The Den Games Network Forum RPG
Page 4

Game Masters:
virtualoctopus, CKW, Wesforce, Nyerguds


(BlueThunder)

Hearse almost choaked. Cross continent? She NEVER did things like that. She'd left her mark all over Europe, she'd never set foot outside tha continent, and she'd be fragged if she was doing so for this Johnson idiot.
All eyes, that had formally been off her dark corner, were upon her. Including those golden sun sets that Johnson had in his eye sockets. She stood, and went to walk off.

"Going somewhere, Miss Heart?" Johnson asked her.

"Home..." She mumbled, not one for words.

"I didn't beliveyou had a home, Miss Heart. In fact, I should think that for a woman in your condition, a homw would be much too costly."


None of this stopped Hearse, she walked right up to the door and stood by it. Waiting for it to open.

"Well?" She almost demanded. She got no answer. "I am afraid that I do not do runs cross continent. You have your rigger, You do not need me!"

She pulled her hat futher over her head, waiting for a responce.

---------------------------------------------
(Nyerguds)

"Don't bother" Silvia replied. "I don't drink alcohol anyway. Just gimme a Nuke Cola."
She took out her credstick, and plugged it in the slot on the bar.
She saw her personal info appear on the display.

NAME: Silvia Ulane-Serthedal
BIRTHPLACE: Geneva
BIRTHDATE: July 23, 2048

She didn't care about having a full ID on her credstick... she wasn't a runner; she had nothing to hide.

At the other side of the bar, close to the door where Red disappeared into, a tall man was watching Silvia.

***

File TSM05562
Subject: "Silvia".
Real name: Silvia Ulane-Serthedal
Race: half Elf, half Dragon (F)
Comet mutations: Unknown
Profession: Unknown; probably none
Additional info: Has shapeshift ability. Distinguishing features: dragon eyes

Lee didn't have any more information to add to the profile. A Transys security mage had given him detailed information on Subject "Silvia" when she arrived at the Arcology, and he had seen her fight her way through the Arcology with the many eyes of the VOES. Her profile was one of the most complete he had; it included a detailed description of her shapeshift ability and some extra notes on the subject made by the security mage.

Lee looked at the reflection of the display on the wall. He could easily make out what it read. Birthdate and birthplace. He updated the profile.

---------------------------------------------
(LeFire)

Chance rolled his eyes upon hearing Alex's words.

Great... So this is a trap. So for sweet gruddamned sake's what's the use of pointing it out to Johnson and running the risk of pissing him off? Best way to extract ourselves in one piece is to continue negotiations until we get out of here, where you can split if you want to. Me, I'm cooperating for the sake of finding out what happened to my buddies.

---------------------------------------------
(Wesforce)

"Calm down, Alexiev!" Johnson said, raising his voice for the first time. "There will be time for that later!"

When everyone had seemingly given their consent, Mr Johnson opened his case again, and took out a small fold-away 3DTV set, which he activated.

The room, and the mood lightened considerably as a bright blue-skyed image of the North-Atlantic appeared. For once, the waters looked calm, and almost clean. The viewers wondered why the cameraman seemed to be standing in thin air above the icean, when the view panned, and encompassed large crenellated towers that were famous the world over.

Hey, that's Terganon... Might have been going through everyone's minds, just at the same time they recognised the now world-famous footage.

"Hi there, and welcome to 'World Traveller, with me! Casey Togusa! This week I'll be reporting from the graceful, amazing city of Terganon where... HOLY FLIRKING SCHNITT!!!""

That last scream came as 'Casey' pointed off-camera at something in the air. The Camera swung crazily, for a moment identifying A Large formation of Military-Grade Fighter-Bomber drones, then the huge graceful form of a dragon giving chase.

Then the explosions began. Huge towers crumpled, splniters of plasteel flew, frail human bodies were flung around like nothing. Huge balls of fire and electricity erupted from Napalm and Tesla bombs respectively. It was all-too-familiar to anyone who had seen a 3DTV set in the past year.

Worse, actually. This footage was far more graphic than the supposedly uncut showings that had been plastered on the NewsNets.

"Casey received the Journalist of the Year award for that broadcast. Posthumously, of course." Interjected Mr J.

"Your task, is simple. Find out who launched the attack. I want names of the factions responsible, the Forces, the Commanders involved, and most importantly, who is directly responsible for ordering the attack."

"I suggest you sit up and take notice," Added Mr J. "This evidence could be useful. I'll supply you with copies of it on chip. First up is a radio transcription between the Terganon tower and a plane identified only as the 'Triple xXx - A Civilian Sub-sonic airliner of unknown origin.

quote:

Tower:"Unknown flight triple-X, This is Terganon Air Command. Do you read me? Over?"

Tower:"Unknown flight triple-X, This is Terganon Air Command. Do you read me? Over? You are on an unauthorized approach vector. Turn away now. Over."

Tower:"Unknown flight triple-X, This is Terganon Air Command. Do you read me? Over? You are on an unauthorized approach vector. Turn away now. Over."

[Unidentified CAS-Accented Orkish Voice]:"Unknown control towa', dis is da triple XxX. Move outta my' way!"

Tower:"Unknown flight triple-X, This is Terganon Air Command! Do you read me? Over? You are on an unauthorized approach vector. Turn away now. Over! FOR FRAG'S SAKE!!!."

UnIdentOrk:"Nah, you move!"

Tower:(Yelling) "Unauthorized flight! This is your final warning! Change course now or we will be forced to use lethal magical force!"

UnIdentOrk:"Suck my big one, fragface!". Click.


"That plane headed directly for the Terganon Magical barrier. Evidence suggests that it was converted into a tanker carrying a large amount of living organic material. Living, because it had a large amount of Mana stored in it. When it hit the barrier, current theory leads us to believe that some kind of complex anchored spell was triggered, that destroyed the barrier and allowed the attack planes through. A spell of that power could only have been formed by an Extremely powerful cabal of magicians. Like a full Druidic Circle on the solstice, a Native American Ghost Dance, an Aztlan Blood-Pact or even" He smiled. "Dragon magic. Regardless, you should find out who, if possible."

Next Mr Johnson freeze-framed a 3DTV image of one of the attacking planes.

"OCU Commonweatlth Aeospace 'Wandjina' Fighter-Bomber drone. They have been sold in substantial numbers to almost every country in North America for testing and evaluation, although only the Native American Nations officially use them. The aircraft were unmarked, and also carride no transponder codes. They flew on a zig-zag course, and could not be tracked back to any ground bases. There were no Naval Assets from any Corporation or Nation within range to launch the attack. It goes without saying that this needs to be investigated too."

"Now, it is certain that to find the answers to your questions you will need to travel to North America. To that end we have laid on two Private Airliners for your use, and arranged short-stay passes for a stop over in Terganon. There you can meet Mareban Bashir - A Dwarf of Egyptian origin. He may be able to offer further evidence. However, as Trans-Atlantic security is so extreme, given the situation, I would request that you leave all amour, weaponry, explosives and banned magical items at home, save perhaps a light pistol for protection. Anything of calibre 9mm or under. Associates of ours will be able to supply equipment when you reach North America, along with fake IDs under a group cover."

"Any questions, so far, before we talk about Pay?"

And at the magic P-word, everyone who had been dozing quietly in the corner suddenly woke up.

---------------------------------------------
(red_Dawn)

Rusty looked up.

"You say we're all goin' via personal airliners. What about my own equipment, how will I get my Akula helicopter across the Atlantic to UCAS?"

Johnson nodded softly while Rusty talked, as if he knew the answer before the Australian had even asked.

"Your craft will be picked up from the airport by my men, loaded onto a trans-atlantic ship and shall arrive in UCAS shortly after you. Everyone's respective needs have been considered and will be met. Other questions?"

Jessica Hayes frowned and commented;

"My assault rifle, what will you do with it if I can't take it with me?"

Johnson instantly replied;

"It, along with any other contraband equipment you wish to leave with us, shall be locked in a safe and kept as collateral until your return. Remember, we are funding your mission, providing transport, passports and weaponry."

Satisfied, Jessica nodded. Johnson waited for any other questions.

---------------------------------------------
(LeFire)

Chance reached down and patted the bag holding his SAR-125. It'll be his first runner mission without the weapon, and he was going to miss the old girl. The same went for his combat fatigues, hand-claws and armour... He would be in civvies for this one, a rare occurance.

Chance decided on bringing along his pistol though. The soldier grinned...
9mm maximum calibre... Pity that Eva isn't coming on this one. Will be fun to see her trying to get that .50 calibre monster she calls a fragging pistol past Johnson.
Technically, Chance's pistol was a light 5mm calibre... so it passed easily under the maximum limit. Chance's goggles, a neccessity for him to see more than five yards, was of course coming along as well.

Thinking further along the line of concealment and subtlety, Chance felt further down the bag until the bottle of "Horn-neutraliser" came to hand. Something invented by another Comet mutant and now very popular among the horned crowd who wished to have their mutations reduced without the time-consuming process of clipping, the product would help a lot in blending him into the crowd.

Afterall, some horns were just tightly packed hairs... Loosen them up, and they became normal, abeit a bit stiff, head hairs. Some of the more extreme comet mutants had ones made of tougher keratin... these required another compound to soften the protein until it became pliable and could be kept under concealment beneath a normal cloth cap.

Top it off with casual civilian clothes that he could pick up (and charge to Johnson's company later) and maybe a few stealth spells, Chance figured that he could pass off quite well as a nobody... always something handy to have in such a undercover mission.

Bringing himself back to the present at last, he patiently waited for Johnson to get back to the pay issue... Later, he would have to ask more about the lost MUNDI troops as well. Those men and women had been under his command... it was his duty to find them and bring them back.

---------------------------------------------
(CKW)

"Looks like i can't bring any weapon besides my own bare fists..."
Grinned Iceman... His heavy pistol and sawn off shotgun would not past this one.

But Alexeiv was not paying attention to him. He recognized the dragon who was chasing the aircraft. He had been told about him. Frag it.

He snapped out back to reality.
"And what about non-harmful disabling weapons, like this tear gas grenade?"

He was pointing to his grenade wich no one had seen it before. Alex was good at hiding things. But he didn't wanted for an answer.

"I should call a contact or two upon Tergannon. Is it that OK?"
He grinned.

He was now looking at Chance, hoping that he would read his thoughts.

So, Chance Vei... you think I am risking our lives by saying that? It is clear that he wants us to think he is the boss, nothing more, nothing less. I am just sincerating with him to earn a little of more trust. To make better negotiations. And IMO it will work.

---------------------------------------------
(virtualoctopus)

Red, who had been standing by the door ever since her entrance, piped up.

"Right, I didn't quite catch most of this, but I'm in anyhow. I need the nuyen. But I want my bike taken with his chopper," she looked at Rusty and continued, "and on some sort of decent service that won't get it dropped in the atlantic or something."

Johnson nodded an agreement.

"And will this pass your weapons test?" Red put her hand into her bag and tossed the carefully selected camera drone to Johnson, leaving it's seven armed brothers behind. The elf inspected it, and handed it back.

"That passes, as long as it doesn't get used. Anyone taking unliscenced pictures or videos of my company assets will find themselves having quite a hard time afterwards." He turned around, making sure everyone else had taken this in.

---------------------------------------------
(BlueThunder)

Hearse sulked out the room. She felt slightly, what was the word? Disappointed? Angry? Depressed? Whatever it was, she had an unnatural desire to hurt somebody. And not just hurt, she wanted to make somebody suffer. Suffer for her screwed up life. Suffer for all her mistakes. Suffer the way she suffered everyday... suffer the rot.
She sighed, pulling up a seat at the bar. The barman, after observation of her earlier, decided not to ask her order. Classing it to be, not only a bad business decision, but a bad life decision. It wasn't that Hearse looked threatening, not at all. It looked as if a slight gust of wind would put her in hospital for a couple of weeks at least. It's just, she had this thing that surrounded her, which wasn't the smell. Although, that was strong enough by it's self. No, it was a feeling that, if it came to violence, she had much less to lose then you did. She really did have nothing to lose except her existence. Then again, even though most don't realise it, that is all any of us have to lose.

Hearse looked across the bar. There was a young girl sitting there, she looked very familiar. Not like Hearse had ever seen her personally, maybe in a photo... Or read about her in a book, that just so happened to have a very good description. She fished around in one of her pockets, feeling past the screws, tools and occasional gadget gone wrong, to find the picture. The picture vital to her mission. She looked at it closely, then to the woman sitting at the bar. She had no name, the man at the Sisterhood hadn't given one. Just a picture and an objective.

To make sure no harm came to this woman

"Might as well start now..." She edged over to Silvia, never one for introductions, she just coughed weakly, hoping to get attention. That was a strange twist, as Hearse never looked for attention. In fact, her whole life was based around avoiding it.

---------------------------------------------
(Nyerguds)

Alanya looked at Johnson.

"Excuze me... but what about mah deck? Yu don' think dey'll stop me fur havin' a deck wiv me eh?"
"They hardly trust someone with a pocket calculator in Terganon nowadays, miss Hayusaf."
"But Itz mah own, top of da line, EMP proof... ya don't find many like it. Ah don' feel like leavin it behind."
"Well tell that to the Terganon security." Johnson said emotionlessly. "As I said, we'll keep it safe for you if you want."

Leave my deck with them? With half of Transys' most advanced tech stowed on it? Now way.

Frag... this is going to be a problem.

She pushed a button and looked at the deck's display.

Notebook
-Meet in Chaos Engineer bar - ask for Johnson
-Aura upgrade Lee
-Tickets David

David. she thought. I'll give him my cyberdeck. We're most likely going to the UCAS or one of the American countries anyway; I can pick it up there.

She deleted the first message on the list, and looked at the rest of the messages.
Right. Find some mage to do something to mask Lee for aura scans. I'll have to do that to get him to Terganon.

She swiched off the notebook and looked up.
"OK. Ah'll manage. But ah need a deck in Transys."

"Don't worry. You'll get a deck." Johnson answered. "And program sticks aren't that hard to smuggle, so if you absolutely want your own, you can always give it a try. But if they catch you... I've never seen you in my life."
He looked around to the other deckers.
"And that goes for all of you, of course. It's your job, not mine."

***

Silvia looked at the woman sitting next to her at the bar.
Another cyborg. she thought.
Silvia didn't like cyborgs, or any kind of cyberware. She felt it was a treachery to the concept of life itself to replace limbs by robotic pieces. Crash had been a bit of an exception, since he never had a real arm. But this woman definitely had more cyberware than she ever needed.

Silvia thought the woman looked pretty miserable. Weak... ill. Even though she resented cyborgs, there was something in this woman that made Silvia feel she deserved to be pitied.

"You don't look too well." Silvia said to Hearse.

---------------------------------------------
(Wesforce)



Mr Johnson looked on silently as Hearse upped and walked to the door of the room.

This hadn't happened often, but it had happened. There were contingency plans, of course. Mr J planned for everything.

She looked at him, he opened the door with a switch and Hearse was free to leave the room, and the bar, with her complimentary ¥1000 credstick.

"Right. Now money." Mr Johnson began.

He took more credsticks from his case, these marked with ¥2,500 each. One for each 'runner. He passed them around.

"Yours. Upfront. Equivalent of ¥12,500 more upon full, proven completion of the mission, in the currency of your choice. Do we have a deal?"

He waited to see if anyone was going to negotiate for higher pay, or ask for rare or illegal equipment as payment instead. Mr Johnson informed those that very little was out of the reach of his employers. Within reason, that is.

After that was over, Mr Johnson had one further surprise to spring on hus 'runners.

"Ladies and Gentlemen, I must introduce Iceman. He will be your leader. He is capable and reliable, and will report to me regularly. You are to obey him and follow his orders. Failure to do so will be counted as breach of contract."

Iceman stood up, grinning psychotically.

Mr Johnson turned to him and nodded, and to Sasha. He gave her a wink, and then left the room via the back entrance with his Ork guard.

Iceman stood up.

"Our planes leave 12 sharp tomorrow from Britsprawl Heathrow Corporate Terminal. You've from now - 20:00 - Until that time tomorrow, to get ready and get to the airport. Now go home, get prepared, leave all the illegal crap at home and be ready. I'll see you there."

He walked to the door, turned and gave a sadistic grin.

"Or else."

He winked at Alex, before leaving.

Everyone left through the back door of the bar so as not to arouse suspicion, to go their seperate ways.

***

Hearse was hanging around in the bar. By now she was getting concerned looks from the clientele, as well as the barman.

"Going to buy ha drink, lass?" he asked, witha hint of irritation.

***

Chance felt the odd feeling again. He looked around with his astral eyes. A small ball of energy hovered behind him.

"Hello!" It said, cheerily. It was blue, and pulsed with Mana.

He recognised it for what it was - A Spirit. A low-level kind of a spirit known as a Watcher spirit. They were not particularly bright as spirits went, but were dogged and single-minded, once bound to a task.

And this one seemed to be following him. It was the spirit 'attaching' itself to him he had felt when first entering the room, and now it had a taste for his aura, it would follow him anywhere it could travel: Which basically meant anywhere apart from a warded area or a Shamanic circle.

One was following Ash, too.

Seems Johnson doesn't just trust this Iceman guy to keep an eye on us. Lupus assumed, wisely.



---------------------------------------------
(red_Dawn)

Jessica hurried from the bar, that Iceman really freaked her out. It was only when the full brunt of the frigid Britsprawl air scorched her lungs did she regret leaving the warm bar so quickly. As she wandered down the street, not knowing where she would sleep that night, a sports car screamed past her. She caught a glimpse of a man she had seen in the secret meeting, Maniac or something. These runners always had elaborate nick names...

Jessica's mind wandered as she walked away from the Chaos Engineer, she had stayed behind to negotiate with Johnson in private. He had told her he would think about her proposal, she didn't expect him to accept straight away. She unwittingly smiled as she imagined what she would do if she had a little luck and came out of this run alive....but until then, all Jessica Hayes had to worry about was finding a safe place to stow her equipment and a warm place to sleep.

The streets of London were cold this time of year...

***

Rusty had arrived back at his tiny apartment near New-Heathrow Airport. He had been happy to take Johnson's offer of straight Nuyen, Rusty didn't need any fancy new gadgets or equipment. He was just out to make a living.

Not too long after his return Johnson's men had arrived to transport Rusty's Akula helicopter to the sea-port and load it onto a cargo ship. Rusty had fretted and nagged the men as they man-handled his precious craft onto a flatbed trailer and driven off with it.

Rusty unpacked his Beretta 92F and laid it out on his beside table, ready for when he had to go. He was pushing the limits with his 9mm weapon but it was a solid, reliable weapon which he knew how to use and maintain. His service in the Australian Air Force had taught him that sometimes simple was better.

---------------------------------------------
(CKW)

Alex meditated for a while. He had left a message to the Johnson. He would want to negotiate a special reward, but there was little time left. Such special reward was nothing of the other world... A rare weapon and some "company". Oh well, he would have time to negotiate...

He walked out the bar. It was cold. Like his home country.
Someone was waiting for him.

"Long time, sergeant Alexeiv." Said the figure that was leaning in the dark back alley.

"I am no longer a sergeant, Alkoi. I am a colonel." He cheered with pride.

"Hmph. It's hilarious. A liutenant like me, giving orders to you..."

"I´d rather die, but i need to do it." Grinned Alexeiv. "I can´t forgive you wanted to kill my family."

Alkoi AKA Iceman left Alexeiv, and headed towards his "shelter". Alexeiv should do the same, and store the illegal stuff.The weapons trouble was solved... But on what inn he should sleep?
He continued to think about it while he was walking away from the Chaos engineer.
His good sight located one of the teammates...Hayes? He didn't knew the name, but it was one of the women.

What he worried him was what the girl was doing... She looked for a place to sleep.

He approached her.

"It´s no time to sleep in the streets, "Soldier" ".

He said.

---------------------------------------------
(BlueThunder)

Hearse waved Mr. Johnson's credstick under the Barman's nose.

"Want it?" She asked as the barman followed it with his eyes, much in the same way a dog follows a ball. "Well shut the frag up..."

The Barman obviously took note of this, turning away to clean some glasses. Well, pretend to clean some glasses. Hearse honestly didn't think he knew how. She ignored him, turning to Silvia.

"Is it that obvious?" She asked. She was fed up with this place. It had been bad luck since she got here. But, At least it had led her to the target of her other mission.

"If people can't see it... They can smell it." Silvia tried to say as politly as possible. Hearse just shrugged, taking the picture from her pocket and spreading it out on the bar.

"Is this you? Only somebody is intrested in your protection."

Silvia gave her an inquisitive look.

"Are you saying... Somebody sent you as a body guard for me?"

"More of a watcher..." Hearse took a few deep breathes. She'd done too much recently, it was taking it's toll.

"Are you alright?" She heard Silvia ask, as she battled with her failing body. A few minutes later, she managed to give a weak "yes", while trying to stop the Barman robbing her blind.

***

Bulldog pulled himself up the steps of the rented appartment. He was inside now, but it was still cold. Not like cold ever bothered Bulldog. If your cold, wrap up, get a fire going and blow the frag out of something. Now warm weather, that was a different matter. If you wrapped up, you'd have your own inbuilt sauna, if you start a fire you'd burn half of the UCAS down and as for blowing stuff up... Imagine the smell of all those corpses. Disgusting.
He fished around in his pocket for the keys, not like there was a lot to fish though. It was just he had so many pockets, he couldn't remember which one had what in. He evenyually found them. It was a simple lock. Nothing electoronic, just a simple key and lock. Just how Bulldog liked it. He crefully unlocked the plain white door, with the numbers "56" on it, although it was really "59" as the six been damaged.

"Morning Sir." Said Hamfist, who was sat inside reading the latest issue of "PlayGoblin" (Who'd have thought Meta-Human's would have been so good for PlayBoy's profit?).

Bulldog swept past him to a nearby wardrobe. From it he pulled out and unmarked black bag.

"Stop drooling and help me prepare." Bulldog yelled at the young, yet highly organised Goblin.

"Right you are sir. But... For what?" Ham hadn't stopped asking this, not even the playgoblin had shut him up.

"Just give me a hand!" If Bulldog was the kind to drone on about how young people never respected their elders, he'd be doing it now. Luckily for Ham, Bulldog wasn't. But he was tempted too.

---------------------------------------------
(virtualoctopus)

Red was jostled out of the room with the other runners, back through the bar, and outside. It was much more crowded in here than when she had entered, but there really wasn't much tpoint sticking around. Silvia was somewhere back there, talking to the walking corpse, but frag her, she could find her own way back. Red had stuff to do before midday tomorrow.

Outside, the air had a slight chill, strange for a normally warm early summer britsprawl evening, with the sun dipping slowly past the horizon, but probably attributable to some flaw in the bio-controlled dome high above her. She turned, heading back to the van she was using as a transport in Britsprawl after it had been "liberated" from it's previous owners.

Suddenly, a hand tapped her on the shoulder, the cold metal of some trinket rubbing into her flesh. She spun around.

"What the frag do you want?"

The offender was an orc, dressed in dark clothes, and fairly standardly built. He looked run-down, with a slight shabby look, and dim eyes.

"I am wondering... where the Alexiv in your meeting went. I seem... to have lost him somehow."

Alexiv? Who the frag was he? The only Alexiv she'd heard of was the Wolf bloke who had died at Transys.

"I don't know no fraggin' Alexiv. Frag off, I'm not bothered."

Red opened the door, swung herself into the van, and started the engine.

---------------------------------------------
(LeFire)

The trip back to their rented apartment was a rather tricky and hasty affair... Neither Chance nor Ash wanted to spend too much time on the streets of London with only a pistol and two katanas for company, their heavy weapons already locked away in the local "No Stoopid Questions" safety deposit outlet.

Started by an enterprising Troll who figured that humans/metahumans of the runner breed would need to store contraband occasionally without any "stoopid fragfaces" asking too many questions, the company had become very successful in recent years, enough for them to amass a large security force capable of protecting their stock against all threats. Regular donations to the authorities kept administrative details smooth, and the quad-barrelled 30mm APDU/HEAP Vulcan autocannons mounted at all four corners in the deposit and security check room (computer-controlled to track each customer from the moment he/she set foot in the facility... and capable of putting four hundred rounds in mentioned person within a second) kept everyone clean and honest.

A quick trip to the local mart to pick up some civilian gear for Chance (like most soldiers, he didn't have an up-to-date wardrobe. Ash had to drag him into the store, muttering something about "I'll divorce you if you try to wear those things you call civvies"), and they were soon back at their apartment, catching up on sleep and readjusting their body clocks before the big trip the next day.

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(Nyerguds)

"Leave her alone damn sleghead!" Silvia yelled at the barman, and helped Hearse up. The cybered body was heavy, but Silvia had no trouble at all getting Hearse back on her feet.
Hearse frowned when she noticed it. Silvia just smiled at her.
"I'm a half-dragon." she whispered. "Don't think you'll be able to protect me better than I can, but well... you're welcome to try."
She looked at the door, and saw Red leave.
Frag her. I'll get home on my own... and I got a pretty interesting situation here.

She looked back to Hearse.
"So... who hired you anyway? My dad's as legal as he's big, and my mom's from an upper class Elvish family, so I can't imagine them having anything to do with it."

---------------------------------------------
(BlueThunder)

"I have no idea. I do this, I get paid...." Hearse's voice was on the verge of a whisper. She didn't like direct questions, or attention. But it was part of the job.

"Paid... What kind of payment?" Said Silvia, donning the "Tell or you'll meet Miss Claw" look.

"Whatever he could spare..." Hearse kept her head down, she had to avoid eye contact.

"So it's a he? Does he have a name?"

"No..." Hearse was slowly breaking down, she had her head in her hands and was shaking. She didn't need this kind of stress, not at all.

"An address?" Silvia didn't wait for an answer, she managed to pick something up in that scattered mind. "Take me there, NOW!"

"No! No.... he'll.... he'll"

"Kill you? Oh don't worry, I got that covered." It was probably a lie, but Silvia could be pretty convincing in the search for forbidden knowledge.

"He'll keep me alive..."

---------------------------------------------
(Nyerguds)

"Alive?" Silvia said, almost shocked. She didn't understand. "If all you have left is your life... make the best of it. I admit, you made a slegging mess of yourself, but still..."
She looked Hearse straight in the eyes. Hearse still stared at the ground, avoiding Silvia's 's eyes.

Silvia felt confused by what the woman had said.
"How can you... not like living?"

***

Alanya walked outside.

Henshaw garages in Angel... 8 'til 5.

She realized she wouldn't get much sleep tonight. She'd have to arrange a transport to get Wirecat and Sarah across the ocean, and into the UCAS without being caugh. And she had to transfer Lee back into her deck, but still keep some kind of basic program in the robot to make it walk with her tomorrow, to get Johnson's people to get the aura-shielding cover on it.
And then she had to visit Wirecat and Sarah, and give them her 'deck and the instructions to catch their plane.

It was going to be a busy night. A very busy night.

She walked back into the bar.
"Lee, come on." she said to the robot. "We got a lotta wurk ta do."

The woman left the bar. The robot followed.

LEE's movements didn't really look like those of a robot... they weren't jerky or anything. But they were also too calculated to look natural to the people watching him. He never once bumped into another person in the crowded bar, or trip over one of the goblins or dwarfs running around. He avoided all contact like a tactical computer dodging missiles, and walked on.

---------------------------------------------
(Wesforce)

Crystal also left the bar... But she wasn't finished for the night yet. In fact, to her it was only just starting. She planned to go out, have a good time while she could, because by the sounds of it, this job was going to be a big 'un.

Chance and Ash had already gone - But the Vet wasn't the type for her kind of night out anyway.

She hung around for a bit behind the bar - She had a feeling that the Alex guy wanted to say some things to her, and she would be working with him, anyway, so best to get to know him soon.

Feeling lonely, she 'phoned two of the only people she counted on on a regular basis, and left messages. The first was Cylinder Head, who was also out on the town. He'd drive over and pick her up. The second was Mary, and Crystal left her a message.

--->Going to be away for a few days, wondered if you wanted to meet up. Also, I've got a favour to ask. Talk later.<---(Crystal)




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