Billie's Journal - Ancestors

Seattle, 02 Feb 2052

Well fake Maxim is sure setting us up good. All he wants is the head of some corp honcho and we got only a short window to get it. According to the data he gave Zero, our target will be heading to some fancy vacation home on Salish Sidhe land. Land that just happens to be a nature reserve so there shouldn't even be a house on it.

We get a name and a description, white male, middle-aged but no picture. Could be fragging anyone. A search of the matrix turns up a bunch of dudes with the name but none that are obviously our target.

Checking Friends4Life is about the limit of my computer skills, so I do what I do best and go shopping for running gear with Finlay. Top of the list is some camo outfits with thermal dampening and some gas masks. Some haggling with the Crime Alley regulars nets them at slightly over cost. I think they are starting to recognise me as a regular.

Zero does some more digging on the mark, but hits a wall until one of her old contacts recognises the style of the house. That gives her the name of some architects in New York and with some prudent hacking she pulls up an owner and the name of the mark. Unfortunately, the owner is Mitsuhama and the mark is Jack Barnard, CEO of Yamatetsu USA. Just great. Worse, the little extra info that she is able to find is that Mr CEO has a personal bodyguard with a solid rep that makes most runners look like punks with streetline specials.

Things look even gloomier when Henry's astral flyby of the place reveals a warded building and at least one big spirit on patrol. From the shots we have of the building it's clear there is a good 200 meter kill zone all around the house and Henry points out where he saw several dark spots on the open lawns. Dances reckons they are pop-up mini-turrets. Hell, we don't even want to off this dude, but I don't see how we can even get to speak to him without getting ourselves killed.

Then Henry drops another bombshell. If we want him on this job, we need to go rescue his ancestors from the ghouls first. Guess we were going to have to deal with them sometime. Can't be more difficult than breaking into a corp CEO's island retreat, can it?

Finlay decides that our new armor isn't good enough for going up against ghouls. He wants some with chem protection in case one of them decides to chew on us. But Henry wants to do this like right now. So Finlay calls Mazeltof, the Jewish weapons dealer. Mazeltof has a rep for getting things quickly. But that means he ain't cheap. However, he is as good as his rep and we are off to pick up more gear less than 24 hours after our visit to Crime Alley. When we return with the ex-UCAS urban camo armor, Dances swears that his is his old army outfit.

Seaside's place is starting to look like the staging area for a military assault.

Seattle, 03 Feb 2052
We suit up and head down into the sewers. Zero is still digging up data, but Aurora delivers digital plans for the sewer grid that Dances uploads into his headware. As long as he doesn't get ganked we shouldn't get lost. Aurora also gets us past the security, not that there is much beyond a camera and maglock at the entrance to the storm drain. It even looks like its set up more to keep stuff in that keep us out.

Henry conjures a spirit to guide him and we follow it. Well he follows it and we follow him. Dances confirms that there is actually a spirit there.

I've brought the Ares X1 with me. I haven't had a chance to field test it but if we do run into ghouls, its got the firepower needed to deal with them. And there are plenty of signs that someone is living down here. Piles of trash look to have been set up to provide cover and channel attackers down certain paths. We also start to catch glimpses of movement although hard to tell if it's ghouls or just dire rats.

Dances says he thinks he hears a kid crying and then all of a sudden there is a bunch of ghouls coming at us. I fire the grenade launcher hoping to take them out but I'm not used to judging the arc of the grenades and it falls short. At least it slows them down for a moment.

From behind me I hear Finlay open up full auto. It's about all I can hear for the next ten minutes. I fire a couple of short bursts at the approaching ghouls but frag they are moving fast and the assault rifle kicks up despite the recoil compensators. Dances comes to my aid, his big shotgun filling the space between me and the ghouls with a hail of pellets. It slows them enough for us to get off another burst. The one ghoul still standing again dodges my long burst, but Dances shreds it with another burst from his shotgun.

Guess I need to take this gun out to the range and get some serious practice in. I sling it over my shoulder and draw the Kimber. The familiar feel of the heavy pistol in my hand puts me somewhat at ease. There's a long silence in which I can only hear my ears ringing. But the show of fire has got the ghouls to back off. For now, at least. We move, heading in the direction of the child's cry. If these fraggers do have some kids down here, we'll get them out.

We are moving through a narrow tunnel when there is a ting. Finlay attempts to leap backwards but the rusty bear-trap snaps shut on his leg. Bet he's glad of those new leg casings he bought because that's all that's stopping the gore covered trap from chewing into his leg.

Then, before we can get Finlay free, the ghouls open fire. Great, ghouls with guns. I take a couple of pistol rounds, one in the shoulder of my cyberarm and a second that punches through a weak spot in my armor and takes a chunk out of my side. At least they are regular 9 mm and not the EXEX I've got loaded. My adrenaline kicks up a notch, drowning out the pain.

The second ghoul shooter has a shotgun and takes a potshot at the trapped Finlay. Fortunately the big ork has more than enough armor to soak the heavy round. Two more ghouls burst out concealed tunnels on either sides of us. One of them gets a hold of Henry's legs pulling him down and half into the tunnel. Finlay lashes out with his spear taking down the second attacker before he gets a grip on any of us, and Dances fires a burst from his shotgun at the one shooting at Finlay.

I bring the Kimber up in a smooth arc, squeezing off the first round into the pistol wielding ghoul's chest and letting the recoil lift the gun to put the second between her eyes. And despite his injuries, Henry manages to keep his cool and blasts the ghoul trying to drag him off with his magic. For the second time tonight, all I can hear is the ringing of my ears. We drag Henry out of the pipe and Dances patches him up as best he can in the crappy conditions. But all he can really do is stop the bleeding and pump him full of antivirals. Then, he does the same for me and Finlay.

The space at the end of the tunnel has been converted into a grisly sitting room. Gnawed bones lie amidst tattered furniture and children's toys. I had heard that some ghouls didn't go feral, but can they still have kids? While Henry digs around to recover his ancestors remains, I leave a little present for the ghouls should they come back, a couple of charges of C4 on a one hour timer.

Once Henry seems happy he has all the bones he can recover, we get the frag out of Dodge.

Billie's Journal - We need bigger guns!

Seattle, 28 Jan 2051

Zero takes the news about as well as expected. She curses in French, throws a few things around and retreats to the back seat of one of Seaside's Hunvees with her deck. Like we all didn't see that coming!

While she is off breaking things in the matrix, an uneasy calm settles over Seaside's. I am chilling out watching some trids and cleaning my Cavalier Deputy, when I get a call from Martha. I tell her I'm in the middle of something and will call her back, then head downtown away from our watchers.

She is pretty pissed that we might have compromised her number and identity. I can't do much more than apologize but we agree that whatever she was planning to line us up with can wait while we sort out our Russian problem. I tell her we'll be in touch when we've cleaned up our mess but she is clearly worried.

Returning to Seaside's I find a team meet going on in the APC. Seems Zero channeled her anger into hacking the Russian node our mob friends have been sending their data to. Not the one downtown, currently being scoped out by Dances, who was happy not to have to hide in the crane for a couple of days, but the one in Russia.

The node turned out to be pretty ultraviolet, or military grade, as she explains to me. And it had a lot of data on us and our contacts. She wasn't able to get any of it downloaded as she was worried about getting spotted but she says it had a very detailed file on her, then me, Finlay and Dances. They didn't have too much on Henry, just a brief profile but what is most worrying is that they did have information on a lot of our contacts. She did find out that only two or three people had access to the node, and two of them were Maxim's brother and sister. I'm willing to bet that the third one is the dude pretending to be Maxim.

From what Zero knows of Maxim's siblings, they are at least as cuckoo as the man himself was and that they have a serious vengeance thing going for Zero. She also found that fake Maxim will be contacting us soon to set us up with a run that will leave us dead or worse. And by worse, she tells me that at least one scenario ends up with me back in the hands of the yaks. Did I mention I picked the wrong fragging year to give up drinking?

Seattle, 29 Jan 2051

I don't sleep well, worrying about getting handed back to the yaks. So I do the only thing a girl can in these circumstances. I go shopping. Crime Mall may not have this year's latest fashions but it does have what I need. Guns. I find my way to a dwarf by the name of Trigger. He's got long sideburns that are clearly dyed grey to make him look older. I suspect he ain't much older than me but keep quiet on that.

He is initially suspicious of the black clad goth chick asking for guns, but I show him my main carry, one of the Kimbers, and after examining it closely he relaxes a bit when he realizes I ain't just some emo teen planning on geeking her classmates. His selection is pretty street level, mainly AKs and Predators so I ask if he's got anything a bit heavier. He nixes my requests for security armor or LMGs on smart firing platforms, but does show me an impressive selection of mil-spec ARs and SMGs on his tablet.

I pick out something that has some cred without going full battle rifle. It's an Ares XR1 assault carbine, hot off the back of a military convoy. It's capable of single shot, burst fire or full auto, has an integrated smartlink, imaging scope and an underbarrel grenade launcher. It takes 30 rd clips of 5.56 and can fire two short bursts without any recoil. It looks cool too.

I take it along with 1000 rounds of regular ammo, 150 each of EX-EX and APDS, a couple of boxes of HE minigrenades and a bag of spare magazines. I throw in a pair of Predator IIs as backups to the Kimbers as well as a few hundred rounds of nine-mil just in case, and leave with my credsticks a cool ten grand lighter.

Trigger doesn't have any explosives but he gives me the name of a kid who makes his own. I find him at a stall on the next level of the mall. He looks even younger than me and is less worried about selling explosives to me than the dwarf was. Unfortunately, he doesn't have much in stock. All I can get is a half dozen blocks of C4, just one of C12 and a handful of Chinese timers that look older than the two of us put together. Frag it, they'll do. I was planning on picking up a few kilos of nails and some 'cleaning' products at the hardware store to bulk them out anyways.

I spend a few hours rigging up my bike and the Mustang as well as planting a few surprises around Seaside's just in case anyone tries to make a move on the garage. I sleep better tonight.


Seattle, 30 Jan 2051

Just when I think things can't get worse, Zero announces that she needs me to go shopping with her. And not gun shopping either. Fake Maxim has called and has set the meet with her in the fragging Seattle Needle restaurant. You know, the one that normally has a six month waiting list. Anyway Zero says she needs a new outfit and wants me to come along with her. Frag, I'd rather face a roomful of yaks in my underwear. 

We hit like a hundred stores. At least that's what it feels like. The sales staff are snooty as hell, tutting at my lack of boobs, hips and manicured nails. However, they usually shut the frag up when they get me down to my skivvies and see the scars and the arm.

Finally, we both have new outfits. Not sure how I ended up with one too. It's a figure hugging little black dress cut asymetrically at the neck. It covers my right arm and neck, leaving my left shoulder and arm - the meat one - bare. Black mesh gloves, low shoes and a tiny purse complete the outfit. I feel overexposed but the salesgirl assures me it has enough armor to stop a light pistol round. I sure don't plan on testing that out. In fact, I doubt I'm ever going to wear this five grand of next to nothing outfit anywhere other than my bedroom.


Seattle, 01 Feb 2051

Tonight's the night. However, while Dances and Finlay play chaperone for Zero, Henry has asked me to back him up on a little visit to his parent's graves. It seems like a strange request but when we arrive at the location, I realize why he asked. His folks were interred at some downtown grave parlor that's been shut down for suspicious activity - never a good sign. 

While looking for a way in, a fire exit clicks open. Sure its suspicious, but at the same time you don't look a gift horse in the mouth, whatever that means. We sneak inside only to be confronted by some sort of ghost spirit. I resist shooting it and it leads us through the building to a cellar. To cut a long story short, it seems that the suspicious activity has something to do with the owners feeding the bodies of the recently deceased to some fragging ghouls in the sewers under the graveyard. I put a couple of rounds in one and they leg it but not before one calls out a warning about being betrayed. 

Henry is clearly upset that his folks remains have been fed to a bunch of flesh eating fraggers. But he explains its more than that. For him to become a better mage he needs to honour them and that ain't gonna be easy if they've been eaten by the ghouls. Looks like we are gonna have to come back and deal with them before  Henry can unblock his juju problem. And that's gonna take more than just the two of us.

The only good news is that while our trip may have been a bust, Zero's meeting with fake Maxim went down without any major hitches and that she is down Club Penumbra celebrating with Finlay and Dances. 

Billie's journal - Watchers

Seattle, 21 Jan 2051

So having saved the world again, or at least some of the grubbier parts of Seattle, it's back to tracking down Zero's psycho Russian ex-boyfriend. I head up North with Henry to meet the shaman. I'm still betting it's the one who was dancing around in his loin cloth on Council Island.

Concrete and skyscrapers slowly give way to grass and trees. We're still officially in UCAS territory, but it sure feels like Salish lands. The meet is scheduled at some real-food restaurant. The owner's an elf that doesn't look much older than me but acts like my mother. Or at least how I would expect my mother to act. Too bad I don't remember what she was like when I was a kid.

I order a soykaf and she rattles off a list of blends of real coffee. My blank stare says it all and she tells me she'll just get me a cup of the weekly special. It's good, damn good! Most of the stuff I drink comes out of a vending machine and tastes like crap. Makes me wonder what actually goes into making it.

The food smells and looks good and my stomach is rumbling by the time the shaman turns up. He's well wrapped up against the cold and I can't honestly tell if it's the same guy I saw on Council Island. It's maybe a cliche, but all these old injun dudes do kinda look the same.

Graham, as he introduces himself, then proceeds to barrage us with questions about why we want to find Maxim. I try to tell him as much as I can about how this psycho set up Zero to get raped by the CFO of Mitsuhama America and that's just the latest in a line of nastiness without giving away too too much about Zero or ourselves. But I gotta admit that it's not easy. It cuts too close to my plastic-reinforced bones. I can feel old Billie boiling up, so leave the final details to Henry.

Unfortunately, my bad memories leave me without much of an appetite and I pick at the home-cooked meal. Henry and Graham are kind enough to volunteer to finish it off for me, the greedy fraggers! We settle up and leave, handing Maxim's favourite rifle and the equivalent of five thousand nuyen in Sioux dollars to the old man. We agree to meet back at the restaurant in a week, but I give him my number just in case he finds something sooner.

Seattle, 22 Jan 2051

Next morning I'm up early. I want to catch Danny Kincaid at his favorite coffee shop. I am disguised as a corporate secretary in pencil skirt and jacket, neither of which are armored. The blouse is a power cut that buttons up to the neck and the ensemble is finished off with stockings and a pair of comfortable, low-heeled slip-on shoes. I feel like I am wearing too much makeup, although Zero insists it's not enough. I can hardly move in the skirt, needing to take fast baby steps to get anywhere quickly.

I still manage to get there in plenty of time. More like giving everyone plenty of time to see through my disguise, that is. I buy a large soykaf and find a table in the corner, pretending I'm checking my mail on my phone. I'm on my second cup and starting to wonder if he's going to show when he finally turns up. Well let's just say I stand out enough in this getup to catch his attention. Luckily, he recovers quickly and joins me at the table once he has his coffee.

We don't go in for much small talk. I check if he's heard anything about the yakuza and fill him in on the Red Mask and our current situation. He warns me off going up against a triple-A corp or even their Russian subsidiary. He also makes it clear that even if we have significant evidence against the CFO, they'll just ship him off somewhere until things quiet down. And he warns me to not even think about taking him out, unless we all have a deathwish. He does compliment me on my choice of outfit, although I suspect it is mostly because it helps me blend in, not because it actually suits me.

I return to Seaside's and more comfortable clothes and sprawl in the sofa in front of his trid. There's nothing on. I check my mail, not something I do regularly, and find a strange message there. At first glance it looks like spam, but those should be filtered out automatically. I get Zero to look at it. She does whatever it is she does and then the next thing I know she's on the phone to Dances asking what he did with her eyes. Then she is in Seaside's freezer getting out the liquid nitrogen 'sample' container. Next thing I know she's running a retinal scanner over some frozen eyeball and then cursing because the message it decoded is for Finlay. Huh?

I'm still getting to grips with the fact that one of Zero's eyeballs is in Seaside's fridge, when Finlay scoops up my phone and smashes it on the floor with the butt of his spear. He repeats the process with his own phone and Zero's. Has he gone mad, too. I'm supposed to be the crazy one. His swathe of desctruction apparently complete, he points to the burnt-out APC sitting in the garage. Only when we're all huddled inside does he explain that the message was from Albrecht and hinted that someone had hacked our phones.

I point out that he just smashed the only way Graham the wolf shaman had of contacting me and that unless Zero can recover my phone list from the remains, it also means I have no way to reach any of my other contacts. Not that I have a lot of contacts, but I don't have their numbers written down in some fragging little black book like mister fragging ork professor does.

Finlay apologises and we take a drive down to the nearest stuffer shack to pick up a couple of cheap disposable phones while Zero checks our comms. By the time we get back she's already found a couple of bugs. She has also managed to recover my phone list. I spend a few minutes transferring it to the new phone but will have to wait to send out messages to my contacts until I am in a bug free zone.

Seattle, 23 Jan 2051

I take a drive with Zero to a crummy cybercafe on the edge of the Barrens for a meet with Aurora. By meet, I mean a virtual one, so Aurora and Zero do the talking while I just handle the intros from a terminal and then watch over Zero's body while she's in the matrix. We want her to do some quiet digging into Mitsuhama, RusCyber, Mitsuhama's CFO rapist, Maxim and his family. She's up for it but wants a big bag of cash up front. As we're still flush from the flower job, Zero makes the transfer and I add another few grand for further reseach into my list of missing girls.

It's dark when we get back, although at this time of year it barely gets light with the cloud cover from all the acid rain. Finlay takes me aside when we get in asking if I would take him out for a ride in the Mustang. I'm not sure what he's up to and am still kind of pissed at him for smashing my phone, but I assume its something to do with our spies, so go along with it.

We drive a few klicks along the coast. The roads here are quiet and while you still need to watch out for the odd pothole or piece of crap on the road, I can open her up without having to worry about Lone Star or KE. Except of course Finlay isn't really interested in taking a drive. He spotted some lights from one of the abandoned buildings further down the coast and wants to take a look. I don't like leaving the car here but it's quiet enough, so it should be okay as long as we aint gone too long.

We sneak back along the road about half a click and then into an old boatyard. There's a couple of empty drydocks and a few dark buildings. The thermal imaging in my glasses picks up a slight temperature difference from one of them and we creep closer for a look. Just then, Henry's astral form materialises next to Finlay and warns us that there is a fire elemental patrolling around the building. We duck back into cover, me giving Finlay the stink-eye for not telling me Henry was on astral overwatch.

Unfortunately, Henry is still recovering from some mana backlash from our previous adventures, so he is not up to tackling the elemental. We back off and head downtown to discuss plans, only stopping back at Seaside's to switch to the van. The Mustang kind of stands out. Plus I don't have any papers for her. Hell, I don't even have a driving licence on this fake SIN.

After some discussion on what to do, we decide to act normal while at Seaside's. That will be quite a challenge for this crew. At the same time, we will keep a watch on them to see if we can find out who they are. Dances hasn't been at Seaside's much so he volunteers to play scout. He also claims he has some relevant experience from his time in the military. We'll see.

Seattle, 26 Jan 2051

Turns out Dances wasnt just talking out his ass. He spends three days hunkered down in the cab of a rusted out crane in the middle of winter keeping an eye on our watchers. To avoid compromising our comms, he sends the data to the clinic and drops a message to Zero to pick it up there.

The dudes look eastern european. You know the type, bodybuilder physiques with short-cropped blond hair and broken noses. Just hope they are Russians and not Albanian. Russians will kill you if you cross them, but the Albanians will also kill your family, your friends and your fragging dog. They make me look like a saint.

Seattle, 28 Jan 2051

Having heard nothing from Graham, we return to the restaurant. The coffee is still as good but the old injun's news isn't. He tells us that whoever owned the gun we gave him is dead and buried in a cemetary in Russia. Zero isnt going to take that news well. What's more worrying is that if Maxim is dead, why does she think it was him that set her up?

Billie's Journal - Red Mask

Seattle 20 Jan 2051
Zero reminds us that respirators aint going to work against the Red Mask. We'll need either NBC suits or a full-face gas mask at a pinch as the stuff can get in through the soft tissue around your eyes. Finlay wakes up our Martha and she puts out the word for us.

I stock up with a jerrycan of unleaded just in case we need to set something on fire. Martha comes through, at least with the gas masks. She gives us the address of a restaurant in Chinatown, telling us to call ahead and then park around the back. The team make a point of telling me that these dudes are Chinese and more likely affiliated to the triads than the yakuza. I know the difference, well sort of.

We make the call on the way in the van. Zero asks if she can get some chicken noodles and I realise I'm hungry too, so add my order to the list. The guy on the phone seems unfazed by our request. We pull around the back and Finlay knocks on the door. A balding chinaman appears wearing a greasy cook's outfit and after a quick discussion, two scrawny chinese guys haul out a crate with six gas masks. Finlay hands over the cash and the cook hands him a bag with our carry out.

We eat on our way to the clinic. Dances is waiting for us. We have some pictures of the dead guy and his buddies from the clinic's cameras but no names. About all we have to go on is that the guys look more like bums than gangers. We ask about and splash a little nuyen. One of the locla gangers, hopped up on god knows what, points us towards an old parking garage to the west, where he says some squatters are living. We drive on over, taking care to put on the  masks before exiting the van.

It's quiet. Too quiet. Not a light on in any of the surrounding buildings. Not that there is power in this part of town, but people usually find some way to keep the dark at bay, whether it's a solar charged battery, an illegal power tap or just a plain old fire. There's not even any rats skittering around.

We enter the underground garage unopposed and it soon becomes pretty clear why. There aint nobody living to oppose us. There's a bunch of dead squatters spread over the two levels of the garage. About fifteen all told,  and all dead from the Red Mask. Some of them been dead quite a few days. Makes me glad of the mask as it keeps out the smell as well as the virus.

We pile up the bodies. It's nasty work and douse them with the petrol. Should get rid of any evidence of the Red Mask. While we're doing that, Zero picks up a wireless signal and traces it back to a camera stuck on the ceiling. It's burst transitting stills from the garage every couple of minutes. Not live footage but enough to follow what's going on. She loops the footage to show us wandering about like when we just came in and then follows the signal to see where it goes. Not far as it turns out. It still in the barrens, in a slightly better part and just far enough away to be out of the infection area.

Concerned that we might have been made and that we will lose them, we decide to drop by right away. At this time of night there aint too many vehicles on the road. Hell there ain't too many vehicles on the road in this part of town any time of the day. So we take a swing past the location and park a couple of blocks down the street.

There are at least a couple of cameras covering the building, an old warehouse on the corner of the block. They look similar to the one we found in the garage, some cheap wireless piece of Yamatetsu drek geckoed to the wall.

Zero jumps into the matrix and quickly gains access to their system, discovering several more cameras, a sentry gun and a couple of laser tripwires. She loops the cameras, shuts down the tripwires and takes control of the sentry gun. In the meantime, Leon takes a swing past the roof in the astral and spots some twisted spirit of man lurking about up there. While Zero stays with the van and monitors the security system the rest of us head out and up the fire escape.

Leon dismisses the spirit, or at least that's what he tells us and I go to work on the manual lock on the skylight. Only takes a minute or two but feels longer. I drop in behind Finlay and flatten myself against a rather flimsy internal wall. Finlay has already dealt with the two sleeping beauties in the room and we creep out into the hallway.

Then all hell breaks loose. A dude appears with an SMG. Dances picks him off through the skylight while Finlay moves to a covering position. I push into the next room. At first I don't see anyone but Finlay catches a glimpse of movement with his heightened senses and hoses a long burst through the wall at the guy trying to ambush me.

Checking that the room is clear, I move to the next one. I open the door to see two girls huddling behind an overturned bed. Well one is huddling. The other glares pure hatred, then throws a grenade at me. As it bounces out the door, I roll in shouting a warning to the others.

There is a loud bang and flechettes fill the hallway. The thin plasterboard walls take the sting out of them and my armor does the rest. Finlay's lead hose chews up the huddler while I double tap angry girl. Then there is a roar behind me. Another dude is now visible through the remains of the plasterboard on the other side of the building. He is staggering back as Finlay's gun cuts a swathe across his chest but he also has his finger on the trigger of an autoshotgun and Finlay rolls desperately to avoid the hail of flechettes spewing in his direction. I squeeze of a couple of rounds at the dude. The first barely clips his skull with what sounds like a metallic ding, but the second hits square between his eyes.

Then I feel a surge of magic, like someone trying to crush my skull. But it's deflected and weakened and I just give a soft groan as I fight it off. I mouth a silent 'Thank you' to Leon and Dances. I hear the soft crack of a silenced high velocity pistol as Dances targets the mage, then I spot him myself. Another double tap takes him down and silence returns.

Zero informs us that we seem to have woken half the neighborhood. She also detected but was unable to intercept all of the 911 calls. Lone Star take their own good time coming out to these parts but they will come eventually.

We quickly check the place. In the room where the mage was, we find a bunch of medical supplies and some text tube racks containing what looks like vials of Red Mask. We haul as much as we can down to the ground floor and load it into a van done up as an ambulance. They kindly left the keys in the ignition, so when Zero gives us the heads up that Lone Star are on their way, we hightail it out of there.

Seattle 21 Jan 2051
I make a quick call to Crow before hitting the sack. She wants a meet and suggests we go fishing. After checking with Seaside and hitting the sack for a few hours, we are back on the road. Well more like on the water. We follow Crow's instructions and soon spot a fishing boat, somewhat bigger than Seaside's. Pulling alonside, it's clear that they are not really fishing at all. Most of the crew seem unfamiliar with being on a boat and while fishermen tend to be a hardy lot, these guys are just a bit too buff. Crow appears on deck in her cheap suit and a haze of smoke.

We quickly transfer over the two teenagers Finlay clocked along with the vials of Red Mask which a couple of techs, in NBC suits, carefully take off our hands.  We also hand over the desktop that was running their security system. It has all has the footage from the camera at the garage on it. There's a short standoff between Crow and Zero about handing over all copies. Zero finally agrees to delete her headware copy. Doesn't really matter though. While we don't have the original video file, her meat brain memory is like a vice, so she won't forget any useful information she saw.

To show her gratitude, Crow doesn't have us killed and even hands over a briefcase filled with corp scrip. Even after paying off Seaside, it still comes to about 10k each. Not bad for a night's work.

Billie's Journal - Zero

Seattle 16 Jan 2051
We've been keeping a low profile for a couple of weeks. We might not have made any money on that last run, but most of us are sitting pretty from the proceeds of our little trip to Amazonia. It won't last forever, but at least we ain't starving.

Bunking at Seaside's ain't exactly luxury accomodation. We've got a few cots and some space heaters set up between his collection of cars. Harlequin's or I should say my Mustang has pride of place amongst them. I think the old fella spends more time polishing it than working on getting his other cars fixed up. I've taken it out for a spin a couple of times, but it's not exactly inconspicuous and drinks gas like it's going out of fashion.

Zero suggested ripping out the engine and replacing it with a multifuel and I thought Seaside was either going to drop deap from a heart attack or shoot her on the spot. Talking of Zero, the girl's been acting mighty strange. She's always had the tendency to spend too much time on the matrix, but since we finished our last run, she's pretty much barricaded herself into one of the Hummer's and even spent a day blacking out the windows with a marker.

I know something bad went down with her while we were trekking across Amazonia and hoped she'd open up to me or Finlay about it. As she hasn't yet, I do the only thing I can think of and climb in the front of the Hummvee and plain out ask her.

Poor girl spills her guts. Seems that before we met, she had been hooked up with some Russki by the name of Maxim. Well, seems like this fella wasn't the most stable of sorts but they had something going. He was a big deal with some soviet corp. It's part of Yamatetsu now, but when Zero met Maxim he was number two son of the family business and head of security. He caught her trying to steal some of their data but rather than gank her, he took a shine to her and the pair of them absconded with some paydata and some prototype cyberware.

They were on the lam together for a while until a run against Aztechnology went bad and Maxim got himself ganked. And not in a nice way. Flayed alive and dropped in an acid vat according to Zero. She figured he was dead and moved to Seattle where she hitched up with the padre and Finlay. Well seems like he somehow came back from the dead. Zero reminds me of the time we had to drop her into a bath of ice to keep her from cooking alive. We thought it was black ice but seems like it was something more. She says it was more like the astral trip we took way back in Scotland and that she had a vision of Maxim alive and in a hospital.

She's been trying to find out more since then, but he found her first. He was the one that broke into our garage the night we hit the plantation down in Amazonia. He convinced her to go on a run for him when she should of been covering our asses. It didn't go as smoothly as planned and while she did manage to do what he asked, the mark was the fragger that left his handprints on her neck. That's not all he did to her.

I'm out of the car and halfway to the door before Finlay gets a grip on me. Even amped up, he's too strong for me and keeps me pinned down till I run out of juice and expletives. Turns out she already told him a week ago.

When I've cooled off we discuss options. We can't really go up against Maxim's family or his folk's corp. It's part of Yamatetsu and that means we'd be going up against them. But we need to take Maxim out of the picture plus any data they have on Zero. And the Yamatetsu fragger that put his hands on her. He dies. The trick is going to be how to make it look like it was Maxim and his folks that hit him. We're gonna need the rest of the guys for this.

Unfortunately, when we call Dances he tells us he's gonna be held up at the clinic for a few days. He had been looking to do some doctoring work and Finlay had put him in touch with one of his contacts. While she hadn't been impressed with his attitude, and frankly who is, she had been impressed by his skill with a scalpel and agreed to try him out on the graveyard shift.

Henry Leon is available and he drops round so we can fill him in. Zero thinks that one of her contacts, a hardware supplier by the name of Wallace, might have been the one that sold her out to Maxim. She says he's been acting funny lately and when she checked out his store recently, he had upped the security from 'nothing special' to 'pretty serious'. At least that's what I get from the description she gives.

Problem is that he knows what Zero looks like and none of the rest of us really have the skills to look at his security system. We also don't want Maxim to find out that we're looking for him, so Finlay is arranging a B-team to hit Wallace's place to copy the security logs. That means we need to sit on our hands for a couple of days till Martha sets up a team to hit the place. Fair enough, because I got a bit of unfinished business of my own to sort out.

Seattle 17 Jan 2051

When we tramping through the Amazonian jungle it finally hit me what the tissue sample in the padre's container of liquid nitrogen probably was. Martha, the toxic shaman, or one of her cronies. I remember him acting a bit strange at the abandoned camp we found up in Aglonkin territory and figured he must have found something there. I place a call to a number listed only as 'Crow'.

I swear I can smell cheap cigarettes when the person on the other end of the line answers. I tell her my name and then we have one of those strange conversations where we talk about the subject at hand without saying anything about it directly. She tells me she'll call back and sure enough I get a call in less than half an hour. She tells me to take the sample to Council Island and not to worry, they're expecting me. I tell her she'll need another container as I need to keep the one we have. I don't tell her that's because the other sample in there is the few drops of Ehran's blood that Dances recovered from the rapier. She just tells me to get there ASAP.

The Rapier is fast but it just don't have the class my Harley does. Unfortunately, the cowboy package aint that common and the yaks are still likely looking for it. So it's sitting next to the Mustang at Seaside's. The roads are wet and a little slippery, but as I'm sticking to the speed limit to avoid attention from KE it's nothing I can't handle.

The injuns guarding the main access to Council Island barely look at me. In fact, they look at me like I got the plague or something and hurry me through. I can guess who's behind that. The woman at the reception obviously either didn't get the memo or is working for 'smoking woman' as she nonchalantly hands me a tourist map and points me to the path towards the totem poles.

I wander along the path. It's cold and wet and no real tourists are out in this weather. As I approach this one totem pole with a big raven or more likely a crow on top, there is a young couple waiting for me. They are dressed like tourists but carry themselves like spooks. We quickly make the exchange and then I make my back to the main entrance.

On the way I come across an old injun wearing just a loin cloth. Frag, must be a medicine man, because I'm wearing thermals under my armor and I'm still cold. Worse, the last time I ran into one of these dudes in some backwoods bar up in Salish, I clocked him for calling me a bitch. Turned out he was actually calling me 'she-wolf', apparently it's the same word in Salish. Also turns out he was actually trying to give me some medicine man juju advice about my totem or latent adept abilities. Too bad, I only found that out when he posted bail to get me out of the local jail. And then only two days after the local law had locked me up for my own protection. So needless to say I give this one a wide berth. He doesn't pay any attention to me, just carries on singing and dancing around one of the totem poles. But the big ass, ghostly wolf he summons does watch me all the way back to the exit.

Seattle 18 Jan 2051

Today is quiet, the main highlight being Finlay trying to set up Henry with the daughter of one of his contacts. He knows some old lady in the archives at city hall. She has been more than happy to give him copies of old building plans on the off-chance that the big ork would take her daughter out on a date. When Henry discovered Finlay had a contact at the archives he was mighty interested and more or less volunteered to take the girl out on a date to get access to the archives for whatever little side project he is working on.

Then, late on in the day I get a call from Crow. She suggests I might be interested in the late news. I switch from a rerun of some old space cowboy show to the news. There is an item on a fire at a biotech firm. Several employees are reported dead and there is also at least one other body belonging to the 'eco-terrorists' that started or caused the fire. Did that sample let them track down Martha and the fire was the same spell used to toast the padre? Doubt that Crow will give me the satisfaction of confirming it, but for now I guess we can close that chapter of our lives.

Seattle 19 Jan 2051

Or maybe not. Today we get a call from Dances. He's been out of the loop for a few days. Apparently some dude came into the clinic where he was working with some sort of nasty virus. He was in bad shape when his buddies dropped him off and didn't last long. Dances didn't want to take any chance of it spreading so locked down the clinic.

When he mentions the symptoms, my stomach drops. Finlay asks him if he can send us a picture of the body. Frag me if it don't look like the Red Mask. I tell the team about the news item and we put two and two together and get five. The only good news is that we know the virus burns itself out in 48 hours, so Dances and the other people at the clinic are in the clear. However Dances says that the dead dude was brought in by a couple of guys, who may well have been infected. Great, so even if that fire killed Martha, we still could have a Red Mask plague on our hands. Now, where the frag did I leave that respirator?

Billie's Journal - Never trust an elf

Seattle, 2 Jan 2051
Having had to abandon our safe house, we are bunking down in Seaside's warehouse amidst an eclectic collection of vehicles, ranging from an armoured personnel carriers to a couple of classic cars, all in various states of repair. Still, I could sure use a few hours sleep, even if it's on an army cot in a cold warehouse.

When I wake later, Finlay's looking grim. Seems Helm's bossy assistant has one more job for us before we get paid. We are to pick up Jane Foster tomorrow morning at some sarariman hotel on down by the airport and deliver her to our real employer.

For some reason he doesn't want to take our van. I think it might be something to do with it's inability to stop a round from anything heavier than a streeline special, but I'm just guessing. Seaside comes to the rescue, offering us the use of one of the three hum-vees he has in the garage. But only if we help him put the engine back in the one he's going to loan us. That should be easy, right?

Fortunately, between him and Zero it does actually only take a couple of hours. I get to help out by fetching tools and generally being kept out of harm's way. Truth be told, I don't really know much about cars beyond where to put the gas. We get the car running and that seems to cheer Finlay up somewhat. Seaside even digs out some documents for the car, including a real old-fashioned paper pink slip.

Seattle, 3 Jan 2051
It's still dark when arrive at the pick-up point. Finlay finds a quiet place to park, suitably far from the hotel's entrance. Around 8 AM, a non-descript town car pulls up next to us and Mrs Johnson steps out. She looks like she don't like mornings either, but I get the feeling there ain't much she does like.

I do a double-take at the asian goons that also get out with the girl. Dances reckons they are 'Samsungs', Koreans not Yaks. The girl seems resigned and Dances helps her into the back of the hum-vee between him and me. She sits slump-shouldered and follows orders silently. While we secure the 'package', Mrs Johnson is feeding Finlay one last piece of bad news. We have to baby-sit the girl until our employer calls with the drop-off point. She says we should hear from him later in the day.

Not wanting to sit around in a hotel car park all day, Finlay drives us down to Touristville to find somewhere to hole up. The motel we end up doesn't seem to have a name and looks like it's run by one of the local gangs. But at least no-one will sell us out to the cops down here. Dances stops of at a nearby stuffer shack to pick up some food and drinks and then we settle in to wait.

After a couple of hours, Jane asks if she can use the bathroom. I let her in but warn her not to try getting away. She tries anyway. Luckily Zero's got good ears and less manners than me, pushing the door open to catch Jane standing on the toilet trying to force the little window open.

Eventually, Finlay gets the call. Drop is tomorrow at dawn - what is it with all these early mornings - down in Tarislar, the elven ghetto in Puyallup. To give you an idea how bad it is, Puyallup is a toxic hellhole due to shit that went down in the Great Ghost Dance and Tarislar is the shitty part of Puyallup.


Seattle, 4 Jan 2051
The ash makes it look like it's been snowing, which strangely enough for the time of year it hasn't. Everything is grey, even the people. They watch us silently as we drive by, the only vehicle on the road in this part of town. It's kinda creepy and I have to keep adjusting my eyes to compensate for the lack of contrast. The locals seem to know somethings going down and have turned out along the roads to watch our one car parade as Finlay eases it along junk-covered roads of cracked tarmac.

Our destination is the old Southwind complex, abandoned when the volcanoes erupted. Three towers slowly emerge out of the gloom and there seems to be a waiting committee. In addition to a crowd of grubby locals, there is this one old guy, a cyberpunk gandalf with blind eyes much like Zero's. He talks some nonsense at us, but the gist of it is that we are gonna have to climb the central tower, the tallest one, to deliver the package.

Even in the car we could smell and taste the ash, but outside it catches in your lungs. Most of us have scarfs against the cold, except for Jane Foster. Dances uses his medkit to rig up a mask for her with some gauze and surgical tape and we head into the ruined tower.

It's a long climb, some forty stories and even with the makeshift masks we are coughing and wheezing by floor twenty. The place is quiet and gloomy, with just some grey light filtering down from above to light the cracked walls and stairs. As we get close to the top, there are phrases scrawled on the wall. Recent too. Most of them are philosophical mumbo-jumbo but one, a phrase from George Orwell's 1984, triggers a memory of when I was a girl at school.

It kind of freaked me out then, but the things I've seen and done since would freak out Mr Orwell. Shortly after things get even more freaky. Dances starts whistling a tune and when I shush him he looks at me kind of confused. But a couple of floors later we can all hear it. Someone up there is playing a guitar and playing it well. Not my kind of music, something complex and latin.

Finally we reach the top. We are all on edge wondering what to expect, but none of us are ready for what we see. Most of the partition walls are gone, as are the windows. There is a den, like you'd find in some trendy loft appartment. A beat up old sofa and a coffee table with some glasses and a decanter on it. However, that's not what gets us going. No, it's the dude, our employer I presume. A tall, lean elf standing with his back to us. He seems to sense our presence, bringing his tune to a crescendo then with a deft flick twisting the guitar around and placing it in a rack. He turns and bows, light glinting off one pointed ear that seems to be made of silver. His smile doesn't quite reach his eyes. Eyes that are framed by makeup in an extravagant diamond pattern. He welcomes us with an open arm gesture and introduces himself as Harlequin. No, not just Harlequin but THE Harlequin.

He ignores the four guns pointed at him, striding up to me and addressing me with my real name, then deftly plucking my real hand from the Colt's barrel grip and planting a chaste kiss on the back of it. I am still staring at my hand as he moves on to Zero, addressing her as Nimue Something-or-other and repeating the hand kissing thing. Finlay is next, just a firm handshake and then he looks at Dances with a sort of despairing look and a shrug. The injun has backed away from the elf and is still holding his shotgun aimed centre mass on him with a wild look in his eyes.

Seeming to lose interest in convincing Dances to shake hands, the elf spins back to the rest of and offers us drinks. He gives Zero a genuine Coca Cola, something that aint been on the market for maybe 20 years and then offers a glass of 50 year old single malt to both Finlay and me. I start to decline, but he simply nods and pours just a tiny taste into a cracked crystal glass and then two more substantial measures into two other glasses. He hands one to Finlay and the tiny measure to me, saying that I should at least savour the flavour.

It's a strange tableau, three of us standing there with a glass in one hand and a gun in the other. Dances' shotgun never leaves the elf, who is seemingly non-plussed by the weirdness of the whole situation. He starts talking then, something about Jane Foster being the daughter of Ehran, one the big chiefs of the elves. Something about a competition or feud between him and Ehran that he is going to win. And something about one last thing he needs us to do. He needs us to sing.

Well I aint to keen on singing but its a long way from the worst I've done for a few nuyen. He coaxes a note out of me, higher than I thought I could hold, then an even higher tone from Zero and a deep bass note from Finlay. Dances is still being stubborn, so the elf adds one more himself and then somehow manages to harmonise with himself. He takes Jane's hands in his own and leads her to the centre of the room.

Finlay stops singing to say he'll shoot if Harlequin harms her, saving me the trouble of doing the same. The elf makes a dismissive gesture and tells us to keep singing. Then there is a pulse, not something visible but something we all can feel going out from Harley and the girl. And then something comes back. There is a flash as a magic circle becomes visible for a second and then Jane collapse as light bursts from her leg. The return pulse tosses Harley across the room. Finlay's gun follows him spitting lead, while Dances moves towards the girl.

Harley twists in the air, Finlay's bullets seeming to twist around from him, gathering into a swirling ball in the elf's hand as he lands on his feet, his eyes blazing. Finlay's gun clicks empty and he draws his spear and charges the elf who is now also moving back towards the girl. As Finlay strikes, Harley seems to take a half step back, catches the haft of the spear and smacks the ork squarely between the eyes with his own weapon. Finlay staggers back stunned and I put my hand across his chest and shake my head. He gets it and relaxes.

Dances is working on the girl and after a few minutes, seems to have stopped the worst of the bleeding. Harley explains angrily that whatever Ehran had done may also have cost him and that if he is hurt, then Harley loses at whatever willy-waving game they are playing.

He pretty much orders us to go check on his adversary, pointing to a plume of smoke coming from Mount St Helens and saying that that is where Ehran will be. Great! Now we get to go find another crazy elf in his secret lair in a fragging active volcano. There better be a fragging big bonus for this job!

He then scoops Jane Foster into his arms and steps off the side of the building. By the time we get to where he was and look over, he is nowhere to be seen. Fragger could at least have given us a lift back to the ground floor.

As we head back down the stairs, Finlay contacts Seaside to see if Osprey is available for a hotdrop on an active volcano. He is. We swing past a REI store on our way back to Seaside's and pick up some respirators. Finlay was hoping for gas masks, but we don't really want to keep the crazy elf waiting too long. It's a short trip from Seaside's by boat to Osprey's landing pad and an even quicker trip to the mountain. Fortunately, there is plenty of air traffic trying to get close, mainly media helicopters, so the Salish security are run off their feet and Osprey slips us through easily.

Dances has downloaded some GPS data on the mountain and reckons the visitor centre will be the best route into the lava tunnels under the mountain. We climb carefully up the scree, avoiding ground patrols. The visitor centre has been abandoned in a hurry, the doors to the main entrance standing open. We slip inside and Dances leads us to the tunnels.

In contrast to the cold weather outside, it's warm in the tunnels, stifling even in some places. It's also dark and the lava throws off thermo, so we have to rely on torches and low-light. After some wandering around lava tubes for a while we pretty much stumble on a worked tunnel leading in the right direction.

It comes out into a larger opening, with a stone span across a deep drop. Finlay edges out over the natural bridge, testing the ground with his spear, when something drops on him from above. It's an embracer, a gorilla-like creature that is sheathed in fire. I've heard stories of them from the injuns but never seen one till now.

Finlay struggles to escape its grasp. I try to get a shot in but in trying not to hit the orc also miss the beast. Dances aim is better and his SPAS barks in the gloom. The thing roars but at least it lets go of Finlay who tumbles off the bridge and rolls to put out his burning armour. Dances second shot kills the thing and it tumbles off the bridge.

We carefully cross the bridge. The tunnel on the far side flickers like a broken holo, one minute there, the next not. Dances thinks its some sort of broken illusion. Finlay edges through it until his spear hits an invisible barrier and is ripped from his hand and flung back down the corridor, it's powers apparently disrupted. The same happens to Dances, although in his case his spell focus is on a leather thong and nearly chokes him as it is repelled by the invisible field. The barrier doesn't seems to prevent people passing through and with their magic items inert, both Finlay and Dances make it through on their second attempts.

The walls beyond the barrier are beautiful white marble inlaid with streaks of what looks like real gold. Opulent and classical are the best description of the furnishings. As we come round a corner there is a set of double doors with a four short creatures waiting, each in a distinctly coloured outfit. They look like munchkins, a sort of monkey-like creature that walks on its hind legs. There is some dispute about whether they are fully sentient or not, but then the green clad one talks and I guess that confirms that. Not that anyone will ever believe us.

It offers us food (real strawberries) and drinks (champagne). I decline the booze but the strawberries are delicous. It then leads us through the doors. The complex here is large. I wonder how the hell Ehran managed to build it here and keep it concealed. In the main lounge, we find the elf's body.

Dances checks him out but shakes his head saying he's been dead for hours. He reckons that either the pulse Harlequin sent or the one that Ehran sent back killed him. Frag, guess that means that Harley loses too. Just hope he doesn't kill the messenger even through he did say that as his agents in this stupid game, we were not supposed to be harmed. Yeah, right.

We move the body from the floor and lay it out on one of the antique loungers in the room. Then we wait. I ask one of the munchkins if there's anything to eat or drink and after asking what we would like, he escorts us to a dining room and pretty soon we're tucking into real beefburgers, steaks and fries. Finlay doesn't want to leave the body alone while we eat, so he takes his plate back to the lounge and sure enough, just as we're finishing up, Harlequin arrives. We hurry back to the main room in time to catch the end of his rant. I can't follow half of what he's saying but he don't seem too happy. He then questions us about how we found him and Dances give him the low down.

I'm starting to think we're screwed when another Ehran turns up carrying a pair of rapiers, one resting on each shoulder. Yep, another one. Turns out the first body was a fake, some sort of simulacrum good enough to fool both Dances and Harley. Just then, one of the munchkins turns up and announces that some new guests have arrived. Both Harley and Ehran seem keen to finish of their little contest so Ehran tells us to delay them but warns us that while they are on his property they are technically under his protection and although we are supposedly protected by the rules of the game, if anything were to happen to them, bad things would happen to us.

We hustle off to delay the dudes who might have no qualms about killing us but who we can't harm. In terms of non-lethal, I've got a tazer with four rounds and Dances has a handful of gel rounds for his shotgun. Finaly will just have to beat them senseless. We arrive at the main entrance just in time to hear one of the munchkins say 'This way!'

Looking around I spot a big ass antique dresser agianst the wall and a plan forms in my mind. I subvocalise to Dances to hold the door for a moment and turning to Finlay, nod towards the dresser. He smiles. Frag is it heavy. Desperation helps me trigger my enhanced strength, the first time I have consciously managed to do it, and we haul it across in front of the door just as the munchkin announces 'door stuck' to the mystery guests. All three of us get behind it and push it hard against the doors.

There is some discussion on the other side of the door in a singsong language. Dances says it's Sperethiel, the elf language and that he can make out some of what they are saying. Something about having to deliver something personally or the prince will be pissed. They ask the munchkin why the doors won't open, but it sure doesn't know why. They try to push it open but between the three of us and the heavy dresser, we keep it firmly closed. Eventually a letter is slipped under the door and a few moments later we can hear footsteps retreating.

Finlay scoops up the letter and we return to the main room in time to see the main event. Jesus, but do these boys know how to wield a blade. They are blindingly fast and as I watch I realise that they are not just fighting with the blades, but that magic, misdirection and plain old insults are flowing back and forth between them. I don't quite catch the turn, but suddenly there is a roar of pain from Ehran and he clutches at his head. Blood flows from where his ear was but a moment before. Harlequin howls in victory, his moment dampened only slighty by Ehran screeching that he hadn't won, just evened the score. Then Ehran sort of folds in on himself and disappears.

Harlequin bows and winks at us, then casually lobs his blade towards Zero before pulling the same stunt. There is silence for a moment, then from behind us comes a slow hand clap. I spin, bringing my pistol to bear on the sound. It's the fragging elf woman I spotted as we fled from the house where we were tortured when we were captured a couple of months ago.

I lower the pistol as I have the feeling she can pull the same sort of magic tricks as Harlequin and Ehran. She actually compliments us for getting so far, but warns that the magic that normally protects this place will soon be back online and it would be best if we were not here when that happened. We take her at her word and scram.

Seattle, 15 Jan 2051
I guess the rapier was our payment. It's a genuine antique and worth a bundle. Zero got it appraised by some guy from New York. Cost several grand just to get him to look at it. Of course, without any papers, finding a buyer for it might be a problem.

Today, I got a package from Harlequin. There was a picture of him in some desert bowing towards the camera. A woman that looked like Jane Foster was there too, off to one side talking to someone out of the picture. On the back he had written, 'It's hot as hell where we are. Wish you were here' and signed it 'H'. The package also included a set of keys and the address of a lock-up garage. I got Jamal to give me a ride over in his cab. The garage contained a green car with black stripes on the hood. I recognised it immediately. It is the car that rammed the yaks that were tailing me a while back. It's a classic, no electronics, no grid guide and a growling engine that won't run on anything but real gas. When I drove it back to Seaside's the old man nearly had a heart attack. He tells me it's an 1964 Ford Mustang from before they got fat and slow and when car designers still knew how to build a car with looks. It certainly has that, and a V8 engine that scares the crap out of pedestrians and passengers when you floor the gas.

Billie's Journal - Missouri

Missouri, 1 Jan 2051
The flight to Missouri is quiet and I sleep most of the way. I'm still hurting from where them injuns shot me. While I can shut out the pain, it takes an effort and without any Jack to help numb the world, I can't maintain my concentration. Guess at least I'm not a mean drunk anymore, just plain mean.

We switch planes at the airport, climbing into a small twin engined propellor plane for the next leg of our journey. Guess I missed that part of the mission brief, I thought the mark was in Jefferson City. Seems we get to see the more scenic parts of the state. Yee haw!

Landing at our destination, I trail after Zero to pick up the rental. It's some unidentifiable people carrier, Shiawase maybe or more likely Ford down here in hicksville. The overly friendly clerk directs us to a Fedex box in the trunk then hangs around until Zero tips her a few yen to be on her way. I snap out my wrist blade and after a quick check for any suspicious wires or ticking, open it up. There's a sealed container, containing the fragging flower we just spent three weeks in the fragging Amazon stealing.

The note with it, which is in real flowery handwriting, instructs us to leave the flower at the mark's appartment. I am starting to take a dislike to our current employer. I feel like he has us running around on pointless errands that make not a jot of sense. I could be back in Seattle hunting down yaks to rescue the missing women, rather than running around kidnapping them. This whole deal is starting to leave a sour taste in my mouth and it ain't from drinking too much whiskey.

We pile into the car and head to one of the town's two motels. It's a dump and don't look to have too many guests although the fella running the place still fakes checking the register to see if he has any rooms available. We take a couple of rooms next to each other, me an Zero in one, Finlay and Henry Leon in the other. While Zero checks the matrix link via the trid player, I unpack and put on some more clothes. I had picked up some winter gear in the duty free at the airport, but the car kept pointing out in friendly if slighty chinese accented english that it was minus 15 outside. It sure felt like it and I ain't exactly carrying a lot of extra padding to keep out the cold.

I've just about warmed up when the boys come by and suggest we go get some food and make plans. I guess I am hungry too. The place we end up at is as simple as the food, and it's all soy or krill. I don't particularly care and the soysteak tastes close enough to beef that I ain't complaining. After eating, we decide to take a swing by the mark's appartment to scope it out.

The building is nothing special and Finlay fakes his way in using the tried and tested method of hitting all the buzzers until some fool lets him in. I stay in the car with Henry, who is supposed to be scouting in the astral although he sounds more like he's sleeping on the job.

Zero goes in with Finlay. A few minutes later Finlay's on the comm telling us that it looks like someone beat us to the mark. They found the maglock on the door fried, blood on the carpet and a hidden message scrawled on the bathroom mirror saying to contact some group called the Pretenders for help. I scan around the building but  don't see anyone lurking around so we head back to the motel to do some checking.

Zero decks in and Henry tries to track our target on the astral using a silver lighter Finlay found at her house. A few hours later Henry has struck out but Zero strikes gold. Seems the Pretenders are some local wizzer biker gang that hangs out at some place called the BK Lounge. But before we head out there we are going to need some ordnance. Helm's bossy underling gave us the details of some local dealer and Zero sets up a meet.

His place is about twenty minutes out of town, but it takes us a good thirty in the snow even though the roads have been partly cleared. Some old dude answers the door at the farmstead and when he hears Zero's accents immediately starts babbling at her in French. Seems our gunrunner is a fragging schoolteacher.

He does have a pretty sweet little setup concealed under his barn though, with a fair selection of armaments that you wont find at the local hunting store. I pick up an old Manhunter with an external smartlink and silencer, a light .38 special in a concealed holster, a Defiance taser and a Colt Cobra SMG just in case things get out of hand. We then swing back into town past the local outdoors store where I pick up a nice tan duster that even has frills on the back. I am tempted to try on a stetson, seen a few people around town wearing them, but Zero gives me the look and I put it back down. Sorry Billie, you have to stay dead girl. Instead Zero picks up some makeup, hair dye and a light grey shirt, saying I need to look good to go dancing. Right, me dance. I dont think so.

We go back to the motel, picking up some food on the way and then start getting ready. Zero helps me dye my hair black again covering up the blonde roots that were coming through, then dyes her own hair white. She looks pretty hot, but then she always does. I wear my skinny black jeans with the new grey shirt and Zero surprises me with a similar outfit. Usually she has a lot more flesh on display than me, so whatever happened to her has left more marks than those on her neck.

We can see the twin searchlight on the roof of the BK Lounge long before we arrive at the parking lot. It's busy even for a week night. Guess folks round here are still celebrating the New Year. There's even a line waiting to get in and by the time we do, my teeth are chattering and I swear there's frost on my cyberarm.

Gun control at the door is non-existant and plenty of the patrons seem to be packing. The music is a mix or rock, blues and country and everyone seems to be having a good time. I nurse a non-alcoholic beer while the others try to blend in by joining the locals in line dancing. It's strangely disturbing to see a skinny black fella and a big Scottish ork dancing with underdressed cowgirls, but Henry and Finlay seem to be having a good time. Zero drags me up for one dance but even though I know the moves, I just can't get into it. I retire to our booth and brush off some local who tries to get me back on the dance floor with a girl's best defence: bad time of the month.

At the back of the saloon, people are keeping a respectable distance from a group of Pretenders. Finlay and Henry approach them and I can see plenty of people keeping an eye on developments, but can't tell if they're just interested locals or other 'interested parties'. Whatever line Finlay and Henry try doesn't seem to go down well with the Pretenders. They return to our booth and tell us that the Pretenders told them they have the girl but weren't willing to say any more than that she was safe.

While they were chatting, Zero had hacked into the local phone tower and she manages to intercept and trace a message from one of the Pretenders to an address in town. As we move to leave, Finlay notices a couple paying us just a bit too much attention and snaps a photo of them with his phone. Back in the car he shows us the picture, and as he reverses out of the parking bay I spot them coming out and heading round the side of the building.

Finlay does a slow pass as I screw the silencer onto the old Manhunter. If I can take out their tires, they won't be able to follow us. However, just as I am taking aim, I catch a glint of steel from the driver's window. We've been made. I take a shot at the driver but he's fast and draws his hand back inside.

I yell at Finlay to go, go, go and he floors it. But the ground is still slippy so he can't go too fast without losing control. Plus, there's plenty of yahoos in the car park that he trying to avoid hitting. Mr Fast doesn't seem to care and reverses out of his bay wheels spinning. He's driving and trying to shoot us at the same time. A couple of bursts of SMG fire force me to duck for cover and take out the rear window of our hire car. I return fire, but with the two cars sliding about on the snow and Mr Fast's clearly enhanced reflexes, my shots miss their mark. Zero places a couple of better aimed shots at his headlights, then Finlay fakes him out with the old fog lamp trick while Henry hits him with a spell that leaves them at a dead stop and lets us get away clean.

But plenty of people seen and heard the shooting. It's only a matter of time before it gets back to the Pretenders. Finlay pushes it as fast as he can back into town, only slowing to let a couple of police cruisers pass on their way to the bar.

The location Zero traced down turns out to be  a woman's refuge, which just about makes me want to pack in this whole clusterfrag and go home. But a job is a job. I tuck away the Manhunter and draw the taser. I have no desire to shoot any 'wayward women' or even any of the Pretenders. Sure, they blew off Finlay and Henry, but they were just protecting a friend.

Zero and Henry head round back while I jimmy the lock on the front. The fingers on my left hand are going numb by the time it clicks open. Fortunately, my right hand don't suffer from the cold. We creep down the corridor. There's a trid playing in the sitting room and a couple of women sitting in there. As we get to the door, we hear footsteps coming our way and a woman's voice saying something about feeling a draft. As she rounds the corner, Finlay grabs her and I move in past him. There's a couple of ladies looking at me wide-eyed from the settee, but my main target is the Pretender half asleep in a chair across the room from me.

The heavy darts from the taser hit him square in the chest and he twitches and stops trying to wake up. A second Pretender in the back of the room shakes a woman awake and tells her to run then grunts as Henry hits him with his mojo. The woman runs out the back, where Zero and Henry are hiding, so I put another dart into the staggering Pretender and back out after Finlay.

We circle the block and find Henry and Zero with a dejected looking mark. She didn't put up a fight when she realised they had grabbed her and she don't look like she's gonna try now. We get her into the car and drive off into the night.

We swing past her apartment and drop off the flower, then spend a couple of hours circling the town while waiting for our extraction to arrive. Back at the airport, Helm's bossy assistant is there and takes us to a waiting Learjet. And we're off. Not exactly the smoothest of runs but we did make it in and out in less than twenty four hours and none of us got shot. Hell we even made it out with the gear we bought. So why do I feel so bad?

When we land in Seattle, there's a couple of suits waiting for the girl. I ask one of them if she's going to be okay. He shrugs with that none of my business attitude and tells me he's just a delivery boy. It's times like this I regret giving up the booze.