Valentin Prago, quite satisfied by the money he just got, replies very friendly:
"Well, to be fair, buddy, up until now, it has been more people calling me up to ask about Bernie. You are the first ones who came up to my door. But for an extra 500 nuyens, I'll be happy to let you know whenever some other "interested party", as suits calls'em, shows up. I'll take the fixer comm number too, that's always good to have. And you are right, I need to go to bed "pronto" - night has been long enough, so here are the deets on Bernie. Well, at least what I know." Prago takes a small pause, glancing at the bar. Both Waywalker and Rex can see on his face a familiar "i-need-a-drink-for-this" face. But, apparently, Valentin opts to stay sober - probably to help ensure he'll be able to fall asleep right the minute the runner leaves is bar.
"OK, so, as I told you already, I'm no friend of Bernie. I actually had utterly forgotten about him, until my commlink starting bipping for the last days with Bernie this and Bernie that. Good thing for you, it did get me to do some recollection about him."Taking a small break, Valentin breathes in and resume talking:
"Last year, I did a deal with him - only because my usual smuggler got gank. Bernie was by no means my first choice, I actually reached out to the Geistratten, I know some of them, and I was actually hoping to have Franz, a German who do regular runs from here to München... Anyway, for some reason, Bernie showed up. Apparently the Geistratten looks up to him, and he decided that I was a worthy customer for him to show up instead of one of his "goon". Like the guy is freaking upper management or whatnot. Anyhow..."For a few seconds, the man stops there, thinking with a strange expression - nostalgia ? - on his face. He shrugs it off and continues:
"So Bernie comes here and we talk business. I won't tell you anything about the deal, except that it went OK enough, I can't say I'm happy about his part in it, neither have really anything to complain about. I just don't like the guy, nor his 'style'. Anyhow, as part of the negotiation, he start showing me pics of his GMC banshee. I'm no rigger for sure, but the beast is a thing of beauty - he laced it with signature masking, making a tiny blip on the best sensor, and double it with chameleon coating, so that he can make even hard to spot with the naked eye. He digressed on other stuff, like weapon and so on, but that I forget. But that's not the real info for you here."He winks, and with a sick little grin, Valentin goes on:
"During the talk he kept bragging about having a very nice dig inside a SOX. He hinted that he secured a "good place", where no one will be going "to look for him" - which would be, in the context of our talk, the perfect place to stash the good we were talking about for a while. Of course, he is no moron, so he did not tell me about where exactly, but he did show me the pictures of his ride, remember ? And guess in front of what his precious VTOL was standing ?"Valentin face light up, clearly proud of himself, and smirking.
"Well, in front of abandon, half destroyed building, somewhere in the SOX, right ? Of course, except that I've watched the Rad Wars game in the SOX - you know, the first edition, back in '70, when they went crazy on whatever was left of Metz. And guess where I saw the exact same building, being pounded by S-K's finest ? Right, this specific one exactly. And most of the picture of his baby were taken in front of it - even the ones where the VTOL guts were wide open. So I'm pretty sure the bastard is holed up inside it..."
In the meantime, Valentin shares an ARO with the Rex and Waywalker, where
he has pin pointed the location. Located at the very end of a small Isle, this building, now a standing ruins, used to some kind of local french agency something. It clearly got badly beaten by the initial catastrophe that created the SOX, but it also got quite badly damaged by the wargames of the Rad Wars. Many walls are still up, but no more roof - probably a good thing if you want to land a VTOL inside it. Also the bridge nearby has been destroyed, and the street it lead to is now half flooded and muddy. Not really easy to get the place on foot.
"Now, you know where he might be curled up, but I don't envy your job. The place is, AFAIK, quite fairly irradiated, if there is anything alive still in there, it's going to be twisted and feral. I know, in part of SOX, you can still find some "decent" people - who often refers themselves as the Zentpels, but no chance to find any here. If you find anything it's going to be what the french called the "Ecorchés" - translate to the "skinned one", so basically radiation graved maniacs. Rumors are that they often literally eat other people alive - making'em quite hard to separate from the ghouls pack one can also find in there... Certainly a shit place to have to go, but, most likely why he would be holed up in there. It's a fucked up situation, but, hey, not my problem, so..." - He concludes with a grin on his face.
