The news appears to have focused on the spirit that escaped (or whatever). Interesting. It sounds like the spirit killed the guard shaman the next day.
We review the video. It appears that the glamour faded just after Bert put his ski mask. No one was exposed, but the spell ended after only an hour and a half. I've grumbled to Gabel around it. He says we'll discuss it when we next meet. He doesn't have anything, so the meeting will wait. He arranges a meting with our Johnson on Friday evening.
We hang out in Bert's hideout.
We make a drop and get paid. (Check email for details). We get a 2,000¥ After allocating money to pay expenses and saving some in a party fund, we each get 1,300¥.
Gabel indicates that we'll meet with him in a week on July 31st.
We head to our individual homes. Given that we'll be waiting a week, we look for work.
Bert scares up a 24 hour body-guarding job for the next night. We'll escape someone from the airport to an apartment, then back to the apartment
Bert checks with us, then tentatively accepts the work. At 17:00 we'll meet a gentleman by the name of "Sam" at SeaTac. He will have a black suit with a red rose in his lapel. He will be taken to an upper class apartment complex in Renton. The building has excellent security. We'll be covering him until 17:00 on Tuesday to return to SeaTac for a suborbital shuttle. We will pick him up and drop him off at the airport security. Opposition might want to capture him, or possibly kill. If we face no opposition, we get 20,000¥. If we face opposition, 35,000¥.
Bert checks with us, we confirm. Bert checks on a few things. Bert's fixer can arrange a one week long permit for Bianca. The apartment security are trustworthy and will not have a problem with us.
The flight is Ares Space Flights 715, from Detroit. 16:25 arrival time.
The outgoing flight is Ares Space Flights 745 to Hawaii at 18:50.
We're delivering 1435 Turtle Lane, #413, "The Whispering Pines."
We get a photo, a man with sallow cheeks and blond medium length wispy hair in his 40s.
The next day the gun permit will be in a locker at the bus station. Bert already has the key. There will also be 45%.
We have a plan. I'll drive Bert's van to the airport, loiter until I see the target, and shadow the team. The rest of the team minus Derek will take Bert's car to the airport and head in to overtly escort Sam. Derek will head to the apartment early to check it out.
Derek researches the photo. The man is Milo Tesh, a researcher for Ares.
Bert picks up the fake gun license credstick and a certified credstick at the bus station. The credstick has 9,000¥ on it.
Bert calls his contact for a few last questions. A man answers and says that he can answer for Bert's female contact. The man says his name is Siawan. He says we can enter early. We are not to let the man out of the apartment. Sam will be working at a terminal.
We head to the airport. I head in Bert's van and arrive about 20 minutes early. Bert and crew arrive 15 minutes early.
The flight is on time. Bianca notices some Lone Star officers wandering around. She also notices a security guard sizing me up, but I don't notice. Doh!
As I wait, I hear glass shatter in the gift shop. A man in a charcoal grey suit inside is flailing around wildly. He has wild dark hair. He has a blood red cybereye. He's flailing around crazily. The security guard heads over to restrain the man. I join a gawking crowd. The man calms down a bit, then grabs the cop's gun and blows the cop's head off. The two backup cops gun the man down. The men wave people away, I move away with the crowd. As I move away, I hear one of the officers say something about something "of the void." He mentions something about a "crackdown."
After a few minutes it doesn't look like there will be a Lone Star sweep. Good. I scan for concealed weapons; three bodyguard types beyond Bianca are armed.
Sam shows up. He sees Bianca and heads over to her. They head out. Bianca calls me, I make a silly comment about "If you missed your flight you could have called," and head out. Bert rigs the van to tail the sedan at a distance. We take back streets; Bert's concerned that a highway slowdown might leave us trapped. Sam spends the trip messing with his pocket secretary. It has security tinting to make it hard to read.
As we approach, Derek heads into the apartment. The front desk security is wearing a blue security-weave shirt. His pin is a stylized cross, identifying him as an employee for CATCo. Derek indicates which apartment he wants (413), the guard heads off a bit, checks a computer, and lets Derek in. Derek is given a key and direction. The apartment has no handle, as he approaches it clicks unlocked.
Examining the apartment, Derek notices several cameras throughout. The glass in bulletproof. There are no cameras in the bedrooms. Derek's cybernetically keen senses fail to detect an explosives or transmissions.
A yellow Jackrabbit driven by a young women appears to be directly following Bert. It looks suspicious. When she follows down a back street, Bert takes a slight risk and makes an illegal turn at a stop light. The woman fails to stop in time and gets clipped by another vehicle.
We make it the rest of the way to the building without incident.
Jane checks things out. Sam is normal, but has a great deal of head ware. The apartment has a ward. The ward is configured to allow Jane free access through it. Jane summons a city spirit to watch.
We begin six hour watches. Bianca rests for the first watch. Sam uses laptop in the dining room for the first few hours. He then moves to the living room and jacks in. Bert heads out briefly to launch his balloon. The balloon watches the outside of the building. Bert sets up a video feed we can watch. Shift changes, Jane, Bert, and I head to sleep. Jane and I grab beds in one of he bedrooms. Bert sleeps on the couch.
Around 3:30 AM there is a power outage. Sam awakens from his matrix jaunt seems confused and a bit groggy. Bert is awakened. As the balloon heads around the building his feed dies unexpectedly. The connection was cut. He can't connect to his car. We're all awakened. Shit.
Jane projects. Something astrally attacks the wards. The wards hold for now. We prepare for an attack.
Something heavy slams into the sun room window. Something large with a blinking light is on the window. Bert hears a gun being cocked in the hallway.
Bianca moves across the room and opens fire on the window, breaking the glass. The bomb falls away. Sam moves into the kitchen and cowers.
The ward collapses. A woman and a spirit zip in. Jane's spirit attacks the spirit, the woman attacks Jane. Jane has her watcher warn us of the attack, then returns to the fight.
I move to cover the doorway nearer to Sam.
Bert enables his electronic counter-counter measures and starts scanning the area from his drone.
Someone unlocks the door. I shout, "Private property, I will use deadly force!" Someone in black moving superhumanly fast (but not as fast as me), fires a pistol at me and misses as I dodge.
A young girl in ratty clothing appears, a spirit of some sort summoned by Jane. The girl focuses on the men in the doorway.
I fire on the first man in, winging him. Derek shoots the second with a dart gun, stunning the attacker. Bert blows the head off one with explosive rounds.
Jane defeats the attacking spirit and mage.
Two men roll in from the window into the sun room.
Jane orders her spirit to hide Sam magically.
We continue to focus on the attackers in the door, we kill two and incapacitate two more.
I turn and empty the rest of the clip into the two attackers from the sun room. They're injured, but they return bursts of submachinegun fire. Derek drops one, Bert finishes the other.
Things are quiet. We consider moving on. When we consider moving, Sam says that he needs to jack in here, but in another apartment is probably okay.
Bert and Derek head downstairs. Security says they can move us to another apartment. One of the guards heads up with Bert and Derek.
Upon reflection, the bomb never went off. It may have been remotely triggered.
We're moved to room 319.
Jane heals everyone who was injured in the group.
Dawn breaks, Jane resummons her spirit. She then sleeps.
The day passes uneventfully. Sam occasionally gets up to get a bite or use the restroom.
Several hours before Sam's flight we head to the airport. Derek and I are in the van, everyone else in the sedan. We take the highway for speed; it's before rush hours. We arrive with plenty of time, so we cruise around for a half hour.
Derek and I are dropped off, a minute or so later the rest of the crew minus Bert is dropped off. Bert circles. The rest of us head in.
We head to the Ares check in. He uses first class. He queues up for the nation of Hawaii security checkpoint. We head out to the safe-house.
Derek confirmed that Sam took the flight we thought he did.
Karma: 1 survival, 1 success. Katie gets 1 for gacking the mage so successfully. Kathleen gets 1 for covering same. We all kick in one point into a team Karma pool.