The woman behind the plexiglassis of indeterminate age but past her prime. She nods, "yes, sir. Nuyen and dollars will be fine." She takes the money inserting the currency into her computer allowing it to do the conversion and hands you back a euro and seventeen centimes. The odd gold, silver and copper colored coins carry a sense of age with them lending meaning to the words hard currency.

The van continues on into the city following road signs and the map as best you can until you arrive at the airport.

Tigger:
Taxis come and go every few minutes and it is easy to get a ride back to the airport. Small talk about hoping you enjoyed your time in Geneva and will come back soon billows from the driver obviously working as a plant from the tourism board. Arriving back at the airport you are dropped off at the departures terminal and move through the ebb and flow of people to make your way to a safe meeting spot.

"Sorry for the false alarm...I thought they might ask for papers, or if we were carrying any fruit or anything. It's hard being on this side of the law."

When Edena finishes her transmission to Christopher Robin, JT asks, "So Bellafour is still at the airport?"

Raising his head as JT asks the question.
"That will be a good thing if he is still at the Airport, maybe we can intercept him enroute to where ever he is going. Maybe some rural road."

Tiny looks toward Edana to wait what she has to say.

"We'll be there shortly, where will we find you?" Edana listens briefly, getting Robbin's location, "Cab stand, right, see you soon," she hangs up.

She looks up at Tiny and JT, "No, I'm afraid we're not so lucky. Ballefour's already headed to his hidey-hole, but CR thinks he can pick up the trail."

She bites her lip, a twist of anxiety rolling in her gut. Should I have brought the team all this way on the word of a stranger? Can he deliver? She shakes her head, I sure hope so.

A laugh that only Edana can hear echoes across Astral space.

"There is nothing we can do but stay on the trail and keep moving."

The van easily moves through the airport, with a description of the van given to Christopher Robbin, he is easily able to flag it down. United face to face, the team prepares to regain the trail of the limo and your mark.

Bishop opens the side door of the van and steps out. He smiles to Christopher, grinning around the sweet smelling cigar he is biting down on. "Welcome to the club." He extends his hand out in greeting, "Call me Bishop."

Bishop looks like he could be intimidating and impossing if he wanted, but comes off cool. His plain, brown eyes have the cold emotionlessness of a body packed full of cyber, though all you can see is a datajack and a chipjack. He is wearing blue jeans, with a white shirt and vest under his long coat. Along his right cheek is a small scar, and as he reaches up to pluck his cigar from his mouth, you can see a few more scars on his arm. This guy has seen some rough days. His sandy blonde hair is cut close, military style. As he moves to the side to let Christopher into the van, he catches Bishop's eyes scanning the area with an experts eye, but unknown to him, he is actually feeding the area's data into the BattleTec network, getting a map of the surrounding area.

Taggart turns his body halfway around to watch CR enter the van. He reaches his right hand back to greet him, "Welcome to the team, Im JT . I will be your driver tonight."

Tigger's grip is firm and friendly. He has an open and friendly face. "Nice to meet you, you all can call me Tigger." He takes in the interior of the van with a long look, his features easily read as curious. "The target was here and I was just going to start tracking him down. Are we waiting for anything or anyone else?"

"Nope...Im ready to roll, just tell me where to go."

The engine revs as the team is underway again.

Helios remains "asleep" as the fellow bounty hunter joins the ride, not interested in social pleasantries at the moment and not willing to let anyone see him in his moment of weakness.

Tiny leans forward and extend his big hand toward Tigger. "Pleased to meet you, Tinys the name"

Tiny is a large troll that doesn't have any dermal deposits on his body. Smooth skinned with black chinese spiked hair and slanted eyes. His muscles move fluildly under his skin. He seems to be very reserved, and keeps out of peoples way.

Leaning back in his chair he continues to stare out the side window.

"Nice to meet you, mind if I sit near a window?" Tigger calmly reaches out and looks for the scent of his target, honing his senses outward and hunting as he always does.

Tiny with his head leaning against the windows, frowns somewhat as Tigger goes about his business. The hair on the back of his neck stand errect as shiver runs up his spine to the base of his neck.

The cold shiver goes up his back as his hair prikels at the base of his neck. Looking hard a Tigger, he waits for a image to appear. Sometimes it works some times it doesn't, but the cold shiver always means not all is what it seems.

Tigger:
Pressing your senses through the space of worlds that divides men and spirits, you catch a myriad of scents. The anxiety of loved ones leaving, the fear of flying, snippets of arguments and held tongues. Once the van crosses the path of the limo, you pick up Ballefour's trail. Something in the scent raises the little hairs on your arms, gooseflesh breaking out across your body.

Clearing the airport and the hustle and bustle of the city streets, you make it out onto the freeway. Here the scents that distracted you before are gone and you are able to make out the exact cause of the gooseflesh. Lucien smells of death and rotting meat, his astral wake is diseased, but he is not crippled. His arrogance and hubris is almost palpable across the connection.

The van idles at the airport exit, JT at the wheel waiting on Tigger's directions.

Tigger takes a moment to quell the revulsion that ripples through him. Humans should weed the sick and the weak from the number like the balance demands. He looks to the driver. "Head that way, I'll be giving you directions as I get them. Drive at a leisurely pace since I may need to give you quick changes to our course." He points down the road, where the traffic is pouring out of the airport.

Edana smiles at Christopher Robbin, scooting over in the van until she’s almost on top of Gonzales and Tiny, “I’m Edana O’Reilly, Tigger. Good to meet you.” Her voice is lilting, soft, definitely a daughter of Tir na nOg. The warmth of her smile contrasts the cold strangeness of her appearance. Her skin is pale, no color in it at all, and energy crackles across her eyes, while mottled shadow patterns play across her skin. She’s tall and lanky, and at a distance she might pass for an elf, but up close she’s quite obviously human, except for the long twisting pair of horns that sweep back in a ram’s curl from her brow. Definitely some strange things happening with this one. Looking closely there are a multitude of small round scars on the visible skin of her face and hands. They almost look like shiny polka-dots. Yes, indeed, some very strange things here.

She tries to give Tigger as much room as possible so he can get on with his incantations. She casts a look over her shoulder, trying to see if she could slither into the back with Helios. He’s being awfully quiet. Edana peers briefly at the quiet adept as she crawls into the back. Wedging herself into the various bags and duffels Edana closes her eyes and opens her mind to her second sight.

Herne, we’ve met up with Christopher Robbin. Tigger. Seems okay. He’s going to be tracking Ballefour for us.

A bundle of prickly emotions flicker across Edana’s link to Herne. He’ll need unbouncing for certain.

What?

Nothing.

Well, stay close, we’re going to need you watching out for us.

What is it that you think I’ve been doing Sturmdottir?

Oh. Right. Thank you, Herne.

An Asian man in green jungle camos, crouched on the ground, sniffing the air as if he could pick up the scent of the target.

Graves, looking at Tigger, thinks, I've seen that before. In another life. He 's tracking. Would be a good trick if he pulls it off.

"So, smell him?"

Tigger's eyes widen slightly at the sight of Edana. His smile falters only slightly and then is replaced by genuine warmth. "Pleased to meet you." His voice is warm and silky as he nods her way. Turning down the personal charm a notch, he looks to Graves at his question.

"Got him but I have a quick question, excuse me for being behind the curve. Is this guy a ghoul? He's leaving a wake behind him reeking of death and rotting meat. He's dripping with disease but he seems oddly unaffected."

Lifting his head from the Glass.
"Why am I not surprised that we may be tracking a Ghoul. This seems to be getting better by the hour now."
Slowly rubbing his knuckles to keep them warm from the cold outside.

"How far ahead do you estimate Tigger. 2 or 3 hour?"

"he's only about an hour ahead of us at this point." Tigger takes a moment to look around the interior of the van. "Are you all a team? I've never known bounty hunters to work together in such large numbers."

Graves, "When was the last time the CEO of a big corp was a bounty? Jonny Spinrad doesn't count. He might have developed a strain of Krieger that might have no outward symptoms as a vaccine for VITAS. If you don't trust your own work, nobody will, right?"

Tigger:
The smell of gun oil and well-used body armor wafts up from the back of the van. Micro-servos adjust themselves in cyber-limbs, moving back and forth with the instinctual response of nerves and muscle. The astral hound which comes and goes from the van obviously conversing with the shamaness keep half an eye on you as the van continues down the freeway getting ever closer to the border checkpoint.

Team:
Twelve kilometers to the border, you should be showing your papers in about ten minutes.

"I think his 'vaccine' is showing its deadly side effect."

"Edena, can you or Herne check out the check point? If I know how many people are there, not to mention animals and spirits, I could get a better idea if we need to bypass the check point, or if we could pass through. A physical layout would be nice, too."

Tiny sits up straight, clears his throught.

"Are thinking of running the border post? I would not like to have rerun of earlier days thank you."
Looking in to the back debating on what would be the best course of action.
" I would rather like to avoid confrontation. If that is to much to ask for."

"No problem. Give me a moment." Edana closes her eyes again, breathing shallowly in the closeness of the back of the vehicle

Herne, can you take a loo-- stop smelling Tigger like you're gonna lift your leg on him.

Now there's an idea.

Don't even think about it. What am I saying?! You're a spirit, you can't-- never mind! She shakes her head and the train of clouds and storm remnants that trail from her shoulders ripple and shimmer.

Amusement courses along the link. What service do you require, mistress? Though the phrasing is formal, the rancor is gone from Herne's sending. His chafing and bristling gone, for the time being. Edana relaxes and her pent up tension releases in arcs of lightning across her astral form.

I need you to quietly scout out the check point. We need to decide if we should risk going through it or go around it. Let us know as much as you can.

The van idles softly at an intersection, JT awaiting the Huntress's findings. He dallies with the radio knobs and instrument panel to pass the time, as traffic builds up behind him. Its an odd look on the dog shaman's face, but for the first time he looks...lost. He looks toward the sky, as if looking to God for direction.

"JT what does the map say about other entry points? I know if we go off the Beatten track we could loose valuable time. There again we do not want to be delayed at a boarder patrol inspection."

"Huh...oh. What? Sorry, was lost in time there for a second. If I know what the site looks like and who's there...we may be able to go through without being delayed, but youre right we should check the map, just in case." JT hands the map back to the big fella, pointing out their location as he does.

"Just stay cool and act normal. Can any of you whistle up a nature spirit to help cover us? Everyone's got a valid ID right?"

Tiny takes hold of the map "Thanks." Looking slightly concerned, at the remark just made. "Yes, I have a valid ID but its from China (Canton Confederation). They maybe get suspicious about that, would they not?"

"I'd be more worried if you had a European ID. Asian troll with an asian ID, everything's cool."

Edana:
Herne rushes forward at your request, his senses bleeding across your own. Cars are stopped, guards walking around vehicles with dogs obviously sniffing for illicit compounds. Satisfied with the legitimacy of the paperwork shown each car is flagged on, with the looming threat of military level violence if something should fail inspection.

Each borderguard wears a heavy jumpsuit designed to keep the cold and foreign compounds out, but a skilled hunter could easily overcome one or two of the dozen watching the area.

Tigger smiles warmly as he fishes out his documents. "Got mine. If we all have papers going through the checkpoint would be easiest and I don't have to worry about losing the trail." He looks around the interior of the van, seeing if everyone's face is signaling to proceed.

"Edena...? What's the head count at the boarder? Man, animal, spirits and other?"

Edana’s senses recoil back into her body and she flinches as eyes and ears and skin become abruptly only hers again. She cocks her head as she speaks, a dreamer trying to describe her dreams upon waking.

“Men… and dogs, too. Like Kane. Armor, guns and… threat. Herne didn’t find any spirits, but this check point is serious business.” She shivers, nerves still tingling from the link, and looks at Helios ‘sleeping’ in the back of the van. “I think we should go around it. What did the smugglers say? Head towards France and then turn off six miles down the road.”

"Going around would be a good idea. If they decide to search the van, that could be problematic."

Tiny tries to read the Map which he is not so good at.

"So where are we on the Map then?" Looking around for some one to assist with reading the map.

"I would like to find thios turn off as I would not like to get involved with border patrol units."

"If we turn off, will Tigger need to reacquire the target?"

JT:
As you drive past the sign that says ten kilometers to the border checkpoint, the exit Mickey mentioned comes into view. It's about a kilometer off.

Tigger nods yes to question. "I'm fairly sure I can get the trail again if we need to avoid the checkpoint."

Tiny nods his head.
"That will be less stress, I mean than to please and explian to the Border guards."

"Ok...we will go around then." The van accelerates after the group has decided its course of action. JT follows the turnoff, keeping the van moving as fast as the limit allows.

The turnoff leads you through a heavily industrialized area with warehouses and electronic manufacturing plants. A sense of familiarity calls to you from these buildings, your not sure how many times you have passed by similar buildings in Seattle.

A veritable rabbit warren of small alleys and broad thoroughfares, JT takes care to follow the instructions given to him exactly as they were laid out. Passing through an automated border checkpoint, the van's transponder activates the gate.

Welcome to France.

Signs direct you back to the main highway as you begin the trek southwest. In a few hours you'll head on a southerly bound freeway, but for now you just need to pick back up on the trail and absorb the culture that you will have to work with if you want to get out of here alive.

Nothing to see here move along. (sorry posted to the wrong thread)

After passing through the border, the van again picks up speed. "Can you get a lock on him again Tigger? I dont want to get too far behind him."

Tigger once again looks out through the window, extending his senses inward and out, hunting for some trace of his target. His voice comes out thin and distant. "Trying to find him now."

Tigger:
Finding the scent laced with the arrogance of a man who knows he has escaped and that nothing can touch him, you pick the trail back up. Judging by the stale taste left in your mouth, Ballefour probably passed by this spot about two hours ago. You haven't lost any time through your detour.

"Got him." Tigger snaps back to his body and the now. His keeps a thread of awareness locked onto his trail. "We haven't lost much time in taking the detour. He's feeling safe and clear so we might get a break and he'll slip up."