Limit of Infinity: A Shadowrun RP (Game thread)

[Tortilla the Hun]

"So long as she's not on the Compound job, I'll tolerate her."

"Listen, big guy," Clay started, "we can't all accomodate to what you feel you can 'tolerate'. We need her at Novatech, we need her to get somebody up top to cut off the good doctor's escape. And that neurotoxin business she was goin' on about sounds like a great way for her to be even more useful. She can eliminate any threats the security team sees and she can do it quietly. Also gives Sebastian somethin' to do after instatin' the new and improved security recruitment list, other than twiddlin' his thumbs. He can gain access to the maintenance systems and reroute the ventilation to wherever we need it. It won't be any problem bringing in gas masks to the executive offices, we'll just smuggle 'em in with the weapons."

 

[drmigit2]

"Honey, the rest of the world isn't trying to summon the damn Horrors. When you ain't working for beings that want to destroy all life we can discuss ethics. Until then... An' you didn't answer me."

Venaticus butted in, "Nik, neither is she. Look at her for a second, that whole incident that is making you shit your pants happened when she had hardly even been conceived of. All I see, are a bunch of murderers picking on someone who seems to have hardly done anything. If I thought there was a risk to an adolescent insect shaman, I would have said I thought there was a risk. I simply said she was one because she could be useful. If you and Wulf intend to bully her more about things she can not change, this will not get anywhere. Nobody ever forced you guys to become assassins and murder people for money."

Admittedly, Venaticus was putting his own prejudicial views on the table. He could hardly trust any of these people, a mix of the crooks he had long ago sworn to hunt. Insect shamans were nothing next to a gun crazed adept in a shopping mall with two machine guns.

 

[Tortilla the Hun]

"Nobody ever forced you guys to become assassins and murder people for money."

"Alright, alright," said Clay, putting his hands up as he tried to nip this ethical argument in the bud. "Before this becomes some kinda big debate over right 'n' wrong, good 'n' evil, let's just all get focused back on the task at hand. You can all tear each other apart once this is done and over with, just let's not fuck this up so I don't have to worry about whether or not I'll be getting my paycheck in lead. That sound fair?"

 

[Redryhno]

"we can't all accomodate to what you feel you can 'tolerate'.

"Have you seen what one of her kind can do, kid? Have you seen people be torn limb from limb by just one of those things she can summon at a moment's notice? I have my prejudices just as I'm sure everyone else here does, and I know what she can do. I just don't want her anywhere near me on my part of this job, I'll take care of the Compound, so long as she stays over there, on the other side of the city for all I care, taking care of getting our good doctor out."

If you and Wulf intend to bully her more about things she can not change, this will not get anywhere. Nobody ever forced you guys to become assassins and murder people for money."

Wulf's voice oozed with contempt for the machine in front of him,calm, but obviously furious below the surface,"Just as I'm sure nobody ever forced you to do what you do, chromey. And for the record, I've never killed anyone for money, respect,stupidity on their part, and selling out others is another matter, however. She may be an adolescent as you claim, or not. No one knows her ultimate goals, but as I said before, for as long as this job is on, she doesn't have anything to worry about from me. And there is always a risk involved in taking almost any mage or shaman along, so get whatever hardware you've got for a brain wrapped around that concept. Because you may know computers, but you don't know drek about metahumanity."

Could no one see the danger she was? Had none of them seriously ever seen what one of her kind could do? Nevermind that she was an adolescent, as Rodriguez had said, she was a magic-user, and they were never truly adolescents, there were the ones that could control their power, the dead ones, and then there were the shaman like her. She'd eventually succumb to the Insect she communed with, that he was sure of, and when she did, all hell would break loose.

 

[Evrant-Knight]

"...All I see, are a bunch of murderers picking on someone who seems to have hardly done anything." The Dectective said, trying to break up the arguemeny between various members of the group who were targetting Taylor the Insect Shaman. Sebastian decided to enter the conversation.

"It may not be Taylor specifically that they have a problem with Dectective Rodrigo, but Insect Shamans in general. Some people have problems trusting someone, especially after someone or a group of people caused trouble in the past; even if that person in question wasn't connected to what happened at all, or is trying to help change things for the better. I for one, have no immediate concerns with Taylor, and since I have never worked with an Insect Shaman before; I shall considered this an invaluble learning experience." Sebastian remarked, giving his overall opinion on the current situation before sitting back in his chair.

"I'll be sure to add gas masks to the inventory. Although, my armour does have sufficient breathing equipment, it does help to have a backup in case something goes wrong." He then added with a thoughtful look on his face.

 

[3quency]

Nik raked a hand through his hair.
This conversation was going against him, this was precisely why he tried to keep his damn trap shut. He took a deep breath, and continued.

"Okay, first things first. The Bugs. Are. Evil. This ain't a personal opinion, it's a fact. Their entire existence is based around consuming life and possessing everything they can get their feelers on. I wish that was hyperbole. Rodrigo, call me a killer if you want. I won't hide from that. But this a force you don't have a frame of reference for. Bad News with capital letters. I've got nothin' against Miss Taylor, but knowing what I know I can't help but feel wary. The last time we twigged the Bugs were around we lost a city. So I'm hopin' you can see why I feel justified in asking her why exactly she's in the city."

He looked to Clay.

"Sorry buddy, this kinda goes beyond the job. I know I shoulda spoken about this as soon as I knew, but I didn't so I'm sayin' my piece now."

He paused. He hated speaking this much. If he could have just accepted the job and quietly found a sniping point to work his business... things were getting complicated and they weren't even on the run yet.

The comment about murdering people for money had really stung. Of course it was true, but that didn't make it any less painful. How had he ended up here, on this path? If he'd been smart he would have just concentrated on mage-work after he quit and... become a corporate slave or something.
Shit. He thought. This is really going to get out of hand.

 

[drmigit2]

"It may not be Taylor specifically that they have a problem with Dectective Rodrigo, but Insect Shamans in general"

"Be that as it may, we are a team, and if Taylor has to worry about Wulf stabbing her in the back, she might not go at full capacity. Likewise, if Wulf is too busy raging about a shaman on the team, he might make a mistake. Mistakes will lead to someone getting killed." Venaticus had not moved for a while now, he started fiddling with his necklace to seem a bit more normal.

Admittedly, he had made one mistake when he was leaving NeoNET. When he overloaded the communications and disabled all automated defenses, one guard saw him and chased him outside the grounds. That mistake forced Venaticus to take the man's life. By accident, he did not know the strength of the robot body he had taken. He covered it up and still uses that man's face and look today. To remind him of what mistakes can cause.

"Okay, first things first. The Bugs. Are. Evil. This ain't a personal opinion, it's a fact. Their entire existence is based around consuming life and possessing everything they can get their feelers on. I wish that was hyperbole. Rodrigo, call me a killer if you want. I won't hide from that. But this a force you don't have a frame of reference for. Bad News with capital letters. I've got nothin' against Miss Taylor, but knowing what I know I can't help but feel wary. The last time we twigged the Bugs were around we lost a city. So I'm hopin' you can see why I feel justified in asking her why exactly she's in the city."

The cop was now looking conflicted. Something Venaticus said had to have struck a chord with him. Maybe he wasn't beyond saving, interesting thought for later. They all seemed to doubt Venaticus's understanding of the shamans. One of the larger databases he had was on that particular group.

"I hear everything you are saying, I really do. I have read all the statistics, seen all the numbers and while I never witnessed the atrocities, I can appreciate your concerns. I however; judge a person as an individual, not as a member of whatever group, club or race they happen to be affiliated with. Compared a few certain members," Venaticus peered at Wulf; "Taylor seems level headed. That is all."

"That sound fair?"

Venaticus let his necklace down and looked at Clay as he said in his normal apathetic voice, "Fair."

 

[Redryhno]

"That's the problem, metal head, they all seem level headed, until they bite back, and anyone smaller than a full grown ork on chips and drugs won't keep moving after that bite. Statistics are bulldrek and corps looking out for themselves. You don't know the streets half as well as you think you do if you just sit looking at databases and screens. And, if you had listened to what I said before, then you would know I have no problem so long as she does her job with one of the groups, and I can do mine. If she goes to the Barrens after this is over, I'm under no such obligation, and I can spread information fast through the streets.

"Once this job is over, she's free to do what she wants, as am I. You can trust me to do my part, but can you trust whatever damn thing she communes with to not slag up the most important part of the job?"

Wulf sat back and sighed,"Nevermind, you people and your damn ethics, you don't make a deal with Lofwyr and expect everything to go your way, do you? The same situation here, a bug would just as soon rip you to shreds as notice you, and this is one of the few insane enough to worship the bastards, you don't see that, do you?"

At least LoneStar here knows what a bug can do, too bad everyone else is too wrapped up in their ethics and judging a part of a known danger group by the individual. Hmph, that machine Rodrigo really needs to get that bug out of his software, he's not going to make it on the streets much longer if he thinks everyone of a certain group is different. The streets don't run like that, and they never will, too much time in the corps back pocket, oblivious to the world, running diagnostics and reading databases, he can't function in real society, probably why no one I know has ever even heard of him, he hides himself.

 

[JokerboyJordan]

Edge had been in a sorry state for the last half of the conversation, his eyes glazed over as he listened to everybody's incessant and pointless conversations. He had even let his attention fade so much that he had been unaware at a direct attempt by someone to introduce themselves to him. Everybody had been going over their plans for the attack on NeoNet for gods knows how long now, talking over infiltration, consolidation and destruction of the facility; Edge just wasn't that kind of guy.
He proceeded to dig the dirt from underneath his fingernails with his balisong again, preferring to be occupied with at least something practical. His chewing gum was turning bland again, and so he replaced it with a fresh stick from the pack in his pocket, before returning to his grooming.

Edge watched as a petty squabble arose on whether to demolish the data banks entire building, or just to sabotage their internal infrastructure with a matrix virus. If it meant he was going to get paid more, he was going to make sure that the damn building didn't end up as rubble, even if that meant silencing the opposition who may attempt to rig any explosives, after all, that cowboy didn't take well to following orders, he couldn't blame him of course, the guy was a bit of a dick. He still was right though, although Edge didn't back him up of course, best to let others resolve their differences on their own, whether that meant a fatality or not didn't matter, more money in the pot to go around, which meant a bigger cut for him.

It was then that Edge observed something as he was vaguely listening to the conversation that shook him to his very core.

"...I recommend the former option, mainly because we have an insect shaman who I am sure can spread some form of poison or another.... "

Wait... what did he say?!

"...we have an insect shaman..."

"Insect Shaman"

She's a fucking BUG?! And these guys knew about it and brought her here?! Are they fucking mental?!

Edge took another good look at the girl. She seemed too pure, too innocent to control such a destructive and downright evil force. Why did it have to be a bug? She could have been any other thing, she could have been a blood mage and it wouldn't have mattered, but a damn Insect is the worst thing short of a Dragon. She still looks so damn beautiful though...although knowing that she could at any moment turn into a ravenous, mandibled monster is still unnerving as hell.

"Okay, first things first. The Bugs. Are. Evil. This ain't a personal opinion, it's a fact. Their entire existence is based around consuming life and possessing everything they can get their feelers on. I wish that was hyperbole. Rodrigo, call me a killer if you want. I won't hide from that. But this a force you don't have a frame of reference for. Bad News with capital letters. I've got nothin' against Miss Taylor, but knowing what I know I can't help but feel wary. The last time we twigged the Bugs were around we lost a city. So I'm hopin' you can see why I feel justified in asking her why exactly she's in the city."

"...All I see, are a bunch of murderers picking on someone who seems to have hardly done anything. If I thought there was a risk to an adolescent insect shaman, I would have said I thought there was a risk. I simply said she was one because she could be useful. If you and Wulf intend to bully her more about things she can not change, this will not get anywhere. Nobody ever forced you guys to become assassins and murder people for money."



Edge didn't know where to stand on this matter. On one hand, he knew just how dangerous insects could be, there was a reason Chicago is called Bug City after all; on the other hand, he just couldn't imagine Taylor to be that nefarious, there was a look about her that suggested something deeper, something that came through when she spoke.
Or maybe he was just smitten.

He looked to Taylor anxiously, hoping that he could catch her eye and get her to at least exonerate herself of any of the things the group had her pegged for, because her overall silence at the matters being discussed only served to heighten the tension.

"Listen..." he said as he put his feet down from the table and leaned in to address the group as a whole.
"Maybe we all should just lay all our cards on the table,, so that nobody has any reason to mistrust anybody else. I'm not saying that anybody has to or nothing... Just that it'd make these procedures go a hella lot quicker if we at least knew what everybody was capable of."

He leaned back in his chair again, and blew a large bubble with his gum, before it exploded with a loud pop.

"Of course if nobody wants tp I really couldn't give two shits, as long as we crack on"

 

[Asclepion]

"Okay, first things first. The Bugs. Are. Evil. This ain't a personal opinion, it's a fact. Their entire existence is based around consuming life and possessing everything they can get their feelers on. I wish that was hyperbole. Rodrigo, call me a killer if you want. I won't hide from that. But this a force you don't have a frame of reference for. Bad News with capital letters. I've got nothin' against Miss Taylor, but knowing what I know I can't help but feel wary. The last time we twigged the Bugs were around we lost a city. So I'm hopin' you can see why I feel justified in asking her why exactly she's in the city."

"Why? Is it in the fact that something dies at the mouth of another, instead of living forever, or only dying of an accident or some ecological force or internal failure? Does dying of starvation because some other animal group ate all the grass count as evil? Is it "wrong" for my cells to attack and devour bacteria that is harmful to me?

How would we decide that the suffering of a human for 3-5 minutes at the fangs of an Insect Spirit outweighed the previous decades of growing, experience and community life? It is little compared to the years/decades of enjoyment and pleasure experienced in your lives. Predation itself is to be expected, in order to create the largest possible number of lives/individuals. With recycling of the nutrients, the biosphere can support an endless number of individual lives and experiences, as well as maximum biodiversity. No single individual in the system would have the 'right' to hog a patch of resources for eternity, depriving the next generation of individuals of even existence.

In a universe of physical forces and genetic replication, some people are going to get hurt, other people are going to get lucky, and you won't find any rhyme or reason in it. The biosphere that we observe has precisely the properties we should expect if there is no evil and no good, nothing but blind, pitiless indifference.

But there is an objective purpose of all life. Survival and ultimately, evolution. That's the foundation of life; therefore, it's hard to say that it's not the case. If your purpose in life is to remain unchanging, then I'd suggest you aren't really "alive."

So rejoice. Wherever you came from in the past, whether you are gunned down during the mission or your world succumbs to the Insect Spirits; you are a piece of the universe come awake. You are alive right now."

---

 

[Redryhno]

"You are alive right now."

Wulf sighed and shook his head, angry that this child truly believed what she was saying,"Kid, you have no idea of the powers you meddle in. The bugs do not attempt to survive, they attempt - and do a damned good job of - killing anything that's in front of them. They don't try to survive, that would mean they are hunted and have to adapt, when it is the other way around. Anyone that's faced a bug and somehow survived will tell you exactly the same thing. And don't give me that watered down Native piss, because I've heard better and believed it more than I'm believing the drek you're spewing right now. And I repeat once again, and I won't warn you ever again, after this job is over, I see you in this city again, and a hunt will commence, and it will either end in your death, or being forced from the city. We don't take kindly to Insects, spirit or shaman, walking around our city and knowing about it. You took a part of the world already, now go back to it and stay there when we're done."

He hmmphd to himself and began formulating a plan for the Archives, the guards for the most part wouldn't be a problem, the chrome arm though, he was a wild card, no telling what implants and augments he'd have other than that. Though he wasn't about to underestimate the regular guards too much, this was Corp sec-teams they were talking about, but again, they were Corp sec-teams, most of them full of themselves and overpaid for the work they did.

 

[Floris2123]

Finwe had remained silent as he usual he was still thinking about saving his contact, and seeing as he already made 1 enemy at their last gathering he didn't want to make another one. Of course hearing the ignorant people scream about their usual crap that mages were evil and such was still amusing to Finwe. He had met many people that treated him like an monster for knowing a few spells but, when push came to shove they would scream the loudest for him to use his magic to save them. Even if he was a monster in their eyes. Finwe grabbed a small vial and looked into it. The liquid inside was purple like it had been from this morning when he made it.

Finwe grinned and looked at the vial. It seems like my new mix is finished now only to name it. How about K-11? I did use K-10 as an starting point so it only seems fair. He sent a message to a few of his clients remembering them of their payment that he had not yet received. After the mission is seemed like he had a few house calls to make. Looking around the group they had started about Taylor being a insect shaman. He didn't care in the slightest he had already decided that he did not like her at all, not because of the whole shaman thing he didn't like her on a personal level and he had already known what she was. He then looked back at his new invention. He knew the ingredients he had put into it, and it was the perfect fight and flight cocktail. It made you move faster, feel less pain , react faster, and be stronger physically. Of course you run the risk of quick addiction, death if you take it too often, or an anger attack. But the new K-11 was less addictive not to mention that Finwe was the only one who could make it. It was something he had been working on for the last year. He knew that he wouldn't fill his suit with it though. Even though he liked creating it he wouldn't use it seeing as he hated drugs of this kind.

He looked around looking a bit bored though as usual people screamed against each other, he just sat there waiting for something useful to happen. He grabbed his backpack and started re organizing it making space for the new drug to fit into the bag. He then looked back up to the others which weren't really paying attention to him as far as he could tell. He was a bit shocked about how many people hadn't shown up. Maybe they were just too scared? Well it didn't matter anyway in a firefight you don't want to have such an coward by your side. He remained quite an waited for the time to leave, or the time for some more planning in which he needed to give his opinion.

 

[Terratina.]

Christ, what an argument. And he was the one who had to work directly with the insect shaman. Not the upset cop or the angry Wulf, him. In a few minutes, they had gone AWOL and started spewing flak on poor Taylor. Screw all the things Marlow thought on the team's current level of teamwork, this team was being ripped apart from the seams; especially with the amount of seething going on. In the whole heated discussion, another secret burst out: Rodrigo was an AI. This was getting interesting, first an insect shaman, then an AI, whatever next?

"Whatever next indeed, set up the confessional and the truth will set you free!" Marlowe thought to himself, he was in a sarcastic mood.

Charlie watched the fight go on as a surprised and shocked bystander, hoping to keep his own secrets, secret. In a strange way, this reminded him how secret things were in a habit of being let out during pillow talk. Two for the price of one, the pleasure of sex and knowledge of things he shouldn't know. But, he put those thoughts to one side. The faint smile on his face would raise suspicions and maybe tempers. Marlowe didn't see what the other guys were so worried about, from her words, this kid was a proper star child. He sighed. At least they had graduated from nursery to primary school, from physical fights to verbal ones, but this argument had to come to an end.

"Hold on for a second, people." Charlie said, leaning into the centre of the table, "I'm the one who has to work directly with Ms. Taylor over there. I have no problem with it.

Edge was fiddling about with his gum again, it made a loud pop that interrupted his speech. Marlowe glared at him, the gum when back inside his mouth. He continued on.

"Seems to me this 'run will fail because of all of us can't decide whether hack the place with a Matrix virus, or perform a routine that'll delete all the data. Or whether we're all going to get along. If we don't pull it together, this is going to fail and nobody won't get paid anything. Look, let's just move on with the job. It's best if you guys can get this over with quickly so you don't have to work with Ms. Taylor for a long time. In return, she doesn't have to take any more flak from you, we all get paid for a job well done and we get on will our lives. So let's get on with this."

Hopefully that will stop this...

 

[Evrant-Knight]

"In return, she doesn't have to take any more flak from you, we all get paid for a job well done and we get on will our lives. So let's get on will this." Charlie Marlowe said, hoping that would stop the arguments between the party, and focus on the mission at hand. Sebastian decided to say his final piece on the matter.

"Can I just correct you on one detail Mr. Marlowe, I wasn't saying anything bad about Miss Taylor; I for one don't have a problem with her. In fact, I've been mostly neutral leaning towards trying to be nice towards Miss Taylor. But your right, we should just drop this argument, and focus on whats important, getting this mission done, and get paid for doing it."

"I'll make the additions to the NeoNet compound security registers, then I'll work on gaining access to the maintenance systems and reroute the ventilation to wherever we need it so the toxin that Taylor will provide can go to the correct locations."

 

[Terratina.]

"Can I just correct you on one detail Mr. Marlowe, I wasn't saying anything bad about Miss Taylor; I for one don't have a problem with her. In fact, I've been mostly neutral leaning towards trying to be nice towards Miss Taylor. But your right, we should just drop this argument, and focus on whats important, getting this mission done, and get paid for doing it."

The assassin was quick to assume that there was a target that Marlowe's rant was directed at. Assassins tend to think that way and Charlie didn't blame him for it. Contract, contractor, target - those were the terms that contracted killer lived by, no wonder Sebastian was, in terms of though, stuck in those terms. Time to correct him, for once the assassin had dropped the ball.

"I apologise, if I caused you to assume that little speech was directed at you." Charlie replied, "It was directed at those certain individuals who were calling her every name under the sun. I appreciate the fact that you see things the same way I do with this little mess."

He tipped his hat as a gesture to reinforce the apology, it doesn't pay to be on the bad side of assassins, mercenaries, contract killer and their ilk. A decade of hiding from those sorts taught him that.

"I'll make the additions to the NeoNet compound security registers, then I'll work on gaining access to the maintenance systems and reroute the ventilation to wherever we need it so the toxin that Taylor will provide can go to the correct locations."

"Very well, let's just hope that the others are done with fighting." Charlie sighed, "There seems to be a new fight with every meeting, whether it be physical or verbal."

 

[3quency]

"Very well, let's just hope that the others are done with fighting." Charlie sighed, "There seems to be a new fight with every meeting, whether it be physical or verbal."

Christ, no kidding omae. Nik thought. He remembered a couple of nights back complaining to Kodiak that everyone on the team seemed intent on chewing each other out. Now he was part of the process. Funny that. Marlowe tried to deliver an ultimatum (probably a very wise one) about dropping the subject and moving on. But Nik's eyes drifted to Wulf.

This was a subject you couldn't let go easily. And from past experience this Wulf was stubborn as hell. And to be honest Nik couldn't really blame him.

Nik held his hands up in a peace gesture and looked around the table.
"Okay, I kinda agree with Charlie here. This has gotten out of hand, and mostly that's on me. Now we're kinda going in circles here. So if nobody objects, I got a suggestion. It's pretty clear that neither me nor Wulf nor Miss Taylor are likely to agree with each other, but can we all agree that given Miss Taylor's people's past you can understand why we're on edge? I'm willing to drop the subject, but I think both myself and any others concerned would probably feel a lot more reassured if Miss Taylor would be willing to tell us her reasons for being in the city. We stop arguing, the place feels calmer and we can concentrate on the job. Sound fair?"

Nik stopped and sat back, he'd tried his calmest voice, so he hoped his argument seemed reasonable. Sure it was still pretty horrifying that a Bug Shaman was in their midst, but that was clearly another problem for another time.

 

[Tortilla the Hun]

"Sound fair?"

"S'ere an echo in here or somethin'?" Clay asked casually, looking around the room as if he were actually trying to pinpoint an acoustic anomaly. "I coulda swore I said the same fuckin' thing two minutes ago before you guys started up with this shit again. But maybe it's just my imagination, I tend to hear things from time to time..."

 

[Redryhno]

"Sound fair?"

"I don't much care why she's here, just that as soon as this is over, she gets out of the city."

"I tend to hear things from time to time..."

"Quit with the saracasm, cowboy, you can complain about our ways later. Right now, shut it or tell me who can handle the Archives. We've got it pretty much settled that we're not dropping it, so all Rodrigo and I need is at least one person that can handle the guards and keep hidden. The extra guy's just in case it all goes to hell and we have to fight our way out of it. My bike can only hold two, so if it does, they'll be on their own in that respect."

 

[drmigit2]

Venaticus looked at Wulf. He had already figured that he would do both jobs, seeing as how he could pretty easily walk in to NeoNET. The public floors were free access and he still had his guard uniform.

"I will actually be bringing my own car for this. It is really flashy, but I will be sure to park it somewhat away from the archive. I intend to come for the other mission as well, a few things I should secure. I have a guard uniform so just don't shoot me okay guys? Whoever comes with Wulf and I for Kilmer should be able to disable a simple magical barrier because I can't and I don't think Wulf can either."

 

[Terratina.]

There was one detail that Charlie was holding back from the group, from the sound of they wouldn't use it anyway. Jason Hill was an alright guy, as far as personality was concerned and Marlowe didn't want to wake him up in the middle of the night again. But this was an opportunity for easy access. Sure, Mr. Hill had told him to wait a week before picking up a shipment, but with Nik getting the Lonestar mercs out of the picture, the time was ripe.

"Before we go off about flashy cars." He began, giving a slight nod to Rodrigo, "I get easy access to the Novatech compound, namely the storage facilitates. But break a leg, you'll have to play the parts."

Sure, that plan was pretty much redundant right now. Nevertheless, the Kilmer Data Archives sounded like a tough nut to crack and this would ease up the Novatech job. Still, the offer was there. Marlowe took a deep breath and continued on.

"I'm not too sure that I can arrange the meeting to be in the Kilmer Archives." Charlie said, "But if you rather have easy access there, it's worth a shot. Your call."

The offer was now on the table. Any takers? Charlie felt a twinge of guilt; this should have been mentioned first. Still, sometimes he could play his cards too close to his chest.