@John: The PA inside the ER of Maple Valley General Hospital is jolted awake as alarms began to go off. First, the matrix connected electronics began flickering, as if some fragging hacker was dicking around with them, causing the internal alarms to go off and alerting the hospitals spider that a potential hack was ongoing. Second, the metal detectors at the glass entrance doors began singing out as the large man walked into the building with a second one over his shoulder. A quick glance at the scanner shows the PA that the man has a rifle under his coat at the same time that ‘ware scanners indicate that both men are carrying more ‘ware than should be possible, setting off yet a third alarm.

Even though protected by the best bullet resistant glass plates that money can buy, the PA is acutely aware that the glass is bullet RESISTANT, not bullet PROOF and he automatically cringes as the alarms go off. He knows that there are two security guards already on their way down, but they are rent-a-cops and the ‘ware these guys are sporting indicates that the guards will not stand a chance. For a moment, the PA hesitates then one of the men drops the other one to the floor and leaves. Part of the PA’s mind realizes that the matrix jamming is fading as the man walks away, implying that he is the source, or more correctly that he is carrying some sort of signal jammer.

Deciding to take a chance, the PA mashes down on the alarm cutoff switches, silencing them at the same time as the auto-locks on his cubicle are deactivated. He grabs one of the medkits from the rack next to his chair and races through the opening as soon as it is wide enough to allow that, stopping to kneel down at the man………..no, a woman…………laying on the floor of his ER. Four of the patients seated in the next section are all up and watching the action through the glass separating the entrance from where they are. The remaining six patients have wisely decided to not do any such thing and are taking cover just in case something really bad is about to happen.

In short order, the PA has the woman hooked to a biomonitor and a medkit, which tells him there is little it can do with regards to the injuries the patient has taken, but it can work on stabilizing her. The pair of security guards burst into the room, weapons drawn, which does cause the four curious patients to forget their curiosity for the time being. They work straight from a commercial training video and the PA, who has probably seen more action then either of the guards, shakes his head, glad that he is not now caring for two more victims. The security guards look outside and call out clear to each other and into their shoulder-mounted ‘links and like that the emergency is over. A med team arrives with a gurney and the woman is placed on it, obviously in bad condition. The PA places the kit on the gurney so it can travel with the patient and inform anyone else accessing its readings of the status of the woman. He briefs the doctor who arrives in response to his call and soon the ER entry room is empty and quiet again as the duty PA takes his seat in the cubicle. He has seen enough ganger violence that he puts it all down to that. It is not until later that someone does some facial recog and sends the images of the woman to the KE database and someone gets really excited.

John makes it back into the sewers and disappears, only to emerge a different man from the one that went in.

@Jan: Your taxi ride is longish, but at least you are out of the rain and by the time you arrive, the downpour has let off quite a bit. “Fokkin rain. I hate this fokkin place.” You step down from the cab and walk to the room door Al has sent you, knocking and being let into the cheap ass room. The room you had spent two hours in earlier was a palace compared to this. In fact, that room had looked pretty good compared to lots of rooms you have been in lately and it was some fokkin whore’s room. Go figure, right?

@Glo: The cab lets you off a block away from the motel. Already the rain is showing signs of letting up and wind is almost non-existent. The umbrella you open seems to do the trick in keeping you mostly dry and it serves a dual purpose in helping to conceal your face under the hoodie. From a hundred feet away, you see a cab pull up at the motel and a man step out. You pause and slip against the wall, waiting. The dim light above a room door gives you enough idea that this is the rough spoken South Afrikaaner. You aren’t sure what his problem is, but you don’t really care right now. He, along with the others have proven capable under fire and survived when their enemy has not. To you, that is a winning combination and one that you can use for your own purposes on the weekend. You look around the area, looking for telltale signs of the opposition but see nothing out of the ordinary. From where you stand in the shadows of a door near the motel, you have a pretty good view of all of the buildings close to you. A movement in the window of the ‘Shack across the street catches your eye as a woman raises a cup of something to her mouth. She is sitting profile on to the window and seems to be reading from a tablet of some kind. She looks up as a man approaches her and kisses her cheek before sitting down and talking to her. You watch for a minute and see several other people leave the store, looking up at the clouds and snapping umbrellas open to protect them from the rain still coming down. Satisfied, you step away from the building you had hidden next to and approach the motel. You have to step over a drunk passed out on the sidewalk at the corner of the motel. It looks like the man had tried to get some cover from the rain but failed miserably. Even though his clothes have been inundated in the rain, you can smell the reek of alcohol on his breath and see an empty open bottle of cheap wine rolling on the sidewalk near him. He is certainly out of it as you pass by him, not even moving. You are reminded of the dead chiphead from earlier and bend over to check the man’s pulse, finding him still alive. Shaking your head, you continue on to the room and knock on the door, entering when Al opens it.

@Al: First Jan, followed by Glo a few minutes later, come to the room. You know that John is on his way after dropping the woman off at the hospital. When you open the door for Jan, you notice that the rain is much less than it had been and is probably on its way to stopping. But this is fragging Seattle and you can never count on the rain stopping for long.

@Apartment 4C: The rain has slowed down quite a bit and the wind is nearly calm when the cab pulls up to the motel. All three men in the room are watching as he knocks on the door and it is opened. One is using a pair of very high-tech binoculars, the second a spotting scope and the third the highly effective scope of his sniper rifle. The four block distance from the motel is no trouble for either the electronics of the optical devices or the skill of the sniper already settled into a firing position. Hans nods as he watches the man leave the cab and sends a silent message to his superiors. >>Command, I confirm that the man known as Al is in the room. He has opened the door to the man now known as Jan, who is going inside.<<

From long years of practice, Hans moves the binoculars slightly from side to side, scanning the edge of the contact point rather than being focused on the door. On one of his sweeps, he catches a slight movement from within the shadows of a building about a block off the motel. Something about the movements of the man there catches Hans’ attention and he focuses a bit on the person while continuing to scan the area. >>Command, we have an outlier about a block to the north of the target motel. He is scanning the area near the motel. Recommend that Carl be sent to sit with Helga. Roger.<<

Several minutes later, the man in the shadows steps onto the sidewalk and heads to the motel. The sniper is focused on the door and window of the room while his spotter is scanning near to the target door and Hans is scanning farther afield, picking up the movement of the new man as soon as he leaves the shadows. Before long, he is watching as the new man stoops to check out the drunk on the corner then continues off to the target door. >>Command. The outlier has approached the room and is waiting to enter. It is definitely not the man known as John. Tentatively mark him as the invisible man. Wait, correction. Invisible woman. Target designated as Jan has just opened the door and the new person is definitely a woman. Tentatively list her as Glo, based on the name used by Al when they separated at the ambulance. Roger, Command. No sign yet of the target identified as John. Still holding, pending orders.<<

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