Codec takes the cred stick of 1500 and pockets it. "Yeah I've got a meet to do tomorrow. I'll see what I can dig up." Finishing off his last bit of burger, he turns to Ace abd Bluebird as Flip is leaving "Uh...I should go as well." he pays the waitress and hurries off home, not really running. more like a fast walk. Lousy meat bodies.... he thinks.

The cab, its odiferous driver wheezing in the heat of the interior, dropped off Flip at the corner of the nondescript Tacoma street. The Ork slowly walked down the road, idly chewing on a candy bar, looking for the building.

The Floyd-Pertman building was old - almost half a century - and looked like it had definately seen better days. It was one of the pre-fabs that had gone up in the wake of the Night of Rage but it was still here - testament to the lousy civil planning of the Sea-Tac Civic Commission.

Pulling at the door - unlocked and squeaky - Flip made his way inside. Up the stairs to avoid the urine-scented lift and to the fourth floor.

401 - the appartment.

He knocked on the door three times, a polite, English tap. Perhaps half a minute later, it opened. The little Irish woman stood before him, recognition springing to her face.

"Hi See-Oh. Long time no see..." he embraced her, lightly. "I've got a job going, if you're interested..."

So... all alone with Ms. Bluebird...

A sticky situation. He didn't trust her. If she was legit, she had no reason to trust or even get along with him. He'd like to pump her for info on Kitao, but he didn't want to give away the location of the drop box by inviting her along. Maybe if I left the Van around the corner from it... NO! That would leave her alone in the Van. No, not at all.

He nursed the (now warm and watered down) cola he'd ordered, looking across the table at her occasionally. She was always looking out the window. What do you say to someone you don't know and can't trust? See ya, or something? He was locked in indecision. He didn't even trust her enough to turn his back on her to go out the door. So he waited for her to say something.

401 - the appartment.

"He knocked on the door three times, a polite, English tap. Perhaps half a minute later, it opened. The little Irish woman stood before him, recognition springing to her face."

"Hi See-Oh. Long time no see..." he embraced her, lightly. "I've got a job going, if you're interested..."

Sure, 'an if it isn't yerself. Fer the luv of....Come in, come in.

The long lost soul of a man..thing..follows the slight form of the Irish coleen into her apartment.

"A job y'say. And what sort of job would that be. Bearin' in mind I'm a good catholic girl an' all."

Seonid O'Donnel flounces her skirt as she turns toward Flip, a smile spreading across her almost pretty face.

"Can I get you something?"

"Whatever, petal, I don't mind." He took a seat on the comfortable (although very old) couch. "The job is a corporate intrusion - get in, plant, get out. Relatively straight forward and with a potential for other gigs from the same employer. Most importantly, there's a 500 downpayment if you're interested."

He shifted his weight a little as he popped a cigarette into his mouth, dragging the "hubcap" ashtray across the scavenged coffee table toward him.

"We've got no magical support, see, and we don't know what kind of mojo they've got guarding the place. I know you don't walk the way of the spirits any more than I do, but I for one would be more comfortable with some form of spellslinger on hand.

"At the moment, there's me, a rigger, a decker and this other woman who appears to be a primary combatant. Not a lot of juice for busting into places without getting seen... we can do the "in" but not the "not getting seen," if you catch my drift.

"So... how about it?"

Bluebird looks at Ace and smiles as sweetly and politly as she can manage, its been a long time since she gave anyone a genuine smile...over the last six months there hasnt been much to smile about!

"So... Im guessing you dont trust me much, not that I totally blame you... after all, I was caught watching your team mates through the sights of my gun! Look, im not here to cause trouble, all I want is to get a regular gig going so I dont have to worry about money..." knowing that this rigger wasnt the trusting type, Bluebird carries on "look, if it helps... after this mission, I have a friend who can set you up with some drones if you need... I know for a fact she has a Bulldog with machine guns mounted onto it, an expert Rigger like you would be handy to have along rigged into one of those puppies! -The way I see it, if we work together regularly then it will pay to help each other out...."

Feeling slightly uneasey about having made such an offer Bluebird finishes off her warm soda, she could guess by his body language he wasnt keen on her... but she just wanted him onside, she didnt know he wouldnt double cross her...and she couldnt go through that again....

Arriving home Codec immediately sets up his deck and jacks in, embracing the virtual world that is the matrix. He idly surf's around for what seems like minutes turns out to be hours.Jacking out he starts to go over his mental check list:
1) retrieve program from Kitty
2) Visit Hotwire tomorrow about the progam and the other tap.
3)Get this blasted run over with and get some nuyen handy for some upgrades.
The final thought puts a smile on his face as he closes his eyes to get some needed rest

"500? That'd sure keep the landlord off my back for half a month. I'm paid to the end of this one but after that….. OK, I'm in. Where'd you want me and what's to do? Slipping over to the small hotplate to make a brew. "D'you want a cup of something? Nettle tea? Erzatz coffee?"

"I …don't think so." Nettle tea? No way. This girls real down on her luck. " I thought you and I might take a gander at our target."

"Which is?"

"Which is a communications exchange. Difficulty is to get in, put a tap on one of the lines and get out again without being spotted."

"Get the usual security gizmos all over the place I suppose. Not to mention all the goons crawling out of the woodwork as soon as we make an appearance."

"I should think so."

"Thick as two short planks or will I be up against people with a bit of intelligence and imagination?"

"That I couldn't tell you. We know nothing about the target as yet. Which is why we have to make a field trip…today if you're up to it. Just have to make a quick stop off to pick up one of those disposable digi-cams."

Light dawns in the coleens brown eyes and she rummages in a drawer.

"Like this d'you mean? I scrounged this from a bag lady two weeks ago. Bin meanin to sell it, just not got round to it yet." Tossing the small lensed object toward the Ork. "It's only got about eight or nine shots left in it, but it might do?"

"Should do. In that case, we might as well get going. If you're OK with leaving your bike here, assuming you've still got that ancient piece of drek, we'll take a cab. It'll look more `touristy' in case our mugs appear on any cameras."

"Fine by me. I don't want my bike in harms way, anyway."

The two young Runners head out of the apartment block and down onto the street. The neighbourhood's not fit for cabs to venture too far in, so a short walk to the end of the street is required.

"One o' these days I'm gonna move uptown!"

"I might just join you."

The pair hail a ubiquitous yellow taxicab, it's paint peeling and the rust showing through, to make the short trip to the Exchange, Seonid looking the place over with her Astral vision.

As nice as the offer was, Ace wasn't put off. He was sure now, she was part of it. She was following him. They'd sent her to spy on him. How else to explain the sudden generousity, the obvious attempt to disarm his suspicions?

But wait, wouldn't they know me better than to fall for it? No, they're counting on me thinking that! Like plots within plots... no, she's not to be trusted. But then, how did they pick someone who could screw up so badly? Unless getting caught... even getting shot... was just another part of some plan! Amazing. The hunt is on.

He chose his words carefully: "Well, that's generous of you. I'll think it over. So, is there somewhere you need to be? I have some business to attend to, and I could drop you off anywhere you need." Yes, let her think you trust her. Let her get close to thinking she has you, then you can get her.

As Flip and Seonid approach the area they see that the location of this building has been picked well!

On the edge of town its built into was used to be a quarry, so there is only road going in and out of the area, on that road is the standard check point security with barriers and cameras. The road goes down an incline to the main carpark in front of the building, then goes around the back of the building to where assume is anther carpark, and possibley underground parking...but you can't be sure. The building itself appears to be small and squat, four stories high with mirrored windows. Using the zoom on the digicam you see a tracked drone on a perimeter patrol around the building.

"well if everyones turning in for the night, you could give me a lift back to my apartment... its one of the high rise apartments in Redmond" and with that she stands up and picks up the rifle (now in its case) before following Ace to the van.

As Codec gets back to his apartment, he finds a package waiting outside.... Taking it in he finds a note on in...

"This is the part you need, hope all goes well, Mr Kiteo"

Opening it up carefully...thinking it might be a bomb, Codec reaches inside the foam and finds that the chip is exactly what he thought it would be...

The quarry, ancient ruin of a strip mining operation, looked quite…pretty in the early evening sunset. Walking along the top of the man made escarpment the two Runners made a play of being without a care in the world, throwing grass at each other and small pebbles at larger rocks. Actually, just being big kids. But there was deadly serious work going on under this light hearted façade.

The scouting of the front and sides of the Exchange had been moderately easy, Flip taking telephoto shots of each face of the main building. These would be very valuable when the time came to refine the plan of attack.

"I wonder if the City Planners did a risk assessment of this site when the Company put in their application." Seonid looked at the Ork, red sunlight bouncing off his black hair giving it an inner glow.

"Probably. UCAS can't be too different from the UK in terms of Health and Safety Law so I should think there was some requisite surveying before they started building this place. Why d'you wanna know?"

"Two reasons. One, if there was an assessment, the surveyors might have taken TriD's of the rock face as well as making a geo survey to make sure the land was stable after years of explosives going off to quarry the rock. Second, said geophys might just show any tunnels, storm drains and so on that might, I say, might still be in place and usable even after all this time."

"Not to mention the fact that any analysis of the quarry might be useful in general terms, when we plan our attack. I'm sure Codec would be able to source them on the Matrix somewhere."

"If he can, ask him if there's any way to download digital stills, or even movies, of the original rock face, looking out of the back windows of the Exchange. We might be able to rig them into their external cameras and cover our intrusion."

"Sounds like a plan. See if I can raise him."

Flip entered the LTG code for Codec's matrix link, hoping that the Decker would have some way of taking the call even if he was on the line.

"Codec, it's Flip. While you're cruising the matrix, see what you can discover about the target site - the place is built in an old quarry. There must be some form of planning survey or documentation from the days when this was active. I should think that there will be something along those lines - mining operations must have some sort of rules on frequent risk assessment. See if you can find them. If there are any pictures we might be able to doctor them for use as a cover when we come in - it looks like the only approach barring a frontal assault is to come down the cliff behind the building."

Codec sits and wonders how Kiteo knew that he'd need the extra tap,,,he thinks back to Bluebird..
She has to be informing him on our progress and strategy Not liking the fact that they are being spied on from the inside, he tries to think about what to do next
I don't think she'd want us to fail, what's the point of a Johnson hiring a team just for the sole purpose of killing them?
He then answers his phone and talks to flip for a moment "Yeah okay I will..." and hangs up. Man I'm tired he thinks as he scribbles down a message to himself to look for photos and movies etc on the site I'll just catch some brief shut eye for like a few hours
Since really he didn't get to according to the timeline of events of him finding the tap before he went to bed.

Waking up just four hours later, Codec feels awful.... "i really really need a new bed!" he thinks to himself...

booting the deck up, he jacks himself in and gets an instant vitual caffine hit as he brain swarms with information from the matrix surrounding him! Taking a full moment to think things through, he heads off to the council cambers again to see what they can provide...surely any blueprints of planning applications have to be ran through the coucil to get permission!

logging in as a "legal" decker Codec makes his way through the maze of corridors that make up the coucil building, going to the one marked planning applications he walks through... the room seems to go back further then the eye can see! a little floating robot appears by his side,

"May I help you?" it asks in an unnatural voice...

"Yeah err...im looking for some plans of a quarry...."

And Codec explains to this Robot what it is he is looking for......

Several secounds go by and its getting to the stage that Codec thinks the Robot isnt going to come back.... but just then he seems it come hurrying back with a virtual blueprint.

Taking hold of it Codec looks through and finds that the planning application for this building only shows above ground...strangly it doesnt even show where the foundations are!

"May I have a copy of this?" Codec asks the Robot, "And I'd also like to know how long the quarry was mined for. When was the site first established?"

The robot automatically sends a copy to Codec's deck....as its public property, anyone can have a copy!!

taking a microsecound to process the relevant data the robot says "opened in 2010 to mine a number of materials it stayed open for 5 years before Taxotere mining co went bankrupt... due to a lack of interest from other mining companies the contracts expired on the digging and the Quarry was bought by the highest bidder, which turned out to be TelCo... what is now one of the main RTC companies in the country"

Early the next morning Bluebird gets up... watching the morning sun rise over the sprawl she gets her firearms, and goes through her daily routine of dismantling,cleaning, oiling and rebuliding them. After checking each works fine by firing an empty chamber she loads each one in turn, taking the time to feel the cool reassuring metal run through her hands. One day... revenge WILL be hers!

"Taxotere Mining Company...who started that?"

Heading through the sprawl downtown Ace finds a spot to park and pulls up by the side of the main road, looking accross the street he looks at the large and imposing Lone Star head office and ideally wonders how many people they have framed this week!

Picking up his pistol he puts it safely inside his jacket and locks the van up... heading into the park he looks straight ahead and walks quickly, not wanting to meet anyone. After all, this may be right next door to Lone Star but it still didnt mean it was safe!

In the middle of the park is a crossroads, and thats where Ace had to be... looking around he quickly saw the bench and the litter bin that he had been told about, so trying to look casual he strolled over and put an old packet in. Pretending to do his shoe laces up he feels under the bin and finds the key taped underneath... taking the key he quickly takes the cred stick and puts it where the key was.

Standing up Ace picks a direction and heads out of the park, before doing the counter servallance techneques that Rhet had instructed him to carry out. Eventually he heads back to the safe confines of the van, and rumbling into life he pulls away into the dark night.....

CODEC



The robot simply says...."we have no records of that"

Taking the copy Codec leaves the archives. He heads over to the bar where he et Kitty the day before, to pick up his program. Getting there in less than a second he walks inside and up to the bar.

The evening's errands left Ace a little disturbed. Anyone could have taken the key from right underneath that trash bin; in fact, there wasn't any apparent safeguard against him just taking the key and leaving. The important word here is "apparent." Rhet was not so trusting, even of his friends, and Ace wasn't exactly sure how Rhet would define a "friend." This made it certain that he was being watched the whole time. Even though he knew it was Rhet on a hacked sec-cam, he still didn't like it. He knew Rhet wouldn't do it, but he couldn't shake the image of his form being watched through the scope of a sniper rifle as he made the drop. A rifle held by the woman... "Bluebird..."

Ace resolved to ask Codec to make a check on that name. But it could wait till he checked out their digs.

CODEC
Walking into the bar he looks around casually... and in a millisecound he spots the stunning feline at the bar in her usual seat, "hey prescious, you got my money? coz ive got your program!" and with that she smiles.. looking like the cat that really did get the cream! I am ready to exchange whenever you are.

ACE
Heading over to the apartment, he keeps the windows closed and his speed steady... watching out for biker gangs as he makes his way through Redmond, and eventually finds the place he is looking for... If he didnt know better, he would swear this building was condemmed!

Using his key to open the garage he pulled in and took time to look round. The garage turned out to be plenty big enough for the van and as he made his way through the ajoining door he found that the inside wasnt too bad, if a bit basic. There was an old lounger and a TV set, and a couple of beds thrown into some empty back rooms.... making it just about big enough for the team. looking around the lounge Ace did notice one thing that pleased him! and that was security cameras covering the surrounding streets!

OCC-I did, thanks for pointing that out though!


IC- Laughing gently she just smiles sweetly..."you cant blame me for trying! besides, you would be amazed at how many people fall for that!" passing over a virtual briefcase she continues "here you go, its a good program and you will be able to use it more then once if you want.... I hope we can do business again sometime soon, I have a feeling we could work well together!"

Knowing better then to open it in public Codec stays for a drink or two to keep things smooth with this new contact and jacks out, so that in the seclusion of his own deck he can check and see if this as good as she says it is.

Opening the case he takes out some papers, and as he reads them he can see the program written onto the pages... once it was loaded onto the deck, he knew this really was a good program.

Flip and See-oh, satisfied that they've spied out the target without themselves being spied on, thanks to vigilant observation and a little Astral work, consider they have as much as they can get from the locale.

"Might as well head back girl."

"Might as well."

The two walk, nonchelantly, back down to the road and continue walking into town, heading for the bar where Flip reckons the rest of the crew will be gathering.

"Let's hope our friend managed to get a looksee at the plans for the quarry. Kinda essential I think. If any sort of plan's gonna work."

Ace immeadiately locks all the doors and sets the monitor to display a quad-spread of all the cameras at once. He does a little bit of bug checking, just in case a few micromikes were planted around, and calls up Flip. "Ace here. Hey, if you find the rest of our crew, tell them I've secured the digs. We can meet there for planning if you like. Pretty sparse, but it looks secure."

Codec calls up Ace
"Uh..hey, it's me, Codec. I got the program we needed. Looks good. I also have a copy of the facilities, but only for those above ground. Nothing sub-level."

"Ace here. Hey, if you find the rest of our crew, tell them I've secured the digs. We can meet there for planning if you like. Pretty sparse, but it looks secure."

"Fair enough... I'm sure they're fine. You want to come pick us all up? I think it would be safer than walking into the barrens and trying to find the place on foot - I value my health, after all. And I don't think Codec would really be up for that. I'll get in touch with Bluebird, you tell the Decker, we can meet back at the Diner - and I'll pick up provisions on the way. See you there in what, an hour?"

"Yeah, no problem..." Bluebird? Well, if she's coming along, there's no way to really keep her away from the hideout. Besides, it's not like he ever showed her where he actually lives... although she may already know that. "...um, right. Right. I'll be by in an hour. See you then."

I have to get my mind off of her. If I worry to much about it, I'll get nervous, she'll spot it, and know that I know what's up...

He decided to spend the next hour doing the only thing that could keep him distracted from paranoia: looking over vehichles. He was worried about the bump he took in the chase with Lone Star, and was wondering what he could do with the van anyway...

Flip and See-Oh arrived at the Diner slightly exhausted and famished. Looking around Flip spoted Bluebird and, seeing the Newby hadn't met anyone of the Team yet, decided to introduce the two women.

"A word to the wise. "Flip warned." Bluebird's not all she appears. She was working for the other side until recently and…well, suffice to say we don't exactly trust her or her motives."

See-Oh looked steadily at the woman they were approaching. From what Flip had told her about the Crew she'd got herself mixed up with, they were light on fighters. But this female looked like she could handle herself. Other indications were that the only mage type elements for the Crew's success would have to come from herself. So her next step seemed entirely logical, from a certain point of view.

Flip plonked himself down at the booth where Bluebird was seated.

"Hi again. This here's See-Oh. She'll be coming along."

Seonid sat next to the big fella and smiled politely. "Pleased I am t' meet ya." She looked pointedly at Flip. "We going to eat or what?" As she waited for the response it was time to earn her keep and sense what she could of the motivations of the woman before her.

Before heading back to the diner, Codec decides to do one quick search on Taxotere mining. He enters a fancy virtual restaurant owned and operated by SearchCo. INC "Finding what you want for 20 years... was the slogan at the door. He was seated and wrote on a slip of virtual paper the name "Taxotere Mining" Handing it to the waiter, the waiter disappears into what looks to be the kitchen.
I know these public search engines aren't all that great, but even some public info on this former company can't be too bad With that he waits..

Looking over the damage to the van for the first time, Ace realises its only cosmetic so wont be too much of a problem to leave until he has the money to patch it up. sitting down on the old sofa he switches on the TV and channel hops trying to find a good program, all the while wondering what he can do with a van full of potential and a decent budget (when he gets the extra work)....When it comes time, he switches the TV off... and heads for the van, wondering if he should give it a name just like fighter pilots do....

After playing with the apetizer for a while (which was an old game of Doom 5 to play while the engine searched) the waitier came back with a plate full of paper. As he opened the paper it came up with the companies brief but profitable history. They didnt start out as a mining company but originally bought companies that were going bust and broke them up to sell in pieces, among these companies was a weopons contractor, a transport agency and part of seattle docks. Buying the mining company they kept it as one due to the large contract that they had just landed. Three years were spent mining the area for valuable minerals which were used in varius medicines before closing the mine down. Account records show that for an unknown reason they declared bankrupcy even though they appeared to be a success.

Bluebird looks up at the pair as they walk and and smiles openly, "sure! I already got a pot of soykaf if you want, but didnt know what time we were meeting so havent eaten...Pleased to meet you, im Buebird and I am part of the muscle on this outfit."

Seonid accepted a mug of soykaf gratefully. Anyone who proffered coffee, even if it was made from beans other than coffee, couldn't be all bad. The steam from the brew hid the slightly out of focus aspect of her eyes as she thanked the female `muscle' and took a sip of the hot beverage.

Flip, meanwhile, had caught the eye of an attractive Orkish waitress. "Another pot of soykaf and bring me a four egg, cheese omelette with the full works. A side order of onion rings and the biggest vanilla 'shake you've got. Follow it up with a stack of waffles with plenty of syrup."

The slightly wide eyed waitress notes the order and turns to leave just as Flip gets his shin kicked violently under the table. Glancing at the Irish girl at his side he dutifully remembers his manners and calls after the waitress…

"Oh, and a quarter pound soyburger and fries for my lady friend here. Er' d'you want anything Bluebird?"

Bluebird adds her order to the already enormous food tally.

Half an hour later the three have finished consuming their food, a sight not wished on ones worst enemy in the case of Flip, and sit replete, the Ork rubbing his full stomach and blowing clouds of blue smoke into the already thick atmosphere of the Diner. An ever expanding, somewhat odorous, smoke ring, filled at it's middle with one of the loudest burps anyone in the eatery has heard, emanating from Flips wide mouth.

"Sorry."

In short order the other Team members arrive, Codec shuffling up even as Ace pulled the van up outside. The four Runners joined the Rigger in the van, buckling themselves in and getting acquainted as Ace gunned the machine toward the Barrens.

Codec sits quietly in the back of the van, his stomach growling. He reaches inside his jacket pocket and pull out a nutritous yet tasteless soybar and unwarps it as quietly as possible and starts to chow down. Not the greatest but it'll do he looks around the van. Magic, that stuff just freaks me out

Ordering a small steak, egg and chips with a side order of bread... Bluebird sits and eats with the others until she can't manage any more! paying for her share she asks the waitress to stick the rest in a doggy bag for later. Knowing that when working its always best to never go hungry, not only because you could go for long periods of time between meals, but she also refused to die on an empty stomach!! Climbing into the van She greets the others and looks over toward Ace in the front seat and wonders just what it would take to get his trust. Noticing Codec sat in the corner eating what little food he had, she took out the doggy bag from her rucksack..."here, eat this chummer... gotta keep your strength up for the run!"

and with that she settles down and enjoys the ride to the barrens.

Take her doggy bag!?! What do I look like?? a..a.. DOG!?! I'm not some beggar wanting......mmmm....it does smell good...and I'm sure it's better than this drek i've got.....oh... Codec quickly debates between his pride and his stomach and finally takes the doggy bag from Bluebird
"Thanks" he mumbles as he opens it up.

The Barrens - the only place where you never want to be, whoever you are. Even the police prefer to..just have another doughnut… rather than venture anywhere near the rat infested, scum ruled, concrete desert.
And what does this Crew of Runners do…goes into the thick of it and not a doughnut in sight!

The Roadmaster made light work of the debris littered tarmac as Ace tooled it into the hab wilderness. Tensions were high inside the vehicle. Until they were all safe inside the doss Ace had organised, none of them would come off an adrenaline high borne, some might think, of plain fear. Not that anyone would admit it.

Flip glared through the windshield. "Nice place, Ace….."

The driver scowled, concentrating on the pot hole filled road ahead, finally drawing to the kerb near an old brownstone and hauling on the handbrake. His gruff voice telling everyone to pile out prompted a chaotic disembarkation.

The team moved into the apartment en masse, checking out the living quarters as they went. "Codec," Flip called, "take this camera - see if you can enhance the images and wire it up to the TV so we can take a gander. Seeoh, have a look around and assense the place. Same goes for Bluebird on the mundane defence side."
"And what'll you be doin ya great lummocks"? Seeoh grinned at the Ork.
"I, am going outside to see how easy it is to spot the surveillance cameras. See ya'll."

Codec takes the camera, sets down his bag with his deck in it and begins to hook everything up to the tv. Once that is done he looks around for a jackpoint

Looking around Codec smiles as he realises that the owner of this bolt hole must be a fellow decker... in the corner of the room is a fairly nice recliner and a jack point next to it!!

Codec looks to the rest of the group and back to the recliner
Oh I've got time for a quick trip in the matrix... He quietly goes over and jacks in, embracing the virtual world

Ooc. Assuming that Codec has told the Team about Taxotere at some point. As he probably would.

Flip finished his scouring of the outside and returned, satisfied that the external surveillance cameras were nothing more than a mild distraction from the villainy which was rife on the streets.

Codec, curled up and jacked in, Seeoh and Bluebird watching TriD and Ace, probably with his head stuck under the Roadmaster's hood out back. "Some Team." thought Flip. "You'd think they'd have something better to do."

He looked again at the notes that Codec had made. `Taxotere Mining' Sounded pretty innocuous and, if the details on them going bankrupt was anything to go by, not very good at digging. But then something caught the Orc's eye. They obviously had several fingers in plenty of different pies. Not only that, they only mined at the old quarry for three years. Why did they stop. Had they really got all the minerals out, or had they found what they were looking for.

The flicks that had been downloaded from Seeoh's camera had smartened up under the careful hand of Codec and Flip spread them over a coffee table.

"Heads up you ugly bunch of neredowells. Come look at the pretty pictures."

The two women, only half concentrating on the TriD anyway, welcomed the diversion and moved over to the Ork.

"These the ones we took out at the quarry? " Seeoh knelt to study the prints.

"It looks to me like the safest way in is round the back, down the quarry face and in through the car park. This one" He indicated a shot of the rear of the building, "shows that there's only one camera trained on this section of the rock wall." Tapping the still. "It'd mean abseilling down around a hundred feet in a little under 40 seconds. That's the sweep time of that camera."

"Seems fine to me, boyo. But then, I'm a svelte young thing with no fat to slow me down." Seeoh slid her hands down past her waist, but Flip ignored her taunt.

"Getting down in time isn't the problem you flirt. Getting out's the problem. Climbing back up is nigh on impossible, whatever weight you are, in 40 seconds. We need another route outa there."

"Streeters."

"Streeters?"

"We go in like you said. But once we've done the hit, we strip off our blacks and underneath we're wearing Ganger garb. That way if the Security eyeball us we'll look like joy-riders on the town."

"If we're joy-riders we'll need a car." Flip thought a moment. "So we'll nick one. Chief of Security would be good."

Seeoh smiled. "Sure and the resident Mechanic could hot wire it I'm sure. But what about their Security. Won't they wonder how we got in?"

"If we do our jobs right they'll never know we were actually inside the building. And it's not our worry if they can't figure out where the hell we came from in the first place. So the guy on the gate shouldn't expect any trouble from the inside going out. It's easy! Ace can stash the van nearby but under cover and we can transfer and be away before they can mount a pursuit. If there ain't no posse after our tail we could even keep the car and flog it to a chop shop for a few extra nuyen. "

"That's always assuming there's going to be a car for us to steal in the first place me darlin'. We should case the joint in the evening, just to make sure which way the wind blows at night."

Flip nodded in agreement. "Yeah, probably tonight. We should also go back and see our friends from the school yard to see if they can rumble a rival gang for their colours. Anyone they want to implicate'l do."

The trio waited for Codec to finish surfing and called Ace in for a soycaf and outlined the plan.

"So, whadya think?" Flip spread his large hands like he was spreading bread to the unwashed.

Ace scratches his head. "I hope you meant someone other than me when you said 'resident mechanic.' I just flew the jets and shot others down, there was a whole other crew that fixed and maintained 'em. I know a little bit about electronics, but what happened at the school was luck. As for staying under cover, I thought part of the plan was for me to be on lookout to alert everyone to any unexpected developments via the tranceivers."

"Don't worry, term, just thinking out loud. If you don't feel like coming on-site then that's fine. We just need to come up with a decent enough way of getting out. I suppose we could always take a hostage, but if we've managed to get all the way through the place without getting seen then that would kinda defeat the object of the excercise. I might be able to hotwire a car myself, and if I recall correctly you're not too shabby with such things yourself, Seeoh. I suppose if all else fails we could just try to sneak out... but then again we might be able to find a... hey, wait a minute..."

Flip looked around, but couldn't find what he was looking for.

"It was a mine, right? So has it been filled in? Were they quarrying here or actually mining? If it was a mine proper, wouldn't they have had to drill vent shafts? We might be able to get in and out through one of those..."

Bluebird looks thoughtful... "Well yeah, they would... but that was three years ago. People may have bought the land where the shafts came up and built over them, but we can always try and find out!"

"Uh...g...g,...guys...um I do have the program that I plan to run on their system before we place the tap. It will send a continuous loop of video through their system. If we can get in and do the job unoticed, then really we can leave without worrying about those cameras," Codec smiled, quite proud of his little contribution. The more he thought about climbing up or down anything, the more it really didn't appeal to him.

"The problem isn't with the cameras, Codec - that'll cover us inside - but when its tim to leave we'll have to get past the gate security, and that's a pair of meat eyes. Any thoughts on that one?"

"well...uh...I...ummm...see...err..." Codec slouches back into his seat, feeling very very stupid and angry for having his bubble burst. Quietly he says "I don't know..."