Run 03 : Burning Bridges (based on the mission written by Mark Edwards; updated 2014/06/24)

After almost a week Skyler had started to wonder if NYPD Inc. had cut them off or not.

The afternoon of May 12th gave him his answer. Skyler was going through all of their handguns, cleaning and performing other maintenance while having an ARO to WWOR and a Manhattan Yankees game open. Between innings a news clip about Robert Breham was played, reporting that he was arrested on numerous counts of murder, conspiracy to commit murder, and more. It was also said that NYPD Inc. had acted on a tipoff from an anonymous person.

It looked like their arrangement with NYPD Inc. was still on.

Her mood a little better, Mina had spent the last week setting up her mana lodge. What she did tell him was that it would ward their living space in the brownstone, which was the entirety of their bathroom, two walk-in closets, as well as the little extras that extended from the actual bedroom.

With the various things that Mina had for her lodge now decorating their room, it was starting to look more like home. Granted they were sharing the brownstone with two others, Athena with her own bedroom on the top floor with them, and Roadblock with his own bedroom next to the garage on the ground floor, but it was their own space.

Later that evening Athena did knock on their door. "You two decent?" she asked.

"Yeah." grunted Skyler as he and Mina sat up on their bed, pausing the recorded trideo program they were watching. She stayed behind while he rolled off of it to walk to their bedroom door. He unlocked it, not like it would have kept Athena out if she really wanted in, and cracked open the door.

"What is it?" Skyler asked.

"Just got a call from Peace Man. We've got an appointment for lunch at noon tomorrow down in Brooklyn. Place's called Inara Indian Restaurant." Athena said.

"Not like we got any special plans, anyway." Skyler told her.

"Well, we do now." Athena said, "And Peace Man said to pack light. We'll be able to get what we need later."

"Fine, we'll be ready." Skyler told her. He closed and locked the door when she turned to head downstairs.

"What was that all about?" asked Mina as Skyler walked back around their bed.

"Just another job." Skyler said, sitting back down next to her.

They said little more as they went back to watching their trid program. Skyler did some online research on the restaurant while the program played.

It was at about sunset when their black cat came scratching at the door to their porch. Skyler had named him Luther. While Skyler and Mina lay like a pair of spoons in bed, Luther would curl up next to Mina. The cat seemed to have a soothing effect on her, as one night Luther did not sleep at her side was a night filled with nightmares for her.

For their working lunch date that Saturday, packing light for Skyler meant his usual packing of handguns, though he left his sword at home. Though reluctant to come in the first place, Mina was also discretely carrying her Sakura Fubuki, leaving her Cougar Fineblade at home.

Inara Indian Restaurant was in the 400 block of 5th Avenue in Brooklyn, putting it at a bit of an inconvenient spot between the 4th and 7th Avenue metro stations. Skyler's online research about the place and neighborhood turned up the restaurant to be a kind of "locals only" place, and that a local street gang called the Bastard Saints used the place. Though not really easily intimidated by gangs of any type, Skyler did not want to be caught wanting a heavy handgun in case the shit hit the fan.

Walking from the metro to the restaurant was not all that difficult. Nocturne had a knack of unnerving people by his very presence, and he did not even try. Minotaurs, on the other hand, were well known enough by reputation to keep gang members at bay.

If Skyler had not done any research about the Bastard Saints before their lunch date, he would have thought that priests of various metatypes and denominations frequented the restaurant. Seeing obscenities scrawled across their robes was more than enough to shatter that illusion.

"Welcome! Welcome!" cried an Indian dwarf as the five of them came in through the door. "Can I get you anything?"

"We're here to meet with someone." Athena said.

"Ah, yes." the dwarf said, sounding a bit dejected. "This way."

The place smelled of the stale spices of Indian food. They were taken back to the kitchen, and through it to another room that had no door. Only a piece of cloth separated this back room from the kitchen.

To Skyler this was a lot like the smuggler bar Five-By-Five back in Denver, which was a much smaller room directly connected to the kitchen with a curtain for a door. The difference here was that this room was larger, with enough room for everyone if everyone happened to be a troll. There were several chairs surrounding a table, and some of those chairs were more than adequate to support a troll.

Only one other person was there, a large, middle aged human, sitting hunched over with his head in his hands. When he saw them he suddenly sat up, but it was still clear from his wrinkled clothing and disheveled hair and baggy eyes that he had not slept well over the last few days.

"Mr. Johnson?" Athena asked as she sat down first.

"Karl… er, yeah, Mr. Johnson." he said.

"Peace Man said you wanted to talk to someone about work?" Athena asked as everyone else grabbed a chair to sit down. "Well, here we are."

"Yeah." he said, "I need a big score for my construction business."

"Not like we need any kind of home remodeling." Nocturne said.

"KG Construction isn't that kind of a business." the man said. "We do… bigger things."

Skyler created an ARO to do a data search on KG Construction.

Athena cleared her throat.

"Oh, right."

"So, Mr. Johnson, just what exactly are you looking for us to do?" Athena asked.

"Right." Mr. Johnson said, fiddling with his commlink.

Skyler received a transfer of three thousand nuyen.

"I want you to destroy the Brooklyn Bridge." Mr. Johnson told them.

"You want us to what?" asked Nocturne.

"Blow up a bridge." Mr. Johnson repeated. "How comfortable are you with explosives and demolitions?"

"No! No! No!" Mina cried, kicking over her chair as she stood. Before Skyler could try and stop her she was out of the room, and with their private chat disconnected too.

"I've got her." Athena said, standing up, "Cypher, take over."

"Him?" Nocturne asked.

"You heard me." she said as she followed Mina.

"What's wrong with the girl?" Mr. Johnson asked.

"You don't want to know." Skyler said. "So, demolitions." he said.

Roadblock shook his head.

"Never had to learn. I'm more about sneaking around than blowing shit up." Nocturne said.

"Shit, am I gonna have to do everything this time?" Skyler asked.

"Hardly." Nocturne answered.

"So you already know something about demolitions?" Mr. Johnson asked. He sounded skeptical, and maybe now he realized he was talking to someone that looked like a kid.

Skyler saved his research on KG Construction, pushing it aside with a thought as he said, "Not a damn clue without a skillsoft."

"You're also wired?" Mr. Johnson asked.

"You could say that." Skyler replied. Truth was he needed a skillsoft to thread a copy to use himself. "Relax, even if they don't got it I've got the software."

"Good, because I'm concerned because of how much explosives will be needed. It's nothing like firecrackers, either." Mr. Johnson said. "If things don't work out, my excuse about losing them won't work with NYPD Inc. a second time."

"Second time?" Nocturne asked.

"Later." Mr. Johnson said, bringing up an ARO map of the bridge. "Blowing up one of the support caissons would be best. It'll take out the main span and that section to the road as well."

"Looks like you marked the cables at the middle, too." Skyler said.

"That's another option." Mr. Johnson said. "Won't do as much damage to the bridge, but it'll still bring it down."

"So you want us to blow up a caisson or the cables." Nocturne said.

Skyler copied the ARO and saved it to the commlink at his arm.

"Yes, and you can use the explosives at my company." Mr. Johnson said.

"KG Construction." Skyler said.

The ARO of the Brooklyn Bridge was replaced with another that was the floor plan of KG Construction. There were notes on security measures, such as locks and locations of panic buttons. One room in particular was marked in red as "Explosives Storage."

"Once you've got the explosives you can place them whenever is convenient for you. But not until after the next business day."

"Why's that?" asked Nocturne.

"He needs an alibi." Skyler said, "Gotta have a chance to discover the stuff's stolen and report it to NYPD so he's got an excuse why it's missing."

"Right." Nocturne said, nodding his head up and down a little.

"I'm not there Sundays, either." Mr. Johnson said, "So you'll have to wait an extra day."

"But we can use that extra day," Skyler said.

Mina and Athena came back in. Mina looked like she had received the scolding of a lifetime as she kept her gaze to the floor.

"How're we doing?" asked Athena as she reclaimed her chair.

"We've got the details of the job already." Nocturne said, "I think we've just gotta discuss our fee."

"Yes." Mr. Johnson said, "I'll pay you each seven thousand nuyen for the job."

"So it'll be ten thousand total with the retainer you've paid us." Nocturne said.

Skyler shook his head. "If you want all of us it's gonna take a lot more than just that." he said.

"What do you mean by 'all of us'?" Mr. Johnson asked.

Athena shot Skyler an inquisitive look.

"Well, some of us have had, well, let's say bad experiences with doing demo work in the past." Skyler said, "That three grand will do to forget we were even here, but if you want our help it's gonna cost ya." He looked over to Mina before saying, "Thirty-five thousand nuyen."

Surprised, Mina looked up just enough to look at Skyler.

Skyler felt it would take a lot more than a good wad of money to get Mina in on this job. If they were not careful it could mean it was wetwork as well as destruction of city property, and more. He still remembered the promise he made with her: Never again would they accept a wetwork job.

"Holy fuck!" cussed Nocturne.

Mr. Johnson sputtered. "Thirty… five… thousand?" He seemed very desperate, even with the shock at being asked for so much money.

"Shit." Athena said softly.

Once Mr. Johnson managed to regain some composure, he asked, "Just what makes you think you're so qualified to be asking for so much?"

Skyler glanced around at the others. They all seemed quite interested in what he might say.

Resting his elbows on the table, leaning forward and bringing his hands together like a criminal mastermind, Skyler said, "Because we could hit your biz tonight, and even if you had the best matrix security ever there'd be no digital evidence that there was ever a break in until someone actually walked into that storeroom and noticed stuff was gone. And it'll be the same when we hit the target."

Mr. Johnson swallowed.

"Seriously, he's that good." Athena said.

Roadblock nodded vigorously. Skyler was not sure how the minotaur would know, beyond whatever they may have spoken about in the past.

"But I'm still concerned about…" Mr. Johnson started to say.

"Boy's not the only one who can chip a skillsoft." Nocturne said, "As long as it wasn't personalized for him we can use whatever skillsofts he's got."

Roadblock nodded again.

"Thirty-five's a bit much." Mr. Johnson said.

"And that's not counting the three thousand you've given us already." Skyler added. "Look, if it's too much, how 'bout thirty thousand instead?"

Mr. Johnson seemed to get the idea that the fee was negotiable. "Fifteen thousand, with an extra six thousand if you take out a caisson."

Skyler looked over to Mina, but she did not look up from the floor.

"What about collateral damage?" Athena asked.

Mr. Johnson looked down. "I knew going in that people might die. I don't want… It… It doesn't matter, the bridge must fall."

"So it'll be okay if we do what we can to limit casualties," Athena said. "just as long as the bridge comes down."

Mr. Johnson nodded.

Mina glanced over to Skyler, just barely nodding.

"Alright, fifteen with the bonus six for a caisson." Skyler said.

"Right, so when can you begin?" Mr. Johnson asked.

"We already have." Athena answered as Skyler and the others stood. "Best you don't know when we do anything."

Something felt different to Skyler just outside of the restaurant as Athena and Mr. Johnson spoke.

"Is this normal?" Mr. Johnson asked.

"The less you know…" Athena said.

"We gotta go, now!" Skyler butted in. He grabbed Mina's hand as he went for the door. He had it figured what felt different, an increase in WiFi activity outside. And on top of that the signals were heavily encrypted.

"What is it?" asked Athena.

"Raid!"

"Shit."

Several officers of NYPD Inc. were rushing into the restaurant. Three were quick to gang up on one member of the Bastard Saints by tackling him, the gang member screaming out in pain as two of them jammed their knees into his sides.

"Just break for it. Meet up at home." Athena said.

With a thought Skyler's commlinks were off as he and Mina tried slipping along the walls.

"You two, halt!" an officer yelled.

The typical citizen that had done nothing wrong would have done as the officer said. The innocent citizen who is scared shitless, and likely anyone guilty, would run instead. With a hard grip on her hand, Skyler opted to run.

The officer tried to intercept them, and just as he got in the way he received Skyler's knee to the crotch. For a moment it looked like he had not even seen the attack coming. Not putting much thought into it, Skyler and Mina ran.

Getting out had turned out to be easy, but crossing Fifth Avenue was almost fatal as a sedan did not even slow down for them as they crossed. A block down Twelfth Street and another up Fourth Skyler figured they were not being followed. He had lost their network at the restaurant from the noise of closer wireless devices, so he had no idea what was happening there.

In an alley between two buildings between Tenth and Eleventh streets they stopped to catch their breaths.

"Do we have to go home now?" Mina asked, speaking up for the first time in a while.

"Why?" Skyler asked.

"There's someplace I wanna go."

"Sure, I guess."

That someplace had turned out to be Central Park. They had been in New York City for almost two months and, among other places, they had never actually been there. Part of the reason why was likely the omnipresent overwatch of security cameras and drones all over Manhattan, and Central Park was no exception. So the others would not worry, Skyler fired off a text to Athena saying they were alright but would be home later.

Central Park was the most well known place in Manhattan that was not lifted back up after the 2005 quake. Buildings within the park that had not survived the quake had been rebuilt, some of them altered because they were now against a five meter tall wall that surrounded the park.

The transverses that once existed were also rebuilt as elevated roadways over the park instead of through it. The advantage was that they could stay open around the clock to let traffic through, instead of being cut off at night. As a result it was much easier to keep vehicles out of the park, with the only legal transportation within the park being horse drawn carriages. Even bicycles were now illegal to ride in the park.

Maintenance of Central Park was in the hands of Shiawase, and they had done a lot of work to keep the natural looking sculpted beauty the park invoked almost a century ago. As a major tourist attraction for Manhattan, the corporation had also managed to keep it open for anyone with any kind of non-black pass, as opposed to crossing Fifth Avenue into the Upper Eastside, which was so tight on security that anyone without a white or a blue/white pass would be arrested for trespassing.

Their first stop was at the obelisk behind the Metropolitan Museum Of Art, known as Cleopatra's Needle by some. Now the twenty-four meter tall obelisk was an astral phenomenon, influencing mana around it for about twenty meters. To Skyler it was a really old block of carved stone, and being close to it really did not feel any different to him than when they were walking up to it.

Mina, close at his side right now, had read about this and wanted to experience it herself. After walking around it a few times, with Skyler helping guide her, they moved on deeper into the park.

Not far was Turtle Pond, and at the east side of the pond they found a quiet place to comfortably sit for a while.

"Bet you're wondering… about…" Mina silently said.

"Why you agreed to the job, yeah." Skyler told her.

"Something Athena told me. Said that we could do something to limit how many are hurt. And that if we didn't do it, he could end up hiring someone else that might not care."

"I'm sure we'll have to check the place out first. Can figure stuff out then, when to blow it up, and how to get people off it first."

Apparently feeling better, she kissed him. But it did not quite end there with a single kiss. After several more kisses, with growing intensity, they decided it might be better to head home. That trip ended up being a little roundabout, with a carriage ride once around the park first.

It was late when they finally got home, each with a plastic sack of takeout food.

"Took your time getting here." scolded Athena as they walked through the living room.

"Didn't wanna lead anyone here." Skyler said.

"Well, eat up and try to get a nap 'cause we're going out late tonight." Athena told them.

"Where're the guys at?" asked Mina as Skyler began going up the stairs.

"They were here earlier, but now I'm not sure." Athena answered, "Nocturne's assured me they'll meet up with us later."

The two ate, relaxed, showered, but did not exactly try to take a nap. When it came time for them to go, Mina used a spell to help keep the both of them awake.

Late that evening they left, with Skyler and Mina sharing the passenger seat of Athena's Westwind 3K.

"So what's the plan?" asked Skyler.

"I'm gonna drop you two off near this side of the Brooklyn Bridge so you can scope it out." Athena said. "While you're doing that, me and the guys're gonna hit up KG Construction for the explosives, and you're gonna be giving us matrix backup."

"You want him to check out the bridge, and hack?" Mina asked.

"Don't play dumb, we know he can do it." Athena said.

"It's alright." Skyler added. "Not like juggling two or three things is all that hard for me."

"Ever tried pushing yourself?" Athena asked.

"Five, maybe six at once." Skyler said, figuring what Athena wanted to know.

"Not bad."

"And you're not even asking me how I'm gonna find KG Construction's node." Skyler said.

"Figured you'd've either done it by now, or that you'd have a way."

Skyler had thought that they would be raiding KG Construction Saturday night instead, and was going to break into the company's network then. This time around he hacked into Athena's public commlink so he could use it to monitor what nodes were close to it.

They were dropped off several blocks away from the Brooklyn Bridge. Together they walked to a park that was just upriver from the bridge to just look at it. At the same time Skyler waited for Athena to reach KG Construction, the signal to her commlink already jumping through several other nodes through the city's network.

"Not many boats at night." Mina said, looking more out at the East River than at the bridge. "If it's timed right then there won't be any hit."

"Easy enough to do that." Skyler said, finding the KG Construction node now. After a quick scan to see just what he was up against, and finding no traps or encryption running, Skyler was more than easily in. In fact, the node was so out of date on security that the first blow of a brute force attack landed him inside the network.

After rummaging around to see what was available, which included accounting ledgers that were an utter shambles, he messaged back to Athena that what meager security measures that existed were neutralized. All this entailed was the neutralization of a single working PanicButton. There were no cameras or hidden nodes that he could find, and when asked Athena messaged back that they could not see any kind of security cameras either. She figured that she and Nocturne could handle what locks they could see.

After a while Skyler and Mina walked under the Brooklyn Bridge, as near to the caisson as they could get, and to another park that was just downriver. At the same time, while checking things out and monitoring the KG Construction network for anything unusual, Skyler found another network nearby that he felt might be interesting.

"Nice view, isn't it?" a man asked them as he stepped into view.

Skyler's sensor software identified it as the voice of their NYPD Inc. contact, the man who had delivered the little knick knacks in return for small tasks to be carried out.

"It's alright." Skyler said. The network he found, after a little bit of work decrypting it, was the NYPD Inc. security officers patrolling the bridge. "Better than what Robert B.'s got right now."

"So what do you want?" asked Mina.

"Well, I was told that encrypted messages and spirit couriers was a little impersonal." the man said, "So when I got wind you were here…"

"You decided to ask us a favor in person." Skyler finished. "Glad to know you held up your side of our deal last time."

Mina shot him a look. That reminded Skyler that he had yet to tell her about throwing Robert Breham to the wolves of NYPD Inc.

"You two are a little difficult to track down, you know." the man said.

"Apparently not hard enough." muttered Mina.

"Right, so what's the deal?" asked Skyler as he listened to the occasional chatter of the officers on the bridge. There was no central node, and he could tell that if he wanted mastery of that particular network he would have to hack at least a dozen commlinks. Something he might be close to pulling off if he had nothing else to do in the real world at the same time.

"Considering who I'm asking, it shouldn't be hard at all." the man said, "We'd just like to know what Mr. Johnson's real identity, motives, and connections are."

"Is that all?" asked Mina.

"Well, it'll be best if you can do it without getting arrested."

"Goes without saying." Skyler said.

"Well, don't stay out too long. It's well past curfew for you two." the man told them, walking off.

"What was that about 'your side of our deal'?" Mina silently asked.

"I did a deep data dive after we nearly got blown up on the last job." Skyler told her, "Found data connecting Old Mr. Johnson to Klubbs's murder and the bombs and stuff. Gave him a copy to pass to the investigators. Told him if he didn't do it we were through with our affiliation with NYPD Inc."

Remembering that Mr. Johnson had slipped a little and said his name was Karl, Skyler focused more on the KG Construction node. He found that the only two employees remaining were Karl Gahley and Jeff Anderson, and he had images of both. Turned out Karl Gahley was not only their Mr. Johnson, but also really was the owner of the business.

"You think we're that valuable to them?" Mina asked.

"At least enough to get that old asshole in jail."

With not much else to do, aside from watching the glow of headlights and tail lights as cars went back and forth along the bridge, Skyler skimmed through the rest of the node. The state of the ledgers would make any novice accountant think that there was some kind of embezzling going on, but with the lack of recent activity for at least three months, and a low balance for the business, Skyler did not think so. It just looked like whoever was managing the books was really bad at it.

Jeff it seemed was also hardly at the business, with virtually no recent activity to his login profile. Karl, on the other hand, was there quite frequently. Skyler even found a few unsent messages, one of them written weeks ago to a Roger Anderson. It contained a request for aid in getting the contract to rebuild the recently destroyed Brooklyn Bridge.

That unsent message, along with the files on Karl and Jeff, was uploaded to the commlink built into Skyler's fake cybernetic arm.

"I think I already got his request done." Skyler told Mina.

"Bet it's money." Mina said.

"Yeah, it is."

"It's always money."

It was not long until Skyler got a message from Athena saying that they were done at KG Construction. Skyler started cleaning up after himself from that node and replied back for her to pick them up at the intersection of Columbia Heights and Cranberry Street, near the Brooklyn Bridge. Ten minutes later he was done with the KG Construction node, and they were crammed in her car and on their way home.

Roadblock and Nocturne were already at the brownstone by the time they got there. Roadblock dominated a chair by himself, and Nocturne was walking through the dining room just as the three were coming in through the front door.

"So, what do we know?" Nocturne asked as Skyler and Mina dropped onto a couch.

"Mr. Johnson owns KG Construction and is married to the brother of a Brooklyn city council member that got that job by parading his sick brother in the trideos." Skyler said.

Roadblock whistled.

"You forgot that KG Construction's just about out of business." Nocturne said.

"No, I figured you'd find that out when you went to rob the place." Skyler returned. "Two guys on payroll and one of 'em actually going to work? Even if Mr. Johnson gets the rebuilding contract he's gonna have to hire a workforce."

"He's got some drones, though, so maybe not as many as you think." Nocturne said.

"So what've we got for ideas?" Athena asked.

"I'll want a day to watch the bridge, but I think traffic's lighter at night so it'll be better then." Skyler said.

"There's a few spirits patrolling, 'bout as powerful as what I can conjure without hurting myself." Mina said.

"And about a dozen drones, Doberman and Rotos mixed, patrolling about the Brooklyn caisson." Skyler added. "I'd expect the same on the other side, too. Oh, and there's no central node for the security on the bridge. They're using an encrypted mesh network to communicate."

"So after watching the place, which do you think will be easier to take out?" Athena asked.

"Probably the Brooklyn caisson." Skyler said, "I heard about half a dozen pairs of officers patrolling the bridge, I'm pretty sure if we tried for the cables we'd get stopped and questioned."

"Why not both?" asked Athena.

"What?" Nocturne asked.

"Well, here's what I'm thinking." Athena said, "If we're gonna pull this off we need the kids' help, and we've got that as long as we're not trying to kill anyone with this job."

"We're bringing down a bridge, how're we not gonna kill people?" Nocturne asked.

"We can try to limit casualties." Athena countered. "Cypher and I can tap into the networks there and get a gauge on traffic and plan the bombing when it's about as light as it'll get. We've got remote detonators for the explosives, so we can set off which ones we want. We blow a few cables first to start a panic, get the people off the bridge and EMS on the way, and before EMS gets there we blow the rest."

"Okay." Mina said.

"Be so much easier if we just blew things up." Nocturne said.

Mina was about to stand, but Athena stopped her. "Do you have any idea how much harder it'll be without them?"

"Gotta pop their wetwork cherries sometime. Besides, I've seen them fight, and they're both vicious."

"Oh shut the fuck up." Skyler said. "We may have just witnessed a wetwork job last year, but I did one months before that. Doesn't mean we have to do more now."

"You, wetwork? You're twelve, what'd you get paid to kill, an alley cat?" Nocturne asked.

Skyler sighed. "Try Wapasha Blackwolf, Chief Financial Officer and Chairman Of The Board of Xeverus Cosmetics Research in Denver." he said.

"Hey, I remember reading about that guy." Athena said, "But he died of natural causes…"

"In his sleep, in a lodge out in the middle of nowhere in the PCC." Skyler finished. "You know, a dose of breathtaker can be fatal when you're over three thousand meters above sea level." He honestly had no idea what drug or toxin was actually used, but when one medical report suggested the cause of death was asphyxiation he guessed that some form of the crowd control gas could have been used. "As far as I know no one found the laser pinhole my drone used to plug into their otherwise isolated network there."

"You've got a laser on that fly-spy?" Nocturne asked in disbelief.

Digging into his pocket, Skyler pulled out the yokujin drone Laserbeak. "No, I used this guy." he said, waking the tiny drone and flying it over to Nocturne. "It's got a mini laser to burn holes in things, and micro tapper gear so I can connect to those things through it."

He recalled the drone just as Nocturne reached for it.

"So they've got some ethics." Athena said, "And we can do the job. On top of that, the way we're gonna do it will land us an extra six grand."

"So when're we gonna do this?" Nocturne asked.

Athena's commlink chimed with an incoming call. "Who the hell is calling?" she asked, answering the call. "Hello?"

"Hello." came a woman's voice, "My name is not important, but you can call me Ms. Johnson. I am concerned about your recent activities. I fear your bright future may be cut short without my help. We should meet. When and where's convenient for you?"

"There's a place called the Twilight Café at Church and Reade." Athena said. "Noon."

"It's a date." the woman said, ending the call.

"You normally make lunch dates that easily?" Skyler asked.

Ignoring the question, Athena said, "Well, I was gonna say that maybe we do this Saturday night, figuring you'd be able to get recordings to check for the good timing."

"So we wait an extra day to see what this Ms. Johnson wants?" Nocturne asked.

"I don't like it." Mina said.

"Yeah, it stinks to me too." Skyler added.

"You don't have to like it. But we're not gonna do this if we're gonna be caught with our asses hanging out." Athena said.

"We've got connections. We can disappear." Skyler told her.

"Well, if we're gonna wait on some research and a meeting with a mysterious woman, I'm gonna go home and meet you there tomorrow." Nocturne said as he headed towards the front door.

"Well, if that's gonna be it, then I'm gonna go to bed." Skyler said as he stood up.

Luther was waiting for him, lightly scratching at the door. Skyler cracked the door open just enough for the black cat to slip in. He meowed softly as he strode in, rubbing against Skyler's right ankle.

The cat hopped up on their bed, such as it was, and curled up while Skyler stripped off most of his clothes. He was down to peeling off his form fitting body armor when Mina came in. She had a glass in each hand and was drinking from one of them.

"Athena says we still gotta go to the lunch date tomorrow." Mina told him. "And she said that the place's low class enough you can come armed."

Skyler accepted her other drink, saying, "Shit, was hoping I'd have to miss it." It was a chocolate shake, nicely chilled and just a little thick as he took a drink.

"So what're you gonna do?" Mina asked as she sat down next to Luther. The cat looked up at her briefly when she started petting him, yawning once before he tucked his head back down.

"Hack her 'link and all that shit. I wanna know who she is and all that before we try dealin' with her."

"I'll have Azkaellon close to me, just in case."

Skyler smiled a little. The air elemental Mina had bound to her was probably the least offensive of any of her spirits. What it lacked in raw fighting potential it made up for with an unusual penchant for just fucking with people. More often than not it helped hide them from others.

"And the bridge?" Mina asked.

"Yeah, right." Skyler said, almost forgetting about what he was going to do. He logged into the New York City traffic networks and looked up the last twenty hours of trideo recorded on the Brooklyn, Manhattan, and Williamsburg bridges for all of the traffic, including what went under them on the East River, and saved it all to the commlink in his cybernetic arm casing. He also set the commlink to record those same feeds.

Extending his mind into the virtual world, Skyler mentally reached into the digital void to compile a data sprite. Like it was passing through a veil came a floating human skull with now jawbone, cameras for eyes, and a twirling tangle of six mechadendrite cables. He fed it the passcodes to the commlink in his fake cybernetic arm and tasked it to finding recordings of any and all traffic cameras for the same three bridges for the last twenty-four hours and save the data to that commlink.

"There. Will have it by morning and I'll check it then." Skyler said, sending the command to his arm to unlock so he could slide it off.

After taking off most of her clothes they buried themselves together under their blankets.

Skyler was almost asleep when Mina spoke.

"I had a thought about helping on the bridge." she said softly.

"We'll talk in the morning." Skyler told her, running a hand along her side.

Morning came early for them, with Luther scratching at the door at a little after six to be let out. Half awake, Skyler watched Mina get up to let out the cat, and then sleepily trudge back to bed with him. Rather than spooning up to him she pressed in close in a honeymooner's hug, quickly falling fast asleep again.

Skyler woke again much later. He was on his back, but Mina was still snuggled up close with her arm across his chest.

"Don't move." Athena told him in a hushed tone. She was sitting near the foot of their bed, a finger waving in the air as she worked with a private ARO.

"What the hell are you doing?!" Skyler yelled.

This woke Mina, and when she saw Athena she shrieked. Finding that they were not completely covered by any blankets she grabbed what she could to cover herself up.

"Shit! Calm down!" Athena told them.

"Get out!" Mina shrieked.

Not caring if Athena saw him in his underwear, Skyler rolled over the side of his bed to dig through his clothes for one of his pistols.

"Alright! Alright!" Athena told them, quickly leaving. She was less than quiet about closing the door behind her.

Skyler was quick to go to their bedroom door and locked it.

"What the hell was with her?" Skyler asked. Turning back he saw Mina was still on their bed, clutching their blanket to her chest.

Right away he was at her side. "Hey, you okay?" he asked her.

Mina looked like she was about to burst into tears. When she looked up at him she let go of the blanket to latch onto him in a very tight hug.

Not quite sure of what to do Skyler simply hugged her back, feeling how warm she was against his skin.

After a minute or two Mina finally broke the silence. "Sorry." she said softly.

"Hey, I didn't think we needed to lock that door either." Skyler told her.

"Think your sister could send that drone of yours here?" Mina asked.

"Which one?" Skyler asked back. There were eight Doberman and Soldat model security drones back in Denver, five of them armed with a light machinegun, and two of those had an underslung grenade launcher as well.

"Ravage." Mina told him.

Of course she'd name that one, thought Skyler.

Ravage was effectively the pack leader of his larger drones. UCAS military surplus, Skyler had managed to get it at an unsanctioned weapons market in Denver, along with a heavier turret to hold the heavy and modified Stoner-Ares M107 heavy machinegun.

"Maybe I'll just threaten Athena with Ravage first." Skyler said.

This brought a brief smile to Mina's face, just before she finally looked up to him.

A while later they went downstairs to get brunch. Athena was in the kitchen, sipping a soykaf and looking out the sliding glass door to their small back yard.

"Hey, look, I wanna say I'm sorry." Athena told them as Skyler entered what he wanted into the SPU.

"Just 'cause we're older than we look doesn't mean you can do shit like that." Skyler replied. "Shit, even if we looked our age you still couldn't do shit like that without asking."

As the SPU processed Skyler's request, Athena said, "Maybe I should've asked first, and I'm sorry. Just that when I tried to get you for breakfast, and your door was open…"

"Our door was open?" Mina asked.

"Just a little." Athena told them, "All I did was push and the door opened."

Skyler collected his food, a toasted ham and cheese sandwich with a short glass of pear juice, and went to the table to sit down, purposely choosing the far side from Athena.

"Anyway," Athena continued, "when I saw you two lying there together, you just looked too cute to pass up."

"That's… disturbing." Mina said.

"Just what the hell were you doing anyway?" Skyler asked between bites of his sandwich.

"I do sketches, as a hobby." Athena said, "And sometimes I do people, too. Here's what I was working on when you woke up."

An ARO appeared, a simple two-dimensional image in black and white. Aside from being purely digital it looked like it was a graphite portrait of Skyler and Mina asleep. Athena had made no effort to hide the fact that the two were at least half naked as they slept, with Skyler on his back and Mina embracing him like she often did. The only change that Athena had apparently made was to make Mina's hair much longer so she did not look like a boy.

Skyler had to admit that the drawing was very good, rather realistic and lifelike. Still their apparent age was problematic even though Mina's back was towards the viewer.

"You draw stuff like this a lot?" Skyler asked, though he was not sure he wanted to know the answer.

"The body's a lot more beautiful than people want to believe." Athena said, "And yes, nudes, half nudes, and such. Nothing pornographic, though."

"It's nice, but I wish you hadn't done that." Mina said as she sat down.

"Sorry, it's a bad habit of mine." Athena said, "If I see someone I want to sketch I usually just take a pic of them instead, and then use that trid image for inspiration. Maybe you two would like to pose for something I'd like to draw sometime?"

"I… I don't know." Mina said, blushing.

Skyler shook his head as he ate.

The ARO disappeared. "Yeah, I guess it's a bit much for me to ask you two to do something like this." Athena said.

"More than a bit perverted, too." Skyler said.

"Here." Athena said, slipping a data chip out of her commlink and sliding it to them.

"What's this?" asked Skyler as he picked up the chip.

"The only copies of all the pics and sketches I've done of you two since we met." Athena told them. "Do what you will with them." Then she stood and left to go upstairs.

"Here." Mina said, pulling out her Hermes Ikon.

"You really wanna see what's on it?" Skyler asked, slowly sliding her commlink over.

"I don't know." Mina said softly, "Part of me wants to see, but part of me doesn't want to know."

"I'll look first." Skyler said, slotting the chip as he connected his mind to her commlink.

The contents of the data chip were split into two folders, 'Pictures' and 'Sketches.' There were several images on the data chip, and most of them were images taken from Athena's point of view. The rest, of which were only four, were all the same style of black and white graphite sketches. All were just as good, but only one he had already seen was of them sleeping together. One image was of Skyler alone, one of Mina, and the last was of the two of them together on the couch watching a trideo program.

"I think you'll wanna look." Skyler said. "She's done a few drawings, and they're all good."

Mina took a deep breath before she opened up the images on the data chip. He said nothing as he watched her flip through the sketches Athena had done.

"They are good." she said softly as she flipped through the sketches. "I wish I knew she did these sooner."

"Not that it'd make it okay that she sketched us in our sleep like this."

For the short term Skyler opted to keep the images, moving and encrypting the data to one of the chips inside of his fake cybernetic hand.

Up until it was time to leave for their lunch date, Athena kept her distance from them. Even afterwards she was a little more aloof around them.

The Twilight Café was close to The Towers, and actually a few blocks away from the Corson Place Hotel. Skyler and Mina opted to leave their blades behind, but carried their pistols.

The metro ride was relatively straight forward, having no transfers from the brownstone to the station that was literally on the other side of the skyraker where the café was. Nocturne had even managed to catch the same train with them.

The Twilight Café was a nice place, and for a moment Skyler was feeling a little underdressed. When he noticed a small group wearing worse clothing than him, mismatched t-shirts and slightly torn jeans, he felt better about his techno styled attire.

The place was nothing exceptional in concept. What it made up for from its simplicity was a charming atmosphere and the great smells of real food being cooked and served, a mix of various styles of beef, chicken, baked potatoes, mixed vegetables, and more.

"There she is." Athena said, heading straight for a booth where a very attractive woman was sitting. She was wearing a simple Zoé skirt and blouse in orange colors, her dark hair tied back in a loose and simple ponytail. The displayed name of her ID said Phoebe Sauvageon.

"Ms. Johnson, I presume?" Athena asked.

"Ah, yes. Please, sit." Phoebe told them. "And order whatever you'd like, it's on me."

Skyler isolated Phoebe's commlink, a Transys Avalon running Novatech Navi, scanned it for any traps or encryption, and soon went straight to forcing his way through its firewall. At the same time he also ordered lunch, and with real food on their menu he went all out with a double bacon cheese burger with all the fixings, spiced cheese fries, and a large chocolate shake.

"So, I understand some of you are new to the area?" Phoebe asked.

Skyler had just submitted his order, closing out the ARO as he said, "I guess, I mean we've been here for almost two months now." It did not take much to get into her commlink.

"Oh, you?"

"Yes, us." Mina corrected.

"I bet the big city's quite different from home." Phoebe said.

"Kinda." Mina said.

"Not really." Skyler said as he started looking up what he could about Phoebe.

Phoebe gave him an inquisitive look.

"We're here from Denver, so some things ain't all that new to us." Skyler said, "And we've been around. New York ain't even the second big city we've been in."

"Big words for someone so young." Phoebe commented.

"Hey, he's far from unskilled." Athena said.

Roadblock nodded knowingly.

"But how experienced are they?" Phoebe asked, "I was told to expect some younger looking people with your group, but I honestly wasn't expecting children."

Mina and Skyler groaned.

"People in our line of work gotta start sometime." Nocturne said.

"I wasn't much older when I cut my teeth, either." Athena added.

"Yes, but this isn't a game." Phoebe said, "It's more than just slipping a drone in the boy's locker room. Word gets around that you're working with kids and it'll…" She stopped when her commlink started ringing. By the time she pulled it out of her pocket the display background had been replaced with Skyler's winged sword signature icon.

"Very cute, missy." Phoebe said sternly, tossing her still ringing commlink onto the table. "That's enough fun and games."

"Me?" Mina asked, intentionally feigning innocence rather badly.

"Yes, you." Phoebe growled, "I want you to stop messing with my 'link."

Skyler killed the music and switched it over to vibrate mode. The commlink buzzed loudly as it slowly started working its own way towards the edge of the table.

"Hey, I ain't doin' shit to it." Mina said. "If I was, it'd be a melted pile of crap."

"I was warned about you, Cypher…" Phoebe said.

Skyler raised a hand. "Um, I'm Cypher." he said.

"No, she's Cypher." Phoebe said. She grabbed her commlink and held it up.

Before Phoebe could say more, Skyler said, "Yeah, that's my signature there. So I let her wear it on her necklace." Actually, Mina had requested the custom made power focus without consulting him. They were already close then so he had decided not to say anything about it.

With a thought Skyler changed the background image back to the previous picture, and stopped it from vibrating like a mad sex toy.

"He's Cypher?" Phoebe asked.

"I really hope you're quick to get it." Mina said. "Last person that insisted I was him I burned."

"She'll do it, too. Honest." Skyler said like it was nothing.

Phoebe pocketed her commlink.

"So, mind telling us…" Athena started to say. She stopped when their food arrived.

Mina must have been hungry as well, having ordered the same thing Skyler had, save that her milkshake was strawberry and loaded with bits of real fruit.

"What I want with you?" Phoebe asked as she delicately took a bit of her own salad. "Simple. Aztechnology has been watching you since we learned about a lot of people asking about a particular thing. We also know about Karl, his husband, and their dying business. Despite everything, we want to see the thing demolished too, but we're not wanting to kill people and endanger the city to get it done."

Skyler nearly gagged on the mouthful of hamburger. After managing to swallow without choking himself, he said, "Bullshit." He really did not care that his sensor software had said Phoebe was speaking honestly. She may have believed whole heartily what she said, even if it was a lie.

"And may I ask how you know so well?" Phoebe asked, her fork clanking on her plate.

"Past dealings with Azzies." Skyler said.

"All wanting us dead." Mina added.

"Name one." Phoebe challenged.

"How 'bout the Smoking Mirror cult?" Skyler said.

"One example from a group of Aztlan sponsored mages…" Phoebe started to say.

"Doesn't mean shit. Sure, whatever they want you to think." Skyler said.

"Can we get on with what you want from us?" Athena asked.

"First, I'm not asking you to stop your job." Phoebe told them, "It will actually be beneficial to Aztechnology if you carry it out."

"But if Aztechnology's named in this, it's bad PR." Athena said. "What is there connecting you in on our job in the first place?"

Skyler pondered this a little as he continued eating his burger.

"Nothing you need to worry yourselves over." Phoebe said, "What you should worry about is what law enforcement is going to do when they find out. Your boss is no hardened criminal, and will almost certainly roll over on you for a lesser sentence."

Skyler swallowed before saying, "You want us to be a little sloppy to frame him up."

"You're a bright boy." Phoebe said. The way she said it actually felt condescending to Skyler. For a moment he wondered if she would have said the same thing the same way if she knew he was about twice as old as he looked.

"Really? You want us to ensure his connection to the job?" Athena said.

"If you do, we'll ensure that your names are left out of any investigations," Phoebe told them, "and you'll receive a fat bonus for it too."

"A big fat bonus." Skyler said, "Sounds like a big fat deal."

"We ain't gonna do a shitty job, either." Mina added.

"There's more to it than just money, kids." Phoebe said, "Without corporate sponsorship you won't be doing biz on the island, and you'll be scrapping with the SINless for pocket change."

"Or we'll just go back to Seattle and play with the big boys." Skyler said, pushing his chair back as he stood, "Again."

Mina was right beside him.

"It'll be unwise to turn this down." Phoebe said.

"They can do it if they want." Skyler said, turning to leave.

"Just count us out." Mina added.

Together the two left the café.

"You really think she's serious?" Mina silently asked.

"Bet that's what she thinks." Skyler said as walked to the metro station. "I wonder if Ghostwalker would let us say in Denver if the Azzies get really pissed at us."

"Bet he would if we did something to really piss them off a lot."

They did not take the metro straight home, but instead took one line to Brooklyn, switched to a second line to get up into Queens, and then a third to get close to home again.

Along the way they got messages from Ares, Horizon, Renraku, and Spinrad, each of them with their own little requests. Some of these Skyler received as an encrypted message, while Mina received one by delivery from a watcher spirit. Their Ares affiliate requested that the Neo-Anarchists be linked to the bombings, Horizon wanted footage of the bridge's collapse, and Renraku wanted all of the roto-drones taken out.

They both wondered just who did not know about the eventual destruction of the Brooklyn Bridge. Skyler wondered how much the big players knew about all of the jobs in the shadows. While figuring they would just not do anything to blame the Neo-Anarchists for the bombing, Skyler was already thinking on how he could get Horizon's and Renraku's requests completed.

Skyler and Mina were talking about what she had in mind about helping lighten traffic on the bridge when Athena and the others arrived. Roadblock had a parcel of some kind under one arm.

"Hey, she was not happy." Athena said when she saw them in the living room.

"Should I care?" Skyler asked.

"Just how much do you care about a Johnson fucking us over?" asked Nocturne.

"If Karl decides to roll on us, yes, you should care." Athena added.

"Tell them about Irina." Mina said.

"Who?" Athena asked.

"We did a job for a Vory princess, Irina Klavikova." Skyler said, "When we delivered she paid us, then she tried to kill us before we left. I took a hit to the chest, but my body armor took the brunt of it. Laying on my back I almost capped her in the head with one of my Predators."

"The bitch shot me in the back." Mina added scornfully. "I wish he'd gotten her."

"How badly did you miss?" asked Nocturne with a condescending edge in his voice.

"Tore the top half of her right ear off." Skyler answered.

"Yeah, I… oh."

"And she never came back at you for that?" Athena asked.

"Do I look like I was crapped from a ghoul's ass?"

"Point taken." Athena said. "So what were you two doing here anyway?" asked Athena as she took a chair to sit down.

"Figuring a way to try and stop traffic at the bridge before we blow it up." Skyler said.

"We were thinking that I could have a spirit cause a traffic accident on both sides." Mina told them.

"Then when traffic's lightened up we'll pop some bombs at the cables to get everyone else runnin' off the bridge." Skyler finished.

"You know that still could kill someone." Nocturne said.

"Maybe." Skyler said.

"Not like if we did it during rush hour." Mina added.

"Could you chill on that, Nocturne?" Athena asked. "So I take it then that you're thinking the three of us will hit the caisson while you two do the cables?"

"Pretty much."

"Can you two be ready to do it tonight?" Athena asked.

"I don't think we've got anything we need to do." Mina said.

"Good, 'cause you can help Roadblock prep the bombs." Athena told them.

The parcel Roadblock had turned out to be a vacuum sealing kit. That, and a low intensity laser to clean the packaging once the explosive was sealed inside, would help keep any sensors from sniffing them out. The detonators would be carried separately, being jammed into an explosive charge once it had been set into place.

Skyler also hoped that he would be able to mess with whatever sensors were being used. He never worried about chemsniffers picking up the mess of ammo he carried since he had licenses to carry his handguns concealed, but carrying three kilograms of high explosives was sure to set off even the most basic of scanners no matter how well sealed they were.

Sealing up the explosives had taken less time than expected, so the three tuned into a hockey game between the Philadelphia Flyers and the New York Rangers. While Skyler and Mina were not very into sports as much as Roadblock was, they still cheered the New York team on.

Nocturne was still there for dinner, which was a simple batch of soy-burgers and fries. There Athena laid out the plan where she would take Skyler and Mina in her car down near to the Brooklyn side of the bridge's promenade where they would walk to somewhere in the middle to plant the bombs while she would meet up with Roadblock and Nocturne. Together the three would use some data she managed to get after hacking into the Brooklyn Department of Public Works to do the real job at the caisson.

Their timing on detonating the explosives was based on when the bombs went off on the bridge. After the fourth explosion had gone off Athena would wait about five to ten minutes before triggering the explosives planted at the caisson. And if for some reason that Skyler or Mina failed in their part then she would trigger the caisson's bomb sometime after three o'clock anyway.

After dinner both Skyler and Mina were invited to join an online multiplayer battle arena game with some of the other kids in the neighborhood. Skyler was much more eager to join up, though Mina opted to just sit back and watch the games instead.

Despite never really having ever trained in using any kind of weapon like a rifle he seemed to do rather well in sniping other players, with the in-game engine making up for his lack of real world skill. Still it was not quite as satisfying as the assassin he played in a different game his sister had introduced him to last year.

It was well past curfew when Athena dropped Skyler and Mina off a few blocks south of the bridge on Cadman Plaza. From there the two walked north to the bridge.

"You sure this's a good idea?" Mina silently asked as they climbed the stairs up to the promenade.

"Was it ever a good idea?" Skyler asked back.

It really was not their first time being involved in any kind of demolition, though the last time had proved a bit spontaneous. There had been mixed reports on casualties on the casino they had set fire to, Skyler had found out, but the media usually glazed over the loss of life when it came to the SINless.

Pedestrian traffic was light at the late hour. While it meant that casualties would be light, it did mean that there was no press of people to get lost in and the guards at the security checkpoint would spot them quite easily. Well, impossible since everyone had to have their I.D. broadcasting, just like in Manhattan.

"Isn't it past your bedtime?" asked one of the numerous officers as they got to the security checkpoint on the Brooklyn side.

The wireless signals were heavy here, but Skyler did manage to identify the scanner hardware they had. Finding which one was a chemical sniffer was not too hard when even the officers had to have everything wireless broadcasting its presence. Maybe it made the wage slaves feel safer knowing those scanners were there, too.

"Yeah, but we don't have a choice." Mina said, doing her best to sound tired.

"Our dad dropped us off to go to some bar." Skyler said with a heavy sigh, "We gotta walk home."

"'Cording to this your home's up in Queens." another officer said. "This way's to Manhattan."

"That's my mom's place." Mina said.

"We're going to my mom's place." Skyler added, slipping his mind into the chemsniffer.

"Wait, what?" the first officer asked.

"See, my mom married her dad, and she lives in the Pit. That's where we're going." Skyler told them.

"And my mom's place is farther, and we don't have any money or a metro pass." Mina added.

The chemsniffer picked up the ammo and explosives, but Skyler was quick enough to edit out the explosives from its memory.

"So what happened to your money?" the second officer asked.

"Dad took it." Skyler said, sounding dejected. "Said he'd pay me back, but he never does."

"Please, can we just go?" pleaded Mina. "His mom's place isn't too far. We'll go straight there, promise!"

"Alright." the first officer said, sighing.

They were let through the checkpoint, and together they walked on a little slower than normal for as long as they could tell everyone at the checkpoint was watching them.

"They called ahead about us." Skyler silently told Mina as they walked. The mesh network used for security on the bridge was still encrypted, but the security key had not changed since he had last figured it out.

"What'd they say?" Mina asked.

A pair of security officers rolled up to them from the other direction, one of them nodding to them as they rolled on by.

"Just that we're okay and stuff." Skyler said, letting a smile cross his face.

After a while Mina broke the silence. "I called up a water spirit to cause a few accidents. I told it I'd boil it if anyone got killed."

Skyler softly chuckled.

It was a little past halfway across the bridge, closer to the Manhattan side of the bridge, when they stopped where the supporting cables came back up above the walkway. Now while there were crossbeams over all of the lanes of traffic at this particular spot there were actually railings to aid a person in walking across them. While intended for maintenance personnel, they were what Skyler was going to use to plant an explosive at the outer cables.

Skyler went for the cameras first. He found four that were focused on where he needed to plant the explosives. One at a time he forced his way through their weak firewalls, and in short order he had them under his control. Uploading a copy of his old Negator program to each one of them, he used the augmented reality editor to remove all visual traces of himself and Mina.

"I've got the cameras," he silently told Mina, "now it's your turn."

After a few seconds Mina replied, "Now we're invisible, and the spirit's helping hide us."

Carefully Skyler crept out to the first support cable. There was next to no cover to hide no matter how sneaky he tried to be, and as he blindly worked to plant the explosive he kept hoping that Mina's spirit would be the better in hiding him against whatever patrolling spirits there were.

It took several minutes to plant an explosive, even with the threaded demolitions skillsoft package running.

After the third charge was planted Mina had her spirit go off as far as it could to cause its accidents to stop traffic from coming onto the bridge. It was not long until they heard the screeching of skidding tires and the crunch of automobiles colliding with something. Skyler could already hear the calls for medical aid coming across the bridge's security network.

While Skyler was working on placing the fourth explosive he went to hacking into the roto-drones that were buzzing around the Brooklyn caisson. Finding that the roto-drones were running somewhat autonomous he combined the six of them together so he could more easily handle the networking load on his brain. It was also simpler to give them orders, like to start watching the bridge itself and have their video footage saved to the commlink in his fake cybernetic arm.

Just as he figured he had stashed the finale explosive the first explosive went off, rocking the bridge as the support cable snapped. He heard Mina cry out above the twangs of snapping steel cables.

"You alright?" Skyler asked urgently as he pushed himself back to his feet.

"What happened?" Mina asked aloud. It was then he realized that he could see her.

"I don't know." Skyler said. "Shit! Run!" he yelled, realizing that he had set the other three to go off in sequence after he had set the first one off.

Mina scrambled to her feet, paying no need to the narrow walkway as she ran for the edge of the bridge. Just as she reached him they both jumped off.

The second bomb went off just as the bridge disappeared from beneath them. The westbound side creaked loudly, the bridge shifting as the south side now supported the whole weight. The concussion wave hit them like a giant's hand to a housefly, sending them tumbling as they fell.

The East River was ice cold, the surface feeling like glass as Skyler plowed uncontrollably into it.

Getting back up to the surface turned out to be not all that hard, but his lungs were already burning for breath by the time Skyler got there. He did not even glance back at the bridge as he started swimming away from it. As he swam he could feel his connection to the cameras be severed as they fell into the river with the bridge.

"Ahoy there!" a man yelled.

A very bright light shined in his face, and Skyler was glad of the tight fit of his goggles about his head. Though they had shorted out with the water they were still about his head.

The man and light were on a ferry boat. Skyler waved frantically with his right arm for them.

"There's another in the water!" someone else yelled, the light moving.

"Hey!" Mina yelled from behind Skyler.

More concerned about Mina now than the ferry, Skyler turned and swam back to her.

When the ferry got close enough someone threw a life preserver towards them. Once he was sure Mina had a good hold of it, Skyler held on to it as well with one arm and waved to the ferry with the other. In short order they were pulled up and on board by a very burly troll.

"Are you two alright?" a man asked as the troll helped them over the ferry's railing. By his clothing it looked like he was one of the ferry's crew, along with the troll that had pulled them aboard. He also sounded like the first one that had called out to them.

"I think so." panted Skyler, his heart still pounding from the near death experience.

"I see others in the water!" another person yelled.

"Mike, go help pull them up." the man said. He then waved to another, an ork woman who also looked like one of the ferry's crew. "Amber, can you help take care of the kids? And get ready for more people we're gonna pull outta the water. Don't know how many got hurt."

"Yes sir." the ork woman, Amber, said.

Skyler felt much calmer than Amber did as she led them inside. There she got help from two others to get as many blankets and medkits out as they had, and to start getting what they could in hot drinks.

Checking on the recordings and finding they were good, Skyler sent the roto-drones out over the river and then issued a shutdown order. Hopefully crashing them into the East River would be good enough for their Renraku person.

After a while Skyler realized that he no longer had his Ruger Super Warhawk. Figuring it was now somewhere on the bottom of the East River and lost for good, he would just not worry about it.

For well over an hour Skyler and Mina sat huddled together under a shared blanket, with steaming cups of a chocolate flavored drink in their hands. They said nothing as more people were brought on board and their injuries tended to as best as the ferry crew could do. Once it was figured that all of the people they could find were rescued the ferry went to shore.

Medical emergency crews, Knight Errant and NYPD Inc. officers, as well as witnesses and gawkers were all along the riverside as the ferry pulled into one of the piers on the Brooklyn side of the river.

Parks on both sides of the now collapsed bridge were now staging areas for medical response teams, which included ambulance crews from local hospitals and a few DocWagon CRT helicopters.

After telling the EMTs they were fine several times, and enduring a cursory exam, they were cleared to leave. At least as soon as law enforcement officers had a chance to talk with them and their parent or guardian showed up to take them home.

Still sharing a blanket, they sat on a bench as they watched, safely out of the way of everyone else as they went about their business. They were beyond tired now, with Mina barely staying awake as she leaned on Skyler.

"Quite the night, isn't it." a familiar voice said.

Skyler did not even have to look up to know who it was.

"Yeah." Skyler said, taking a sip of his fifth hot chocolate of the night. "Got a chip?" he asked.

The NYPD Inc. agent walked around them, closely but discretely. Skyler caught the dropped data chip as he passed by.

"Quite amazing, too." the man said as Skyler slipped the chip up his left sleeve, and to the commlink in his fake cybernetic arm.

"How so?" Mina asked softly.

"So much destruction, and so far not one single fatality reported at all. I think some will say it's a miracle."

The data uploaded to the chip, Skyler pulled his hand free. To cover his movements he took another sip of hot chocolate.

"Yeah, lucky that." Mina said, shifting a little to try and stay comfortable.

"There you two are!" came Athena's voice.

"Ma'am?" the man asked. "I'm with NYPD Inc. Just what's your relation to these children?"

"They're mine." Athena said as she came rushing up to them. "Well, not mine as in they're my kids, but they're mine as in my responsibility. They're not in any trouble, are they?"

"Not at all. We were just having a little discussion on just how lucky everyone was tonight." the man said.

With a soft groan Mina stood up first, though Skyler had to help her keep standing.

"Can we go now?" Skyler asked.

"You two been checked out by EMS?"

"Yeah." Skyler said, sounding as tired now as he felt.

"Don't see why not." the man replied, offering a hand to shake.

Skyler and the man shook hands, and Skyler was quick to catch the exchange of one chip for another.

The man nodded once before he said, "Goodnight and drive safely." before walking off.

Quickly Skyler slipped the chip into a pocket.

"So, you two ready?" Athena asked.

"So ready." Mina replied.

Athena's sports car never felt so good. In anticipation she had set the car's heater to the maximum so it was incredibly warm for them. Warm enough that they fell asleep before they reached the brownstone.

It was late Sunday morning when they woke up in their own bed. They had been stripped down to their underwear, but otherwise were alone in their room. They got dressed before going downstairs to get breakfast, or lunch, really.

"Glad you two're finally up." Athena called to them from the living room as they headed into the kitchen.

"You didn't do anything weird while we were asleep, did you?" asked Skyler as Mina went to the SPU.

"What do you want?" Mina asked.

"Biscuit, eggs, and bacon."

"No, I didn't do anything weird." Athena said as she walked over to them. "Well, took your clothes off so you could sleep more comfortably, but that's all."

"No perverted sketching stuff?" Skyler asked.

"None, I swear."

"Anything about last night?" Mina asked, handing Skyler a plate of food.

"Lots of talk about the bridge. Everyone's got their opinions and theories about what happened." Athena told them. "And a lot are surprised that no one died either."

"Who got hurt the worst?" Mina asked as she pulled a plate for herself from the SPU. Together they walked over to the dining room table to eat.

"There's an ork woman that lost her arm when a cable snapped." Athena answered, "But it's a bit early to tell how she's gonna get fixed up."

Athena continued to tell them about the media coverage, which was lacking a lot in the way of real facts. There was no explanation for the destruction of the roto-drones (some reportedly were caught by the explosions), and no sensor feeds were recovered. Same was true for the security cameras, also for reasons unexplained.

Skyler and Mina spent most of the day in the living room, sitting next to the fireplace as it crackled with an open flame. With their okay, Athena did a sketch of the two of them as they sat together next to the fire.

Roadblock also spent some of the time relaxing there with them, watching an Urban Brawl league game between Seattle and Tir Tairngire.

Sunday night Skyler fired off an encrypted and compressed file containing the recording of the bridge he had gotten. It pretty much was all that he had to send since their NYPD Inc. contact had already gotten what had been asked for.

Monday afternoon came with a call from Mr. Johnson to settle the payment for their job. Again they were to meet at the Inara Indian Restaurant.

Nocturne was waiting for them when they arrived, taking the same metro lines that they did last Thursday.

It was almost as if the raid had not happened. Members of the Bastard Saints still hung out there, but seemed a bit more at ease than before. Anuj was just as obsequious as ever, and most everyone else just seemed to ignore Skyler and the others.

It was when Skyler stepped into the back room that he noticed there was something different. Regardless of how effective they might have been, Skyler almost drew his Morrissey Élan pistols when he saw someone other than Karl Gahley there waiting for them.

"Peace!" Peace Man said, greeting them with the 'V' hand gesture.

"What's going on?" asked Athena as she slipped in.

Peace Man waved them all in, waiting until they were seated before saying, "Mr. Johnson's been arrested. The heads on the trid weren't privy to the real investigation, and evidence was found to connect him to the bombing."

Behind his goggles, Skyler's eyes narrowed.

"Now you guys can keep chill." Peace Man continued, "Johnson doesn't blame you for this, and he's gonna take the heat. And that's why I'm here, so you guys can get paid." He dug into a pocket and pulled out five gold colored credsticks. "Managed to get these to me to give to you."

They all accepted a credstick, which Skyler let his holdouts slip back up his sleeves before accepting his. He promptly slotted the credstick to move the funds off of it and onto another credstick before pocketing the gold one. The full twenty-one thousand nuyen had been on that single credstick.

"Then that's it, I guess." Athena said, standing.

"Yup. Just stay low for a few days and this oughta blow over." Peace Man told them, again holding up a hand in the peace gesture.

Without a word they left the back room. They met up with Phoebe "Ms. Johnson" Sauvageon just as she was stepping through the front door.

"I'm glad I could bump into you." Phoebe said. She was wearing a royal blue business suit this time, cut from the Synergist Business Line. This time she had her commlink switched off.

"Awe shit." Skyler muttered softly.

"What do you want?" Athena asked darkly.

"To give you your bonus, and a warning." Phoebe said.

Skyler was almost twitching to draw his Predators, wishing he had his openly carried and more intimidating looking Warhawk at his hip, when Phoebe reached inside her jacket and pulled out five credsticks.

"You're paying us even though we didn't actually do your job?" Athena asked.

"They didn't do it after all?" Mina silently asked.

"You might not be as realistic as I had hoped, but you're still useable to us." Phoebe told them, "But I also said I had a warning."

Skyler slotted the new credstick, but this time was careful to scan it first before doing anything else. Turned out there was no duplicity or deception on the credstick. Only three thousand nuyen that he decided to send to the same other credstick he had.

"Figured your fat bonus was a big fat deal." Skyler said. "Next time you oughta consider upping the cred."

"Pay's not always in cash." Phoebe said, smiling like a viper ready to strike. "Just letting you know that the Neo-A's don't trust you."

"Really? That's no big surprise to me." Athena said.

"I'll be surprised if you really trust us." Nocturne added.

"I may not trust you, but I do trust what you will do." Phoebe said, "That's all that matters."

"Lemme give you a guy's number." Skyler said, "You can ask him about a Vory princess and what happened to her right ear last summer."

"That won't be necessary." Phoebe said.

"Oh, I think it will." Skyler said darkly.

"Unless you believe me when I tell you that even these kids won't suffer betrayal from anyone," Athena said, "you'll want to look her up."

Phoebe's demeanor was unflappable. "Do whatever you like, then." she said, turning to leave, "I've done what I've come to do."

"Yeah? Next time it'd better be a lot more than three grand!" Skyler called out to her as they followed her out of the restaurant.

"Or you can take the credstick and shove it up your ass!" Mina added.

Phoebe ignored them, getting into a waiting black sedan.

"C'mon, time to split." Nocturne said.

Skyler and Mina could not agree more.