had cast these spells.

bnc found the source of the signal down the street, corellating with a GMC Bulldog parked along side the curb.

As before, the doorman inside the building kept watch for any unwanted intruders - just as the building's sensor network which was obviously separate from the drone spying through the wall.

"Mind control. First spell reduces resistance, second conrolls her thoughts, and the third allows for a telepathic connection, to control her remotely."

"Is it a good idea to tamper with this, then? Obviously, whoever put those spells there, will find out if we do. And then figure out, that someone is on their trail with that statue. I don't know. This seems proof enough to me, that it is there for the ritual."

"Sweetmeat, could you go check out the Bulldog I marked? Who's in there? Astral analysis would be wiz."

Anna agrees "I did not dispel these spells for that particular reason." she takes another deep breath still horrified by such a long applicability of mind control at its cruelest form. Her voice breaks when she speaks "They use her own thoughts against her, and her primal self is left inside terrified and helpless... Even as they feed on her, she is in there and cannot even cry."

She closes her eyes and says "Sure thing babe" it was a good opportunity to not feel so vulnerable in front of everyone. She smiles despite herself as the sensation of being separated from her body becomes unbearable brief moment before she no longer feels her meat body, and its stupid urge to cry or hug something. Shouldn't professional criminals be tough, and ice cold or something like that?
Anna feels a combination of being pathetic for caring so much, or cowardice for being intimidated so much by such a cynicism and unrestricted use of mind control. Ever since Flatline that spent his entire life caring for people became a murderer under that terrible spell... The mere thoughts of mind control terrify her. The sight was horrifying, and so were the consequences... He gutted a helpless teammate with the precision of a surgent while she was jumped inside her drone. As helpless as herself at that very moment or as bnc is most of the time. It can never happen again... These monsters must be stopped! This game is not fun anymore when people start dying.


She thinks, and then moves to the Bulldog focusing on not getting seen, and on being alert to astral viewers. The distance does give her some stability, and control. Apparently the body provides feedback that fuels her emotions, and the astral distance makes her emotions different - they do not escalate as quickly as her sobbing body and traumatized soul do.

"Once we have taken care of the ritual, we should head back here and free her from this ordeal. But right now, as much as we all hate to leave her like this, it is simply not a good idea and will only endanger everything we are trying to accomplish."