AM asks "How close are the two of you?"

The Duchess face went dark: "She... she helped me very much after... after my whole family died. I was totally lost. Without Katya I wouldn't have... She was my anchor. So yes, we were... are close."

AM responds "That must be rough, and I can imagine that you formed some very significant bond. What I am about to say is not very pleasant to hear, but we need your help Grace because of that very powerful bond you have with Katya.

"The leads I have right now are somehow all linked to Katya. Either somebody tries to make her look guilty, or she knows more than she is willing to share with a bunch of strangers that she does not trust. I came to you because Katya said something when she was a bit off-balanced she seemed very insecure about the future, and even said something as if it is Cunnigham or her, and that she is so much more able than him.

She really felt as if she was fighting for her place, and even said something as if it is Cunnigham or herself.

She pauses and then says non-confrontationally Katya was right there at the greenhouse when Invictus was disrupted. She would not tell us and even seemed as if she tried to get us far away from the scene. Understandable considering she does not trust us, but perhaps she knows something more, and would share it with you if you confront her?

She sighed and then added "The second clue is that our system was hacked from within the Library - again where Katya had access to the terminals. To make her look extra guilty, a Russian military-grade agent software was used to bypass the security and edit a document about the Blue Admiral.
She sighsNow, frankly her Grace. She will tell us nothing about either of that- she does not trust us, but you are family to her.

Mato notes that Katya shoves her way past Jawsey and not himself. Jawsey's certainly the easier target, but Mato would have figured that she would take the fight straight to the larger target.

Once she is gone, he turns to Jawsey. "Time to get ready for the hunt. I'll be expected in the field. If you're on astral overwatch, keep an eye open for biofiber pockets and astral artifacts from a dragon's horde, neh?"

He heads off to the armory to check in with the other chasseurs. He remembers that they'll be carrying rifles out in the field, so he'll need to check one out as well as receive instructions about what one actually does on a hunt.

Jawsey and Mato saw Katya move away and at the same time vanish from sight. Mato had her on her radar a second longer before that image vanished in a cloud of static and his ultrasound also only showed a scattered mess anymore.

Meanwhile in the Library, Katya hessitated for a good ten seconds before replying:

"What you say paints a very dark picture of my bodyguard, companion and friend. Maybe there is an innocent explanation. If Invictus was such a foul traitor, maybe Katya took it upon herself to rid us of him, but now thinks that she can't admit to it because she overstepped her authority. And even though the ring looked lovely, in the grand scheme of things it's not that important to me. I believe in her, she will do right be me."
The Duchess stood up: "I have to get ready for the hunt. Thank you, I'll talk to her about it."

She opened the door to go out into the hall, but turned around again to AM: "Thank you for being so open to me about that. I appreciate honesty above all else. No matter how cruel the truth maybe, being lied to and manipulated is much worse. Those who do so deserve to lose all they hold dear."

Jawsey heads back to his room to get his coat -- 'coat' barely seems to do justice to the tailors art in the thing, but the word would have to do -- and to take a few minutes stretching out his back and easing off his feet.

Not at all just to appreciate the comfort of the mattresses and sheets that were provided even in servant rooms. The previous night he'd been so tired that he'd passed out almost right away, and they'd been rudely dragged out of their rooms this morning, so he really hadn't given the bed the attention it deserved.

After a few minutes, well, several minutes, he got back to his feet, gathered his cane and his game face, and then headed to ... well that was a good question. McElroy had said to go somewhere with a good view, had he not? Or at least where he could best monitor the hunt. McElroy was already going to be watching from the astral, and Jawsey's own astral endurance may not last the full length of the hunt.

Well, best begin at the beginning, and go to where they were mustering. There he could look for any signs of friction or enchantment. Or at the least see if anyone was in need of a detox spell. In the campaign that this was turning out to be, it was possible that an alert hunter could be the proverbial nail that was needed for the shoe, for the horse, for the message, for the battle. Probably not, but it was a pleasant enough conceit to pull him out of his room at last, towards the stables. Surely he'd find the mustering point somewhere in the vicinity.

AM mentally grins for being for her honesty from all traits, as a follower of the Trickster nevertheless... She keeps a straight face and stands up "Please, do let me know if Katya says anything that may help, reputation is everything to me. I'll reciprocate with honest information about anything that may concern you.

Jawsey was correct with his intuition: The horses as well as the guests were out there, steaming in the cold. Stablehands as well as Cunningham were present and helped the guests with their rides.

A fearful looking red fox sat curled up in his cage while a short distance away the hell hounds paced uneasily.

Meanwhile, Mato found the briefing. Hamington explained the planed route of the hunt, as well as the practice: "We don't expect that the guests will catch the fox - that will be the job of the hellhounds. We have to ride heard on the guests and prevent them from getting lost - or attacked by a critter out here. Keep your rifles ready. The horses all have implants to track them as well as calm them down if necessary. Still, you should all disable gas vent and put a silencer on - just in case. We have Doc Waggon on call should there be a particularly bad incident, but keep your medpacks ready as well. The Couriers should also have spirits that can use healing ready. All guests should have their tags active that prevent friendly fire - just make sure, no-one takes off the AR warn vests."


The Duchess nodded at AM's words and left.
AM was nearly at the door when she heard her speak: "Oh Katya, there you are - time to go out and take part in this silliness. Do me a favor - if you can make sure the fox gets away."

Mato looks around. It sounds like they're riding... horses. Does everyone else know how to ride a horse? Is Mato expected to know how to ride a horse?

Hell hounds? he thinks to himself. How is this remotely competitive?

He's full of questions - like whether the hell hounds just annihilate their prey - but he doesn't have to understand, he just has to participate.

When it's time to ask stupid questions, Mato ventures in.

"What sort of critters might be present?" he asks. "Are we shooting to discourage or are we shooting to kill?" This is partly a question about what type of ammo to use, and whether warning shots are usually sufficient.

"Are the guests armed? Not for the fox, but for self-defense?"

Hamington replied:

"Around here we have the usual - Devil Rats from the dumps to the south, sometimes led by Demon Rats. There are now and again migrating Fenrir Wolve packs. Careful, those have a very strong fear ability. The greatest danger though comes from the Horned Bears around here.

Rule of thumb is: If they aren't charging at you, notify the others and back off. But if there is any threat in your opinion to our guests, waste them. You'll get flechette ammunition as well as standard. That should prevent over penetration and hurt enough to make them go away.

Our guests all have hunting rifles with safety features. So there should be no accidents. Ideally they don't fire them at all, but instead concentrate on riding.
We'll be using the offroad mono cycles to keep up. Not very dignified, but you'll appreciate them once you get into the underbrush.

Well, let's get going then. Tallyho."

Jawsey steps back against the stable, to ensure he isn't going to be trampled by a horse, then looks around. And then he re-focuses on the astral and truly looks at the people. After a moment a distant memory of an old-time flat-trid came to him, where someone was thrown from a horse that had been tampered with in some way. Something stuck under the saddle maybe? Whatever had been the case in that story, it inspired him to look at the horses in the astral too. He wasn't sure quite what he was looking for with the horses but he supposed that if one was markedly different from the others, that might be worth noting.

The people around did show neither magical influence upon them nor any other change of their aura compared to yesterday. All of them seemed to be almost fully sober by now. Igor was absent, as was Jenny Marshall. Thorbjörn Valez appeared to be comfortable in the saddle - just as Chan Wu. Harabia appeared more masculin today - and gave the impression of having been born in the saddle.

Their horses were calm and showed slight sighns of calming drugs in their system. Other than that, there was no sign of anything amiss.

Above them in the astral, a hugh and powerful spirit of man hovered, keeping watch. This one was most certainly McElroy's doing.

Only a few minutes later, the Duchess and Katya made their appearance. Sir Pike came from the stable, leading two horses and gave one of them into the care of his fiance. Both mounted the horses with ease and practice.

Katya showed no signs of getting on a horse herself, but kept close to the Duchess, while Cunningham did the same for Sir Pike.

"Tallyho," Mato confirms under his breath. He moves to collect his rifle, ammunition, and medpack.

From his time in the city he's certainly familiar with devil rats. Demon rats are decidedly less common but he's at least familiar with them by reputation. He remembers watching a documentary in his youth about horned bears - he recalls something about them being intelligent and territorial, yet honorable (?) in their challenges. But what the frag is a Fenrir Wolf? Are those the things that bit of Týr's hand? He would prefer not to find out if they have a taste for titanium.

He's a bit surprised not to be assigned hollow points, but doesn't think much of it. The notion of riding around on offroad mono cycles is decidedly surprising. He can't believe that any folks rich enough to spring for a house and costumed servants like this would ascent to offroad mono cycles. And, in truth, Mato would probably be faster without them, but he'll fall in and do as he's told.

"Pip pip," he says to Brad. "Cheerio, here we go."

Brad grinned back at Mato: "That's the spirit. Keep your head down anyway - never trust these sensor based safety devices. By the way: Did you learn anything new about that gun that supposedly killed Invictus?"

By now the hunting party is assembled and Pike is speaking a few words to his friends. There is laughter and one of the stable hands moves towards the fox cage to release the little critter.

"Anything new?" Mato says rhetorically. "No, just what I told you last night. Savalette Guardian, double barrel modification, silenced, the only known weaponsmith to produce is Roman Czerniek in Prague.

"Why?" he asks. "Am I missing something obvious?"

Jawsey stared at the milling equestrians, guards, and servants, and thought "What am I supposed to be doing here? If anything happened I'd probably miss it in all of the chaos." Still he stood there a bit longer, watching and thinking. Finally he decided that the Duchess seemed more likely to be hit by whatever was going on that was the Duke, so he summoned a Hunter Brother, and ordered the spirit to astrally track the Duchess, informing Jawsey if her aura showed signs of being affected by magic, injury, illness, or drugs, or if she dismounted.



After the summoning Jawsey rather wanted to go find one of the comfortable couches in the Chausseur area, and take a nap. However he was supposed to be keeping an eye on the hunt, and if he wasn't doing that he should be helping Ana search the mansion. A bit of thought brought about about one place to start, and Jawsey quietly headed back to the mansion, and up to the roof. He'd be able to keep an eye on things at least until they rode into the forest, and it would also let him see what the views were like from up there -- they'd assumed Invictus was up there for the mana of the greenhouse, but what if he'd also been waiting to see something? For that matter, how well could one see into the maze from up there?

It wasn't likely that the roof had much more to tell them, but he could make sure of that while also keeping an eye on the start of the hunt.

Brad replied: "Well, have you called the man and asked who he build the custom weapon for?"
The hunt started and both chasseurs followed as flankers. Everyone on horseback was laughing and calling out. Katya had started running and vanished from sight, but was presumably close to the Duchess.
The hunt neared the trees and would have to slow down.


Jawsey had a fantastic view from up there - the hunt had started and the hounds bounded after the fox. It was only a matter of time until the horses would vanish beneath the trees, when a single shot sounded through the woods.

Over comm someone called: <<Cunningham has been hit. Stop the hunt.>>

Mato doesn't know whether Brad is a genius or crazy. He personally would not have thought to call Roman Czerniek in Prague. First, Mato doesn't speak the language, or at least he presumes he doesn't. (Maybe Jawsey does.) Second, why would Roman reveal information about one of his buyers? The people who have custom work done on their firearms would generally prefer to keep the modifications to themselves, especially if they're going to use them in the commission of crimes. Unless the gun was stolen...? Perhaps Mato could trick Roman into revealing something, but that's more Jawsey's skill. He decides to suggest it to the elf later.

Now, to the hunt. It all seems a bit silly and formal to Mato - overly ritualized and fetishized - but he feels the same way about golf.

When Mato gets the news, his stomach sinks. The job is going to be a lot harder if their principal just got geeked. "Oh bother," he grumbles.

<<En route>> he comms. If the distance is reasonable he'll ride the offroad mono cycle, but if it's far enough where time might be of the essence to Cunningham then he'll dismount and run.

<<Anyone have a reading on his biomonitor?>> he asks. This, of course, assumes that Cunningham has one.

Then, to AM and Jawsey: <<AM, did the sensors capture that shot? If so, can you confirm if it was from a registered weapon? If not, can you run it through your databases to see if you can get a match like you did from the shot in the greenhouse?>>

As he gets close to Cunningham, he puts his sensors on full alert to sweep the area for threats. This could be friendly fire from a hapless hunter or it could be unfriendly fire from an insider or an outsider. Or it could be someone mentally manipulated, as Mato suspects that others have been.

AM didn't have to look longer than a second to see that the shot hadn't been caught inside the sensor coverage of the estate.
The biomonitor of Cunningham showed him to be in critical condition and some 50 m ahead of Mato.
A second alert popped up in Mato's hud - one of his fellow Chasseurs, Lt. John Fines had just flatlined.
A message came in from Katya: "Shooter is down."

Mato was close enough to see Cunningham on the ground, blood pooling from a wound in his chest, staining his waistcoat.
Brad was close by as was Pike and the Duchess. Both of them were utterly in shock and not moving, still on top of their horses.

"Frag me," Mato grumbles as his problems multiply. He jumps off his offroad mono cycle and moves swiftly over to Cunningham, pulling out his medpack as he goes.

<<AM, can you relay the situation to Jawsey via Trouble? If he's out-and-about he won't get these comms. If Trouble can keep an astral eye on Katya while Jawsey and his spirit look around for anyone taking advantage of the chaos, I would appreciate it. Also, let's keep an eye on McElroy's spirit of man, in case it compelled Lt. Fines to discharge his weapon at Cunningham. And see if you can tell if Cunningham had an AR tag to prevent friendly fire that was somehow deactivated.>>

He looks up and sees Brad staring dumbfounded with Pike and the Duchess.

"Sergeant Burns!" Mato says with as much authority as he can muster. "Escort the Duke and Duchess back to the stables, if you please!"

Then he turns his attention to Cunningham. If the medpack doesn't have a trauma patch then at least Mato carries one for just this sort of occasion. Given that Cunningham is in critical condition and that Mato's first aid skills are rudimentary at best, he opts to go straight to the trauma patch. If there isn't enough of a wireless signal out here then he might have to do it the old-fashioned way.

<<Corporal Varison, if you are nearby, please secure Lieutenant Fines and see if you can render assistance.>>

In the meantime, Mato tries to keep an eye on his sensors in case Katya geeked the wrong shooter, or is the shooter herself. He also examines Cunningham's wound. Is it really from Fines' weapon? Is this a shot from an Alpha do the ballistics suggest a different weapon? He expected Fines to be packing flechette ammo, per the briefing. Mato would expect Cunningham's armor to stop a flechette round, but perhaps one of the barbs found a gap in his armor.

<<Damnit, Katya, what are you doing? You're more than capable of incapacitating a target without liquidating them. Escort the Duchess and try not to kill anyone on your way.>>

"Aye!" Brad snaped back into action and began hurriedly to herd the two people back towards Pike Hall.

Fines replied: <<I'm on it. Katya is there with him. Oh my god. It looks like she turned him into a kebab with her spur.>>

Determining the size of the wound canal isn't easy with the blood still pouring out. The shot seemed to have missed the heart but hit a lung instead. Frothing blood bubbles came from torso and mouth.

Katya's response was curt and hostile: <<I know what I have to do. If someone aims at your principal, you take them out.>>

Mato puts his ambidexterity to work, immediately applying pressure to the wound with one hand while his other hand produces the assigned medpack. His metal fingers nimbly find and unwrap a rayon pad - highly absorbent - to insert into the wound and begin clotting. He'll also need to be mindful of Cunningham not suffocating, especially if there is internal hemorrhaging and blood is pooling in his lungs.

"Hang tight there," he tells Cunningham, knowing that it's important to keep the man focused and as alert as possible. "Tis but a scratch. A flesh wound. Why, I dare say you did some damage to that bullet. We'll call it a draw."

As he starts to get the bleeding under control, he prepares a chest drainage tube to be inserted into the lung in case Cunningham has difficulty breathing. He also attaches the sensor trodes of the medpack to Cunningham to get an early read on blood oxygenation and heartrate.

"Doc Wagon is on the way," he says reassuringly with a pained smile.

<<Master of the Hunt, can you confirm that Doc Wagon is on the way?>> he comms to Hamington.

Mato spreads some sulfonamide powder over the wound that's been mixed together with anticoagulants to both promote clotting while retarding infection.

<<Corporal Varison, secure Lieutenant Fines' weapon. Please see if any rounds are missing. Please confirm the current ammunition loadout.>>

Then Mato tries to figure out where Lt. Fines is in relation to Cunningham. Is there clear line-of-sight? Is the range reasonable? Would a shot from that direction strike Cunningham in the chest, presuming that he didn't spin theatrically after being shot?

To McElroy and the Couriers: <<If a Courier could present himself or herself promptly, or a spirit suitably endowed with the proper magicks, I would be indebted.>>

Trying to think about trajectories while doing triage turns out to be taxing. But Mato's efforts pay off as Cunningham's life signs start to stabilize.
Hamington replied: <<Confirm, DocWaggon is on its way. Get the horses out of the way, they won't be able to land here.>>
Varison replied: <<Aye, I'm recording as I speak, checking the chamber now. Smells like a shot has been fired. Barrel is hot. Loadout is Armor Piercing Discarding Sabbot - the Lt. was the one who should deal with Horned Bears if necessary. The Lt. is dead by the way. No more life signs from his monitor.>>

A large spirit, reminiscent of a greek goddess had appeared over Mato's shoulder. With a benevolent smile it said: "Apply your skills first, for when I let flow my succor you won't be able to any more."

Mato is not exactly making a mess of things, but nor is he duplicating his stunning success with Chan's injuries. Of course, with Chan he had benefited from a full medkit along with a significant mental boost from AM that was thrilling and borderline intoxicating. Doing this in the woods while simultaneously juggling an investigation, the possibility of your employer dying in front of him, and the realization that a psycho Russian cyborg just geeked one of your coworkers was both distracting and disconcerting.

Somewhere along the way, he realizes that he hasn't done enough to stabilize Cunningham. His hand slips into his pocket and fishes out the trauma patch that he's been carrying with him for month. AM, Jawsey, and Bobby know where to find it case Mato gets dropped. He hopes he won't need it as he unwraps it and applies it to Cunningham's chest. The dermal drug dispenser connects to the Matrix and immediately injects Cunningham with a potent pharmaceutical cocktail that immediately helps stem his blood loss while simultaneously flooding his system with boosters for his immune system.

The medpack sensors confirm Cunningham's stabilization, with his vital signs no longer plummeting off a cliff.

"Okay," Mato says, patting Cunningham comfortingly (if metal hands can ever comfort). "We'll sit tight and wait for DocWagon. So, how about those Screamers this year?"

He exhales, although his situation has not vastly improved. Fines is still dead, which is damnably inconvenient. He hands over Cunningham to the care of the Greek goddess.

<<Thank you, Corporal. AR tag the Lieutenant's location. Pending further instructions from Hamington, why don't you escort the guests back. Bring the rifle with you as evidence. I'll wait for DocWagon and the coroner.>>

Then he comms AM and updates her on Cunningham and the findings from the Fines' rifle. <<Have you or Trouble made contact with Jawsey yet? Any possibility of searching the area for magical influence? I suspect that Lt. Fines was affected in much the same way as the MET2K guard after dinner the other night.>>

<<And let's keep our eyes open for that damn jewel. With all these disturbances it would be easy to slip it off the grounds. Are any of the guests or staff in an unexpected position?>>

As Mato finished with his best efforts, the spirit moved in. Mato could see how color came back to Cunningham's face and he opened his eyes. He coughed up large chunks of congealed blood.
He looked at Mato and said: "Help me up, please? That was the last straw. We have to take down that murderous bitch."
At Mato's surprised look he said: "I saw my shooter. Lt. Fines wasn't even looking at me when someone wrenched his rifle in my direction and fired. And I know of only one person around here who habitually goes around fuly cloaked."

The corporal replied: <<Aye, I'll take care of the guests, but someone has to relieve me of guarding Fines first. Mrs. Komarova has gone to attend the Duchess.>>
AM replied: <<Trouble has informed Jawsey, he should be with you in a moment.>>

Mato helps up Cunningham as requested.

"I believe what you saw," he tells Cunningham. "Katya has killed Lt. Fines. But if I might offer some dispassionate counsel, let us examine the late Lieutenant's body first. Magically as well as mundane. I've arranged for a Courier."

<<Jawsey, Trouble, whomever, let's get eyes on the body ASAP. I want to know if there was magical interference before it gets scrubbed.>>

"Continuing my observations, there is a suspicious pattern of unexplained compulsion affecting the household over the last 24 hours. The MET2K merc, the removal of the Blue Admiral from the safe, and now this shot. It seems that someone or something is going to great lengths to not only distract the household but also to actively tear it apart. If so, I do not wish to fall into the same trap out of undue haste."

Expecting an objection, he holds up his hands. "Allow me a few moments to inspect Lt. Fines. We know where Katya will be."

When the announcement came that Cunningham had been shot Jawsey had wasted a few critical seconds considering all the possibilities. Changet he commands to his spirit? But what could it actually do now, when it had already missed the critical instant? Race out there astrally to check on Cunningham? But Mato was close and could actually do something to help. Go check everyone's auras on the astral? Possibly informative, but at this point everyone should look stressed or scared or whatever, almost anything could be explained by the shot. And there was already a large spirit of man out there who could be watching for that sort of thing.

But whoever was behind all that was going on, they had been devious so far, from what they understood. Could this be one of those moments where more than one thing would be happening? That was worth checking. Jawsey quickly lay down, opened up his sword cane, then went astral with his focus in hand. He raced down to the vicinity of the main gate and checked to see if there was anyone unexpected there. Then he manifested in front of the guards and told them "emergency situation, could you please inform your team to keep the grounds locked down for the next bit, nobody in or out."

He doesn't stay to argue with the Met2k soldier, and instead astrally zooms across the grounds to the vicinity of the hunt, taking a moment to check the auras for familiarity and then spiralling a bit wider to look for anyone farther away.

Then Trouble catches up to him to relay the request to inspect Lt. Fines, who has apparently been killed. Jawsey suspects that Ana's ally could have done a fair job of that on its own, but he does as requested while also asking Trouble to ask Ana for permission to perform its own inspection.

After sending trouble to help AM feels the panic in her veins, Cunnigham is the one paying the true bill. If he goes where else would their employment be documented. She imagines the implications of not getting paid as things get from worse to a disaster.
>> I am not sure what happened there, Looking through the trix.


She uses the time to hack the comlink of the recently deceased knowing it will be unprotected. She is not such a brilliant hacker, but without a person to look at a possible error message, hacking is easier, and she wants to know what is going on. She also checks if the gun has a smartlink, and thus a camera if it actually fired a shot at Cunnigham. Or at least, the time of the last discharge, a number of bullets, and statistics of the shooter. If someone else hacked it to remove safety constraints.

Cunningham agreed, still weak and chalk white. "I'll just take a little breather by this tree until the paramedics arrive. Make sure Sir Pike and the Duchess are save meanwhile."

The gates looked fine - no magical tampering and the MET2K were all at their posts. The mercenary had barely managed an "Aye, but what..." before Jawsey was gone again.

The guests looked all distraught and excited in the astral, still no-one seemed to have been exposed to magic.

Jawsey was at the location of Lt. Fines body in the blink of an eye. The spot could hardly be missed: The violent death had tainted the astral quite noticeable. Unfortunately this also meant that Jawsey was unable to make out anything that would indicate a magic compulsion.

AM meanwhile had more success: The gun had been tampered with. Seconds before the shot had been delivered, someone had hacked the security feature preventing anyone from targeting friendlies. The signature looked familiar - again the Agent Program? It would take a detailed look to be sure, but AM had a gut feeling that this was the same MO that had been responsible for the hack in the library.
Even more disturbing, the shot had been triggered remotely as well. Looking closer she noticed three MARKs on the weapon - no particularl iconography, only a string of alphanumeric characters.
Just as AM had finished her assessment, she noticed something going on with the weapon. It started to reboot.

AM tries to pinpoint the hacker, but there is only a brief second before it is gone. She is too slow to pinpoint the signal.

She texts her team>> The gun was hacked and rebooted, the shooter was likely innocent. I was not fast enough to pinpoint the decker, it feels like the same Russian agent - and now I am really suspicious of Katya for eliminating the bread crumb. She was also there when Invictus was offed. It feels too obvious to be true but - she feels so guilty it is not funny.

Jawsey flied back to his body in disgust. Once again they'd not anticipated the foe well enough, and were left combing through the aftermath in hopes of a useful clue. Once he got back to his body he caught up on his AR messages and muttered a couple of curses in Russian -- they just felt most appropriate to the occasion. He let the team know <<All I could pick up on the corpse was the violence of his death. Did Trouble have any better luck?>>

Then he sends a brief summary to McElroy -- who is most likely astral at the moment, and so not receiving, but it will be there for him when he gets back. Jawsey finishes by asking <<I don't suppose that your spirit caught anything of the signature of whoever might have briefly controlled the Lieutenant?>>

After a moment of thought, he messages the others <<Do either of you have access to data that would let us know who from the hunt would have had line of site on the late Lieutenant Fines and on Cunningham? It is possible that it was a lurking spirit of man or something, but I think it would have had to have been someone in the hunt to be able to set up the whole situation, and not everyone would have had a view on them, so maybe we can thin the numbers down a little bit more? We can already rule out anybody who was not on the hunt, except those with matrix or magical abilities I suppose.>>

Trouble replied to AM: "I didn't find any magic on the dead man either - just his violent death. And that was so not magical."

Mato had seen the scene - with the trees inbetween it was hard to tell who would have had line of sight to Fines at any given moment. Certain was only the fact that he had been still in shouting distance with intermittend glimpses to everyone in the hunting party. And obviously, Cunningham would have had line of sight to him at the moment of the shooting.

AM was frustrated with her search: She had been so close to following the trail back when the reboot had completed. But she was certain that it had to be within 100m of the rifle and that the hacker was now running silent. Which meant the Agent was no longer situated in the library terminal. So there had to be someone or something out there in the woods.

She responds to Trouble "try and see if anyone is hidden within a close distance of the gun. Perhaps with a small device at hand."

"Fake decker" she hears the inner doubts scream, but AM does not lose her resolve just yet. "Iktomi, I could use some help to trick this trickster." She whispered and formed the channeling pattern for Iktomi's inspiration in her mind. While doing so she continued to search for the silently running decker that she just felt HAD to be close to the crime scene.

AM immediately was able to notice the hidden signal. It belonged to a flying drone and was within 1000m radius. More important, it carried the Agent.

Trouble replied: "There is no-one here that I can see or sense. Yet I still feel like I am watched."

Mato updates Jawsey and AM.

<<Cunningham saw the gun lurch in his direction. Lt. Fines wasn't even looking at him when someone wrenched his rifle in toward Cunningham and fired. He thinks Katya did it.>>

Mato is disappointed that the magical investigation didn't reveal anything. Not surprised, but disappointed.

<<I think it's almost too obvious, like someone is setting Katya up. She might be insane but she seems too methodical to be so obvious, to leave such a clear trail of clues. It's possible someone is playing her, knowing how she'll react.>>

Mato declines to leave Cunningham, reasoning that he may still be a target.

<<Does anyone have a sense if Katya herself can be hacked, or controlled? Either magically or through her extensive cybernetics?>>

<<I've seen no signs that she would be more easily controlled than anyone else; if anything with her force of personality maybe less.>>

Then Jawsey goes on another astral jaunt, to determine where McElroy's spirit is now, and if McElroy himself is astrally in the field. Jawsey would like to re-assign his spirit to another task, but for the moment keeping the duchess untouched seems a higher priority.

Jawsey met McElroy halfway as he was watching over Pike and the Dutchess: "Ah, good to see you. This is a real mess. But at least - as far as I or my spirit could make out - it doesn't look like there is an active magical threat involved. I assensed everyone on guard and of the guests outside. Now we have to get everyone inside and keep them there. The Doc Waggon Trauma team has reached the perimeter. They'll pick up Cunningham any minute now."

Indeed, a VTOL hovered over the woods and a three person team abseiled with a valkyrie capsule next to Cunningham and Mato.

Cunningham replied: "Thank you gentlemen, I'm already better again as my biomonitor should tell you. No need to make a fuss."

One of the DocWaggon members replied: "Sir, with all due respect, you've suffered debilitating trauma. You need to be checked before you go walking around - magic healing can only do so much, you are still in danger."

Cunningham sighed and turned to Mato: "I'll be back as soon as possible. Aprehend Katya. I'll deal with the fallout."

AM texts >> Agent is on a flying drone - getting far from here, I'll try to follow it.
she makes a hacking attempt to be able to trace it/identify its owner.

AM thought she had made good progress - until suddenly a warning message blinked on her screen, telling her that her attempt to hack had backfired and that the enemy agent had now a MARK on her.

"Dammit -- This Agent is like a real-life decker", she says and adds a few delicious swear words in Salish. AM does not give up so early, commanding the drone to land may be a bit out of her league considering the owner already knows of the attempt -- but she can do the same trick with the gun to find up who has marks on the drone, and where that icon may be. Hopefully, she'll finish before something bad happens to her deck, or she is forced to reboot.

AM noticed there were four MARKs - a clear sign of ownership - on the drone. Following the datatrail was pretty straight forward. It led to a modified stealth tag, turned into a kind of secret commlink.

Iktomi's blessing made AM super intuitive, and despite her meager firewall, she manually inspected the feeds of the anticipated attack and blocked them - the agent had one mark on her that was a problem, but she now held two marks on the agent gained by the credentials of the agent.

She needed a mark on the stealth tag, to catch the drone. Informing the team she texts
>> I am trying to land the attacking drone next to you. Be quick to disable/capture it, my control may be momentary.

This time AM was successful. There didn't seem to be a persona online on the tag at the moment, so its defenses were relatively low.

Mato suddenly heard the low hum of a flying drone getting closer. Barely visible through adaptive camouflage, the tiny rotor drone came into view. The double barreled semi automatic handgun was professionally integrated into its frame while the whole thing wasn't much larger than the original gun itself. A masterwork of engineering. The thing had barely touched ground as it began to spin up again, ready to lift off.

Mato nods to Cunningham, not so much because he agrees with the plan - the verdict is still out on that - but more to set Cunningham's mind at ease so that he'll be willing to go with the DocWagon paramedics.

"Yes, sir!" Mato agrees, even though he's reasonably sure that Katya isn't going anywhere. Apprehending her in 10 minutes or in 10 hours or in 10 days seems largely irrelevant. As long as they know where the Duchess is, they know where Katya will be. And as long as they know where Sir Pike is, they'll know where the Duchess is.

Once Cunningham has been lifted into the VTOL - a classy way to be medevac'd, Mato has to admit - then it's time to find the drone that AM mentioned. Knowing little of hacking, he's privately impressed that she found it at all.

He boosts all his sensors to max even though he knows that it will be a tough search. His olfactory boosters will be of little use against a drone. His radar sensors are powerful but the forest is so 'noisy' with obstructions that it could take too long to sift through all the incoming data. His millimeter wave detection system might find it, but its range is so limited that at that point (15 meters) Mato would hope that he would see or hear the drone anyway.

In the end, it's his earbuds - not even his cyberware! - that picks up on it.

<<I see it!>> he comms excitedly as he takes off at a sprint. He sees it spinning up again, getting ready to lift off. His intention is to tackle it - out of midair if necessary. To that end he spools up his hydraulic jacks in case he needs to make a giant leap. His goal will be to deactivate it - preferably with the gun pointing away from him - so that it can be used later for evidence. If he can't manhandle it for some reason, he'll disable it with his shock hand, but that's only a backup plan.

Once the drone touches down, AM tries to spoof another order --> to shut down.

AM's attempt to shut down the drone failed, but Mato was close enough to grab onto the drone, keeping the muzzle away from himself. Quite desperately the drone began to move back and forth to escape, but Mato's literal iron grip could not be escaped. It took Mato only a moment to find the power button to take the drone offline the soft way.
Now that he saw it without its active stealth he had to admire the sleak design. Hardware like this must have cost easily 20k - not to mention the high end software running on it which likely pushed its worth into 50k territory. The smell of propellant as well as a manual check of the magazines revealed that the dual magazines carried both blight rounds as well as APDS.

Mato is so excited that he momentarily reverts to some of the Aztlaner Spanish that he's been learning.

<<¡Yo lo tengo!>> he exclaims before switching back to Cityspeak. <<I have it!>>

He flexes as it tries to escape, pleased to have a practical application for his expensive arms beyond his own vanity and personal insecurities. There's a moment of relief when he sees that it has a power button to easily deactivate it.

He immediately snaps a photo of it and distributes it to AM and Jawsey.

Then, a thought occurs to him. He checks the magazines to get a count on the APDS rounds, then sniffs the chamber to see if it smells hot. Was it really Lt. Fines' weapon that downed Cunningham, or was that a wild shot - triggered by a hacker or an agent - to cover for the drone's true strike?

<<Anybody know what I should be looking for? Any clues that might point to the owner or the one providing instructions?>>

He goes to Lt. Fines' body to make sure it's been retrieved, or is being retrieved. He'd be disgusted if a Fenrir wolf claimed it. Then it's time to head back to Pike Hall

AM texts >> Way to go Mato! I am working on locating the master device don't do anything stupid with the drone. She was brief, and begun working on tracing the stealth stage without any victory celebration.

Tracing the stealth tag was pretty straight forward. It was on the premises and therefore close enough to get video from the location - which AM promptly did.

There were Pike, the Duchess and Katya entering Pike Hall through the back entrance.

Fines' body still was were they had left it. The blood had stopped flowing and was in the process of drying. Mato thought that Fines had died with a surprised look on his face. The spur had entered very neatly just below the man's ear and gone straight into the brain.

The magazines were both missing one round each - which could mean that they were not fully loaded to not fatigue the spring - or that both a blight and an APDS round had been fired since the last time the drone had been close to its master.

AM texts surprised >> The stealth tag that controls the drone is in Pike hall along with the Duchess, Katya, and Pike. We need to make a move now - this is the only lead we have. She sends Trouble to verify that there is not a fourth aura in the room, and makes her way toward confrontation.

Just to make sure she texts >> I am going in there to confront them. I'd be happy for some backup in case Katya turns into a murder monster. She heads to Pike hall without delay eagerly awaiting feedback from Trouble.