Emergence - Two Weeks Notice

Runners: Kitsune, Polo, Sirius, El Torro, Spirit, Ghost, Blackout

Making a Killing

After the incident at Gethsemene, the Runners decided to lay low for a month. Sirius decided to move house and also started looking at car brochures, while the others decided to take things easy. Their restful period was interrupted when each of them received an incoming message on their commlinks. The message was simply a date; time and an address in Renton, but attached to the message were two pending financial transactions - the first a credit of 5k and the second a credit of 50k nuyen. The origin of the message was untraceable, but the credits were genuine enough, so the Runners decided to go to the mysterious meeting.

The address turned out to be the Renton, Centre Mall, specifically the food-court - not the usual kind of venue to meet a Johnson. Sirius and Polo took advantage of the location to do a little shopping, while Kitsune and LT decided to head straight for the meet. At precisely midday a yuoug woman clad in a business suit arrived looking nervously around. As she arrived the first of the pending credits cleared to their accounts – she was obviously the one they were to meet . Polo waved her over and offered her a milkshake, which she nervously accepted. The young woman looked like a typical corp wage-slave and seemed nervous, her eyes darting about the place. Her name was Michelle Hutton and it was obvious she was way out of her depth and especially when she blurted out in a high-pitched tone that she wanted them to kill her! Conscious of the curious shoppers who had overheard, Polo quickly hustled Michelle out of the food-court and out onto the street.

As they walked Michelle back to her office they managed to get her story, she MCT

worked for Mitsuhama and the company had just ordered mandatory medical testing for all their employees, which she needed to avoid. She wanted to “die” and be given a new id and move to LA. Not having a clue how to go about that convincingly a friend of hers, called Sebastian, had offered to help and put her in touch with the Runners. As the Runners agreed to help and told her to go back to work and wait for a call, the second credit pinged its way into their bank accounts!

They spend the next day at Sirius’s new pad working through what they’d need. Sirius put in a call to Smiley to find them someone who could produce a SIN and other false papers at short notice, including passport and visa for travel from Seattle to LA. Eventually after much debate they decided that a fiery death in an automobile accident was the best option. Kitsune set about looking for the best place to stage the accident - eventually deciding on nearby Squak Mountain .

Polo, LT and Sirius went about deciding on the best way to get hold of a body. After spending some time trawling local funeral parlours, Doc-Wagon facilities or even considering randomly wandering the Redmond Barrens they decided their best option was to try and snatch a Jane Doe from Seattle General. First LT went to hire a refrigerated van, then they headed out to the hospital in the dead of night.

Somewhat astonishingly, the entire bodysnatching operation went without a hitch and around 4.20 am that morning they were heading out of the goods entrance of the hospital with a suitable body stuffed in a sleeping bag!

Dead Man's Curve

While the others got some rest, Polo and LT played bodyguard to the body, driving around the freeway in the refrigerated truck Next morning Sirius got a call from Smiley giving her the name of Carl Summers a dealer in forged papers and fake SINs who might be able to help them. She headed on down to his "office" the backroom of a dingy tattoo parlour downtown and made the deal - paying over the odds to have the documents delivered quickly, and arranged to bring Michelle on Sunday afternoon to complete the biometrics on the SIN.

Kitsune headed up to the visitor centre at Squak mountain to find a suitable accident site and confirm that security there was minimal. Ghost meanwhile arranged with Michelle to leave her company car and hire one for her "weekend getaway". He then spent some time rigging the vehicle to there would be a satisfactory conflagration when it went over the edge of the mountain road.

Everything in place he headed up towards the mountain just after sundown. As they passed the perimeter of the park and headed up the twisting road, their commlinks were pinged by a message informing them "the Seattle Park ranger service accepted no liability as the park was closed"! They stopped at the site chosen by Kitsune and began staging Michelle's "death". They were briefly interrupted by the attentions of some birdmen, but before long Jane Doe met her (second) fiery end!

Unfortunately the fire managed to catch and as they headed down the mountain and off down the freeway they were passed by the flashing lights and sirens of the fire service and park rangers as they rushed to deal with the minor forest fire they had set off. They stopped at a motel in Renton, and while they rested Ghost checked the newsfeeds and his media contacts to see if there were any suspicions emerging about the "accident".

Next morning they hung about the motel while Ghost made a booking on the last flight to LA for "Kate Jackson". That afternoon they headed downtown to pick up Michelle's new paperwork. As they entered the parlour, Kitsune and Sirius sensed something wrong as Summers reached under the counter. Kitsune rushed forward but Sirius took Summers out with a stunball. As she did four Japanese men carrying submachine guns opened up from the street firing through the plate glass window.

The Runners dived for cover, returning fire and in short order all four of their assailants went down. Moving rapidly before Lone Star arrived, Ghost, taking Summer's commlink quickly located the fake documents in the back room, then set explosive to remove any traces. Kitsune confirmed that their assailants appeared to be Yakuza rather than MCT security goons. As they fled the site they found a message on the commlink offering a 100,000 nuyen reward for Michelle which included what looked like the information from her company file including a holo and biometrics

The Jackson Identity

As they sped back towards Redmond, the Runners held a rapid conference about what to do now.

There were a host of questions unanswered - Ghost had confirmed that the authorities had bought the “death” of Michelle, but obviously others hadn’t – who? How had a bunch of Yaks managed to get hold of Michelle’s confidential personnel jacket from MCT? Who had offered the 100k bounty? Was the “Kate Jackson” identity still sound or had it been compromised? How the hell were they going to get Michelle to LA now?

Deciding that the airport was likely to have the heaviest scrutiny placed upon it by whomever had offered the reward, Polo began looking for alternatives. There was the option of a road trip, but aside from the over 1000 mile drive, they would have to pass several sets of customs and immigration controls - any one of which the potentially compromised Jackson Identity could fail. She briefly considered using the mag-lev to San Francisco, thus reducing at least some of the drive, but that also was likely to be under observation by whoever was looking for Michelle. Eventually she hit on the idea of going by sea. They briefly considered Kitsune’s suggestion of drugging Michelle and shipping her in a sealed coffin. Then someone hit upon the idea that no-one would suspect anyone of attempting to make a quick getaway in the lap of luxury on a leisurely cruise down the Pacific seaboard! Checking the schedules they discovered the Botany Bay was due in port in a couple of days on the final leg of a luxury Alaskan cruise heading back to LA. Polo made the bookings – Kitsune of course requesting a first class suite. Sirius offered to share a room with “Kate”, and then they all headed off to shop for appropriate clothing for a luxury cruise. Route of the Botany Bay

A couple of days later they boarded. Polo had made arrangements with the captain, using her false PI licence to carry a gun on board, while LT had equipped himself with one of Blackout’s beloved taser pistols. After settling in to their cabins, they headed off to dinner. After dinner, Kitsune wandered the ship getting a feel for it’s layout, while the other stood watch over “Kate”. The next couple of days passed peacefully in games of deck quoits and shipboard entertainment. On the second night as the ship steamed down the coast of Tir Tairngire towards San Francisco, Polo was awoken by the sound of a chopper landing on the ship’s helipad.

Next day Polo found what looked like a sensor tag applied to the outside of Michelle and Sirius’ cabin. Polo found a sensor tag, which Kitsune removed, the tag immediately disintegrated and they quickly hustled Michelle off to Kitsune’s cabin. About 10 minutes later the ship’s fire alarms went off. Polo and Sirius stayed in Kitsune’s cabin with Kate stashed under the bed while everyone was hustled out to their assembly points where Polo discovered the alarm was caused by a fire in the cabin they had just vacated!

That evening, as the ship headed into San Francisco port, LT and Sirius decided to skip dinner, feeling it best to keep Michelle out of sight. Suddenly the door blew open and they were confronted by an armed MCT security team. Fortunately, the Runners acted first, LT managing to take out their leader with a taser while Sirius dropped their combat mage with a stunball. By the time Polo and Kitsune appeared it was all over – the MCT team had been taken out and there were unconscious bodies everywhere. While LT and Sirius hustled Michelle off to yet another cabin. Kitsune and Polo reported the attack to the captain – only to find themselves taken into custody as well and handed over to the SFPD!

Next morning, while the Botany Bay sailed, Kitsune and Polo found themselves in court with bail set as 1M nuyen each. The MCT team were set free immediately. As they left Kitsune noticed the mage take what looked like a lock of hair out of her pocket and begin casting a spell. An hour or so later, Kitsune managed to contact a bail bondsman, and they dashed to the airport. On the way, Kitsune called Sirius to warn her that the bad guys were tracking Michelle astrally!

That evening as the Botany Bay sailed into LA, Sirius scanned the crowd on the quayside, - it wasn’t difficult to spot the MCT team – all sharp suits and mirrored shades! Heading back to the cabin, she cast invisibility on herself, LT and Michelle and they joined the crowd of passengers disembarking. Meanwhile outside, Kitsune and Polo arrived in a taxi from the airport. Spotting the MCT team immediately, she dashed forward and socked the mage on the jaw! Kitsune meanwhile rugby-tackled the team leader into the water! ION the fracas that ensued on the quayside, Sirius and LT had no trouble sneaking Michelle out through the crowd of spectators and off to her appointment with Sebastian at Tedescu’s.

Friends: Michelel Hutton

Foes: MCT

World events: . Media hype about Tecnomancers continues unabated. Sveral corps launch missions to either obtain or "neutralise" known technomancers.