QF Chapter 1 – The Meet
For once, he was early.
Burn sat by himself in a waiting area, while he waited for the rest of his team and Mr. Johnson to arrive. The wood-paneled walls of the Mercer Island Country Club surrounded him, offering a cozy, rural atmosphere to those who had to kill time in the building. As a result, Burn felt a little out of place.
He had given himself a lot of free time to make sure he got to this meet on time. The Native-controlled Mercer Island was notorious for their border security (despite technically being a part of Seattle) and he was used to being discriminated against for being an ork and for having extensive cybernetic modification, but somehow the guards didn't see a need to quadruple-check his credentials and let him through after a single check. So now he waited.
Being the only visible Caucasian in a building surrounded in a predominantly Sioux building was a little unnerving, but he did his best to hide his discomfort. In an effort to relax, Burn pulled out one of his clove cigarettes and lit the tip, taking a deep drag. Letting the smoke roll off his lips, he sighed, "That's better…"
"I recognize that stink…and the cigarettes too."
Burn turned to see an enormous silhouette standing in the hall. A tusky smirk broke across the ork's face. "Hoi Magnus. Long time, no see."
Magnus strode into the lit area where Burn was waiting. "Hoi yourself, chummer. How's the biz treatin' ya?"
"Lousy. I need to make rent and nothin's been coming my way. My fixer called me up and said, 'This job pays well and could be good for your rep', whatever that means…"
"It means people don't like ya," Magnus goaded. "Making a living out of blowing shit up doesn't put you in many people's good books, ya know?"
"We aren't supposed to be in people's 'good books'. We do the crap no one else will touch, remember? Take a load off and pull up a chair. Loomin' over me like that makes me feel inadequate."
The troll looked around and shrugged. "Don't think there's anything here that'll support me. Don't want broken chairs to come out of my pay…"
"Sure sure, you just like looking imposing is all."
"Is this where we meet Mr. Johnson?"
Magnus and Burn turned to the sound of the new voice. A slender Hispanic woman looked at Burn and Magnus with a certain degree of trepidation.
Great… Burn thought. A green one…
"Sure is, Miss. I go by Magnus and this grumpy guy is Burn."
Magnus offered a hand toward the new arrival and despite the impressive size difference; she didn't hesitate to shake the troll's hand. "They call me Cabras."
"You're from Aztlan, right?" Magnus asked.
"Yes…how'd you guess?"
"You still have a bit of an accent. That and the chupacabra legends originate from that part of the world… that's where your nick comes from, right?"
"I'm impressed," Cabras said with a smirk. "Not many people get the reference."
"Not many people outside the corporate sector get an education," Magnus said. "So, what's your role to play?"
"I'm your magic support for this one," Cabras said.
"Always good to have a mage along for the ride, right Burn?"
Burn simply scowled.
Cabras walked over to Burn and offered her hand. "Not a fan of magic, huh? I'll try not to do anything that offends you, how's that?"
Burn glared at Cabras' hand and back to her face. "You'll forgive me if I don't take an Azzie mage at her word."
"Just because she comes from Aztlan doesn't make her evil, Burn. Jeez, loosen up man."
"Whatever…"
"Well, isn't this a motley crew…"
The team looked at the new arrival as she strode into the waiting room. She carried herself regally, despite the disappointed look on her face as she took in her teammates. Her hair was cut in a conservative style that was practical for her line of work, but would help her blend in to the corporate sector. Her coffee-coloured skin was lightly dusted with make-up, to accent her features in the most flattering way possible.
"You must be the team face," Burn said, stating the obvious.
"You must be the team war-monger," the woman said, with equal sarcasm.
"Actually, that's probably my job," Magnus said with a smile. "Burn here's our ride and back up firepower. This is Cabras, she's our resident magician. I'm Magnus. I'm what most would refer as a 'blunt instrument'."
"Charming…" the woman said. "You can call me Ada. I'll be handling all of the social work and putting a shining face on our dirty profession."
The doors to the inner lounge opened and a Native American in a suit gave the runners a curt nod. "Mr. Johnson will see you now."
Burn stood up and followed his team into the lounge. The wood paneling continued into this room, dotted with bookcases, tanned animal skins and assorted varieties of taxidermy trophies along the wall. Seated at the center table of the vacant lounge was Mr. Johnson, a Native American man in a pressed suit, surrounded in a ring of empty beer glasses.
Ah Christ…This just keeps getting better… Burn thought.
Stifling his concerns, he sat down at the table and decided to hear what the Johnson had to offer.
Despite the amount of alcohol he had consumed, Mr. Johnson was still quite focused. Obviously a champion drinker…
"My boy has gone missing. While not the first time he's gone off, this is the longest period of time since I've heard from him and I know he's been depressed. I need to know where he is and if he's all right."
"That's the job?" Burn asked, with some disbelief. Ada shot him a cold stare and he slouched back in his seat.
"Mr. Johnson, it would aid the search for your son if we knew what might have been the catalyst for his depression. Help us narrow down where he might seek solace," Ada suggested.
"Erm…okay. He was once a respectable mage. A real up-and-comer. Then an accident at a facility he was working at cost him his arm and his magic began to fade with the new cybernetic one they issued him,"
Burn shifted in his seat. This story, save for the magic part, was starting to sound all too familiar.
"The pain killers they had him on, well…he got addicted and his magic faded away even further until he lost it completely,"
Cabras shuddered and whispered, "Burnout…"
"He was never the same," Mr. Johnson said, shaking his head. After vacantly staring at the table for a brief moment, he looked up at the runners once more. "It's been a month since I last heard from him. I can offer you 20,000¥ to track him down…can you help me?"
"Well, this is what I'm looking at Mr. Johnson," Ada began, leaning forward, placing her elbows on the table. "You want us to track down your wayward son and bring him back here, while he has a month's head start on us and could be practically anywhere. There are four of us and a lot of travel could be involved. My exceptionally large colleague here," she said gesturing to Magnus, "alone costs extra. Perhaps your offering could be increased an extra third, with a portion of that as an advance to cover start up expenses?"
Mr. Johnson's eyes went wide in shock that the runners would ask for more, but as Ada's reasoning went through his mind, he realized that she did have a point. They were a month behind.
"I can offer you 25,000¥, with the additional amount up front, but please, you have to realize that this is coming out of my own pocket…"
Ada stood up and scowled. "And you must realize that I am more than familiar with this type of job. Nobody has that kind of money sitting around, unless you are a CEO and you are certainly not a CEO. You are dipping into the company's slush fund and we both know it. So, if you aren't going to play ball with us, then I suppose our business is concluded."
"Twenty eight and not a nuyen more," Mr. Johnson said, meeting the runner's eyes.
Ada refused to smile, but simply nodded and sat back down. "I believe you have yourself a team."
Mr. Johnson breathed a sigh of relief. Reaching into his pocket, Mr. Johnson set an RFID tag onto the table. "This chip has some information that should get you started in your search. My son's SIN profile and a photo of him."
Ada accessed the chip with her commlink and scrolled through the contents. She studied the three-dimensional image of the young man the data identified as Peter Walsh. It showed Peter and Mr. Johnson on the deck of a large boat, each holding an impressive-sized fish. While Mr. Johnson was all smiles in the photo, Peter's enthusiasm was not so evident. His cybernetic left arm was clearly visible and the left side of his face was marred with scar tissue. Judging by his build and the undamaged side of his face, he was once athletic and handsome.
"He's quite the looker," Ada commented. "He must have been a ladies man in school, Mr. Walsh…"
"He had many girlfriends, but no serious relation…" Mr. Johnson paused and realized that Ada had referred to him by his actual name instead of the alias. "Isn't that a breach of protocol, using a real name?"
"Relax, Mr. Johnson," Ada said with a smirk, "I simply wanted to make sure you responded to the name. Wouldn't want to deliver the young man into the hands of a false father…"
"Ah…yes, good," Mr. Johnson said, taking some comfort in the presented moral compass. "Do you require any more information from me?"
"Just our advance and a way to reach you when the job is complete," Ada said.
Mr. Johnson keyed at his commlink for a brief moment before turning his attentions back to the runners. "Your cash and an LTG number have been added to the chip on the table. I will take my leave and let you get down to business."
The Johnson strolled out of the room, leaving the runners alone in the room.
"I need everyone's comm info," Ada stated.
Each runner set their commlinks to an active state, so they could detect each other automatically and subscribed everyone's commlinks together in a minor network.
"I'm wiring everyone their cash and all the info Mr. J gave us," Ada said, has she dragged holograms towards the three wireless links on her display.
"You're a hacker, huh?" Burn asked.
"I've picked up some basic hacking skills, though I wouldn't delve into a corporate system," Ada said. "I have trusted friends that can handle that for me."
"So, where do we start?" Cabras inquired.
"Well, the way I see it, we have this Walsh guy's life in our hands with his SIN profile. We should look up some key data in his life and figure out something from there," Magnus suggested.
"Agreed," said Ada. "Everyone take a chunk of his SIN and dissect it for anything of note."
Each runner sat in silence as they scrolled through the copious amounts of information that was in Peter's SIN.
"Anyone learn anything?" Magnus asked after a couple minutes.
"I learned that I'm glad I'm not in the system…look at all this shit! It has every purchase he's made for the past five years in here…" Burn said, motioning at the fast-scrolling hologram in front of him.
"I've got his home address," Magnus stated. "Turns out this boy's an Ares corper. Was part of security till his accident."
"I went through his licenses. He has scads of magical licenses, but naturally, they've expired," Cabras said. "He does still have active hunting and fishing licenses for the Salish nation, though. Recently renewed…about a month and half ago."
"I've found his commcode and vehicle ID tag," Ada said. "We've got some options. Where would you like to start?"
"Commcodes can be jammed and vehicles parked anywhere…tracing those could lead us on a wild goose chase," Magnus offered.
"There's no guarantee he has been home recently. I'm sure his father would have tried that before forking out nuyen to the likes of us," Cabras stated.
"And there's no way in hell I'm sifting through all this," Burn said.
"All right then," Ada said. "I'll go through his licenses and see if we get a hit."
The face opened a small compartment on the outside of her commlink and pulled out a pair of AR gloves. Setting her commlink down on the table, she brought up a holographic interface that hovered in front of her. Pulling the gloves on, she quickly got to work, navigating the various icons using her hands.
She pushed the local system off to the side to bring up the wider Seattle local telecommunication grid, in the form of the Seattle skyline. She brought up a query box and asked, "Where is the UCAS Government node?"
The hologram paused for moment before numerous icons rose up above the green glowing cityscape. Lightly touching each node, it informed Ada which icons represented which parts of the government. Finding a local licensing bureau, she pressed down on the symbol and the icon expanded to fill her view. Before her was a rendering of a government office. Ada clicked on reception and sat back in her seat.
The office hologram was replaced with the smiling face of a receptionist. "Tacoma Licensing Bureau, how might I assist you today?"
"My name is Emily Proctor and I'm with a private investigations company. We're in search of a wayward son and I was wondering if you could provide us with license access information to aid in our investigation."
"Which company are you with, Ms. Proctor?"
"I'm sending you the information now," Ada said, as she forwarded forged credentials into the receptionist.
"Please wait until I confirm these," the receptionist said before putting her on hold.
"Isn't this a bit risky?" Burn asked.
"The credentials should be ironclad. I haven't used them before," Ada reassured him.
"And if they see through it?" Burn asked.
"Then we need to relocate real fast."
"Ms. Proctor?" the receptionist said, as she came back into view.
"Yes?"
"I am sending you the data you requested. The processing fee for the information is 250¥."
Ada authorized the wireless transfer of cash and a new icon appeared in her holographic display. "Data received. Thank you very much."
"You are quite welcome. Good luck in your search, Ms. Proctor."
Ada collapsed her Matrix session and opened the newly acquired document. "Here we go…his fishing license was accessed about two weeks ago. The access happened in a small town in the Salish Nation called Moses Lake."
"Looks like we're crossing the border," Magnus said. "Travel light ladies and gents. We don't want to attract attention."
"We still have a slight problem. Just because his license was accessed there doesn't mean he's still there. We're still behind him by two weeks," Burn offered.
"I guess we need to go through the purchase history after all," Cabras suggested.
"I am not going through all this…"
"Restrict it to anything within the past two weeks," Ada said, impatiently.
Burn typed in the filter condition and the list began to shrink. "There's still gonna be a ton of…or not."
Everyone looked at Burn's commlink display and saw a mere dozen transactions since accessing his licenses.
"Hmm…he got a hotel room and meals for a few days and nothing since. That doesn't bode well," Magnus said.
"Still, it gives us a place to check. Let's get our gear and meet at the Mercer Island Bridge in three hours. From there we head for Moses Lake, agreed?" Ada asked.
"Agreed," said Magnus.
"I'll be there," Cabras said.
"Sounds like as good a plan as any," Burn said, standing up.
"See you all soon," Ada said.
The team left the country club in shifts to avoid looking suspicious to anyone on the island.