Six's blog.

By N.Barnes

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Entry 20: 12.07.70>
What a difference a day makes. Well, a few days anyway. I’m in dreary Albuquerque now and it has been a few days since I last had the time to settle down and write a Blog entry...

Right at first, we tried to finger Mitchell for the stitch up that had plastered our names and faces all across the media in association with Suki’s kidnap. He played it pretty cool – cool enough to give us doubts and we settled for just sitting tight and waiting to see what the next step in the game would be. Turned out it was a sniper who crept along the cliff top near my position to try and get a bead on the boat. We didn’t rightly know how we were still being tracked but with me covering the road and tracking the sniper via Fly Spy, the poor sap didn’t have much of a hope. Glyph and Ash were able to rain lead down on him with some accuracy thanks to my triangulation and in short order we had dealt with the problem and decided to relocate yet again.

This time I clambered aboard the boat too. We decided we should see what Suki knew about her situation. We had our misgivings about talking to the mark but we needed information and boy was that a worthwhile conversation.
Suki name checked Mitchell as her agent and we began to get the confirmation we needed that Mitchell had been playing us for fools all along – presumably to boost sales of Suki merchandise. Not long after, Mitchell made his final play, telling us it was all getting a little too hot and offering to pay us extra if we’d ice Suki and remove her from the picture permanently. Didn’t take a genius to see Mitchell was after the insurance payoff on Suki and that we’d be fingered in about ten seconds flat if Suki did turn up dead.
Mitchell thought he’d got the perfect set up but he reckoned without a little Shadowrunner ingenuity. We recorded the conversation and once Suki had confirmed that the Mitchell ordering the wet work was her agent we knew we had the upper hand. It was now in our best interests to keep Suki alive and make sure she could finger Mitchell rather than us for the crime. Better still, Hell hath no fury like a woman scorned and Suki was willing to pay us 30k for the evidence against her agent and safe passage to her father’s San Fran estates.

We told Mitchell he could poke his extra cash. We expected trouble and sure enough, as we got set to move off, two speedboats sped out of the darkness and opened up. All but useless without a vehicle or a drone and lacking boating skills of any description, I stayed below decks to protect Suki should we be boarded and administer first aid to keep her alive should a stray shot hit her. Boy was that a possibility! Sniper rounds were tearing through the carcass of the ship and I could hear the distinctive chatter of machine gun fire. Glyph and Ash were doing the team proud beating back the assault but I could hear them taking fire. I think Glyph must have copped a little too much lead – Ash yelled for help and up on deck I found him administering first aid while still under fire. One boat was quite a way back and seemed to be out of commission but the other was moving up towards us. I knew my pistol didn’t have the range or the punch and headed back below decks for a flare pistol I’d seen. Waiting in the darkness of the hatchway, I counted off the distance under my breath before coming up and bringing the flare pistol to bear. Man that shot was sweet, straight and true and right down the gullet of some scumbag on the pursuing speedboat.
Take it from me Dog, the phosphorescence in those flares burns like a bitch and with the engine going up in flames, our assailants were soon cast adrift like some sort of Viking funeral pyre.

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Thinking hard, Ash finally twigged that Glyph had bought her yacht from a commercial dealer and as such was fitted with a standard RFID tag that we’d neglected to burn. With that done we could make landfall safely and remoted the cars to the dock before pulling a stunt switch to confuse any observers.
Glyph and Ash headed off to draw any assailants away from Suki who I chauffeured up to her father’s estate reasoning that with vehicle mounted weaponry I was a better bet for protecting Suki should it come to a car chase.

Dropping her off, we pretty much figured we could settle down and relax for a few days but I had an unexpected visit from my brother Nunzio. Now I know Nunz was a Mafioso Made Man and I know he’s been playing dead man’s shoes to work his way up the hierarchy. I dunno how far he’s managed to get but when he tells me the team has been upsetting the wrong sort of people and we need to get our heads down for a few days, I pay attention.

I suspect it is the local Triads who object to our presence in San Fran this weekend. I also suspect Nunzio wants me out of town because he has his finger in the Big Deal Pie that the Triads are serving up from Club Province. To make sure I look the other way, he throws me a bone. A simple courier job between San Fran and Atlanta with a little pay packet and the use of a safe house thrown in for a few days. I know there’s more to this than meets the eye but I don’t particularly want to come to blows with Nunzio so I agree to do the deed.

It starts out simple. Tracking a courier by an active PAN he’s transporting cross country. We have to catch him, switch the PAN he’s got for a standard factory spec duplicate and then carry the PAN on to Atlanta and hand off to one of Nunzio’s contacts. Though it starts out simple, it soon gets complex – Ash, Glyph and I all start having the same sort of visions we last experienced when we prevented Allisom from using Cross to get a foothold in San Fran. We see a biker chasing our quarry and using a car bomb to wipe him out. We resolve to intervene.

Pedal to the metal across country, we soon catch up with our courier and the biker we think is out to get him. Ash and Glyph orchestrate an RTA – driving head on into the biker to put paid to his plans before he can interfere with our Run. Ash’ truck is a pitiful wreck but he gets the job done and there after it was a simple trail and switch. Ash has some nifty knock out gas so our man has no idea we’ve even been near his cargo.

We limped on to Albuquerque where Ash has put his ride into a garage for some meaningful repair work. Glyph and I took the PAN on into Atlanta, passed it on to Nunzio’s goon and picked up the keys for the safe house but we’ve not yet stopped by there to check it out. Instead, we’ve come back to Albuquerque so I can help fix up Ash’ sled. I figure being in Albuquerque is far enough away from San Fran to be paying heed to Nunzio’s warning. We’ll head back to Atlanta to the safe house when we’re good and ready. Nunzio said his Atlanta contacts might want to put a bit of work our way but they can wait on us – we need a second roadworthy vehicle if we’re going to make an effective team on this side of the country. I just wish I knew how long we were supposed to hang out over here. I also wonder if any of the others got my message warning them to get out of the Bay Area. I guess we’ll know if anyone turns up here over the next day or so…

Mood: Edgy.
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