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Post by Pelch Gobwit on Jun 16, 2010 11:28:41 GMT -5
Like I said, a setup. A setup where the only things they lose are the things they can afford to lose. That includes our lives as well. I'd inject Pelch Gobwit with some scopalamine IX if I thought I could get away with it. He's still sleeping off the Ambidelamine I gave him earlier. It's my impression from the records that he would be pretty clueless about anything that was happening. His goal is money. Mostly acquiring it. That works for me. Mine is mostly spending it and living long enough to do so.
Izzy had done a pretty good job of tracking down the three names and gutting the Lone Star files without getting caught. It looked like this crime had been ongoing for at least a year. I was going through the data on just those three individuals looking for correlations. They were all approximately the same age. They were all retired. They were all good solid RETIRED SIN upper management. They all disappeared leaving no clues and no bodies to indicate foul play. That was it.
They didn't know each other. They didn't change their habits or life patterns prior to the disappearance. The wills are to different and also non related people. Izzy had hacked into their accounts at the banks, each different, where they kept their money. They had not been touched since the people left. Their retirement money was still being deposited because they weren't legally dead. No one was touching the accounts. At least up to this point. Attempts to track them? Clear up until a time-frame when someone noticed they weren't following their routines. Sometimes, given the individual it could be anything from a couple of days to a couple of months. No clues after that. In life they hadn't even worked for the same companies. It was like they just stepped off the face of the planet.
No wonder the UCAS was stumped. If the money wasn't being touched...smart that, then how the heck were they living? Izzy had looked for secret stashes or bank accounts by checking matrix records, looking at interviews with relatives and friends. Nothing. We know exactly how much they were getting a month. No extra money according to the bank records. No unusual matrix records what so ever.
Magic?
The Matrix end was obviously too well covered for us to find anything. Izzy will stay on it of course but we are not going to crack this one in the matrix. The only thing it might do is tell us where we don't need to look. Interviews, will net us nothing either. Both the UCAS and Lone Star had enough feet they could put on that, and they logged a lot of miles with interrogations and interviews. Not a clue. Their forensic teams were all over the areas involved. Nothing. Not even signs in magical forensics that their might have been sixth world intervention.
We we're going to have to approach it another way. Now the next obvious way would be to bait a trap. Get some semi-wealthy SIN geezer to act as bait willingly or stake him out as a JUDAS goat and wait for the bad boys or girls to bite. That would be just what they would be looking for. I'd rather they didn't see us coming given the nature of their actions to date.
Create a person from scratch and inserting a very likely candidate along the matrix parameters that Izzy could dredge up? It would probably be noticed right away and meticulously checked for just such a trap. I know I would if I was running the opposition.
They could just not approach us at all and continue with the ones they know are safe. Not to high to excite interest, not to low as to be worthless. Did you notice that? It's still coming down to a money thing. It's being done so slickly that you can't track it. If it's money why is it still in the accounts and building up. Even the interest is staying in. Izzy is watching the accounts. Many have not been touched in a year. If they go seven years? They go to the beneficiaries along with the insurance. How do they get their hands on the cash?
We needed to get a jump ahead of their thinking. How would I get that cash if that was what I was after? I have an idea but I'm betting Gobwit won't like it. We'll probably do it anyway though.
Are you thinking what I'm thinking?
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Post by Pelch Gobwit on Jun 16, 2010 10:39:39 GMT -5
I got a promotion out of all this. I'm in plain clothes and in charge of physical security. I've finished briefing the Lone star guards we've put in place and now I'm making the rounds. I'm being followed.
Pelchies Poochie. I've gotten the impression that the dog is a lot smarter than most people give him credit for. If I could just get him to stop lifting his leg on every Lone star officer he can sneak up on. It's like the dog is keeping score. One thing it is though is keeping them really alert. They never know when the animal is going to come around day or night and he doesn't do it IF you can catch him in time. I guess as an alarm test it's a good thing. The cleaning bill is going to get outrageous though if they don't stay alert.
You can't just walk in the front door of the building anymore. We have doormen who check your credentials before you even get in. The other doors are guarded and locked. They also are wired and have cameras on them which are monitored. We have several riggers on drone security. When we are done everyone in the building is going to have a transponder on them that will monitor their progress inside the building. Right now with the matrix relays down and the mainframe in pieces? That ain't happening. Hence the patrols.
The Spiked Wheels mess is being cleaned up. The secret entrance and the garage are also under guard by OBVIOUS guards again. You need a pass to get in there and the cars are again scanned/searched. No one had taken the old scanning gear out. It just needed some minor fix up and some upgrades and it was back on-line. It was the good stuff.
I went outside to have a look on the street. Drones in the air, outside cameras. Drones on the sides of the building. Everything under surveillance. No Spiked Wheels in sight. Lone Star patrols passing at irregular intervals and a FRT squad on standby just down the street. The building also had steel pop-up barriers to discourage anyone driving through the walls.
Security should be able to stop anything truly overt. For a start it's not bad. I turned around just in time to catch Wanker taking a leak on a Lone Star foot patrol officer who had stopped to talk to the doormen. He tried to kick the dog. His friends were laughing. The dog easily dodged the kick. He was going for high score though. One of the guys that was laughing got the next dose.
Maybe as punishment for laxness I could argue that they had to get their clothes cleaned at their expense if the dog got them. Pelch would like that.
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Post by Pelch Gobwit on Jun 15, 2010 11:06:10 GMT -5
I'm out of debt and things are looking good for me. I haven't had the urge to gamble since the situation became more lethal. I had surmised earlier that someone else had to be in the game. I was right. The UCAS was obviously in contention with someone big, powerful, and well covered. So powerful they didn't dare go head to head themselves. Both sides were moving pawns to fight each other. Templeton was a pawn for the other side. We saw how he ended up when his usefulness was over. That could be our fate, neither side had a real vested interest in keeping us alive.
Someone then, as big or bigger than the UCAS. Our little group was outgunned to say the least. We didn't even know what the giants were fighting over. It had to be big. Not big enough that they would attack each other openly or directly but something they didn't want anyone else to get wind of. That was a plus for us. At least we could expect no direct attacks directly from either parent group, just their pawns.
I was going through the records of the Lair that Izzy had pulled from the mainframe before she and Winter gutted it. The signs were all there even back when this first started. Tony, Nestles, Spiked Wheels, Wheels, Vankler, Dom, Holloweeners, a missing key card and a host of others clues. Then the informatrion and logs all abruptly stopped when Krass and Cronies left Seattle. Not another fragging hint or clue, which usually means they were the losers, the winners would have kept on doing business as usual. The only one left from those days we had access to? Gobwit. He had to know more than he knew or maybe even was telling. The rest of the old teams seemed to have vanished from the face of the earth. Headcrack, Freddy, Widow COULD be with the UCAS. If so they might turn up later. What of this character called Mao and the references to the BEAST? Nothing on that at all but there were signs that information on him had been gutted and wiped past all hope of recovery, especially after over a year.
I thought about it.
Guesses mostly, but let's try to fit some pieces in this puzzle. Krass and crew were in a head to head conflict with the Swiss based Nestle's corporation. That was pretty obvious from the beginning. Something about a search for a Maltese Falcon and some formula. Could they have lost that battle? It would seem likely that indeed they did. Krass was a big name in Seattle but he didn't have the power or the resources of a triple 'A' corp like Nestle. Krass also got involved in that fusion project, they had to have taken on more than they could handle and it stopped them cold. To many enemies and not enough resources or protection. All the signs were there that the situation had been getting bloodier and bloodier.
The records indicated the problem. There own teams like this original one at Z Street were actually working at cross purposes. They were tearing themselves apart. It was obvious. EVERYTHING was shutdown. Liquidated. Everyone headed for the mountains and pulled the door closed behind them. Nothing happened except galloping deterioration in Seattle for over a year.
The battleground had changed. I had no doubts the war was still going on. How do I know? Drassels assasination. Either the enemy located him or he was still in the battle and got whacked. If he was hidden and they found him they would have had information on the others from the same source and more than one attack would have been registered or successful. It was more likely that the fight was still going on behind the scenes.
A beast was reawakening after licking it's wounds. It had new weapons and a lot of caution. It was looking for an opening. It seems obvious that Krass, before he left, seemed to have struck some kind of deal with the UCAS and the NAN tribes, probably when things were getting real bad. I saw no sign that the alliance had ever been dissolved. If we wanted to know what was happening there? We were going to have to see if we could locate Janie Andrews.
It was obvious that she was the one still behind the UCAS involvement. Her stated goal from the records was to put together an unknown team. I looked around. Her goal had not changed. At least the UCAS was still in the fight. They also had to be the ones hiding Krass and his group. How else could they all have so completely disappeared? Witness Protection Programs of course. The UCAS has whole sections to funnel people they want to hide through.
We could concentrate, as the UCAS wanted, on those missing people, but that was only part of the picture. The UCAS was hiding a lot of things from us. Things that were likely to get us killed. The problem is that if we started looking at the wrong things we would be setting ourselves for the Templeton treatment. If we didn't investigate this, we were setting ourselves up for the Templeton treatment.
Don't you just love a well organized setup?
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Post by Pelch Gobwit on Jun 15, 2010 10:34:16 GMT -5
Gobwit paid off. We now have long term contracts and a piece of his business. I can't believe I'm actually in the roll of an administrative corp boss. How's that for a secretary that didn't have to sleep her way to the top? Whiz.
It seems Gobwit wants us to run in teams. I've been paired up with the rigger Winter. That's chill with me. We're going through the mainframes in something Gobwit calls "The Lair". So it's sounds like some kids idea of a half-hopped Bat Cave. It's not bad. First thing we did was upgrade the Security. We hired Lone Star for the building security. It was expensive but Winter had some contacts there and the Star liked her. We got a good deal. The interior part of the Lair was going to be our baby.
Winter was going over the matrix hardware while I was checking the software. I had come to the conclusion that I was going to have to do a total rewrite of the OS before this would be secure enough to use. To many people had used it and it hadn't been upgraded and changed in over a year. Stupid cheap dwarf. We started by pulling all the outside connections. When the machine was Tempest shielded I went to work. Luckily I wouldn't have to rewrite from scratch. I figured a couple days work and I could bring it all back on line.
Fall and the dog were making the rounds on the new security. Making sure we were physically secure. Gobwit was sleeping off the drug the Doc gave him.
The Doc was setting up some interior watchers and elementals with specific patrol spots in the building. We had a Hell Hound down in the lair on astral patrol. They don't like sunlight and I pity the fool that tries to mess with the one here. The Fab IV was at least fresh.
Templeton was finally found. In a dumpster near Zombie/Ghoul territory. Someone had cut his throat. No robbery was apparent. His wallet wasn't touched. It appears the Doc has become second in command while Gobwit is dreaming of piles of gold. He says there is someone else in this mess. I asked him how he knew and he smiled and told me experience. All the signs were there that this was not the UCAS or Gobwit. After I saw Winters logs and we had a sit-down it was pretty obvious that someone else was involved.
The first thing that I would do when I got the matrix connections back on line was to try and run down some leads.
So much to do, so little time to do it.
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Post by Pelch Gobwit on Jun 14, 2010 18:01:49 GMT -5
Addams walked in with a slight smile on his face. "The Spiked Wheels tried to whack Gobwit tonight. Templeton let them in and they set an ambush. IT's like the desert wars at Z Street."
Janie looked at Addams steadily, "May I remind you that the object of this exercise is not to get Gobwit killed."
"One can always hope. Don't get your panties in a bunch. He survived. They're still hauling the bodies out of that garage of his. Twelve at last count. We did get his Harley though."
Janie sat back. "good thing for them an you but I didn't know Gobwit had it in him. Twelve bodies and counting? How many holes has he got in him?"
"They got his bike like I said but they never laid a glove on him. There were body parts all over the fragging garage. Talk about the luckiest fragger alive. There was enough fire power in that place to level a mastodon and they didn't put even a scratch on his Bill Blasted suit."
"Maybe we underestimated his abilities. He glides well and he's good with locks and taking things, but I never saw him as a fighter." She mused.
"He's not. It appears more of his team appeared. They had infiltrated Templetons. Word is that one person did all that. I brought a file on her. Her sister was involved with the UCAS before. That makes both of them suspect." He handed her the file. Janie plugged it in scanned it then opened it. She read quickly.
"Looks like a first class team and it appears none of them have any love for the UCAS. So now he has the mage, the decker, a rigger and some muscle."
"So you finally agree that the mage has to be part of this? I thought you had decided he was too legit to be in this mess?"
"I got some reports on him and the girl. Did you know the mage was an operative for Shin Bet? He still may be. The girl is a scam artist. One of the best in New York. You put that kind of talent with Gobwit and we got some options in accomplishing what we want to accomplish. Now you show me these two. The UCAS has been looking for them a long time. They were part of the Phoenix project. They escaped when it was closed down. They took the formula with them, we think. We need to recover that formula and make sure they don't pass it on to someone else. What's the odds that they would end up all in the same room with Pelch Gobwit?"
"Does that mean your plans to use Gobwit are scrubbed?"
"No. You see I don't care what the UCAS is trying to cover up in the Phoenix Project. I'll handle that. What we ware doing is a lot more important right now. It just means that we are more successful than we thought."
"Templeton's dead. They just discovered his body in a dumpster up in zombie territory. Maybe you're right on this one. Someone is covering a failed hit."
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Post by Pelch Gobwit on Jun 14, 2010 17:29:02 GMT -5
For some strange reason I have a full office. The mage and his girl Friday. Two female dwarfs. The Wanker. Templeton has done a runner. No one at his office can seem to locate him. That fragger and his lame security are all out on their hoops anyway. I'm sure when my lawyers get done with them, I'll get a freshly remodeled garage. That's the good news. Now for the bad news, every single one of these people had their paws stuck out to collect. They must think I'm made of money. What they don't know is that I didn't get this rich by paying for stuff. I put on my hard negotiator's face. I'd show these rubes.
I glared. I didn't do me a fragging bit of good. I glared at the mage anyway. I might as well deal with him first. "Now let me get this straight. You answered my advertisement for a runner to bail my hoop out from the UCAS? Well the UCAS has already bailed so why should I hire you now?"
He relaxed in my chair and examined his nails. "Are you really sure the UCAS are gone for good? Part of the reason the UCAS bailed this much was because of some of the things I did. Like that explosion at their headquarters. Now if you decide to stiff me and not pay me my just and righteous wage I might just go have a case of civic conscience and go down their and implicate you as the one behind it all. I'm sure I can cut a better deal than I'm getting here."
I'm not stupid. I know blackmail when I hear it and like any business man I knew just how to handle it. Never pay a blackmailer. "You're hired." Now the bastiage is working for me. No special deals for him.
The secretary also turned out to be another runner that responded to my ad. "Don't tell me you're part of his expenses either." I warned her.
She smiled. I didn't get a feel good feeling about this. "What do you know about Charles Boyson? What do you know about Miss Elver? What do you know about Athbell Marting?" I wondered how the heck she knew those names. As far as I knew that was just between me and two dead UCAS cops. "I almost certainly know a lot more about them than you do. I also have leads on lots of others who disappeared the same way. I'm working as a free agent, on my own too. You don't hire me? That's fine. Go look for the reasons the UCAS is on your hoop for this yourself, I'll sell the data to someone that will pay me for my trouble."
At least she wasn't blackmailing. She had information that I needed. The fact she had this much meant that she was good enough for me. At least I would be getting something in return for my money. "You're hired. Welcome to the Gobwit Team at Z Street." The girl and mage nodded to each other. Strange how both of them insisted they hadn't known the other was banking for the same job. RAT DREK! was my thoughts on the subject.
I looked at The Wanker. "I'm not paying you." I growled at the canine moocher. "I fragging own you already." Wanker growled. He showed teeth. They were big, shiny, sharp looking surgical steel teeth with maybe a mix of chromium. I decided to renegotiate before he decided to test them out on my hoop. "ALL RIGHT, I'll upgrade your food!" He took his paw off my desk and went to sleep. That was cheap enough and he had proved useful. I was already paying his fragging expenses anyway.
I looked at the devestation girls, one a rigger, the other a brick wall. They looked at me like they were waiting to see how creative I would get in trying to slide out of this.
I smiled. "Might just as well bring you both in too. Tell you what, I'll give you the same deal as the others."
Winter looked at me like I was something you scrape off your show on a street. "Does that include what your dog got? The little slitch was angling for an upgrade in her food supply. She looked like the kind that would eat dog food. White hair, blue eyes, white skin. She looked like death on the hoof. I had no problem seeing her in long black robes and a sickle.
"Of course. High grade dog food for all." Everyone glared. I don't think they appreciated my sense of humor. "Just a joke. You eat what I eat." I think it was the mage that said he didn't eat dire rat. He said it so low though I wasn't really sure that's what he said. The dog was making some kind of sound that seemed like some kind of snicker. A wheezing kind of snicker.
I eyeballed at my new team with that stinkeye that said to them that I controlled the money. A reminder. I was the Boss now. That had to count for something. Then they handed me the expense accounts. I looked at the tallies. The dwarf girls handed me their contracts. the numbers looked fragging endless. The room started swimming in circles.
When I woke up the doctor had just finished injecting something into my hoop. "That should fix you up." He said with a smile. "What happened?" I asked. I just somehow knew he was going to add this to his next expense list. I don't know what that stuff was he stuck in me, but it did the job. I just couldn't get to concerned about it. I could afford it easy.
The laughed and stuck out their hands. "Pay us." stated Winter in that nice cold voice. It sounded like the voice of doom. I smiled and started to count out the money. Inside I was screaming in rage.
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Post by Pelch Gobwit on Jun 13, 2010 14:27:42 GMT -5
OOC: On 1 June the count on this section of room six was 239. We've made a total of 32 entries to this point. That would make the count 271 in the last 13 days. However, today the count reads as 394. That means 122 reads in the last 13 days. Not bad for a dead board.
Hope you're enjoying Braddoc's storyline.
I go over to where the red haired chick is petting THE Wanker. The dog is so big next to her she could ride it like a wolf in one of those old flat film movies. She had Red Hair all done up in a large braid. She had brown eyes and rosy cheeks. Give her a double bladed ax, a horned helmet and Wanker and she could have been ferrying the souls of the dead off to Valhalla. Faced with a girl my own height, I was as chivalrous and thankful as could be.
"What the DREK is wrong with you Templeton's people?" I screamed in her face. I was an inch taller than her. "Do you know what it's going to cost to fix all this? I'm going to sue the lot of you worthless incompetents."
She smiled sweetly up at me with those big brown eyes and gave the standard courteous dwarf reply. She grabbed the front of my suit and chucked me across the room. Frag! I forgot how strong this slitch was. I bounced off the concrete wall about ten feet above my eye level and crashed to the ground. Luckily for me, I'm built to take it but it doesn't mean I wasn't feeling some pain. I waited for Wanker to sic her. The stupid dog just gave me a big doggy grin, the traitor.
I groaned.
She walked over and pulled me to my feet. "How dare you yell at a defenseless girl?"
Defenseless? The slitch was fragging Godzilla in disguise.
"Here I am off duty and I come down, save your life, and this is the thanks I get."
I glared at her. "You didn't save my life. I was luring them into a trap. I already had the mage and the guy with the cannon down before you even got here. All you did was muck up my plan to take them all prisoner." I barefaced lied to her.
"You lying cow-pie toadstool! You were cowering behind your dog when I got here. I think you owe me a bonus. Believe me when I tell you that you're going to pay it, one way or another."
She looked like she could back up that threat. I looked around. No lawyers or Calvary's were coming over the hill to rescue me from this lunatic. It was time to change tactics, reverse course and get myself out of her clutches. "Well you're saying I should be happy my ride got trashed, my insurance premiums are going ballistic, and I'm going to have to get new security and a re decorator?"
She looked at me and shrugged, then let go of my suit. I saw that as a gain. I might be able to run before she rolled me up to spitball size. "I see your point. So sue Templeton, but don't blame Winter or me for saving your hoop. She sent a warning 24 hours ago that the Spiked Wheels were casing the place. By the way my names Fallon but everyone just calls me Fall."
Winter? Fall? Surely Spring and Summer would be nicer but they were probably in the entertainment industry posing as joy-girls. I didn't mention that out loud. If this was going to be a cool Fall I sure didn't want to meet Winter. She was probably the one with the 50 cal outside. Then it hit me. Maybe I needed personal bodyguards? People couldn't keep strong arming or shooting at me if I could get a couple of bodyguards.
"You know what Fall? I think you do deserve a reward, both you and Winter, who by the way is what?"
"Winter isn't a what, she's my sister. A rigger. She works for Templetons too. So how much do you have in mind High pockets?"
This was going to take some time. Dwarf negotiations always take some time and it looked like I was going to be outmatched by two biffs against me. "Let's go talk about it in my office. Bring your sister."
She gave me the cold glare. "OK but you better not try any funny stuff, stud, or we might just Bobbittize you."
That didn't sound good. I wasn't sure what she meant but I'm also sure I don't want to find out. I nodded. The perfect gentleman of business.
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Post by Pelch Gobwit on Jun 12, 2010 10:22:53 GMT -5
I smelled something rotten in the state of Seattle.
Templeton himself had given both Fall and myself the night off with pay. It appears that he was all happy about us discovering the Spiked Wheels the other night. I have the feeling despite his friendly smile and aw-shucks I just one of the boys personality that he was not as happy with us as he made it appear.
I had moved a work bench and some tools from my car into the room Fall and I shared. I was working on a new drone. Drones are a specialty of mine. I had picked this one up cheap from a Unit known as the Executive Action Brigade. It had seen some use in the desert wars and was tricked out with some military grade equipment. It was going to be my pride and joy when I got it back together. Fall was watching the trid. Some trash about a corp exec boffing his way through a secretary poll. The woman had all found out about each other and were planning assorted plans of mayhem against each other and the exec. Fall was offering the vid-girl's unheard advice about what they should do.
I felt a shudder in the building and heard the sun sound of an explosion and then gun fire. It sounded close. Like it was right in the building and sounds came from down below. Fall wasted no time and neither did I. We were thinking the same thing. The Spiked Wheels were back.
Fall pulled a modified Requiter out of the closet and strapped it on. Taking her mirrored and armored shades she clicked them into place so that the HUD came on line. I heard the click of the safety being removed. I jacked into the security system. The underground garage was lit up like the fourth of July. There were several burning vehicles and I saw no sign of the target. I did see a large cyberred up dog crawl up on a mage. What he did to the mage was not a pretty sight, not that trolls are pretty to begin with. "There in the garage." I told Fall through her comm. She nodded and like the Terminator she strolled out the door.
I linked into my car and released a drone that looked something like a garbage can lid. A modified Headhunter MK IV. The almost silent rotors took to the air and I ran it outside through the garage doors for a look/see.
The outside was blocked off by Templeton Guards but no one was going into the garage. They were even keeping Lone Star from responding, but they weren't doing any responding themselves. IT stank of setup. I wondered if the target was still alive inside. I placed my drone on hover and looked at the sec cam again. When I cranked up the mag... I spotted Gobwit under a Humvee hiding behind the cyber dog. He had two pistols out but wasn't doing drek but hiding. BIG HERO that one.
I got Fall's call to pop the doors. She had her hands full so I did. Her gun went off. I was glad I hadn't put a silencer on the thing after all. I was going too, but Fall stated she liked the noise it made. It was over in seconds. I told Gobwit he could come out and went back to the drone. I was in time to open up with the water-cooled 50 cal. The Teflon rounds cored nicely right through any armor the remaining trolls were wearing. Scared the Drek out of the other Templetons and the Star too. I didn't hang round. I scurried back into the garage and re-docked the drone in the back of the car.
So much for Spiked Wheels. They must have lost at least two five man teams here. The garage though looked like a war zone. I noticed Fall talking with Gobwit. Looked like the job was done. I unclipped the jack and got back to my relaxation with the Omega Drone.
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Post by Pelch Gobwit on Jun 12, 2010 9:47:15 GMT -5
At this stage of events the biggest thing I can think about is there goes my insurance premiums. Strange what you think about at a time like this. I did the one rump hump towards a rebuilt and incredibly armored Humvee. A real collectors item. Someone had invested a lot of loot putting it together with 2060 specs of survival. I crawled under it and watched the bullets bouncing on the armor. I wondered what the mage was up to.
Then I found out. Wanker had crept up on the creep. There wasn't much left of him. He must have been in the astral when Wanker came up on him and being mostly machine the mage hadn't detected the cyberred up mutt. Like I said, he's worth every penny. Couldn't have happened to a more needy personality. I hoped he was a snake shaman.
Wanker crawled in next to me and gave me the cold red eye. Then the fragging mutt went to sleep. I got behind his armored cyberred up body and looked. There was muzzle flashes going off all over the place. At least now with no mage they weren't sure where I was. I didn't advertise my position. Trolls ain't to bright but you shoot at them, they will naturally shoot back. They have more guns than I do at the moment. This would have been a good time to have a Doc Wagon bracelet or a Lone Star panic button. Some stone cold shadow runner I was. Like I said, I'm a business man these days. I shouldn't have to keep doing this drek.
The next thing I see is the garage elevator ding and the door opens. I couldn't believe my eyes. A red-haired dwarf girl wearing a Templetons Uniform and black shades, carrying a Requiter mini-gun was in the doorway. She opened up. The echoes and roar were tremendous. The thing sounded like the world's biggest gas attack. The bullets, every fourth round, looked like a solid shining iron bar. The recoil should have knocked her hoop over tea kettle but it didn't.
Like I said, trolls will react. They started firing back. They were outclassed from the get-go. She waved that monster gun around like it was a fagging magic wand. In seconds about five trolls were pasted across the landscape. Cars were exploding. The trolls got smart, quick. They fragging ran for it. The girl daintily dropped the Requiter amongst the empty shell casings. The fragging thing was empty. I heard another gun going off outside. Maybe a 50 caliber. I had the feeling not many trolls were going to make it home for a little jam session with the missus. No great loss.
"You can come out now Mr. Gobwit." came the message from the speakers. I considered flipping whoever the bird. I'll come out when I think it's safe. Wanker opened his eyes, gave a puppy grin and walked out to the red-haired girl. She was petting him and telling him what a nice fragging puppy he was. Stupid dog.
Just to be safe I put my guns away. Anyone that can hold and fire a mini-gun at full bore and hold it rock steady is not someone you want to frag with.
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Post by Pelch Gobwit on Jun 11, 2010 15:01:49 GMT -5
Ever have an itch you can't scratch? Up till now the UCAS has been more annoying than your common tropical rash. Suddenly, I don't see them around. The bugs are dead. No cameras, no goons following me around, except for the Spiked Wheels and they don't count for drek. I keep waiting for the other shoe to fall. When ego's get mixed up in a mess like this, and the UCAS has a BIG EGO, then I can't believe they are just going to walk away without some heavy payback.
I pulled into my parking space in the underground garage. Wanker dived out of the sidecar and started to head towards the secret entrance, then he stopped. He dove for cover and I took the hint and did the same. The vehicles behind me, unfortunately, including my bike rapidly depreciated in value. I peeked around a large Nightwind as a troll with a big Panther Cannon was levering a new round into the chamber. Wanker took a whole three seconds to tear the hoop head apart just as he got the round into the breech. Wanker was worth every NuYen I paid for him.
I kept crawling. Did I shoot back? Did I go help out Wanker? Frag NO! Give myself away and let them cut loose in my general direction? Let the dog do his job of protecting my hide. I paid enough for him. I kept crawling. How had the idiot trolls got past security to set up an ambush in the garage? That fragging incompetent Templeton. I was going to enjoy tearing up his hoop, if I survived the encounter.
The car I was headed for rapidly depreciated in a fire ball. A fragging mage. Oh MAN! I hate fragging mages. Especially when they want to kill MAMA GOBWITS favorite boy. If I wasn't her favorite I should be, I'm the richest one in the clan right now. Now all I needed was some UCAS hoop-holes to show up.
I started to head for the sewer grate. I was discouraged by a hail of bullets flying around. Some mage was directing their fire. I yanked out my two trusty pistols. This would have been a good time to have a few grenades.
Anyone have any?
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Post by Pelch Gobwit on Jun 11, 2010 14:38:46 GMT -5
A day has gone by. No sign of any kind of UCAS surveillance. Still a bit early but this may be the time to approach Gobwit and actually get hired. The trick will now be to lure Gobwit to a neutral place that is unlikely to be bugged by the UCAS. There are two ways I can approach that. I contact a crime boss and they arrange the meet, or I use one of those nifty new contacts I made as THE resident doctor to get us both invited to a party. The super rich are very paranoid about their privacy. It seems the easiest way for me is to do a party.
Tomorrow, I meet with Richard Villiers social secretary as one of my patients. It should be fairly easy to wrangle a couple of invitations to the party the big man is planning this weekend.
For now, I think I'll do some more magical preparation. It's always good top have a few hidden items on hand just in case.
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Post by Pelch Gobwit on Jun 10, 2010 20:36:59 GMT -5
I'm running the matrix. My ICON is the Grim Reaper. Death on the Hoof. I glided through the SAN's without creating a stir. The smart-frames had led me to the case files stored in the Lone Star unsolved cases files. The problem? Not everyone is allowed to look at those files. The KPOW news snoops knew they were there but obviously didn't have access to them. If I wanted to see those files I was going to have to glide in personally.
The first thing I needed to do was mask my ICON. A quick few minutes of punching deck and I entered the public access of the Star as a Private Detective making inquiries for a client. I of course has stolen some of the Templeton's passwords while sifting through the building at Pelchey's. They weren't high level but they were enough to get me access past the Lone Star public network and into a slightly higher level of inquiry. This took the form of a Lone Star Sargent, handsome, cultured and just another data slave with an elaborate icon. I sat down behind the desk.
He looked at the badge I presented him along with my detectives ID. Embedded in the ID was 28 mega-pulses of code. I know it worked because small leech appeared on his neck. He didn't notice it at all. The code was already gathering any information he was looking at and storing it for me. He handed my ID back. "What can Lone Star Security Services do for you Detective Murphey?"
"I'm working for a client that is handling the insurance claims on Ms. Athbell Marting. I would like to know if you have a police report on the matter, any information as to foul play, and where the case currently stands so that my company Alliance Insurance can decide if payment should be made at this time."
"A reasonable request. Since your credentials are in order let me see what we have on the case." As he typed in for access my leech was already picking up the location of the files, the protocols, and the passwords he was using to access the data. In a short time I had the information the Star was willing to release for this level. The leech vanished leaving a slight mark on the icon, but that would vanish when the data-slave logged out. I thanked the drone and stepped into the hallway.
I was part way there. I changed my icon mask to correspond to the protocols I had pilfered. Dressed now like a desk Sergeant in Lone Star blue with the proper badge I was able to travel down the hall farther into the system. Particularly to the data retrieval system my dupe had previously used. Once there I pulled up the information on Charles Boyson and Samantha Elver. If I had asked the drone for all three it would have rang alarm bells. First, they would not have all had the same insurance company. I had hacked Martings from her nieces statements to KPOW. Second, the fact that I would be looking at three similar crimes would have also alerted the Watcher ICE. This way I had all three sets of information without setting off bells but I also was able to study the archiving and matrix directories of the information. I could also start to pick up similar cases and there was a bunch of them. It was time to take what I had and run. I rushed to place the files in my pocket and of course this type of wholeale copying of files set off the alarms. They continued to ring as I punched the disconnect. Even as the ice police dogs were closing in hwling in glee, I punched the disconnect button in mid-air in front of me.
Safely back in my pad I disconnected and started to scroll through the data. There was a lot of it. It was going to take some time to begin to sort it all out.
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Post by Pelch Gobwit on Jun 9, 2010 16:30:23 GMT -5
Fragging dwarf. He had a tricked out super bike. It was a cinch we ain't going to take him easy. I managed to get away but Zits and Snarl got wasted by some kind of fragging missile launcher. I reported in to The Pipe. He wasn't too happy that two of his boys got turned into road pizza. Looks like it just turned personal for him too.
He went off to report the mess to the Gang Boss and the Biz Boss. It looked like this one might get a little more expensive than they thought. I went to grab so sleep.
When I got back to the gang hideout things were still hot. The whole situation had changed. The Johnson had backed off. According to the Biz Boss we got made by Templetons last night. The Star never knew we were around at the time but somebody tipped them the next day too. The Johnson was fragged off about the whole thing. They were claiming I screwed it up. The Pipe was arguing on our behalf. It was obvious that someone had stuck us in the middle to be fall guys. It made some sense.
The Spiked Wheels had a total of three run-ins with this particular dwarf and each time gangers had died. The Gang Boss was inclined to take it personal. He wanted the dwarf wasted. Preferably with heavy pain.
That works for me.
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Post by Pelch Gobwit on Jun 8, 2010 12:28:42 GMT -5
It was a hearty good morning for the Gobwit. Someone had bombed the UCAS downtown dump about the same time Lone Star was taking out my two thieves. It was worth losing the stuff, even though the tie pin was nice. The best part was that no one had made a move on me since then. Could it be that these were a couple of con artists? Maybe. I wasn't going to bet NuYen on it.
I considered looking over last nights reports but frag I hadn't been alerted to anything that was happening yet. Why bother. Today seemed like a good day to be out and about. I checked on the Doc with Vulpine. He told me the Doc was at work making some money. Good. Yep, all was right with the world. I grabbed Wanker and the Midget Petite Harley and blasted out of the garage. It was a nice sunny day, sometimes you could almost see blue sky through the industrial waste.
I hit I-5 and headed south. That's when I noticed, three gangers on my back-trail. Spiked Wheels by the colors. Trolls. Why did it have to be trolls. If there was ever a sign that this was going to be a day when someone was going to get killed, it was because I had a troll or a group of trolls glaring at me. I hit the turbo button and Wanker got the idea. Duck.
Man I screamed down I-5. The Scorpions they were riding weren't even close and didn't have the speed of this machine. When I was out of sight I slowed down and went the wrong way up an access ramp. Hidden safely near the overpass I watched them scream by then I started to follow them. The idiots never looked back. Using the rig, I popped a mini-missile right up the last guys tailpipe. It was a great sight him all flying through the air with that stupid expression on his face. The other two almost wiped out.
They split in different directions one taking an off ramp the other stupidly trying to buzz turbo. I kept straight on and popped another missile. The troll dodged in front of a Saab Dynmit. The heat seeker adjusted in mid-flight and smacked into the back end of the Saab-Dynamit. The Saab flipped forward and came crashing down on the troll and his bike. Instant road pizza. I just kept going. No sense trying to swing back to find the other guy by now. He'll have gone to ground or be lost somewhere in the sprawl. I'll swing by Corndork's and pick up some reloads. Just in case.
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Post by Pelch Gobwit on Jun 8, 2010 7:35:26 GMT -5
It had been a long night of dealing with the crisis people, the reporters, Lone Star, the politico's and everyone running around like it was an elf fire drill. Now that everyone had their hoops kicked the work was getting done, putting things back together. Janie now had time to look at the reports from last nights operations and to review what steps they needed to take now.
Addams walked in with the latest damage assessments. Janie motioned to a chair. Addams sat down a placed the chips on her desk. "We got royally slotted last night. Our people got stupid and sloppy. They paid for it by getting dead. Maybe they need some time in the field. They have had it easy for so long that they've forgotten the rules."
Janie nodded, "I agree. I think the video's will wake a few of them up. Some supervisors will be replaced, some supervisors will worry about being replaced and will be jumping around tightening things up. Lone Star was sloppy too. They bought that story about stolen badges. They never background the two dead bodies. They looked for stolen goods, which they didn't find and that was it. No forensics or investigations as long as we didn't seem to care. Case closed."
Addams smiled, "We got lucky on that one. If it happens again or we get nailed near Gobwit again someone might get smart and start really looking."
Janie sat back and glared, "YOU are not going to let that happen again. The politico's and Smythe are already yelling about a botched operation and they want a head. I pointed out that they saddled me with the people who have proved so inept so far and stated they might want to start in their own training and recruitment programs."
Addams laughed a low evil laugh, "When a politician attacks the smartest thing to do is attack them back and smear them with the same brush. They like to yell in packs, it's safer. I assume you scared the drek out of them?"
"For now. If we have another frag up like this last one they may only be satisfied with your head." Janie finished quietly.
Addams nodded accepting the risk. "The Spiked Wheels sent some members over to Z Street."
Janie glared, "Yes, I know. They were spotted by Templeton's security. How stupid is that?"
Addams looked surprised and then disgusted, "The trolls never mentioned they were spotted but then their gangers and trolls, they wouldn't probably know when they slotted up and worst they may know they slotted up and don't want to lose the NuYen. I say we leave them hanging and find a better way to give Gobwit a pounding. So how did you know?"
"I think not." Janie said reflectively. "Templeton was here when his phone and messages went off. He was looking at the message but the Sec Cam was still in operation as was the mic. I heard him cover up the alert so Gobwit wouldn't get it."
"The man is a triple agent. He's selling us and Gobwit out to someone else." Addams said grimly.
"It would seem so. Which might explain how a first class team was able to hose us over. Their getting help they don't know about. Someone knows we started investigating those disappearances and they're putting obstacles in our way. Templeton may be helping them. The obvious thing is to tail him and watch."
Addams disagreed, "No, the obvious thing we should do is sell his hoop out to Gobwit and his team. The secretary has been making searches using KPOW, servers. She's good and it would be easy to plant enough evidence so that her smart frames would point her at Templeton. Given she is already aware that Templeton quashed the report we watched her re-elevate it. We're going to let Templeton 'discover' her fingerprints on it. We're already planting them. This should bring both of them into conflict and we stay out of it. The Spiked Wheels will look like Templeton is using them. We can plant that evidence too. It will explain nicely why he squashed the alert. This way we stay out completely, recover and let them butt heads for a while. It couldn't happen to a nicer bunch of people."
Janie nodded in agreement.
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