Grave:

"So where did he go? If he didn't take the suborbital, did he take the train? If so, perhaps it would be good if we split into 2 teams again. One Hammer team to make sure he didn't get off halfway and a Anvil team to go on ahead and track him down at his supposed destination."

"Might I suggest the Anvil team be consisted of the more subtle people in our group? He might be expecting pursuit, but we do not want him advance warning and to give us the slip again."

Tiny:

Finally everyone arrives at the Bling, a big smile of releif come from the trolls face to see the team arrive. Grabbing a cup of coffee and some toast, Tiny sits with the rest.

Waiting to hear what everyone has to say then, puttingforward his thoughts.

"Well if he is using cash that will be easy to track. But he may have used that to pay the Viral release. Some body sitting pritty. We can also look in to the camera at the station and see what leads we can get from the last couple of day of footage. Maybe there are tell tail signs, they didn't do a clean job.
Yea before I forget there should be serial numbers of the issued bearer bond or credstick. Lets see if we can get this infomation and trace the usage that will be a good lead, if we get the infomation. Even if he paid the peon bearer bond and kept the cash for himself."

Sounding a bit shocked as to where this came from. Tiny continues with his last few words.

"How did he pay for the Sub orbital trip, cash or by bond?

Edana soaks in all the new information her fingers tap away on the tiny keyboard of her PS - brows furrowing she blinks in time with the cursor on the little screen. Her gut twists... "Oh..."

Herne bristles, jaw clenching.

The roiling clouds under the girl's skin twist and swirl and her eyes glow with crackling arcs. Can't see. Calm down. She takes a few deep breaths.

"Guys, what if Ballefour didn't make his suborbital flight, but his work did?" She scrolls up through her notes. Where is it... where. Ah.

She finds the part from Graves' Colonel and reads, "...'with the proper incubation equipment and a low atmosphere burst he could blanket most of Continental Europe and Asia.'..." She looks up, pained and scared. "Colonel Hodge went on to say it would take time to put that together... what if that flight to Zurich was booby-trapped? This may be even worse than we think."

"I think this guy's out of our league... shouldn't we call the FEDs?" She looks uncertain, chewing her lower lip and looking deliberately at the screen of her Pocket Secretary.

"No. We were hired to bring this guy down, and we can do it," Helios says. "I'm not going to let the Feds take our satisfaction away."

"Satisfaction? You're worried about satisfaction? What if those vials labeled Vaccine 3.7," Edana's flickering eyes burrow into the Hunter, "are distributed to legitimate companies to as innoculations against HMHVV? Will you still be worried about satisfaction?"

She shakes her head, "I'm not saying we shouldn't track him down - I'm saying we shouldn't be alone in tracking him down. I don't care about credit or money or satisfaction. I want this man to go down. By any means neccessary."

"I'm well aware of what will happen if those viruses get distributed," Helios shoots back. "I've made it my mission to take these scum down, and I'm going to do it, including those humans that create the Infected through engineering for their own greed or whatever screwed up reasons."

"Besides, I'm outside the system," Helios says in conversational whisper. "The Feds would jump down my throat if they knew where I was. Stupid bastards still clinging to the notion that ghouls and vampires deserve legal protection..."

Taking in all the information, trying to get a full understanding of the whole thing, JT quietly observes the group while drinking his coffee. After he has had a chance to soak everything in, he takes his turn.

"You know, we still have his computer that we swiped from his house. You know of any 'trustworthy' deckers?," JT uses finger quotes to emphasize the trustworthiness of deckers. In his experience, deckers have been deviant thieves that he's put away. Not to judge someone before knowing them though, he looks to the team for help. Maybe they're all not punks.

"I like Grave's idea, but where do we find that next lead? Maybe said decker can get a copy of the video surveillance of Central Station, and of the Suborbital boarding. Either that or we can try waltzing in there and getting it ourselves. I dont think that one will work."

"As long as it ain't breaking into the Tir Matrix, I think Debian could do it. He's the one that got us our info on this slot. Depending on what he's looking at, though, he may need somewhere fresh to hide."

Bishop looks over at Helios. "Look man, I don't care what issues you have with the Law, but this drek is bigger than us. Got me? We have a duty to let the authorities in on some of the data we've got. Now. One of you has got to have a friend in either the government or the Star, so why don't we drop our data on them so they can have that plane looked at, at the very least. Guys, this isn't about getting the bad guy, this is about saving hundreds, if not thousands of lives."

Bishop shakes his head in Helios' direction with a 'shame on you' look in his eye.

"Don't give me that look, old man," Helios says, very irritated.

"Fine, you want to drop an anonymous tip on them, be my guest. But do you really think they're gonna do the right thing? Knowing the Feds, they'll probably hire him on for their own black ops."

"Who you callin' Old Man? You're no better than the 'scum' you have a death wish for if you aren't willing to step up and do whats right. So you'd rather risk the lives of an untold number of people because you don't want to risk the info falling into the wrong hands? Its a risk we have to take!" Bishop looks away in disgust and turns to JT, "Where did you get this psycho?"

He shakes his head, "Look. If nothing else, we've got to drop an anonymous call to the airline company and let them know that flight may be contaminated. What was the flight number again?"

Helios lets out a low growl at the comparison to vampires.

Naive fool, he thinks. One day he'll learn the government is just as evil as the corps. Hope he doesn't flame out trying to get his puny brain around it.

::At Bling Bling's::

"Listen..." Edana stands and holds out her hands, "We're not getting anywhere fighting about this. The sub-orbital has probably landed already - but we should let folks know anyway."

She sits, elbows on the table and puts her head in her hands. She looks up, "Graves - can you talk to your Colonel? Colonel Hodge? Calling him right now would probably be good. And Charlie, can you phone up Debian and ask him to see if Ballefour - or Luke Baiour - was on the travel manifests for the train he was supposed to be on? It would be good if Debian could be looking into that while we work out what our next move is."

"We should also let any of Ballefour Pharmaceutical's associates know that the vaccine BP was working on just might be a strain of HMHVV... if they think it's legit and start selling it to the public..." her voice trails off, eyes wide. She ends by shaking her head. "I don't know how we can find that sort of thing out... maybe Tamanous?"

Grave keeps his peace, he(OOC, I use italics when I want to differentiate the present Grave and the preAmnesia one) had seen worse bickering in his time.

"Affirmative, Edana. Are you guys alright with this? You want me to do it right now? Cool it down some, Helios. The government's got more than enough such drek already. Trust me, I used to know."

"Edana that the vaccine is Genetically Modified HMHVV is already confirmed, and given the quality o the source, certain. Whether it still has its original HMHVV effects, well thee is only one way to test that."

Edana nods, "Point taken, Gonzales." She downs her mug and stands to get another, looking around at the others and taking any of their mugs along to refill and sits back down.

"Alright. First thing we need to know is: Was Ballefour on the train?" She puts her coffee down in front of her and shakes her hands. Ouch.

Watch out, that's hot.

Edana's mouth twists and she shoots a withering glare over her shoulder at Herne. Got anything helpful to offer?

Well, actually...

Herne clears his throat, ignoring Edana's glare. He speaks, his voice rough and gravelly and heavily accented... though strangely, his accent isn't a rolling Irish brogue like Edana's. It's something else all together.

"I could try to track Ballefour down. Astrally. I think I've got scent of him enough. Could go along the train route and try to sniff him out. Travel's fast in the Astral, don't you know?"

"Exactly how did they know that the train station was contaminated? Did someone fall ill or the virus set off an alarm? I would have thought it would be difficult to detect specific biologicals in the atmosphere."

"Okay so we have train and plane covered, a bomb scare at the arrival airport will allow the plane to be searched. Now if he used another means, that leaves finding his financial backers, we can be pretty sure that they didn't expect this, and even if this was their intent they won't want publicity on them. We can grill them for info that way."

"Gonzales, you got a printout of your doc friend's results on that 'vaccine' and VITAS virus? Maybe some material proof would convince these backers faster than just our word."

"That should not be an issue, I'll go pick such up when we leave here? btw if this takes more than another four days I will have to bow out for a day or so at that point." Gonzales says as he drops a hypo into his arm.

"Herne, you are a genious. I would buy you a drink...," the ex Star officer's voice trails off. He turns to Charlie, "Before we head off would you like to pick up, or have Debian pick up that computer? Or is there a place where we could meet and I could bring it to him?"

"I could also make a few calls to Lone Star. I hate to let them in on the hunt...but I would hate to see thousands die, because of our greed or insecurities."

Herne grumbles on, "I just need one small thing. A link. Something of him." The spirit's nose crumples in distaste at the idea and his eyes flare.

He uncrosses his arms and looks down at Edana. "Who wants to make a trip back to the house? Or did one of you collect ... matter... that might suit my purposes. Perhaps the keyboard of the computer."

Charlie nodded to JT.

"Aye, I can give him a call and tell 'im 'e's got some more work comin' in. I already owe 'im three breakfasts, why not make it more?

"Er... Can I borrow somebody's phone? 'Nother thing I never bothered gettin', one o' dem cellular phones."

"If none of you got anything, I'll do the house run, it isn't excessively far from my friend's." Gonzales looks very alert, and quite grim.

"I'll go with you," Helios says to Gonzales.

Edana finishes typing and leans back in her chair, stretching, "Okay, that's all we have. JT, I'll send this to you and you can send it to your fixer... what was his name? And your contact at Lonestar -- or did we decide that was too risky?"

"I'll send this to Jason and, Charlie, mind if we send Debian a copy - he can use it to dig up data for us. I'd even consider giving him a share if he really comes through. What's his address or can I... right. Can't send it to you? How can I get it to him?"

She leans forward to type in a new address, and the File Sent sound chimes cheerily from her PS. She looks down aghast and her face clouds and spins, "Uh... guys... I was going to show you the file first..." She looks up, "But I just posted it." She makes a worried face, "Anonymously!"

Oh boy. Wonder how long it's gonna take for that to bite my hoop?

3, 2, 1...

Herne clacks his teeth together audibly and grins.

Ha very ha.

"Edana, you shouldn't have placed out leads on there, please remove them..." Gonzales also uses his pocsec to comment on the posting

>>>>>>[Okay peeps There is already a team after this guy, as much as half of you want to see him really suffer. You'll only increase his chances of escape if you interfere. On the other hand I'll try to film his capture and 'questioning ' for the shadow market.] <<<<<

--- SpeedyTheMouse [09:18:23/16-DEC-2063]

"Take them down?" She shakes her head. "The point is that I want other teams to be able to track him down if... " She bites her lip, "Uh, if we don't make it."

"What parts don't you want out there Gonzales?"

"set a trigger that the clues only appear if we don't sign in every 2 hours... That way if we die others get the clues."

Grave:

"Ladies and gentlemen, we have a situation. Firstly, does anyone have any good smuggler contacts or have anyway of getting past Customs on your own? The Option dealing with an Affliction situation is Curtain Call. Martial law. Total lockdown. Second, even smugglers want to stay alive. Know any street docs with a really good rep on the streets? We'll need to get our bloodwork done. Once we know we are clean, then we can go after the target. VITAS has an incubation period of approximately half a day with flu-like symptoms or symptoms similar to stomach disorder. Does anyone feel sick? Remember we might have been unknowingly exposed to the virus."

To Edana:

"I think Herne's the only one of us here that is totally immune to the virus. Is there anyway you can teach him a spell to detect the virus in an area?"

Edana nods... Not sure how to do that. She scratches behind an ear, "Uh... What 'clues' the whole thing is a big fat clue."

She sits back again, frustrated, "Can't we just let it sit out there for a while - we might get something big. Something we don't yet know."

She blinks at Grave. Oh. "Um, I have an ex-military contact. My landlord. We have to go back to my place to do the hunt ritual anyway. I'll give him a call."

She dials Townsend's number on her comm, "And I feel tired, achey and exhausted. Just like flu. But I think it's got more to do with last ni-- Townsend. Hey. Slight change of plans. I'm gonna be by my place within the hour. I need your help."

She listens. "No, I'll tell you when I get there. Er, we get there. I'll have some friends along."

Edana looks up at Herne. "He's remarkably hard to train." She grins briefly and looks back at Grave. "No, I don't think I can. Not just now. It'd take study and you know, time."

"Why don't we go back to this freak's house and get something Herne can use to bloodhound him; the rest of you can work out how to get where he is," Helios suggests.

Edana stands, "Speaking of which, if I'm going to talk to Townsend and get my place ready for the ritual - JT, you're in right? Gonzales, why don't you come with me and you can edit the file I posted yourself as we drive. You know, use my login. Wait... you were going with Helios..."

She pauses, "Who has a vehicle here?"

"The simplest edit would be to replace the leads with a request for readers to post up any data they have on Ballefour and its backers."

"I have my bike Edana. Until I get the sidecar its gonna be hard to bring Kane along on it. I can swing back by my place. Kane still has that freakshow's shirt and jogging shorts. Herne, would those work better than the keyboard?"

Taggart turns to Charlie and hands him his cell. "Make your call, I got to run by my place to pick up said things anyways. I will pick up the computer and see where we go from there."

JT then addresses the group before they depart, "We need to find his next location ASAP in order to cut him off like Grave suggested. I have papers for all my weapons, so I should be able to go pretty far with out any hassle. I also know some people at Star that may be able to help us out in our movements. At least get us past any checkpoints or stops, afterall, they are the ones who gave us the job. You would think they would assist us anyway they could."

Grave:

"I've got a Military ID for being on Fort Lewis. I can get my stuff straight to New York if I seal it in a box, get it stamped 'Property of UCAS Government'."

"I might need to use that box too," Helios says to Grave.

"Will Kane fit in there, Grave?"

"Well I can hunt around some criminal organizations and see what i can find. I gather infomation you would be looking for is who set the Virus off at central and some more details. I will get work on this now."

Tiny stand up from the table, pushes his chair in.

"Anybody want to join me?"

Grave:

"Very funny, JT. Real funny."

"Well that solves the question of getting links for Herne, I guess I'll be coming with you to your place Edana." Chrissie won't be up till three, must stop by a stuffer shack and get some blue food dye.

Edana shakes her head and shuts off her PS. She slithers out of her chair so she doesn't kneecap Herne as she gets up.

"The shorts, aren't going to be enough. A mixed blessing to be sure. JT, did you call it in to your pal? Think he'd mind if we picked up something from Ballefour's? Tiny, I'm headed north, can we drop you and whoever's going with you off somewhere?"

She flips open her PS again and taps a few keys and sweeps her electric gaze around the assembled group, "I sent you guys my address. Let's rally there. Also - Grave - just in case Ballefour hasn't gone far, maybe we can ship your gear to Spokane or something. We can work that out."

She makes for the door, waving at the patrons as she begins to pull up her air filter.

Herne trails along, scratching his lower back and growling. Clothes. You People sure put up with a lot of irritating things.

A sardonic grin slopes across Edana's face. Yes, Herne. Yes, we sure do.

Helios:
As you rise and cross the bar behind Edana towards the door, you notice there is some kind of news conference happening on the flatvid. It appears to be something regarding the viral attack from this morning and Ballefour Pharmaceuticals.

"Guys, look," Helios says pointing to the TV screen.

"Hey barkeep, think you can notch the volume up a bit?"

The barkeep shrugs and trudges over to the control panel and turns up the volume.

"No further questions. Thank you." The representative from Ballefour Pharmaceuticals turns and begins to walk off the screen. Not missing a beat, the voice over of the broadcast station is clearly heard over the clamoring reporters trying to get one more question answered.

"In a shocking turn of events, Ballefour Pharmaceuticals has announced that they will be making their vaccine against VITAS available to the public for a nominal fee. This comes after being denied human testing rights by the UCAS government. A highly controversial decision but guaranteed to carry public opinion when faced with this centuries Black Death."

"Yep, I knew that was coming. The whole company is in on it. They are holding Seattle at ransom, and the public will pay it."

"well that means he aint leaving town... who's friends with a trid snoop?"

Bishop says to Tiny, "I got my ride with me now, why don't you and I head out together. Hang on, I wanna hear this..."

He speaks up to the bartender, "Oy! Turn that up a bit, I wanna hear that."

The trid system is turned up louder, endless prattle of reporters coming across the bar.

"Once again, Ballefour Pharmaceuticals is offering a VITAS vaccine to the Seattle public to combat the attack dealt this morning. Inside sources say there are only ten thousand vaccinations available but more batches are being produced over the next few days. Blood tests will be necessary to make sure that each recipient has not yet become infected."

"Son of a bitch," Helios growls. "The entire city's gonna be bloodsuckers before dawn if we don't stop him."

"I'm heading back to the house to get something to track this fucker down. Gonzales, still want to go?"