I'm never eating ice cream again.
That's how this run began. With ice cream. Panda's fixer had
set up a meet with Mr Wu at Emac & Bolios, a Central ice cream parlour, and
to bring some help. Stardust, Spook, Sailor Van and yours truly were the last people
she ran with, and I guess that put us at the top of her list.
Gunhaver says you never walk into a meet blind, so I like to
get to any meeting place early and scope it out. You've got to be some kind of
burnt out chip-head to try anything Downtown; you'd have knights on you like a
Ghede Fly on drek in seconds, but it never hurts to be cautious.
By the time everyone else showed, I’d satisfied myself the
meet wasn’t a set up. The others arrived on time, punctual and dressed for
Business. At least, I think Stardust was dressed for Business. I'm actually not
sure. She did look nice, though. I mean, you know, if you took the time to
notice. I only did because I know the importance of being alert. Personally, I
like to take utility over style. Not to say I don't have style, and not to say
Stardust doesn't make style work for her.
Anyway, it's not important. I don't even know why I
mentioned it. Whatever. Back to the run.
Panda's contact had given her a code phrase to signal we
were there for the meet. She was to go in, order a particular sundae, and then
she'd be shown to Mr Wu, apparently we also ordered a real sundae, because we
soon had ourselves a seat at a booth with one Mr Wu and the biggest sundae I've
ever seen. We're talking the Aztech Northwest of sundaes. I had a little. It
was good. It's also the last ice cream I plan on ever eating. But as far as
last ice creams go, it was wiz.
But just because I wasn't going to eat any more ice cream
doesn't mean I wasn't going to see a lot more ice cream in my future. Mr Wu
wanted a snatch and grab of a new super-secret ice cream flavour developed by
Happy Cow. After we retrieved the formula, deleted all records, (and a sample
for a bonus,) we’d make a hand-off to another team by dawn on Friday morning.
One more rule: no fragging the labs and no scientist splat-jobs.
Happy Cow does their research on an island between Hong Kong
and Macau, making access (and escape) one more challenge on our long list of complications.
Still, nothing a handful of professionals can't handle and I am nothing if not
professional. It's true. I make my money this way, so by definition, I am a professional.
Take that, JackPoint. Who's the fun runner now? Not me, that's for sure.
Having given us a target, a location and a timeframe (two
days), Mr Wu excused himself and left us to plan. A wise Cracoktage once said,
"Runners who don't do legwork, are runners who end up in the dirt
(Wuhuhahe.”) The plan we came up with was safe in its simplicity. We get some
intel, we get some disguises, we get some non-lethal ammunition, we get a boat,
we steal some ice cream. Sounds like a milkrun to me, omae. Well, the ice cream
we were stealing was dairy free, but aint no rules saying you can't do a dairy
free milkrun!
Oh man, that joke never gets old.
We split off at that point. Spook and Panda went to go chat
with their contacts, and I went to talk to Mr Choi. I needed some gel rounds
and I needed them in a hurry, but when I walked into the shop, he had far more
pressing concerns. Namely, my pants, or what he considered an insufficient
amount of pants. You know, a girl just doesn't get any appreciation for the
effort she goes to in order to A) Find denim shorts with this kind of stretch
and flexibility, B) Squeeze her fashion unfriendly dwarven thighs into said
stretch denim, C) brave motorcycle travel and urban exploration without the
slightest regard for the personal safety of her knees. Still, if Mr Choi wants
to stitch me up some pity‑pants, I don't mind. While he took measurements and
examined fabrics, I explained my rapid need for gel rounds in a variety of
forms, enough for me, Panda and Spook. Sailor Van prefers to punch things and
Stardust has her own impressive way of dealing with problems. Mr Choi could do
it, of course, but he needed a little extra to grease the wheels. I try not to
argue with Mr Choi, and paid him the grease he needed.
We also used hats as a euphemism for bullets. I don't think
it worked. We'll try something else, next time. Nobody needs 40 heavy pistol
gel hats. Maybe socks? Socks might work. Nice thinking, omae.
I let the others know I'd succeeded, and Spook and Panda
announced a similar success with their contacts. Stardust mentioned she was
heading down to the magic market to speak to a talismongre she knew. I've been
wanting an in with a talismongre for some time, now, so I decided to tag along.
The fetishwoman had a nice little shop, and she was as chummy
as they come. Stardust only bought some reagents and I asked about the
possibility of qi foci once I'm a little more cashed up. She said she could
oblige when the time came. We made some small talk until it was time to
regroup.
Panda had and moused around the Matrix and dug some general
information about Happy Cow. Spook had his contact putting together a corporate
profile. Sailor Van had booked us a boat large enough to take us all out to the
Happy Cow facility. All that remained was to do some scouting. Sailor Van drove
the boat and knew the waters, so she went to scout, Stardust is our astral
perceiver and projector in residence, so she went, and Panda, believe it or
not, is wiz with a deck, so she went to check the digital opposition.
That left Spook and I waiting by Sailor Van's boat house. We
had plenty of time to kill, so I gave him a quick recap of all 9 past seasons
of Gunhaver and The Shadow Commandos. He kept telling me that the show is
inaccurate, but Gunhaver has been a shadowrunner for decades and I think Spook
is still kind of new. It's okay. He's not the only one. We've all got to start
somewhere.
HEAR THAT JACKPOINT? YOU DON'T NEED TO TREAT THE NEWBIES
LIKE DREK!
I don't know what happened out on the boat, but Stardust,
Panda and Sailor Van all came back with few new problems to suss. Happy Cow's
facility only took up part of the island and the rest was used by other
corporations, and outside the built docks, the island was edged by cliffs,
meaning no quiet access short of climbing. Security was tight: zonies inside,
bargheist outside, and air drones on standby. We really were breaking into a
tiny ice cream fortress. All non-security staff left the island by company
ferry just before sunset. Astral wards kept magic spies out, and the island was
covered by a local grid only, making connecting from anywhere but the island
itself impossible.
But we're professionals, after all, and there's no challenge
too big for five professional runners. Well, okay, those cliffs were a problem,
but other than a sheer cliff face or two, null sweat. Best of all, I had a
cunning plan (aw yeah, classic flatvid quote dropped at the last minute. If you
don't get it, try visiting a library once in a while, bakebrain.)
Nothing more we could do tonight, but I told Stardust to
meet me bright and early at Mr Choi's store.
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