Fade sat at a table on the sidewalk outside a coffee shop when his commlink rang again, showing the same "Information Suppressed" message. "Fade here."

"Hey, omae. How goes the recon?" he heard 404's voice ask. He had already toned down the distortion and it was much easier for Rob to follow the hacker's words.

"Not bad, I suppose. The guy has a lot of friends and he has to chat with all of them, it seems."

"He does have a big reveal coming up…"

"True enough. The guy is a control freak and a hand talker, which is going to make my job even harder."

"How does him being a hand talker make your job more difficult?"

"His control freak version sees him holding onto his precious glasses constantly. Then he starts talking to people and his hands get going…it's going to make getting those glasses from him tricky," Fade sipped his soykaf and slumped in his seat. "So, what have you learned, 404?"

"I'm uploading the latest blueprint and some interior images to your commlink. Hopefully, it will help you confirm a few things."

Fade saw a data packet emerge over his ARO and when he clicked on it, a three dimensional rendering of the ground floor popped up. He compared it to the map he had composed, containing what he believed would be the changes. He smiled as his estimates proved accurate. They had added more cameras to remove some of the blind spots, put extra alarms on some of the exterior doors and added security to the ventilation system. "This is perfect. Thanks for that."

"As for the IDs, I made a few calls and I have you on the kitchen staff as a waiter. That should allow you to get out on the main floor and fly below radar, while you scope the place out. I'll have a drop point to you later for your ID badge and uniform. It should pass a casual inspection easily enough."

"Hopefully, they won't be conducting in-depth inspections then."

"Don't give em reason to. Go in unarmed if you have to. If you're really paranoid, I can see if I can have a gun put in the building prior to the event."

"If you don't mind… I'm all for doing this covertly, but if the shit does hit the fan, I don't want to be the only one not packing heat."

"All right, I'll see if I can arrange something. As for your guest pass, you are Alfonso Alvarez, a real estate surveyor for Spinrad Industries. You've acquired land on the Mediterranean coast and are looking for architects to develop the area. I don't think this will be the first dealing Jacobs would have had with Spinrad's boys, so you should fit in nicely."

"Any chance you can get me a Spanish Linguasoft? My Spanish is a bit rusty, and I need the accent to be believable."

"Consider it done. Finally, the glasses… I have a guy who can do it, but…"

"But what?" Fade asked after a long pause.

"He knows that our backs are against the wall on this one and he's being an ass about it. He's doubled his prices on me."

"Unfortunately, we don't have time to waste. How good is his work?"

"One of the best forgers I know. Nanoforges, exacting details… even duplicates the serial numbers, if he gets them."

"Then we go for it. How much does he want?"

"Thousand, all in advance."

Fade sharply inhaled. "I hate paying anyone in full up front…"

"As do I, but I don't think he'll budge on that one. He has to pay off an optometrist to do the lenses properly up front on this."

Fade transferred some of the money Judge gave him at the casino to cover the cost. "If this falls through because of this guy, I'd like your associate's name, if you don't mind."

"Not a problem. My rep's on the line, too. Let you know about the final arrangements, once I have the intel."

"Great. I gotta move. Walter's finally done talking, so I might finally get to see what this guy does all day. Call me later."

Fade disconnected and stood up from his table. He picked up his coffee and newspaper, as he subtly followed the architect down the street and into the city.