[Mercy Merchant]

Robin nods and takes the key to study it before handing it back and settling back in her chair as she goes into another world.  Elaine gives her a surprised look and turns to you.  "Is she alright?  I have heard people talk about going into Hot SIM, but have never seen it before.  Is that what she did?"

[Irn0rchid]

Rose grins at Elaine's reaction, "Well she's probably in cold right now, and not hot, but yes, they look the same. It's much faster for her to do it this way than through basic AR. Orders of magnitude, even. I guess it could be a little disturbing if you're not expecting it. You said you had some sim porn, it's like that, just with fewer genitals."

[Mercy Merchant]

Elaine laughs.  "The longer I stay with you two, the longer that collection of porn is going to languish unused.  I have not felt the need for several days now.  I keep wondering if the blush will come the bloom here, but hope that it takes a while before you are tired of me."

Robin slides back into the world with a smile and says three words.  "Bus station locker."

[Irn0rchid]

"Well you gave us a second chance, least we can do is stick around for awhile, right?" She smiles and gives Elaine a hug. When Robin comes out of her fugue with the news about the key, Rose smiles, "I only thought people used those in bad trids. How many bus stations are there around here? Do any of them even have lockers anymore?"

[Mercy Merchant]

Wednesday  13 June 2075  1025  Elaine's House


Robin smiles.  "I thought you would want to know that.  There are six large bus stations in the sprawl, but only the Downtown Main and Queen Anne stations still offer storage lockers to rent."  She looks at both of you.  So, do I feel a road trip coming on?"

[Irn0rchid]

"Hurm, I've got a little time before my meeting, sure, we can at least check out one of them. We're going to look silly sticking the key in every locker to see if it opens though," she laughs. "Why don't we start downtown? Is your car still here, Elaine, or did Howard claim that as well?"

[Mercy Merchant]

Elaine snorts.  "Howard would not be caught dead in my car.  Not fast enough or fancy enough.  We can all pile in, if you like."

As you make your way to the garage and Elaine's car, Robin says, "There is a chip, some sort of RFID tag on the key, but it is hidden.  I can try to crack it once we are in the car and I can go out to the matrix."  She quickly slip back into VR after the three of you enter the car.  Elaine looks at her in the rear view mirror a couple of times.  "Will she be alright?  I have heard that it can be dangerous to stay too long on the matrix."

[Irn0rchid]

"Yeah, we should take your car, that way if this runs long I can take mine to the meeting and let you two finish searching." Following the other two outside, Rose takes the opportunity to command her Americar to drive to the downtown bus station, park, and let her know once it's there. "Oh, you think it might have the id of the locker on it? That would be really helpful!" Sitting up front with Elaine to let Robin do her thing, she laughs at Elaine's question, "Not really, although I guess you could eventually starve if you don't come out. If you're doing anything illegal then you might eventually get caught, but just using it normally doesn't have a time limit. I don't think what she's doing with the key would even be noticed since it's local, but you'd have to ask her about that. Either way, she knows what she's doing."

[Irn0rchid]

Elaine nods, but does not look completely convinced.  "It is just that
I have heard stories of people getting addicted to the Hot SIM and
never wanting to come out.  I will trust you both to take care of
yourselves, but I am allowed to be concerned."  The rest of the drive
to the bus depot is quiet and Elaine eventually pulls into the
Downtown bus depot parking garage and finds a slot.  The garage is
fairly full so you have to park on the fifth floor, where you have to
wait a few minutes for Robin to come out of VR.  Shaking her head, she
says, "We're in luck.  The chip on the key indicates it is for this
depot and the locker number is 1476.  Are we doing this?"

Elaine nods. "Hell, yes.  I would like to see what he has in there."

It is just a short walk to the elevator and you take it to the ground
level and cross over into the bus terminal.  The large open lobby is
crowded with people waiting to buy tickets or heading off to pick up a
bus.  The glory days of bus travel are long past, but there is still a
certain mystique about taking a bus to a far-away destination and
letting someone else do the driving.  As you head across the lobby,
you note that it is still possible to take a bus to Denver, Los
Angeles, Chicago, or even New York City, but that the vast numbers of
passengers are just using the buses to take them to various
destinations around the sprawl as part of the mass transit system.
The lobby's decor and maintenance reflect the decline in customers.
Some litter blows across the station ramps and the murals on the walls
and giant pillars supporting the ancient structure are faded and some
of the graffiti has not been removed.  The dress of the passengers for
the local buses also reflects the current day and style.  A locator
sign lets you know that the storage lockers are located in Wing A of
the depot and the three of you make your way there, where you find
signs indicating that storing anything in the lockers is at your own
risk and that the Transit Authority is no longer responsible for
maintaining security of the locker area.  Elaine points to the sign
and says, "Another cost cutting measure, I suppose.  Still, I am glad
of it right now."

[Irn0rchid]

"Well Hot SIM isn't always necessary in the same sort of way that she's not always doing illegal things. If you abuse Hot SIM, sure, you can get addicted to it, but that's just like anything else really. Do something too much and it becomes unhealthy. A lot of things these days can even be done by agents and don't even require using VR at all. I'm sure she appreciates your concern though," Rose grins. Taking advantage of the rest of the quiet ride, she links back up with the Americar and, through it, assigns the CU^3 the task of loitering around the main entrances to the bus station and the garage looking for any sign of Howard or his car. "Would be a giant drek fest if he were to walk in on us opening up his locker. Hopefully he's not here yet since he hasn't called Elaine back..." she thinks to herself.

Once Robin returns to reality, Rose responds, "Well that's a break. I wasn't looking forward to trying to open every locker without being obvious about it." Looking back over at Elaine, she cautions, "Are you sure? If it's something that has relevance to your marriage, you won't be upset about it?"

Fully committed, the walk to the storage lockers is short but mildly depressing. "Places like this remind me to be thankful of what I have," she thinks. "Lower security can be a blessing and a curse," she responds to Elaine. Looking around the area she tries to see if anything looks out of the ordinary, "I don't see anything odd... Let's go see if this locker was worth the trouble."

[Mercy Merchant]

Wednesday  13 June 2075  1112  Downtown District Transit Terminal  Seattle


The wing containing the lockers is fairly empty of people.  There is a good bit of graffiti on the walls and lockers and more than a few appear to have been broken into.  The lockers are numbered sequentially and soon you are standing in front of number 1476.  Elaine hesitates and looks at you.  "Here we go."  She uses the key to unlock the locker and opens it.  And closes it.  And opens it again.  From behind her you see that the locker is filled with stacks of bundled nuyen.  Three ledger books sit atop the pile.  Elaine closes the locker again and turns to you.  "OK.  What do we do now?"

[Irn0rchid]

Rose's eyes light up a little at the sight of the stacks of money, "I don't think I've ever seen that much hard nuyen in one place before!" Looking around to make sure no one is paying any further attention to them, she responds, "Well, I think it would hurt my soul a little to just leave that stuff there, but I have a feeling Howard is going to want those ledgers. We'd need to take a look inside them to really figure out what to do with them though." Pausing to think through the different options, she finally settles on one that might hopefully get Elaine out from under Howard, "What you coooooould do is take everything in the locker, plus what's in the piggy bank, continue with the plan of telling him you're not going to give him the bank, but agree to unlock the joint account if he grants you a divorce and doesn't contact you again. That's probably enough cash to get you started doing whatever you want, and the ledgers might give you some leverage should he be recalcitrant." Turning to the locker, Rose reopens it and grabs the ledgers before closing it and paying the ten nuyen to re-lock it. "Whatever we decide to do, lets find a place to sit and look through these while we figure it out."

[Irn0rchid]

Elaine nods at your suggestions.  As you reach for the ledgers you
mentally calculate that it will take a good-sized satchel or suitcase
to empty the locker of the money.  Elaine says, "Hey, when we were
walking through the terminal I noticed a large cafeteria.  It seemed
to be doing a brisk business but there were some empty tables and
booths.  We could go there and grab a soycaf and look at these things.
 Or is that not private enough?"

[Irn0rchid]

"A busy cafeteria isn't exactly my idea of private. I was thinking more of one of the terminals with no buses coming soon. Usually only a few people drunk or reading there. We can pretend we're going to..." She looks around and settles on one of the terminals that looks fairly empty, "Portland!"

[Irn0rchid]

Loading platform 4B is a good choice.  It serves buses going to
Portland and the next bus departs in six hours, which means that the
platform is pretty empty right now.  You see two people slumped on
benches and one man on a bench near the end of the platform reading
from a pad of some sort.  Otherwise the platform is empty except for a
few seagulls looking for scraps.  The three of you can sit on a bench
away from the other occupants of the platform and each open a ledger.
Almost as one breath, each of you makes a soft exclamation as you
realize what you are looking at.  Howard has taken copious notes about
every one of his dealings with his employer, the boss of the Yakuza in
Seattle.  He has been the private attorney for several years and it
looks like he started taking notes three years ago.  Every detail of
every meeting is on paper, written in a laborious hand.  It might not
be electronic, but whatever else you can say about Howard, he has
great penmanship.  Killings, rackets, bribes...............all of it
is here, listing names and dates and dollar amounts.  Elaine tries to
say something twice before finally getting the words out. "My God!
What was he thinking?  He must have thought this would be some sort of
insurance policy, but..............what the frag are we to do with
these?"