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November 5, 2045.
Dear Anastasius Foch,
During the rest of the day, which was Monday August 13th, many things happen. Shark has gone up to his old friend Felix and picked up a large quantity of stuff, and just after leaving he recieves a distress call from Zag. He reports that Pick is with him at the Compound and that three Arasaka APCs and an attack Helo are outside attempting to force entry. Zag asks for immeadiate backup. Shark tells him to hold on, and promptly informs Kid Stealth of the situation. Both rush back; Kid by rooftop and Shark by cab. Kid beats Shark there by only two minutes because Shark got a cab with a crazy Pakistani that thankfully understood 'FASTER.'
Upon arrival within rifle range, Kid opens fire with his custom .50 BMG sniper rifle, and thanks to the ten pound suppressor, is able to destroy the helicopter, and the two APCs within his line of fire. Shark by the time all of the smoke cleared was behind the last APC. He loaded AP ammo into his Carbine and disabled the main weapon, the driver's vision blocks, and finally the tires. With a thermal cutting charge was able to force the command hatch, and insert the two concussion grenades that stunned the crew into submission. The crew amounted to one man (the other two being killed in the blast) who was summarily taped, tied, and dragged out of the vehicle. Kid Stealth then met Shark at the rear of the bilding where they entered one of the secret doors and were able to destroy all of the Arasaka attackers that had besieged Zag and Pick. They were not in time to save Mo's room from the two white phosphorous grenades that were used to destroy whatever he had gathered before being injured.
This as you may guess angered Shark. More at his own misjudgement in failing to anticipate it and take action agaist it; than in the fact that they did it.
Meanwhile back at the Web, Ariel and Jiovonazo finish their dinner. Jiovonazo then goes off to persue a little past time of his after enduring jokes on behalf of Ariel. "It must be a real pain in the ass," etc. and such jibes were made about the corporate sadist.
Back at the Compound, Shark and Kid are cleaning up to move out after I called and told them of my vitals that have to be moved out. Zag, who was posted on the roof, then sees two more Arasaka gunships moving in and alerts Shark. Kid and Shark put down what they are doing and go back to plotting the destruction of others. Shark goes to break their tactical net while Kid Stealth gets into position with the rifle and more ammunition. Eventually Shark does break their net, and does so as they are moving in on a rockets run. Some quick negotiations follow, which amount to Shark threatening their destruction if they do not turn back. They do not turn back. Kid Stealth cripples another, and it turns to limp home, followed closely by the others. With their immeadiate freedom preserved, he and Kid take the lone tanker into a bathroom for interrogation. After some shenanigins, he confesses to being hired by a forigner, from the Chicago Office, to do this job. Frank's commander is Adrian Wolf Nagatashi. With that learned they put him in the street with the rest of the bodies in a body bag.
They again see the same bum that was sitting and watching the TTI team that took Mo away. They aproach him, and confer about the events of the evening. Shark was not convinced that he was innocent, but did not want this bum to suffer the same fate as the thrity-three from the meting in Coon Rapids. So he drew his stunner and blasted the bum into unconsciousness. Unceremonously they hog-tie the bum, steal a car, toss him in the back seat, and head down to the Vila. The vila is out backup facility just north of New Prague and the MVE archology.
From there they split up, Shark goes to the Clinic and waits for Zona. Kid meets Zona at the hospital where Mo is with Spydr. Mo is still unconscious and undergoing treatment. Spydr is surprised by Zona's coldness at the moment, she delivered the verdict without any cushioning. Zig shows up a few moments later and agrees to stay there with Kid Stealth to pull guard on the kid.
Spydr offers Zona a ride back to the Web, to which she says a lift to my apartment and then the Clinic would be better. Since both are on the way, she agrees. Zona shows up at the clinic at midnight and begins to perform the augmentation diagnostic that Shark had requested. She tells him that the bum has NO cybernetics. Shark is dubious, because he had been theorizing that the bum was one of the face-shifting minions of Mike that included the Universal Military guy. Zona assures him the Bum has no cybernetics. Shark then asks Zona to show him how the scanners work and if he can watch a scan in real time. I should note at this point Zag is out front watching for trouble, and that Shark and Zona are in back in the examining room, which is adjacent to the operating room, where the bum is. When Shark watches the second scan in real time, he not only sees for himself that there is no cybernetics, but that there is no body.
He hurls himself out of the room and conducts a quick search for the bum's body. Zag says nobody left out front, and that he heard nothing. Shark searches the ceiling panels and finds that the plenium space extends over other rooms. Out in the hall again he sees one of the panels ajar above the back door. Looking outside he sees no sign of the bum or his passing.
I have to give myself for that Houdeni.
Back inside Shark is fuming and approaches Zona. She is not usually afraid of him because she knows he would never hurt her, but in this instance she was only feeling about 90% safe. He quickly grills her on what she found, and being the poor liar that she is he sees her holding back. He interprets it correctly as her weighing the option of betraying who the bum is against holding back on Shark. So he just asks, "Was it Raven?" She looks down at the floor and says yes. He turns quickly, and walks out going to talk to Zag and then Kid on the cell phone.
Afterwards, in the weeks following the adventure, I would take Zona aside and offer some kind words on Shark's behavior. She stated she was plenty over it because at the moment he had just saved her life from a Vampire. But insisted that I never intended for her to keep my secret from Shark because he is a very hard person to stand up to when he gets his sights set on anything.
Now back to the point at hand. Everyone then converged on the Web to discuss miportant matters. Zona had been working on, though I have not reported it yet, a way to sever his controllers control over him. She had presented it to Shark and he to Kazure. So when everyone was there (Kid, Shark, Spydr, Zona, and Kazure) they moved into the basement of the Web to one of the speak-easy rooms that exist there as communication vacuums. Nothing can transmit into or out of these rooms once their sheilding is activated. So it was with horror and fear that they greeted Spydr's cell phone when it rang. She answered it expecting to hear the voice of Mike, but instead was greeted by Mo's voice. He was still unconscious at the hospital and seconds later she figures it is a recording he programmed into her phone. Mo says he has almost found out what he needs to about Mike. He says he will be in contact soon.
Kazure is interested in the procedure, but needs time to think about it. Zona says she is doing it for the chance to make up for past wrongs; Spydr because she hates to see people inprisoned -- which is what he is; Shark for revenge. It is now that Shark's plan starts coming to fruitition, as he had planned from the moment he knew that Kazure was the tool of a corporation to remove that tool from the corporation. He does not know why he is compelled to destroy things; maybe it is in his genetics.
It is upon standing up to leave, after they all pledged their support to Kazure's decision that Spydr has one of the 'light-headed' feelings that have been bothering her.
They will meet again the next day. Spydr had called to cancel the tickets to France with Mo because today was the day, and he was still in the hospital. But the attendant informs her that there are eight tickets here to Germany on a noon flight. Spydr takes them, she can just tell something is up.
Going over the ticket numbers shows something disturbing. Each has a string of numbers that when converted to letters spell: 'Mike is here. Mike is here,' over and over again. Spydr heads straight to the Web and informs everyone that they are going to Germany. Shark is excited to go Mike hunting, as he is growing to detest the man.
We will leave them in the early morning hours before noon on Wednesday August 15, 2045.
Sincerely,
Richard Raven
Also, 63-3F-UV-7K-AC-QA
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