Howling wolf laughs at Iblis's statement. "Not home. Just one of my safehouses. As for the matrix, well, that depends on how we're going to do this hit. I personally would reccomend that we go after him in his car. Less security to deal with that way, and longer response times for them. If we do go after him in the car, it would be useful to know the capabilities of his bodyguards as far as magic and cyber go, and whether the car is rigged or not. Also, finding out the route he is taking would make the hit much easier, as we wouldn't have to follow him and risk arousing suspicion. Finally, we will need some way to disable his vehicle. I would personally reccomend rockets or monowire. The former will make killing him and his gaurds easier, but it can be easily enough evaded by a skilled driver. The monowire can't be. If we can't secure either, though, I've got a Smartlink-2 and I'm a crack shot with my assault rifle."

Nameless smiles cruelly. "If I can get close enough to touch him, I guarantee it'll be enough to finish the job or give us a wide window of error to work with when we start."

Jake looks to Wolf,
"I'm going to pull a few smaller team members to watch things until we can get settled."

With that he focuses his will on the gap between moments and the space between places. Brothers in battle, hear my call. Send me the aide of the fallen to guarantee my safety for a time.

Three shimmering faces appear, half real in the squat. Roman legionaires from a time before Constantine betrayed an Empire, touched with the dirt and grime of battles long since fought.

"Watch this place and alert me if any man or creature of flesh or twisted metal approaches."

He nods to the spirits as they melt back fully into the Astral and vanish.

"Ok, so down to business..."

Sir...we can't get out, and the wall is making it so we can't see anything.

"Wolf, can you attune the ward to match my signature?"

Feeling the spirits cross the threshold of the building, the Shaman gets back to the task at hand.

"Iblis, I'm hoping that you can get some footage of the mark from gridguide. Those cameras are everywhere, hell they caught me speeding along in Snohomish, hopefully we can get a clean image of the mark and find a route for him. Also any info you can pull up about bank accounts or hidden assets would be nice...I've got two thoughts for this hit. Let's try to either push the blame on the Seoulpa rings or we can make it look like an inside job with one of the Yaks trying to climb the ladder because of the dishonor that we handed out by stealing Yami's boat.

"That's where the Gridguide is going to come in handy, if we can get a few places that our mark goes to on a regular basis through gridguide archives and possibly match a few faces that we see near him when he's doing business we can draw up a list of subjects.

"Nameless, hit the bricks. We'll need to get as much info as we can about the Rings and see if we can find a car and a couple soldiers that can get whacked to shift the blame. If you've got any friends that would profit through our actions, see if you can get a little support thrown our way--either a little bit of info or a distraction on another front when we make our hit could prove useful. You're also on bagel buty unless anyone here can stomach the chocolate, peanut butter, marshmallow toaster tarts with neon green sprinkles and a rainbow surprise..."

Jake looks over at Iblis

"I happen to still have a few cases of them at home..."

"Wolf you and I are going to be on astral recon. Let's build up a ward around the building since this is going to be our base of operations for the next few days. We can focus on a smaller room for our planning purposes but if we can get something that's nigh impermeable to astral senses, it'll make one avenue of approach a little harder to hit in case something goes wrong. And a blended signature will be harder to identify rather than an individual one."

"Once we get everything squared away, we can discuss how we are actuallly going to do the job. Right now the hardest part is going to be finding him and getting away. Let's cover those bases first."

"Uh huh. That sounds good, but I would like to point out that I can't astrally project if that's what you meant by astral recon. And on a different topic, that's an interesting motif for your watcher spirits."

Iblis thrusts a hand skyward with her thumb pointing up as she continues to set up her deck. "I'll be under for awhile then digging around. I'll leave a little interface up and running if you need to chat with me while I'm out and about." With that said she rolls out a screen and hooks up a keyboard to it. With her head firmly inside the pack she talks with the team. "Anyone know what the hell happened to Vinnie's old digs? I've been out of loop for a bit. speaking of which, you should all check out the new and improved Looking Glass. It's an all nighter binger without the morning after troubles now. I have some flyers in here.." She throws out a small stack of postcards with a garish neo-punk style Alice looking down a rabbit hole. "...just tell Mr. Bobo, and yes that's his real name, that your guests of management." Once again the white noise of her chatter fills the room.

"We can look into Vinnie's sorrows after this is done, but my guess is Yami got word of where to find him and sent the boys over to have a few words with him at the end of an LMG.

"Come on Wolf let's get the ward up and we can talk while it slowly manifests. If you can't project, I will have to go on my own. I can take the boys with me, they haven't seen a good fight in over a millenium. The spirits that hear my call and help me are the echoes of warriors gone by. As long as I hold true in my beliefs, they will serve me. Jupiter and his kin guided me when I was younger and helped to mold me into the warrior I am today. In respect, the warriors that died in his name serve me as soldiers to a general and brothers in arms. When my day comes, I will leave this place and serve those who come after me."

The dichotomy from friendly leader who jovially kids with Iblis and skirts the line of indecency in his flirtation, to the power of his belief and the cool acceptance of his own future death is startling. Soon, as the wall of magical energy begins to coalesce and become reinforced, Jake's smile returns and he casts furtive glances back toward the main room and the decker's limp form.

"You know, it's been awhile since we dyed her fur..."

"Ah, neo-Paganism. Pretending to be an ancient religion for the last 50 years," Howling-Wolf quips following Jake's explanation of his magic.

When Jake jokes about dying her fur, he replies, "Don't deckers retain some awareness of their meatbod when decking? It would be rather awkward if she notices you stripping he naked."

"Actually, that would probably be a dream come true for her. Iblis has been trying to get into Jake's pants since they met."

Nameless grins at Jake. "Better watch it boss, or we might decide to knock you out while you're in the process of stripping her, leave her to come to her own conclusions, and let her have her way with you. All entirely unintentionally, of course, since Wolf and I would just be on our way out for the bagel run."

"Listen to the two of you, you'd think I'm some kind of lech. She has a head and arms you know...I could easily dye those without having to strip her down. And it was only mild speculation, Nameless, you should know that by now....rules are rules after all."

Jake continues to bend his will to forming up the defenses that would protect his body from astral attacks while he was out.

"Anyways, shouldn't you be on your way out to get those bagels now?"

Nameless gives a mock salute as he heads out the door. "I'm on my way out now boss." Once he's halfway out the door though, he pauses, pokes his head back in, and asks with an evil smile, "Want me to pick up some dye while I'm out?"

Jake whistles loudly and the three watchers wander over to Nameless, posturing with all their spiritual might. The shaman smiles proudly at his soldiers.

"No you rascal, just grab some food on your way back. Hopefully I'll be done and Ib will have a few leads for us to chase down. Now shooo..."

November 11th, 2065 - 20:33

The astral plane is rife with strain and stress, normal colors punctuated by swirls of red as the two mages weave and mold the flows of magic to their own designs.

Outside, the night is dark and slightly chill, although dry enough, all things being relative. A dog barks in the distance and is abruptly silenced with a yelp as Nameless trudges from the barren flat to his vehicle.

Sighing, Nameless begins dialing up his contacts, who fortunately are all quite proficient or connected with hits or gathering information towards that purpose. It was what he did, after all. While he was doing that, he began racking his brain for where he could get bagels at freaking 20:30 as he drives off into the night...

McQuillan -

Mama Fortuna is, as usual, disgusted to see you, and she spits over her shoulder just to make sure that you remember how mcuh she doesn't like pretty people.

She listens to your request with a cocked head, "hmm"'ing to herself for a moment, and nods.

"1500. You're too pretty to help for cheap, you might start sniffing around more often."

She holds out her hand for yours, gesturing impatiently when you hesitate, knowing what's coming. She jerks your arm towards her, using the long, twisted nail on her pinky to slash the palm of your hand enough to spill several drops of blood into a pan. She spits, mixes the two fluids together for a moment, and tosses a handful of discolored wooden runes into the pan as well. She peers down for a long moment, silently, and cocks her one good eye up at you.

"His greatest fear and his greatest weakness are his family, whatever that means for you." she mutters in heavily accented English.

That done, a large, hairy paw slaps down on the countertop, the attached body somewhere below the edge of the counter, and grabs ahold of the money, tugging it out of sight.

"Now, go! You're stinking up my shop!" she waves you away.

Jake returns to his bike and pulls out the bottle of antiseptic spray that he always brings with him to see Mama Fortuna. He sprays it over the cut, biting his lip slightly at the sting of alcohol disinfecting his hand. Wrapping it in fresh linen, the shaman pulls his gloves on and kickstarts the bike.

The drive is as much to clear his mind and think as to mark the hours while Nameless and Iblis pull what information they can about Yamikaza's habits. Pulling into the parking lot of Club Extassis, the daylight shows only a few sparse cars leftover from patrons who did not go home alone and the minimal daytime staff.

Jake knocks twice on the door and is allowed into the club, it's appearance like so many other things, drastically changed by the level of available light. He talks with the barstaff as they go through the daily rituals of restocking and cleaning. The chatter is mainly to catch up and reaffirm the connection with the club and every member within the staff.

The sun reaches its zenith as the large Italian makes his goodbyes, his mind calm and centered.

Returning to the squat, Jake stops to pick up a few things from the store. One arm full with the grocery bag, he unloads bottled water onto the rough table in the center of the room. Dropping a few of the neon colored bars that Iblis likes to eat when she's done decking by her limp form, he sets the rest of the contents of the bag down in the corner.

"Nameless, Wolf anyone here?"

Crossing back across the space on his way outside to make a phone call, Jake sets the bottle of green hair dye on the table in plain view of the decker when she comes around for a snack break.

Now I just need to find someone good with explosives...

Nameless walks out of the kitchen munching on a bagel. "Bagels are in the kitchen boss. You wanna hear everything I got, or just wait until the others are ready to hear it also?"

November 14, 2065 - 15:54

The last three days have been days of the individual. Iblis has been buried in the virtual world, pausing only for the occasional bathroom break and a neon colored pop-tart, while Nameless has spent his time combing the streets, meeting with anyone and everyone that might have useful info, buying drinks, dinner, and who knows what else as social lubricant.

"Once Iblis is done with her gathering, we can all sit down and talk it over."

The time passes with Jake in meditation and conversation with Fixx on how to pile it higher and dig deeper. Finally when the furry decker says she is done with her part of the legwork, they all sit down.

"Alright kids, let's go hide in the ward just in case someone happens to be snooping and let's talk.

"Nameless you go first."

Munching on a bagel, Nameless leans back in his chair and informs the team of what he's discovered thus far.

Listening to Nameless, Jake nods holding questions and comments until the end.

"Mama Fortuna didn't have much to tell me except that we should look into his family. I'm not sure if that is the literal blood or a more collective social unit.

"What'd you get Ibby?"

Stretching and shaking out the kinks from her deep dive into the matrix. "Well, he uses 9 different cars but only 3 ever make the complete trip on any given day. This Yak is paranoid to say the least. I wouldn't be surprised it he tripled bagged his member when entertaining the ladies." She walks over to her pack and begins rummaging around for something to eat. "I could get us more precise info by digging directly around in the grid guide system if that's the route we want to go but I'm thinking we might want to hit this mook in an actual building or at least off the road." With a neon bright smile she finds a candy bar and rips it open with her teeth, taking a sizable bite as she continues. "After going through enough shells to feel like a fragging squirrel, I found 2 accounts linked to him registered with the uber bank in the sky, the Big Z Orbital. He has about 3 million yen in each. I go look around there as well but I'll need a little beauty sleep before tackling that bitch." Chewing thoughtfully, she takes a moment to swallow. "Not sure what we would do with his account info but I won't pass up free money in the 10 digit range. We could suck his accounts dry when he take him out and make it like like he was dealing on the side and it went south?' She looks to Jake for his response.

November 15th, 2065 - 12:45

The day is bright out, for once, and the late fall sunshine seems to have everyone a little confused. Traffic is at an all time crunch as more and more accidents pile up on the freeways from the morning rush and even the 'trix announcers seem a bit bemused by the un-seasonal weather.

"I'd say to track the money down, that way you can either automate the transfer down somewhere we want it or slide money around to shift the blame onto interested parties."

Jake stands up to stretch his arms and walk a little bit while he thinks.

"Right now there are a dozen players in the field. We need to decide who we want to deal with and clear the others off our mind. Thoughts on who to keep?"

Howling Wolf leans against one of the walls of the safehouse.

"Accounts in the ten digit range? What numbering system are you using? Binary?" he asks, smirking. "Seriously though, I would say to take the money, and use Jake's mafia contacts to launder it. That would be quite a windfall."

"My vote is swipe the cash and leave a trail to who our victim of the month is and then hit him shortly there after. We either hit him in a fixed location like his home or office, if he has one or we buy REAALLLYY big rockets and blow him to kingdom come." Iblis leans back and smiles. "Rockets are fun........"

Howling Wolf grins.

"Heh. I've got an Ares Alpha. Drop a grenade under his car and the overpressure should do nicely to blow him into kingdom come. Thing is, we'll need some way to make him stop. Would you be able to deck into the Gridguide system, and mess with the traffic lights? If we can get his car stuck in a traffic jam, he should be a sitting duck."

Iblis turns to Howling Wolf. "Baby doll, that grenade launcher ain't going to do squat against his cars. They're armored so we need juice to punch through that, off the shelf bang-bangs ain't going to cut it."

"Ib honey, before we go planning to use rockets, does anyone here actually know how to fire one or would it be a guessing game?

"Right now Vinnie owes us some gear. Nameless, Howling, I want the two of you to arrange a shopping list. We are going to hit this guy at home and if necessary bring the entire building down on him. Fuzzy Bunny get your beauty sleep with plenty of dreams about rockets, when you wake up it will be time to grab all the info about Yami's house that you can and arrange a few money transfers."

The tension visibly drains from her body with Jake taking charge and giving out assignments. " You got it J-J. I'll catch a few and then what I can find out. Are looking for general info or looking to have me hack the system itself?"

"I need a layout of the building and their security. If you can get that elsewhere I'd prefer that we not kick down the door. Though a nice passcode like before to lock everyone in and out would be convenient."

"Ok, I'll see what I can get before I actually go into the system itself, assuming I can. Do you have any idea where you want the money to go yet?" She stretches and begins to make a small nest for herself on the floor, out of the main walkways.

Nameless nods. "OK boss. What exactly am I going out to pick up, and how do you plan on us bringing this building down on top of him?

"Nameless, do an inventory on what we've got and what gear will be necessary to put Yamikaza and his security down. Focus on anything you and Wolf will need in the actual fight. Also grab some Neurostun and a few rockets just in case...something cheap that packs a big punch.

"I suspect several well-placed charges will take the building down on them if you and Howling can get it done. Otherwise see if Vinnie can get a demo guy to put something together that we can just stick on support columns or foundation blocks. That part we may need to wait for until Ib comes back with some better blueprints."

Iblis pokes her head up from a sleeping bag. "Hey J-J I need some magic spray for my working gear, you know that wierd color changing crap. Can you get some?"

"No sweat darling, I'll call Fixx and see if he can find some in town. Otherwise, I can just make it fit in to the Looking Glass...actually both might not be a bad idea. You could look hot to trot on the run and have a psychedelic spectrum of color choices when you're off the clock."

Jake takes a seat next to the furry decker and begins negotiating quietly.

"Are you serious!?!" She claps her hands while a big smile stretches across her features. "MY GOD!! You are my sweet Angel of Mercy!!" She huddles to begin the talk in earnest.

Howling Wolf stretches, ignoring the twinges of pain from spikes of bone he has jutting from his snow white flesh as a result of his SURGE. He then slouches back, scratching the base of one of his cut-down horns, and crossing his almost canine legs. He then begins listening to Iblis and Jake's conversation, and observing them astrally.

I wonder if they know I can hear them...

The conversation is difficult to make out as it references a lot of shared events without full descriptions, but the general flow is making up the perfect party girl look. Jake has to limit some of Iblis' ideas because the armor has to still cover the same areas that it normally would.

It's obvious that both of them are very comfortable with each other as the shaman asks for fairly specific measurements and the decker teases him relentlessly before finally giving them over.

The astral flickers with unrequited lust, happiness and genuine warmth. Years of sorrow and pain flinch back from the positive emotions , but the negativity is too firmly entrenched to be driven back by a few hours of mirth.

Standing up and digging her in back, Iblis begins to set up her deck and plugs in. Just before slipping away she addresses the team in general. "Ok going to chat with Vinnie and see what we can arrange for the money transfer. I'll sleep later"

Dropping into the virtual world she takes a moment to grab the programs she'll need. All represented by objects she attaches to her person before spreading her wings and flying out into the matrix of Seattle.

Moving into the comm logs of the RTG, she runs a hand over the icon. Lightning plays from her hand and engulfs the file. Soon an indexed search appears before her. Pizza joints and deliveries to a certain address by the docks. With a smirk she cups her hand before her mouth and breathes out soflty. A small orb of swirling mist and sparks of energy form and a small gateway appears. She leans forward and whispers "Vinnie..............oh Vinnie....." Small sparks of light fly from her mouth into the gateway, programs reaching and changing as they go.

Elsewhere
Vinnie paces in a small room, cigar smoke enshrouding his head. His face going through a series of animations as he carries out a voiceless conversation. He stiffens slightly as a small neon rabbit hops onto his field of vision. It pauses and whips up a sign, like a cartoon character, that reads 'Can we talk?'

Elsewhere
Vinnie blinks for a moment and then nods. It takes him a full two seconds to realize that the bunny probably can't see the nod, and he reaches out to the electronic connection that represented his current call and cut it off, dropping into a seat and pulling deep on the cigar.

"Your dime..."

Iblis smiles to herself as she hacks into the com call, sending her voice through the small p-sec to Vinnie. She pauses a moment to encrypt the signal and bounce it around to make it harder to trace and listen in on.

"Here's the deal hun. We're going to pinch about 6 mill from the fella you mentioned and we're looking for a way to make this dirty money squeeky clean and I thought of your large family. We're wondering what the 'donation' would be for such a service and I was also curious if you had anyone in mind for a set up. I was going to leave a trail of crumbs to someone else's door so we could actually live to spend our newly found money. Whatcha think?"

Vinnie actually chuckles as he recognizes Iblis talking on the other end. Not from her actual voice, but just from her speech patterns.

"Well hun, sounds like a great idea assumin' you ain't leading them back to us. Any kind of rush job's going to cost you about a quata, just to let you know. If we can take our time, we ken drop tha' down to about, say, 2 dimes."

"Your rates work fine for us but I'll need to get everyone's ok first before any checks are signed. That just leaves my other question, do you all have anyone you'd like tangled in some messy business with the Yaks? Someone I can leave my trail of bread crumbs to? Consider it a freebie to get rolled into the job, because lately my little bald chummer, your jobs have made me some serious pocket change."

Back at the safe house, the screen on the cyberdeck flickers to life and a small siren sounds from the speakers as a line of text appears on the screen.

Anyone out there?

Vinnie ponders for a moment.

"Actually, yeah, if you wouldn't mind pointing it at some other runners? I've got a group of guys that whacked a squad of new-hires from out of town, and put me out almost half a mil. I've got names, but I don't know how much they're worth if you're trying to track these guys down. I'll pass them on if you're interested?"

"I'm here."

Jake speaks the words aloud to himself as he types onto the small keyboard.

A quick log of the conversation with Vinnie scrolls across the screen followed by more text.

So I'm thinking we offer him a mill to laundry the cash, leave the trail of money to someone he doesn't like, about 500k and then use the other 500k to get gear and fund the run?

Quickly dividing her attention to continue her chat with Vinnie. "Ok who are the lucky folks then? I'll need some info to make sure the Yaks go where I want."

Offer him 800, then barter until you get to a mill, Vinnie will feel better. You know how he likes the give and take...

Vinnie hesitates for a second. "Well, like I said, they're runners, so I don't exactly got like a personal record on 'em or anything. I can give you street names, LTG's, and fixers that know them. I guess that involves a little extra work on your part...what say I knock like, 10% off the price doing your dirty laundry?"

"Sounds fair my short and balding paycheck. Since I have more work than I normally do right now, this is the part where I low ball you and you sputter, mabye fuss with your combover and then offer a price that makes me see double. We go back and forth and settle on the price that seems fair for two criminals to agree on. Let's say we did that, ok?"

On the screen more text appears. Ok Vinnie is on board with doing our laundry and the haggling is in process. He's going to send me some info on the runners we need to frame for the money theft. Can you all hit your people and see what you can find out about them? I'm only going to get street info and I'll need to do a little research for the bread trail to work.

"Send me the info you have at the usual LTG and I'll get started. I should be able to do this but I'll let you know if I bit a serious bump on the way. Where do I need to send our laundry?"

Understood. I'll get the boys on it.

"Alright boys, it's time to hit the streets again. Now we're tracking down some runners."

Jake leans down and picks up the flimsies that print out of the mobile decker command station or MDCS. He hands a copy to each of the boys and then leans down and gives Iblis a kiss of the forehead.

"You're doing great babe, keep it up," he whispers to the decker who has been working around the clock since they got the job.

Heading home through a few back roads, Jake let's himself in. He steps quietly through the house to check that Fixx is still sleeping, before moving to the kitchen. The shaman flashes back to time spent in an Italian villa holding on to his mother's apron strings.

Before long, the smell of bacon and toast is wafting through the small kitchen along with the aroma of hot tea.

"Half a sugar and a splash of cream?" The half-asleep voice of Fixx calls out as he steps into the small kitchen and has a seat at the breakfast nook just big enough for two.

The two lovers and business partners spend the morning over breakfast talking about the club, mutual friends, and embellishing on old stories. After breakfast is over and the dishes are washed, they take a shower to get the smell of the Barrens off Jake and out of his long hair.

"I need a work related favor, Jake begins as he dresses himself across the large bed from his friend. "A few people have worked their way into the crosshairs of some business associates. Anything you can tell me about them would be useful. Ib is willing to cover the usual rates." He hands over his copy of the flimsy with Vinnie's information.

With a kiss and a promise to be back in a little bit, Jake leaves Fixx to his intel gathering.

With a call to Stephan, he checks to see if there is a possibility of a lunch appointment for today or at least ten minutes before a lunch appointment.

An anonymous e-mail drop through the usual channels arrives in Koji's filtering programs. The decker is a complete mystery to all but a handful of people, and Jake is still in the dark. Information about the runners and 500 is attached. A surface scan through a few reliable sources is all that's being asked if the decker himself hasn't heard rumblings.

Meeting with Stephan, Jake structures his request to the time available. He transfers information from his p-sec to Stephan's as they talk about plans for an upcoming event and coordinate schedules for the third circle. In the transferred info, there is a list of runners that he needs info on and a list of skills that he'd like to arrange to hire.