Jawsey makes sure he knows as accurately as possible where the car was, then suggests to the parents "Since it was Manny who helped, it seems to me that it is Manny who should be rewarded. However he is a child, and simply giving cash may not be appropriate. Would it be better if this reward was given in a way that would help with his education? We could think of it as a scholarship that he has earned. I don't know his current arrangements for education. I was in a similar situation at his age, in my case I'd angered some bad men back home and they kicked in my face and broke some other bones so I looked bent and damaged so avoided other kids until I eventually got surgery to repair the cosmetic damage. Maybe it was all the watching out the window, wondering what people were doing, that led me to become a detective, I don't know. Anyway, I took my schooling remotely, but there were still fees to pay, software to license, equipment to keep working. Perhaps I could help with some of that?"

He doesn't mention it just yet, but also resolves to talk with Cutty to see if there is a way that the kid could exercise safely at the gym. Jawsey is pretty sure it can be arranged, but the parents seem protective enough that it seems better to have the details in hand before proposing it.

Manny's parents look horrified by what Jawsey is telling them. On the astral, their terror is palpable. Jawsey angered some bad men that kicked his face in and broke other bones because he was in a similar situation to Manny, watching out the window?!

"¡Veté, diablo!" Manny's father says, rushing Jawsey and trying to push him. But, of course, Jawsey isn't really there and Manny's father trips and falls through him, spilling on the floor.

"Never speak to me or my son again!" Manny's mother scolds as she cradles the boy to her chest. Then she hustles him out of the room as a bodyguard would to their principal, slamming the door behind them once Manny's father has also escaped.

Jawsey's left by himself in the kitchen. But, hey, sounds like he doesn't have to pay.

She grins believing that as a martial artistic Cutty would be more into self-control than breaking comlinks. Such a fit is unthinkable to her when electronics even the cheap one is so costly. "Well if you ever break a comlink again give it to me and I'll either fix it or scrap it for parts. I was a member of the opposite club, only matrix and nothing physical. Though I no longer let it define me, everyone can do anything with enough practice and attention. I can teach you computers if you don't give up on teaching me how to fight. "

When they arrive, AM looks a bit frustrated at all the wiz vehicles while she is driving the dull Ford. One day perhaps she'll have a fun car. "One day I'll have a vehicle that can do off-road driving for fun rather than to get places. " she comments. She parks the car and enters the shop with Cutty, trying to make sense of what they would need to fix the windows. She'll use the opportunity to study a thing or two about DIY. Keeping the spell for better understanding and because she likes feeling super smart.

Once Jawsey returned from his visit and told Bobby the information, Bobby nodded: "Well, that is at least something. With this little traffic at this time of day, we should have a good chance of getting a license.
You know what? That's exactly the kind of matrix search our little friends from the hacker club can take care of. I'll give them a ping."

<<@Brent and Friends: Good morning and good news: You have a chance to reduce your debt to us for this month by a good chunk: Our headquarters was attacked with a bomb. We suspect that the perp watched it and remote detonated it. Afterwards he drove away with a VW Elektro in dark grey or blue. Attached you find direction, time and place. We need to identify the owner for 500 NY. If you can track the movement of the car and the driver to a specific location, you receive relief for another 1000 NY. The identity and background is worth another 1000 NY.>>

Bobby felt confident to promise them his share of the 10.000 this month. After all, he only would have to pay taxes on that, so it was kind of a bargain if you didn't think to hard about it.

Jawsey tries to explain that he was hurt before he was watching out the window, but gave up as they had clearly stopped listening to him, and we're interpreting everything through their fear.

He hurried to find Bobby, and hence his transformed body. Once he had awkwardly gotten his human aura to re-watch to the gerbil body he waited a couple of minutes before letting Bobby know he was ready for the spell to be released. One reason was that nothing ached in this form, the way they would once he was back to being human. The bigger reason was that he indulged in a complete emotional temper tantrum while there was no risk of his aura being seen.

This fragging city! I was right, every attempt to be human turns stir. Only being cynical and manipulative ever works. Maybe that is the world to some degree, not just this city, but in a smaller community there is more chance to know and be known and build a basis for trust, and surely trust results in a better future for all.

I won't bail on SIS until I know that Mato is well, and we've dealt with the bomber as best as we can. But then frag Redmond, frag Seattle, and frag the affairs of dragons.

I wanted to become a detective to understand what people were about, but now I nearly wish I'd never known.

Once he has composed himself he signals Bobby, and works on being passive while he waits to be restored. It would be best to suppress emotions until he was gone.

Once he was out he let the others know about the car. Once he was dressed he went back to helping with cleaning up SIS headquarters, but already it didn't feel so much like home.

Seraphina is the one who responds to Bobby. Unsurprisingly, the response is stiff and formal.

<<Message received. Task confirmed. Update in an hour.>>

**********

Cutty wags a finger at AM, warning her away from that line of thinking.

"All this," he says, indicating the fancy cars in the parking lot, "...peacocking. Preening. Conspicuous consumption. These are the fools who make Fortune a goddess and grant her a place in the sky. Don't do it. Don't fall into that trap."

He taps AM.

"Invest in something they can't take away: yourself. Your body, your mind, your spirit."

AM is unclear whether her deck would pass Cutty's interpretation of acceptable investments.

"If you have a sound mind in a healthy body, I consider you rich. You want a heart filled with courage, without fear of death, that can endure any hardship. Know no anger, desire nothing, that is the path to a tranquil life."

Wow, AM came for glass and got a homily instead. Perhaps it's a bit incongruous that a soldier is giving advice on a tranquil life, but old soldiers (especially retired ones) often desire peace and serenity after a lifetime of aggression and conflict.

Inside, the home improvement store is a giant warehouse that would be a horrible maze if it weren't for ARO instructions leading you to what you want. It's quick enough to find the glass but then AM has to decide on standard glass (¥10 a panel), ballistic glass (¥40 a panel), or armored glass (¥160 a panel). The HQ needs at least two dozen panels of glass.

A proper front door would also be heavier and more insulating than the inner door that AM repurposed earlier in the morning.

AM listens to what Cutty says but it is too stoic for her taste. She does want cars and nice clothes and shoes she just does not want to get attached to these things knowing that Iktomi can take them away, but to only invest in things that are unlikely to be taken away seems like cowardice. For example, she has a cyberdeck she loves it very much and has bled for it but she would survive losing it. It would be hard to not be able to hack things but she can also do magic, and talk to people and disarm bombs, and drive. She would find other things to do and earn a living from. No material possession is a prison for her.

She nods in agreement and grins but does not challenge the man's perspective.

In the shop, AM selects the standard glass figuring out that if they decide to upgrade the additional cost would be negligible. She'll buy five extra glasses so they can replace broken windows. She adds the options to the SIS channel - for her friends to reflect on it but she takes the standard glass.

"Anything else we want? Perhaps order a proper door or something?" she consults with Cutty.

Once Jawsey was himself again, Bobby had started to take care of the garage door. Carefully pushing the dents out gave the door a somewhat crinkled look, but at least it opened again without causing an earsplitting screeching noise.
<<While you are at the DIY - bring some wallpaint - white, extra thick. There are lots of sooth traces around our entrance and the brick work is exposed too.
Our little hacker club is on tracking duty for the car. Results should be in when you come back.>>

>>> Alright, will do, anything else? She says and instructs the ARO to show them to the wall paint section.

<<I'm wondering if you want some sheets of plywood, just to have on hand for the next time that something happens.>>

<<This is not happening again. The perp and their master will receive retribution so violent, that no-one will dare to do this again.
Also, we probably have to move anyway. We are out of our debts now - we can actually afford better lodgings - likely even without gangs taking a cut from us. Just another tax on being poor.>>

Bobby replied.

AM says >> We'll talk about it F2F, but I want to stick with Redmond, I am buying a few extra glass panels just in case. I don't think they'll try the same shtick again. Medium-term, I would take precautions. For example, nobody ever receives packages at SIS. I'll figure out how to do it safely with a drone, or with a magical minion. We'll have security cameras, and I'll make sure I have eyes across the entire street. Nothing would come up without me knowing it -I'll study up the topic and find some solution. SIS would become very secure.
Being SINless she'll feel more comfortable around criminals than she would in a nice and well-policed neighborhood. The last thing she needs is to get her SIN burned and get arrested or run from the law. Perhaps with a really good fake SIN, but... no she'd rather deal with Carn-evil's and bullies than with cops.

<< Getting horrible revenge is certainly desirable, but in modern Urubatopia that might not be feasible. Let me be clear, for what was done to Mato I'll happily see someone pay in a way that will be whispered about for years. Just not at the cost of one of us having to sacrifice ourselves to greater powers in order to get that revenge. So I think it makes the most sense to plan for both cases, our revenge is legendary, or our revenge has to be more subtle, and so less likely to dissuade the next person who gets this sort of bright idea. I think that running now will make it look like SIS can be chased off, which might encourage the next annoyed person to try something similar. Staying put and repairing says that we can't be so easily scared off. Of course, that might prompt whoever did this to try something else -- which might make it easier to catch them, or might get one of us dead. >>


Jawsey spent a few more minutes looking for stray bits of broken glass, then thought to message AM and say <<Could you drop by the Metromart in northern Bellevue on the way back? A bunch of people helped us today, I'd look to cook for them tonight, help thank them and cement our community. If we are not off hot on the trail of who-knows-what. Maybe when we have completed things and Mato is back on his feet we can do a real feast, but for tonight a simple pasta shouldn't be too expensive, even using wheat noodles and real tomoatoes. I'll send in an order and pay, and give you the code for the pick up.>> Then he sends in the list and sets up the pick-up by AM, using her usual public ID.

He goes back to cleaning up with much more enthusiasm, now that he has a positive to anticipate. Revenge is good and all, but cooking for friends excited him more. Thinking back to his discussion with AM, a few nights back, he decides punishing those who behave unacceptably is probably an important deterrent to others, but building a community among those who are willing to work together just feels better.

AM makes her purchases and gets them back to the car with Cutty's help. The glass fits in the trunk, the white paint fits in the foot wells of the back seat, but the new front door is decidedly awkward for the Americar. Cutty ends up tying it to the roof of the car with some twine. AM sees the other folks in the parking lot pointing and laughing, but Cutty gets the job done.

AM then swings by the Metromart on the way home. Her eyes bulge a bit at the price of tomatoes: 5 nuyen each. Is that because it's Bellevue? Or because they're not in season? Surely these must have come from a hydroponic lab somewhere, or maybe from Cal Free, as February isn't growing season in Seattle. But Jawsey wants tomatoes (and he paid for them) so Jawsey gets tomatoes. AM sees that the order contains some fresh herbs and spices too, including a head of garlic.

AM and Cutty are getting back to SIS HQ about the same time that a roto-drone sent by Jhonney arrives on the roof to receive the samples of explosives that were collected. The samples are attached to the roto-drone, which flies off.

Just then, Seraphina provides her one-hour update.

Seraphina: <<Update: We've accessed the available cameras to trace the path of the Elektro. It's grey. However, the Elektro had no plates on it, nor was it transmitting any license or registration to Grid Guide. Horribly illegal, but I guess that' not the kind of thing that gets you stopped in Redmond on a Sunday morning.>>

<<Camera coverage is poor in Touristville and almost non-existent outside of it. This is the last we see of the Elektro...>> She transmits a short video clip of it driving by. <<... driving north on Highway 202 out of Touristville, toward Hollywood.>>

Hollywood is a neighborhood in Redmond. It's home to Hollywood Correctional Facility, a large prison, and Hollywood Hospital, a depressing place that's underfunded and understaffed. There's also Hollywood Simsense Entertainments, which manufactures cheap simsense gear and even cheaper chips to play on it, specializing in porn and snuff-sims using "actors" recruited off the streets of the Barrens.

<<We don't get a clear shot of the driver's face but if you freeze frame here...>> The video pauses. <<You can see some daylight over the driver's head. Why is this remarkable? Well with some simple trigonometry - knowing the height of the camera off the ground, the distance from the camera to the roadway, and the spec dimensions of an Electrolux - we can calculate the height of the driver.>> Holy drek, these Bellevue kids. <<Can't pinpoint the exact height because we don't know how firm or squishy that particular seat is, but in general you're looking for someone 1.5 meters or fewer.>>

<<This is what we could do in an hour but if we're dealing with someone off-the-grid deep in Redmond then there will be limits to what electronic investigation can provide. We will continue to look and will provide updates every two hours. Please confirm receipt.>>

<<Acknowledged. Good work so far. Keep at it. Maybe you can pick up a data trail - he must have had a commlink or something similar online when he activated the explosives. Maybe you can find out the type.
Thanks for the photos so far - we'll lean on some of our contacts with those.>>
Bobby replied to the hacker club.

He opened the second conversation with his colleagues:
<<We'll see. We've tried being nice for the last year. If people find the perp and their boss squeezed like toothpaste from two five centimeter steel pipes, they might think twice about pulling shit like that.
Anyway, the kids found out a few things. Could be our bomber was hired help - a dwarf. Definitely time to talk to the Red Hot Nukes.>>

Bobby wants to kick himself for not getting the dwarfs com code when he had the chance at Urubia's party. So he has to take a detour.

<<Hey Lysander. Some news for you. SIS got attacked with a homemade claymore. Mato was hurt pretty badly. We are currently tracking down whoever did this. One tentative lead directs us towards the Red Hot Nukes. Do you have any contacts to them I could talk to?
If yes, do you know about RHN dwarf, blond with surfer tan, speaks with an Australian accent. I met him before and would like to get reacquainted. I'd be happy if you could give me someone who can point me in the right direction.>>

It is refreshing to realize that SIS no longer depends only on her for all its technological needs. AM says >>I'd relax the speaking of vengeance before we know who messes with us and why. We need to understand before we act. On a brighter note, we're bringing all your shopping list, and I think we'll get the HQ looking as if nothing happened.

She drives very slowly not to damage the door or car and says , "That was some feat with the door. I sort of admire you for not giving a damn."

Seraphina follows up: <<Please confirm amount of debt forgiveness.>> Not a shy one, that Seraphina. <<Redmond public record-keeping is limited, at best. Specific location, identity, and background are all improbable, given the circumstances. We do not wish to spend our efforts in a Sisyphean task. Brent says the Resonance Realms may have it, but that turn-around time is measured in months, not hours.>>

***********

Cutty shrugs to AM.

"Who are they to me?" he asks, presumably rhetorically. "Why should I care about their opinion?"

He waves a finger again.

"These folks are the middle managers, at best. The ones who call themselves 'Assistant Regional Manager' when they're really the regional manager's assistant. The truly rich and powerful would never be doing this for themselves; they would be hiring someone to do it for them. As I said, these are the ones who are preening, peacocking. They are silly people, and I don't care for the opinions of silly people. They can look down on me all they want; I'm really the one looking down on them."

AM had mentally called Cutty a Stoic, which is not incorrect, but upon reflection she realizes that calling him a Cynic might be more apt. Not a small-c cynic who believes that people are motivated purely by self-interest rather than acting for honorable or unselfish reasons, but rather a big-C Cynic: someone who pursues happiness through rigorous training and by living in a way which is natural for themselves, rejecting all conventional desires for wealth, power, and fame, and even flouting conventions openly and derisively in public. Given her recent passion for literature - and her magically enhanced intelligence - she feels very confident in her assessment.

***********

Lysander responds to Bobby: <<I heard about the big boom. Yes, I can put you in contact with them. Specifically, the one you mentioned, if you want. Just an address though. No commcode. Price would usually be ¥400 but I'll give you a frequent customer discount since we've been doing a lot of biz lately: ¥200 if you let me know what you find out about the explosive used. I have my finger in that pie.>>

She nods, it is not in her nature to get confrontational. Perhaps she'll show her true colors to Jawsey because they are close but to Cutty? There is no hope in changing him, and there is no need to change a perception that works for him. It is not wrong or right, it is how he views the world and it has its own benefits and drawbacks, and she can live with that. To her the situation reassures her how alien she is to normative society, they laugh at her for being poorer than themselves. The economic ladder is a big thing to them. Yet, they are sort of what her mother has dreamed for her to be. Safe, and ignorant? She asks Cutty "Do you have a family? any significant other? or Kids?" she asks trying to take her mind off thinking how her mother would feel in such a situation. She finds it sad because the idea of bringing her mother to Seattle seems less and less realistic. She lies to the one person that was actually there for her full time rather than once in a while, and in many ways it breaks her heart.

Bobby replied to the hackers: <<You want to call it quits already? Ok, I'll consider the metatype as a part identification as well as the general area of Hollywood. So half success on the first two points. That's worth 750 - or would you argue for more? I'm happy to up it to a full 1000 if you can give me anything else of value to ID the perp.>>

To Lysander he said: <<Thanks, I'll take you up on that offer. Address is enough - just need some kind of name to go with it. Calling for an Oz Surfer Dude Dwarf might get me blown up too.>>

Lysander: <<His real name is Hugh Brown, but he goes by the street name 'Huge'. A bit of dwarven humor, like trolls named 'Tiny'.>>

<<He's a nice enough guy, even nicer if he's liquored up. Something of an odd duck among the Red Hot Nukes, who are most neo-anarchist pricks. They tend to feud with anyone and everyone, calling them "enemies of the people". I never saw how they fit into Urubia's syndicate, although it helps that the Rusted Stilettos and Spiders aren't part of it. Still, they must be softening in Grinder's old age. Or maybe Grinder doesn't have the sway over the younger generation that he used to.>>

<<Huge usually 'works' out of an auto body and paint shop up the road from you on Highway 202. Here's the address: 16140 Redmond - Woodinville Rd NE, Woodinville, WA 98072>>

Bobby replied: <<Thanks, money is on its way. Will keep you appraised on what's going on.>>

Bobby cut the connection and informed the team: <<Got a name and an address. Does anyone of you want to come with me? We have to ask some quite sensitive questions - and I'm not the most sensitive guy. Or sensible.>>

AM texts Bobby >> I will come with you once we finish unloading Ford. Jawsey said he wanted to cook She'll drive to SIS to unpack, and would purposely unpack the glasses and store them neatly out of the way, hoping for a brief break from DIY to play detective. To be modest, she is unused to such a work and feels quite tired by now.

Bobby came down to help with the unloading.
He called to Jawsey: "I don't know how long this will take. I'd appreciate it if you could save us a plate."

When AM and he were on the road he said: "So Huge is hopefully able to tell us who could have come after us. In the unlikely case that he is the one who did it, we need to watch his initial reaction. I'll keep my eyes open on the astral to see what emotions our visit causes. Are you ready for action?"

She says Yes I am, and even if he is the one doing it -we are more interested in the one paying for it. Are we looking for the car?

"The kids are hopefully still on it. We have an image - does Trouble have the search power? Would be helpful, otherwise we have to ask Jawsey after the meal."
Bobby replied.

"By the way: I know that you are reluctant to move somewhere safer because of your SIN status. I could ask Cpt. Razak to pull some strings. The special ops create high level fake sins all the time. I think I have enough cash on the side to pay for one. It would be an investment in SIS future.
Because I'm done with getting shoved around by petty tyrants.
If this turns out to be instigated by Carn-Evil I will end him. A line has been crossed.
And being passive and enduring won't help prevent an escalation. Too many minorities tried that in the past and it only got worse for them. The best time for an armed intervention is at the start of a conflict. Anyone else but Mato would have been killed by that blast. I'll be dead in a ditch before I let them get you or Jawsey."

She comments to Bobby, "No Trouble has no such power." and mentally notes herself that she'll need to change Trouble if Jawsey leaves them. As she drops the groceries in the kitchen she asks Jawsey "Can you send a spirit to search for the car. Do we know approximately where it might be?

She tells Bobby If someone wants to kill us, they'll want to kill us downtown as well. As for morality, an eye for an eye makes the entire world goes blind, but the solution is not forgiveness - it is aggression. Retaliate ten times as hard, and nobody would want to offend you in the first place. If we find the offender and make an example of him or her - why leave? Who would want to mess up with the crazy mages and their cybered friends?

Bobby gets a response from Seraphina. She has a fair amount of acid in her voice.

Seraphina: <<In the field of economics there is a principle called 'diminishing returns'.>> Bobby is pretty sure he is being lectured at, or condescended to. <<It states that proportionally smaller benefits are derived from something as more energy is invested in it.>>

<<You have set the metrics of success, which is your prerogative as the employer, but that does not mean they are feasible. You have asked for A) the owner, B) the movement of the car and driver to a specific location, and C) the identity and background, which - I might point out - is tantamount to what you requested in part A.>>

<<Without license plates nor a broadcast registration, we have no reasonable way of providing A or C. We will do our best with B but may I remind you that we mere have - nay, had - a deck fund. We do not actually have a deck with which to do this work. Given our makeshift equipment, I believe our efforts within the last hour have been admirable.>>

************

Cutty seems to clam up a bit when AM asks about his family. "No family. No significant other. No kids. If I did, I probably wouldn't have moved to Seattle."

He seems to reflect on the question for a minute longer. "The Special Forces aren't really conducive to that sort of thing. Some try to make it work. To me, it never felt fair to the family. The mission always comes first, everything else second. How do you look your kid in the eye and tell them that they're not the biggest priority in your life?" He shakes his head sadly at the thought. "Every trooper can rationalize it in their own way. 'I'm going to make the world a better place for you.' But kids have no concept of a better world; they just want their parents."

He seems to hang his head a bit. "No, the gym is my family. Those kids are my kids."

When Jawsey heard that they had somewhere to go, he scrambled at the chance. He clarified "Pasta is quick, that is why I chose it for tonight. Maybe something fancier when we are not hot on the trail of our antagonist -- also if we don't have time tonight, all of those ingredients will keep. Fancier meal once we are done with this."

Armored vest, gun, reagents, sword-cane. To cover all the bases he also grabbed his first aid kit, their good camera, and half a dozen bottles of water. The water bottles were ones he'd washed and re-filled the last time he'd been downtown, but still in parts of Redmond they'd be welcome all the same.

=====================

When they got talking about spirit search for the car, he suggested "I don't think we know enough for a spirit to have much luck, at least just starting from here and spiraling out. There are just too many likely hits. But when we get out towards where we are going I can try. We'll see how the state of the mana is, there is good odds that my focus will deactivate and spirits would hate me for dragging them out there, but we'll see. We may really find that we are missing Mato on this one."
"

Bobby lifted a finger, indicating that he had to reply to a text.
<<Seraphina, there are three life lessons here that I want to impress on you:
First: Possession and ownership are related but by no means identical. If I'd use a car for a hit I'd steal one. That's why I asked for owner and driver identities. They may be the same, but I think it unlikely.
Second: Detective work is not an investment game. You follow leads as long as it takes and when they dry up, you take the next one. I'd at least expected you to go through the stolen car registry - and the current fire brigade news about currently burning cars that fit our model.
Third: Swallowing your pride and being professional towards your client is usually the better long term strategy. I don't have to turn to you and give you a chance to reduce your payments. I'm doing that because I know and hate the feeling of being in debt. I'd be a lot more open to recognize the results you provided so far if you showed me the same professional respect as I am showing you.

You are smart kids. If I'm asking if you are already giving up, it's meant as a motivation not an insult.

So I repeat my question: Do you think my evalutation of your services so far is fair, or can you give me a good argument for why they were worth more than I was offering you?>>

Picking up the discussion with AM he said:

"An eye for an eye is a losing strategy. If someone takes one eye you take both of his. That way he'll never be able to do it again. Moving away from here changes dynamics. Better paying customers, police that actually patrols, gangers less likely to blend in... It's not running away if you are just getting a better place for yourself. For example one with a dedicated space for magic instead of you giving up your bedroom."

Jawsey coming with them improved Bobby's mood considerably: "Great, let's eat quickly and head out. The first 24 hours are decisive for success. Many sensorchips overwrite their material continuously. For the search we are going to Hollywood - that should be close enough for your spirits."

She would not respond right there but on the way would add to the conversation "You know, one can see SIS as a front for a very exclusive and often illegal service. Are you sure about doing all of that under the watchful eye of police presence? Being in Redmond I'd assume gives us a bit of protection there. I am not arguing - but what pays the bills is not the cheating spouses. It is Bernt and problems like his."

"You mean like us meeting at an upscale milk bar to discuss our business?
Be real, rich people do the same shady business like the poor - just with more money.
Don't drek where you live is a good motto to live by."
Bobby countered

[colro"They are less likely to see someone they care about in Touristvile than downtown, so that I could argue for that. I don't know; perhaps somewhere else we'll have a better business -perhaps not. We are making bucketloads now, and I am all for the notion of spending money to earn money, so maybe we'll have better money elsewhere, perhaps not. I'll be happy to finish paying for the Erika before I take on another severe capital investment - I have not spent anything on non-necessities for a long while now. "[/color]

"Fair enough. Just remember: The next bomb could be inside our home."

To Jawsey he said:
"We have a bit more than that: The photo shows the exact model we want - one without markings or plates and a seat set up for a dwarf or really small human. That combination should be unique enough."


When they reached the autoshop, he said: "Jawsey, do you want to stay here to astral scout or are you coming with us?"

THinking about the likely mana corruption at their destination, Jawsey quickly summoned one of the Hunter Brothers, crumpling up some reagents as an apology of where he was likely going to be sending it to search. He left it to wait for a call to service, rather than accompanying them -- no point in dragging it through the murkey mana of Redmond for any longer than was strictly necessary.

With the ongoing discussion about moving the headquarters, he offered "There are parasites, and potential enemies, everywhere. In a nicer neighbourhood you might have nicer parasites and enemies, but they will still happen. There are always those who will try to siphon away the health of others, and always those who will use the threat of force, in one way or another, to gain power. If not gangs and bombs at the door it would be neighbours complaining to bylaw and harassment by KE, or 'neighbourhood defense' gangs and racist thugs, or whatever. I suppose that the best that can be done is to determine which type SIS is best equipped to deal with, and aim to live where those keep the other sorts away."

He spends the rest of the ride pulling up images and specs of the type of car they are looking for, trying to build up as accurate a mental image as possible to share with his spirit. It isn't that he hasn't seen this type of car before, it is that he's never paid particular attention to one before. It takes a bit to get a good image of the shape of the mirrors and bumpers, the curves of the roof, and so on. When they get into Hollywood he takes time to assess the mana, and see if there is any point in even calling up his spirit to go hunting. If the background isn't too completely horrible (3 or less) he'll call up his spirit and send it searching for the vehicle in question.

<<Sunday Noon - February 5, 2079 - Just North of Hollywood, Redmond>>

The mana in Hollywood is indeed horrible, but the good news is that your destination is just outside of the worst of it. The auto body shop is a bit northwest of Hollywood, in an industrial strip that backs up to the Sammamish River. The river is polluted but it still does juuuust enough to scrub the mana so that it's a little cleaner in the vicinity. It's definitely not the same as being at the Wild Ork Ranch in Salish lands, but it's no worse than being in Touristville.

The industrial strip has a drywall distributor, a hydraulic repair service, some engineering offices, and a few dance and craft spaces for artists looking for low rents. Being a Sunday, it's all fairly quiet. There are a few cars here and there but for the most part you have it to yourselves.

Pulling up to the auto body shop, you see one of the garage doors is open. Huge is in there, working on the engine of the vehicle with a beer (two beers, actually) close at hand.

Huge isn't working on one, but there are some Volkswagen Elektros in the garage alongside him. A couple of them seem to be the right color and model year, although they all have their license plates. I have identified a possible match, the Hunter Brother tells Jawsey helpfully/unhelpfully.

Huge sees you drive up and waves cheerily. He seems to recognize you, or Bobby at least.

"Hey, mates!" he calls out, his blond hair falling onto the shoulders of his mechanic's overalls. He holds up a beer to toast you. "You're alive! Great news!" He pumps his fist in the air in celebration. "Come have a beer with me!"

"Well, at least we don't have to explain the story." Bobby murmured aside to his colleagues.
Returning the greeting he said:
"Hello Huge. Thanks for the beer. You probably can guess why we want to talk with you. My mate Mato got hit pretty bad. Do you know who did it or who made the call to get it done?"

Bobby had his eyes open on the astral, looking for telltale signs of deception, or other strong emotions in the Australian's aura

Both of Huge's beers are lagers. One is a Aztlaner lager - inexpensive, ubiquitous, readily available at Stuffer Shack, largely indistinguishable from carbonated water - and the other is an Australian lager that's the opposite in every way. Huge opens up a well-stocked cooler and hands out Australian lagers to anyone who wants one. He passes a cold one to Bobby.

A look of confusion crosses Huge's face when Bobby asks his questions. Bobby clearly detects the same puzzlement on the astral, so it's not an act.

"It was me. I did it." Huge says it like it was obvious, like he thought you already knew. He sips his beer and leans on the car he was working on.

"I thought that's why you were here. Private dicks, right? Good ones! Here before the morning's out."

He sips his beer again. His brow is furrowed with a look of concern. Again, Bobby can see on the astral that it's not an act.

"Who's Mato?" he asks. "Wasn't at the Fun House. Didn't see anyone else coming or going for a few days. I know my onion: I timed it to minimize collateral damage. You know, knock down the front door but you'd all be upstairs. Make it scary. 'Send a message.'" This last part gets some air quotes, indicating that someone else said it.

"But Mato got it?" He looks rueful. "Cop it for that folly, cop it hard! Now all you frightful-looking blokes have a personal grievance to air."

Bobby had to look like a deer in the headlights:
"Wait. Wait a fragging minute. You build a bomb, placed it with a drone and then watched as it blew up? Didn't you see the guy at our front door picking the package up?"
Bobby had to calm himself down with some effort.


He managed, but barely.
"Ok. You tell me right now who ordered the hit against us."

"That guy? Blimey, he looked like a squatter, a scavenger who wanted to steal a package. Bloke looked like he had just crawled out of the woods. If he picked it up and carried away then it wasn't going to 'send a message', was it?

"But that was your mate? Stab my vitals!" This sounds like a rhetorical expression, not an invitation. "I musta really put him on the spot. Musta made him look like a dog's breakfast. Crikey! I'm sorry. Makes me feel like a bogan."

Huge scratches his scalp.

"Who ordered it? The higher-ups. I got my orders from Grinder. Grinder doesn't know who the frag you are so it musta come to him from someone else. There's a council of sorts, all the gang leaders. They sit down and do their complaining and horse trading all right there in the open. Urubia's got them using Robert's Rules of Order, can you believe that? Ha! They've got a parliamentarian and everything. It lets all the ockers and yobbos get the attention they crave. Grinder hates it something fierce, wants to do the Harry."

AM comes to the meeting but remains silent and lets Bobby do the talking. She says she'll help if he needs it, but so far he does it as good as anyone. She stiffens a bit when Huge confesses to blowing up Mato as if it was nothing, and then again when he was going to blow a person up just to 'send a message so the good thing is nobody wants them dead. Just scared and it points to Carn-evil perhaps through Urubia.


"Where can we find Mr. Grinder?" are the first words she says, crushed by the totality of her logic and vengeance to the aesthetics of actually killing someone.

Jawsey appreciatively murmurs "This isn't beer, this is good!" but otherwise listens to the others talk. He hasn't been too effective lately, so maybe it is time to watch what others are saying. He even refrains from sending the obvious 'Anyone got Australian-to-English translation software' joke.

Mato's mangling was an accident? Yah, that was about on par with everything else in this fragging city. Worse, it was agreed to by Urubia's fragging parliament. This time he did send a message <<OK, my vote is now for 'moving.' If their council approved the 'warning' to us, there are good odds that there is now diffused responsibility, where striking at one of them just means we are fighting all of them. I'm not saying we give up on revenge, I'm saying we move to somewhere where they can't hit us as easily, and then we get surgical. Basically send a message of our own: we aren't interested in fighting Urubia for control of Redmond, but if anyone messes with SIS they will pay double. Cam-Evil is far from the worst that the Halloweeners have to offer, but I say that as soon as we can pull ourselves out of easy counterstrike range we find him, and ice him. Not a big demonstration, that might be like waving a flag in front of a bull, I just get a water spirit to engulf him while running energy aura, while guarding the spirit on the astral, and you make sure that nobody on the meat side has time to interfere. Or something fast and low risk like that. If we can arrange for Bobby to transform him and abduct him without anyone knowing what happened, that works too, I'm fine with him disappearing, never to be seen again.>>

Bobby's momentary urge to lash out had subsided, but only for it to be replaced by a much colder version.
"Listen Huge, and listen good. You and your boss are on the hook for damages. Mato has expensive cyberware that's totally useless now. He has to stay in intensive care for at least a week - followed by rehab. Not to mention the damage done to our premises.
The only reason, I'm not extracting that cash through selling your organs is, that I kinda like you, you understand? It's your personal responsibility to pay for the damage to Mato. You pay for that, and we are square.
And I don't care if you have to make a payment plan for that, you will pay.
We know your aura - we can find you, no matter where on the world you are hiding. You don't pay up and someday a spirit will plop up beside you.

Now, be so kind and tell us where we can find Grinder."



To Jawsey he sent: <<It's worse than that. They agreed on the hit through a fragging committee. That means Nightmare signed off on it. That spirit just got himself asigned an exorcism.>>

AM remains quiet but does her best to remain open-minded >> First, Huge got an order from Grinder. Now Grinde is a member of this parliament but it does not mean that the bomb comes from them. Perhaps Grinder is also taking side orders if the pay is good enough?

Anyone assensing can tell that Bobby's words are having an effect on Huge. But, to his credit, he's not panicking. It's well known that the initiation rite into the Red Hot Nukes is to defuse a bomb designed by Grinder. If the prospect succeeds, they're in. If they don't succeed, then bomb turns them into a red mist. The test favors those with a strong sense of composure who keep they cool in nerve-wracking situations. That's what's Huge is in now.

"Nah, mate, you don't understand. I like you too. Got your card right here." From his chest pocket he pulls out the business card that Bobby had given him at the Fun House. "You see, I had the higher-ups breathing down my neck to do it quick and dirty, to make sure you knew what it was for. I dragged my feet, bought time, took some days to plot out your rhythms, pissed them off, all to make sure none of you got fragged by accident. The way I see it, you owe me.

"Your mate Mato took it and that's a bad break. I'm sorry but I controlled for as many variables as I could in the time allowed.

"You wanna string me up by my intestines? I don't blame you, I probably would feel the same in your shoes, but the bad news there is that I've got a biomonitor sending a signal to a whole heaping helping of explosives wired to the garage. If I go, so does the whole building."

The astral seems to suggest this is the truth. AM can glance around and see some spots where she would place explosives and, sure enough, there are suspicious bundles there. Scanning, she can pick up their wireless signals (hidden). She could potentially hack them, but she'd have to do them one at a time and there are at least half a dozen.

"You wanna drag me away and do it elsewhere? Well that doesn't get you any money and it's going to ramp up the council from 'send a message' to 'chunky salsa' right quick."

He's not inclined to divulge Grinder's location, but there's a moment of panic, a flash of fear from the prospect of a messy demise, that makes him spill the beans.

"You wanna take it up with Grinder, be my guest. I don't know where he is at this exact moment but he's been spending a lot of time at the Fun House. Urubia likes him. She likes anyone with the Talent, and Grinder has it in spades."

"You know, you could have just called me on the sly and I would have helped you set something impressive up.
And don't bluff me with your explosives - unless you want me to ask my hacker friend to poke around in your link.
As I said: You pay for the damages to Mato and we are square.

Give us the commcode for Grinder and we can call it a day for now."
Bobby replied, unimpressed by the threat of immediate explosive annihilaton. Turning someone into a critter took care of cyberware signals, but that he didn't have to tell the guy.

AM feels the Trickster - and she feels her chaotic need for justice. If the fool really wired his biomonitor to the entire building then she can just hack the biomonitor and blow up the entire building. Would there even be evidence linking her to the act? Going AR she decides to test that hypothesis, as there is nothing more she would like than seeing the building going blown up in the most poetic justice.

"I already told you no, mate. I took you for a larrikin; don't make me wish I had turned you into paste.

"If you wanna escalate the situation, the next bloke along will get the job done. Remember: we only have to be lucky once. You will have to be lucky always. Don't be a drongo.

"You're in a hole, galah, and you don't even know it. You want to dig up, not down. Let this go. Walk away. You can be done today. Behave and everyone will leave you alone now."

But, still, Bobby is fairly intimidating, so Huge gives up Grinder's commcode.

In AR, AM finds several signals connected to the building's host. They look innocuous but maybe they've been disguised by a Wrapper program.

Huge has a Hermes Ikon. Nice commlink for Redmond.

<<Fragging Fun House. Too bad we can't blow that up. Of course they want to stay there, where Urubia makes everything simple and pleasant. But it also keeps them in an astral fortress where we can't touch them easily. At this point I might take my chance with Nightmare in a fair fight, but it would be a futile gesture for me to gun for him in the Funhouse, or even to go and astrally scan people there would raise their alert level.>>

He stares at the place a bit longer and then adds <<Blowing this place up would send a message of sorts. Short-range revenge, leave some bad feelings, but sends the message that 'I was just following orders' won't spare you from our vengeance. "They pull a knife, you pull a gun. He sends one of yours to the hospital, you send one of his to the morgue." in the words of some old 20th century gangster film I remember watching when I was a kid. But that was trying to take down a mob boss, not a fragging dragon. Nobody is going to arrest Urubia for tax evasion.>>

<<What I'd rather do is make Huge realize that he is alive because we are benevolent and try to persuade him to pass information along to us of any word of more bombs being sent our way, while we pull out of Touristville shortly, and start working to catch a leader outside of the Funhouse where we can end them -- I don't really care which gang at this point, but after we take out the leader we then take out whoever takes their spot, until the new leader never leaves The Funhouse, being essentially neutered. Or if the leaders won't leave, we start taking out other senior members so that there is no leadership active outside The Funhouse. Then we start working on the next gang. Urubia can protect them IN the Funhouse, but we can frag with them elsewhere. Of course, if we keep it up they'll come after us hard at somepoint, but maybe first the gang coalition falls apart because the gangs lose cohesion.>>

AM tries to hack the comlink to see if there is a biomonitor connected to the explosives in the building.

Bobby accepted the code and turned away: "Then there is nothing more for us to discuss."

To his team he wrote: <<We don't need to go into the funhouse. We know Nightmare's weakness - his cauldron. And it's beneath the bar. Douse the fire, smash the cauldron. Now we need only confirmation from Grinder, that the Halloweeners are the instigators of this punishment expedition. Walking away did not help our fathers and mothers. The white man came relentlessly. If we have to perform a third ghost dance to repell them, I'm in. Giving ground to your oppressors only enables them to do worse to you. Never again!
And AM - I guess you are already on in, but if someone leafs such a badly thought out dead man's switch in the matrix... I don't think anyone could blame us for poking it in curiosity.>>