@Al: Yeah, Al fits right in at the Heave Ho. The lights are dim but you would not really want to see what you are stepping in on the floor anyway. The music comes from an old and fairly crappy sound system and the tinny whine of a country music steel guitar comes across as even tinnier than normal. Six other patrons are seated on what appears to be a mix of stools at the bar and another two are hunched over at the pool table. At this time of day, there is only the one waitress, and you have pegged her right as being a bit skeezy. She is certainly beyond her prime but trying to dress like she is still desirable.

It is very easy to find the information you are looking for; the only difficulty being which of several media channels you want to listen to. All the stations have a talking head that is a cute, usually busty young woman who is presenting the basic news, which is provided by officials that must remain anonymous due to not being able to…………….yeah, you get the picture. Although there may be slight differences in the story lines, the nuggets seem to be:

1: A bio-gas weapon was used on the streets of the warehouse district, not too far from the abandoned rail yards.

2: Casualties were initially reported as twenty people in the hospital, with as many as two fatalities, but the current line is that fourteen people were treated at the scene and released, with seven hospitalized in various stages of seriousness. All have been downgraded now except for four. One six year old girl is still being treated for complications due to a severe reaction to the gas and one woman is still in surgery to try to save her leg, which was mostly severed when the car she was a passenger in was broadsided by a large van. Two young men had suffered an extreme amount of damage from the gas but also as a result of being shot with electric stun rounds. While neither the bullets or the gas are normally overly dangerous in themselves, the combination of the two had placed these young men in the critical care area of the hospital. All are expected to live.

3: No sign of the dispersion method have been found. A grenade had been the first thought, but no used grenades have been recovered.

4: There were initially some conflicting stories from witnesses that had a man claiming to be a member of some sort of Knight Errant special unit trying to apprehend a woman he identified as a terrorist of some sort. An official of the KE has vehemently denied the existence of this special unit or that the man is part of it. Photos of a man (John) and woman (Female Mercenary) were taken from several angles and are allowed to scroll across the screen. They were apparently provided to the media by concerned citizens who took the shots on a wide variety of cameras and comlinks. The newswoman looks directly into the camera and says, “Now , we are aware of the controversy surrounding these pictures, so now we ask you, our viewers, to give us your opinion. Is the woman in these photos an evil terrorist mastermind or simply trying to render aid to the young girl? Remember that every vote counts. We will post the votes at the evening news hour.”

5: There is official speculation that this attack may be linked in some fashion to the earlier missile attacks at the harbor and people are warned to be ever vigilant and report any sightings of the man and woman in the photos as well another man who was apparently working with the first man because they left the site together, carrying the unconscious or dead woman with them. It is pointed out that the second man is unidentifiable due to a balaclava that he had pulled down over his face, but he should be considered armed and dangerous as it was he that had shot the two young men with the stun rounds, even though they had not appeared to be any threat to anyone.

Al does not see any reference to the ambulance or any photos of either himself or Jan while he was in the ambulance.

Seated where he is, Al has a fairly unobstructed view of the front entrance to the bar as well as the hallway that should lead to the rear door. Just as he finishes one channel and slips to another to see what the differences are besides how big a chest the cute reporter has, he notices the door to the bar open and a female Keeb walks in. She has long brown hair done up in a ponytail and is wearing dark glasses. She does not bother to look around the room but heads to the bar, a red and white striped cane leading the way. Two of the patrons at the bar look over at her and one of them waves his hands then makes some rude gestures as the woman walks up. As she approaches the bar, she whips the cane at an almost insane speed and accuracy and raps the man across his leg, getting a loud groan from him. “Do you think I can’t tell what you are doing, Liam Card? Think again and you can be the first man to buy me a drink today.” The young man nods as he rubs his leg and motions to the man behind the bar to get the woman a drink. While sitting in a stool, the elf turns her head to where you are sitting in the shadows and nods before turning back to pick up her drink.

The skeezy waitress shakes her head. “Don’t know how she does it. Pretty sure she really is blind, yet she has something that lets her “see” everything. Anyway, here’s your next. So how many of these will it take before you think I am pretty enough to take up to the room I got upstairs?” She waves her hand at you as she walks away. “Naw, don’t bother answering. Pretty sure the number is pretty damned high.”

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