"Grinder was a Neo-Anarchist. She has to occupy him, so he doesn't become restless. I don't think I swayed him, but enough drops can carve a canyon.

As for Carn-Evil, I just want to know if he is currently out and about - or if he is somewhere secluded where we could talk to him directly without him having to pose for his boys.
But yeah, calling him directly is an option. I'd just like him to know I know where he is and what he's doing. Just the basics of intimidation. He might be more talkactive if there is a vague aura of danger to it."

Bobby replied.

AM comments "Alright, I'll work on it. Risk assessment-wise are we sleeping in SIS or in a hotel tonight? I'd prefer to hot-sim somewhere indoors. I am not entirely okay from this morning, a bomb is a bit much." she asks Bobby who seems currently be the most paranoid, and AM prefers to err on the side of safety.

"Don't worry, I'll keep watch again tonight. Although it's unlikely they try something again. Bullying 101, let the victim catch it's breath before you strike again. It hits them harder that way if they can develop the hope that it's over.
Of course that presumes our talk with Carn-Evil goes well."

Bobby replied grimly

She seems embarrassed "Thanks Bobby, I don't think I'll get much sleep tonight at SIS or elsewhere. It was truly awful and then seeing Mato like that. I don't want to fight anyone, I want to find a place in the food chain where nobody tries to kill us. I don't care about Redmond's future or politics - I'd even pay Carn-evil in retrospect quietly to not attract more thugs. I want to stay in the game, and only take risks when we have to. " she says and sighs, feeling crushed by the implications and weight of it all.

"The thing is: The only place on the food chain where nobody gets to eat you is at the very top - or if you are to poisonous to eat.
Paying Carn-Evil would be like tossing chum into shark-inhabited waters. Better not to go there."

AM sighs “The top of the food chain is not very safe as well. It is filled with flattery and conspiracy. " She sighs and finishing her search she says "Alright, I am going to hack now there is no point in going home where he might be hiding in the Funhouse in case we get violent."

Grinder doesn't stop Bobby from departing.

Nor does Urubia stop Jawsey or AM from leaving.

AM gets a few more snide under-the-breath comments from the Crimson Guards but nothing major. The Crimson Guards seem happy to see AM and Jawsey go.

The elevator ride down is uneventful. At quick inspection the car has been unmolested in your absence. You'll need to investigate more closely if you wish to confirm that.

Once AM is certain that the car is clean, she begins working on Carn-evil's link it beats going back to SIS and then being alone in the bed with her thoughts. Besides, she likes being augmented, and with Trouble sustaining one of the spells she feels empowered having unimaginable clarity, and quickness to her actions. "Iktomi you are truly the master of the matrix" she comments.

The car looks unmolested. AM can't find anything wrong with it physically or electronically.

There's a passing pair of Crimson Guards on patrol in the parking garage, a female human with a female elf. They snicker and whisper between themselves when they see AM on the floor of the garage, inspecting the underside of the car. They take photos of it with their commlinks, make themselves laugh, and then race off to share their glee with others.

Back in the car, AM goes to work in cyberspace. She finds Carn-evil's commlink on the local grid: the Emerald City grid that is unique to Seattle. This implies that Carn-evil is somewhere reasonably civilized, as the local grid isn't available deep in the Barrens.

After slicing herself a couple of MARKs, AM is able to run a trace: the commlink is currently located at the Jackal's Lantern. While technically in Redmond, the bar is quite close to the border of Bellevue and thus has good Matrix reception. There's some Noise between the Funhouse and the Jackal's Lantern but it's manageable while running Signal Scrub.

AM returns to AR and says "He's at the Lantern. Do you feel like an unpleasant drink in an awkward place? "

"Na, to high a chance he'll use the opportunity to have the "security" deal with us afterwards.
Calling will be just fine. Although we could also manipulate his ride. Locking the doors and have it start burning. But we can discuss that later.
For now let's just talk. Who knows, maybe he'll apologize sincerely."
Bobby replied.

"Alright, let's see if he picks up. We can always escalate to violence, vandalism, and so forth. "

AM calls Carn-evil and places him on speaker so that everyone can chip in. ">> Carn-evil? This is Amy from SIS, me, Bobby and Jawsey are here on the line, can we talk?"

AM, with her MARKs, can basically force the commlink to answer.

The background music is industrial/punk and is oppressively loud. Jawsey recognizes it as Grim Aurora's Pay Data album (2065), and remembers that Grim Aurora's Munge and Snog album (2073) is on Carn-evil's commlink.

In addition to the noise there's a good deal of background conversation, yelling, and other sounds from a wasteland bar. Due to the noise, it's not at all clear if Carn-evil can hear you, or if you could hear anything intelligible if Carn-evil says (or is saying) anything.

Not sure if AM is transmitting everything, Bobby gestured in sign language:
"He is fragging with us. He has datajack/trodes."

Sign language is a bit difficult while driving, but AM places them on mute "Want to text him? Or wait for him to exit the Lantern?"

"We could just send him a message 'just left the Funhouse, good talk with Urubia. We should talk and sort things out.' All true if he asks around."

She hangs up the call.
"Let's just steal his car. Give them some humor I am sure he'll call us when he finishes at the Lantern."

"I was thinking something more subtle. Like subverting the autopilot, locking the doors and displaying a countdown from 10 - followed by a smiley face and us calling him.
Either that, or setting his car on fire."

Bobby replied.

"Fake bomb? I don't want him to realize our technological prowess it takes expensive equipment to do this shit."

"Well, stealing a car also demonstrates high level of technical prowess.
Let's drive to the Lantern and see if we can safely access the car.
We can take it from there."
Bobby offered.

AM says "I was thinking of making it invisible and leaving it there. It's a dark night and they'll be drunk. Would be funny if it fools them, and if not it reminds him that we can mess with him using powers he already knows we have. Let's decide at the Lantern."

She says and drives to the Lantern.

"Let's not forget that they have heavy spirit surveillance. I'm sure they'll report any use of magic. Could you have his car tell him that it is preparing to drive to Tacoma docks? If he comes running out then we call him. We don't even have to be near if you can have his car watch for him coming out"

"We'll see when we get there. Bobby, do you know what the car looks like? I only saw his link through the trix - "

Bobby nodded: "Yeah, but only from a distance. Still, it is distinctive enough - especially in the company of the other 'Lantern visitors.
Jawsey, you can test out your new spell for astral disguise on me. Let's see if the spirits pick up on a rat scurrying around the parking place."

You get to The Jackal's Lantern. It's a Sunday night but there's still a long line of choppers lined up in front of it, along with other assorted trucks and sedans that skew decidedly blue collar. On Fridays and Saturdays you can sometimes get some sports cars from Bellevue kids who are slumming it, or corpers desperate to blow off steam, but there aren't any here tonight.

Last time you were here, there was a pile of tires on fire. This time there's no tire fire, but there are several barrel fires out front. It's dry tonight; not raining like the last time you came.

The architecture is decidedly brutalist, with an emphasis on poured concrete. Presumably this makes it more flame retardant. It's two stories tall but you know that the main bar space has extra-high ceilings. The exterior of the bar is covered in graffiti and barbed wire. Besides the graffiti, old Halloween decorations are the primary decorations: masks, headless skeletons, skulls that were probably once part of the headless skeletons. There's a giant, glowing pumpkin head that serves as a sign. That's the physical side, which isn't exactly welcoming.

The astral side is a different kind of horror show. The background count is tainted, and Bobby strongly suspects that Nightmare is aspecting the place to its liking. On the roof, on each corner, is a summoned fire spirit of moderate strength (F4). They all share the same summoner - a signature that Bobby doesn't recognize - and are clearly bound. The spirits are a dangerous combination of bored and angry. They are lookouts who are clearly desperate for a fight or something to do. Also, there are watchers patrolling the roof, doing their best to avoid the fire spirits.

Bobby looked out of the window, trying to identify the (clown) car, he had seen a while ago. Ideally the team would park close to it.



"Do you have a fiberoptic cable long enough, that I could carry over with me? In rat form I can get under the hood and connect you without opening the bonnet."

"Sadly no, but I can sneak to the car."

As they approach the 'Lantern, Jawsey cracks open a window on the side away from the spirits and asks AM to take a curved route to parking so he can get a more varied view. In particular he checks for any small life forms around the lot, such as rats or even good sized insects. Ideally he'd disguise Bobby and AM as something that is already around. Failing that, he will choose generic rats -- certainly he's seen enough of those since moving to Redmond.

He casts the spell before they even finish parking, leaving it clear other than making the aura of the spell itself look like a moth.



Once they park he asks Bobby and AM to exit on the side away from the spirits, and to crouch low, out of line of sight, until he lets them know he has them covered with the spell. He also makes sure to give them markers on how far the spell reaches.

Bobby pulled once again his clothing off and turned himself into one of the local rats, making sure to concentrate first, so he could ignore the background count



Bobby scurried outside after having connected to AM via Mindlink
'I'll try to get inside the car and see if I can open one of the doors for you from the inside - at least letting down a window should be possible or opening the trunk'

From there it was a question of mimiking ratty behaviour, looking around for potential danger and scurrying across the open space to vanish under the gangers' car.
A little climbing up the frame and into engine compartment.

AM takes a quick look in the matrix in case they are lucky and the car is online. She thinks at Bobby "I'll come after you if you can open the car." Their lockpicking abilities are sadly gone with Mato.

Jawsey sees some rats in and around the parking lots. There are some moths too, but they don't usually fly along the ground. Jawsey isn't sure how keen the spirits are so he goes with the aura of a rat.

AM doesn't find the Eurovan online but does note that there are a handful of hobos around the barrel fires. They startle easy and are immediately on their guard every time someone exits The Jackal's Lantern. They want the warmth of the fire but they don't want to deal with any inebriated Halloweeners. They don't pay much attention to Bobby the Rat, but who knows how closely they're watching other things going on in the parking lot.

Bobby scampers across the parking lots and gets under Carn-evil's Eurovan. From there he climbs up into the engine block. He finds the trunking/ductwork that leads from the heater casing to the air vents inside the vehicle. It's not too difficult for Bobby to chew an appropriate-sized hole in the duct and slip inside. On the other end he has to push the vent cover out into the van. Then he's inside.

Far from being a drekheap like you might expect from a Halloweener, it's actually clean as a whistle with no litter or debris. It even looks like it's even been vacuumed recently. It's either brand new or meticulously maintained.

The fire spirits continue their malevolent overwatch. They don't react to Bobby, so evidently Jawsey's disguise worked. But how well do they know the Halloweeners, and which Halloweener goes with which vehicle? Sure, the vehicles are astral shadows, but might bound spirits have enough time to study the comings and goings of The Jackal's Lanterns regulars? Perhaps, or maybe if this is new vehicle then they don't particularly associate it with anybody? Makes you wonder.

AM thinks "Let me know if to sneak, you can also just turn the car online. Less evidence that way."

Bobby climbed up on side of the door and pressed down on the down button for the window. Switching on the car's online features took him a moment, but then he found the "Entertainment" button that was guaranteed to get the basic systems for matrix radio online.

The window does not roll down. The message on the dashboard says "Key Not Detected". For those who can't read, or who live life by AROs, there's also a little image of a key with a red X through it.

Similarly, the entertainment system does not turn on. The dashboard flashes the same message.

The doors can be unlocked from the inside, but there doesn't seem to be any way to trick the car into turning its wireless on without a key or a commlink or whatever else it is connected to.

A bit frustrated, Bobby made his way through the car and to the rear door. Not daring to change shape, he had to wedge his little furry body between the car and the grip of the release mechanism and strain heavily.



With a satisfying "click" the little lever gave way and the door opened just a bit.

'Door's open, get in before someone notices.'

Jawsey messages AM <<the homeless around the fires will see you get into the van, even if the spirits don't. We could make a distraction with a spell, but that might get the spirits to alert someone to magic use. Likewise if we use a spirit power or sending a spirit. I could shoot one of the barrels, but that might just attract their attention to the noise. Is the downside of a distraction worse than them noticing you going in? And if we do want a distraction, do we go magic or bullets?>>

Then he thinks the same thought and question to Bobby.

'No distraction necessary. If we don't steal the car immediately, but instead just plant a backdoor now, nobody will have a reason to question them. We have the initiative, we decide when and where we engage.
We can plant that the car pings our burner link every hour about it's location and a command to drive somewhere once it receives some kind of code.'
Bobby replied.

AM sneaks to the car, and then seeks a way to connect with it and hack it directly, Trouble uses his concealment power to help her. With her astral sight protected by Jawsey, she focuses on not being noticed by the homeless people.

Bobby gets the back door open.

AM slips across the parking lot and hops into the back of the van.

Like Bobby, she finds it meticulously clean. In fact, it's so clean she feels like she should take her shoes off lest she leave some Redmond grime on the floor. The back of the van is empty.

Moving up to the driver's seat, AM finds the port for the universal data cable next to the steering wheel. It's easy to jack in directly. From there, the van's defenses are trivial; wet tissue paper would put up more of a fight.

"Hell yeah" she thinks of Bobby sharing a rare moment of joy as she sneaks to the car, feeling so alive. Then she gets to business and tries not to leave evidence of her intrusion. She codes the car to record its movement path and report it periodically to the burner link. If the car has internal sensors, she'll carefully record a short brief every time the car parks, to understand who gets to ride.

As she is working she thinks at Bobby: "I am taking full movement path of the car, so we can get some leads on who Carn-evil is, and uncover something to use for blackmail material. If we find something delicate and embarrassing - we won't have any more problems. Any other desires?

'Can you leave also a command that on your call it gives you three MARKs? That would give us all options at a later date.'
Bobby said, having used the opportunity to climb up on AM's shoulder.

AM shivers a bit when rat-Bobby climbs up her shoulder, and she is terrified of rats. She knows that it is Bobby, but her fear is not rational.
Her first instinct is to shake the rat off, and run away - but she manages to limit her response to a sharp thought. Bobby get off, I can't work like that! she thinks of him, awkwardly exposing to him her phobia of rats. Bobby can feel the emotional charge and hopefully gets away from her without an incident. Yet, AM remains in control and does not lose her resolve.

Taking a deep breath to clear her mind again, AM codes the car to give 3 marks to the burner link if the car ever receives an incoming call from that link. I'll do it for the burner, as tempting as it is I do not like traces leading to my deck.she quickly makes the necessary changes. She closes the vent Bobby got into the car from and then closes the door quietly. Hoping not to get noticed by the homeless she sneaks back toward their car.

Jawsey moves his spell to cover AM's return, then thought contacts Bobby when he has re-positioned it to cover him.

The homeless don't seem to be paying too much attention to AM. Even Jawsey, who knows where AM is, finds it a little bit harder to focus on her. It's like the light bends around her differently. The metaphor that leaps to Jawsey's mind is a funhouse (not Funhouse) mirror that curves and warps your image, making you look impossibly thin. There wasn't much of AM to begin with, so the narrowing of her shoulders and hips practically turns her into a straight line, one that's hard to track in the nighttime gloom.

The fire spirits do not react, so either they don't see AM or they don't care.

Bobby complied, but grumbled over the connection: 'Hell of a time to get afraid of me. Alright, I'll keep at your feet, just don't crush me when we move back. And don't forget to close the door.'

Once all the hacking is done, Bobby kept close to AM, staying in her shadow and keeping close in general until they were back in the car.

Once back in his original form with his clothes back on he said: "Alright. I think we have done enough for tonight. Let's see what we can gain from observation. Who knows, maybe Carn-Evil likes to visit some out of the way place. Dangerous world like this, a lot could happen to a man in such a situation."

Agreed she thinks at him. Did she really conceal the fact that she fears rats? Perhaps she made her spirit in cat form to keep the rats away? Perhaps she agreed to share a room to sleep better in a terrible neighborhood with too many of the little sacks of shit. She grins widely when they return, thinking that the nonchalant way she behaved when a rat climbed on her shoulder meant that she can cope with this phobia.

She adds her perspective Rationally thinking about it, the more we know about Carn-evil the more likely we find some leverage that keeps us safe from this nonsense.. She tells Jawsey I think it was better like this without distraction, nothing remarkable happened here. When we are discovered not sure how much they would remember if they saw anything.

She'll drive the car back to SIS unless anyone has more plans for the night.

<<Sunday Night - February 5, 2079 - Touristville, Redmond>>

It's been a day.

You drive away from The Jackal's Lantern with nobody molesting you.

You get back to SIS and things are relatively peaceful. Cutty is still awake and on watch. "All quiet on the western front," he reports. The dishes have been done and the kitchen is reasonably tidy.

Waylon is conked out on the couch. His breath smells like the wine that Jawsey bought. He's snoring a bit. He mostly looks happy to be indoors, sleeping on something soft that doesn't have mites.

"How did it go?" Cutty asks. "What do you need now?"

"All good for now. According to Grinder, this was it - they wanted to send a message and as long as we keep our mouth shut and heads down there shouldn't be any more reprisals.
You are welcome to spend the night here, but you certainly don't have to if you want to sleep in your own bed."
To the room in general Bobby said:

"I'll go back to meditation, you all can go to sleep. I'll keep an ear open for trouble."

Jawsey calls up on of the HUnter Bruthers to patrol around the building astrally, to alert him if anyone approaches within arm's reach of the building. Not, as they just demonstrated, that astral patrol is foolproof, but hopefully not too many fools will have the tools for bypassing it. He let's Bobby know of the arrangement, thanks Cutey one more time, then gratefully heads to bed.

AM nods in approval to Bobby. She needs the sleep and admires how generous Bobby can be with allowing it. She'll have Trouble watching over them as they sleep but she does not like to order him around to do things. So she is happy to leave the cat autonomous for the night.
She makes some herbal tea and would share it with anyone interested. Comments to Jawsey It was a really neat spell you used. Astral sight is usually the ace in the hole. Very well done." Looking at Trouble that might be jealous she adds You too, love.

Trouble materializes as a cat and demonstrates some of its agility by getting on top of closets and high furniture and then jumping on the floor. The novelty of having such skill is new to him, and he seems fascinated by what he can do. He cheats a little bit and sometimes materializes somewhere, not wanting to mess up the kitchen.