[Volker]

"Stay for a moment. I might be able to trace her position in a less obvious way. I'm coming, though. You shouldn't face her without a decker."

[Jack_Spade]

[spoiler]
Defense Pilot: Pilot Defense: 6d6t5 1
Pilot Defense: 6d6t5 1

Ok, you got your two MARKs

Resist Trace:
Pilot Defense: 6d6t5 3

Success. bnc has a lock on the bike
[/spoiler]

Torrent was distracted, but not distracted enough to miss the two girls leaving.

bnc worked fast: Within six seconds she had broken into the upgraded autopilot and convinced him to send her live GPS data.
Then the commlink was back on and the Yamaha sped away, turning south.

[Volker]

"I'm in, boys. Don't follow too closely."

As soon as bnc is in the van, she switches to full VR. She can't allow herself to be distracted in face of an opponent like her.

[spoiler]Delayed Action: As soon as she attempts to include the bike to her WAN, I'll try to intervene before it can see me.

[Jack_Spade]

[spoiler]
Just to be clear: bnc can have her edge back since it was not strictly necessary.
In future just tag rolls with a "if necessary I'll spend edge for a reroll", I'll take care of it from there.

[/spoiler]

With the trace in place, the team had time to come back together and follow the bike without a chance to be seen. Even better, bnc now knew enough about the various devices of their prey that she would be able to find her again with a matrix search.



But don’t stop; pursue your enemies! Attack them from the rear and don’t let them reach their cities, for the Lord your God has given them into your hand.”

Joshua 10:19

--------------
Seattle, June 1st, 0200h

The bike had stopped at a small residential neighborhood - not unlike where the team was living. The last signal - before it was shut down indicated the garage of a one family bungalow.
The front law was trimmed, a two meter high wooden fence surrounded the house on three sides. The three front windows were all dark. A discreet AR-tag disclaimed that this property was a lease and that it had a contract with Wolverine Security.

A casual look into AR did not show anything out of the ordinary - a gardening drone, food processor and a home security system sensor suit - all slaved to a Transsys Avalon commlink. The girls complete PAN except for the silent deck had gone offline.

A quick search revealed that the average response time for KE in this area was around 10 minutes and probably not much longer for the security service.

[SquirrelDude]

Slobbertooth pulled the van up 100 meters away from the GPS point, parked and killed the lights.

"Alright, bnc, it's your call now. How close do you think we can get to her house without her noticing our wireless equipment? Should we start deactivating our superfluous wireless functionalities now?"

[Volker]

When they arrive, bnc turns off her deck and only runs her Fairlight.

"That depends on how closely she inspects her surroundings. I don't assume that she has her agent analyse the surroundings for anomalities, so she's the only one who could spot us. Thus, I suggest we turn off everything suspicious - at least until we have a plan. Turn off all lethal weapons, all suspicious augmentations and basically everything the average citizen wouldn't have. In addition, we shouldn't stay too close, physically. Let's sit down on a park bench - a bunch of commlinks standing in front of her house idly will raise suspicions.
Have everything run silent which you cannot spare. I can slave them to my Fairlight. This should provide amazing protection.

Everything else depends on what's the plan. Do you intend to break in? If so, it would have been better to kidnap her on the street. Observe her? I guess, this would be the best plan. Given that both of them really, really know how to handle matrix threats, Torrent would be my first choice in this regard. I can help, too, since I can change my appearance quite well, too."

[SquirrelDude]

Slobbertooth began to deactivate what gear he had. There wasn't much of it, as he didn't have any fancy cyberwear to worry about. He turned off all of his smartlinks, and slaved his commlink to bnc's system. The only pieces of equipment that were left on were his glasses, helmet, and earbuds.

"We don't have any need to break in and physically arrest her. We're just looking for information on where Woden is, and if we can get that without making her aware of our presence, all the better."

[Volker]

"Then surveillance would be the best for the moment. Normally I'd suggest I have my drones fly around, but given that we deal with a nova-hot decker and rigger, maybe Torrent's magic would do the trick better, wouldn't it? I can stay close and jump in when the need arises."

[SquirrelDude]

"Alright, you heard the lady, Torrent. You're up. When Slobbertooth didn't hear a response from Torrent he turned around from the driver's seat and looked into the back of the Rover.

"Torrent? Uh... Where's Torrent? We didn't just let him slip of and get some strange elf slot during a run, did we?"

[Volker]

"Jeez. This is so typical. You gripe about me doing drugs, and once you guys find a slitch to put your cock in, your off and gone. Jerks."

Sighing, bnc leans back. "You know what, sempai. You really owe me once we find out about this bastard. Apparently the elven slitch is not online. I see what I can do."

bnc commands her drones to fly here. After that, she tries to find out which parts of her house system are connected to or equipped with sensor units, especially for audio and video, and whether they are slaved to a host or another good security system.

[SquirrelDude]

"I'll buy you a bottle of Orkstaff's XXX Hurlg, when this job is over, kōhai."

After Slobbertooth finished his attempts at appeasement, he split his attention between what he could see through the van's windshield and the drone's image link.

[Jack_Spade]

The drone took a few rounds to map out everything:
On the four sides of the house standard motion sensors were mounted. A cat had not activated the light, so it probably had some kind of pilot program, able to differentiate signatures.
There seemed to be no security host connected to the sensors - actually there was no wireless signal from the whole array.
The drone had found two places where a data tap was likely to be effective: An exposed cable from the motion sensor behind the house and a small keypad at the side of the garage.

Other wireless signals from household machines like soycaf maker and food processor were not part of a PAN - easy to hack, but not really essential - unless you wanted to create inedible food.


Getting to those exposed spots without triggering the sensor would need a very patient and skillful and stealthy approach.

[spoiler]
To install a data tap on one of the two locations, you need a Stealth+Agility test vs. 4 and an extended Hardware+Logic test of 6 [Combat rounds]

[/spoiler]

[Volker]

bnc shares the information with Slob, Krestov and, just in case, Torrent.
"Apparently, there are no cams or any other voice- or image-controlled items inside the building. Thus, all I can do for now is have my FlySpy fly around somewhere a bit more remote and hope that we don't get seen. I suggest, we bug the area, leave, and come back later or when something interesting happens. Right now, all we can do is getting caught."

[SquirrelDude]

Slobbertooth wasn't a huge fan of "wait & see" plans at the moment, but he had no choice but to concede that it was the best plan. "Alright, plant the bugs, and track her vehicles. When you're done we'll go make sure Torrent didn't get locked in a sex dungeon."

[Volker]

"I can't track the vehicles for a long time. GOD's wrath will descend upon me. But I can have my drones fly around."