[Jack_Spade]

Kynos went on: "I don't know how you play the honey trap normally, but I'd ask you to disentangle yourself at the earliest possible moment to go into the bathroom. I'll come out of my hiding place and shoot the bastard with the taser. It would be nice if you'd be ready to support me, but I understand if you'd rather keep out of the line of fire.
Venom is probably faster than me. I'm hurt and he has - as far as I've seen - some pretty heavy and expensive reaction mods. Fucking rich men. My hope is to catch him unaware with his trousers down so to speak.
For that I'd ask you to turn up the music in the room and have some bright lights on in the center of the room. Hopefully that will make it harder for him to notice me. If you could do a strip tease for him to keep his attention occupied that would be even better."

[Mercy Merchant]

Athos follows Faith back to the warehouse area and settles down in a corner to get some well-deserved rest, glad for his sleep regulator.

[gilga]

@Maxwell Charlie say teasing "Are you fully dressed at this hour... I am sleeping naked usually the heating here is amazing. I got dressed to see what the riot was all about." She smiles a devious smile as you as she gets to her bed.

@Kynos Finestra said "I can try to get him naked but I am not sure I can pull that off, I need to get a man that goes down in an airport after a very long flight not to leave the airport. I am not sure how lusting he is going to feel, perhaps if he has a sleep regulator otherwise he is going to be very tired. I was thinking of lying to him with the truth - he must not leave the airport because there is an assassin after him. I am not sure how to pull that off actually it is a risky call.

Another option I thought of was to stand there with a note of his name and hope he follows me then to forget something in the hotel room. Like you said trying to get into his pants may or may not work - and if he is not interested there is little I can do to change it. I want some other excuse to get him in here and perhaps use sex just to make your work easier. If he is with his pants down he'll find it harder to fight back. "

@Athos Since you only need few hours of sleep you still manage to wake up before most of the camp, it is 6 am or so. Faith apparently spent the night some other place because once you are in familiar terrain she leaves.

[Jack_Spade]

"The assassin thing might work. Tell him that Grail is after him and has the AI Red set on him. Tell him also, that his people have set up a secure connection in your hotel room with a conference call to Strawberry that the AI won't be able to access.
You can emphasize that any other communication attempt will allow the AI to pinpoint his position and strike out at him.
That neatly explains why he shouldn't just yet leave the airport and prevents him from calling back-up to his position.

Of course, this hinges on your ability to lie convincingly", replied Kynos

[Mulcarn]

His cheeks flush red with lust at her playful remark.  Quickly he reasserts himself.  "Yeah well... just give me a warning or something before you start taking off your clothes.  I'll give you your privacy and you can be nude all you want."  Maxwell covers himself underneath the bed's blanket and lies down.  Resting his sore and aching body against the cushioned mattress.  He closes his eyes soon after, preparing for long needed soothing slumber.  This past week has been tumultuous for the young mage.  He had met all manner of people and done a plethora of jobs.  Succeeding in most, failing in others.  All the while befriending the unlikeliest of characters.

Still, eldritch evil haunt his mind as he lay.  At the edge of thought and sleep, hungry whispers of sharks and insects are heard.  A bargain was struck on unfavorable terms.  To escape death and survive, he must offer up the souls of other magicians to be devoured.  Strawberry's cryptic message of serving these dark ones returns to him.  She had warned him that though they may grant more power and secret magics with each sacrifice, it would be at the cost of his freedom.

Maxwell pondered about the elf.  Why didn't she kill him when she had the chance?  It would have been easy for her to slit his throat and have a spirit posses his corpse.  Why go through the unnecessary process of banishing his soul to one of the deep planes when execution would have been faster?  An even bigger question, why try to help him afterwards once he returned back to earth?  Is it remorse or sadism that motivates her?  He'll find that out soon when he goes back to retrieve the rest of his collection in the next day or two.  For now, the destructive black mage sleeps.

[gilga]

@Kynos Finestra asks "Anything else you know about him, things that can help me appear knowledgeable this thing just sort of fell on me out of the blue. A moment I get a call from BB and few hours later I am here responsible for a million nuyen plane trying to collect prime bounty. With my friends either too SINless or too skeptical to come." She sighs.


@Maxwell Charlie laugh "Privacy? we share a room... we are almost married." She observes how embarrassed you are and finds it fascinating seats near you on the blanket and then takes her top off. "We are very open about it in here you better get used to it." she then licks her lips and return to her bed. Maxwell can feel that she is aware of his astonished look as her movements are a bit more elegant and seductive as she returns to her bed. "Goodnight Max I hope you do not turn into a mindless sex toy too quickly."

[Mercy Merchant]

Athos wakes and walks about.  He gives encouraging remarks to anyone who might be awake already, asking anyone if they know where Faith might have gone.

[Jack_Spade]

"Ok, here is what I know about him..."
Kynos started to tell Finestra every bit of info he had on Venom and who he worked with or was suspected to work with, including that he was pretty much hated by his own people. He took care to describe the events of the party in detail insofar as they concerned Venom and closed with the details on the current situation, with the suspected betrayal of the mouse adept.

"DemoX, is there anything else you can add or that you can find out through the matrix? Now is the time to do it."

[gilga]

Athos people do not know where Faith is, the best reply Athos can find is Vurken - a boyfriend. But no details.

@Kynos DemoX "just the basic pictures and so forth, he is smart enough to swap SINs and IT knows of 4 SINs he used recently, but with his kind of money he can literally have hundreds of them.She is not even sure what name he would use once in Japan. He is very rich, Yak royalty what ever that means. Don't wave money in his face, he has enough money to live life of luxury for the rest of his life. Venom does THIS because he is completely insane.

His men hate him because he is not after money or power or influence, he follows monstrous goals that nobody understands. He can describe these atrocities in a manner that make some people see him as a visionary. You cannot reason with him, you cannot bribe him and he is insane enough to kill his own people to discipline the rest or because their death is part of his own obscure plan with epic goals. Batshit crazy...

I'll tell you a story about him and IT, Venom was about to spread a virus in Pyongyang. The virus was planned to kill 90% of the population but make the 10% that survive it magically active. IT stopped him, she was a rigger then and she and her team raided the lab that made the virus and stole it to deliver to some other interested party. The thing is, their van was hit and the virus got released int he van. Everyone died, and IT was in a comma for 6 months, she woke up magically active and extensive muscle loss. She can now barely walk or stand for more than 5 minutes and is constantly in pain.

Why did Venom do such thing?  It was not for money or anything, no he is an idealist... he did it  "To make unified Korea strong again so it maintains independence and reject Japanese influence. Freedom demands terrible sacrifices and all that bullshit"  Venom say things like that. Things that make killing millions of people seems reasonable. " 

[Mercy Merchant]

Athos will head to where the Joke was and see if he can get an audience with Strawberry.

[Jack_Spade]

"Yeah, but you might not want to lead with that particular bit of information. There is a reason why we are paid to immolate his remains. Don't dwell on morals - everyone gets his due.
Or with the words of the immortal Johnny Cash: "You can run on for a long time, run on for a long time, run on for a long time, sooner or latter gonna cut you down, sooner or later gonna cut you down."
Anyway, do you think that's enough information for you to work with? This will be touch and go, so be sure to bring your A game."
Kynos reclined his seat a bit more: "Otherwise this whole thing will have been a big waste of time and money with nothing to show but a nice first class trip to Japan. And I don't think your boss will accept a handpainted Fujijama miniature as a second prize."

[gilga]

@Athos Strawberry is no where on sight but the local residents seem to be flocking to her half burned tree crying for protection. Asking her to come back, they do not believe that she can be killed. With the chaos in the city the place became a sanctury for refugees and the locals seems a bit different from the rest of the Barrens, their skin seems more healthy and they are mourning.

Luckily for you, you already know where to look for her and with comlink frequencies and so forth it is not difficult to set up a meeting. An handsome lady leads you to a lush and beautiful garden through a maze of tunnels, you are surprised to notice how big their underground complex really is. You have been walking for over 30 minutes when you reach an exist that leads to a fenced garden.

Beautiful and music is the first thing that welcomes you, there is a figure in elegant but plain black robes that is playing the flute and the sounds it make moves you, touch your soul and inspire great sadness. You are overwhelmed with the mood swing, you should be very happy the garden is beautiful there is a small pond and flowers and their scent is intoxicating.

After a short while, the hooded figure turn to you and stops playing the flute, she take off her hood and you can see that her wonderful lush hair is now cut so short that it would pass in the military. Her eyes are red and she clearly was crying. If the previous times you meet her you needed your composure not to desire her, the woman standing in front of you now is nothing but a shadow of that woman. You can hear her voice in your head "Hello Athos" .

@Kynos Finestra said "This is a stressful situation there is no need to make it more stressful. You count the money once you get paid, not a moment before. I hope I can pull it off and I hope you can overtake him. I am not much of a combatant, if he is so heavily augmented I doubt that i'll even be able to hit him. "

[Mercy Merchant]

Athos tries to resist the sadness.  "Hello Strawberry.  What has happened here?  I would like to see Yulia and Nagisa, please."

[Jack_Spade]

"Than use that stress as part of your performance. Make him think you are completely in awe of him and are nervous because of that.
Besides, he'll have to slaughter me first before he can get to you and I'm pretty hard to catch in hand to hand. Just make sure the door is locked so he can't escape easily", replied Kynos

[gilga]

Strawberry tries to talk, but it seems like talking makes it worse the air just does not reach her mouth. She then thinks at you "Your partner Sovereign, attempted to kill Venom right here under my nose, when I stopped him he retaliated by burning down the Joke and killing 8 people. Then his friend Kynos demanded to see him and when I did not allow it -  he burned my totem tree in retaliation. A tree that I care greatly about and draw inspiration from. That tree survived everything Seattle has been through in the last century only to be mutilated by a man without a soul. My symbol of hope became a beacon of my weakness - and everybody that looks at that tree will learn that as powerful as I am I could not even protect my favorite tree, let alone my domain. 

I am powerless to actually kill people and there are so many people here and they expect me to keep them safe. Their number increases every day and... it is too much pressure. I had the power to kill both Sovergin and Kynos. The first is inexpirinced in magic and the second has no magical protection. Both of them did not actually plan this thing for very long.
But I do not kill people, I protect and inspire them and now I am shaken and broken and every time I look at my tree it only reminds me how weak I allowed myself to be. My only refuge is music. 

I am not the powerful wizard they see me as, I am an awakened old lady that is struggling with her own mental health. I do not run this operation - I run a small farm.  Mainly for my own therapeutic reasons and the way I feel right now even agriculture is too much to handle.
 
You do not need my approval to visit Nagisa or Minnie they are your friends and though Nagisa cannot come and go as she please, she is no prisoner here. We keep her here for her own protection, there are many people in the city that would like to find this bunker. That would either attack us for food, attack us for our relation to the Yaks or attack us to control our resources. We do not leave this place unless we have to.