Blue feels the wind spirit dissolve away in the dawn light, and with the spirit goes the strong embrace of Owl. Still there, as Owl always is, but much harder to reach. Daytime weakness and weariness settle onto Blue's mind.

+++ Now that I've bolted the nightly grind, I wonder whether a nomadic life would work. It's summertime with long days here, but the opposite in Australia, and large parts of South America, Africa and Asia. I've never been to any of those places. I have some money, now. I wonder if Karmakaze likes to travel. +++

Karmakaze uses voice-to-text through the car's wireless connection. """Just closed a case. I will be around tonight, unless you need to meet sooner."""

The response comes fairly soon:

"""Get some sleep, and we can catch up this afternoon. 4PM at the Kafkart outside the West Olive precinct, I'll fill you in. It's investigation, but politically tricky."""

Back at Blue's place, he helps Karmakaze find the best place, maybe behind the bar, to park her car so that it isn't readily seen by a searcher. As they walk to his entrance, Blue takes note of any sign on the outside of where the former back door to his abode had been closed up. Sweez helped him find the inside of that reno. Who knows, maybe a well placed Powerbolt might be needed to effect a quick getaway.

Inside, he puts out such food as he can find in the fridge. He makes as good a bed for Karmakaze of the couch as he can. """ If we have a meet at 4 pm, we better get to sleep right away. I'll forego spending some hours putting up a ward now, but I will summon my buddy Sweez to conduct overwatch. """



The summoning is a bit taxing on Blue, but fortunately his plan is to go to sleep as soon as possible. He asks Sweez to watch over the two of them this night, warning him if any astral or metahuman presence comes in. +++ Please let there not be some random mote of astral bacteria to set Sweez off. +++ He sets his personal assistant to wake him in time to leave for the meet.

OOC: Deleted post. Wrong thread.

The former back door looks entirely unmolested, give or take inappropriate drunken urinations. Sweez looks as spaced-out as ever, if a little twitchy, but readily complies with Blue's request for watching. He pops a couple of pills, and announces his readiness with a twitchy, feral grin - whether this has any bearing on the reality of spiritual existence Blue can hardly say, but it is unnerving.

+++ OK, Sweez, thanks for the service. Some time soon I'd like to sit down and have a chat with you. Time now for some sleep. +++

"""We have spiritual overwatch, Karmakaze. It drained me a bit, so I'm glad I'm headed to bed. """ He grabs a bite to eat. """ Help yourself. I've set my alarm to wake me in time to go to our meet. G'night."""

Blue hasn't even finished explaining and Karmakaze is fast asleep. It was a long day and a longer night, but overall a good one. Closed out two jobs, collected two paydays, and already has a meet planned. Maybe shadowruns do pay.

The two sleep well enough, despite the growing rumble of traffic outside as the day progresses.

Karmakaze wakes up first, and nearly whacks her head on the low ceiling before remembering where she is. Trust a dwarf to take an apartment with a ceiling lower than a hooker's bustline.

Her 'link doesn't tell her much that's new.

<<<URBAN RENEWAL SUCCESS WILL SWAY NEXT ELECTION>>>

<<<CRYSTAL HARMONIC TEMPLE PROPOSED>>>

<<<BIDDING WAR BETWEEN LONESTAR AND KNIGHT-ERRANT>>>

<<<CYBERVULVA MAKER PERFECTWOMAN™ ANNOUNCES NEW LINE>>>

Blue wakes to the sound of Karmakaze moving about. His head is clear, though a few more hours of sleep would not have hurt. He turns of the alarm. +++ I'm up now. Huh. +++

""" Good Morning. Well, afternoon, actually. Let's grab something to eat. Who knows when the next meal will come. """ Blue exhibits a hearty appetite, and lays out food for Karmakaze, too.

"""Thank you,""" she says in response to the offer.

Normally dwellings with low ceilings like this are uncomfortable for someone as tall as Karmakaze, but after the eventful night, the space feels more like armor than restriction.

"""I was looking for your coffee. I would even not so regretfully settle for soykaf right now."""

""" Well, I had coffee at my home, but since I went on the lam, I haven't had the chance to find some of the good stuff. Not like I can go back to my usual supplier, eh? Soykaf it is, I'm afraid. """

By the time the wreckage of the repast is cleaned up, it's well after noon and both can distantly hear the sounds of the
staff of BrainLaser getting things ready for the evening's business. Outside traffic rumbles in the usual way of a late afternoon, and it's time to get moving.

Once things are cleaned up in the kitchen, Blue thanks Sweez for his service. ::: Great work Sweez. We had a nice quiet sleep. We'll be heading out soon, so you will be able to have a good rest as well. :::

To Karmakaze, he says, """ We've worn these clothes for a few days now. Once nightfall comes, and magic is easier for me, I can spruce up the two of us. Clean clothes, brushed teeth, clean hair, that sort of thing. If you feel the need for it now, before our meet with your contact, I can do it now, but the results won't be as good. After the meet, if we accept the job and it requires different clothing, I can manage that as well, changing what we have on to suit. """

He smiles at the pun. """ Heh. To suit. """

"""You can do that!? I can wait until after the meet. Well maybe I can at least pick up a new shirt and some toiletries at the local Kong-Wal."""

Karmakaze's ex-colleague is unlikely to be much fazed by a little scruff, given the circumstances, and the area isn't the nicest of the downtown areas, so the minute details of personal grooming mightn't be the most vital. That said, it's a good idea not to look like indigent vagrants.

Blue nods at Karmakaze's decision. """ Well, I feel like Drek. My clothes and I need a once over, if nothing else to make me feel a little better. And If the increased trouble of casting a spell in the daytime hits me, I can rest up in the drive over. This spell is called Makeover. """



Blue's bedhead clears up, and a few creases return in his clothing. His hat is a little less floppy, and some of the city's dirt falls off his coat. """ Well, not too stylish, and not my best work, but I avoided Drain, so I'll leave it at this for now. My teeth feel a little cleaner, and my underwear is not quite so stiff. I really do need to buy some clothes, too. That's a good idea, Karmakaze. """

Karmakaze, impressed, """You clean up nice. And quickly!"""

They gather their things and exit the safe house. Karma leads, scanning the area. With the Jeremy and the Huang thing cleared up, and the Pets and Polis contract closed, she isn't expecting any trouble. However, there is always Lone Star, random people in the sprawl you may have pissed off, and there is still the business with the little girl.


The drive to Kong-Wal is easy enough. The place is packed with a diverse group of hoodlums and wage slaves. Karma grabs a travel toiletry kit, small bottles of dry shampoo and leave-in conditioner, along with a clean t-shirt and casual button up.

"""That's everything... wait,""" she tells Blue. """We should pick up some other tools while we are here."""

They head to the home improvement and auto sections, picking up zip-ties, duct tape, shop towels, first aid kit.

"""Just in case we have another long night."""

Lastly she adds a flat of bottled waters and some boxes of granola bars, protein bars, and some other dried foods. The real prize is a small package of real 95% coffee. She breathes in the scent, closing her eyes for a second.

"""Nothing like it! I don't know where I am going to make it, but it's not a bad item to have. I think that should do it. Anything else you think we should pick up?"""

Blue, meanwhile, had picked up some clothing: underwear, socks, sensible shoes, pants, shirts and a couple of coats, as waterproof as he could find. His experience has been that uglier, less stylish and therefore cheaper works just fine, because over time he can modify the appearance to suit.

Back with Karmakaze, he thinks a moment. """Well, if they sell the good stuff, somewhere in the back shelves they should have something that brews it."""

He wanders back through the store, searching out a coffee maker. There! Emulating an oft-repeated phrase of one of his former coworkers, a chemist from Eastern Europe, he exclaims, """Hah! You trrry hiding, but I finding you!"""

Ooooh. Pricey little piece of equipment.

He returns to Karmakaze, a big grin on his face. """Your search was efficient and thoughtful. Mine was lucky! Good teamwork."""

"""Great find! This has been a productive venture."""

Spotting the socks Blue found, """Drek. I should get some clean socks, too. That will be nice."""

With the detour for socks and undergarments, the two are at the checkout ready to pay.

Shopping is no problem. The two remain substantially unmolested, if one doesn't count ambient advertisements reminding one that Monday the 22nd is almost over, and you should buy lots of drek for the office, and also that it's just three weeks from Easter! Incongruous pictures and TriD renderings of bunnies with nightmarish anthropomorphic eyes and eggs that might have come from ostriches cover everything. Buy lots of drek for that, too. In fact, you should buy lots of drek because it will fill the hole of emptiness that modern life has gouged out of your soul.

Well, they don't say the last part explicitly.

Outside, the weather's cool but dry for now. It's not a far drive down to the West Olive precinct, or more precisely the Kafkart nearby - a wisely and strategically placed feeder for the addiction of many a patrol officer and detective.

Karmakaze can see Booker from a way off; he's a pretty recognisable sort, even without a uniform. At the moment he's leaning against the wall near the Kafkart, sipping and enjoying urban air in preference to precinct air. At Karmakaze's guess he's also letting his 'link soak up information on passers-by and idlers, because it lets him tell people that he's gathering intel when he just wants to take a load off, for a while.

Adding up all the receipts in his head while Karmakaze drives to the meeting, Blue is amazed that he spent almost 500 nuyen on his purchases. The splendid coffee maker was over half that by itself.

The fact that he doesn't have a steady paycheck sinks in.

"""Wait here, Blue. This guy is a cop, and he may have seen your mugshot."""

Karmakaze leaves Blue behind while she approaches. She scans the area for anything out of the ordinary. She may be a known associate of her new friend, so there may be people looking for him. Police, bounty hunters, corporate runners, etc.

"""Hoya,""" Karma announces as she approaches. """Do I have time to order a cup?"""

Blue stays in the car. He pulls the brim of his hat down and appears to pay close attention to the latest news feeds on his personal assistant. This is probably not a place to be casting any spells or summoning a spirit.

+++ Shoulda done that earlier. Either I learn more caution, or it will be the end of me.+++

Booker gives a lazy, friendly, fatigued grin. """Hoi, chummer. Long time no see. Get a cup, I'll chat while we wait.""" His dimples soften a little bit as he gets more serious.

"""There are two things happening, and my gut says they're connected, but my brain can't prove it and my eyes can't see what they need to, to figure it. The first part is, well, there's some city council members from north of the locks that are talking about going back to government pro cops. They usually do it around contract renegotiation time, but now the timing's off. And it feels different, as if they believe it."""

"""While that is odd, I don't know where I fit in. Sounds like politicians being politicians and trying to buy votes."""

She moves forward with the queue and waits for Booker to continue.

Booker shrugs slightly in his jacket. """Buy votes? I doubt it. It's not an issue that lots of people care about. But anyway, the other end is that more and more businesses up there are de-linking their cameras from our systems, even the streetside cameras, and reported crime is well down. Now, I know you might think that they're saving money but the additional fee for the hookup is tiny. Also, I checked the statistics for all the surrounding areas and crime is either steady, or marginally up. Why would that area report less crime? Maybe because there is less, but my gut says something, or somebody, is moving in up there and mafia-style telling business owners to drop their connections."""

The line moves a little forward, and Booker yawns heavily, half-concealed behind his hand, before continuing with: """This doesn't mean there is anything going on. It might be nothing. It might be an anomaly. It might also be some kind of vigilante action, although we don't really have any indication of that either. Could be the local crooks are getting slicker, too. We sent a couple of undercovers to check things out on the quiet, and they bounced around a while to tell us that everything seemed quiet, even street meat was rare on the ground. What that tells me is that if the surrounding areas are suffering, it's because the usual suspects got driven out of there, into the surrounding areas."""

Blue keeps his head down and assembles a list of items he is interested in purchasing on his personal assistant. He plans to send out the list to Mary Margaret once they have lft the vicinity of the police precinct. No point in giving a competent detective a clue to follow up.

"""Alright. I don't see where I fit in. You already have under cover operations in the area. Is there another place they haven't been authorized you want me to go?"""

"""That's the trouble. The undercover boys are great about jandering down a street and picking up on the wavelengths. They can get in with gangs, and make the right friends in low places, but that's all the wrong data. We even ran a predictive analysis, looking for a group of people who visited the businesses that de-linked their cameras, in case there was some threat being handed out. Nada. It's as if they all got a message from Mars in their dreams and just got the vibe some other way. Now, fit that with the whole citycops plan, and to me it looks like a bourgeois movement. That's not where the undercover guys shine. But since you brought that up, there's something else."""

He casually lifts his cup in front of his face; a classic anti-lipreading move, and turns his head a bit so that Karmakaze can hear him murmuring:

___We've lost one of our undercovers. Girl called Daisy. She operated as a classy escort, great at picking up gang leaders. She went dead signal about 48 hours ago.___

"""Okay. I will look for that as well. I am going to need a starting point. I don't have the months of building up rep in the area like the unders."""

Blue is figuratively kicking himself. +++ Why didn't I cast a Mindlink spell before Karmakaze went out? They're talking and talking and I don't know what is going on. Yet something else to remember. +++

Blue reminisces about the days when the worst he had to worry about was the quality of sludge dumping out of Biozu's exhaust tanks.

"""Oh, I can get you into the mix easily enough. I got a datapack all ready to go.""" Booker counts on the stubby fingers of his off hand. """List of businesses that de-linked, records of city council members and their yapping about contracts, a map of criminal activity reports, known regional miscreants, all the usual. But I also got you a screamsheet on each council member in case you want to follow them up and recent business openings and closures in case you want to follow that up. One leading theory was that one of those crystal cult centres opened up and raised everybody's cosmic consciousness in the ways of righteousness blahblahblah ... but while one opened, we found no link whatsoever."""

"""Okay. I will see what I can do. Now, most importantly; What is the pay?"""

"""So ka. Always the most important. If you can find a flower and bring it back whole, that's fifty kiloyen right there. That's the most important. Figuring out what's up, so we know which way to jump, that's ten. If you can tell us what's up with the de-linking and how to reverse it, that's another ten. But nothing's as important as friendship."""

His tone is even, but it's quite clear that he's really worried about Daisy, and wants her safe first and foremost.

Then again, they've reached the head of the line, and in this moment placing an order for Karmakaze's coffee is important too. """What'll you have? I'm buying."""

"""Two large real coffees please. Cream and sugar on the side."""

She turns back to Booker, """Can't forget about my partner."""

While they wait on the coffees, she continues to discuss business. """Of course our priority is your man. Of course I will take the job for that reason. I assume that you are paying what you can and I don't need to negotiate."""

Booker nods and sighs while he makes with the credstick. """Yeah, I don't write my own budget. If it were up to me, I'd have turned the city upside-down already and shaken it but I can't do that. I'm reaching outside the system because I need somebody who can work outside the system. All I know is that no DocWagon call went out, but they refuse to give any more data. So here I am."""

It looks like Karmakaze and Booker are having some reminiscences over coffee. +++ I hope she brings one back for me. +++ In the meantime, Blue starts building a shopping list to send to Mary Margaret.

It's weird. He never had to make such an extensive set of such requests from someone other than the corporate equipment manager. Blue had read somewhere that things cost more on the street. A markup for desperation. Capitalism at its finest.

Karma takes the two coffees along with a small bag of creamers and real sugar and follows Booker off to some tables set on the sidewalk. She sets one coffee down while taking a careful sip from the other.

"""Money up front?"""

Booker takes a seat nearly opposite from Karmakaze, and settles down with a sigh. """Can't do much. I can give you one thousand on each of the research items - so, two kiloyen to pay for snacks?"""

He's a bit of a blend of new school and old, as cops go. His goggles certainly show him a stream of all sorts of data, but he never took to gestural commands. Instead he slips a little keyboard from a pocket and taps in a few commands before replacing it. """All the data about the flower's last known whereabouts are in the files, if you're taking this on."""

"""I said I would."""

She takes the files and takes another sip of coffee.

"""This has pictures of the target, too, I assume. I will need all the details of the cover and the real background of the flower as well."""

Booker takes a moment to offer a transfer of funds before sipping more coffee and adding: """All right. I'll give you what I have on her of course but you hafta understand that a lot of that is data that isn't on my scope. Her handlers are a very locked-down bunch and they don't even let me know everything. Or most things."""

"""Can you get me in contact with her handlers then?"""

Booker's response is as quick as a rat-trap, and just as final: """No."""

He heaves a sigh and adds: """You should know from your time with us, undercover is something we wished we didn't even have to admit existed. The more people know, the more of our people die. That's as simple as it is. I already bent the rules like a pretzel admitting that she is ours, and I'm only doing it because I'm ... very concerned. Gotta say, I'll be surprised if you bring her back, but I'm not totally hopeless because of what DocWagon said. That's all I have."""

"""Okay. I will do what I can. It's not much starting cap, and I am going to have to hire a decker, and probably some additional backup. This 2 K upfront is in addition to the payment at the end?"""

"""It's an advance. I only got so much in my slush fund, and you're getting the whole kitty, if you can do this. Tell you what, I can give you temporary access to our internal bounties list, in case you want to supplement your take that way. You're bound to see a few interesting faces."""

"""Well, I will see what I can do. I will definitely take that access. Maybe I can find a decker that way."""

She takes the access information from Booker, thanks him, then leaves but doesn't head directly towards Blue, and keeps an eye on Booker, to see if he makes contact with anyone else.

She finds a spot to stop where she can keep an eye on the foot traffic, in case anyone is following her or paying too close attention to her contact.

She dials Blue's latest link number, then her eyes are back to scanning the street.

"""Hoi. I am across the street and up a block. Come pick me up. I got coffee."""

Blue finishes the shopping list for Mary Margaret and files it for now. No sense putting a pin in a location that could identify someone on the team.

<<< Be right there. Mmm. Coffee. >>> He slides over to the driver's seat and starts out. He picks out the tall elf right away and pulls over. +++ Let's have some fun. +++

As he stops beside her, he rolls down the window. """ Hey, good lookin'. Goin' my way?"""

Booker doesn't stick around; he gets up, takes his coffee and heads straight for the precinct office, only looking around to check traffic before crossing the street and otherwise moving with a steady stride.

The environment is pretty busy, but in a business and shopping sort of way, rather than anything else. The car creeps along until level with Karmakaze. A young woman laughs out loud - but it's not at Blue's hackneyed greeting, just at something on her wrist-mounted 'link.