Run 21 : Happenstance (based on the mission written by Mark Edwards; updated 2013/08/04)
The week had not been so bad. Sarah had stopped listening in on their wireless conversations, but Mina still had to share a room with her. At least they could also play some matrix games and such without the blond bounty hunter constantly looking over their shoulders.
At least there were a few more things to do. Seeing their cabin fever Sarah had come up with a few things to help get them out of the house. That was a bit of a trick as Rei had a rather nosy neighbor, and Sarah said that the neighbor would throw a major fit with the neighborhood committee if Rei had children living with her all of a sudden.
One day was a trip to a pool and water park for some fun and relaxation. After seeing Sarah in a bikini he was glad he had swimming trunks instead of a Speedo. One boy who thought he was real hot stuff while wearing the near skintight suit could not hide his true feelings whenever he saw Sarah. And Mina was just as cute in her black and yellow one-piece, which was nice to be able to see her in without the extra skirt.
On a later day it was out to somewhere in the middle of nowhere, between Boulder and Eldorado Springs, that Sarah took the both of them on Friday afternoon. Someone Sarah knew had a gun range, which Mina was not all that thrilled at visiting. Larry McFarren was the owner, and aside from renting range time to gun aficionados he also sold guns and ammo as well as fixed and rebuilt guns of all kinds. His business was not limited to just legal citizens, either.
An advantage of being nowhere near other people was that the owner could test fire some of the largest weapons with little risk of disturbing the average citizen. This included weapons that made really big booms when fired. One of the largest Larry had on hand was a futuristic looking rifle that was truly as long as he was tall. This one, John was told, was called the Thunderstruck by Ares.
John got a real kick out of being able to shoot some of the big guns, which included the monster Thunderstruck. His jaw dropped when he saw the hole the gauss rifle punched in the side of a decommissioned Ares Citymaster, an armored vehicle that could easily take small arms fire without even scratching the paint. Even his Ares Redline laser pistol barely did anything to it, though it burned some neat holes in a rusting Ford Americar.
Mina hated this more than she let on, flinching with every gunshot. Sarah had managed to talk the young magician into firing one gun at least once. She had managed three shots on a refurbished AK-97 before she put the assault rifle down and adamantly refused to do any more.
Afterwards was dinner at a Bangkok Hut, followed by a classical theater performance of Mina's choice. It was the Shakespeare play 'Much Ado About Nothing,' and classical in the sense that no AR, holograms, or magic was used in the performance at all, but had women playing the female characters. It was also a performance that left John feeling bored and tired through the majority of. On the plus side, Mina was leaning against his side and they held hands throughout the whole performance. Not once did Sarah even give them a look.
It was extremely late when they were on their way home. John had his seat in the back of Sarah's Ford Spiral with Mina leaning at his side.
"Hey kids, sorry to do this to you, but I've got a friend who says she needs a ride home." Sarah told them. Without waiting for an answer she turned off onto another street.
"Yeah, sure." mumbled John.
Their stop was at a bar. It looked like a middle-of-the-road kind of place, not being too outrageous with the advertising yet able to be prosperous by being at the intersection of two well traveled streets. The place was called Happenstance and tonight it was a happening place.
"What the fuck?" Sarah asked as she rushed her car into an empty parking space.
John and Mina also had to get out to try and get a better look. Once outside, and standing on tip toe to try and see over other cars, John thought he saw several people rushing to get out of the nightclub.
"Lacey, what's going on?" Sarah asked when a woman ran towards her. She was slim to the point of being almost too skinny, scantily dressed for clubbing, and had her medium length hair done up like a color wheel with orange draping down almost a little too long in front of her face. She had a high cut vest of blue fabric that had a pair of animatronics wings that fluttered in agitation, and a matching rainbow tail that John could not quite tell if it was attached to her body or just her blue skirt. John wondered if this was the friend they were picking up.
"I… I don't know!" stammered the rainbow haired woman. "I wanted to leave early but my friends didn't, and… and there were some gunshots…"
"John, get the door for her." Sarah said.
John opened the passenger side door as Sarah led her friend around to sit down. The rainbow haired woman practically collapsed into the seat like a sack of soybeans.
Sirens blared as several Knight Errant patrol cars rushed in. To make matters worse there was a DocWagon armored ambulance as well.
"Oh shit." John cussed when he saw the DocWagon EMTs rushing in. He had seen several trideos about them in general, and they were the kind of medics that you did not want to get in the way of. Survival of their clients meant they would shoot to kill to get that client out of harm's way.
"Well, well, well." came a familiar voice. "Never expected to see you here."
"Just picking up a friend." Sarah said. "So why're you here, Morph?"
"Just relaxing on a Friday night." Morph told them. "Thought maybe I'd find a date." He certainly looked dressed right for the nightclub, with a casual shirt and pants that sported multicolored LEDs that were still flashing some kind of sequenced pattern.
Mina pressed herself tightly to John's side. They both slipped am arm around each other.
"So just what happened in there?" Sarah asked, looking off to the nightclub.
"Not sure. Looked like there was gonna be some biz in a back room." Morph told them, tapping on his commlink and turning off the LEDs to his clothes. "Some Triad and other guys in suits, I think. Don't think someone there liked someone else."
"Well, looks like the LEOs won't be bothering us, so we'll see you 'round." Sarah said.
John took this as their cue to get into her car again.
The drive from the nightclub was slow and dull. With it being so late John found himself fighting to stay awake.
When John woke up he found himself still lying on the couch with his arms wrapped around Mina. They still had their clothes on from last night, less their shoes and socks, and a blanket was draped over the both of them.
Mina looked quite content lying next to him. Lazily he ran a hand up and down her back.
"Mmm… Don't get any ideas." Mina murmured.
Actually John was not getting any ideas that would have gotten them in trouble.
"Wasn't thinking anything like that." he told her.
"Yeah, right." teased Mina. She pushed herself to sit on top of John, straddling his waist. "I bet you've been thinking it."
"Bet you have too." John added, sitting upright and wrapping his arms around her. It felt better than he could describe, holding her so close. And it felt even better still when he felt her arms around him.
Mina's stomach gurgled, and they both laughed.
"'Bout time you two got up." Sarah said as they walked into the kitchen. "You two were so out of it you didn't even notice when I dropped my friend off." It did not look like she minded at all that they shared the couch to sleep on.
Rei was already there, eating what looked like lunch.
"You kids are gonna get so spoiled on this food." Sarah said as she cracked eggs to fry up.
"He's asked me about spending more on food at home." Mina said. "But I don't know how to cook."
"Just what have you two done for food, then?" Rei asked.
"Stuff from Stuffer Shack and such." John said.
Rei sighed.
"Hey, it's better than nothing." Sarah said.
"I know." Rei said. "But they can't stay here forever, either."
"If it's money you need…" John started to say, but stopped when Rey held up her hand.
"I'm sure you've got plenty, but there's other things you don't know about." Rei told them. "For starters, some of the neighbors don't even like the idea that Sarah and I live here together. And they think we're lesbians."
Already John was thinking these people were idiots.
"If we suddenly have children living here as well, well, the neighborhood association isn't going to like that."
"And come September you're gonna have to go to school, too." Sarah added. "And I'm pretty sure you didn't finish this year at all, John."
"Like I learned anything at that elementary school." John grumbled.
"Elementary school?" Rei asked.
"Other work." Sarah said.
"Oh, yeah, right." Rei replied. That seemed to settle things entirely.
"Algebra was a breeze, and English was dull." John said, propping his head between his hands as he rested his elbows on the table.
"Maybe like you'd taken the classes before?" Sarah asked.
"Dunno."
"Taken them before?" Rei asked.
Sarah looked like she was about to say something, but did not.
"Go ahead." mumbled John.
"John's an amnesiac." Sarah said. "He can't remember anything before February this year."
"Now that's odd." Rei said softly.
"Did… Did you try looking us up?" Mina asked.
"Sorry, but I did. Not that I was curious or meant to pry into your past. More of a habit, really." Rei told them.
John had to move his arms as Sarah sat two plates down on the table. He and Mina both got two scrambled eggs and a grilled cheese sandwich that had a slice of ham in it. Sarah was right. They were getting spoiled on the real food.
"Found almost nothing on you, John." Rei continued as they ate. "There's so little data that it almost seemed suspicious. Mina, on the other hand had more to find. Oh, don't worry, these were discrete. Under the table, so to speak."
"So what're we doing today?" Mina asked, chomping on her sandwich.
"Work." Sarah told them. "We've got a meeting with a Mr. Johnson at the Jade Emperor tonight at five."
"Another call?" John asked.
"I keep my implanted commlink on that business line so it's all nice and hush hush." Sarah said.
"I asked her so I wouldn't have to hear all of her shadow work calls." Rei added. "The less I know about it, the better."
"But you can still help a little." Sarah said. "Haven't you been to the Jade Emperor before?"
"Yes, once." Rei told them. "The Jade Emperor is a nightclub in the middle of Chinatown. You will find more traditionalists there, where honor, respect, and face matter more than anything else."
"Caller said it'd be good guanxi if we showed up." Sara said.
"Sounds right. If you do not show up for this meet, it will be taken as a sign of great disrespect on your part. The Triad will take greater offense to that than to whomever it was that destroyed the Jade Crane a few weeks ago." Rei told them.
John lost some of his appetite. It looked like Mina did too. But at least it sounded like they were in the clear. Her forgery trick with her spirit must have worked.
"So how's this guanxi supposed to work?" Sarah asked.
"It's a bit of social capital." Rei said, "A social 'lesser' is expected to pay appropriate honor to a 'better' and the 'better' is expected to treat his 'lesser' well."
"Sounds almost like the usual 'honor and respect' bit." Sarah said.
"Great. So if we don't show it's a hit to our rep?" muttered John.
"Sure is." Sarah said. "I think it's only bad if we don't show. We show and don't take the job, then we're fine."
The next few hours were spent relaxing a bit before actually getting ready for work. After a quick shower John was geared up. Well, almost as his handguns went into the trunk of Hunter's car once again before they headed out.
The Jade Emperor was not all that difficult to find, but it was in a stretch of Chinatown that John and Mina had not been in before. It was also quite a popular and classy nightclub, with men in gold colored uniforms parking the cars.
And they were expected. A hulking troll was the doorman to the nightclub, and when he saw them he waved them right on through. "It's happy hour, so make sure you have a drink." he said as they passed.
Chinese synth-pop was loudly playing when they entered, and a collection of people were on the dance floor enjoying themselves.
But they could not just walk right on in. The best John could figure was that the three people that stopped them just inside were guards, and they were quite insistent in frisking them. Mina did not look pleased at the thought of someone's hands touching her. Sarah whispered something to one of them, and for whatever reason John could figure they did not get frisked.
They did not get any drinks at the bar. Instead they got an escort straight from the front door to a private room. The music almost disappeared once the doors closed behind them.
Morph was already there. Also inside was someone sitting in a high backed chair with his or her back to them, and a single bodyguard. Decorations for the room were sparse to say the least. At least it was not the inside of a storage unit.
At 17.00 sharp the bodyguard whispered something into the seated person's ear. The chair turned around and John saw an older Chinese man sitting there. He had short cut gray hair and wore a business suit John guessed was rather expensive.
"We are missing one." Mr. Johnson said.
"Yeah, I don't think he's gonna show." Morph said.
"Very well. You will have to do. Time now is of the essence, a precious commodity we cannot waste." Mr. Johnson told them.
John wondered who it could be that was not here.
"I have it on good authority that you were at Happenstance last night when a shootout took place." Mr. Johnson told them. "An unknown man was there to deliver a package and instructions for a delivery somewhere in Chinatown. My associates went there to discuss this matter. They failed.
"I have it on good authority that you have seen the smugglers who were there." Mr. Johnson continued, "What I need for you to do is seek them out as they have gone to ground. There must be another meet for them soon, otherwise they won't get paid."
"So what exactly is it we'll be doing?" Morph asked.
"Find the smugglers, the meet, and find who they are working for." Mr. Johnson told them. "You must also find where the package was sent from, and its final destination. You will be paid three thousand nuyen each. More depending on how much information you are able to find out. Like what the package is, who is moving it, and how."
"So we just watch these people? No shooting or killing?" Mina asked.
"I expect you to defend yourselves." Mr. Johnson said. "Just watch, and nothing more. You were chosen because you can be discrete."
John did his best to keep a straight face. If only this guy knew some of the things John did.
"Okay." Mina said.
"Three thousand to spy on someone for a day or two?" Morph asked.
"This is strictly a 'look and see' kind of job. If you are good you should be able to remain undetected." Mr. Johnson told them.
"Count me in." Morph said.
"Sure." John added.
"Good. Here is an image of the man from Happenstance." Mr. Johnson said, and an ARO appeared. John mentally queried the file, finding it to be a public file but with something strange to it. "Find him and you will find the rest."
"Yeah, I saw the guy there." Morph said. "Looked like he got shot. Was carted off by DocWagon."
John pulled a copy of the image and saved it to the commlink built into his goggles.
"Right then. Let's go." Morph said.
They all said nothing as they walked back out of the Jade Emperor. It was not until they got to their vehicles that Sarah spoke.
"Right, so where're we off to first?"
"Happenstance first. I think I can get some info from the bartenders there."
Morph rode with them on the way to the nightclub. John felt rather bored as he watched the city go by.
It was not any better once they got there. He sighed as Sarah and Morph walked into Happenstance, leaving John and Mina to sit in the car.
"This so sucks." Mina said. She looked about as happy as John felt, which was not very good. He had to remind himself it was because they were kids and the place did not allow anyone under the age of twenty-one in.
John went to a matrix site that offered free games to play. After a few rounds from several games the doors opened and Sarah and Morph sat back down in the front seats.
"We got a name to go with the pic." Sarah said.
"Samuel Halbert." Morph said, "A middle management accountant at XCR."
John remembered about Xeverus Cosmetics Research. He created an ARO and started searching for anything he could find on this man.
"He's apparently the kind of guy who really likes the high life." Morph added.
"High life?" Mina asked.
"Luxury stuff." Sarah said, "Upscale penthouses, gambling, parties…"
"Got it." Mina said.
"Got hired by XCR right out of college, with an MBA." John said, reading off some details he found about Samuel Halbert.
"Well, I'm waiting on a call from someone about where he's at now." Sarah said. "Not really much we can do until then."
John and Mina silently worked out a movie to watch together, settling on a simsense polyPOV anime movie with action and bit of a romantic bend to it. He had watched the whole movie from the main hero's point of view. Coming back to reality found himself still in the back seat of Sarah's car with Mina comfortably relaxing at his side.
They were no longer at Happenstance.
"Where are we?" John asked.
"A McHugh's down on Evans." Morph said.
"Why didn't you tell us we were going somewhere?" asked Mina.
Sarah said, "Wouldn't've done any good. We're waiting for everyone to show up. Meet's supposed to happen 'round ten tonight."
John sighed. At least it was not too long to wait.
"Hopefully they'll show." Morph said. "If their meet was supposed to be last night, and things really got fucked up then, then they might be a bit nervous about being here."
Ten o'clock came and went.
"Think maybe they're already there?" Morph asked.
"They'd show up almost two hours before the meet?" Sarah asked back. "Remember what my contact said. This team's about as unprofessional as they come. They're only still getting work because they're old college buddies with the target."
"Pros show up really early?" Mina asked.
"Some do." Sarah told them.
"And they're meeting here?" John asked.
"Yeah. McHugh's on Evans." Morph said.
On a hunch John did a general search on the McHugh's restaurant chain in Denver.
"Um, guys. You know there's another one west of here?" John asked.
"Shit. You think we chose the wrong one?" Morph asked.
"You're the one that suggested this one because it's farther from Happenstance." Sarah said, starting up her car.
It took only minutes to get to the other restaurant, less than three blocks away.
"So what're we gonna do?" Mina asked when Sarah parked the car.
"I'm gonna go in and get us some food." Sarah said, "Cypher'll hitch a ride through my link and we'll try to track down Sam and his team."
Wirelessly John received a name and password to Sarah's implanted commlink. He had seriously limited access, but could see through her cybernetic eyes.
"And the rest of us just sit here?" Morph asked.
"You can come in if you want. Best if the kids stay here." Sarah said.
John sighed as he let himself slip into virtual reality. Sarah's vision felt more sharp and cold as he rode within her commlink. Harsh statistics scrolled by at the edges of her sight as she ran a scanning program to identify other wireless devices nearby.
Samuel Halbert was there, and Sarah's eyes fell over him more than once. He was in a large booth with five others; an elf, two humans, and two dwarves.
Apparently an order for food had been placed, and Sarah had her back turned to the kitchen. This gave her a great view of the rest of the restaurant. John watched as various commlinks were identified, including those of Samuel and his five friends. One of them started blinking, and John took it as a silent suggestion from Sarah to start hacking that particular one. The commlink looked like it belonged to the female dwarf sitting in the booth.
With the ID available it was not particularly hard at all to find. A quick look suggested it was a low grade commlink, and he quickly forced his way through its firewall.
Inside this commlink did not feel like anything special. Some of the interior sculpting had been customized, but it really was just options from within the Mangadyne Deva operating system. There was a running remote control program connected to a Sikorsky-Bell Microskimmer drone that looked like was watching over the McHugh's back door.
Through Sarah's eyes he saw everyone at the table get up and leave. She then looked off to the side and saw Morph hand her a sack, and together they followed the others out the front door.
The microskimmer drone met up with the female dwarf just as they reached a black and red GMC Bulldog Step-Van. All but one of the team got in, with the other man climbing onto a Suzuki Mirage racing motorcycle of his own.
John held his connection to the dwarf's commlink as he brought himself back to the real world. Mina, who apparently had put his arm around her, was looking like she was just waking up when Sarah and Morph opened their doors. Knowing her, John figured she had been doing some astral recon instead of napping.
"Still got them?" Sarah asked as she passed her sack to Mina.
"If that dwarf's their hacker, then they're in trouble." John said as Mina passed him a burger. "Commlink's shit and she only had one drone watching the back door."
"Like you've ever had any drones on overwatch for a meet." Morph said.
John had to concede that point. Then again, he never felt like someone was gunning for his ass at the time he had a meeting with a Mr. Johnson.
"So who're we following?" Morph asked.
"The other team." Sarah said as she pulled out behind the van. She followed them as they continued east on Evans and onto Iliff Avenue.
All the while John was able to follow them by the connection to the dwarf's commlink. He wondered if the dwarf had any clue that he was following them.
"Pull over a sec." Morph said suddenly.
"What is it?" Sarah asked.
"I don't think we're the only ones following them."
Like she was going to turn off of Iliff Avenue, Sarah switched to the outside lane and began to slow down. John could feel the commlink slipping further away as he kept up his trace on it.
"Shit, you're right." Sarah said as she got her car back up to speed again.
"What is it?" Mina asked.
"Two black Americars were behind us all the way." Morph said. "And I think the other team's gonna be in trouble."
"Like those trids? Government black cars and all?" John asked, sounding not too serious.
"Life sometimes imitates art, kid."
John focused his mind towards the closer Ford Americar to them, a wagon, scanning for its node. He soon had it, and a few others that seemed oddly familiar to him, and decided to barrel straight into hacking his way in.
He was through in a few seconds. The node itself looked like it was factory new, or maybe it was just recently reformatted or something.
Looking more carefully John tried to find anything that might be a clue.
"Closer car's too freaking clean." John said aloud.
"Yup. Sounds like government or mob." Morph said.
Two of the access IDs that were connected to the car seemed weird compared to the other four. John chose one of them and quickly forced his way into it as well.
"Shit." John cussed when he realized he had set off an alert in the new node. Without saying more he slipped his mind into VR to better deal with it.
This strange node turned out to be a drone's, and its operating system was already fighting back against John. On top of that the rigger had logged in as well and was already aggressively scanning everything.
"What's going on?" Mina asked.
John had barely called on a sprite of his to help. The little floating skull stealthfully darted around the rigger's icon poking it with fragmented code to try and confuse the user. That bought him just enough time to figure out what kind of drone he was in.
"They got two Doberman drones in the closer car." John told her as he wrestled with an icon to get him the drone's sensor feeds. It kept crashing, but what John managed to see and hear did make him believe that the passengers were the government type. "I think they're mafia."
Growing frustrated with the node's continued resistance John called up another sprite. The little skull that was his machine sprite seemed quite happy to dig itself into the drone's operating system to help subvert it to John's control.
"Sarah says to do what you can to fuck 'em over." Mina relayed to John.
Wondering if he was physically smiling, John gleefully slammed a fist into the virtual floor of the drone's node. With a hard twist of code he could feel the node's alert status fading.
Problem was, the rigger was still logged in as well. He pulled out one of his large pistols and shot the rigger's icon with bolts of disruptive code. After the third shot the icon disappeared.
"Well, here goes nothing." John said as he jumped himself into the Doberman drone.
It was a strange sensation actually being the drone itself. The drone itself was in the very back seat of the station wagon, sitting next to a similar Doberman drone. The camera was his eye, and he could feel the lens shifting as it focused on the others in the car. The drone also had a microphone installed so John could hear.
"What the hell happened?" asked one of the men in the car.
"I got attacked!" cried another of the men. "That dwarf hacker is still in that drone still!"
"Shit! The Don's not gonna be happy if they get away." cussed the first man.
The Doberman was armed with an Ingram White Knight machinegun. Before the others could try to do anything John stood himself up on all four legs and unloaded a wide spray of bullets into them.
The car suddenly swerved, knocking John off his feet. He could feel the other Doberman slam into him, but the armor held against the impact. The next thing John knew he was slammed against the other drone and his world was sideways.
The Americar had wrecked and was now on its side on the sidewalk. Still having a virtual hand in the car's node, John had it release the back door so he could climb out of it. The other Doberman did nothing.
"What happened?" Mina asked frantically.
The interior of the station wagon was a bloody mess. Three of the four men inside had their heads blown out from the machinegun fire. It was a disgusting mess worthy of a Hollywood horror trid.
"I fucked 'em over." John replied. With the station wagon pretty much useless now he logged off its node.
Imitating the access ID of the rigger, John sent a command to the other Doberman to right itself and follow him. Thankfully it did just that.
John could see the other Americar coming back to them. He could also see Sarah's white Ford Spiral pulling up as well.
"What happened?" he heard Sarah ask as she opened her car door.
"Just stay the fuck back." an elf in a black suit barked.
"They're mafia for sure." John told Mina.
John felt quite unsteady on his metal legs, and he was not even sure where the machinegun on his back was now aiming. At least he was able to tell the other Doberman that the five from the other car were enemies to be killed.
With a burst of gunfire the drone unloaded into the elf.
Figuring out how the turret worked on his drone, John was able to figure where his own machinegun was aiming. He focused his fire into the car as the other Doberman continued firing. It did not take long to turn the Americar into a holy mess.
"Shit!" Sarah cussed, jumping back into her car. Without waiting she quickly sped off.
John quickly hacked his way into the other Doberman, setting off an alert in that drone as well. Once he had the alert silenced in the other drone he compiled a second machine sprite and left it in the second drone. Pulling himself out of being a Doberman drone, John set both machine sprites to follow him in Sarah's car.
"Looks like they're still following us." John heard Mina say as he brought himself back to the real world.
"Fuck." Sarah muttered.
"Who's following us?" John asked.
"Those two gun drones." Sarah answered.
"Yeah, I told 'em to."
"Shit, you stole 'em?" sighed Sarah.
"You said to fuck 'em over however I could." John told her. "I was one of those drones, and I used its gun on the guys in the car."
"You got any idea how much shit we can be in?" Morph asked. "The Star's gonna be called in for the gunfire because you decided to shoot it up in the middle of a residential block!"
"Hey! I was told to fuck over some mob guys, so I did!" John cried. "Fuck, you're almost as bad as Griff."
"Cypher, please tell us you still got that dwarf's commlink." Sarah said, sounding quite worn out.
"Duh, of course I do."
John gave directions while Sarah did her best to catch up to the Bulldog Step-Van. Their destination ended up in an industrial district close to the UCAS border, a complex labeled Atlas Cold Storage on Bethany Drive. The man on the motorcycle stayed on the street while the van went into the factory complex.
The two drones were kept discretely behind, John prompting them to places to hide as best he could.
"Firefly, why don't you pop out and try to see if you can see something." Sarah suggested.
"Okay." Mina said sullenly.
John could see very little from the back seat. Apparently he did not need to when Morph spoke.
"Unmarked van, and an XCR logo on a box." the elf said.
"Xeverus Cosmetics Research." John said softly.
"You know something about them?" Morph asked.
"Head honcho's Alesandro Ibáñez. Did a job for him 'bout a month and a half ago."
"Think he's the one that bailed out Sam?" Sarah asked.
"Source said it had to be someone high up. Could've been Ibáñez." Morph said.
John saw the van drive off, the man on the motorcycle following them.
"Looks like that's the end of their involvement." Sarah said.
Mina shifted, sitting up. "Nothing magical about this." she told them.
"So now what do we do?" John asked.
"Think he'd wanna know what's in the box?" Morph asked.
"Certainly." Sarah said, "But going in now could be quite suspicious."
John pulled out one of two burgers from the McHugh's sack Sarah had given Mina earlier. Through his connection to the Doberman drones he began editing them for his personal use. Hopefully their previous owners would not be able to track them down.
Mina was not eating hers. She just sat there, looking at her hands on her lap.
"Hey Cypher, you think we can disarm those two drones?" Sarah asked.
"Why?" John asked, running two fingers over his right ear.
"We might not get a Star patrol around here, but those guns aren't legal for the common man to have."
"Fine." John said with a sigh. He sent an order to both Dobermans to stand down to be disarmed.
Sarah had him help her remove the machineguns from their mountings. Both were placed in the trunk of her car, along with the remaining belts of ammunition.
While they waited, John mentally poked around the Atlas Cold Storage facility's wireless network. Threading up some of his abilities he went to hacking his way into that network. He was easily in and did not set off any alerts.
After poking around a bit, and checking out all of the physical security features he had access to, which included a pair of armed Doberman drones that patrolled the complex, he found a new node he had not yet seen. There was no signals from it at all as near as John could tell, so he to hacking his way into that node as well.
This new node was for their business and accounting, and included a record of their shipments and maintenance records for their small fleet of vehicles.
A lot of the data made more sense to John than he expected, and among the irregular data entries, falsified accounts, missing or incomplete records, and other questionable accounting practices included a maintenance record for their fleet of vehicles. What was weird about this last part was that each of the vans averaged twice weekly repairs, and this had been going on for months.
He mentioned these details to the others.
It was just after midnight when Sarah said, "I think we'll be fine going in."
"All of us?" Morph asked.
John yawned.
"Maybe if Cypher can get their security system taken care of, first." Morph added.
"I'm already in it." John told them. "Just a little tired's all."
"Um…" Mina said softly, scooting really close to John. She seemed to hesitate just a little. Then to everyone's surprise she pressed her lips to his.
For a brief moment there was nothing else in the world. It was just John and Mina for a precious few seconds.
Then they parted, and John was feeling wide awake.
"Wow." he said.
Sarah cleared her throat.
"Sorry." Mina said shyly.
"Little bit of magic?" Morph asked. The grin he had made John suddenly feel very overheated in the backseat of Sarah's car.
Sarah was a little hard to read, whether or not she was getting pissed off at their affections, or what. At least she was not giving them a lecture again.
"Yeah." Mina said, trying to look away from him.
"Well, if you could ask a spirit to help hide us, and Cypher does his thing, I think Hunter and I can sneak in and take a peek at what was in that crate." Morph said.
Mina closed her eyes and took a deep breath, letting it out slowly. "Okay, he'll help."
"Thanks." Sarah and Morph said as got out of the car. Maybe Sarah was more focused on the job at hand, a little busy to be too angry at John or Mina.
John watched through the various security cameras as best as he could so he could unlock doors for Sarah and Morph as they carefully made their way through the facility.
Some time later Sarah and Morph were back in her car and John was finishing cleaning up the recorded security video.
"So what's the stuff?" John asked as he started wiping traces from the access logs.
"Bunch of vials. A cocktail of anabolic steroids." Morph said.
"Now we sit and wait." Sarah added. "If that info you got us is right, then the van they're loaded in will be heading out in a few hours."
"We also planted a tag in the crate." Morph said.
"Oh, right. I almost forgot." Sarah said.
John received the tag's ID and information he needed so he could track it.
"Once the van leaves, hack it and activate the GridGuide system." Sarah told him. "We'll also use that to track where they ship the crate. Firefly, if you can, ask that spirit to follow the van too."
"At least it's a wind spirit." Mina said softly.
At 01.45 a van pulled out from Atlas Cold Storage. Sarah was good about following them. Hacking it and turning on the GridGuide was almost too easy for John. He passed the details Sarah she needed to follow it.
About fifteen minutes later the van pulled off at what looked like an abandoned apartment complex. Sarah continued past, and at the first opportunity circled around back. She parked at a spot where John figured they would be able to see the van come back out again. The unarmed Doberman drones shadowed her car closely, staying behind like her car was the alpha wolf of a pack. At least they were still following John's orders.
"Still picking up the tag." Sarah said.
"My sprit doesn't like being close to the place." Mina said. "Says the place feels wrong. Not a big deal, but it's just uncomfortable."
John did not feel like asking for more details. From the silence of the others, apparently they felt the same way.
After a few minutes, Morph asked, "Little late for someone to be out sitting on a park bench, isn't it?"
"After two A.M.? Yeah, why?" Sarah asked.
Morph simply pointed over to a bench where a human Amerindian was sitting. His long black hair was straight and pulled back, and he wore blue jeans and a brown leather jacket. Was it John's imagination or was the guy talking to himself?
"You thinking of talking to him?" Sarah asked.
"Why not?" Morph asked back. "Might be able to get some info. And if he's just some old kook then we're not really out anything." With that he got out of the car.
John decided to get out too, and Mina was not close behind. Hearing one more car door close, John figured Sarah was right behind them too.
"Evening." Morph said as they walked up to the Amerindian.
"Evening." the Amerindian replied. "Nice night, isn't it? Kind of late for children, though, isn't it?" It was odd how he did not look at them when he spoke.
John could feel the commlinks of the others, even though they were hidden, but he could not feel anything at all from the Amerindian.
"Not like it's a school night." John quickly said back.
"True." the Amerindian said. "So what brings young folk like yourselves to a neighborhood like this in the middle of the night?"
"Work, really." Morph said.
"How can you tell it's night?" Sarah asked.
That was when John noticed it. The Amerindian's eyes were milky white like those of a blind person.
"He's not alone." Mina said. "He's got several spirits floating around here."
The Amerindian smiled. "The young lady's correct." he said. "And I'm quite aware you've got a few of your own."
"So what does bring a man like you out to a place like this?" Morph asked.
"Same as you, I believe." the Amerindian said. "I'm following something. And I've heard whispers that the Triad have started wondering about what's happening on their turf."
"And I take it you're with the Koshari?" Morph asked. "
Again the Amerindian smiled. "Maybe an exchange of some information is in order." he said. "We certainly are working for the same ends, if maybe not the same people. That is, if the young lady would permit me the luxury of a simple spell."
"I don't know." Sarah said.
The Amerindian said, "Oh, it's nothing to worry about. It's a simple spell to help me discern if you're telling the truth or not. People such as yourselves likely have such tools to help as well."
"We do." Morph said. He nodded to Sarah like he was signaling it would be okay.
"Right, very well." Sarah relented.
The Amerindian took a breath and held it for a moment. John did not notice anything different.
"So, anything you know?" the Amerindian asked.
"Well, we know this's starting with a Samuel Halbert." Morph said, "And he's using some old college buddies that call themselves Blood And Mayhem to do some of the smuggling."
"I see." the Amerindian said, "And somewhere along the way it ends up here for a while. That building is really a Vory hideout. But how they're getting here is something I'm trying to puzzle out."
"Why's that?" John asked.
"The Casquilho control territory that these shipments are going through. It's a wonder they haven't caught on yet." the Amerindian told them.
"They're off grid." John replied.
"Ah, that makes sense now." the Amerindian said thoughtfully. "And I'm afraid I might not have much more info that's of use to you."
"You can't be serious. If you've been watching this place then you'll know more about it." Morph said.
"But I've never been inside. That building's rather well protected. Magically speaking, that is." the Amerindian said.
"The place is warded, and there's lots of spirits going about." Mina said. "And the place's tainted."
"Yes, it does feel fuzzy over there." the Amerindian told them. John wondered if this fuzzy feeling was the same for whenever he was in a spam zone or there was a lot of static in the matrix signals.
"That what one of your spirits told you?" Morph asked.
Mina nodded.
"Time to go." Sarah told them. "There's some activity going on over there."
John could not see much towards the apartment complex. But when Sarah and Morph both started walking back towards her car John decided it would be best to just take her word for it. They all got in just as the marked van was pulling out onto Potomac Street.
"So what'd you see?" asked Morph.
"Some men loading body bags into the van." Sarah said.
"Body bags? With people in them?" Mina asked. She was looking pale, which was accentuated by her black jacket and black colored hair.
"Yeah, with people in them." Sarah said morosely.
The van took a bit of a roundabout path to the East Sixth Avenue border crossing, heading east to go north on Peoria rather than take Potomac straight up.
"Shit, I hope we can make the border crossing." Sarah said softly.
"What's the problem?" asked Morph.
"His drones."
"We could take a coyote path under the border and meet you on the other side." John suggested. "Two kilometers back, and we can meet you somewhere on the other side."
"I don't know…" Sarah said.
"Not like we got time to mess around. We're on a job, ya know." Mina added.
"Fine." Sarah relented.
John and Mina were quick to get out as soon as Sarah pulled over.
"So, how're we gonna do this?" Mina asked.
At John's command the Dobermans knelt down. They looked like they just might be big enough to carry them.
"We ride 'em." John said as he climbed onto one Doberman.
"You sure?" Mina asked.
The drone felt like it was a little slow to stand back up on its four legs.
"Yeah, I'm sure." John said, sounding more confident than he felt.
"Um, okay." Mina said as she hesitantly climbed onto the other drone.
The GM-Nissan Doberman drone was not built to be ridden by anybody. What it had been built for was to patrol borders and carry a big gun through some of the roughest terrain possible. They were hard to hold onto as the drones ran as quickly as John dared them to. Then there was the part of the turret that held whatever weapon was meant for the drone, poking them in very uncomfortable places.
The coyote path John was thinking about had an entrance on the CAS side in the basement of a dilapidated parking garage near the intersection of Havana and Sixth. Luck was with them as it looked like it was still serviceable.
Their trip underground was thankfully uneventful, though John did notice that there were no vagrants on their path. They did meet another coyote traveling the other way, but neither side stopped to talk.
After surfacing John directed them towards home. Once there the drones were stashed with the rest of John's growing robot pack.
"Sure she won't figure out where we live?" Mina asked as they walked towards North Sable Boulevard.
"Pretty sure." John said as he sent Sarah a text on where to meet them. He also told her in the message that the drones were stashed somewhere.
Some time later came Sarah's car, driving the rotting road from the Warrens.
"We managed to track them to their next stop." Sarah told them as they climbed into the back seat.
"Just how many more stops are there gonna be?" Mina asked.
"Not sure. But this time we're thinking of checking the place out." Morph said.
"And all of us, too." Sarah added. "I'm sure we'll need your help this time."
John double checked that he has his two yokujin drones in his pocket. They were there.
"And Cypher, don't forget to get your guns out of the back." Sarah told him.
"Um, okay." John said.
Sarah circled around and drove south into the Warrens. Just as he was starting to wonder just how far in they were going she turned west.
"Certainly wasn't a great place to pick you kids up." Morph told them.
At the very northwest corner of the Warrens, almost snug with the wall between I-225 and the UCAS sector, was an abandoned mall. With the headlights turned off she carefully drove around to the back side of the mall.
Morph was more right than he knew. The place was about two kilometers away from the abandoned storage yard that John and Mina called home.
"We followed the truck to that loading bay." Sarah told them, "We saw them unloading it before we got your message. Catch is being able to get close. I'm sure they're gonna have security cameras watching the place."
John unbuckled his seatbelt and pulled out his yokujin drones. "Got these. Let them check it out first."
"Good idea." Sarah said.
Morph cracked his window open so the drones could fly out. With an ARO for each he watched from their viewpoints as they flew for the loading bay at the back of the mall. They skirted low to the ground for most of the way, suddenly zipping up high when they got close. The two perched themselves on the wall just inside of the loading bay.
It looked like the loading bay had not been cleaned in ages, with the raised loading dock and walls were stained like shit with years of soot from diesel engines. Off to the side, and in plain view of a security camera, with a mounted submachine gun, were a set of double doors that were shut tight.
"You're right. They've got an armed camera watching there." John told them.
"Shit." Morph cussed.
"How's it angled?" asked Sarah. She did not sound surprised that the security camera had a gun next to it.
"I don't think we could sneak up on the door. I think I can hack it, though." John said.
"Go for it."
John prodded Laserbeak to head to the camera and connect itself to it. Flying high to the ceiling the tiny drone reached the camera and used its tapper equipment to make a connection.
The camera itself was not trapped or encrypted, and John was able to breach the firewall quite easily. The gun was connected to the camera, and was running extra software to aid in its targeting.
"I'm in. Lucky it's a cheap setup." he told the others as he checked out the camera. From inside the node he was able to find a lone connection going to another node. He went straight to forcing his way through the firewall of this next node.
There was a lot more to the next node. There was no programmed gravity here, and it was laid out like a security room where a person would watch a dozen security cameras. In here there were two rows of four AROs, each one of them a different security camera, including the one that Laserbeak was connected to.
"Can you hide us from the camera?" Morph asked.
"Yeah, but why?" John asked. Through his mind he forwarded the security camera feeds to the others.
"Thank you cheap electronics." commented Sarah.
"Can you move any of the cameras around?" Morph asked.
"Not a good idea, even if we can." Sarah said right away. "Maybe if you could zoom in on a spot and enhance it?"
"I think so." John said, hoping he knew how he would be able to do this.
"The lower right corner on the camera marked 'Storage'." Morph said.
John saw a collection of boxes in the area Morph was talking about. Focusing his mind on them he was able to enlarge that part of the image and sharpen it.
"Wow, good job." commented Sarah. "And good catch. XCR boxes, and they're opened. This certainly's the last stop."
"What's with these other three?" Mina asked. "They're marked 'Prison Cells'."
John looked at the three Mina was talking about. The view was almost identical between three of the AROs, but it was clear that each was a view of five different prison cells. But it was what one of them showed that creeped him out.
Three people were slowly moving along the cells, with drawn and pale skin and no body hair.
"Ghouls." Sarah said, sounding almost as creeped out as John was feeling.
"Eww." Mina went.
"Looks like it's feeding pills from an XCR box to whoever's in the cells." Morph said.
"I've seen enough." Sarah said. "I think we've got plenty for Mr. Johnson.
"At least let me get my drones back." John said, cutting his connection to the ghoul's network and sending a return order to his yokujin drones.
"Of course." Sarah said. She did, however, start the engine to her car.
It was not long before the drones were back, and Sarah wasted no time in driving away.
"Almost four in the morning. Think Mr. Johnson'll be too pissed if we called him now?" Morph asked.
"I'll send a text." Sarah said as she headed north.
It was after six in the morning before Sarah even began heading towards the Jade Emperor.
There were no valets working and the parking lot was nearly empty when they got there. Getting in was easier, partly because the nightclub was technically closed and there were no customers.
Mina was leaning heavily against John as they walked to the back office. She was looking as tired as he was feeling right now.
Inside was a single bodyguard with Mr. Johnson. Both looked a little less professional than the evening before, but considering the early morning hour John figured it was understandable. It was not like he or Mina were dressed for the high class social clubs themselves.
"I'm glad to see all of you in good health." Mr. Johnson said. "So, what do you have to report?"
Sarah recanted the night, starting with following the package to Atlas Cold Storage, then to Catchkey Lake Apartments, and finally the mall in the Aurora Warrens. She also mentioned Samuel Halbert and his connection to XCR, as well as his college buddies of Blood And Mayhem and where they lived.
She also mentioned the interest of the Koshari and Casquilhos in Samuel and the package, that it was a variety of anabolic steroids, how the trucks were moving through Chinatown, and the involvement with the Vory and Tamanous. She concluded with the steroids being used to bulk up their 'doners'.
"Quite an impressive story." Mr. Johnson said once Sarah had finished. "And plenty of extra information, too. Sounds like a job well done."
John accepted the payment transfer, a total of eleven thousand nuyen. Were the extra details Sarah gave really worth that much?
"Nice doing business with you." Morph said as he turned to leave.
Sarah bowed.
With Mina still leaning on John, he just dipped his head.
It was close to seven-thirty by the time they got back to Rei's place. Mina was almost hanging off of John as they walked into the kitchen. He was not feeling so energetic either as he trudged in.
"Not too bad for a night's work, wasn't it?" Sarah asked.
"Yeah." mumbled Mina.
"Worn out?"
"Yeah." John said.
"Well, go on upstairs you two and take a nap." Sarah told them.
Neither John nor Mina said anything as they went upstairs. They did not reach their rooms, and instead crashed on the entertainment room couch.
I am not likely to be as quick with the next few chapters this summer. Actually being able to work has put a crimp in the amount of time I can apply to writing. I do plan on finishing up the Denver series, but I just don't know when that'll be.