Surprisingly through all the spam you get throughout touristville, you have received one interesting message, care of your favorite fixer. One cannot help but open it.

Quoted from recent chatter on 'Press/Play', a newer gossip board for runners

Check dis out:

This video linked from 'The Green ARO', a pirate trid program providing stories on odd events around the world that our 'hero' so to speak, challanges his viewers to solve before he does.

A skinny, pale elf begins reading his detailed bit, sitting at a very nice mahogany desk.   Looking to be in his early twenties, dressed nicely, wearing a suit-vest, no jacket with a chain hanging in his front pocket.

"This is a sick city we live in, my fellow investigators.  I'll get right to the first tale....A Btl is seized by a teacher at a touristville public elementary school, after reportedly a young girl was /playing/ with it in a classroom.  The teacher went on to confiscate a pile of them found outside of the cafeteria, where her student had initially discovered the 'treasure', as it was called.  Proper removal occured, and the principal sent her home for the day.  She is found later in the janitor's closet, on her knees with hands locked in prayer, her eyes squinted shut so hard that the tearducts ruptured, mouth full of a sickening gastric foam.  Thomas Wilkes, the principal, could only comment that the only reason he found her was due to her Commlink staying logged into the schools main nexi, a method of keeping students and teachers whereabouts during school hours at close check, and something that everyone systematically disconnects from once they leave the building.

"There's something odd that also happened, related to this topic. Folks at a retirement facility were watching their favorite simsense classics in the 'movie room', a crude room of trode nets and goggles attached to plastic chairs mind you, when one of the nurse-drones downloads the latest release of "Its a wonderful Knife".  Yes it is the old simflick right from when the technology was really taking off, a lavish musical comedy about the love and loss of Jack the Ripper.   For a while the room of chuckling, murmuring, goggled geriatrics enjoy the film, but then...."

The young sleuth smiles as audio begins to play, an interview clip harvested for this presentation

"One by one, the subjects began to get on their knees, clasping their hands together so tight, the rheumatoid-ridden joints splintered from the force.  An alarm was sounded when the first of the implanted biomonitors triggered a drop in blood pressure and I was summoned to the scene, though... we lost all 15 of those who were watching.

"That being the voice of one of the resident medical officials on rounds who was kind enough to grant me a moment of his time.  Now, what of the File, what of the chip?  When investigating the case involving the teacher, forensic specialists only disocovered a dissolved, grey paste inside a deeply concealed implanted sim module sticking out of the back of her neck.  The file in Roosevelt Nursing Facility crashed out after the first activation and self-deleted.  If it wasn't for the download process records stored by earlier said drone into a resident Health Services-Spider's headware, there would be no viable trace of how those poor folk met such a strange fate."

"Very odd indeed, similar effects from different mediums, though, if the chip found by teacher was the same simsense movie, in theory, then it would explain the singular outcome. One code, one simulation, one dangerous effect. Of course, someone could also go to the degree of program this little 'finishing' to several chips as a malicious surprise to spread like a virus effect.  But how to test it?"

The Green ARO closes his notefile and folds his hands in front of him, then stands.

"My eye is on this one, let's see who can solve the riddle first!"

Fade out.

Your PAN lights up with a call, its your fixer again.

"Ey Chumma? Got a job, 'pparently somebody who also got tha Green ARO link wants to check somethin' out.  Only details dey gave me was dat it'd be an infiltration job at a Horizon Simsense Enoding, Storage, and Shipping Facility.  Dey said meet 'em at The Mad Woman from 4 ta 5 Seattle Time.  Da' codeword is 'BetaMax'."

He clicks off quickly before you can really respond.  Might have to investigate further on your own.....


-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Osprey Here!  I will be conducting the meet and most likely session 1 of this run tonight , Monday evening at 8 pm EST (5 pm PST/Seattle MUSH time).   I would like to get the ball rolling asap, so hopefully we'll have 3-6 players by 8:30 to get this baby rollin!

We've been meeting in prp room 4, so I'll use that one!  See you there !

The Scene: Interior of a Mitsubishi Nighsky, sunrise.  Two middle-aged suits are preparing themselves for a return home after a long night out.  The elder of the two is flipping through messages on his commlink, wirelessly linked contacts turning his eyes to glowing orbs under dawn's light.  A scowl gradually forming at the lips, eventually the man barks. 

"Stanley!"

The window rolls down between passengers and driver, who responds immediately.

"Yes Mr. Hawthorne?"

"Stanley. Take us to the riverfront encoding and packaging facility immediately."

Stanley nods, window returning to a close. The other suit looks at his boss quizzically.

"What is it Mr. Hawthorne?"

"Krandall.  Remember our suspicions about Chao Tzu-lu?  That lying scum apparently took our bait.  Look at this, when you access my PAN theres a new message sent from our recent contract. "

The second man, now known as Krandall, begins to watch a video feed sent from an unknown commcode.  It is of first person perspective.  Overlooking a street from a parking garage, a leap across to a rooftop, followed by the angle whirling along with a somersault used to break the cameramans jump.  There is a white delivery truck backing into a loading bay now on screen.

"Krandall." Continues Hawthorne. " Notice the time stamp.  That date, the pickup was originally scheduled for 5:30 AM.  You and I both knew that, we set up the delivery ourselves and part of our curmodgeonly business practices, you have every months delivery schedule hand-written in your notebook.  That was the originally the only morning pickup scheduled that week, am I correct?"

Krandall flips through a thick, but small, leatherbound book, faded and tattered edges show heavy spine activity.

"Of course, yes, Mr. Hawthorne. But how do you know......"  His response is cut off by a continuation of the feed. 

The camera descends by wire, hangs over the loading dock door.  In a short moment, the angle shifts to down the loading bay road itself, where the delivery truck is seen idling.  One man is talking to some guards further behind the vehicle.  A package is being held by one guard, while the other is checking data on his commlink.  The image turns to thermographic recording, and a few other figures can be seen inside the truck.

"Krandall.  So you see here? Chao Tzu's little networking meeting at The Mad Woman was a nice attempt, however, he knew we'd watch him. And we did.  He thinks he is smart, but his stupidity is what makes him such a useful pawn, but now the pawn wishes to be king."

"Stanley!"

The window rolls down again.

"Yes Mr. Hawthorne?"

"Stanley. When we arrive call out the guards on duty, they should be finishing their shift, I have some questions.

The same process follows this exchange like every other, with window returning closed.  The limo pulls up to the front of an office building located in a commercial park just off of the Touristville Waterfront.  Stanley makes the call and a few minutes pass before a guard comes out of the front entrance, approching the awaiting Nightsky.

Stanely gets out, opens the door, and ushers the groggy human into the limo with Krandall and Hawthorne.  It takes a second to click that both of these men can fire him at any moment, so the guard fixes his shirt and awaits questioning.

"You there.  Were you on duty monday evening into tuesday morning?

"Y-y-yes."

"You there.  Did the truck arrive as scheduled?  Our records indicate something different than what we understand occured.  "

"I checked it in, I ch-ch-check every time any delivery truck comes for a pickup.  The records were spot on , the trucks registration and driver id's matched.  "

Hawthorne turns to Krandall, who is scratching his chin while thinking.  Hawthorne continues.

"You there.  One last question, then I'd like you to go home for the day, let the other guards take over for the remainder of your shift.  Who was on duty as Information Security, was it that new elf hired by Mr. Tzu-Lu?"

"Of course, he's been on duty most of the week, today is his only day off."

Krandall and Hawthorne both nod, and soon Stanley is opening the door to usher the guard out once again, who quickly salutes the two before returning to change clothes and perpare for the fortunate event of getting to bed early today.  Both suits are silent as Stanley rolls down the window.

"Where to, Mr. Hawthorne?"

"Stanley. The office, I need to check some files I have there along with Mr. Krandall.  Krandall.  You do not mind if I borrow you for just another hour or so do you?"

"Not at all, Mr. Hawthorne. It's interesting to see what you are looking into.

"Krandall.  Chao Tzu-Lu wants Horizon to take a fall, and I will not let that happen.  I have a feeling he'll be leaving us along with the information his project sector has compiled for what was going to be Horizon's new ASIST format.  Sure, other corporations have bit onto several of our phony data-leaks, but a man like Tzu-Lu can piece the fragments together and is too valuable to lose hold of. He'll no longer be working for us, of course."

Krandall smiles, some energy finding its way, coursing through the tired business executive.

"Mr. Hawthorne, we'll do all we can.  Try and relax a little before we arrive, take the moment for what it is.  You were good to call out that contract, maybe we should find this group Tzu-Lu hired?"

Hawthorne closes his eyes and tries to calm his breathing, as Krandall is correct to notice an increase in the man's blood pressure.

"Krandall. We'll deal with those when we have time.  For now, we need to find Tzu-Lu, as well as see if that Information Operative is on our side or his.  That group got in and out way too easy, so I suspect he works for Chao.  Krandall, I want you to call Mr. McCollin, have him meet us at the offices for discussion.  We could use his judgement."

Krandall nods and shuts off the video feed, still playing in the background.

"Horizon would always be lost without you, Sir.  I always wonder how you can act so quickly in response to this insane world."

Hawthorne is quiet, eyes still shut amidst organized thoughts.

(Ok... i just posted a blurb in Green Elf's run about my upcoming schedule changes for the summer season.  I want to conduct one last run for this chapter in my plot, so first the details.  We will attempt to conduct this event on Sunday, May 31st between 7-8 pm EST.  In order to save time, which was one of my biggest problems with other events, I'm going to post the meet details here instead of just my normal fictiony stuff/rumors.  This way everyone gets the details of the meet and can contact me with questions here through the forum. I'd prefer private message, please. I'll be at work all weekend but will have time later in the night to respond and all day sunday I should be on and off the computer to maybe get some legwork done in preperation for the run.  Ok, this is a new format for me so here we go!   As usual 3-6 players first come first serve, so reserve a spot if you can please via message)

The Meet

A sleek, dark purple limo is idling at the mouth of an alleyway outside of The Mad Woman, where in front of the luxury vehicle, a gruff looking elf on racingbike eyes the group as they approach.  The window rolls down at first, then back up.  Swinging the door open slowly, a man steps out of the limo, nodding to the elf sentry accompanying him to watch the area while biz is discussed.  The man introduces himself as Mr. Krandall

Krandall : "Yes.. this is perfect...." He cautiously looks around, then leans closer " I'm glad you could all make it.  I'm not sure if you types have been informed well , but there is a man my associates and I need dealt with.  He is an individual who with minor attempts at sabotage will, as we believe, continue to complete an act of industrial espionage against our company. 

Krandall flips on his commlink, and holds out some pieces of digital paper.  Using his PAN, he uploads an image to the first paper, an asian man in his early twenties wearing a cocky grin.

Krandall:  "The Main Mark, Chao tzu Lu.  We had planted a bug within his person but it seems he has figured out a way to disable it somehow after we had tracked him to this point..." He goes ahead and uploads another image, this is of a rough map of Redmond, with a noticeable dot onscreen "Somewhere around these coordinates, he disappeared.  That is where we think he is hiding, as the building on the surface is a restaurant known as the Redmond Phoenix house."

Krandall has several pieces of digital paper and makes as many copies for the members of the group as needed.  He Continues.

Krandall: " I am fairly certain that he is working with another person from our company, an elf Information Security Operative who was recently hired under Mr. Tzu-Lu's department.  There is probably someone on the inside of the restaurant who knows Mr. Tzu-Lu as well, if indeed he is within the parameters of the building, though the way he blipped off screen it may very well be that he is hidden -underneath- the establishment, most likely in the sewer system."

This is bound to set off some quarrels as to whether or not diving into the sewers is worth it. 

Krandall:  "The job asks for certain tasks, the most important being that you either retrieve the living body of Mr. Tzu -Lu, or his head as proof of his permanent 'dismissal'.  All others who are working with him can be dealt with as seen fit.  There is also a possibility of there being equipment and other data that he has collected over time, find out where it is and upload this into the system. " Krandall procures an optical chip from his jacket but waits to hand it over "It's a purge program designed to destroy whatever he's done with our companies equipment and operating system, most likely 99% efficiency, though someone who can field this process will have to monitor success.  Once complete the chip changes its color and will contain information as to what was purged, so please bring it back out of there. Deal with Tzu Lu, destroy his work, and report back to me for your reward.  Bring him alive or his head and the altered chip and you'll get 10K per. I do not care about anyone who gets in your way, and to hell with the restaurant.  Though, it might be best to be sure you can take care of biz without causing a commotion topside.  "

Krandall looks over at his Elvish guard who just nods, motioning the older gentleman to get back into the limo.  Krandall has one more remark before he prepares to leave.

"We have some serveillance set up around the area where we believe Tzu Lu is, so we'll see your progress before and after you cross paths with that fellow.  Then we'll come and meet up to do the exchange.  Questions? You can reach me here..."  One last digital paper piece with newly a uploaded commcode.." Join this PAN and I'll try and provide details as much as I can, though, I need to try and remain behind the scenes after this moment. "

Krandall nods again to the elf who revvs the throttle on his racing bike.  The Bike moves in between the group and the limo as the door shuts, masking Krandall behind tinted windows, The biker waits a sec before nodding to the group and peeling out behind his boss in the purple limo.