Karma tested the door handle and found that a simple screwdriver would do the trick. She retrieved the tool kit from the car and completed the home remodel rather quickly, but not before getting the text from Badger.

<<< [KARMA>BADGER] Probably. What info do you have? It seems like my friend is being hunted by two separate entities but I don't know exactly what for. One is a previous employer, another may be with something he was looking into for another friend.>>>

Badger relays information about Mitsuhama and Huangbilt.

<<< [KARMA>BADGER] Yes. If you have any information regarding either that would be great. I need to look into HuangBilt, as I am sure the goons are related to them, but I don't know their reason for assaulting my friend. I have some information that may help you help me there. I have a comlink and some data chips I pulled off the thugs. You got a hacker you trust?

As for Mitsuhama, I don't know what they are exactly after. They let go a group of workers, then a week later start hunting them down. Why not off them while they were still employed, if that was the end goal? It doesn't make sense. I am missing something.

Thanks>>>

Badger returns a message pretty quickly.

<<<You already know about Big Jeremy. He put out a hit on your amigo, and that's true. However there's more to the story. If we can meet somewhere quiet and discuss it, I have a plan that might suit us both.>>>

<<< [KARMA>BADGER] I will contact you later with the meet location and time. I got to re-home a spirit real quick.>>>

Karma fills Blue in on the information, and suggests finding a place to meet with Badger.

Blue takes in the info Karmakaze passes on. """ It didn't go down quite like you have it. I worked for a biotech company called BioZu which Mitsuhama took over, lock, stock and barrel of workers. A couple of us, an IT guy and I slipped the net Mitsuhama cast to collect the employees at the BioZu facility. While we were on the run, a person who purported to be hired by someone to keep us from capture collected us and two others who had not shown up for work, and took us to her safehouse. The one that blew up.

""" While there, we learned there was a bounty out on us, and a fake crime pinned on us. I should be flattered. They offered 10,000 nuyen for me. I guess it will be difficult to replace my skill set. Quick cash if you're of a mind to collect the bounty. """ Blue watches for a reaction. """ Who would want to prevent Mitsuhama from getting me and the others is a mystery, but my hypothesis is that there is someone in charge of the transfer of personnel, and there is someone else in Mitsuhama who would like to see that person fail. """

Blue thinks for a moment. """ I don't know how well you trust this Badger guy. You sure he isn't lining us up for a trap? If you trust him, the only place I know of where we can meet is the place I was hired for the Petsonal job, a place called Oppidum. It probably costs some to have privacy. """

"""Maybe we should go some place different. Some place neither of us have been before. Find a place, set up shop, then ask if he can meet us there. Maybe it is best if I meet him solo, while you wait nearby in case things go south."""

+++ Hmmm. The bounty hunter wants to meet alone with her guy about what's being offered for my head. Hmmm. +++

Blue is getting paranoid, but feels as if that is an appropriate way to be in this new world. +++ But really, she could have turned me in already if she wanted to. +++

""" I don't know of any appropriate places to meet other than the one I've been to. If you have a way to figure out where to go, I'm amenable. I'm not sure I want to be out of the meet. I might have questions for your contact to elaborate on what they know. I will be more proactive with spirit overwatch to help if, as you say, things go south. """

The miracle of the matrix has at least made certain things easier. Venues could be found aplenty, and even searched for by various criteria. A deserted parking lot? A busy restaurant? A corner shop? A cozy coffee shop? All these and more could be identified for the asking.

"""Let's return to the safe house, get your spirit comfy, then we will go across town for the meet. While you are setting up maybe I can send out some more feelers on what we found in the truck yesterday."""

As it gets later, the amount of traffic gently eases off, so the trip back across town isn't much over half an hour. The last glow of the sunset tints the clouds over the Olympics, but the air over Seattle is clear. The temperature is rapidly dropping below 10 degrees Celsius, but that's normal for the time and season. Blue carries the lock and key almost ceremoniously - as far as Karmakaze could speculate, there's some element of mystical importance there. Like a chiller box for a transplant organ.

""" Sounds good to me,""" says Blue.

When they get back to his apartment, upon opening the car door the music from the establishment upstairs hits like a blast from a fire hose. In fact, maybe the piece playing right now could be by Fire Hose. Blue takes a moment to operationalize the process in his mind. He asks Karmakaze, """ Let me leave the lock and key in the car for a moment, with you to be safe. I have to check with the bar's spirit about using my apartment for another spirit. I don't want to dump Madel from an exploded home into a turf war here with Sweez. If it will work, I may need your help and tools to install the lock. """

Blue enters his apartment, losing the air spirit as he does so. Fortunately the drive back home was more than long enough for his head to clear of the drain from summoning. Inside, he summons Sweez, choosing a lower Force than the previous air spirit. Things have been ... draining, lately.

It's a long time since Blue has seen a spirit so offended. Sweez turns rapidly from the appearance of a drugged-out party animal to that of a crazed back alley BTL freak, complete with razor claws. Hugely wide eyes with minute pupils glare at Blue, and Sweez jabbers semi-coherently about place and gratitude and dignity.

So, that sounds rather like a refusal.

::: Well. That's that , then. What I want to do is help a spirit not fade away. Help me out here. What kind of place can I install her that will keep her ... viable. A new building? Uninhabited, maybe? how close to completion would it have to be?

::: I would try to do the same for you. :::

This approach mollifies Sweez to some extent, although the feeling emanating from Sweez continues to be quite agitated, with spiky hair seeming to writhe as colours swirl across it and down over skin.

:::New, man. New. New and shiny and smelling of paint and glue and just stood up and virginal. Just before someone moves in and scuffs the floors and puts posters up on the walls. New and without the stamp of someone's hands.:::

Blue is happy to have gotten that much information from Sweez He decides to fish for some more. ::: Thanks, Sweez. That is very helpful. Tell me if you can, all I have for Madel, the other spirit, is a door lock and the key for it. Do I have to install that into a door of the new place, or is taking her there into the building enough? Maybe, put it into an improtant place, like the furnace or something? :::

:::Has to be part of it, has to be locked in to the whole thing like a beat in a song. It can't just float around, that won't do a thing, it'll shrivel up and fade away. Gotta get in there, gotta put a lock in a door and use that key.:::

Sweez seems amenable to being helpful, although how deep his spiritual knowledge is, is hard to judge. If Sweez were a human, the way that his eyes roll around and the fluttering butterfly motions of his hands would make Blue think of a habitual deepweed user who's much too far gone.

::: Thanks, Sweez. You may have made all the difference in the survival of Madel. I am sorry I offended you with my first request. I just didn't know. Now I do. I'll let you go to enjoy the night's festivities. :::

Blue exits his apartment, making sure it is locked, and gets back in Karmakaze's vehicle. Not waiting to hear what she may have learned while he was out, he informs her of what he has learned.

""" I narrowly avoided a turf war in my home. The hearth spirit of the building did not take kindly to my idea of installing Madel here. I did learn, though, that if we can find a newly constructed home that hasn't been inhabited yet, and we can install the lock and key in it, I should be able to revitalize Madel there. It's a weird thing to ask, but would you be willing to help me find some new construction and give it a shot? """

He places a hand on the old lock and key, almost protectively.

"""We can install the lock at my place, though I am not so sure how safe it is right now. Not many of my associates know where I live, but they all have investigation backgrounds, so I am sure they could find out."""

""" That's kind of you to offer, but the same issue will apply there. The resident hearth spirit will make short work of a weakened Madel. No, it will have to be a new place, not yet claimed by a spirit.

""" While we consider where an appropriate place might be, maybe we could find a place to meet your contact. I don't know this area at all. How about you? """

"""My place has a spirit!?"""

Karmakaze is visibly surprised.

Blue chuckles. """ Oh, yeah. Just about every building has its own spirit. Even industrial ones will have something. The nature and character of the spirit is molded by the building and its inhabitants. Lots of theories about how and why. The spirit I am trying to save manifests as a little old lady with hair in curlers and bunny slippers. The spirit of the apartment and club where I live now looks like a burned out addict with piercings and tattoos.

""" Maybe if I ever go to your place I can summon the hearth spirit there so you can see for yourself. """

"""Should we find a place for Mabel first? Then whatever place we find, we can look in the area to set up a meet. I would like to find someplace new, that we have never used before, that way if someone is listening in, or it is a set up, they will have to set up last minute. Maybe find a place with a easy access back exit.

We should also find a decker to crack this comlink I snagged from the idiots at the wharf. I will send a text to my fixer. You do not want to talk to him on the phone."""

""" While you do that, I'll see if I can find a new development nearby that is about to open up residences for people. That shouldn't be hard. Such concerns try hard to let us all know they are open for business. """

Blue searches the Matrix for any ads that fit the bill.

The world of new housing in this area has changed a bit. It's not any more a chunk of forest that was cleared, excavated and built up, but typically previous construction that was damaged, abandoned or otherwise wrecked before being demolished and rebuilt. This means that the wealthiest, best-maintained areas are generally not where new developments occur.

That said, the fringes of the valleys that were inundated by the volcanic eruptions of the Cascades are where most of the action is these days. The erstwhile city of Kent, which still exists on the maps, is a volcanic valley on the fringes of which one might find a few ill-served squats. Just down a couple of long, winding downhill roads from SeaTac, is a new development. Cedar Ridge View is advertising seismically-stabilised housing for the discriminating suburbanite, and they have both Matrix previews and physical visits available.

"""Any of those new houses have a hotel with a bar near by?"""

""" I'll check. """

Blue checks.

It all depends upon the definition of "nearby", but a ten minute drive? Sure. There are bars aplenty in the SeaTac area, and hotels likewise (no surprise considering all the air traffic that still scoots in and out of there on a daily basis) and they are just a drive up the hill away. Of course, the view from Cedar Ridge View is partly of devastation's wreckage, but when did that ever stop broke young sararimen?

""" Well, it looks like there are new houses up on Cedar Ridge, and bars not too far away. Why don't we go and see if we can re-house Madel without setting off any alarms, and then go have a drink and meet your guy? """

That sounds like a good plan, so the two head off to re-house Madel.

As they travel to the new subdivision, Blue considers potential obstacles. """ We will have to break in to whatever house we choose, so it might pay off to try to find a new home less covered by whatever security cameras, etc. might be installed. I'll think about how a spirit might help conceal us as we perform our skulking reno. """

It's pretty much what a knowledgeable observer of the area would expect:

A chunk of steep hillside overlooking the Kent valley and the volcanic landscaping that it involved, has been logged, terraced, supported by retaining walls and piles, and a housing development is being constructed. However, per the usual practice of developers in the region, phase 1 has already been sold and is inhabited by whomever found themselves with barely enough money to buy a chunk of property with a fancy-looking slice of kit-built home hownership perched on top. Phase 2, about three times the size of Phase 1, is not yet wired up but the houses are largely up, and there are lots of little SOLD markers to be found. A larger sign promises move-in dates starting on the first of April, so it's imminent. Phase 3 still has logging equipment parked among alders and douglas-firs taller than the houses.

sorry, wrong thread

Discussing the choices with Blue, Karma asks about houses with garages. Many of them have a side entrance, with lower quality locks, and maybe that would be a good option. The new homeowner might not notice it as quickly, or may just keep it.

""" That's a great idea. Maybe even less likely to be watched or set with sensors. I think I'll summon another city spirit to make us harder to be detected as we sneak around. """

Most of these houses have garages. Of course, there's a projection system that displays typical floorplans for prospective buyers, and the basic plan is: garage on the ground floor. The builders are laying grid power into the roads right from the start, so the wageslaves who live here can run their little electric transport bubbles straight from their garage into the garage of their employers, and nap on the way. Right next to the garage, connected by an internal door, is a kitchen area with a standard spot for mechanised food dispensing equipment, plus all the usual refrigeration stuff. This has a sort of open-plan run into a dining/entertainment area, connecting to a small half-bath, a door to the front and a door to the back. The front meets the road, while the back depends on whether it's the downhill side of the house or uphill. If it's downhill, then the back door is a sliding door onto a patio built onto the piles that hold the building firmly on the steep slope that forms the ground here, and if it's uphill then it goes into a sort of furnished basement that they coyly refer to as Dad's Cave, in the plans.

From the joint entertainment area a stairway leads up, with an option for replacement with an elevator for the disabled, installed by appointment with HuangBilt. Bedrooms and bathrooms and so on exist up there.

Blue directs Karma to the development area and there they look for a house that would be easy to make the quick remodel.

There's a house on a sort of corner of a winding road. It has been built, and the fitting is still under way. The desperate duo could easily slip out, use a screwdriver to replace the lock and slip back in to the relative anonymity of the vehicle on a newly-constructed road.

It's new enough, and busy enough that there are no vagrants in sight, nor are there established squatters, nor easy access for the roaming inhabitants of the wreckage in the valley.

There are however some cheap plastic flyers fluttering in the breeze, that advertise an orkish rights movement. Apparently what chaps their respective hides today is that they want age-of-consent laws rewritten for metahuman subgroups, appropriate to biology. Age 10 for ork girls, is apparently their stated demand. That, and a strong requirement for universally accessible housing. How they intend to make housing and facilities simultaneously accessible to dwarves and trolls is not clearly delineated in this pamphlet.

"""Do you want me to keep the car hot while you do the work, or do you want me to go with you?"""

"""Yeah, if you can hand me the tools necessary to replace the building's lock, I'll do it while you keep an eye out here. I'll have the spirit conceal us as long as I am outside the building. If I can do an outside lock, it will stay with us, otherwise it will disappear as soon as I step inside. """ Blue calls to the spirit.

::: Conceal us both, and the vehicle, as I move. :::

He takes the tools Karmakaze offers, and the lock and key, and heads over to the building they selected.

Karma steps out of the car, finding a small tree to stand next to near by, giving herself a sliver of cover, but more importantly, allowing her a good vantage point over both ends of the road. Also, the new wired reflexes make it difficult to sit in the car doing nothing.

Blue moves into the building, and starts to wrestle with screws and placement. Things start out going swimmingly, and then he realises that the lock he brought isn't a perfect match for the hollow left by the one he's ripping out. In a perfect world he'd have a chisel or similar tool to cut out the interfering bits, but a flathead screwdriver tip and some profanity will help to chip away the cheap composite material making up the door's core.

Outdoors, Karmakaze takes advantage of the tree's cover to keep most of the drizzle off her head, and its trunk to cut the breeze which wants to take a shortcut right through her. It's like old times on a stakeout.

Things are quiet enough in this area that even fairly distant traffic is easy to hear, starting with the sub-bass rumble from I-5. But the rustle of rubber on a moist road and the soft squeak of brakes tells her that someone is moving around. A late househunter?

From his position, Blue can neither see nor hear anything but the whisper of the breeze through the construction site and the chipping away at the door. But at least he's not being drizzled upon.

Blue curses his carelessness when packing to leave his home forever. +++ Sure. Learn how to use a knife, and then don't bring one with you. +++ He carves the door as evenly and neatly as possible with what he has on hand, and then inserts the old lock. Screws go in next. Once it's in, it doesn't look too bad. Hopefully Madel will be able to suffuse the entire building after she has been here a while, and the old lock that will look out of place under close inspection will no longer be necessary.

+++ No idea how long it will take for her to be at home here. Can't wait around, though. Let's see if she responds. +++

Blue attempts to summon Madel, opting for the lowest Force possible. No point stretching her so early.

Karma trusts Blue's ability on bringing spirits, but not being able to see it, makes it hard to believe it 100%. She keeps her position at the tree, but her hand is on the pistol as she looks for the source of the sound.

Karmakaze sees a vehicle slowly crawling down the steeply banked street, through the skeleton of new construction.

No, wait, it's a drone. A drone the size of a small car, typically used by security services. At a guess, it's patrolling on behalf of the construction company to identify and eject vagrants, squatters and other trouble-makers. She's not sure, in the lighting conditions, exactly which model it might be but there are half a dozen on the market at least. Many of them can also convey personnel, but that costs extra and seems unlikely. No telling where the rigger might be.

Blue listens intently, quiet as a hunting owl. Everything outside seems preternaturally quiet. Then, small impressions reach him. A whiff of lavender. The sound of a slipper scuffing on a floor. Is that the click of a FlayvrVayp button?

That's all Blue needs to know Madel has a chance. ::: There you go, Madel. I hope this new home heals you and becomes yours. Take care of whoever comes to live here. Maybe I'll come back sometime and have a visit. :::

He gathers up the tools and steps outside, messaging Karmakaze, <<<Successful.>>>. As soon as he is outside, he summons a city spirit to replace the one that left.

Karmakaze doesn't check the message. She is keeping a close eye on the drone.

As Blue approaches Karma points out the issue.

"""Hurry. There is a sec drone patrolling right there. We need to get out of here."""

As the drone moves down the street and into full view, Karmakaze can clearly read the HuangBilt Construction branding on it. It's a cinch that Jeremy Huang is charging big to secure the building site, and making a pretty penny off it. Is he moving into a security sideline? It wouldn't be his first business adventure, nor his second.

Rapidly assessing the situation, Blue commands the spirit, speaking as he does so to inform Karmakaze, and framing in his mind the images of himself, Karmakaze, and the vehicle, """::: Conceal my friend and me and our vehicle from all who would espy us.:::"""

Then he heads to the vehicle, ducking tree to tree, shrub to shrub, shadow to shadow.

The drone does change direction at the curve in the street, and cruises in the direction of Karmakaze's car. Presumably that's the most obvious anomaly. But there are no alarms, no sirens, no flashing lights nor blared warnings.

In particular, there's no sign of immediate interest in Blue and Karmakaze as such.

As nonchalantly as he can, Blue goes to the car and enters the passenger side front, glancing ahead, and then behind the car, as if looking for traffic. ::: Stay close. I may need you shortly. :::

At this opportune juncture, Blue's 'link chirps with a message. It's Billy.

<<<Hoi, I got a little news for you. Jeremy's kinda torqued off about his boys you gacked, but you're worth more to him, slid on a platter to Mitsu. If not, you're just better off as dead meat. You should give up easy. It'll hurt less and you'll live longer.>>>