Karma follows suit and walks to the car casually. The motor sputters to life, and they quietly pull away from the house at 15 mph. A few houses down, she slows down and stops in front of a house that is a little different from the rest. After a few seconds she pulls away and continues down the road, looking for other houses that in someway standout from the cookie cutter layouts, all the while keeping watch on the drone behind her.

In the car, Blue forwards the message he got from Billy to Karma. """ Looks like I could write a book about how not to make friends in low places. If the drone made my image its owners will be able to link your vehicle and you to me. Sorry. """

The drone putters along behind Karmakaze's car, never trying to catch up, never showing anything except its presence. Presumably, on the innocuous side of explanations, the car is the most interesting thing around so it's following without any follow-up action.

Then again, it is HuangBilt branded.

They soon leave the area before the drone can get too close.

"""Well, that thing probably ran my plates, so I would say my place isn't going to be safe for a while."""

The drone does not follow as they leave the construction area; either it didn't care that much, or it got what it needed. Either way, as Karmakaze's little vehicle pulls further out from the valley, the two can see where the lights of the grid glow, and where in the valley things are still blacked out except for occasional flares and flickers where the barrens reach. So close, both in lawlessness, and in the slight tang of woodsmoke that the car's scrubbers can't quite cleanse.

"""Well, you can crash at mine, but you will only be able to sleep during the day. Even with major sound insulation the music from upstairs during bar hours is very loud. It's fine for me, because I'm a night owl.

""" I better have the spirit drop its Concealment on us. Wouldn't do to enter an intersection when others don't notice us. """ Blue instructs the spirit accordingly.

""" I'm ambivalent about what to do next. You were thinking of investigating HuangBilt, and my source tells me they are now torqued off at me, so maybe finding a way to neutralize that threat would be good. You got any ideas how to proceed? """

"""We still got to meet my contact. Can you find the closest hotel with a full service bar? That would allow you to conceal yourself in the lobby or the bar area and watch my back while I make the meet. I prefer not to use regular places for meets while on the run, so going some place I have never gone is a plus."""

The very nearest would be right back up the hill, near the traditional haunt of the hotellier; Seatac airport.

Slightly further, in case the dynamic duo feels a little nervous about Seatac for some reason, would be the old casino areas around Fife and Tacoma.

Blue sighs. """ It looks like the nearest is Seatac, back the way we came. But I don't feel like going anywhere near where that drone saw us. Next is the casino district up by Tacoma. I'll find one that fits. Then I'll chuck this burner, as Billy and I have communicated on it, and that could be the way I am being tracked.

""" I look forward to the day I don't have to, well, burn through these things. But maybe that's the new reality. """

Once Blue finds a suitable location, he communicates the address to Karmakaze, opens the window, and throws out the burner. """ If we pass a Stuffer Shack, let me pick up a few more of those. """

The one thing of which there's no shortage is Stuffer Shacks. In fact, particularly around casinos, where people short on cash and long on hunger and other needs tend to congregate, Stuffer Shack does a roaring trade.

It's just another twenty minutes or less on the way. Karmakaze's 'link is happy to collect headlines that Blue is missing.

<<<URBAN RENEWAL CONTRACT BIDS PENDING FROM MAJORS>>>

<<<ENCLAVE INVESTMENT UP MONTH-OVER-MONTH>>>

<<<ORGANISED CRIME - DISORGANISED LIVES>>>

<<<ENCLAVE SEPARATISTS PETITION UCAS>>>

Blue picks up the best deal he can for a set of 5 units. Back in the car, he hands one to Karmakaze and sets one aside for himself. """ Let's use these two to communicate between ourselves, so your regular unit isn't compromised. I'll use the other three as one-offs when I need to talk to my contacts or others. """

Twigging to the fact that entering the Stuffer Shack sent his city spirit home, Blue calls up another one for backup.



""" I've summoned a smaller spirit to help us out if we need it. For now, I'll get it to help protect us from driving mishaps."""

::: Spirit of the City and the Night, Guard us from mishaps as we travel. :::

Karmakaze parks her car near the main lobby of the Red Wind Casino. From there they can walk across the lot to one of the hotels. They chose the Emerald Suites, which has a large bar and cafe area, and has a moderate 2.9 stars by local residents and travelers online.

"""I am linking Badger now. I don't know if you want to conceal yourself, or just blend in with the other bar patrons. Maybe get something to eat."""

<<< [KARMA>BADGER] Can you meet me at the Emerald Suites hotel bar? I can meet you there in 30 minutes? I'm buying. >>>

Badger answers fairly soon.

<<<30 minutes? I'll be there. Crowd noise is a kind of quiet, I guess.>>>

This is a fairly apt description of a long-standing casino that survived the turmoil of redrawing the map of North America. The expansion of gambling methods hasn't kept many of the oldies out of the mix. You can still spin a wheel and watch a ball, or you can play virtual games to throw money around.

The restaurant area is relatively friendly, but the casino security is tight. Both as a matter of law, and as a matter of business practice. Summoning spirits in here will raise all sorts of alarms.

Once the car is parked, Blue directs the city spirit to conceal the pair of them. Hopefully, that would make tracking them from the car to the bar harder. Once in the bar, of course, the city spirit would disappear.

Not all spirit powers are convenient, though the choking cloud of ill-combusted kerosene fumes that follows them to the hotel doors would surely be effective. With slightly watering eyes, Blue and Karmakaze can enter the hotel and make a left into the bar area.

Blue situates himself at the bar such as to command as much of a view of the room as possible. He wipes his watery eyes with a paper napkin and orders a beer. Something that can be nursed for a while without seeming obviously out of place. One sip, and he is reminded of the beers back home. Some Canadian traditions had not yet died out, and high-alcohol-content beer was one that held on tenaciously.

Not that Blue could hold his beer as well as so many others of his metahuman strain. 'Mind over body' pursuits had left him less fortified physically than some.

He notes where Karmakaze sets up for the meet, and then opens his perception to the astral to see what floats around in this environment.

At the far end of the bar, where Karma could watch the entrance(s), she slides up to the bar. She scans the bar to get an idea of the other partrons, how much a threat they may be. When the bartender approaches, she orders a drink and sandwich, and awaits her contacts arrival.

The patrons in general are an evening casino crowd, in one sense; they're the people one would expect to buzz around, slamming back a drink or three, or trying the artisanal gyoza.

On the other hand, at this hour most of the heavyweights are draining their credsticks in the casino, so the bar is actually pretty empty. Fewer than a dozen patrons sit around. The bartender is taking time to set up for the later rush, the two waitresses are chit-chatting at the coffee station. It's a lounge are that is nearly a century out of date, and yet timeless in its way.

Eventually, Karmakaze sees Badger coming in. As always, he looks rather like a weasel, as if he'd been dangled by the tip of his nose and all the rest of him had dripped and sloped down at an angle. Still, he's a bounty hunter and a successful one at that.

He's wearing a fairly nondescript ball cap, a dull old jacket, faded jeans and boots. He could have been anything from a dock worker to a security guard to a truck driver to a repairman - all part of the deal. He's wearing wrap-around glasses, which are fairly typical in the area for those with unaugmented eyes, but his are certainly augmented.

He strolls over to Karmakaze as if he'd always intended to sit at that end of the bar and plonks down on a stool one away from her.

"""How's it going?"""

When the bartender shows up a little later he says: """Soykaf, just sugar, and crispy chicken."""

It takes a while for the coffee to arrive, longer than it should with the bar as empty as it is. As her contact stirs in the artificial sweetener from individual packets delivered with his drinks, Karmakaze slides over into the seat next to him.

With a lowered voice, she gets to business, """So what is the rest of the story with "Big Jeremy", and what is this plan of yours?"""

"""Jeremy's a big man - you know how it is. And he's also a hungry one. He sees a chance, he takes it and he doesn't care who else gets hurt."""

Badger looks down at his cup and stirs thoughtfully, with the spoon making little clinking noises against the ceramic.

"""So when he hears that Big Mittenhammer's looking hard for someone, with money attached, he starts leaning on people to find out who knows something, then he sets up his boys to make a grab. Easy money. Maybe a little extra in the wallet for the catspaws too."""

Badger pauses to sip the coffee, then puts it back down and reaches for another packet.

"""Then the whole thing blows up in his face. His name is attached, to death, destruction, and the kind where he took it instead of dishing it out. People are calling for payback. Now he's not in it for money any more. He's in it for honour; for respect. You get me?"""

Blue sees little of interest in the astral, so he draws his full attention back to the material plane.

The beer is reasonable, the crowd is light and quiet. He keeps a non-chalant demeanour as he scans the room and entrances for anything potentially dangerous. And of course, there is his friend the bounty hunter talking with another one of her profession, about him.

+++ Note to self: up the range of Mindlink. +++

Taking another small drink from her beer, Karma listens. +++Who the frag is Big Mittenhammer?+++

She takes another drink after Badger finishes.

"""So who killed his guys? There wasn't much destruction, and there was no death. I left his guys all alive, and even treated the worst injury while the staff called for an ambulance. Then this morning we read on the screamsheets that there were five dead in a massacre."""

"""I have no idea who gakked them. Chiptruth. But let me answer your question with a question; how much do you think he cares, or his street-level associates care who did? More than anything right now, he needs to win. It's not about saving money, it's about saving face."""

Badger pauses while the bartender slides along some crispy slices of what are probably lab-grown chicken cells, and flicks a credstick for a tip.

"""So you really shouldn't be surprised when you hear that your client is worth five figures on the public market to the Big Mittens, but is worth six on the black market to Camelia's. C.O.D."""

He takes another sip of coffee while she absorbs this information.

"""So who is calling for payback on Jeremy because of this? The enemy of my enemy might be my friend."""

Badger chuckles, slowly shaking his head. He takes a strip of fried stuff and crunches it, then sips from his cup before answering.

"""You're looking at this in the wrong screen. See, a guy like mister Huang, he rose up the cliff of society by stepping on a lot of people. Some dead, some broken, some just cowed into submission. All of them left, and all of their families resent that, and all of them want a big, fat, meaty slice of Huang hoop fried just right. Sure, the families, if they know, and the friends, if they have any of his muscle are torqued off about this, but probably not at Jeremy. No, Jeremy is like troll surrounded by devil rats. While the troll is swinging a hammer, he's in charge. But let him slump to his knees and they're on him like a cloud of rage and teeth. Jeremy has to prove that he's still swinging that hammer. Now, this raises a different question, see? Does Jeremy actually have half a meganuyen just sitting around as vengeance money? Maybe. Maybe not. But even if he does, it makes other things tight, and a man like Jeremy has vices too. So if you're looking for an angle on Jeremy, not that that's a safe thing to do, I would start by asking to whom Jeremy owes money. Maybe they want to know that they'll see a return on their investments."""

Badger dials up the bar's built-in menu interface, and selects a krill-and-kelp salad. It beeps softly, and the bartender, who doubtless got the message in AR, gives Badger a thumbs-up before turning to the kitchen hatch.

Badger adds to Karmakaze, gesturing slightly with another piece of fried chicken cellular culture: """You'll see I'm not taking Huang's cash right now. I think it's suckerbait."""

Karma is silent for a minute, taking in the information before replying.

"""I don't know if I have the resources to locate this information. From what I know is that the contract on my client will expire in a week or two, but it sounds like Jeremy isn't going to care. So I need to put the pressure on him to drop it, either by meeting with people I don't know, or meeting with him."""

Badger starts to laugh, then smothers it. """Yeah, if you meet him in the flesh, there's a big bounty on his head. Several, in fact. But good luck collecting."""

He glances around, perhaps reflexively, and then says in a lower voice: """Look, if you wanna trip Jeremy up, you need to talk to people in the real estate industry. He has made many enemies for many reasons, but most of them don't want to take him to court after bad things started happening to witnesses and plaintiffs."""

Blue watches Karmakaze and her contact talk, heads a little closer together than strangers side by side, talking quietly. While this transpires, thoughts about what he has recently learned drift through his consciousness.

+++ Mitsuhama, I hope, is likely to give up on me in a few days, and call off the contract. But this Huang guy, street thug turned 'honest businessman' isn't going to let me off so easily. I'm getting tired of being the prey to their hunters. Maybe it's time for the owl to turn on the nasty little rat. +++

He mulls over this idea. It kinda feels good. Speaking of rats, Karmakaze's buddy sort of looks like one. An image of talons sinking into his back flashes across Blue's mind.

+++ Whoa! Where did that come from? +++

Blue takes a big, cooling swig of the beer, finishing it, and orders another. +++ Live down to the image. A dwarf who doesn't drink is suspicious. +++

"""My client is under the notion that the contract on him from Mit will expire soon. I don't completely understand why, but he is pretty confident. Once he clears that, maybe then we can collect Jeremy."""

"""Who knows? It could. According to my data ... """ Badger takes a moment, chewing and doubtless scrolling through a feed """... it actually does. Whaddya know? Of course, that doesn't mean that it won't be replaced with a fresh contract. They do that sometimes, to create a sense of urgency; act now, this offer expires soon! Oh wait, that offer expired and we still didn't get our mook. Here's our new offer, with more sprinkles!"""

He sips more coffee, and adds: """Of course, they've burned their bridges with him, so they're probably giving up on pulling him in quietly. If you want to help him, maybe you could have him do them some kind of favour so they back off?"""

Blue considers the environment here. +++ Probably a place like this would be a good dodge hole in a pinch. With the kind of rapid response this type of place has, not too many predators would want to cause a stir. They would wait outside, more likely. +++

"""What kind of favour? Do you have a contact?"""

"""Beats me. And - well, I know some people in Mitsuhama, but not that high up. Then again, I don't know who put his chop on that order anyways, so who really knows? Probably some local senior sarariman, rather than a big hat back in Nippon. But if you'll pick up my tab here, I'll give you a tip on dealing with mister Huang, if you have the hez for it. If not, I'll buy my own chicken and you can deal with him on your own terms."""

"""Dinner is on me. Your help will really be appreciated."""

Badger casually takes a sip and pauses, while the bartender drifts to the delivery hatch to pick up someone else's meal.

"""Huang is paranoid, but no security kahuna. He has a girl he likes to spoil in return for doing whatever he likes. I have her address. He usually goes there and parks a couple of his boys down the street as hands-off security. It's a little irregular, but he's paying for the lovenest so he's often there whether he's hoopslapping or not. Only one person cares, as far as I know: Amanda Chung. If you're into it, I'll give you the address, and maybe slip me a commission when you deliver?"""

"""I will take the job regardless, since I think that is the only way to protect my client, but I still have a few questions. Is there a figure to the bounty? Do you think it is a trap? And do you have any intel on Jeremy's cyber and bioware, or any magical abilities, or that of his bodyguards?"""

Badger counts the points on his fingers as he answers, after giving them a cursory wipe for grease.

"""Jeremy Huang, last I heard, was offering a lakh for the head of your client. I don't think that his lovenest is a trap, and I think that he may be unprofessional enough to be a little relaxed there. I'm pretty sure he's not magical. He definitely has a cyberarm and cybereyes, but I don't know about anything else. He likes to fit his cyberarm with mechanical tools like welders to torture people, but most of the time it looks normal. As for magic, who knows? But I'd bet that he'd at least retain some kind of magician to watch his back after recent events."""

Karmakaze nods, """Okay. Link me the information, and I will do the job. You will get your cut. My client will be safe. Do you know how often he visits his lady of the night?"""

Badger taps his fingers on the bartop by way of haptic interface, and Karmakaze's 'link notifies her of data incoming.

"""Not sure, but I can bet on at least twice a week, probably more. Look, Jeremy's a big, heavy guy, okay? Never mind the organ chain that he owns, he packs a lot of fat on that frame because he likes his goodies, and when his goodies include a piece on the side, he's not one to deny himself on any day he feels inclined."""

Karma checks her link, reads through the data transferred in case it spurs any more questions. At the moment it doesn't.

"""Thanks, Badger."""

Badger returns with his thanks for picking up the tab, wipes down his hands, knocks back his drink and wanders off. Tonight he ate cheap, at any rate.

Blue watches Karmakaze's contact leave. He finishes his beer, leaves a decent tip for the bartender, and wanders out the way they came in. Just outside, he waits for Karmakaze to exit and go to her car, and looks around to see if the contact decided to hang around, or to see if yet more thugs have miraculously found them.

If nothing immediately tries to geek him, he summons a spirit to him astrally.

The closest thing to thugs in view is the rather bored security for the place. There aren't any rowdy drunks to eject, and there's nothing much going on. The real fun will come later in the night, and they have the gear to handle that.

The spirit arrives in the apparent form of belched exhaust gases and smoke, fog and wind-blown wrappers - or so at least it appears to Blue's view.

The beer is only slightly cool now, but Karmakaze continues to work on it. She watches Badger leave, then wonders where Blue is. She looks back to her beer, avoiding locating her friend, or at least partner. Someone could still be watching, and no point of going through all of this cloak and dagger show to give it away now. She takes another drink from her glass before texting Blue.

<<<[KARMA>BLUE] Let me know when to exit. Maybe you can see if someone follows me. Where do you want me to pick you up?>>>

<<<Blue to Karmakaze: I walked out after your guy left. Sorry. Thought you would see. Hanging with a friendly spirit right now, so I'll step to the side and watch you go to your car to see if someone pays any interest. If nobody looks like they're following, I'll meet you at the car.>>>

Blue chuckles to himself when he notices his Canadianism. Some habits die hard, even in the Sixth World..

Blue moves to the side, into the shadows, and waits for Karmakaze to exit the building, watching all the while for any suspicious activity. The spirit remains nearby in the astral.

<<<[KARMA>BLUE] Settling up the tab now. Didn't want to give your position away so I didn't look for you. Be out in a minute. >>>

She settles the bill with the bartender and heads for the door. She scans the lobby, then the lot as she walks toward her car, looking for any suspicious characters or Badger. Blue said he would be watching as she exited, so her backside should be covered.

There's no sign of Badger at all, and all the sleaziest characters appear to be engaged in losing their money in the casino right now.

Of course, just outside the premises are a few bums hoping for a high roller to splash some cash, or maybe waiting for the early evening kitchen cleanout to score them something edible, but that's fairly normal.

Things look calm, and nobody has tried to geek Blue in the last five minutes, so he proceeds to Karmakaze's car, climbs in the passenger side and asks, """Get anything useful?"""

The car pulls away as soon as Blue sits down.

"""Looks like you are clear from Mitsuhama proper, but we should probably verify that with a second source. However, some clown going by Big Jeremy is the man who put the thugs on you at the seafood place we met at. You made him look bad hurting all his lackeys like that, and I would bet he is the one who iced them. Since we made him look bad, he wants to regain his little rep, by taking you down. My contact said there is what sounds like a... "off-the-books" bounty on Big Jackass. He gave me the address to his girlfriend's place, that he hits up randomly at least once a week. This is the only known time he isn't walking around with his body guards, but they are usually not too far, parked on the same street. No intel if they are magic or not.

"""So I say that is our next move."""