“Alright, let’s blow this popsicle stand,” Nail says coolly and starts walking away.
Nightshade, via commlink now: “I have a bike, but it’s too small to take a passenger, so I guess I’m on my own. Nail, do you have transport, or will you need a ride? Mr. Rescigno, I recommend you pick something random from the motor pool, rather than your own car, for you and 4509–our enemies seem to be very well prepared and organized.”
Nightshade continues cautiously to the garage, keeping the strange weapon at the ready and checking every dark corner. She’s also put on a pair of sunglasses that appear to instantly adjust their transparency to ambient light levels, and may have other enhancements. If she’s able to get to her bike without incident, she checks it carefully for any tampering, then opens the saddlebag behind the seat and pulls out a small sensor device to scan for tracking devices. Only once she’s satisfied that the bike has been neither booby-trapped nor bugged will she start it up. Assuming that’s the case, she’ll open a commlink channel again. “Nightshade, parking garage. My vehicle checks out. Goethe, would you like me to check over yours? Nail, Rescigno, what’s your status?”
Goethe gives the rest of the crew an address, which leads to a nondescript home in Downtown Renton.
Sinthia transforms into her bird form, and flies out the window. The dark mage’s hooded cloak once again falls to the floor behind her as she departs.
A team of UO security personnel have arrived at the room, previously alerted by 4509. Rescigno is whispering instructions to the security team, and gestures toward the civilians in the room. The man nods, and shouts, “Everyone with me! There has been an accident, and those involved must be examined by a physician immediately.” Nobody protests, and the civilians gather behind the security team. A few moments later, the security crew leads them out.
4509 tosses a grenade into the interrogation room, and Nail leaps out of the way. The others turn away from the explosion, but 4509 watches the explosive shrapnel tear the former Synthcorp CEO’s body apart. Kill confirmed.
Rescigno picks up the black hooded cloak. “Let’s go,” he says.
The group takes different routes to Goethe’s hideout. Nobody is accosted on the way, although Nail can’t help but glance upward, looking for particularly suspicious birds. The similarity between Sinthia and this new psycho-mage is not lost upon Nail. They both shapeshift into small flying animals, worship strange dark concepts, and manipulate peoples’ minds with fucked-up magic.
But, oh boy, is Sinthia nicer on the eyes…
“Stop squirming,” Goethe says. “I don’t want to feel your boner.”
There it is. A solid reminder, yanking Nail back to the horrifying realization that he is riding bitch-style on a motorcycle, embracing an ork from behind. The humiliation overwhelms Nail’s ability to snap a witty comeback.
The crew arrives at the address within a few minutes of each other. Nobody has spotted any suspicious people following them. Goethe opens the garage, which is big enough for the three motorcycles and Rescigno’s nondescript sedan.
Why didn’t I ride with him? Nail asks himself, looking longingly at the empty passenger seat.
Sinthia is perched on a tree branch outside the safe house. “Come on in,” Nail says. He watches her closely, hoping to see the transformation. The bird hops to the ground, and Rescigno lays the cloak over her as she becomes human again, filling the cloak with her body, sadly without revealing anything Nail was hoping to see.
Inside the house is well kept. Goethe hasn’t been living here, but he has been paying for various housekeeping and lawn care services, to give the place the appearance of occupation. There are neighbors, after all. Wouldn’t want anyone to get suspicious when vehicles suddenly arrive.
Nighshade has searched all of the vehicles for tracking devices or booby traps, and found them to be clean. Clearly, the mage did not expect his attack to fail.
Rescigno gets straight to business. His comlink projects an image on to a screen in the room. It’s a close up of the mage, uploaded from UO security cameras. The face is unmistakably Seneth’s.
“UO uploaded this shot while I was driving here,” Rescigno says. “It tells us a bit more about this guy. It’s a mage much more powerful than Seneth, but who has chosen to disguise himself as the dearly departed. Only question is why? I had our researchers dig up everything they could on your late friend, and it turns out he was a lot more screwed up in the head than any of you knew.”
The image changes, to a video of a medium sized arcology in the corporate district. The building is very plain, but Goethe immediately recognizes evidence of extensive security upgrades. The place is a fortress of automated defense systems, electronic tripwires, and security personnel.
“This is the primary facility of Psycare, inc.” Rescigno says. "The more observant among you may see that it’s actually a prison. More accurately, an insane assylum, or as they like to call it, a ‘care facility’ for the emotionally and mentally disturbed. Also known as Seneth Keluszon’s last known address.
This is the only lead I have. I think you should break in there, grab Seneth’s files, and see if they reveal anything about why a super-powerful mage would want to impersonate him. Anyone got any better ideas?"
Sinthia responds first, eerily calmly. “I agree and I rather suspect I’ll know where to look once we get there.”
Feeling everyone looking at her, she continues.
“I won’t explain right now, but in case you are wondering…no, I was not a patient there.”
Nightshade has already lit a cigarette. “Sounds like my kind of party,” she says. “I’ll definitely need some of my gear from home; anyone care to come watch my back? Won’t take but a few minutes.” She pauses and takes a drag from the cigarette. “Also, we’ll need information, and a plan. What all is included in that Psycare file? And what do you have to share with us, Sinthia? None of us want to be asking for directions once we’re inside.”
Sinthia looks slightly down and away, avoiding eye contact.
“I don’t have anything to share with you,” she says quietly, but quite seriously.
4509 speaks to Rescigno after his presentation, “I’m not fully operational. I won’t be useful in a raid.”
Goethe goes over to a cabinet and opens it, removing a bottle of Scotch. He opens another cabinet and pulls out a tumbler. He then asks if anyone else wants any. He pours himself a couple fingers, and pours anyone else who requests it a couple fingers as well. Standing and sipping his whisky while the presentation goes on, Goethe says nothing until Rescigno finishes.
“Well, your one lead sure beats my lack of leads. Although, breaking in isn’t going to be the problem, it’s breaking back out that will prove the difficult part. We might as well be trying to invade a megacorp headquarters with the level of security that place has. Fortunately, because they’re designed to keep people in more than out, we at least have a chance of weakening their defenses from the inside before we try to test them. But we need a good plan. Is there anyway we can fake a patient transfer or such to get ourselves in? And we’re going to need someone with security expertise. I’m great at identifying security, but overriding it really isn’t my thing, aside from a scorched Earth approach. I guess we could always try to modify the virus we used to take down Synthcorp, but we’d still need an idea of what OS they use. Regardless, we should definitely start with reconnaissance on the place. We need to observe the guard changes. We probably need to put someone on the inside as well. We’re in a bit of a time crunch, but if we blow this, we might as well just let the crazed mage kill us. At least this place is safe for now, so we’re not in any immediate danger.”
Sinthia makes eye contact with Goethe for the first time.
“Pour me a couple ‘fingers’. I seem to remember a close friend telling me that when going to a psi-ward, you should always appear relaxed.”
Also for the first time, Sinthia’s eyes light up slightly. She doesn’t smile, but looks to her new allies like she is actually capable of smiling.
After drinking the drink(s), she sighs, “Or not. It might have been a dream I once had. Still, relaxed is good.”
Rescigno nods, saying "I agree you’re the best person to lead this mission. Psycare wasn’t on Universal Omnitech’s radar before now, and we have very little intel on them. You’ll have to play it by ear. The way I see it, there are a couple of options for trying to sneak in. You can try to con the guards into thinking you’re part of the staff, or Nightshade can attempt to infiltrate the building without being caught. Each plan is risky, but Goethe’s right; Psycare may be the best in the business of keeping people in, but they’re not used to keeping people out.
As gloomy as the situation is, we’re not going in completely blind. There are two entrances to the building, one a general reception area where doctors, staff members, and visitors enter. The other is a service dock, where supplies and patients are unloaded, and trash and other waste is taken out. There are staff members at both entrances, documenting who enters and leaves.
If Nightshade is to infiltrate the building, I suggest entering from the fourth floor, where there is a panel accessing the exterior of the building. The panel has a rigging setup for window washers, or engineering equipment. To open it would require some moderate cracking, but nothing Nightshade can’t handle."
Nail lounges on one of Goethe’s comfy sofas. When Nightshade mentions needing a plan, Nail thinks to himself: Oh great, another planning type. Why can’t anyone just go with the flow?, and sinks further into his chair. When Goethe mentions a drink, he will temporarily perk up and walk over to the liqueur cabinet, wishing to pour himself a White Russian. However, Goethe does not have any Kahlua.
“You call this a liqueur cabinet Goethe?” Nail interrupts. “No Kahlua… let alone milk,” he grumbles in a lower voice. Nail pours himself a vodka tonic and goes back to the sofa, lazily listening. Here comes another blab session,, he thinks, looking at his drink. Bottom’s up.
When there is a lull in the conversation, with an apparent deadlock as to what course of action to take, only then does Nail reluctantly offer his opinion. “The way it stands now, our best bet is Nightshade breaking in.” Nightshade shoots Nail a look. “This isn’t just me being lazy. Listen. Without Kirk here to provide some sort of false ID, our pretending to be doctors isn’t going to get us very far in such a high-level. And pretending to be patients…Goethe, would just put us in even deeper shit than we’re in now. I don’t know about you, but I swore myself off Clozapine while in college…” Nail pauses here briefly to let his words sink in.
“So that leaves Nightshade,” Turning towards her while still on the sofa, he finishes by goading her a bit, “As Rescigno said, it’s surely nothing you can’t handle.”
"I don’t like one person going in by herself, though. What if something goes wrong? Nightshade should have some backup with her. Nail is probably the best choice, seeing as he’s usually good at talking his way out of bad situations. Me, I’m pretty good at not getting noticed when I try, but once I am noticed, well, usually I end up having to shoot my way out.
"I like the idea of using the utility panel to get in. It avoids any unnecessary questions. The good news is, we actually don’t need to steal the file, we just need to scan its contents. A decent enough image recorder transmitting to a commlink is all we need. Fortunately I have one. Unfortunately, it’s built into my sunglasses, which means unless one of you have a spare image recorder, I’m going to have to lend you mine. Also they’re skinlinked, which means you’re going to need a skinlinked commlink as well. Once again, I can lend you mine if you don’t have one.
“And the rest of us should be close by to the infiltration team, ready to create a distraction should something go awry. I don’t suppose you could start a few fires if necessary, could you Sinthia?”
“Oh, and I also have some gecko tape gloves I can lend someone if any climbing needs to be done.”
“What do you want me to do?” Nail says, “Wave my arms in front of the guards, like, ‘This is not the break-in team you are looking for?’…C’mon. You get me a suitable fake ID or something and I’ll go for it. Heck, I might even enjoy it, but I’m not about to go peddle some bullshit in a no bullshit zone.”
“If I go in through the maintenance hatch,” says Nightshade, “that’ll bypass the security checkpoints. Whatever staff we encounter will be a lot less suspicious than the guards would be–they’ll assume anyone showing up in a secure area has already been vetted. Acting confident and dressing appropriately should be sufficient. If you’re comfortable with climbing up four stories of sheer wall, Nail, I wouldn’t mind having someone to watch my back. Goethe’s gloves will be helpful if you haven’t free-climbed much before; I’ll probably bring mine too, in case there are rough patches.”
She turns to Sinthia. "I’ll definitely need your help, too. You probably … " She pauses, then continues. “… definitely shouldn’t come inside with us, but a scan for astral security could prevent some nasty surprises. And you’ll be an asset to the outside crew, to help provide a distraction at one of the entrances if needed, or to help extract us if everything goes to hell.”
Finally, she looks at Goethe and 4509. “Outside crew is you. I can’t see sneaking you two through the hallways disguised as anything other than patients, and the staff probably knows the patients better than they do their coworkers. At least, they can be more easily convinced that there’s a new face in the employees that they didn’t hear about than that a new patient was admitted to this sort of facility without it changing their orders and schedules. I think the run should happen after midnight–there’ll be less traffic in the corridors in the early morning, and you don’t have to talk your way past someone who never saw you. That also gives some time for recon and some rest & repair after this morning’s excitement. 4509, what will be required to restore you to operational status?”
“My systems are self-repairing. Preliminary diagnostics report…” His cybereyes remain locked on her as he pauses, processing results, “30 hours until I’m fully operational. You need me before that and I’ll need a cyberware tech: Returning to Universal’s lab is not an option.”
Sinthia takes the bottle of Scotch and pours another drink.
“I can do a lot more than that, but yes, I can burn the entire facility down or even just a section if you need me to. Or I can create something so distracting that it causes much of the building to freak out.”
“I think you gravely underestimate my abilities, but yes, I can stay back and scan the area and provide distractions. If I have an access point small enough, I can transform and fly into the building to assist you. Then again, I may not want to do that if you fuck up too badly, so I might just burn the whole building down if you are beyond help.”
She pauses for a moment.
“Just kidding,” she says in a monotone voice.
Nail can tell he isn’t getting out of this without some work. He tries to look on the bright side of things and go with the flow. “Well, a climb in the night air could be fun.” He gets up from the couch and stretches. “And I do like playing dress-up. OK, I’m in.”
An update is coming later today, after work. Sorry for the delay!
Rescigno says to Goethe, “Universal Omnitech doesn’t have records for your residence. It’s probably safe for you to retrieve any items you may need, as long as you’re not followed.”
To Nightshade; “You, however, present a more difficult situation. UO has your address on file, and there’s a small but real chance you could run into trouble if you go there. If you must retrieve some gear, I don’t want you going alone. Nail and Sinthia should go with you. Take my car, as it is the least likely to be recognized.”
To 4509; “There is a man who-putting it delicately-works off the books for Universal Omnitech developing radical cyberware concepts. It would be a black stain on UO’s reputation if we were found to be working with him. He goes by the name ‘Butcher,’ and is a wanted criminal in several jurisdictions. He’s the only company man I would trust to work on you, because he won’t be traced back to UO. The man is only a comlink away. I would prefer to have you at full operation in case Nightshade’s plan goes badly, but I’ll leave the choice to you. Shall I make the call?”