Upgrade your account to a Community Supporter account and remove most of the site ads.

Reply to thread

Message: <blockquote data-quote="Andrew D. Gable" data-source="post: 660326" data-attributes="member: 4144">First Session, Part TwoSeptember 6, 20601:00 AMThe roadhogs squealed to a stop along the curb out front of Club Penumbra, the nightspot where Weatherstone had told them to meet Ms. Weisman. On the trip over, Ghost had become more lucid and had formally introduced himself as a hermetic mage. Fine with Plunkett - Ghost would provide the astral cover, he and Rasta the gunmetal to back it up.The three runners entered the club and asked around for Sarah Weisman. Eventually, they tracked down a thin girl with lank hair so blond it was almost white. She looked up at the runners as they approached with shaded eyes, nervously glancing away. She had all the telltale signs of a junkie."Sarah?" Plunkett asked."Yeah?""Weatherstone sent us. Said you had info on the Renraku deal you could share."She nodded. "Mebbe I will. But I need ya to do something for me, first." She turned towards a back exit into an alley behind the club. "Follow me."The four exited the club into the alley and almost collided with a street bum, who narrowly avoided running into the massive Plunkett only to run into Rasta’s chest. After staring up at the troll - who would make almost two of him - the bum ran off screaming. "’S okay," Sarah said. "We don’t get many trolls out this way is all. That guy’s used to humans and elves mostly." She reached into her leather jacket and pulled out a test tube of some bluish liquid. "I’ll need you guys to run this to Fast Freddie’s, under the fish restaurant down on the pier. I’ll wait for you in here."Sarah went back into the club while the runners went to their bikes, the shadow of the Renraku Arcology looming overhead as a constant reminder to them. The red neon along the outside of the Arcology illuminated the street as they sped towards the piers. They parked their bikes at the base of the pier and walked around to the back of the fish restaurant, a ramshackle white building and to a metal door. A microcamera up above whirred to meet the runners. "We bring news," Ghost shouted at the camera. "Leatherface is dead." The password Sarah had told them.The door slid open and the runners were ushered inside by a doctor in a blue medical getup. "Follow me," he said as he led the runners down a hallway lined with all manner of cyberware to a door marked C. MAIJALLA. "Dr. Maijalla?" he said to the black woman inside. "Some men to see you.""Ah, yes," she said. "Do you have the vaccine?" When the runners nodded, she held out her hand. "Give it to me." Plunkett handed over the test tube and Dr. Maijalla handed him a small optical chip in return. "Give this to Sarah," she said. "She’ll know what to do. And here’s some money for you. You are mercenaries, after all.""What is that?" Ghost asked, pointing at the vaccine."This," Dr. Maijalla answered, holding the glass tube up to the light, "is an experimental compound swiped from a Yamatetsu lab. It’s meant to lessen the trauma caused by the implantation of cyberware. Supposedly, it works pretty well."Ghost nodded and the three runners left the bodyshop, taking a swift ride back up the strip to Club Penumbra. About midway there, Rasta was bathed in the glow from the headlights of a box truck behind their cycles. As they moved to duck down a side street, they were cut off by an approaching limo. The limo and truck slowed and halted, and out of the vehicles issued several Japanese men clad in red and black - the colors of Renraku security.One of the Japanese men spoke up in the halting English of a businessman used to dealing with other Japanese. "We understand you’ve been looking into the shutdown of the Arcology.""Of the what?" Rasta asked.The Japanese man narrowed his eyes. "I would suggest that you do not play stupid with me," he said.  Ghost looked downward - the man’s hand resting on the handle of some pistol or another told him that it would really be suggested. Plunkett followed the elf’s eyes and saw the gun handle and nodded briefly."Not looking too deeply," he said. "Who is your employer?" the man asked. Taking the runners’ lack of an answer as confirmation of his fears. "It is not the media, is it?""Maybe."The company man looked ready to spit bullets. "We would most cordially ask you not release any information you may uncover, unless it is to us. You see-""Yes?""-you see, we have no more idea on what is going on in the Arcology than do you. This could prove a bad thing for our company, no?" The runners looked nonplussed. "We will double the price your employer is paying, should you help us." The runners thought about this and eventually agreed. "Excellent," the man said.  He and his driver got back in the limo while another of the men plugged some contact information into the group’s minicomputer."Stay in touch," the man said as he and his squad re-entered the truck.  Both truck and limo departed, leaving the runners standing in the street.  Confused as hell and in a not-so-great part of town.</blockquote>

Verification