Billie's Journal

Scotland, day seven and eight

The druids 'kindly' let us camp out in the rain near their fort. We spend a damp night in our tents and wake to an equally miserable day. It's windy, rainy and grey, just like it has been every day since we got here.

We break camp and take the first bus back to the village. Fiona mentioned that Quicksilver was planning to follow the ley lines toward Loch Ness, some lake that supposedly has a monster living in it. Hell yeah, since magic came back anything's possible these days.

We pick up food, gas and whiskey before taking the ferry back to the mainland. The landrover is still there and even still in one piece. It takes us pretty much the rest of the day to get from Skye across country to Loch Ness. There's not much there; just a handful of houses and an inn. The innkeeper sets us up in a couple of rooms, boys in one and girls in the other and we rest up till morning.

Scotland, day nine

The innkeeper is a grouchy old geezer, but with this weather who can blame him. He doesn't remember seeing Quicksilver around or at least that's what he claims. He points out the ruins of an old fort further down the lake. He says tourists used to go there to see Nessie, that's what they call the monster in the lake. Apparently the tourists stopped coming when they had some trouble with some paranormal aquatic horse creature that liked to drown and eat its victims. I can understand why the tourist trade dried up.

The druidic ritual obviously took more out Father O'Reilly than he let on and he says he needs to rest up to restore his magic. So we head out without him. Finlay insists on taking the landrover and to my surprise he gets us most of the way to the fort before the trail becomes too difficult. We walk the rest of the way. It's cool and damp but the hike keeps us warm.

The fort is little more than a pile of stones and as we approach a deep voice demands to know what we are doing there. At first there is nothing to see, but then the stones of the fort start to move forming into a vaguely human torso, head and arms at least 30 feet tall.

Alarm gives way to astonishment at this massive spirit and we ask it about Quicksilver. We quickly establish that it knows him, however it claims not to have seen him for a couple of months. When we ask it if he left anything here, it gets a bit coy but finally admits that it does have something of his. But if we want it, we have to give the creature something in return.

I don't quite get what the stone creature is talking about, but it seems like we need to undergo some sort of magic test like the one the druids performed on the padre. It say that it will gain insight into us and that perhaps we will also learn something more about ourselves too. As I don't really know anything about myself, I jump at the chance.

We all lie down on the wet grass and the creature hovers a massive stone hand above us. There is a swirling and then I open my eyes again...

I am still lying on the grass but the sky is blue and the sun warm. I hear a women's voice calling my name except she is calling me Wilhelmina, not Billie. Is that my real name?

I stand and discover I am a young girl again, fourteen, awkward, too tall and skinny and all raging hormones. And two real flesh arms. I pinch my right arm just to be sure. The lady is calling my name again. She is human, around thirty or so. Her hair is sunbleached and her skin a healthy tan. She has my eyes.

"Hurry up" she scolds. "Your dinner is getting cold and we need to leave soon."

I enter the rustic ranch house that feels like home and sit at a familiar place at the table. A man, fit and maybe in his forties, with short cropped hair joins us along with a boy, older than me, that is obviously his son. The boy ruffles my hair as I sit down. I jab at his ribs. He grunts and the lady tells me to stop fighting with my brother. I have a brother? Or is this all a dream?

I push food around my plate. The lady tuts at me and tells me to go and get changed as we need to leave soon...

Out front is a black Ford Americar. My heart goes cold when I see it. Something bad is going to happen. I ask if we really need to go to Seattle but the scene suddenly shifts and we are already in the car...

The boy call out a warning. Something hits us from behind and we are falling. Pain engulfs me...

I hear voices but cannot see who is speaking. A man's voice says, "She's pretty banged up but I'll take her. Here's your money..."

I am whipping another girl. She is strapped naked to the wall. I am wearing little more: just cowboy boots, a very short fringed skirt and a waistcoat that barely covers my breasts. The floor is covered in plastic and the plastic is covered in blood.

"Why did you stop?" asks a man. His face is flushed and he is obviously aroused. "Keep whipping her. You are supposed to do what I tell you."

I raise the whip and he leers more. Anger burns through me and I lash out at him. The whip cuts his face but he just smiles and works a control in his hands. Pain arcs through me.

"You bitch. You'll pay for that. Now do what I tell you."

My body jerks out of my control as I raise the whip and strike the girl again and again. Tears burn my cheeks as I watch helplessly while I flay the skin from her back. In the distance I hear thunder...

The man looks up startled as a door behind me is kicked open and a dark-skinned man wearing a facemask and black combat clothing enters.

"You sick bastard" says the newcomer and there is a roar of gunfire that leaves me half deaf. A row of red flowers blossom across the chest of my tormentor and he jerks back with a look of shock fixed on his dead face.

My arms twitch as I get control of my body back. "Please help us." I croak grabbing at the black clothed figure.

"Sharif, we need to go. Now!" comes a female voice from beyond the door.

With a glance at the other girl, he shrugs. "Come on then, but leave her. She's a goner."

"No!" I cry, pulling at the girl's restraints. "She's still alive." I strip off my waistcoat and wrap it as carefully as I can around her bleeding back. She moans weakly and I glare at Sharif. "See!"

Sharif picks up the girl and with me clinging to his arm we flee from the room along dark corridors. We seem to run for hours and my lungs are burning. Then as we turn yet another corner there is a guard. Flames erupt from his gun. Sherrif twists, his armor protecting him and the unconscious girl. I try to throw myself aside but bullets rip into my right arm spinning me around...

I am in a hospital bed. I can't see but can feel tubes going into my skin. I can't feel my right arm. I hear Sharif's voice saying, "What you've taken out is more than enough to cover what you need to do to fix her up. So do it."

He comes to visit me every day as they rebuild me. New arm, eyes plus a few extras like the smartlink and the blade. "Just in case you ever need them" he says with a wink...

The pistol is beautiful, a Cavalier Deputy with internal smartlink II and a pearl handle. I kiss Sharif, my Sheriff on the cheek...

Cold rain splashes on my face. I jerk upright. Tears burn my eyes. I remember. My god, I remember who I am. Not all, but I know it was real.

The others are also sitting up too. Chad is patting at his chest and arms as if he was on fire. Zero is also crying, mumbling something about killing her boyfriend. Only Finlay seems unaffected by the experience. He moves to help Zero to her feet then comes towards me. I still hurt too much so I pop my blade and warn him off. He backs off and I retract the blade, tears still streaming down my cheeks.

I turn to the spirit. "Is it true?" I demand.

I feel a great compassion wash over me that soothes my soul a little. "It may be what was or what is yet to come, or a chance to set right a wrong. It is always different. But you have given of yourselves and now I give this to you. My friend left it here in my safekeeping but I feel you are the right ones to have it now."

It holds out a hand made of granite blocks. In it is a tiny package, wrapped carefully in bubble wrap. I take it carefully and open it. It is a second chip, similar to the one Fiona gave us.

We return to the inn in silence. Zero calls Amelia and the woman admits she has Quicksilver's cyberdeck. She will bring it to the inn tomorrow. A few whiskeys help me to sleep.

Scotland, day ten

We all rise late, rested but drained. I soak for a long time in the bath and scrub myself clean of the previous day's memories. But I hold on to them dearly. My cowboy clothes feel uncomfortable as I dress now that I know something of my past. But still, this is who I am now.

Finlay, worried that someone might be out looking for us, spent the night in the landrover. The innkeeper finds him still there, fast asleep while collecting fresh eggs for breakfast. Real eggs and real bacon and hot coffee. Food and caffeine make me feel better, if still a little fragile. I apologise to Finlay for drawing my blade on him. He's one of the good guys.

That evening, Finlay, Chad and myself spend several hours hiding in the gorse around the village until finally, late in the evening, a lone car approaches. We wait several minutes to see if she has been followed then join Amelia, Father O'Reilly and Zero back at the inn.

Amelia has Quicksilver's deck. It looks pretty flash and when Zero opens it, all the circuitry inside is the same as the strange chips. We retire to the room I share with Zero and after connecting her deck to Quicksilver's and inserting the two chips that we have, she jacks in. At first everything is smooth, but then she starts twitching and blood runs from her nose. Finlay is ready to pull her jack, dumping her out of the system but she relaxes and then after a few moments sits up, unjacking herself.

She says that she saw Quicksilver again, then that she felt like she was Quicksilver. She remembers shooting someone, possibly her dead boyfriend again and then running. She saw a woman called Mary Macdonald getting killed. She claims to love her or that Quicksilver loved her. Amelia recognises the name, claiming to have seen something about her in the newscasts.

Somewhat recovered, Zero scans the matrix and finds an obituary for the Macdonald woman. The newsfeeds claim that is was the result of a long-standing clan feud with the Campbells. They also mention an Ian MacDonald, a clan elder and senior director of Transys, the company that Quicksilver was working for.

Looks like Glencoe is our next destination, even though Finlay and Chad are keen to just sell off the deck even missing a couple of chips and go back home. Zero wants to hang onto the deck but finally we persuade her to give it back to Amelia for safekeeping. I need to see this through. The spirit of the glen gave me back some of my lost memories. I feel I owe it to Quicksilver to at least find out what happened to him.

Up in the air

Finally thought I had found a movie that both me and the missus would enjoy. Looked quite humourous from the trailer. Unfortunately the trailer was just about the whole movie.

The ten minute long title sequence at the start was the first warning. There are a couple of funny moments and some eye candy - George Clooney for the ladies and Vera Farmiga for the blokes. And while it's well-acted on the whole, just about nothing happens for the entire duration of the movie. It's so boring that one of my friends actually walked out.

Really disappointed. 1 out of 5

Billie's Journal

Scotland, day three (continued)

We decide to pay Amelia another visit at the University and catch up with her as she leaves her last class. When confronted with Zero's story she finally admits that she does know Quicksilver and is concerned about his disappearance. She fills us in on what she knows but it's not a lot more than we already knew.

Apparently Quicksilver was quite the ladies' man and Amelia believes that he was going to see his lover. And while she claims that her relationship with the man was purely platonic, I'm not so sure.

So it looks like it's back to Hamish's bar again. Maybe the elf girl is the lover in question and can tell us where he is. I don't get my hopes up and am not looking forward to running into Duncan again.

Finlay suggests stopping for indian food before going to the bar. That suits me just fine. I have eaten well in Salish territory and hope they have buffalo steaks here too. Well, it turns out these scottish injuns like to put a lot of spices in their food, a little fact that Finlay forgot to mention when he suggested the place.

As a result, I'm feeling a little queasy when we get to Hamish's but at least Duncan isn't already there. The elf girl turns up shortly after we settle in and Zero heads off to chat with her. Or should I say chat her up. Half the bar is ogling the pair of them as a smouldering Zero lays on the charm. Unfortunately it's about this time that the octopus makes his entrance and plants a wet kiss on my cheek before I can react.

I try to keep him talking rather than pawing. He wants to take me clubbing and hints he can get some drugs so we can have a 'real good time'. Yuck. I try to ask him about getting other items, hoping he at least knows a real fixer, but he doesn't get the hint and thinks I'm asking about more 'exotic' clubs. The thought of it turns my stomach, which does not agree with the indian food. For a moment I think I am going to sick up and then the room starts spinning.

KILL KILL KILL

I fight back an overwhelming urge to pop my handblade and jam it up under Duncan's ribs. My cyberarm is twitching and I feel the nails of my left hand digging into my palm as I fight for control. Cold sweat drips down my neck and I catch a glimpse of my pale, frightended face in the mirror behind the bar.

"Are you alright there girly," asks a concerned Hamish.

I mutter, "Think I ate something that didn't agree with me" as I pull myself away from Duncan and stumble towards the ladies. I splash cold water on my face and take deep ragged breaths to try and calm my thudding heart. What the hell is going on. Why did I react like that. Maybe I really am crazy and belong in an institution.

Zero slips into the ladies a few moments later to find me clutching a sink and staring at my shivering reflection. "Billie, cherie, are you well?"

KILL KILL KILL

NO! A red mist clears from my vision. Zero is backed up against the door, her eyes wide, her red lips a perfect 0. My right arm is high, elbow drawn back, fist at eye level, hand blade glittering in the flourescent lights. Time draws out as I exert all my willpower to lower it and retract the blade.

Spent, I collapse to the floor weeping. I see Zero frantically signalling to the rest of the team. Then the padre is helping me up as I cling to his arm to keep from falling apart. He takes me back to the hotel and helps me into bed. I sleep.

Scotland, day four

I wake early to Finlay pounding on my door.

"Get ready, we got a meet in an hour. Seems your boyfriend did know a few people after all." I glare after him with puffy eyes as he moves down the corridor waking the rest of the team. Zero turns up just as we finish breakfast, all smiles and tousled hair.

We drive the rental car to a bad part of town and we walk through a muddy unkempt park to the rusted remains of a children's play area. A broad troll with an even broader accent take a wad of cash from Finlay and counts it out slowly. Then he pulls out two large duffel bags and hands them over.

Back in car, we check through the gear. There are three large armor jackets, too big for me or Zero but they should fit the guys, and two long coats. There are also some guns: an smg and a few pistols. One of the pistols is nice 375 magnum revolver, which I take and tuck into my belt.

I am feeling somewhat better now that I am packing, when Finlay gets a call. My stomach sinks as he puts it on speaker. It's our Johnson, Alistair McCameron.

"Please come over to my apartment right away. My access to the company matrix has been blocked and I think I'm being watched. Please, hurry!"

Finlay steps on it, pushing the local speed limits. He pulls up around the corner from the apartment as I finish pulling on one of the long coats. "I'll take a look", I say as I climb out and squash my hat on against the rain.

"Be discreet," he hisses after me.

The street is quiet and I can see nothing out of the ordinary. Taking shelter in a nearby bus stop, I call the team.

"Looks quiet. Don't seem to be anyone watching the place."

"Stay put and cover us" replies Finlay. "Me and Father O'Reilly are gonna take a look."

They hurry through the rain and huddle at the door for a minute. Then suddenly, Finlay steps back, kicks in the door and they disappear inside.

"We're in" reports Finlay moments later. "Shit! Not good. Cameron is dead and it looks like it was magic. We're gonna see if we can find anything."

As he cuts off, I hear sirens wailing faintly in the distance.

"Cavalry coming. Get out now."

We rendezvous back at the car and take a circuitous route back to the hotel in case we are being followed. Our Johnson is dead, the job a bust. Or at least that's how it looks to me until Zero announces that in addition to getting a piece of tail, she also got some information.

Seems that the elf girl, Finquella, was dumped by Quicksilver for a druid by the name of Fiona. This druid lives on an island off the west coast called Skye.

"Yeah, but with our J dead, shouldn't we just cut our losses and head back to Seattle?" I ask.

"That's one option" replies Finlay. "But if this Quicksilver really is such a wiz programmer, saving his ass could net us a nice payoff. And besides, we're gonna be stuck here for a while until we can find a way home. We might as well talk to this druid."

"Damned heretics" mutters the padre.

Getting to Skye means leaving the Scotsprawl and that means no roads. So Finlay trades in our rental for a Landrover while I pick up some camping gear. According to Finlay, the highlands of Scotland are a bit wild these days. Father O'Reilly adds that the 'heretical' druids have reintroduced wolves and grizzlies and that there are even paranimals like piasmas and selkies. Makes me glad I've got a gun.

We leave directly, but it still takes more than a day to cross the country to Skye. The roads are all overgrown, little more than muddy trails and with almost no traffic. The only other vehicles we see are a police patrol made up of four combat bikes and two armored landrovers, one sporting a MMG on a pintle mount. Fortunately, they seem to be in a hurry and don't pull us over.

I feel strangely calm out here in the countryside. Not so Zero, who gets freaked out by patchy matrix access. Chad just spends most of the journey staring out the window in wide-eyed astonishment.

Scotland, day six

We take a ferry to Skye, leaving our landrover in the car park on the mainland. Apparently the druids don't let cars onto the island. While managing to insult both Zero and Finlay, elves, orks and americans, a rather rude barman in the small port village informs us that there is a bus to the castle every two hours to see the druidic ceremony.

We take the bus along with a bunch of other tourists up to the castle. After standing in the rain for half an hour, a procession of druids comes slowly down from the castle towards a small circle of standing stones. A rather damp Finlay grumbles "Fuck this" and strides up to meet them.

There follows a short whispered discussion which at times looks like it might turn nasty, then Finlay stomps back to join us. The druids go through the ceremony, which the padre says is a sham, although he does warn us that they are all magically active. Then they plod back up the hill and into the castle. The bus takes the rest of the tourists back to the village leaving us standing in the rain.

Just as Finlay is getting ready to lay siege to the place, several druids appear and walk more purposefully to meet us. Among them is a pretty young woman.

"I am Fiona MacCallan. What is it you want with me."

Finlay explains as the woman listens to our tale.

"Quicksilver was here, but he is here no longer. He did leave something with us. But if you wish to have it you must prove yourselves to us. While you could do it" she says to Finlay, she then turns and points to the padre. "He would be more suited to the challenge."

"Dear Lord" intones father O'Reilly. "If it will deliver me from this highland mist, then I will gladly do it."

"Then return tonight before midnight and we will see if you are worthy."

We take the next bus back to the village, find a place to stay and some stew and whisky to warm us, then walk back to the castle in the dark.

Five druids are gathered at the stones, including Fiona. She asks the padre to take off his shirt and then uses her fingers to paint mystical symbols on his arms and chest. I have seen similar symbols used by indian medicine men.

The druids begin chanting and lightning lights up the sky. Father O'Reilly stands in the rain. Initially he seems fine, but slowly a pressure seems to build around him. He gasps but stands firm. The symbols begin to glow, soon so bright I cannot look at him directly even with the flare compensation in my eyes. He seems to be in pain and I would swear I can smell burning flesh. I make to step forward, but Finlay lays a big hand on my shoulder.

"Wait."

The ceremony comes to a crescendo and suddenly all is dark. My eyes adjust fast and I breath a sigh of relief as I see the druids helping father O'Reilly to his feet. Now, finally they invite us into the castle to dry off.

Fiona explains that Quicksilver was very interested in magic, especially theories and rituals about reincarnation. More interestingly she gives the padre a box. Inside is some sort of computer chip, but one unlike anything I have ever seen. Fiona says that it supposedly contains Quicksilver's emotions. I don't understand what she means by that but Zero's eyes go wide.

Avatar 3D

Dear god, my eyes!

Well it was even more visually stunning in 3D than in 2D. Well, for eveyone except my brother. But that's more down to the fact that he's pretty much blind in one eye.

And speaking of blind, I now have a 3D hangover and hope that my eyes return to normal within the next week or so.

In summary: 3D is great, but painful.

Avatar

I just saw it, admittedly only in 2D, but was totally blown away by the special effects. Got to give credit to Mr Cameron, he raised the bar with this. I will probably try to see it again in 3D just to get the full effect.

He certainly packed a lot into two and a half hours and I sure enjoyed it. BUT.

Yeah, you knew that was coming. Well, for a start the humans were just a little one sided for me. Either too goody, goody or just plain bad. Meh, maybe their personality quirks ended up on the cutting room floor but it was just a little too black and white, which is quite an achievement considering the glorious colours of the forest at night.

Also, there were just a few too many cliches:

- the nasty corp (Aliens - although I guess this one could have been deliberate. If so, kudos to you Mr Cameron)
- the whole indians versus cowboys, err aliens vs marines (I've heard it called Dances with wolves with a happy ending)
- the cavalry charge (Polish lancers vs Panzers, Charge of the light brigade). Even I know not to charge machine guns, meh.

Maybe all these things were fresh and great ideas when he wrote it, but they were just a little jaded for 2010. Or maybe that's just me.

I'll give it 4 stars out of 5 as I believe it really needs to be seen on the big screen and ideally in 3D (I'll let you know if I do go back). But those little niggles kept it from getting that extra star.

Rant: iTunes vouchers

First of all a big thanks to Apple for giving me the subject of my first rant. Added points for giving me something to blog about this week. Now on to the rant itself.

I bought an iTunes voucher for my son-in-law for Christmas. Good idea I hear you all say. However, I live in Belgium (as you may have noticed) and my son-in-law lives in the UK. Oh dear!

Now I understand that iTunes have probably had to bend over and take one from behind from the entertainment industry just to be able to sell stuff online. So I can accept that they have to split there service into different regions. But surely they can work out how to do a simple currency conversion.

Not so apparently. My Belgium iTunes voucher cannot be redeemed on a UK account. It's just money Apple. Don't you want my money? Well I guess you got it anyway.

It's not like my son-in-law is trying to watch or listen to any Belgian only content, not that there is anything worth downloading from the Belgium store anyway. So my dear wife gets an extra xmas present and I have to go out in the rain and cold to get some real cash money to give my to son-in-law instead of the voucher.

So Apple, sort this out. I will certainly not be buying anymore vouchers and in fact will not be spending any more money in the iTunes store until you fix this. Mind you, I guess you don't particularly care about us Europeans and are happy to keep screwing us over with content restrictions and higher prices as long as we are daft enough to keep paying.

Billie's Journal

Our last run and my first official one was a success but messy. We had been hired to take out a bunch of humans that were pretending to be elves and killing other elves that weren’t elfish enough. Man, these dudes made me feel totally well-adjusted. As an elf myself, I wasn’t too happy about there little killing spree, and I sure as hell wasn’t going to have some breeder with fake ears tell me how to act or dress.

I don’t particularly like wetwork and we ended up having to kill a lot more of them than we planned. Grenades also make a real mess out of a person. So I needed some downtime to work through it all and headed out to Salish territory for a couple of days before our next run.

Why am I drawn there? I am sure I will find the answer one day and maybe even remember who I was before Sheriff freed me from the institution. But this time all I found was trouble. I was having a quiet drink in a two-bit watering hole when some loud-mouthed brave makes a comment in Salish about elves and cowboys. I don’t know a lot of Salish but enough to understand what he was saying and make a few choice comments about his mother that he didn’t take right well.

The resulting brawl went from bad to worse when big mouth pulled a blade and I popped mine. I woke up the next morning in the local jail with a headache, a hangover and a new scar. They held me for a couple of days until the next tribal council meeting. Big mouth turned out to be a local troublemaker so they went easy on me, just a fine and an escort to the border. The local ranger advised me to sort out the irregularities with my ID, like it listing my full name as William H. Bonney, before visiting Salish territory again.

I get back into town to find things with had moved quickly with Seaside. Seems like the Humanis gangers had paid him a visit earlier than planned, while I was still sitting in a Salish holding cell. Martha had found another stray, a physad called Chad, to stand in for me. Chad comes from the barrens and seems to have been brought up without any sort of formal education. He likes bananas.

Fortunately the rest of the team managed to rescue Seaside, although it sounds like it was a close call. Now Zero has been contacted by a fixer called Albrecht for a new job. Albrecht is something of a celebrity in the shadows and if we pull this off, we could be in the big time. However it means going to Scotland, which is an island off Europe and not in Germany. At least that’s what Finlay tells me.

Bad news is we need to give Albrecht our biometrics. He insists it’s only to get us fake passports, but I still don’t like it. Strangely, he doesn’t ask me about my cyberware. What’s worse is that we can’t take any hardware with us and it will be hard to get anything over there. Gun laws are pretty tight according to Finlay. Albrecht tells us we shouldn’t need them but I don’t really believe that.

Zero got the fake IDs today and we leave tomorrow. Apparently I am supposed to be her secretary. Passport says my cyberware is from a car accident. That bothers me for some reason, but my mind won’t give me a clue as to why. We go shopping to get me something appropriate to wear. I am not looking forward to having to wear a skirt. I put my boots and more sensible clothes into Chad’s luggage so at least I will have something to wear when we get there.

Our IDs work smoothly and the sub-orbital trip is short, landing in Edinburgh just a couple of hours after we take-off. However, it then takes another couple of hours to clear customs, although only the padre has any real trouble with the local customs officers.

Scotland, day one

We are picked up by a big hairy scot and taken to the hotel. Pretty swish place. Then it’s off to see the Johnson, Alistair McSomething. All these scots dudes are called McThis or MacThat. Seems his boss is missing and he wants us to find him. He thinks some people in his corp are sabotaging the search so has hired us to look for him. Unfortunately he doesn’t have a lot for us to go on. Our leads amount to a local saloon where he used to hang out and a possible lady friend at the University.

We decide to start at the saloon. It’s called Hamish’s and the two troll bouncers set the tone. It’s a bit rough, with real sawdust on the floor and a pretty mixed clientele. I like it. We settle in and order drinks. A couple of whiskeys later, the most garishly dressed dude I’ve ever set my eyes on comes into the bar. His purple shirt is open to the waist revealing a celtic medallion and a pasty white hairless chest. He wears pink and green pants. Finlay says it’s his clan colours. What, the gay clan?

Finlay and the padre decide to play a game called darts and when the padre makes some comment about the dude’s pants, the rest of us decide we need to act quickly. I for one don’t want to get into another barroom brawl. Not sure which way this guy leans, Chad is out if he’s straight and Zero if he’s not, so I get volunteered to try and chat him up. I should be offended but instead I head over with a pint and a whiskey and introduce myself.

It works, unfortunately. The guy, Duncan Crawford by name, is like an octopus. His hands are all over me in the first five minutes. I resist the urge to kill him. At least till I get some information out of him.

He claims to be a regular at the place. He remembers the elf but is more interesting in pawing me than chatting. I eventually manage to wriggle out of his grasp claiming I need to get back to the hotel with my ‘friends’ and we leave. Yuck.

Scotland, day two

Zero does her matrix thing and comes up with a name for the lady at the University, Amelia Richardson. She tries to make an appointment to see her but that doesn’t pan out, so we decide to pay a visit. She teaches magic and head shrinking, I think. It’s all way over my head. We cut her off at the pass at the end of her class. She’s nervous but denies knowing our target. She does take Finlay’s card though.

After an excellent steak at the hotel, we return to Hamish’s. Fortunately Duncan is not there. Well not at first. The big galoot ambushes me with a sloppy kiss and joins our table. Finlay and the padre decide to play some more darts while Zero and Chad proceed to get hammered. I do my best to keep up while fending off the octopus.

I ask him about his line of work. He is evasive but it’s clear he’s some sort of fixer. Maybe he can get me a gun so I can shoot him. I ask him again about the guy we are looking for and he points out a young elf girl sitting at another table. I tell him I need to go to the ladies and haul Zero along with me. I tell her about the girl and she says she will try to snap a picture of her. We are both pretty drunk and might not remember what she looks like in the morning.

When we come back out the padre has passed out and Chad is not far behind him. The booze is getting to Zero too and she starts blubbing about dead boyfriends. Not good. Finlay, the only sober one left decides it time for us to go back to the hotel and gets us out of there quick. I take a shower and pass out.

Scotland, day three

Ugh, hangover. The padre looks in worse shape, only showing up at midday, while Chad seems unaffected. Bastard. Zero goes off with Alistair to check out the corp’s matrix for clues to our missing target while the rest of us recover.

I spend some time sparring with Finlay to work Duncan out of my system. Then I go shopping with Chad. He asks me to buy him a set of kitchen knives. I don’t ask why.

Zero comes back in the late afternoon. She claims to have seen a ghost in the machine. The ghost of our target and it was asking for Amelia, the magic lady. Good, maybe this means I don’t have to be nice to Duncan any more.