SDMB Shadowrun campaign Chapter 3 - Prey To The Dark: Players only!

The Game Room
161

Goethe takes the catalyst stick and puts in his belt.

"Gotcha. I’ll cover your entrance from here. My contact lenses have electronic vision enhancement and a smartlink reticule built in, so I don’t need a scope. I’ll start by monitoring the area near the access panel. If anyone looks like they’re going to make you, I’ll let you know. If you want me to take the shot, tell me. Otherwise, I’ll hold back unless I’m certain you’re going to get made. Don’t worry, I’ll load stick n’ shock rounds so that the worst anyone will have is a pounding headache the next day. Once you guys are all in, let me know. I’ll start a regular scanning route around the premises making sure that nothing out of the ordinary is happening. Assuming 4509 is successful in getting to his lookout point, he’ll have an even better view than I will. Hopefully this will all go smoothly and you guys will get in and out without any difficulty. Though, I’m not bating my breath on that one since things rarely go smoothly as they seemingly should. Remember, though, you only need to grab images of the file and send a copy to each of our commlinks. Leave the physical file there. You don’t want to get caught with it.

“And if all else fails, pull the fire alarm. Sometimes low tech is the best way to go.”

162

A serious look on his face, Nail listens silently to Nightshade and Goethe’s intricate planning. When his companions turn to him to see if he has anything to say, he remarks, “Yeah, I got one question.” The slightest grin slides across his face.

Addressing Nightshade, he says: “You got any coffee in that utility belt of yours?” he says, and yawns deeply.

163

Goethe stays behind, watching the others cross the line to the small maintenance balcony of the Psycare building. He watches with amusement as Sinthia transforms back into her human form. Nightshade is ready with Sinthia’s cloak, and wraps it around her moments before Nail has a chance to glance up from his own effort crossing the grappling hook line.

Poor guy. Maybe next time.

Alone, in the dark, is where Goethe feels the safest. Nobody asking questions. Nobody glancing suspiciously at him. Alone, he knows exactly who he can depend on, and who’s fault it is if things go wrong.

Nightshade cracks the lock to the service panel. It’s a simple task to cut through the padlock, and only a slightly less simple task to spoof credentials in the electronic access panel. The access will surely be logged into a database somewhere to be analyzed by security protocol programs, but hopefully the minutes or hours it will take to recognize the intrusion will be longer than the crew spends in the building.

Goethe scans the street level. He’s starting to doubt the necessity of posting a lookout, considering how easily the crew infiltrated the building. Still, he performs his duty diligently.

Minutes pass, and Goethe becomes confident that the chance anyone will spot the line from the street level is essentially zero. Then, he spots movement in his peripheral vision.

He glances toward the motion, and sees a security camera mounted to the side of the Psycare building swiveling in place. It seems to be looking right at him, but in a moment Goethe realizes it’s an optical illusion. The camera pans toward the trash and delivery docks as a vehicle pulls up. Goethe realizes the camera is probably set to a schedule, and turns to the loading dock automatically as vehicles approach.

Still, the thought of someone monitoring the camera sets Goethe on edge. What if he was seen? He would have been clearly visible for several seconds in the camera frame, especially if the camera can record in infrared.

Nightshade leads Nail and Sinthia through the access panel into a darkly lit stairwell. The three Runners are standing on a landing in between the third and fourth floors of the Psycare building. The stairwall winds upward and downward for many levels.

“Ok birdie,” Nail jokes. “Talk to me.” Nightshade and Nail look toward Sinthia expectantly.

Sinthia feels nothing. There is no guidance. One voice calls to her in the darkness, but he only whimpers in frustrated shame.

“Seriously now,” Nightshade says to her. “Do you have anything for us?”

“No,” Sinthia is forced to admit. “Not yet.”

“Great!” Nail says sarcastically. “Only about thirty floors in this building. Should take five, maybe even six minutes to search all of them.”

Sinthia struggles to listen to the whimpering voice. It’s not coming the man she remembers. Not all of him, anyway.

After standing in silence for what seems like an eternity, Sinthia gets the impression that the voice is coming from below her. She sees images; in one

she is taking an elevator down, down, down to the bottom. She doesn’t belong here. She’s not like the others. She was chosen. She tries to explain to the guards with her, but one of them simply scoffs, saying “Chosen, huh? You’ll fit right in.” She takes the elevator to the bottom floor, and is gruffly moved down a long hallway, where a cell awaits at the end.

Nightshade watches Sinthia, deep in thought. She sees the mage glance downward. Nightshade looks over the edge of the stairwell herself, and sees the spiral stairway going at least ten floors down. That sure is a deep basement.

4509 walks toward the worker, scanning for cybernetics. The man only has cosmetic upgrades and cyber eyes, nothing exotic or combat-related.

“We’re going up,” 4509 says as he holds the pistol at the man’s head. At first the man doesn’t move, frozen in terror. It’s likely the first time anyone has ever pointed a gun at him, and he doesn’t know how to react.

4509 can see in the man’s eyes that he is about to flee in panic. As he turns to run, 4509 seizes him by the collar, and gruffly pulls him back. “Up,” 4509 repeats.

“Okay, just don’t hurt me.” The man scrambles into his pocket, and pulls out a credstick. “Here, take it. All of it, just don’t shoot.”

4509 sees the man is still holding his employee card. He takes the man’s hand and moves it toward the access machine, swiping the card through the electronic reader. 4509 hears a mechanical lock slide open, and pulls the man through the door.

“You want to go up? Fine, go, just leave me here. You don’t need me anymore. You want my card? Here, take it,” the man says, holding his employee card out toward the cyborg. 4509 doesn’t respond, but simply drags the protesting man toward the dingy service elevator…

164

4509 activates his ultrasound emitter with a thought as he enters the building gun-first, dragging the man behind him as he goes. Spotting the elevator he looks up at the ceiling, imagining the shaft extending far above. He pulls his captive ahead of him, planting the barrel of his weapon on the back of his neck, his free hand on his shoulder, and guides him into the elevator. Once inside he directs him to the control panel. “To the top.”

Underway, he keeps the firearm on the employee. “Where will this leave us at?”

165

Goethe, over the commlink:

“Hey guys, not to worry you or anything, but there’s a camera near the loading dock I didn’t notice the first time I was here. It’s sweep arc includes the dwarf museum balcony. It’s unlikely that it saw you guys infiltrate even if it could reach that far, but it could have seen me if it’s got a large enough viewspace and either a high rate of zoom or infrared capability. Right now it doesn’t seem like any of us are made, but I’ll keep you updated.”

166

“The good news keeps on comin’,” Nail mutters to himself, before getting on the com-link and responding to Goethe. “Understood. Thanks for the heads-up, you big lug.”

Looking down at the intimidating spiral staircase, Nail says to the group: “Well, shall we?”

167

“Yes, we need to go all the way to the bottom. I think we’ll find something useful down there.”

Sinthia tries very hard to not reveal her…well, uncomfortableness combined with anxiety at the idea of descending down below.

168

“Let’s move, then,” Nightshade replies. Over her commlink, she tells Goethe, “Try to keep out of sight as much as you can. If they send over someone to investigate, burn the rope and bug out–if you raise a ruckus, they’ll be sure something’s up, but if you run, they’ll figure you’re just some street kid doing a thrill B&E.” She pauses as a thought strikes her. “In fact–you don’t happen to have any spray paint on you, do you? Probably not–you can just break a few things, I suppose. I hear you’re good at that. If they’re thinking teenage vandals, they won’t be thinking of Shadowrunners across the street.”

“4509, are you nearly in position? I’m starting to think we might need some extra eyes and sniper cover after all.”

She takes a deep breath, then begins carefully and silently descending the stairs, checking for sensors and surveillance cameras as she goes. If needed to avoid the view area of a camera, she has plenty of stealth rope left to climb down the gap rather than walking on the stairs. She signals to Sinthia and Nail to follow as she clears each landing as safe to traverse.

169

Sinthia follows by foot, but will transform into a Raven and fly down the middle if needed(or fly up to escape if needed).

“Nightshade, if you need me to, I can see through walls and objects. I know nothing of this stealthy shit, but can look for something if you describe it to me.”

She then tells everyone, “There is a chance some…odd things await us down here. Do not panic. I will tell you if any threats or allies are real or not.”

170

4509 calmly but forcefully asks the terrified employee, “Where will this leave us?”

“What?” The man says, while straining his neck to be as far from the barrel of the gun as possible.

The cyborg doesn’t repeat himself, and merely looks the man in the eye.

“The elevator? It goes to the…um…well, the kitchen I guess. There’s a trash cart. When it gets full, we bring it down. Some storage space for deliveries and stuff. The boss’ office. We don’t really go in there, but it’s where the safe is. Right under the window.” He glances up nervously, and continues. “Hey, listen…I can’t get in the safe. Nobody here can. Boss isn’t here at night, and none of us has the combination.” The man is obviously assuming 4509 intends to rob the restaurant.

The description of the office is intriguing. “Which direction does the window face?” 4509 asks.

“What? The window? I don’t know, man. What difference does it make.”

4509 presses the gun to the man’s temple and pushes hard. It’s enough to force the man’s head against the side of the moving elevator, where he’s pinched between the wall and the gun. Again, 4509 doesn’t repeat himself.

“The window! I don’t know! I don’t know, toward the harbor I guess. Oh, fuck, don’t shoot!”

The cyborg relaxes, and the man slumps down as far as the grip on his collar allows. 4509 pulls the man back fully upright. A view of the harbor to the northwest would place the dwarf museum and the Psycare building directly in the viewing angle. There’s unlikely to be a better spot to cover those locations from.

In moments, the elevator will finish its journey, and 4509 will be in the kitchen storage area with the terrified employee…

Goethe watches the camera, and sees it’s pointed at the arriving vehicle, unmoving. It’s very unlikely that someone watching the camera would have just ignored the suspicious orc creeping on the balcony across the alley. Goethe breathes a sigh of relief as he glances down to the Psycare loading dock.

The vehicle that has arrived is not a delivery truck, but a classic luxury sedan. A man steps out of the driver side of the vehicle and walks around to the back passenger side door. Goethe raises his assault rifle and looks through the smartlink image enhancer to get a better look. The resolution is good, but not excellent. He can see the driver as if he was 20 yards away. He doesn’t recognize the man.

The driver opens the door in front of him, and a dark figure steps out of it. Goethe zooms on the new figure, and recognizes the creepy mage who impersonated Seneth, and assaulted Universal Omnitech.

“Holy shit!” Goethe mutters involuntarily. The angle and distance are not ideal, but Goethe has a legitimate chance to hit from his position. The mage appears to be completely oblivious to Goethe. He speaks with the driver for a moment, as a third man hastily approaches the two. He says something to the driver and the mage, getting no reaction from them.

Wonder what that was about.

It’s only a second later before he finds out. It’s only a glance, but it speaks louder than any words could. Almost imperceptibly, the driver glances over his shoulder in Goethe’s direction. The orc Shadowrunner knows he’s been made.

*Now or never, chum, *Goethe realizes. Take the shot, or beat feet out of this joint?

Sinthia, Nightshade, and Nail begin to descend down the staircase. Their footsteps echo much too loudly, and even Nail has a hard time thinking of something witty to break the tension.

After agonizing minutes, the trio is standing on the final curve of the stairway. Before them are seven steps that lead down to a door. Nightshade checks the door for alarms or electronic security, and finds that it’s unlocked and unprotected. She pushes the door open, and hears a click within the mechanical door handle.

“What was that?” Nail says.

“Re-locking feature,” Nightshade says. “It’s locked from inside. We can’t let the latch engage, or we’ll be stuck on the inside.” As she says this, she seals the latch in place with a sticky resin. The door will now open and close without re-engaging the lock.

On the other side of the door is a long, dimly lit hallway.

“Seneth’s room was down here,” Sinthia says.

“How do you know?” Nail asks.

“Hunch,” she replies. Yeah, right.

As they walk, a voice comes over Nightshade’s comlink. It’s Rescigno. “Act nonchalant,” Rescigno says. “I’m not patching the others in. There’s no need to speak; just listen.”

There’s a pause, while Rescigno chooses his words. His tone is very worrisome. “Our boy Erwin isn’t talking. It got pretty graphic here. I stripped him down, and found bite marks. Not just a few, either. They’re everywhere, in various states of obviously magical healing. Listen to me really carefully, Connie. If you guys run into whatever monster Erwin’s feeding with his own body, you get the hell out. I don’t want you fighting this thing in its own turf.”

Nightshade doesn’t say anything, and Rescigno ends the transmission. The atmosphere is suddenly overwhelming. She’s nearly overcome by the urge to flee, but fights the rising terror down.

“Is something wrong?” Sinthia asks. Nightshade glances at her, and sees her own terror reflected in the eyes of the sorceress.

“No,” Nightshade says.

“Really?” Nail replies. “Because I’m having a hard time putting a positive spin on walking down a creepy hallway in the middle of the night in an insane asylum.”

“It’s here,” Sinthia says suddenly, ignoring Nail’s sarcasm.

“What?” Nightshade says.

Sinthia turns to the right, where a door that looks like all the others in the hallway is standing. “Seneth was here, in this cell.”

It doesn’t look like a cell. It’s just a door. Despite her skepticism, Nightshade gets to work opening the door. It’s a simple mechanical lock that takes seconds to crack. Inside the room isn’t a cell, but an office.

Nightshade enters first. The room is dark, filled with unidentifiable shapes. She looks around for a light switch, and finally finds a pull chain on an overhead lamp. A low-wattage bulb illuminates the room, throwing long shadows over everything.

In one corner of the room is a desk, with a computer terminal. The wall on the other side is black glass; a one-way window. Nail walks toward the wall, where he sees a light switch which will activate the light on the other side of the window. He mentally prepares himself for something horrible as he flips the switch…

…but there’s nothing. The room on the other side of the glass is empty. There’s a sink, a bed, and a toilet. No monsters. No psychos.

Nightshade pushes the power button on the computer terminal, and the screen flashes to life. The words, “Seneth Keluszon. Confidential” stand next to a password prompt.

“Try ‘password’” Nail jokes. He’s more confident now that his fears turned out to be for nothing.

Nightshade puts a small portable drive into the universal port of the computer. “It’ll take a few minutes to clone the computer drive,” she says. “I can’t hope to hack it here in any reasonable time frame, so I figure we can just bring it back with us.”

Sinthia is staring into the room. The voice she is hearing now bears almost no resemblance to the man she is familiar with. It is as if all the intelligence, dignity, confidence, and presence of the man has been stripped away, leaving only a miserable echo of the worst parts of him. He speaks gibberish to her, and she can’t block the voice out.

“I want to get out of here,” she says. Before it was, I am. They were cast into darkness and I revived me. Me and I, hand in hand, for where else would they be? Approach softly, and be recognized!

“Yeah, me too,” Nightshade says.

The crew will have the cloned computer drive soon. Nightshade has been informed of something sinister possibly lurking down here. She can either hunt it with Nail and Sinthia, ignoring Rescigno’s order, or leave quickly as possible.

171

Keeping his unfeeling stare on the cowering man he’s with, 4509 mentally projects a message to the others over his commlink: “I’ll be in position in a moment.”

He pushes the employee towards the door as they near their destination, gun pressed against his back. “Do as you’re told and you live. Don’t test me.”

172

Sinthia examines the rest of the room. Despite not feeling the normal “vibe” of Seneth in this room, she examines every part of it there is time for, including under the bed mattress and behind every little nook and cranny.

“It is like him to have hidden something in here in case I arrive. Perhaps I can find it. Help me, if you like…I don’t know what we’re looking for.”

173

These are the times you wish you learned how to shoot a sniper rifle. Sure, your visual enhancements help, but sniper rifles don’t have the spread of an AK. Well, at least you’ll give Seneth the Revenge something to think about, and distract him and his allies from the rest of the team, but you versus crazy mage, you’re up shit creek. Let’s hope the vatjob has some tricks.

Spending a point of edge, Geothe takes aim and fires a full burst at the Seneth look alike, saying over the commlink:

“Crap! It’s the Seneth doppleganger. I’m taking the shot, because they already know we’re here.”

After shooting, he says “4509, if you’re in position, take him out.”

After taking the shot, Goethe will catalyst stick the line and bug out. Depending on which he thinks will be faster, Goethe will either run downstairs and out the front door, booking it towards his bike, or he’ll pull out his gecko tape gloves and climb down. Alternately, if he thinks he can just jump down to the ground with little more than some pain he’ll need to nurse, he’ll take that route. (I don’t know how high up Goethe is. His synthcardium gives him a decent shot at making the roll to not screw up his legs, but he’s going to err on the side of caution here.)

174

“Slow elevator.” 4509 holsters his revolver and crouches, unzipping his bag and revealing a scoped rifle, a Walther MA-2100. The weapon bristles with customized parts and its electronics spring to life with a thought, a heads up display overlaying across a screen that flips open from its side. 4509 shoves the employee against the door, the barrel of the weapon pressed into the small of his back.

175

Nightshade glances at Sinthia briefly, then nods. “This copy will run itself, might as well keep busy. Nail, keep an eye on the hall–this seems like the sort of place something might be sneaking up behind us.” Damnit–did I really say that last bit out loud? This is getting to me worse than I thought.

Nightshade moves into the living quarters and begins her own search, trying to focus on areas Sinthia hasn’t already been over. She’s too rattled to be very methodical–her attention is split between the search, the progress of the data copy, and making sure Nail hasn’t suddenly and silently vanished …

Goethe’s interjection causes Nightshade to snap back to reality. “Copy that, Goethe. Report when you can; we’ll expect that it’s about to hit the fan in here,” she replies over the commlink. “I assume our inbound route is gone. So, shifting to plan B.” She moves back to the computer terminal, silently willing it to copy faster. “Get ready to move,” she says to Nail and Sinthia. “As soon as this is finished, we’re heading for the back door.”

176

The restaurant employee scrambles forward, but wisely says nothing. He leads 4509 through the work area, listening and scanning for any employees nearby. 4509 releases the man’s collar, but just long enough to physically grab the top of his head, and wrench the man around to look him in the eye. 4509 holds his free hand up, releasing the trigger finger to place a single finger on his lips, whispering “shh.” The man nods in response, and 4509 gestures forward.

The man leads 4509 through a kitchen area, and nearly walks directly into another waiter crossing in front of him. The waiter is distracted by plates of food on a tray, and gracefully prances out of his way without losing any of his dishes. “Watch it!” the man says, but doesn’t turn toward 4509. Too close.

Finally 4509’s hostage reaches the office door. It’s locked, the man mouths silently. 4509 turns the handle, snapping the flimsy doorknob. The door swings open, and 4509 pulls him through. Once inside, 4509 slides an office chair to brace against the door, holding it closed.

4509’s comlink receives Goethe’s transmission. “Crap! It’s the Seneth doppleganger. I’m taking the shot, because they already know we’re here.” Goethe’s voice is on edge, but not quite panicked.

4509 tosses the man into the corner of the office opposite the window. “Stay put,” he says as he extends his arm razors. The cybernetic blades are sharp enough to literally cut through the glass of the huge office window. He makes a crude opening and quickly puts the rifle barrel through it.

The cyborg’s visual centers spring to life, as his smartlink feeds information directly to his brain. He zooms on the balcony of the dwarf building as a burst of gunfire comes from Goethe’s rifle. 4509 instantly pivots along the line of fire, and sees the mage impersonating Seneth, apparently unhurt.

4509 has less than a second to take this shot. The cyborg can already recognize the familiar dark energy gathering around the mage, and knows the he will soon transform into something small, flying fast, and virtually impossible to hit at this range…

4509 has used a point of Edge to infiltrate the restaurant. Well spent, as without it he would have failed!

Goethe squeezes the most accurate burst he can from his rifle. He sees the impact of the bullets smashing into the mage’s clothing, but doesn’t have time to waste confirming the kill. He opens the vial of catalyst and sprinkles it over the grappling line. It begins to disintegrate immediately upon contact, the reaction traveling down the rope like a fuse.

The orc shadowrunner is on a second floor balcony. He considers dashing back to the first floor entrance, but realizes he almost surely can’t outrun the mage who can transform into a flying animal. Besides, line of sight from 4509’s position would be blocked from the museum front door. If he has to fight, he wants the cards stacked high as possible in his favor. He looks below, and sees a 30 foot drop, which has a decent chance of causing injury. Well, here goes nothing. There’s no time to properly attach his sticky gloves. There’s only a trash dumpster, and a prayer that he doesn’t hit the heavy metal frame.

Goethe takes a running leap from the balcony…

Oh, hell…

…and smashes into the inner wall of the dumpster. The trash pile only partially broke his fall, and his right shoulder took the rest of it. *Jesus, what are these dwarves throwing away? Sacks of bricks? *Scrambling out of the dumpster, Goethe risks a glance backward at the group of men assembled at the Psycare loading area. The two suits have drawn pistols and start to run toward him, while dark energy surrounds the mage…

Goethe has used a point of edge to shoot the mage. He certainly hit, but he cannot tell how much it affected the mage.

The door to Seneth’s old cell is in the corner of the office Nail, Sinthia, and Nightshade are in.

Nail knows Seneth couldn’t have left anything behind here. It would have been months since Seneth had even been in this place. After his escape, the cell would have been combed over thoroughly for clues about how he pulled it off. Nevertheless, Nail isn’t particularly inclined to leave without the others.

Sinthia leads the crew into the cell and glances around. What are you trying to tell me?

He was Owl. So many had mistaken for the Dark, but I knew better. Wise and patient, or cruel and cunning? A poor champion of the Dark, indeed! A poor champion would I be.

“There’s nothing here,” Sinthia says, as she realizes it herself. “Seneth is gone. Even his voice.” She says the last part with a confused look, as if a dead man actually ought to have a voice in the first place.

Then, Goethe comes over the comlink. “Crap! It’s the Seneth doppleganger. I’m taking the shot, because they already know we’re here.”

His tone worries Nightshade in particular, who knows a bit more about what kind of danger they could be in. She pulls the cloned computer drive out of the computer socket, and stuffs it in a pocket. Nightshade knows Goethe would have activated the catalyst at the first sign of trouble, which narrows her options for escape.

Sinthia begins to understand the urgency, herself. The others look at her expectantly, but she draws a blank. The only vision she can recall is the elevator. Seneth’s voice is worse than useless, and will not be able to guide her…

177

Stacks of data panels fill the cyborg’s vision, prompting him on distance, temperature and wind. Color-coded boxes highlight everything, organizing targets for him. He could guide a missile with his eyes, but bullets work just as well. He takes aim, the targeting reticule falling over the mage, and fires the weapon.

He’ll burn a point of Edge.

178

Nail inwardly ruffle a bit at being told what to do from Nightshade, but it wasn’t like he had any better idea, so he goes into the hallway. In the hallway, he twiddles his thumbs. The creepy silence begins to get to him.

You know, if this was a horror movie, I’d be the first one to go, he thinks darkly.

If only to break the silence, he com-links Goethe: “Hey Goethe, you ok?”

179

Wincing somewhat as his shoulder smashes into wall of the trash bin, Goethe scrambles out as quickly as he can. Peeling off a candy wrapper that had unceremoniously attached itself to his flak jacket he thinks out loud:

“Well, no one ever said running was all glitz and glamour.”

Running full speed toward his bike and glancing behind him, he sees the two suits coming after them. But it’s not them he’s worried about. It’s the mage who looks like he’s about to morph and pursue Goethe that makes Goethe hoof it even faster…or, at least, as fast as possible while trying to switch his AK clip to one with explosive rounds.

*So what now? If it were just the two suits you’d clearly have the upper hand in this fight, even without the cyborg’s assistance. But the mage is a different story; he’d destroy you one-on-one in most circumstances. Fortunately, it appears he didn’t expect you to take that shot, and he probably didn’t know the cyborg’s around either. Between the two of you, you might have done enough damage to him to slow him down and maybe even the odds a bit. Injured mages drain much faster. And once they’re drained too far, they’re helpless…

Still, this guy’s going to take more than just a couple potshots to take out, so you need to get him someplace where you can even the odds a bit. Some place where an all out lead and magic fight is going to bring the forces of Hell down on you both. There should be a club district nearby. Bar hoppers and club rats are always nice to blend with, especially given your (lack of) fashion sense which is still better than what half of them are wearing. And it’s not as if the AK will be exactly out of place, at least on the street. Besides, you have a good forged license so even if Lone Star gives you shit, you’ve fooled them with it in the past. And should the mage try to start shit, well, there are no doubt some runners around the vicinity who will take real issues with him causing a ruckus as they’re trying to party…Course, they’re just as likely to turn on you as well, but that’s the risk you have to take, right?

But you forget something, chummer. There will be a lot of innocents who you will be putting at risk as well. Leading a crazed mage into a highly populated area is creating a danger for people who didn’t sign up for it. What if something goes wrong? Can you handle that on your conscience?

Hey, if you can’t take the heat, get out of Seattle. Or move into an arcology. It’s not like it’s going to be the first time anything like this would have happened. It certainly won’t be the last. Besides, if we don’t stop that mage and whatever crazy ideas he and whatever other powers have in mind, something tells me those people will have a lot more to worry about anyway. And dying here at his hands is not going to be very useful in that regard. Besides, he might not even follow me, in which case I can double back and regroup. And if he does follow me, I make it easier for the rest of the team to escape, which is the most important part. So yeah, I’ll take my chances on my bike. And hope like Hell that his spellcasting ability suffers a bit when he’s transformed.

Okay, so let’s say you make it out of here with him following you. What do you plan to do when you get to the club district?"

No clue. I’m kind of making this up as I go along. I can’t plan for every contingency you know? And I really didn’t want my internal monologue turning into a dialogue, thank you very much…*

As Goethe wrestles with his conscience, he hears Nail come in over the commlink:

“Hey Goethe, you ok?”

“Fine for now. Going to have a nasty bruise on my shoulder from having to take the express elevator off the balcony to the trash bin, but that’s the least of my worries. In a few seconds I’m going to have one pissed off and morphed mage coming after me on my bike. Hopefully I can lead him and his toadies away from you guys so you can get out. I’m thinking of leading him to one of the club districts favored by runners where he’d be even crazier than I think he his to actually try to start any major shit. And if he does, well, chances are he’ll have more than just my AK to worry about at that point.”

Upon reaching his bike, Goethe will start it up and speed off into the night, checking behind him once more to see if the mage is on his tail.

180

Sinthia is incredibly confused and for the first time since her new allies met her, her face shows emotion. A single trail of tears runs down her face, messing up her makeup(yes, she wore makeup even on a mission). Her voice is weak and trembling as she looks back to the group, all of whom are looking at her expectantly.

“I thought…I thought we would find something here. There is a lot you don’t know about Seneth and I thought I would be able to find something from him here. I’ve heard nothing since the elevator. Seneth is unable to contact me here. I’m sorry.”

She faces away from the group and hides her face in her hands.