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The Amphitrite Files - Where Eagles Dare

A story by Croco Chilton

(All characters and storylines, including those based on RP's, artwork and other stories are © of their respected owners)

She had never slept better in the last four years of her life.

A brief yawn came from Serine as she started to wake up, stretching while she looked around her newest surroundings. The bed she was in was very comfortable, and as she started to fumble and turn her commlink on, she could sense that things were starting to look up for once in her life. She had already been through so much in her sixteen years, with the escape from Chicago to St. Louis, then to Seattle where she underwent the transformation that turned her from an average, unassuming human girl into what equated to an augmented anthropomorphic river otter. It was a torturous ordeal, but as Serine logged in to check her messages, she was starting to adapt to the characteristics of her new form well enough.

She still vividly remembered what happened the night before, when she was still on the run and trying to escape from the corporate security teams that were intent on capturing her. The race to escape the flurry of assault rifle fire...the tumble down a steep embankment to the street below, and finally the last leap into the Puget Sound to finally free herself from her potential captors as they fired at her...they were still fresh on her mind as she perked up when the door opened, and a man stood in the doorway. He was tall and lanky, but looked like he could hold his own, and especially with the cybernetic arm that he had as he looked down at the girl.

"Sleep well, Serine?" he asked. Serine looked up at him with a smile as her tail thumped the bed a couple times.

"I cannot tell you how good it felt to actually sleep in a bed where no one was watching you," she told him, "Even when I escaped, I still had nightmares that kept me up, not to mention having to find whatever I could on the street."

The man, whom she knew simply as "Hijack," beckoned her forward, still clad in the polychromorphic jumpsuit she had on the night before. "You don't have to worry about any of that with us. Though if you're interested, Patches has got some breakfast up." Her face broke into a wide smile as she hopped out of the bed and did some more stretching. "Thought that might get your attention."

Serine slowly made her way out of the bedroom she was in, which was situated in the basement level of an indiscriminate condominium in Renton. It was close enough to the downtown area where they could get in and out with a car or van easily, but they knew they could take the trains in if they didn't want to deal with traffic on Interstate 5. But the only thing that was on her mind right now was a nice, warm plate of food at the top of the stairs, which led into a short hall that turned toward the kitchen, where she was greeted by a large, towering man who had what looked to be a pair of fangs jutting up from his lower jaw. It was the fangs and the large pointed ears that gave the man away as an ork as he smiled when he saw the girl.

"Hoi! Serine!" he called out, "Nice of you to join us for breakfast!"

"Hopefully you saved some for her," teased Hijack, which drew a bit of good-natured ire.

"What's that supposed to mean?" No response. "Are you saying that I'm a pig?"

"I did not. I'm just saying that you tend to eat all the goddamn food as soon as it comes in."

The ork was about to say something when another woman entered the room, only a little bit taller than Serine was but still primarily human in appearance. "Relax, Thor didn't eat everything," she said, "But we thought that after a job well done over the past couple nights, we'd actually indulge and get some actual breakfast food instead of the soy-drek we're constantly having to scarf down on the run." The woman, who went by the name of Lucy, was not kidding as she offered a plate to Serine with scrambled eggs, bacon, sausage and hash browns, with two slices of buttered toast covering the plate and cut lengthwise. She had to show some restraint and keep herself from just snatching the plate, eager to have a proper meal as Hijack took a seat at a table in the adjacent area to the kitchen.

They were soon joined by the purveyor of the morning's meal, a slim elf with a wild spike-pattern haircut that was yellow the night before, but was now a deep shade of red as Serine sat down with the plate and began to pick at the scrambled eggs. He was known as 'Patches' mainly because of the patched leather jacket he usually wore that was reminiscent of the punk style, but he was also a reputable mechanic that could fix just about anything. Cars, drones computer systems...if it was broke, then chances were that he could restore to full operations in adequate time. But he was not just about fixing cars, as he was an avid car collector and restorer of classic cars from the turn of the century and beyond, and kept his more prized finds in his garage. He could tell someone just about anything they wanted to know about any car from the glory days of the 1960s to the current day, an inexhaustible encyclopedia of automotive knowledge.

But Patches, like any other elf, had a way with words and handling himself that could not be explained except for "he's just an elf." And as he sat himself down on the sofa and turned to look over at Serine, he could sense the positive vibe she was feeling.

"Hey there, Sleeping Beauty...I see someone's doing a whole lot better than they were this time yesterday." Serine looked over and blinked, but he just gave a shrug. "I know; actually having a roof over your head and a good breakfast will do wonders. Believe me."

"Oh, I believe you," she replied, "But why did you guys keep me? You could've very easily turned me back over to that wageslave and I'd be back to staring at four white walls, waiting for them to poke and prod at me some more." At that, Lucy came over and wrapped an arm around her shoulders, which brought a smile to her face.

"Because you're wiz, that's why. I know I couldn't bear to think of you as a. . .a...plaything for the megas. That shit's just not cool." She looked around, expecting Hijack or Thor to say something to back her up, but they were not in the room to her surprise. Lucy looked around and sighed when she realized there was no sign of them. "Huh. . .where'd the others go?"

"Hijack said he had someone who wanted to arrange a VR chat with him," said Patches, "As for Thor, hell if I know. He could be off to the plaza...or he could have arranged a quickie lunch date with someone." The smile on Patches' face soon turned to a frown. "Or he could be off to Puyallup to talk biz with that fuckin' Chino dude he's always talking to.

"Oh, would you give it a rest already?" Lucy retorted, "Chino's not that bad of a guy."

"Except that he's a racist prick--"

"You're just saying that cause he don't like elves. But he likes you, though."

"Only cause I hang and run with you guys. That's it." He waved his arms in front of him to further emphasize the point as Serine calmly got up and took her plate over to the sink, having finished everything that was on it to Patches' delight. "Wow...you must've been really hungry."

"I think that's the first real food I've had in like, three years?" Serine was trying to recount the last time she had an actual meal instead of imitation soy-based foods. "Or was it four?"

"Seeing as how we've got some actual cred for a change, I think we oughta go out and have ourselves a nice dinner somewhere," Lucy suggested. "I've been craving Chinese lately...does Ling Ho sound good?" Patches looked up and shot her an incredulous glare.

"Ling Ho? You know it's a Yak joint."

"Every Chinese and Japanese place with any kind of reputation downtown is a Yak joint...your point?"

"I was hoping to be able to eat in peace and not have people wanting--"

"...to do biz?" The three of them looked up to see Hijack standing at the top of the stairs to the basement. "Hey, I was just talking with someone that knows some people and they might have another job lined up for us."

Lucy and Patches just shook their heads, not looking too enthusiastic about going back out on another run right away, while Serine was perked and curious. She knew that her new friends were shadowrunners, and had heard stories about their activities while at the same time figuring out that they wanted her to do some work in the shadows when her time came. She had a natural knack for swimming and underwater operations would have been paramount to her value to the megas as she was created as an otter, but she was also agile having taken gymnastics when she was little. And while Serine wasn't much in a physical altercation, she at least had rudimentary knowledge and aptitude with firearms.

This could be her first real test, she thought as she looked up at Hijack. "What kind of a job is this? Are we actually gonna go out on a run?" Hijack couldn't help but to laugh a little.

"Easy, sweetheart. We still gotta meet up with Mr. Johnson."

"Oh, that shouldn't be too hard."

The man grinned, his eyes fixing on Patches. "In Portland." Lucy groaned, for she knew that Patches would feel at home in Portland, the capital of the elven state of Tir Tairngire. But the elf just sat there and looked indifferent; he figured that a job was a job no matter where he had to go to do it as he got up and made his way back toward the kitchenette.

It was shortly after the details were revealed that Thor made his way down from the upper level of the condo, still making adjustments to his cybernetic arm. "Damn thing can never be the way I want it," he muttered under his breath as he came back out into the living room.

"Hey, did you hear about--" Hijack started, but he put the hand on the cyberarm up to cut him off.

"Yeah, Portland. Gonna be a doozy of a time in the enchanted city."

"The fuck is that supposed to mean?" Patches shot back. "You guys have the Ork Underground, and that's a city in itself." Thor just shook his head and sighed as he made a couple of taps on his commlink to bring up an AR display to check out a couple of things. The images followed him to where he sat down, gesturing to move things around in order to access the information that he needed to get to. When he did, he rubbed his chin before a couple swipes were made to shut it down.

"If that's the case, then we need to get downtown," he said.

"Yeah. Johnson said he'd have the five of us picked up at the HyperRail station in Portland," said Hijack, looking at the itinerary his contact gave him, "From there, he's got an office on Park and Main downtown. No guns, no blades, no nothing. He'd have us whisked through the border crossing in no time flat, but we gotta be there before 5. He could tell a little white lie to his wife to get him to stay until 6, but that's pushing it."

"Cause he gets his daily blowjob at 5:30," Lucy remarked, which earned her four glares. "What?"

"And I thought Hijack was bad with his urges..." replied Thor, which earned him a middle finger from the subject in question as he slowly made his way toward the door. "C'mon, guys. It's almost noon, and we can make it to the train station, get our tickets and be on our way down to the Tir in an hour. And while we're on the train, I'll get in some VR time with Chino and see what he thinks of this dude." They all nodded and started to file out toward the back of the kitchen toward the door to the garage.

"We're taking the van," Patches annouced, "I've got a parking pass for the lot near the station."

"Shotgun!" called Hijack. Thor shot him a glare as he was the first one out and standing by the van, which unlocked as soon as the elf came into the vicinity.

The traffic leading into downtown Seattle was not that bad, though the team was delayed briefly by an accident just getting onto I-5 from the I-405 bypass. It wasn't enough to disrupt their timeframe too much, but enough to aggravate Thor, who was sitting in the far back seat while Serine and Lucy took to the captain's seats in the middle. After about a half-hour drive into the city, they were able to get into the secure lot that was just a short walk to the HyperRail station, which was owned and operated by Amtrak until the United States fell apart and broke into the current nations. From there, the Pacific HyperRail changed hands a few times until a subsidiary of Shiawase took it over and improved the efficiency of the maglev trains that mainly run from Vancouver down to Tijuana, and even tried its luck with the specialized North Star Line running up the coast to Alaska. They were only able to get as far as Juneau before encountering logistics problems and they abandoned the project, which would have ended in Nome with branches going to Whitehorse in the former Yukon Territory and Fairbanks.

Going through the station was not that much of a problem if you had nothing to hide. First, one had to walk up to the ticket counter and enter their destination on a console in front of them. Once the pertinent information was entered, and a brief background check was ran on the individual, then they were given instructions on how to pay for the tickets themselves via their personal AR. After the tickets are purchased, the traveler would then go over to the security checkpoint, where they were scrutinized by detection drones before passing through chemical and magnetic detection devices designed mainly to sniff out firearms. When they were all clear of that, then and only then could they rest easy, grab a quick bite to eat and wait at the gates for their train to arrive.

Once they were all inside, Hijack took the lead as he was trying to look for a way to throw off the security machines, but they were all able to run the gauntlet without setting off any red flags. A check of the time revealed that it was only 12:30, which brought a smile to his face knowing that they had time for a snack before the 12:45 train that stopped in Portland would come in. They were able to relax for the most part, though they had to shoo away an eager shutterbug who wanted to get pictures of Serine for something she was doing, though she didn't give any details before Thor made as if he was about to lunge at her. At least it didn't end up as a physical altercation as the train soon pulled in, and they stepped out onto the platform confident in themselves that they wouldn't get rooted out.

After they sat down and the train started to move, a curious Hijack decided to sit next to Serine as she looked out the window, the scenery a 400 kilometer-per-hour blur once they got out of the sprawl.

"Hey," he said softly to get her attention. The otter-girl looked up at him. "I wanted to ask you something."

"Sure. What's up?"

"Last night...you sent me a neural message saying that you liked the name Amphitrite." He sat back and looked up at the ceiling of the train. "What did that mean? Why that?"

Serine was about to answer, but instead it was the deep baritone of Thor that came in. "I think I might have a clue. Serine, when you were held captive...you study any kind of mythology? Greek mythology to be more exact...?"

"Yeah. I went to school, though it was--"

"I knew it." Hijack looked at the ork as if he didn't know what he was talking about. "Amphitrite was the Greek goddess of the ocean. Queen of the sea, married to the mighty Poseidon himself. Look at her."

"So? They turned her into an otter."

"And otters are at their best in an aquatic environment...have you had a chance to look further at her files?"

"We may have to go to the Stasis HQ in Bellevue, or maybe the Evo offices in Seattle for that. I'll need to get into the main servers in order to access them but such secure files would be a hell of a challenge." Hijack waved a finger in Thor's face. "You should know better. A major player like Stasis wouldn't leave such sensitive data in the open where a couple drekheads like us could get them."

Thor could only shake his head. "You win. But that's something we'll have to figure out another time, unless Serine here can get us in."

"I don't even have a good enough 'link to run the latest Ghost Raiders game," she huffed, "let alone hack into anything worth its cred in salt."

"Don't worry about that..." Hijack gave her a pat on the shoulder. "You still got the cred from us, so we'll take ya out once we get back home, get you some new toys, some new clothes, and you'll be good! Promise!" This seemed to reassure Serine as she went back to looking out the window at the scenery rushing by them.

It wasn't long before the train started to slow down to mark its entry into Portland and Tir Tairngire as a tone sounded in the cabin. _"Next stop...Union Station, Portland."_The team took that as their cue to rise to their feet and stretch, as well as to check their clocks. It was almost 1:30...ahead of schedule as Hijack pulled up his AR display to let the Johnson know that they were arriving a little earlier than planned. A smile on his face that followed a couple more swipes of his hands in front of him let the others know that things were good on that front as they filed out of the train and onto the platform.

Once inside, they had to go through another security checkpoint to which they were grilled on their intentions by a pair of elves in combat uniforms and body armor before they could go into the check-in area of the station. Patches did most of the talking; he told them that they were in town for business and had to speak with a metahuman resources manager about a possible position in the city. Being an elf gave him an advantage as it became evident to the others that the majority of the people inside the station were elves; they did see a few humans and the occasional ork pass by. But it was mostly pointed ears, slender bodies and trid star-quality appearances as they waited for their contact to show up.

It was but five minutes later that Hijack got an instant message on his commlink, letting him know that his contact was waiting. They all filed out of the train station and into a van as they had known there would be five of them. It turned out that the contact driving them was a middle-aged human male of Middle Eastern descent as he began to speak.

"So, this you guys' first time in Portland?" he asked. There were a few headshakes, while Lucy was the only one that spoke up.

"I think I came here once or twice," she told him. . .don't really remember much about it."

"If you are able to, stay a while. I could show you some of the better things in the city. . .and I don't mean just the things that the tourists see. The boss told me that you guys follow your own ways?"

"I guess you could say that."

"Then hopefully you come out and spend some time here before you go back to Seattle." It wasn't a bad proposition, but one they would have to consider at another time as the driver weaved his way through the one-way streets before pulling up to an office building. "This is it," he said, "I will come with you as you need the proper security clearances." He pulled up in front of the main door and pressed a button on the front console to open up the side doors, letting his passengers out as he got out himself. Once everybody was out, he stepped away and toward the door, letting the van close and lock itself as he left the vicinity of the van's network. The front reception area was just like that of most corporate office buildings, with a large atrium and a waterfall fountain in the center, while off to the right was where the reception desk was located, manned by an attractive young elf woman in a smart blouse and skirt outfit, the blue of her blouse matching up nicely to the white skirt as she eyed the newcomers before putting in an entry into the console in front of her.

And just behind the desk to the right were the elevators. The transport driver pulled out an access card and waved it in front of the elevator switch, and it wasn't long before a set of doors opened up and an elevator was ready for them. When everybody was gathered in, he pressed the button for the 58thfloor, to which a palm and eye reader came out for him to verify who he was. He placed his right hand upon the reader while looking into the laser eye recognizer, which emitted a soft tone when his identity was confirmed, and the elevator set in motion. The driver watched the numbers light up while muttering something under his breath about the Tir Tairngire derby, which got Lucy's attention, but was immediately shut down when both Patches and Hijack put their hands up. She stayed quiet until the tone sounded to let them know that they were on their destination floor, and as they stepped out of the elevator, she couldn't keep it in.

"Cara'sir won 2-1, but McGready's goal should not have counted," she said quietly, "Someone must've had the linesman in their back pocket cause he was a good two steps offside."

"Yes!" piped the driver loudly, "That was bullshit!" He then cleared his throat when they got to a glass door with a magkey reader over it, to which he produced another keycard and waved it in front of the reader. The door clicked, which led to another door and reader. This time, he pressed the button at eye level to him and waited for a response.

He didn't have to wait long before a soft male voice heard. "Yes, can I help you?"

"They're here."

"Great, I'll let them in. Hasim, you're free to go on your lunch now."

"Thank you." Hasim bowed as the second door opened, while he went on his way back toward the elevator. They walked into a lavishly furnished boardroom with granite walls and a table with twenty chairs in surrounding it. The man on the other end of the room was a handsomely dressed elf; he was a bit short for his metaform but he still cleared the six-foot mark on the imperial height scale. His shape suggested that he kept himself in decent shape but was not fully committed to going to the gym on a regular basis. The three-piece suit and leather loafers spoke of a successful businessman who knew what he wanted and knew how to get it, while the smile on his face was an inviting one as he held out his arms.

"Please, sit down." They all took seats where they could as he paced about in front of them, though he stopped when he got to Serine and took a harder, longer look at her, humming to himself before nodding his head. "You guys are the real deal."

Patches then spoke up. "Mr. Johnson, with all due respect, we do our job and that's it. If people find our work to be acceptable, then so be it."

"That's good enough for me. If only my other people were like that. . .my associate Hasim, for instance. Good man, but he seems to have a problem with betting on soccer games--"

"Soccer, huh? If that's the case, then our colleague Lucy here would get along just fine with him." Lucy smiled as she sat back, while Patches rose to his feet. "But we're here to talk biz, and I know you didn't go out of your way to find us in the Seattle sprawl for nothing."

"Right, right...I was getting a little sidetracked here." He calmly asked Patches to sit back down and straightened his light blue tie. "Anyway, to the matter at hand. . .my company has been working on a top secret prototype for the past three years that would revolutionize the way we live and touch every single aspect of our daily lives. I am not at liberty to say what it is exactly as it is still in the developmental phase, but if this works as intended. . .if I can get this off the ground, then not only will I be rich and my company profitable, but we'll be moving up the corporate ladder in no time flat! Expansion will come quickly and I'll be setting up facilities all over North America! And I will have power--that slimy bastard Telestrian will be on his knees kissing MY feet! And no one can do a God damn thing to take that away from me!"

"Yeah, yeah, yeah," said a disinterested Hijack, "we've heard that story before. Where's the goods?"

"Right. . .it's in a warehouse on Northeast 15thand Halsey, just on the other side of 84. It used to be a shopping mall before the first Crash, but the owners saw no future in brick-and-mortar once the Matrix was up and running again. So it went through some hands and it ended up as a warehouse and self-storage. The prototype itself is in a secured warehouse, but the automated sentry drones have been acting weird and the soonest someone can get to them is a week from now. I've tried talking to my regular security patrol and they're holding out for more money which I can't give them, and besides, there was a breach that the police had to resolve."

"So what you're saying is that we get to play rent-a-cops for you and not let anyone get access to this secret prototype?" asked Thor. Mr. Johnson gave him a curt nod. "Very well...what's the area like, and are we gonna need weapons?"

"You're definitely gonna need your guns," the Johnson told him, "In fact, you'd be best off bringing the big ones--guns that would make any street-wise punk think twice and run once." Thor nodded as the elf continued. "The neighborhood isn't really that crazy, but I'm worried that my competition may find out and try to send shadowrunners to take it. Especially Telestrian."

Patches couldn't help but to laugh a little. "So that's why you're hiring your own shadowrunners, huh? Smooth move...I like your style. Bringing in riff-raff like us to protect your mystery gadget from the other riff-raff." The Johnson was not impressed.

"I'm serious here. You guys brought an end to the Oliver saga and according to my contact in Seattle, you did a number on the chump who hired you." He then sat back down, propping his feet up on the table. "But he was not a reasonable man, whereas I am."

"Okay, then how much cred are we getting for this job?" Hijack asked in a demanding tone.

Mr. Johnson took a moment to think about it. "5,000 nuyen for completion of the job, plus another 1,000 if there's no breaches. So 6,000 for two, maybe three days of work? It's a hell of a lot more than I pay my top office managers in a month!"

Hijack sat back and sent a neural message to Thor and Lucy. <This guy is a real cheap-ass. If he knew how much we got for rescuing Serine.> He was about to say something when Patches cut in front of him.

"You've got a deal, Mr. Johnson. I know it ain't much given our last job, but we were chasing leads for three weeks straight. 1,200 for a couple days' work is some decent cred."

"Great!" The elf extended a hand to Patches, which he accepted and shook with a smile on his face as well. "I'll have a t-bird waiting for you in about a week. If you can get to Renton Airport without any difficulty, I'll give you a time to be there with all your equipment. So, is that it?"

It was then that Serine finally spoke up. "Are we gonna have a place to stay on the job here?"

The Johnson looked at her for a moment before he leaned back in the chair he was in. "There's a cozy little motel two blocks down, but you'll have to use your own money. That and it's recommended that you stay on site in case something happens. I'll have some temp-beds set up in the lounge area just before you arrive so that way the squatters don't get to them before you do." He then looked back at the group as a whole. "I'll also have ground transportation ready for you when you arrive with adequate storage for your equipment. Once the job is complete and the money is in your account, you will drive up I-5 to where a contact will be waiting in Tacoma. You shouldn't have any problems with the border patrol going back into Seattle or going into the Salish-Shidhe. It's coming and going into the Tir that might be a hassle. But as long as you look presentable, they shouldn't give you a hard time at the border." There was a pause, the room falling silent before the elf spoke up again. "If that's the case, then I think we have an agreement and this meeting is adjourned. I'll have transport ready to take you back to the train station." The group got up, exchanged handshakes and slowly began to file out of the meeting room toward the elevator.

There were no difficulties getting back on the train for Seattle. After a filling meal at a reputable Indian restaurant in Bellevue, which took much deliberation and argument to come to an agreement on, the crew filed back home to the Renton condo and settled in for the night. When they awoke for the next day, they filed into the van to make their way over to visit Chino in the Puyallup Barrens. What was once a thriving middle class and farming community had become a wasteland ever since Mount Rainier first erupted nearly fifty years prior; rioting and gang wars, combined with the exodus of undesirables from all over had turned it into an area where only the downtrodden struggled to survive. And after a refueling and a quick fast-food lunch, it was on to the I-5 to head southward toward what they eloquently described as "hell on Earth," specifically the Loveland district, where the majority of the population in the area lived. It was also where most of the action happened, as it was the stage for a nearly perpetual gang war between organized crime and street gangers, fighting for control of territory and their specific rackets.

It took them nearly an hour, but they soon got to the junkyard where Chino lived and worked. They filed out of the van and made their way to the front door of a small, rundown house that looked like it could use a decent amount of repairs. "Meet me out back!" a deep, rumbling voice called out, and they filed around the side of the house and through a gate that led to what equated to a graveyard for cars, trucks and drones that had lived beyond their usefulness. Once there, they were soon greeted by the inhabitant of the domicile, who towered even over Thor's head. Like Thor, he had a pair of prominent fangs jutting out from his lower jaw, but he also had a pair of horns jutting out from where his temples were, then curled down and back away from him. He also had hardened deposits of skin all over his arms, and while he had a bit of a portly appearance, he was a strong and powerful being, as all trolls were generally seen as. But a big smile broke out over his face when he saw the crew.

"Ahh, Thor!" he called out with a slight Latin accent associated with the area of Aztlan formerly known as Mexico, "My brother--how've you been?"

"Been tough, but we hit the jackpot the other night." He reached out and embraced him, only to be lifted off the ground with ease and set back down just as quickly. "Nearly two whole months worth of tracking data and chasing leads finally paid off--and God, did it feel good!"

"Ohh, so you nailed 'er, eh?" He laughed, then turned to Patches. "And what's this fuckin' keeb doin' here?"

"Ah, fuck you too, Chino." The elf got a handshake and a pat on the shoulder as he went down the line and greeted Lucy and Hijack. When he got to Serine, he did a double-take and took a step back.

"So this is the girl?" She looked up at him as if she had never seen a troll before, but he offered a hand, to which she took and he lowered himself to kiss the back of it. "I've got something you might like...uh..."

"Her name's Serine," Thor told him.

"Ah, okay...Serine, then. Still, I've got something that you might like and may find useful if you're staying with these guys. C'mon." Chino led them around to the very back, where he went into a large garage. It had the tools of someone who could be a mechanic, or just very good at taking things apart to find the items that were still in good working condition. "So you guys need some stuff?" He located a switch on the side wall, tapped it a couple times, and watched as the floor slid out to reveal a staircase leading down into an underground chamber. It had to be big enough and deep enough for someone of Chino's size to easily maneuver, and as they went down, Chino made sure to close it back up after turning on the lights.

Once down in the hidden cellar, they could see why Chino would want to keep this low-key. This was his personal armory, with all kinds and types of guns hanging on hooks in the wall, and some laying on the floor or up against the walls. Still more were on tables as he went over to inspect what looked to be an oversized assault rifle for a brief moment, obviously meant for a troll or someone of that size before turning back to Thor.

"Customer piece," he explains, "This is a Onotari 493; it was intended just to be a semi-auto battle rifle for the minotaur legions in Greece, but they added a burst switch on it at the last minute. This other troll I know wanted one that was modded to go full-auto; that way, he could give his rivals hell while being able keeping the pigs off him. It's also hardened so it's good for when you're up close and need to give a cat a good ol' fashioned pistol whip. I'd let you handle it, but it's too big for ya.

"I'm more of a full-auto guy myself," Thor told him, "and that means heavy machine guns. Got anything like that?"

Chino thought about it before shaking his head. "I don't have anything like that on me right now, but I could probably get something for ya. Lemme check around and see what's out there." He picked up the 493 and leveled it away from the others to see if the sights were centered correctly. "Why, you planning on mowing down some ganger bitches?"

"High-threat security. Johnson wants us to protect this warehouse with some kind of prototype from intrusion. Hijack's gonna do the spider work, Lucy's got the astral covered, but we're gonna need some firepower, ya hear?"

"Yeah, I hear. I might be able to get some stuff, but I'm gonna need some cred first. You know I'd do this as a favor, but these guys don't fuck around. They want it up front and personally, I don't blame them." Chino let out a sigh. "I'll see if I can cut a deal, but I ain't makin' no promises. I also know what flavors the rest of the crew like, so I'll see about getting some pieces for them."

Thor laughed heartily as he looked about the room, taking a shotgun off of the wall and examining it. "You the man, y'know that?"

"Course I'm the man! Who else but Big Chino can hook you up with the good shit?" Then he looked down at Serine and grinned. "Now, for you...come here..." Serine gave him a look as if she were questioning if he was talking to her, which he acknowledged with a nod before she took to his side. Thor started in their direction, but Chino put up a hand and shook his head. "No way...it's just for her." He then led her into another room within the bunker and closed the door.

The room was different than the others, for it had video walls on three sides showing different areas of the compound. _"This must be his master control room,"_she thought as Chino tapped in a keycode on the console in the back of the room. A locker to his right opened up, and he went over to pull something out of it, the darkness of the corner concealing it until he stepped into the middle. In his gargantuan hands was what looked to be just an ordinary carbine with a folding foregrip and laser sight on the barrel rail. But at the end of the retractable stock was what looked like a nozzle as she looked at it with a curious gaze. Chino knew that she would have questions as he offered it to her.

"That right there," he told her, "is a Colt M24 Triton. It looks just like any other SMG out there; it's got your laser sight, smartgun system, power folding stock--I even put a grip on it for ya cause I know how girls love their accessories. What sets it apart is that--" He pointed out the nozzle to her. "--this is meant for underwater combat. You can plug your scuba tank into this little inlet here and allows it to be fully functional in the water. Perfect for a little aquatic assassin like yourself...go on." Serine took the gun and looked it over before raising it and leveling it toward the front wall.

"This is too cool," she said with a big smile on her faux-whiskered face, "Got any more stuff for it?"

"That's what it came with, but since you're running with Thor, I'll see if I can score some more swag for it."

"Okay." He then led her back out to where the crew was waiting, and all eyes immediately looked toward Serine and her new gun.

"Whoa," gasped Thor, "is that what I think it is?"

"It's an M24 Triton--"

"Awesome...that's bad-ass!" The others soon joined in. "Oh, cool!" Lucy said. "That's totally wiz!" added Hijack. "That is without a doubt the sickest piece I've seen in a while," responded Patches.

The smile that was on Chino's face earlier came back, and it grew as he went over and opened up the trap door leading back up to the garage. "That and there's a free clip in there; I was thinking before you guys left I'd let her try it out cause, well...y'know the cops don't come out here for just random gunfire." They all agreed and started to make their way back up the stairs and back out into the junkyard. After making sure the door was closed, Chino made his way toward the front of the procession and pointed out some objects in the distance...like a mirror on a crushed car, the sensor port on a drone, the fuel door on a deceased car to name a few before giving the otter-girl the green light. "Okay, let's see ya put some lead downrange...the toggle switch is your safety. Down one for semi, then burst, then full."

Serine examined the firearm once again, looking for the switch to adjust the stock once she leveled it. When she was comfortable with the positioning, she switched down to semi-auto mode and zeroed in on a truck tire in the distance before pulling the trigger. Her cyberear unit powered down automatically upon the first gunshot, which was off the mark, but she found her bearings and sent the next two shots into the tire, deflating it instantly. From there, she was hitting everything she aimed at, and even sent a couple burst waves into the side of a car. Then she found it: an old anthroform drone about the size of an average human and sent a burst of fully automatic fire into the middle of the drone, not stopping until she saw that there was one shot left on her AR heads-up display. She switched back to semi-automatic mode and looked up at Chino with a smile.

"I like this," she told him, "I like it a lot." Then she turned around and fired the last shot right between the robotic eyes of the drone, which caused everyone to gasp in shock.

"Holy shit--!"

"She's a natural."

"Yeah, remind me not to piss her off..."

Chino just stood there, the almost three-meter-tall troll shaking his head. "Damn...she was meant for ya, honey. You take care of her, and she'll help ya out in a bind." He then turned back to Thor. "I've gotta finish up on that 493, but I'll keep in touch on the goods, brother."

"Yeah, you do that. We're just keeping cool until it's time for the Portland job, though we kinda need to get Serine some new stuff. Was gonna hit up Hardware, Etc. to see about getting her a new comm, then we'd go from there. Come to think about it, I might need a couple things from there."

"Kinda pricey, but I know 'Jack likes the high-end tech. Good luck with that." With that, they embraced and everyone said their goodbyes before piling back into the van to head back up toward the city proper once again.

When they got back in more familiar territory, they did make a stop at the Hardware, Etc. electronics shop that they mentioned to Chino. It was catered toward more middle to upper-class consumers and those willing to spend a little more on their gadgets, but the store itself got a lot of positive reviews from its customers. When they were finished, she had a high-end Erika Elite commlink; at 2,500 nuyen, it was already an expensive model to begin with. After purchasing the operating system, customization and a couple other upgrades that Hijack recommended to her, it ended up costing her nearly 10,000. Serine didn't balk at the number as she got the lion's share of the money from the last job, but she did feel a little uneasy just before hitting the purchase button. In the end, she was happy with her purchase, and even happier when Hijack told her that he could modify it to run hot simsense recordings as well.

From there, they went back home for the evening. The next day saw them all make their way to a nearby shopping mall, where Serine and Lucy did a fair amount of shopping for clothes, while Thor, Patches and Hijack browsed and tried to court several women with no success. This went on for several hours before they all made their way over to an authentic Asian restaurant that was near the mall, unlike a lot of the places which only had or had the majority of their dishes soy-based. With purchases in tow and full stomachs, they made their way back home to spend the night watching trideo movies and telling stories of past experiences, bad relationships, and aspirations of the future.

The next day rolled around, and while everyone was still either waking up or taking showers, Thor had gotten a message from Chino and was waiting for the rest to finish getting ready. He soon came to figure out that Serine took the longest to shower due to her being covered in authentic, functional fur, but knew that Patches changed the color of his hair almost daily as he was sporting a neon green hairdo when he came downstairs. He also knew that Hijack took as short as humanly possible in the shower, and Lucy had to make sure that everything was just right before coming down, though he made his way toward the door once everyone was in the room.

"Just got the call, guys," he said simply, "Chino's got the goods." They got the message clearly and followed him out to the garage, where Patches had Thor join him up front so as to make room for the new hardware they were going to receive once they got there.

When they got to Chino's house, the troll was standing out front and waiting for them to arrive. He then had them enter through the gate to the junkyard and back the van up to the garage so that they could be loaded in from the rear, and so that no one could see them loading up. It was standard procedure to them as they all filed out and headed down into Chino's secret lair to procure the goods they had requested.

First was Lucy, who needed a new pistol after the one she had was confiscated at a border crossing. Chino gave her one that was the exact model of the one she had, right down to the custom grip and collapsing stock to rest on her shoulder. He didn't have anything for Hijack except for some extra clips for his own pistol, though they did have the hollow-point ammunition that he was asking about the last time they inquired about weapons. Next was Patches, to which he pulled out a case and waved a magkey over to unlock. Inside was a brand new assault rifle, to which the elf inspected and handled before setting it back in the case. Chino explained that it was the FN HAR, which was a personal favorite of corporate and other private security forces, and that the gunsmith couldn't find a way to put the scope on that he wanted. But it came with a laser sight that was just as good, and even that wasn't good enough.

"It's nice," said Patches, "but I still wanted the scope."

"Hey, I tried," Chino retorted, "but the dude said he couldn't do it. It should still work with your smartlink, and that laser is as good as it gets. Still a top-of-the-line piece." Then he looked at Thor with a big grin. "And last but not least..." He gestured over to one of the counters, where a large weapon was set on a bipod with a scope on the top rail, a large foregrip on the rail beneath the barrel, and what looked to be a laser guide where the front iron sight would be. Thor began to snicker as if he were a super-villain concocting his latest scheme for world domination while Chino explained the gun to him. "This baby here, is an Ares MP...it's an LMG that can be clip-fed or belt-fed. It's got your usual hip brace, but it's made with advanced alloys and composites so it's about half the weight. Plus you got the other stuff you wanted...scope with thermo and image link, foregrip, laser sight up front, vent system, bipod. The guy threw in a tripod for when you're behind cover and can kneel and fire as well."

It didn't take long for Thor to approve of it. "This is pretty sweet, Chino. I knew you could pull it off."

"Yeah. Though it wasn't cheap; guy wanted 7 G's for it, and that was before the additional 25 percent cut he wanted just for gettin' the damn thing. I was able to talk him down to 5,500, but that was all I could get, plus the added 25 as well. So that and all the ammo you wanted came out to..." The troll put up a finger and brought up his personal finance page on his AR display, then nodded. "Ah--13,875."

"I ain't struggling for cred right now, so call it an even 14?"

"You got it." While Thor turned to make the transaction, he turned to the others. "As for you guys, I didn't get no markups or any other bullshit, so you can pay me straight up. I'll need 1,050 from Hijack...1,000 from Lucy...and 2,750 from Patches." He then thought about it for a moment when he turned to Serine. "And I've got five loaded clips for that Triton with your name on 'em. I have to say, I'm still impressed with that display you put on the other day."

"So how much?" she asked.

Chino chucked deep in amusement. "These ones? They're on the house...a little gift to get you going in the shadows." He then had some words of wisdom for her. "All I can tell you is to keep your head up, your ass down, and your eyes and ears open. I can't tell you how many runners I've known who checked out cause they weren't fuckin' paying attention...good runners too. You've got your team with ya too, so don't think you gotta be the hero on your own. You watch their backs, and I know they'll watch yours. These guys...I trust them with my life, and they'll trust theirs with you out there." He then reached down and patted her on the shoulder. "Hey--just, be careful out there and remember the old proverb: Watch your back...shoot straight...conserve ammo...and never, _ever,_cut a deal with a dragon."

Serine gave a nod and an 'okay' while everyone else loaded their stuff into the van, specifically into the hidden trapdoors in the back and middle portions. But as they were doing that, a frantic Chino raced back up the stairs.

"Hey, wait!" He had a pair of boxes in his hands, one in each. "You guys are gonna need ammo!" Once the trapdoors were closed, Chino set the boxes in the back and went back down to fetch another one to set on top before closing up the van. But before he sent the crew on their way, he went back down into the bunker for about a minute or so, then came back up with what looked like a massive sledgehammer and gave it to Thor. He looked at it with a confused face.

"What's this?" he asked, looking back up at Chino. "A sledgehammer?"

"What's a dude who calls himself Thor without a big fucking hammer?" He shot him a wink, and then they both started laughing as the ork, being a amateur philosophy and mythology scholar, immediately got the reference as Chino pointed and spoke up. "And I managed to have it modified so that the heads can be electrified with the flip of a switch, making you even more like your namesake. How's that?"

"You've outdone yourself this time," said a grateful Thor as he stashed it with the rest of the gear. "I don't know what else to say."

Chino certainly did. "Then get the fuck outta here and don't get busted! Lemme know how Portland goes when you get back." Thor could only laugh as he got back in the van, giving a wag of fingers as they drove off.

The rest of the week leading up to the trip was spent making final preparations, with the majority of it revolving around moving Hijack's stash of weapons and drones in case law enforcement decided to raid the condo. Some of it ended up at the Sorrento, a historic hotel in the downtown district that used to see a lot of business but had become rundown and turned into a safehouse for shadowrunners. Some of it ended up at an abandoned apartment complex in Everett on the north side of the sprawl, while what little was left was stashed in secret compartments within the condo itself. Once the gritty work was done, all that was left was to clean and stash any weapons that were going to be used in Patches' van; Thor also had an older model sedan parked in the front and had volunteered to drive Serine and one other to the airport with them. Naturally he wanted Lucy, but Hijack stepped in after promising not to talk bad about him along the way. So that was decided late Thursday night after their ammo was clipped and ready and their armored clothes were neatly folded into suitcases to take with them.

Once Friday rolled around, the team was ready to go as Hijack got the call, though he had a concerned look on his face. "Uh, change of plans, guys," he announced, "The t-bird that Mr. Johnson said he'd have ready for us is a no-go. But at least he was able to arrange a plane to transport us to Portland. We'll have to land and make our way from Morningstar but it should not be much of a problem, plus once the pilot checks in, we're good to go. Apparently he's got some connections within the airport so we can just get our stuff loaded and go. The vans will still meet us and take us to the sight, and we'll have to set up once we get there. But it shouldn't be that hard. Sensors will trigger the gate and then we can go and set up shop."

"So let's get to it then," said Patches, "Time's a-wastin'." They soon began to load up the van with all of their equipment, which amounted to guns, ammo and a few of Hijack's drones that he kept around, which he made sure were in good working condition. Once everything was loaded up and double-checked, it was time. Thor took to his car along with Serine and Hijack, while Patches and Lucy got in the fully-loaded van and led the way. To avoid arousing suspicion, they kept to the Gridlink system, which kept the vehicles along the given route on surface streets to the airport, and at the exact posted speed limit. Both vehicles had an override that would give them free control once the autopilot was disengaged, which was highly illegal as it was seen as a tool of criminals, but they figured it wouldn't do them any good if they couldn't get to the airport to get to the job. It took them about twenty minutes to get to the airport, where they promptly turned off the autopilot and drove around to the hangar gate as the Johnson had instructed them to. The security guard took a moment to look at each car before nodding off and letting them in, not bothering to check the contents; for the most part, he was just there to collect a paycheck and nothing more as they drove around to meet the plane.

Once on the runway and on approach to the hangar, Thor saw the plane in the hangar that Hijack told him it would be in, and he knew right away that this may be too good to be true. The forward-swept wings and design were a dead giveaway that this was a personal plane.

"What the--a Mistral? Johnson must be loaded."

"Nah, not if he's got a Mistral for us," Hijack shot back, "A good private jet these days can set you back about 30 to 40 million. This...I don't know how much this one is but it's nowhere near that. Still nicer than coach, and you don't have to go through the over-the-top security at SeaTac."

It wasn't long before they were met by a couple of crewmen as well as the pilot and his partner, all human except for the elven pilot and not interested in anything other than loading the cargo bay of the plane. The plane itself was painted white with a green and blue stripe bisecting it lengthwise, an unassuming livery not meant to grab attention as the stairs to the passenger cabin were lowered and everyone was invited to board. The boarding was routine, and once inside the cabin was comfortable for the five of them, even if the leather seats weren't exactly the best around. It was good enough, and especially for Serine as she was more accustomed to being in just the bare bones minimum on the various flights from corporate enclave to corporate enclave.

"Are we actually gonna have snacks on this flight?" she asked, her tail thumping off the back of the seat.

"Don't count on it," a chuckling Thor replied, "Besides, I think it's just gonna be about an hour there."

He was about to speak up again when a tone sounded in the cabin. "Uh, ladies and gentlemen this is your captain speaking. I would like to personally welcome you aboard as guests of Arsaol Technologies...this will be a 1 hour, 15 minute flight to Morningstar International barring any unintended delays. Once on the ground, we will be pulling into a private terminal where you will have ground transportation waiting. All I ask right now is that you have your seat belts on and your tray tables in the upright and...oh, right. There are no tray tables on this plane, sorry about that." A couple snickers arose before the plane was sealed up and the pilot slowly backed out of the hangar to begin taxiing to the given runway as instructed. A nervous look came over Serine's face, and it was understandable to the rest of the team. They were all veterans of the shadows, but even the most reputable operatives had to get their start somewhere, and there couldn't have been an easier first mission for her than that. Just a little security work, though she was thinking that few people would take her seriously as the plane paused on the runway, waiting for the clearance to take off. But if things were to get hairy, she thought...then it would be a good first test of everything that she had learned and been forced to take as the engines roared to life and the plane sped down the runway, eventually lifting up and off into a somewhat clear Seattle day.

The flight itself was a pleasant one, without much in the way of disturbance. When they landed in Portland, it didn't take them long before they were pulling into the private hangar that was mentioned in the eastern section of the airport, away from the mass public terminals and away from the invasive security systems inside. As soon as the engines were powered down and it was safe to emerge, the crew, led by Serine this time, stepped out to unload all of their belongings from the cargo compartment. They made sure to thank the pilot and his partner for the flight; as much of a reputation that shadowrunners had for being backstabbers and 'me-first' among the general populace, they knew it was bad for business to be overtly rude to people without reason. And as they looked around the hangar once the plane was unloaded, it became clear that they had a reason to be.

"Where's the cars that they said would be here?" Lucy wondered aloud, "They said they'd have cars waiting for us and I don't see any fuckin' cars!"

"Might be stuck in traffic," suggested Patches, "This is a considerable city in terms of size."

"Or they might not know where the terminal is," Hijack added, which earned him a glare from Patches.

"Yeah, you'd think they'd just send some typical lackey out to a private hangar to--"

It was then that a large cargo van pulled up, and a short ork by ork standards got out to start loading the back.

"Huh...it's about time you got here," griped Hijack out loud, which annoyed the driver as he made sure that the more questionable things were out of sight."

"Traffic on the 5, and the guy at the gate was giving me a hard time," he retorted back. "You'd think Murphy would pay me more to put up with this drek, but no--he has to--"

"Wait a second...Murphy..." Hijack thought about it as he handed off his own suitcase. "I might have to look into this when I get the chance."

"Thank me later, buddy." Once the last of the bags were loaded in, the driver opened up the side door on the right. "All right...everyone in, and I'd like to have a lady in front..." Lucy took that as a cue and opened the front passenger door, to which he shook his head and looked at Serine. "No, no...the one that looks like--is that an otter you're trying to pull off?" Lucy grumbled and held the door open for Serine, who climbed in.

"You're more of a lady than I've had the chance to be around," she told her as he put her seat belt on and reached over the close the door. Everyone was quickly situated, though the people in the back had to make due with what they had as there was no seating in the back as the van set off. It was cramped and uncomfortable, even for Serine in the front as she complained about having her tail cramped against the seat back; they can make cars for trolls but can't make a tail-friendly seat, she thought to herself as they made their way down the expressway toward the downtown area. With the airport right along the south bank of the Columbia River and the warehouse right off of I-84, it would take them a little while to get there, but the traffic going into downtown was slow and heavy as the ork driver pounded on the steering wheel and complained loudly. The destination was only 20 kilometers from the airport, but it seemed more like 200 as they crept along at a snail's pace.

And then it hit them: traffic was being diverted onto the side streets at the exit before the one they needed to get off at. The driver banged the steering wheel again. "Damn it! If it's not one thing, it's another!" he growled. He could see the police cars parked three-in-line across the highway, lights flashing as they slowly filed onto the exit ramp along with the rest of the motorists being forced to take the unintended detour. But he was relieved when he saw the detour flash on his AR display after coming to a stop. "Good...they're puttin' us on Broadway; it'll lead us right there. Shouldn't be long."

The ork was right, for it was about five minutes later that they pulled onto Halsey and proceeded along a long row of what looked to be industrial and personal warehouse units. He found the entrance and pulled in, then pulled up along one of the units. The units themselves were two stories and had large overhead doors that opened up to allow vehicles to pull in for loading. This one was on the ground, but the stairs up to the smaller door suggested a platform for loading onto vehicles with a raised bed or a semi-trailer. It was soon confirmed when the ork entered a series of codes, and the overhead door slowly rose to the top to reveal a platform and two sets of steps leading up to it. Inside, they could see a pair of multi-level storage bays with enough room for a forklift to be able to comfortably maneuver around and pick out the pallets that were on top of them. The pallets looked to have different types of machinery that were wrapped in a high-quality fusion wrap and ready to be shipped out as the van backed into the open door and the driver moved around to open the rear door of the van, which folded out a full 180 degrees. Thor got out and got up to help him handle the things that were passed on up, setting them down and taking more until there was no more to be taken, and everyone could get out and up.

"Okay, people," said the driver as he pulled up a holographic display of the warehouse. "The device that you are guarding is in the section ahead of you, where that overhead door is. It's locked down and even then it takes level 6 clearance to access. The only ones with that access will be the crew that's coming to get it on Monday. There are cameras on the center of that part of the facility, and there is a laser grid over the prototype itself." He then pointed to a door next to the opposite overhead. "There's a control room behind that door, as I hear you have a tech expert with you." Hijack smiled and nodded, for that was his specialty as the ork continued. "In that case, there is a secure commlink inside with all the codes and operating instructions there...and I see you have your own drones as well, so you can tap them into the system here and go from there. Other than that, the beds are upstairs; there's bathrooms on both levels, though don't expect a shower unless you go to the motel down the road, and even then I hear they're shit. But other than that, I know you guys are professionals and the boss expects to know that his baby is protected." He folded his arms into his chest and grinned his tusk-centric grin. "Any more questions?"

"Yeah," said Thor, "there anywhere we can get other stuff, like food? I'm sure a couple cases of Beast would go a long way." Beast was a popular brand of energy drink that Thor enjoyed on a regular basis."

"There's an Alston's Grocery about five blocks down where you can get some decent food; there's a converted office with a fridge and soy processor that the regulars use a lot." He then did a quick time check before clapping a fist into an open hand. "Well I must be on my way. I take it you know what you're doing; otherwise the boss wouldn't be paying you well?" There were five nods as the ork made his way back down to close up the van. "Good. You won't be hearing from me until Monday when we get you out of here." With that, he got into the van, started up the engine and drove away.

Almost immediately after that, Hijack took to the control room to start working on the security system, leaving the other four to start unpacking everything. With him out of the picture for the moment, it was Patches who would take the initiative and start planning things out.

"I was expecting him to go in there," he said of Hijack, "but that's beside the point. First thing's first, and that is the armorwear you guys brought. The sooner you guys can get into that, the better. After that, make sure your weapons are loaded and ready in case we do need to take care of a threat with force. Lastly, make sure there's a first aid kit within easy reach in case it's needed; I know that Thor is the only one here who's got DocWagon, so if you find yourself in need of some medical attention, best hope that it is something that Lucy can take care of." With that, the team broke off to make their preparations, for they were now officially on the clock.

The rest of that day was uneventful, with Hijack still on security duty through the night, though he was starting to wonder if there was a way to hack into the system to see if there was a way to find out what was in that room. They managed to also find a local pizzeria who was willing to deliver to the warehouse, and so the first night was spent with plates of pepperoni, sausage and ham-covered pizza and sodas in front of them, and while there was no trid access except for the cheap second-rate unit by a window with limited programming selection. It wasn't the best, but it was something.

Saturday came around, and that was when the work really began as Serine and the crew woke up and immediately slipped into their armored clothing, which looked like regular clothes except for the fact that they were made from a unique ballistic fiber known for its ability to adequately repel light-caliber rounds as well as arrows and darts. It was still a little on the cool side in the morning, so a jacket was required with the same ballistic properties they started out on their patrols around the warehouse and the facility as a whole. Chino had done Serine another favor in providing her a sling for her M24 Triton, which she had equipped and on as she paraded around the complex, her cybereyes and ears fine-tuned to pick out any anomalies that she could around the vast facility, which was at least four city blocks in length.

She stopped and made sure that those visiting or taking care of their own matters were doing so away from the sensitive unit, though she nearly had to call for assistance when a quarrelsome dwarf decided to give her a piece of his mind. He did not like the fact that the team was making rounds on what was 'free property' and that she was 'another corporate thug' who did not care about anyone or anything other than profit. It got to the point where the dwarf produced a pistol and pointed it up at her, to which she leveled her Triton and told him that it wouldn't be a good idea for him to continue; not only with the sub-machine gun pointed at his temple, but with four others on call to take care of him. Eventually the dwarf backed down with a grumble and carried on, allowing Serine to continue on her rounds, with Patches on the other side with his new assault rifle at the ready.

They would continue this for two more hours before yielding to Lucy and Thor so they could rest and recover. And while the former had a staff she could wield along with her sidearm and a taser, the latter meant business with the hammer holstered on his back and a SPAS-22 tactical shotgun slung on his shoulder. Like its predecessor, the famous SPAS-12, it had an adjustable folding stock and shock pad at the end for recoil compensation, but Thor's was tricked out to give it an appearance of its own with custom graphics, a top-rail laser sight, a barrel extension to increase range, and a smartgun system to give him more of an edge in the heat of combat. He considered it to be his 'sidearm' in comparison to the machine guns he fancied, and it was a lot more effective in close quarters than any pistol could be. That was the reason he preferred it, and it was intimidating as well as he held it in his massive hands, looking out and ahead through smoked sunglasses that covered his eyes.

Little did they know that as morning turned into afternoon, and soon enough into evening, that they were being watched as well. While the team only stopped for meals and to check equipment, Serine saw a strange figure from what looked to be an apartment building off in the distance the next time she went out after dinner. It was to the north and east of where they were and she zeroed in on it with her enhanced vision, but even with her low-light vision enhancements, she was unable to get a clear view of the figure as she took to cover behind a parked car.

"I think I see something," she murmured into her commlink, "but I don't know what it is."

It took a little while before she was able to get a response. "Where is it, Serine?" It was Hijack on the other end.

"Northeast. . .think it's on top of one of the apartment buildings on the other side of 15th. I've got enhanced cybereyes but I can't make it out. Think you can send something over to look into it?"

"Yeah, I'll send a roto out to have a peek." Serine watched from her position as the overhead door opened and a rotodrone started to hover and make its way out into the clear city night to investigate what it was that she thought she saw. This was where Hijack was in his element...controlling drones within virtual reality and moving them around inside hostile facilities, and around battle zones. As Serine moved back toward their designated unit, she watched the drone gain altitude as she tried to give direction.

"Okay, I think it was down a couple streets to the north," she reported, "See if you can find any taller buildings."

"Got it. Linking to sensors. . .now..." Hijack was able to get it to a point where he could scan the rooftops for anything out of the ordinary, and it didn't take him long to find it. "I think I've found your mystery figure--huh?" The figure was that of an elf wearing tactical clothing that allowed him to blend in well with the surface he was on. He was lying in a prone position, watching the drone as it hovered at a distance from him in the air as Hijack reported back to his operative. "It looks like. . .a guy. Yeah--a guy in a chameleon suit of some kind. I don't know what he's doing or what--"

It soon became apparent as to what his capabilities were when he rose to his knees and leveled a rifle at the drone. He didn't take two seconds before he pulled the trigger, the bullet hitting the drone directly through the sensor and disabling it immediately. The shock of the impact radiated back to Hijack as he was kicked off the Matrix while still in virtual control of the drone, and he screamed out from the intense searing that ran through his brain.

"AHH--FUCK!" Serine winced as the line went silent, and any obligations became secondary as her focus turned to her comrade.

"Hijack!" she shrieked, and sprinted back in the direction of the warehouse, looking for and using what little cover she could. The figure that shot the drone out of the sky watched through the scope of his rifle as Serine raced back toward the door, carbine raised and looking around for hostile targets before she was able to enter the keycode and scramble back inside. Once back in relative safety, she then entered the keycode that Hijack had given everyone in case something happened to him and threw open the door, slinging her gun back over her shoulder when she saw the man slumped in front of the cot that he had set up in order to engage in virtual reality applications. "Hijack, are you--?" She could see that he was unresponsive, but at least still breathing as he groaned softly and clutched his head, then sent out a neural message. <Something's happened to Hijack! Immediate response is needed in the control room!>

It wasn't long before Serine got the response she was hoping for when Lucy and Thor burst into the room. One look at Hijack was all the ork needed as he knelt down to look at him.

"Classic dumpshock," he said with a sigh, "What happened?" He then ordered Lucy to begin casting a healing spell on him before turning back to Serine.

"I saw something in the distance, and he sent a drone to go look for it...next thing that happens is that he's screaming in my comm and that was that!"

"Hmm..." This seemed to confuse Thor; he didn't have the operator to ask about the figure or where he was right away. "Sounds like he was in VR when the drone malfunctioned. . .or rather, was shot down."

"That's the thing," Serine responded, "I didn't hear a gunshot or anything!"

"Great. He's using a suppressed weapon." Thor sighed and looked up at the ceiling. "We are so very, very, very _fucked_right now..." It was at that time that Hijack started to come back around, with Lucy waving her hands around his head and torso while applying the healing spell on him. He looked over at her, then to Thor and Serine as he sat up.

"Think I got a bead on that guy," he murmured, "Wanna say 16thand. . .and. . .I know it's beyond Broadway. We should be fine. . .unless he's got a sniper rifle. Then I'm with Thor. . .and that we're fucked."

Lucy helped Hijack back onto the cot and had him lay back. "Relax. Get some rest. After tomorrow we can go home and be done with this."

"Yeah. . .though tomorrow I'm gonna see if I can't find out who this Murphy fella is. Something's up if I'm thinking it's the same dude. . .first, he skimps pay, then he sends out a hitman...what's next?"

"Don't think about it," said Serine. "We're gonna be fine." This brought a smile to Hijack's face as he laid back and let himself slowly drift to sleep; it had been a long time since he had any kind of optimism about life in general. There were plenty of times where he just wanted to give up his meat body and just spend the rest of his life in a 100% VR environment. But he quickly shot that down as it was just too much fun being alive and in the flesh. He had heard the tales of VR addicts actually shutting themselves down for months, even years at a time. . .and when they came out of it, they were like zombies, clueless as to how to operate in reality, let alone know what was going on. But the spell that Lucy had put on him had an effect as he was feeling a bit better, while Serine had slipped out and upstairs to fetch him a bottle of water. He knew the dangers of dumpshock and knew that a good night's sleep would do wonders for recovery, as well as a couple of ibuprofen for the lingering headache he still felt.

There would be no effects left over when he woke up on Sunday. One more day of this and then they would get paid and get to go home as they prepared the morning soy and set off on another day of patrols. However, there was a lingering feeling of paranoia when they passed in front of the warehouse facing northward as they didn't know whether there really was a sniper watching them and waiting to strike when they least expected it. The chatter over the commlinks suggested that he was still out there, though it was quickly rebuffed and replaced with the same cadence of confidence and knowledge that the end was almost near. It proved to be enough to keep them going, especially Serine as she was quickly growing bored of just milling around and looking out for a threat that either wasn't there, or wasn't about to show up.

As day turned to night and dinner was served, they were starting to think that aside from the sharpshooter on the rooftops, nothing was going to happen. This was too good to be true, they were thinking and saying to each other as another order of pizza was divvied up amongst them...jobs were _never_this easy. But they knew they couldn't let their guard down for a second as Lucy had hijacked the trid; her beloved Sounders were playing away to the Los Angeles Galaxy as the game of the week and she could not miss a second of the match. It was still early and scoreless, but nightfall was beginning to set in and she was getting ready to settle in, which brought a sigh from Thor as he was just out there making the rounds.

"Can you watch that on your AR while you patrol?" he asked Lucy, a little annoyed that she would let a soccer game take precedence over a job.

"I'd rather have my full attention on one thing at a time, thank you." This drew the ire of the ork, but he didn't lash out as he headed off toward the door leading out of the office.

"Okay, fine by me. I was just gonna head back out front for some fresh air, maybe have a moment to think about things..." Lucy gave a shrug as he stepped out and went down the stairs toward the main storage area. Thor was visibly upset, and as he tried to sort it out, he knew that there was nothing that got in the way of that woman and her games. Better to leave it be and collect one's thoughts, he mused quietly as he took to the lot; besides, his natural low-light vision was better sorted for nocturnal missions than any human's would be as he had his shotgun and hammer slung over his shoulder.

This time, he wasn't alone.

Off in the distance, he could make out what looked to be three elves, teenagers at first glance judging by their bright suits and wild hairstyles. At least one of them had a cyberlimb, while all three of them had baseball bats and spray paint cans on them as they scrawled graffiti on the side of one of the warehouse units. Thor didn't think twice as he approached the scene; Lucy had gotten under his skin enough to where a good fight would be enough to bring him back to a level head, he thought as he cracked his knuckles.

"Hey!" he called out. This was enough to get their attention as they looked his way. "You are trespassing on private property, and the willful destruction of said property is a violation of city ordinances." They didn't take too kindly as one of them, a tall and lanky elven boy with bright purple hair turned to look him in the eye.

"Who the fuck are you?"

"Property security, kid. Now, I'm gonna ask you and your little ragtag crew nicely one time. . .vacate the premises and I won't send the cops after you."

Another one of the kids, a shorter elf with a perfectly shaved head, took the lead and moved in. "Fuck you, tusker! This is Sixteeners turf, and you're in for a world of hurt!" He cocked the bat back and took a swing at Thor's knee, connecting and dropping him down as he grimaced. But he was able to bounce back up right away and reach for his hammer, flicking the switch and letting it come online as a soft hum could be heard.

"Big mistake, punk..." He dared him to come back at him, only to get hit in the back by the third member of the posse, a spike-haired elf with all kinds of tattoos up and down his arms. Thor growled and turned, hammer cocked back as he sidestepped the second swing. "All right. . .my turn." He then spun around and drove the hammer into the spike-hair's side, and the jolt from the electricity knocked him back into the wall before he toppled forward and onto the pavement, unconscious and seizing violently but still alive as his partners looked on with terrified apprehension. Their bats and paint cans soon fell out of their hands as Thor stared them down, gripping the hammer and daring them to step forward.

The kids did the smart thing and backed away with the ork still standing his ground.

"Get your boy and get out," he growled. They yelped like a pair of puppies who got swatted on the nose and slung their fallen comrade over their shoulders, hurrying away from the scene as Thor slowly paced back toward where he and his crew were staying.

When he got back inside, he immediately went back up toward the lounge they had set up. They were missing Hijack, who was presumably back in the control room while Serine, Patches and Lucy were still watching the game on the trid.

"Hmm. . .what's the score?" asked Thor. Lucy looked up at him with a smile.

"1-0 Sounders, 38thminute. Felix Calderon got the goal." Her smile then turned to a frown. "Then Zameiski had to get himself sent off. . .I swear he's got his head up his ass sometimes. So we're down to 10 and Galaxy's been pushing."

"Ahh, hope they can hold on." He then looked down at the ground momentarily. "Had to take care of some ganger punks taggin' one of the buildings."

"So that's why you were limping a little when you came in," Patches said, noting how he was favoring the leg that was struck. "At least you took care of 'em."

"Hah--fuckin'-A I did! That hammer that Chino gave me. . .there was three, and I put it to one of the bastards and he hit the deck floppin' like a fish on the dock. Wish I could've capped it for you guys to see!"

"I believe you," said Serine, "Let's just hope that we can make it back home without any more nasty surprises."

They decided to call it a night after the match was over, which ended with the Sounders losing 3-1 and leaving Lucy in a sour mood. But she knew it was just a game and she would be over it by sunrise as she settled into her bed along with Serine; it was fitting that the women had their own bunks while Thor and Patches shared one themselves, despite the latter's protests of the former's noticeable natural scent. Hijack was content to remain in the control room, monitoring the cameras and sensors while at the same time trying to dig up some dirt on the Johnson that hired them to this job. There was something that didn't quite sit well with him, and as he tried to hack into what he could within the Arsaol network, his intuition was telling him there was another player in this game. He dug further, evading the countermeasures with ease as he inspected every file and every icon within the node he was in before moving on to another one, and then another.

What he found left him floored, but he knew that it had to wait until the rest of the team was awake.

They were woken up by commlink tones going off, causing them to scramble and get up to start getting clothes on and getting ready to head out as Hijack chimed in.

"Double-time it, crew's gonna be here in fifteen minutes." That was barely enough time for everyone to get suitcases packed and the lounge cleaned up before a loud buzzer went off inside the warehouse. Everyone was ready to go as Patches went over to open the door to let in a fellow elf who looked to be more official as he had on an actual uniform, but there were no identifying marks other than it was blue from head to toe. After exchanging greetings, the security team member, who identified himself simply as 'Hopkins', made his way toward the control room.

"No breaches or anything?" he asked.

"Nope, not a single attempt," replied Hijack, "though I did have some whacked-out dude take a pop-shot at one of my drones that I had on recon. Managed to hit it and give me a nasty case of dumpshock." This concerned Hopkins as he slipped into the room and began to bring up displays to manipulate.

"Good. I will make sure that the boss knows the bonus condition is met, and that you guys are adequately compensated for it." He then brought up a program on his commlink and made a couple of taps before speaking softly into it. _"Bonus met, go to Plan B."_A few more swipes, which saw Hopkins switch consoles, and he clapped his hands twice with a smile on his face. "All right, everything is set. Our team is moving in to secure the prototype to take back to HQ, and we'll take it from here. Good work, guys."

But as Hopkins rose up, Serine noticed the pistol holstered on his left hip, though she didn't think anything of it as they started to load everything into the van that had backed up to the loading dock. Her suspicions were confirmed when he asked them to load their weapons and ammunition in first, which she did reluctantly, along with everyone else. Once those were in, then the suitcases followed and the back was closed up, to which the side doors were then opened. There was enough room for three to be seated next to each other on the bench seat, with one on the floor and one up front, and they could see that it was partitioned so that no one could see what was in the back when looking through the windshield.

"Where's the driver?" asked Thor when he peeked around as if he were to get in through the door. The cockpit area of the van was partitioned off in a similar way, which drew his suspicion as well. "And what's with these dividers?"

"It's a smuggler's van," Hopkins explained, "You're gonna need it when crossing back over into the SSC cause they've been cracking down, especially on firearms." Thor believed him...but as he was about to get in, the elf drew his pistol and leveled it at his head, prompting Serine to let out a shriek that sounded more like the loud chirping of the animal she was molded into. That was enough to get him to whip around and deflect the pistol away from him just as Hopkins pulled the trigger, sending a suppressed round flying into the ceiling. Once settled, he reared back and was on his toes with enough room to deliver a devastating kick to the ribs, causing Hopkins to yell out, then another one to knock him back against the van. Doubled over and spitting up blood, he was forced to drop the pistol while clutching his chest, but Thor came up at him again with a rising knee, knocking him back against the van once again. The ork made sure he was upright as he staggered in front of him by tipping his chin up with his left hand, but this was a setup for the knockout as he spun to his right and came back around with the point of his right elbow connecting hard to the temple. Hopkins slammed back against the side of the van and fell forward onto his stomach while Thor just dusted off his hands as if it were nothing.

"Whoa!" gasped Serine, which drew a smile from Thor.

"And that, is how you kick ass Muay Thai style," he told her, "Feet, knees, hands, and especially elbows...I've been studying it for the past few years. It's a form of kickboxing that originated in Thailand, that's all." He then went to try and open the rear doors, but couldn't. "Back door's locked--Hijack, think you can do this?"

"Think?" The man went to work as he climbed into the driver's seat and began to fiddle with the controls. "C'mon Thor, I thought you had a challenge!" The telltale 'click' of an unlocking door could be heard, and soon the suitcases were thrown out so that arms could be passed out to their owners: a Colt Manhunter to be holstered by Patches, along with the matching M23 assault rifle and a few clips of ammo to be stashed in his jacket. Lucy got her Beretta pistol back, though the taser stayed in the van as he was certain that the use of lethal force was imminent. Next was Hijack, who preferred full-auto pistols like the FN 5-7C, and a smile slowly rode over his face when he got his weapon back. He pulled out the Ares MP machine gun, already loaded with a belt box attached and ready for action, setting it down so that he could give Serine her Triton back, along with the extra clips. He then threw all the suitcases back into the rear and got in.

"Patches, you drive out with Serine in front," he barked out, "I'll stay back here, while Hijack and Lucy get the middle. I have a feeling this is gonna get hot..." Everybody raced into their positions and Patches started the van up.

He didn't get too far before he was greeted by squad cars, though they were all black instead of the blue and white that they were familiar in seeing from Knight Errand, the company that the city of Portland had contracted to handle their law enforcement duties. He put on the brakes on and cut the motor before bailing out with rifle in hand. They knew that this meant one thing: the lead was about to start flying.

"Everyone, back inside! Defensive positions!" he shouted, "Watch the back door in case they try to sneak in!" They did not hesitate and immediately dashed back inside to hold down the warehouse, with Patches and Serine posting up by the overhead door as five security agents took positions behind parked squad cars and began peppering the area with automatic fire from standard-issue Ares Alpha assault rifles. They knew they only had a few clips on them each, so every shot had to count as they ducked out and returned with a volley of fire, and while they were not that far off the mark, they weren't hitting as the agents moved in on them.

As soon as Thor had his machine gun ready, he stepped out and started laying down a wave of suppressing fire, and actually hit two of the enemy agents. One was able to stagger back to cover, while the other was not so fortunate as his chest was riddled with bullet holes. It was then that the back door opened to the sight of four more guards ready to bare down on them. Serine was able to turn and drop the first one that stepped in with a triple-burst to the chest, but the SMG rounds were not enough to penetrate the body armor, so Thor had to finish the job. Patches moved back to try and help with the squad coming from the rear, and his assault rifle was able to find the mark and take down two, while Thor turned away after the final one fell from a bullet through the heart. They could focus their attention on the squad in front, which seemed to be growing as the distraction was enough for them to bring in reinforcements. What started as five quickly turned to fifteen, then eighteen as they could only hole themselves up and wait for them to run out of bullets.

There, from the rooftop of that apartment building on the corner of Northeast 16thAvenue and Schuyler Street, the mysterious figure would once again make his intentions known.

Serine could only watch and wait while the bullets flew dangerously close to her, shrieking as her enhanced vision picking up a brief glimmer from the rooftops to the northeast again. Then it began to rain. First, an officer ducked behind a squad car. Then another. And another. One was confident enough to dash to another car to get a better shot at Hijack, who was trying to get his spare rotodrone airborne, but he too was struck down. Only then did it become clear that they weren't alone as the panicked security force scrambled.

"SNIPER! GET TO COVER!" The agent who shouted that order would be the next to be silenced permanently, a bullet going right though his opened mouth. That was the break they needed.

"That...that guy! He's on our side!" a relieved Serine chirped out, "They're reeling--let's get them!" In the chaos, she was able to train her sights on an agent with his back turned, then squeezed off another triple-burst. This time, he didn't get up as the shots managed to find a gap between his ballistic helmet and armor. But it didn't matter as the rooftop sniper had paused to reload before picking off targets one at a time. With the losses piling up, the security agents had no choice but to get back in their vehicles and speed off to get out of the firing range, and even then the sniper managed to disable one with a shot through the engine, then the agents inside as a bullet went through the windshield, then through his chest.

When the dust settled and the adrenaline began to wear off, they stepped into the parking lot to see the dead bodies and shot-up squad cars and could only shake their heads.

"Holy shit..." muttered Thor, taking a long look at the carnage before turning back to Serine. "_This. . ._this is what we do to earn our pay."

She was about to say something when her commlink tone sounded. A peek at the message she got sent a chill through her. "Oh, my God. . .I just got this strange message from this...Eagle Eye." She gave a blank stare at the bullet-riddled van, huffing as they had no way home. "Well, this is just great! Our ride home is trashed, and I'm sure they killed the driver. What now?" Another tone sounded on her commlink. _"Look around you. You'll find salvation comes from the most unlikely of places - Eagle Eye."_This had her on edge. "Who the fuck is this Eagle Eye?!?"

They didn't have time to deliberate before a pair of vehicles pulled up. The first was a cargo van like the one they had been riding around in for most of the time, while the other was more of an off-road truck that looked more like the classic Jeep as Patches pointed out. In that vehicle was an elf with white hair that came down past his shoulders as more vehicles pulled into the lot, his body covered in a black jumpsuit as he looked Serine in the eye and beckoned her to come with him.

"You're Serine, right?" She nodded. "Come with me." She was a little skeptical about it but at least she knew that he wasn't going to kill her at the moment as she took to the passenger seat of the Jeep while the elf gave commands to those who were with him. Before long, they were on the road and making their way toward downtown as the mysterious elf glanced at the otter-girl, who then looked back up at him.

"Hey, thanks for the ride," she said to him, "We need to get back up to Tacoma and meet up with someone after that last job..."

"I know, Tacoma. We got it taken care of." He stared straight ahead; at least the traffic going through downtown was flowing smoothly as Serine sat back. The curiosity as to who this stranger was quickly getting the better of her.

"Who are you, by the way? What's your name?"

"I go by many names, flower..." He then looked her in the eye and smiled. "...but you can call me Eagle Eye." At that point, her eyes widened and her jaw dropped. She didn't think that this was the same one who was leaving her cryptic message on her commlink and shooting down those armed agents from six blocks away, but it was. And he could tell right away that she didn't believe her as he continued to explain. "I am a disgraced warrior. . .an ex-Black Banner who was good at what he did and did it for all the right reasons. That was then, before...no, that's a long and painful story."

"Hey, we've got a ways to go before we hit Tacoma," said Serine, but Eagle Eye shook his head.

"No, no. Not today. Maybe if we meet again somehow." She nodded, understanding herself that the most painful stories are ones that might be better left untold at times.

"So what do you do now?"

"I am still a warrior. I still fight for what I believe in, but I fight for a different reason. I used to do my duty to my country without question, but now the very meaning of this country...I cannot help but to call that into question. Don't take this the wrong way, but it's not the same here in Tir Tairngire as it is elsewhere...we knew the megas were bad and just about banned them outright. And we wish to keep it that way." He then looked to the heavens for a brief moment. "And that is why I continue to fight; that and it seems my skills are in high enough demand to where I can make a handsome living."

"So you're a mercenary?" Serine asked. Eagle Eye scoffed as he shook his head.

"Far from it. I've turned down jobs that I felt were against my moral convictions, whereas I would've taken it without question if I was a merc. I'm more. . .I like to think of it as being a 'soldier of conviction', but that's just how I see it." He tapped his fingers on the steering wheel as the autopilot disengaged once they were out of the city limits and heading up along the banks of the Columbia River along Highway 30. Serine could only look out at the river as thoughts were going through her head about what it would really like to be what they made her out to be...a frolicking, playful otter zipping through the river and carrying out its life without the cares of civilization heavy on her back. It would be a liberating experience, she thought. But at the same time, she was also a city girl, and she found it difficult to imagine what life would be like away from the action and bustle that the sprawl brought to her. She looked out over the highway as it meandered along with the river before turning back to her elven companion.

"Where are you taking us?"

"Gonna take the L&C in Rainier over into the SSC, then get back on the I-5 from there. Too much heat in Portland right now, plus the border patrol there don't really check for guns. If you don't have a criminal SIN, then they just let you through without much hassle."

The rest of the journey was an uneventful one as Serine decided to try and catch up on her sleep during the nearly three-hour trek back into Tacoma, although reports kept popping up on Eagle Eye's display about the aftermath of their mission. In all, fourteen were left dead, and there was also a report that the stock of Telestrian Industries was starting to decline after word got out that the security squad they hired was decimated. That brought a smile to the elf's face as he continued on, occasionally peeking over to see the girl asleep in the seat next to him. He knew that she had a rough couple of nights and just left her alone.

It seemed as if Serine's timing was impeccable, for she woke up just about the exact time they were passing back into the Seattle Metroplex, which was a part of the United Canadian and American States, a nation concentrated further east after the fracturing of the United States and Canada. Another long delay at the border crossing awaited them, and it would take almost an hour, letting the rest of the crew catch up as the Seattle border agents were being extra cautious with vehicles that had Tir Tairngire license plates as an ork agent stopped them and asked for their information. Eagle Eye gladly reached into the glovebox and pulled out his forms and everything to show. But the agent peeked toward the back of the vehicle.

"You don't have any firearms with you?" he asked.

"Actually, I do." He then provided him with another form showing his military service. "Specialist Michael Callahan, Tir Tairngire Peace Force; I am on active duty and have been since 2062. I have my service sidearm and rifle in the vehicle, field stripped and ready for inspection."

"Hmm...okay. If you could pull over here..." The agent had him pull off to the side, where a human officer stepped in and had Eagle Eye and Serine exit the vehicle.

"Let's see 'em, pal," the human barked, which made him shake his head as he opened up the back of the vehicle to reveal a pair of cases. Eagle Eye opened them up to let him inspect the pieces of his handgun and rifle, as the weapons were indeed disassembled as he had mentioned they were. He gave a shrug and cleared the elf, letting them get back in the car and continue on their way, where Serine was ready to play navigator. She had also received a friend request on her recently activated social network account as well as to a shadowrunner network that Hijack had set up an account for her as well. She didn't bother to check those while on the mission, so she accepted those requests while at the same time giving Eagle Eye directions to the rendezvous point, which was past Fort Lewis in a small city called Lakewood. A short jaunt off the highway at 512 and Serine had soon guided him to a small neighborhood pub near a shopping plaza. It was small and cozy, and there were decent drink specials offered, but they were not interested as they waited by the bar for the rest of the crew to show up.

It wasn't long after that they did; first Patches and Lucy, then Thor, and Hijack followed soon after, along with a pair of elves as Eagle Eye made his way out. The elves invited them upstairs to where they had arranged a private meeting room to go over the money transfer, which was immediately processed, as well as Hijack's revelation. But first, there was a note left on the table, which was picked up and read aloud:

To the Halsey Warehouse team,

If you are reading this, congratulations! You have managed to escape a most deviant trap to make sure that no one who knew about the prototype would survive to reveal it to my rivals. The same cannot be said about those who picked it up this morning, but that is beside the point. So aside from the 6,000¥ to split, I will also be providing bonuses of 2,000¥ apiece. If my math is correct, there should be 16,000¥ in the credstick with this note to split five ways. The passcode is 5V0CHSOR4T, and it is a one-way transfer, so the stick will be useless once you collect. Consider it a reward for your diligence and intelligence.

There were a lot of heads shaking and murmuring back and forth as they tried to interpret the meaning of the note before Hijack stepped in.

"So Mr. Johnson tried to have us taken out. . .what else is new? But what is new is that 'Mr. Johnson' goes by the name of Aodhan Murphy, and after digging up a little dirt, I found that Mr. Murphy is a key figure in the R&D department for none other than Telestrian Industries. Arsaol was nothing more than a front. . .and that device? I wasn't able to crack it completely, but it looked as if it had some applications in the field of biotech and they were trying to pawn it off as if it had some kind of world-changing properties. But that doesn't matter now. We did our job, we got paid." He paced around the room as if he were trying to think of something...and the thought came to him as he heard his stomach growl. "And I say we celebrate another job well done...know of any good places to eat around here?"

There was some deliberation before one of the elves, a lady wearing a red jacket that came down to her knees, spoke up. "I'd recommend Gianelli's if you're into good Italian," she said, "The best place around!" Everyone seemed to agree as Patches went over to Lucy and jabbed her lightly with an elbow.

"Mob joint..." he murmured, which got him a slap on the shoulder.

"Would you stop that?!?" She then looked at the elf and smiled. "Yeah, Gianelli's it is." Lucy then turned to Serine with an even bigger smile on her face. "I heard from an old chummer the pescatore there is the best in the entire sprawl. And it's fresh."

Serine's face lit up with what some would call a fish-eating grin, the thought of not just fresh food, but fresh seafood being too good to pass up. The fact that she got her first real taste of what it's like in the shadows seemed a bit secondary at that time, but it was a good learning experience for her. She was already a graduate from the school of hard knocks having grown up close to the containment zone in Chicago, and the years being tortured and transformed at Stasis was merely a post-graduate course. Things were finally starting to go her way as a tone sounded, letting her know that she got her share of the money from the job, and she smiled as she bounded toward the door, tail wagging like an excited puppy.

"Great! Let's go, guys..."

© Croco Chilton - 5/14