The problem with Bum-Fluff

13th August 2070

Ash, Drifter, Glyph, Six

The runners were in Atlanta but they had little to stick around for, and once they had packed they drove the drive back home.

Six had put a call through to Mal, the Street Doc, a few days before to order a cyberleg, with a few customisations and made arrangements to head round and have his meat leg replaced with the better harder faster version.

Ash made some enquiries about having his strip of desert turned into some kind of racing strip, although the verbal quotes he was getting were quite steep.

Glyph got back to normal as soon as possible. Clearing up the mess that the Triads had left she got back to finishing the large bore quad barrelled gun she had started for Six.

21st August 2070

The young street racer called Bum Fluff had been on the circuit for a couple of years, a talented but inexperienced driver, he wiped out as many times as he won. He had entered a race for ¥100k, against the yakuza oyoban’s son Yutaka Seto and after some engine trouble, he lost. He didn’t have the money and had been given a time limit to come up with the cash. Desperate for some way to make some quick money, he was quick to snap up an offer of a suitcase full of nova-coke worth in excess of ¥200k on the streets for a fraction of the price from a mystery man called Grifter. Bum Fluff then sold the class A drugs to a Vory drug baron called Kier who paid in counterfeit credsticks. Which mean’ that Bum Fluff was still unable to pay off Yutaka Seto.
Kier then discovered that the drugs he had just bought from Bum Fluff, had in fact belonged to him all along and someone had knocked off his own drug den the night before. Kier was fuming and gave Bum Fluff an ultimatum, get him a suitcase full of Nova-coke by Friday or face the consequences. Seto was expecting his ¥100,000 by Friday also, and Bum Fluff was scared.

Bum Fluff had always looked up to Six, and begged him to help him. He didn’t have much to offer, only his car, and Six was less than impressed that Bum Fluff had come begging to him.
Leave him to fend for himself and he could wind up dead, and neither Six’s conscience or reputation could take that. Help him out, and Six would either end up out of pocket, or pissing off both the Vory and Yakuza of San Fran, or both. Six agreed to help.

Getting the other runners involved they talked over what had happened in the twisted web that Bum Fluff had woven and it seemed that the one man who they could do wit questioning was Grifter. Ash thought on about it, but Drifter was the one who remembered the name. Grifter sold Ash a Shadowrun to raid a museum when Ash was on a loosing streak, and at a bit of a low. Ash called the contact number for that run and after a brief chat to a man that was supposed to be German and wasn’t ended up speaking to tone.

The runners set about tracking down Grifter. His car had been seen at a bar, and the runners headed there, Daisy tracked down the city cameras to try and find the car and eventually found a piece of footage of Grifter running over a Vory guard and taking the drugs.

The runners decided to set up a honey trap to lure the elusive Grifter out. He seemed to prey on shadowrunners and criminal elements when they are down on their luck, so Drifter was set up as a runner touting for work. Daisy spread the word on message boards and before long Drifter was inundated with spam offers to make money quick. He spent many hours filtering through the spam before receiving a message from Grifter himself. They had a brief conversation and Grifter let him know that he could help him out of he comes down to a run down bit of San Fran for a meet.

The runners swung into action and surrounded the place with sniper cover and FRT while Drifter headed in to make a move. Drifter found himself in a smoking den owned by a group of hispanic gangers. A reefer was passed to Drifter and after a couple of tokes, it became a bit surreal.

Grifter rolled in after half an hour or so later and tried to squeeze some cash out of Drifter, he feigned that he had left his wallet elsewhere and Grifter lost interest in his new mark dismissing him to go and get some cash.

Drifter left, and Grifter led his new gang of mugs to a stash of drugs that was going to be lightly guarded. The Vory drug den again.

Six and Glyph in one car, Ash and a slightly stoned Drifter in Ash’s truck took up pursuit. They followed two lowriders and an Americar across town, and watched in horror as Grifter led his little gang back to the Vory house, Six and Glyph did a drive by to attract their attention and the gangers took the bait, chasing the runners up the hill, Ash followed Grifter who decided that there was too much lead flying about.

Six and Glyph dispatched their Lowriding gangers with a few well-placed grenades, and joined Ash to see him ramming the Americar off the road.

Grifter was dazed in the crash; the runners dragged him from the wreckage taking about ¥60k in cash. They contacted the Vory baron, Kier to be told that he wanted Grifter bringing to a secluded location so that he could have a long chat with him. And the runners duly obliged as long as Bum Fluff was let off, after all he had his drugs back, and although neither made the point, the drugs were paid with counterfeit money anyway.

The runners then had the other problem. To pay off Seto, they would need to give Bum Fluff the 60k they had just taken, and still have to pay in 40k of their own money. Ash suggested that they take Bum Fluff onto the payroll; his earnings on the strip get split between the investors. Six wanted to see how good the kid really was, so arranged to spend an afternoon on a track day in his car. Everyone had a go to try and post a time. Six put down the benchmark, and all the runners were about 10 seconds off the pace. Bum Fluff was fast, better than the other runners, not as good as Six, and Six was satisfied enough to put his money alongside Ash’s on the kid.