"Roger," Mato says in response to Bobby. A lookout was about all that he was good for this evening.

He briefly wonders if he should tether Brent to the boat, but he doesn't want to give the impression that Brent is a prisoner. If the kid freaks out about the transformation - and it would be very understandable if he did - then he may view the team as more of a threat than a savior.

Mato turns his eyes upriver, scanning for moving shapes with his radar sensors. The samurai might be naked and freezing, or he might be more machine than meat like Mato. Mato will be on his guard, whatever that means when Mato is clearly off his game.

With the aid of the spell, Bobby determined that while the motor could be handled manually -- turn it with the handle, twist the handle to adjust speed and change forward/backward -- but it was all set up for self-driving (or remotely operated) mode. It could turn itself, adjust speed itself, and even follow very simple instructions. Manual mode was currently turned off, but a flick of a switch currently hidden under a panel on the side of the engine, although the turning engines were not too strong and could be overpowered with a strong arm.

As he finishes his analysis AM arrives, and her quick scan of the matrix picks up the engine, a FlySpy drone up near the front of the raft, a few more drones arrayed downstream, giving a matrix path to the wider world. As for a socket for direct connect it is in the same covered panel that Bobby had just identified as covering the manual switch. As they look at that panel the motor turned itself again, and they noticed the thin wire running into it, along the board on which the motor was mounted (tacked in place with some adhesive), over the left side of the boat, and into the water.

Mato saw the opposition orc being tossed around in the water, thrashing to the surface to gasp for breath before being dragged under by the currents. It didn't look like he was an immediate threat, but he was also only about 20m back of the raft.

Mato sighs. The ork is a potential threat, but Mato would rather not watch a man drown in front of his eyes. It's the slow nature of the demise that makes Mato's skin crawl, what skin he has left anyway. It's why Mato got an internal air tank. It was one thing to get shot twice and be gone in a flash; but it was quite another to be fully conscious of your dimming mortality as you panic and fade.

Mato looks around the boat and sees Brent's tether. He's not going to dive in after the ork but if the merc gets within reach? Well, maybe Mato would toss him a line. That is, of course, if Bobby doesn't turn the man back into a fish first.

Bobby pulled the wire off and switched to manual mode.
His ample body hair provided him with a measure of insulation, but against the drizzle and splashing it was not particularly effective. Not to mention that both his co-workers and a client were with them. So he said: "Pass me the trousers and the jacket of that merc.
Does anyone of you have an idea what that wire is for? With so little matrix coverage I'd assume it's a direct connection to a rigger control.
Which means they must have installed some kind of guiding system in the river.
Mato, do you think we should collect the Merc for questioning? I could turn him into a lemming otherwise."

AM notifies the team about the dangers Just take the wire out, no time to figure out. There is a fly spy drone likely on the ship or very close, and a few others downstream. As for taking a prisoner, we told the hacker club that we would try and figure out who is behind this so I think we should try and figure out.

Mato doesn't remember promising the hacker club that they'd get to the bottom of this, but he's admittedly a bit distracted at the moment.

"Alright, let's fish him out before he's hypothermic." Of course, it might be too late for that, especially if Bobby is wearing the man's clothes. He passes the ork's jacket and pants over to Bobby, presuming they didn't go overboard with the tuna.

Under Bobby's tutelage, Mato tries to twist the motor's handle to change the direction of propulsion from forward to backward. It might not be strong enough to counteract the flow of the stream, especially if the electric motor is weak, but it would at least slow the raft down. If that doesn't work, he'll try to tilt the motor so that it's out of the water.

Then he takes one of the oars from the bottom of the raft and drags it in the water. That should further slow their velocity and allow the current to carry the ork toward the raft, especially if the river is shallow enough to drag the oar along the bottom of the riverbed. Mato will then extend the oar to the swimming samurai.

"Are the drones a bread-crumb trail?" Mato asks. "Can they daisy-chain Matrix access that way, or relay instructions from one device to another?" This could be gibberish, as Mato has only a loose notion of how Matrix-enabled devices transmit and receive information.

"I think so, matrix here is terrible. They are likely rely stations"

Just as Mato grabs the wire to rip it out, a barrage of machine gun fire erupts from downstream, whizzing around the raft.

"Fried fragging chicken," Mato curses to himself under his breath as gunshots zip by. The meaning of which is not entirely clear but it seems to suggest a level of indignation. He'd have his hands on his hips if he could spare the action economy.

Brent is naked and screaming. Mato's initial instinct is to Protect the Principle and jump on top of the unarmored Brent. He'd tell Bobby to do so, but Bobby is naked too, which probably turns it into some form of molestation. At least Bobby isn't screaming. But, even if someone jumped on Brent - clothed or unclothed - it would almost certainly traumatize the boy even more than he already is, and the bullets would still tear up the inflatable raft. No, what Mato needs to do is eliminate the source of the suppressive fire before A) they all sink in the river, or B) AM levitates them into the air like stationary clay pigeons.

Mato ditches the oar he's holding (feasible for melee, impractical for a gunfight) and looks around the raft for the ork's rifle, hoping that it didn't fall overboard when the samurai was turned into a tuna. Presuming he finds it, he'll snatch it up, bring it to bear, and return fire.

.

Bobby ducked somewhat down, but kept his hand on the rudder, trying to get the boat to move upriver and out of sight of their attackers.

"Some speed would be appreciated right now, Trouble."

AM takes cover, and tries to pinpoint the shooter, she cries "Down" in her most assertive voice to increase the chances that Bernt follows. Her next move is to try to figure out who is shooting them and why. In the meanwhile, Trouble does as Bobby asks him to do, and uses the movement power on the boat.

The team's cool response pays off, to at least some degree. Mato spots the orc's hunting rifle sloshing around in the bottom of the raft (somewhere in all of this the raft has picked a couple cm of water), and is able to quickly pick it up and get it into firing position.

Meanwhile AM looks down river towards the shots. She can see the muzzle flashes some good distance downstream and maybe up on the right-side bank. She knows that the military base ends somewhere down around this point but she doesn't know if they are coming from in or out of the base. Unfortunately in the dark night the muzzle-flashes keep her from seeing who or what is firing the machine gun.

Bobby manages to safely slew the raft around to face up-river, but quickly realizes that he isn't going to make progress against the fast moving white water coming down the middle of the river. However off to the sides of the river the water looks slower and quite a bit shallower. On the military base side there is a quiet area downstream of the point they'd come around, but to get around the point they'd have to go back into the faster moving and deeper water. On the Aztechnology side there is a calmer and shallower area going up beyond the point, but that area is studded with rocks sticking up above the water and likely has some below the water that might catch the motor. Either side should allow towing by a large animal, and if they can get around the point it should shield them from the machine gun.

As Bobby considers his options, he notices that while the raft has been fighting back against the current, it has been sweeping the orc street sam toward them. While the orc is still thrashing and struggling to stay at the surface, he seems to recognize the raft and be struggling in its direction.

Mato tries to look for the source of the fire but everything goes wrong. Rain spatters his glasses, blurring his vision. He doesn't have any vision magnification in his devices. The bullets whizzing around his ears are way more distracting than he initially thought. (Is he subconsciously worried about his suit?) Brent is screaming. The boat might be sinking. Mato's pretty sure he can get out of this mess but everyone else? Maybe Bobby can transform the others into sea anemones or something stationary and carry them away.

"Why don't the Salish care about the shooting?" he wonders aloud, although who knows who can hear him... or who is even paying attention given everything else going on.

AM guides Mato to the shooter, he is 500 meters in that direction. I'll try to tag him for you.

"Right, we need to get out of here and quick. Time for some snorkeling. Here AM, hold the boat steady and cut the power once I start pushing. I don't need a shave that close."


Good thing he hadn't bothered yet to put on the clothing, Bobby thought when he slipped into the water while also concentrating on a new transformation.



The sudden expanding mass of his body made water splash. Immediately he put up his trunk, grabbing at the floating harness above. Getting to move against the current was hard, but nothing his now greatly increased mass and strength couldn't manage. Step by step, he moved the boat like a particulary hairy u-boat/tug-boat.
Moving into the deeper water, he intended to get back to the military base side of the river until he could carry the boat on his back through the water.

Despite the rain, Matto's thermographic vision ha been working well so far tonight, and even if nothing else has been working for him this has not abandoned him. With the water being warmer than the frozen ground he can easily enough see where the river is flowing. A little off to the right and a bit uphill the heat blooms from the gun stand out strongly. He is not picking up body heat, but behind the gun there is a hint of a solid object, more flat than not.

And then his focus is snapped away as the raft shifts as Bobby goes over the side, rocks from the sudden displacement as Bobby turns into a mammoth, and then a third time as Bobby grabs Brent's floating PFD and starts pulling the raft sideways against the current. (Brent had been tethered to a point along the side of the raft).

Bobby transformed and grabbed the line from the raft, then the opposition orc nearly washed right into him. The orc thrashed his way close enough to grab some of the hairs on Bobby's flank, and holds on tightly for a moment before trying to scale uo to Bobby's back.

Bobby gave a small trumpeting sound to warn the others of the orc trying scale his back, but hadn't too much energy to spare. He trusted Mato and AM to take care of the threat.
Instead he focused on pulling the boat out of the line of fire while hoping that the orc wasn't the kind of scorpion that would try to kill the frog while it was carrying him across the water.

The orc yells "Truce! Truce! You can have the kid! Just let us go!"

If matrix online, AM would try to tag the gunner to help Mato with the gun.


She says thinks quietly speaking the words in a low voice intended for Mato >> Let's try to question him a bit to see what they want, at least when they stop shooting at us. She does not directly respond yet to the Orc, uncertain if it is safe to take her head out of the raft.

As Bobby grabs the life vest attached to the strap, and the orc grabs Bobby, Mato squeezes off a shot at the machine gun. He thinks he was on target, but under these vision conditions it is hard to tell what effect it had.

Mato tries to line up a shot but - spirits - he's had precious little experience with a hunting rifle. Plus, to be fair, the conditions are abominable: the raft bounces on the river, the wind and rain complicate his vision, the suppressive fire ruins his concentration, and the shot is at least half a klick. Mato rattles off three shots in the general direction of the machine gun but has little hope that they actually hit anything.

The shooting has stopped anyway. It's time to turn his attention to the boat and Bobby and Brent.

"Brent, get dressed or you'll get hypothermic," he barks.

"AM, let's figure out the boat before it sinks. What's our best bet, patching holes? Magic carpet ride?" He bails out some water while he's thinking of it.

The he looks back at Bobby and the merc. "Alright, truce," Mato agrees. "Get on his back," he says, indicating that the merc should clamber up the mammoth. What's the merc going to do? Spoon Bobby for body heat? Well, not Mato's problem. He'll worry about the boat. He bails some more water over the side.

The merc hoists himself more securely onto Bobby, although he ends up more sprawled across the mammoth's back than astride it. No more machine gun fire -- perhaps Mato's shots shut that down? Or maybe someone is moving or just holding their fire, but whatever the cause they have long seconds of quiet in which Bobby hauls the raft to one side, getting close to having cover from the shooter.

At least, relative quiet. The sound of incoming rotors is getting clearer over the noise of the water. The spirit assures Trouble again "I won't allow them to come over the river." The orc seems to hear them too, as he sighs and says "Those were supposed to be plan D, or was it E? Yoke always gets too fancy with all those contingencies. Anyway, thought was that if someone came at us in force it was better to get arrested than killed. But we said truce, right? We can work together to all get out of here free and alive? I know things that can help you, if you promise."

While listening, Mato is still bailing. He sees a couple of holes through the sides of the raft, which are definitely venting out air at a good pace, but so far the raft isn't looking too soft. At least the holes are not letting more water in, just slowly letting the flotation out. Still, the less water, the less weight in the raft, and that will be a good thing as the flotation diminishes.

"Yes, yes, a truce," Mato calls out to the ork somewhat distractedly as he continues bailing water. He suspects that the presence of the ork is related to the suppressive fire stopping. It's entirely possible that they can help each other.

He tries to get AM's attention without using her name, lest the ork remember it and decide on revenge later.

"Hey! We need to either get this boat patched up or out of the water. Can you improvise something?? Maybe a medkit dressing to patch the holes, or some fabric from clothing?" Not that Mato is volunteering his suit, mind you.

Now that the immediate shooting had stopped, Bobby could concentrate on getting things right.
First he transfered the towing line from his trunk to his long tusk.
That freed him up to do the necessary motion for a mind link. He chose Mato to be the translator.

Then he moved his body under the boat and - while trudging into shallower water - used his free trunk to position the mercenary more to his neck, so the boat could rest on his back.
Carefully, he lifted them out, above the waterline, still steadying the awkward load.
No longer fully submerged, he could move faster.
He thought at Mato:
'Tell the Merc he can live, but only if he tells us who they are working for.'

Now that the boat is secure - or secure-ish - Mato finds himself face-to-face with the ork merc. The man's clothes are available again now that Bobby isn't using them anymore.

"Get dressed," Mato orders. "Unless you're sporting Orthoskin with Penguin Blubber."

He hears Bobby's voice in his head. Why is magic weirder than DNI? It shouldn't be, but yet it still is.

"You live so long as you talk. Who are you working for? What else do we need to watch for?"

As Bobby moves the orc more toward his mamoth neck, the orc grabs hair on each side and holds on tightly. At Mato's question he gives a bark of laughter, or maybe is just spitting out some water before answering. "Working for? Chummer, if we were working for someone we wouldn't have been pulling this trid-brained kidnapping scheme. Brat's parents cut us off cold while owing us big, and lack of referral from your last client doesn't look good. What to watch out for? Three-Dot is still in the game, and me being in the line of fire is probably the only thing keeping him from turning you all into swiss cheese."

Bobby thought to himself: 'Shadowrunners. And there I was worrying we were tangling with an organisation.'

To Mato he thought: 'Tell him to get in contact with his buddy. We might be able to end this whole thing without someone dying if these idiots stop shooting. Brent can pay them - but only if he is still alive when he turns 18. But we probably should get the amount owed now - or they might inflate their prices.'

AM listens to the conversation but does not want to make her existence obvious. At least until she is certain that nobody is going to be shooting at them within the near future.

She texts
>> Staying invisible for now, considering that I am a mage and they have murder drones somewhere near. Though, I still hold their mage very much alive and can release him if they let us go without a hitch. To be honest, I need to concentrate to keep him out of harm's way and I'll need to sleep eventually so that tree dots might want to go looking for their buddy rather than hunting us anyhow. I mean their mage is at the bottom of a river, so hypothermia, or drowning or white water without a raft. I don't like these odds for him.

Regarding debts, it is Bernt's responsibility, and that he should be done that once he recovers from the kidnapping attempt.

The orc hunkers down more firmly against the mammoth and tells Mato "I'm gonna focus on holding on, and not having my hands busy, chummer. This thing will keep me warm enough until we have an agreement."

"Alright, here's how it's going to go down," Mato begins, trying to summon his best Voice of Authority. Maybe there will be some ork-to-ork cred.

"I presume you have a commlink somewhere in this tub. You're going to message Three-Dot and tell him the score. You're butt-naked and freezing, if he doesn't know that already. We turned your mage to stone and dumped her in the river. Once we release that spell she's going to come up spitting and hissing like a drowning cat. She'll be freezing too, so you'll want to be in a position to scoop her out. Depending on her body mass, you've got between 10 and 20 minutes before her pulse gets weak, her blood pressure drops, her muscles lose coordination, and she can't move anymore. And that's presuming she doesn't go into cold shock response and start hyperventilating immediately, swallowing water and drowning."

It's a good speech. Mato's glad he took that survival class back in the Sioux Nation. He does need to brush up on some of his particulars though.

Mato looks around the bottom of the boat for the ork's commlink to pass it over.

"I ain't looking to kill anyone today and we can let bygones be bygones that you tried to blow us up. If everyone stops shooting and stays as frosty as the river we'll all go home tonight. But you're staying with us between now and then. If you know things that can help, now's the time to spill. In case you haven't noticed, your fate is intertwined with ours."

Mato doesn't need enhanced ontact olfactory abilities to be ble to smell Bobby right now; who knew mammoths had such a distinctive odour. But alongside that there is an altogether different scent, one that Mato knows well: Samurai Sam's bio-grease. It is a cheap brand that Mato had used when money was tight, to seal around the port for his implanted SMG. Whenever he'd pop open the gun he'd get a whiff of the stuff. But he can afford a better brand these days ... and that is when he notices that although the rest of the orc's body is still dripping wet, the water has already run off of his arms. Looking more carefully Mato can see the line at the shoulder where real flesh ends and synthetic flesh begins.

It seems likely that the orc isn't just holding on tight to Bobby's neck, he also probably has a readied implanted weapon aimed at the base of Bobby's skull.

The orc apparently does not notice Mato recognizing this, because he carries on he was. "Internal commlink, chummer. I'm reaching out to Three-Dot right now. Might take a few moments -- I'm not slick at dealing with all this noise -- just stay frosty for a few more breaths." The orc seems to be using that outdated slang without even a hint of irony.

Mato doesn't mind the outdated slang. He uses it himself because it reminds him of the shadowrunner trid shows he grew up on as a kid.

"Chummer," Mato says, tapping his nose. "Biogrease."

Mato pulls off his gloves to reveal his metal hands, showing that he plays the same game. The gloves are nice so he puts them in his pockets.

"Internal commlink means I don't know what you're saying to Three-Dot. And if Yoke had Plan D and E then there was probably F and G as well."

He points to the ork's synthetic arm. "I get the mutually assured destruction thing, but don't play."

To Bobby he thought: "Odds are good he has an implant weapon in that hand holding onto you. If things get cross you might want to transform on short notice, dump him back in the river."

To AM he DNI'd: <<Can you get a bead on that internal commlink, maybe eavesdrop? He probably has a cyberweapon pointed at Bobby. He might need to get petrified, savvy?>>

Back to the samurai: "Flip around. Don't grab his neck or head. Do it now, not in a few breaths. I gave you my word. If that's not good enough then I'll take my chances with Three-Dot."

'Soka. As long as he's touching me, I can turn him into whatever without seeing him. Also, as long as you are in the rubber raft, I can turn on my lightning aura and vaporize him. Keep him talking and remind him that if I die he is back in the water.'

Bobby kept on chugging forward against he stream, getting closer to the right side of the river.

AM texts back >> Petrification if he tries anything. Got it. Eavesdropping... I'll try. She reminds herself to explain to Mato that she got two spells to juggle, and no hot simulation on sinking boats, and if she starts with Iktomi's blessing she'll need to give the invisibility.

"Calm down Amy - you can hack without magic. Someone thought to her. It was in her head, but it wasn't her. was it Trouble? Iktomi? Did she imagine it because she is in a river with murder drones on the way and a scary naked orc with a gun on Bobby? There was no time to ponder the mental intrusion, but they needed to get out of this situation without casualties.

"Hold that spell for a few seconds. Mommy needs to eavesdrop. she thinks at Trouble.
She feels guilty knowing how unpleasant it is and hating herself for that but Bobby's life is on the line, but she is too stressed to take of the invisibility, and she really needs some quiet to understand the signals in the ether, and perhaps hack a high-end comlink while it is being used.