[rednblack]

Ace finds himself enjoying talking shop with Hamilton's resident gun expert.  While thoroughly unimpressed with the Ruger 101, and only feeling a middling interest in the Remington 950, Ace recognizes the Springfield and nods in appreciation.  He's about to ask whether it's ok to dry-fire the weapon when "Ivana" appears next to him.

"Did you find anything you like?" she asks, interrupting the firearm-to-phallus transference currently in progress. She leans in Ace mischievously, "I have a secret to show you back at home. I found it in my wardrobe." She gives a naughty smile to the older gentlemen, who keeps his eyes locked firmly on Ace.

Ace reluctantly hands the rifle back to the clerk and says, "Well, you heard the lady.  I'll tell you what, chummer, slot me your card in case we come back.  We'll be here through the week, and I want you to have the commission if I do.  Before I go, I'll take 3 boxes of 12 gauge slugs."  Ace thanks the man, and he and Katsina make their way out of the shop.  Ace stops to snap a couple pics of Doc's clothes, which he sends along with a message.

<<@Team [Ace] Doc, if you can get a look in the trix, I say go for it.  Ohanzee, Katsina said there was 8 of them.  Given what we've been up against, I'd guess that at least 1 is magically active and looking for our souls, or whatever you mojo types call it.  We may want to hold off there until we have a better idea.>>

[Malevolence]

"One of my SINs has a place in Boulder. I'll forward you the appropriate info.

<<@Ohanzee [Sam] ResidentDetails.file>>

Ohanzee reviews the address and with a thought brings up a map of the location. He shouldn't have any trouble finding Boulder from here, but the world looks different in the Astral, so he makes note of landmarks in Boulder that should be identifiable in the Astral to help him home in on the location marked on his map. While Sam and Chino continue to pore over the messages looking for more clues, he props himself up so he won't fall over and projects himself to Sam's potential flat. Once near, he surveys the location for potential surveillance, and once satisfied, looks around. A few moments later he returns to his body with a status report.

"Fuck this!" he announces loudly as he stands up from the table. "We don't have enough information. Any message we may send carries just as much risk of mis-step as sending no message at all does, but sending one risks exposing information to unknown parties and putting ourselves at potential disadvantage." He looks briefly around the room with his jaw set. "We do nothing."

"That seems prudent. I'm also wondering if the five minute delay on the last communication might have been the result of a compromise of Mom. We're so worried about breaking the pattern that we haven't really considered that it's already broken and it might mean the communication channel is already blown."

[Tecumseh]

@Poindexter
Sam lets 3:05 slip by without sending a note. A minute later, his comm pings with an incoming message.

<Start Russian>
>> FROM: Mom
>> TO: Frank
>> SENT: February 1st, 3:06PM
>> I made you borscht.
<End Russian>


@rednblack
The man behind the counter gives a disappointed look at the lost customer but maintains his professional composure. He sells Ace the three boxes of slugs for ¥60. He bids Ace farewell with a distinguished nod and an request to visit again soon.

Ace and Ivana return to the waiting car. Calvin opens the rear door. Ivana accepts Ace's help as she steps in. "Let's go home?" She directs Calvin to drive them back to the cabin. They return at 15:30, right at the two-hour mark for their car service. Calvin helps unload the trunk, hauling coolers and duffel bags up the icy steps. Ivana wires the ¥120 for the use of the car, plus ¥25 for gratuity.


@Malevolence
Ohanzee drifts off into the astral. Rising out of the house, all seems quiet. He doesn't notice any significant changes from when he last checked. Getting his bearings against the astral landscape, he rockets off toward Boulder.

To his credit, he absolutely nails his destination on the first try. Unfortunately, by not coming out of hyperspace early he loses his opportunity to scout the place covertly in advance. He looks around. Astrally, the place is lit up like a Christmas tree. There are two spirits on patrol - F6 spirits of air from the looks of things - along with two watchers. One spirit circles over the house as an eagle, the other is perched in a tree as an owl. If there were a term for "astral stakeout", it would be applicable here.

Celestrial Raven's concealment utterly baffles the watchers but the spirits are so not easily fooled. They spy Ohanzee and screech at his presence.

[Zweiblumen]

Doc had gone back to digging up information about the good doctor.  As he's reclining in a virtual seat with countless AR windows surrounding him, he sees the messages from Ace and Ohanzee he takes a mental stretch and minimizes all of the searches.  Running silently to arouse less suspicion, he heads towards the location Katsina marked stopping about 125m away to get a lay of the digital landscape before progressing.

[Malevolence]

As the Astral birds screech in alarm, Raven's concealment fades, leaving Ohanzee exposed to the watchers. Drek!


Almost involuntarily, Ohanzee's consciousness returns to his body. As his mind readjusts to the weight and comparative awkwardness of having a corporeal form, he reports the change of situation to the team.



>>@Team [Ohanzee] Contact! Our location is compromised. We'll have visitors in about an hour, two tops. We gotta get our hoops outta here. Sam, there were two spirits and two watchers on your old residence. Astrally, it's locked up tight. Maybe a Matrix peep will be more fruitful, but that's gonna have to wait until we're moving.


The brief disorientation gone, Ohanzee stood up and began to start gathering items they would be taking to the kitchen. He curtly dismissed Celestial Raven without so much as a word. There was no reply from the spirit - no parting words nor disconcerting laugh, but through the disintegrating link Ohanzee could feel satisfied mirth. He couldn't escape the realization that Raven may have been right about one thing - the time for running was nearing an end. It was time to prepare for a fight.


Through the Astral ether the shaman's call reached. Faithful Wolf, I have need of you now. The eerie braying of wolfs on the hunt answered his call. With steamy breath and fangs dripping blood from a fresh kill, a massive grey Wolf spirit sauntered in to view, circling the tiny dwarf and sniffing at the air. Seeing no enemies nearby, the wolf at last sat on its haunches, licked its lips, and stared at Ohanzee, tongue lolling from its mouth. Why do you call me to the world of the flesh today? The wolf licked its lips again as it mentioned "flesh".


My pack needs your strength, mighty Wolf. The time to fight nears, but we must prepare, choose our time and place. I will have need of your ferocity, but for now I need your keen senses to guard us as we prepare.


The spirit twitched its ear and emitted a low growl in frustration, but nodded its head in assent. Very well. For now, the promise of meat to rend and bone to crunch will sustain me. Be quick about your preparations, fleshed one, for I hunger for the kill. The Wolf stood and moved to a better vantage point before turning three times, then lying down, ears alert but only one eye open in feigned disinterest.


The summoning had taken a toll on Ohanzee. For a moment the world was dim as he struggled through the wooziness. But an effort of will forced the clouding away, and the dwarf busied himself with preparations for their departure, not the least of which was the crate containing the strange item that seems to be the reason they are in this mess to begin with.

[Tecumseh]

"Ivana" walks in the front door with Ace - making Ace carry all of the bags - just in time for Ohanzee to turn everything upside down. All of a sudden there's a new emergency, plus a giant spirit of Wolf sitting in the kitchen. She immediately drops her Physical Mask spell, instantly reverting to her black mask plus black lined coat.

<<@Team [Katsina] We need to move but there is risk in that too. Those spirits are going to alert their summoner(s), and if those summoners are connected to the team in town looking for me then they are going to be expecting us on the road soon. Going south on 82 locks us into a route with no turn-offs for hours. Going north it's 40 minutes until we can turn off at Carbondale. If they bottle up town then they'll be waiting for us. There might be some rural roads leading out of town to the north if we need a quieter place for a scrap. Or we could move to a new spot in town, but if they've seen Ohanzee it's only a matter of time until a spirit with the Search power locates him.>>

She drags the cooler into the kitchen, sidestepping Wolf, then starts pulling things out of the fridge and cupboards until the cooler itself is full.

<<@Team [Katsina] What about the house? What about Sam's traps? We've almost certainly left something behind that could be used as a material link for ritual spellcasting.>>

[Zweiblumen]

Doc goes to check on the group that Katsina mentioned.  It doesn't take him long to find the likely suspects.  He merges into the steam of traffic going through the area and blends into the general chaos of the area.  Looking around more closely he notices a device running silently.  Narrowing his inspection to this actor he sees that it's a decker running a comparitively cheap deck configured for speed and protection rather than stealth or brute force.  Also running Lockdown and Track to snatch and grab any offending deckers in the area.  Doc snickers to himself as he just blends into the background and continues his inpsection.  The silent decker seems to be checking on most of the traffic coming by, so he'll only have a few more seconds.  He sees that there are 9 other PANs attached to the deck along with his own gear which isn't too shabby.  A couple of guns, a skilljack, cybereys and of course the pre-requisit datajack for any decker.  The team seems to be communicating fairly frequently in just the 10 seconds he's poking his nose around.  And the decker seems to be passing some data onto a remote location.

Deciding he's better off quietly walking away then risking stiring up a shitstorm he heads back to the cabin to keep searching for more data about the artifact.

<<<@Team [Doc] Those folks are definitely looking for something, and wouldn't be surprised if its us.  There's actually 10 of them, and they aren't SecForce as their Decker is decently geared, but not how I'd expect a PCC cop looking for us.  They didn't have anything obvious laying around in the matrix specifically related to us, but given they hit on Katsina I'm guessing I could find something if I actually went digging.  But this was just a little lookey-loo and I didn't want to set of any alarms.  If we need to, I'm pretty confident I can snoop these guys pretty well, but want to not spread myself too thin.
I'm going back to work on the artifact, holler if you guys need anything.
Oh, and Ace's friend's Gopher is about 5 minutes down the road now.>>>

[rednblack]

As soon as the goodies are unloaded from the trip into town Ace does a quick walk-through in the cabin.  As he does so, he turns around Ohanzee's new information.  He has an initial impression, but he forces himself to think a bit before responding.  When nothing additional comes to him, Ace decides his first impression might be the way to go.

<<@Team [Ace] If the cabin's compromised, we probably need to reduce it to cinders.  The risk of us leaving DNA is too great.  Sam, any chance you can rig the place to blow for when the team on our tail shows up?  If so, we might be able to avoid the troubles on the road.  If not, we should probably just start a fire on our way out, and take our chances on the rural routes.  Regardless, we need the RV and some way to keep its rightful owners quiet.  I know how I'd handle this back in my Ares days, but it might be best to leave that in the past.>>

Before packing up, Ace snaps a couple pics of the cabin's owner from the mantle and pulls the rifle downstairs.  He regards Sam.  "You planning on taking this thing with you?"

[Poindexter]

>> FROM: Mom
>> TO: Frank
>> SENT: February 1st, 3:06PM
>> I made you borscht.

<<@Mom [Frank] I'm too sick to eat. Need medicine.>>

>>@Team [Ohanzee] Contact! Our location is compromised. We'll have visitors in about an hour, two tops. We gotta get our hoops outta here. Sam, there were two spirits and two watchers on your old residence. Astrally, it's locked up tight. Maybe a Matrix peep will be more fruitful, but that's gonna have to wait until we're moving.

And just like that, we're moving again. The next 15 minutes are a blur of activity, with everyone running around the house, gathering things up and planning on the fly. Before things can get too hectic, Sam sends a message to the team.

 <<@Team [Sam] So, do we try to clean this place or do we burn it?>>

<<@Team [Ace] If the cabin's compromised, we probably need to reduce it to cinders.  The risk of us leaving DNA is too great.  Sam, any chance you can rig the place to blow for when the team on our tail shows up?  If so, we might be able to avoid the troubles on the road.  If not, we should probably just start a fire on our way out, and take our chances on the rural routes.  Regardless, we need the RV and some way to keep its rightful owners quiet.  I know how I'd handle this back in my Ares days, but it might be best to leave that in the past.>>

<<@Team [Sam] Oh, i certainly can rig the place to blow. How big do you want it is the question? And if you're taking the RV, we should bring the snowmobile if there's room.>>

A moment later, the physical Ace taps Sam on the shoulder, motions with a hunting rifle and asks,

"You planning on taking this thing with you?"

"Yes. Thank you." He responds as he takes it from the man and slings it over his shoulder.

[Zweiblumen]

On hearing from Ohanzee that the gig is up, Doc starts thinking of exit strategies.

"First we're gonna need a big ride, that RV next door will work great.  I wonder if the snowmobile will fit? Hrm... Secondly, we'll need a distraction and something to cover our tails.  If Sam can blow this place up we can blame that on the team that comes a knocking."

There are obviously other concerns as well, he relays his thoughts to the team:
<<<@Team [Doc] Ace, Chino, can you guys boost that RV?  Drive it with a DC so we can run wirelessly until we are out of range.  Sam, can we set the traps to take out the whole house and detonate remotely?  Watch for the team Ohanzee found to arrive and give them a nice surprise?  We could also call the cops to see them "breaking" into the place.  HaHa, that'd be a trip!  I'll have to see if I can steal some surveillance footage of that scene!  First thoughts of course, this needs more planning.  What do the rest of you think?>>>

[8-bit]

Chino grumbles in disappointment when nobody can figure out the code. Too bad, I thought we were on to something.

Sam announces that they are going to be silent and see what happens. They don't have to wait long before something happens. What it means, Chino can only guess, but Sam seems to know how to reply. It isn't long before Ohanzee returns to his body and alerts that the have been compromised. Could have been worse, I guess. At least we got a night's sleep.

Chino swiftly gathers his measly belongings as the flurry of commlink activity goes on.

<<<@Team [Doc] Ace, Chino, can you guys boost that RV?  Drive it with a DC so we can run wirelessly until we are out of range.  Sam, can we set the traps to take out the whole house and detonate remotely?  Watch for the team Ohanzee found to arrive and give them a nice surprise?  We could also call the cops to see them "breaking" into the place.  HaHa, that'd be a trip!  I'll have to see if I can steal some surveillance footage of that scene!  First thoughts of course, this needs more planning.  What do the rest of you think?>>>

<<@Team [Chino] Shouldn't be a problem getting the vehicle, but what are we going to do about the people who live there? Are we knocking them out, killing them, what? Also, what about the obelisk? I assume we are still taking it with us, we need Ohanzee to levitate it into the vehicle.>>

Chino remembers the mention of spirits and feels his tattoos start to tingle, as if begging to be activated. He sends out.

<<@Team [Chino] Also, I could seriously frag up those spirits if they show here, and it would probably be best to disrupt them before they can follow us in our escape vehicle. Of course, I can't drive and fight the spirits at the same time. And we would have to wait for them to come to us. I can work either way, but having the spirits track us while we are trying to escape seems like a bad idea.>>

Chino turns to Ace. "You still got that taser of yours? Might be useful when we go to get our lift."

[Tecumseh]

Katsina finishes emptying out the fridge. A pity. This was a comfortable place, even if it was squatting. Oh well.

<<@Team [Katsina] Let's burn the place. Nothing dramatic. We can salvage the explosives for another day. Given our current rate of making friends, we'll need them. Maybe a malfunctioning appliance can do the honors.>>

She looks around. Most of her stuff is already packed, in bags waiting by the front door. She checks to see who else might need help. Ohanzee will have to get the crate; Sam will have to take care of the explosives, unless her approach gets downvoted. Doc, Ace, and Chino will presumably acquire transportation.

<<@Team [Katsina] I'd rather leave them be, but if it comes to it I can neutralize the neighbors. I can do it humanely, as I did for the poachers. But all things being equal, better to not leave an unnecessary trail of bodies in our wake. If we hit SecForce's radar we'll have to make a run for the border.>>

She's a bit stuck until the others need her help. She sits on the cooler in the entryway and begins inscribing preparations. They might be needed soon.

[rednblack]

There are obviously other concerns as well, he relays his thoughts to the team:
<<<@Team [Doc] Ace, Chino, can you guys boost that RV?  Drive it with a DC so we can run wirelessly until we are out of range.  Sam, can we set the traps to take out the whole house and detonate remotely?  Watch for the team Ohanzee found to arrive and give them a nice surprise?  We could also call the cops to see them "breaking" into the place.  HaHa, that'd be a trip!  I'll have to see if I can steal some surveillance footage of that scene!  First thoughts of course, this needs more planning.  What do the rest of you think?>>>

<<@Team [Ace] If we're disposing of the neighbors, I'd rather bring them here first, and let the fire destroy some of the evidence.  Who knows, maybe whoever's after us could think we had a falling out, which could be to our advantage.  Regardless, I don't want to leave the bodies in a place where they'll be seen, which will only get SecForce and others a step closer to us and our new vehicle.  If we're not disposing of the neighbors, I can make them unconscious.  Keeping them that way will be another thing entirely.  We need to decide quickly.  Doc, could you keep them out for the foreseeable future?  Ohanzee, what do you think?>>

Ace checks his duffle bag one last time before zipping it and adding it to the pile of gear.  He catches himself in a mirror in the hall and practices his best, winning corper smile, before thinking back to his teammate's messages.

<<@Team [Ace] the snow mobile will be great to have on board, and I would imagine it would fit.  We'll need to clean it before packing up, though. Any rogue RFIDs will not serve us well.>>

[Tecumseh]

Katsina looks up from her preparation and considers the cabin. While the electronics been updated, the building itself and much of the furnishings look old, probably pre-Awakening. Given the generations of family members pictured, it's probably a family retreat that's been passed down. Much of the furniture looks like family heirlooms too. That means that the fabrics and materials are organic instead of synthetic. Good fuel for a fire. Sorry about all the memories, but a fat cat banker from Denver can probably afford new ones. Frag him.

She looks up at Ace checking himself in the mirror. He looks good with his tailored clothes and his winning corper smile.

<<@Team [Katsina] Ace looks respectable. I think the neighbors would open the door for a nicely dressed young man with a clean look. I would.>>

She sees Ohanzee moving around quickly.

<<@Team [Katsina] Or Ohanzee. He's got a way with words too. He's native, so he looks like a local, maybe even an authority. His clothes are armored but not conspicuously so. I bet they could talk their way in.>>

She stands up, pacing around while continuing to inscribe a throwing knife with a strong Heal spell. It requires most of her attention but she can still formulate a separate thought every now and then. She glances out the front window at the neighbor's house. Transmitting her thoughts via DNI leaves her hands free to work their magic.

<<@Team [Katsina] Where are we going to put the snowmobile? It's an RV, not a garage. I doubt it has a door big enough to get the snowmobile or the ATV inside.>>

[rednblack]

Ace finds Ohanzee and says, "Whaddya say?  Should we go make some friends?  If you can get us in the door, and I can bring them down.  Should be fairly easy lifting to get them in the RV after that."

Ace adjusts the lapels on his jacket, and prepares himself again for the cold.