"Fifty 'yen, where and when?"""

She says before climbing in the passenger seat. She sets Blue's coffee in the cup holder.

"""Let's get out of here, then you add what you want to your brew,""" she shakes the bag indicating its coffee-additive contents.

"""Let's talk in a minute. I want to see if we are being followed. """ Blue drives a few blocks away, looking for pursuit in the rear view mirrors. He goes around one block completely by turning right four times. He saw that in a suspense trideo a while back and it seemed like a good idea.

Then he pulls over, mixes his drink appropriately and suggests to Karmakaze, """You drive so a good driver can be in control and I can summon a spirit for overwatch. """

Once they have switched, Blue summons a small (It's still daytime) city spirit to serve.



::: Thank you for coming, spirit of the streets. Please guard this vehicle and the two of us in it from mishaps. :::

Blue takes a sip of the coffee, """ Mmm. Needed that. Alright, so what's up? """

Karma takes the wheel and merges into traffic.

She explains the job to Blue along the drive.

Blue considers the situation. +++ That's a lot of money. Maybe I'll wait to send that shopping list to Mary Margaret. +++

To Karmakaze he says, """ That's a pretty big territory. It could take quite a while to suss out what's going on there. You're good at finding people. Wanna try to find Daisy first? If we could score that payout, I wouldn't mind taking a break to spend some time refreshing spells, building my Lodge back up, buying some magical materials. That kind of thing.

""" Speaking of materials, do you have anybody who could fit me for some of that spiffy armoured underwear you have? I could use that myself, and a good knife, too. """

Blue smiles at Karmakaze's sidelong glance at the mention of a blade. """ Yeah, yeah. But If I can improve my skills with a knife, eventually it would be good to get a weapon focus. Spirits that would be impervious to bullets would be like butter to one of those. """

She smirks at the image of Blue with a "Rambo" knife.

"""You met Jaxx. Not the best company, but he'll get you anything you need. I suggest something larger than a knife, if you're going to invest a lot of money into it. Not sure if it matters fighting spirits, but a longer weapon keeps you from having to get as close to the enemy. I have seen a lot of crime scenes involving knives, and they are a lot messier, at least for the wielder."""

She unlocks her link and hands it to her passenger.

"""Send Jaxx a text. Tell him we need more gear whenever he is available."""

"""Unless you know a good decker, we are probably going to need to go through Jaxx to hire one. We will talk to him about that in person."""

""" Thanks. I'll text him. """ <<< KK's partner here, using this device. Looking for a cougar fineblade short knife and form-fitting body armor, for a short person like me. Have cash on hand. >>>

""" I know how to use a knife, but have no experience with anything longer. And something with better reach would cost at least 100k nuyen more. So I just want to get better at what I know, so if I can ever afford it I can have a weapon that works in astral space. And there, I'm hard to hurt in close combat. Spells will always be my first line of action, but a serious Plan B is always a good idea.

"""It's also easier to hide a knife than a sword on a person of my height. """ He smiles at that.

""" My contact Billy is a good bet. He helped out with info about Petsonal. If we can nail down what he needs to find for us, I can call him and hire him.

""" Of course, knowing Billy, he might want payment in the form of saving his niece from the Children of Purity. Worth a try, anyway. I did tell him it was beyond us, right now. """

"""OK. So, let's pull over in a mall somewhere and get something to eat. We can talk over the plan and I can call Billy. Maybe Jaxx will get back to us by then. """

"""Sounds like a plan. As for the knife, what about that buck knife I pulled from the goons where we met? I forgot about it, until I had the strange image of you as Rambo."""

They find a nearby strip mall with a small "burgers & beers" style establishment to make plans. Karma picked the spot based on the area being only lightly to moderately trafficked.

After finding a booth, Karma goes over the information in detail.

The information packet is instant nostalgia to Karmakaze, the way that it is structured like police intelligence.

---Give a roll on investigation skills, and add specific questions that interest Karmakaze in particular. Obviously there's a wealth of information on businesses, dates, layouts, ownerships and contractual status--

Karmakaze shares the files with Blue.

"""Most importantly is finding Daisy, hopefully alive. Unfortunately that is going to be the hardest since I wasn't given too much detail on her. We can go through some mugshots and see if her handler at least gave her a background. Of course, I didn't even get a last name for her. I feel this job is going to take a lot of capital to complete.

"""We can get all the names of the business owners from these companies that de-linked, closed or just opened. It's easy, but may be time consuming. All business licenses are public on the government website. Any business on there we cannot find, gets a star on our list.

"""Then we can take those names, the council members names, plus anyone in the council contract discussions, or any business owners with abnormal contracts, and any known criminals or ex-criminals, and we compare all of them to organized crime, or just poke around and see what comes up.

"""This will probably take a few days. We can walk around, scout out the area, see what is up. Then we can use my place to do our research and legwork. I already have a room set up as an office."""

Blue listens carefully to the info Karmakaze shares. A whole new world of social knowledge opens up to him, and he makes note of the fact that, 'out here', he is a neophyte.

"""Glad you bring this kind of knowledge to the task. I wouldn't know how to begin.

"""Well, speaking of that, Daisy was supposed to be working as an escort or something, no? With a last known place of employment? Would that be a place to start? """

A wry smile comes across Blue's face. """Maybe one of us could be a prospective ... client of hers? Looking to find her for business? """

"""That is a good plan, but I don't even know what her contact information is. I don't know why my contact would withhold information, so it sounds like he doesn't trust her handler. I have the area she went missing though, so we can ask around."""

""" Often such escort services ... I am given to understand ... have a matrix presence. Maybe a search would luck out and we find one with a 'Daisy' on call. """

"""Good thinking. Let's search for that now."""

Blue nods and fires up his personal assistant. He looks for escort services in the Fremont area. Surely they wouldn't try to hide their services from the lonely, the desperate and the entitled.

Who knows? The two of them could get lucky.

Escort agencies? Sure, he finds half a dozen without really having to try hard. They have imaginative names like Event Escorts, Diamond Rendezvous and LBN Events.

As businesses go, they tend to pop up, thrive for a while, then vanish with barely a ripple.

"""I've found a bunch of businesses. I'll check to see if any mention a 'Daisy'."""

Fortunately, or unfortunately, depending on the intention, several of them do.

Daisy, depending on the business, is a human-elf-blonde-redhead-korean-chinese-anglo woman of indeterminate youthful adulthood but well-presented looks. All things considered, there are abundant pictures for comparison purposes ...

... and none of them match Booker's data.

Blue scratches his days old beard.

""" It looks like Daisy is a popular name in the business. None of the ones I find fits our Daisy's description. Maybe I'm getting paranoid here, but could be that she's been removed from public view since she herself was taken out of circulation. Her business complicit in that? Don't know. """

"""Damn. I was hoping to get at least an unavailable response from one of them."""

""" Allegedly, she was favoured by some gang leaders or somesuch. Any way we can work that? """

Karmakaze is well aware that an undercover agent might prefer the lower profile afforded by a solo operator. Ladies of commercially negotiable affections run greater risks when operating by themselves, but also have more flexibility, and an undercover identity needs a lot of that. This might take a bigger, more comprehensive, and more sophisticated matrix search - or a lot of street intelligence, which Blue and Karmakaze presently lack.

"""I think we really need a decker."""

""" Help me out, here. If you can tell me what we would use a decker for, I could see if Billy could do the job for us. Without specifics, he can't say if he can do it, and what it would cost. """

"""To do some intense digging that goes past internet searches into these corporations and city council members. Maybe set up some sort of program to find connections between any of them.

"""We could probably find some of the stuff ourselves, and I plan to go through all the data myself, but a decker will find things outside the information here."""

Blue decides to put his order to Mary Margaret on hold. The situation is changing rapidly, and who knows how much money is going to be needed shortly.

On his own burner, he calls Billy. <<< Billy. You know who here. I need someone with matrix skills to do some searching and correlating. If you are free, I can pay. Will lose this burner soon, so get back to me with availability quickly, please. >>>

When they stopped for some chow, Blue had bought another five burners. +++ Damn. It feels like I'm singlehandedly messing the environment with these throwaways. +++

""" Well, let's see if he can help. """

"""Sounds good. We can scope out the area tonight, but a lot of what we need is going to be in these files. Even with your friend going through them, we should pour through them as well."""

Billy is every bit as responsive as Blue might hope, with a near-immediate response: <<<Can do, null sweat. Depending on size and scope, maybe as much as a kiloyen for a big data dip - maybe less for a quick splash. Tell me more.>>>

"""Billy is in. I'll send him info on the business issue as well as what we have on Daisy, and ask him for two separate searches. """

<<<Hoy, Billy. Happy to be working with you again. My partner and I have two separate issues to explore, both in Fremont but needing different kinds of searches I expect.

<<<First, there's a phenomenon in the region in which businesses are disconnecting from the Lonestar security grid for unknown reasons. At the same time, crime in the area seems to be dropping. We would like to find out why they disconnected, where else they might have connected, and whether there is some connection with political / criminal organizations pushing this change. Attached are the following: list of businesses that de-linked, records of city council contract decisions, criminal activity reports, known local criminals, screamsheets on local council members, and recent business openings and closures. See if you can find some pattern or connections.

<<<Second, We are trying to find a police officer who is undercover as an escort by the name of Daisy. Probably freelancing. Said to be associating with gang leaders and such. She's been missing for about 48 hours. No image available, or known associations, just the attached description. This one is probably a tougher search, but more important and time sensitive.

<<<Ditching this burner as soon as we agree on your payment and set a time for me to connect with a new device. >>>

"""He will need all the data Booker gave me. Can you forward him a copy?"""

He hands Blue the data chip.

"""Then we can make a cruise through the neighborhood. Drive or walk by the businesses with changed statuses. Then we can use my office to start pouring through the data."""

Blue nods, and reiterates for Karmakaze the info he sent Billy.

"""OK. Let's go explore. """

He reconnects with the city spirit that had set up a guard for them and the vehicle. ::: Stay close. I might need you soon. :::

The biggest delay is just driving up through the congested, messy streets. Unlike the night hours, when much of Seattle goes so much quieter it's a riotous, noisy maze of one-way streets, narrow bridges and steep inclines with grid traffic crawling up or inching down, where even one car with a burned-out motor can lead to localised gridlock.

Once in the Fremont area, they can start checking locations while the car rumbles along northbound in the direction of Green Lake. Ostensibly, things are pretty normal. People scoot around, doing their work. In an area with this degree of comparative affluence it's also not strange to see drones moving around, doing business on behalf of their owners. In principle they were touted as an enabling technology for the crippled, but in practice they're more likely to be remote hands for the overworked, or the shut-in. In actual fact there are more drones than people, once one includes the smaller drones.

Karmakaze drives around, looking for a decent spot to park, while they can get out on foot and scout a couple business locations.

"""Maybe your decker can get a drone out here and get in the mix. Maybe it'll catch something. Or maybe he can hack one of these little bastards and download its recordings."""

""" Sounds good. His answer seems delayed, compared to his response to the first message. I'm getting worried. If he doesn't call soon, I'm going to ditch the burner and call him later. """

Blue makes sure the next burner in line has all the necessary contact info for the people he knows.

Billy finally gets back to Blue while the little car squeezes into a parking spot.

<<<I got some early results. A deep dive will cost a little more, but let's start with the headlines: there is a pattern in the camera shut-offs. They ripple out, time-wise, in a block-by-block pattern. It's also usually not long after some business gets in trouble with the law over some or other thing, usually stupid but sometimes enough to put them out of business, and also after some local gangsters stop making the scene. Not much on Daisy yet, but still working it.>>>

<<< Thanks, Billy. Keep digging. I'll get back to you later with a new device. >>>

Blue shares the info from Billy with Karmakaze. As they exit the car, he dumps the just-used burner into a suitable, city-provided receptacle.

"""So, that's interesting. Start point, then rippling out. City dumps on a local business, criminals back off, and the block goes dark. What the hell does that mean? """

"""Seems like a larger criminal or corporate element is moving in. When the forest goes suddenly quiet, there is usually a predator nearby."""

Karma looks around the lot, at the businesses, and at the crowd.

"""Let's take a look at one of these businesses that went dark and see what is there now. Maybe it is the same business, maybe something new. Hopefully we find one that we can do some shopping or eating and at least get eyes on the inside."""

Blue looks at the data and tries to find one that fits Karmakaze's bill. """ How about this one, just up the street. I could do with a bite to eat. """

What Blue has found is a (typically for the area) bourgeois breakfast joint that stays open around the clock. There are a couple of tables outdoors (surrounded by a decorative cast-iron metal fence) and more tables indoors. As a concession to tradition, there are a couple of servers, but they're largely reduced to runners because the ordering and payment processes are all automated at the tables with embedded widgets. There are probably no more than two people in the kitchen as well, what with automation on that side of the counter.

A cursory glance shows what looks like cameras in place. Relatively discreet, without being pinhole cameras. Whatever happened, it didn't apparently result in cameras being removed by crowbar. As for the run of the place, it looks pretty quiet. Nothing dramatic, no signs of anything like gang fights or gang allegiances, just another day slinging tofu hash and krill fritters.

Karma finds something simple on the menu for herself.

"""I think I'll just get the soup and sandwich deal. How about you?"""

While Blue is looking through the menu Karma scans the restaurant, looking for any new monitoring devices that may have replaced the old, any signs of a new "not so legal" business partnership, and for possible after hours entry points in case some late night investigating needs to be done.

"""Yeah, that sounds about right for me, too. """ Blue puts in the order for himself.

"""I'd like to try summoning the spirit of this place. Who knows, maybe it would be able to shed some light on what has been going on here. But before the sun sets, it will be difficult for me to safely get one of any strength, or more importantly intelligence, to be of much help. If we eat slowly, maybe the sun will set while we are here, and I can give it a shot. A long shot, to be sure, but worth the try."""

"""Definitely. Sounds like we will be getting dessert."""

Karma hits enter on her order, then starts scrolling through the deserts.

Karmakaze's leisurely look around produces answers as puzzling as any so far: none of the above. There's no sign that the monitoring in place is new, newly replaced, newly refurbished or supplemented or in any way adjusted from what it might plausibly have been five years ago. The housings are painted the same vaguely cheerful pale green as the walls, presumably in an attempt to blend in, but there aren't even signs that the housings have been removed or repainted in the last few months. It's not entirely impossible to fool a visual inspection this way, but it's difficult.

Also, there's no sign of any known street markers suggesting localised mastery. Neither any person among the clientele (thin, at this hour, but non-zero) nor among the classic signs of mob-led neglect leading to shoddy maintenance or standards of practice.

The location is explicitly round the clock, so no after-hours entry would even be possible short of a total shutdown owing to conditions outside their control, but in theory the most subtle entry might be through a kitchen window - but that's speculative and probably irrelevant.

Blue checks out and orders dessert as well. He asks for advice from Karmakaze.

""" This kind of thing is new to me. What kind of behaviours or actions should I ask a hearth spirit here to tell me about ... if it has noticed something like that? From the astral one can get a sense of strong emotions, so that might help. """

"""Well, you kind of just look for things that don't look normal. You go around life interacting with people, businesses, animals, spirits I would assume, so you know what normal is. Then once in a while you will have an interaction and you will get a feeling that something is off, even if you cannot explain it. You ever meet someone that just gives you the creeps? For something like a protection racket, I would expect that when a certain person or persons enter, the staff will get anxious, suddenly quiet, and/or try to look busy in the background."""

"""OK, """ says Blue. """ That's helpful."""

He chows down on the meal before him. He's had better. He's had worse.

While Blue and Karmakaze enjoy the respective delights of their meals, the dominant impression is that of bourgeois order, with perhaps a sheen of the sort of cleanliness and detail found in corporate settings. To Karmakaze, it reminds her more of her very occasional forays into walled and gated communities, with firm-handed neighbourhood associations and bored retirees nit-picking each other's painted fences and pebbled paths. Sometimes one sees such things in tightly controlled franchises, but this is not a franchise restaurant. Just a very tightly run one.

The last crumbs of a passable meal go down with little fanfare, but the passing of the sun lights the underside of the ever present clouds in orange and red, the reflections of which turn seawater to liquid gold. Sunsets like this almost make the air pollution acceptable.

Blue excuses himself to the men's room to be out of sight when he summons a hearth spirit. As the last direct rays of the sun disappear below the horizon, Blue feels the touch of Owl wrap around him more closely. The time is right.

Having ascertained that no one else is in the lavatory (it would be hard to explain a spirit manifestation to someone just stepping out of a booth), Blue opens his mind to the astral realms, and calls the restaurant's hearth spirit. This one might have to be a little more intelligent to handle some of the questions the two of them have, so he opts for a spirit a little more powerful than the ones he has been summoning, yet small enough to have a few services.



Owl is with Blue tonight! A good summon and his wits are all about him still. ::: Thank you for coming. Stay in the astral near me as I have questions for you about what has been happening in your domain here. :::

Once the spirit is safely out of normal sight, Blue returns to his seat and nods to Karmakaze. """ We're ready for some research. I'll try a direct question based on your hints."""

::: My friend and I come here to learn about changes that have happened to this place and other places like yours. Have you noticed in the last few cycles of the moon any time when the workers or owners of this building showed fear or worry when someone entered to speak with them? If so, please tell me what you can about the one or ones who caused that change in their emotions. :::

The hearth spirit takes the shape in Blue's vision of a cook. The cook is a husky man, running to fat with bright white clothing that seems to be constantly under fluorescent lights, except for a grubby apron.

::: Null sweat, chief. Robofryer was dying like a chiphead in the snow, leaking grease like piss. Repair dwarf came in, told the boss a hyperyen price, ended up trading it in for a new model. Was sweating like a fresh slot over the grill. :::

Blue chuckles at the spirit's story. Perfectly accurate response. To Karmakaze he says, """ Gotta love the spirit world. I just got told about a tense incident involving a broken fryer. I'm learning as I go here. I'll try again. """

::: That's helpful. Thanks.

::: Now, can you tell me about any incident that doesn't seem to have a connection to the day to day business of cooking. Like, people come, the staff gets nervous as they talk, and then the people leave. To help you out, I am trying to find out if someone tried to frighten or bully the staff or owner into doing something. I know that the machines we people use don't always make sense in the spirit world, but the machines I am most interested in are the machines that remember pictures and words of what happened. Maybe such machines were taken off the walls outside or away from under the counters after scary people came. :::