Gladius' eyes went wide:
"Any spirit... That means he could conceivably invite even what the hermetics call shadow spirits...
And they are on their way to conduct rituals with a drekload of reagents.

We should hurry."

I can see the tactical benefits of flight, but I am uncertain if my fake SIN can handle airport-level scans, and I really don't want a criminal SIN or jail in that manner. I text Mato mentally because I think he would know >> Mato, can I fly in my condition? Not very direct, but I think he may be knowledgeable about it.


"Alright, so we arrive by plane to San Angelo and rent someplace there? Can we reliably notice when they arrive? Whats then?"

"Shadow spirits, a bunch of queens, whatever it is, one thing is certain... it ain't gonna be good."

"If we find the site they are going to conduct the ritual on, must be something specific, when they are going all the way down there, maybe we can keep an eye on that with some drones or something they won't notice right away."


<< Also, one random thought crossed my mind... there was this old girlfriend of his... Grace? Gracie? The one that did not make it out of Boston. Did we have a description of her? We are fairly certain, that Victoria is a fake SIN, I mean, who knows... >>

<<Can you get CFD and still retain magic? A gifted monad, with no particular attachment to humanity, sounds like it would be a bad thing. Although I'd think that if she were a monad they'd be more matrix savvy>>

<< My thoughts were more in the direction of... what if Gracie = Victoria. >>

<<The III has met both Gracie and Victoria. Everything here points to Victoria's personality, capabilities, and interests, so I think we can confidently say that Gracie ≠ Victoria>>

To address AM's concern, he comms: <<Flying on a private jet will address any concerns about identification and/or cargo. We should should bring anything and everything we think we might need.>>

<<Weather this time of year should be sunny but not too hot. Pack your sun hats and your FAB III.>>

"Yes," Mato nods to Gladius, "we'll get in touch with Xavier Tien III and inquire about the availability of his plane. Then we should go pack."

Mato reaches out to III:

<<Good evening, sir. We have a credible lead that your son has left town and is heading to San Angelo, which is right on the border between the CAS and Aztlan. Your son and Victoria have procured a significant quantity of reagents, so we believe they are planning a major ritual involving the XT.>>

<<This is a concerning development for everyone involved. We would like your permission to take the private jet you mentioned to San Angelo to intercept them. If your personal pilot is not available on short notice then we have a professional pilot on our staff.>>

<<Please confirm at your earliest convenience. Thank you.>>

A little cold, perhaps, but professional and to the point.

I breathe for release and think about my stuff; I'll just get everything Especially the guns; not sure how good they'll fare against mages, but nothing gives me more confidence than a loaded sidearm. Besides, Texans like guns, right? I honestly have no idea, I spent most of my formative in the Trix without leaving home much. Now I am going to Texas on a private jet - if he says yes - but he will agree because he wants the artifact back - and all that stands between me and new toys is a bunch of battle-hardened ex-Boston survivors with a ThD degree, tons of practical experience in magic techniques I only read about, the ability bind massive spirits and the willingness to murder.

What could possibly go wrong?

Thanks Mato... Never imagined myself in that situation before.

"Alright, now if you excuse me, I have a long ritual to watch... Praise the Trickster, it would be long even at double speed - but perhaps understanding what they did would be useful."

The thought that the little bitch likely did multiple rituals just for an assassination attempt instead of swarming him with spirits when he was sleeping like a normal murderer would. She is like the villains in the old James Bond movies that put the hero in an easily avoidable but very dramatic and complicated killing device instead of just shooting the guy in the head.

The reply came back almost instantly:

<<Well, that sounds like you make excellent progress. My jet is available - I'll accompany you. Don't worry, I'll stay back at the hotel, but if my wayward son happens to appear as you predict, I'd like a chance to talk to him face to face.>>

<<Understood. We need to gather our belongings and make our preparations. We'll proceed to the hangar and meet you there in a couple hours.>>

"The III will be joining us," he tells Gladius. "Have you had the pleasure?"

"Yes, though not recently. He shouldn't mind having me on board.

Once we are over there on the ground I can try my hand at a bit of pattern prediction to divine the location for the ritual and the arrival of the group."

Gladius replied.

"I know the airfield in Everett. I'll meet you there. Call me if there is a change of plans."

Scanning the surveillance files didn't give AM much more knowledge than she already had:

Gloved hands had lifted the skylight just a crack to let the drone in. It had quickly deployed its sensor tag and then moved to the adjacent master bedroom.

From there on two video streams showed the three mages in their mindlink discussion until they came to a conclusion. Arione fetched something from the window sill - likely the small potted cactus - and placed it inside the ritual circle. Then Tien IV gestured and something invisible seemed to happen - likely he had commanded a bound spiriti of his to manifest. The camera couldn't see it, but most likely the spirit was forced to fit its astral form into the small plant and stay there while the group began to enact the greater spirit ritual that gave the spirit the power to open an astral rift. What followed was a ten hour ritual. After that, Creamor left the frame, likely taking the cactus with him. Evidently, he had put the plant into a can, so astral perception couldn't spot the bound spirit.

The sensor tag wasn't placed optimally, so there was a lot happening out of frame, but it was most likely Creamor that installed the can opener and the sensor tag in the work room.

After that Creamor was clearly leaving the flat. Arione and Tien began packing, moving from room to room, but took a brief moment to share a kiss in the master bedroom in between stuffing clothes into duffel bags that already seemed to contain other stuff. There was no sign of guns, but the surivival jackets looked suspiciously like Ares armored Globetrotter jackets.

Mato leads the other back to the car.

"Time is short," he says. "Let's go pack."

His eyes glance over at Rachel. Hopefully they could get her packed up before the drugs wear off and she crashes.

Tamarind has her van with her, and confirms that she will meet the others back at the house. She takes the time of the drive to think about whether she wants to bring all of her drones with her. Eventually she concludes that a private jet should have enough space, so she might as well. Heck, if they have the time maybe she can even tinker with them a bit.

I am already at our van when the team decides to join me—catching up on my composure and trying to return to a less stressful environment. Mato seems composed enough, and I trust him fully, not bothered by all these powerful emotions - or is he? The drone feed is interesting, but not with the information we already know... They spent ten hours preparing a trap that may kill Gladius; there does not appear to be tension between them as expected for such a decision.

I look at Rachel and text, "I can detox you if it is no longer fun or if it gives you some headache or whatnot." Still, I have recently learned the detox spell and a bunch of other health spells I thought every shaman should have. Not that I have a community to heal, and still, a medicine woman should know more than just a heal spell... and the detox spell would allow me to drink that terrible Hurlag without poisoning myself - or at least without all the discomfort while my body burns from the inside, helps keep that stoic expression to impress Mato. Using it on Rachel would spoil the surprise but work first. Drugs without crashing afterward seem to offer interesting possibilities. Well, except for addictions... but still.

"Fun? That stuff is more irritating than fun... but it was necessary. I would have been too slow otherwise. Only use those in absolute emergencies. I really should look into learning a spell that does something similar. Anyways, Detox? Cool that you know a spell like that. Sure, hit me!" Rachel replies in a rather hectic manner.

I take Rachel's hand and then take all the fun away - well, for me. She is pretty amusing, talking so fast and being so active and making me feel lazy. "I don't know why you feel the need, chemistry and alchemy seem to accomplish very similar things..."

Next on my bucket list is to take my bugout bag, the guns, my reagents, a quick shower, and get into something more casual for the flight. To be honest, I could settle for a long shower, but somehow, I feel not very original in that desire so that I might settle for a short one. I dash to the shower when we arrive to ensure I get hot water.

"Well, they are cheap," Rachel says with a bit of a sheepish grin.

"It's what law enforcement agencies give their troopers to be able to keep up with souped-up cybers when the need arises. Have saved my behind a few times, but in the long run, I need an alternative. For now, they do what they need to do."

Tamarind shudders to herself at the talk of combat drugs. She's descended into the early stages of addiction a couple of times, and she's seen what alcohol did to her Mother. She could just about imagine how addictive the high from combat drugs would be. Even without having tried them she can feel a longing to pop them and see what the rush is, "just once". But she suspects that for her "just once" wouldn't be possible.

To change her mind off that depressing thought she asks "Any idea what customs will be like in the CAS, coming in by private plane? It is great not having to deal with regular airport security, but I imagine that showing up with a load of weapons and saying that we are there for vacation might still raise some question marks."

The team arrived at their home with little delay - traffic hadn't switched yet to rush hour.
The whole neighborhood was practically dead around this time - everyone was still at work or school and any garden service had long finished their work. The only traffic came from the security patrols on their little electric ATVs.

One of them stopped next to the team as they themselves went to get out of the car.

"You are the new residents here? Hi, I'm security consultant James Yoshimura and that is my colleague Ranshid Vaughn. Do you have a few moments? We have some questions."

AM rushes off for the shower. Mato, from experience, knows the he will want to shower after he lands; air travel always makes his skin sweaty and grimy.

"The UCAS and CAS have one of the more peaceful borders in the world," Mato says. "Most of the border checks are on the gentle side, and anyone coming in via private plane is going to get that much more leeway. It would be a much different story if we were coming from Aztlan - like, twenty times worse - but we're reputable professionals traveling with a reputable employer arriving from a friendly country.

"As for local laws, CAS isn't big on jail time. They prefer fines, which makes bribery much more prominent. If there's any friction, a modest 'look the other way' incentive should expedite matters."

Mato packs just about everything. He switches to his Casseur Gala Uniform because it's after 18:00 and he's not a farmer. Plus it repels dirt, and Texas is dirty. He packs his Chasseur Field Uniform plus his armor jack and his rarely-used ballistic mask.

Then it's on to his weapons, including the AK-97, Ingram Smartgun, and Walther P118, plus a wide range of ammo for each. Grenades: yes. Shuriken and throwing knives: certainly. Shock hand and climbing claws: literally can't leave those behind.

He brings his full range of B&E gear and medtech, including a medkit and slap patches. Given what they saw in IV's apartment, it seems like those might be relevant.

"Gladius says they're weak to tech," Mato says. "Not incompetent, but perhaps a blind spot. Let's think of ways we can leverage AM's Erika and Tamarind's drones. It wouldn't surprise me if they are bulletproof, but sometimes you can get a message across without kinetic force."

Mato smiles. "Ah, most convenient!" he lies. He's privately grateful that he's wearing a fine suit, the social equivalent of pocket sand.

"Miguel Torres," he says to introduce himself. "I am most pleased to meet you, Yoshimura-san and Mr. Vaughn."

Mato nods to the van, which is being packed up. "We are about to leave on a business trip. I do hope that you will keep a watchful eye on the premises while we are away. Is it the etiquette to alert you when we will be gone?"

Mato reminds himself that he is the client and they are the contractors. He hopes to flat-foot them, and derail whatever their intentions they might have had.

Rachel stops near Mato and the two security guys.

"Questions? I hope it doesn't take long, we are in a bit of a hurry."

Out of habit, she assenses the pair.

My heart skips a bit, I know there is likely nothing to be afraid of, but I learned to fear security companies and the police. Being SINless does that to a woman; that law does not protect me it protects THEM, though now I am one of THEM... well until my SIN burns and I go to prison for impersonating this Emma Miller chick. Maybe moving out of Redmond is not for me, and maybe I am a critter of shadows and not of light.

Since Rachel and Mato are talking to them, I fake a call from mother nature and give them an apologetic gesture as I run toward the toilet. Once indoors, I look in the Trix for anything suspicious and enter the shower if I decide everything is as it always is. I don't mind talking to crime lords, or billionaires, or nobility, or nosy neighbors, but I am not talking to coppers.

The two security people are a bit perplex - possibly because the ork turns out to be well spoken and in charge.

Both are human, healthy and have some low level of cyberware implanted in their heads and spines.

Yoshimura was the first one to change gears mentally and answered: "Yes sir, certainly. That's what we wanted to ask. We monitor the traffic in and out of the area and we still need your routine movement when you leave for work and return again. That helps to improve our surveillance data to filter out false positives.

You can tell us also about irregular arrivals and leaving, as well as expected guests with our matrix address, so we don't inconvenience you or your guests with ID checks."

Vaughn finally caught up too and said: "Will you be gone for longer? With your whole... household?"

The surveillance doesn't bother Mato. He grew up with it in a corporate environment; he's accustomed to it. (AM might freak out about it...) He occasionally reminds himself that he is legitimate, but of course a less-generous interpreter of the law might occasionally disagree.

"I confess I do not know for certain, Mr. Vaughn," Mato says. "We have been called out-of-town with rather late notice by an important client. With luck we will return soon, but it is very likely to be two or three days."

He doesn't directly address the "whole household" remark. He's comfortable with a bit of ambiguity. Are they a business partners or a sex cult? Who can say?

"I do fear that our movements are less than routine. Our schedules are often dictated by our clients. We are consultants ourselves, but our project-based - not on retainer - so one week we're supporting one venture, then the next week we'll be contributing to a different task entirely. It is invigorating, but lamentably unpredictable.

"Besides registering our guests and our planned absences, what can we do to make things easier for Sakura Security?"

After Mato summarizes about security, she says "I intend to bring all of my drones, I think. They should have some cargo space on a private jet, should be able to handle Toothless and Stitch and the Pellipers well enough, and the rest are small. Well, maybe I'll leave the new Spy Eye at the house to provide an extra eye on things. And there is that drone you had from a previous job, perhaps we could bring it along too? And I should bring my tricksy ammo along I suppose, the looper rounds and such, just in case if we think that the border won't be too hard."

When the local security shows up, Tamarind is happy to let Mato talk, but she takes up position just behind him and to his left, to provide some social solidarity. A somewhat weathered native woman may not be what they are used to dealing with either, but if nothing else natives do seem to make a certain portion of anglos uncomfortable, and sometimes that has its uses.

When Mato wraps up, she quietly adds "We certainly don't want to make your jobs more difficult than they already are."

Yoshimura looked a bit uncomfortable for some reason, but bravely soldiered on: "I see. We'll just make sure we have your cars on file and anyone on shift is notified that it isn't unusual to see it be driven at any hours. That means, we won't be able to prevent car thefts as efficiently. We recommend that you give a tripple tap on your lights when you pass by the camera mount at the end of the street, or our security consultants will have to stop you to make sure it's you. Or if you want you can subscribe to our premium account, so we can correlate your commlink persona being in the car. That will be only 9.99 Nuyens per month - an unbeatable price for that feeling of being secure."

The last sentence was so rote learned that Mato could imagine the whole corps of security people saying it unisono at the beginning of each shift.

If AM had stayed around, she might have felt a bit more at home again - after all this was just another protection racket, although a much more polite one.

"Car thefts?" Mato says, bringing a hand to his heart. "Here?! Oh my gracious!"

He's over-playing it a bit but he seems to be having some fun.

"Yes, yes, we will absolutely sign up for the premium account! Ten nuyen a month, what a bargain for such peace of mind! Do we need one account for the household, or one for each vehicle, or one for each resident? Is there a super-premium account by any chance? We certainly wouldn't want to inconvenience you with unnecessary security stops. We must keep your attention focused on the true dangers of our troubled society."

Yoshimura perked up, having obviously expected more resistance: "Certainly. For the super premium package, all vehicles, household members and pets receive VIP status. That means special attention for all your property, excemption from curfew and unlimited community miles.
You'll receive special tags that will allow you priority service in all regards for 100 Nuyen per month."

Being happy to have closed a subscribtion, the two security consultants hastily moved to their vehicle, returning with six hardened tags and a porcelaine cup with the printed slogan: "Sakura Security - YOUR SAFETY IS OUR PRIORITY"

"Have a great day!" Yoshimura said, while he and his colleague beat a hasty retreat, obviously not wanting to risk losing the commission they just gained.

Mato is pleased with the exchange. He returns to loading up the van.

"Let's leave the Americar in the garage," he suggests. "I think we can all fit in the Eurovan, including Toothless and Stitch and the Pellipers."

Mato wonders if there is actual car theft in the neighborhood or if it's just a scare tactic to drum up business. A risky one, given that it potentially reflects poorly on the Sakura itself. They need a threat to mitigate, but can't be so effective that they remove their all of their emotional leverage over their clients...

Once security is gone, Tamarind comments "Cheaper than being shaken down by the mafia or Yakuza. At least so far. The mafia, if someone else comes after you, you have the first one tell them to back off. With this, I don't know? Will there be more 'optional' fees?"

She already has the drones in the van, and Stitch had grabbed her ready bag for her. However as the were going longer and farther than she had expected she does go inside to pack up more. Some more clothes, some accessories for Stitch, some extra cords for plugging in drones to all purpose outlets, tie-doens for the larger drones during travel, and a nicer carry bag for taking small drones into more upscale locations.

She does leave the new Flying Eye to patrol the house. She makes sure that it knows the charging port locations and gives it instructions to mostly roll around, only hovering higher occasionally and to change floors, , so that anyone looking in wouldn't know it is there. And of course instructions on running silent 99% of the time, making itself accessible to her only in a three second window each five minutes. A dedicated matrix stake-out would spot that, but any burglars daring the local security were hopefully less apt to be that patient.

Once back in the van she makes sure that everydrone is secure, and then she gives Stitch's manipulator a quick squeeze and she whisper to it "We are going to Texas, a new place for us. I'll buy you a hat while we are there.". She double checks that none of the others were around to see that, then settles in to wait for them to finish showers, packing, and whatever.

The drive to Everett was a lot less smooth: Rush hour was in full swing and to add to it all, the Scorpions go-gang decided to use this evening to get some exercise in on the freeway. After an hour and a half grinding their way through a city of angry commuters, the team reached the airfield.

Gladius and Tien were waiting already and talking with each other in the lobby of the small office.

Tien wore a robust looking suit and jacket combo, that Mato immediately identified as one of the high class Zoe armors.

Gladius on the other hand still wore his threadbare looking trenchcoat with a barely concealed full body armor underneath. It had electrochromic modification, so you had to to look twice, but the helmet in his gloved hands made it pretty obvious. On his back he wore a hard shell COOB.
Mato's millimeter wave scanner also registered a stun baton, a handgun in a conceiled holster as well as a folded up assault rifle in the backpack.

Rachel and AM noticed a pretty rough looking stone around the man's neck, that oozed power on the astral, as well as one that seemed to be designed to discharge excess mana.

Tien stepped forward: "There you are. The plane is ready to depart - get everything on board, all formalities have been taken care off. You can give me a briefing during the flight." He nodded towards Gladius and lead the way out of the building, past a small security shag and onto the runway. There a sleek twin engine Airbus jet stood with it's stairs extended and the baggage compartment open.

Gladius made no move to be parted from his backpack and instead went directly into the plane.

Mato privately admires the folded-up assault rifle and wonders if he should get one too.

It's less common for a powerful magician to be carrying a powerful rifle, although Mato saw the advantages of it. For one, not looking like a magician was a good way to deceive your opponents, and to avoid becoming a target. Or maybe Gladius just likes it. Mato knows that AM enjoys shooting, even though there are many other productive things she could be doing in a conflict.

He helps carry the bags into the cargo area, then boards. He's flown before - his family flew regularly as a child - but not recently.

Tamarind has Toothless and Stitch climb the stairs to the cargo compartment -- she's chosen and modified those two specifically to make sure that they can manage stairs. The deflated surveillance drones she's strapped to Toothless for getting to the plane, but now she moves them off. The Pellipers she flies in. Then she makes sure that all of these larger drones are strapped down properly -- which is to say securely, but in such a way that Stitch can free itself and then the others, should the need arise. She also puts most of her other drones in the cargo hold, but brings Beauty and Uncle and the box of Harietts (Kanmushis) with her in the passenger compartment.

In the passenger compartment she takes some time to meet the pilot, if there is one, and get her own sense of them.

I take a place in the van, excited about the flight. "They get most of the funds from the HOA, and the HOA collects from us - so if they press us too hard, the HOA would find some other company. Like everyone, they are just trying to scrape a few additional coins for a bonus or whatnot."

I give Mato an appreciative look . "Thanks for handling them. Men in uniform scare me more than dragons and great spirits and criminals. I say, " go figure", but it is no surprise to me, considering I spent my entire life avoiding such people until it became second nature.

I arrive on the plane with my cowboy hat on the tights up to my duffel bag, wearing a buttoned-up shirt, tight jeans, and brown sneakers for running. I figured out I'd be most comfortable that way, and I also brought a small blanket in case I got cold. I am clueless about private jets; my submachine gun is in the beg disassembled, as well as the Water pistol, all with regular civilian ammo. Since we're going to an airport, I come unarmed, not wanting to draw attention.

I look at Gladius; he means business, and I feel like a noob. I wouldn't have these garments even if I wanted to go to war. "Wiz outfit," I tell Gladius when I see him. Perhaps you need to wear this to be hired as a security consultant, or perhaps I should get my body armor. Still, somehow the whole stormtrooper vibe does not appeal to me - it seems to attract too much notice where a plain-looking armored jacket would not.

"A little souvenir from my previous job." Gladius replied.
Inside the plane, the team was welcomed by tasteful luxury. All seats were convertible into comfortable beds. A high end food synthesizer could provide nearly every meal you wanted, provided it fit into a bowl.

AR displays showed a high dev image of the outside world to compensate the lack of physical windows.

The pilot turned out to be a petite French elf girl and her massive male Canadian ork co-pilot. There wasn't much time to talk though as the plane closed up immediately after every one was on board and the preflight checks began. Only 10 minutes later the plane accelerated down the runway and took to the air.

Tien treated himself to a finger of scotch, took a seat and looked expectantly at the team: "Alright, Gladius gave me a short overview, but I'd like to know what you found out so far and what you suspect is going on."

Rachel keeps her 'agent' outfit with the Zoé suite. She happily takes one of the nice seats and has some fancy food prepared for her.

When Tien III asks about their status report, she says: "Sir, your son is tangled up in some very dark stuff. This Victoria is bad news. Very bad. As you know, they are both accomplished mages, as is the third, Phillip Creamor. We cannot say with certainty, how your son is involved here, whether through coercion or conviction, but he seems fully commited. In the short time, we couldn't find definite proof of what they are planning, but there are some very strong hints. Also, since Gladius was used by them to get access to rare reagents for their ritual, and Victoria then tried to kill him by sending him into an ambush, after she figured out that he is not quite as convinced of what they are attempting there, he had at least partial insight into their plans and could provide some crucial details here, especially their destination."

"We found another trap in the apartment, a rather powerful spirit, that was tasked to assault awakened only, which is why your visit there did not trigger it, fortunately. It was meant for Gladius as well, but we had to deal with it. I managed to send it back to the metaplanes, so they won't have access to this one for a while. The spirit caused a bit of a ruckus there, so there might be some law enforcement investigating what has happened. In the apartment, there were also many clues about a planned ritual."

"Overall, what we know or suspect is, that they are headed for San Angelo, probably chosen because of some ritual significance, to conduct their summoning ritual there, which is also what they need the artifact for. The current theory is, that they plan to summon some rather bad type of spirit, which normally cannot be summoned by practitioners of the craft. What they have planned beyond that is everyone's guess."

Tien nodded: "If that is true, I'll have to amend the mission statement. I still want you to try and talk to my son and get him to talk to me. But if it looks like he is controlled or brainwashed into commiting an atrocity, I want you to knock him out and safely extract him. Everything else is secondary, even the XT."

Rachel nods.

"This is exactly what I was thinking as well. We probably need to subdue him in a non-lethal manner, in order to get him out of there safely. Unfortunately, they are all capable of masking their true auras, so we cannot determine, what kind of magic is affecting him, if that is the case, but it does seem likely. Once we remove the foci they are using to help with the masking, maybe it will give us more information. But they won't just hand them over, so having him unconscious and seperated from Victoria is likely the best course of action."

" Rachel said it most; she saved my life." They traveled without SIN registrations; Gladius triggered an investigation when he bought so many reagents. Victoria seems to be in charge and communicates well with your son. On the walls of the study room, there were instructions for very refined binding rituals. To my knowledge, they seem to maximize obedience and are not publicly available. Your son and his friends are talented mages with a well-functioning, almost harmonic team. This is a complicated and hazardous problem to solve. "

Mato nods, approving in the change of mission parameters.

"Agreed. However, I believe we should still prioritize the retrieval of the X-T. For the health and well-being of us all, it does not seem suitable to leave such a powerful artifact in the hands of potentially malicious actors.

"Gladius' experience strongly suggests that their efforts are more than just academic curiosity, or pushing the bounds of known scholarship. This has transcended into zealotry, which does not bode well for the world at large."

"Indeed. Still, if I have to chose I'd prefer my son be rescued and the XT destroyed than the other way round." Tien replied dryly.

While the conversation went on, Gladius sat himself on one of the further away seats and seemed to meditate. An observer on the astral could notice that he was communing with the spirit inside him. Suddenly he looked up: "Did you bring anything that belongs to Xavier IV with you? Something that he recently touched?"

"For what it's worth, I believe you got your priorities right there, sir. Hopefully, it won't come to that."

"We planned on getting one but left the apartment after the spirit incident."

Tamarind mentally kicks herself, she should have realized that the mages would want a sample, and even after fleeing the spirit she might have been able to sent Stitch in to recover such a thing. But now, even if she bought a drone in Seattle and they managed to get it the door codes, the apartment may be locked down by police.

But wait, they'd not removed the drone that set off the trap. She messages AM <<The range may be too much, I'm not sure, but the drone that had an activator arm that ran the can opener, that might be enough to pick up a hair or something like that if we can search the apartment with it. Then get it up out of the skylight, and at that point we'd have to figure out how to get it from there to a courier office and how to get them to pack it. But if we can find something that way, I'm sure we can work out the rest of the logistics>>

>> Yes, I am sorry. I planned on doing that, even asking for it, but my mind went blank once we were attacked. Is there anything you need me to do to execute such a plan?

If it does not work, I can ask a contact to enter the apartment or let us use a drone... This magic forensic investigator would likely do the job perfectly, but I am not sure how flexible she can be with off-the-book favors.

Perhaps I should ask Jawsey? But I'd hate to have him involved in it - but then again, asking her myself is a bit incriminating, as I was at the apartment when the spirit did its thing, and the neighbors saw something amiss. It is not that I did anything illegal on that occasion, but I don't want to be the scapegoat of some coverup. I haven't decided on a course of action, but I do miss Jawsey, so I type Jawsey a message - but I can't find the mental strength to send it.


>> Hi, Jawsie. I hope everything is well with you.

I delete it, try again with a different phrasing, and then delete it again. It is not his fault, but I am angry - not angry the temperature has cooled down. I don't make a sour face, or explode at people in random, and I clean my room. It is something else, that I cannot put my finger on... I warmed up to him, and then he suddenly left, and then I figured that he did not feel as close to me - to us as I thought to him. I can never tell with these super charismatic elves who know what to say and how to get everyone to do their bidding. How much of that closeness was real, and how much of it was his charming personality when he did not feel the same way? Oh crap, I thought I got over that already; why is it so difficult to talk to him, and ask him for a small favor as I do with the rest of my contacts?

Gladius continued:

"It's not that important - but a material link would allow me to use advanced pre-pattern detection. Divination, in lay terms.
That would let me predict their arrival in San Angelo with some accuracy.

One starting point for our search is the local hospital - where Arione refused treatment. Another is the location of her accident. There might still be psychic resonance of the event around."

"That is definitely something we wanted to look into. Her accident, that is. Maybe her magic kept her safe there. Or maybe she is simply using that person's identity as a fake SIN."

"But right now we are on a plane towards the border, so not sure how far we can get in that direction at the moment. If the patient data has been tampered with, it would be best to actually talk to someone who was working on that case back then. But that takes time. I don't see how we can manage that currently."

"As for a material link, if we can get something still, I summoned a rather powerful spirit when we were at the apartment, who should be capable of bringing it to us with remarkable speed, while the sun is still up. We just need some way to procure it."

Tien piped up: "Interesting. You could bring one of the painings from his living room. He painted them over the last year. I think there is a lot of attachement there."

"Or simply something from his lodge - everything there should have his aura." Gladius added.

"Did he gift any paintings to you?" Mato asks Tien. "It might be easier to procure something from your own office or residence, rather than your son's.

"It's possible there has been a Knight-Errant response to your son's apartment. Between that and the apartment's warding, it could be complicated for a giant tornado to abscond with a painting.

"And can a painting even survive winds of that speed during the return flight?"

"I can go back to the apartment astrally and check, if there is any law enforcement around. If that is to work out, I will also have to guide the spirit through opening the doors with the key, so I will need to be there, anyways. Technology is really not his strong suit. Not that I'm particularly good at it, but at least it is part of my natural habitat. Or can any of you do that remotely? On second thought... there is the opened window still, right? Maybe that could also work..."