[Mercy Merchant]

Sylvia smiles.  "Damn straight it comes with company, even if all you are in the mood for is a snuggle.  Come on."  She offers an arm to assist you from your seat in the helicopter and you step down to a large cement floor.  Soft lighting lets you see that you are in a large enclosed hangar.  Two women in work overalls have the engine cowling up and are doing some work inside it.  They are joined by  the pilot, Karla, who is shrugging into overalls of her own and chatting with the mechanics in what you think might be a nordic tongue of some kind.  She smiles when she catches sight of you and winks your way without stopping the non-stop technical chatter with the others.  Sylvia leads you around the rear of the helicopter, allowing you to see another one off to the side.  This helicopter is similar to the one you were in only because it has rotors; otherwise there is no similarity at all.  The second one looks to be all business, with several gun barrels poking out of the nose, what looks to be missile pods under the short side wings, and a nasty looking minigun in a small turret underneath the main body.

You leave the hangar through a narrow door and enter a gleaming hallway that could be in any corporate office building.  Closed doors line the hall but a few are marked so that you do not have to struggle much to determine what is beyond the doors.  Sylvia takes you to an elevator and goes up a level to a carpeted hall then to a door about halfway down.  "This is my room when I am here.  If you decide to join us, you will have a room here as well as in the other locations we have."  She unlocks the door with a card and retinal scan then opens it for you.  The living space is much smaller than her suite at the hotel, but quite nicely decorated.  Assassination must pay well, indeed.  She shows you to the shower and begins stripping out of her clothes, embracing you when you are both naked.  "I would like very much for you to consider joining us.  I have needed someone like you in my life for a long time."

[VegasRigged]

I'm recicent to be out of my armored suit, but one Syl begins stripping the combined booze and adrenaline are released. The gears wind down as raw emotion takes over and almost before she can finish asking me to join her assassin guild I grab her and push her against the wall, kissing and grasping, any concern lost. Nothing exists but her.

[Mercy Merchant]

Monday   11 June 2075   1445   You do not know where


You wake with someone's arm wrapped around you.  It appears to be a woman's arm.  There is a dim light coming from what might be a bathroom and it allows you to see that you are in a largish bed in a well appointed room......at least the part that you can see.  Memories flood in of you simply letting go as you embrace Sylvia with a passion that you do not believe you have ever felt before.  Even better, it seems that she matched your passion with her own.  You can remember crashing to the floor of the bathroom and rolling around before she breathlessly recommended the bedroom as a more comfortable place for that sort of activity.  She attacked you again before you made it to the bed but you simply gave in and participated, temporarily burying all your internal doubts somewhere in the back areas of your mind.  You have no memory of getting into the bed, but here you are.  You do, however, remember quite vividly that you experienced a sexual release and satisfaction that was wonderful and better than anything you have experienced before.  Somehow, and perhaps because your fears are still hidden somewhere for the time being, being here with this woman and having had this type of satisfaction, this seems to be just the place to be.  Whether that feeling stays with you or your fears come back is still to be determined.

[VegasRigged]

I smile languidly as I carefully remove myself from the bed. It is now quite possible that these assassins have a sex tape of me and their operative, but considering my new lines of work I don't actually suspect that to hold much leverage.

I make my way to wherever I can find a screen, put in a pair of earbuds so as not to wake Sylvia and begin watching the news as I do my morning Yoga and Tai Chi.

[Mercy Merchant]

Monday   11 June 2075   1450   You do not know where


There is a very modern trivid screen on the wall that you can access.  The news channels are all still talking about the gang violence that had wracked the Redmond Barrens earlier in the morning, but it is all mostly still questions about why the gangs would have erupted in such a way.  As you flick from station to station, you get much of the same, although one reporter identified as Petra Sprent seems to be providing news from on the ground and is actually interviewing people that had lived through the events rather than merely repeating the pap that others are saying.

[VegasRigged]

As I finish my morning stretches I make note of this reporter, her ambition could make her useful to me. Then I bring out my day planner and dress myself. Assuming I make it out of here alive, which by a strange turn of fortune it seems I will, I need to know what I have to do today. When are my Foci coming in? When will Xiaolo need me again? Glancing over at the bed I wonder also how Syl will act now that we are safely in her center of power, rather then exposed out in the world.

[Mercy Merchant]

Monday   11 June 2075   1530   You do not know where


When you glance over to the bed, you see Sylvia propped up on one arm and looking at you.  "My you are industrious.  I must be losing my touch; time was I could tire a lover out for at least a few hours."  She climbs out of the bed and stretches a bit.  "Anything good on the new feeds?  Did anyone seem to notice us?"

[VegasRigged]

"If they did their playing it close to their..." I eye her breasts with a slight smirk.

"That's good news and bad, it's good in that we aren't actively being hunted, bad in that whoever behind this charade isn't tipping their hand, which means they prefer to operate quitely and violently, as we saw last night. I'm going to need a list of Fixers in town, the standard Johnsons for the major corps, and any Intel your organization has on That reporter, she seems to be the only one not following the company line, which means she's either out of the loop and wants in, or in far enough that she'll know something useful." I put and my suit jacket and adjust the cuffs "And I'll need to see the prisoners to get this sale moving while we work."

[Mercy Merchant]

Sylvia smiles at you.  "I will see what we can arrange of all that, but first I am off to take a shower.  Then eat.  Care to join me in either activity?"

[VegasRigged]

I blink, the brief moment containing an entire thought process. Why did I get dressed before showering? After last night, both the op and the sex, I'm almost certainly in need, but I forgot? Unlike me. Strangely unlike me.

"Indeed, I'll join you momentarily, though I should request we keep our hands to ourselves, theirs too much to do for us to get caught up in more... enjoyable things."

My mind is still running, the wheels turning with schedules and schemes.

[Mercy Merchant]

Sylvia grins at you as she heads to the bathroom.  "Party pooper.  Have it your way, though."

She does keep her hands to herself, but her eyes are another matter as they scan up and down your body.  After drying, she dresses and leads you out of the room into a wide hallway.  "We will have to see about getting you some clothes if you are going to come and go.  Ah, the canteen.  The food is really quite good."  She turns in at a door and goes into a largish cafeteria-style dining hall.  There are six long tables in the room and you see nine women already seated and eating and another four standing in the line to get their food.  All look up as you walk in and the room goes silent as thirteen sets of eyes follow you.  Sylvia looks aver her shoulder at you and says, "Don't let it bother you.  They are all just jealous.  I will take you around and introduce you later.  Here, grab a tray and let's see what is on the menu this afternoon.

[VegasRigged]

I  look at her with a note of shock "Afternoon? What-?" I pull out my commlink and check the time, at once freightened for the hours lost.

I still do as indicated, grabbing a tray and serving myself, but theirs an urgency now to my actions. "How long were we asleep?"

[Mercy Merchant]

Monday   11 June 2075   1550   You do not know where


Sylvia looks at you and grins.  "Well, maybe I did have an effect on you after all.  It is almost 1600 and the incoming shift is eating their "breakfast" before going to work.  Were you supposed to be somewhere?"

[VegasRigged]

"I hope not, because I've just realized I'm very hungry." I load up my tray with whatever looks heavier in carbs, knowing from my training that's what I'll need to get back to strength from the energy I expended last night.

It's surprising to me that I can relax in such a place, surrounded by professional killers who, if they knew my true identity, would likely turn on me in an instant. Of course, now that I'm here, things are becoming somewhat clearer: First, they are indeed all women, and I dare to suspect few of them are solely interested in the opposite sex. Though this reminds me of someone's idea of joke, as through they were assembled by some wealthy lecher with a thing for disinterested women.

Second, they don't want me dead. At this point that seems like a reasonable assumption, and though the gears grind on my assumptions, reminding me I used to assume so much before I lost it, I continue on this assumption. Of course the fact that they aren't trying to kill me doesn't mean they will play fair, I'll have to be cautious in arranging the sale of these mercenaries to ensure I see my share of the profit.

Finally, I have been running on the idea that they knew who I used to be, Eva, but now I'm beginning to wonder if it wasn't Marisa they intended to entrap. What might she have known? Perhaps- I hold myself steady as a thought rocks me through: perhaps Marisa was already one of them. Sylvia's advances would have been testing the waters, seeing who I was. After learning, as she certainly would have, that I wasn't Marisa at all, she had decided to recruit me, sinc ei already hold the same position within the triads and other places.

I have no evidence, but givin her frankly clingy level of interest in me, I have to assume Syl has alterior motives, and of all the schemes I've played out so far, this one seems most likely.

For now I'll play the recruit, I'll learn and love and earn for these assassins. The more masters I have now, the more power I will gain when I overthrow them all.

I scan the room as I finish serving myself, examining each person I see for indications of who i should sit with.

[Mercy Merchant]

The food smells awesome and even looks real.  You have heard that there are some advances in soy processing that can give a realistic look and texture to food, but the food in the covered containers looks better than what you know a processor can do.  By the time you finish putting food on the tray, Sylvia nods to an empty table and walks over to it, setting her tray down. Most of the other women in the cafeteria seem to have accepted your presence and have gone back to their food, but two are still watching you closely..  Sylvia waves to them as she sits down, blowing one a kiss, which elicits a laugh from the pair, who turn back to their food.