You make your way south through Renton and after about 45 minutes you make it to the general area of Auburn where B.B. loosely traced Hannibal's text message. Most of these blocks are packed tightly with 2040's ranch style one-floor houses and as you drive around through the rain you see few pedestrians.
[OOC: Rolling a blind luck roll ....we'll make it threshold 3. Woofer is the only one who can make it: Edge 3 3d6.hits(5)=1. Nope didn't find Hannibal]
You circle several of these residential blocks for almost an hour but Lana doesn't see Hannibal anywhere. B.B. doesn't see any nodes which match Hannibal's access ID either. After deciding that even though it was worthwhile to check out the lead, it's probably time to move up to Redmond.
@B.B.
[OOC: Rolling B.B.'s Seattle Gangs knowledge skill: Intuition 5 + Seattle Gangs 1 + Limbic Nanites 3=9 (2) 9d6.hits(5)=4.]
From looking at the grid guide system you see that Woofer seems to be plotting a path going north-east on hwy 18, but you notice the small limbic nanintes activity graph of your Nanohive status ARO start to spike as you realize that Woofer's planning to go straight north through Lake Sammamish Pkwy, riding the edge of Redmond in order to save time. You remember reading on some online forums that in the last two weeks the Blood Mountain Boys have been running "toll stops" after certain hours in response to Crimson Crush's expansion. You instead plot a safer route going north-west back through Bellevue and then straight west directly into Touristville.
@Everyone:
By around 7:00 PM you reach the stretch of NE 86th st. in Bellevue that becomes Redmond Way. The high-rises in the distance to the west contrasts blocks and blocks of dilapidated concrete 3-4 story plasticrete block-like constructions on either side of the road, most of them abandoned, the occasional flickering neon sign reflecting a mix of Katakana and English off of your tinted windows. About a mile ahead you see the bright lights of the Touristville strip start to cut through the dusk as it dissolves into night, the multitude of colors twisted and stretched by the beads of rain streaming down the windshield in between passes of the wipers.
Lana and Cynthia have dozed off in the back seat.
@Cynthia:
As the moon rises in the east on your way to Touristville, you feel the adrenaline from you encounter with Sam start to wear off and as you let the embrace of sleep surround you, you notice yourself falling and falling.
Your eyes open to a cold sidewalk stretched out before you, the cool brisk October air condensing your breath into mist. You shiver as a swirl of autumn leaves scrapes their way down the concrete and the night sky which is visible between crumbling buildings is only populated by a full-moon. When you look back down to the sidewalk, you notice that the orange tinged street lamps on both sides of the road only last for about 50 more meters and then they end, plunging the rest of the street into darkness. You keep on walking and as you approach the last few street lights you also notice that the full moon now almost takes up the entirety of the night sky, the face of a young maiden floating in an astral sea of silver. The knowing smile usually etched onto your lady's face is strangely absent as she stairs straight into the shadow, her eyes intensely focused and the furrow in her silver brow expressing strong concern which makes you stop in your tracks. The longer she looks into the shadow, the more her expression looks less and less like concern and more and more like what you could only call fear, an emotion you have never known your uninhibited lady to be capable of. She attempts to penetrate the shadow with her moonbeams, but the darkness which has swallowed the rest of the road in front of you just as easily swallows her light and all you can make out are two medium sized thin silhouettes standing about 10m into the darkness. You begin to walk again and as you approach the edge where the light of the lamps and of the moon give way to the darkness, you turn around one last time and you see your lady with her hand outstretched, shaking her head and beckoning for you to proceed no further. You pause once more, then turn back around and continue walking toward the figures. As soon as you plunge into the shadow, you begin to fall once more.
You wake up from the dream with a jerk and quickly sit upright in the car seat gasping for air. Mercedes whips her head around toward the back seat, a concerned look on her face. Lana is still completely passed out as you roll to a stop to wait in the line of cars that has formed. It looks like the strip is going to be rather crowded tonight. That also means the new Knight Errant patrols of this area are probably going to be a little stepped up as well.
The KE policy with Redmond is one of containment: as long as the crime in Redmond more or less stays inside Redmond, it's not's KE's problem. A kid could shoot his grandma in the face and KE wouldn't even fill out a report. As long as they do the symbolic Redmond turf raid now and again, with the occasional drug or weapon's stash recovered, and the occasional notorious gang boss killed or captured every once in a while, Downtown will renew their contract in a breeze and Horizon media will tout them as heroes. On top of that, a good chunk of established gang leaders are on KE's payroll to begin with. The recovery of most stashes or killing of bosses only ever happens when established leaders throw KE a bone and tip them off in order to stick it to some upstart rising through the ranks. Touristville is the exception though....it's basically a playground for corporate citizens who feel like they're either too hardcore or too hipster to go hang out at the Penumbra downtown. KE needs to make sure all those twenty and thirty somethings make it home safely so they can plug in their reality filters, go beddy-by, and wake up the next morning and start on their late TPS reports.
