Thursday 30/9/60, Location:51.50211, -126.14977, Time 17:45

Rad led them over towards the corner of the church plot, just below the bank leading up to Interstate-5. The ground was scrubby and full of weeds, with half buried garden furniture and old bikes nestled amongst the undergrowth – it looked like nobody had been here in years.

"So, I was thinking of sinking the shaft here, down about ten metres to get us well below the sewer lines and other services, and then excavating back towards the Church?" Rad waved his arms around as he explained what he wanted, confirming the details with Tads. She in turn nodded and then checked the area astrally. The manasphere was polluted by virtue of being in the city and the general levels of toxic byproducts that were an everyday part of life in the metroplex, seasoned with a good dose of metahuman misery and despair – but there wasn't anything particular about this spot that would get in the way. She drew in the mana required and cast her spell, pushing earth out and carving a two metre square shaft out of the ground that sunk two and a half metres deep.

Rad smiled at the sudden appearance of the hole, but Tads raised a cautionary hand.

"Yes, it's fast. But we need to get something in to secure the walls while I go deeper, and once underground we'll need to prop things. I can move the earth quickly, but it remains just earth. If nature won't support the position I move it to, as soon as the spell ends, it will collapse. So we need to secure the insides."

"Gotcha. Null sheen. Let me go get some people and gear, and get people moving on the vehicle parking." He headed back towards the church, pulling his phone out and starting to make calls. Fang remained at the scene with Tads, examining the hole carefully and critically, then assensing the area and studying the decaying spell signature. Tads didn't see a way to stop her, at least not politely… it would be hours before the signature disappeared naturally, and if she tried to dissipate the energies now in front of Fang it would be a clearly in response to her presence. Tads didn't want her to determine her astral signature or learn any more about her than she could help – but with how many spells she was going to be casting, the odds of her preventing that were essentially none. She sighed to herself, and realised it was probably best to accept it with good grace, and instead found a spot to sit and meditate, trying to clear her mind and rest before she had to start work on the rest of the digging.

Rad quickly organised moving the vehicles, with a number of shady-looking characters coming out to move or claim each one. Most of them were carrying suspicious-looking bulges under jackets or coats, indicating that a heavyweight pistol or sub-machine gun were being carried, while a few openly carried swords or even had an assault rifle on a sling. The locals ignored them completely, staying out of sight as best they could, leaving only the Shadowrunners and Smuggler team in view, sizing each other up carefully. When all the vehicles were shifted, a few of the runners helped roll the tilt-wing under cover – there was only a few of them, but like most of the team they were fit, healthy and many were augmented with cybernetics, and they had more of a problem stopping the bird from hitting the back of the tent than they did with the actual pushing.

Once it was in position and the front cover of the tent was pulled back into position, Rad rounded up several of the runners and some materials and headed over towards Tads and the formative hole. Dragging a large wagon loaded down with supplies was a large and burly troll, his bald head revealing leathery flesh and small horns. Despite his size, he moved with grace and a certain smoothness that they'd come to associate now with wired reflexes. Accompanying him was a fairly burly Afro-Caribbean wearing a very loud and bright shirt and a pair of cut off trousers, who against all probability, was wandering around with some kind of spear-gun over his shoulder. Third in the group was a fairly normal looking human male, in his late teens or early twenties wearing jeans and a sweater, over work shoes that were sure to become a major hazard once he got into the mud. He was lean and wiry though, with a shock of blond hair over an unremarkable bland face. The last of the group was what should also have been a fairly normal looking human, well built and trim. He was unremarkable in build and movement, but his fashion sense was…eclectic, to say the least. With Tartan trousers held up by rainbow braces, laid over a lime green shirt he showed that he'd heard of fashion, and had engaged with it gleefully. But adding the brown corduroy jacket over the top with a sheepskin collar and a crushed blue velvet bowtie, topped off with a bowler hat showed that while he was "doing" fashion, he clearly didn't "understand" fashion.

"So, this is Mace, Monk, Archie and Kenedy," Rad said, pointing at the troll, the man with the spear gun, smart shoes and the walking fashion disaster. "And they'll be helping out with the props and materials for the walls and stuff. So as you carve out each section, they'll move in and secure it behind you. Tads nodded in agreement and moved out of the way, letting the four of them grab the first plastic panels and drop them into place inside the shaft, then pushing them out to impact the walls. Once they'd braced everything, she cast her spell again, moving the edges of the first section back to evenly press against the new braces, then carving out below to extend deeper into the ground. When she had moved about as much as she could, she waved and they moved the next section in, repeating the process. Rad watched the first cycle, then nodded and turned away, heading back to the church and leaving Tads and the five locals to their work.

As the hole got deeper, Tads noticed that each of the locals had acquired a guardian spirit, watching over them and protecting them from slips and falls, courtesy of Fang. She was tempted to assense them to let the other shaman know that two could play at that game – but managed to restrain herself, and sat smugly on the moral high-ground instead. The got into a rhythm fairly quickly – Archie stayed up top and prepared the next set of materials and lowered them into the shaft, Mace and Monk did the heavy lifting and Kenedy managed the positions and checked the construction. Despite his fashion sense, his mind was sharp and quick, and he displayed a comprehensive knowledge of engineering and physics. With her ability to literally carve out the earth into the shape required, moving and molding rock and earth at her whim, it made the construction very easy and quick – the limiting factor was how quickly Mace and Monk could connect up the prefabricated supports and interlocking beams of the construction rig, and they managed to proceed at a rate that would make most civil engineers weep with frustration.

Fifteen metres above them, Marius was just laying out his toolkit when a head popped around the corner of the hanger. It belonged to a compact and squat ork, with mottled brown flesh showing through the closely shaved hair, interspaced with a number of datajacks.

"Heya fella! Watcha doing?" The ork spoke with an unusual accent – several of the sounds were higher than normal, and their voice seemed to rise on certain sounds. Marius wasn't sure where they were from, but assumed it was some kind of regional accent. They were at least understandable.

"The aircraft took some damage unfortunately, on our flight here, and is in urgent need of some maintenance."

"Do you wanna hand? I'm Tonka by the way." The ork came around the corner and into the structure fully, and Marius could see the marked and battered overalls over their body, stretching over their muscled form. A few tools stuck out of pockets, and a small wheeled truck followed behind them, carrying a thermos flask. As Tonka stopped, the toy truck also stopped behind them, then played a happy little tune and flashed its' lights.

"Do you know anything about helicopters, or tilt-wing mechanical systems?" Marius tried not to sound suspicious, wondering just who this was. They could be useful, or they could end up damaging his precious aircraft, and at the moment it was a coin-flip between them, and those weren't odds he really liked.

"Nah, not specifically. But I'm roight good with vehicles generally, and drones, and electronics and stuff." He gestured down to the little yellow toy truck flashing away at his heels. "I made this!" He also undid one of the buttons on his coveralls and pulled them open and for a heart-stopping moment, Marius wondered if he was going to strip… but instead he just pulled up his sweat stained t-shirt and then popped open a body compartment that was very similar to the one Marius had himself. A small drone popped out, the size of a dragon-fly and started to circle around him, rising up towards the ceiling. "And this little fella. Roight good for surveillance on jobs yaknow."

"Ahh – you are good with drones? Perhaps you can help then. I have a surveillance drone that unfortunately is damaged. If you would be willing to look at that?" Tonka grinned at Marius, then snapped his fingers and the dragon-fly dropped down quickly and flew back into the small compartment, Tonka sealing the flesh-coloured hatch behind it and then doing his coveralls back up.

"Yeah, lemme get my tools!" He raised his arm and peeled back the sleeve, tapping away on a small remote-control deck. Marius squinted and checked the deck over – he didn't recognise the make or model, but it looked smaller than his own, but with a similar function. A minute later he heard labouring engines and two more drones appeared around the corner of the workshop door. A scale model of a tracked site crane was pulling a large rolling toolbox behind it, while a large mechanical arachnid drone was pushing a folded ping-pong table in front of it, closely trailed by two young children.

"Hey Tonka! We were playing!"

"Not now, kids, I need it. But you can go play racing games with the sports cars, if you want?" Judging by the squeals of excitement, that was entirely ok from their point of view, and they ran off, leaving them alone. The spider drone had started to fold out the ping-pong table, pulling down each side and raising the central frame up off the wheels, while the crane positioned the toolbox off to one side. "So, where's ya drone then?" Marius waved towards the back of the tilt-wing.

"There's a big bundle next to the two motorbikes – that's what's left of the lifting bag wrapped around the chassis." He watched as Tonka entered the tilt-wing and rummaged around, curious to see what he was going to do. The ork didn't seem too curious about the rest of the ship, and went straight to the described location, and started to examine the drone.

"Hey mate!"

"Yes?"

"It's pretty fucked."

"Yes…"

"Ok. Well, I'll have a look at it, but don't expect miracles. But I'll see what I can do." He lifted the bundle with barely a grunt, carrying the drone chassis and parts out and over to the ping-pong table, then laid them out. With surprisingly gentle and deft movements, he started to spread the parts out, gently unfolding the materials and laying out the mechanical systems into neat piles. Marius watched for a few minutes as he started to pull out tools and carefully disassemble the drone and realised that despite perhaps a pre-occupation with mechanised children's toys, he did seem pretty competent. He turned back to the tilt-wing, and with a sigh reached for his own toolbox and started work, bending down to remove the cover from the auxiliary power unit to examine the electrical scoring and damage there.

Kai called the others together in the car-park. Hunter was the first to reach him, and Kai pointed to his arm, where the concealed drug dispenser was located.

"How are you doing for your meds? Is that something we need to get looked into?" Hunter popped open the concealed hatch on his forearm, missing the tiny little shudder from Kai, and checked the levels of his anti-coagulants.

"Nah, I'm good. Should have a good few weeks yet."

"Ok, good. Ahh, here's Aswon and Shimazu. It looks like Marius is going to be busy for a while, and Tads is digging holes, and I'm not sure we can help either of them really – in fact the best thing we can do is probably leave them alone. So I'm thinking we can follow up on this address we got from Iceman66 and see if we can locate another decker?"

"Do you know where it is?" Aswon enquired.

"Yes. Well. No. I have the address from Hunter, but I've got no idea where that address is. But it can't be far away, right?" Kai grinned at them, while Hunter sighed and pulled up his tablet, then started a quick search for a Seattle road map and checked for the address.

"It's about seventy kilometres south of here."

"I thought you said it was in Seattle!"

"It is. The Seattle metroplex is huge, Kai. It's about a hundred and twenty klicks from top to bottom. We're pretty far up in the northern end, and it's a good way down. I don't fancy trying to get down there on public transport, and I'm not sure we want to try and double up that far on the bikes either."

"Maybe a taxi or something? Or a rental car? Let me go ask that Rad guy, he seems to know what's going on…" Kai headed off to chat with the green-mohawked elf, and after a quick negotiation, the rest of the team saw Rad pass a small credstick over to Kai. When Kai came back, he had a grin on his face. "Problem solved! I got us a loan car. We can use that big SUV over there, should be plenty of room." He pointed at a large dark-coloured four-by-four transport, with a double cab and large load bed.

"And how much did this cost?"

"Nothing, Aswon. Well, nothing as long as we don't break it. So it'll be fine, right. What's the worst that could happen?" Through the night air they head the distinctive sound of automatic gunfire as one of Seattle's infamous "go-gangs" tore up interstate 5 just behind the church, exchanging fire with a police patrol drone that was in hot pursuit. "I'm sure it will be fine…" His smile was a little less confident now, though. "But let's take some gear with us, just in case…"

Kai didn't grab any gear himself, but nodded in approval as Aswon grabbed his extendable taser-staff and the Purdey, Shimazu loaded his hand-cannon and grabbed his sword and vibro-knife. Hunter left his assault rifle behind, but instead loaded up with his own sword, his pistol and a sub-machine gun. All of them left the heavier armour behind, sticking with what seemed reasonable for walking the streets in terms of concealment and flexibility. With that done they climbed aboard the SUV with Shimazu jumping into the driver's seat. Hunter piled into the front passenger seat and checked the car's electronics out, whistling in surprise.

"Got a good sat-nav, and it's got pretty good driver assist… in fact, once we get onto a section with grid-guide, we can set the nav to take over and it should handle the driving." Shimazu nodded, and started the engine, hearing the powerful six-litre engine growl at him. They shot forward as he touched the accelerator, and he carefully lifted his foot off while the others eased themselves forward out of their seats and the small dents they'd created in the foam.

"I ah…. think this is more powerful than the other cars I've driven. I'll be a little more gentle." They set off again, more gently this time, and picked up speed down the industrial road heading away from the church, heading down towards the Interstate highway exchange. The guidance system told them to take the freeway, but did warn them to beware of roaming biker gangs and advised them not to stop under any circumstances. By the time they were on the freeway, though, Shimazu was a lot more comfortable with the controls. The vehicle wasn't quite as powerful as he'd feared, but someone had certainly tweaked with the controls and torque to make it more responsive. As he grew more accustomed, he gradually picked up speed and they headed south on the eight lane concrete snake that threaded its way all the way through the metroplex from north to south. Once the ETA had settled down to a consistent figure, Kai texted the contact details they had, requesting a meeting at 22:00 – giving them some spare time for any issues along the way, getting confirmation almost as soon as he'd sent the message.

As they drove south through the Everett district they saw an amazing spread of urban developments – higher class gated neighborhoods surrounded by high fences and with buzzing patrol drones to keep them safe in Beverly Park, huge multi-story shopping centres that spread out over multiple acres with enormous car parks attached, single-storey trailer parks spread out amidst trash and burnt-out cars as they cut through Keeler's Corner, massive industrial warehouse districts in Perrinville. Major roads and the odd river acted as boundaries between some of the districts, or sudden ridgelines and chasms that seemed to be amazingly common in the area. Seattle had developments that seemed to match its topology – ever-changing, chaotic and crammed into every available space.

Leaving Everett, they entered the Snohomish district and the terrain changed again, giving way to enormous greenhouses and huge squat buildings containing multi-level hydroponic facilities that stretched out as far as they could see into the darkness. Huge signs adorned the buildings, advertising products and manufacturers – "Krill dogs, by Hungry Joes, a wholly owned subsidiary of TexMex Food incorporated", or "I can't believe it's not shrimp, New! From RealTastyFoodCo – bought to you by Ares Food. The taste of the UCAS." A few kilometres on the greenhouses stopped abruptly and gave way to housing once more as they crossed another large river, entering the Downtown district.

The houses grew taller and more fancy at first, then changed to condos and apartment blocks, rising in height again as they drove further south. Block after block of tightly packed meta-humanity, endless kilometres of tarmac set out in grids, and a surprising amount of greenery interspaced amongst them – apparently the rich and powerful liked some semblance of nature. Half-way down through the journey through, they noticed the height of the apartment blocks suddenly shooting up, and an increase of additional services such as monorails and random helipads dotted around. Office blocks started to appear as they entered the core of the city. It reminded them of the edges of Hong Kong, and soon the buildings were tall enough that they couldn't see the tops of them from the car without winding down the windows and sticking their heads out. Traffic was fairly heavy but still moving, and Lone Star drones fluttered around everywhere, many of them armed with machine guns hanging underneath the sensor domes, ready to enforce the peace with superior firepower. They also saw a huge amount of astral traffic, relatively speaking, with dozens and dozens of watcher spirits flitting through the sky carrying messages, patrolling elementals guarding large corporate buildings and wards everywhere, guarding and protecting the secrets contained within. On they drove, past a huge Aztech pyramid that took up multiple blocks of space with the name "Aztechnology" slapped across the front in letters four storeys high. On the other side of the road, they saw an even larger building, stretching a kilometre up into the air with a huge "Renraku" logo on the side – but this was mostly dark. As they got closer they could see the whole area around it was dark and empty, no traffic moving around at all for several blocks until they saw a huge cordon, manned by armoured personnel carriers and tanks, armed soldiers and a number of patrolling spirits.

Hunter was already tapping away, and as they drove past told them about the flagship Renraku Arcology, closed down after some massive system failure that sent the systems haywire, while armed insurgents took over the defence systems. He paused while he scanned some information, then continued with the news that many believe the computer inside had gone rogue, had actually achieved sentience and rebelled against the corporation. Details were sketchy, but it appeared the towers' defences were active and had shot down anything approaching it, sending out ground and aerial drones to engage anyone nearby – which at least explained the military cordon around it.

That discussion took them south into the Tacoma district, down towards Sea-Tac international airport, a massive sprawling site that seemed to glow brightly enough to be daylight. Flights were coming in and out on multiple runways, and as they watched they saw one plane heading up from the runway, climbing rapidly into the night sky. Once it had reached about four thousand metres huge jets of flames shot out of the nacelles on the wings, accelerating the plane up at a seventy degree angle and accelerating it to high mach numbers as it curved over to the west. Aswon looked at his watch, tried to work out the flight time and time difference and wondered if it was heading over towards Vladivostok – one of the scram-jet Sub-orbital flights used for rapid long distance travel that they'd heard while staying at Vadim's place.

They turned not far past Sea-Tac, coming off the I5 onto a smaller highway. The 516 route ran from the coast to the west through the Tacoma district and towards Auburn, winding it's way along the banks of the Green River. Along the way they area changed again, massive warehouses mixed in with factories that belched filth into the air and water around them. They were glad Tads wasn't with them – she would not have enjoyed the experience at all. As they wound their ways up into the hills to the east of the coast, the area became poorer once more, buildings run down and decrepit, becoming lower and covering the ground like a cancerous growth.

Eventually, though, they reached their destination – the township of Black Diamond, though it was hard to see where the previous area ended and this one began. They drove past another huge complex, belonging to Federated-Boeing, which was in turn surrounded by hundreds of factories and workshops that appeared to supply it. The final destination marker appeared at the top of the screen, and they slowed, checking out the area more carefully and looking for threats.

The streets were wide, even by UCAS standards, and still had a number of heavy transports rumbling along them even at this hour, carrying parts and goods to and from factories that never slept. The road they were on looked like the main drag through Black Diamond though, and was lined with shops and commercial businesses, with small low rise apartments rising up in rows behind them. As they slowed they could see a queue ahead of them, lining up down the road, slowly moving towards one of the larger buildings. The mark on their nav-panel lined up with the queue, and Shimazu slowed further, looking for somewhere to park safely while the others looked around.

"Lot of orks there. Like – seriously… half that queue is ork." Hunter noted. "And at least half of em are wearing colours. Look – lots of leather jackets, all with a snarling panther face. Guess it's a gang bar or something."

"Indeed. But also interesting is that a lot of the crowd are armed with some kind of small weapon. I can see knives and batons, but all in holsters or pockets. Ahh – and at least one person with a pistol – I just saw them bend over and their coat rose up, revealing a back holster. But it's something small, very concealable. And it's not just the gangers that are armed – there's what seem to be regular people in the queue that are carrying too."

"I'm guessing the neighbourhood isn't that safe, and you gotta be able to look after yourself…"

"Well, that means we're likely to be able to get into the bar with some kind of weapon at least, but probably not too heavily armed. So I'd suggest either a melee weapon of some kind, or a small firearm. But just one… Oh – I think I've spotted the bouncer."

Aswon pointed at the hulking brute standing at the front of the queue, checking people over. Short, stocky and looking like a Neanderthal with his pronounced jaw, not helped by his large tusks and the typical orkish features that scrunched up his face around his nose. His skin was very dark, and his jeans and check shirt seemed dangerously tight – he certainly looked bigger from here than Hunter did. He also seemed to be quite handsy with the females in the queue, lingering over them as he patted them down for weapons, much to the obvious displeasure of both them and their companions – yet nobody seemed to complain.

"I think there's a weapon scanner built into the archway of the front door as well," Hunter added. "At least it looks like it. Maybe it's set just to get the bigger stuff or things like explosives, or maybe it doesn't work at all. But I suspect that fucker just likes touching the women up…"

"There's a car park just past the building. Turning in" Shimazu announced, pulling into the tarmac lot and finding a space to park the SUV. The car park was floodlit and as they looked around they could see multiple cameras on the building aiming down this way – so there was a good chance it would be safe here. They also saw the big row of bikes – over thirty of them, leaning over on their kickstands in a neat row. Each of them was different, though based on a few common designs, and they all had a snarling panther painted upon them somewhere. They divested themselves of a number of weapons, asking their spirits to stay and guard the vehicle and their kit while they were inside. Carrying only a single weapon each, they formed a loose line and headed back towards the road and the queue, neatly corralled behind a number of posts linked with a big red rope that led back the way they had come. The queue was maybe forty people long, but was shuffling along as people were let in, newcomers joining just quickly enough that it didn't seem to go down at all.

As they rounded the corner to approach the bouncer, a troll ducked out through the door, looking almost comical as he bent forward at the waist and flexed his knees, lowering himself to fit under the lintel. Kai turned to address the bouncer.

"Good evening. My name is Kai and I'm here…"

"Back of the queue is down there, mate," The voice was strongly accented, either from Australia or New Zealand, or one of the Pacific Islands very close. Kai looked down the length of the queue and shrugged. It seemed to be moving quickly enough and they should still make their appointment time, providing nothing went wrong.

"'Ow do folks. Who ye here t'see?" The troll unfolded, rising up, and up, and up. Kai estimated he was over three and a half metres tall at a minimum, and he was beyond solidly built. Wearing an enormous 'Sons of Sauron' t-shirt over some urban combat trousers and topped off with a leather coat that must have taken several cows out of the gene pool, he was quite possibly the largest meta-human he'd ever met. Yet for all that, he wasn't particularly intimidating – his voice was surprisingly gentle and quiet, though his thick Yorkshire accent was somewhat confusing. The bouncer looked up and over his shoulder at the troll and scowled, but didn't say anything.

"We have an appointment at twenty two hundred with a gentleman here."

"Aye, alreet then. Come wiv us." He turned and repeated the strange bending and folding manoeuvre to get back into the club, squeezing under the doorway until he could stand upright in the first room inside. The lobby had a small hatch on one side labelled "cloakroom" though mostly it seemed a place that people were handing in their more egregious weapons in exchange for a ticket rather than actual coats. A heavy security door on the other side of the room was closed, and otherwise the only other exit was another set of double doors that led ahead – when the people in front of them finished at the cloakroom and pushed the doors open, it allowed the loud music to rumble through, and revealed a busy nightclub beyond.

Hunter approached the cloakroom with a sigh and pulled out the Ares Monosword, getting ready to surrender it, when he felt a light touch on his shoulder. The troll tapped him twice with his hand gently, just enough to get his attention, then motioned him to return the sword to the scabbard.

"Just beeehave thyself, alreet?" The hand twitched open the leather coat, pulling it far enough back to reveal the large weapon hanging from a friction sling that was concealed within. Everything on it had been scaled up to be an appropriate size for the troll, and as he examined it he noticed that the barrel was FAR bigger than it should be. His eyes zoomed in slightly then couldn't help but widen slightly as he realised he was looking at a multi-barrel high speed weapon, capable of putting out a fearsome rate of fire. Normally things like that were confined to being mounted on a vehicle as the recoil was so punishing as to make them almost unusable. However, if you weighed the best part of three hundred kilos and could bench press a car, that might not be a problem. "Go ger yerselv a drink, one of t'staff wull come and fetch ye."

"Thank you, we will. My name is Kai, by the way. What should we call you?"

"Tiny." Said the walking behemoth.

"Of course…." Kai nodded at him, then approached the doors and pushed them open, walking in the wall of sound and light beyond. Hunter and Shimazu followed along behind him, taking up flanking positions and looking around. Behind them, Aswon turned to the enormous troll, and looked up, craning his neck back so he could stare up above him. It was not something he was accustomed to, and felt very unnatural to him.

"I am Aswon," he announced solemnly. With a respectful nod, he turned and strode after the other three, muttering under his breath to himself as he did so. "I see what Tads means. I must apologise to her…"

He caught up with the others inside, and looked around, taking stock of the situation. The club was a large rectangular building, and they'd entered near one of the corners. Ahead of them along the outside wall that adjoined the car park was circular tables, each with a whole bunch of stools scattered around them. To their right were a set of toilets and then a raised area, separated off with a low barrier and brass railing. On the small half-staircase that led up to the area stood a young man of Japanese origins, standing with his hands clasped serenely in front of him. A sword hilt thrust out of his jacket at the back, between his shoulders, and his head was constantly scanning the crowd near him.

"He's got to be another bouncer, keeping an eye on the VIP area" Hunter said, glad that the throat mikes and earbuds were very discreet but would save them from having to shout at each other.

The VIP area had access to a short bar area, that then turned and ran along the other long side of the club, stretching back a good twenty metres, with half a dozen bar staff working to keep the crowd dealt with. Beyond that, the walls came in a few metres, no doubt to hold stock rooms, glass washing facilities and the like. Right at the back of the club was the DJ pod on a raised plinth, and a whole bunch of booths, all of which were jammed full of orks wearing their gang colours. And in the centre of the club, sunken down a metre or so, was the dance floor, with multiple flights of steps leading up and back to the outer ring. The dance floor was busy, a heaving mass of metahumans bouncing up and down in time with the rapid beat of the loud and repetitive music and growling lyrics.

"What is that?" Kai asked, wincing at the barrage of noise.

"Or'zet. Ork language. I think it's thrash metal…"

"It's very loud!"

"Yes, dad." Hunter's delivery was deadpan.

"Whatever. You three go find a booth or table or something over in the corner. I'll go and get drinks in." The others looked at him dubiously. "Go on, I'll be fine!" He shooed them away, and with several backwards looks, they headed over to the corner furthest from the bar where it seemed to be a little quieter. Kai turned and wormed his way through the crowd heading for the bar.

Aswon extended his sight into the astral, bracing himself for a jumble of exuberance and life – and he wasn't disappointed. The party atmosphere and hundreds of people crammed into a small space for the express purpose of having fun, getting shit-faced and hooking up with a partner of their chosen persuasion had charged the atmosphere, and astral space was vibrant, bright and confusing, with the life signs of the patrons seeming to blend into one huge gestalt. What didn't blend in though was a very powerful air elemental that was floating around above them, racing through the smoke from the lighting and special effects rig, leaving little swirls and vortices behind it. He tried to gauge its power, and get a feel for it, without drawing it's attention, but he was somewhat distracted as he saw a number of other astrally active targets in the bar too – physical adepts, shamans and mages just hanging around, drinking, smoking and having a good time.

"We've got a powerful air elemental up in the roof space, so watch any powers you're using. At a guess I'd say it's more than twice as strong as the ones Tads normally summons, at least. Maybe… maybe as strong as those spirits back in the volcano near the oil rig. So don't piss em off. But also there's at least a dozen other magically active people in here, just chilling out. That's… way above average. Way, way over average…"

Kai made his way to the bar, arriving at the front of the queue with a bit of serendipitous manoeuvring and stood waiting to be noticed. It wouldn't take long, and he concentrated on exuding confidence, charm and charisma.

Sure enough, it didn't take long before someone noticed him – but rather than one of the female serving staff that looked after the rest of the bar, it was a handsome and suave man that approached, blue eyes twinkling and megawatt smile aimed directly at him. He nodded at Kai and their egos slammed into each other, a silent battle for supremacy raging between them.

"Welcome to Dantes'. What can I get you?" The man said, his voice somehow carrying over the noise from the PA system. Kai looked over at the bar behind him, seeing the chillers full of bottled beers, the taps for draught, and then the rows of spirits and more unusual drinks up on shelves. As the shelves got higher, the bottles became more decorative, colourful or just downright bizarre. He reached into a pocket and pulled out his certified credstick, then twirled it in his fingers.

"Can I set up a tab with…two hundred Nuyen on it, for the ork biker gang over there. And if any of them ask, just let them know it was from someone who really appreciates cool motorbikes with great artwork?"

"Can do, friend." He lifted up a cred-reader and took payment, entering a few notes on the terminal. "So – what about for yourself. Like something special?" He gestured over the top of his shoulder towards the more unusual looking bottles.

"Just four soft drinks of some kind. Whatever cola you have here. Unfortunately we're working this evening. Just waiting for a meeting."

"Ahh, understandable. Where are you sitting? I'll have them bought over to you." The man gave Kai another megawatt smile and a subtle wink. Kai couldn't help but feel like he liked the man, and that made him feel weirdly uncomfortable. He pointed over to the far corner of the bar to the table, that judging by the Afro sticking up was where Aswon and presumably the others had settled. "No problem, friend!"

Kai had only just made it back when a middle-aged lady appeared holding a tray, dropping off four large glasses of bubbling black liquid with ice cubes bobbing up and down, then deposited a basket textured to make it look like wicker in the middle of the table, filled to the brim with soy-fries. She smiled at them then melded back into the crowd, heading back towards the bar. They sipped at their colas, and munched on the fries, watching the crowd move around them, the natural ebb and flow of people onto the dance floor and the rowdy singing and moshing from the biker gang.

Aswon concentrated, slowly filtering out the music layer by layer, reducing the sound of the backing tracks until he could hear the conversations around them. The people at the next table, a bunch of heavy-set men with the kinds of builds that indicated working with heavy materials for eight or ten hours a day were chatting animatedly about something, and he listened in for a few minutes while they discussed the underground fighting competition one of them was attending, describing some of the weird and wonderful fighters they expected to see. As he listened in on other tables, he heard similarly outlandish stories. Clearly this bar was not just a regular watering hole.

As he tilted his head round a little more, he saw someone standing about ten metres away, staring at them. The man was tall, muscular and wearing combat fatigues, and despite the bar being crowded, people were making sure not to get too close. Aswon let his gaze flit over him, turning away and trying to remain aware of him with his peripheral vision.

"Shush, you three. Don't all turn at once, but my ten o'clock. Tall man, combat fatigues, staring at us. Anyone recognise him." Shimazu and Kai started to turn, but Hunter spoke first.

"Hold position. Shimazu, pass the fries but spill a few in front of me, will you." Hunter pushed back from the table and brushed away the deluge of soy-fries from near him, and used the movement to cover turning to examine the man. "Yeah, still looking at us. Oh.. ok. He's just ejected something from the side of his head. Looks like a chipjack. Just slotted something else in. Still staring at me."

"I've just given him a quick once over in astral. He's like a corpse – just machinery and circuits, cybernetics and power banks. There's pretty much nothing of him left. No wonder he feels creepy." Aswon had his drink in front of his mouth, hoping it would cover his speech. The song that was playing reached a crescendo and then there was a moment of silence from the PA system, just the sound of three hundred people dancing away on the floor. Some canned music started play, something more synth-pop, and with a great sigh, people started to leave the centre of the club, pushing away to get to the bar or toilets.

"Shimazu. If that guy is still staring at us, keep an eye on him. If he goes to the loo, follow him and see what you can find out."

"Ok Kai. If he gets violent then…" his voice tailed off as one of the service staff appeared at the table.

"Good evening gentlemen. If you'd like to go through the door on the left back there, your appointment is ready."

"Thank you… Heidi," Kai squinted to read the name tag, but gave her a smile and a nod. "Ok, maybe later, Shimazu. Let's go." They all stood, and watched by the strangely cold man, headed towards the door in the rear of the club. Kai gave a quick knock and then walked through without waiting for an answer, figuring he'd probably not hear anything from inside. His knuckles hurt though – and he realised the door wasn't a standard internal door but something much heavier.

They filed through the door and Aswon closed it behind them, cutting out almost all sounds from the dance floor area. Inside the room was about five metres wide and about four deep. In front of them was another of the booth sets they had seen outside, sculpted plastic tables and chairs extruded as a single piece. The wall to their right was a large bank of 2d displays, silently playing a host of news channels from all over the world, most with subtitles running across the display. In the booth though were two figures, waiting for them, backlit by some very carefully positioned lights.

Kai walked around to the end of the booth then paused, as his eyes adjusted to the glare. One figure was clad in a heavy robe, covering their entire torso and limbs, while a heavy cowl was drawn forward over their head. The lamps positioned just behind them ensured that their face was cast entirely in darkness, just an oval of void that revealed nothing. The figure to their right, though, was sat upright, and at first had appeared to be a child. But as the figure leaned forward to edge into the circle of light from the downlighter that was aimed at the table, he could see that it was an old ventriloquist's dummy, clad in a black suit with pinstripe shirt. The face was a pale pink, with circular rosy cheeks and painted on dimples, while the eyes looked to be ceramic. The dummy turned towards him though, eyes adjusting to focus upon him, and then a hand articulated at wrist and finger base pointed to the chair. The mouth moved only up and down revealing a square hole in the dummy's head, but the voice that came from it was very human-sounding.

"Good evening, Mr. Kai. Please, take a seat. But don't take it too far…"

Kai slid into the empty side of the booth giving a polite laugh as the joke was delivered, followed by Shimazu who was staring suspiciously at the manikin with his hand hovering near the vibroknife hilt, and Aswon perched on the end, long legs sticking out to the side. Hunter stood back by the door, looming over the back of the booth, watching to see what was going on, his hand similarly ready near the hilt of his sword.

"I am the Puppet. How can I be of service?" The head of the dummy moved to take in all of them, but ended up pointing at Kai, focussing on him.

"We have need of some specific services whilst in Seattle, to carry out an assignment. We were passed your details by someone we know, who recommended us to you."

"I see. Well, I always find word of mouth recommendation to be the best in the Shadows. So, what is it you need?"

"I could explain, but I'll get some of it wrong I'm sure. So I'll pass over to my computer specialist to explain. Take it away, Hunter." Hunter sighed a little as Kai gave out his name, but he wasn't surprised. Not by now. Instead, feeling somewhat silly, he looked down at the Puppet and started his briefing.

"We have been asked by a party that works in the Salish to source several deckers for them. They won't meet the hiring agent, and they won't need to work exclusively for them – but they will need to meet with that person's agents for face to face briefings and debriefings. They appreciate the value the matrix has, but operate in an area where the service is not reliable, and need to have data relayed by others, and they're also aware that security is not foolproof. We have agreed to try and find three or four people who can provide their services under such conditions. They are willing to pay market rates for searches and matrix work, but I think generally it will be limited to intelligence gathering, based on how far out of the matrix loop they are. We're to meet any candidates and get their contact details, to pass on to the actual hiring agent."

"I see. Well, though slightly unusual, I have no problem with finding someone to meet those requirements. Are you wanting to carry out your initial interview soon?"

"If we can, we're aiming to be out of the city again very soon to finish our current job. But we'll be back soon to source the others, so it can wait if we need to."

"No, no need. I can have someone here in a few minutes to speak with you. If you would be so kind as to go next door into the planning room, and wait there, they will be present shortly." Hunter shrugged and nodded – he'd done his part, and he stepped back, still unsure why he was talking to a piece of vintage wood.

"Just one question if I may…" Kai raised an eyebrow, waiting until the Puppet nodded at him. "There was a man outside in the crowd, staring at us. A fairly well-built man, wearing combat fatigues. Do you know why he was watching us?"

"Ahh, I'm afraid 'well-built and wearing combat clothing' covers an awful lot of people we might see. Can you narrow it down at all?"

"He was inserting some chips into a jack on the side of his head. And he looked to be on the edge of losing his humanity, based on how much 'ware he was packing."

"Oh – right. I know who that is. Don't worry about him, but I'll get him moved on. He tends to focus a lot on things, but lacks any social graces. But you have nothing to fear from him – he's just curious about your capabilities, I'm sure." Kai nodded and smiled at him, then motioned for Aswon to stand, waiting for Shimazu to slide out and let him out in turn. Hunter had the door open, letting a fresh wave of thrash metal to blast into the room as the next DJ started their set, and led the way into the next room. This one was almost identical to the one they'd just left – except the lighting worked properly here and lit the room evenly. There was also a remote for the bank of screens, along with a small and basic terminal. They settled down to wait, and Hunter fiddled with the terminal, finding out that he could connect through it to the screens at the other end of the room, able to use them present information or just act as a huge screen for his deck.

The door was flung open and two teenagers sauntered in, clutching messenger bags to their sides and accompanied by another blast of music and bank of smoke illuminated by lasers. The second one kicked the door shut behind him, while the first looked up into a pistol, sword and staff all pointed squarely at his face. If he was concerned he didn't show it, his somewhat greasy and spotty face cracking into a smile as he brushed a lank twist of hair out of the way of his eyes.

"Awright dudes!" He toasted his drink towards them – some kind of milkshake, and then just moved around the weapons to aim for the far side of the booth.

"I'm Kai. The Puppet next door said we should wait here for some people to discuss work." The second teenager joined the first on the far side of the booth, and they both carefully placed their messenger bags on the table – far more gently and carefully than their drinks.

"Yup, that's us!"

"So, what are you called?"

"Called?" They looked at each other and sniggered. "Well 'you scheming bastards' is a common one. Or sometimes just a nice simple one like 'fuckers'. We get all sorts. But the boss calls us 'Tweedledum' and 'Tweedledee'. Not always the same way round, mind. So let's go with that… so watcha need?" Kai waved to Hunter, who recapped the speech he'd already given to the Puppet, watching as they pulled out two shonky-looking decks from their bags and started to patch them together with jumper cables and interface leads. He could see some of the hardware inside their decks through holes in the cases, or in the custom boxes which were attached via ribbon cables and multiple lanes of fibre optic connectors. He almost lost his train of thought as he spotted some of the components – he was pretty sure he caught sight of an Excalibur class I/O port on one of the decks, and they were from a system that started at a million Nuyen and went up from there…

"Sounds groovy to us. If the boss says it's cool with him, we'll scan the pulse for you. Or whoever else. Sort out a passcode and some recognition stuff, maybe some dead drops. Ones and zeros pals. Ones and zeros."

"Are you good?" Aswon couldn't help but ask them, having no concept at all about the quality of the hardware they had laid out, and having only its ramshackle appearance to go on – both the decks and the owners.

"Good? We're better than good, mate. We're funny."

"Is that better?"

"Oh yes. It means not only do we not get caught by the corps, but we hack their host on the way out to make it display a giant cock on their corporate advert boards in downtown, too. And order in a thousand chicken vindaloos to their security team, using their bosses' credsticks. We're fucking awesome, is what we are."

"What can we do to test this?" Aswon aimed the conversation at the rest of his team, well aware they could hear him clearly. "Maybe we can connect up to Marius and find out what they can do to ease our route to the next country, as a demonstration of their abilities."

"Good idea, if you're up to the challenge that is?" Kai raised an eyebrow and started to dial Marius.

"Yeah, yeah. And don't think we're so wet behind the ears that we don't know you're rinsing us for free work. But the boss said help, so whatevs. Phone your boyfriend, sure."

Kai got through to Marius, and described the situation to him briefly, then asked him to send over their route plan for the next stage of their journey, such as they had so far, then when it came through he beamed it over to the twins and sat back to wait. They in turn each pulled a large fibre cable from the deck and slotted it into jacks located just behind the ear, then leant back and flopped against each other as they projected their consciousness into the matrix, exchanging a meat body for a silicon one. Hunter watched them carefully, taking the opportunity to lean in very close to them and check out the construction of their decks and the quality of the chips inside. Each one was a mass of custom wiring, a weird hybrid of parts from multiple systems, many of them not designed to work together. He had no idea what nightmare mass of code was required to get them to interface, but he was sure that if they could get their bizarre lash up working, then they were indeed superior code slicers.

A few minutes passed, then they both jacked out, in unison.

"Done and done, my friends." It was the second of the twins that spoke this time, not that it seemed to make much difference. "Your journey out of Seattle is cleared under special flight clearance code 209294-X-3933, as a Crash Cart medical team attending to a medical requirement in the Salish, under flight number Papa Hotel two zero nine. You can now be amazed…" They both leant back, grabbing their milkshakes and taking a long drink, the straw making a gargling noise as they sucked up the liquid from the cup. Kai turned to Hunter, who nodded his approval – if they had managed to hack the flight plan system for several districts and one border in that little time, they were certainly up to the job. And if they weren't – well, as soon as he got time to investigate their claim and examine the data codes, he'd find out and they'd know that too.

"So, what about the rest of the journey?" Aswon asked, his face serious and composed.

"What about it? You think we're gonna pull out the stops for your for freebies? Na na. Mama didn't raise no idiots. You want work, you pay for it. You want clearance further south from the Salish, you gotta pay, man.

"How much?"

"Well, like we said, boss likes you for some reason. So deal starts at five grand, depending on where you wanna go. If you're heading south and gonna play with the dandelions, it's gonna cost more. Lot more."

"Dandelions?" Shimazu queried?

"Elves. The nob-ends in the Tir. The fun police. They get real touchy about you being in their systems. But they're also better than the Star, for sure. So that costs more. So it depends where you're going."

"What do you like? Perhaps we can cut a deal of some kind. What can we maybe get for you, that you value?" Kai glanced from one to the other, then saw them turn to face each other. Eyelids twitched, lips parted, eyes scanned left to right… he was pretty sure they weren't actually connected at this point, but they'd spent enough time with each other that their thoughts were very similar. One of them broke the silent code exchange, and grabbed a cable from his deck and connected it to the terminal. All the displays lit up and all of the team blinked as a wall of filth erupted upon them. There was porn. Oh there was porn. Porn of all manner, all kinds, all perversions. There was young girls, there was old women, there was young girls with old women, there were middle-aged women with girls, there were girls with tentacles, there were women with animatronic sex aids, there were paddling pools filled with lube… it was overwhelming. And there was grunting from the twins that was somewhat disturbing and made them all feel slightly sordid.

"Right, ok – if you're trying to shock us that's not really going to work. We've… well we've seen some things and been around. So a bit of smut isn't going to cut it. Or a lot of smut. So what do you REALLY want?"

The display changed, all of the displays merging into one. The picture was low resolution, the team clearly able to see individual pixels rendered on the massive screen. It also looked grainy, and slightly blurry, just a touch out of focus. They saw a man lying on a bed, being serviced by several young girls, their bodies writing over him, pleasuring him. There was some aspect of the footage that made Kai twitch – then he realised it was the overall quality. It was low – low enough that it was the kind of thing that would be gathered by a hidden camera hidden in the roof space or a light fitting in an actual brothel. This wasn't a recording, or a simulation, or some three-dimensional visualisation. This was a live feed, from some parlour somewhere…

"Yeah, that's not going to happen. We don't have any young girls likely to do that kind of thing, and we're not going to. So Nuyen it is… We'll chat to your boss and sort out a fee, if you can get started on it." Kai stared at them, unmoving until they reluctantly nodded. Mercifully the screen blanked, and the rest of the team managed to keep their temper.

"Figured as much, but don't ask, don't get." They looked at each other, and almost as one mimed licking an ice-cream, which made them both giggle. "Yeah, well. Maybe next time. Alright, send us the details, and we'll get started."

Kai glanced around and saw the others looking pretty disgusted with the twins, and decided to cut the meeting short, ushering them out of the room before anything was said that couldn't be unsaid. As they filed back out into the main area of the club, they couldn't spot the strange staring man anymore – just the crowd bouncing up and down on the dance floor or sitting at tables drinking beers. Mostly anyway. As Kai glanced over to one side he saw a small slender girl sitting not at a table but on it. Her feet were flat on the table surface but her legs bent enough that her buttocks were only just off the table surface, and her arms were wrapped around her knees. Her head was moving around somewhat oddly too, turning at slight angles as she studied people in the bar intently.

Kai dropped into astral and stared at her equally hard, and manged to slip through her masking, seeing her true astral self – and then stumbled. Hunter nearly walked into him, actually had to grab his shoulder and almost lift him up to avoid stepping on his heels.

"What's up, Kai? Something attacking you?"

"No – that girl over there. It's not a girl. It's an owl." Hunter and the others frowned at him. "No, I swear – it's an owl, in the shape of a girl. Or at least it's an owl that's transformed. And not a girl transformed into an owl. That'd be fine – I could expect that from someone like Tads. It's an OWL. A beast. But in the shape of a girl. This place is weird." A quick glance at the others confirmed that he wasn't the only one that thought this.

They headed back towards the entrance, working their way through the crowd. People seemed to get out of the way without needing to be asked, even though they were drinking – they just spotted that a group of four unusual-looking dudes was walking from the back offices and slid out of the way, moving back to their space as soon as they were gone, and all without giving them a second glance. That at least made their journey to the entrance quick and easy, and they pushed the double doors open, walking into the cooler air of the vestibule.

Their noses twitched as they did so, as the smell of a mouldy cellar hit them. A moment later they identified the source – a dwarf walking into the building carrying a large rifle case in his right hand, and apparently wearing some of the worst aftershave they'd ever had the misfortune to sniff. Aswon faltered, then picked up his pace, walking past the dwarf as quickly as he could and heading outside, the others following him curiously.

"What's up, Aswon?"

"Did you not recognise that dwarf, Kai? We've run into him before. Well, kinda. He was in that team up in the Aluetians. You know the ones that attacked us with spirits and stuff. I don't think he recognised us at all – none of them saw us in the flesh, I think. But I'm certain that's the sniper they had.

"Well, that's unfortunate. Ok, back to the car and let's get out of here before we get spotted by anyone that might recognise us. But perhaps we can get the car checked over before we get in it."

"Can we drive away first for a bit, before we do our bug scan? It might not be a good idea to do this in the car park?"

"If it was just bugs I was worried about then yes. But I don't want to drive out of here if someone has a block of C4 under us."

"Ahh – fair point. Ok, If Hunter scans, we can stand around and check our phones, see if we can block sight to him and give him some cover. And we can ask the spirits to search for anything on the car that wasn't there before. Assuming they haven't already tried to come into the club and been eaten by that elemental…."

They got back to the car, and found the spirits still on guard, waiting patiently. Nobody had approached the car, at least according to them, and Hunter didn't spot anything amiss either when he checked, so they got in and drove a few blocks north, pulling over by some waste ground, then gave the car a more thorough checking over, finding it equally clean on the second look.

"So, that all looks good." Kai checked the time, then waved to Hunter to set the nav up for the return journey, before sending a message to Marius.

[22:35, Out of club. On way back. ETA 01:30.]

[Understood.]

They headed back, their initial route a little different as the car took them via some local roads to a different highway that intersected the I5 north of the airport instead, but the rest of the journey was uneventful. They saw a few biker gangs racing up and down roads as they passed, but fortunately none were close enough to intercept them directly. They made it back to the Church five minutes after their estimated time, and found Tads sipping hot chocolate in the vehicle bay while Marius scrubbed at his hands, trying to get deeply embedded grime out of them.

"Was your journey successful?"

"Yes, Marius – made contact with some deckers, though they're a bit weird. Mind you, most of the people we met there were pretty strange… look, it's a long story. Maybe over breakfast. But yeah, it worked. How were things up here?"

"I have made good progress with repairs and the APU and emergency power systems are fully recabled and certified. There is still a lot of work to be done however. Nothing that will stop us taking off, but I would like to do further work as soon as is practical. Oh, and the ork here called Tonka is quite useful. He has reported that he has fixed the surveillance drone – though I haven't checked it over yet – it's over on the table in the corner."

"And how about you, Tads?" The shaman looked up at him with tired eyes, and they saw her face was covered in mud and grime too.

"Yes, all good. Very good progress. More to do in the morning, but the other guys were tired, and they'd run out of supplies, so they need to get more in tomorrow. But we should be able to finish with another two or three hours I think, at the most. Then we're good to go. Rad seems very happy. Oh – and he left me some details for someone called Grungy, who can set us up with another computer person.

"And where is that?"

"Some place called Tacoma."

"Tacoma! We were just down there! Oh, for fucks sake…" Kai shook his head, now that he was aware of just how long it took to navigate the metroplex by road. "Well, we're not going back out at this time of the morning. That's going to be a tomorrow problem. For now, let's get bedded down and get some shut eye. I think we all need it."

"What about watch schedules?" Aswon asked.

"I actually think we should be ok. Maybe ask a spirit to keep watch. But with the folk around here, in a weird way, I think we're actually ok."

The team grabbed their gear and bedded down, several of them moving out of the tilt-wing into the vehicle bay to spread out a little more and take advantage of the space. Within a few minutes, all that could be heard was quiet snoring, while a couple of spirits patrolled the perimeter with endless patience.