character(s) involved: Danni, Maeve, Izumi, The Face.<br/>Location(s):<br/>A fraternity house (Danni),<br/>a corporate prison (Maeve),<br/>a Cupcake Bakery (Izumi),<br/>Hotel Penthouse (The Face).<br/>_________________________________________<br/>[Danni]<br/>The Hacker was deep in full hot-simulated virtual reality. It was a stress her neural system, but it gave her an edge she needed for harrowing work in the Matrix, where the difference between life and death is measured in nano-seconds.<br/><br/>The University Academics Records network metaphor must have been coded by some kind of fantasy geek. Danni perceived herself standing in a wide field of green grass with a mountain climbing up in front of her toward the clouds. There was some iconic medieval village behind her filled with decorative sprite villagers who did not seem to be involved with the security surrounding University of Washington’s academics and transcript data-warehouse.<br/><br/>The clouds and sky high above her occasionally pixel-flickered to reveal the underlying perspective grid used to design the visual elements of the simulated environment. She could see the personas of systems administrators accessing information and various stone shrines that lined the winding dirt road leading up to the mountain. Luckily, there were also many student personas looking up their information, and the sheer number of users subscribed to the system made it easy for Danni to hide in the crowd.<br/><br/>She was able to mix in among them and begin the ascent up the mountain toward the temple high among the clouds – the data storage node that contained the primary academic records for all students of UW, from which the district data-stores backed up their records.<br/><br/>Danni had been hired by a Mr. Johnson, whom it took her about 45 seconds and a bit of data tracking to figure out was a 20 year old Sophomore silver spoon with parents high up the corporate ladder and a weekly allowance that shamed most salary workers. Trent Winkerton was the kid’s name, and he was pledging the best fraternity at UW – apparently he had the idea that hiring the hacker-vixen to pump his brothers’ GPA up a few points would guarantee him entry to all tomorrow’s parties.<br/><br/>Danni had noticed something strange, though. There were odd flickers in her virtual reality perception of the matrix, the sort of ghost-duplications and pixilation she had only encountered during heavy bio-feedback interference in the past, but no security was alerted and as far as she could tell, everything was smooth sailing… at least for now. A glance at her personal bio-monitor showed that her pulse and respiration were high above normal and her body temperature was elevated – too much coffee.<br/><br/>There wasn’t much time to worry about it, now, though. The crowd of students parted around an old woman and two knights standing in the road and by the look of the persona and the code flicking by behind the scenes, Danni had a pretty good idea that this was the system’s firewall.<br/><br/>She was quick to show the medallion hanging around her neck, the matrix representation of the teacher access code she had gotten from young Trent Winkerton, but as Danni had already suspected from the get-go, last semester’s access code was not going to cut it… but that’s why the hacker babe had gone into this gig deep in hot-sim.<br/><br/>She threw her robe off to reveal flesh tight metal and leather armor covering her body and a sword in her hand. She had already primed her armor and attack matrix programs and her system was running at peak efficiency – just in case…<br/><br/>The Hacker held up something that looked like a holy symbol with her left hand and the code began to run like a river behind her eyes. Her automated exploit program was pouring data into the system’s Firewall and the image of the old woman began to flick and distort. It would only be a few milli-seconds, unless… Fuck!<br/><br/>The Intruder Counter Measure monitoring the system had detected Danni’s exploit program causing trouble – a bit of bad luck today! The image of the old woman erupted into a splash of degrading pixels and from her body leapt the spiraling form of an enormous green serpent.<br/><br/>The exploit program went onto the back of the priority and Danni pulled up her attack program, making quick work of the two knights with a leaping slash of her sword back and forth, while avoiding venomous strikes from the serpent. Those were easy enough, but now for the hard part.<br/><br/>The Hacker raised her sword to her forehead and activated her mirror program, doubling herself. Good call too – the serpent sank its teeth into the duplicate image and flooded the false persona with irrational algorithm results. It was just the opening that Danni needed. She set her system priority to her attack program and her matrix persona leapt up at the serpent in a blinding flash of virtual sword-steel. A moment later, The Hacker in her medieval armor landed behind the serpent, which exploded into a flash of pixels and broken code. It would be a while before the IC program could reset itself.<br/><br/>Just enough time…<br/><br/>Danni dashed up the mountain and the steps of the temple where a large fountain sat between enormous marble columns. She pulled a vial off of her belt and gripped the cork in her teeth, pulling it out, and dumping the purple liquid into the fountain. The edit program she had written to re-write the Fraternity’s academic records, along with hundreds of false rabbit-trails, fake e-mails, porn spams, and a variety of other tricks to hide her trail, went to work.<br/><br/>Danni could see the water in the fountain begin to change color. A job well done.<br/><br/>Still… she noticed her perception of the matrix begin to flicker again. There was something strange going on – time to log out of the system and get back into her body. She left the mountain and returned to the village, the world around her evaporating as she sank out of hot-sim and back into…<br/><br/>God, damn it…<br/><br/>Danni came back into her senses just in time to feel her back arch up off of the velvet pool table beneath her, her thighs trembling and a sheen of sweat glistening on her body as her cunt spasmed and clenched hard in an orgasm she felt front her clit to the tip of her tongue. Her orientation was a mess, her brain still trying to get used to the real world, but she could feel her legs open around the hips of one of those college kids. It came to her attention that there was a roar of cheering going on around her, something to tune of “For She’s a Jolly Good Fellow!” The whole fraternity house had been monitoring her progress during her run. It was hard to say how long into her delving into hot-sim and abandon her physical consciousness they had started to take her clothes off, but if she had to guess… she was on her third orgasm and the foot-ball player burying his hips against hers and moaning out wasn’t the first of them to splash his semen inside of her. It would take her a few minutes to get her bearings back – just enough time for another of those frat boys to take a turn fucking her.<br/><br/>Red Cups. Cheer. Celebration.<br/><br/>Right in the midst of a new kid climbing on top of her, there was a text pop-up right in the middle of her augmented reality display, which at the moment seemed a lot more real than the beer being funneled into her mouth.<br/><br/>FROM: Mr. Johnson<br/>TO: [PRIVATE USER]<br/>Date: 9/10/2071<br/>The Alabaster Maiden, Downtown Seattle, Washington. VIP Room. 12:00AM 9/10/2072<br/><br/>_____________________________________________________________________________________________________<br/>[The Face]<br/>Tonight her name was Lindsey.<br/><br/>The fiber optic threads in her hair let her change the color on a whim and tonight a shake of her head had bright crimson silk falling down against her shoulders and teasing at her jaw line and pieces. The second-skin dress on her drool-worthy figure changed color and pattern, much like her hair, on a whim.<br/><br/>The pheromone enhancing bio-ware and the fact she had done her research made our friend Lindsey the most attractive girl in the room, and that’s exactly what she wanted. She was a girl who didn’t have to find a way to convince her clients and her marks to let her in… they convinced her to come in, every single time.<br/><br/>She could smell that he wanted her, literally, with the olfactory sensitivity enhancements, and with the thermal augmentation to her vision she could see the newest of the 36 official corporate partners at Davidson and Meldon Legal had a hard interest in her red-haired, cat eyed, black-leather look.<br/><br/>She had been making friends and sleeping her way up the chain of command for over a little over three months at this point. It was difficult to balance so many lives – the girlfriend of a matrix security agent who worked at the corporate office, the lesbian lover of a secretary who scheduled all of Mr. Aderson’s appointments and most recently the arm candy of Mr. Aderson himself, to the jealousy of all of the other vests and ties at that corporate party.<br/><br/>All of this, of course, was to get herself an invitation to a very, very private yacht party scheduled to occur in two weeks at which a meeting of the seven executive committee members was scheduled to take place.<br/>Lindsey had a… friend… who had a special interest in seeing these big-wigs out of the picture. The only problem was it was near impossible to get the tailored suits into the same room, save for one day, once a year, off the coast of Seattle.<br/><br/>She knew all the right things to say, and all the right things not to say. There were certain social expectations of a girl at a banquet like this one. She stayed on Mr. Aderson’s arm, smiled and listened while pretending not to be listening too closely. She laughed and blushed when the executives flirted with her, and returned all of the ‘fuck-me’ eyes she was getting from across the room. While, Mr. Aderson was playing a game of poker with some of the owners of partner firms, Lindsey had snuck off just long enough to make out with a data analyst named Jennifer in the ladies’ room after reapplying their mascara together and to get fingered under her dress in the elevator on the way back down to the banquet hall after a visit to the roof-top level to have a look out over the city and exchange commlink ID numbers with a young man who had just come on as a paralegal at the headquarters.<br/><br/>There was two hours of this theater.<br/><br/>Lindsey had gleaned enough information by the end of the evening to know that there were fireworks scheduled for 10:00 PM on the night of the yacht party, a perfect cover for the small explosion needed to put an end to the committee members, and just enough time to escape. Since she had Jennifer’s commlink ID, and she knew she’d be at the party, she’d have to invite the blonde up for a quick roll on the desk on the same floor that the meeting was taking place. Lindsey had a pretty good idea that her boyfriend would notice the low-level analyst going up to the executive floor just before the explosion was a little strange.<br/>She had scheduled a romantic rendezvous with the young dashing paralegal at just about that time to watch the fire-works. It was really quite charming that he had his own private boat to take her out on.<br/>Lindsey balanced these time tables and double checked her information and contact sources in her Augmented Reality visual overlay, while on her back in the hotel suite with Mr. Aderson. She went through the motions, sighing and whimpering softly up into his mouth when he kissed her, jerking her hips and clinging to him each time she pretended that he’d made her orgasm, and purring like a kitten when he moaned out and she felt his semen warm her insides.<br/><br/>She would smile up at him and touch his cheek, thinking that he’d get to do this to her for three more weeks – reward enough for taking her to the party. It was going to be a blast.<br/>He kissed her again and she kissed him back, knowing just how to pretend that she liked it. Meanwhile, in the corner of her AR display, a message blinked in dull yellow.<br/><br/>FROM: Mr. Johnson<br/>TO: [PRIVATE USER]<br/>Date: 9/10/2071<br/>The Alabaster Maiden, Downtown Seattle, Washington. VIP Room. 12:00AM 9/10/2072<br/>_____________________________________________________________________________________________________<br/>[Izumi]<br/><br/>“Basley… THIS IS REALLY STUPID!” Izumi cried out above the sound of the rain.<br/><br/>Rain is cold. Seattle rain is colder. Seattle rain was especially cold when a girl is standing completely naked in an alleyway in the worst part of the Redmond Barrens. This was a party of the city known for squatters, ghouls, and Orc go-gangers. So… why is there a teenaged girl standing naked in the rain balancing a bowl of rain water on top of her head? Basley.<br/><br/>“Shut up,” the magician called out around a mouthful of blueberry muffin from a dry and warm second story apartment above the Happy Cakes Bakery. “Concentrate. Zen stuff, ya’know?” he called out around another pastry, this time there was frosting.<br/><br/>“That’s RACIST!” Izumi complained. Thighs clamped together and arms over her nipples, the talented young mage was still so cold that her teeth were chattering and water from the rice bowl was pouring down the sides and making her hair fall into her face. “You never had to do this! You’re just making this up as you go!” the girl screamed.<br/><br/>About that time, a set of head-lights from the end of the alley shined directly onto Izumi and she heard an engine roar and throttle, then another from the other side of the alley.<br/>“Told you so,” Basley chimed in. Izumi thought she could make out an old school television turning on.<br/><br/>It wasn’t another few seconds before rumbling engines came pouring in and half a dozen gangers on three big hog bikes were in the alley with her, circling her like sharks. Those riding bitch jumped off the back and peered at Izumi through the rain.<br/><br/>Gurk, an orc in leathers and a bandana scratched his head. “What the hell is this?”<br/>Tobuk had circled Izumi on the other side. “This slut don’t look familiar, she one of yours, Taz?”<br/>Tazbog shook his head. “She ain’t mine!”<br/><br/>Gurk sneered and squinted at the Little Mage Girl with a twist of his lips that made enormous lower canine teeth seem to jut out even more than they normally did. He gave Izumi a poke on the top of her breast with his finger, hard enough to make her almost drop her cup of rain water (what the hell was that even for again?). “You turnin’ tricks in our neighborhood without payin’ your dues, Kid?”<br/><br/>“Basley!” she cried out angrily!<br/><br/>The orcs all grimaced and made sour faces at the shout.<br/>Izumi heard the sound of the television upstairs being turned up louder.<br/><br/>The other three had gotten off of their hogs and were crowding in around her.<br/>“Grab her, before she makes that noise again!” Gurk said, rubbing his pointed ear.<br/><br/>The gangers on either side of The Mage grabbed her wrists and pulled her arms out to the side. Tazbog put his green hands complete with gnarled fingernails on Izumi’s breasts and squeezed them, while Tobuk grabbed onto her backside and spread her cheeks open to have a look at her asshole. This whole ordeal jerked Izumi back and forth more than once, the bowl on her head tipping back and forth and spilling water.<br/><br/>“PERVERTS!” Izumi cried out at the top of her lungs, but Tobuk behind her reached around and closed his hand over her mouth to muffle her. Tazbog pushed her breasts up and squeezed them, while the gangers beside her grabbed her by the inside of her knees and pulled her legs open. They were holding her up by her knees and her arms at that point, and Gurk began to rub his calloused fingers up and down her exposed labia… and then it happened.<br/><br/>Crash. Shatter. Break.<br/><br/>Izumi and the Go-Gangers all paused, staring down at the broken rice bowl on the pavement.<br/>They heard the sound of rain falling on the brim of Basley’s hat.<br/><br/>The gangers all noticed and looked over at him. He was standing in the alleyway behind Gurk with his arms folded under his coat, rain pouring down off of his hat. His glasses glinted in the street lights.<br/><br/>“Huh. How did he get there?” Tobuk said.<br/>Tazbog chimed in, “That doesn’t make any sense.”<br/>“Nice hat,” Gurk added.<br/>Tobuk’s head was the first to explode.<br/><br/>A column of fire engulfed one of the gangers, while Gurk and Tazbog fumbled to get their guns out, but by the time the leveled aim at Basley, he was gone. Izumi noticed the rain splashing off of an unseen form – an invisibility spell! A trash can rose in the air behind the gangers and smashed down onto one of their heads, and Gurk whipped around and fired his shotgun in that direction, letting go of Izumi, who fall onto the ass on the pavement. There was a flash of blue magical armor and Basley stumbled back against the wall, before his hand glowed and he gestured it toward Gurk. The barrel of the Orc’s shotgun opened as though he had broken it himself and the shotgun shells flopped out onto the ground.<br/><br/>“Hey!” Gurk complained.<br/><br/>Tazbog fired his pistol at Basley, but this time it reflected of a physical barrier spell and the bullet struck the wall beside the mage. The hat-wearing magician fired off a mana-bolt through the barrier and Tazbog smashed back against the wall and slumped unconscious.<br/><br/>The last of the gangers (aside from Gurk) rushed at Basley, but ran face first into his physical barrier, and with a shimmer of green magical energy, the gang slid down it like a bird on a window onto the ground. Gurk had taken that distraction to snatch up Tazbog’s pistol and grabbed Izumi, holding the gun to her head. Izumi’s eyes went wide and she struggled in the ganger’s grip, trying to get out of the hold on her throat. “Get off of me!”<br/><br/>“Back off, Frag-Face, or the girl gets it!” Gurk threatened.<br/>Basley shrank his barrier and adjusted his glasses. Said nothing.<br/><br/>“You hear me?!” Gurk snarled and pointed his gun at Basley. An arc of lighting erupted from his fingers and engulfed both the Orc and Izumi. The pistol bucked and the barrier between them shattered, while the teenaged girl and the gang leader sprawled on the wet pavement in brief, but intense agony. Basley’s hand glowed and an invisible force grabbed the pistol and flung it into the dumpster.<br/>Gurk slowly pushed himself back up to his feet, shaking his head to clear it, and rubbing the back of his neck. Izumi crawled up onto her knees and pushed her wet hair out of her face, squinting in the rain and feeling around until she clutched onto Basley’s coat.<br/><br/>The mage offered the girl a pair of round glasses.<br/><br/>“IT’S ABOUT TIME!” she scolded him and put her glasses on. Behind her, Gurk snarled and rushed toward the two, but Izumi pointed a finger at him and a flash of magical energy slammed the Orc back into the wall.<br/>“I totally get it! The bowl was like a metaphor for my desire to learn and the rain was all the knowledge that I am trying to obtain. When the gangers attacked it disrupted everything and it wasn’t my desire to learn, but my instincts that saved me!” she said, staring at him expectantly.<br/><br/>Basley scratched his head. “Well, actually I just wanted to tell you that you got a message on your commlink.”<br/>Izumi stared, the excitement slowly drained from her face. “Not a magic bowl?”<br/>Basley glanced down and frowned. “You broke my bowl.”<br/>Izumi sighed. “I hate you. You’re an awful teacher.”<br/><br/>FROM: Mr. Johnson<br/>TO: [PRIVATE USER]<br/>Date: 9/10/2071<br/>The Alabaster Maiden, Downtown Seattle, Washington. VIP Room. 12:00AM 9/10/2072<br/>_____________________________________________________________________________________________________<br/>[Maeve]<br/><br/>The guards liked beating Maive.<br/><br/>The titanium bone-lacings in her skeleton meant that she could probably be hit by a truck and come out of it alive. The platelet factory that increased her healing speed meant that she recovered significant faster from injury than did a normal person. Oh, the guards also hated her.<br/><br/>Since the fiasco with the A.I. at the Arcology, Renraku had only a small presence based in Seattle, but one of their key remaining facilities was a Research and Development lab home to some of the communication companies most guarded UCAS based projects that they had no desire to attempt to transport across international boundaries while so many of their rival mega-corporations were pulling the important strings in customs and security.<br/><br/>Maeve had been caught during a run against that facility.<br/>Maeve didn’t get caught doing runs.<br/>Someone had double crossed her…<br/><br/>She had killed 37 Renraku security personnel. That’s like… a lot.<br/>Grenades – never leave home without them.<br/><br/>Three of her team members had been killed on site. She had been shot at least a dozen times, knocked through a reinforced wall, and finally put down by a shock-taser in the back of the neck. The only reason she had survived was because that she was near impossible to kill.<br/><br/>She had been in the bowels of a private prison facility.<br/>Three weeks by her best guess…<br/><br/>The person who seemed to have been assignment management of Maeve’s torture was a Japanese nationalist named Kiko, a hard core hard liner for the Renraku corporate family ideal. She was stationed in Seattle to serve out some kind of personal shame, and she was taking it out on Maeve.<br/><br/>She kept a small dial on a device on her wrist and activated two corresponding devices. The first was a shock collar which had been clamped and welded shut around Maeve’s pretty little neck – the pain was intense. The second sent an electric current which ran from a device attached directly onto Maeve’s g-spot to a tiny receiver permanently attached to her clitoris – the pleasure was like nothing she’d ever felt.<br/>Both occurred each time Kiko pressed the dial on her wrist.<br/><br/>Aside from being knocked unconscious, the red and purple haired ex-soldier turned street samurai had not slept in 72 hours. The first day had largely simply been the guards beating her, after that Kiko had been assigned to her and things had gotten more… creative.<br/><br/>It had only taken a few hours for Kiko’s resources to hack into Maeve’s simsense module cyberware and override the safety and controls. This was not something that could be done wirelessly. There was a screw driver involved.<br/><br/>Maeve’s internal chronometer was the only thing that gave her a clue that it had been days and not years. She had experienced being drowned in the blood of her friends and family, being burned alive, eaten by ants, and forced to listen to the top 40 best songs of 2033. Not a good year…<br/><br/>Presently, as far as her brain was concerned, she was strapped down to a low table with her legs and her mouth held open by clamps. A sleek black Doberman pincer was mounted on her. Through the simsense, she could feel the animal’s fur against her breasts, feel the meat of his cock inside of her and the knot at the base swollen inside of her. Another dog was over her face, his long slick tongue licking the inside of her mouth like her tongue was made of honey.<br/><br/>In reality, Maeve was simply squirming and twitching on the floor of an interrogation cell, naked, bruised, and filthy with a small device attached to her temple blinking with a soft green light. This went on for hours. When the BTL chip dream ended, Maeve made out the image of Kiko standing over her. The woman’s face came into focus, strangely beautiful and harsh, black hair and black eyes – very traditional.<br/><br/>The Japanese woman put the heel of her shoe on Maeve’s nude breast and began to press it against her nipple. The look on the woman’s face was cruel and fascinated, but also slightly disappointed.<br/>“These past few weeks have been quite a bit of fun – I have to admit. It seems… unfortunately… that our time here is over. You have some very wealthy and influential friends, Maeve. Sometime willing to pay enough money to purchase ownership of you, since… well… your pretty little ass did belong to me.”<br/><br/>The woman crouched down and stroked Maeve’s cheek. “You should consider this an honor. I don’t spend this much time and care with all of my patients. One day, I might write a book about the things I did to you.”<br/>The woman rose back up to a stand and gestured to the guards at the edge of the room, speaking a command to them in her native tongue. One of the men in red armor immediately grabbed Maeve by her ankle and dragged her from the room.<br/><br/>An hour of processing.<br/>An hour of paperwork.<br/><br/>Maeve found herself chained in the back of a prison transport van leaving Renraku Corporate Territory. The ride was long, but once the doors finally opened, the initial stream of light seemed blinding, the flare compensation in her cybernetic eyes kicking in to avoid damage.<br/><br/>Too tired to move.<br/>Too tired to talk.<br/><br/>Maeve awoke to find herself in a makeshift medical bed in a hotel room overlooking Seattle’s Downtown District. She had been bathed. An I.V. in her arm led to a bag of fluids which hung beside the hotel bed. Standing at the window was a young man in a black suit, wearing sunglasses, AR adapted judging by the way he seemed to stare blankly out onto the city - probably reading e-mail. He held in his right hand the small wrist device that Kiko had worn.<br/><br/>The anonymous commlink she had found previously was in a small plastic bag sitting on the table beside. It showed the first signs of activity since she had found it – a text message 3 weeks old.<br/><br/>FROM: Mr. Johnson<br/>TO: [PRIVATE USER]<br/>Date: 9/10/2071<br/>The Alabaster Maiden, Downtown Seattle, Washington. VIP Room. 12:00AM 9/10/2072<br/>_____________________________________________________________________________________________________<br/><br/>One year to the day had passed since the girls had first received contact from a man who identified himself only as Mr. Johnson.<br/><br/>This variety of anonymous communication wasn't all that strange, but each of the girls had an edge that there was something different about this particular job. Call it a hunch, call it a whisper in the ear from the spirits, or maybe there was something unusual about the ebb and flow of the Matrix code on that particular day. The meeting location had only been indicated by a single line of text: The Alabaster Maiden, Downtown Seattle, Washington. VIP Room. 12:00AM Saturday. There had been no time indicated for the meeting. That alone was the sort of anomaly that normally would have told any 'Runner worth-a-cred to stay far away from the job, but the direct and unexplained deposit of ¥200,000 was enough to garner some attention.<br/><br/>The Alabaster Maiden was a fancy-ass night club in the midst of the Downtown District. The legend goes that a chick channeled too much magic and turned herself to stone while fighting a gang. That's probably a load of of garbage, but either way - there is a sweet statue of a lady outside the club that is rumored to bring good luck if you touch it. Izumi was able to pick up a strange magical aura on the thing, but nothing to get her panties in a twist. Astral pigeons probably just shit on the thing from time to time (that's a joke, chummer). The interior of the club had a Ritz crowd dressed to the nines, the social elite, and just the kind of people that The Face liked to spend time with. Maeve didn't like the place quite as much - it was loud with too many people and too many open spaces that a gunman could be trailing a bead on her. It didn't take Danni too long to filter out all of the Augmented Reality advertisements for champagne and caviar. Though, the hidden code with offers for prostitutes was pretty amusing and some of the Virtual Strippers were actually half-decent. All of the girls had some form of Augmented Reality (AR) display, whether contact lenses, glasses, goggles, or cybernetic prosthetic eyes with a plethora of special features. Izumi had opted for some cute AR fitted glasses that night - she and cyberware didn't get along that well.<br/><br/>It wasn't long until the girls found themselves on broad, comfortable red-velvet upholstered couches on the private balcony that overlooked the main dance floor. They didn't know each other then, but they would over the next few months. The man standing at the railing to the balcony staring down onto the dance floor? No, he wasn't the one who had brought them there. He was probably some hired muscle, a chrome-boy paid by the girl's mysterious benefactor, but on that night at least, he was just playing messenger. Izumi could see that there was something off about his magical aura, but there was enough cybernetic enhancements under his skin to throw it all out of whack. Maeve had an easy time picking out the subtle signs of that augmentation, even though she could tell that his gear was top-notch, at least judging by the fact she could barely even notice the surgical scars even with her enhanced vision... and there was something familiar about him to her. Danni was able to pick his internal commlink out of the crowd, but the flickering code was a pretty good indication that there was a high level of encryption going on, nothing that was worth a dream-trip into Hot-Sim Virtual Reality to try and crack, at least not that night - maybe later.<br/><br/>He was a clean cut suit. That kind of sleek-look-boy that big fat cats like to have standing in the corner of the room so that they feel important. He glanced over his shoulder once they had all arrived, a pretty good indication that he was at least subscribed to the club's security monitor. It would have been pretty hard for anyone to pick Danni's or The Face's commlink out of a crowd of people. The pretty-boy checked them out through the heavy tint of his sunglasses for a few seconds, before subscribed each of them to a private AR chatroom and began to sub-vocalize under the heart wrenching pulse of the music.<br/><br/>"Glad you could make it," was all that he said after all of that trouble.<br/><br/>There was one empty couch on the balcony, but the suit didn't have a seat on it. Instead, the flickering green holographic image of a well-fed white-haired man appeared seated on the couch. "You all made it and in the flesh. You really do me a great honor. Please, have you had enough to drink? Tonight you wish for nothing. You are my guests and my hospitality is yours." Yeah, this was DEFINITELY not the typical jobs or Mr. Johnson that the girls were used to dealing with...<br/><br/>The Faux-Colonel Sanders went on to explain in an old-money Louisiana accent, "You are probably wondering why you are here. I assume you have an appreciation for brevity, so I'll get right to heart of the matter. I am putting together a very special team for a very special job. The details of that job are coming together as we speak. I brought you here tonight to be absolutely certain of two very important things - that you pretty young ladies are motivated by money enough to risk coming here in-your-person and that I have your undivided attention." A digital copy of each of the girl's birth certificates and some obvious and obscure details of their corporate history popped up in a window provided by the pretty-boy (The Face's was fake, but it was her FIRST fake she ever made, and that was pretty impressive). It was about then that Danni closed down the game of Retro-Asteroid that she had running in the corner of her vision, and the episode of Neil the Barbarian... and the porn...<br/><br/>"You are each among the best available talent alive, available, and adhering to the criteria designated for this assignment predicted to generate the highest probability of success - masters of your particular fields of study (Izumi was pretty sure she got invited to the wrong party). You each have your own... colorful... history, but I am going to trust that will not interfere with the work that we are going to be doing together. The funds you received are a taste and proof of the authenticity and severity of this contract. Further, you will be working closely together, and so I have arranged accommodations for the each of you - you will be living in the Bridal Suite of the Fairmont Olympic Hotel - a place where you can build a working synergy and where the equipment necessary to achieve success will be available to you." The hologram raised and waved his chubby fingers. "We'll talk soon."<br/><br/>The hologram flickered out of the girls' AR display, leaving an oddly empty-looking red couch lingering in front of them. The suit-boy reminded them of his presence with a sub-vocal communication that came in under the music. "There are secure passkeys to the bridal suite and private garage waiting for you at the front desk of the hotel."<br/><br/>_____________________________________________________________________________________________________<br/><br/>The Bridal Suite of the Fairmont Olympic Hotel was pure luxury - the kind of ritzy polish that corporate wage slave masturbate to before bed every night. Maeve was pretty sure that the entire place was made of brass and marble, and if things got ugly, she could make bullet casings out of the bed-posts. Danni's AR monitor immediately picked up the not-at-all hidden cameras on automated pivots in every room of the suite, including the bathroom, the swimming pool, the bedroom, and the gym.<br/><br/>Strangely, there was one walk-in-close sized room filled with cosmetics and synthetic latex face mask templates without cameras or monitoring devices. A panel behind the wet-bar contained a hidden rack with a variety of pistols, sub-machine guns, and assault rifles, and primary matrix access nodes feeding in and out of the Suite were highly encrypted with tri-layered firewall and Intruder Counter Measure systems. The west hall had a number of training dummies as well as tomes on magical theory and essays by leading authorities on magic.<br/><br/>Izumi was the first one to notice that there was only one king sized bed and one garden bathtub in the entire Suite. Awkward...<br/><br/>